son of the law, in their case, hold good, but according to that sense that we mentioned even now? (that is) none is free from pollution, though his life be but the length of one day upon the earth."

And in another place he says, that—

"The baptism of the church is given for the remission of sins."

And again

"If there were nothing in infants that wanted forgiveness and mercy, the grace of baptism would be needless to them."

In another place, he says—

"But in the regeneration, (or new birth,) by the laver, (or baptism,) every one that is born again of water and the Spirit, is clear from pollution: clear (as I may venture to say) as by a glass darkly."

6. And as for Chrysostom, he expressly says:

"In baptism, or the spiritual circumcision, there is no trouble to be undergone, but to throw off the load of sins, and receive pardon for all foregoing offences."

And again

"There is no receiving or having the bequeathed inheritance before one is baptized; and none can be called a son until he is baptized."

7. Cyprian: "While," says he, "I lay in darkness and uncertainty, I thought on what I had heard of a second birth, proposed by the divine goodness, but could not comprehend how a man could receive a new life from his being immersed in water, cease to be what he was before, and still remain the same body. How, said I, can such a change be possible? How can he, who is grown old in a worldly way of living, strip himself of his former inclinations and inveterate habits? Can he, who has spent his whole time in plenty, and indulged his appetite without restraint, ever be transformed into an example of frugality and sobriety? Or he who has always appeared in splendid apparel, stoop to the plain, simple, and unadorned dress of the common people? It is impossible for a man, who has borne the most honourable posts, ever to submit to lead a private and obscure life: or, that he who was never seen in public without a crowd of attendants and persons who endeavoured to make their fortunes by attending him, should ever bear to be alone. This," continues he, was my way of arguing: I thought it was impossible for me to leave my former course of life, and the habits

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I was then engaged in and accustomed to; but no sooner did the life-giving water wash the spots off my soul, than my heart received the heavenly light of the Holy Spirit, which transformed me into a new creature; all my difficulties were cleared, my doubts dissolved, and my darkness dispelled. I was then able to do what before seemed impossible: could discern that my former life was earthly and sinful, according to the impurity of my birth; but that my spiritual birth gave me new ideas and inclinations, and directed all my views to God."

Cyprian flourished A. D. 250.

On what occasion or on what question could we, with more propriety or with more confidence than on the present, ask— "What need have we of farther testimony? We have heard the Harbinger of the Messiah and the Messiah himself; we have heard his holy Apostles and Evangelists; we have heard the primitive Apostolic church, the most venerable and reputable ecclesiastic fathers; we have heard the Hebrew church, the Greek church, the Roman church, and all Dissenting churches confess "ONE BAPTISM FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS." We have not only heard the renowned founders, reformers, and acknowledged oracles of all Protestant parties, but also have read in their own words, in the symbols, creeds, and formulas of their communion and intercommunion, their expositions and defences of Christian baptism as a sign and a seal of remission of all past sins-and again of confession and petition as the means of pardon for all sins committed after baptism. There is not only a general, but, I might say, a universal admission of the theory, with comparatively few dissentients, as respects the practice and explicit dispensation of the ordinance for this purpose. Some, nay many, have taught and exhibited baptism alone as an effectual mean of salvation and pardon. Hence originated infant baptism; and hence, too, originated a denial of baptism for remission of sins. This is the history of the whole controversy in one sentence. The Greek and Roman churches, during their apostasy, taught baptism alone, or without faith, for remission of sins. Some of the reformed churches, while they practised the papal rite of sprinkling babes, repudiated its connection with the remission of sins; but were never able to give a good reason for this practice that did not imply such a belief. Baptists, too, borrowing every thing from their Pedobaptist brethren but the subject and action of baptism, have reduced it

to a mere form of making the Christian profession—a door into their church. But when in, they harmonize in every thing with those without the pale of their communion, orthodox in their opinions of the true theory of Christian doctrine. So that, among all these parties, there is no true and scriptural dispensation of Christian baptism.

