A good Name is rather to be chofen, than great Riches. SERMONS XVI. XVII. P. 331 Preached on New-Year's Day, and the following Sunday. GAL. vi. 15. For in Chrift Jefus neither Circumcifion availeth any Thing, nor Uncircumcifion, but a new And they ftoned Stephen, calling upon God, and 41! ERRAT A. P. 82. 1. 14. for harshre read harsher. P. 128. 1. penult. for Superftitions read fuperftitious." SERMON AEC SERMON I Go MATTH. xxviii. 19, 20. ye therefore, and teach all Nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft: Teaching them to obferve all Things, whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the End of the World. Amen. T HESE Words contain that great Commiffion and Charter, granted by our Saviour to his Apostles and their Succeffors, by Virtue of which we and all Mankind have been called to the Knowledge and Practice of true Religion, inforced by the Motives of eternal Felicity or Mifery. As it had been chiefly in Galilee, that he instructed his Disciples before his Death: so he appointed them to retire thither after his Refurrection, VOL. V. A that b that he might add to his Inftructions whatever then became proper; and more fully acquaint them with fuch Things, as pertained to the Kingdom of God. There, our Evange-lift informs us, he appeared to them on a Mountain: perhaps the fame, on which he had begun to open the Doctrine of Christianity, in that noble Difcourfe, which we have in the Fifth and following Chapters of this Gofpel; and given them a Specimen of his and their future Glory, at his Transfiguration . When they faw him, the Generality immediately worshipped him: but fome, we are told with the ufual Fairness of the facred Writers, doubted. Whether thefe were only Perfons, who accompanied the Apostles, and had not yet feen him fince he rofe again or whether fome of the Apostles themselves, who might not with Certainty know him at a Distance, is not clear. But the Doubts of either could not but vanish, when Jefus came up to them, as St. Matthew affures us he did, for fo the original Word fignifies d, and converfed familiarly with them. Many fuch Conversations he held with thefe his Followers: for St. • Acts i. 3. Grot. in Loc. faith, There is ancient Fradition for the laft. See Reland Palæft. p. 334, &c. d Προσελθών, ν. 18. C cv. 17. Luke Luke in their Acts informs us, that they continued Forty Days. But the Subftance of them all must be, what the Text expreffes: where, in Confequence of that Fulness of 1 Power, which he tells them, in the foregoing Words, was given him over all Things in Heaven and in Earth; as the Father had fent Him, He fends Them', to make Disciples, for that is the more accurate Rendering, not of the Jews alone, but of all Nations. And that they may do it rightly and effectually, he diftinctly fets forth, I. The Doctrines, they were to teach. II. The Duties, they were to enjoin. III. The Protection and Happiness, of which they might affure, both themfelves, and all those, who faithfully preached his Gospel, and who fincerely embraced it. 1. The Doctrines, they were to teach. These are briefly, but fufficiently, comprehended in the Direction of baptizing Men in the Name f John xx. 21. © A&s i. 3. * Manreva is not used in the Septuagint: nor Marus. In the New Testament it is found thrice, besides the Text: and fignifies to make Difciples, Acts xiv. 21. to be a Difciple, Matth. xxvii. 57. and in the paffive Voice may fignify, to be made a Difciple, Matth. xiii. 52. It fignifies alfo in Plutarch, to be a Difciple. See Steph. in Voc. of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft for the better understanding of which Phrase, it will be proper to explain, 1. What is meant by being baptized in the Name of any one, and particularly of these three. 2. What is the Faith in these three, which our Baptism requires us to profess. 1. For the completer Apprehenfion of the former of these Points, it will be useful to observe, that in our Saviour's Days, it had been an ancient Custom amongst the Jews, when any Gentile forfook Idolatry, and believed the Law of Mofes, to receive him into their Religion, amongst other Ceremonies, by Baptism as indeed they had themselves been prepared for the Reception of that Law, by a folemn and religious Washing, as we read Exod. xix. Nay even the Heathens made use of Purifications by Water, when they initiated,, or entered, any one into the Mysteries of their Deities. And this Rite being not only thus univerfally used, but also naturally expreffive of those two Things, which, on profeffing Christianity, chiefly wanted to be expreffed: a Promife, on our Part, carefully to preferve ourfelves pure, from the Defilement of Sin, through |