Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

with a true heart, in a full assurance of faith, haring our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

4. Q. In which of these was this sacrament administered at the beginning?

A. To aged and healthful persons, in that hot country in which our Saviour lived, it was for the most part administered by dipping, or plunging, the person who was baptized into the water: according to the common custom, among the Jews, of receiving proselytes with the very same ceremony; and from which our Saviour seems to have taken occasion to institute this sacrament.

PROOFS SUBJOINED.-Matt. iii. 6, 16. And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.— And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo! the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. John, iii. 23. And John also was baptizing in Enon, near to Salem, because there was much water there; and they came, and were baptized. Acts, viii. 38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and baptized him.

5. Q. Were any baptized otherwise at the beginning?

A. It cannot be doubted but that as all who embraced the gospel were baptized, so many of these could not be dipped in water. Such were very old and sick persons; and it may be all, at the first, when three and five thousand, at a time, believed, and were baptized; very likely in a private house, where it would have been difficult to have gotten

water enough, and endless to have dipped them all. Acts, ii. 41. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. ix. 18. And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized. x. 47, 48. Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.

6. Q. What are the necessary parts of this sacrament?

A. Water and the word: the one to represent our spiritual washing and cleansing by the blood of Christ; the other to declare the faith into which we are baptized, and by which we hope to be saved; namely, of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

7. Q. How came the custom of dipping to be so universally left off in the church.

A. Chiefly upon the ground of charity; because when the Gospel became every where received, and the persons to be baptized were for the most part, the children of believing parents; many of which in these cold countries, (for a great part of the year,) could not be dipped in water without the hazard of their lives; it was necessary either to sprinkle them only with water, or not to baptize them at all.

8. Q. What ground had the church to admit of sprinkling, as sufficient to answer the design of this sacrament?

A. The example of the purifications under the law, which were made as well by sprinklings as washings. Heb. ix. 13, 19. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,

sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?-For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people, according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people.

The application of this made by St. Paul, to the spiritual cleansing of us from our sins. Heb. x. 22, 29. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace.

And by St. Peter to the same purpose. 1 Pet. i. 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

The analogy between the sprinkling of the water in baptism, and that sprinkling of the blood of Christ, by which we are cleansed from our sins: all these, as they left a sufficient latitude to the church to administer this sacrament in any of these ways, so the law of charity required that the church should make choice of sprinkling rather than of a total immersion; and we cannot doubt, but that the God of charity does approve of it. Matt. ix. 13. But go ye and

[ocr errors]

learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.

PROOFS SUBJOINED.-Isaiah, lii. 15. So shall he Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26, 27. sprinkle many nations. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. Heb. xii. 24. And (ye are come) to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Lev. iv. 6. And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord before the sanctuary. xvi. 14, 15, 19. And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward; and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times: then shall he kill the goat of the sin-offering that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.

SECT. XLIV.

Of the Matter and Form of Baptism: of the inward Grace that is conferred by it.

You said that in every sacrament there were two parts, an outward and visible sign, and an inward and spiritual grace; tell me therefore

`1. Q. What is the outward visible sign or form in baptism?

A. Water, wherein the person is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

2. Q. Is this element so necessary a part of this sacrament, that the church may in no case depart from it?

A. It is of divine institution, and was designed to signify our spiritual cleansing by Christ's blood: that as our bodies are washed with, and cleansed from their pollutions by water, so are our souls purified from sin by the blood of Christ. And for both these reasons it is a necessary and immutable part of this holy sacrament.

3. Q. Is the form of baptism necessary to the administration of this sacrament?

A. It is necessary; nor can this sacrament be duly administered by any other.

4. Q. Was no other form ever used in the apostles' time?

A. It is, indeed, said of some in those times, who had been Jewish converts, or had received John's baptism, that they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. But this does not hinder but that they

« AnteriorContinuar »