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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
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

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

the house to the Congregation thinking in that action I had something else to do than to entertain my friends with ordinary discourses Secondly That all persons baptized may from hence be instructed how useful their Baptism may be to them if the fault be not in themselves though it doth not actually justifie and wash away Original sin which I durst not assert By this short discourse Reader thou mayest if I mistake not easily understand the nature of Baptism and of thy engagement to God in thy Baptism and know how to make use of an Ordinance of God under which thou hast been brought and which it may be hath lyen dead by thee many years because thou knowest not how to make a spiritual use of it Such as the discourse is it is now tendred to thee if it doth thy Soul any good pray for the Author who is a debtor to thee and to all in the business of the Gospel and Thy most affectionate Friend and Servant for thy Souls advantage JOHN COLLINGES Norwich Dec. 13. 1680. ROM VI. 3 4. Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death c. THE great Apostle of the Gentiles in this Epistle hath been vindicating the same blessed Doctrine concerning the Justification of the Soul before God by the Righteousness of Christ which Chap. 4. v. 6. he calleth an imputing of righteousness without works received by faith which we are at this day contending for A Doctrine which Luther was wont to call The Article of a standing or falling Church A Church keeping or losing its purity and integrity as it upholds or loseth this great truth Of which we may say as one of the Ancients concerning that Text 1 Tim. 1. 15. It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners We could better want the Sun in the firmament than this great light in holy Writ Or as David said of the Sword of Goliah V. Lutheri Epist ad Eremitam in Sculteti annal in anno 1517. There is none to it without which it is impossible to relieve a soul in a distress of Conscience and under the violence of a temptation as Luther rightly judged upon his restoring of this great point in Germany in the beginning of that Reformation of which God made him so blessed an instrument This is that great Doctrine which made St. Paul profess Chap. 1. v. 16. that notwithstanding all the opposition the Jews made to it notwithstanding all their scoffs and drolleries he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek For v. 17. therein the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith and conformable to the Doctrine of the Old Testament the New Testament being as Augustine called it the Revelation of the Old as the Old was Occultatio novi the New Testament in a Mystery for it was written there Hab. 2. 4. The just shall live by faith That text Rom. 1. 17. Luther tells us infinitely perplexed him he was miserably tortured to understand how the righteousness of God should be revealed from faith to faith for still he dream'd having been all his life-time before a Papist of a righteousness of his own but at last he began to conceive that the Righteousness of God might signifie in a passive sense not a righteousness in which a man should walk before and towards God but the righteousness wherein a man should appear before God as righteous as the power of God and the wisdom of God in some Texts signifieth that power by which God maketh us strong and that wisdom by which God maketh us wise Now as life and immortality so this righteousness was not first discovered but brought to light by the Gospel fully and clearly there manifested When Luther apprehended this he Jam quanto odio vocabulum Justitia Dei oderam ante tanto amore dulcissimum istud vocabulum extollebam ita miki iste locus Pauli fuit vere Porta paradisi Luth. Jenae t. 1. op in praefat tells us the Gospel looked upon him with quite another face Now saith he look how much I before hated that word The righteousness of God so much now I loved that most sweet word and that place of St. Paul was to me the very gate of Heaven This Doctrine was but darkly revealed in the Old Testament in types and prophecies and dark sayings but in the Gospel it is fully revealed viz. That the righteousness by which a soul is justified and by which it must stand righteous before God is not a righteousness of Works neither an obedience of the law contained in Ordinances which law is perished nor yet our obedience to the Moral Law whether by works done before or after conversion but the righteousness of Jesus Christ on Gods part imputed to us without works on our part received by faith as it is expounded Phil. 3. 10. and in several other places of the New Testament The Apostle having laid down this Proposition in Chap. 1. v. 16 17. he confirmeth it by a very great variety of argument in the remaining part of the first Chapter and in Chap. 2 3 4 5. In the first and second Chapters he proveth it by an Induction If works will justifie any they must either be the works of the Heathens or the works of the Jews As to the first he proveth that the works of the Heathens could not for they were abominable such as the wrath of God was revealed against Acts of ungodliness and unrighteousness Chap. 2. He proveth that the works of the Jews could not for they were imperfect and they rested in some rituals and external priviledges which could never justifie a soul In the third and fourth Chapters he proveth it as by other arguments so from the instances of Abraham and David the same way that Abraham the Father of the faithful was justified the same way must all believers his children be justified and the same way that David was justified the same way also must we be justified but Abraham and David were both justified by an imputed righteousness In the fifth Chapter he argueth from the sweet fruits which flow from justification by faith In that Chapter v. 20. he had said But where sin abounded grace did much more abound The wise Apostle foresaw there would be that very clamorous objection made which we hear now made against this excellent Doctrine of the Gospel viz. That it openeth a door to licentiousness destroyeth any obligation to good works giveth a license to sin c. He therefore in this Chapter obviateth this silly or malicious cavil What shall we say then saith he shall we continue in sin that grace may bound May we then neglect any good works because we

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

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