A FRUITFUL AND GODLY TREATISE, EXPRESSING THE / RIGHT INSTITUTION AND USAGE OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM, AND THE SACRAMENT OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR TO understand the pith of the sacraments, how they came up, and the very meaning of them, we must consider diligently the manners and fashions of the Hebrews, which were a people of great gravity and sadness and earnest in all their doings; if any notable thing chanced among them, so that they not only wrote, but also set up pillars, and marks, and divers signs to testify the same unto their posterity, and named the places where the things were done, with such names as could not but keep the deeds in memory. As Jacob called the place where he saw God face to face, Pheniel, that is, God's face. And the place where the Egyptians mourned for Jacob seven days, the people of the country called Abel Miram, (that is) the lamentation of the Egyptians, to the intent that such names should keep the gests and stories in mind. And likewise in all their covenants they not only promised one to another and sware thereon, but also set up signs and tokens thereof, and gave the places names to keep the thing in mind. And they used thereto such circumstances, protestations, solemn fashions, and ceremonies, to confirm the covenants, and to testify that they were made with great earnest advise and deliberation, to the intent Writings and monu ments preserve the memory of notable doings. Gen. xxxii. Gen. I. A sure band of all covenants the Jews. amongst Gen. xxi. that it should be to much shame and to much abomination, both before God and man, to break them ever after. As Abraham (Gen. xxi.) when he made a covenant of peace with Abimelech king of the Philistines, after they had eaten and drunk together, and sworn, he put seven lambs by themselves, and Abimelech received them of his hand, to testify that he there had digged a certain well, and that the right thereof pertained to him. And he called the well Beersheba; the well of swearing, or the well of seven; because of the oath, and of the seven lambs, and by that title did Abraham his children challenge it many hundred years after. And when Jacob and Laban made a covenant together, (Gen. xxxi.) they cast up an heap of stones in witness, and called it Gilead, the heap of witness, band for all and they bound each other for them and their posterity, The well of of seven. Gen. xxxi. A heap of stones was a sufficient that neither part should pass the heap to the other's countryward, to hurt or conquer their land: and Laban bound Jacob also, that he should take no other wives besides his daughters, to vex him. And of all that covenant, they made that heap a witness, calling it the witness-heap, that their children should enquire the cause of the name, and their father should declare unto them the history. And such fashions as they used among themselves, did God also use to themward in all his notable deeds, whether of mercy in delivering them, or of wrath in punishing their disobedience and transgression, in all his promises to them, and covenants made between them and him. As when after the general flood God made a covenant with Noah and all mankind and also with all living creatures, that he would no more drown the world, he gave them the rainbow to be a sign of the promise; and for to make it the better believed, and to keep it in mind for ever, he said: When I bring clouds upon the earth, I will put my bow in the clouds, and will look on it, and remember the everlasting covenant made between God and all living creatures. And Abram, (which signifieth an excellent father) he named Abraham, the father of a great multitude of people, because he had promised to make him even so, and that his seed should be as the stars, and as the sand of the sea innumerable: and that name gave he him as a seal of the promise to confirm it, and to strengthen the faith of Abraham and his posterity; and to keep the promise in mind, that they might have wherewith to bind God and to conjure him, as Moses and the holy prophets ever do, holding him fast to his own promise, and binding him with his own words, and bringing forth the obligation and seal thereof, in all times of necessity and temptation. Circumcision, the seal of God's covenant with After that he made a covenant with Abraham to be his Gen. xvii. God, and the God of his posterity, and their shield and defender, and Abraham promised for him and his seed to be his people, and to believe and trust in him, and to keep his commandments, which covenant God caused to be written in the flesh of Abraham, and in the males of all his posterity, commanding the males to be circumcised the eighth day, or to be slain: which circumcision was the seal and obligation of the said covenant, to keep it in mind, and to testify that it was an earnest thing, whereby God challenged them to be his people, and required the us. keeping of his laws of