baptized into Christ have put on Christ Now what it is to put on Christ the Apostle telleth you Rom. 13. 14. But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Eph. 4. 24. You read of putting on the new man so Col. 3. 10. Now all that are baptized cannot be said to have put on Christ Many of them make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts there of Many of them have not put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and holiness For these reasons I do think that to be baptized into Christ signifieth more than to be baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost I conclude then my discourse in answer to this Question thus 1. There is an external imperfect Baptism whereby and wherein persons are washed with water as a Religious rite in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost with invocation on the name of Christ Those who are thus baptized are baptized into the Gospel-Doctrine and the profession of it into that one body of which Christ is the Head they are dedicated to Christ and make a covenant with him They receive their Baptism as a sign that Christ the Saviour of the World is come hath died and risen again and that their only hope for salvation is in and through him they are baptized for this very end and purpose that they might bear a testimony to the Messias his being come having died c. and that they might accept of him as their Saviour hope and rest in and upon him and him alone and growing up in him c. and their Baptism is not fruitless in case they do repent and believe in Christ but is a sign to them that doing so he will be their Saviour 2. But there is also a more perfect Baptism when persons are not only washed with water but with the blood of Christ regenerated and sanctified baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire Now saith the Apostle so many as are thus baptized into Jesus Christ are baptized into his death And that brings me to the second Question Q. 2. What is this to be baptized into the death of Christ This I shall answer in three things 1. Into the image and similitude of his death Thus Justinian and In similitudinem imaginem mortis Gorran expound the phrase And this is two ways 1. The first more particularly respected the manner of Baptism in those hot Countreys which was by dipping the whole body of the baptized person in water thus John baptized in Jordan Ezek. 36. 25. Isa 44. 3. This is doubtless lawful but we say not necessary nor amongst us expedient Not necessary for the grace of justification and remission is as well in Scripture expressed by sprinkling and pouring water And you read of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ V. Aquinat Esti Piscat Deodati ad loc 1 Pet. 2. 2. and we are said to be come to the blood of sprinkling Heb. 12. 24. signified by the blood of sprinkling under the law Heb. 11. 28. Not expedient or convenient dipping a new-born Infant in water in a probable way would endanger its life But I say that custom had a fairer similitude of the burial of Christ persons buried are covered with Earth so those baptized persons were covered with water but it is as true Earth is sprinkled and poured too upon persons buried as water is upon the Child baptized 2. But there is another similitude of far more value expressed v. 6. of this Chapter Our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed This must be understood when the Lord with his internal grace is pleased to concur with the Sacrament Even as from that day wherein Christ cursed the figtree it withered so from that day that a person is baptized where Gods inward grace concurreth with the outward sign the tree of lust and corruption decayeth and withereth 2. Into his death that may be into the faith owning and profession of his death those who are baptized into Christ do profess to believe that Jesus Christ died for sinners the water poured and sprinkled on them signifieth the blood of Jesus Christ so that Christ hath died and their submission to that rite to receive Baptism is a taking upon them the faith and profession of the death of Jesus Christ 3. Lastly They are baptized into the fruit of his death And this may be taken in a double sense 1. If they be only externally baptized and receive no more than the outward sign yet it is and shall be a sign unto them that if at any time they shall heartily repent and believe the fruit and benefit yea all the fruit and benefit of the death of Christ shall be really and truly theirs 2. If the Lord doth with the external sign confer the inward grace and give the thing signified then they are really and absolutely baptized into the death of Christ and made partakers of the benefits of his redemption being washed with the blood of the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world And thus much may serve to have spoken to the second Question the third followeth Quest 3. What it is to be buried with Christ by baptism into death and how the baptized person may be said to be buried with Christ by Baptism into death I Answer A baptized person may be said to be buried with Christ by Baptism into death 1. Analogically there being as I said before a great Analogy betwixt burying of a dead body and baptizing a person the dead person was covered with the Earth the baptized person with Water This was according to their manner of baptizing by dipping to which also the Apostle alludeth Col. 2. 12. And of old they used a trina immersio a dipping the baptized person three times to signifie Christs lying three days in the grave but this usage was doubtless not so old as the Apostles times nor was there any rule for it Others say they dipped the person baptized thrice to signifie his being baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Thus Aquinas Justinian Chrysostome Damascene Theophilact and Gregory interpret this text but I do not think that this takes up the whole of the sense 2. We are buried with Christ by Baptism into death Symbollically or Sacramentally Baptism signifieth thus much to all That if they live up to that dedication of them unto God unto that Covenant which they enter into in Baptism when they come up to years of discretion if they be baptized in their Infancy repenting and believing their sins shall come no more in Gods sight but be as much buried and out of sight as a person who is baptized by dipping in water is out of our sight during that instant Thus the Apostle Col. 2. 12. saith We are buried with him in baptism
