LX. To this they add, that as we err by following a wrong construction of the place before alleged, so our second oversight is, that we thereupon infer a necessity over rigorous and extreme1.
The true necessity of baptism a few propositions considered will soon decide. All things which either are known causes or set means2, 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 sense a thing necessary to eternal life, would Christ himself have taught Nicodemus3 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 life4.
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 ἐξ ὕδατος, even of water? Why are we taught that with water God doth purify and cleanse his Church5? Wherefore do the Apostles of Christ term baptism a bath of regeneration6? What purpose had they in giving men advice to receive outward baptism, and in persuading them it did avail to remission of sins7?
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 baptism8 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 Christ9, and so through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness10, as also that infused divine virtue of the Holy Ghost11, which giveth to the powers of the soul their first disposition towards future newness of life.
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 saints12, he then accounteth them delivered from death, and clean purged from all sin13. 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 world14? 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 and purpose, the means failing that should come between. Predestination bringeth not to life, without the grace of external vocation, wherein our baptism is implied15. For as we are not naturally men without birth, so neither are we Christian men in the eye of the Church of God but by new birth, nor according to the manifest ordinary course of divine dispensation new-born, but by that baptism which both declareth and maketh us Christians. In which respect we justly hold it to be the door of our actual entrance into God’s house, the first apparent beginning of life16, a seal perhaps to the grace of Election, before received17, but to our sanctification here a step that hath not any before it.
There were of the old Valentinian heretics, some which had knowledge in such admiration18, that to it they ascribed all, and so despised the sacraments of Christ, pretending that as ignorance had made us subject to all misery, so the full redemption of the inward man, and the work of our restoration, must needs belong unto knowledge only. They draw very near unto this error, who fixing wholly their minds on the known necessity of faith19 imagine that nothing but faith is necessary for the attainment of all grace. Yet is it a branch of belief that sacraments are in their place no less required than belief itself. For when our Lord and Saviour promiseth eternal life, is it any otherwise than as he promised restitution of health unto Naaman the Syrian, namely with this condition, “Wash, and be clean20?” or, as to them which were stung of serpents, health by beholding the brazen serpent21? If Christ himself which giveth salvation do require baptism22, it is not for us that look for salvation to sound and examine him, whether unbaptized men may be saved, but seriously to do that which is required23, and religiously to fear the danger which may grow by the want thereof. Had Christ only declared his will to have all men baptized, and not acquainted us with any cause why baptism is necessary, our ignorance in the reason of that he enjoineth might perhaps have hindered somewhat the forwardness of our obedience thereunto; whereas now being taught that baptism is necessary to take away sin, how have we the fear of God in our hearts if care of delivering men’s souls from sin do not move us to use all means for their baptism? Pelagius24 which denied utterly the guilt of original sin, and in that respect the necessity of baptism, did notwithstanding both baptize infants, and acknowledge their baptism necessary for “entrance into the kingdom of God.”
Now the law of Christ which in these considerations maketh baptism necessary, must be construed and understood according to rules of natural equity25. Which rules if they themselves did not follow in expounding the law of God, would they ever be able to prove that the Scripture in saying, “Whoso believeth not the Gospel of Christ is condemned already26,” “meaneth this sentence of those which can hear the Gospel, and have discretion when they hear to understand it, neither ought it to be applied unto infants, deaf men and fools27?” That which teacheth them thus to interpret the law of Christ is natural equity. And (because equity so teacheth) it is on all parts gladly confessed, that there may be in divers cases life by virtue of inward baptism, even where outward is not found. So that if any question be made, it is but about the bounds and limits of this possibility.
For example, to think that a man whose baptism the crown of martyrdom preventeth, doth lose in that case the happiness which so many thousands enjoy, that only have had the grace to believe, and not the honour to seal the testimony thereof with death, were almost barbarous28.
Again, when some certain opinative men in St. Bernard’s time began privately to hold that, because our Lord hath said, “Unless a man be born again of water,” therefore life, without either actual baptism or martyrdom instead of baptism, cannot possibly be obtained at the hands of God: Bernard considering that the same equity which had moved them to think the necessity of baptism no bar against the happy estate of unbaptized martyrs is as forcible for the warrant of their salvation, in whom, although there be not the sufferings of holy martyrs, there are the virtues which sanctified those sufferings and made them precious in God’s sight, professed himself an enemy to that severity and strictness which admitteth no exception but of martyrs only29. “For,” saith he, “if a man desirous of baptism be suddenly cut off by death, in whom there wanted neither sound faith, devout hope, nor sincere charity, (God be merciful unto me and pardon me if I err,) but verily of such a one’s salvation in whom there is no other defect besides his faultless lack of baptism, despair I cannot, nor induce my mind to think his faith void, his hope confounded, and his charity fallen to nothing, only because he hath not that which not contempt but impossibility withholdeth.”
