SERMON IX.

Holding faft the Doctrine fupposes that we believe it to be true, upon no other Evidence than that of Scripture; 'tis the Refult of an Examination. The Story of the Bereans told fairly. We fee it to be our own Concern.. We go no farther than Revelation, without any Enquiry about the Modus. We profefs it, we defend it; in an Unity with the Saints; all Errors come in with a Pretence of clearer Ideas. We are willing to run all Hazards in promoting and abounding in the Faith.

HAVE confidered the great and aw- SERM. ful Truft that is committed to us in IX. the Ordinance of Baptifm, those Vows

of God that are upon us; and that is a Profeffion of the Faith or Hope, in regard to which our Bodies are washed with pure Water. The Matter of this Faith, the Thing we profefs to believe, the Reason of the Hope that is in us is no other than the Doctrine of three Perfons in one undivided Nature. When any Convert took up the Chriftian Name, the World of Jews or Hea

N 3

SERM. Heathen who were round about him, would not IX. only know what he did, but what he believed : Their Faith was spoke of throughout the whole Rom. i. 8. World.

The Action of Baptifm was publick, by which they declared their Homage to the Lord Jefus ; now this would be only to glory in a Ceremony, unless the Doctrine of Baptifm was publick too. 'Twas not the Water but the Article; not washing away the Filth of the Flesh, but the Answer of a good Confcience to that awful Truth, that is fo much above the Comprehenfion of all created Nature; that there is but one Name bêlonging to Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft; that thefe are three, or otherwife they had never been diftinguished; if one of them is a Perfon, then all are fo. That we are given up to each with equal Devotion, Dependance, and Duty: And yet tho' they are no fewer in number than three, in Nature and Title, they are no more than one. We are not baptized into three Names, but as the Form of found Words tells us, into one and no more.

rs

This is the Faith delivered to us in the Bible; the initial and principal Doctrine of Chriftianity, and therefore engraven upon that Ordinance, in which we are given up to be the Lord's. He that is baptized profeffes himself in that very Solemnity to be a Trinitarian. If he does not take the Words in their natural Senfe, and as all other People do, he trifles both with God and Man.

The Jews hate our Baptifm, not because it's managed either by Sprinkling or Plunging; 'tis not the Water that gives them any Offence, for they have divers Washings among themselves: But that which makes it Foolishness to them, is our being equally devoted to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So that it's upon the Unitarian

Principle that they object against the very En- SERM. trance into our Religion. They ftumble at that IX. Stumbling Stone, which is to us a Foundation.

In Oppofition to them and the Heathen too, we are baptized; that is our visible Diftinction from them; and in doing fo, we declare our Faith in a Doctrine which they cannot receive an Unity of Nature fubfifting equally in a Trinity of Perfons: 'Tis this that denominates us Chriftians; this is the Profeffion of Faith and Hope that we made in Baptifm.

Rom. ix.

ult.

II. I am now to confider the Duty incumbent on us with regard to this Profefion of Faith; and that includes both the Temper of our Minds and the Business of our Lives, we are to bold it faft; and muft do this, as I may how you under the third general Head, without was vering; without fhrinking back, leaning, or inclining to the Extreams of Error, on the right Hand, or on the left. In this Affair, above all others, we are to be fteddy, fixed, and at a Point. Jefus Chrift is the fame Yefterday, to Day, Feb. xiii. and for ever; therefore be not carried away with 8, 9. divers and ftrange Doctrines.

I fhall now endeavour to fhow you what this holding faft of our Profeffion means. The Word natixa is what we often meet with in the New Teftament; and whatever it is applied to, it never fails to fignify a Refolution, à Care, à full Purpose of Heart, not to lose what we have. It intimates a Poffeffion, and it expreffes a Firmnefs of Soul to keep it. If you therefore confider what a Perfon owns to be his Faith, when he gives up either himself or his Child to God in Baptifm; what the Profeffion is which he then makes, what Form of Words Chrift has put in his Mouth; his holding this faft through all the N 4 Toil

SERM. Toil and Length of Life comprehends the folIX. lowing Particulars.

1. It supposes that he knows from the Scriptures that the Doctrine is true.

2. That this Knowledge is the Fruit of perfonal Trial and Examination.

3. That he finds the Concernment of his own Soul in it.

4. That he binds up himself within the Revelation that is given him; he believes neither more nor lefs than the Bible has told him about it.

5. That he will never keep it as a Secret; for we do not only hold faft our Faith, but the very Profeffion of it.

6. That he believes himself obliged to defend it against all Gain-fayers.

7. That in doing this he preferves an Unity with God's People: For the Profeffion we hold Faft is not a private Opinion, a Spark of our own Kindling, but a quaλoyia we speak toge ther.

8. That he will run all Hazards in his Repu tation and Intereft: The very Command to keep it does plainly infinuate that it's no eafy Matter. 9. That he will spread and promote it to the uttermoft.

ΙΟ That he will endeavour to be farther established, abounding in every Doctrine to which he has attained. This is to hold faft the Profeffion of Faith and Hope that we made in Baptism, and without fuch a Temper of Soul towards the Doctrine, and fuch a Care of Life to maintain it, the Water applied to us is no better than Water fpilt upon the Ground, that cannot be gathered.

1. 'Tis fuppofed both in our making this Profeffion and holding it faft, that we believe it

to

IX.

Pro. xxii.

to be true: Thou art to know the Certainty of SER M. the Words of Truth, that thou mayest answer the Words of Truth to them that fend unto thee. The Argument of this Faith, is, not its Agreement to human Reafon; no, I cannot fee, that 20, 21. revealed Religion, is any more fuited to our Reafon than it is to our Lufts; that is, no more to the Lufts of the Mind than to thofe of the Flesh: Imaginations and high Thoughts exalt themselves against the Knowledge of the Son of God.

X.

2 Cor. I don't speak of Reafon, as it was before the *. 3. Fall, for there is no fuch Thing in the World; I would be understood of a Reason that we have, not of one that we have not: i. e. a corrupted Faculty, which the Scripture has called by the Name of a carnal Mind, or the natural Man, Rom. viii. and of which we are exprefsly told, that it re- 7. ceives not the Things of the Spirit of God, be- Cor. ii. cause they are Foolishness to it, neither can it know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Our Understandings are darkened by a Vanity of Eph. iv. Mind, being alienated from the Life of God > 18. through the Ignorance that is in us, because of Ver. 8. the Blindness of our Hearts. We are meer Darkness.

14.

To fay there is nothing in the Doctrines of the Gospel oppofite to a corrupted Reason, is talking both against Grace and Nature. We are plainly told that the World by theirWifdom knew not 1 Cor. i. God. I question whether the meer Light of Nature 21. ever taught any after the Flood, that there was but one God, or that he alone was to be worshiped. The firft Commandment of the Law ftrikes as much at all the Sentiments of the Heathen as the first Doctrine of the Gospel does, Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. The Number of their Deities was a growing thing, and indeed they fprung very fait. Some of the best Morality

that