quire it to be faid abfolutely, that the facraments are two only; but two only neceffary to falvation: leaving perfons at liberty to comprehend more things under the name, if they pleafe, provided they infift not on the neceffity of them, andof dignifying them with this title. And even these two, our church very charitably teaches us not to look upon as indifpenfably, but as generally neceffary. Out of which general neceffity, we are to except those particular cafes, where believers in Chrift, either have not the means of performing their duty in respect to the facraments, or are innocently ignorant of it, or even excufably mistaken about it. In explaining the facrament of baptism, I shall speak, first of the outward and visible fign, then of the inward and spiritual grace. As to the former; Baptifm being intended for the fign and means of our purification from fin; water, the proper element for purifying and cleansing, is appointed to be used in it. There is indeed a fect, fprung up amongst us within a little more than an hundred years, that deny this appointment: and make the Christian Baptism fignify only the pouring out of the gift of the Holy Ghoft upon a perfon. But our Saviour expressly requires that we be born of water, as well as of the Spirit, to enter into the kingdom of God*. And not only John, his forerunner, baptized with water, but his disciples also, by his direction, baptized in the fame maaner, even more than John‡. When therefore he bade them afterwards teach all nations, baptizing them §: what baptifm could they understand, but that, in which he had employed them before? And accordingly, we find they did understand that, Philip, we read, baptized the Samaritans ||: not with the Holy Ghoft; for the apostles went down fome time after to do that themselves ¶: but with water undoubtedly, as we find in the fame chapter, he did the Eunuch: where the words are, Here is water: what doth hinder me to be baptized? And they went down to the water: and he baptifed him. Again, after Cornelius, and his friends, had received the Holy Ghoft, and fo were already baptized in that fenfe, Peter afks, Can any man forbid water, 3 P VOL. IV. * John iii. 5. ५ that § Mat. xxviii. 19. John iv. I, 2. ¶ Ver. 14, &c. Ver. 36 38. + Mat. iii. 11. | Acts viii. 12. that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghoft, as well as we *? When therefore John says, that be -baptized with water, but Chrift shall baptize with the Holy Ghost; he means, not that Christians should not be baptized with water, but that they should have the Holy Ghost pouredout upon them also, in a degree that John's disciples had not. When St Peter fays, The baptifm which faveth us, is not the washing away the filth of the fleft; he means, it is not the mere outward act, unaccompanied by a fuitable inward difpofition. When St Paul fays, that Chrift fent him not to baptize, but to preach the gospel§; he means, that preaching was the principal thing he was to do in person: to baptize, he might appoint others under him; and it feems, commonly did : as St Peter did not baptize Cornelius and his friends himself, but commanded them to be baptized ||; and we read in St John, that Fefus baptized not, but his disciples ¶. Water-baptism therefore is appointed. And why the Church of Rome should not think water fufficient in baptism, but aim at mending what our Saviour hath directed, by mixing oil and balfam with it, and dipping a lighted torch into it, I leave them to explain. The precife manner in which water shall be applied in baptism, fcripture hath not determined. For the word, baptize, means only to wash: whether that be done by plunging a thing under water, or pouring the water upon it. The former of these; burying, as it were, the person baptized, in the water and raising him out of it again, without question was anciently the more ufual method: on account of which, St Paul speaks of baptifm, as reprefenting both the death, and burial, and refurrection of Chrift, and what is grounded on them, our being dead and buried to fin; renouncing it, and being acquitted of it; and our rifing again, to walk in newness of life *; being both obliged and enabled to practise, for the future, every duty of piety and virtue. But ftill, the other manner of washing, by pouring or fprinkling of water, fufficiently expreffes, the fame two things: our being by this ordinance purified from the guilt of fin, and bound and qualified to keep our felves pure from the defilement of it. Befides, it very natu rally reprefents that fprinkling of the blood of Jefus Chrift*, to which our falvation is owing. And the use of it seems not only to be foretold by the Prophet Ifaiah, speaking of our Saviour, He fhall fprinkle many nations †, that is, many shall receive his baptism; and by the Prophet Ezekiel, Then will I Sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean ‡: but to be had in view alfo by the apostle, where he speaks of having our bearts Sprinkled from an evil confcience, and our bodies wafhed with pure water §. And though it was lefs frequently used in the first ages, it must almost of neceffity have been fometimes ufed: for inftance, when baptifm was adminiftered, as we read in the Acts it was, to several thousands at once ||; when it was administered on a fudden in private houses, as we find it, in the fame book, to the goaler and all his family, the very night in which they were converted ¶: or when fick perfons received it; in which laft cafe, the present method was always taken, because the other of dipping them, might have been dangerous. And from the fame apprehenfion of danger in these colder countries, pouring the water is allowed, even when the perfon baptized is in health. And the particular manner being left at liberty, that is now universally chofen, which is looked on as fafer: because, were there more to be faid for the other than there is, God will have mercy, and not facrifice But washing with water is not the whole outward part of this facrament. For our Saviour commanded his apostles, not only to baptize all nations, but to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost +. Sometimes indeed the fcripture speaks of baptifm, as if it were ad ministered only in the Name of the Lord Jefus ++. But it fully appears, that the Name of the Holy Ghoft, was used at the fame time: and therefore that of the Father, fure. Now, being baptized in the Name of these fignify, being baptized by virtue of their authority. But the exacter tranflation is, into the Name: and the fuller import of the expreffion is, by this folemn action taking upon us their name; (for fervants are known by the name of their 1 Pet. i. 2. || Acts ii. 41. 