says that a discontented person challeng'd the Oracle of Delphos that it never gave a comfortable answer That 's your fault says the Oracle for none of you come to me till your case is past help Venimus huc lapsis quaesitum oracula rebus says the Poet that ever keeps decorum in his Verses Therefore awake right early seek the Lord in the first season that the course of misery may not wax too strong and remediless Otherwise the Prophet will say The days of visitation are come the days of recompence are come Israel shall know it Hos 9.7 and then whither will ye flie for help to be delivered But prevent such dismal tribulations while it is called To day For nothing is more Consolatory than seasonable Supplication CHAP. V. How the Sacraments minister to a Christian's Comfort A general Survey of Sacraments Five Reasons why God ordained Two Sacraments under the Gospel What Comforts flow from the Grace of Baptism What Comforts flow from the Lord's Supper THough by that which hitherto hath been set forth I trust I may assume that every one that sets his heart to make use of it hath drunk well yet as the Ruler of the Feast said at the Marriage in Cana of Galilee I have kept the good that is the best Wine until now Jo. 2.10 The water of life in Baptism the wine that delighteth the Spiritual thirst in the Lord's Supper Other things in the Word report unto us what a good land the Lord hath promised to his Israel but these two Sacraments are Caleb and Josuah spies that have seen and searcht the land and bring us sensible and sure tidings that it is a noble land flowing with Milk and Hony by the Grapes which they have brought with them and by their ocular and diligent survey they yield evident testimony that God hath provided a gracious Country for us in the Kingdom of Heaven To put all my work of Consolation into one prospect together Prayer the best comfortable Grace is married to Hope the Holy Ghost gives it in marriage Faith is the Priest that joyns them together and the two Sacraments are the outward signs by which they have declared their consent as it were by giving and receiving a Ring and by joyning of hands First I will treat of Sacraments in general then of each in particular by it self A Sacrament being a visible sign of inward grace as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us thereof or more at large which comprizeth the end of all such outward signs a token to confirm mens Faith in the promises of God observe first That God hath condescended above all expression to our weakness that He would have us to take notice of his mercies in gross and sensible things A way that is framed to our level and dull apprehension For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth Jo. 4.24 that 's purely a Heavenly way But some alterations have been admitted to bring us forward in our own pace that is after humane and bodily fancies Deus quandoque insantilia loquitur For our sakes the Lord speaks in the Scriptures in a plain and vulgar Emphasis strangely beneath his Infinite wisdom as a nurse useth to babble to her Infant So He is pleased to give himself to our hands to our eyes to our taste in common and obvious matter but out of his surpassing wisdom to make us more spiritual by cloathing Religion in a bodily attire The Church began in innocency and yet it began with a Sacrament the Tree of life instituted to keep mankind on Earth immortal by tasting it if Adam had not ambitiously eaten of the Tree of knowledge When the old world was drowned and repaired again God told Noah Gen. 9. I do set my Bow in the cloud and it shall be for a tokken of a Covenant between me and the Earth that the waters shall no more become a floud to destroy all the Earth This is the World's Covenant and not the Churche's a Covenant to save all the Earth from a total deluge And God is to be perceived and to be thought of in that sign Ezek. 1.28 The glory of the Throne of God was as the appearance of the Bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord and so the same glory is figur'd in the Rainbow Revel 4.3 After this it being not discovered who did openly and entirely profess the worship of the true God Abraham was called out of Chaldea and he and his family were imbodied into a Church and received the sign of Circumcision as a mark stampt upon them to be known to be those whom God had called out for his own and did admonish them to circumcise the fore-skin of their heart Deut. 10.16 Chiefly to imprint into them that the promised seed should come from that stock in whom all Nations should be blessed When Abraham's seed became a National Church before they could get out of Egypt the bloud of a Lamb was sprinkled upon their doors with a statute given upon it that from thenceforth every family at that time of the year should give account for a Lamb slain and be eaten within their houses till John Baptist's Lamb was slain to take away the sin of the world Under the like discipline they were trained up for a while in the wilderness when Moses set up the figure of a Serpent upon a Pole that they might look upon it and live that were stung by Serpents Numb 21. verse 9. The Author of the Book of Wisdom writes Divinely upon it That they might be admonisht for a small season it was a sign of Salvation And he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing he saw but by thee that art the Saviour of the world Wisd Chap. 16. Verses 6 7. Neither are we such perfect men under the New Testament to be taught only by the words of holiness and truth but we are received into the Covenant of Grace and preserved in it by Mysteries signifying wonderful things to our outward senses that we may suck and be satisfied with the Churches two breasts of Consolation Isa 66.11 And be filled with the two golden pipes that empty the golden oil out of themselves Zach. 4.12 I stand upon the number of Two because they are put together 1 Cor. 10.3 The Israelites were all baptized in the cloud did all eat the same spiritual meat and all drank of the same spiritual drink As good account for it is 1 Cor. 12.13 By one spirit we are all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one Spirit Or learn it from St. John 1 Epist 5.6 Christ came not by water alone but by water and bloud And there are three that bear witness the Spirit that is the ministry of the Gospel the water that is Baptism and the bloud
