Sermon LXXXVII

102

SERMON LXXXVII.

PREACHED AT A CHRISTENING.

Gai.atianb iii. 27.
For all ye that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

This text is a reason of a reason; an argument of an argument; the proposition undertaken by the apostle to prove, is, That after faith is come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster¹, the law. The reason, by which he proves that, is: For ye are all Hie sons of God by faith, in Christ Jesus; and then the reason of that, is this text, For all ye that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

Here then is the progress of a sanctified man, and here is his standing house; here is his journey, and his lodging; his way, and his end. The house, the lodging, the end of all is faith; for whatsoever is not of faith, is sin. To be sure that you are in the right way to that, you must find yourselves to be the sons of God; and you can prove that by no other way to yourselves, but because you are baptized into Christ.

So that our happiness is now at that height, and so much are we preferred before the Jews, that whereas the chiefest happiness of the Jews was to have the law, (for without the law they could not have known sin, and the law was their schoolmaster to find out Christ) we are admitted to that degree of perfection, that we are got above the law; it was their happiness to have had the law, but it is ours, not to need it: they had the benefit of a guide, to direct them, but we are at our journey!s end; they had a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ; but we have proceeded so far, as that we are in possession of Christ. The law of Moses therefore binds us not at all, as it is his law; whatsoever binds a Christian, in that law, would have bound him, though there had been no law given to Moses. The ceremonial part of that law, which was in the institution, mortale, (it was mortal, it

¹ Ver. 25.

might die) and by Christ's determination of those typical things, mortuum (it did die) now also moftiferum, (deadly) so that it is sin to draw any part of that law into a necessity of observation; because the necessary admission of any type, or figure, implies a confession, that that which was signified, or figured, is not yet come; so that that law, and Christ cannot consist together. The judicial law of Moses, was certainly the most absolute, and perfect law of government, which could have been given to that people, for whom it was given; but yet to think, that all states are bound to observe those laws, because God gave them, hath no more ground, than that all men are bound to go clothed in beasts^' skins, because God apparelled Adam and Eve in that fashion.

And for the moral part of that law, and the abridgement of that moral part, the decalogue, that begun not to have force and efficacy then, when God writ it in the tables, but was always, and always shall be written in the hearts of men; and though God of his goodness, was pleased to give that declaration of it, and that provocation to it, by so writing it, yet if he had not written it, or if (which is impossible) that writing could perish, yet that moral law, those commandments, would bind us, that are Christians, after the expiration of that law, which was Moses' law, as it did (de jure) bind all those which lived, before any written law was. So that he that will perfectly understand, what appertains to his duty, in any of the Ten Commandments, he must not consider that law with any limitation, as it was given to the Jews, but consider what he would have done, if he lived before the tables had been written. For certainly, even in the commandment of the Sabbath, which-was accompanied with so many ceremonies amongst the Jews, that part only is moral, which had bound us, though that commandment had never been given; and he that performs that part, keeps the Sabbath; the ceremonial part of it, is not only not necessary; but when it is done with an opinion of necessity, it is erroneous, and sinful. For neither that commandment, nor any other of the ten, began to bind them, when they were written, nor doth bind now, except it bound before that.

Thus far then we are directed by this text, (which is as far as we can go in this life) to prove to ourselves, that we have faith, we must prove, that we need not the law; to prove that emancipation, and liberty, we must prove, that we are the sons of God; to prove that ingrafting, and that adoption, we must prove, that we have put on Christ Jesus; and to prove that apparelling of ourselves, our proof is, that we are baptized into him.

All proofs must either arrest, and determine in some things confessed, and agreed upon, or else they proceed in infinitum. That which the apostle takes to be that which is granted on all sides, and which none can deny, is this, that to be baptized is to put on Christ: and this putting on of Christ, doth so far carry us to that infinitissimum, to God himself, that we are thereby made semen Dei, the seed of God; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom*; and we are translated even into the nature of God, by his precious promises we are made partakers of the divine nature³; yea, we are discharged of all bodily, and earthly incumbrances, and we are made all spirit, yea the spirit of God himself, He that is joined to the Lord, is one spirit with him*. All this we have, if we do put on Christ: and we do put on Christ, if wo be baptized into him.

