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prefsly promised to Abraham, to be the God of his feed, which he applies to an infant eight days old, Gen. xvii. 7, 12. We add as that Chrift permitted little children to come to him, laid his hands upon them, and declared that of such was the kingdom of heaven, Mat. xvi. 13-15. But whom Matthew calls aida, little children, Luke, chap. xviii. 15. calls Bgion, infants; which word, according to Euftathius properly fignifies a new born child at the breaft. Hence alfo Peter fays, as agτry:vuntα Beson, as new-born babes, 1 Pet. ii. 2. And here it appears we are, by all means, to keep to the propriety of the terms, both in the noun βρέφος, and the verb προσφέρειν; when it is faid, προσεφέρον dè avværàßgèon, and they brought unto him alfo infants, they appear to have been carried in arms. It is therefore evident, that to infants are alfo made the promises of grace and falvation.

XLIV. Let the fourth argument ftand thus: It is unjustifiable to exclude from baptifm, those who are made partakers of the Holy Spirit: for, thus Peter, Acts x. 47. "Can any man forbid water, that thefe fhould not be baptifed, which have received the Holy Ghost, as well as we?" True, indeed it is, that the Holy Spirit discovered himself in thofe, of whom Peter there speaks, by fome extraordinary gifts, which of themselves were not faving yet the principal argument for the right to baptifm cannot be drawn from hence. The apoftle therefore confiders those extraordinary gifts, as the effects of the fanctifying Spirit, bestowed on all the elect; and as special indications of the divine bounty towards them: whereby the truth of the gospel was fealed in them, and the fincerity of their faith adorned compare Gal. iii. 2. and thence, as from the thing fignified, he argues to the participation of the fign. We moreover fubfume: even the children of believers have received the Holy Spirit for otherwife they could neither be holy, which yet Paul declares them to be, i Cor. vii. 14. nor be Chriff's, to whom none belongs, who has not his Spirit, Rom. viii. 9. nor fee the kingdom of heaven, to which none is admitted, but he who is born of water and of the Spirit, John iii. 5. Whence it follows, that water cannot be forbid, that infants should not be baptifed.

XLV. Fifthly, They who belong to the church of God, have a right to baptifm. The reafon is, because baptism is the fign of affociation with, and feal of initiation into the church, Acts ii. 41. "they were baptifed; and the fame day there were added, namely to the church, about three thoufand fouls." then it is reprefented as the privilege of the whole church, that fhe is "cleanfed by Chrift with the washing of water, by the word," Eph. v. 26. But that infants belong to the church, VOL. II.

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And

appears

appears from this, that when God commanded his church to be gathered together, he did not fuffer their "little ones, and thofe that fucked the breasts to be abfent," Deut. xxix. 10, 11. Joel ii. 16. and protefts that "they were born unto him," Ezek,

xvi. 20.

XVI. Sixthly, We argue from this, that baptifm has fucceeded in the room of circumcifion. The apoftle declares this, Col. ii. 11, 12. where he proves the abrogation of the ceremonial law, and especially of circumcifion with refpect to believers of the New Testament, from this confideration, that the fpiritual thing formerly fignified and fealed by circumcifion, is now fignified and fealed by baptifm; intiniating, that what circumcifion was to the Old Teftament-church, the fame now is baptifm to the New, and indeed in a far more eminent and perfect manner, because baptifm is an introduction at once into the liberty and grace of the New Teftament, whereas circumcifion contained the profeffion of a bondage and yoke. But it is evident, that circumcifion was adminiftered to infants; it therefore follows, that we are to have the same sentiment concerning baptifm. And indeed nothing can be advanced against the baptifm of infants, which may not equally militate against their circumcifion,,

XLVII. Here certainly appears the extraordinary love of our God, in that as foon as we are born, and just as we come from our mother, he hath commanded us to be folemnly brought from her bofom, as it were into his own arms, that he should bestow upon us, in the very cradle, the tokens of our dignity and future kingdom; that he should put that song in our mouth, “thou didst make me hope, when I was upon my mother's breast I was caft upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly," Pfal. xxii. 9, 10. that, in a word, he fhould join us to himself in the most folemn covenant from our moft tender years: the remembrance of which, as it is glorious and full of confolation to us, fo in like manner it tends to promote Chriftian virtues, and the ftricteft holiness, through the whole course of our lives.

XLVIII. Nothing ought to be dearer to us than to keep facred and inviolable that covenant of our youth, that first and moft folemn engagement, that was made to God in our name. Nor is it any objection, that we were first bound in that covenant without our knowledge. For, no adult perfon, when he is informed of the excellency of that holy facrament, which was beflowed in infancy, can be offended, that, according to the will of God, he was devoted fo early by his pious parents to the fupreme being; unlefs, at the fame time, he is refolved

to

to renounce entirely the name of a Christian, and all his hopes of eternal falvation.

XLIX. It cannot alfo fail to be very delightful to godly parents, to prefent to God and his Chrift, their deareft pledges juft began to enjoy the light, and confecrated in the water of the myftical font, or as Dionyfius the Pfeudareopagite elegantly exprefied it, in the divine fymbols of a divine birth, and recommended to the grace of God by the prayer of the whole church. Let this be the first care of their piety. Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. 40. in fanctum baptifina, speaks as follows: "haft thou a child? give not time to vice to gain upon him: let him be fanctified from a child, and confecrated to the Spirit from his tender years." And certainly, if no other benefit accrued from infant-baptifm, every prudent perfon will own it to be very great, that it lays the most inviolable neceffity on parents, carefully to train up their children, which they have fo early devoted to God, in the mysteries of the Christian religion, and the practice of true piety, both by instruction, admonition and good example. They incur the guilt of an impious robber or thief, as Bucer has gravely obferved, de Regno Chrifti, Lib. 2. c. 9. "who are not at the greatest pains to bring up and form those they have confecrated by baptism, to the Lord Chrift, to the obedience of Chrift. For, by this neglect, as much as in them lies, they again rob God of the children they gave up to him, betray and enflave them to the devil." See what we have more fully written on Infant-baptifm in a particular differtation.

