IV.

CHAP. ney from one, who expects fome Intereft and Return fuitable to the other's Opportunity of employing the Principal; and it is well known, that it is in his Power to make that Return to his Benefactor, and as well known that he is obliged in Reafon fo to do: Yet, after that Obligation has acquired new Force and ftronger Influence, by being plainly entered and particularly specified in a Bond and Covenant, and he has as good as fet his Hand and Seal to it, and delivered it as his Alt and Deed, is there not evidently by that Means, a greater Security for Performance contracted by, and upon all, who think of that Bond and Engagement? And is not this, almoft, the exact Cafe of Baptifm, and its Stipulation, in Conjunction with its Suppletory Confirmation, as with moft Chriftians?

THUS, as Circumcifion, which, according to the univerfal Opinion of its Ufe, was a folemn Rite of obliging to all Things in the Law of Mofes (couching under it the fpiritual Circumcifion of the Heart from the Lufts of the Flefh, &c.) left a Character upon the Flefh, being a visible Seal of that Temporary Covenant: So the other be ing no lefs a folemn Rite of obliging to all Things in the new and better Covenant, leaves its invifible Character, and lafting Impreffion upon the Soul and Mind, in Allufion to the other, called the Circumcifion of the Heart; for acquitting ourfelves, bona fide, of the religious Obligations lying upon us.

THE pofitive Law of Baptifm obliges us now, therefore, upon a double Tie of two immutable Things; 1. That natural Law of standing to one's Covenant and Engagement: 2. Our Obli

gation

IV.

gation to obey the revealed Will of Heaven, CHAP. where and when we know it to be a true Revelation; and that it plainly requires fuch a Method of Compliance from us, and for our Good only. Should any Revelation pretending to come from thence, offer to bind us generally to break any of the plain Laws of Nature, it would be a plain Impofture to our. Reafon; because one Truth cannot contradict another Truth: And we are in the first Place fure and certain, that the Laws of Nature came from the Maker of Heaven and Earth, and are neceffarily true; whilst the pofitive Law from thence, for reftoring us to Obedience to the other, through the Knowledge of the Mediator, is of later Date; and if it contradicts any previous moral Obligation must be neceffarily falfe. But when we confider the inftituted Part of Religion as grounded alfo in the Moral, i. e. in that which is fecondarily good and moral, not merely in Virtue of its being commanded, but because it is moreover fubfervient to advance and perfect the natural Religion of the End, and of the Means, which refult from the Relations, and from the peccant Condition we ftand in by Nature; how ferviceable, how facred is the inftituted Part of Christianity to the degenerate State of Man? How beneficial and good a Thing is Baptifm?

IT is very expreffive of the original Signification of the Roman Sacramentum*, military Oaths of

As foon as they lifted, they fwore they would obey the Conful, and not to for any where without his exprefs Permiffion: When they took their Rank in the Corps in which they were to ferve, they fwore they would not quit their Rank, but to charge their Enemy, and not return without conquer

CHAP. of Fidelity, to be true to their Colours and their IV. leading Officer; to fhew Valour against the Ene

my; and Justice to all the World. And whereas we are fo formed by Nature, as to be most strongly affected with visible Symbols, and fenfibly impreffed by outward Forms; the Water fymbolically expreffes, by immerfing into it, the Death of Christ, or being baptized into his Death *; emerfing out of it, his Refurrection, and our Rifing with him unto Righteoufness: The Refurrection of the Body, feems alfo to be con-noted and confided in; that as Sin was the Occafion of its Mortality, our dying to that will give Life to the other; and become the Ground of our glorifying God in our Body, as well as Spirit. Wafbing, Sprinkling, cleanfing, emphatically fignifies, and con-notes, That the inward Man is to be washed, the Confcience fprinkled or cleansed from the Guilt of Sin, and from the Foulness of a troubled Mind, by the Blood of cleansing, just as our Bodies are by the Water.

