dered, they will clear the whole matter. He, after he had fet ART. forth the miferable ftate in which mankind was, under the XXVII. figure of the deluge, in which an ark was prepared for Noah and his family, fays upon that, the like figure whereunto even 1 Pet. iii. Baptifm doth also now fave us. Upon which he makes a fhort 21. digreffion to explain the nature of Baptifm, not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the anfwer (or the demand and interrogation) of a good confcience towards God; by the refurrection of Jefus Chrift, who is gone into heaven. The meaning of all which is, that Chrift having rifen again, and having then had all power in heaven and in earth given to him, he had put that virtue in Baptifin, that by it we are faved, as in an ark, from that miferable ftate in which the world lies, and in which it must perifh. But then he explains the way how it faves us; that it is not as a physical action, as it washes away the filthiness of the flesh or of the body, like the notion that the Gentiles might have of their februations; or, which is more natural, confidering to whom he writes, like the opinions that the Jews had of their cleanings after their legal impurities, from which their wafhings and bathings did abfolutely free them. The falvation that we Chriftians have by Baptifm, is effected by that federation into which we enter, when upon the demands that are made of our renouncing the Devil, the world, and the flesh, and of our believing in Chrift, and our repentance towards God, we make fuch anfwers from a good conScience, as agree with the end and defign of Baptifm; then by our thus coming into covenant with God, we are faved in Baptifm. So that the falvation by Baptifm is given by reafon of the federal compact that is made in it. Now this being made outwardly, according to the rules that are prescribed, that must make the Baptifm good among men, as to all the outward and visible effects of it: but fince it is the answer of a good confcience only that faves, then an answer from a bad confcience, from a hypocritical perfon, who does not inwardly think or purpose, according to what he profefles outwardly, cannot fave, but does on the contrary aggravate his damnation. Therefore our Article puts the efficacy of Baptifm, in order to the forgiveness of our fins, and to our adoption and falvation, upon the virtue of prayer to God; that is, upon those vows and other acts of devotion that accompany them: so that when the ferioufnefs of the mind accompanies the regularity of the action, then both the outward and inward effects of Baptifm are attained by it; and we are not only baptized into one body, but are also faved by Baptism. So that upon the whole matter, Baptifm is a federal admiffion into Christianity, in which, on God's part, all the bleffings of the Gofpel are made over to the baptized; and, on the other hand, the perfon bap

ART. tized takes on him, by a folemn profeffion and vow, to observe XXVII. and adhere to the whole Chriftian religion. So it is a very na

tural diftinction to fay, that the outward effects of Baptifm follow it as outwardly performed; but that the inward effects of it follow upon the inward acts: but this difference is still to be obferved between inward acts and outward actions, that when the outward action is rightly performed, the Church must reckon the Baptifm good, and never renew it: but if one has been wanting in the inward acts, thofe may be afterwards renewed, and that want may be made up by repentance.

Thus all that the Scriptures have told us concerning Baptifm, feems to be fufficiently explained. There remains only one place that may feem fomewhat ftrange. St. Paul fays, 1 Cor. i. 17. that Chrift fent him not to baptize, but to preach; which fome have carried fo far as to infer from thence, that preaching is of more value than Baptifm. But it is to be confidered, that the preaching of the Apoftles was of the nature of a promulgation made by heralds; it was an act of a special authority, by which he in particular was to convert the world from Idolatry As viii. 26. and Judaifm, to acknowledge fus to be the true Meffias.

to the end.

