Gospel-Govenant of which Baptism is the Sign is not without its Conditions which Baptism seals in a way of particular application not only that upon the performing our part of the Covenant we shall obtain the Grace but it seals up to every receiver their particular right in the Graces promised If we do not forfeit all by violating and breaking the Covenant and rend'ring our selves unworthy of the benefits of it Hence the Sacrament of Baptism is said by the Schools to be gratiae exhibitivum an Ordinance of exhibiting and conferring Grace to those that are rightly baptized not by its own Operation but through the Operation of God alone who in the right use of Baptism does always perform what he hath promised For who can deny the effect when we have God's fiat for it Some indeed ascribe too much to Baptism others leave it as a mere naked Sign The bare Element 't is true hath not a power and vertue to convey Grace The Water is not a subject capable to receive it and consequently cannot convey it it toucheth not the Soul it cannot operate upon that to infuse real Grace this would be to ascribe that to the external Instrument which is peculiar only to the great efficient Cause What it conveys and confers is not from any vertue of its own by its bare application but by vertue of Christ's Institution and its relation to the Covenant For this Reason its effects are not confin'd to the instant of its Administration But it extends its efficacy and influence throughout our Lives it continues a seal to the Covenant and the promises of Grace and Mercy till the Covenant be utterly violated by absolute Apostacy or final Unbelief And so it continues an Instrument to convey Grace during our whole Lives not only remission of Sins for the time present but upon our perseverance in the conditions of Faith and Repentance it continues this Grace of Pardon to us to the last Period So that we are but once baptized for the remission of Sins though we daily contract Guilt because being once received it remains a perpetual Pledge and Testimony of the everlasting Covenant of God and of the continual washing away of Sin by the Blood of Christ 'T was therefore a causeless fear occasioned from the Novatian Errour that made some of the Ancients defer Baptism till near their death as tho' it did not continue to exhibit and convey the Grace of Pardon But from what I have already noted there is no resting on the bare work done All are not upon the receiving the external Baptism regenerate and made partakers of internal Grace as if it were necessarily annexed to the outward Ordinance Real Sanctification doth not always accompany the Ministration of Baptism Nevertheless the Ordinance is not without its effect in a way of Grace it doth confer on us in a Sacramental Way what it doth exhibit and Seal to And till there be a Bar put by Men's actual Rejection those that are truly baptized have a right to the Grace and Mercy sealed And tho' Baptism be not always an Instrument of infusing real Grace Yet hereby we are actually de presenti made partakers of relative Grace and have a right to real sanctifying Grace in that way that God gives it and so are partakers of relative Regeneration Being as it were born again into a new State of gracious Relations Priviledges and Hopes And our Baptism is the Character and Sacramental Seal of this new blessed State of Adoption and Salvation And this continues as I have said till there be a forfeiture on our Part and he that will not call this Grace knows not how to value things Spiritual But how rich so ever this Baptismal Grace may be in its self and effects for the benefit of Infant-Innocency 't is not that which is the terms of our Salvation in riper Age when we come under the guilt of actual Sins Those that arrive to the Years of Reason and Choice to them the Gospel tenders Salvation upon condition of actual Faith and Repentance What is sealed to us in our Infant-state is continued to us upon other conditions at Age The Grace that is made over by the free Covenant of God and sealed in Baptism confers a right to the baptized So that if he dies in this State he dies in this right But there are other things required for the continuance of it at years of Knowledge and Reason which as it is a great Foundation of comfort touching the Salvation of dying Infants and justifies that Clause formerly in the rubick for Baptism so it destroys the vain presumptions of others and takes Men off from resting on the Grace of Baptism as if it were sufficient for their Salvation not considering whatever Mercy or Priviledge Baptism doth confirm is continued to us upon other conditions after we come to Age and fall under the guilt of actual Sins Again To be baptized is to be enrolled a Member of the Church incorporated into the Communion of Saints ingrafted into Christ's Mystical Body The Apostle speaking of Christ Mystical under the similitude of a natural Body 1 Cor. 12.13 saith We are baptized into Jesus Christ into