The Badges of Christianity, Book 2 · Chapter 14
Chap 14. Of the third vse of Baptisme.
THe third vse of baptisme is to kill and bury aThe thirde vse of baptisme is to teach vsus our dying to sin, and rising to newnesse of life.our naturall corruption by the power of Christs death and buriall, and to raise vsus againe to sanctification of our nature and newnes of life by his resurrection. Hence it is, that sin hath his deaths wounde and is stricken to the hatt, so that it cannot liue and raigne in the children of God. Hence it is, that baptisme is often bLuk, 3, 3called the sacrament of repentance, … Luke, 3, Iohn came into all the parts and coasts about Iordan, preaching the Baptisme of repentance for the remission of sinnes. So likewise Marke 1, 4. Iohn did baptise in the Wildernes and preach the baptisme of amendment of life, And the Apostle affirmeth as much, col, 2, xii, xiii, declaring that the one end of baptism is the death and burial of the old man by the almighty power of God.
This also was taught in those c1 pet. 3. 20, 21liuely types answering our baptisme, to wit, the flood that drownd the old world, while Noah and his family were preserued in the Arke. Also the red sea in which Pharaoh and his host perished, but the people of God. were deliuered. For as God destroyed in the waters and as it were buried in the flood the world, but saued a remnant of grace: so doth God, through christ, mortifie the old man, raise againe the new man, and seale them both in our baptisme.
Likewise, as GOD deliuered his people out of the hands of Pharaoh, and opened them a way through the red sea, and drowned their enimies that they saw them no more aliue: so by baptisme, he assureth our deliuerance from the thral dome and bondage of sinne (which bringeth greater slauery and captiuity then any slaue is in, vnderunder his earthly maister) and the destruction of the flesh, that it shall not hurt or condemn vsus. We are al dPsal. 51. 7 Rom. 5, 12born in sins and trespasses: we hauehave need of repentance and regeneration.
We see then what vse we are to make of our baptisme, euen labor to attaine to the efficacy and fruit of it, that it may not be a bare and barren signe. Moses and the Prophets earnestly exhort the people of Israell, to shewe forth the force and effect of their circumcision, eDeut. 10, 16 & 30. 6to cut away the fore-skin of their harts, and harden their necks no more, as we see, Deut, 10. 16. The Lorde did set his delight in thy fathers, to louelove them, and did chuse their seed after them, euen you aboue all people, Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your hearts, and harden your neckes no more, And in another place, The Lord thy GOD will circumcise thine heart, and the hearte of thy seede, that thou maiest louelove the LORD thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soule, that thou maiest liue.
So the Prophet fIer, 4, 4Ieremy saith, Breake vppe your fallowe grounde, and sowe not among thornes: be circumcised to the Lorde, and take away the fore-skinnes of yonr heartes, ye men of Iudah, and inhabitantes of Hierusalem, least my wrath come foorthe like fire, and burne, but none can quench it, because of the wickednes of your inuentions.
Circumcision was the thing wherin they bosted aboue althings: it was their glory wheros they bragged, to be a cirpeople, peculiar to God. Now the Prophets recall and reclaime them from trusting in outwarde signes and lying words, gIer, 7. 8that shall not profit: and stirre them vp to confider the power and effect therof, not to rest in cutting off a thin peece of skinne, but to cut off quite and cleane their lusts and corruptions which rebell against the spirit. This the Apostle teacheth hRom. 2, 28 29euidently. He is not a Iew which is one outward neither is that circumcision vvhichwhich is outvvard in the flesh: but he is a Ievv vvhichwhich is one vvithin, and the circumciston is of the hart in the spirit, not in the Letter, vvhose praise is not of men, but of God.
