A treatise of Communion under both species by James Benigne Bossuet.

§ I. First Principle.

There is nothing indispensable in the Sacraments, but that which is of their substance or essen∣tiall to them.

THE first Principle I esta∣blish is, that in the ad∣ministration of Sacraments wee are obliged to do not all that which JESUS-CHRIST hath done, but only that which is essentiall to them.

This principle is without contest. The Pretended Refor∣mers do not immerge or dipp their infants in the water of Baptisme, as JESUS-CHRIST was immerged or dipped in the river of Jourdan when Saint John baptised him, nei∣ther do they give the Lords

Supper at table or during Sup∣per, as JESUS-CHRIST did; neither do they regard as ne∣cessary many other things which he observed.

But must especially it im∣ports us to consider the cere∣monyes of Baptisme, which may serve for a ground to many things in this matter.

To baptise signifies to dippe or immerge, and herein the whole world agree.

This ceremony is drawn from the purifications of the Jewes; and as the most per∣fect purification did consist in a total immerging or dipping in water, JESUS-CHRIST who come to sanctify and ac∣complish the antient ceremo∣nyes, was willing to choose this as the most significati∣ve and the most plane, to ex∣presse the remission of sins,

and the regeneration of a new man.

The Baptisme of Saint John, which served as a preparative to this of JESUS-CHRIST was performed by dipping or immerging.

That prodigious multitude of people who flocked to this Baptisme, * 1.1 caused Saint John to make choice of the borders of Jordan, and amongst those borders, of the country of Annon neere to Salim, because there was much water there, and a great facility to immerge or dipp the men who came to consecrate themselves to Pen∣nance by this holy ceremony.

When JESUS-CHRIST ca∣me to Saint John to the end that by receiving Baptisme he might elevate it to a more wonderfull effect, * 1.2 the Scriptu∣res say that he ascended out of

the waters of Jordan to denote that he had been wholy and entirely immerged, or dipped.

It do's not appeare in the Acts of the Apostles that the three thousand, and five thousand who were converted at the first Sermons of Saint Peter were baptised after any other manner: and the great num∣ber of these converts is no proofe that they were baptised by sprinkling, as some would conjecture. For, besides that nothing obliges us to affirme they were all baptised upon the same day, it is certain that Saint John Baptist who bapti∣sed no lesse then they, since all Judea flocked to him, did not∣withstanding baptise them by immersion or dipping, and his example has showed us that to baptise a great nomber of man they were accustomed to

make choice of a place where there was much water: to which wee may further add that the baths and purifica∣tions of the antients, and prin∣cipally those of the Jewes ren∣dred this ceremony facile and familiar in this time.

In fine wee read not in the Scriptures of any other man∣ner of baptising, and wee can shew by the acts of Councils, and by antient Rituells that for thirteen hundred yeares the whole Church baptised after this manner as much as it was possible.

The very word also which is used in the Rituells to ex∣presse the action of Godfathers and Godmothers when they say that they elevate the child from the font of Baptisme, shows sufficiently that it was the custome to immerge or

dipp them in it. Though these truths be without dispute, yet neither wee nor the pretended Reformers regarde the Ana∣baptists who hold that this immersion is essentiall and no wayes to be dispensed with, and neither the one nor the other of us have any difficul∣ty to change this plunging (if I may call it so) of the who∣le body, into a meere sprinc∣kling or a powring upon so∣me part of the body.

No other reason can be gi∣ven for this change, but that this immersion or dipping is not essentiall to Baptisme; and the pretended Reformers a∣greeing herein, the first prin∣ciple wee have layd must be also without contest.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Math. 3.5.6. Luk. 3.3. John. 3.23.
• * 1.2

  Mat. 3.16. Mark. 1.10.