(2.) So for Christ's resurrection. In this ordinance we profess to rise again with Christ, and therefore should not only put off the old man, or body of sin, but have an earnest impulsion within ourselves to the duties of holiness, and be breathing after, and pressing on yet more and more to the purity and perfection of the heavenly estate : Phil. iii. 14, ' I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.' Well, then, unless those that are baptized into Christ change their course of life, all their profession is but an empty formality, a mockery, a mere nullity as to reward, not as to punish- ment : ' Their circumcision is made uncircumcision," Rom. iii. 25. As when God came to reckon with his people : Jer. ix. 25, 26, ' Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish the circumcised with the uncircumcised ; Egypt, Judah, and Edom with the children of Ammon and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness ; for all these nations are uncircumcised in flesh, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.' Circum- cision was the sign and seal of the new covenant to them, as baptism is to us ; they were distinguished from other nations that were without it, and this prerogative they stood not a little upon : Gen. xxxiv. 14, ' We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircum- cised, for that were a reproach unto us.' They quarrelled with Peter : Acts xi. 3, ' Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.' Now, to cut off this presumption, God telleth them this was a sorry stay for them to trust to ; for he intended shortly to hold a visitation wherein he would proceed against wicked persons without difference, whether circumcised or uncircumcised, and would deal impartially with the one and the other, because the one were such in
VeR. 4.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 179
heart as the others were in flesh. The outward rite is of no force and worth in God's account .
[2.] It is a bond wherewith we bind our souls. It is enough to evidence that, because it is ' an answer to the covenant,' 1 Peter iii. 24. As there God undertaketh to renew and strengthen us, and give us grace by his almighty power, so we undertake to improve this grace, and to put off the old man, that we may walk in newness of life ; and covenant-engaging is the most solemn engaging : Ezek. xx. 37, * I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.' As also by analogy : Gal. v. 3, ' I testify to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the whole law.' He obligeth himself to the whole economy of Moses. So by parity of reason, he that is baptized is a debtor to the law of faith. And so debtors is the word used by the apostle : Rom. viii. 12, ' Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.' A covenant-bond is sacred as that of an oath or vow. A solemn promise made to God hath the nature of a vow : Num. xxx. 2, ' If a man vow a vow to the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break liis word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.' Now, if it be not performed, we violate God's ordinance, and are infringers of the oath sworn to Christ, and so are to be reckoned among the perfidious rather than the faithful. Besides, take it in the notion of a dedication, or consecration, or yielding ourselves to the Lord. Every consecration implieth an execration, whether it be formally expressed or no. Sometimes it is expressed : Neh. x. 29, ' They entered into a curse, and into an oath to walk in God's law.' Now see if this holds not good in the new covenant ; consider the tenor of it : Mark xvi. 16, ' He that belie veth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that belie veth not shall be damned.' Therefore the bond of the covenant is a strict bond.
Use 1. Is matter of lamentation that so many are baptized into Christ, and yet express so little of the fruit of his death or resurrection. Alas ! the rabble of nominal christians live in defiance of the religion which they profess, and are angry with those that would reduce them to the strictness of it. They are alive to sin and dead to righteousness ; US if they had promised rather to continue in their sins than to renounce and disclaim them, and were in covenant with the devil, the world, and the flesh, rather than Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; as if they had vowed to be utterly unlike to Christ. Now, it will go ill with them in the judgment, worse than with heathen, because they knew better, were obliged to do better, had grace to do better, in oifer at least. We laugh at the rudeness of one bred up at the plough, but are sorely displeased at the ill-manners of one bred in places of more refined conversation. The heathens were never buried with Christ in baptism, never professed to be dead to the world or alive to God ; but christians are under a solemn engagement, and if they had the courage to set about their duty, would God be wanting to them ?