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A33967 The improvableness of water-baptism, or, A discourse concerning the gravity and seriousness of the action and the usefulness of the sacred institution of baptism instructing all parents how great a thing they do when they bring their children to that holy ordinance, and all persons, whether young or old, what obligations their baptism hath brought them under, what wrath it hath exposed wicked and impenitent persons to, and what use they may make of their baptism for confirmation of their faith, and quickening them to repentance and an holy life : discoursed from Rom. 6:3,4, by way of sermon / by John Collinges ... Collinges, John, 1623-1690. 1681 (1681) Wing C5321; ESTC R5112 38,449 47

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are not justified by works but by the aboundings of grace freely imputing the righteousness of Christ to us 1. He aversateth this and rejects such a notion with utmost abhorrence and detestation God forbid saith he far be it from us to assert any such thing or to lay down any position from whence any such thing can be reasonably concluded Then he proceeds to prove that there can be no such conclusion drawn from his premises For saith he how shall they who are dead to sin live any longer therein The strength of the Argument lyeth in this Hypothesis That God at the same time that he dischargeth the soul from the guilt of sin and the obligation to death under which sin layeth it doth also renew and sanctifie the heart and destroyeth the Souls appetite and love to sin so that sin hath no longer a power and dominion over the Soul and look as for a dead man to live is a contradiction so it is no lesser contradiction for a justified soul to live in sin every justified soul hath an heart dead to sin and so cannot any longer live therein he may be overtaken with faults he doth sin seven times in a day and who knoweth how often he offendeth But he sinneth not as other men he cannot live in sin much less take an encouragement to sin from the grace of God abounding towards his soul for the justification of it 2. In the Text which I have read to you he proveth it from our Baptism Know you not saith he that so many of us as are baptized into Christ are baptized into his Death Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death In the words you have 1. A Preface Know you not Which confirms the following Proposition as a Proposition of undoubted truth and great Evidence such as all good Christians must be supposed to know and it were strange if any understanding Christian should be ignorant of so evident a truth 2. A Proposition in those words So many of us as are baptized into Christ are baptized into his Death 3. Here is the proof of this Proposition or if you had rather call it so an Inference upon this Proposition We are therefore buried with him by Baptism into death What is necessary for the Explication of the words you shall have in the Explication of the Proposition which for the advantage of your memories I shall deliver you in the words of the Text. Prop. So many of us as are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death and buried with him by baptism into death The Proposition will only require Explication and Application In the first I have these Questions which all of them have their difficulty to open to you Quest 1. What this is to be baptized into Christ Quest 2. What it is to be baptized into the death of Christ and in what sense those who are baptized are baptized into the death of Christ Quest 3. How we are buried with Christ by Baptism into death Quest 1. What is this to be baptized into Christ I do not think that this is to be expounded by being baptized according to the true form of Baptism In the name of the Father the Son and Holy Ghost I can easily allow that to be comprehended in this phrase but I can by no means allow it to exhaust the full sense of it for I cannot understand how in that sense a person baptized can be said to be more baptized into Christ than into the Father or the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must certainly be more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ambrose is I think a little critical when to justifie this restriction of sense against the aforementioned obvious objection he tells us That in the name Christ is not only to be understood that person whom the name denotes viz. the second person in the Trinity but the other two persons qui mittit he who sends who is the Father and qui ungit he who annointeth who saith he is the Spirit the third person in the blessed Trinity 2. We often meet with phrases much a-kin to this in holy Writ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the name of Jesus Christ Acts 2. 38. In the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Lord Jesus in the name of Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 8. 16. 1 Cor. 1. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Moses 1 Cor. 10. 3. We are baptized into one body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 12 13. Into Christ Gal. 3. 