confifting of new Principles of Life and Conver- CHAP. fation; very fitly called a new Birth, being born IV. of God, new Creatures, created in Chrift Jefus, to good Works. This is the Kingdom of Heaven's Method of being born of God, and taught of bim, &c. *

THE Jews, baptizing their Profelytes of Juftice, cald it παλεγγενεσίαν, oι λύτρον παλεγγενε cías; the Reafon was, because after Baptifm they believed, the Profelyte had a new Difpofition, enter'd upon new Manners, and a new Inftitute of Life. It was frequent to fay, "a new baptized "Profelyte was a new Infant." In that Baptifm they changed their Name, nor would they acknowledge their Relations after the Flefh to be any more their Relations: Tacitus accordingly ridicules them for it, Imbuuntur contemnere Deos; Patres, Fratres, cognatos tanquam res viles contemnere, Lib. V. They commonly faid, and any Doctor in Ifrael might eafily have known it, "That except a Man was born of Water, he "could not enter under the Wings of the Divine "Majefty," i. e. a Profelyte could not enter into their Church and Covenant without being baptized: To this our Lord alludes, in his verily, verily, except a Man be born of Water and Holy Ghoft, be cannot enter, &c. +

THUS as Chriftianity was to go out from the Jews firft unto all Nations, he adopted their Bap

A good Man, according to Seneca de Provid. c. 1. Eft Difcipulus Dei, emulator, vera Progenies; which in Scripture Phrafe is, one taught of God, a follower of him, and born of him.

+ Lactantius, Lib. IV. cap. 27. fpeaking of converted baptized Heathens accordingly fays, They came under the Wings of Jefus.

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tifm

IV.

CHAP. tifm with Improvements, into his Religion, when he was to exhibit his παλεγγενεσία, or Manifeftation of his new, and Death of the old Man; the whole Body of Sin with all its Members, dying with him to Sin by Immersion, and by Emerfion rifing with him to Newness of Life; Sons of God, and of the Refurrection, that grand final λeyYEVECI to come; inftead of their daily ceremonious Baptifms, there fhould be but one folemn initiating Baptifm, affecting the Soul more than the Body. By which they became alfo Members of his one Body, or Church; called out from the reft of the World, by the Preaching of the fole Way of Remiffion of Sins, Peace with God, and eternal Life through Jefus Chrift; and incorporated to have the Word always preach'd, and the Sacraments duly administered; Children of God by Adoption, Heirs, &c. Children of Grace, of that Grace, Mercy, and Peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jefus Christ in the Difpenfation of his mediatorial Kingdom, by which we are faved, or have Remiffion of Sins; the Earneft, and the Seal of the Holy Spirit, and the Promise of eternal Life.

THIS Grace, or Inftitution, or reveal'd Will of Heaven concerning the Mediator, and our State of Peace and Favour with God through him, is oppofed to a State by Nature, wherein there is no Knowledge of God in Chrift reconciling the World to himself, and confequently for want of that explicit Knowledge, more under a State of Wrath, than Favour; being all their Life-Time fubject to the Bondage of Mortality, under the inherent Contagion of Death, the Wrath of original Sin.

AND because the Knowledge of Chrift as Mediator between God and Man, dying and interceeding for the Remiffion of Sins, is the chief Thing in the Gofpel, the chief Faith for fupporting that, is his being Son of God, and Son of Man: Hence it is, that as Baptifm is faid to be into the Death of Chrift, fo the making Difciples to him is expreffed * by baptizing in, or into the Name of the Lord, or Lord Jefus, dying for us, a Part, and that the principal Part being put for the whole; though the Form of Baptizing might be in the Name of the Father, &c.

