Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

So unbelievers can have no saving benefit by the sacraments. Christ himself without his saving benefits; for Christ himself is the kernel of the sacraments; and wherever he comes, he brings all saving benefits along with him, Rom. viii. 32. even the purchase of his death.

The sum of these saving benefits ye have in that word, 1 Cor. i. 30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;' which comprehends all that is ne cessary for the cure of the case of any poor sinner.

IV. I proceed to shew, what is the sacramental union of these parts, or wherein it doth lie. There is an union of the parts of the sacraments, and without it they could not be accounted parts of the sacraments. It is by virtue of the union betwixt the signs and the signified, that the one gets the name of the other, Gen. xvii. 10. 1 Cor. xi. 24, 25. This is my body, This cup is the new testament in my blood :' yea, and the effects of the one are ascribed to the other, Tit. iii. 5. Not by works of 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.' Now, this is not a natural or local union; for in respect of place they are as far distant as heaven and earth: but it is a relative union, consisting in that spiritual relation that is between the sign and the thing signified, made by virtue of Christ's institution, whereby the signs signify or represent, seal, and exhibit to worthy receivers the thing signified.

XV. 8.

V. I come to shew, who are the subjects of the sacraments for whom they are appointed of God. They are those, and those only, who are within the covenant, Rom. 'Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.' Exod. xii. 48. When a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.' For the seals of the covenant can belong to none but those

who are in it. So they have a right to them before God who are savingly within the covenant, and those a right before the church who are in it by a credible profession. Believers and their seed have a right to baptism; but only Christians come to years have a right to the Lord's supper, 1 Cor. xi. 28. But let a man examine himself,' &c.

VI. Lastly, I come to shew, what are the general uses and ends of the sacraments. The principal uses and ends are threefold.

1. To be holy signs to signify and represent Christ and his benefits to the believer, to be discerned by faith, Rom. iv. 11. There is a fitness in them for this end, there being a plain resemblance betwixt the signs and the thing signified; whereby the signs do bring into their minds, and do clearly represent to a spiritual discerner the thing signified. And thus they strengthen faith, and all other graces in a believer; as seeing helps believing.

2. To be Heaven's public seals to seal the covenant. Rom. iv. 11. It is by them that God solemnly ratifies and confirms the covenant with believers. The covenant is held out in the word to be embraced by all to whom it comes: by believing we enter into the covenant; by the sacraments God declares it to be a bargain, as one does by subscribing a contract, and sealing it. And thus also they strengthen faith and all other graces; and oblige the believer to obedience, as one in covenant with God, Rom. vi. 3.

3. To be means of applying and exhibiting Christ and his benefits to the believer, 1 Cor. xi. 24. So that with the sacramental signs, in the right use of them, is joined the possession and actual enjoyment of the thing signified: This is my body, take eat.' As one is put in possession of houses or lands, by earth and stone given them, according to law, upon a disposition: so is the believer made partaker of Christ, and solemnly put in possession of all his saving benefits, by these means. The less principal end of the sacraments is to be badges of our Christian profession, to distinguish men from those that are without the church, Eph. ii. 11, 12. • Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called un

circumcision, by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the common-wealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.'

I shall conclude this discourse with some inferences."

Inf. 1. Great is the privilege of the covenant, and the benefits thereof, which God has thus appointed to be sealed. Seals are not used in small matters, but in those of great importance; how great then must those be which heaven seals?

2. Our gracious God has shewn great kindness to, and concern for the welfare and comfort of poor sinners coming to him through his Son. Though his word be firmer than heaven and earth, he remembers our frame, that we are guilty, and therefore fearful and suspicious creatures; and, for our ease, that we may the better trust him, has appointed seals of his benefits promised in his covenant.

3. Great is the sin of slighting the sacraments, and neglecting to partake of them. God appended seals to the covenant of works, viz. the tree of life, and that of the knowledge of good and evil. He also appointed seals to the covenant of grace, under the old dispensation, and under the new too. So divine wisdom has seen them always necessary. What an affront to the wisdom and kindness of God, and his covenant, must the slighting of them then be?

4. Lastly, Great is the sin of abusing and profaning the sacraments, 1 Cor. xi. 27. • Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.' The unconverted profane the seals of heaven by setting them to a blank, where there is no covenant, The saints in a dead and sleepy frame do also profane them, while they are in no capacity to discern what they are appointed to represent, seal, and apply. O then use the sacraments in faith, ac cording to Christ's institution, and seek his blessing upon them, that the benefits thereby sealed may become effectually yours.

[blocks in formation]

THE NUMBER OF THE SACRAMENTS, AND THE NATURE OF
BAPTISM.

1 COR. xii. 13.-For by one Spirit we are all baptised-and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

MATTH. XXViii. 19.-Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

TH

HE first of these texts, as before explained, holds out the number of the sacraments of the New Testament; and from thence we may draw this doctrine, viz,

DOCT. The sacraments of the New Testament are, bap. tism, and the Lord's supper.

That this, and only this, is the number of the sacraments, we have the following evidences.

1. These were instituted by the Lord Jesus, and no more, Matth. xxviii. 19. and xxvi. 26-28. No other bear the stamp of divine institution. And none can shew any other holy ordinance instituted by Christ, wherein by sensible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

2. These two fully answer the necessities of the saints in the case of sacraments. Two witnesses are sufficient to one deed, and the great deed and grant of the covenant are sufficiently witnessed unto by these. What more is there for God's elect to expect in this world, but these two things, that they receive life and nourishment, that they be taken into the covenant, and kept in it? Baptism is the sign of the one, and the Lord's supper of the other. The

one is the sacrament of our ingrafting into Christ, and the other of our nourishment in him, And there is no special grace whatsoever, but what is signified and sealed by them.

nature of the ordinary They were no more And plain it is, that

[ocr errors]

3. The same was the number and sacraments of the Old Testament. but circumcision and the passover. the New Testament dispensation is not more full of external rites and ceremonies than the Old one was. So that the Papists seven sacraments compared with the two Jewish ones, must needs shew Popery to be vastly distant from the simplicity of the gospel. Circumcision was the initiating sacrament then, as baptism is now, signifying the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, Col. ii. 11; as baptism the washing of them away, Acts xxii. 16; the passover signifying Christ crucified, 1 Cor. v. 7; as the sacrament of the supper also, Matth. xxvi. 26. First they were to be circumcised, and afterwards to keep the passover; and so first to be baptised, and afterwards to communicate in the Lord's supper, but no otherwise. Circumcision was never reiterated, but the passover frequently.

4. Lastly, As the apostle, in our text, makes these two the bonds of Christian communion, and no more; so he reduces the extraordinary Jewish sacraments, in their uses and ends, to those of our two sacraments. The being under the cloud, and passing through the Red Sea, he calls their being baptised, 1 Cor. x. 2. Their eating of the manna, and drinking the water of the rock, he calls their eating of the same spiritual meat, and drinking the same spiritual drink, as we do in the Lord's supper, ver. 3, 4.

From this point I shall draw a few inferences,

Inf. 1. Good and gracious is our God to his church and people, under the gospel in a special manner, who has instituted two, and but two sacraments, and these easy and clear. Here we have enough for the confirmation of our faith of the promises; and we have no reason to say we are under a heavy yoke. Here none of our blood is to be shed, but Christ's blood is most clearly represented as shed for us.

2. The fiye sacraments which the Papists have added to

« ÎnapoiContinuă »