THE IMPROVABLENESS OF Water-Baptism OR A DISCOURSE CONCERNING The Gravity and Seriousness of the Action AND THE Vsefulness 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 Vse they may make of their Baptism for Confirmation of their Faith and quickning them to Repentance and an holy Life Discoursed from Rom. 6. 3 4. by way of SERMON By JOHN COLLINGES D. D. Minister of the Gospel in NORWICH Gal. 3. 27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Ambros lib. de Sacr. Venisti ad sontem ingressus es considera quid videris quid locutus sis diligenter Et alibi Non sanat Baptismus perfidiorum non mundat sed polluit c. London Printed by A. Maxwell and R. Roberts 1681. TO THE READER Christian Reader THE Age wherein we live hath been so fruitful in good books of all sorts above all the Ages that have gone before us that were it not for the former part of that Prophecy Isa 11. 9. They shall not hurt nor destroy in my holy mountain at which work we daily see Papists and Atheists yet very busie We should conclude this the very time there prophecied of when the earth should be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea So as were it not for some particular subjects not yet so fully handled and the vanity of humane nature rather to affect to read the same thing in a new book and a new stile than in one of ancienter date there might a supersedeas be given to the Press that the world might contain the books of men Amongst other subjects something in my opinion as yet too little discoursed of is this of Baptism It hath been discoursed by many Systimatically and by many Polemically but by few Practically The Papists who for a thousand years had held the far greater part of the Christian World in subjection to their most erroneous Doctrines and superstitious usages attributed so great a vertue to the work of Baptism done whether by a Priest or a Midwife and had laid so much of their hay and stubble on this foundation that men of sense and Religion could by no means agree to them and some on the other extreme began to think Baptism in the whole was but a needless Ceremony because the Papists had added so many idle ceremonies to it Bellarmine reckons no less than Twenty-two 1. The propounding the name 2. The scrutiny whether the persons were competent 3. The Renouncing the Devil and all his works 4. A profession of the persons faith 5. The sign of the Cross 6. Exorcisms 7. Breathing on the person baptized 8. Salt put into the mouth 9. Touching the Childs nose and ears with Spittle 10. Unction with Oyl 11. Laying the Priests hands on the child to bless it 12. Abstenence from wine and flesh These he makes Ceremonies necessary before Baptism At Baptism 13. The giving of the name to the person baptized 14. Sureties 15. The Consecration of the water 16. Dipping thrice 17. That it be at Easter or Whitsontide After Baptism he makes necessary 18. An holy kiss 19. An anointing the crown of the head with Oyl 20. Putting a lighted Wax-candle into the baptized persons hands 21. Putting upon him or her a white garment 22. Giving the person baptized Milk Honey or Wine How vain doth man become in his imaginations as to sacred things when he leaves the word of God! Our Forefathers were imployed in throwing out the Popish rubbish and restoring the Ordinance to the purity of its Administration and while they were doing that they were troubled with the Socinians whose opinions in this the Quakers now espouse making Baptism needless and with the Antipaedobaptists denying its use as to Children and multitudes of books have been wrote on these Arguments By this time another generation appeared maintaining Baptismal Regeneration or rather real and true Regeneration as well as Justification upon Baptism Some few books have been wrote on this argument And I perswade my self that one great thing which hath led some Divines of note to assert that the baptized persons are forthwith justified and regenerated is because they have thought it absurd so much as to imagine that Christ should create an Ordinance that should have no real effect or usefulness and what effect they should ascribe to it less than this worthy of so great an Institutor they could not tell Besides that this notion excelently served the design of others who without this discharge of the guilt of Adam's and Original sin would have found it an hard task to have maintained a power in mans will to what was spiritually good or Justification any other way than by the imputed Righteousness of Christ These controversies have so imployed the Pens of those great and learned men who have wrote about Baptism that scarce any hath wrote fully and practically upon it to satisfie the world of the usefulness of Baptism or to instruct it concerning the exceeding solemnity gravity and seriousness of the Action It is thirty years since I at that time a very young man endeavoured my own satisfaction in the case and then communicated my Meditations from the Pulpit to the people to whom God had at that time set me in relation Lately I fell upon my Notes and revised them adding some things from my maturer judgment Discoursing them privately I was desired by a first and a second person who heard me to give them the Copies of them they being persons whose Piety and Judgments I had reason to value I thought they might also be useful to others and resolved to give them both to them and others from the Press Two fruits of this Discourse I would hope for and shall pray for which if I obtain I shall gain my great end in the Publication of it First That those Parents into whose hands it shall come and to whom God shall hereafter give Children which they shall offer to God in Baptism would as sadly reflect upon their former perfunctory performance of their duties in this grave and most solemn action and their neglects in minding their children when they have come to years of this dedication and of the solemn Oath to God in which they engaged them and call upon them to remember it to fulfil it so that they would be more grave and serious in those actions for the time to come and not make Christnings as they call them meerly times for Compotations Collations upon friends and banquets I did not think it necessary but I bless God this Ordinance had always that awe upon me that I chuse to baptize my Children on the Lords-days in the publick Congregation and with very little company attending from
