those places for remission of sinnes were great and comfortable have refused to be baptized till death as is affirmed of Constantine and others mis-taking the true use of it which is to seale up the pardon of sinnes and respects all sinnes in all times You see what the nature of Baptisme coroll 1 what the intention of it is in this particular Consider therefore the greatnes of this ordinance to which as to the signe and seale remission of sinnes and reconciliation with God is annexed What say you I beseech you you that are sensible of the guilt of sinne that know the vvages of sinne is death would you not be glad of something to discharge you ease you would you not be glad of all meanes that should assure you that iniquity should not be your ruine would you not be glad to be baptized for the remission of sinnes to have your sinnes vvasht avvay by baptisme to be saved by baptisme in the stipulation of a good conscience answering the signe and seale This I thinke is no question to them that are stung with sinne and pricked in their hearts then blesse God for this ordinance value it much let it not be an empty ordinance to you since there is fullnes in it let it not sleepe be a dead thing to you since there is life in it it being the ground of all our life good but improve it to its advantage get the marrow and sweete of it for there is much in it Secondly let us understand by this that hath bene said and by the nature of this ordināce Gods heart and mind for the remission of sinnes hee who is Lord of all and able onely to give all hee is so free of nothing as of pardon because that is the first steppe to good happines if hee will us any good if hee would have us in any proportion happy the first steppe is by pardon of sinne therefore hee is so free of nothing as that when the law condemnes a man and when a mans conscience condemnes him hee needs no word to carry him to hell hee hath that within him will doe that fast enough guilt makes us runne from God as Adam did and when we runne from God wee runne to death God therefore in goodnes and mercy hath made the way to pardon so open and exposed as nothing more The very name of pardon and remission of sins ordinarily implyes offense against some lawgiver some state some great person implyes guilt which needes that pardon Now guilt abaseth greatnes terrifieth what can there be more therefore to set us at a mighty distance from God then guilt which layes so low and what greatnes terrify us more then his But God hath provided that wee may come boldly and he hath done it by two things first by setting up a throne of grace insteed of a throne of majesty and justice Secondly he helpes us by giving us a tender and sensible high Priest who shall usher us in and pleade our cause at this barre and dispatch the busines with his Father that wee may obtaine mercy 4. Heb. 15.16 And to shew his heart the more in this worke hee hath not onely a throne of grace a high Priest to manadge this affaire but hee hath invented this ordinance of Baptisme that wee might have an abundant entrance In this you may see Gods heart for the pardon of sinne for as Baptisme doth it so it is by Gods appointment Therefore know the mind of God and labour not anxiously about sinnes and the pardon of them which is a great impediment to the comfort holines of our life Now that Baptisme doth this you have heard from severall places so as it is a great end of that ordinance to remit and pardon sinnes and assure that to us But if you aske how it doeth it Answer by your being baptized into Iesus Christ by being baptized into his death by being visibly ingrafted into his death condition that as hee did conflict with the wrath of God it brought him to the crosse carried him to the grave kept him there and layed him low but at last hee get out we being interested in what hee did as in a common person who did all for us and in our names might by the helpe of this ordinance which visibly and sensibly represents our communion with him in that which gaines the discarge of our sinnes which is his death into which wee are baptized have full assurance that nothing remaynes us of the guilt of sinne nothing remayns us undischarged since Christ who was as wee were that is made guilty of sinne that wee might be as hee is that is discharged from sinne hath broken the cords of death having made a full satisfaction death having no more dominiō over him because there is no more guilt upon him so that baptisme doth it this way and as many as are baptized into Iesus Christ into his death are put into that condition that he was after his death and rising againe and this must of necessity be because hee was as a common person wholy in his death and resurrection therefore they that makes themselves of that community for whom hee acts and trades and by this visible signe and institutiō of his submit themselves to that way of salvation they put themselves into that state and condition that hee is in after his death and rising againe If any aske why did Christ dye hee dyed for our sinnes saith the Apostle and why did hee rise for our justification we being baptized into his death partake of the end of it which is the discharge of our sinnes our justification it is certain therefore our sinnes made him dye and it is as certain that his righteousnes made us just and righteous Therefore what should keepe any man under the power of death and subject to bondage since if Christ be any thing to him the great thing which the first Christian institutiō Baptisme holds out is that hee is pardon to him and that hee hath dyed risen with Christ and therefore may goe boldly with Christ unto the throne of grace and it is well called a throne of grace because it is not we that have done this for our selves but it is Christ that hath wrought all this good for us so as it is grace to us even the grace of Christ who personally suffered what we doe mistically and by way of communion Secondly it is a throne of grace because it was not wee that did or could make the termes but God for hee might have required from us the personall payment of our owne debt Now that God would make this the termes to take that at Christs hand which lay upō us as a personall debt it makes it a throne of grace to which wee may goe with all boldnes and liberty of speech and with the same assurance that Christ himself did because by vertue of his owne contract sealed to
