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together, and declar'd to be perpetually united, • ὅσοι ἐβαπτίθημεν. All of us who were baptized

into

See Coloff ch
2. 12, 13.
ch. 3.1-4.

See Rom. 8. 16.

See 2Cor. ch. 3. 6.

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ing any Thing alive, or have any fecret View to efteem, I am not dead with Chrift, I am not in a Condition to rife with him.

''Tis only when we have known a putting off the wicked and corrupt Life of the Old Man, that we enter into the Life of the New-Man. Every Thing muft die, Delights, Comforts, Repofe, ten ler Friendship, Honour, Repu tation; but all will be reftor'd again an Hundred Fold, but we must first die to All, we muft facrifice All. When every Thing in us is loft, we fhall find All again in God. That which we had in us in the corrupt State of the Old• Min, fhall be reftor'd us with the Purity of the New, as Metals caft into the Fire, lofe not their pure Subftance, but are refin'd from their Drofs. Then, O my God, the fame Spirit which groans and prays in us, will love in us 'more perfectly. O how much more great, more tender, and more generous will our Hearts be then! Our Love will not be that of weak and feeble Creatures, and of close and narrow Souls; Infinite Love will then love in us, our Love will bear the Likeness of God.

This is the Expofition, these are the Sentiments of the Arch. Bishop of Cambray; Sentim nts which glow with the Spirit with which they were pen'd. This is not the Speculation of a dry Com mentator: 'Tis not dwelling on the Letter which killeth, but like a Minifter of the New Testament, 'tis entring into the Spirit of it, which giveth Life. 'Tis the Senfe of one who had felt and experienc'd what he writ; one that fuffer'd his Honour and Reputation to be trampl'd upon, and himself to be banish'd from the Delights, Comforts, Repofe and tender Friendship be enjoy'd in the Court of France, for the Sake of Truth; and for defending the Religious Sentiments of a Fanatical Lady, as the Bishop of Meaux, his and her great Adverfary, call'd the LadyGuion, whofe Writings he would have had the Archbishop to contemn, but he would not, because he found in them the true Spirit of Chriftianity, tho' fome of her Expreffions might be liable to Exception.

How agreeable is the Expofition which the Bishop of Cambray has given of the Baptifm by which we are buried with Chrift, to the Doctrine of the Apoftle in his Epiftle to the Coloffians; and to the following Words of Chrift? Verily I fay unto you, there is no Man that bath left House or Brethren,

or

⚫ into one, were baptiz'd into the other. Not < only into the Name of Chrift, but into his • Death

or Sifters, or Father, or Mother, or Wife or Children, or Lands for my Sake and the Gospel's, but he fhall receive an Hundred Fold, now in this Time, Houses, and Brethren, and Sifters, and Mothers, and Children, and Lands, with Perfecutions; and in the World to come Eternal Life. Mark x. 29.

For the greater Satisfaction of the Reader who understands French, we have tranfcrib'd the Bishop's own Words, which require a Genius like bis, to give them the fame Force and Energy in a Tranflation as they have in the Original.

Que fignifie donc fe Batême par lequel, comme l'Apotre nous l'affure, nous avons été tous enfvelis avec Fefus Chrift Rom.6. 4 C par fa mort? Où eft-elle, cette mort, que le caractère de • Chrétien doit operer en nous? Où eft-elle cette Sepul

ture? Helas! Je veux paroître, être aprouvé, aimé, dif⚫ tingué! Je veux ocuper mon prochain, poffeder fon · coeur, me faire une Idole de la Reputation & de l'Amitié ! • Derober à Dieu l'encens groffier qui brûle fur fes Autels • n'eft rien en comparison du larcin facrilege d'une ame qui • veut enlever ce qui eft dû a Dieu, & se faire l'idole des · autres creatures.

Il en eft, ô Seigneur, de la Reputation comme de l'a• mitié: donnez otez felon vos déffeins : qué cette reputation, plus chere que la vie, devienne comme un linge fali: fi vous y trouver votre gloire, qu'on paffe qu'on repaffe fur • moi comme fur les morts qui font dans le tombeau; qu'on ne me compte pour rien; qu'on ait horreur de moi ; qu'on · ne m'épargne en rien, tout eft bon s'il me refte encore quelque fenfibilité volontaire, quelque vue fecrette fur la réputation, je ne fuis point mort avec fefus Chrift, & je C ne fuis point en état d'entrer dans fa vie reflufciteé.

