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also saith elsewhere to them, As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you, John xx. 21. as if he should have said, My Father having committed to me all power and authority both in heaven and earth, I therefore authorize and commissionate, yea, and command you to go and teach all nations, &c.

This therefore is part of the commission which our Lord and Master left with his apostles immediately before he parted from them. Those being the last words which St. Matthew records him to have spoken upon earth; and therefore they must needs contain matter of very great importance to his church; and it must needs highly concern us all to understand the true meaning and purport of them. Which that we may the better do, in treating of them, I shall observe the same method and order as he did in speaking them.

First, therefore, here is the work he sends the apostles about; goye therefore and teach, Пogeudévтes ouv μadnтeúOATE, which more properly may be rendered, go ye therefore and disciple all nations, or, make the persons of all nations to be my disciples, that is, Christians. That this is the true meaning of the words, is plain and clear, from the right notion of the word here used, μarów, which coming from μads, a disciple, it always signifieth either to be, or to make disciples, wheresoever it occurs in all the Scriptures; as panτevels, Matt. xiii. 52. which is instructed, say we; the Syriac better, that is, made a disciple, a rin, that is, not only a scholar or learner, but a follower or professor of the Gospel, here called the kingdom of heaven. Another place where this word occurs is, Matt. xxvii. 57. uadýTEUσE TO 'Inσou, where we rightly translate it, was Jesus's disciple. Another place is, Acts xiv. 21. nai padŋteúσavtes ixavoùs, which we improperly render, having taught many, the Syriac and Arabic, more properly, having made many disciples. And these are all the places in the New Testament where this word is used, except those I am now considering, where all the eastern languages render it according to its notation,

disciple. The Persian paraphrastically expounds it, go ye and reduce all nations to my faith and religion. So that whosoever pleads for any other meaning of these words, do but betray their own ignorance in the original languages, and, by consequence, in the true interpreta, tion of Scripture,

I should not have insisted so long upon this, but that the false exposition of these words hath occasioned that no less dangerous than numerous sect of anabaptists in the world; for the old Latin translation having it, euntes ergo docete omnes gentes; hence the German, where anabaptism first began; and all the modern translations render it as we do, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them. From whence it was supposed by some that were not able to dive into the true meaning of the words, that our Saviour here commanded, that none should be baptized, but such as were first taught the principles of the Christian religion, which is the greatest mistake imaginable; for our Saviour doth not speak one word of teaching before baptism, but only after, ver. 20. didάo xoves, his meaning being only that his apostles should go about the world, and persuade all nations to forsake their former idolatries and superstitions, and to turn Christians, or the disciples of Jesus Christ; and such as were so should be baptized. And therefore infant-baptism is so far from being forbidden, that it is expressly commanded in these words; for all disciples are here commanded to be baptized; nay, they are therefore commanded to be baptized, because disciples. And seeing all disciples are to be baptized, so are infants too, the children of believing parents, for they are disciples as well as any other, or as well as their parents themselves; for all that are in covenant with God must needs be disciples: but that children were always esteemed in covenant with God, is plain in that God himself commanded the covenant should be sealed to them, as it was all along by circumcision. But that children are disciples as well as others, our Saviour puts it out of all doubt, saying of

children, of such is the kingdom of God, Mark x. 14. And therefore they must needs be disciples, unless such as are not disciples can belong to the kingdom of God, which a man must be strangely distempered in his brain before he can so much as fancy.

And besides, that children, so long as children, are looked upon as part of their parents; and therefore as their parents are, so are they: if the parents be heathen, so are the children; if the parents be Jews, so are the children; if the parents be Christian, so are the children too; nay, if either of the parents be a Christian or disciple, the children of both are denominated from the better part, and so looked upon as Christians too, as is plain, I Cor. vii. 14. But now are they holy, that is, in a federal or covenant-sense they are in covenant with God; they are believers, Christians, or disciples, because one of their parents is so.

Now seeing children are disciples as well as others, and our Saviour here commands all disciples to be baptized, it necessarily follows, that children must be baptized too. So that the opinion which asserts, that children ought not to be baptized, is grounded upon a mere mistake, and upon gross ignorance of the true meaning of the Scripture, and especially of this place, which is most ridiculously mistaken for a prohibition, it being rather a command for infant-baptism.

But I must crave the reader's excuse for this digression from the matter principally intended, though I could not tell how to avoid it; nothing being more needful than to rescue the words of our blessed Saviour from those false glosses and horrible abuses which these last ages have put upon them, especially it coming so directly in my way as this did.

Secondly, Here is the extent of their commission, which is very large indeed, not being directed to some few particular persons, but to nations; nor to some particular nations only, but to all nations; go ye therefore and disciple all nations; or, all the world,

as it is, Mark xvi. 15. This was that which the prophet Isaiah, or rather God by him, foretels, Isaiah xlix. 6. which our Saviour himself seems to have respect unto, Luke xxiv. 46, 47. The meaning whereof, in brief, is this; that though the Jews hitherto had been the only people of God, and none but they admitted into covenant with him, now the Gentiles also are to be brought in, and made confederates or copartners with them in the covenant of grace; that the partition-wall being now broke down, the Gospel is to be preached to all other nations, as well as the Jewish; Christ being now come to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, as well as the glory of his people Israel.

But though the words of the commission be so clear to this purpose, yet the apostles themselves understood it not, till God had interpreted it from heaven to St. Peter, shewing him in a vision, that he should call no man common or unclean, Acts x. 28. From which time forward he, with the rest of the apostles, observed their commission exactly in preaching to the Gentiles, as well as the Jews. And this was one end wherefore the Holy Ghost came down amongst them, even to enable them to do what their Master had commanded them. For he had here commanded them to preach unto all nations; but that they could not do, unless they could speak all languages, which therefore the Holy Ghost enabled them to do, Acts ii. 4, 5, which also is a clear demonstration of the true meaning and purport of these words: for there was no necessity that the Spirit should teach the apostles all languages, but that the Son had first enjoined them to preach unto all nations.

Thirdly, Hence is the manner whereby they are to admit all nations into the church of Christ, or into the Christian religion, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. For the opening whereof we must know, that baptism

was a rite in common use amongst the Jews before our Saviour's time, by which they were wont to admit proselytes into their religion, baptizing them in the name of the Father, or of God. A little before our Saviour's appearance in the world, John Baptist being sent to prepare the way for him, baptized the Jews themselves; As many as came unto him in the name of the Messiah to come, which was called, the baptism of repentance. I indeed baptize you, says he, with water to repentance; but he that comes after me is mightier than I, &c. Matt. iii. 11. But when our Saviour was to go to heaven, he left orders with his apostles to make disciples; or, admit all nations into the religion which he had preached, confirmed with miracles, and sealed with his own blood, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; which form of baptism, questionless, his apostles faithfully observed all along, as may be gathered also from Acts xix. 2, 3. where we may observe, how when they said, they had not so much as heard of an Holy Ghost; he wondering at that, asked them, Unto what then were ye baptized? plainly intimating, that if they had been baptized aright, according to Christ's institution, they could not but have heard of the Holy Ghost, because they had been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; but ver. 5. as also chap. ii. 38. and viii. 16. we read of baptism administered in the name of the Lord Jesus. From whence some have thought, that the apostles baptized only the Gentiles, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, but the Jews in the name of the Lord Jesus only; because they believing in the Father already, if they were but baptized in the name of Jesus, and so testified their belief that he was the Messiah, they could not but believe in his Spirit too; but this expression of baptizing in the name of the Lord Jesus, seems to me rather to intimate that form of baptism which the Lord Jesus instituted: for doubt

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