us by his owne ordinance wee are what he is and have done what hee did CHAP. III. Wherein of a third great use and end of Baptisme whereby is sealed our communion with Christ in his holines to wit a death unto sinne and a rising to newnesse of life WEe come now to another great use and end of Baptisme which is holines of life consisting of two parts dying to sinne and rising to holines and this is especially held out Rom. 6. I shall therefore breefly open analise these words not intending a large discours but so much as suites with the nature of this ordinance First therefore in answer to that unsavoury objection vers 1. Shall vvee sinne that grace may abounde The Apostle reasoneth vers 2. Hovv shall vve that are dead to sinne live any longer therein as if he had said those that are dead to sinne should not live in sinne but you are dead to sinne therefore you should not live in sinne contraries destroy their cōtraries death destroyes life as the privation doth the habit a man cannot live dye together But now it rests to be prooved that wee are dead to sinne v. 3. Knovv yee not that so many of us as vvere baptized into Iesus Christ vvere baptized into his death This hee prooves from our Baptisme which is the seale and expression of our faith If Christ be dead to sinne then those that are baptized are dead to sinne But Christ is dead to sin therefore those that are baptized are dead to sinne That Christ is dead to sinne and how you shall heare v. 10. For in that hee dyed hee dyed unto sinne once But the proposition that those that are baptized are dead to sin because Christ is dead to sinne he shewes you from the end of baptisme which is to witnes confirme to you your union and communion with Christ And first of all with his death which both discharges you from the guilt of sinne and destroyes and kills sinne in you Now that this is the particular end he shewes you from the generall vers 3. Knovv ye not that so many of us as vvere baptized into Iesus Christ vvere baptized into his death yee are baptized into Christ therefore into his death hence vers 4. VVee are buried vvith him by baptisme into death yee are so surely dead with Christ that ye are buried also to be sure he is dead that is buried In this verse hee prooves further this communion in holines by the contrarie to death namely our rising againe that like as Christ vvas raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so vve also should vvalke in nevvnes of life For as Baptisme witnesses to you that you are dead with Christ so the same Baptisme witnesses that ye are risen with him so that as wee are dead to sinne by vertue of the death of Christ so wee are alive to holines by vertue of the rising of Christ that as Christ was raised from the dead to a new glorious and heavenly life so wee are raised to a life new and holy Now the reason of this witnesse ariseth from the analogie and proportion that the signe hath with the thing signified that Baptisme hath with the thing witnessed Those that are baptized they are drowned and buried and brought againe alive out of the water so by our union with Christ wee have the communion of being crucified buried with him and of rising againe to a new life Vers 5. If vve have bene planted together in the likenes of his death vvee shall be also in the likenes of his resurrection This word planting shewes the reality of these signes seales this ordinance witnesses our planting and grafting into Christ who is the stock with whom wee live and dye as wee feele death with him so life also this is the great stay the great comfort wee are planted into Christ the true vyne by God the Father and now wee shall runne his fortune in life or death as the plant stock dye and live together ver 6. Knovving this that our old man is crucified vvith him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth vvee should not serve sinne Here he insists in the former argument namely our communion in the death of Christ which death hee declares by the kind of it namely crucifixion shewes that as Christ for our sinnes dyed so the body of sinne in us by the death of Christ is crucified the power and force is abated that wee should not serve sinne and live to sinne Vers 7. For hee that is dead is freed from sinne Hee that is free from sinne is no longer obliged to sinne but beleevers baptized are freed from sinne because they are dead to sinne dead with Christ therefore we are free from sinne Vers 8. Novv if vve be dead vvith Christ vvee beleeve that vve shall also live vvith him This is to shew the communion still and to usher in the next verse of our communion with the life of Christ Vers 9. Knovving that Christ being raysed from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him Here he illustrates the life of Christ from the perpetuity of it that from thence hee might gather the condition of the Saints in their persuance of holines which should be evermore Vers 10. For in that he dyed he dyed unto sinne once that is to blot out sinne but in that hee lives hee lives to God a glorious life and to the glory of God the Father Vers 11. Likevvise reckon yee also your selves to be dead indeed unto sinne but alive unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord. There is the conclusion of all that went before reason your sealnes therefore to be dead to sin once when Christ died to destroy the power of it therefore sinne hath nothing to doe with you On the contrary you are as Christ alive to God to that glorious and new life all this through Christ whose union and communion is notified to you in Baptisme This is for holines which consists in mortification and newnes of life which Baptisme both signifies and seales to us It signifies it by the analogie proportion which is betweene the signe and the thing signified and in that it signifies a thing past it seales it to us for when God will give you a signe and resemblance of a thing it is but to confirme it to you and assure you of it CHAP. IV. Wherein is shewed the report which the ceremony of Baptisme hath to the forementioned ends and uses of that ordinance also some Corollaries HAving spoken of the use ends of Baptisme it will not be unmeete in the next place to discourse something of the Ceremony that we may shew the report which the signe ceremony hath to the thing signified and represented Now the signification is most apt for the externall forme or Ceremony of Baptisme lyes properly in three things Immersion or Drowning or Burying
