You who have fled into him for refuge, wrong him not so far as to question your safety. What though the floods of thy former guiltiness rise high, thine ark shall still be above them; and the higher they rise, the higher he shall rise, shall have the more glory in freely justifying and saving thee. Though thou find the remaining power of sin still within thee, yet if thou resist it, it shall not sink thine ark. There was in this ark sin, yet they were saved from the flood. If thou dost believe, that puts thee in Christ, and he will bring thee safe through without sinking.

As thou art bound to account thyself safe in him, so to admire that love which set thee there. Noah was a holy man; but whence were both his holiness and his preservation while the world perished, but because he found favor or free grace in the eyes of the Lord? And no doubt, he did much contemplate this, being secure within, when the cries of the rest drowning, were about him. Thus think thou-Seeing so few are saved in this blessed ark wherein I am, in comparison of the multitudes that perish in the deluge, whence is this? Why was I chosen, and so many about me left? why, but because it pleased him?

III. As the example the apostle here makes use of is great and remarkable, so it is fit and suitable for the instruction of Christians, to whom he proceeds to adapt and apply it, in the particular resemblance of it to the rule of Christianity; The like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth also now save us.

In these words we have, 1, the end of baptism; 2, the proper virtue or efficacy of it for that end; and, 3, a resemblance in both these to Noah's preservation in the flood.

1. The end of baptism, to save us. This is the great common end of all the ordinances of God; that one high mark they all aim at. And the great and common inistake in regard to them is, that they are not so understood and used. We come and sit awhile, and, if we can keep awake, give the word the hearing; but how few of us receive it as the ingrafted word that is able to save our souls! Were it thus taken, what sweetness would be

found in it, which most who hear and read it are strangers to! Thus, likewise, were the sacraments considered as seals of this inheritance, annexed to the great charter of it, seals of salvation, this would powerfully beget a fit appetite for the Lord's supper when we are invited to it, and would beget a due esteem of baptism; would teach you more frequent and fruitful thoughts of your own baptism, and more pious considerations of it when you require it for your children. We should aspire to know the hidden rich things of God, that are wrapped up in his ordinances. We stick in the shell and surface of them, and seek no further; that makes them unbeautiful and unsavoury to us, and that use of them turns into an empty custom. Let us be more earnest with him who hath appointed them, and made this their end, to save us, that he would clear up the eye of our souls to see them thus under this relation, and to see how they are suited to this their end, and tend to it. And let us seriously seek salvation in them from his own hand, and we shall find it.

Doth save us; so that this salvation of Noah and his. family from the deluge, and all outward deliverances and salvations, are but dark shadows of this. Let them not be spoken of, these prolongings of this present life, in comparison of the deliverance of the soul from death, the second death; the stretching of a moment, compared to the concernment of eternity. And yet those who have escaped a near danger of this kind are apt to rest there, as if no more were to be feared; whereas this common favor may be shown to those who are far off from God. And what though you be thus far safe, still death remains, and sin and wrath may be remaining with it. And will it not be all one, to die under these in a time of peace and welfare, as if it were now? Yea, it may be something more unhappy, by reason of the increase of the heap of sin and wrath, guiltiness being augmented by life prolonged; and it will be more grievous, to be pulled away from the world, in the midst of peaceable enjoyment, and to have everlasting darkness succeed to that short sun-shine of thy day of ease; happiness of a short date, and misery for ever! What availed it wicked Ham to outlive the flood, to inherit a curse after it; to be kept undrowned in the waters, to see himself

and his posterity blasted with his father's curse? Think seriously what will be the end of all thy temporary safety and preservation, if thou share not in this salvation, and find not thyself sealed and marked for it? What will it avail to flatter thyself with a dream of happiness, and walk in the light of a few sparks that will soon die out, and then lie down in sorrow? A sad bed that, which most men have to go to, after they have wearied themselves all the day, all their life, in a chase of vanity!

