16.

• Ghost which is in us, and united to Chrift by the 2 Cor. 6. Spirit. By this God becomes our God, and we bis People, our Father, we bis Sons and Daughters. And from our Union by this Spirit to our Head Chrift Jefus, fuch an (irepyea) inward Ephef. 4. • Working is faid to be diffused through every Part 16. ⚫ of his mystical Body, as caufeth the whole Body Coloff. 2. "to encreafe and edifie it felf in Love. And the fame 19. Apostle declares, that if any Man have not the

Spirit of Christ dwelling in him, he is none of his.

He cannot be the Son of God, For, as many Rom.8.9. as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of 14, 15, 17, God. He hath no Right to call God Father,

no Intereft in the Adoption, and the Inheritance • of Sons.

NOTHING is more clear and plain by the Doctrine of this Apoftle, than that by the Spirit only we are made Members of Chrift, Children of God, and Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven; we therefore conclude, fince our bleffed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ himself, as well as John the Baptift, did moft clearly diftinguish betwixt the Baptifm with Water and the Baptifm with the Holy Ghoft: And fince it plainly appears by the whole Tenor of Chrift's and the Apoftles Doctrine, that nothing but the Spirit can purifie the Heart, regenerate the Soul, and give Power to become the Sons of God; and as there is but one Lord, one

true

To fay, thefe Things, and thefe Expreffions concern only the Times in which the Extraordinary Gifts and Operations of the Holy Spirit were vouchfafed, is to make future Ages, fince the ceafing of these Gifts, defpair of being quickned, fan&ified or comforted, or even enabled to purifie ibe Heart, or to mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh, to live or walk in the Spirit, and confequently to defpair of being now the Sons of God, united to Chrift Jefus, or having any of the Fruits of the Spirit wrought within them.

true Faith and one Baptifm of Chrift, it neceffarily follows, that that Baptifm must be the Baptifm of the Spirit, and not Water Baptifm.

AND fince, the Apostle Paul in very plain and pofitive Terms has declar'd, that Chrift fent him not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel, we think it most reasonable to conclude, that neither did Chrift fend the reft of the Apostles to baptize with Water, but to preach the Gospel.

AND laftly, fince it is most evident and plain by Scripture, that when the Apostles baptized any with Water, they us'd not the Form of Words in Mat. xxviii. 19. where 'tis faid, Go ye therefore, teach all Nations, bapiizing them in (or into) the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, hence we infer, that the Apostles took not that as a Command or Commiffion from Chrift for them to baptize with Water, but 'tis moft reasonable to conclude, that as Paul baptized fome with Water without being fent of Chrift, fo might the other Apoftles and Disciples without any Commiffion from Chrift.

THIS is the Opinion or Principle of the People call'd Quakers, refpecting BAPTISM: And 'tis their fincere Belief, that in not ufing the outward and ceremonious Rite of Water Baptifm (which better became the Legal, than this Spiritual Difpenfation) and infifting on the Baptifm of the Holy Spirit, as the only neceffary Baptifm to Salvation; they have acted agreeable to the Doctrine and Mind of Chrift, and the great Apoftle to the GENTILES. But, if after the Reafons here given, any fhall continue to cenfure and think hard of them, because they do not baptize or fprinkle their Children, with Water, we shall defire fuch to peruse and read seriously the follow

ing

ing Arguments of Bishop TAYLOR against InfantBaptifm.*

6

Mat.3.11.

WHY cannot God as well do his Mercies to Infants now immediately, as he did before the Inftitution either of Circumcifion or Baptifm? • However there is no Danger that Infants should perifh for Want of this external Ministry, much lefs for prevaricating Chrift's Precept of Nifi John. 3. 5. quis renatus fuerit, &c. For first, the Water and the Spirit in this Place fignifie the fame Thing, and by Water is meant the Effect of the Spirit, cleanfing and purifying the Soul, as appears in its parallel Place of Chrift baptizing with the Spirit and with Fire. For although this was literally fulfill'd in Pentecoft, yet morally there is more in it; for it is the Sign of the Effect of the Holy Ghoft, and his Productions upon the Soul; and it was an Excellency of our bleffed • Saviour's Office, that he baptizes All that come to him with the Holy Ghoft and with Fire: For fo St. John preferring Chrift's Miffion and OF•FICE before his own, tells the Jews, not Chrift's Difciples, that Chrift fhall baptize THEM with Fire and the Holy Spirit, that is, All that come to • him, as John the Baptift did with Water, for fo lies the Antithefis. And you may as well conclude, ⚫ that Infants must also pafs through the Fire as through the Water. And that we may not think this a Trick to elude the Preffure of this Place, Peter fays the fame Thing, for when he said that Baptism faves us, he adds by way of Explication [not the washing of the Flesh, but the • Confidence of a good Confcience] plainly fay⚫ing that it is not Water, or the purifying of the Body, but the cleansing of the Spirit, that does

• that

See his Difcourfe of the Liberty of Prophesying. Se&t. xviii.

