But then secondly To the keeping a man's Baptism pure and undefiled that which was thought further necessary was that from falling into an habitual practice of any of those smaller and less scandalous sins which carelesness and culpable ignorance would be very apt to betray a man into the Acts of he ought to indeavour to secure himself by great cautiousness and sincere enquiry after the knowledge of his Duty that from sins of omission from growing cool in Religion and remitting of his first Love he ought to indeavour to preserve himself by constant Meditation and hearty Prayer to God for the assistance of his holy Spirit that in order to grow in Grace he ought to be always humble and teachable penitent and devout meek in spirit and pure in mind and that to attain Perfection he ought to be always pressing forward towards the mark of the prize of the high calling with a perfect contempt of the World an entire Love of God and a boundless Charity to all Mankind 3. This was what the Primitive Christians understood by keeping their Baptism pure and undefiled viz. A regular and constant practice of all Holiness and Virtue from the time of their Baptism to their Death And to this they thought themselves most strongly obliged by the very Form of their Baptism They were immersed into the Water and they rise out of it again and this great Solemnity was never after to be repeated in token that as Christ once died for Sin and Rose again never to come under the power of Death any more so they were this once to have their Sins perfectly washt away by his Blood and were bound never to return under the Power of them any more Thus St. Paul himself most expresly and excellently argues Rom. p. 6. v. 9. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he died he died unto Sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof The force of which Argument is plainly this When we descended into the Water and rise out of it again we made publick profession that as we hoped for pardon of our past sins through the Merits of the Death of Christ so we our selves would thenceforth die unto sin that is utterly cast it off and forsake it and for the future rise again to walk with Christ in newness and holiness of Life So that unless from the time of our thus putting off sin we continue constantly to live in all holiness and righteousness we have no just reason to expect Remission by virtue of the Death of Christ into which we were baptized For it being the express Condition of the Remission of sin that we continue no longer in it but live from thencefotth unto God the Blood of Christ it self which was shed to be a Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World can avail nothing for one that continues in Sin whom our Saviour himself has particularly excepted from the benefit of the Pardon purchased by his Death and Passion 4. Accordingly Persons after their Baptism were instructed That they must now utterly and for ever renounce all the sinful pleasures and desires of the World They were told that they now received remission of their past sins by vertue of the Death of Christ and therefore they must take great heed that they sinned no more They were told that they now washed their Garments in the Blood of the Lamb for a signal whereof they were accordingly cloathed in white and that they must take care to bring this unspotted Innocence with them before the Tribunal of Christ To which Custom our Saviour himself seems to allude Rev. 3. 4. Thou hast a few Names even in Sardis which have not defiled their Garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy They were told that they were now baptized for the remission of all their past sins and if they kept not this Baptism pure and undefiled they could not be sure they should ever be able to obtain the like full and perfect Remission again They were told that they now started in that great Race which they were to run for the Crown of Immortality and if those who were found tardy in an earthly Race were beaten and disgraced of how much sorer punishment should they be thought worthy who negligently faultred in the race of Immortality They were told that they now entred into that Covenant of God the Seal whereof was Let every one that Names the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity and if they kept not this Seal their punishment would be among Apostates whose Worm shall not die and whose Fire shall not be quenched They were told that they had now escaped the Pollutions of the World through the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and if after this they should be again intangled therein and be overcome and turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them their Punishment should be double to that of those who had never known the way of Righteousness Finally They were told that they were now enlightned and had tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and were sealed thereby unto the day of Redemption and if after this they should fall away it would be exceeding difficult to renew them to Repentance That they had now received the perfect knowledge of the Truth and if after this they sinned wilfully there would remain no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which should devour the Adversary In a word That they now received a certain Promise and Assurance of Eternal Life but if they would sell this blessing for the momentary gratifications of sense they might perhaps afterwards be rejected when they should desire to inherit it and find no place for Repentance though they might seek it carefully with Tears 5. These were the severe cautions with which the Primitive Church obliged baptized Persons upon their utmost Peril to keep themselves stedfast from the time of their Baptism in all holy and blameless Conversation Those who did continue to walk suitably to this Profession were said to be washed to be sanctified to be justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God And because in those purest times there were hardly any among Christians who did not walk suitably to their Profession it being the same thing then to be a Christian and to be a good Man therefore those Terms Elect Regenerate Sanctified born of God and the like which we now appropriate only to the best and most holy Men are not in Scripture