a solemn adstriction and binding over of the soul to the service and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ There is a vow and a Covenant in Baptism as Circumcision of old was the Lords Covenant the sign and symbol of his Covenant with the Jewish Children so Baptism is the Lords Covenant with Children under the Gospel The soul of the Baptized person is not only given up unto the Lord but it is bound over to Christ and entereth a Covenant with him and as the Married woman upon her Marriage covenants with her husband and loseth her own name and taketh that of her husband so the baptized person covenanteth with Christ and there takes upon it the name of a Christian Or as Soldiers upon taking their Sacramentum for that word properly signifies the Military-Oath taken by Soldiers to their Commander in chief are bound and obliged by it to the Obedience of their General so the baptized person upon receiving this Sacrament becomes obliged and engaged unto Jesus Christ and is sworn in nomen imperationi coeti Thus Bucer Dickson and Peter Martyr do expound the phrase 3. The phrase may signifie the Exterior form of Baptism as to Baptismi formam the Administration of it it must be in the name of Christ so we are baptized into Christ 1. According to the institution of Christ he hath commanded his Ministers saying Mat. 28. 19. Go preach and baptize all Nations This is mentioned by Ambrose Aquinas Pareus Justinian Chrysostome Beza and P. Martyr 2. By a solemn invocation of the name of Christ This Beza insisteth upon expounding Mat. 28. 19. Then the sense is no more than so many of us as were baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost solemnly invoking the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Aquinas thinks this the whole sense of this text but that I cannot agree I shall give you my reason for it anon 4. The phrase may import something of the significancy of this Ordinance Every Sacrament is significative a Sacrament is an outward and sensible sign Now what doth Baptism signifie saith the Apostle We are baptized into Christ 1. It is signum rei a sign of the redemption of our Souls by the blood of Christ of that clean water with which he hath promised to sprinkle the Souls of his people and which he hath poured out for their sprinkling even the blood of that lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world 2. It is signum spei A sign that our hope alone is in Christ Jesus there being no other name under heaven but his by which we can be Acts 4. 12. saved nor any salvation in any other Thus Deodate seemeth to interpret it 5. The phrase may signifie the End of our Baptism If any ask To what purpose are we and our Children baptized the answer is We are baptized into Christ to this end 1. That we should bear a testimony to the death of Christ and hold forth the great truth of the Gospel to the world that Jesus Christ is come into the world to save sinners That he was incarnate hath died and is risen again from the dead that in and through him we might have remission and forgiveness of sins through his blood 2. That we might bear witness that he is the alone object of our hopes that we rest upon him and him alone for eternal life and salvation This is the very end why we are baptized 3. That we might grow up in him so Beza and Hemingius We are by baptism as it were implanted and ingrafted into Christ and as the end of the implantation and ingrafting of a cien into a stock or of a plant in any soil is that it might grow up in that soil or in that stock So the end for which we are baptized into Christ is that we might grow up in Christ 6. The phrase may be understood to signifie the fruit of Baptism lest any should say What good is there of this Sacrament or what availeth Baptism saith the Apostle We are baptized into Christ This is the fruit of Baptism the Baptized person hath an interest and relation given him to Christ and is become a member of Christ Sacramentally so Really so All baptized persons have a real relation to the Church whose head is Christ 7. But lastly This phrase may be understood to denote the Perfection of Baptism As the Apostle distinguisheth of Circumcision Rom. 2. 26 27 29. telling us there is a Circumcision in the letter and of the flesh and there is a circumcision of the heart in the spirit So we must distinguish of Baptism there is a baptism of Water and there is a baptism with the Holy Ghost There is a baptism of the letter and upon the flesh and there is a baptism in the heart and the spirit Now this latter is the Baptism into Christ the other is in the name of Christ but this most properly into Christ it signifieth that we pass into Christ saith P. Martyr So as I think there is some difference and that a great one betwixt the phrase used here and Gal. 3. 