Faith is drawn through these narrow and abject means that like himself have no comeliness in specie and when we see them there is no comeliness that we should desire them Isa 53.2 Nevertheless it is fit we should be well taught in the Contemplation of the hidden vertue inclosed in Baptism or else we could never think it worth our labour and obedience Our Common-Prayer-Book a store-house of rare Divinity tells us what is to be expected at that Laver for them that come to be Baptized 1. That God hath promised to be the Father of the faithful and of their seed and will most surely perform and keep his promise with them and by this introduction we are incorporated into the holy Congregation Behold they whom we love above all others by nature our Children are naturalized to be the Citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom and enter into it through this door of Grace 2. Secondly As God did save Noah and his Family from perishing by water and safely led the Children of Israel through the Red Sea while their enemies were drowned so the millions of the Nations whom God hath not given to Christ for his inheritance are drowned in their own lusts and corruptions But O what a priviledge it is to be among those few that are received into the Ark of Christs Church to be exempted from the common deluge and to be the faithful seed of Abraham led through the Chanel of the Sea and Baptized in the Cloud that went along with them when the Armies of the mighty are mightily consumed 3. Thirdly We may gather out of our Church-office for Baptism that the everlasting benediction of Heavenly washing affords two Comforts it signifies the bloud of Christ to cleanse us Per modum pretii as the price that was paid to ransom us from death and the sanctifying of the Holy Spirit to cleanse us per modum habitûs by his In-being and Celestial infusion and both are put together in one Collect That all that are Baptized may receive remission of sins by spiritual regeneration There is no remission of sin without bloud says the Apostle Heb. 9.22 meaning the invaluable bloud of the Lamb of God Verse 14. And the Heavenly thing is represented by the visible Element of Water for there must be some aptitude between the Sign and the Thing signified else it were not a Sacrament that as Water washeth away the filth of the body so the Bloud of Christ delivereth our Souls from the guilt and damnableness of sin The Bloud of Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 Epist Jo. 1.7 The metaphor of cleansing must have respect to Baptismal-water Again Who loved us and washed us from our sins in his Bloud Revel 1.5 Where the Scripture speaks of washing from sin it must be taken from the water of Baptism figuring the vertue of Christs Bloud that in the sight of his Father makes us white as Snow The Scriptures indeed strike most upon the other string and more directly as Ephes 5.25 Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word Titus 3.6 He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost And in many other places Therefore our Liturgy falls most upon the purifying operation of the Spirit to be shadowed in the outward washing of water As when it prays Send thy Holy Spirit to these Infants and grant that they may be Baptiz'd with Water and with the Holy Ghost And Grant that all that are Baptized may receive the fulness of thy Grace Spiritual Regeneration is that which the Gospel hath set forth to be the principal correlative of Baptism O happy it is for us to be born again by Water and the Holy Ghost For better it were never to be born than not to be born twice God put a good mind into us and reform one great fault in us which is that our Baptism being past over a great while ago we cast it out of our memory and meditate but little upon the benefits and comforts of it We are got into the Church and do in a sort forget how we got in Whereas the whole life of a Christian man and woman should be a continual reflection how in Baptism we entred into Covenant with Christ to believe in him to serve him to forsake the Devil the vanities of the world and the sinful desires of the flesh Water is a pellucid Element to look through it to the bottom So look often through the sanctified Water to see what Christ hath done for you and what you have engaged to do for Christ And there is no heart so full of blackness and melancholy but will recover upon it and be as fresh in sound health as if it were filled with marrow and fatness Well did St. Paul put Baptism among the principles and foundations of Christian doctrine Heb. 6.2 For all the weight of Faith Sanctification and Mercy doth lie upon it Recount this by particulars 1. The first thought that my Soul hath upon it is That I am no longer a stranger and foreigner but a fellow-Citizen with the Saints and of the houshold of God Ephes 2.19 I am no more a-far off but made nigh by the Bloud of Christ partaker of the priviledges of the Church and called by the new Name which the mouth of the Lord shall name a Christian Isa Chap. 62. Verse 2. 2. Secondly I find that I have gained to have the highest point of Faith unfolded to me which was but darkly discerned in the Old Testament to confess the Holy Trinity in which Faith I was Baptized For because that mystery was revealed at Christs Baptism it goes ever along with this Sacrament All Nations being Baptized in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost 3. Thirdly I observe that my Christian engagement allows me not the liberty of sinning after the custom of the world but obligeth me to the strict discipline of my Lord to live holily justly and soberly to walk in newness of life as planted into the likeness of Christs death so to die unto sin for he that is dead is freed from sin Rom. 6.7 In every thing and at all times I must remember what the Sureties at the Font called Godfathers and Godmothers did promise for me in my Name which the Liturgy of Geneva retains in these words Do you promise to warn this Child to live according to God's Word and make the Law of God the square of his life to live by 'T is a binding Ceremony and we are brought up from our tender years in the knowledge of it that we continually may feel the work of the Ordinance to have our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washt with clean Water Heb. 10.21 22. And as many as are Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 To put on Christ is to follow Christ in the Law of a