These then are the two actions which we are now to consider:
Baptizari, f To be washed.
Induere, \ To be clothed.

Induere, is to cover so far, as that covering can reach; a hat covers the head; a glove the hand; and other garments, more; but Christ, when he is put on, covers us all. If we have weak heads, shallow brains, either a silence, and a reservedness, which make the fool and the wise equal, or the good interpretation of friends, which put good constructions upon all that we say, or the dignity of authority, and some great place, which we hold, which puts an opinion in the people, that we are wise, or else we had never been brought thither, these cover our heads, and hide any defect in them. If we have foul hands, we can cover them, with excuses; if they be foul with usurious extortion, we can put on a glove, an excuse, and say, He that borrowed my money, got more by it than I that lent it; if, with bribery in an office, we can cover it and say, He that knew, that I bought my

office, will be content to let me be a saver by it; if our hands be foul with shedding of innocent blood, as St. Hierome says that Adam eat the apple, Ne contristaretur delicias suas, lest he should over grieve his wife, by refusing it, Ne contristaremur delicias nostras, either because we should not displease another, or because our beloved sin, to which we had married ourselves, did solicit us to it. Particular excuses cover our particular defects, from the sight of men, but to put on Christ, covers us all over, even from the sight of God himself. So that how narrowly soever he search into us, he sees nothing but the whiteness of his Son's innocency, and the redness of his Son's blood.

When the prodigal child returned to his father, his father clothed him entirely, and all at once; he put a robe upon him, to cover all his defects: which robe, when God puts upon us, in clothing us with Christ, that robe is not only dignitas quam perdidit Adam, as Augustine says, but it is amictus sapientiw, as Ambrose enlarges it, it does not only make us as well, as we were in Adam, but it enables us better, to preserve that state; it does not only cover us, that is, make us excusable, for our past, and present sins, but it indues us with grace, and wisdom to keep that robe still, and never to return to our former foulnesses, and deformities.

Our first parents Adam and Eve were naked all over; but they were not sensible of all their nakedness, but only of those parts whereof they were ashamed. Nothing but the shame of the world makes us discern our deformities; and only for those faults, which shame makes us take knowledge of, we go about to provide; and we provide nothing but short aprons, as that word signified; and those but of fig-leaves; that which comes first to hand, and that which is withered before it is made, that do we take for an excuse, for an aversion of our own conscience, when she begins to cast an eye, or to examine the nakedness, and deformities of our souls.

But when God came to clothe them, their short aprons were extended to coats, that covered them all over, and their fig-leaves to strong skins; for God saw that not only those parts, of which they were already ashamed, needed covering, but that in all their other parts, if they continued naked, and still exposed to the injury, and violence of the weather, they would contract diseases, and infirmities; and therefore God covers them so throughly, as he doth not only provide for reparation of former inconveniences, but prepare against future.

And so perfeot effects doth this garment, Christ Jesus, work upon us, if we put him on; he doth not only cover original Bins, (which is the effect of those disobedient members, which derive sin upon us, in the sinful generation of our parents) but he covers all our actual sins, which we multiply every day: and not only those, which the world makes us ashamed of, but which we hide from the world; yea which we hide from ourselves; that is, sins, which by a long custom of practice, we commit so habitually, and so indifferently, as that we have forgot, that they are sins.

But as it was in Adam's clothing there, so must it be in our spiritual putting on of Christ. The word used there, labash, doth not signify that God clothed Adam, nor that Adam clothed himself; but as the grammarians call it, it is in Hiphil, and it signified Induere fecit eos; God caused them to be clothed, or God caused them to clothe themselves; which is also intimated, nay evidently expressed in the words of this text; we are ourselves poor, and impotent creatures, we cannot make ourselves ready; we are poor and beggarly creatures, we have nothing to put on; Christ is that garment; and then Christ is the very life, by which we stretch out our arms and our legs, to put on that garment; yea he puts it on upon us, he doth the whole work: but yet he doth not thrust it on: he makes us able to put it on: but if we be not willing, then he puts no necessity upon our will: but we remain naked still.

