Very full and most excellently you have to this Point Dr. Taylor, 1who saith, That the Argument from Circumcision is invalid upon infinite Considerations: Figures and Types prove nothing, unless a Command go along with them, or some Express to signify such to be their purpose; for the Deluge of Waters, and the Ark of Noah were a Figure of Baptism, said Peter; and if therefore the Circumstances of the one should be drawn to the other, we should make Baptism a Prodigy rather than a Rite. The Paschal Lamb was a Type of the Eucharist, which succeeds the other, as Baptism doth to Circumcision; but because there was in the Manducation of the Paschal Lamb, no Prescription of Sacramental Drink, shall we thence conclude that the Eucharist is to be administered but in one kind? And even in the very instance of this Argument, supposing a Correspondency of the Analogy between Circumcision and Baptism, yet there is no Correspondency of Identity; for although it were granted, that both of them did consign the Covenant of Faith, yet there is nothing in the Circumstance of Children's being circumcised that so concerns that Mystery, but that it might very well be given to Children, and yet Baptism only to Men of Reason, because Circumcision lest a Character in the Flesh, which being imprinted upon Infants did its work to them when they came to Age; and such a Character was necessary, because there was no ⟨p. 111⟩word added to the Sign; but Baptism imprints nothing that remains on the Body, and if it leaves a Character at all, it is upon the Soul, to which also the Word is added, which is as much a part of the Sacrament, as the Sign it self: for both which Reasons it is requisite that the Parties baptized should be capable of Reason, that they may be capable both of the word of the Sacrament, and the impress made upon the Spirit; since therefore the Reason of this Parity does wholly fail, there is nothing left to infer a necessity of complying in this Circumstance of Age any more than in the other Annexes of the Type; then the Infant must also precisely be baptized upon the eighth day, and Females must not be baptized, because not circumcised: but it were more proper if we would understand it right to prosecute the Analogy, form the Type to the Antitype by way of Letter, and Spirit, and Signification.
Very full and most excellently you have to this Point Dr. Taylor, 1who saith, That the Argument from Circumcision is invalid upon infinite Considerations: Figures and Types prove nothing, unless a Command go along with them, or some Express to signify such to be their purpose; for the Deluge of Waters, and the Ark of Noah were a Figure of Baptism, said Peter; and if therefore the Circumstances of the one should be drawn to the other, we should make Baptism a Prodigy rather than a Rite. The Paschal Lamb was a Type of the Eucharist, which succeeds the other, as Baptism doth to Circumcision; but because there was in the Manducation of the Paschal Lamb, no Prescription of Sacramental Drink, shall we thence conclude that the Eucharist is to be administred but in one kind? And even in the very instance of this Argument, supposing a Correspondency of the Analogy between Circumcision and Baptism, yet there is no Correspondency of Identity; for although it were granted, that both of them did consign the Covenant of Faith, yet there is nothing in the Circumstance of Childrens being circumcised that so concerns that Mystery, but that it might very well be given to Children, and yet Baptism only to Men of Reason, because Circumcision lest a Character in the Flesh, which being imprinted upon Infants did its work to them when they came to Age; and such a Character was necessary, because there was no ⟨p. 111⟩word added to the Sign; but Baptism imprints nothing that remains on the Body, and if it leaves a Character at all, it is upon the Soul, to which also the Word is added, which is as much a part of the Sacrament, as the Sign it self: for both which Reasons it is requisite that the Parties baptized should be capable of Reason, that they may be capable both of the word of the Sacrament, and the impress made upon the Spirit; since therefore the Reason of this Parity does wholly fail, there is nothing left to infer a necessity of complying in this Circumstance of Age any more than in the other Annxes of the Type; then the Infant must also precisely be baptized upon the eighth day, and Females must not be baptized, because not circumcised: but it were more proper if we would understand it right to prosecute the Analogy, form the Type to the Antitype by way of Letter, and Spirit, and Signification.
- 1Dr. Taylor Bishop of Down, p. 228.