new Creature and to perfect holiness without which no man shall see God 4. Fourthly I have assurance that the Spirit is not disjoyned from the Water for Christs Word cannot sail that we shall be Baptized with the Holy Ghost But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1. Cor. 6.11 The power given to keep the Covenant makes it a Covenant of Grace else we shall administer but the Letter and not the Spirit The outward act of man unless we make our selves unworthy is certainly assisted with the increase of God If the good effect ensue not the Sacrament doth not want its vertue but the receiver marr'd it Very much it s to be ascribed to the Word preacht it is a powerful means to convert us and to save us 1 Tim. 4.15 Take heed unto thy doctrine for in doing this thou shalt save thy self and them that hear thee And 1 Pet. 1.23 Being born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth in you The Word disposeth and prepares God is the efficient cause of our Regeneration Now this Sacrament whether we speak of Infants they are to call to mind how they received the outward Seal of Grace or whether we speak of Converts of ripe years who at the same time were taught the vertue of it it hath reason to work more powerfully and effectually upon their knowledge and affections than doctrine alone because Christ and his Benefits are manifested in a sensible operation which himself did dignifie in his own person at the waters of Jordan and afterward institute it to be used by all his Disciples 5. The fifth thing that I draw from hence gives me exceeding Consolation in Christ that no man who is made the Child of God is in the damnable state of sin therefore in Baptism being made the adopted Child of God I have obtained the pardon of all sins Original and Actual as Naaman was cured of all his leprosie Who saved us by the washing of Regeneration Tit. 3.6 Be Baptized every one of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins Acts 2.38 So Ananias said to Paul Acts 22.16 Arise and be Baptized and wash away thy sins Yea but some will cavil Infants have not Faith and God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through Faith in his Bloud and he that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved Mark 16.16 I will not contend about it whether Baptized Infants have a secret imperceptible habit of Faith I am sure there is Innocency of life in them instead of Faith They that are of Age to come to the knowledge of Faith must bring their own Faith with them to the Font but for Infants they have priviledge to be in Church-communion by the Faith of the Church wherein they were born There is another contest made by some that notwithstanding Baptism Original sin remains in us all the days of our life True the sin is not blotted out in the Infant but it is blotted out of the Book of God And as Actual sins are pardon'd for Christ's sake yet it cannot be brought about that they should never be done which are done and past but it is enough that they shall not be imputed so Original sin cleaves unto us it is not cast out for I feel it in me but it is remitted 6. For the complement of this subject the largest and the longest Comfort flowing from the Grace of Baptism is That we are to rely upon the Covenant made between God and us therein for the remission of all our sins which we commit after Baptism unto the end of our life Far be it from me to say that it sufficeth us to cast our eyes back to the Covenant then made as if the bare and historical memory of it did suffice to blot out sins that 's but an empty flash and a vapour of presumption But this I say Build upon the Eternity and Infallibility of God's Truth and then by a true and sure-grasping Faith joyn'd with Repentance renew your self in God's mercies by the promise of the Old Baptismal Covenant Repentance is a condition never to be omitted to lift us up again when we have been overtaken with sins But Faith doth not comfort it self in the sincerity of Repentance which in us is ever imperfect but in Christ's merits once for all consigned to us in Baptism For the Scriptures speak indefinitely that the Laver of Regeneration purgeth away all our sins it doth not speak restrictively of sins past as if it did operate no longer than in that moment when the water is sprinkled For Baptism doth now at the very present time save us 1 Pet. 3.21 And some collect it out of that figurative place Ezek. 49.9 Every thing where the Waters do come shall live After a shower of rain is fallen and ceaseth the grass continues to grow By grievous and presumptous sins we debar our selves from the sense and comfort of the Covenant for the present yet when we repent we come not to make a new Covenant with God but to beseech him to be gracious to us for the old Covenants sake As an Adulteress if she be received again and pardon'd by her Husband is not new married but accepted for a wife upon the first contract of marriage Take some examples of those in the New Testament that sinned against God and in their return again did not suppose the first Covenant of Baptism to be abolisht but they comforted themselves that the mercies promised then would hold firm and not fail them St. Paul challengeth the Corinthians Chap. 6. Epist 1. that they had been Adulterers Effeminate and much of the like Yet Verse 11. he speaks thus to them Ye are washed sanctified justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus In the same manner he deals with the Galatians who had embraced much false doctrine mingled Judaism with the Gospel yet Chap. 3. Verse 27. As many of you as are Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Can any thing equal all these heart-refreshings that swim in the pool of Baptism Therefore in many Ages past the joy of the Neophytes was excessive that came to be Baptized Many Torches were lighted and carried before them to shew it was the day of their illumination They came in white garments and wore them constantly eight days together a most Festival habit Yet they affected too much to defer their Baptism till their elder nay their latest years out of the erroneous principle that Baptism was the healing water for the remission of sins past and they rather relied upon Repentance than upon the Baptism which they had received for the remission of sins that did follow Whereas Repentance is not a new paction with God but a return to the use of the old a restitution as it were to our bloud when we had been tainted by