(2.) Because we are bound to a profession, not in word only, but in deed ; to a suitable walking or to glorify Christ. He is not a professor
492 A SERMON OX THE ENDS OF THE SACRAMENT.
uliose life is not a liymu to God. Actions are the best image of our thoughts. A man may destroy his profession by his conversation : Titus i. IG, ' They profess they know God, but in their works they deny him.' Experience teacheth us that a man may profess a religion which he doth abhor ; though they know God, they do not love him, and live to him, and they are not really and seriously what they nominally profess to be. An unclean person is a votary to Priapus ; a drunkard to Bacchus ; not a disciple of Christ. An earthly sensual worldling doth in his life say that the alcoran is better than the gospel ; a merciless man is worse than an infidel, and hath denied the faith, 1 Tim. v. 8. Interpretative circumcision is turned into uncircumcision, Eom. ii. 25 ; and Jer. ix. 25, 26, * I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised, -&C. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.' Uncircumcised in heart have a pagan heart. Certainly a man that is obliged to the profession is obliged to the duties which the profession calleth for. "What ! pro- fess yourselves to be christians, and live loosely ? This is to be called christians in opprobrium Christi, to the reproach of Christ. A christian and a worldling ! a christian and a sensualist ! it is as great a contradiction as to say a christian and an infidel. Profession includeth holy practice as well as verbal acknowledgment. There is a practical blasphemy : Eev. ii. 9, 'I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and are not.' You blaspheme when you worship, and you make Christ a patron of your sin: Ps. ]. 16, 17, 'But to the wicked, God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldst take my covenant into thy mouth, seeing thou liatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee?' Every sacrament is an aggravation of your unfaithfulness, and so doth not profit, but hurt you. Baptism, though not renounced, is forgotten, when we live as if we were in league with the devil, the world, and the flesh : 2 Peter i. 9, ' Hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.' Better that scalding lead and oil had been poured upon them than the water of baptism. So for the Lord's fiupper: 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 ;' and Heb. x. 29, ' Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought Avorthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing?' Well, then, they are as bad as infidels, jea, worse than infidels, 1 Tim. v. viii. To be brought up in princes courts, and yet to be of clownish behaviour, aggravates the crime.
If you ask what duties doth this profession bind you to, I answer — Consider what are the excellences of the christian profes- sion ? Sure principles of trust, or commerce between us and God, for mercies [of daily providence, pardon, and life ; excellent re- wards, and holy precepts of purity and charity. Now, if we trans- gress any of these, we dishonour our profession.
As to the first, disti-ust of providence, it is said, Mat. vi. 32, ' Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, &c. (for after these things do the gentiles seek) ; for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have
A SEEMON ON THE ENDS OF THE SACRAMENT. 493
need of all these things,' Then, for the other part, commerce with God and rest for the soul , as to fears of vengeance and desires of happi- ness, we are commanded, Jer. vi. 16, to * stand in the Avays and see, and ask for the old paths, the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.'
As to the second, for excellent rewards, 1 Cor. ii. 12, the apostle saith, ' Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.'
As to the third, for holy precepts — purity and charity. As to purity : 1 Peter iv. 3, ' For the time past of our life may suffice us to- have wrought the will of the gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.' So for charity : 1 Tim. v. 8, ' If any man provide not for his own, especially they of his own house, he hath denied the faith ; ' that is, done an act incompatible with the christian religion.
2. The next end is, it is a seal of the covenant. Circumcision was so : Gen. xvii. 11, ' My covenant shall be in your flesh.' And the apostle explaineth it : Rom. iv. 11, ' He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith.' Now what is true of one sacrament is true of all, for they agree in their general nature ; and therefore it is said, Luke xxii. 20, ' This cup is the new testament in my blood.' A charter that hath divers seals hath not this for one part, that for another, but all for the whole.