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as the church of Rome imagines, but also to sins committed after baptism.

3. If water shall signify the blood and Spirit of Christ, there must necessarily be an union between the sign, and the thing signified, which union consists,

1. In a conformity between the use of water, and the working of the blood and Spirit of Christ, and indeed such a conformity, that the use of water represents in a lively manner the working and power of the blood and Spirit of Christ, and exhibits them to the senses; for, (a) when we make use of water to wash and cleanse ourselves, we suppose that we are unclean and filthy. Thus also the blood and Spirit of Christ, by which we are cleansed, teach us that we have defiled ourselves by sin, in order that we may humble and ab ise ourselves, and seek our purification out of ourselves in the blood and Spirit of Christ. When David had defiled himself greatly, he prayed to the Lord, Psalm li. 2, 3. "Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin; for I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me." How excellently doth our form of baptism express this in its first part! thus it speaks, "This the dipping in, or sprinkling with water teacheth us, whereby the impurity of our souls is signified, and we admonished to loathe and humble ourselves before God, and seek for our purifica tion and salvation without ourselves." (b) As we are sprinkled with water, so we are also sprinkled with the blood and Spirit of Christ, that is, we are rendered partakers of the power and working of Christ's blood and Spirit for the washing away of sins, and they are applied to us: "the Messiah should sprinkle many nations," accord ing to Isaiah lii. 15. (c) We are united in the most intimate manner to the water by the use of waterbaptism, so we are also united to Christ through his blood and Spirit by the thing signified: therefore the text asks, “Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death." Yea, we put Christ on as a garment, by baptism, Gal. ii. 27. (d) Those who were formerly baptized by dipping seemed to be as it were dead and buried under the water, which is also represented in some measure by sprinkling and pouring water on a person: but we are dead and buried to ourselves and to sin through the blood and Spirit of Christ: "We die to sin," saith the instructor in the seventieth question. The text having respect to this, saith, "We are buried with him by baptism into death. (e) As those who are baptized ascend up out of the water, as if they arose from the. dead, so these also are made alive by the blood and Spirit of Christ. Therefore Paul saith in the

text, that believers are baptized into the death of Christ, "that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (f) As water washes away the filth of a person, so the blood and Spirit of Christ washes away our sins: this we have explained before. (g) When the names of the three divine Persons are pronounced upon us, their grace is also supplicated for us in baptism, as the apostle wished and prayed in behalf of the Corinthians, when he said, 2 Cor. xiii. 13. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.”

2. The union of the sign with the thing signified consists also in the joint use of both. Such a signifying power of the use of water is unprofitable, unless it be joined to the use of it, by which we enjoy not only the sign, but also the thing signified by the sign, through the working of the Holy Ghost and of faith; thus it is said, Titus iii. 5. "He hath saved us by the working of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." And so we "suffer ourselves," with Paul, Acts xxii. 16. "to be baptized, and our sins to be washed away." We are "buried by baptism into death with Christ," that is, in and united to him. Rom. vi. 4.

4. But what grounds have we to assert such an union of the sign with the thing signified? the word of God alone affords us freedom and grounds for this; For,

1. "The Lord Christ appointed this external washing with water,” saith the catechism; whereby he enjoined, that we should wash with water, in order to signify and represent the washing away of sins by his blood and Spirit. John the Baptist was the first, who received the institution of baptism, that he might, as the forerunner of Jesus, prepare the Jews to receive the Christ, to whom John directed them: therefore he saith, John i. 31, 33. "I Knew him not," that is, the Christ: "but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." After this, when Christ began to exercise his office in public, he commanded his apostles to baptize in his name; this we sec in the account given by John the evangelist, when he saith, "that the Pharisees had heard, that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples," John iv. 1, 2. But the institution of baptism was not yet perfected, because the New Testament was not yet per fected; the baptism of John pointed to Christ, who should be mani

fested to Israel, and the baptism of the apostles pointed to him, who was already manifested, and who was about to shed his blood, in order that he might obtain the Spirit, and so wash away sins; and therefore baptism was administered to the Jews only. But Christ being risen, because he had shed his blood, obtained the Spirit, and thus confirmed the New Testament, he completed the institution of baptism, commanding to baptize all nations, not only the Jews, but the Gentiles also, in the name of the divine Trinity. We see this, Matt. xxviii. 19.

