it a law of sin The latter where he represents that carnality and sinful captivity under which the Jew was as the cause of his doing what he would not (t) Rom. 15. and omitting what he would That sin which dwelt in him as doing all the evil (u) Rom. 17.20 he committed And that law that was in his members as warring against the law of his mind (w) Rom. 23. and bringing him into Captivity unto the law of sin For what more could be said on the one hand to shew the thing S. Paul there speaks of to be an inward evil principle and which because even in those who were under the Law is much more to be supposed in the Gentiles Or what more on the other to shew that evil principle to be the parent of our actual sins yea that which gives being to them all And I know nothing to take off the force of it but a supposition of St. Paul's speaking in that place of Evil habits and which as they must be confessed to be of the same pernicious efficacy with Original Corruption so to have been for the most part the condition both of Jew and Gentile before they came to be overtaken by the Gospel But how first supposing the Apostle to have spoken only of evil habits for nothing hinders us from assigning them a part in that Body of sin How first I say doth that agree with the account he before gave concerning sins entring in (x) Rom. 5.12 by Adam and our being constituted (y) Rom. 19. sinners by him For though Original Corruption may come from him yet evil habits can be only from our selves and consequently those sins that flow from them How secondly supposing none but evil habits to be here intended can we make that Body or law of sin whereof S. Paul speaks to be the portion of all that are under an obligation to Baptism as that Apostle plainly supposeth when he makes the design of Baptism (z) Rom. 6.6 to be the destruction of it For to say nothing at present concerning the case of Infants because the best evidence of their Obligation to Baptism is the Corruption of their Nature and that Obligation therefore rather to be prov'd from Natural Corruption than Natural Corruption from it Neither can it be deny'd even from the Commandment * Mat. 28.19 that our Saviour gave concerning Baptism that all adult persons are under an Obligation to it nor therefore but that they carry about them that body of sin which Baptism was intended for the destruction of But so all adult persons cannot be supposed to do if that body of sin be no other than evil habits Because it must be sometime after that maturity of theirs before they can come to those evil habits or therefore to be under an Obligation to that Sacrament which is to destroy it In fine how supposing none but evil habits to be intended by that body or law of sin whereof the Apostle speaks can we give an account of so holy and just a Law as that of Moses is stirring †Rom. 7.9 Concupiscence in those that are under it and not rather hindring it from coming to effect For as nothing hinders the proposing of that Law before such persons come to any evil habits and therefore also before there is any thing in them to stir them up to such a Concupiscence So nothing can hinder that Law when duly proposed to them from preventing all such Concupiscence as it was the design of the Lawgiver to forbid Because as the persons we speak of must be supposed to be without any contrariety in their Nature to the matter of that Law which is propos'd So they must also be suppos'd to be in that state wherein God had set them and because God cannot be thought to place Men in any other estate than that of uprightness in such a state as will make them willing to listen to the divine Laws and receive their directions from them By which means the divine Laws shall rather keep Men's Concupiscence from coming to effect than give any occasion for the stirring of it I conclude therefore from that as well as the former arguments that the evil principle spoken of by S. Paul cannot be evil habits and consequently nothing more left to us to demonstrate than that it is derived to us from our Birth or rather from our Conception in the Womb which is all that is affirmed concerning Original Corruption Now that that evil principle whereof we speak is derived to us from our Birth will become at least probable from what was before said concerning the earliness of Men's being under sin yea their being so as the Scripture instructs us even from their Youth For as it is hard to believe that all Men should be so early under sin if it were not from some inward principle that was antecedent to that Age For what should otherwise hinder some of them at least from preserving their integrity for some time especially supposing as that tender Age maketh it reasonable to suppose a more peculiar watchfulness of the Divine Providence over it So it will be much more hard to believe supposing that evil principle to be antecedent to their Youth that it should not be derived to them from their Conception and Birth The Ages preceding that being not in a capacity to produce in themselves such an evil principle and therefore to be suppos'd to have had it transmitted to them together with their Nature and so also by the same means and from the same time in which that their Nature was And indeed as even the tenderest age falls under death and not unreasonably therefore concluded to be some way or other under sin if as S. Paul †Rom. 5.12 speaks death enter'd by it and so pass'd upon all Men for that all have sinned So there want not some places of Scripture which do yet more directly evince that the first beginnings of our Nature are tainted with that of which we speak Of this sort I reckon that of Job (a) Job 14.4 which is so commonly apply'd to this affair even his demanding of God with reference to himself (b) Job 1 c. and all other Men who could bring a clean thing out of an unclean and thereby therefore intimating that it was not to be done For as it is manifest from his alledging that the better to countenance his own expostulation concerning God's bringing him into judgment that by the unavoidable uncleanness there intimated must be meant a sinful one as which alone could either dispose him to such actions as could be a proper matter for judgment or be alledged in bar to a severe one So it is alike manifest from Job's asking who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean that Men are not only so unclean in their Nature but that they become so by those evil principles out of which they are brought and so