that noble blessed Society of which Christ is the Head and to which belong the Adoption and the Covenant and the Promises It would be too large a digression particularly to insist upon the Priviledges and Advantages of the Church of Christ beyond the rest of the World Sure I am of all the judgments that God inflicted upon the Jews none had comparably that fire of Fury that terrour of Wrath in it which was executed in the accomplishment of the threatning mentioned Zach. 11.9 10. upon their heinous Provocation in crucifying the Lord of Life which filled up the number of their Sins Upon which they were rejected cut off from the Olive-Tree and their Church-enclosure pluckt down So that they were no longer his peculiar People but were left in common with the rest of the World without God without Christ and so without all hope of Salvation Whereas they only that are added to the Church that are separated to be God's peculiar Inheritance among all the Tribes of the Earth are in the way to be saved as being the sole objects of his special Care and Providence And therefore it must needs be a blessed Priviledge to be brought within the Pale to be owned by God under such a Relation Now into this Body this Society this holy Corporation we are baptized And as the Church in its Constitution is blessed of God beyond all the World So all its Members have the advantage of other benefits flowing from the Communion of Saints in order to their spiritual and eternal Good As the labours and services of God's Ministers and Ambassadors all are theirs whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas they are all Servants of Christ for the edifying this his Body and the building of them up till they come to Perfection Again they
Baptism But the Seal cannot do it without the Covenant that is the great Instrument of Donation and Conveyance Our Saviour prescribing the ordinary way of Salvation Mark 16.16 says He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but adds He that believeth not shall be damned Not he that is not baptized The Covenant of Grace and our being in Christ is absolutely necessary But the Sign the external Seal is not of a like necessity And yet it is of such necessity too that it cannot be neglected without Sin and Danger To speak summarily and briefly 't is necessary as a Law of Christ as a part of his external Worship as a Seal of the Covenant of the Promise of remission of Sins as a means of exhibiting and conveying of Grace necessary as the ordinary way by which in Conjunction with the Covenant and the Grace of it God doth save And therefore none can neglect it without great indignity to Christ and great ingratitude for such an high Priviledge and eminent Advantage But still we must take along with us this Caution That this sacred Ordinance be not past over as a mere customary Thing as an external Rite only or Ceremony without minding the thing signified and the correspondent of our part of the Covenant which our Baptism Signs and Seals Our common Negligence in the Duties incumbent on us and in those Conditions which our Baptism obligeth us to is certainly one of the great Prejudices that hath hardned the Anabaptists and made them look upon our Infant-Baptism as a trifling Business a mere insignificant thing I proceed now to the next thing I noted as the second general Head which I am in order to consider viz. That Baptism is the initiating Sacrament of the New Testament and so succeeds Circumcision which was the initiating Sacrament of the Old And to discuss this the more fully and methodically I will endeavour to shew you First What Baptism or the Sacrament of Baptism is Secondly What it is to be baptized or what are the Priviledges and Advantages that do accrue to us by our Baptism And then in the Third Place I shall endeavour to prove that Baptism is the initiating Sacrament of the New Testament As to the First The word Sacrament in its original intendment had the signification of such a Military Oath as was attended with sacred Rites and such as led Men by sensible resemblances to things of an higher nature As for the Sacraments of the New Testament particularly that of Baptism we may consider it in divers Respects and so may take up various and distinct Notions and Conceptions concerning it If we consider it with respect to the Divine Grace so it may and ought to be conceived by us to be such an outward and visible Sign thereof as is moreover ordained by Christ to be a means of conveying it unto us and a pledge to assure us of the same Secondly With relation to our Virtue or the embracing the Conditions on our Part So 't will be such an outward visible Sign thereof and ought to be so reputed as is appointed by Christ for us to make a Declaration of it and an Obligation to continue this our Profession and to practise what we so publickly declare and profess Thirdly With reference to that New Covenant by which the Divine Grace and our Duty are as it were tied together so it must