Induere then, to put on, is an extension, a dilatation over all; and sometimes it signifies an abundant, and overflowing, and overwhelming measure of God's judgments upon us, Princeps induetur desolatione, The prince shall be clothed with desolation and with astonishment*: but most commonly, the rich and allsufficient proportion of his mercies and spiritual benefits: as he expressed it to his apostles, at his ascension, Stay you in the city, quousque induamini virtute ex alto; till ye be indued (so we

⁵ Ezek. vu. 27, and xvi. 16.

translate it) that is, clothed, with power from on high*. And this was per /idem et innitendo, and per opera eum declarando, says St. Augustine, he only hath put on Christ, which hath Christ in himself by faith, and shows him to others by his works, which is lucerna ardens, (as Christ said of John Baptist) a burning lamp, and a shining lamp, profitable to others, as well as to himself.

There is a degree of vanity, and pride, whereby some men delight to wear their richest clothes innermost, and most out of sight; but in this double garment of a Christian, it is necessarily so; for faith is the richest, and most precious part of this garment; and this, which is our holyday garment, is worn innermost; for that (our faith) is only seen by God; but our outward garment of works, which is our working-day garment, that is, our sanctification, is seen of all the world. And that also must be put on, or else we have not put on Christ: and it must cover us all over; that is, our sanctification must go through our whole life in a constant, and an even perseverance; we must not only be hospitable, and feed the poor at Christmas, be sober, and abstinent, the day that we receive, repent, and think of amendment of life, in the day of visitation, and sickness; but, as the garment, which Christ wore, was seamless, and entire, so this garment, which is Christ Jesus, that is, our sanctification, should be entire, and uninterrupted, in the whole course of our lives, we must remember, that at the marriage which figured the kingdom of heaven, the master of the feast reprehended, and punished him, that was come in, not expressly because he had not a wedding garment, but Quomodo intrasti, says he, How earnest thou in, not having on thy wedding garment? So that (if it could be possible) though we had put on the inside of this garment, which is Christ, that is, if we had faith, yet if we have not the outside too, that is sanctification, we have not put on Christ, as we should; for this is indui virtute ex alto; to have both inside, faith, and outside, sanctification: and to put it on so, that it may cover us all over, that is, all our life; because it is not in our power, if we put it off, by new sins, to put it on again, when we will. / have put off my coat, how shall I put it on, was the doubt of the spouse, in the Canticles⁷, even when Christ had

called her: so hard a thing is it, if we divest the righteousness of Christ, after we have put it on, to clothe ourselves again in that garment.

As then this word, induere, to put on, to be clothed, signifies a largeness, and an abundance, according to that, The pastures are clothed with sheep, and the valleys with corn*: so is this garment, Christ Jesus, such a garment, as is alone so all-sufficient, as that if we do put on that, we need no other; Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and take no thought for the flesh'; if ye have put on that, you are clothed, and armed, and adorned sufficiently.

In the first creation, in the faciamus hominem ad imaginem nostrum, when God seems to have held a consultation about the making of man, man put on all the trinity, all God; and in the redemption God put on all man; not only all the nature of mankind in general, but in particular, every man. But as the Spirit of God, is said to have put on a particular man, Spiritus Domini induit Gedeon, The Spirit of the Lord, clothed, or put on Gideon¹3, when he selected him for his service, so must the spirit of every particular man, put on Christ; he must not be content, to be under the general cover, (either under his general providence, because he is a creature, or a member of his mystical body, because he adheres to a visible church) he must not say, I am as warm clothed as another, I have as much of Christ in me as a great many that do well enough in the world, but he must so inwrap himself in Christ, and in his merits, as to make all that to be his own. No man may take the frame of Christ's merit in pieces; no man may take his forty days^' fasting and put on that, and say, Christ hath fasted for me, and therefore I may surfeit; no man may take his agony, and pensiveness, and put on that, and [say, Christ hath been sad for me, and therefore I may be merry. He that puts on Christ, must put him on all; and not only find, that Christ hath died, nor only that he hath died for him, but that he also hath died in Christ, and that whatsoever Christ suffered, he suffered in Christ.

