Saviour instituted the same for a Sacrament to be
taken by all that beleeved in him. From what
cause the rite of Baptisme first proceeded, is not
expressed formally in the Scripture; but it may be
probably thought to be an imitation of the law of Moses,
concerning Leprousie; wherein the Leprous man was commanded
to be kept out of the campe of Israel for a certain
time; after which time being judged by the Priest
to be clean, hee was admitted into the campe after
a solemne Washing. And this may therefore bee
a type of the Washing in Baptisme; wherein such men
as are cleansed of the Leprousie of Sin by Faith,
are received into the Church with the solemnity of
Baptisme. There is another conjecture drawn from
the Ceremonies of the Gentiles, in a certain case that
rarely happens; and that is, when a man that was thought
dead, chanced to recover, other men made scruple to
converse with him, as they would doe to converse with
a Ghost, unlesse hee were received again into the
number of men, by Washing, as Children new born were
washed from the uncleannesse of their nativity, which
was a kind of new birth. This ceremony of the
Greeks, in the time that Judaea was under the Dominion
of Alexander, and the Greeks his successors, may probably
enough have crept into the Religion of the Jews.
But seeing it is not likely our Saviour would countenance
a Heathen rite, it is most likely it proceeded from
the Legall Ceremony of Washing after Leprosie.
And for the other Sacraments, of eating the Paschall
Lambe, it is manifestly imitated in the Sacrament
of the Lords Supper; in which the Breaking of the
Bread, and the pouring out of the Wine, do keep in
memory our deliverance from the Misery of Sin, by
Christs Passion, as the eating of the Paschall Lambe,
kept in memory the deliverance of the Jewes out of
the Bondage of Egypt. Seeing therefore the authority
of Moses was but subordinate, and hee but a Lieutenant
to God; it followeth, that Christ, whose authority
, as man, was to bee like that of Moses, was no more
but subordinate to the authority of his Father.
The same is more expressely signified, by that that
hee teacheth us to pray, “Our Father, Let thy
Kingdome come;” and, “For thine is the
Kingdome, the power and the Glory;” and by that
it is said, that “Hee shall come in the Glory
of his Father;” and by that which St. Paul saith,
(1 Cor. 15.24.) “then commeth the end, when hee
shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God, even the
Father;” and by many other most expresse places.
One And The Same God Is The Person Represented By Moses, And By Christ Our Saviour therefore, both in Teaching, and Reigning, representeth (as Moses Did) the Person of God; which God from that time forward, but not before, is called the Father; and being still one and the same substance, is one Person as represented by Moses, and another Person as represented by his Sonne the Christ. For Person being a relative to a Representer, it is consequent to plurality of Representers, that there bee a plurality of Persons, though of one and the same Substance.