“Tell me I beseech you,” saith Ambrose30, “what there is in any of us more than to will, and to seek for our own good. Thy servant Valentinian, O Lord, did both.” (For Valentinian the emperor died before his purpose to receive baptism could take effect.) “And is it possible that he which had purposely thy Spirit given him to desire grace, should not receive thy grace which that Spirit did desire? Doth it move you that the outward accustomed solemnities were not done? As though converts that suffer martyrdom before baptism did thereby forfeit their right to the crown of eternal glory in the kingdom of heaven. If the blood of martyrs in that case be their baptism, surely his religious desire of baptism standeth him in the same stead.”
It31 hath been therefore constantly held as well touching other believers as martyrs, that baptism taken away by necessity, is supplied by desire of baptism, because with equity this opinion doth best stand.
Touching infants which die unbaptized, sith they neither have the sacrament itself, nor any sense or conceit thereof, the judgment of many hath gone hard against them. But yet seeing grace is not absolutely tied unto sacraments, and besides such is the lenity of God that unto things altogether impossible he bindeth no man, but where we cannot do what is enjoined us accepteth our will to do instead of the deed itself; again, forasmuch as there is in their Christian parents and in the Church of God a presumed desire that the sacrament of baptism might be given them, yea a purpose also that it shall be given; remorse of equity hath moved divers of the school divines32 in these considerations ingenuously to grant, that God all-merciful to such as are not in themselves able to desire baptism imputeth the secret desire that others have in their behalf, and accepteth the same as theirs rather than casteth away their souls for that which no man is able to help.
And of the will of God to impart his grace unto infants without baptism, in that case the very circumstance of their natural birth may serve as a just argument, whereupon it is not to be misliked that men in charitable presumption do gather a great likelihood of their salvation, to whom the benefit of Christian parentage being given, the rest that should follow is prevented by some such casualty as man hath himself no power to avoid. For we are plainly taught of God, that the seed of faithful parentage is holy from the very birth33. Which albeit we may not so understand, as if the children of believing parents were without sin, or grace from baptized parents derived by propagation, or God by covenant and promise tied to save any in mere regard of their parents’ belief: yet seeing that to all professors of the name of Christ this pre-eminence above infidels is freely given, the fruit of their bodies bringeth into the world with it a present interest and right to those means wherewith the ordinance of Christ is that his Church shall be sanctified, it is not to be thought that he which as it were from heaven hath nominated and designed them unto holiness by special privilege of their very birth, will himself deprive them of regeneration and inward grace, only because necessity depriveth them of outward sacraments. In which case it were the part of charity to hope, and to make men rather partial than cruel judges, if we had not those fair apparencies which here we have.
Wherefore a necessity there is of receiving, and a necessity of administering, the sacrament of baptism; the one peradventure not so absolute as some have thought, but out of all peradventure the other more strait and narrow, than that the Church which is by office a mother unto such as crave at her hands the sacred mystery of their new birth, should repel them and see them die unsatisfied of these their ghostly desires, rather than give them their soul’s rights34 with omission of those things that serve35 but only for the more convenient and orderly administration thereof. For as on the one side we grant that those sentences of holy Scripture which make sacraments most necessary to eternal life are no prejudice to their salvation that want them by some inevitable necessity, and without any fault of their own; so it ought in reason to be likewise acknowledged, that forasmuch as our Lord himself maketh baptism necessary, necessary whether we respect the good received by baptism, or the testimony thereby yielded unto God of that humility and meek obedience, which reposing wholly itself on the absolute authority of his commandment, and on the truth of his heavenly promise, doubteth not but from creatures despicable in their own condition and substance to obtain grace of inestimable value, or rather not from them but from him, yet by them as by his appointed means; howsoever he by the secret ways of his own incomprehensible mercy may be thought to save without baptism, this cleareth not the Church from guiltiness of blood, if through her superfluous scrupulosity lets and impediments of less regard should cause a grace of so great moment to be withheld, wherein our merciless strictness may be our own harm, though not theirs towards whom we shew it; and we for the hardness of our hearts may perish, albeit they through God’s unspeakable mercy do live. God which did not afflict that innocent, whose circumcision Moses had over long deferred36, took revenge upon Moses himself for the injury which was done through so great neglect, giving us thereby to understand that they whom God’s own mercy saveth without us are on our parts notwithstanding and as much as in us lieth even destroyed, when under unsufficient pretences we defraud them of such ordinary outward helps as we should exhibit. We have for baptism no day set as the Jews had for circumcision37; neither have we by the law of God but only by the Church’s discretion a place thereunto appointed. Baptism therefore even in the meaning of the law of Christ belongeth unto infants capable thereof from the very instant of their birth38. Which if they have not howsoever, rather than lose it by being put off because the time, the place, or some such like circumstance doth not solemnly enough concur, the Church as much as in her lieth, wilfully casteth away their souls.
