them Friends I cannot I am ingaged Every baptized person as you have heard is an ingaged person because he is baptized into Christ When Nehem. 6. 2. Sanballat and Geshem thinking to do Nehemiah a mischief sent to him saying Come let in meet together in the Villages he sent back messengers to them saying I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down why should the work cease It was Nehemiah's advantage there that he was engaged at that time every tempter to sin intends to do the soul a mischief and tempters are ever and anon treating and sending to the best of souls Baptism furnisheth the soul with a weapon to repel the fiery dart The soul hath this to say I am pre-ingaged in the service of my Lord and Master Jesus Christ I am dedicated to him I am bound over to his service Mark how Joseph resisted the temptation of his Mistris Gen. 39. 9. How shall I do this great Evil and sin against God So should the soul say I am baptized I am listed in the service of Christ How should I do this thing and break my vow break my ingagement in Baptism to be the Lords steal away my self from God to whom I long since was dedicated 2. A second thing which I shall insist upon to shew you the exceeding usefulness of this sacred Institution is the advantage the soul may have from it to quicken it in and to the exercises of some habits of grace and the performance of some duties I shall instance in four 1. The first I shall instance in stedfastness in the faith of the Gospel To quicken the soul to the exercises of Grace It is an exercise of grace very often called for in holy Writ We have indeed a liberty and it is our duty to prove all things but we must hold fast that which is good My beloved brethren saith the Apostle be you stedfast 1 Cor. 15. 58. 1 Pet. 5. 9. Whom resist stedfast in the faith and in many other texts Now I say our Reflection on our Baptism must needs have a great force in it to oblige us to this stediness which it must needs have if we consider it as an Oath or solemn Covenant and ingagement under which it brings us to God Religion hath little force upon that man or womans conscience whom an Oath will not oblige to do that which he hath sworn to do It is said of Herod after he had sworn to give Herodias what she should ask though she asked John Baptists head in a Charger which Herod had no mind to give her nevertheless for his Oath-sake he commanded it to be given her It is true in that case Herod was under no obligation for the Rule is That an Oath cannot be a bond of iniquity But where the thing we have sworn to or engaged for is such that we may do or are otherwise bound to do an Oath layeth a great hold upon the conscience and makes the soul to see a further obligation to it than what it before lay under to the doing of it Hence you shall observe that Paul both to the Churches at Corinth Ephesus and Galatia argues to stedfastness from this Topick There were in the Churches of Corinth some giddy-headed persons of which one said I am of Paul another said I am of Apollos another I am of Cephas How doth St. Paul endeavour to reduce them 1 Cor. 1. 13. Is saith he Christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul I pray saith he consider your baptism Were you baptized into the profession of my Doctrine or into the profession of the Doctrine of Christ Are you under Temptations to waver in the profession of the great Truths and Doctrines of the Gospel Think with your selves Into what Doctrine or into the profession of what Doctrine was I baptized Was it not the Doctrine of Christ Doth this appear to me from holy Writ to have that stamp upon it So in Gal. 3 2 3. This only saith the Apostle I would learn of you Received you the spirit by the works of the law or by hearing of faith Some of that Church were at that time running away from their profession of the Gospel being seduced by those who in those days insisted upon Justification by the works of the law The Apostle is attempting to reduce them he doth it by this argument Received you the spirit saith he by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith I shall not dispute whether the Apostle there intends by receiving the spirti the receiving peculiar to those times in the extraordinary gifts or manifestations of it Or such a receiving of the spirit as is common to all believers either of which were then generally received or appeared to be received about the time of their Baptism Now saith the Apostle in all reason you ought to receive that Doctrine upon the imbracing of which you had such an eminent evidence of the truth of it that you received the spirit as a seal of it and were baptized into Christ upon your first profession and owning of it So as I say our Baptism and reflections upon it will and must engage us to stedfastness unless it evidently appeareth to us that that Doctrine was false and erroneous 2. A second thing which our Baptism is useful to quicken us to is The keeping of the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace A Keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace duty mentioned in Ephes 4. 3. and mark by what argmments the Apostle perswades it v. 4 There is one body and one spirit as you are called in one hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism There is but one body compare that with that 1 Cor. 12. 10. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body That one body is the universal Church as appears by the next words Whether Jews or Gentiles and upon this argument which the Apostle would not have used if he had not judged there had been a force in it the Apostle perswades Vnity an unity of Doctrine and Affections for an Vnity in words and syllables and in rites and ceremonies is a stretching of that text beyond the staple there having never at that time been such a thing in the Church of Christ and it being what can never be attained nor was ever commanded by the Apostle But to perswade an unity in faith and love he minds them of the Oneness of their Baptism by which they were united to the Church which is but one body Those that you divide from or quarrel with are of the same body with you and you as well as they were baptized into one and the same body Divide not therefore nor quarrel each with other fall not out by the way for you are brethren It will sometimes put us upon agreeing with and loving of one another to consider that we are fellow
