for a while his dread, lest men should rest in their Baptism, says, "St. Paul proves what he had just said, namely, that 'Christ slays sin in those who are His,' from the effect of Baptism. Know we then that the Apostle does not here merely exhort us to imitate Christ, as if he said, that the death of Christ was a pattern which all Christians should imitate. Assuredly he goes deeper; and brings forward a doctrine, on which afterwards to found exhortation; and this is, that the death of Christ has power to extinguish and abolish the corruption of our flesh, and His resurrection, to raise up in us the newness of a better life; and that by Baptism we are brought into the participation of this grace." And again, on the word "planted," he observes,—"Great is the emphasis of this word, and it clearly shows, that the Apostle is not merely exhorting, but is rather teaching us of the goodness of Christ. For he is not requiring any thing of us, which may be done by our zeal or industry, but sets forth a graffing-in, effected by the hand of God. For graffing-in implies not merely a conformity of life, but a secret union, whereby we become one with Him; so that quickening us by His Spirit, He transfuses His power into us. So then, as the graft shares life and death with the tree into which it is graffed, so are we partakers of the life no less than of the death of Christ."
To take another saying of the Apostle. St. Paul tells the Galatians, (iii. 27.) "For as many of you as have been baptized unto Christ, have put on Christ." Here again what most Christians would now learn from the passage would be the necessity of being conformed to Christ's life, of living consistently with our Christian profession. And this is elsewhere (Rom. xiii. 14) the meaning of the like words, and may be implied here, but as a secondary and derived truth only. The main, great truth refers again to our privileges. For St. Paul is proving that
Baptismo, (in Eph. v. p. 221,) "I understand the Apostle to be speaking not so much of example set to us, as of the benefit which we derive from the power of the resurrection, when we are engraffed into Him by Baptism, that we may walk in newness of life."