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Footnotes
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T. C. lib. i. p. 143. [113.] “Secondly, this error” (of private baptism) “came by a false and unnecessary 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 material 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 3. 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 so remain, or little infants, or natural fools that have no wit to conceive what is preached.” ↩
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Ἀναγκαι̑ον λέγεται οὑ̑ ἄνευ οὐκ ἐνδέχεται ζῃ̑ν ὡς συναιτίου· … καὶ ὠ̑ν ἄνευ τὸ ἀγαθὸν μὴ ἐνδέχεται ἢ εἰ̑ναι ἢ γενέσθαι, ἤ τι κακὸν ἀποβαλει̑ν ἢ στερηθη̑ναι. “Necessarium id dicitur sine quo ut concausa fieri non potest ut vivatur: et ea sine quibus fieri nequit ut bonum aut sit aut fiat; vel malum aliquod amoveatur, aut non adsit.” Arist. Metaph. v. cap. 5. ↩
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John iii. 3. ↩
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Verse 5. ↩
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Ephes. v. 26. ↩
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Tit. iii. 5. ↩
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Acts ii. 38. ↩
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“Fideles salutem ex istis elementis non quærunt, etiamsi in istis quærunt… . . Non enim ista tribuunt quod per ista tribuitur.” Hugo de Sacram. lib. i. cap. 3. ↩
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“Susceptus a Christo Christumque suscipiens non idem fit post lavacrum qui ante baptismum fuit, sed corpus regenerati fit caro crucifixi.” Leo Serm. xiv. de Pas. Dom. [c. 5.] ↩
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“Caro abluitur ut anima emaculetur.” Tertull. de Carn. Resur. [c. 8.] “Homo per aquam baptismi licet a foris idem esse videatur, intus tamen alter efficitur, cum peccato natus sine peccato renascitur, prioribus perit, succedentibus proficit, deterioribus exuitur, in meliora innovatur, persona tingitur et natura mutatur.” Euseb. Emis. († 359. But these Homilies are probably of the 5th cent. v. note, p. 341.), de Epiphan. Homil. iii. [in Biblioth. Patr. Colon. t. v. par. i. p. 594.] Τρισσὴν γέννησιν ἡμι̑ν οἰ̑δεν ὁ λόγος, τὴν ἐκ σώματος, [σωμάτων] τὴν ἐκ βαπτίσματος, τὴν ἐξ ἀναστάσεως … Αὕτη μὲν ἡ του̑ βαπτίσματος χάρις καὶ δύναμις, οὐ κόσμου κατακλυσμὸν ὡς πάλαι, τη̑ς δὲ του̑ καθ’ ἕκαστον ἁμαρτίας κάθαρσιν ἔχουσα. Greg. Naz. de Sanct. Bapt. [Orat. 40, ad init.] ↩
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“Undæ genitalis auxilio superioris ævi labe detersa in expiatum pectus ac purum desuper se lumen infundit.” Cypr. ad Donat. [de Grat. Dei, c. 3.] p. 3. Οὐ μόνον τω̑ν παλαιω̑ν ἁμαρτημάτων δωρει̑ται τὴν ἄϕεσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἐλπίδα τω̑ν ἐπηγγελμένων ἐντίθησιν ἀγαθω̑ν, καὶ του̑ δεσποτικου̑ θανάτου καὶ τη̑ς ἀναστάσεως καθίστησι κοινωνοὺς, καὶ τη̑ς του̑ πνεύματος δωρεα̑ς τὴν μετουσίαν χαρίζεται. Theod. Epit. Divin. Dogmat. [al. Hæret. Fab. Comp. v. 18. t. iv. pars 1. p. 41.] “Baptizari est purgari a sordibus peccatorum, et donari varia Dei gratia ad vitam novam et innocentem.” Confess. Helvet. cap. 20. [p. 82.] ↩
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Eph. i. 1. ↩
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Eph. v. 8. ↩
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Eph. ii. 3, 12. ↩
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Rom. viii. 30. ↩
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Ἀρχή μοι ζωη̑ς τὸ βάπτισμα. Basil. de Spir. Sanct. cap. 10. [t. iii. 22. A.] ↩
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T. C. lib. iii. p. 134. [From Calvin, Inst. iv. 15, 22.] “He which is not a Christian before he come to receive baptism, cannot be made a Christian by baptism, which is only the seal of the grace of God before received.” ↩