Christ So that either these things must be true undoubtedly true or the whole Christian World in all ages hath been mistaken 2. It seateth and confirmeth this unto us That if we truly repent and receive the Lord Jesus Christ our sins shall be washed away with his blood and sin shall not have dominion over us These are the two great promises of the Gospel and in Baptism there is a mutual stipulation it is neither a single promise on Gods part to us nor a single vow on our part to God but it is a Covenant Gods Covenant in our flesh as God himself stiled Circumcision to which Baptism succeedeth being a seal of the same Covenant 3. It is a confirmation to us of our favour with God liberty of access unto God In baptism we have the Name of God put upon us the baptized person like the circumcised Jew is called by Gods Name In populum Dei adoptatur he is adopted into Gods family It is very pleasant to see and observe what use the servants of God have made of this being called by Gods Name in their pleadings with God Jer. 14 9. Thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name leave us not Jer. 15. 16. I am called by thy name O thou Lord God of Hosts Dan. 9. 18 19. O my God incline thine ear and hear and behold our desolations and the City which is called by thy name O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do for thine own sake O my God for thy City and thy people are called by thy name Shall not a Christian that forgets not the kindness of his youth and the love of his Espousals go to God and say Lord leave me not I was baptized into thy name or Lord help me for I was baptized into thy name Mark how many Promises are made to those that are called by the Lords name 2 Chron. 7. 13 14. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain c. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land So Isa 46. 6 7. I will say to the North Give up and to the South Keep not back bring my sons from far and my daughters from the end of the earth even every one that is called by my name for I have created him for my glory I have formed him yea I have made him Admitting a soul to live up to his Baptismal-dedication and Covenant his Baptism furnisheth him with a great argument to go unto God with and with a great confidence and boldness in his addresses to the throne of Grace by reason of the promises to persons under those circumstances Thus I have largely shewed you the usefulness of this sacred Institution and finished this my first branch of Application I now proceed to further branches Instruct 2. Observe from hence how great the duty is which lieth upon all baptized persons I will open it to you in three or four particulars 1. There lyeth a duty upon them to hold fast the profession of the faith of the Gospel Jude v. 3. exhorteth that we should contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints St. Paul Phil. 1. 27. commands us together to strive for the faith of the Gospel The Apostle to the Hebrews calls to us to hold fast our profession Heb 4. 14. The profession of our faith Heb. 10. 23. This discourse will let you see the engagement which we have to do it we are baptized into it we are striving for needless Rites and Ceremonies things of no value and in the mean time forget this striving for the fundamental truths of the Gospel These are the things we are to strive to contend for to be tenacious of our Baptism layeth an engagement upon us as to this for we are not baptized into Moses but into Christ that is into the publick and steady profession of the Truths and Doctrine of the Gospel and whosoever apostatizeth from that profession renounceth his Baptism forgetting both his own dedication in it and his own Covenant and obligation by it Baptized persons have set to their seal that God is true and the Doctrine of his Gospel is true and that they will own it and persevere in it 2. Hence it appears That all baptized persons are by their Baptism obliged to the acceptation of Christ as their spiritual husband I have saith the Apostle espoused you to one husband that one husband is Christ the contract is made in Baptism the espousals are upon the admission of the soul into the fellowship of the Church upon the visible evidence of his faith and repentance You know sometimes there are Contracts betwixt persons that are not of age for the consummation of Marriage the contract is in verbis de futuro in words respecting the time that is to come the Marriage is in verbis de praesenti in words obliging for the present The differences are in those words I will take which are the words of a contract and I do take which are the words used in an actual Marriage Every person in Baptism is contracted to Christ Every person is not of age for an actual Marriage to which Repentance and Knowledge are precedaneous But every Baptized Infant saith I will take Christ for my wedded husband and Lord. The Act in Infant-baptism is indeed rather the Act of the Parents than the Childs which is not yet capable of a rational act But be it so the Parent hath such a right in the Child that it stands bound to abide by the Act of its Natural Guardian unless the child grown up can shew a sufficient reason to the contrary It is thus adjudged as to all legal Acts what the legal Guardian doth the Infant and person in Non-age doth It holdeth much more in things spiritual where there is a precedaneous obligation to any humane Law upon every child to confirm and justifie its Parents act For every soul is bound to this and the Parent herein engageth the child no further than was its precedaneous duty in obedience to God so as the Parents obligation that the child should accept of Jesus Christ as its Saviour and perform what God requireth of it in order to its salvation is really an obligation upon the child to do what its spiritual Guardian hath solemnly obliged for it so as every baptized person stands bound to believe in the Lord Jesus and to live an holy life 3. It followeth from hence That there is a duty incumbent upon all good Christians even with their blood to maintain and defend the truth of the Gospel I would be rightly understood not that all men are engaged in such cases to take up Arms in the defence of the greatest Truths of the Gospel that requireth a lawful authority to call them to
