Secondly, Eenew often the sense of your obligation to God, and keep a constant reckoning how you lay out yourselves for him : Acts xxvii. 23, ' His I am and him I serve;' Phil. i. 21, ' To me to live is Christ.' Some few renegades renounce their baptism, but most Christians forget their baptism : 2 Peter i. 9, ' He is blind, and Ciinnot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was washed from his old sins ;' therefore we should be continually exciting ourselves botli to obedience and dependence, that the sincerity of our first vow and consent may be verified by a real and constant performance of it.
Thirdly, You should use frequent self-reflection, that you may come to know whether you are indeed washed from the guilt and filth of sin: 1 Cor. vi. 11, ' Such were some of you, but now ye are sanctified, but now ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' You should observe what further sense you have
Acts II. 38.] how ought we to improve our baptism? 471
of the pardon of sin, how you get ground upon your bondage of spirit, and grow up into some rejoicing of faith, for by these signs God in- tended our strong consolation, Heb. vi. 18 ; and the eunuch, when he was baptized, went his way rejoicing. Acts viii. 39. Hath God appKed his covenant to me? taken me into the family? planted me into the mystical body of Christ? And shall not I be glad and rejoice in his salvation? So for sanctification, see whether God's interest doth prevail in you, or the interest of the flesh ; what power and strength of will you get against corruption easily, Gal. v. 16, 17 ; whether sin be more subdued, and you can govern your passions and appetites better. Gal. v. 24. They that are Christ's should find some- thing of this in themselves, otherwise their baptism is but an empty formality.
Fourthly and lastly, You must use it as a great help in all tempta- tions ; as when you are tempted to sin, either by the delights of sense : a Christian hath his answer ready, I am no debtor to the flesh ; or, I am baptized, and dedicated to God in the way of mortification and holiness to obtain pardon and life, 1 Cor. vi. 15. Shall I take the members of Christ ? &c. This soul, this body, this time, this strength is Christ's, not to please the flesh, but the Lord. Or by the terrors of sense. Dionysia comforted her son Majoricus, an African martyr, when he was going to suffer for owning the Godhead of Christ, with this speech: 3Iemenfo,JiU, fe haptizatum esse in nomine Patris, Filii, et Spiritiis Sancti — remember, my son, that thou art baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and be constant. So when you are tempted by the devil, taking advantage of your melancholy and grievous afflictions, to question God's love and mercy to penitent believers, remember the covenant sealed in baptism, that }ou may keep up your faith in God through Christ, which pardoneth all your sins, and hath begotten us to a lively hope. We must expect to be tempted ; the devil tempted Christ, after his baptism, to question his filiation so solemnly attested. Compare Mat. iii. 17, with Mat. iv. 16. Luther saith of himself, that when the devil tempted him to despair, or to any doubts and fears about the love of God or his mercy to sinners, he would always answer, Ecce ego hapfizatus sum, et credo in Christum crucifixum — Behold, I am baptized, and believe in Christ crucified. And he telleth us also of a holy virgin who gave this reply when the devil abused her solitudes, and injected any despairing thoughts into her mind, Baptizata sum — I am baptized, and entered into God's covenant, and will expect the pardon of my sins by Jesus Christ.
Thus should we all the days of our life improve our baptism, till we have the full of that holy and happy estate, for which we were first purified and washed in God's laver.
MAN'S IMPOTENCY TO HELP HIMSELF OUT OF HIS MISERY.
MAN'S IMPOTENCY TO HELP HIMSELF OUT OF HIS MISERY.
For ivhen toe ivere yet ivitliout strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. — Eom. V. 6.
In this chapter there are two parts : in the first, the apostle lays down the comfortable fruits and privileges of a justified estate ; in the second, he argues the firmness of these comforts, because they are so rich that they are scarce credible, and hardly received. The firmness and soundness of these comforts the apostle representeth by a double comparison : — (1.) By comparing Christ with Christ ; and (2.) Christ with Adam. Christ with Christ, or one benefit that we have by him with another, from the text to ver. 12 ; then Christ with Adam, the second Adam with the first, to the end of the chapter.
1, In comparing Christ with Christ, three considerations do occur: — [1.] The efficacy of his love toward us before justification, with the
efficacy of his love toward us after justification. The argument standeth thus : If Christ had a love to us when sinners, and his love prevailed with him to die for us, much more may we expect his love when made friends : if when we were in sin and misery, shiftless and helpless, Christ had the heart to die for us, and to take us with all our faults, will he cast us off after we are justified and accepted with God in him ? This love of Christ is asserted in ver. 6, amplified in ver. 7 and 8, and the conclusion is inferred in ver. 9 : ' Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.'