358 HARMONY OF ALL RELIGIONS. is as were sealed between God and man, in the promised bless- ings of it, and all the duties, by God's appointmentof these signs or ceremonies on one side, and by man's acceptance of them with a sincere heart ón the other. VI. One of these sacraments, viz. baptism, more peculiarly represents the blessings of regeneration, or the purification Of oursouls from the sinful principles that work in us, by the Holy ' represented under the figureof baptismal water: Our submission to this ordinance, isour acceptance ofthis covenant. The other, viz. the Lord's -supper, more especially relates to our pardon of sin, through the death of the body'of Christ, and effusion of his blood, which are representedby the breadbroken, andthe wine poured out in the Lord's-supper : Our partaking of this bread and wine, is our consent to this covenant. VII. Here then we may take notice, that in all these five dispensations of grace, there have always been some emblems or figuresofpardon of sin through the great atonementthat wasmade or to be madeby the death of Christ : Such were the sacrifices or the slaughter of beasts, under the four ancient dispensations, designed to prefigure this atonement, before it was actually made. And such is the Lord's supper, wherein bread is broken, and wine poured out, under the dispensation of christianity, as memorials of the dying body and blood of our blessed Saviour, to bring this atonement to remembrance, after it was made. VIII. There bathbeen also under the three last and clear- est dispensations, some emblem to represent the mortification of sin, repentence and regeneration, or newness of heart and life, viz. Abrahamical circumcision, the Jewish washings, and chris- tian baptism*. Whence I think' we may reasonably infer, that these two doctrines of pardon of sin through the atonement of Christ, and regeneration or satisfaction by the Holy Spirit, are of vast importance in the covenant ofgrace: And that the Christian, as hehath the greatest advantages by the clear discovery of these things, so is under the strongest necessity and command, to make these doctrines the matters of' his faith, and these blessings the objects of his hope and prayer. CHAP. VIII.TheDoctrine of Justification by Faith, farther Explained under the Gospel of Christ. I. Though our justification before God is ascribed to faith, and not to works, under every dispensation of the covenant 'of A We are told also by St. Peter; 1 Pet. iii. 20, 2I. that the ark of _Noah wherein eight souls were saved by water, was a sort of emblem or figure like baptism, whichnow snags us, not byputting away the filth of theflesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the parallel is net so obvious and easy, as to encourage me to mention, it as an emblem ofregene- ration or sanctification, in the dispensation Of Noah ; and there may be some
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