27. the only text in Scripture fully parallel to this Into the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Mat. 28. 19. We translate it in in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The phrase as it lyes before us may signifie several things 1. The term of the Action So we may be said to be baptized Actus terminum into Christ 1. As we are baptized into the Gospel of Christ thus Origen We are not baptized into the Law but into Christ not into the Doctrine of Justification by works but by faith in Christ Christ is so much the substance of the Gospel that his name is sometimes put for the Gospel so we preach Christ i. e. the Gospel of Christ The Jews were baptized into Moses into the Cloud and the Sea 1 Cor. 10. 3. We are baptized into Christ they signified a Christ to come you are baptized into a Christ already come who hath died for your sins into a Doctrine that so teacheth you 2. Or secondly Into the profession of the Gospel Paul tells the believers at Ephesus that John baptized with the baptism of Repentance that they should believe on him who should come after him Acts 19. 3. that is on Christ Jesus but now we are baptized into Christ and into the Baptism of Christ That we should believe on him who is come who hath died for our sins and risen again for our justification We are baptized into the profession of this faith 3. Or thirdly Into Christ that is into the mystical body of Christ thus Pareus and Estius into the number of visible Saints visible In populum Dei adoptamur Pareus Professors c. And thus it excellently agreeth with that of our Apostle 1 Cor. 12. 13. By the Spirit we are baptized into one body 2. The phrase secondly may denote the nature of the Act of Baptism and so two things are spoken in it 1. That in Baptism we are dedicated and given up to the Lord Jesus Christ By Baptism saith Estius we give up our Names to Regno grae illius assignari Musculus Christ We are assigned over to the Grace and Kingdom of Christ This is the very nature of Baptism to give up and assign the baptized person to the service of Christ 2. Nay there is not only in Baptism a dedication of the Soul to Christ to his Kingdom and Grace but there is an initiation of the soul and
most dear and blessed Saviour To thee O most holy Spirit To the only living and true God! I here dedicate my child and my desire is that thou wouldst accept him that as long as he lives he may be the Lords Is not here now a most grave and solemn action requiring all our thoughtfulness seriousness gravity and attention imaginable Was the dedication of an house to God so serious an action that Solomon at it offered a sacrifice of 22000 Oxen and an 120000 Sheep and kept a feast seven days and then a solemn assembly Was the dedication of an Altar so solemn an action that it took seven days time 2 Chron. 7. 8 9. And can the dedication of a child a piece of our selves flesh of our flesh unto God be judged a slighty action so as that there needs no more than for parents without any praevious thoughts on the sudden to send for a Minister and he in great haste to read over two or three prayers and sprinkle water on it saying I baptize thee c. I wish this slighty kind of Administration of this sacred Ordinance flow not from that novel conceit of the necessity of Baptism to salvation or the certain effect of it upon all that shall not afterwards run on the score with God for the washing away of the guilt of Original sin Whatsoever it be which hath incouraged such hasty and perfunctory Administrations I am sure they no way sute the grave nature of this solemn Administration Dedications if they were of no more than wood and stone and other inanimate things were wont to be more serious actions and done in a more grave and serious manner 2. But there is in Baptism not only a solemn dedication of the A solemn ingagement of the Soul to God party baptized unto God but also a solemn adstriction or obligation of the person to God Circumcision of old was called Gods covenant in their flesh Gal. 17. 13. Baptism under the Gospel succeeds into its place It is Gods Covenant in our flesh We read in Scripture of three ways of making Covenants betwixt parties 1. By words only Thus God made a Covenant with Abraham saying I will be thy God and of thy seed 2. By words and a ceremony or sign Such a Covenant you read made of betwixt Jacob and Laban Gen. 31. 46. 