• Ce n'eft qu'après l'extirpation de la vie maligne & corrompue du viel-homme que nous paffons dans la vie de • l'homme nouveau. Il faut que tout meure, douceurs, • confolations, repos, tendres amitiés, honneur, reputati on tout nous fera rendu au centuple; mais il faut que tout meure, que tout foit facrifié Quand nous aurons tout · perdu en nous, nous retrouverons tout en Dieu. Ce que nous avions en nous avec l'impureté du veil-homme, nous fera rendu avec la pureté de l'homme renouvellé, comme les métaux mis au feu ne perdent point leur pure fubflance,

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• Death alfo : But the Meaning of this as it is explained in the following Words of St. Paul, • makes much for our Purpose: For to be bap⚫tiz'd into his Death, fignifies to be buried with him in Baptifm, that as Christ arofe from the Dead, we alfo fhould walk in Newness of Life. ver. 4. • That's the full Mystery of Baptifm; for being baptiz'd into his Death, or which is all one in • the next Words, ἐν ὁμοιώ μαζι τι θενά κ αυτέ into • the Likeness of his Death, cannot go alone, if we be fo planted into Christ, we shall be Partners of • bis Refurrection. ver. 5. and that is not here instanced in precife Reward, but in exalt Duty, for ⚫ all this is nothing but Crucifixion of the Old Man, a destroying the Body of Sin, that we no longer Serve Sin.

THIS indeed is truly to be baptized both in the Symbol, and the Mystery: Whatsoever is lefs than this, is but the Symbol only, a meer Ceremony, an Opus Operatum, a Dead Letter, an Empty Shadow, an Inftrument without an AC gent to manage, or Force to actuate it.

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PLAINER yet; Whosoever are baptized into • Chrift, have put on Christ, have put on the New Man: But to put on this New Man, is to be formed in Righteoufnefs, and Holiness, and Truth: This whole Argument is the very Words of St. • Paul, The major Propofition is dogmatically determined, Gal. iii. 27. The minor in Eph. 4. 24

• The

• mais font purifiés de ce qu'ils ont de groffier: Alors, mon Dieu, le même efprit, qui gemit & qui prie en nous, aimera en nous plus parfaitement. Combien nos cœurs fe⚫ront ils plus grands, plus tendres, & plus genéreux ? Nous ⚫ n'aimerons plus en foibles créatures, & d'un cœur refferré • dans d'étroites bornes. l'Amour infini aimera en nous, notre Amour portera le caractère de Diu même. Ocuvres Spirituelles, Tom. 2.

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The Conclufion then is obvious, that they who are not formed New in Righteousness, and Holinefs, and Truth, they who remaining in the fent Incapacities, cannot walk in Newness of Life, they have not been baptized into Chrift, and then they have but one Member of the Distinction ufed by St. Peter, they have that Baptifm which is a putting away the Filth of the Flesh; but they have not that Baptifm which is the Anfwer of a good Confcience towards God; which is the Only Baptifm that faves us. 1 Pet. i. 21. And this is the Cafe of Children; and then the Cafe is thus,

As Infants by the Force of Nature cannot put themselves into a fupernatural Condition, (and therefore fay the Pado-Baptifts, they need Baptifm to put them into it,) fo if they be baptized before the Ufe of Reafon, before the • Works of the Spirit, before the Operations of Grace, before they can throw off the Works of Darkness, and live in Righteousness and Newness of Life, they are never the nearer. From the Pains of Hell they fhall be faved by the Mercies of God and their own Innocence, though they die in puris naturalibus, and Baptifm will carry them no farther. For that Baptifm that faves us, is not the only washing with Water, of which only Children are capable, but the Anfwer of a good Confcience towards God, of which they are not capable till the Ufe of Reafon, till they ⚫ know to chufe the good and refuse the Evil.

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AND, to fay that Infants may be damn'd for want of Baptifm, (a Thing which is not in their Power to acquire, they being Perfons not yet capable of a Law) is to affirm that of God which we dare not fay of any Wife and good • Man. Certainly it is much derogatory to God's Р

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• Justice

Joh. 6.33.

51.

6

Juftice, and a plain Defiance to the infinite Reputation of his Goodness.

AND therefore, whoever will pertinaciously perfift in this Opinion of the Pado-Baptifts, and practise it accordingly, they pollute the Blood of the Everlafting Teftament, they difhonour and make a Pageantry of the Sacrament, they ineffectually reprefent a Sepulture into the Death of Chrift, and please themselves in a Sign without Effect, making Baptifm like the Fig-tree in the Gofpel, full of Leaves but no Fruit ; and they invocate the Holy Ghost in vain, * Doing as if one should call upon him to illumi'nate a Stone or a Tree.

HERE We have the true Baptifm defcrib'd, the Baptifm of theSpirit, by which we are bury'd with Chrift, and rife again to Newness of Life, those who have been thus baptiz'd, are fit to partake of the Lord's Supper, not of a Wafer or Bread confecrated by a Priest, but of that Bread, which is He that cometh down from Heaven, aud giveth Life unto the World; of that Living Bread of which Chrift faid, if a Man eat of this Bread be fball live for Ever, or of that Daily Bread which Chrift taught his Disciples to pray for, in that moft excellent and comprehenfive Prayer often repeated

*Give thy Holy Spirit to this Infant, that He may be born again, and be made an Heir of EverlaftingSalvation, ⚫ through our Lord Jeius Chrift, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, Amen. And, Regard, we beseech thee, the Supplication of thy • Congregation; fanctifie this Water to the myftical Washing away of Sin; And grant that this Child, now to be baptiz'd therein, may receive the Fulness of thy Grace, and < ever remain iu the Number of thy faithful and Elect Children, through Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen. See the Book of Common Prayer, Publick Baptifm of Infants.

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