Many other of the Ancient Fathers speak to the same purpose,1 as is observed by the famous Sir Norton Knatchbul in his Learned Notes printed at Oxford, 1677. (cited by Dr. Du Veil) the sense and meaning of Peter (saith he) that ⟨p. 47⟩Baptism, which now saves us by Water, that is, by the assistance of Water, and is Antitypical to the Ark of Noah, does not signify the laying down the Filth of the Flesh in the Water, but the Covenant of a good Conscience towards God, while we are plunged in the Water, which is the true use of Water in Baptism, thereby to testify our Belief in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; so that there is a manifest Antithesis between these words by Water, and by the Resurrection; Nor is the Elegance of it displeasing. As if he should say, the Ark of Noah, not the Flood, was a Type of Baptism, and Baptism was an Antitype of the Ark, not as Baptism is a washing away the Filth of the Flesh by Water, wherein it answers not at all to the Ark, but as it is the Covenant of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Christ, in the Belief of which Resurrection we are saved, as they were saved by the Ark of Noah: For the Ark and Baptism were both a Type and Figure of the Resurrection; so that the proper end of Baptism ought not to be understood as if it were a sign of the washing away of Sin, although it be thus oftentimes taken metonymically in the New Testament, and by the Fathers, but a particular signal of the Resurrection by Faith in the Resurrection of Christ, of which Baptism is a lively and emphatical Figure, as also was the Ark out of which Noah returned as from the Sepulchre to a new Life, and therefore not unaptly called by Philo, the Captain of the new Creature: And the Whales Belly out of which Jonah, after a burial of three days, was set at liberty: And the Cloud and the Red-Sea in which the People of Israel are said to have been baptized; that is, not washed, but buried; for they were ⟨p. 48⟩all Types of the same thing as Baptism, viz. not the washing away of Sin, but of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, and our own; to which the Apostles, the Fathers, the Scholastics, and all Interpreters agree. The thing is so apparent as not to need any Testimonies.
Many other of the Ancient Fathers speak to the same purpose,1 as is observed by the famous Sir Norton Knatchbul in his Learned Notes printed at Oxford, 1677. (cited by Dr. Du Viel) the sense and meaning of Peter (saith he) that ⟨p. 47⟩Baptism, which now saves us by Water, that is, by the assistance of Water, and is Antitypical to the Ark of Noah, does not signifie the laying down the Filth of the Flesh in the Water, but the Covenant of a good Conscience towards God, while we are plung'd in the Water, which is the true use of Water in Baptism, thereby to testify our Belief in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; so that there is a manifest Antithesis between these words by Water, and by the Resurrection; Nor is the Elegancy of it displeasing. As if he should say, the Ark of Noah, not the Flood, was a Type of Baptism, and Baptism was an Antitype of the Ark, not as Baptism is a washing away the Filth of the Flesh by Water, wherein it answers not at all to the Ark, but as it is the Covenant of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Chrst, in the Belief of which Resurrection we are saved, as they were saved by the Ark of Noah: For the Ark and Baptism were both a Type and Figure of the Resurrection; so that the proper end of Baptism ought not to be understood as if it were a sign of the washing away of Sin, altho it be thus oftentimes taken metonymically in the New Testament, and by the Fathers, but a particular signal of the Resurrection by Faith in the Resurrection of Christ, of which Baptism is a lively and emphatical Figure, as also was the Ark out of which Noah returned as from the Sepulcher to a new Life, and therefore not unaptly called by Philo, the Captain of the new Creature: And the Whales Belly out of which Jonas, after a burial of three days, was set at liberty: And the Cloud and the Red-Sea in which the People of Israel are said to have been baptized; that is, not washed, but buried; for they were ⟨p. 48⟩all Types of the same thing as Baptism, viz. not the washing away of Sin, but of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, and our own; to which the Apostles, the Fathers, the Scholasticks, and all Interpreters agree. The thing is so apparent as not to need any Testimonies.
- 1See Dr. Du Veil on Acts 2.