3. By a Ceremony alone Thus the Masters boring through the ear of his servant with an Awl the servant submitting to it was a covenant though at the time the servant said nothing yet he was by that submission obliged to be his Masters servant for ever Thus with us the Soldiers taking Press-money or the Kings Colours is an actual obligation upon him to keep to the Kings service and subjects him to death if he deserts it Baptism is such a ceremony The person brought under it is by such submission actually engaged in the service of Christ no longer to live unto himself nor to dye unto himself but unto him who hath dyed for him the sign of whose blood he hath received in the sprinkling or pouring of water upon him The man or woman that is baptized doth in effect say Let the blood of Christ signified by this water be a witness against me let is be upon me for ever to confound me if I ever apostatize from the profession of the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Faith of Christ or wilfully and presumptuously live contrary to his law Is not this a most serious action think we Marriage is but a Covenant betwixt man and wife wherein God is no party but only called in as a witness in it the husband and wife mutually bind themselves each to other for the term of one of their natural lives yet it is a most grave and serious action I have always thought that the most of men and women trifle a great deal too much with that and should be much more grave and serious than they are and take many more serious thoughts before they give away themselves each to other and put themselves out of a power over their own bodies and that the cursed Atheistical lives of very many husbands and wives their discontents and breaches and the perverse spirit mixed betwixt them is but the effect and just punishment of men and womens hasty slighty and inconsiderate engagements in that Covenant this is a Covenant of another nature a Covenant betwixt the great God and the baptized person where God is not a witness only but a party Ought we not to be serious in such an action O let this mind you that hear me to bring your Children to Baptism and to attend the administration of it with much more gravity and seriousness of thoughts than is usual Believe me it is no light action to Dedicate a child to God not to covenant with God that your child shall be his servant for ever If afterward you direct it otherwise or shew it an example to the contrary or omit to instruct it and mind it of its duty and to call upon it for the performance of it or as much as in you lyeth to hinder it from the contrary the child shall perish for its Apostacy because the Oath of God was upon it but its blood shall also be required at your hands 2. But I told you that as the action is serious so the Institution The usefulness of Baptism is useful There are too many who slight this great Institution because they cannot understand the usefulness of it There are others that will make an usefulness of it beyond what I can find in holy Writ making it upon the work done to wash away the guilt of Original sin and to set the soul rectum in curia right in the Court of Heaven I cannot allow this but doubt not to evince to you That leaving this effect only to the blood of Christ sprinkled upon the conscience Baptism is a very useful thing and that upon a fourfold account 1. To repel temptations to sin and this as it is a pre-ingagement To repel temptations upon the soul It is an excuse you often put men off with in your converses with the world when you have no mind to meet or treat or converse with them you tell them you are pre-engaged you cannot meet with them or deal with them or be for them indeed you tell them you are pre-engaged thus you look often upon pre-engagements as very useful to you You have this from your Baptism to answer all tempters all temptations to sin be they from what tempters they will if Satan if your own lusts if the world sollicit you to Apostacy either from the profession of faith which you have made or from your practice of holiness When the Devil makes any such impressions upon your souls you can say to him Satan I am ingaged When the men of the world the sinful companions in it tempt you to cast in your lot with them you can say to
Baptism wherein the baptized person is buried with water signifieth the burial of the sins of that soul with Christ who shall truly repent and believe and dye unto sin 3. When the Lord together with the external sign conferreth his grace signified by that sign The sins of that soul are in that moment buried with Christ so as they shall appear no more either to their Souls eternal condemnation or in their former power and dominion as our Apostle afterward speaks in this Chapter Sin shall not have dominion over your mortal bodies because you are not under the law but under grace I have now done with the Doctrinal part of my discourse and the Proposition thus explained amounts to these two things 1. That every person who hath come under the Sacrament of Baptism by vertue thereof is dedicated to God and stands obliged to believe the Doctrine of the Gospel and to make a profession of that faith and is from that day made a member of the mystical body of Christ so far forth as it is visible and hath received that holy sign upon this trust That he or she shall not be ashamed of Christ and his Gospel but shall accept of Christ and the way of salvation through him revealed to the world and commit all its spiritual concerns unto him and rest upon him and him alone for life and salvation and grow up in him avoiding the pollutions of the world through lusts And this Baptism is both a sign to the soul commemorative