it and rests much upon the establishment or not establishment of the Doctrine of the Gospel by the Laws of this or that place But there is another way of defending the Truths of the Gospel by our blood and that is in a way of Martyrdom patiently and chearfully suffering even death it self rather than to deny the truths of the Gospel This is every Christians duty by vertue of his Baptism The very term Sacrament originally signified an Oath that Soldiers took to their Prince or Captain General to fight or spend their blood under his Command and Conduct and the giving of this name to these two great Ritual Institutions signifies the duty of a Christian that is baptized to fight under Christs colours and to resist unto blood fighting against sin 4. Finally There is a duty incumbent upon all baptized persons to be continually mortifying of sin and keeping under their body and making no provision for the flesh to obey it in the lusts thereof For saith the Text as many of us as are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death and we are buried with Christ by baptism into death The import of both which phrases I have at large before opened to you shewing you that they signifie this ingagement laid upon us Instruct 3. We may from hence infer What dreadful perjured Apostate wretches the most baptized persons are plain Renegado's from those colours under which they were listed in the day wherein they were baptized Shall I reckon them up to you that you may see the difference betwixt Christians in name and Christians in deed 1. What do you think of those who deny the Lord that bought them that blow a Trumpet and say What portion have we in David or in the son of Jesse What will you say to them who deny that Christ is the Eternal Son of God equal with the Father that have made shipwrack of their faith in Christ as God or the only Saviour and Redeemer of the World Was this the faith into which they were baptized 2. But how many more are there who are not in this black bill of Hereticks and Apostates but yet refuse to come to Christ that they might have life to lay hold on him and make application of his redemption By their baptism they were ingaged when they should come to years of discretion to say unto Christ Thou art our Lord our Saviour and the guide of our youth and we as the Embassadors of the Lord Jesus have besought them in Christs stead to be reconciled unto God and have not ceased from day to day with all the arguments we could use and even with tears to intreat them to be reconciled unto God yet they live at enmity and in open rebellion and disobedience to the great Precept of the Gospel They in their Baptism ingaged that they would take the Lord Jesus Christ to be their spiritual husband they are now grown up to years of discretion One is married to his Lusts another is married to the World many live in a total ignorance of the Gospel many more in a desperate unbelief of it in a neglect if not a contempt of Gods way of salvation The Lord makes a wedding-feast he sends to invite men to it One hath married a wife and cannot come another hath bought five yoke of oxen and hath not tryed them c. Every impenitent sinner is maimed unto one lust or another 3. How many are there who by their Baptism are obliged to defend and maintain the interest of Christ and his Gospel whose work it is to persecute the Image of Christ wherever they see it and set themselves in a direct opposition to those Truths Institutions and persons who have any thing of the image and superscription of Christ upon them 4. Finally What shall we say to those who live in the constant practice and indulgence of those lusts which by their baptism they were ingaged to mortifie and dye unto In short not only every person that is erroneous in Doctrine and a stiff maintainer of any Propositions contrary to the fundamental Doctrine of the Gospel not only persecutors and open enemies to the Cross and Gospel of Christ but every one that abideth and goeth on in his unbelief or who indulgeth himself in any unmortified lust is before God by reason of his Baptismal Dedication and Vow a sacrilegious perjured and Apostatized person Instruct 4. And from hence in the next place will the righteousness of God appear in throwing multitudes of baptized persons into that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone The Jews of old were wont much to glory in two things 1. That they had Abraham to their Father 2. That they were of the Circumcision and looked upon others that were not circumcised as accursed Our Saviour John the Baptist the Apostle Paul Matth. 3. John 8. Rom. 2. as you will find were put to take a great deal of pains to beat them out of these vain and empty confidences I am afraid that we have too many that are apt to flatter themselves with the name of Christ and that they are called Christians and are baptized into the name of Christ Luther complained that there were many that did but crepare Christum make a vain boast of Christ Jactant fumos nomina vana Catonum What said John Baptist to the Jews Think not to say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father Mat. 39. What doth Christ say John 8. 39. If you were Abrahams seed you would do the works of Abraham But now you seek to kill me This did not Abraham What saith St. Paul to their boasting of Circumcision Rom. 2. 25. For circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law but if thou be a breaker of the law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision v. 28 29. For he is not a Jew that is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit whose praise is not of men but of God and Phil. 3. 2 3. Beware saith he of the concision he means the Jews the circumcision he calls them the concision because of the russle and rent they made in the Church of God For saith he we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit Alas poor creatures here will be your judgment your condemnation will be aggravated from this That you were baptized and so under a solemn dedication to Christ under a solemn vow to be his disciples and this vow of God you have broken this Oath you have satisfied you were bound to God and you are run away and brake your bonds and cast the cords behind you Shall the Master be justified that sends his Covenant-servant that runs from him or neglect his business to Bridewell Shall the General be justified which hangs up the Soldier who runneth from his colours and shall not God be justified in condemning thousands
a solemn adstriction and binding over of the soul to the service and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ There is a vow and a Covenant in Baptism as Circumcision of old was the Lords Covenant the sign and symbol of his Covenant with the Jewish Children so Baptism is the Lords Covenant with Children under the Gospel The soul of the Baptized person is not only given up unto the Lord but it is bound over to Christ and entereth a Covenant with him and as the Married woman upon her Marriage covenants with her husband and loseth her own name and taketh that of her husband so the baptized person covenanteth with Christ and there takes upon it the name of a Christian Or as Soldiers upon taking their Sacramentum for that word properly signifies the Military-Oath taken by Soldiers to their Commander in chief are bound and obliged by it to the Obedience of their General so the baptized person upon receiving this Sacrament becomes obliged and engaged unto Jesus Christ and is sworn in nomen imperationi coeti Thus Bucer Dickson and Peter Martyr do expound the phrase 3. The phrase may signifie the Exterior form of Baptism as to Baptismi formam the Administration of it it must be in the name of Christ so we are baptized into Christ 1. According to the institution of Christ he hath commanded his Ministers saying Mat. 28. 