or less the cause of it by his own so he became the cause of it by his own by thereby depraving his own Nature first and then communicating that depravation to those that descended from him Of the former whereof as there cannot well be any doubt considering the hainousness of that sin which he committed That as it could not but occasion the withdrawing of the Divine Grace from Adam so neither but draw after it the depravation of his Nature as which receiv'd all its rectitude from the other so there will be as little doubt of the latter if we compare what S. Paul here saith concerning Adam's being the cause of all our sins by his own with what he afterward saith * Rom. 7.17 20. concerning Men's falling into actual sin by vertue of an evil principle that dwelleth in them For if all actual sin proceed immediately from such an evil principle that evil principle must be also from Adam as without which otherwise he could not be the cause of our sins by his own nor constitute us sinners by it IV. I will not be over positive in defining by what means this evil principle is convey'd because I am not well assur'd how our very Nature is It shall suffice me to represent what may tend in some measure toward the clearing of it That Original sin cleaving to our nature from the first beginnings of it must consequently be conveyed to us by the same general means by which our nature is even by natural generation yea that the Scripture teacheth us so to reason where it affirms Men to be conceiv'd in sin (z) Psal 51.5 to become flesh by being born †Joh. 3.6 of flesh and unclean * Job 14.4 by being brought out of those Parents that are so That though the more particular means by which Original Sin is convey'd cannot with any certainty be assign'd because it is alike uncertain whether those Souls in which it is most reasonable to place it be either traduced or immediately created yet there would not be any uncertainty as to this particular if we believ'd the Souls of Men to be traduc'd as several of the Antients †Vid. Vossi Hist Pelag. Lib. 2. Parte 3. Thes 1. and not a few of the Moderns have believ'd For so it would not only not be difficult to apprehend the particular means of the others conveyance but almost impossible to overlook them because making it to pass together with those Souls to which it adheres and diffuse it self from thence to those Bodies to which they are united That though the traduction of Souls be not without its difficulties and such as I shall not be so vain as to attempt the solution of yet it is in that particular but of the same condition with the immediate Creation of them that I say not also less exceptionable as to the business of Original Sin In fine That as it hath nothing from Scripture to prejudice the belief of it as appears by the solutions which have been long since (a) Hotham's Introd to the Trent Philosophy given to the Objections from it So it seems to me much more agreeable to that account which it gives of the Creation and indeed to the Nature of a Parent For what can be more clear from the Story of the Creation than that God designed once for all to Create all the Beings which he intended leaving them and particularly Man to carry on the Succession by those productive principles which he had planted in them For if so what should hinder us from believing but that Men produce their like after the same manner that other Creatures do and by the same Divine Benediction and concurrence Sure I am as they will otherwise fall short of the powers of inferiour beings as well as be an anomalie in the Creation so they will be but very imperfectly in the condition of Parents because contributing only to that part which is the least considerable in their Posterity Only as I list not to contend about any thing of which I my self am not more strongly persuaded So I shall leave it to those whom the immediate creation of Souls better pleaseth to make their advantage of it and satisfie themselves from it concerning the means of Original Sin 's conveyance Which if they do they shall do more than the great S. Augustin could after all his travails in this Argument Because professing that he could not find either by reading or praying or reasoning (b) Ep. 157. ad Optatum how Original Sin could be defended with the opinion of the Creation of Souls V. I may not dismiss the Argugument that is now before us or indeed so much as attend to the consideration of those Objections that are made against it before I have also enquir'd whether that which hath the name of Original Sin be truly and properly such and not rather so stiled in respect of that first sin from which it proceeded or in respect of those sins to which it leads For beside that that Church whose Catechism I have chosen to explain leads us to the consideration of it because both there and elsewhere (c) Art. of Relig. 