⚫that which is fuppofed to be the Effect of Bap

• tifm.

THE baptizing of Infants does rufh us upon • fuch Inconveniences, which in other Questions we avoid like Rocks, which will appear if we • discourse thus. Either Baptifm produces stiritual Effects, or it produces them not. If it produces not any, way is fuch Contention about < it, what are we the nearer HEAVEN if we are baptized? And if it be neglected, what are we the farther off?

· EITHER Baptism is a meer Ceremony, or it implies a Duty on our Part. If it be a Ceremony only, how does it fanctifie us, or make the • Comers thereunto Perfect? If it implies a Duty ⚫ on our Part, how then can Children receive it, • who cannot do Duty at all?

AND indeed, this Way of Miniftration makes Baptifm to be wholly an outward Duty, or • Work of the Law, a carnal Ordinance, it • makes us adhere to the Letter, without Re• gard of the Spirit, to be fatisfy'd with Shadows, to return to Bondage, to relinquish the Mystè<riousness, the Subftance and Spirituality of the Gofpel. Which Argument is of so much the more Confideration, because under the SPIRI'TUAL COVENANT, or the Gospel of Grace, if the Mystery goes not before the Symbol (which ⚫ it does when the Symbols are Seals and Confignations of the Grace, as it is faid the Sacraments are) yet it always accompanies it, but never follows in Order of Time: And this is ⚫ clear in the perpetual Analogy of Holy Scripture. For Baptifm is never propounded, men⚫tion'd or enjoin'd as a Means of Remiffion of • Sins, or of Eternal Life, but fomething of Duty, Choice and Sanctity is join'd with it, in

• Order

• Order to Production of the End fo mention'd:
• Know ye not that as many as are baptized into
Chrift Jefus, are baptized into his Death? Rom.
vi. 3.*
There is the Mystery and the Symbol
• together

*

* Some learned Men have taken thofe Words of the Apostle to be spoken of Water Baptifm; and a late Commentator on Dr.Whitby the New Teftament, bas paraphras'd Verf. 4. in this Manner, For therefore we are buried with him by Baptifm (plunging us ⚫ under the Water) into (a Conformity to his) Death, (which · put his Body under the Earth) that like as Chrift was raised up from the Grave by the Glory(ous Power) of the Father, ' even fo we alfo (thus dead in Baptifm) fhould (rife with him, and) walk in Newness of Life. Hence be draws an Argument, which fuits very well with the Opinion of the Baptifts, that Immerfion is the most ancient Baptifm, and of greatest Authority. But alas! what is Immerfion more than sprinkling with Water? What fignifies, as Juftin Martyr told Trypho the few, that which only washes the Flefh and the Body? What, in this Gospel Day, is the unprofitable Baptifm in Pools and Cifterns, which is not the Baptifm of Life to us? How much more Evangelical is the Expofition which good Bifhop Taylor bas given of the Apostle's Words! But fill, how much more is the following Expofition of a French Bishop.

"What then does that Baptifm mean, by which, as the Apoftle affures us, we have been all bury'd with Fefus 'Chrift in his Death? Where is this Death which our Chri⚫ftian Profeffion ought to work in us? Where is this Burial? Alas! I am for fetting my felf off, for being efteem'd, lov'd and diftinguifh'd. I would be taken Notice of by my Neighbour, engross his Efteem, and make an Idol of Reputation and Friendship! But to rob God of that In• cense which burns on his Altars, is nothing in Comparison of the facrilegious Robbery of a Soul, which would take • That which belongs to God, and make it felf the Idol of other Creatures.

O Lord! Reputation and Friendship are all one to me, give and take as it seems meet to thee, and let Reputation, dearer than Life, become as Dirt: If it be for thy Glory, let me be trampled under Foot, let 'em tread upon me as upon the Graves of the Dead; let 'em defpife, let 'em look on me with Horror and Deteftation; let 'em fpare me in nothing, all is good. If I am ftill defirous of keep