19. Go preach and baptize all Nations This is mentioned by Ambrose Aquinas Pareus Justinian Chrysostome Beza and P. Martyr 2. By a solemn invocation of the name of Christ This Beza insisteth upon expounding Mat. 28. 19. Then the sense is no more than so many of us as were baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost solemnly invoking the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Aquinas thinks this the whole sense of this text but that I cannot agree I shall give you my reason for it anon 4. The phrase may import something of the significancy of this Ordinance Every Sacrament is significative a Sacrament is an outward and sensible sign Now what doth Baptism signifie saith the Apostle We are baptized into Christ 1. It is signum rei a sign of the redemption of our Souls by the blood of Christ of that clean water with which he hath promised to sprinkle the Souls of his people and which he hath poured out for their sprinkling even the blood of that lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world 2. It is signum spei A sign that our hope alone is in Christ Jesus there being no other name under heaven but his by which we can be Acts 4. 12. saved nor any salvation in any other Thus Deodate seemeth to interpret it 5. The phrase may signifie the End of our Baptism If any ask To what purpose are we and our Children baptized the answer is We are baptized into Christ to this end 1. That we should bear a testimony to the death of Christ and hold forth the great truth of the Gospel to the world that Jesus Christ is come into the world to save sinners That he was incarnate hath died and is risen again from the dead that in and through him we might have remission and forgiveness of sins through his blood 2. That we might bear witness that he is the alone object of our hopes that we rest upon him and him alone for eternal life and salvation This is the very end why we are baptized 3. That we might grow up in him so Beza and Hemingius We are by baptism as it were implanted and ingrafted into Christ and as the end of the implantation and ingrafting of a cien into a stock or of a plant in any soil is that it might grow up in that soil or in that stock So the end for which we are baptized into Christ is that we might grow up in Christ 6. The phrase may be understood to signifie the fruit of Baptism lest any should say What good is there of this Sacrament or what availeth Baptism saith the Apostle We are baptized into Christ This is the fruit of Baptism the Baptized person hath an interest and relation given him to Christ and is become a member of Christ Sacramentally so Really so All baptized persons have a real relation to the Church whose head is Christ 7. But lastly This phrase may be understood to denote the Perfection of Baptism As the Apostle distinguisheth of Circumcision Rom. 2. 26 27 29. telling us there is a Circumcision in the letter and of the flesh and there is a circumcision of the heart in the spirit So we must distinguish of Baptism there is a baptism of Water and there is a baptism with the Holy Ghost There is a baptism of the letter and upon the flesh and there is a baptism in the heart and the spirit Now this latter is the Baptism into Christ the other is in the name of Christ but this most properly into Christ it signifieth that we pass into Christ saith P. Martyr So as I think there is some difference and that a great one betwixt the phrase used here and Gal. 3. 27. Baptizing into Christ and that used in many other Scriptures of being baptized in the name of Christ I will shortly offer you my reason for my opinion as to this phrase signifying thus much 1. In the first place the Apostles phrase seems to me to restrain the subject of the Proposition He doth not say All of us were baptized into Christ and so into his death but as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death As much as to say Many are baptized in the name of Christ but some of us have not only been baptized in the name of Christ according to the sorm he hath prescribed with solemn invocation of his name but we have upon our baptism truly believing been ingrafted into Christ and united to him Now so many of us as have been thus not only been formally but really baptized into Christ having with the sign received the thing signified are baptized into his death 2. Again Observe the Praedicate As many of us saith the Apostle as are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death I am aware that that phrase may be interpreted and is by some as I shall shew you more by and by into the sign and symbol of his death but I do not take that interpretation to be comprehensive of the full of what that phrase importeth I think it is interpreted v. 6. Knowing that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin may be destroyed which cannot be understood of all baptized persons but such only as are baptized with the Holy Ghost or according to the phrase of this text Baptized into Christ 3. This phrase is but once more found in Scripture Gal. 3. 27. where you have another predicate affixed to the subject of this Proposition There it is As many of you as have been
Citizens and fellow-Soldiers so it ought to engage us to endeavour unity that we are fellow-members of the same body and fellow-Citizens of the same City There is but one body and we were all baptized into that one body 3. It is useful to quicken us both to the exercises of faith and To the Exercises of faith and of repentance repentance The force of this lyeth in the solemn dedication of the person to God and the Souls solemn engagement in it to be the Lords both which inseparably attend this holy Institution The soul thus reasoneth with it self I was by nature a child of wrath a great sinner blind unbelieving when I was baptized I was dedicated to God I solemnly engaged my self to the service of God I cannot be the Lords without repenting and believing his word and also a receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ whom God hath revealed to be the Saviour of them that believe Had I been an Heathen I ought not to have been baptized until I had given an evidence of my repentance my hearty imbracing the Doctrine of the Gospel and as hearty closing with the Lord Jesus Christ as my hope and my Saviour Now though I was baptized when a child in my parents right yet if I ever hope to be saved this cannot excuse me from those great duties of Repentance and Faith which God hath made inseparably necessary to salvation As Circumcision availeth