1, Have ye need of strength for your duty, there is "help laid upon one who is mighty," Psalm 1xxxix. 19. Doth your soul desire wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, your Surety is made all this to you of God, I Cor. i. 30. Do ye seek any divine "grace, love and communion," the Triune God hath undertaken to bestow it upon you, 2 Cor. xiii. 13. Let your souls seek it only of him, urging him, and pleading upon the ground of the unchangeable and sealed covenant, established in the death and resurrection of Christ. In this manner must we often conduct with the answer of a good conscience toward God; for this is the baptism that saveth, 1 Peter iii. 21.

4. But consider also that baptism connects you with your fellow. christian, who is baptized as well as ye are: "We are all baptized by one Spirit into one body?" as Paul saith, 1 Cor. xii. 13. Let therefore a strict union with one another be discerned among you, being all of one heart, and one soul in your apprehensions, in grace, peace and love: this the same apostle requireth of you, when he saith, Eph. iv. 3-6. "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism: one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

5. Finally, when the Lord will baptize you with blood, and calls you to resist unto blood, and to surrender your bodies to death for his name, do not then by any means draw back; ye must submit willingly to be "baptized with the baptism, wherewith Christ was baptized," Mark x. 31. Would ye then draw back, when Jesus "willingly suffered himself to be baptized for you? Yea, do we not 'oblige ourselves by baptism to lay down even our lives for the Lord, when he requires it of us for his name? How can we otherwise suffer ourselves to be "baptized for the dead," according to 1 Cor. xv. 29? "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, and ye shall have tribulation ten days be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive" to the church of Smyrna, Rev. ii. 8, 10.

In the mean while ye have great reason to rejoice, that ye have been baptized in the name of the Lord. Behold how the Ethiopian, and the jailer rejoiced, after they were baptized, Acts viii. 39. xvi. 34. So much the more because the Lord will cleanse you perfectly, in consequence of your having been sealed by baptism, that he may present you to himself a glorious church, not having spot or

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wrinkle, or any such thing; but holy and without blemish," Eph. v. 27. His name, which was put on you in baptism, shall remain on you, and beam forth with far greater lustre; for "ye shall see his face, and his name shall be in your foreheads," according to Rev. xxii. 4. How will ye walk in state before his face in glory, clothed with white raiment, like priests, kings and conquerors, having his name, and he having your name! Hear him say himself, Rev. iii. 4, 5. They who have not defiled their garments shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels," Amen.

ERROURS

CONCERNING BAPTISM REFUTED.

XXVII. LORD'S DAY.

1 Peter iii. 21. The like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth now also save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Q. 72. Is then the external baptism with water the washing away of sin itself?

A. Not at all; for the blood of Jesus Christ only, and the Holy Ghost cleanses from all sin.

Q. 73. Why then doth the Holy Ghost call baptism "the washing of regeneration, and the washing away of sins ?"

A. God speaks not thus without great cause, to wit, not only thereby to teach us, that as the filth of the body is purged away by water, so our sins are removed by the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ; but especially, that by this divine pledge and sign he may assure us, that we are spiritually cleansed from our sins as really, as we are externally washed with water.

Q. 74. Are infants also to be baptized ?

A. Yes, for since they, as well as the adult, are included in the covenant and church of God; and since redemption from sin by the blood of Christ, and the Holy Ghost, the author of faith, is promised

to them no less than to the adult; they must therefore by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, be also admitted into the Christian church; and be distinguished from the children of infidels, as was done in the old covenant or testament by circumcision, instead of which, baptism is instituted in the new covenant.

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ears shall hear a voice behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left," saith the Lord to his church, Isaiah xxx. 21. God hath given to man his law and his word to be a right rule of faith and practice, that man may direct his goings by them: but the heart of man is so blinded by sin, that "it turneth him aside, so that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Isaiah xliv. 20. Is he not pleased with one side, he turns to the other, to the right hand, or to the left, he will believe and do either too much, or too little we see this in the Jews, one while they depend altogether upon the sacrifices, as though they satisfied the Lord with them for their guilt, and as though "he ate the flesh of bulls, and 'drank the blood of goats," Psalm 1. 13, and at other times they thought that they were neither necessary, nor useful; therefore "they robbed the Lord in tithes and offerings, and said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it, that we have kept his ordinance?" Mal. iii. 8, 14. The Pharisees did not conduct differently from this, when they were exceedingly zealous and superstitious with respect to small matters, but negligent and careless of great matters: "They paid tithe of mint, anise and cummin; but omit ed the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith," as the Saviour upbraids them, Matt. xxii. 23. Do not our adversaries, hearers, conduct in the same manner with respect to the doctrine of baptism, when one ascribes too much to baptism, saying that the outward water washes away sin, and another ascribes too little, as though it had no manner of relation to sin, and were no more than a bare sign of a Christian profession, and as if it were not necessary to baptize the children of the covenant people of God?

Therefore the Lord, desiring that his words should be profitable to his church, "who walks in a right way," causeth her to "hear the word, which saith to her, This is the way, walk ye therein,” when erroneous persons endeavour to turn her aside "to the right hand, or to the left." And, beloved, is not this scripture fulfilled to day in your ears," when the instructor proclaims to you, according to the word of God, that only the blood and Spirit of Christ washes VOL. II.

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away sins, and that we ought to baptize infants; for if we observe this middle way, we will not turn aside either to the right hand, or to the left.

It appears therefore, that there are two particulars with respect to baptism in this Lord's day, which require our exposition:

1. The efficacy of waterbaptism, Question 72, 73.

11. Infant baptism, Question 74.

I. We will not busy ourselves here with the Socinians and Mennonites, who deny that the sacrament of baptism is of any efficacy, and fancy that baptism is only a bare sign of Christianity, and that it is no seal, contrary to the nature of the sacraments, which become seals by the word of promise; but we will attend now only to the Papists, who ascribe too great an efficacy to waterbaptism, and say that the outward washing with water is the washing away of sin: in opposition to which we teach that "only the blood and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ washeth away sinɛ."

In order that we may discuss only the subject of the controversy, and may not engage in a mere strife about words, we will exhibit the doctrine of the Papists, that we may attack it to better advantage. We need not burthen them above measure, and charge them with teaching that the water in baptism is changed into the blood and Spirit of Christ, as they speak concerning the signs in the supper ; no, they do not think thus: but they ascribe to the sign of water, and to the outward use of it, even to the work itself, without any act of faith, a power to wash away sin, and to effect regeneration, and to impress an indelible mark on the soul, qualifying her for the service of God, and rendering her conformable to Christ; whereby then the: sis, which the baptized person hath before baptism, whether original or actual, are wholly washen away, yea, so entirely, that nothing remaineth in him, that can render him guilty, and that therefore unbaptized infants are not saved, but are sent to a porch of hell, where they experience neither sorrow nor joy; and therefore every person may and must baptize in a case of necessity, when there is no priest at hand; for baptism is, according to them, absolutely necessary, the want of baptism can however be compensated and supplied by the sacrament of penance, by a desire to be baptized, and by the baptism of blood, to wit, martyrdom. In this manner are sins before baptism taken away, but they leave sins committed after baptism to. confirmation, and to satisfying in their own persons in and after this life.

But the Popish doctors do not explain in the same way how the water washes away sins. The Dominicans assert that there is am