SERMON VIII.

The doctrine of baptism summed up. It is a profession of our hope. We have a hope. This is to be owned, upon certain grounds, an inward persuasion. How far religion is founded on reason, and in what respects contrary to it. Our confession is public, harmonious, intelligible, in a certain form of words, where it is not laid down in consequences. It is the chief doctrine of the ordinance. Fundamental.

HEB. X. 23.

Let us hold fast the profession of faith without wavering.

I HAVE considered baptism, with regard to the privilege contained in it; and am now to open the duty arising from it. It is peculiar to the Christian religion; it is our entrance into it; it is thus we declare the name of God which is called upon us. This is done with a design, that the world may know, who he is s and therefore we must do it, in such a way as they may understand us.

In order to this, Christ himself, has given us a form of words, that are set up as a monument of his authority, and a declaration of our belief. But neither of these ends will be answered, if the meaning of the sentence is not open and easy. It would be quite wrong, to make use of figures and dark sayings, and oriental idioms, in a confession of faith. If he has not called us, to utter words easy to be understood, our doctrine is vain as to others;

and so is the ordinance of baptism as to ourselves.

Now, I do not see, how it is possible, that believers or infidels should either deny or forget, that by the plain words which are put into our mouths, we are called to own these five particulars.

1. The supremacy of God.
2. The unity of his nature.
3. A trinity of persons.

4. A distinction among them.

5. Their equality in power and glory.

If any of these are not right, the form of baptism is wrong. Christ knew that the world would thus understand it ; and, I will venture to say, the Holy Spirit has taken care, his own peculiar people shall do so. To them that believe, it is precious, a foundation, a tried corner stone; to those that are disobedient it is a stumbling block; but it is certain they stumble at the word itself. 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8. Thus the Mahometan, thus the Indian takes it, and for that, he despises it. Thus the Spirit of grace has opened it, to those whom he teaches in every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. Every one that offers, either himself or his infant to God, if he knows what he does, if he does not bring the sacrifice of fools, has made a declaration of his belief, his adherence, and devotion to three equal persons in one glorious undivided nature, This is not only, a doctrine that Christ 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 first vows of God that are upon us, when our bodies were washed with pure water, lets us know what a perpetual duty arises from it; hold fast the profession of your faith, or your hope, without wavering, or shuffling, faltering or fainting. Here you may observe these three things.

1. The great trust 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 is a trust committed to us in baptism; and that is the profession of our faith and hope. This is the main design of the ordiWe 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.

nance.

1. It is here supposed of those who are baptized, and joined to the living in Jerusalem, that concerning them, there is hope.

2. In the solemnity of baptism there is a profession of this hope.

1. Baptism takes it for granted, that there is hope in Israel, concerning those whom God has made to be his own, in an everlasting co

venant.

(1.) The grace of hope, that is, the principle by which we are enabled to lift up our faces before God, is implanted in them. This is

the production of the eternal Spirit; for if you abound in hope it is by the power of the Holy Ghost. Rom. xv. 13. 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 something, 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.

(2.) The thing itself upon which our hope fixes, and for which it must be working, is an inheritance with the saints in light. Col. i. 5 This is the hope that is laid up for us in heaven. 2 Cor. v. 1. The matter of our confidence is, that when this earthly house of our tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Heb. xi. 10. Our whole profession, the main current of life and duty, declares plainly that we seek a city, which is an heavenJy, whose builder and maker is God. Eph. v. 27. By the ordinance of baptism we tell the world, that ourselves or our children are given up to him, who sanctifies the Church, that he may present it to himself, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Tit. i. 2. We do every thing in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.

(3.) The ground of this hope is the gospel dispensation. There is nothing at all in nature, to tell us of any such portion, or quicken any such principle. Therefore, they who are without Christ, are aliens to the commonwealth of Israel.

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Eph. ii. 12. They are not free, nor brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. They are strangers to the covenant of promise; to them it does not appertain. Therefore they have no hope, and are no better than people without a God in the world. It is only from the incarnation, the crucifixion, and the ascension of a glorious Redeemer, that we have any hope towards God. Hence it is said, that we flee for a refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set. before us. Heb. vi. 18. Though the Holy Spirit gives us the power, of looking and waiting for the great adoption, yet it is with an eye, to the merits and empire of him who was dead, and is alive, and lives for evermore. We are begotten again to a lively hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Pet. i. 2. After this resurrection, he appointed baptism; and therefore in that day, declares that we are prisoners of hope. And it is thus, that baptism does now save us, not the washing away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven; angels, principalities, and powers, being made subject to him. 1 Pet. iii. 21, 22.

(4.) This hope is peculiar to Christians. They who have not that name upon them, cannot so much as pretend to it and they that have only the name can do no more, than pretend. When the heathen mourn over their dead, they sorrow as those that have no hope. 1 Thess. iv. 13. All their imaginations of