Baptism, according to the Apostolic church, is both "a sign" and "a seal" of remission of all former sins. In this sense only does "baptism now save us." Not in putting away the filth of the flesh, but in obtaining a good conscience through faith in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. faith in our hearts is expressed in the sign of baptism, our burial and resurrection with him, indicated by an immersion in water and an emersion out of it.

This

Circumcision is said to have been, in one case at least, a sign and a seal. Baptism, in the same sense, and in a similar case, is also both a sign and a seal-the sign, however, at most, is only indicative of what has been sealed. Such, indeed, are all sensible signs. The sense, we may say, is in the sign, and the confirmations in the seal. This circumcision, or cutting round, and cutting off, was a sign of the insulation or separation of Abraham and his seed from every other nation and people. But to Abraham himself, previously possessed of faith in the promised Messiah, it was also a seal, or confirmation of that faith and its rightfulness which he had experienced and expressed before he was circumcised. But such it was not to either Ishmael or Isaac. To them it was a sign of their separation from other tribes, and a people, and a confirmation that they were of the seed of Abraham and heirs of Canaan, according to a divine charter.

Baptism, though not an antetype of a type, a sign of a sign, or a seal of a seal, as some system-makers would make it when representing it as coming in the room and standing in the stead of eircumcision, is, indeed, analogous to circumcision, as the Sabbath to the Lord's day, or as the Passover to the Lord's supper, especially in this :—that in one point it is a sign of the burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and of our burial and resurrection in and with him; and, in another point of view, a seal of the righteousness of faith, or the remission of all our past sins, through faith in his blood, then, and in that act, publicly expressed and confirmed. This, most unquestionably, is

its place, its meaning, and importance in the Christian institution. This, and no other view of it, now entertained by professing Christians, fully expounds and exhausts all that is said of it in the Apostolic Scriptures, in the abstracts of Christian doctrine and formulas of the primitive and ancient church, as well as in the sayings and expositions of our most gifted, learned, and Christian expositors of the Christian doctrine, a few samples of which, and but a few of those in our possession, have now been presented to the reader. Yet these are, we presume to say, enough to reconcile us to such sayings as these:"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins." "Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins." "The like figure corresponding thereunto, baptism doth save us," &c. &c. Not, indeed, that there is anything in the mere element of water, or in the form of placing the subject in it, or in the person that administers it, or in the formula used upon the occasion, though both good taste and piety have something to do in these particulars, but all its virtue and efficacy is in the faith and intelligence of him that receives it.

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To him that believeth and repenteth of his sins, and to none else, then, we may safely say, "be baptized for the remission of your sins," and it will surely be granted by the Lord, and enjoyed by the subject with an assurance and an evidence which the word and ordinances of the Lord alone can bestow.

BOOK FIFTH.

Consequents of Baptism.

CHAPTER I.

ADOPTION.

ANTECEDENT and consequent are relative terms. A consequent is that which follows from, or is dependent upon, an antecedent; the result of an instituted connection between it and that which precedes it, in nature or by appointment.

There is a conventional and artificial, as well as a natural and necessary, connection between antecedents and consequents. Consequents in grammar, logic, mathematics, religion, though always dependent in some way upon their respective antecedents, are not in the same sense, nor always, when in the same sense, in the same degree dependent upon their antecedents.

In nature, the succession of day and night, of summer and winter, of seed-time and harvest are essentially natural consequents, because the effects of the motions of the earth. While the earth remains, they must continue. But the motions of a wheel, by the weight and motion of water upon it, are consequents both of nature and of art combined.

In things mental and spiritual, the connection between moral and spiritual antecedents and consequents is not to be measured by time, or the motions of bodies. A perception, a thought, a volition, and an action may be so simultaneous as to baffle all the measures of time. Still they are, in nature or by divine appointment, antecedent and consequent, though they may not stand to each other as cause and effect. But who can satisfactorily trace the connection between antecedents and consequents in the operations of nature in many of her most beautiful and beneficent developments? Take, for example, some of her sublime processes in crystallization. Who can explain her operations in converting certain fluids into various solid bodies of the most

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