man subjecting himself as it were, to bestow certain blessings on us, provided we perform certain conditions. But though, in this covenant, the promises, made on his part, flow from his own free goodness, yet the terms, required on ours, are matter of necessary obligation: and what was altogether voluntary in him, firmly binds us*.

Now the privileges, thus conditionally secured to us in baptism, we find in our catechism very fitly reduced to these three heads: that the person, who receives it, is therein made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

I. The first, and foundation of the others, is, that he is made a member of Christ. This figure of speech all of you may not immediately understand: but when it is understood, you will perceive in it great strength and beauty. It presupposes, what we must be sensible of, more or less, that we are every one originally prone to sin, and actually sinners; liable thence to punishment; and without hope of preserving ourselves, by our own strength, either from guilt or from misery. It further implies, what the Scripture clearly teaches, that Jesus Christ hath delivered us from both, in such manner as shall hereafter be explained to you, on the most equitable terms of our becoming his, by accepting him from the hand of God for our Saviour, our Teacher, and our Lord. This union to him, in order to receive these benefits from him, our catechism, in conformity with the language of holy writ, compares with that of the members of the body to the head. And how proper the comparison is, will easily appear, by carrying it through the several particulars, in which the similitude holds.

See Waterland's Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist, c. xi.

As, in every living creature, perception and motion proceed from the head; so, to every Christian, knowledge of God's will, and power to obey it, flow from Christ. As the head governs and directs each limb, so Christ is the sovereign and law-giver of each believer. As being joined to the head makes the whole body one animal frame, so being joined to Christ makes the whole number of Christians one spiritual society. As communication with the head preserves our natural life: so communion with Christ supports our religious life. He therefore is to the church what the head is to the body: and each person who belongs to the church, is a member of that body, or, in the language of the catechism, a member of Christ. For he, as St. Paul expresses it, is the head: from which all the body, having nourishment ministered, and knit together by joints and bands, increaseth with the increase of God *.

And this manner of speaking is frequently repeated in Scripture, as it well deserves; being not only, as you have seen, admirably fitted to represent the happy relations, in which we stand to our Redeemer, but also to remind us of the duties, which are derived from them: of the honour and obedience due to him, who is head over all things to his body, the churcht; of our continual dependence on him, since he is our life: and of the tenderness and kindness, which we owe to our fellow-Christians, and they to us, being all united, through him, so intimately to each other. For since, as the Apostle argues, by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body: as, in the natural body, the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor any one member to the rest, I have no need of

you; but

• Col. ii. 19.

VOL. VI.

† Eph. i. 22, 23.

C

+ Col. iii. 4.

even the more feeble and less honourable members are necessary*: so in the spiritual body, they, who in any respect may seem to excel others, ought by no means to despise them; since every good Christian is, in his proper degree and place, both a valuable and an useful member of Christ. And again: as in the natural body there is a connection and sympathy of the several parts; by which the good state of one preserves the others in health and ease, or its bad state gives them pain and disorder: so should there be in the spiritual body, and there is in all true mem→ bers of it, a natural caution not to do harm to each other, and a mutual desire of each other's benefit. If one member suffer, all the other members should, by a compassionate temper, suffer with it: and if one member be honoured, all the rest should sincerely rejoice with itt. Think then, do you feel in your hearts this good disposition, as a mark of being members of Christ? If not, study to form yourselves to it without delay.

2. The second privilege of baptism is, that by it we are made the children of God, in a sense and manner, in which by nature we are not so.

Our blessed Saviour indeed is called in Scripture the only begotten Son of God. Nor can the highest of creatures claim God for his father by the same right, that he doth. But in a lower sense, God is the father of angels and men; whom he hath created in their several degrees of likeness to his own image. Adam, our first parent, was the son of God by a strong resemblance to his heavenly Father, in original uprightness. But as this similitude was greatly obscured both in him and his descendants by the fall, though preserved by the covenant of the pro* 1 Cor, xii. 13. 21, 22, 23. + 1 Cor. xii. 26.

mised seed from being utterly effaced; so in time it was almost entirely lost among men, by the prevalence of sin; and they became in general enemies of God*, and children of the devil.

But our gracious Maker, pitying us notwithstanding, and treating us like children, even when thus degenerated, hath mercifully appointed a method for adopting us into his family again, after we have cast ourselves out of it; and for restoring and raising us gradually to the same and greater likeness to him and favour with him, than even our first parents ever enjoyed. Now this inestimable blessing was procured for mankind through the means of Jesus Christ; and we become entitled to it by taking him for our head, and becoming his members, in such manner as you have heard briefly explained. For to as many as receive him, to them giveth he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name. Being therefore thus united to him, who is in the highest sense the Son of God; and claiming not in our own name, but under him: we are admitted again into such a degree of sonship as we are capable of; and made the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus §.

Indeed not only Christians, but the Jews, are called in Scripture the children of God; and such they really were; being first, as Christians were afterwards, the children of his covenant¶. But still, as theirs was a state of less knowledge, more burthensome precepts, and stricter government; the Apostle speaks of them compared with us, only as servants in his family. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, ‡ John i. 12.

* Rom v. 10. Col. i. 21. Gal. iii. 26.

+ 1 John iii. 10.

though he be lord of all. Even so we, speaking of the Jewish nation, when we were children, unqualified for any great degrees of liberty, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, to redeem them that were under the law. Wherefore we are no more servants but sons*. Behold then, as St. John expresses it, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, in this distinguished sense, the sons of God; especially considering the consequence drawn by St. Paul, if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ: which is the

3. Third and last privilege of baptism, and completes the value of it, that by entering into the Christian covenant we are made inheritors of the kingdom of heaven; that is, entitled to perfect and endless happiness in body and soul. Had we continued in the primitive uprightness of our first parents, and never sinned at all, we could have had no claim, but from God's free promise, to any thing more, than that our being should not be worse to us than not being. But as we are originally depraved, and have actually sinned, far from having any claim to happiness, we are liable to just punishment for And least of all could we have any claim to such happiness, as eternal life and glory. But blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: who of his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope; to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us §.

ever.

These then are the privileges of the Christian

• Gal. iv. 1. 3. 4. 7.

Rom. vii. 17.

+ 1 John iii. 1.

§ 1 Pet. i. 3, 4.