27. Baptizing into Christ and that used in many other Scriptures of being baptized in the name of Christ I will shortly offer you my reason for my opinion as to this phrase signifying thus much 1. In the first place the Apostles phrase seems to me to restrain the subject of the Proposition He doth not say All of us were baptized into Christ and so into his death but as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death As much as to say Many are baptized in the name of Christ but some of us have not only been baptized in the name of Christ according to the sorm he hath prescribed with solemn invocation of his name but we have upon our baptism truly believing been ingrafted into Christ and united to him Now so many of us as have been thus not only been formally but really baptized into Christ having with the sign received the thing signified are baptized into his death 2. Again Observe the Praedicate As many of us saith the Apostle as are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death I am aware that that phrase may be interpreted and is by some as I shall shew you more by and by into the sign and symbol of his death but I do not take that interpretation to be comprehensive of the full of what that phrase importeth I think it is interpreted v. 6. Knowing that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin may be destroyed which cannot be understood of all baptized persons but such only as are baptized with the Holy Ghost or according to the phrase of this text Baptized into Christ 3. This phrase is but once more found in Scripture Gal. 3. 27. where you have another predicate affixed to the subject of this Proposition There it is As many of you as have been
Baptism wherein the baptized person is buried with water signifieth the burial of the sins of that soul with Christ who shall truly repent and believe and dye unto sin 3. When the Lord together with the external sign conferreth his grace signified by that sign The sins of that soul are in that moment buried with Christ so as they shall appear no more either to their Souls eternal condemnation or in their former power and dominion as our Apostle afterward speaks in this Chapter Sin shall not have dominion over your mortal bodies because you are not under the law but under grace I have now done with the Doctrinal part of my discourse and the Proposition thus explained amounts to these two things 1. That every person who hath come under the Sacrament of Baptism by vertue thereof is dedicated to God and stands obliged to believe the Doctrine of the Gospel and to make a profession of that faith and is from that day made a member of the mystical body of Christ so far forth as it is visible and hath received that holy sign upon this trust That he or she shall not be ashamed of Christ and his Gospel but shall accept of Christ and the way of salvation through him revealed to the world and commit all its spiritual concerns unto him and rest upon him and him alone for life and salvation and grow up in him avoiding the pollutions of the world through lusts And this Baptism is both a sign to the soul commemorative of what Christ hath done in dying for sinners and declarative of what he further will do in the application of his redemption to them and that every one baptized walking up to his Baptismal dedication and Covenant shall certainly enjoy the benefits of Christs death And all such as come not only under the Ordinance but who are fully and perfectly baptized with the Holy Ghost are forthwith ingrafted into Christ and entituled to a present enjoyment of all the benefits of his death 2. That all such as have come under the holy Ordinance of Baptism ought to look back upon their Baptism as the Image of Christs death and upon themselves obliged by vertue of it to dye to sin like as he dyed for sin and all such as are perfectly baptized into Christ have their sins buried with Christ and their sins can no more rise up in judgment against them than one that is buried can rise up to do his former actions in the world and the power of sin is also dead in them so as it is impossible they should any longer serve sin and therefore the plea of those against Justification of grace for the righteousness of Christ imputed to the soul must be vain for that holy Doctrine cannot possibly open a door to a licentious conversation because all such persons are baptized into Christ and buried with Christ by Baptism into death This I take to be the full sense of the text and the Proposition which I have delivered in the words of the text Let me now come to the Application of this discourse Instruct 1. This in the first place may by way of Instruction let us know That Baptism considered as to the action is a most solemn serious action and ought to be so looked upon both by the Administrator and by those who offer themselves or their children unto it and considered as an Ordinance of the Gospel is a most useful Institution I will dwell a little upon both these branches it being indeed my great design in this discourse to recover to this Ordinance the gravity and reverence that is due to it and to make my hearers a little better to understand the meaning and usefulness of it than the most of our people seem to do The truth is we are degenerated into such a careless slighty administration of this sacred Institution as if the Baptizing of a child were an action of no graver import than washing its face and an opportunity amongst the richer to call friends together for a banquet or amongst those of meaner rank to call the richer together to make them or their Midwives or Nurses some small presents Let me therefore evince to you 1. That it is a most serious Action 2. That it is a most useful Institution 1. That it is a most serious Action Two things in my former discourse will evince this 1. That in Baptism there is a solemn dedication of the person baptized unto Christ 2. That there is in it a solemn adstriction or stipulation or engagement of the party baptized unto Christ 1. I say first There is in it a solemn dedication of the person There is in Baptism a solemn dedication of the person baptized to God unto Christ If the person baptized be adult and grown up he or she dedicate themselves If they be baptized in their Infancy their Parents whose they are dedicate them unto Christ The grown person that offereth him or her self to Baptism doth in effect say Lord I am thy creature the work of thy hands I have degenerated and forgotten thee my maker other Lords have ruled over me I have been servant to Idols a servant to the Devil to the world to my own lusts But Lord I am weary of that service and from my heart renounce it I have heard that thou hast sent Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners I desire to look upon it as a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation Lord I do here accept it and of that thy way of salvation and do from my heart this day set my self apart unto thee and solemnly offer up my self unto thee I am Christs servant O Lord I am Christs servant believing that is he who hath loosed my bands Admitting a child to be baptized in its infancy then the parents dedicate it Give me leave to allude to that of Hannah 1 Sam. 1. 