them, and faith to trust in him only, and in no other thing for help and succour, and all that can be needful and necessary for man. And whereby he condemned the disobedient and rebellious, and punished them, and whereby also the godly challenged him to be their God and Father, and to help and succour them at need, and to minister all things unto them according to all his promises. And though the seal of this covenant were not written in the flesh of the females, yet it served the womankind, bound them to God, to trust in him, and to keep his laws, as well as it did the men children, and the womankind not circumcised in the flesh, yet, through the help of the sign written in the males, loving God's law, and trusting wholly in him, were truly circumcised in the heart and soul be Rom. ii. God's promise reacheth to all Abraham's posterity. fore God. And as the maid children believing and loving God, whereunto the outward circumcision bound them, were truly circumcised before God; even so the males having the flesh circumcised, yet not believing nor loving God (whereunto the outward circumcision bound them) were uncircumcised before God, and God not bound to them, but had good right thereby to punish them: so that neither circumcision, or to be uncircumcised, is ought worth (as St. Paul saith Rom. ii.) save for the keeping of the law; for if circumcision help not to keep the law, so serveth it for nought, but for to condemn. And as the womankind uncircumcised were in as good case, as the males that were circumcised; even so the infants of the maids which died uncircumcised, were in as good case as the infants of males which died circumcised. And in as good case by the same rule were the men children that died before the eighth day or else let them tell, why the covenant made between God and Abraham saved the man child as soon as it was born, yea, as soon as it had life in the mother's womb, for the covenant that God would be God of Abraham's seed, went over the fruit as soon as it had life; and then there is no reason, but that the covenant must needs pertain to the males as soon as to the females. Wherefore the covenant must needs save the males unto the eighth day, and then the covenant was, that the rulers should slay the males only, if their friends did not circumcise them, not that the circumcision saved them, but to testify the covenant only. And then it followeth, that the infants that die unbaptised of us Christian, that would baptise them at due time, and teach them to believe in Christ, are in as good case as these that die baptised; for as the covenant made to the faith of Abraham, went over his seed, as soon as it had life, and before the sign was put on them; even so must needs the covenant made to all that believe in Christ's blood, go over that seed as soon as it hath life in the mother's womb, before the sign be put on it. For it is the covenant only, and not the sign that saveth us, though the sign be commanded to be put on at due time, to stir up faith of the covenant that saveth us: and instead of circumcision came our baptism; whereby we be received into the religion of Christ, and made partakers of his passion, and members of his church, and whereby we are bound to believe in Christ, and in the Father through him, for the remission of sins, and to keep the law of Christ, and to love each other, as he loved us; and whereby (if we thus believe and love) we calling God to be our Father, and to do his will, shall receive remission of our sins through the merits of Jesus Christ his Son, as he hath promised. So now by baptism we be bound to God, and God to us, and the bond and seal of the covenant is written in our flesh, by which seal or writing God challengeth faith and love, under pain of just damnation. And we (if we believe and love) challenge (as it is above rehearsed) all mercy, and whatsoever we need, or else God must be an untrue God. And God hath bound us Christian men to receive this sign for our infirmities sake, to be a witness between him and us, and also to put this sign upon our children, not binding us to any appointed time; but as it shall seem to us most convenient, to bring them to the knowledge of God the Father, and of Christ, and of their duty to God and his law. And as the circumcised in the flesh, and not in the heart, have no part in God's good promises; even so they that be baptised in the flesh and not in heart, have no part in Christ's blood. And as the circumcised in the heart and not in the flesh, had part in God's good promises; even so a Turk unbaptised (because he either knoweth not, that he ought to have it, or cannot for tyranny,) if he believe in Christ, and love as Christ did and taught, then hath he his part in Christ's blood. And though the outward circumcision, by the which God challengeth them to do him service, yea, whether they would or not, and by the which they were taught to believe in God, and in the seed of Abraham that should |