Now when men, by the preaching of the Apoftles, and by the miracles that accompanied it, were fo wrought on, as to believe that Jefus was the Chrift; then according to the practice Acts xvi. of Philip towards the Eunuch of Ethiopia; and of St. Paul to 31, 32, 33. his Jailor at Philippi, they might immediately baptize them; yet most commonly there was a fpecial inftruction to be used, before perfons were baptized, who might in general have fome conviction, and yet not be fo fully fatisfied, but that a great deal of more pains was to be taken to carry them on to that full affurance of faith which was neceflary. This was a work of much time, and was to be managed by the Paftors or Teachers of the feveral Churches; fo that the meaning of what St. Paul fays was this, that he was to publifh the Gofpel from city to city, but could not defcend to the particular labour of preparing and inftructing of the perfons to be baptized, and to the baptizing them when fo prepared. If he had entered upon this work, he could not have made that progrefs, nor have founded thofe Churches that he did. All this is therefore misunderstood, when it is applied to fuch preaching as is ftill continued in the Church; which does not fucceed the apoftolical preaching, that was infpired and infallible, but comes in the room of that inftruction and teaching which was then performed by the Pastors of the Church.

The last head in this Article relates to the Baptifm of Infants, which is fpoken of with that moderation which appears very eminently through the whole Articles of our Church. On this head, it is only aid to be moft agreeable with the inftitu

tion of Chrift, and that therefore it is to be in any ways retained ART. in the Church. Now to open this, it is to be confidered, that XXVII. though Baptifm and Circumcifion do not in every particular come to a parallel, yet they do agree in two things: the one is, that both were the rites of admiffion into their respective covenants, and to the rights and privileges that did arife out of them; and the other is, that in them both there was an obligation laid on the perfons to the obfervance of that whole law to which they were fo initiated. St. Paul arguing against circumcifion, lays this down as an uncontested maxim, that if a man was circumcifed, he became thereby a debtor to the whole Law. Galat. v. 3. Parents had, by the Jewith conftitution, an authority given them to conclude their children under that obligation; so that the foul and will of the child was fo far put in the power of the parents, that they could bring them under federal obligations, and thereby procure to them a fhare in federal bleffings. And it is probable, that from hence it was, that when the Jews made profelytes, they confidered them as having fuch authority over their children, that they baptized them first, and then circumcifed them, though infants.

Now fince Chrift took Baptifm from them, and appointed it to be the federal admiffion to his religion, as Circumcifion had been in the Mofaical difpenfation, it is reasonable to believe, that except where he declared a change that he made in it, in all other refpects it was to go on and to continue as before; especially when the Apoftles in their first preaching told the Jews, that the promises were made to them and to Acts ii. 39. their children; which the Jews must have understood according to what they were already in poffeffion of, that they could initiate their children into their religion, bring them under the obligations of it, and procure to them a fhare in those bleffings that belonged to it. The law of nature and nations puts children in the power of their parents; they are naturally their guardians; and if they are entitled to any thing, their parents have a right to tranfact about it, becaufe of the weakness of the child; and what contracts foever they make, by which the child does not lofe, but is a gainer, thefe do certainly bind the child. It is then fuitable both to the conftitution of mankind, and to the difpenfation of the Mofaical covenant, that parents may dedicate their children to God, and bring them under the obligations of the Gofpel; and if they may do that, then they certainly procure to them with it, or in lieu of it, a fhare in the bleffings and promifes of the Gofpel. So that they may offer their children either themfelves, or by fuch others of their friends, to whom for that occafion they transfer that right which they have, to tranfact for and to bind their children.

ART.