be defined such an outward and visible Sign as is ordained by the same Christ for God and Man to declare their mutual Consent and by that Rite explicitely to enter into the said Covenant Lastly As to those who are joyned together in the same Covenant and so are connected to Christ and to one another then 't is such an outward and visible Sign as is by Christ ordained and fitted as a general Badge of their common Profession And a means of bringing particular Men into Society Communion and Fellowship one with another In sum 't is an outward and visible Sign ordained and fitted by Christ to signifie and convey and assure the Divine Grace unto us and on our part to declare the Duty we owe to God and to Christ and to one another and to oblige our selves to the constant Profession and Practice of it * See Towerson on the Sacraments Having thus seen what we are to understand by the Sacrament of Baptism let us consider 2. What it is to be baptized What are the Priviledges and Advantages that do redound to the party baptized First Then to be baptized is by a solemn Rite to be explicitely admitted into Covenant with God a Covenant of Grace Pardon and Salvation which Christ hath purchased with his Blood And surely 't is no small Advantage to be brought into such a State whereby we are consign'd to the Grace of the Gospel and the mercies of God Who thereupon don't measure our performances by Grains and Scruples by perfect unsinning Obedience but with the allowances of the balance of the Sanctuary Not exacting from us according to the strict measures of the Law but saving us by his Grace or as it is elsewhere in Scripture expressed According to his mercy That is by pitying and pardoning us by relieving and supporting us because he remembers that we are but Dust Some say that Baptism only washeth away all the Sins that are past or at present adhering but not the Sins of our future Life But this Sacrament promiseth more and greater Things even in futurum and therefore is not repeated because it doth all at once which it can do at a hundred times For it admits us to a state of Pardon to the condition of Repentance and the Evangelical Mercy He that hath entred into this gate of Life is always in the ready way of having his Sins forgiven unless he turns aside out of this Path by renouncing his Baptism and by utter Apostacy The Messalians denied this and 't was part of their Heresie to undervalue their Baptism and to lessen the Grace thereof * Whom you 'l find confuted by Isidore Pelusiot lib. 3. 195 Epist ad Herman But it was in pursuance of this Grace of Baptism that St. Paul calls the lapsed Galatians to their Covenant of Baptism and the Grace of God stipulated in that Sacrament †Gal. 3.26 and therefore wisht them not to hope to be justified by the Law seeing they are entred into the Covenant of Faith and to be justified thereby And this he proves for that they have been baptized this being the Covenant made in Baptism the gate to all this Mercy Wherefore he exhorts us to hold fast the Profession of our Faith the Faith into which we were baptized when we had not only the Truth of God's Promises absolutely Sealed and Confirmed to us but likewise an assurance of what God is ready to do for us in a way of Grace and Mercy on condition we be faithful in the duties of the Gospel For we must know that the
Christ that have dedicated your selves by Covenant to his Honour and Service to break those sacred Bonds and to stand it out in your Impenitency and Rebellion against God and to live like Gentiles his professed Enemies to forsake him and his ways and to wallow in the impurities of an evil Conversation is unaccountable How dreadful will the Day be when the Lord shall come to avenge him of his Adversaries You shall not perish under such easie Circumstances of Wrath and Vengeance as do the Gentiles The Aggravation of your Sin and Judgment will be the treading under Foot the Blood of the Covenant Thus far in general But to proceed to some particulars and so to make some further improvement by way of use of what hath been delivered on this Subject Doth holy Baptism admit us to a state of such high Priviledges and Advantages as I have observed Then we may see how injurious they are who deny Baptism to Infants and so as much as lies in them keep them from Christ I mean in the visible way in which we are brought unto Christ from that Grace which is the internal mystery of this sacramental Ordinance In which respect we are said to be baptized into Christ if they have any right to the grace and spiritual Benefits which are the Mystery the Spirit and Life of this Sacrament why not to the external Symbolical signification and Seal of it Shall Men hinder them from this visible application of the Grace of Baptism If we affirm they have no right to this Grace what greater uncharitableness and presumptuous straightning the favour of God and Christ For where has he debarred and excluded them from his Covenant and Promises and cast