27 28. The good woman had been praying for a child v. 15. having obtained a child of the Lord v. 22. She names the child Samuel asked of God v. 22. She resolves when he was weaned to carry him that he might appear before the Lord and there abide for ever v. 26. she brings the child to the High-Priest Eli and saith Oh my Lord as thy soul liveth my Lord I am the woman that stood by thee praying unto the Lord For this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition I asked of him therefore also I have lent him to the Lord as long as he lives he shall be lent to the Lord. She meant it in a particular sense that she had dedicated him to the Priestly office But there is no parent that brings a child to Baptism but says in proportion thus unto God O Lord I am the person to whom thou hast given this child for it I prayed and thou hast given me the petition I asked of thee Therefore also I here dedicate him to thee O thou eternal Father To thee O
most dear and blessed Saviour To thee O most holy Spirit To the only living and true God! I here dedicate my child and my desire is that thou wouldst accept him that as long as he lives he may be the Lords Is not here now a most grave and solemn action requiring all our thoughtfulness seriousness gravity and attention imaginable Was the dedication of an house to God so serious an action that Solomon at it offered a sacrifice of 22000 Oxen and an 120000 Sheep and kept a feast seven days and then a solemn assembly Was the dedication of an Altar so solemn an action that it took seven days time 2 Chron. 7. 8 9. And can the dedication of a child a piece of our selves flesh of our flesh unto God be judged a slighty action so as that there needs no more than for parents without any praevious thoughts on the sudden to send for a Minister and he in great haste to read over two or three prayers and sprinkle water on it saying I baptize thee c. I wish this slighty kind of Administration of this sacred Ordinance flow not from that novel conceit of the necessity of Baptism to salvation or the certain effect of it upon all that shall not afterwards run on the score with God for the washing away of the guilt of Original sin Whatsoever it be which hath incouraged such hasty and perfunctory Administrations I am sure they no way sute the grave nature of this solemn Administration Dedications if they were of no more than wood and stone and other inanimate things were wont to be more serious actions and done in a more grave and serious manner 2. But there is in Baptism not only a solemn dedication of the A solemn ingagement of the Soul to God party baptized unto God but also a solemn adstriction or obligation of the person to God Circumcision of old was called Gods covenant in their flesh Gal. 17. 13. Baptism under the Gospel succeeds into its place It is Gods Covenant in our flesh We read in Scripture of three ways of making Covenants betwixt parties 1. By words only Thus God made a Covenant with Abraham saying I will be thy God and of thy seed 2. By words and a ceremony or sign Such a Covenant you read made of betwixt Jacob and Laban Gen. 31. 46. 3. By a Ceremony alone Thus the Masters boring through the ear of his servant with an Awl the servant submitting to it was a covenant though at the time the servant said nothing yet he was by that submission obliged to be his Masters servant for ever Thus with us the Soldiers taking Press-money or the Kings Colours is an actual obligation upon him to keep to the Kings service and subjects him to death if he deserts it Baptism is such a ceremony The person brought under it is by such submission actually engaged in the service of Christ no longer to live unto himself nor to dye unto himself but unto him who hath dyed for him the sign of whose blood he hath received in the sprinkling or pouring of water upon him The man or woman that is baptized doth in effect say Let the blood of Christ signified by this water be a witness against me let is be upon me for ever to confound me if I ever apostatize from the profession of the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Faith of Christ or wilfully and presumptuously live contrary to his law Is not this a most serious action think we Marriage is but a Covenant betwixt man and wife wherein God is no party but only called in as a witness in it the husband and wife mutually bind themselves each to other for the term of one of their natural lives yet it is a most grave and serious action I have always thought that the most of men and women trifle a great deal too much with that and should be much more grave and serious than they are and take many more serious thoughts before they give away themselves each to other and put themselves out of a power over their own bodies and that the cursed Atheistical lives of very many husbands and wives their discontents and breaches and the perverse spirit mixed betwixt them is but the effect and just punishment of men and womens hasty slighty and inconsiderate engagements in that Covenant this is a Covenant of another nature a Covenant betwixt the great God and the baptized person where God is not a witness only but a party Ought we not to be serious in such an action O let this mind you