6. affirming it to have the nature of a Sin to make us the Children of Wrath and to deserve God's Wrath and Damnation The resolution of it is of no small moment toward the right stating of our duty and the valuableness of that remedy which Christianity hath provided for it For neither otherwise can we look upon Original Sin as any proper matter for our Repentance whatsoever it may be for our lamentation nor upon Baptism as bringing any other pardon to Infants than that of the Sin of their first Parents and which they who look upon Original Sin as rather our unhappiness than fault are generally as far from charging them with This only would be premis'd for the better understanding of it that by Sin is not meant any actual transgression of a Law for no Man was ever so absurd as to affirm that concerning Original Sin but that which is contrary to a Law in the nature of an evil habit and both imports an absence of that Righteousness which ought to be in us and an inclination to those evils from which we ought to be averse This as it is no less the transgression of a Law than any actual sin is so making the person in whom it is as obnoxious to punishment and consequently to be look'd upon as yet more properly a sin Now that that which we call Original Sin is really such in this latter notion will appear if these two things be considered First that the Scripture gives it the title of sin Secondly that it represents it as such upon the account of our being obliged by the Law of God to have in us a contrary temper That the Scripture gives that whereof we speak the title of sin is evident from those Texts which we before made use
acknowledgments of the wiser Heathen Enquiry next made from whence it had its beginning which is shewn to have been not from any evil Spirit or Daemon the pravity of matter or the evil habits the Soul contracted in a praeexistent state but from the pravity of our first Parents This last at large confirm'd out of the Doctrine of the Scripture and followed by some light reflections upon the means by which it is conveyed A more just account from the Scripture of its being truly and properly a sin partly from its having the title of a sin but more especially from its being represented as such upon the account of our Obligation to the contrary A consideration of those Objections which are commonly made against the Doctrine of Original Sin Which are shewn either not to be of that force whereof they are esteem'd or however not to be a sufficient bar to what the Scripture hath declar'd concerning it AN account being thus given of the outward visible Sign of Baptism Question What is the inward and spiritual Grace which is the first of those things I proposed to entreat of Reason would Answer A death unto Sin and a new birth unto Righteousness For being by nature born in Sin and the Children of wrath we are hereby made the Children of Grace as well as the method before laid down that I should consider the things signified by it Which on the part of God and Christ are an inward and Spiritual Grace as on the part of the baptized an Abrenunciation of their former sins and a resolution to believe and act as Christianity obligeth them to do But because both the one and the other of these suppose the baptized persons to have been before in a sinful Estate and our Catechism in particular to have been born in it and by that as well as by the sins they afterward contracted to be made the Children of wrath Therefore it will be but necessary for us to premise something concerning that sinful Estate as which Baptism both presupposeth and professeth to provide a remedy for Now as that sinful State whereof we speak is best known by the name of Original Sin and will therefore most commodiously be described by it So I will make it my business to enquire What that is and what appearance of the being of it from whence it had its beginning and by what means it is conveyed whether as it hath for the most part the name of a Sin so it be truly and properly such and what is to be said to the Objections that are made against it I. To begin with the first of these even what Original Sin is and which in the general may be defin'd to be such a Corruption of the nature of every Man that is naturally ingendred of the off-spring of Adam whereby it becomes averse from every thing that is good and inclin'd to every thing that is evil I call it a Corruption of nature to distinguish it from nature considered in it self and as it was in the first formation of it Partly because Nature being as such the work of God cannot be supposed to be corrupt And partly because the Scripture assures us that whatsoever it now is God made it upright * Eccl. 7.29 and so free from all corruptions whatsoever But so also do I entitle it the Corruption of the Nature of every Man that is naturally ingendred of the off-spring of Adam Partly because the Scripture where it entreats of it represents all Men as under the Contagion of it and partly to exempt our Lord and Saviour from it who was ingendred after another manner and whom the same Scripture assures to have been free †2 Cor. 5.21 from all sin yea to have been so * Luk. 1.35 from his Birth I call it lastly such a Corruption of humane Nature whereby it is averse from every thing that is good and inclin'd to every thing that is evil Which I do upon the account of the Scripture's representing it as a sinful (a) Psa 51.5 one and which as such will make those in whom it is averse from good as well as inclinable to evil yea averse from all that is good and inclinable to all evil Because good yea