them out of that Body whereof he is the Head and the Saviour Certain it is this was one of the great Blessings of the Covenant with Abraham I will be thy God and the God of thy Children after thee Thus ran the Promises of old He sheweth mercy unto thousands of generations of them that love him and keep his commandments the seed of the righteous is blessed Children are the heritage of the Lord. They had the Seal of the Covenant Circumcision externally applying the Promises And are the favours of Christ more narrow under the Gospel who is yet the Mediator of a better Covenant Has Christ only a love for the Parents and none for the Children and yet hath told us if the root be holy so are the branches Is not Christ the Redeemer of Infants Did he purchase no Pardon no Grace or remission of Sins for them How abominably injurious would this be to Christ and the fullness of his Oblation and Merit Will Christ give them no place in his mystical Body in his Church and Kingdom And yet when he was upon Earth commanded the little Children to be brought unto him and took them into his Arms and blessed them declaring that such did belong to his Kingdom of such is the kingdom of God Mark 13.14 If the Infants of Believers under the Gospel be not capable of the Grace signed and sealed then there will follow many sad unscriptural Consequences Then they belong not to the Church and Body of Christ they are in the same Case with the Children of Infidels left without as common and unclean This Principle mingles the holy Seed with the Heathens and renders the favours of the Gospel more narrow than those of the legal Covenant and the Christian Seed in much worse Circumstances than the Jewish Yea they would not only be without the Church but without the Covenant and so without Christ or any special relation to him So far without as are the Gentiles Dogs and Strangers While they are disputed out of the Covenant all well grounded hopes of their Justification and Salvation are disputed away dying in that State 'T is vain to recur to the secret Election of God for the grounds of this Hope Faith and Hope must be grounded upon some Word of God If God have excluded them from the Covenant of Salvation how shall we conclude that they belong to the Election of God And if the Case were so well may the Parents of dying Infants mourn over them as those that have no hope All those then are rash groundless uncharitable Conclusions highly derogatory to the Love of God to the infinite riches and freeness of his Grace But on the other hand if God and Christ have not excluded them from the Grace of Baptism the Mercy and Grace which is there signified who shall forbid Water the external sealing Application If God have not denied the greater who shall deny the less if God have not excluded them from the Substance and Mystery why shall they be denied the external Rite and Symbol Either then they must be highly uncharitable in denying Infants the Grace of Baptism and so leave them in an evil Case or else be very unjust in denying them the Seal where God grants them the substance Thirdly Let this serve to humble those that walk unworthy of this Priviledge of being baptized and thereby admitted into the fellowship of Christ's Religion initiated Members of his Church Can it seem a light thing in our Eyes that when God has passed by the greatest part of the World as strangers from his Family and Kingdom and hath left them under the Kingdom of Satan and taken us no better by Nature than they are to be his peculiar ones into Covenant with himself and to train us up under such heavenly Ordinances We should notwithstanding walk as Rebels and Enemies unto him like the unbaptized World Do we know into what a Covenant he hath taken us what he hath done for and expects from us What means then our Conversation so repugnant to our Profession Is it because we renounce the Covenant as being made when we understood it not If there be any such Apostates let them take their Course serve the God they have chosen But say what iniquity what ill is there in this Covenant of your Baptism what disadvantage have you met withal Or how or where do you hope to find better things than what are here exhibited and ensured Than for instance for God to be your Father Christ your Saviour the Spirit your Comforter than to have your Sins pardoned and remitted than to be adopted justified sanctified and every way comfortably provided for here and in the end eternally saved Do the Gods you have chosen to serve provide better things than these that you renounce Christ for their sake If you say God forbid you should so do you hope to be saved by him as well as any other then tell me seriously do you expect that Christ should stand bound to perform his Part of the Covenant and you left at liberty whether you discharge your part or no That he should love you and you hate him That he should be your God and you remain the Devil's Servants That he should provide Heaven for you and you