3 P 2 † Ifa. lii. 15. Acts xvi. 33. Ezek. xxxvi. 25. * we may be three may Master) Heb. x. 22 Hof. vi. 6. Mat. ix. 13. xii. 7. ++ Acts ii. 38. x. 48. xix. 5. Mafter) and profeffing ourselves devoted to the faith, and worship, and obedience of these three; our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier. In this profeffion, the whole of Chriftianity is briefly comprehended, and on this foundation therefore the ancient Creeds are all built. The fecond and principal thing in baptism, the inward and fpiritual grace, is faid in the catechifm to be, a death unto fin, and a new birth unto righteousness: for that being by nature born in fin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace. The former part of thefe words refers to the old cuftom of baptizing by dipping, juft now mentioned: and the meaning of the whole is this. Our firft parents having, by disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit, corrupted their own nature; ours, being derived from them, received of neceffity an original taint of the fame diforder: and therefore coming into the world under the ill effects of their fin; and being, from the time of our entering into it, prone to fin ourfelves we are faid to be born in fin. And they having alfo, by the same difobedience, forfeited their immortality; we, as defcending from them, became mortal of course; and inheriting by way of natural confequence, what they fuffered as a mark of God's wrath; we, 'their children, are faid to be children of wrath. Not that God, with whatever difapprobation he muft view our native depravity, is, or, properly fpeaking, can be angry with us perfonally, for what was not our perfonal fault. But he might undoubtedly both refufe us that immortality, which our first parents, had forfeited, and to which we have no right; and leave us without help, to the poor degree of ftrength that remained to us in our fallen condition; the effect of which must have been, that had we done our beft, as we were intitled to no reward from his juftice, fo it had been fuch a nothing, that we could have hoped for little, if any, from his bounty and had we not done our beft, as no man hath, we had no affurance, that even repentance would fecure us from punishment. But what in ftrict juftice he might have done, in his infinite goodnefs he hath not done. For the first covenant being broken by Adam, he hath entered into a new one with mankind, thro' Jefus Chrift: in which he hath promised to free us, both from the mortality, which our firft parents had brought upon us, by reftoring us to life again, and from the inability, by the powerful 4 powerful affiftance of his Holy Spirit. Nay, further yet, he hath promifed, (and without it the reft would have been of fmall ufe) that should we, notwithstanding his affiftance, fail in our duty, when we might have performed it; as we have all failed, and made ourselves, by that means, children of wrath, in the ftricteft and worft fenfe yet, on moft equitable terms, he would fill receive us to mercy anew. And thus the Chrif tian covenant, delivering us, if we are faithful to it, from every thing we had to fear, and beftowing on us every thing we could hope, brings us into a state so unspeakably different from our former; that it is juftly expreffed by being dead to that, and born into another. And this new birth being effected by the grace or goodness of God, external and internal, we, the children of it, are properly called the children of grace. Now baptifm is not only a fign of this grace; (as indeed it fignifies very naturally the washing off both of our original corruption, and our actual guilt) but the appointed way of entering into the covenant that entitles us to fuch grace; the means whereby we receive the fame, and a pledge to affure us thereof. Indeed the mere outward act of being baptized is, as St Peter, in the words already mentioned, very truly expreffes it, the mere putting away of the filth of the flesh; unless it be made effectual to fave us, as he teaches in the fame place it muft, by the answer of a good confcience towards God: that is, by the fincere ftipulation and engagement of repentance, whereby we forfake fin; and faith, whereby we believe the promifes of God, made to us in that facrament. For it is impofsible that he should forgive us our paft fins, unless we are forry for them, and refolved to quit them and it is as impoffible that we should quit them effectually, unless a firm perfuafion of his helping and rewarding us excite and fupport our endeavours. These two things therefore we fee our catechifm justly mentions as neceffary, in answer to the queftion, What is required of perfons to be baptized? Both have been explained in their proper place, and therefore I enlarge on neither here. But hence arifes immediately another queftion: If thefe .conditions are neceffary, why are infants baptized, when by reafon of their tender age they cannot perform them? And as this difficulty appears to fome a great one, I fhall give a fuller folution of it than the fhortnefs of a catechifm would eafily permit. |