Ratio disciplinae fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A faithful account of the discipline professed and practised; in…

XXXVI. 25.] Now, if the thing signified, be a Sprinkling, what need the Sign be any more than a Sprinkling? And whereas there is a Baptism of the Holy Spirit, we do not read of Men's being dipped into the Holy Spirit, but of the Holy Spirit being poured upon them. The Word Baptize may signify any Washing whatsoever. The Washing of no more than the Hands is called the Baptism of the Man. [Luk. XI. 38. Mar. VII. 4.] And why should not the Washing of the Face be so? Yea, we read, Heb. IX. 10. of Diverse Baptisms. And we are certain, a very great part of them were no more than Sprinklings. And indeed, none but Sprinklings are expressly mentioned in that Context. Such a Mistake it is, to say, that a Sprinkling is not called Baptism in the holy Language. The Holy Spirit expressly calls it so. It refers especially to Numb. VIII. 7. Thus shalt thou do unto them to cleanse them; Sprinkle Water of Purifying ⟨p. 79⟩upon them. Indeed, we read of being, Buried with Christ in Baptism unto Death. But it is not so much our Baptism as our M•tification, that is to resemble the Burial of our Saviour. We are by Baptism obliged unto a Conformity unto the Death of our Buried JESUS, and unto His Rising again; unto His Death, by our Dying to Sin; unto His Rising again in our Living to GOD. Our Baptism is not so much that Burial, as the Seal of our Obligation to it. Baptism is also a Sacrament that seals the Resurrection of the Faithful from their Graves, wherein we are first buried, as Christ was, and then raised like Him. Here is nothing to Intimate that in Baptism our Bodies must be all under Water. When a Man is buried he does not walk into the Grave himself, nor is he in the least active to put a Leg or a Foot into the Earth. Yea, our Mode of Baptism seems more like to a Burial, than that of Plunging; For the throwing of Water on the Person is more like to the throwing of Earth upon the Dead. Some have apprehended a little Weight in this Consideration. Among the Antip•edebaptist Brethren, the Person to be Baptised goes into the Water himself, to a considerable Depth, so that the Administrator does not baptize all that Part of the Body which the Person to be baptised carried into the Water himself. Now no Man does baptise himself; No Action of the Person to be baptised, is any Part of the Baptism.