All this receives a great confirmation from the decifion XXVII. which St. Paul makes upon a cafe that must have happened commonly at that time; which was, when one of the parties in a married ftate, hufband or wife, was converted, while the other continued ftill in the former ftate of idolatry, or infidelity: here then a fcruple naturally arofe, whether a Believer or Chriftian might ftill live in a married state with an Infidel. Befides the ill ufage to which that diverfity of religion might give occafion; another difficulty might be made, whether a perfon defiled by idolatry, did not communicate that impurity to the Chriftian, and whether the children born in fuch a' marriage, were to be reckoned a holy feed, according to the Jewish phrafe, or an unholy, unclean children, that is Heathenifh children; who were not to be dedicated to God, nor to be admitted into covenant with him: for unclean in the Old Teftament, and uncircumcifed, fignify fometimes the fame thing; and fo St. Peter faid that in the cafe of Cornelius God had fhewed him, that he fhould call no man common or unclean; in 1 Cor. vii. allufion to all which St. Paul determines the cafe, not by an immediate revelation, but by the inferences that he drew from what had been revealed to him; he does appoint the Christian to live with the Infidel, and fays, that the Chriftian is fo far from being defiled by the Infidel, that there is a communication of a bleffing that pafles from the Chriftian to the Infidel; the one being the better for the prayers of the other, and sharing in the bleffings bestowed on the other: the better part was accepted of God, in whom mercy rejoices over judgment. There was a communication of a bleffing that the Chriftian derived to the Infidel; which at least went fo far, that their children were not unclean; that is, fhut out from being dedicated to God, but were holy. Now it is to be confidered that in the New Teftament Chriftians, and Saints, or Holy, ftand all promifcuoufly. The purity of the Christian doctrine, and the dedication by which Chriftians offer up themselves to God, makes them Holy.

14.

In Scripture Holiness stands in a double sense, the one is a true and real purity, by which a man's faculties and actions become holy; the other is a dedicated holinefs, when any thing is appropriated to God; in which fense it stands most commonly in the Old Teftament. So times, places, and not only perfons, but even utenfils applied to the fervice of God, are called Holy. In the New Testament, Christian and Saint are the fame thing; fo the faying that children are Holy when one of the parents is a Chriftian, muft import this, that the child has also a right to be made Holy, or to be made a Chriftian; and by confequence that by the parents dedication that child may be made Holy, or a Chriftian.

Upon

ART.

Upon these reasons we conclude, that though there is no exprefs precept or rule given in the New Teftament for the Baptifm XXVII. of Infants, yet it is moft agreeable to the inftitution of Chrift, fince he conformed his inftitutions to those of the Mofaical Law, as far as could confift with his defign; and therefore in a thing of this kind, in which the juft tenderness of the human nature does difpofe parents to fecure to their children a title to the mercies and bleffings of the Gospel, there is no reason to think that this being fo fully fet forth and affured to the Jews in the Old Teftament, that Chrift fhould not have intended to give parents the fame comforts and affurances by his Gospel, that they had under the Law of Moses: fince nothing is faid against it, we may conclude from the nature of the two difpenfations, and the proportion and gradation that is between them, that children under the New Teftament are a holy feed, as well as they were under the Old; and by confequence that they may be now baptized as well as they were then circumcifed.

If this may be done, then it is very reasonable to fay what is faid in the Article concerning it, that it ought in any wife to be retained in the Church: for the fame humanity that obliges parents to feed their children, and to take care of them while they are in fuch a helpless state, muft dictate, that it is much more incumbent on them, and is as much more neceflary, as the foul is more valuable than the body, for them to do all that in them lies for the fouls of their children, for fecuring to them a share in the bleffings and privileges of the Gofpel, and for dedicating them early to the Chriftian religion. The office for baptizing infants is in the fame words with that for perfons of riper age; because infants being then in the power of their parents, who are of age, are confidered as in them, and as binding themselves by the vows that they make in their name. Therefore the office carries on the supposition of an internal regeneration; and in that helpless state the infant is offered up and dedicated to God; and provided, that when he comes to age he takes those vows on himself, and lives like a perfon fo in covenant with God, then he fhall find the full effects of Baptifm; and if he dies in that state of incapacity, he being dedicated to God, is certainly accepted of by him; and by being put in the second Adam, all the bad effects of his having defcended from the firft Adam, are quite taken away: Chrift, when on earth encouraged those who brought little children to him, he took them in his Matt. xix. arms, and laid his hands on them, and blessed them, and faid, 13, 14. Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of fuch is the kingdom of God. Whatever these words may fignify myftically, the literal meaning of them is, that little children may be admitted into the difpenfation of the Meffias, and by confequence that they may be baptized.

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ARTICLE