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Iren. contra Hæres. lib. i. c. 18, p. 91. [After describing certain ceremonies, which some of the Valentinians used by way of initiation he proceeds, Ἄλλοι δὲ ταυ̑τα πάντα παραιτησάμενοι, ϕάσκουσι, μὴ δει̑ν τὸ τη̑ς ἀρρήτου καὶ ἀοράτου δυνάμεως Μυστήριον δι’ ὁρατω̑ν καὶ ϕθαρτω̑ν ἐπιτελει̑σθαι κτισμάτων, καὶ τω̑ν ἀνεννοήτων καὶ ἀσωμάτων δι’ αἰσθητω̑ν καὶ σωματικω̑ν. εἰ̑ναι δὲ τελείαν ἀπολύτρωσιν, αὐτὴν τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν του̑ ἀρρήτου μεγέθους. ὑπ’ ἀγνοίας γὰρ ὑστερήματος καὶ πάθους γεγονότων, διὰ γνώσεως καταλύεσθαι πα̑σαν τὴν ἐκ τη̑ς ἀγνοίας σύστασιν· ὥστε εἰ̑ναι τὴν γνω̑σιν ἀπολύτρωσιν του̑ ἔνδον ἀνθρώπου.] ↩
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“Hic scelestissimi illi provocant quæstiones. Adeo dicunt, baptismus non est necessarius quibus fides satis est.” Tertull. de Baptis. [c. 13.] “Huic nulla proderit fides, qui cum possit non percipit sacramentum.” Bern. Epist. 77. ad Hugon. [p. 1458. ed. Antwerp. 1620.] ↩
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2 Kings v. 13. ↩
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Numb. xxi. 8. ↩
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Mark xvi. 16. ↩
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“Institutio sacramentorum quantum ad Deum auctorem dispensationis est; quantum vero ad hominem obedientem necessitatis. Quoniam in potestate Dei est præter ista hominem salvare, sed in potestate hominis non est sine istis ad salutem pervenire.” Hugo de Sacram. lib. i. [pars 9.] cap. 5. ↩
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“Pelagius asserere arrepta impietate præsumit non propter vitam sed propter regnum cœlorum baptismum parvulis conferendum.” Euseb. Emis. Hom. v. de Pasch. [Bibl. Patr. Colon. t. v. par. 1. p. 560.] ↩
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“Benignius leges interpretandæ sunt, quo voluntas earum conservetur.” l. Benign. D. de Legib. et Senatusc. [lib. i. tit. iii. 18. p. 78.] ↩
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[St. John iii. 18.] ↩
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T. C. lib. i. p. 143. [113.] ↩
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[“Quidam … . catechumenos nobis opponunt, siquis ex his antequam in Ecclesia baptizetur, in confessione nominis apprehensus fuerit et occisus: an spem salutis et præmium confessionis amittat, eo quod ex aqua prius non sit renatus? Sciant igitur hujusmodi homines … . catechumenos illos primo integram fidem et Ecclesiæ unitatem tenere, … . deinde nec privari baptismi sacramento, utpote qui baptizentur gloriosissimo et maximo sanguinis baptismo, de quo et Dominus dicebat habere se aliud baptisma baptizari. Sanguine autem suo baptizatos et passione sanctificatos consummari, et divinæ pollicitationis gratiam consequi, declarat in Evangelio idem Dominus, quando ad Latronem in ipsa passione credentem et confitentem loquitur, et quod secum futurus sit in paradiso pollicetur.” S. Cyprian. Epist. ad Jubaianum, t. ii. 208.] ↩
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Bern. Epist. 70. ad Hugonem. (De Bapt. ad Hugonem de S. Victore. c. ii.) [Op. 1457. “Si ante exitum resipuerit, et voluerit et petierit baptizari, sed mortis præoccupatus articulo forte obtinere nequiverit, dum non desit fides recta, spes pia, charitas sincera, propitius sit mihi Deus, quia huic ego ob solam aquam, si defuerit, nequaquam omnino possum desperare salutem, nec vacuam credere fidem, nec confundere spem, nec excidere charitatem, tantum si aquam non contemptus, sed sola, (ut dixi,) prohibeat impossibilitas.”] ↩
