baptized perfon; that which St. Paul may feem to re2 Cor. i. 21. fpect, when he faith, He that establisheth (or confirmeth) 23, 24. us with you into Chrift, and who hath anointed us, is God; who alfo hath fealed us, and hath given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 3. With those gifts is connected the benefit of regeneration, implying our entrance into a new ftate and course of life; being endowed with new faculties, difpofitions, and capacities of fouls; becoming new creatures and new Eph. i. 22, men, as it were, renewed after the likeness of God in Col. iii. 10. righteousness and true holiness; our being fanctified in our 2 Cor. v.17. hearts and lives, being mortified to fleshly lufts and worldly affections, being quickened to a spiritual life and heavenly converfation: in fhort, becoming, in relation and in difpofition of mind, the children of God. This the matter and the action of baptifm do fet out for as children new Ezek. xvi. born, (for cleanfing them from impurities adherent from ara the womb,) both among the Jews and other people, were iara wont to be washed; fo are we in baptifm, fignifying our 4. γάλακτι. Theocr. કે purification from natural and worldly defilements: the merfion alfo in water, and the emerfion thence, doth figure our death to the former, and receiving to a new life. Tit. iii. 5. Whence baptifm is by St. Paul called the laver of regeneJohn iii. 5. ration; and our Lord faith, that if a man be not born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God; that is, every one becoming a Chriftian is by baptifm regenerated, or put into a new state of life, getteth new difpofitions of foul, and new relations to God; Gal. iii. 26. Ye are all, faith St. Paul, the children of God by faith in Chrift Jefus; that is, by embracing his doctrine, and fubRom. vi. 4. mitting to his law profeffedly in baptifm: and, We, faith St. Paul again, are buried with Chrift through baptism unto death; that as Chrift was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, fo also we should walk in newness of life. Col. ii. 12. 1 Cor. xii. 13. 4. With these benefits is conjoined that of being inferted into God's Church, his family, the number of his chosen people, the mystical body of Chrift, whereby we become entitled to the privileges and immunities of that heavenly corporation. We, faith St. Paul, have been all baptized in one Spirit into one body, the mystical body of Chrift: and, So many of you, faith he again, as have been Gal. iii. 27. baptized into Chrift, (into Christ mystical, or the Church,) have put on Chrift; and ye are, adds he, all one in Chrift Jefus. As profelytes among the Jews by baptifm were admitted unto the communion and privileges of the Jewifh, fo thereby are we received into the like communion and privileges of the Chriftian, far more excellent, fociety. 5. In confequence of these things, there is with baptifm conferred a capacity of, a title unto, an affurance (under condition of perfevering in faith and obedience to our Lord) of, eternal life and falvation. We are therein, in St. Peter's words, regenerated unto a lively hope of an in- 1 Pet. i. 2. corruptible inheritance, by that refurrection of Chrift, which is represented to us in this action; and so therein applied, as to beget in us a title and a hope to rise again in like manner to a blissful life; whence we are faid therein to rife with him; Being, faith St. Paul, buried with him in Col. ii. 12. baptifm, wherein also we were raised again: whence by the two great Apostles baptism is faid to fave us: Bap 1 Pet.iii.21. tism, faith St. Peter, the antitype of the delivery in the flood, doth fave us; that is, admitteth us into the ark, putteth us into the fure way of salvation: and, God, faith Tit. iii. 5. St. Paul, according to his mercy faved us, by the laver of regeneration: and, He that shall believe, and shall be bap- Mark xvi. tized, fhall be faved, is our Saviour's own word and pro-16. mife: shall be faved; that is, fhall be put into a state and way of falvation; continuing in which state, proceeding in which way, he affuredly fhall be faved: for faith there denoteth perfeverance in faith, and baptifm implieth performance of the conditions therein undertaken; which next is to be confidered. For as this holy rite fignifieth and fealeth God's collation of fo many great benefits on us; fo it alfo implieth, and, on our part, ratifieth our obligation, then in an especial manner commencing, to feveral most important duties toward him. It implieth, that we are in mind fully perfuaded concerning the truth of that doctrine which God the Father revealed by his bleffed Son, and confirmed by the miraculous operation of the Holy Ghoft; we therein profefs our humble and thankful embracing the overtures of mercy and grace, purchased for us by our Saviour's meritorious undertaking and performances, the which are then exhibited and tendered to us; we therein declare our hearty refolution to forfake all wicked courfes of life, repugnant to the doctrine and law of Chrift; fully to conform our lives to his will, living thereafter in all piety, righteousness, and fobriety, as loyal fubjects, faithful fervants, and dutiful children to God: in brief, we therein are bound, renouncing all erroneous principles, all vicious inclinations, and all other engagements whatever, entirely to devote ourselves to the faith and obedience of God the Father, our glorious and good Maker; of God the Son, our gracious Redeemer; of God the Holy Ghost, our