all good is opposite to such an estate and evil yea all evil connatural to it If they in whom that corruption of nature doth as yet abide be not always actually prevail'd upon to reject that good from which we have affirm'd them to be so averse or to pursue that evil to which we have affirm'd them to be inclinable it is not because they want any averseness for the one or inclination to the other but for some other collateral considerations Such as is for example the reputation or advantage that may accrue to them from the espousing of any thing that is good or the omission of any thing that is evil For all good and all evil being of one uniform nature because becoming good or evil by the conformity they bear to the divine Laws or by their deviation from them where there is an inclination to any thing that is good there must be an inclination to all that is of the same nature as on the other side where an averseness from any thing that is evil an averseness for all that which is alike a transgression of the Divine Laws But as therefore nothing can hinder us from representing natural corruption as making Men averse from all that is good and inclinable to every thing that is evil So neither can any thing oblige us to extend the force of it so far as to make it to determine them in all their actions and accordingly to carry them to an actual rejection of all that is good or a pursuance of all that is evil Partly because Men may and often do act contrary to their natural aversions or inclinations where there is hope of temporal advantage or fear of any temporal evil And partly because we do not only find few natural Men proceeding to the extremity of Impiety but find also great variety among them in the omission of good Actions or the commission of those that are evil Of which variety what account could be given when the Corruption of Nature is and must be equal because all Men were alike in and are alike descended from Adam were it not that even that Corruption leaves place for the performance of many good and the avoiding of many things that are evil For to ascribe that variety either wholly or principally to the different degrees of God's restraining Grace is not only to speak without all Authority that I know of but to take away all diversity between the evil demerits of natural Men and together therewith all different degrees of punishment yea to make the Corruption of Nature the only proper ground of punishment For as if there be nothing but God's restraining Grace to take off natural Men from falling into the
which it is affirm'd to be a Corruption So I shall therefore enquire again what that Estate was and then what relation this Corruption beareth to it As touching that estate wherein God did at first create our Nature most certain it is first for so Solomon (f) Eccl. 7.29 affirms it to be that it was an estate of uprightness that is to say such an estate as fitted Man for the obedience of all those Laws which God had obliged him to perform That as it is the most usual signification of the word we render upright and accordingly rendred by the Chaldee Paraphrast right and innocent before God so best answering the account before given concerning the depravation of humane Nature and particularly in those of the Female Sex. For Solomon speaking in the 26th verse of the deceitfulness of that Sex and of the influence that deceitfulness of theirs would have upon sinful Men Affirming afterwards because representing the event of his search as contrary to the desires of his Soul that though he could find one Man among a thousand of a better temper yet he could not find One such Woman among them all He must consequently when he comes to say that he found only that God made Man upright be thought to mean such an uprightness as was opposite to that general depravation whereof he before complain'd There being therefore no doubt to be made that God created our Nature in a state of uprightness even in such a one as fitted Man for the obedience of all those Laws which he was obliged to comply with Enquire we in the second place wherein that state of uprightness consisted but which we shall not find to be of so easie a resolution as the former Because there is some presumption of its consisting in a right disposition of our natural faculties And there is some presumption of its consisting in a supernatural Grace over-ruling and directing those natural faculties to those pious purposes for which they were chiefly design'd We have to perfuade the former of these the natural ability of the understanding to discern the invisible things of God by the things which he hath made and the natural propension of the Will to embrace that which is good and therefore also the chiefest good where that is clearly apprehended and where there is no depravation in the Will as to be fure there was not at first to draw it to lesser ones In fine we have to perswade it the power the superiour faculties of the Soul have even now over the Inferiour ones and which we may well believe in that state of Innocency to have been of sufficient force to keep them within those bounds which God and Nature had set them This I say we have to perswade that uprightness wherein our first Parents were Created to have consisted in a right disposition of their natural faculties And we are not without reason on the other hand to perswade the same uprightness of Nature to have consisted in its being over-ruled and directed by a supernatural Grace Because without such a supernatural Grace our first Parents could not have come to the knowledge of God but by the knowledge of Created Beings and the excellencies