nothing to those who did not keep the Law so Baptism availeth as little to those who perform not the terms of the Gospel Besides when I was baptized though an Infant I could not indeed engage for my self but my parents engaged for me that so far as lay in them I should repent and believe they have fulfilled their parts to me in calling upon me for it and pressing these things upon me or if they have not yet the Covenant of God is in my flesh and I am ingaged to do these things not only because they are the necessary terms of my salvation but in regard I have covenanted in Baptism to do it It is true it is not in my power without the special efficacious grace of God to repent or to believe but I am under the Oath of God to do what in me lyes to do it to avoid those gross sins which it is in my power to avoid by vertue of the common grace of God denied to no man Wherein I have offended to set down sadly to reflect on them and to beg of God a broken heart for them to wait upon all holy Institutions which may be conducive to these ends c. 4. To name no more It is useful to quicken us up to Holiness and that part of it especially which lyeth in the mortification of our To the exercise of Mortification members Why because saith the Apostle we are Baptized into his death and buried with him by baptism into death We are not only baptized into a belief and a profession of a belief of his death but into a fellowship with his death a part of which lies in a dying to sin as he dyed for sin For saith the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 4. 1. He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God Observe the words which go before v. 2. For as much therefore as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind c. From whence I infer That our fellowship with Christs suffering in the flesh lyeth in our cessation from sin Now I have shewed you that in Baptism a Sacramental representation of Christs suffering in the flesh and our submission to that holy Institution engageth us to a conformity to the death of Christ and to a fellowship with it that is to a ceasing from sin For saith my text we are buried with him by baptism into death and it followeth That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father even so we also should walk in newness of life And again v. 6. Knowing that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin For he that is dead is free from sin The meditation of this is of great use to ingage us to Holiness as there is in this Ordinance an ingagement upon us to dye unto sin and to maintain that as well as other parts of the spiritual fight Thus I have shewed you the usefulness of this Ordinance to quicken the soul 3. It is useful likewise to corroborate and strengthen the soul Baptism how it is useful to help and strengthen the Soul and that both in the Exercises of faith and of holiness 1. In the exercises of faith Faith either respects the Proposition of the word which faith agreeth to as truth Or 2. The person of the Mediator who alone is the object of saving justifying faith the primary and more remote object though the promises of the Gospel be the proximate and mediate object in and by which the soul receiveth Christ and by means of which through the assistance of the Spirit the soul committeth it self to him as to all its spiritual concerns respecting eternal life and salvation As to both these Baptism is if made use of a great help Indeed all Sacramental signs are so and given for that end I remember when God instituted the Jewish Passover after the describing the rise of it Exod. 12. from v. 3. to v. 26. he addeth v. 26 and 27. And it shall come to pass that when your children shall say unto you What mean you by this service you shall say It is the sacrifice of the Lords Passover who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses God foresaw that that great deliverance would in time be forgotten or not believed that God should shew such favour to a small oppressed number of people as to bring them out of slavery to slay one in every family of the Egyptians might be questioned especially considering the world was never very apt to believe stories of distinguishing Grace or Providence therefore God instituted the Passover to continue the memory and revive the faith of so great a salvation But how much greater a salvation was here For God to send forth his own Son the Antitype to that Paschal lamb to take upon him our flesh and to dye in our nature for sinners upon the Cross to agree to this was like to be a much harder exercise of faith To revive the memory and keep alive the exercise therefore of faith as to this miracle of salvation God instituted two Sacraments of the New Testament ordained two sacred Actions to be done that when our Children should say to us Father or Mother What is the meaning
of this We might say these are the Lords Sacraments that you may believe what the Scripture tells you that the sins of souls are only washed out by the blood of Christ here signified and represented and that if ever you will be saved you must as you submit to this Ordinance so also submit to the acceptance of him and his righteousness and look for salvation from him and no other and that you might believe the Gospel is not a Romance but a true History of what he who was the Son of God did in dying for your sins that you might not dye eternally And that when our own unbelieving hearts are over-whelmed in the thoughts of these things and saying Surely such a thing could not be the mercy is too big for the grasp of our reason and comprehension we might help our selves by reflecting on our Baptism and our frequent communicating at the Lords table and chide down those risings of unbelief saying If this were not What is the meaning of sprinkling persons with water in Baptism or our so often meeting at the Lords table to eat bread and drink wine signifying the flesh and blood of Christ And as to that faith which is saving and justifying the object of which is the person of the Mediator the soul is also helped in that as it is helped in the other faith For the more the Soul is confirmed in the Doctrine and Proposition of the Gospel and the truth of that the more ground it seeth to look for no other name under heaven by which it should be saved but to go out of it self unto him as one who because he was God is able to save to the utmost and because he submitted to be made man to dye upon the Cross to pay a price for lost man evidenced his unquestionable willingness to seek and to save that which was lost so as the soul hath no longer any pretence or colour to doubt or question the sufficiency or willingness of this Saviour Thus this great Ordinance if duly improved is of exceeding great use to us to help our Souls in their exercises of faith the Soul as it were here reacheth its hand to put into the holes of Christ's side and its fingers to lay in the print of the nails 2. Nor is it less helpful to the soul in the exercises of holiness And this not only as it layeth the soul under an engagement to it of which I spake sufficiently before but also in regard of the secret blessing of the Lord attending Baptism where a Christian setteth himself to fulfil the ends of it Object 1. But some will say We have been baptized and we do not find such fruits we are full of doubts and fears and unbelief still and we are very unholy still we find no such fruit of our Baptism I Answer 1. Possibly you have not stirred up your Baptismal-grace I remember St. Paul calls to Timothy to stir up the gift of God which was in him and 1 Tim. 4. 