For, as Christ's merit, and satisfaction, is not too narrow for all the world, so is it not too large for any one man; infinite worlds might have been saved by it, if infinite worlds had been

⁸ Psalm Lxv; 13. * Rom. xiii. 14, ¹⁰ Judges vi. 34.

created; and, if there were no more names in the Book of Life, but thine, all the merit of Christ were but enough to save thy one sinful soul, which could not have been redeemed, though alone, at any less price than his death.

All that Christ did, and suffered, he did and suffered for thee, as thee; not only as man, but as that particular man, which bears such, or such a name; and rather than any of those, whom he loves, should appear naked before his Father, and so discover to his confusion those scars and deformities which his sins have imprinted upon him, (as his love is devoutly and piously extended by the schools and some contemplative men) Christ would be content to do and suffer as much as he hath done, for any one particular man yet: but beyond infinite, there is no degree: and his merit was infinite, both because an infinite majesty resided in his person, and because an infinite majesty accepted his sacrifice for infinite.

But this act of Christ, this redemption makes us only servants; servi a servando, we are servants to him, that preserved, and saved us, is the derivation of the law. But the application of this redemption (which is the putting on of Christ,) makes us sons; for we are not to put on Christ, only as a livery, to be distinguished by external marks of Christianity; but so, as the son puts on his father; that we may be of the same nature and substance as he; and that God may be in us, Non tanquam in denario", not as the king is in a piece of coin, or a medal, but tanqum in filio, as he is in his son, in whom the same nature, both human and royal doth reside.

There is then a double induere, a twofold clothing; we may induere, 1. Vestem, put on a garment; 2. Personam, put on a person. We may put on Christ so, as we shall be his, and we may put him on so, as we shall be he. And even to put him on as a garment is also twofold; the first is to take only the outward name, and profession of Christians upon us; and this doth us no good; ye clothe ye, but are not warm, says the prophet", of this kind of putting on of Christ. For this may be clone only to delude others; which practice God discovered, and threatened, in the false prophets, The prophets shall not wear a rough garment

¹¹ Aquinas. ¹⁸ Hag. i. C.

to deceive¹⁸,' as God himself cannot be deluded, so for the encouragement of his church, he will take oft* this garment of the hypocrite, and discover his nakedness, and expose him to the open shame of the world; he shall not wear a rough garment to deceive.

For this is such an affront and scorn to Christ, as Hanun's cutting off of David's servant's clothes at the middle, was¹⁴; we make this garment of what stuff, and what fashion we list; as Hanun did, we cut it off in the middle; we will be Christians till noon, (in the outward acts of religion) and libertines in the afternoon, in putting off that garment again; we will be Christians all day, and return to wantonness, and licentiousness at night; we do that which Christ says no man doth, (that is, no man should do) we put new pieces to an old garment; and to that habit of sin, which covers us as a garment, we put a few new patches of religion, a few flashes of repentance, a few shreds of a sermon, but we put not on that entire and seamless garment Christ Jesus.

And can we hope that these disguises, these half coats, these imperfect services will be acceptable to God, when we ourselves would not admit this at our children, or at our servants^' hands? It is the argument by which the prophet convinces the Israelites, about their unclean sacrifices; Offer this now unto the prince; will he be content with thee, and accept thy person"? If thou shouldst wear the prince's livery, in a scantier proportion, or in a different fashion, or in a coarser stuff, than belongs to thy place, would he accept it at thy hands? No more will Christ if thou put him on, (that is, take his profession upon thee) either in a coarser stuff, (traditions of men, instead of hia word) or in scantier measure, (not to be always a Christian, but then, when thou hast use of being one) or in a different fashion, (to be singular and schismatical in thy opinion) for this is one, but an ill manner of putting on of Christ as a garment.

