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which shows they believed his Omniprefence, SERM. for they would never worship a God afar off; I. and much less a Creature afar off. And when they held him by the Feet and worshipped, it was Matt. no Rebuke to thefe Exceffes, to tell them fo xxviii. 9. foon afterwards, that all Nations were to be baptized into his Name, and by his Authority.

Thus would he open the Womb of the Prophefy, that all Kings fhall fall down before him, Pf. lxxii. and all Nations fhall ferve him: It is the Seizure ". that he makes of the whole Earth, which is to be xxii. 28. the Lord's, and he the Governor among the Nations.

Adoring is not making him what he is not, but owning him for what he is; fhould we adore and worship a Creature, he is no better for the Action, and we are the worse. Worship gives nothing to God, but acknowledges that every thing is in him 'Tis faying with Job, I know that Job xlii. thou canst do every thing, and that no Counsel can be with-holden from thee.

For a Person to be baptized who does not take Chrift for the Supreme God, is either to carry a Lie in his Forehead, or to roll in the Waters of Deceit and Falfhood; to be called by the Name of one whom he does not worship îs to have that Name in vain; and to worship any thing but an infinite, Nature is the Grofs of heathen Idolatry. To fay that God may command us to worship a Creature is giving him the Lie, for he has faid, I will not give my Glory to another. He has forbid it in the Old and New Teftament, and to think that he will establish such an Iniquity by a Law makes his People the Servants of Idols and him the Patron.

We are

4. Being baptized is a publick Profeffion of our Homage to him before all the World. not ashamed of the Teftimony of the LORD:

2.

And 2 Tim. there- i. 8.

I.

SERM. therefore this Solemnity is as heavy a Load upon them that do not own him, as it is upon those that openly deny him. Are we called by his Name, and is it a Name that we are ashamed of? Remember how well he has spoke of those who Rev. iii. kept his Faith, and did not deny his Name. There was fome Name or other which at that Time the Enemy ftruck at ; fome revelation that he made of himself which went heavily down, and his faithful People had rather part with all than part with this.

8.

3 John 7.

Acts v. 41. Cant. i.

4.

'Tis for his Name's Sake that Ministers go out to preach the Gospel; 'tis for his Name that we fuffer Reproach; and yet under all the Revilings of Men this Name will be as Ointment poured forth to those that love him.

And indeed this is what all Parties in the World mean by their Religion. The God who is not to be owned is a God that has no Servants. Mich. iv. All People will walk every one in the Name of his God, and we will walk in the Name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. Pafs over to the Isles Jer. ii. 11. of the Gentiles, and you will find they have not changed their Gods, which yet are no Gods.

5.

Matt. x.

33.

Christ knew there would be fome ashamed of him in a corrupt and an adulterous Generation, and of those will he be ashamed before his holy Angels.

We have called this Ordinance a Sacrament which they tell us is a military Word, and fignifies the Oath of Fidelity that the Army took. Now for a baptized Perfon to be filent in the Caufe of the Trinity, by which Name he is called; this fhows him to be a cowardly Soldier, and he ought to be turned out of the Camp. This Title belongs to Minifters in the New Teftament: The Apoftle calls thofe who labour in the Word and Doctrine Fellow-Soldiers, and ad

I.

vifes Timothy to endure Hardness, as a good Sol- SERM. dier of Chrift Jefus : And therefore any Cowardice and Treachery in them is a thousand Times worse than in others. They make themselves 2 Tim. ii. vile Examples of an Indifference that they ought ✦ to reprove, rebuke, and oppose.

4.

But I fhall be treacherous to you, and guilty of profaning the Solemnity itself, if I do not tell you, that the Name called upon you is never to be concealed; he has trufted it with you, and he will require it of you: The fearful and un- Rev.ni. believing are both of them called abominable.

I cannot now proceed to the other important Things contained in this Ordinance; thofe that I have mentioned exprefs your Duty, and the reft relate to your Happiness; which fhews that Chrift is never behind-hand with all the Faith, and Zeal, and Self-denial of his People, for his Countenance does behold the Upright.

8.

SER

SERMON II.

Baptifm is the Seal of a Righteousness, and that of Faith as Circumcifion was. How that Phrase is to be understood.

What

the Answer of a good Confcience means,
What it is to be buried with him in
Baptism. What to be baptized for the
Dead. Baptifm ought never to be the
Badge of a Party.

SERM. 5.

II.

B

nant.

EING baptized into the Name of our God fignifies the Dependance that we have upon his Favour and Acceptance in an everlafting CoveThe whole Tranfaction between God and Man has been in a Covenant of Grace, and all the external Marks and Figures that he ever appointed, were but to many Patterns of Things in the Heavens. Thus Abraham received the Sign Rom. iv. of Circumcifion as a Seal of the Righteoufness of that Faith which he had, being yet uncircumcifed. Though the Sign was new, yet the Thing fignified by it was what he had before, and that is the Righteoufnefs of Faith. This is of more Value than all the Ceremonies in the World, whether they are of divine or human Appointpointment. For though by the external Part of -that Ordinance Abraham had no other relation than

11.

than to his carnal Seed, yet the Mystery, the SERM. Principle, the Benefit that is figured by it makes II. him, as the Apoftle fays, the Father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcifed, that Righteousness may be imputed to them alfo.

The fame Interpretation is put upon Baptifm; it may be called, a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith. Both thefe Solemnities, that which God appointed to Abraham, and that which Chrift, with equal Authority, gave in Commiffion to his Difciples; have their Senfe, their Meaning, their Bleffing, their Accomplishment, in the fame Good-will towards Men. Whatever Difference there is in the Manner of Adminiftration, yet the Doctrine of the Action is the fame in both; the thing fignified by them is the Righteousness of Faith.

In these two Words you fee the Bleffing of the New Covenant; First, that by it and in it we receive a Righteoufnefs; and 2dly, that this is the Righteousness of Faith. With what a fwelling Joy would Abraham fubmit to the Pain and the Peculiarity of Circumcifion, a Thing never heard of before, and not likely to be approved of then, when he understood what it meant ? It was both a Token of the Righteousness that he received from God, and an Emblem of the Faith by which he had it.

First, Each of thefe divine Ceremonies, Circumcifion and Baptifm, are a Contradiction to a Maxim that ought to obtain among all our degenerate Nature, that Man after his Fall can never be Righteous with God. This is what our whole. Race is bound to believe, and yet by these Ordinances you fee, there is a Righteousness for us ; not merely a Pardon, for that may be given in a way of fovereign Mercy, but the Believer is F Righteous

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