the Righteousness of Faith. And what does this SERM. Righteousness iffue in, with respect to ourselves? II.

I cannot give a better Answer to that, than in the Language of the Bible.

3.

John preached the Baptifm of Repentance for the Remiffion of Sins, because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. That Kingdom was now to be opened, that called for Repentance from Sins, and proclaimed a Remiffion to them. Here's a Sovereign, a King of Saints, the bleffed Rev. xv. and only Potentate, to whom we should bow i Tim. vi. with Repentance and godly Sorrow, and who 16. himself has bowed the Heavens with all the Treasures of Salvation and Pardon. Not that the external Action did any more than fignify these Things. The Sadducees and Pharifees came to his Baptifm, as People warned to flee from a Wrath to come. They thought they had a vifible Claim to any Ordinance in the Church of God, having Abraham to their Father; but he Matt. iii. exhorts them not only to appear in the Signs of 7, 8, 9. Repentance, but to bring forth Fruits that are meet for it. Or otherwife, though the King of Sion was come among them having Salvation, yet Ver. 12. his Fan was in his Hand, and he will thoroughly purge his Floor, as well as fill his Garner.

And fo Baptifm faves us, not by washing away the Filth of the Flefh, but by the Anfwer of a good Confcience towards God. What's that? I believe, though it includes our Integrity, yet it relates to a great deal more, for it is the Blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God, that purges our Heb. ix. Confciences from dead Works, to ferve the living 14. God. A good Confcience fignifies that a Perfon

is in a State of Pardon. If our Hearts condemn 1 John us not, then have we Confidence towards God.

111. 21.

SERM.

16.

II.

Thus does Ananias explain it to Saul; now why tarrieft thou, arise, and be baptized, washing away thy Sins, and calling upon the Name of Acts xxii. the Lord: Not that the Virtue lay in the Action; a Flood of Water does no more than the Blood of Bulls and Goats to take away Sin; and therefore he speaks of this in connexion with his calling upon the Lord. So that though a Perfon who is baptized, ought not, cannot, and dare not fay, that this Ordinance is a Token of his being pardoned, yet he knows it is the Emblem of that Blood, by which alone he can be fo. Therefore,

23.

Mark xvi. 16.

There is an Application in this Solemnity, whether I do it for myfelf or my Child; "Lord, in this way of thine own appointing I "come to thee for Mercy; I am looking to

Jefus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and the Blood of Sprinkling that speaks better "Things than that of Abel. The Privilege is "not fecured by this Duty, but it is reprefent"ed and may be conveyed; let my Perfon, my "Garments, my Children be washed indeed in "the Blood of the Lamb, 'tis this that takes 66 away the Sins of the World."

Simon Magus was baptized but not pardoned; Acts viii. he still continued in the Gall of Bitterness, though he had paffed under that Ordinance, which to others is a Token for Good. He that believes not shall be damned, whether he is baptized or no; they will be bitter Waters to him; though he makes his Body never fo clean, God will plunge him in the Ditch, and his own Cloaths fhall abhor him. Washing does no more change the Nature of an Infidel than it does the Skin of an Ethiopian: But he that believes, and is baptized, fhall be faved, i. e. He that believes what Baptifm fignifies, and is baptized as an act of his

Faith, and an Emblem of a juftifying Righteouf- SERM. nefs, he fhall be faved. And if you do not II. mean all this by it, either you do it not in the Name of God, or you take that Name in vain.

I.

7. Our being baptized into this great Name fignifies that we must be conformed to his Image. Circumcifion was a Seal of the Covenant; and therefore Abraham meant by the Sign what he meant by the Covenant itself, that the Lord Gen. xvii. would be his God, and that he was obliged to walk before him and be perfect. Baptifm carries the fame Demand along with it. It is a Reliance upon the Death and the Resurrection of Chrift, as that by which he brought in a Righteousness; but, befides that, it alfo calls us to a Fellowship in his Sufferings, to be Partakers of Phil. iii. bis Death, and to feel the Power of his Refur- 10. rection.

5, 6.