L. And therefore it was a very laudable practice of the Bohemian brethren, who were wont to present their children at about twelve years old, in the church to the pastor, in order to make a public profeffion of their faith, and to fhew, whether the parents had done their duty in inftructing them, to which they had bound themselves at the baptifm of their children, as Lafitius relates, de Moribus & inftitutis Fratrum Bohemorum, c. 12. §. 28, 29. Which, with the folemnity they usually performed this, is related at large, in Ratione difciplina Ordin. Trat. Bohem. p. 46 Calvin. Inftit. Lib. 4. c. 19. §. 4. has hinted that a like practice obtained in the ancient church, and that from hence, in latter times, arofe the imaginary facrament of Confirmation. And Durel, in Vindiciis Ecclefia Anglicana, obferves, that the like cuftom is still retained in the church of England.

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THE

CHAP. XVII.

Of the Lord's Supper.

I. HE other facrament of the New Teftament is the holy fupper of the Lord; which the Lord Jefus inftituted immediately after his laft paffover, becauseit was to fucceed the paffover, from which he transferred alfo to this moft of the rites and phrases, used by the ancient Jews in their paffover. As this has long ago been obferved by the learned, fo it will appear from the brief explication, we are now to give of this facred fymbol.

II. This facrament is called AEПNON the fupper, 1 Cor. xi. 20. not because its celebration is neceffarily confined to the evening or night. For, though in the ancient church this was frequently done; yet that was owing not so much to the religion of Chriftians, as to the cruelty of perfecutors, who by their tyranny, obliged believers to meet altogether privately, and in the night time: but because the Lord instituted this feast after the paffover, which was to be flain between the two evenings, and eaten in the night. It was likewise instituted in the "very night in which he was betrayed," 1 Cor. xi. 23. and which was the last before his death; hence this most facred feast was constantly called the Supper. Befides most fumptuous entertainments among the ancients, especially in the Jewish nation, at least their nuptial feasts were generally in the evening as appears from the parable of the ten virgins, Mat. XXV. And therefore it was proper, that that feast, which reprefents the unspeakable dainties of heaven, and is an earnest of the "marriage-fupper of the Lamb," Rev. xix. 9. should be held forth to us under the name and emblem of a fupper. Nor is it for nothing, that Paul obferves, that Chrift gave the fupper to the church, in that night in which he was betrayed. For, befides that, we have in this an illustrious display of Christ's infinite love to men, in that he fhould vouchsafe to have fuch an anxious concern for us, especially at that time, when his mind was otherwise so much taken up, and distressed with the horror of his approaching sufferings: but what, above all, ought to make it facred to us, and very highly valuable, is, that it was inftituted by our Lord, just as he was preparing himself

to die.

III. Again, it is called KYPIAKON duvo the Lord's Supper, I Cor. xi. 20. both because the Lord was the author of it, and because the whole of it agrees to the Lord, and to the remembrance

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membrance of him; fo that the Lord himself, in the right use of it, is exhibited to believers: and laftly, because it ought to be celebrated by us, according to the will and prescription of the Lord.

IV. But the Lord's Supper, to pass on from the name to the thing, is the facrament of education, or nourishment, in the New Testament church, wherein by the fymbols of bread broken, and wine poured out, the dreadful fufferings of Chrift are reprefented to believers; and the promises of the New Teftament and enlivening communion with Chrift, made perfect by fufferings, both in grace and glory are fignified and fealed unto them.

V. For the illuftration of this defcription, it will be useful we first diftinctly confider the external figns; then the thing fignified by them. The figns are either the Symbols themselves, or certain actions about the fymbols. The fymbol is twofold, bread and wine; and both of them are joined together, to fignify the fuperabundant fulness we have in Chrift. Here we are to adore the divine providence, which hath given to his church things fo fimple and easily obtained, as pledges of things heavenly and several reasons may be affigned. ist, That this facrament might, in all places, even to the end of the world, be in perpetual ufe among the faithful, it was fuitable fuch fymbols fhould be inftituted, as might, in all places and at all times, be ready at hand for the church's ufe. 2dly, It is more confiftent with the spiritual economy of the New Teftament, to be led by fome plain and ordinary fymbol, which should neither detain the eye nor the mind, presently to behold, meditate on, receive the thing fignified, than to be fo dazzled by fome illuftrious and miraculous fign, like what was granted to the Ifraelites in the wilderness, as to be made to give lefs attention to the mystical fignification. 3dly, And then, the danger of fuperftition, which can fcarcely be altogether avoided in the cafe of bread and wine, would have been far greater in that of a more illuftrious fign. 4thly, Nor is it from the purpose, that Chrift has not again given us the flesh of flain animals, nor bloody meals, fuch as the fathers formerly eat in their facred feasts; but has furnished out his table with plain bread and wine. For Chrift's blood, by which all our debts are cancelled, and the fire of divine wrath is quenched, being once fhed, it became a crime any longer to shed any blood in the facred rites of Christians.

VI.

* Thefe are frequently called with us, the Sacramental elements and the Sacramental actions.

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