The outward Letter is of no moment with God, it must be the circumcision of the heart, otherwise the circumcising of the flesh is nothing. So, if we woulde hauehave God to take vsus for his people and heritage, iWe must all be baptized in hartwe must be all baptized in our hearts and our soules. What, will some say, baptized in soule, and in heart? What is that? Or how can this be? Can the water wash the soule? Surely, the Water cast vppon our bodies is nothing, if we hauehave not the truth of it. As then the apostle Paule maketh a difference between inward circumcision of the spirit, and outward circumcision of the letter, insomuch that if they would hauehave the true circumcision indeed, they must hauehave that which is within: so is there a great difference between the baptism of the spirit and of the letter, between that of the soul and the other of the body, betweene that which is outwarde, and that which is inward. Whosoeuer would hauehave the true baptism indeed, he must be clensed within, repent of his Wickednesse, mortifie his imaginations, deny himselfe, renounce his affections, and offer vp his soule and body in sacrifice to God, that he may renew and regenerate vsus: otherwise, it is a certaine thinge, we were neuer indeede and in truth baptized. For as the Iewes were charged to be vncircumcised, though the fore-skin of the flesh were cut off, and so they were circumcised in body: so, we may in like maner be charged to be vnbaptized, albeit we hauehave bin outwardly washed with water.
The Iewes chosen aboue all Nations to be the people of God, were oftentimes condemned of forgery and fasehood for breaking the couenant of God, and not answering to the truth thereof, kEsa, 2. 4 & 57, …and were … with the vncircumcisednesse of their heartes, that they were worse then the heathen themselues, a bastard broode, witches children, and vnworthy to be accounted Abrahams seede, to the end they should bragge no more of their circumcision, as Act. 7. Stephen, a faithfull witnesse of God, obiecteth against them, Ye stiffe-necked and of vncircumcised heartes and eares, ye hauehave alwaies resisted the Holy ghost, as your fathers did, so do you: they shew the prophets which shewed before of the comming of that iust, of whom ye are now the betrayers and murtherers: where we see, he discouereth their hypocrysie, and setteth their sinnes before their faces, telling them, that as their fathers rebelled against god so the children followed their fathers footesteppes. Do not these things concerne vsus? Though we hauehave not circumcision in action and practise, belong they not to vsus now a daies? Yes euen to vsus For we shall bee condemned for our vnclensed and vnsanctified heartes, not answering to the truth of our baptisme. For so much we profit by baptisme, as we profit in mortification. If then we be once baptized and washed with water: we shall pay dearely for our desiling that sacred water, which God hath appointed to so holy an vse.
True it is, the water of it selfe is as nothing, no other in substance and nature then that wherewith wee washe our hands: but when once it is ioyned to the word, and applyed to an holy end, it is as it were an authenticall seale which God hath engrauen in it. Now, he that counterfaiteth the seale of a Prince, shall hee not bee punished? Behold, baptisme is the seale of GOD, which serueth, not to seale conueyances of earthly possessions as house and landes: but to assure vsus, that wee are called to the heauenly life: and bringeth good assurance and warrant with it, that we be washed from our sinnes, by the blood of our Lorde I esus christ, and borne again by his holy spirit. Shall we break al, and escape punished? Let vsus not then boast of our baptisme, and Christianity, to say, oh, we are baptized: wee are christened: we weare the badge of God: these things, these things I say, will cost vsus deere, if we make not our baptisme auaileable to our selues and our owne soules by killing our corruptions: for thereby l1 Eccles. 5, 3we shew our selues like vntounto the foole that maketh a vow, and immediately after breaketh it.
Now, although we professe the Gospell, yet you shall finde a great number that knowe not this vse of baptisme, neither wherto it auaileth, nor to what endes it was ordained. They cal it indeed their christend ome, but are altogether ignorant of the nature therof, & are vnacquainted with the effect of it. This will cost them decrely, for abusing such a pledge-token at Gods hands, seeing it is a meanes whereby we are vnited to our Lord Iesus christ, and ingrafted into his death and resurrection. Wherefore, whereas many hauehave receiued baptisme in their infancy, and hauehave liued 40. or 50. yeares in the world, without knowing to what end they were baptized: it had been better for them that they had beene borne dead, or perished in their mothers wombe as as vntimely fruite, then to hauehave vnhalowed so holy and precious a thing. Thus of the third and last vse of baptisme, as also of the parts thereof, and generally touching this whole Sacrament.
The end of the second Booke.