I will turn you to the Apostle's Argument upon this Head, which may excufe me from making any of my own. He obferves, that Be- Rom. vi. lievers are dead to Sin, and therefore cannot live 2, 3, 4. in it; upon this he argues, Know ye not, that fo many of us as were baptized into Jefus Chrift, were baptized into his Death? Whether this refers to the Manner of Baptifm, is a Question very trivial, in Comparison of what I now bring it for. If you think that being under the Water is all that is meant by this Burial; or that it is effential to it, that there cannot be the one without the other, you make a poor Bufinefs of it indeed. The Apostle tells us what he means by the Phrafe; that we are therefore buried with him by Bap tism into Death, that like as Chrift was raised up from the Dead by the Glory of the Father, even fo we should also walk in Newness of Life; fo. if we have been planted together in the Likeness of his Death, we shall be alfo in the Likeness of

bis

SERM. bis Refurrection. And to let you fee that what II. he speaks of in these Allufions has nothing to do with external Forms; he binds an Interpretation upon his own Words, that is all spiritual; Knowing this, that our old Man is crucified with bim, that the Body of Sin may be deftroyed, that benceforth we should not ferve Sin. So that

27.

1 John iv. 17.

The whole Defign of the Ordinance is to represent and inforce our Conformity to him, who lived as one dead to this World, and whofe ConCol. iii. verfation was all in another. Thus he pleads again; as many of you as have been baptized into Chrift have put on Chrift: You are to look like him, to walk as he also walked; the Life you live in the Flefh fhould be by Faith in him, that you may have Boldness in the Day of Judgment. The Phrase of putting on Chrift sometimes relates to your Juftification, and fignifies a Being found in him, not having on our own Righteoufnefs, but it is also used in another Branch of your Character: And it is thus expreffed to fhow Eph. iv. the Entirenefs of this Conformity, that as you put off the old Man with all his deceitful Lufts and Deeds, fo you put on the new Man; and it is what you should defign, understand, and promote by this Ordinance. In him ye are circumcifed with the Circumcifion made without Hands, in putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh, by the Circumcifion of Chrift, buried with him in Baptifm, wherein alfo ye are rifen with him through the Faith of the Operation of God.

24.

Col. ii.
II, 12.

8. When we are baptized into the Name of God, we do it with a Hope of his Mercy to eternal Life. It is a temporal Ordinance, but it carries an everlasting Senfe; it relates to fpiritual Eph. i. 3. Bleffings in heavenly Places. In the Lord's Supper we fhew forth not only his dying, but his coming again; we eat and drink at his Table in

view of the new Wine in our Father's Kingdom, SERM. and fo it is here. Circumcifion was the Token

II.

of an everlasting Covenant: The Sign itself was to be abolished at a certain Period, and fo fhall Gen. xvii. Baptifm at the Confummation of all Things; 7. they are both of them but Patterns of Things in the Heavens; but the Covenant that each of them related to is everlasting in its Form, its Security, its Benefits, and its Effects.

This is the plain Sense of a certain Text, if you will take it unpuzzled with Criticism, and the Folly of thofe, whofe Bellies being filled with the Eaft-wind, do reason with unprofitable Talk. What ball they do who are baptized for 1 Cor. xv. the Dead? If the Dead rife not at all, why are 29. they then baptized for the Dead? This Paffage has put many learned Perfons upon striving about Words, and, I think, to no Profit. Sometimes a Scripture has the fame Fate with Interpreters that Job has with his Comforters; they came with a good Meaning, but did not act very much to the Purpose. The Apoftle quite through that Chapter is proving the Resurrection of the Dead, that Chrift's has been and ours fhall be. He argues it from the Miniftry of the Word, that otherwise our preaching is vain, and your Faith is vain; and then he does it from another Ordinance, People are baptized for the Dead, that is, with a profeffed Subjection to Chrift who is raised from the Dead, and with a declared Hope that we fhall be fo. Now, as he faith, if there be no Refurrection from the Dead, why was this ever made the Signification and Import of Baptifm? In this Solemnity as we look to a Saviour, fo we look for him: We wash these vile Bodies, and he will change them by a Power that Phil. iii. can fubdue all Things to himself.

21.

9: