Spirit, have no Benefit by their Baptifm, but are SER M. blind and cannot fee afar off, and have forgotten VII. they were purged from their old Sins. Such as were baptized upon Peter's Sermon continued fted- 2 Pet. i. 9. faftly in the Apoftle's Doctrine, and Fellowship, and breaking of Bread, and in Prayers.

6. 'Tis an Emblem of thofe Joys and Comforts that a Believer may hope for. Out of his Belly fhall flow Rivers of living Water. A chear- John vii. ful Life and Temper is very properly fet out by 38. this Figure. Let thy Garments be always white, and let thy Head lack no Ointment. Baptifm Eccl. ix. 8. represents both the Satisfaction Chrift made for our Sins by his Blood, and the Victory he has over them by his Grace. And how happy a State is that, a Fountain of Gardens, a Well of living Waters, and Streams from Lebanon.

Cant. iv.

7. 'Tis an Earneft of the Felicity above. 15. There our Robes are to be washed in the Blood of Rev. vii. the Lamb, there our Perfons are fanctified, to 14. be without Spot or Wrinkle, or any fuch Thing. There our Entertainments are from a pure River xxii. 31 of Water of Life, clear as cryftal, proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb; he leads to the Fountains of living Waters, and wipes away all Tears from our Eyes.

Application 1. If Baptifm contains all this, what need have we to take Care that we lofe none of it!

2. How great is our Obligation to be steddy in the Doctrine that is engraven upon this Ordinance! Holding faft the Profeffion of our Faith without wavering.

1

SERM.

VIII.

SERMON VIII.

Tis

The Doctrine of Baptifm fummed up.
a Profeffion of our Hope. We have a
Hope. This is to be owned, upon cer-
tain Grounds, an inward Perfuafion.. How
far Religion is founded on Reason, and
in what refpects contrary to it. Our Con-
feffion is publick, harmonious, intelligi-
ble, in a certain Form of Words; where
it is not laid down in Confequences. 'Tis
the chief Doctrine of the Ordinance.
Fundamental.

Heb. x. 23.

Let us hold fast the Profeffion of Faith without wavering.

I

HAVE confidered Baptifm with Regard to the Privilege contained in it, and am to open the Duty arifing from it. 'Tis the peculiar of the Chriftian Religion; 'tis our Entrance into it; 'tis thus we declare the Name of God which is called upon This is done with a Defign that the World may know who he is, and therefore we muft do it in fuch a way as they may understand us.

us.

In order to this, Chrift himself has given us a SER M. Form of Words, that are fer up as a Monument VIII. of his Authority, and a Declaration of our Be-r lief. But neither of thefe Ends will be anfwered, if the Meaning of the Sentence is not open and eafy. It would be quite wrong to make ufe of Figures and dark Sayings, and oriental Idioms, in a Confeffion of Faith. If he has not called us to utter Words easy to be understood, our Doctrine is vain as to others, and fo is the Ordinance of Baptifm as to ourselves.

Now, I do not fee how it is poffible that Believers or Infidels fhould either deny or forget, that by the plain Words which are put into our Mouths, we are called to own thefe five Particulars.

1. The Supremacy of God.
2. The Unity of his Nature.
3. A Trinity of Perfons.
4. A Diftinction among them.

5. Their Equality in Power and Glory."

If any of thefe is not right, the Form of Baptifm is wrong. Chrift knew that the World would thus understand it; and, I'll venture to fay, the Holy Spirit has taken Care his own peculiar People fhall do fo. To them that believe it 2 Pet. ii. is precious, a Foundation, a tried corner Stone; 7, 8. to thofe that are difobedient it is a StumblingBlock; but it is certain they ftumble at the Word itfelf. Thus the Mahometan, thus the Indian takes it, and for that he defpifes it; thus the Spirit of Grace has opened it to thofe whom he teaches in every Kindred, and Tongue, and People, and Nation. Every one that offers either hmfelf or his Infant to God, if he knows what he does, if he does not bring the Sacrifice of Fools,

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SERM. Fools, has made a Declaration of his Belief, his VIII. Adherence, and Devotion to three equal Perfons

in one glorious undivided Nature. This is not only a Doctrine that Chrift has established in the Ordinance, but what he would have all his People to publish by it. And therefore,

The Apostle having put us in Mind of the firft Vows of God that are upon us, when our Bodies were washed with pure Water, he lets us know what a perpetual Duty arifes from it; bold faft the Profeffion of your Faith, or your Hope, without wavering, or fhuffling, faultring or fainting, where you may obferve these three Things.

1. The great Truft that is committed to us in Baptism, and that is a Profession of Faith and Hope.

2. Our Temper of Mind, or Business of Life, with regard to it, and that is to hold it fast.

3. The Manner of doing this is without wavering.

I. Here's a Truft committed to us in Baptifm, and that is the Profession of our Faith and Hope. This is the main Design of the Ordinance; we should never have had it, but for an Opportunity of telling the World what it is we believe and hope for; who our God is, and what we expect from him.

1. It is here fuppofed of thofe who are baptized and joined to the living in Jerufalem, that concerning them there is Hope.

2. In the Solemnity of Baptifm there is a Profeffion of this Hope.

1. Baptifm takes it for granted that there is Hope in Ifrael, concerning thofe whom God

has made to be his own in an everlasting Co- SERm.

venant.

(1.) The Grace of Hope is implanted in them, that is, the Principle by which we are enabled to lift up our Faces before God. This is the Production of the eternal Spirit, for if you abound in Hope it is by the Power of the Holy Ghoft. Without his Almighty Creation we should lie down in Shame, our Hope would be as the Spider's Web, wrought out of our own Bowels, hung upon fomething that will not hold it, and brushed away at Death. But it is the God of Hope who fills us with Peace and Joy in believing.

VIII.

Rom. xv.

13.

(2.) The Thing itself that our Hope fixes upon, and must be working to, is an Inheritance with the Saints in light. This is the Hope that is laid Col. i. 5. up for us in Heaven. The Matter of our Con

fidence is, that when this earthly House of our 2 Cor. v. Tabernacle is diffolved, we have a Building of 1. God, an Houfe not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens. Our whole Profeffion, the main Current of Life and Duty declares plainly that we feek a city, which is an heavenly, whofe Heb. xi. Builder and Maker is God. By the Ordinance 10. of Baptifm we tell the World, that ourselves or our Children are given up to him, who fanctifies the Church, that he may prefent it to himself without Eph. v. Spot, or Wrinkle, or any fuch thing. We do 27. every thing in hope of eternal Life, which God Tit. 1. 2. that cannot lye promifed before the World began. (3.) The Ground of this Hope is the Gofpel Difpenfation. There's nothing at all in Nature to tell us of any fuch Portion, or quicken any fuch Principle, and therefore they who are without Christare Aliens to the Commonwealth of Ifrael, they Eph. ii. are not free or brought into the glorious Liberty of 12.

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the