14. not to neglect the gift of God which was in him by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery I do not think that any saving-gift is given to any by Baptism more than there is to a Minister by setting him a-part to the Ministry But there is doubtless a gift given the Baptized person conducive to his salvation if he will make a due and just improvement of it he hath a new character put upon him and is by it taken out of the Pagan World he hath a new vow upon him he hath a new dedication Now if men and women will never seriously consider and think on this never revive the memory of it or whet it upon their souls it is no wonder to hear them complain that they find no benefit fruit or advantage by it A Scholar may be at a loss about a Notion or Question in which twenty books he hath in his Study would resolve him but if he knoweth not how to use his books to that end or will never take down a book to look for any help from it he may complain that none of all the books in his Study will do him good in the case The Question is What they would do if he lookt into them or knew how to use them Object 2. But will some say How many baptized persons are there to whom their Baptism is no help nor advantage they notwithstanding it are unbelieving unholy profane persons To this I answer with Cyprian To take upon us Christs name Christi nomen induere non per Christi viam pergere quid aliud est quam praevaricatio divini nominis Cypr. and not to walk in his ways is but to profane and abuse his most holy Name The Soldiers taking Press-money or being listed helps him if he runs from his Colours very little unless it be to a shameful end of his life but if he keeps him to his colours it helps him to his pay and to his reward according to his service A man may have in his Yard several pieces of Timber which do him no service at all he may have great heaps of Stones that do him no good but only annoy and trouble his Yard But if this man begins to build then they help him every stone every foot of Timber is useful to him It is thus with our Baptism it lies by us of little use till we begin the spiritual building it is a piece of timber a stone cut out and squared for that When a man begins this work then his Baptism helpeth In short the water of Baptism is much like the water of jealousie of which you read Numb 5. 27. If the defiled woman adventured to drink of it it became bitter and made her belly to swell and her thigh to rot and the woman to be a curse amongst her people but if she were clean it made her fruitful So doth the water of Baptism in a more spiritual sense If the baptized person after it lives an unbelieving unholy life it causeth a rot in him and becomes a curse to him But if a person adhereth to the faith and lives an holy life in conformity to his Baptismal-Dedication and Vow and maketh use of his Baptism it maketh him fruitful and helpeth him in every good work 4. The last thing wherein I shall shew you the usefulness of this sacred Institution is with reference to its confirming sealing to and assuring of the soul 1. It sealeth to us assureth us of and confirms to us the truth Baptism is useful to assure confirm and seal of the great Proposition of the Gospel That this Rite was used in the Apostolical Church that it hath been used ever since in the Church of Christ is out of doubt Now what is the meaning of it what doth it signifie but that Christ is come into the world to save sinners and that our souls are washed clean from their filthiness by the blood of
will call that Justification but not as to remission of sins or the actual Justification and Acceptation of his Soul by and before God in this life he makes his boast of Christ and rejoyceth in him and hath no confidence in the flesh Phil. 3 3. Thus much as to the putting on Christ as to Justification As for the putting on Christ with reference to Sanctification let me add a few notes by which we may judg of that 3. He that hath thus put on Christ hath put him on not only for his upper but for his inward garment He is not sanctified in body only but throughout in mind and in spirit he doth not only offer up his body as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God but he is transformed through the renewing of his mind he hath not only a demure countenance an holy look or tougue but his thoughts are in a great measure holy his will his affections are holy with allowance to such infirmities as attend even the best of Saints he saith the Apostle is a Jew that is one inwardly so he is a Christian that is one inwardly St. Paul delighteth in the Law of God after the inward man Rom. 7. 22. Many put on a face and outward appearance of Religion The Pharisees Luke 11. 39. made clean the outside of the cup and platter but our Saviour tells them that their inward part was full of ravening and wickedness So many are outwardly very fair and religious but inwardly they are vain and filthy had you a window into their hearts there you would see vain and idle and sinful thoughts and those not rare and crouded in but frequent constant and feasting their Souls A blind understanding a will stubborn and rebellious against the will of God especially if cross to their natural bias and inclinations and humours or interest sensual and carnal affections not set on heaven and heavenly things but meerly feeding on earth and earthly things 4. If you have put on Christ you have put off what is contrary unto him Rom. 13. 12. Let us therefore saith the Apostle cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light Eph. 4. 22. And be you renewed in your mind that you put off concerning your former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts v. 25. Wherefore pntting away lying speak every man the truth to his neighbour v. 26. Be you angry and sin not v. 28. Let him that hath stollen steal no more c. v. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace to the hearers v. 30. Grieve not the holy Spirit c. v. 