Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Guilt. of it,

therefore our

through the Affiftance of the Holy Spirit; and a Promise, on God's Part, graciously to confider us, as pure from the through the Merits of his Son: bleffed Lord condefcended to make this the Form of entering into his Religion also. But at the fame Time, he throughly distinguished the Christian Baptism, both from that of the Heathens, who were baptized into Superftitions and idolatrous Follies; and from that of the Jewish Profelytes, who were baptized, as the Apostle expreffes it, into Moses", by directing, that His Followers should be baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft.

will

In the Language of Scripture, Doing any Thing in the Name of God, fignifies Doing it by Virtue of his Authority. Thus our Saviour faith to the Jews, I am come in my Father's Name, and ye receive me not: If another fhall come in his own Name, Him ye receive. In this Sense Baptism is administered in the Name of the Holy Trinity, being a divine Appointment, with a distinct Reference to each of the three Perfons. And in this Sense the Phrase appears to have been used by i John v. 43.

h

I Cor. x. z.

[blocks in formation]

St. Peter, when he commanded the Family of Cornelius to be baptized in the Name of the Lord; that is, by Virtue of his Commiffion to baptize all Nations. Till that Day, the Apostles had understood this only concerning Jews and Profelytes of all Nations. But now, St. Peter being fent by exprefs Revelation to Cornelius, a Gentile; and perceiving, in the Midst of his Difcourfe to Him and his Friends, that, on their believing, the Holy Ghoft was fallen upon them', Gentiles as they were after fome Aftonishment, he argues very juftly, Can any Man forbid Water, that thefe fhould not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghoft, as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the Name of the Lord that is, in pursuance of our Saviour's general Direction.

[ocr errors]

m

But though the Expreffion in the Text undoubtedly implies this prehends a further one.

flated In the Name, is

Meaning, yet it comFor the Phrase tran¬ different from that in

the Paffage relating to St. Peter, and fignifies in Strictness, INTO the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost which Word, into, the New

* Acts x. 48.

1 y. 44:

m v. 47, 48.

Teftament

Teftament ufes nine Times befides ", in fpeaking of Baptifm, whereas it uses a Word fignifying, in, at moft, but once befides. The particular Import of this Term, I fhall now explain to you.

It hath ever been ufual, that the Believers or Profeffors of any Doctrine should be called by a Name, derived from the first or chief Teacher of that Doctrine. And by whatever Form or Ceremony they declared themfelves his Difciples, by the fame they were understood to I Cor. i. 13, 15.

♫ A&s viii. 16. xix. 3, 5. Rom. vi. 3. x. 2. xii. 13. Gal. iii. 27.

• Acts ii. 38; where the Prepofition is 1. Now, Ti To ονοματι appears to fignify the fame thing as εν τω ονοματι. Matth. xxiv. 5. Mark ix. 39, xiii. 6. Luke ix. 49, xxi. 8. Acts iv. 18, v. 28, 40. Επι τω ονόματι fignifies alfo for the Sake of, or from Regard to; Matth. xviii. 5. Mark ix. 37. Luke ix. 48; and fo doth ere To ovopa, Matth. x, 41, 42; as doth D. Thus the Samaritans circumcifed their Children

into the Name of Mount Gerizim. Avoda לשם הר גריזים

Sara, Fol. 27.1. in Schoetg. Hor. Heb. in Matth. xxviii, 20; i. e. devoted him to the Worship there inftituted; of which Schwarzius, in his Exercitationes in Pent. Sam. Witemb. 1756, p. 51, faith the Explanation is (as he cites it from the Talmudical Book, Edzardi Ed. Hamb. 1710, p. 42) that they cir

לשם דמות בראש הר גריזים ועוברין cuncited them

in or into the Name of the Image on the Top of Mount Gerizim, which Image they worship, and circumcife their Children Ara os in, or into, the Name of this Dove. The only Places where the Phrase e To evoμa occurs befides, are, John i. 12, ii. 23, iii. 18, 1 John v. 13; where the Phrase is #ISEVELV His To ovoμa; and Matth. xviii. 20. συνηγμένοι εις το εμόν ονομα Here fome understand it, for my Sake, others to pray in my Name, others by Virtue of my Command,

[blocks in formation]

take upon them his Name. Thus the Jews, when, taking Mofes for their Prophet and Guide, they followed him into the Midft of the Red Sea, are faid by St. Paul, in Allufion to the Water through which they paffed, to have been baptized into Mofes : which is equivalent to saying, that they were baptized into the Name of Mofes. Not that in Fact the Jews called themselves by his Name, as the several Sects of Philofophers did by the Names of their several Leaders. For the Doctrine, which Mofes taught, was not his own: and the Obedience, which he required, was not to himfelf; but to God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. And therefore, when the Jews were thus baptized into Mofes, they were at the same Time, in a much higher Sense, baptized into the Name of God: taking that upon them, as an Acknowledgement of their being His for Servants are known by the Name of their Lord. In Scripture therefore God himself ftiles them, My People, which are called by my Name. And they plead with him, We are called by thy Name, leave us not г: and elfewhere declare, All People will walk every one • Jer. xiv. 9.

1 Cor. x. 2.

2 Chr. vii. 14.

In the Hebrew it is, Thy Name is called over us.

t

in the Name of his God: and we will walk in the Name of the Lord our God for ever and ever s. As then the Moabites were called by the Name of their God, the People of Chemosh'; and the other idolatrous Nations in like Manner; fo were the Ifraelites called by the Name of the true God. And whoever by Baptism, amongst other Ceremonies, profeffed himself a Convert to Judaism, he was, properly fpeaking, baptized into the fame Name.

When therefore the Chriftian Religion was published; as Profelytes to the old Difpenfation had been baptized into Mofes, taking Him for their Lawgiver and Inftructor: so Believers in the New were baptized into Chrift, receiving Him for their Lord and Mafter. And as the former were in Effect baptized into the Name of the one true God, affuming the Denomination of his Servants: fo the latter, being more fully inftructed concerning the Object of Worship, were professedly and in Form baptized into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: taking this Name upon them, to believe in and obey for the future, as their Badge of Diftinction from all other Men. Whence our Saviour, in his 1 Numb. xxi. 29. Jer. xlviii. 46.

Mic. iv. 5.

Prayer

« AnteriorContinuar »