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before, knew him not by Sight, being inform ed either by Revelation, or by cur Lord himfelf, or by others, who he was, immediately refused to perform this Office. - Struck with a Sense of our Lord's Dignity, to whom he came to minifter, and of his own Meanness, he replied, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comeft thou to me? I have many Sins to be remitted by thy Expiation; I am thy Meffenger, fent to proclaim thy Coming; thou the Lord of Life, for whofe Reception I am come to prepare the Way; I ought therefore to come to thee, and not thou to me, for Baptifm and Remiffion: Shall I baptize him, whofe Shoes I am not worthy to bear? -But our bleffed Lord, though he had no Sin to confess, no Guilt to be expiated, neither could he need any Qualification to introduce him into his Kingdom, yet over-rules the Scruples of the Baptift, and tells him in the Words of the Text, that it was incumbent on them both, in their prefent State, to fulfil all the Laws of God, one of which was this Baptifm.-Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfi! all Righteousness.

All Righteoufnefs, every Precept or Command, which God gives to Man, is to be obeyed by him, though he cannot immediately fee the Reafon or Expediency of it. I have now taken upon me the Form of a Servant, fubject to every Law of God, and, as fuch, I apply to thee for that Baptifm, which

thou

thou art fent by my Father to administer; and it is thy Duty to discharge thy Office, when thus required, without Regard to any Confiderations, how fpecious foever, which may induce thee to decline it. For in this manner it becometh, or is incumbent upon us; upon both thee and me, the one by baptizing, the other by being baptized, to discharge this, as well as the other Duties required of us.

This is the plain Import of our bleffed Lord's Answer to the Baptift on this Occafion, and accordingly he was baptized of John in Jordan.-And the only Inference I would at prefent draw from this Part of the Evangelical History is this, that if this Reasoning be good with regard to our blefied Lord and his Meffenger, it must hold with much greater Force with regard to all other Perfons.If it was expedient, or becoming, or neceffary, (for the Expreffion will bear the ftrongest of these Conftructions) for him to be baptized of John, because his Father had fent John to baptize; and he accordingly was fo; both his Reasoning and his Example imply the Neceffity of our ready Obedience to every Precept of the like kind at least, which he has fince required of all his Difciples.-If it became him, our Lord and Mafter, to obey this pofitive Precept, with which John was fent to the Jews; much greater furely must be the Neceffity which his Disciples lye under of fulfilling those standing Injunctions which he has left with his Church,

Church, and which he has commanded her to obferve till the Confummation of all things. And that this may the more clearly and fully appear, my Defign in fpeaking to these Words is to take Occafion from them to fhew,

I. The Nature of the Sacraments of the
Chriftian Church. And,

II. The Importance and the Neceffity of
our Partaking of them.

I. As to the Nature of the Chriftian Sacraments, what is meant by that Word is, a religious Rite or Ceremony performed in the Christian Church, which is in its own Nature proper to resemble and point out, and which by Divine Appointment does not resemble only, but affure and convey, certain fpiritual Bleffings and Advantages to those who duly partake of it.-The Word Sacrament indeed is not in the Sacred Writings; but if our bleffed Lord has in them enjoined the Performance of fuch facred Rites, and annexed fuch Bleffings to them, the Things themselves are there, though the Word is not; and the calling them by this Name is nothing more, than collecting into one Word, and conveying by it, the feveral Doctrines which the Holy Scriptures teach, concerning the Author, Nature, and Importance of thofe Acts. - The ancient Chriftian Writers used the Latin Word Sacramentum, or Sacrament, as equivalent to

the

the Greek μvsngiov, or Mystery; and they applied it in the fame general Way, not strictly to things unintelligible or paft our Comprehenfion; but loosely, to Truths which were unknown or undifcover'd, and to Things which in the Manner of their Operation are to us fecret and imperceptible, though their Effects are certain and undeniable.-So that Sacraments and Myfteries fignify the fame thing; both at large mean things fecret and unknown; and when applied to what are by way of Eminence called the Sacraments in the Chriftian Church, they chiefly refpect the invisible Benefits which are pointed out by the vifible Signs, and the imperceptible Manner in which they are conveyed to the Minds of the faithful Receivers.—And in this their Mystery confifts. -But this is a Mystery very plain and intelligible in all Particulars, except the Manner in which the Effects are wrought. -That Almighty God may, without any Derogation from any of his Attributes, command us to make use of outward Acts and Ceremonies in his Worship; that he may appoint such as are proper to resemble and point out other things, than what are named and expreffed in them; that he may order the Use of them as Signs and Affurances of what is fo reprefented or pointed out by them; and that he may accompany the right Use of them with the actual Conveyance of those Benefits, which he shall appoint them to be the Signs and Affurances

of;

of; all this is very plain and intelligible, and cannot be denied with the leaft Appearance of Reafon. And that our bleffed Lord, who is the God by whom all things were made, commanded his Apostles and their Succeffors in the Ministry to perform fuch Acts in the Chriftian Church, and has annexed inestimable Bleffings to the due Celebration of thofe Acts, till he fhall come to judge the World which he made, is, I apprehend, as plain and undeniable from the facred Writings, if impartially confulted, and honeftly explained.—Ând this in general is what is meant by his having instituted or established the Chriftian Sacraments.

-So that in order rightly to understand the Nature of thofe Sacraments, that we may not think more highly or more meanly of them than we ought to think, but may avoid both Superstition and Profaneness, in retaining a due Reverence, and only a due Reverence and Veneration for them, it is neceffary to remember these three Particulars concerning them:

1. That they are not mere Ceremonies, but inftituted Reprefentations or Signs of more than is expreffed in them. 2. That as they are not mere Ceremonies, fo neither are they mere Signs or Reprefentations; but do actually affure and convey to the worthy Receiver the Benefits derived from thofe things which are reprefented by them. And,

3. That

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