so appropriated but applied promiscuously to all Christians as appears from the Titles of the Apostles Letters in which whole Churches in general are called Elect Sanctified and the like and most evidently from St. John who in his first Epistle chap. 5. ver 1. Whosoever saith he believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ i. e. every Christian there being hardly any one in those times who was not indeed what he professed and pretended to be a Regenerate Sanctified and Elect Person And as Christians who then lived thus suitably to their Profession were stiled Regenerate Sanctified and the like so they who continued to live thus suitably to the end were said to Persevere and of such only was it said that they Persevered in opposition to those who after their Baptism lapsed into any notorious Transgression For one that had thus lapsed they did not think it sufficient that he should repeat his Crime no more which was the condition of Baptismal Remission but he was obliged by a long course of Mortification Prayers Tears and good Works to endeavour to wash out the Stain and Guilt Nay and even this course also they allowed of but Once not that true Repentance would at any time be in vain and unacceptable to God but as an Ancient Writer expresses it that that which was the only remaining remedy might not by being made too easie grow contemptible and ineflectual 6. And now let Us think upon this let Us consider this with shame and confusion of Faces who I do not say after Baptism and the solemn taking upon our selves the Profession of Christianity but after frequent Purposes and Promises of Reformation after repeated Vows and Resolutions of Amendment nay perhaps after confirming all these by the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ do yet continue in sin and defer our Repentance The Primitive Christians thought themselves absolutely obliged to live in the constant Practice of all Holiness and Vertue from the time of their Baptism to their Death and can we hope to be accepted if notwithstanding all our Pretences to Repentance and Reformation we still continue under the weak excuses of Infirmity and Inadvertency to live in any known sin Doth our Baptismal Vow lay no obligation upon us or hath God established a Covenant with us upon slighter Terms and entail'd his Promises to us upon easier Conditions than he did to the first and purest Christians Let no Man deceive you saith St. John He that doth righteousness is righteous 1 John 3. 7. 'T is true the case is not altogether the same with us as it was with them We live in Christian Nations and under Christian Governments where there are no Pagans to be converted to Christianity and to be baptized after their Repentance and with a full conviction of Mind And of those who are born of Christian Parents there are very few so happy as not to be entangled in the Habit of any sin before they come to a perfect understanding and compleat conviction of all the Truths of Religion And in this case it must indeed be confessed that it cannot but require some time perfectly to overcome a vitious disposition and to obtain the Habit of the contrary Vertue But may we therefore spend our whole Lives in little and weak struglings against sin without ever arriving at that pitch of Vertue which was antiently thought necessary to prepare a Man for Baptism May we therefore be excused from ever becoming perfect Christians because we were all along brought up in the Christian Religion and were never converted by any sudden Conviction When a Man is in that state described by St. Paul in the 7th Chap. to the Romans that he is convinced of the evil of great and known sins and sets his Mind to resist and strive against them yet not so but that through the viciousness of his inclination or the force of evil Habits he frequently relapses and is intangled in them again 't is a Sign indeed that such a one is not yet hardened through the deceitfulness of sin there is hopes that through the Grace of God he may at length prevail and overcome his Temptations but he has not yet overcome he has not yet attained to be a good Christian nor can he be said to have done so till he has brought himself into such a state as that he be perfectly gotten above all the Temptations to know sin and assured by the Grace of God that he shall not fall into it any more To such a state as this he must resolve to arrive and he must resolve to arrive at it timely that he may have a certain Title to the reward of Obedience There is hardly any Man so wicked who does not design to repent at one time or other before he dies and our Saviour has indeed in his Gospel made the same Promises to Repentance that he has to innocence and continued Obedience But let no Man deceive himself by a fatal Errour The Repentance to which our Saviour has made such large Promises is not the late Repentance of a Christian but the timely Repentance of a Jew or a Heathen at his Conversion to Christianity and is therefore the very same and no other than Baptism it self Indeed if a Christian by an unhappy Education be brought up in sin and habituated to Wickedness whenever he comes by the Power of God's Word and the Influence of his Holy Spirit to be convinced of the evil of his Ways and of the necessity of Religion he is then in the same state that a Heathen Convert is supposed to be at his Baptism and the same Promises are made to them both But when a Christian who has a clear Knowledge of his Duty does notwitstanding that continue wilfully all his Life in sin our Saviour is so far from assuring him that God and Angels will rejoyce at his Conversion if when he grows old he leaves off sinning because he can sin no more that he has no where promised that such a Repentance shall be accepted at all We must therefore so break off our sins by Repentance as to attain the Habits of the contrary Vertues and to live in them Such a Repentance as this our Saviour will accept and he that after such a Repentance lives constantly Virtuous shall certainly be esteemed in the sight of God as if he had always been innocent but without the evidence of such a Life of Virtue and renewed Obedience how far soever the Mercy of God may possibly extend it self We can never have any assurance that our Repentance will be accepted CHAP. V. Of the Baptism of Infants 1. AS those who by the Preaching of the Apostles and their Successors had been converted from Judaism or Gentilism to Christianity were baptized at riper Years upon their publickly professing their Faith and their Repentance so those who were born of Christian Parents