The second, and the good way is, to put on his righteousness, and his innocency, by imitation, and conforming ourselves to him. Now when we go about earnestly to make ourselves

temples, and altars, and to dedicate ourselves to God, we must change our clothes; as when God bade Jacob to go up to Bethel, to make an altar", he commanded all his family to change their clothes; in which work, we have two things to do; first, we must put off those clothes which we had; and appear naked before God, without presenting anything of our own; for when the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and that he prophesied, his first act was, to strip himself naked¹¹: and then secondly, wo come to our transfiguration, and to have those garments of Christ communicated to us which were as white as the light; and we shall be admitted into that little number, of which it is said, Thou hast a few names in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white¹*.

And from this (which is induere vestem,) from this putting on Christ as a garment, we shall grow up to that perfection, as that we shall induere personam, put on him, his person; that is, we shall so appear before the Father, as that he shall take us for his own Christ; we shall bear his name and person; and we shall every one be so accepted, as if every one of us were all mankind; yea, as if we were he himself. He shall find in all our bodies his wounds, in all our minds, his agonies; in all our hearts and actions, his obedience. And as he shall do this by imputation, so really in all our agonies he shall send his angels to minister unto us, as he did to Elias; in all our temptations he shall furnish us with his Scriptures to confound the tempter, as he in person did in his temptation, and in our heaviest tribulation, which may extort from us the voice of diffidence, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, he shall give us the assurance to say, In manus tuas, &c, Into thy hands, 0 Lord, have I commended my spirit, and there I am safe; he shall use us in all things, as his son; and we shall find restored in us, the image of the whole Trinity, imprinted at our creation; for by this regeneration, we are adopted by the Father in the blood of the Son by the sanctification of the Holy Ghost.

Now this putting on of Christ, whereby we stand in his place at God's tribunal, implies, as I said, both our election, and our

sanctification; both the eternal purpose of God upon us, and his execution of that purpose in us. And because by the first (by our election) we are members of Christ, in God's purpose, before baptism, and the second, (which is sanctification) is expressed after baptism, in our lives, and conversation, therefore baptism intervenes, and comes between both, as a seal of the first, (of election) and as an instrument, and conduit of the second, sanctification.

Now, abscondita Domino, Deo nostro, quw manifesto sunt nobis; let no man be too curiously busy, to search what God does in his bedchamber; we have all enough to answer, for that, which we have done in our bedchamber. For God's eternal decree, himself is master of those rolls; but out of those rolls, he doth exemplify those decrees in the sacrament of baptism; by which copy, and exemplification of his invisible and unsearchable decree, we plead to the church, that we are God's children, we plead to our own consciences, that we have the spirit of adoption, and we plead to God himself, the obligation of his own promise, that we have a right to this garment, Christ Jesus, and to those graces, which must sanctify us; for from thence comes the reason of this text, for all ye that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

As we cannot see the essence of God, but must see him in his glasses, in his images, in his creatures, so we cannot see the decrees of God, but must see them in their duplicates, in their exemplification, in the sacraments. As it would do him no good, that were condemned of treason, that a bedchamber-man should come to the judge, and swear he saw the king sign the prisoner's pardon, except he had it to plead: so what assurance soever, what privy mark soever, those men allege, which pretend to be so well acquainted, and so familiar with the decrees of God, to give thee to know, that thou art elect to eternal salvation, yea if an angel from heaven come down and tell thee, that he saw thy name in the Book of Life, if thou have not this exemplification of the decree, this seal, this sacrament, if thou beest not baptized, never delude thy self with those imaginary assurances.

