SECTION I.

BAPTISM.

WHAT mean ye by this service?' is a question that might be asked of us by many, who bring their children to baptism, only because it is the custom of their place, or the usual mode of naming their children. They need the plainest instructions* upon the nature of this sacrament, as the door of admission (not into any particular church, but) into the visible church of Christ, as a seal of the covenant of grace, confirming the promises of the covenant by a sign and pledge, in which we are mutually engaged to God and God to us, in which we are visibly consecrated to his service, bound to our duty, and inheritors of his promises. Its Divine institution proves its spiritual character. To conceive of Christian ordinances for hypocrites or unbelievers, is an anomaly. The privileges of Baptism are an investiture with the promises of the Christian covenant, such as union with Christ, adoption into the family of God, and the inheritance of heaven. The grace of Baptism is accurately explained by our Church to be "a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness;" a real, not a relative change.

Though however these are the real privileges of the covenant, of which baptism is the initiatory seal, yet experience and observation too plainly prove that they are not necessarily linked with the outward administration of the ordinance. The promises (as to our

Bishop Burnet strongly inculcates the necessity of baptismal instruction. Pastoral Care, ch. viii.

† See Church Catechism.

interest in them) are invalid without faith. And the design of baptism was, that the believer's covenant interest for his children might here be pleaded and made good. But a doubting spirit, or positive unbelief, substitutes uncertainty in the place of the appropriate act, confession, and thanksgiving of faith, and consequently, as to this point, annuls the covenant interest of the believer made to faith.* A Christian parent bringing his child to the font for the sign and seal of spiritual regeneration, in the assurance of his child's joint interest in the promises of the covenant; the sponsors at the same time in dependence on the promises, engaging in the child's name, to renounce the service of his enemies, "to believe in God, and serve him," and joining in prayer for the confirmation of those privileges to the child-such a sight exhibits a clear and animating warrant of faith, most honourable to the Divine ordinance.†

* See Rom. iv. 11-17. May not many of the objections to Mr. Budd's valuable work on Baptism be traced to a want of power to elevate our faith to the simple reception of the Divine engagements in their fullest extent ?

The efficacy of baptism is putting the child's name into the Gospel grant. The child's actual faith, repentance, and obedience are thereby made debts, then incurred, to be paid at a future time. And surely this is abundantly sufficient to invite and encourage parents to dedicate their children in baptism. As to the real influence of baptism, when the children grow up, we are sure that their baptismal regeneration, without something else, will not bring them to heaven; and yet it may be urged, in praying to God to give them grace, and in persuading them to submit to it.' Matthew Henry on Baptism, pp. 130, 131. In the same valuable treatise, he bears his own personal testimony to the ordinance'I cannot but take occasion,' said he, 'to express my gratitude to God for my infant baptism; not only as it was an early admission into the visible body of Christ, but as it furnished my pious parents with a good argument (and as I trust through grace a prevailing argument) for an early dedication of my own self to God in my childhood. If God has wrought any good work upon my soul, I desire with humble thankfulness to acknowledge the moral influence of my infant baptism upon it.' P. 118.

But our people, as baptized professors of the Gospel, must not sleep unconscious of their obligations. In our covenant to renounce the enemies of God and of our soul, to accept the Saviour as the ground of our hope, and to walk in the way of God, is there no power of conviction to arrest the self-indulgent, the unbelieving, and the disobedient? In the privileges, sealed to the faithful acceptance of the baptismal engagements, are there no motives to deadness to the world, love to the Saviour, confession of his cross, meetness for his kingdom? Philip Henry, in dealing with his children about their spiritual state, took hold of them very much by the handle of their infant baptism, and frequently inculcated upon them, that they were born in God's house, and were betimes dedicated and given up to him, and therefore were obliged to be his servants.'*

Parents and sponsors must be reminded, that the offering a child to God, though a common, is a most solemn and difficult, service. It is an awful profanation to "offer the blind for sacrifice ;" and most important, that they should understand what they do, in binding themselves and their children to the service of Godand why they do it-in conformity to the terms of the covenant-the will and appointment of God, as the renewal of their own personal covenant—and as their pledge that their children shall be the Lord's for ever. These should be points in our Ministry of close and serious conviction, no less than of evangelical encouragement. They need to be instructed, that the covenant made with the parents and their seed, and apprehended by the parent for his seed jointly with

* Psalm cxvi. 16. Philip Henry's Life, p. 85.

† Mal. i. 8.

himself, is the ground of the Christian's dedication of his child in baptism—that by this sacred act they profess their personal consecration to his service, (for who can give his child freely and sincerely to God, except he had "first given his own self to the Lord ?") and that they must daily train the child in the remembrance that he is not their's but God's. They must be reminded of the great honour of being entrusted with such a charge, and of the fearful guilt of neglecting so responsible a trust. Where it is practicable, no sponsors or parents should present themselves at the font without previous Ministerial instruction ;* that they may, under the Divine blessing, be led to this ordinance with a penitent, upright, believing, thankful, and cheerful spirit-such a spirit, as God "delighteth to honour."

Nor should we forget to inculcate the improvement of the baptismal engagements. Much use may be made of it as a restraint from sint—an excitement to dutyas a support to faith-an encouragement to prayer; and the remembrance of the investiture of privileges may animate to press for a real participation of them— and to live as living members of a living head-in spiritual communion with a spiritual church.‡

*For this purpose the Writer begs to recommend 'Four Dialogues on Baptism' (Hatchard,) as most valuable for parochial distribution-popular in their form, spiritual in their character, practical in their tendency.

Luther mentions a Christian woman-'Quæ quotie tentabatur, non nisi baptismo suo repugnabat-dicens brevissimeChristiana sum,' 'Intellexit enim hostis'-adds Luther-' statim pirtutem baptismi, et fidei, quæ in veritate promittentis pendebat, et fugit ab eo.'

In some of the American churches the baptized children are assembled periodically in the church, with their guardians, and the elders of the church, and addressed by their pastor upon the obligation of their vow. Much permanent blessing is stated to

SECTION II.

THE LORD'S SUPPER.

PHILIP Henry's, was an admirable rule relative to this sacrament-so to manage it, that the weak might not be discouraged, and yet the ordinance might not be profaned.'* Our instructions on this point should

We

have a direct reference to both these objects. must not raise the standard too high for the humble, contrite, or scrupulous. Nor must we open the door for the admision of all. Our instruction must vary according to the character of the recipient. To the ignorant and self-righteous, the spiritual character, and the solemn obligations of the ordinance, the guilt of hypocrisy in uniting in the deep-toned abasement and elevated exercises of our mode of administration without corresponding experience, and most of all the awful condemnation of unworthy participation, are subjects of direct and solemn conviction. We may accommodate to this case the awful prophetic imprecation-that the "table" of the Lord will "become a snare before them, and that, which should have been for their welfare, will become a trap." To those who

have arisen from this plan. We cannot but wish that similar assemblies could be transferred with the same ecclesiastical solemnity into the services of our Establishment; or at least, that the spirit of this imposing ceremony were transferred into our ordinary Ministrations in a more frequent and affectionate enforcement of baptismal responsibilities.

* Life, p. 43.

The exclusion of the ungodly, under every form, from Christian communion, seems to be directly implied, if not commanded. Ezek. xliv. 6--9.

Psalm lxix. 22.