262

Baptism: Construction of St. John iii. 5.

BOOK V the exigence of that which is principal. Again, considering Ch. lix. I. that such ordinances have been made to adorn the sacrament1, not the sacrament to depend on them; seeing also that they are not of the substance of baptism, and that baptism is far more necessary than any such incident rite or solemnity ordained for the better administration thereof; if the case be such as permitteth not baptism to have the decent complements of baptism, better it were to enjoy the body without his furniture, than to wait for this till the opportunity of that for which we desire it be lost. Which premises standing, it seemeth to have been no absurd collection, that in cases of necessity which will not suffer delay till baptism be administered with usual solemnities, (to speak the least,) it may be tolerably given without them, rather than any man without it should be suffered to depart this life.

The ground

necessity of

tism bath

been built.

a

LIX. They which deny that any such case of necessity can in Scripture fall, in regard whereof the Church should tolerate baptism, outward hap- without the decent rites and solemnities thereunto belonging, pretend that such tolerations have risen from a false interpretation which "certain men" have made of the Scripture, grounding a necessity of external baptism upon the words of our Saviour Christ: "Unless a man be born again of water "and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of "heaven 3." For by "water and the Spirit," we are in that

1 Accessorium non regulat principale, sed ab eo regulatur. 42. De Regul. Jur. in Sext. lib. iii. ff. quod jussu. [This is not a quotation, but the substance of two rules, one from the canon and the other from the civil law. The first, from the Tract "De Regulis Juris," annexed to the collection technically called "Liber "Sextus Decretalium:" col. 753. Lugd. 1572. "Accessorium naturam sequi congruit principalis." The other, in the reference to which there appears to be a mistake, from the Digest, b. L. tit. xvii. No. 178. "Čum principalis causa non con

sistat, plerumque ne ea quidem, quæ sequuntur, locum habent." The rule," Quod jussu," named in Hooker's margin, is No. 8o. It has nothing to do with this subject.]

2" Etsi nihil facile mutandum est

Consent of Antiquity on Baptismal Regeneration. 263

Ch.lix.2-4.

place to understand (as they imagine) no more than if the BOOK V. Spirit alone had been mentioned and water not spoken of. Which they think is plain, because elsewhere it is not improbable that "the Holy Ghost and fire" do but signify the Holy Ghost in operation resembling fire. Whereupon they conclude, that seeing fire in one place may be, therefore water in another place is but a metaphor, Spirit the interpretation thereof, and so the words do only mean, "That unless a man “be born again of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king"dom of heaven."

[2.] I hold it for a most infallible rule in expositions of sacred Scripture, that where a literal construction will stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst. There is nothing more dangerous than this licentious and deluding art, which changeth the meaning of words, as alchymy doth or would do the substance of metals, making of any thing what it listeth, and bringeth in the end all truth to nothing. Or howsoever such voluntary exercise of wit might be borne with otherwise, yet in places which usually serve, as this doth concerning regeneration by water and the Holy Ghost, to be alleged for grounds and principles, less is permitted.

[3] To hide the general consent of antiquity agreeing in the literal interpretation, they cunningly affirm that "certain" have taken those words as meant of material water, when they know that of all the ancient there is not one to be named that ever did otherwise either expound or allege the place than as implying external baptism. Shall that which hath always 4 received this and no other construction be now disguised with the toy of novelty? Must we needs at the only show of a critical conceit without any more deliberation, utterly condemn them of error, which will not admit that fire in the words of John is quenched with the name of the Holy Ghost, or with the name of the Spirit, water dried up in the words of Christ? [4] When the letter of the law hath two things plainly and expressly specified, Water, and the Spirit; Water as a duty

264

Baptism proved necessary to Salvation,

BOOK V. required on our parts, the Spirit as a gift which God bestow

Ch. lix. 5.

lx. I.

What kind of necessity in

eth; there is danger in presuming so to interpret it, as if the clause which concerneth ourselves were more than needeth. We may by such rare expositions attain perhaps in the end to be thought witty, but with ill advice.

[5] Finally if at 5 the time when that Baptism which was meant by John came to be really and truly performed by Christ himself, we find the Apostles that had been, as we are, before baptized, new baptized with the Holy Ghost, and in this their later baptism as well a visible descent of fire 6, as a secret miraculous infusion of the Spirit; if on us he accomplish likewise the heavenly work of our new birth not with the Spirit alone but with water thereunto adjoined, sith the faithfullest expounders of his words are his own deeds, let that which his hand hath manifestly wrought declare what his speech did doubtfully utter.

LX. To this they add, that as we err by following a wrong outward bap- construction of the place before alleged, so our second overbeen gather sight is, that we thereupon infer a necessity over rigorous words of our and extreme 7.

tism hath

ed by the

Saviour
Christ, and

what the

sity thereof

The true necessity of baptism a few propositions considered true neces- will soon decide. All things which either are known Causes or set Means, whereby any great good is usually procured, or men delivered from grievous evil, the same we must needs confess necessary. And, if regeneration were not in this very

inded is.