This baptism then is so necessary, that first, as baptism (in a large acceptation) signifies our dying, and burial with Christ, and all the acts of our regeneration, so in that large sense our whole life is a baptism: but the very sacrament of baptism, the actual administration, and receiving thereof, was held so necessary, that even for legal and civil uses, (as in the law, that child that died without circumcision, had no interest in the family, no participation of the honour, nor name thereof) so that we see in the reckoning of the genealogy, and pedigree of David", that first son of his, which he had by Bathsheba, which died without circumcision, is never mentioned, nor toucht upon). So also, since the time of Moses^' law, in the Imperial law, by which a posthume child, born after the father's death, is equal with the rest in division of the state, yet if that child die before he be baptized, no person, which should derive a right from him, (as the mother might, if he died) can have any title by him; because he is not considered to have been at all, if he die unbaptized. And if the state will not believe him to be a full man shall the church believe him to be a full Christian, before baptism I Yea, the apprehension of the necessity of this sacrament, was so common, and so general, even in the beginning of the Christian church, that out of an excessive advancing of that truth, they came also to a falsehood, to an error, that even they that died without baptism, might have the benefit of baptism, if another were baptized in their name, after their death; and so, out of a mistaking of those words Else what shall they do, Qui baptizantur pro mortuis** (which is, that are ready to die, when they are baptized) the Marcionites induced a custom, to lay one under the dead body's bed, that he, in the name of the dead man, might answer to all the questions usually asked, in administering of baptism.

But this was a corrupt effect of pure, and sincere doctrine, which doctrine is, that baptism is so necessary, as that God hath placed no other ordinary seal, nor conveyance of his graces in his church, to them that have not received that, than baptism. And they who do not provide duly for the baptism of their children, if their children die, have a heavier accompt to make to God for that child, than if they had not provided a nurse, and suffered the child to starve. God can preserve the child without milk; and he can save the child without a sacrament; but as that mother that throws out and forsakes her child in the field, or wood, is guilty before God of the temporal murder of that child, though the child die

not, so are those parents of a spiritual murder, if their children by their fault die unbaptized, though God preserve that child out of his abundant, and miraculous mercy, from spiritual destruction.

When the custom of the Christian church was to baptize but twice in the year, at Easter and Whitsuntide, for the greater solemnity of that action, yea when that ill custom was grown (as it was even in the Primitive church) that upon an opinion, that all sins were absolutely forgiven in baptism, men did defer their baptism till their death-bed, (as we see the ecclesiastical histories full of such examples, even in some of the Christian emperors: and according to this ill custom, we see Tertullian chides away young children for coming so soon to baptism, Quid festinat innocen s wtas, ad remissionem peccatorum, Why should this child, that as yet hath done no sin, make such haste to be washed from sin ?) which opinion had got so much strength, that St. Basil was fain to oppose it, in the Eastern church, and both the Gregories, Nazianzen and Nyssen, and St. Ambrose in the Western; yet, in the height of both their customs, of seldom baptizing, and of late baptizing, the case of infants, that might be in danger of dying without baptism, was ever excepted, so that none of those old customs, (though some of them were extremely ill) went ever so far, as to an opinion, that it were all one, whether the child were bapti ed or not.

I speak not this, as though the state of children that died without baptism were desperate; God forbid, for who shall shorten the arm of the Lord? God is able to rain down manna and quails into the souls of these children, though negligent parents turn them out into the wilderness, and put God to that extraordinary work. They may have manna, and quails, but they have not the milk, and honey, of the Land of Promise; they may have salvation from God, but they have not those graces, so sealed and so testified to them, as God hath promised they should be in hia sacraments. When God in spiritual offences makes inquisition of blood, he proceeds not as man proceeds; for we, till there appear a man to be dead, never inquire who killed him; but in the spiritual murder of an unbaptized child, though there be no child spiritually dead, (though God's mercy have preserved the child from that) yet God imputes this as such a murder to them who endangered the child as far as they could, by neglecting his ordinance of baptism.

