VeR. 4.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 177
resurrection we obtain this new life, and both are the causes of our dying to sin and living to God.
2. What it sealeth or confirmeth. The new covenant, wherein God hath promised the gift of the Spirit, to renew, sanctify, and heal all those that enter into it. We have the grace to destroy sin by virtue of the death and burial of Christ, but the promises are in the new covenant. That the new covenant is sealed in baptism, see Mat. xxviii. 19, 20, ' Go ye therefore 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 ;' Mark xvi. 16, 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.' Now the great promise of the new covenant is the Spirit to renew and cleanse the soul. Surely this is properly signified in baptism : John iii. 5, ' Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' And Titus iii. 5, ' According to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.' As the body is washed with water Avithout, so is the soul cleansed by the Spirit within ; as at the baptism of our Saviour, the descending of the Holy Ghost upon him was a visible pledge of what should be done after- ward ; for at his baptism the fruit of all baptisms was visibly repre- sented ; we are admitted children of his family, as Christ was declared to be ' the well-beloved Son of God,' Mat. iii. 17 ; and we have the Spirit of his Son : Gal. iv. 6, ' Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.' As God promiseth ' to pour out water on him that is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground,' so to ' pour out his Spirit on the seed, and his blessing upon thy offspring,' Isa. xliv. iii. And the Spirit itself is figured by water : John iv. 14, ' Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life ;' John vii. 37, ' If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink ;' Eev. xxii. 17, ' Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.' Now, unless we will receive this grace in vain, we are bound to wait for and obey the Spirit's motions, either by way of restraint or excitation : Rom. viii. 13, 14, ' If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live ; for as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God ;' we that pretend to come to God for this promise of the Spirit, as in baptism we do : Acts ii. 38, ' 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.'
3. It obligeth, as there is a kind of undertaking to show forth the likeness of Christ's death and resurrection by our submission to it. Our receiving baptism implieth two things — (1.) A public and open profession ; (2.) A solemn bond, wherewith we bind our souls.
[1.] A public and open profession, wherein we profess a communion with Christ's death and resurrection, or to die and rise with Christ. In the general, that baptism is an open profession ; for it is required as a sign of the faith that is in our hearts : Rom. x. 10, ' With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
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is made unto salvation ;' and Mark xvi. 16, ' He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned ;' Acts ii. 38, ' Eepent, 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/ As circumcision was the badge of the Jewish pro- fession, so is baptism of the profession of Christianity. Therefore the Jews are called circumcision, and we are called the purified people ; Titus ii. 14, ' Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works ; ' and * those that are purged from their sins,' 2 Peter i. 9. And more distinctly what we profess is plain and evident in this ordinance ; we profess to die and rise with Christ,
(1.) Death ; yea, in the text not only and simply to be dead, but to be buried with Christ. If baptism expresseth an image of burial, and every burial supposeth death, not only of Christ, but us, surely we are bound not only to die unto sin at first, but to make our mortification more thorough and constant ; for as burial noteth the continuance of Christ's death, so should we persevere and increase in the mortification of sin, for burial is a continued dying to sin. We should not only renounce and give over all the sins of our former lives, but persevere in this resolution, and increase in our endeavour against sin daily. A christian living in sin, and serving his lusts, is like a spectre and ghost arisen out of the grave.