united to one another; even as it is in our city-companies, which are not only united while their members are met together in their common halls, but do also continue united after they are dispersed abroad to their several homes; because that which unites them is not their being together in the same place, but their being obliged together under the same laws and stipulations, and communicating with one another in the duties and privileges of one and the same charter; by reason whereof, though they suffer a continual defluence of old and access of new parts, yet still they remain the same societies, (even like natural bodies, that are under a perpetual flux of parts,) because they still retain the same laws and charters, which are the statique principles or forms that individuate them, and keep them still the same. And thus it is with the church, which partakes of the common nature of all other formed and regular societies. For hence, in scripture, it is called a kingdom, a city, or commonwealth, and compared to a natural organized body, to denote that it is a regular society, all whose parts are united together by legal bonds and ligaments. Now the legal bond which unites the church, and renders all its members one regular corporation, is the new covenant; by which all Christian people are in one body obliged to all the duties it requires, and entitled to all the privileges it proposes; and by being all engaged together in this one covenant, whereby they are all concerned together in the same common duties and privileges, they are all incorporate together into the same community. And thus it was that the Jewish people were all united into one church, by their being all confederated as one party in one and the same cove

nant, whereby they all engaged themselves, as one body, to be God's people, and God engaged himself to them, as to one body, to be their God; which in Deut. xxvi. 17, 18. is thus expressed: Thou hast avouched this day the Lord to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments; and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee. This, therefore, was that which united them into one religious society, that they were all confederated with God in one and the same covenant. For thus saith God, I entered into covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine, Ezek. xvi. 8. and hence God is said to be married to that people, Jer. iii. 14. and to be their husband, Isaiah liv. 5. because by the covenant, which, like a matrimonial engagement, was transacted between God and them, they were all united into one spouse, and contracted to one husband. And in the same sense the Christian church is called the bride and the spouse of Christ, vide Rev. xxii. 17. and Christ is called her husband, 2 Cor. xi. 2. because we, by contracting ourselves to him in one and the same covenant, do all become one party, and are incorporate together into one spouse, and he, by contracting himself to us in one and the same counterpart, unites us in one common husband, and endows us in common with all his spiritual goods and blessings. So that by the new covenant, which is the nuptial contract between Christ and Christians, and in which we are said to be married to Christ, Rom. vii. 4. we are not only united to one head and husband, but are also incorporated in one body and spouse. And accordingly, as the Jews, by virtue of their covenant with God,

were separated from all nations, and united together into a distinct body, upon which account they are called God's peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation, Exod. xix. 5, 6. so we Christians, by virtue of our covenant with God in Christ, are separated from all other societies, and made a distinct corporation from the world; upon which account we are also called a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and an holy nation, and a peculiar people, 1 Peter ii. 9.

Thirdly, The church or kingdom of Christ is the universal society of all Christian people, incorporated by the new covenant in baptism. For so in human contracts it hath been thought meet, even by the unanimous consent of all prudent lawgivers, that the mutual engagements of the contracting parties should not be legally pleadable, till they have been first mutually sealed, and solemnly confirmed before witness. And accordingly God, who is wont to proceed with men in human methods, hath always thought meet to strike and ratify his covenants with them by some visible sign or solemnity. For thus he struck his covenant with the Jews in that visible solemnity of circumcision, which was the sign by which God and that people sealed and consigned to each other their respective parts of that covenant, by which he stipulated to be their God, and they to be his people. And till such time as this outward sign was transacted between God and them, the covenant it sealed was not in force, so as to oblige either party, or give them a mutual claim in one another. And hence it is called God's covenant in their flesh, for an everlasting covenant; and they who refused to admit this sign, unless it were under some great necessity, (in

which case God accepted the sincere desire for the deed,) were to be cut off from that people, i. e. to be treated as aliens from that church, and that because they had broken or rejected God's covenant, i. e. by refusing that sign which was the seal and ratification of it, Gen. xvii. 13, 14.

But this bloody sign, as was shewn before, being not so commodious for the state of the Christian church, which was to be diffused over all the world, our Saviour abolished it, and in its room introduced the sign of baptism, which was before used by the Jews for the initiation of their females and proselytes; and which was much more acceptable to the Gentiles, as not being at all offensive to them, (as circumcision was,) it being one of their own religious ceremonies, and much less painful in its own nature. But though this was of a quite different nature from circumcision, yet it was instituted by our Saviour to supply its room, and to serve its religious ends and purposes, viz. to transact, and seal, and ratify the new covenant between God and us. For in baptism the party baptized makes a solemn vow and profession, by himself or his sponsor, of fidelity and allegiance to God through Jesus Christ; and hence baptism is called the answer or promise of a good conscience, 1 Pet. iii. 21. For in the apostolic age, as Origen tells us, in Num. Homil. v. there were certain questions proposed by the minister to the person to be baptized, which St. Cyprian calls interrogatio baptismi, the interrogation of baptism. Now the questions proposed were first, 'AπTáoon To Σatava, "Wilt thou renounce the Devil?" To which the party answered, 'Amoтáσσoμaι, “ I do "renounce." Then he was asked again, EuvrάσON TW

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Χριστῷ, "Dost thou consent to resign thyself to "Christ?" To which he answered, Evrácσoμai, “ I do "consent;" and this answer or promise being made with a sincere intention, was that in all probability which the apostle here calls the answer of a good conscience: and if so, it is certain that these words do imply our formal covenanting with God in baptism. Of the truth of which we have a large account in Rom. vi. 3, 4, 5. Know ye not, that so many as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together into the likeness of his death, we shall be also into the likeness of his resurrection. Where it is plain that those phrases, buried with Christ, and risen with Christ, are only the sense and signification of that eastern custom in baptism, viz. of plunging the baptized person under water, and raising him up again; which, being sacramental actions, must be supposed to have a peculiar import and significancy; and the significancy of them, the apostle here plainly tells us, wholly refers to the death, and burial, and resurrection of Christ: and therefore the plunging under water must necessarily refer to Christ's death and burial, and the raising up again to his resurrection. The true import therefore of these baptismal actions must be, first, a solemn profession of our belief, that as we are buried under water and raised up again, so Christ died, and was buried, and raised up from the dead, which, being the principal articles of Christianity, do include all the rest. Secondly, they also import