things belonging to the Spirit may live and grow in them, and that they may have power and strength to have victory, and to triumph against the devil, the world, and the flesh. Baptism,' as our church rightly declares, 'represents unto us our profession, which is to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto him, that as he died and rose again for us, so should we who are baptized die from şin and rise again unto righteousness, continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living.' It is for this reason that in the word of life we are so often put in remembrance of our baptismal engagements and the sacred obligations which follow from them. "Know ye not," says St. says St. Paul, "that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." And again, he says, "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." The very faith in which, as disciples of Christ, we are baptized, is not

only that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and Saviour of the world; but that through Christ, there shall be a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust, that every one of us must give up an account of himself to God, that "we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, and that every one may receive according to the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad;" and therefore the apostle puts this question, as to those who have been dedicated to God by baptism:-"Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all; why are they then baptized for the dead?

It is in this faith that the true believer must count his cost, and in all the trials and perils of life be prepared to take up his cross and follow Christ, who said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." And on this assurance the Saviour himself, our glorious Immanuel, applies the figure of baptism, to represent the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion to which he was about to submit, before he entered into his glory, when the two sons of Zebedee said unto him, "Grant unto us that we may sit one on

thy right hand and the other on thy left hand, in thy kingdom. Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask; are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of the cup that I drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father." This exaltation is prepared for his true and faithful servants, the children of God, who having their sins blotted out, in love do his will and keep his commandments, the called, the chosen, and faithful, who are written in the Lamb's book of life, to whom the Everlasting Judge will say in the great day of account, "Come, ye blessed children of my Father, inherit the kingdom, prepared for you from the beginning of the world." But to unbelievers, to impenitent sinners, although they may have called him "Lord, Lord!" although they may have outwardly entered into covenant by the seal of baptism, he will say, Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity; go, ye cursed,

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into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. The vows, promises, and professions, made in their baptism, will only aggravate their sin and increase their damnation. They shall have their portion with hypocrites and unbelievers. "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned."

It follows, then, that the holy sacrament of baptism, as an ordinance of Christ, is not merely an inaugural rite, not merely a form of admission into the church, but when rightly ministered and duly observed, gives a sure and certain title to all the privileges and blessings of which God spake by all his holy prophets which have been since the world began, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant. The free gift of grace, the exceeding great and precious promises which he has provided for us, in Christ, will apply to believers and their children, as the promised seed in every age. "As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord, my spirit which is upon thee, and my word, which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, from hence

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forth for ever. I will pour my Spirit on thy seed, and my blessing on thine offspring." All true believers and their seed are included in the same covenant of mercy and grace, and therefore the apostle says, "to Abraham and his seed were the promises made; he says, not to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ; and if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

The rich blessings of grace and salvation thus covenanted by God, who is a God of truth, and cannot lie, are not promised to those who merely enter into his covenant, but to those who fulfil the covenant, who keep the covenant to do it, and continue in it; for he declares himself, that he is

a jealous God, and will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him, and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love him and keep his commandments."

The Father of lights, from whom cometh every good and every perfect gift, while he gives the promise of more grace to those who enter into covenant, and live in dutiful obedience to his holy will, denounces the threatening of his wrath