thereof and what that knowledge would have produc'd a love and affection for them Which would not only have made God to be lov'd after his Creatures who as being the first and chiefest good ought to have the precedency thereof but endangered also the diminution of our affections to him by the prepossession of them by the other To which of these two reasonings to give the preeminency is hard to say and I will not therefore be over positive in determining concerning the force of them nor therefore whether Original Righteousness were a right disposition of our natural faculties or a supernatural Grace over-ruling and directing them But as how equal soever those reasonings may be in themselves yet nothing will hinder our inclining rather to the one than the other if the Scripture which is the best judge of things of that nature seem to favour such an inclination So I must needs say that the Scripture (g) Gen. 1.28 c. 2.15 c. seems to favour those reasonings which makes Original Righteousness to be a Supernatural Grace Because not only representing Adam as imbued from the very first with the knowledge of God which yet he could not be without a revelation from him but as moreover freely conversing with God and receiving both Laws and priviledges from him For as it appears from thence that God did immediately shine upon his mind and so far forth therefore influenced him by a supernatural Grace so it is not unlikely that he who so shone upon his mind did as immediately influence his will and affections and so dispose him to a compliance with those Laws he impos'd upon him That as it was but agreeable to the immediate illumination of his underanding so becoming yet more necessary by the different inclinations of his Flesh and Spirit and which the presence of a Supernatural Grace may seem but requisite to bring to a due compliance with each other and with those Laws which God had impos'd upon them both And I shall only add that if that uprightness wherein our Nature was at first Created were no other than a Supernatural Grace as is at least highly probable from the former reasonings and the declarations of the Scripture We shall need to assign no other relation of that Corruption of Nature whereof we speak than that of a simple privation of the other For if the desires of the Flesh could so far prevail even under a supernatural Grace as to carry our first Parents to the eating of that fruit which God had so severely forbidden them The simple privation of that supernatural Grace may well suffice to give birth to all our evil inclinations and consequently pass for a sufficient account of that Corruption of our Nature whereby as I said before we become inclinable to Evil as well as averse from Good and which what evidence we have of the being of is in the next place to be enquir'd II. Now as we cannot certainly better inform our selves concerning the present state of our Nature than from him who as he was the Author of it so is intimately present to it So I will therefore begin with that account which he hath given us of it and which we shall find to bear an ample Testimony to that Corruption whereof we speak For the evidencing whereof I will shew First that it affirmeth all Men whatsoever to be under sin yea under a perpetual course of it Secondly that it affirmeth them to be so from the time they begin to be in a capacity to offend Thirdly that they are so from a principle bred in them and derived to them from their birth 1. That all Men are under sin S. Paul doth so fully declare that we shall need no other Testimony than his to evince
untowardnesses produce such an habitual inclination to them that their more free reason when they come to it shall not be able to surmount it I answer that that indeed might well enough be granted if we had no reason to believe that God would so watch over them by his providence as to hinder their natural temperament from having such an influence upon them But as we have reason enough to believe from the love God bears to his own Workmanship as well as to Piety and Vertue that he would not be wanting in that particular to the estate of Children if it were no other than such as he himself had plac'd them in So we must therefore believe also that that temperament of theirs is not the cause of their miscarriages but somewhat else that is not from God and which because not from him he doth not think himself under any necessity to provide against And indeed though some who call themselves Christians have notwithstanding the former evidences oppos'd themselves against that which we have offered as the Original cause thereof Yet have the more sober Heathen though ignorant of the occasion of it both acknowledg'd and lamented it and so furnish'd us with a farther argument for the belief of it For thus as Dr. Jackson (n) Coll. of his Works Book 10. Ch. 8. did long since observe we find one of them affirming that the nature of Man is prone to lust and another that nature cannot separate just from unjust Thus a third as the forementioned Author remarks that to Man of all the creatures is sorrow given for a portion to him luxury in innumerable fashions and in every Limb To him alone ambition and avarice to him alone an unmeasurable desire of living In fine that whilst it is given to other creatures yea the most savage ones to live peaceably and orderly together Man is naturally an enemy to those of his own stock To the same purpose are those which are quoted by Grotius (o) De jure Bedi ac Pac. li. 2. c. 20. sect 19. in Annot. in locum if they are not also yet more worthy of our remark Such as are that among the other incommodities of