This is then the necessity of this sacrament; not absolutely necessary, but necessary by God's ordinary institution; and as it is always necessary, Bo is it always certain; whosoever is baptized according to Christ's institution, receives the sacrament of baptism; and the truth is always infallibly annexed with the sign; Nec fieri potest visio Aominis, ut non sit sacrammtum quod figurat; Though the wicked may feel no working by the sacrament, yet the sacrament doth offer, and present grace, as well ta the unworthy as to the worthy receiver: Nec fallaciter promittit¹¹; The wicked may be a cause, that the sacrament shall do them no good; but that the sacrament become no sacrament, or that God should be false in his promises, and offer no grace, where he pretends to offer it, this the wicked cannot do; baptism doth truly, and without collusion, offer grace to all; and nothing but baptism by an ordinary institution, and as an ordinary means, doth so: for when baptism is called a figure, yet both that figure is said there to save us, (the figure that now saveth us, baptism") and it is a figure of the ark; it hath relation to it, to that ark which did save the world, when it is called a figure; so it may be a figure; but if we speak of real salvation by it, baptism is more than a figure.

Now as our putting on of Christ was double, by faith and by sanctification, so by this sacrament also, we are baptized in nomen Christi, into the name of Christ, and in mortem Christi, into the death of Christ: we are not therefore baptized into his name, because names are imposed upon us in our baptism: for that was not always permanently accustomed, in the Christian church, to give a name at baptism. To men who were of years, and well known in the world already by their name, if they were converted to the Christian faith, the Church did not use to give new names at their baptism: neither to children always; but sometimes as an indifferent thing, they left them to the custom of that country, or of that family, from which they were derived. When St. Augustine says, that he came to Milan, to St. Ambrose, at that time, quo dari nomina oportuit, when names were to be given, it

is true, that he speaks of a time, when baptism was to be administered, but that phrase of giving of names, was not a receiving of names at baptism, (for neither Ambrose nor Augustine received any new name at their baptism) but it was a giving up of their names, a registering, a matriculating of their names in the book of the profession of the Christian religion, and a public declaration of that profession.

To be baptized therefore into the name of Christ, is to be translated into his family, by this spiritual adoption, in which adoption (when it was legal) as they that were adopted, had also the name of the family into which they were adopted, as of Octavius Octavianus, and the rest, so are we so baptized, into his name, that we are of Christus Christiani; and therefore to become truly Christians, to live christianly, this is truly to be baptized into his name.

No other name is given under heaven, whereby we can be saved; nor must any other name accompany the name of God, in our baptism. When therefore they teach in the Roman church, that it is a good baptism, which is administered in this form, / baptize thee in the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, and the Virgin Mary, if he which baptizes so, do not mean in his intention, that the Virgin Mary is equal to the Trinity, but only an assistant, this is not only an impertinent, but an impious addition to that God, that needs no assistant. And as in our baptism, we take no other name necessarily, but the name of Christ: so in our Christian life, we accept no other distinctions of Jesuits, or Franciscans; but only Christians: for we are baptized into his name, and the whole life of a regenerate man is a baptism. For as in putting on Christ, sanctification doth accompany faith, so in baptism, the imitation of his death (that is, mortification) and the application of his passion, (by fulfilling the sufferings of Christ in our flesh) is that baptism into his death. Which do so certainly follow one another, (that he that is truly baptized into the name of Christ, is also baptized into his death) as that St. Paul couples them together, Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized into the name of Paul"? If you were not baptized into his name, then you have no interest, no benefit by his death, nor

■ 1 Cor. i. 13.

by any thing which he suffered, that his merits, or his works of supererogation should be applied to you: and if he did not suffer for you, if all that any Paul (much less any Ignatius) could do, were but enough, and too little for himself, then you are not baptized into his name, nor to be denominate by him.

This is then to be baptized into Christ's death, habere, et reddere testimonium, Christum pro me mortuum, to be sure that Christ died for me; and to be ready to die for him; so, that I may fulfil his sufferings, and may think that all is not done, which belongs to my redemption, except I find a mortification in myself. Not that any mortification of mine works any thing, as a cause of my redemption, but as an assurance and testimony of it; ut sit pignus et sigillum redemptionis; it is a pledge, and it is a seal of my redemption.

