ß6 SECOND SERMON is not only unthankfulness, but folly to make a for- feiture of mercies, and to put God by our breach of covenant with him, to break his with us too, Jer. ii. 5 -7. 31. Numb. xiv. 34. (3.) By consideration of our baptism and the tenour thereof, wherein we solemnly promise to keep a good conscience, and to " observe all things whatsoever Christ commandeth us," 1. Pet. iii. 21. Matt. xxviii. 19, '20. from which engagement we cannot recede without the note and infamy of greater perfidiousness. To take Christ's pay, and do sin service, to be a sub- ject unto Michael, and a pensioner unto the dragon, to wear the livery of one master, and do the work of another ; to be an Israelite in title, and a Samaritan in truth, this is either to forget or to deride our baptism, 2 Pet. i. 9. for therein we did, as it were, subscribe our names, and list ourselves in the register of Sion ; and as it is a high honour to be enrolled in the genealogies ofthe church, so it is a great dishonour to be expunged from thence, and to be written in the earth, and have our names with our bodies putrify in perpetual oblivion, Jer. xvii. 13. Neh. vii. 64, 65. (4.) Consider the seal and witnesses whereby this covenant hath been confirmed. Sealed in our own consciences by the seal of faith, believing the holiness of God's ways, and the excellency of his rewards, for " he that believeth hath set to his seal," John iii. 33. mutually attested by our spirits, feeling the sweetness of duty, and by God's Spirit revealing the certainty of reward, Rom. i. 16. and this in the presence of angels and saints, into whose communion we are admitted, 1 Cor. xi. 10. Heb. xii. 22. so that we cannot depart from this covenant, without shaming ourselves to God, to angels, to men, and to our own consciences. Yea, the font where we were baptized, and the table where
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