A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

2. The Improvement of Baptism is the best Preparation for the Lord's Supper. John 13.8. If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. That washing had a spiritual meaning; and presently after it the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood was instituted, to the participation of which this spiritual washing was necessary. In the Supposition, If I wash thee not, is implied Baptism; in the Commination, thou hast no part with me, is implied the Lord's Supper, which Christ was then about to institute. In foro Ecclesiae, before the Church, none but Baptized Persons have a right to the Lord's Table, in foro Coeli, before God: none but those who have the fruit of Baptism have right to the benefits thereof; they that are sanctified by the Spirit of Christ have only right to the Benefits purchased by his Blood. Our Lord would mind his Disciples of this, before he would admit them to his Table.

3. If we improve it not, our Baptism will be a Witness to solicit Vengeance against us; as the Gospel it self is preached, either for a Witness to us, Matth. 24.14. or for a Witness against us, if we obey it not, Mark 14.9. So Baptism, instead of being a Witness to us, will be a Witness against us, if we mind it not, and in the Judgment we shall fare no better than the Heathen; for all the difference between us is, that they are uncircumcised in flesh, and we in heart, Jer. 9.25, 26. they are not washed in Water, and we are not cleansed from our sins. I remember a passage in Victor Uticensis concerning one Elpidophorus, who had revolted from Catholicism to the Vandal Arians; the Deacon who had Baptized him, showed him the Stole, or Linen Clothes, in which he was Baptized, saying, Hae te accusabunt cum Majestas venerit Judicantis, &c. O Elpidophorus, these shall be a Witness against thee to all eternity for thy just perdition, when the Judge cometh: what wilt thou do, Wretch, when the people of God shall be admitted to the Joys of Heaven, and thy self thrust out? &c. If we have been Baptized, and lived directly contrary to our Baptismal Vow, as if we were in Covenant with the Devil, the World, and the Flesh, rather than with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, what will become of us in the Judgment?