Christ calls his death a baptism; so St. Augustine calls our baptism a death, Quod crux Christo, et sepulchrum, id nobis baptisma; Baptism to us, says he, is our cross, and our passion, and our burial; that is, in that, we are conformed to Christ as he suffered, died, and was buried. Because if we be so baptized into his name, and into his death, we are thereby dead to sin, and have died the death of the righteous.

Since then baptism is the death of sin, and there cannot be this death, this conquest, this victory over sin, without faith, there must necessarily faith concur with this baptism; for if there be not faith, (none in the child, none in the parents, none in the sureties, none in the church) then there is no baptism performed; now in the child there is none actually; in the sureties we are not sure there is any; for their infidelity cannot impeach the sacrament; the child is well baptized though they should be misbelievers; for when the minister shall ask them, Dost thoubelieve in God? dost thou renounce the devil?perchance theymaylie in own behalfs; perchance they do not believe, they do not renounce, but they speak truth in the behalf of the child, when they speak in the voice of the church who receives this child for her child, and binds herself to exhibit and reach out to that child her spiritual paps, for her future nourishment thereof. How comes it to pass, says St. Augustine, that when a man presents another man's child at the font, to be baptized, if the minister should ask him, Shall this man child be a valiant man, or a wise man, Bhall this woman child, be a chaste, and a continent woman! the surety would answer, I cannot tell, and yet, if he be asked, of that child, of so few days old, Doth that child believe in God now, will ho renounce the devil hereafter! the surety answers confidently, in his behalf, for the belief, and for the renouncing: How comes this to pass, says St. Augustine? He answers to this, that as sacramentum corporisChristi, est secundum modum corpus Christi, so sacramentum fidei est fides; as the sacrament of the body, and blood of Christ, is, in some sense, and in a kind, the body and blood of Christ, says Augustine, so in the sacrament of faith, says he, (that is, baptism) there is some kind of faith. Here is a child born of faithful parents; and there ia the voice of God, who hath sealed a covenant to them, and their seed; here are sureties, that live (by God's gracious spirit) in the unity, and in the bosom of the church: and so, the parents present it to them, they present it to the church, and the church takes it into her care; it is still the natural child, of the parents who begot it, it is the spiritual child of the sureties that present it; but it is the Christian child of the church, who in the sacrament of baptism, gives it a new inanimation, and who, if either parents or sureties should neglect their parts, will have a care of it, and breed it up to a perfection, and full growth of that faith, whereof it hath this day an inchoation and beginning.

As then we have said, that baptism is a death, a death of sin, and as we said before, sin dies not without faith, so also can there be no death of sin, without sorrow, and contrition, which only washes away sin: as therefore we see the church, and Christ's institution, furnishes this child with faith, which it hath not of itself, so let us bring to this action that sorrow and that condoling, that we produce into the world such miserable wretches, as even by peccatum involuntarium, by that sin, to which no act, nay no will of theirs concurred, that is, original sin, are yet put into the state of damnation.

But let us also rejoice, in our own, and this child's behalf, that as we that have been baptized, so this child, that shall be, have, and shall put on Christ Jesus in baptism. Both as a garment, for sacramenta sunt vestimenta^**, as Christ is a garment, so the sacra

¹* Augustine.

ments are Christ's garment, and as such a garment; as ornat militem, and convincit desertores, it gives him, that continues in God's battle, a dignity, and discovers him that forsakes God's tents, to be a fugitive; baptism is a garland, in which two ends are brought together, he begins aright, and perseveres, so ornat militem, it is an honour to him, that fights out in God's battle, but convincit desertorem, baptism is our prest-money, and if we forsake our colours, after we have received that, even that forfeits our lives; our very having been baptized, shall aggravate our condemnation. Yea it is such a garment, as those of the children of Israel in the wilderness, which are (by some expositors) thought to have grown all the forty years, with their bodies; for so by God's blessed provision, shall grace grow with this infant, to the life's end. And both we and it, shall not only put on Christ as a garment, but we shall put on his porson, and we shall stand before his Father, with the confidence and assurance of bearing his person, and the dignity of his innocence.