mortal nature there is the darkness of Men's minds and not only a necessity of erring but a love of errours That we have all sinned some in weightier instances others in lighter some of set purpose and design others it may be carried away by other Men's wickedness That we do not only offend but we shall offend to the end of our lives and although some one may have so purg'd his mind that nothing shall any more disturb or deceive him yet he comes to innocency by offending That this evil disposition is so natural to Men that if every one be to be punished that hath it no Man shall be free from punishment That there is therefore a necessity upon those who are entrusted with the power of Chastisement to wink at some errours He who punisheth Men as if they could be free from all sin exceeding the measure of that correction which is according to nature or as another hath expressed it shewing himself injurious to the common infirmity of Men and forgetful of that infirmity which is humane and universal For as it is evident from these and the like passages that they from whom they fell had the same opinion of the State of Nature which Christianity obligeth us to take up So that opinion of theirs cannot but add to the confirmation of our own and to the belief of that depravation which it is the design of this Discourse to evince Because not taken up either in whole or in part from prejudices imbib'd from Books but from the experience they had of its effects and which as they themselves could not but feel and acknowledge so we have no reason to question because conscious of the like effects of it in our selves III. There being therefore no doubt to be made but that there is such a thing as Original Sin because sufficiently attested by the Doctrine of the Scripture and our own and other Men's experience It cannot but be thought reasonable to enquire from whence it had its beginning and so much the rather because both Scripture and reason assure us that it cannot be thought to have had its Original from God. Now there are but four things from whence it can be supposed to proceed and within the consideration whereof therefore this Enquiry of ours will necessarily be bounded some evil Daemon or Spirit which concurrs with God to our production or the natural pravity of that matter which God makes use of in order to it Some evil habits which Souls contracted before they were sent into their present bodies or some pravity in those from whom they first descended and which is transmitted from them to particular souls and persons The first of these opinions is attended with this great inconvenience among many others that it chargeth God either with malignity or impotency With malignity if willingly suffering any evil spirit to mix it self in his productions With impotency if not able to hinder it though he would The second as it is alike injurious to the power of God because subjecting that power of his to the indisposition of the matter so it makes Original Sin to be natural and unavoidable and consequently also those actual sins that flow from it By which means it not only renders all our endeavours against them useless but casts a blemish upon those divine Laws which pretend to forbid them and upon those divine judgments which pretend to punish them For neither can God without great unreasonableness forbid what is not to be avoided nor punish it without the imputation of injustice But it may be though Original Sin had not its beginning either from some evil spirit or the pravity of the matter which are the two first opinions which pretended to give an account of it yet it might as is suggested in the third arise from such evil habits as Men's souls contracted before their descent into this World and into those bodies wherewith they are invested That indeed might yet more reasonably be believ'd that I say not also abstracting from the Authority of the Scripture much more reasonably than the account that is given of it from Adam if there were but equal reason to believe that Men's Souls had any separate existence antecedently to their conception in the Womb. But as that is a thing for which there is not any solid ground either in reason or Scripture and the supposition of it therefore the meer issue of fancy and conjecture So it is sufficiently confuted by the ignorance Men's Souls are under of any such previous estate For why if Men's Souls had any such previous existence should they not be conscious of it and of the things that were performed by them in it Nay why should not God take care to fix such a remembrance in them that
the Profession thereof shewn by several Arguments to be the intendment of the Christian Baptism What the measure of that conformity is which we profess to pay to the Laws of Christianity and what are the consequences of the Violation of that Profession HAving thus consider'd the things signified by Baptism on the part of God and Christ best known by the name of its inward and spiritual Graces It remains that I give the like account of the things signified by it on the part of the baptiz'd or the things the baptized person maketh Profession of by it Which as was before observ'd are an Abrenunciation of sin a present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and a resolution for the time to come to continue in that belief and act agreeably to its Laws That something is signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized as well as on the part of God and Christ is evident from what was before said * Of the Sacrament in general Part 2. concerning the nature of a Sacrament in the general and Baptism's †Ibid. relating as well