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[De obitu Valent. Consolatio, § 51, 52, 53. t. ii. 1187. “Dicite mihi quid aliud in nobis est, nisi voluntas, nisi petitio? … Solve igitur, Pater sancte, munus servo tuo . . solve, inquam, servo tuo Valentiniano munus quod concupivit, munus quod poposcit … . . Qui habuit Spiritum tuum, quomodo non accepit gratiam tuam? Aut, si, quia solemniter non sunt celebrata mysteria, hoc movet; ergo nec Martyres, si Catechumeni fuerint, coronentur; non enim coronantur, si non initiantur. Quod si suo abluuntur sanguine, et hunc sua pietas abluit et voluntas.”] ↩
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“Qui ad tolerandam omnem pro Dei gloria injuriam semel dicavit animum is martyrium mihi videtur implevisse. Summi ergo meriti est semel fixisse sententiam; atque ideo ut dixi ratio principatum obtinet passionis, et si sors perpetiendi deneget facultatem, pertulit tamen cuncta quæ voluit pati.” Joseph. lib. de Imper. Ration. [Quoted from Erasmus’s Paraphrase, p. 825, Basil. 1540: there is nothing answering to it in the original. See Combefis’ remarks on the liberties which the translator had taken with this tract, Auct. Bibl. Patr. Paris. 1672. p. 21.] ↩
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Gers. (Gerson, 1363-1429.) Serm. in Nativit. Beatæ Mar. [consid. 2. t. iii. 133. A. “Constat Deum misericordiam salvationis suæ non ita legibus communibus traditionis Christianæ, non ita sacramentis ipsis alligasse, quin absque præjudicio legis ejusdem possit pueros nondum natos extra uterum intus sanctificare gratiæ suæ baptismo, vel virtute Sp. Sancti … . Proficit hæc consideratio ad excitationem devotionis in parentibus, proficit ad leviandum eorum angustiam dum sine baptismo decedit puer, quia non omnis inde spes ablata est. Sed neque absque revelatione datur, fateor, certitudo.” Ed. Paris. 1560.] Cajetan. (Thomas De Vio, 1469-1534.) in 3 Tho. qu. 68. al. 9, Art. 1 and 2: [quoting the Council of Trent, Sess. vii. c. 9. “Siquis dixerit, sine eis Sacramentis, aut eorum voto, per solam fidem homines a Deo gratiam justificationis adipisci; anathema sit.”] Biel. (Gabriel Biel, Professor at Tubingen † 1495) in iv. Senten. d. 4. q. 2. [not. B. “Dicitur etiam Baptismus attributive, quod habet effectum simile Baptismo: et hoc modo baptismus pœnitentiæ vel flaminis et baptismus sanguinis dicuntur baptismi … . Est autem baptismus flaminis vel pœnitentiæ, contritio cordis aut prœparatio sufficiens ad gratiæ infusionem … . dummodo non fuerit contemptus baptismi, sed impossibilitas suscipiendi.”] Tilman. Segeberg. de Sacr. cap. 1. [Colon. 1546. p. 43. “Parvuli ob votum parentum fidelium et fidem Ecclesiæ … . . Ecclesiæ membris annumerantur, et per ejus fidem credunt. Quod si repentina mors … . rapuerit, salvantur, ut plerumque a multis non impie creditur.” Which he confirms from Gerson, Caietan, and the Decretals.] Elisius Neapol. in Clyp. advers. Hæres. cap. de Baptis. [fol. 98. Venet. 1563. “Baptismus est necessarius absolute et simpliciter omnibus cupientibus vitam æternam; quem quidem oportet habere in actu et in re si poterit, sin autem, sufficit in voto et voluntate.”] ↩
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1 Cor. vii. 14. ↩
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[rites—A. Rites. 1616.] 1887. ↩
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T. C. lib. iii. p. 218. “It is in question whether there be any such necessity of baptism as that for the ministering thereof the common decent orders should be broken.” ↩
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Exod. iv. 24. ↩
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[As was once imagined by some of the African bishops, but corrected by Cyprian and the synod of Carthage, ad 253. Opp. ii. 158, &c. ed. Fell.] ↩
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“In omnibus obligationibus in quibus dies non ponitur, præsenti die debetur.” Lib. xiv. D. de Reg. Jur. [Dig. lib. l. tit. xvii. 14. p. 788.] ↩