that hear me to bring your Children to Baptism and to attend the administration of it with much more gravity and seriousness of thoughts than is usual Believe me it is no light action to Dedicate a child to God not to covenant with God that your child shall be his servant for ever If afterward you direct it otherwise or shew it an example to the contrary or omit to instruct it and mind it of its duty and to call upon it for the performance of it or as much as in you lyeth to hinder it from the contrary the child shall perish for its Apostacy because the Oath of God was upon it but its blood shall also be required at your hands 2. But I told you that as the action is serious so the Institution The usefulness of Baptism is useful There are too many who slight this great Institution because they cannot understand the usefulness of it There are others that will make an usefulness of it beyond what I can find in holy Writ making it upon the work done to wash away the guilt of Original sin and to set the soul rectum in curia right in the Court of Heaven I cannot allow this but doubt not to evince to you That leaving this effect only to the blood of Christ sprinkled upon the conscience Baptism is a very useful thing and that upon a fourfold account 1. To repel temptations to sin and this as it is a pre-ingagement To repel temptations upon the soul It is an excuse you often put men off with in your converses with the world when you have no mind to meet or treat or converse with them you tell them you are pre-engaged you cannot meet with them or deal with them or be for them indeed you tell them you are pre-engaged thus you look often upon pre-engagements as very useful to you You have this from your Baptism to answer all tempters all temptations to sin be they from what tempters they will if Satan if your own lusts if the world sollicit you to Apostacy either from the profession of faith which you have made or from your practice of holiness When the Devil makes any such impressions upon your souls you can say to him Satan I am ingaged When the men of the world the sinful companions in it tempt you to cast in your lot with them you can say to
of baptized persons whole lives are but a continued apostacy God would be justified in it as Creator for your not living up to the law of your Creation but how much more when you have in Baptism dedicated your selves to him and made a solemn vow to be his servants Instruct 5. From hence you may observe That there is a great difference to be put betwixt persons baptized Some are Baptized with Water others not with water only but with the Holy Ghost also and with fire some have been baptized only with a Ministerial Baptism others have been baptized also with a true effectual spiritual Baptism some have been baptized in the name of Christ or into Christ only in a large sense others are baptized into Christ in a true spiritual and strict sense And this brings me to a second Use Vse 2. Which shall be of Enquiry Whether we be baptized into Jesus Christ yea or no Multitudes as you have heard have been baptized that in a true proper and spiritual sense have not been baptized into Christ But you will say how shall we ever satisfie our selves in this point I pray observe my text and the parallel text to it Gal. 3. 27. In that text you will find these words As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ In this text you have it As many of us as have been baptized into Christ are baptized into his death We are buried with Christ by baptism into death The phrases of the text I have fully opened but let me speak a word or two to the other phrase As many of us saith the Apostle as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ We meet with the phrase in other texts Rom. 13. 14. But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 4. 24. you read of putting on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and holiness and Col. 3. 10. you have a phrase much like it But put you on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and holiness and Ephes 6. 11. you read of putting on the whole armour of God Christ and his Graces in these texts seem to be set out to us under the notion of a garment Rev 6. 11. you read of white robes that were given to the Saints and chap. 7. 9. of a great multitude to whom were given white robes and palms St. John v. 13. asking what they were who were arrayed with white robes had answer That they were those who had washed their robes white in the blood of the lamb In some conformity to this God speaks Ezek. 16. 10. I girded thee about with fine linnen Now Rev. 19. 8. the fine linnen is the righteousness of the Saints not our own righteousness which is of the law but the righteousness which is of God even the righteousness which is of God through faith in Christ Phil. 3. 10. and the Church owns that her righteousness was as a menstruous cloth and as filthy rags but Jerem. 23. 6. he Christ is the Lord our righteousness So then to put on Christ is to put on the righteousness of Christ This is put on 1. For our Justification It is the Righteousness of God in the Gospel revealed from faith to faith that is spoken of Phil. 3. 10. 2. For our Sanctification not that we are to do nothing but as the Apostle speaks that we might be compleat in him and Rom. 8. 3. that the Righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit This now more generally but more particularly Doth any one ask me Sir how should I know whether I have put on Christ or no I answer 1. If thou hast put on Christ thou hast sometime before discerned thy soul to be naked It is Gods act to put us on Christ and what God doth of this nature is all in Charity He hath commanded us Luke 14. 