he was baptized by the baptism of John, the baptism of repentance. And therefore it is certain, that repentance and faith are not necessary to the susception of baptism, but necessary to some persons, that are baptized. For it is necessary we should much consider the difference. If the sacrament by any person may be justly received, in whom such dispositions are not to be found, then the dispositions are not necessary or intrinsical to the susception of the sacrament; and yet some persons coming to this sacrament may have such necessities of their own, as will make the sacrament ineffectual without such dispositions. These I call necessary to the person, but not to the sacrament; that is, necessary to all such, but not necessary to all absolutely. And faith is necessary sometimes, where repentance is not; sometimes repentance and faith together, and sometimes otherwise. When Philip baptized the eunuch, he only required of him to believe, not to repent. But St. Peter, when he preached to the Jews, and converted them, only required repentance; which, although it, in their case, implied faith, yet there was explicit stipulation for it: they had "crucified the Lord of lifef;" and if they would come to God by baptism, they must renounce their sin; that was all was then stood upon. It is as the case is, or as the persons have superinduced necessities upon themselves. In children the case is evident as to the one part, which is equally required; I mean repentance: the not doing of which cannot prejudice them as to the susception of baptism, because they, having done no evil, are not bound to repent; and to repent is as necessary to the susception of baptism as faith is. But this shows, that they are accidentally necessary; that is, not absolutely, not to all, not to infants and if they may be excused from one duty, which is indispensably necessary to baptism, why they may not from the other, is a secret, which will not be found out by these, whom it concerns to believe it. : 4. And therefore, when our blessed Lord made a stipulation and express commandment for faith, with the greatest annexed penalty to them that had it not, " he that believeth not, shall be damned," the proposition is not to be verified or understood as relative to every period of time; for then no d Acts, viii. 37. e Acts, ii. 38. f Acts, iii. 15. man could be converted from infidelity to the Christian faith, and from the power of the devil to the kingdom of Christ, but his present infidelity shall be his final ruin. It is not therefore yván, but xpsía, not a sentence, but a use, a prediction and intermination. It is not like that saying, "God is true, and every man a liar," and, "Every good and every perfect gift is from above;" for these are true in every instant, without reference to circumstances: but," he that believeth not, shall be damned," is a prediction, or that which in rhetoric is called xpɛía, or a use, because this is the affirmation of that, which usually or frequently comes to pass; such as this: "He that strikes with the sword, shall perish by the sword; he that robs a church, shall be like a wheel," of a vertiginous and unstable estate; "he that loves wine and oil, shall not be rich :" and therefore it is a declaration of that, which is universally or commonly true; but not so, that in what instant soever a man is not a believer, in that instant it is true to say he is damned; for some are called the third, some the sixth, some the ninth hour; and they that come in, being first called, at the eleventh hour, shall have their reward: so that this sentence stands true at the day and the judgment of the Lord, not at the judgment or day of man. And in the same necessity as faith stands to salvation, in the same it stands to baptism; that is, to be measured by the whole latitude of its extent. Our baptism shall no more do all its intention, unless faith supervene, than a man is in possibility of being saved without faith; it must come in its due time, but is not indispensably necessary in all instances and periods. Baptism is the seal of our election and adoption; and as election is brought to effect by faith and its consequents, so is baptism: but to neither is faith necessary as to its beginning and first entrance. To which also I add this consideration, that actual faith is necessary, not to the susception, but to the consequent effects of baptism, appears, because the church, and particularly the apostles, did baptize some persons who had not faith, but were hypocrites; such as were Simon Magus, Alexander the coppersmith, Demas, and Diotrephes; and such was Judas when he was baptized, and such were the Gnostic teachers. For the effect depends upon God, who knows the heart, but the outward susception depends upon them, who do not know it: which is a certain argument, that the same faith, which is necessary to the effect of the sacrament, is not necessary to its susception; and if it can be administered to hypocrites, much more to infants; if to those who really hinder the effect, much rather to them that hinder not. And if it be objected, that the church does not know but the pretenders have faith, but she knows infants have not; I reply, that the church does not know but the pretenders hinder the effect, and are contrary to the grace of the sacrament, but she knows that infants do not: the first possibly may receive the grace, the other cannot hinder it. 5. But besides these things, it is considerable, that, when it is required, persons have faith. It is true, they that require baptism, should give a reason why they do; so it was in the case of the eunuch baptized by Philip: but this is not to be required of others that do not ask it, and yet they may be of the church, and of the faith; for by faith is also understood the Christian religion, and the Christian faith is the Christian religion, and of this a man may be, though he make no confession of