to something to be perform'd by the baptiz'd as to those divine Graces or priviledges which we expect from the other That the things before mentioned are the things thus signified by it hath also been elsewhere * Expl. of the Aposties Creed declar'd and so that it would not be difficult for a diligent Reader to satisfie himself from thence But because what I have said concerning them lies dispersedly in my former Discourses and would therefore require more pains than I ought to impose upon my Reader to find it out and apply it to the present Argument I will here though very briefly consider them anew and if not which would be too tedious repeat all that I have said concerning them yet point him as I go to the particular places from whence they may be fetch'd That Abrenunciation of sin is one of the things signified by Baptism is not only evident from the manner of administring it in the Primitive times and which together with the form of their Abrenunciation and our own are set down in my account of the Preliminary questions and answers of the Catechism but also from the general tenour of that Religion which Baptism is an initiation into That requiring the renouncing of all sin and wickedness and therefore supposing the baptized person to do so when he takes that Religion upon him For which cause as an express Abrenunciation was heretofore requir'd and continues so to be to this very day So it was signified as by other Rites and particularly by the baptized persons putting off his cloaths in order to his Baptism as putting off together with them the Old Man and his deeds so by the Rite of Baptism it self He who submits to that implying thereby his looking upon sin as a Moral impurity and which therefore for the future he would not have any thing to do with The second thing signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized is his present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity more especially of the Doctrine of the Trinity As is evident from that Baptism's being commanded by our Saviour to be made in or into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost For to be baptiz'd into the name of those persons importing the owning of those persons as our Masters (a) Expl. of the Creed Art. I believe in the Holy Ghost and our selves as the Disciples of them To be so baptized moreover importing the owning of those persons as alike (b) Ibid. Masters of us and consequently because the Father cannot be own'd in any lower relation as partakers of the same divine Nature and Authority Lastly to be so baptiz'd importing the owning of them in particular by a belief of the Christian Doctrine that being the most signal instance of that Discipleship we receive by it The belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and of the Trinity in particular must be look'd upon as signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized and those baptized ones consequently as making profession of that belief by it For which cause as the rule of Faith or the Creed (c) Introd concerning Catechising c. was given to those to learn who were willing to be initiated into Christianity so they were particularly interrogated (d) Expl. of the Prel Quest and Answers as to their belief of the Articles thereof and then and not till then baptiz'd into it and the priviledges thereof The third and last thing signified on the part of the baptized is a resolution for the time to come to continue in the belief of Christianity and act agreeably to its Laws Both which will receive a sufficient confirmation from S. Peter's affirming Baptism to be the Answer or stipulation of a good conscience toward God and from what I have elsewhere (e) Ibid. said concerning it For as it is evident from thence that Baptism signifies on the part of the baptized a stipulation or promise of somewhat to be done by him So it will not be difficult to inferr from thence that it signifies also a stipulation or promise to continue in that belief of Christianity into which he is baptiz'd and act agreeably to its laws As will appear whether we consider that stipulation as having a good conscience toward God for the object of it in which sense I should think S. Peter ought to be understood or as I find many others to do as proceeding from such a conscience For a good conscience having a due regard to the several parts of that Religion which it makes profession to espouse He who with relation to Christianity stipulates from a good conscience or makes that good consoience the object of his stipulation must consequently be thought to stipulate or make a promise of answering the several parts of it and therefore also because they are parts of Christianity of continuing in its Faith and acting agreeably to its Laws And hence as was before (f) Expl. of the Sacrament in general Part 1. observ'd this and the other Institution of our Religion had of old the name of Sacraments as importing a Vow or promise to Christ of believing in him or obeying him And hence also that the Antients argued (g) Ibid. the unlawfulness of superinducing an humane or military Sacrament upon a divine one and answering to another Master after Christ Which we shall the less need to wonder at if we remember that that Baptism whereof we speak was copyed from the Baptism of the Jews (h) Expl. of Baptism Part 1. and particularly from that of John the Baptist For concerning the former of these it hath been observ'd (i) Ibid. that those three men that presided over it lean'd over the baptized persons as they stood in the water and twice explain'd to them some of the more weighty and lighter precepts of their Law. For