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AND that being the principal Part of Difcipleship, there is mention of Difciples being baptized for the Dead, 1 Cor. xv. 29. Mr. Locke upon the Place confeffes "He knows not what "this baptizing for the Dead means, but that it feems (fays he) by the following Verses to be "fomething wherein they expofed themselves "to the Danger of Death." That this is not only the feeming, but the real Meaning of this difficult Place, I apprehend may be made out thus. We read Matth. xx. 22, 23. Mark x. 38, 39. of Baptized in the Senfe of Suffering, with the Baptifm that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized: Why may not St. Paul, who had convers'd much, and travell'd long with St. Mark, ufe the Word in the fame Senfe, when he is profeffedly arguing from the Sufferings of Christian Profeffors both where he broke off the Argument, and where he refumes the Thread of it, ver. after this? As if he fhould fay, Why then are we Apoftles immers'd in Sufferings, for

Aas ii. 38. viii. 12, 16. x. 48. xix. 5.

CHAP.

IV.

IV.

CHAP. the Sake of a dead, unrifen Saviour, and for the Hopes of a future Refurrection through him? Why are we fo incomparably unwife, to be actually fo great Sufferers for that Cause, and why do we stand in Jeopardy of yet more Sufferings that await us? For my own particular, I protest by your (it fhould be as in the Margin, and as Dr. Mills retains it in the Text, our) Rejoicing, I die daily; a Succeffion of Perils environ me every where. His Swearing in that Manner, as it is in the Original, by the common Rejoicing of all the Apostles, and other Chriftians, by a fublime Turn of Thought, gives Existence and certain Being to their Rejoicing: But how, or where could their Rejoicing poffibly exift, but only in their certain Knowledge of a Living, Arifen Saviour; and in the Confidence of ample Rewards from him, when he raises their injured Bodies from the Grave; which, in time, will, as af furedly be done, as he has raised his own: Tèp TWV VExpo feems to be put in the plural, rather than the fingular, because the Hopes of the Refurrection of the Dead in Chrift, is infeparably, connected with, and folded up in that of our Saviour's. In this Way of understanding the Words, the Beauty, Strength, and Advantage of the Apoftle's Argument is as confpicuous; as to fuffer in the Flesh; and hope, and rejoice in the Spirit, for Chrift being rifen, and a Profpect of a recompenfing Refurrection from him, is a ftronger Evidence of any ones Believing in, and being affured of the Truth of both, than what can arife from any Disciples being otherwise baptized in his Name, or into his Death and Refurrection.

BAPTIZING was understood by the Jews in thofe Days, and confequently by the Apostles,

who

IV.

who had first been Mofes's Difciples, to be a fy- CHAP. nonimous Expreffion for making Difciples; the Baptifm of John, was making Difciples of John, preparatory to being Difciples to him who fhou'd come after. The Ifraelites were baptized into Mofes, i. e. became his Difciples. after paffing through the figurative Baptism of the Cloud and the Sea †. St. Paul thanks God, he baptized almoft none ‡, much lefs any in his own Name, because that had been the fame as making them Difciples to himself, and not to Chrift. The baptized in whofe Name were at firft called Difciples before they bore the Name of Chriftians, which was not till the XLIII. Year of Christ.

In like manner, in a particular Cafe, to be a Difciple, or Profeffor of a Doctrine, is the fame Thing (only more ftrongly exprefs'd) as being baptized unto that Doctrine. Thus St. Paul Ats xix. 3. puts the Queftion to those who had never heard the Doctrine, at leaft, not of the Receiving of the Holy Ghoft, Unto what then were ye baptized? They answer, Unto John's Baptifm, i. e. as it follows, the Doctrine of Repentance, faying, that they fhould believe on him that fhould come after, that is, on Christ Jesus. This Queftion plainly implies, that if they, John's Difciples, had been baptized in the common Christian Form, they must have known that there was a Holy Ghoft. If therefore to bap tize and make Difciples was fo much the fame, no wonder it is exprefs'd by baptizing in the Name of the Lord Jefus, feeing Difciples to Him, rather than to the Father, or Holy Ghoft, were

Joba iv. 1. i. 25. † 1 Cor. x. 2. † 1 Cor. i. 15. made

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