the spirituall seede and heires according to promise then they and we pretend both alike in new Testament ordinances with this difference onely to the Iew first and then to the Gentiles CHAP. XIII Wherein is handled the fifth and last question in answer to the argument drawn from circumcision scil whether Infants not prooving the subject of Baptisme the priviledges of Christians and their state may not justly be said to be as great as the priviledges of the Iewes and their state QVestion 5. Though infants should not proove to be the subject of Baptisme yet whether the priviledges of Christians and their state may not justly be said to be as great and greater then the priviledges of the Iewes and their state No man is willing to loose by change and our children are so great a peece of us as that what they loose wee feele It must first be affirmed that the Iewes had this peculiar honour proper both to their persons and the land of their habitation and dwelling their Temple also other ordinances that they were types of thinges to come and in that respect were many thinges performed by them and many thinges predicated of them which else would not have beene as the land was holy but typically and the Temple holy but typically and all the inhabitants of all ages and degrees unlesse under a particular defilement and uncleannesse were denominated holy but typically also Now what ever was a type in that wherein it was a type whether persons or ordinances c. of all such things as types it may be affirmed First that they are inferiour to their antitypes that is to the thing figured or shewed by them Secondly that they are not true in themselves being a shadow of thinges to come but in the body or truth which they figure or type out Thirdly that when the antitype or truth is fullfilled or performed the type ceaseth now it seemes to be agreed by all hands that not onely places and persons ceremonies and events were types but the Sacraments of the Iewes and former times were types and shadowes of our Sacraments not to instance in any but in circumcision as relating to typising out Baptisme which is agreed on all sides to be a type of our baptisme yea so far some urge it as a type that they would therefore have infants baptized because infants were circumcised the antitype being to answer the type but upō how great a mis-take they so urge it we shall shew hereafter when wee shall make that manifest that a great reason of the difference and not baptizing infants of beleevers ariseth from the consideration of the typicalnes of circumcision for the present though it be generally graunted yet wee further make it manifest to be a type of Baptisme by examining that place Coll. 2.11.12 In vvhom also yee are circumcised vvith the circumcision made vvithout hands in putting of the body of the sinnes of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried vvith him in baptisme vvherein also you are risen vvith him through the faith of the operation of God vvho hath raysed him from the dead In this second chapt Paul seemes to contend with divers impugners of Christian religion vs 1. For I vvould that you knovv vvhat great conflict I have for you and first vers 4. hee contends against oratory and inticing words by which their hearts might be led away and seduced And this I say least any man should beguile you vvith inticing vvords c. then vers 8. hee argues against Philosophers as a vayne deceit who would judge of the thinges of Christ by the elements or rudiments of the world for none of those things extend themselves to the mysteries of Christ which wee hold by faith and therefore Philosophicall demonstrations any farther then they are proportionable to the analogie of faith are extreamely deceitfull and to be bewar'de of In the third place hee contends against those who laboured to retaine Iewish ceremonies and types vers 10.11.12 And yee are compleat in him vvhich is the head of all principalities and povver in vvhom also yee are circumcised vvith the circumcision made vvithout hands in putting of the body of the sinnes of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried vvith him in baptisme vvherein also you are risen vvith him c. For here hee shewes that circumcisiō which was the profession of the whole Law was fullfilled as a type or figure to Christians by Christ in Baptisme and therefore that was to vanish away as types ought to doe when they were fullfilled therefore hee shewes how wee are circumcised in Christ which is sealed and effected by Baptisme first it is without hands which the legall circumcision was not as Baptisme in some sence may be said also to be God being the great Baptizer Secondly this circumcision doth not deprive you onely of a little skin of the flesh which was typicall but of the whole body of sinne Thirdly this is not the circumcision of Moses or of the fathers but of Christ for onely Christ can effect this Lastly all this is sealed to us and made ours by Baptisme by Baptisme is effected this circumcision in which we are assimulated to Christ buried risen againe and are sealed one with him in our death to sinne and life to holynes so as Baptisme is Christian circumcision and then we are said to be circumcised with the circumcision of Christ when wee are rightly baptized Now therefore if circumcision be a type of Baptisme as it is acknowledged and prooved then examine it by the former properties of a type And first if circumcision be a type of Baptisme then it is inferior to Baptisme as types are to their antitypes of which they are shadowes and figures But if Baptisme be to be administred for a seale and signe in infancy as circumcision was to teach and instruct hereafter then on the other hand their priviledge was far above ours who carryed a marke in the flesh visible and sensible by which they knew assuredly they were circumcised whereas that any of us have bene sprinkled or dipt in infancy we must receive by a humane faith having never our selves seene it nor no markes to shew it us or convince us of it and it may well fall out that no body may be able to assure us of it neither so as that ceremony may well not worke upon us with any power of which wee have so little assurance whether it have bene administred to us or no. Besides that a man had a Iew to his father was the assured qualification for circumcision which a man might know as well as his owne father but for Baptisme I must beleeve my parents was godly if I will be assured of my qualification which ariseth from the faith as they say of one parent for it will not now goe downe so easily as it hath done that a profession of Christianity onely at large will qualify for deriving right to Baptisme now this