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be you kind one to another tender hearted c. Col. 3. 8. But now you also put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth v. 9. Lye not one to another seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is created in knowledge after the image of him that created him This is to be baptized into the death of Christ This is the picture of him who hath put on Christ 5. Who so hath put on Christ hath put on both his robes and his sackcloth and crown of thorns As there is a dying to sin so there is a living to righteousness in every soul that hath put on Christ As he puts off what I mentioned before so he also puts on as one of the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering he for bears others and forgives others if he hath a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave him so also doth he he puts on Charity which is the bond of perfectness the word of Christ dwelleth in him richly in all wisdom he doth all he doth in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ whether in word or deed giving thanks to God and the Father by him Col. 3. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. He puts on habits of universal righteousness and holiness which the Apostle calleth the Image of God he puts on meekness and patience in suffering Being reviled he revileth not again he is led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before the shearers he openeth not his mouth c. 6. He who hath put on Christ hath put on the whole armour of God It all goes along with Christ to a soul such a soul stands with its loins girt about with truth having on the breast-plate of righteousness and its feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace He takes the shield of faith whereby he is able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked he takes the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God c. 7. Finally If the soul hath put on Christ its face its garments will shine That soul will look like Moses when he came from the Mount Its light will shine before men that they shall see its good works How beautiful must that soul be that is cloathed with light as with a garment It s faith its holiness its humility its meekness will be every where reported of If now you find these things in you in sincerity and in some measure though not in the perfection of degrees you may conclude you are baptized into Christ because you have put on the Lord Jesus Christ Vse 3. I shall stand once more on this foundation and give you a few words of Exhortation with which I will conclude I shall speak 1. to you that are Parents 2. To you that are Children or who have been baptized while you were Children 3. To all in general whether Parents or Children First I speak unto you Parents I have two words to speak to you upon occasion of this discourse 1. That you would be very grave and serious when you bring your Children to this great Ordinance of God It was indeed one of the ends I proposed to my self in undertaking this discourse to correct that woful levity which I generally observe in this most grave and weighty action And here were I in a Congregation proper for such a discourse I would beseech my brethren in the Ministry to restrain that slightness and desultory levity that is so ordinary in this Administration by their more grave and thoughtful performance of this part of their Ministry I perswade my self much of this hath been occasioned by that groundless fancy That Baptism is necessary to salvation not only by a necessity of precept as the fulfilling of every command of God is necessary and by a necessity of the mean as it is a divine mean which in its season and under due circumstances we ought not to neglect we freely grant both
these but so necessary that by it Original sin is certainly washed away and without it a child cannot be saved which is that which I call a groundless fancy if not a Relique of Popery It is true we have no certain time limited for Baptism To give you my opinion in the case The best argument we have for Infant-Baptism is the Analogy betwixt Circumcision and Baptism they being both seals of one and the same Covenant of grace which is not straitned under the Gospel-dispensation God prescribed the Eighth day as a certain time for Circumcision yet were not the Jews tyed to the eighth day under undue circumstances All the while the people were travelling in the Wilderness which was forty years there were no Children circumcised as you may read Josh 5. 5 7. I would fain know how Baptism is more necessary to the salvation of Christians than Circumcision was to the salvation of the Jewish Children I am sure they were both seals of the same Covenant the contempt of an Ordinance of God that is damnable but the omission of it under undue circumstances as suppose the sickness of the child c. is far from being so it may be our duty that the Ordinance of God may be more gravely and thoughtfully administred But from that Popish opinion of the absolute necessity of Baptism to salvation and the efficacy of it as a work done have risen many abuses and prophanations of this holy Ordinance of God Hence came up the practice of Midwives baptizing which held amongst us till King James his time hence the slighty and perfunctory administration of this Ordinance by too many at this day For my own part supposing other due circumstances to concur I should not omit the baptizing my child beyond the Eighth day Nor on the other side sear that if due circumstances did not concur the delaying of it longer But this is but a digression Let me beg of you that are Parents with all seriousness and gravity and due forethinking what you do to bring your Children to this most facred Institution Remember that in it you present your Children before the Lord you dedicate your Children unto the Lord. What a great action this is What gravity reverence seriousness deliberation is sufficient for such an action With what fear ought the Lord to be served in such an action 2. The second thing which I would call to you for shall be a faithfulness to your children whom you have so dedicated to God Your child knoweth not what is done unto it it knoweth not that it is baptized that it is so dedicated to Christ that such an Oath of the Lord is upon it it knoweth of no vow that it hath made no Covenant with God in which it is engaged you have brought it under this engagement If now you shall not tell the child its state what you have done as to it under what a Vow and Oath of God you have brought it but it shall give up it self to the service of the Devil and live contrary to its most solemn ingagements your child shall perish but shall not its blood