But when we say that the baptism of Christ and of John differed thus one from the other, we do not mean that there was an essential difference between them, as the Papists and Socinians assert. The Papists maintain that the waterbaptism of Christ accomplisheth and effects the thing itself, to wit, the washing away of sins, and that the baptism of John purified the body only, but not the soul, and only disposed a person to conversion. The Socinians ascribe no virtue at all to baptism, but think that the baptism of John was a necessary ecclesiastical duty for the Jews, as all the ecclesiastical duties of the churchlaw of Moses were; but that the baptism of Christ was a mere badge of the Christian church for a short time, in order to distinguish it from Jews and Gentiles, and that baptism is no longer necessary now, since the general establishment of Christianity. In opposition to this our church teaches, conformably to the word of God, that the waterbaptism of John and of Christ was essentially the same; for both have the same sign, to wit, water; the thing signified by the baptism of John was the grace of the Messiah, which is also signified by the baptism of Christ; for according to the words of Paul," John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him, that is, on Christ Jesus; and they who heard him were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus," Acts xix. 4. The baptism of John was of divine institution, as well as that of Christ: "John was sent to baptize with water," John i. 33, "his baptism was from heaven," as Christ intimateth, Matt. xxi. 25. It is indeed true, that the baptism of John did not confer the thing signified, but Christ only; but the water baptism, instituted by Christ, confers not the thing signified neither, as will appear in the following Lord's day. When then the Socinians, who deny the signifying and sealing virtue of baptism, assert, that baptism, since the general establishment of Christianity, is a matter of indifference, yea, that it is no longer necessary, they contradict the word of God, which teacheth that baptism is a sacrament for the whole church of the New Testament until the end of the world; for Vez. It.

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Christ connects baptism with the preaching of the word, and prom. iseth his blessed presence with it for ever, when he saith to his ambassadours, Matt. xxviii. 19, 20. "Go ye, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

The virtue of this institution consists herein, that the ambassadours of the Lord are obliged to baptize every penitent person with water, and to signify to him the washing away of sins by the blood and Spirit of Christ; and every peniten is by this same word obliged to suffer himself to be baptized in obedience to Christ, and must be led up thereby to the blood and Spirit of Christ, that he may be cleansed by them; therefore Ananias said to penitent Paul, Acts xxii. 16, "Why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins." It was therefore a blamable disobedience of the scribes and Pharisees, that they would not suffer themselves to be baptized by John: by that disobedience "they rejected the counsel of God against themselves," as Jesus saith, Luke vii. 30,

2. But the word of the institution is not the only thing, that is necessary to render the use of the water a sacrament, but a word of promise must also be added to it, whereby the element, which becomes a sign by the institution, is made a seal also. This is beautifully expressed by the instructor in the sixty ninth question: "Christ hath added this promise to the institution of washing, that I am as certainly washed by his blood and Spirit from all the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, as I am washed externally with water." Doth not Peter also teach us this, when he saith to the penitent Jews, Acts ii. 38, 39, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you?"

The instructor inquiring concerning the word of promise, asks, "Where hath Christ promised us, that he will as certainly wash us by his blood and Spirit, as we are washed with the water of baptism?" and he cites sundry passages, which prove this. The first is, Matt. xxviii. 19, where Christ saith to his ambassadours, "Go ye, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." He showeth that the doctrine of the divine Trinity, and the grace of the Trinity, which each Person in the divine essence should bestow upon the nations, was the sum of all the doctrines, in which they should instruct the nations. Thus

Paol supplicated for the Corinthians in order that they might be saved, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost," 2 Cor. xiii. 13. All this salvation is promised and sealed to the person, who is baptized, and thus also the washing away of sins. Since now baptism is a seal of the covenant of grace, in which God and man enter into an agreement, we will inquire wherein it consists to be baptized in the name of the divine Trinity. The Lord on his part receives the person, who is baptized, into covenant, and promises, grants, and seals to him all that grace, which we have mentioned. This is taught in a most emphatical and clear manner in the second part of our form of baptism, where it saith, "When we are baptized in the name of the Father, God the Father witnesseth and sealeth unto us, that he doth make an eternal covenant of grace with us," &c. When the Lord established his covenant with Abraham and his seed, he promised that he would be a God to him, and to his seed, and he sealed this to him by circumcision, Gen. xvii. 1-12. Peter having respect to this, saith, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost: for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call," Acts ii 38, 39. But when the Lord brings the person, who is baptized, in this manner, into the bond of the covenant, he inclines him to assent to the covenant, and to "yield himself to the Lord," 2 Chron. xxx. 8. He doth this, when he suffers himself to be baptized in the name of the Trinity, by which he surrenders himself to the Lord, in such a solemn sacrament, to be his, "and saith, yea, subscribes with his hand, I am the Lord's, and calls himself by the name of Jacob and Israel," that he may join himself to the people of the Lord, Isaiah xliv. 5. That this is done in baptism is intimated by Paul, 1 Cor. i. 13. "Were ye baptized in the name of Paul? that is, did ye declare in baptism that ye should belong to Paul? Yea, the person who is baptized obligeth himself in, and by this ceremony of baptism, to cleave to the Triune God alone, to trust in him, and love him, to seek salvation in him alone, to serve him alone, and to oppose whatsoever opposeth him. The Lord requires all this of the person, who enters into covenant with him, and the person, who enters into covenant with the Lord, consents to it with a perfect heart. He "avouches the Lord to be his God, and the Lord avouches him to be his peculiar property, and that he shall keep all his commandments," Deut. xxvi. 17, 18. This he confirms by this sacrament, as by an oath, "swearing, and purposing to per

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