steady course of Piety to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality And again Heb. 3. 14. he tells us that we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our Confidence stedfast unto the end The Hebrews to whom this Epistle was written were certainly sincere Christians they had been enlightned by Baptism and the preaching of the Word they had tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost they had tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come and yet the Apostle tells them that all this would not make them partakers of Christ i. e. would not intitle them to the Promises which the Gospel makes to Obedience unless they persevered in this state to the end Nay so far would all these glorious Things be from ascertaining them of Happiness that if they fell away the having formerly been partakers of so great Privileges would but increase their Condemnation and make their State more desperate 6. Terrible are the Threatnings which the Scripture makes to those who having known their Duty and begun to obey it shall again return to a course of Wickedness If after they have escaped the Pollutions of the World through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they shall be again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them 2 Pet. 2. 20. I will therefore put you in remembrance though you once knew this how that the Lord having saved the People out of the Land of Egypt afterwards destroyed them that believed not And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great Day Jude 5 6. Lest there be any Fornicator or profane Person as Esau who for one morsel of Meat sold his birth-right for ye know how that afterward when he would have inherited the Blessing he was rejected for he found no place of Repentance though he sought it carefully with tears Heb. 12. 16. If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sins but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversary Heb. 10. 26. It is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto Repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame Heb. 6. 4. The meaning of all which Places is plainly this not indeed that 't is impossible to obtain Forgiveness but that there is no more Baptism no more Baptismal Remission and that therefore if Men after the clear knowledge of their Duty relapse any more into a state of gross Wickedness they cannot be forgiven but upon such a great and active Repentance as 't is exceeding difficult to renew such Persons unto 7. For this Reason our Saviour warns us to watch and to be ready always to have our Loins girded about and our Lights burning and to be like Men that wait for their Lord when he shall return from the Wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately Luke 12. 35. And again Take heed to your selves lest at any time your Hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares for as a Snare shall it come on all them that dwell upon the face of the whole Earth Watch ye therefore and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man Luke 21. 34. And the Apostles also in their Epistles are perpetually warning us to watch and to be solicitous to take great heed as of a thing of most extreme danger lest at any time we fail of the grace of God and left any root of bitterness springing up trouble us and thereby we be defiled 8. And indeed the ancient Church thought they could never carry this Point too far To the Converts who had newly entered into the Profession of Religion they always urged the necessity of Perseverance with the utmost Rigour And those Texts of Scripture which seem the most severely to threaten Apostates that is such as after their embracing the Truth of the Gospel wilfully relapsed into the Practice of any notorious Wickedness they always interpreted to them in the most strict Sense that by those Terrors of the Lord they might preserve them if possible in their Innocence though those who had already sinned they treated more mildly that they might incourage Repentance and prevent Despair CHAP. IX Of Innocence and an early Piety 1. SEcondly Consider the inestimable Advantage of Innocence and of an early Piety Innocence is a Jewel which no Man understands the value of and no Man knows what he does when he first parts with it When a Man is first beaten from his good Resolutions and seduced by the Temptations of Sin and Folly he is then driven from his best strong-hold his Strength his Courage his Assistance is diminished and when or how far he shall be able to recover them he cannot tell When a Man is first inticed to sin wilfully and against knowledge he makes Shipwrack of a good Conscience and parts with that Peace of Mind which how far he shall ever be able to recover he cannot know When a Man is first vanquish'd by the Enemies of his Salvation the World the Flesh or the Devil and prefers any Pleasure or any Interest to his Duty he then forfeits his Title to the Crown promised to those who shall overcome and how far his Endeavours will afterwards be accepted he cannot tell 2. While a Person who has entered early into the Profession of Religion is yet innocent and uncorrupted with Vice he begins his Christian Warfare with firm and unbroken Resolutions with a free and undistracted Mind and with the certain Assistance of God's Holy Spirit But when once he has forfeited this happy Innocence and is fallen from his first Love his Zeal for Virtue grows less strict and his hatred against Vice less severe his Resolutions become weaker and more inconstant his Passions stronger and his Mind more unsettled and the Grace of God is proportionably withdrawn from him so that it becomes much more difficult to recover his first State than it had been to preserve it Think not therefore when first Temptations offer themselves that you can now yield to them and afterwards