13. When we make a feast to call the poor the maimed the lame and the blind not our rich neighbours v. 12. lest they bid us again and make us a recompence God will not be recompenced for his acts of grace he feeds the hungry and cloatheth the naked the rich he sends empty away The proud Pharisee is too well cloathed in his own opinion for the Lord to put him on Christ and his robes Again Though the putting on Christ be Gods act as to Imputation of Christs righteousness and the acceptation of us in the beloved yet it is also our Act in respect of the exercise of our faith no soul will wear the garment of another that hath a fit and decent one of his own we naturally scorn to be beholden to any God therefore first causeth the soul to see that it is naked and to complain of its nakedness then he putteth Christs robes upon it Did you ever discern that you were naked Were you ever truly sensible that you wanted a righteousness a garment of righteousness to appear in before God another day lest you at that day should walk naked and men and Angels should see your shame if you did not you may be confident that you never yet put on Christ nor were in a strict spiritual sense baptized into Christ 2. If you have put on Christ you have put on him alone The Children of God shall never stand before him another day in a parti-coloured coat Christs robes will not go over another garment nor be stitched together with our rags It is a piece of new cloth that must not cannot be sown to an old garment This is the Papists vanity they would stitch up their own works with the robes of Christs righteousness and both together shall make up a righteousness for them to appear before God The good Christian may be resembled to one of you Weavers who are hard at work all the week long but never put on a piece of your own making A good Christian is always hard at work and working the work of righteousness praying hearing fasting serving God in the works of his general calling and of his particular relation with his utmost diligence and faithfulness but when he hath done he saith Lord let not this be my clothing I dare not appear before thee in these things Lord put me on Christ help me to put on Christ Let me saith the Apostle Phil. 3. 9. be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith He that hath put on Christ saith as Esau to his Brother to all the Angels and Saints I have enough my brethren I have enough keep what you have unto your selves nay he saith to his own Soul I have been washed in Jordan I need not my own Abana and Parphar he will see a need of his own work as to salvation and the judicial discharge of him at the last day if men
these but so necessary that by it Original sin is certainly washed away and without it a child cannot be saved which is that which I call a groundless fancy if not a Relique of Popery It is true we have no certain time limited for Baptism To give you my opinion in the case The best argument we have for Infant-Baptism is the Analogy betwixt Circumcision and Baptism they being both seals of one and the same Covenant of grace which is not straitned under the Gospel-dispensation God prescribed the Eighth day as a certain time for Circumcision yet were not the Jews tyed to the eighth day under undue circumstances All the while the people were travelling in the Wilderness which was forty years there were no Children circumcised as you may read Josh 5. 5 7. I would fain know how Baptism is more necessary to the salvation of Christians than Circumcision was to the salvation of the Jewish Children I am sure they were both seals of the same Covenant the contempt of an Ordinance of God that is damnable but the omission of it under undue circumstances as suppose the sickness of the child c. is far from being so it may be our duty that the Ordinance of God may be more gravely and thoughtfully administred But from that Popish opinion of the absolute necessity of Baptism to salvation and the efficacy of it as a work done have risen many abuses and prophanations of this holy Ordinance of God Hence came up the practice of Midwives baptizing which held amongst us till King James his time hence the slighty and perfunctory administration of this Ordinance by too many at this day For my own part supposing other due circumstances to concur I should not omit the baptizing my child beyond the Eighth day Nor on the other side sear that if due circumstances did not concur the delaying of it longer But this is but a digression Let me beg of you that are Parents with all seriousness and gravity and due forethinking what you do to bring your Children to this most facred Institution Remember that in it you present your Children before the Lord you dedicate your Children unto the Lord. What a great action this is What gravity reverence seriousness deliberation is sufficient for such an action With what fear ought the Lord to be served in such an action 2. The second thing which I would call to you for shall be a faithfulness to your children whom you have so dedicated to God Your child knoweth not what is done unto it it knoweth not that it is baptized that it is so dedicated to Christ that such an Oath of the Lord is upon it it knoweth of no vow that it hath made no Covenant with God in which it is engaged you have brought it under this engagement If now you shall not tell the child its state what you have done as to it under what a Vow and Oath of God you have brought it but it shall give up it self to the service of the Devil and live contrary to its most solemn ingagements your child shall perish but shall not its blood be required at your hands When God fell upon Moses and had like to have killed him in the Inn for not circumcising his child it is said his wife Zipporah in a passion cut off the childs foreskin and threw it at Moses saying A bloody husband hast thou been to me because of the circumcision How many thousand children hereafter will throw the very coles of Hell at their Parents and say Ah! Bloody Fathers bloody Mothers have you been to us because of our Baptism you dedicated us to God when we were Children we lived with you ten twenty years and you never told us of it but let us run into those sins which have brought us into these flames you brought us under a solemn Vow and Covenant to God in our Baptism and never told us what you