of what Christ hath done in dying for sinners and declarative of what he further will do in the application of his redemption to them and that every one baptized walking up to his Baptismal dedication and Covenant shall certainly enjoy the benefits of Christs death And all such as come not only under the Ordinance but who are fully and perfectly baptized with the Holy Ghost are forthwith ingrafted into Christ and entituled to a present enjoyment of all the benefits of his death 2. That all such as have come under the holy Ordinance of Baptism ought to look back upon their Baptism as the Image of Christs death and upon themselves obliged by vertue of it to dye to sin like as he dyed for sin and all such as are perfectly baptized into Christ have their sins buried with Christ and their sins can no more rise up in judgment against them than one that is buried can rise up to do his former actions in the world and the power of sin is also dead in them so as it is impossible they should any longer serve sin and therefore the plea of those against Justification of grace for the righteousness of Christ imputed to the soul must be vain for that holy Doctrine cannot possibly open a door to a licentious conversation because all such persons are baptized into Christ and buried with Christ by Baptism into death This I take to be the full sense of the text and the Proposition which I have delivered in the words of the text Let me now come to the Application of this discourse Instruct 1. This in the first place may by way of Instruction let us know That Baptism considered as to the action is a most solemn serious action and ought to be so looked upon both by the Administrator and by those who offer themselves or their children unto it and considered as an Ordinance of the Gospel is a most useful Institution I will dwell a little upon both these branches it being indeed my great design in this discourse to recover to this Ordinance the gravity and reverence that is due to it and to make my hearers a little better to understand the meaning and usefulness of it than the most of our people seem to do The truth is we are degenerated into such a careless slighty administration of this sacred Institution as if the Baptizing of a child were an action of no graver import than washing its face and an opportunity amongst the richer to call friends together for a banquet or amongst those of meaner rank to call the richer together to make them or their Midwives or Nurses some small presents Let me therefore evince to you 1. That it is a most serious Action 2. That it is a most useful Institution 1. That it is a most serious Action Two things in my former discourse will evince this 1. That in Baptism there is a solemn dedication of the person baptized unto Christ 2. That there is in it a solemn adstriction or stipulation or engagement of the party baptized unto Christ 1. I say first There is in it a solemn dedication of the person There is in Baptism a solemn dedication of the person baptized to God unto Christ If the person baptized be adult and grown up he or she dedicate themselves If they be baptized in their Infancy their Parents whose they are dedicate them unto Christ The grown person that offereth him or her self to Baptism doth in effect say Lord I am thy creature the work of thy hands I have degenerated and forgotten thee my maker other Lords have ruled over me I have been servant to Idols a servant to the Devil to the world to my own lusts But Lord I am weary of that service and from my heart renounce it I have heard that thou hast sent Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners I desire to look upon it as a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation Lord I do here accept it and of that thy way of salvation and do from my heart this day set my self apart unto thee and solemnly offer up my self unto thee I am Christs servant O Lord I am Christs servant believing that is he who hath loosed my bands Admitting a child to be baptized in its infancy then the parents dedicate it Give me leave to allude to that of Hannah 1 Sam. 1. 27 28. The good woman had been praying for a child v. 15. having obtained a child of the Lord v. 22. She names the child Samuel asked of God v. 22. She resolves when he was weaned to carry him that he might appear before the Lord and there abide for ever v. 26. she brings the child to the High-Priest Eli and saith Oh my Lord as thy soul liveth my Lord I am the woman that stood by thee praying unto the Lord For this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition I asked of him therefore also I have lent him to the Lord as long as he lives he shall be lent to the Lord. She meant it in a particular sense that she had dedicated him to the Priestly office But there is no parent that brings a child to Baptism but says in proportion thus unto God O Lord I am the person to whom thou hast given this child for it I prayed and thou hast given me the petition I asked of thee Therefore also I here dedicate him to thee O thou eternal Father To thee O