bleffed Guide, Affistant, Advocate, and Comforter: these are the duties antecedent unto, and concomitant of, our baptism, (immediately and formally required of those who are capable of performing them, mediately and virtually of them who are not,) the which are fignified by our being baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity. Thefe duties the Scripture commonly expreffeth by the word, faith and repentance; fometimes fingly, fomeA&ts viii.37 times conjunctly: If, faid Philip to the Eunuch, thou believeft with thy heart, it is lawful (for thee to be baptized ;) faith was an indispensable condition prerequifite Aas ii. 38. thereto :"and, Repent, faith St. Peter, and let every one of you be baptized; repentance alfo was neceffary to precede it indeed both thefe (as they are meant in this cafe) do in effect fignify the fame; each importeth a being renewed in mind, in judgment, in will, in affecActs xxvi. tion; a serious embracing of Chrift's doctrine, and a stedfast resolution to adhere thereto ih practice. Hence are xxvi. 20. iii. those effects or confequences attributed to faith, juftifyRom. v. ing us, reconciling and bringing us near to God, faving 1,2. iii. 25. us; because it is the neceffary condition required by God, Gal. ii. 16. and by him accepted, that we may be capable of those benefits conferred in baptifm; the fame being alfo re 14. V. 31. xx. 21. 19. xvii. 30.. ii. 4. Lii. 8. 13. 2 Pet. iii. 9. Luke xxiv. 47. 1 Pet. iii.21. 2 Pet. iii.17. ferred to that repentance, or change of mind, which muft Heb. x. 39. Eph. ii. 8. accompany our entrance into Christianity; that good. 12. confcience with which we ftipulate a perpetual devotion 2 Theff. ii. and obedience to God; the which therefore doth, as St. 2 Tim. ii. Peter telleth us, fave us; it contributing to our falva-25; tion, as a duty neceffarily required in order thereto. This Matt.ix.13. is that death to fin, and refurrection to righteousness, that being buried with Chrift, and rifing again with him, fo as Mark ii. 17. to walk in newness of life, which the baptifmal action Rom. vi. 3, fignifies, and which we then really undertake to perform. 4, &c. And as fuch are the duties preceding or accompanying baptifm; fo making good the engagements they contain, conftantly perfifting in them, maintaining and improving them, are duties neceffarily confequent thereupon; Having, faith the Apoftle, had our bodies washed Heb. x. 23. with pure water, let us hold fast the profeffion of our faith' without wavering. We fhould indeed continually remember, frequently and feriously confider, what in fo folemn a manner we (upon fo valuable confiderations) did then undertake, promise, and vow to God, diligently ftriving to perform it; for violating our part of the covenant and ftipulation then made, by apostasy in profeffion or practice from God and goodness, we certainly muft forfeit thofe ineftimable benefits which God otherwife hath tied himself to bestow; the pardon of our fins, the favour of God, the being members of Chrift, the grace, guidance, affiftance, and comfort of the Holy Spirit; the right unto, and hope of, falvation. We fo doing, fhall not only fimply difobey and offend God; but add the highest breach of fidelity to our difobedience, together with the most heinous ingratitude, abufing the greatest grace that could be vouchfafed us; If we wil- Heb. x. 26, fully fin after we have taken the acknowledgment of the 29. truth, (faith the Apostle, meaning that folemn profeffion of our faith in baptifm,) we trample under foot the Son of God, we profane the blood of the covenant, we do defpite unto the Spirit of grace; and incurring fo deep guilt, we muft expect fuitable punishment. But I proceed to the other facrament, THE EUCHARIST. Cypr. Ep. AMONG the wonderful works of power and grace per 63. formed by God Almighty in favour of the children of Ifrael, and in order to their delivery from the Egyptian flavery, a most signal one was the fimiting the first-born in every house of the Egyptians, and paffing over the houses of the children of Ifrael; wherein God declared his just wrath against their cruel oppreffors, depriving them in a fudden and dreadful manner of what was nearest and dearest to them; and his gracious mercy toward them, in preferving what was alike dear to them from fo woful a calamity; thus (as the text expreffeth it) putting a difference between the Egyptians and the children of Ifrael. Now that the memory of fo remarkable a mercy might be preserved, that their affections might be raised to a ftrong fenfe of God's goodness, and their faith in him. confirmed, fo as in the like need to hope for the fame favourable help and protection, by the confideration of so notable an experiment, it pleased God to appoint a facrament, or mysterious rite, to be annually celebrated, reprefenting and recalling to mind that act of God, wherein his fpecial kindness was fo eminently demonftrated toward his people: the fame alfo (as did other rites and facrifices inftituted by God among that people) looking directly forward upon that other great delivery from fin and hell, which God in mercy defigned toward mankind, to be achieved by our Saviour; prefiguring, that the fouls of them who fhould be willing to forfake the spiritual bondage of fin, fhould be faved from the ruin coming upon them who would abide therein; God regarding the blood Exod. xii. of our Saviour (that immaculate Lamb, facrificed for them) sprinkled upon the doors of their houses; that is, 23. |