AND as thofe are the vifible Properties of Water, in rerum natura, they are feverally adopted to fignify ex inftituto divino, to witness, to pledge, to point out, to print upon the Mind the other invifible Effect and Impreffion intended to be left upon us. It is accordingly declared, that Chrift gave himself [to Death] for the Church, that he might fanctify and cleanfe it with the wafhing of Water by the Word [of Truth,] able to

ing: As foon as they were encamped, they fwore to do no Injustice to any one, either in the Camp, or within a Mile round it. And were not these Oaths, fo fimilar to the Chriftians Vows, the very Cause and Foundation of the Victories, and Succeffes of that People?

↑ Rom. vi. 3.

cleanfe

deanse and fanctify, as God's only Method of CHAP. remitting Sins by the Mediator; collected there- IV. fore into a Compendium, or folemn Form at Baptifm, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. To enable the better to produce that cleanfing Effect ever after upon us, we are fo folemnly initiated and dedicated by the Water, and by the Word: Which Word being from the Holy Ghost, makes the new Birth of Water, and of the Spirit, indifpenfibly neceffary to Entrance into the Kingdom of God; that he might prefent it to bimfelf a glorious Church, not having Spot or Wrinkle, &c. t; for which Reason, we are exhorted after Baptifm, to draw near with a true Heart, in full Aurance of Faith, having our Hearts fprinkled from an evil Confcience, and our Bodies washed with pure Water t. But when and where the correfponding Effect answering to the outward and visible Sign of Water, and to the audible Form of Words, appropriated to that Occafion, viz. a clean Confcience, judiciously tranflated the Anfwer, or Stipulation, of a good Confcience towards God, does not follow and fhew itfelf; we are told Baptifm does not fave us ; and confequently, where it does follow, that it will fave us; being the Method of God in feveral Scriptures of his Word, for entering us into Covenant with himself, through the Mediator, for Remiffion of Sin, Adoption, Accefs unto God, Affiftance of the Spirit, and every Help, Motive, and Favour that can nourish us up to the Felicities of eternal Life.

THUS the outward and visible Sign, and Form in Baptifm, the Seal of Adoption, and *John iii. 5. called the washing of Regeneration, by the renewal of the Holy Ghoft. Tit. iii. 5.

+ Eph. v. 26, 27. VOL, I.

+ Heb. x, 22.

K

1Pet. iii. 7.

Righteousness

IV.

CHAP. Righteoufnefs of Faith, (as was the Circumcifion of Abraham) have a folemn moral Operation in caufing in us the Effect that fhould always, but fometimes does not, follow, the inward and fpiritual Grace, (the Soul's Covenant-State of Favour with God, as a Means whereby we receive the fame, and a Pledge to affure us thereof) to affure us of the Death unto Sin, and new Birth unto Righteousness, incumbent upon our Engagements, begun and first born in that Ordinance, to grow up and advance forward to Maturity all the Days of our Life.

AND as there can be but one Birth, or first Beginning of a Thing, one folemn Entry or taking upon us to be his Difciples; that Engagement may nevertheless be often revifed, and folemnly recognized in drinking the Cup or Blood of the New Covenant in the Lord's-Supper; therefore is there but one Baptifm, the one only Way wherein our Mediator would have our Chriftian Calling begin, as there is but one Lord, through whofe Rule over, and Interceffion for us, there is Remiffion of Sins, &c. and one Faith, i. e. that he the one Lord, and he only, is the one Mediator between God and Man, in Oppofition to the many Faiths among the Heathens, concerning this or that feigned Perfon, being the trueft or beft Mediator.

FROM that folemn Initiation into a new Relation, then taking a lafting Name upon us, this fignifying, that we fhould be as ready to give a Reafon of the Hope that is in us in the main. Points of Belief, as to tell our Name; with refpect to ferving and pleafing God, old Things pass away, and all Things become a new State,

confifting