vowed or ingaged for us we never heard a word from you of our Baptismal vows if we had we should probably not have violated them as we have done Bloody damning Parents have you been to us Thus much shall serve for what I have to say to Parents Br. 2. I speak to you that are Children That which I have to say to you is Remember you have been baptized into Christ That you have been by your Parents dedicated to Christ and are under a vow to be his servants Remember that you have vowed the profession and defence of his truth the acceptance of him as your Lord and Saviour an adherence to him a living up to his law being baptized into his death and buried with him by baptism into death It may be some of your Parents never minded you of this I now tell you of it and indeed I have sometimes thought that one end of Gods instituting us Ministers hath been to supply the defects of Parents and Masters of families in this debaucht and declining age of the world Let all therefore hearken to me this day I suppose I speak to none but have been baptized into Christ in the larger sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And if so If your Parents have forgot to tell it you or neglected their duty I tell it you you are all dedicated unto Christ yea and God hath accepted you for he hath bidden us Go and baptize in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost We have baptized you in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost What follows hence You are sacred persons not sanctified in a spiritual sense but sacred in a ceremonial sense in which sense all the Jews were called an holy people and the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 7. 14. our children are not unclean but holy sanctified ceremonially externally ritually that is set a part for God sanctified as the Tabernacle the Temple the Vessels of the Temple under the law were sanctified I tell you again that you are under a Vow and Covenant to own the profession of Christ and to defend it to accept of Christ as the Saviour of the World as your Saviour in particular to commit all your spiritual concerns unto him to live to Christ not to lusts not to the world as to these things you were buried with Christ by baptism into death Do not think to evade this by saying it was none of your own act your parents did it you did it not It is in the power of parents to ingage you in a debt by the laws of men to which all the estate you inherit by them shall be lyable for payment though there be no antecedaneous obligation upon you from the law of God to pay such debts It is in your parents power to dispose of you in Marriage in your Nonage and before God you will be bound when of age so to dispose of your selves unless you can give a sufficient reason to the contrary As to God it is in your parents power to render you obnoxious to his wrath and justice so as for their sins you shall answer as far as your lives and estates go though indeed they cannot withour a guilt of your own subject you to the eternal wrath of God your prrents have as to this dedicated you to God to be his servants they have brought you under the Vow and Oath of God to be his servants to own profess and defend his Gospel and the truths of it to accept of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the World as your Saviour and spiritual husband to live unto him in disclaiming the service of lusts and of the world Take heed now of Sacriledge Perjury and Apostacy A loose leud life contrary to the Gospel brings you under all this guilt and subjecteth you by the righteous God to be dealt withall as sacrilegious persons who being holy have stollen away your selves from the service of God and robbed God of his right as false and perjured persons who have sworn your selves unto God and have violated the Oath of God upon you As Apostatized persons who have put your hands to the Lords plow and have drawn it back again There is yet a time for you to repent and to remember the kindness of your youth and the love of your Espousals O neglect it not To day while it is called to day harden not your hearts through Impenitency nourish not unbelief in your Souls Return you Shulamites return Remember from whence you are fallen and how the Oath of God presseth you Let no baptized person go down to the pit that will but add oyl to the fire that shall never go out It will be more tolerable for an unbaptized Turk or Indian than for a baptized Christian in the day of judgment if he stands at the Judges left hand in that day Br. 3. Lastly I speak to you all Men Brethren and Fathers 1. Labour to see your selves baptized into Christ you are all baptized in the name of Christ but rest not here Give your Souls no rest until you find that you are baptized into Christ that you have put on Christ how you may know that I have shewed you that you are concerned in it will appear from the insignificancy as to your eternal state of Water-Baptism O think not that the pouring or spirinkling of a little water upon your face can wash away the sin of the soul Beg of God that you may be born again of water and of the spirit without which our Lord hath told you you can never enter into the Kingdom of God that you may be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire burning up the dregs and dross of lusts and corruptions which Water-Baptism leaveth in every soul Nay remember your Water-Baptism without this will be but as the Water of jealousie to the guilty woman as Gods water of Witness the more to confound your souls to all eternity 2. Let all persons reflect on their Baptism Let the unconverted reflect upon it and study it to ingage them to faith and repentance because of their Oath and ingagement in Baptism to do it Let the converted reflect upon it and fetch strength from it more to dye unto sin and to live unto righteousness remembring they were baptized into Christ baptized into his death and buried with him by baptism into death But this is enough to have spoken on this argument God give his blessing FINIS