his faith, as a man may be of the church, and yet not be of the number of God's secret ones; and to this, more is required than to that: to the first, it is sufficient that he be admitted by a sacrament or a ceremony; which is infallibly certain, because hypocrites and wicked people are in the visible communion of the church, and are reckoned as members of it, and yet to them there was nothing done but the ceremony administered; and therefore, when that is done to infants, they also are to be reckoned in the church communion. And indeed, in the examples of Scripture, we find more inserted into the number of God's family by outward ceremony than by the inward grace. Of this number were all those, who were circumcised the eighth day, who were admitted thither, as the woman's daughter was cured in the Gospel, by the faith of their mother, their natural parents, or their spiritual; to whose faith it is as certain God will take heed, as to their faith who brought one to Christ, who could not come himself, the poor paralytic; for when Christ saw their faith, he cured their friend and yet it is to be observed, that Christ did use to exact faith, actual faith, of them that came to him to be cured; "According to your faith be it unto you." The case : Matt. ix. 29. 66 is equal in its whole kind. And it is considerable what Christ "All saith to the poor man, that came in behalf of his son, things are possible to him that believeth :" it is possible for a son to receive the blessing and benefit of his father's faith; and it was so in his case, and is possible to any; for to faith all things are possible." And as to the event of things, it is evident in the story of the Gospel, that the faith of their relatives was equally effective to children and friends or servants, absent or sick, as the faith of the interested person was to himself: as appears, beyond all exception, in the case of the friends of the paralytic, let down with cords through the tiles; of the centurion', in behalf of his servant; of the nobleman, for his son sick at Capernaum; of the Syrophonician, for her daughter: and Christ required faith of no sick man, but of him that presented himself to him', and desired for himself that he might be cured, as it was in the case of the blind man. Though they could not believe, yet Christ required belief of them, that came to him on their behalf. And why then it may not be so, or is not so, in the case of infants' baptism, I confess it is past my skill to conjecture. The reason on which this farther relies, is contained in the next proposition. 6. Fourthly: No disposition, or act of man, can deserve the first grace, or the grace of pardon: for so long as a man is unpardoned, he is an enemy to God, and as a dead person; and, unless he be prevented by the grace of God, cannot do a single act in order to his pardon and restitution; so that the first work which God does upon a man, is so wholly his own, that the man hath nothing in it, but to entertain it; that is, not to hinder the work of God upon him. And this is done in them that have in them nothing that can hinder the work of grace, or in them who remove the hinderances. Of the latter sort are all sinners, who have lived in a state contrary to God; of the first are they, who are prevented by the grace of God before they can choose; that is, little children, and those that become like unto little children. So that faith and repentance are not necessary at first to the reception of the first grace, but by accident. If sin have drawn curtains, and put bars and coverings to the windows, these must be h Mark, ix. 23. i Matt. viii. 13. k John, iv. 50. Matt. ix. 28. taken away; and that is done by faith and repentance: but if the windows be not shut, so that the light can pass through them, the eye of Heaven will pass in and dwell there. "No man can come unto me, unless my Father draw him";" that is, the first access to Christ is nothing of our own, but wholly of God; and it is as in our creation, in which we have an obediential capacity, but co-operate not; only if we be contrary to the work of grace, that contrariety must be taken off, else there is no necessity. And if all men, according to Christ's saying, must "receive the kingdom of God as little children"," it is certain, little children do receive it; they receive it as all men ought; that is, without any impediment or obstruction, without any thing within that is contrary to that state. 7. Fifthly Baptism is not to be estimated as one act, transient and effective to single purposes; but it is an entrance to a conjugation and a state of blessings. All our life is to be transacted by the measures of the Gospel covenant, and that covenant is consigned by baptism; there we have our title and adoption to it: and the grace that is then given to us, is like a piece of leaven put into a lump of dough, and faith and repentance do, in all the periods of our life, put it into fermentation and activity. Then the seed of God is put into the ground of our hearts, and repentance waters it, and faith makes it subactum solum, the ground and furrows apt to produce fruits: and therefore faith and repentance are necessary to the effect of baptism, not to its susception; that is, necessary to all those parts of life, in which baptism does operate, not to the first sanction or entering into the covenant. The seed may lie long in the ground, and produce fruits in its due season, if it be refreshed with "the former and the latter rain;" that is, the repentance that first changes the state, and converts the man, and afterwards returns him to his title, and recalls him from his wanderings, and keeps him in the state of grace, and within the limits of the covenant and all the way faith gives efficacy and acceptation to this repentance; that is, continues our title to the promise of not having righteousness exacted by the measures of the law, but by the |