2. The next thing is, the power and virtue of this means for its end. That baptism hath a power is clear, in that it is so expressly said, it doth save us: what kind of power is equally clear from the way it is here expressed; not by a natural force of the element; though adapted and sacramentally used, it only can wash away the filth of the body; but it is in the band of the Spirit of God, as other sacraments are and as the word itself is, to purify the conscience, and convey grace and salvation to the soul, by the reference it hath to and union with that which it represents. It saves by the answer of a good conscience unto God, and it affords that, by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Thus then we have a true account of the power of this, and so of other sacraments, and a discovery of the error of two extremes-of those who ascribe too much to them, as if they wrought by an inherent virtue, and carried grace in them inseparably;-of those who ascribe too little to them, making them only signs and badges of our profession. Signs they are, but more than signs merely; they are means exhibiting and seals confirming grace to the faithful. But the working of faith, and the conveying of Christ into the soul to be received by faith, is not a thing put into them to do of themselves, but still in the supreme Hand that appointed them; and he indeed both causes the souls of his own to receive these his seals with faith, and makes them effectual to confirm that faith which receives them so. They are in a word, neither empty signs to them who believe, nor effectual causes of grace to them who believe not.

The mistake on both sides arises from the want of duly considering the relative nature of these seals; and that kind of union that is betwixt them and the grace they

represent, which is real, though not natural or physical; so that, though they do not save all who partake of them, yet they do really and effectually save believers, as the other external ordinances of God do. Though they have not that power which is peculiar to the Author of them, yet a power they have, such as befits their nature, and by reason of which, they are truly said to sanctify and justify, and so to save.

Now that which is intended for our help, our carnal minds are ready to turn into a hindrance and disadvantage. The Lord representing invisible things to the eye, and confirming his promises by visible seals, we are apt, from the grossness of our unspiritual hearts, instead of stepping up by that which is earthly to the divine, spiritual things represented, to stay in the outward element, and go no further. Therefore the apostle, to lead us into the inside of this seal of baptism, is very clear in designating the effect and fruit of it; Not the putting away the filth of the flesh; there is an invisible impurity upon our nature, chiefly on our invisible part, our soul: this washing means the taking away of that, and where it reaches its true effect, it doth so purify the conscience, and makes it good, truly good, in the sight of God who is the Judge of it.

Consider how pitiful a thing it is to see the ignorance of the most men, professing Christianity and partaking of the outward seals of it, yet not knowing what they mean; not apprehending the spiritual dignity and virtue of them. Blind in the mysteries of the kingdom, they are not so much as sensible of that blindness. And even those who have some clearer notion of the nature and fruit of the seals of grace, yet are in a practical error, in that they look not with due diligence into themselves, inquiring after the efficiency of them in their hearts; they do not study the life of Christ, to know more what it is, and then to search into themselves for the truth and the growth of that life within them. Is it not an unbecoming thing, for a Christian, when he is about to appear before the Lord at his table, to find as little faith, as little divine affection, a heart as unmortified to the world, as cold towards Christ, as before his last coming to the same table, after the intervening possibly of many weeks or months? in which

time, had he been careful often to reflect inwards on his heart, and to look back upon that new sealing in his last participation, he might probably have been more conformable. And as there is much guiltiness cleaves to us in this, so generally much more in reference to this other sacrament that is here the apostle's subject, baptism, which being but once administered and that in infancy, is very seldom and slightly considered by many, even real Christians. And so we are at a loss in that profit and comfort, that increase of both holiness and faith, which the frequent recollecting of it after a spiritual manner would no doubt advance us to. And not only do we neglect to put ourselves upon the thoughts of it in private, but in the frequent opportunity of such thoughts in public, we let it pass unregarded, are idle, inconsiderate, and so truly guilty, beholders. And the more frequently we have these opportunities, the less are we touched with them; they become common, and work not, and the slighting of them grows as common with us as the thing. Yea, when the engagement is more special and personal, when parents are to present their infants to this ordinance, yet many are not much engaged in these things even at such times, but are more busied to prepare their house for entertaining their friends, than to prepare their hearts for offering up their infant unto God to be sealed, and withal to make a new offer of their own hearts to him, to have renewed on them the inward seal of the covenant of grace, the outward seal whereof they did receive, as it is now to be conferred upon their infant.

Did we often look upon the face of our souls, the beholding of the many spots with which we have defiled them after our washing, might work us to shame and grief, and would drive us by renewed application to wash often in that blood which that water figures, which alone can fetch out the stain of sin; and then it would put us upon renewed purposes of purity, to walk more carefully, to avoid the pollutions of the world we walk in, and to purge out the pollutions of the hearts that we carry about with us, which defile us more than all the world besides. It would work a holy disdain of sin often to contemplate ourselves as washed in so precious a laver. Shall I, would the Christian say, considering that I am now