be required at your hands When God fell upon Moses and had like to have killed him in the Inn for not circumcising his child it is said his wife Zipporah in a passion cut off the childs foreskin and threw it at Moses saying A bloody husband hast thou been to me because of the circumcision How many thousand children hereafter will throw the very coles of Hell at their Parents and say Ah! Bloody Fathers bloody Mothers have you been to us because of our Baptism you dedicated us to God when we were Children we lived with you ten twenty years and you never told us of it but let us run into those sins which have brought us into these flames you brought us under a solemn Vow and Covenant to God in our Baptism and never told us what you vowed or ingaged for us we never heard a word from you of our Baptismal vows if we had we should probably not have violated them as we have done Bloody damning Parents have you been to us Thus much shall serve for what I have to say to Parents Br. 2. I speak to you that are Children That which I have to say to you is Remember you have been baptized into Christ That you have been by your Parents dedicated to Christ and are under a vow to be his servants Remember that you have vowed the profession and defence of his truth the acceptance of him as your Lord and Saviour an adherence to him a living up to his law being baptized into his death and buried with him by baptism into death It may be some of your Parents never minded you of this I now tell you of it and indeed I have sometimes thought that one end of Gods instituting us Ministers hath been to supply the defects of Parents and Masters of families in this debaucht and declining age of the world Let all therefore hearken to me this day I suppose I speak to none but have been baptized into Christ in the larger sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And if so If your Parents have forgot to tell it you or neglected their duty I tell it you you are all dedicated unto Christ yea and God hath accepted you for he hath bidden us Go and baptize in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost We have baptized you in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost What follows hence You are sacred persons not sanctified in a spiritual sense but sacred in a ceremonial sense in which sense all the Jews were called an holy people and the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 7. 14. our children are not unclean but holy sanctified ceremonially externally ritually that is set a part for God sanctified as the Tabernacle the Temple the Vessels of the Temple under the law were sanctified I tell you again that you are under a Vow and Covenant to own the profession of Christ and to defend it to accept of Christ as the Saviour of the World as your Saviour in particular to commit all your spiritual concerns unto him to live to Christ not to lusts not to the world as to these things you were buried with Christ by baptism into death Do not think to evade this by saying it was none of your own act your parents did it you did it not It is in the power of parents to ingage you in a debt by the laws of men to which all the estate you inherit by them shall be lyable for payment though there be no antecedaneous obligation upon you from the law of God to pay such debts It is in your parents power to dispose of you in Marriage in your Nonage and before God you will be bound when of age so to dispose of your selves unless you can give a sufficient reason to the contrary As to God it is in your parents power to render you obnoxious to his wrath and justice so as for their sins you shall answer as far as your lives and estates go though indeed they cannot withour a guilt of your own subject you to the eternal wrath of God your prrents have as to this dedicated you to God to be his servants they have brought you under the Vow and Oath of God to be his servants to own profess and defend his Gospel and the truths of it to accept of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the World as your Saviour and spiritual husband to live unto him in disclaiming the service of lusts and of the world Take heed now of Sacriledge Perjury and Apostacy A loose leud life contrary to the Gospel brings you under all this guilt and subjecteth you by the righteous God to be dealt withall as sacrilegious persons who being holy have stollen away your selves from the service of God and robbed God of his right as false and perjured persons who have sworn your selves unto God and have violated the Oath of God upon you As Apostatized persons who have put your hands to the Lords plow and have drawn it back again There is yet a time for you to repent and to remember the kindness of your youth and the love of your Espousals O neglect it not To day while it is called to day harden not your hearts through Impenitency nourish not unbelief in your Souls Return you Shulamites return Remember from whence you are fallen and how the Oath of God presseth you Let no baptized person go down to the pit that will but add oyl to the fire that shall never go out It will be more tolerable for an unbaptized Turk or Indian than for a baptized Christian in the day of judgment if he stands at the Judges left hand in that day Br. 3. Lastly I speak to you all Men Brethren and Fathers 1. Labour to see your selves baptized into Christ you are all baptized in the name of Christ but rest not here Give your Souls no rest until you find that you are baptized into Christ that you have put on Christ how you may know that I have shewed you that you are concerned in it will appear from the insignificancy as to your eternal state of Water-Baptism O think not that the pouring or spirinkling of a little water upon your face can wash away the sin of the soul Beg of God that you may be born again of water and of the spirit without which our Lord hath told you you can never enter into the Kingdom of God that you may be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire burning up the dregs and dross of lusts and corruptions which Water-Baptism leaveth in every soul Nay remember your Water-Baptism without this will be but as the Water of jealousie to the guilty woman as Gods water of Witness the more to confound your souls to all eternity 2. Let all persons reflect on their Baptism Let the unconverted reflect upon it and study it to ingage them to faith and repentance because of their Oath and ingagement in Baptism to do it Let the converted reflect upon it and fetch strength from it more to dye unto sin and to live unto righteousness remembring they were baptized into Christ baptized into his death and buried with him by baptism into death But this is enough to have spoken on this argument God give his blessing FINIS