66

66

6 Acts ii. 3.

"Se

7 T. C. lib. i. p. 143. [113.]
condly, this error" (of private bap-
tism) came by a false and unne-
cessary conclusion drawn of that
place. For although the Scripture
" should say that none can be saved
but those which have the Spirit
of God, and are baptized with ma-
"terial and elemental water, yet
ought it to be understanded of
"those which can conveniently and
orderly be brought to baptism, as
the Scripture saying that whoso
"doth not believe the Gospel is
"condemned already, John iii. 18,

"meaneth this sentence of those "which can hear the Gospel and "have discretion to understand it "when they hear it, and cannot here "shut under this condemnation "either those that be born deaf and

Ch. lx. 2.

not naturally, but ordinarily, by God's Appointment. 265 sense a thing necessary to eternal life, would Christ himself BOOK V. have taught Nicodemus that to see the kingdom of God is impossible, saving only for those men which are born from above?

His words following in the next sentence are a proof sufficient, that to our regeneration his Spirit is no less necessary than regeneration itself necessary unto life 10.

Thirdly, unless as the Spirit is a necessary inward cause, so Water were a necessary outward mean to our regeneration, what construction should we give unto those words wherein we are said to be new-born, and that è§ vdaros, even of Water? Why are we taught that with water God doth purify and cleanse his Church 11? Wherefore do the Apostles of Christ term baptism a bath of regeneration 12? What purpose had they in giving men advice to receive outward baptism, and in persuading them it did avail to remission of sins 13?

[2.] If outward baptism were a cause in itself possessed of that power either natural or supernatural, without the present operation whereof no such effect could possibly grow, it must then follow, that seeing effects do never prevent the necessary causes out of which they spring, no man could ever receive grace before baptism: which being apparently both known and also confessed to be otherwise in many particulars, although in the rest we make not baptism a cause of grace, yet the grace which is given them with their baptism 14 doth so far forth depend on the very outward sacrament, that God will have it embraced not only as a sign or token what we receive, but also as an instrument or mean whereby we receive grace, because baptism is a sacrament which God hath instituted in his Church, to the end that they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ 15, and so through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness 16,

266

Danger of depending on God's secret Election

Ch. lx. 3.

BOOK V. as also that infused divine virtue of the Holy Ghost 17, which giveth to the powers of the soul their first disposition towards future newness of life.

[3] There are that elevate too much the ordinary and immediate means of life, relying wholly upon the bare conceit of that eternal election, which notwithstanding includeth a subordination of means without which we are not actually brought to enjoy what God secretly did intend; and therefore to build upon God's election if we keep not ourselves to the ways which he hath appointed for men to walk in, is but a self-deceiving vanity. When the Apostle saw men called to the participation of Jesus Christ, after the Gospel of God embraced and the sacrament of life received, he feareth not then to put them in the number of elect saints 18, he then accounteth them delivered from death, and clean purged from all sin 19. Till then notwithstanding their pre-ordination unto life which none could know of saving God, what were they in the Apostle's own account but children of wrath as well as others, plain aliens altogether without hope, strangers utterly without God in this present world 20? So that by sacraments and other sensible tokens of grace we may boldly gather that he, whose mercy vouchsafeth now to bestow the means, hath also long sithence intended us that whereunto they lead. But let us never think it safe to presume of our own last end by bare conjectural collections of his first intent

sona tingitur et natura mutatur.” Euseb. Emis. de Epiphan. Homil. iii. [in Biblioth. Patr. Colon. t. v. par. i. p. 549.] Τρισσὴν γέννησιν ἡμῖν videv ó λóyos, Tηv ek σwμaros, [σwμáτων] τὴν ἐκ βαπτίσματος, τὴν ἐξ ἀναστάσεως . . . Αὕτη μὲν ἡ τοῦ βαπτίσματος χάρις καὶ δύναμις, οὐ κόσμου κατακλυσμὸν ὡς πάλαι, τῆς δὲ τοῦ καθ ̓ ἕκαστον ἁμαρτίας κάθαρσιν ἔχουσα. Greg. Naz. de Sanct. Bapt. [Orat. 40, ad init.]

17 66

Undæ genitalis auxilio supe"rioris ævi labe detersa in expiatum

"pectus ac purum desuper se lu

men infundit." Cypr. ad Donat. [de Grat. Dei, c. 3.] p. 3. Ov μóvov TÔν Taλαιv аμаρтημáτшv δωρεῖται τὴν ἄφεσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἐλπίδα τῶν ἐπηγγελμένων ἐντίθησιν ἀγαθῶν, καὶ τοῦ δεσποτικοῦ θανά του καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως καθίστησι κοινωνούς, καὶ τῆς τοῦ πνεύματος δωρεᾶς τὴν μετουσίαν χαρίζεται. Theod. Epit. Divin. Dogmat. [al. Hæret. Fab. Comp. v. 18. t. iv. pars i. p. 41.] " Baptizari est purgari a sordi"bus peccatorum, et donari varia 'Dei gratia ad vitam novam et in"nocentem." Confess. Helvet. cap. 20. [p. 82.]

13

Eph. i. 1.

19 Eph. v. 8.
20 Eph, ii. 3, 12.