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thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments.

Cautions and exhortations of a similar kind, and to the same effect, are continually given in the word of life, to all those who have entered into the new covenant by the seal of baptism. John the Baptist on this ground, exhorted those who were baptised by him, " to bring forth fruits meet for repentance." The Apostle Paul, from the same motive, exhorts all those who have been solemnly admitted into the covenant of grace, by the sacrament of baptism, to consider their high calling in Christ, to hold fast their heavenly profession, and to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called. He appeals both to the blessing and the curse, to the recompense of reward which is promised to his good and faithful servants, and to the punishments denounced on sinners by the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds, to them who by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that

doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the gentile; but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the gentile, for there is no respect of persons with God. To prevent all antinomian error, he reminded them that they were buried with him by baptism unto death, and he urged them by this solemn obligation, to walk in newness of life, and no longer to serve sin. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. "Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his sevants ye are, to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." It is to persons admitted into the church of Christ by baptism, that he said, if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners: Is Christ therefore the minister of sin? God forbid. to persons thus received into the Church of Christ, he says, "brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatso

And

ever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

To the same purpose St. Peter says, "to those who had obtained like precious faith with himself, through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly-kindness, and to brotherly-kindness charity, for if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins; wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if ye do these ye shall never fall, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Christ himself as a teacher sent from God, as that great prophet which should come into the world, enjoins the same moral obedience to the will and word of

God, as declared in the law of Moses, and in the "Think not,"

gospel of grace and salvation. said he, "that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle, shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whoso

ever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whosoever shall do and teach them, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

We have now considered the sacrament of baptism, as to its more essential point, as a solemn act of incorporation into the Church of Christ, as a sign and seal of the righteousness which is by faith of Jesus Christ, as a means appointed of God of conveying grace to the souls of his people, and as a sacred pledge, both on the part of God, and of all believers on the part of God, that he will fulfil his promises, and on the part of those who enter into his covenant, that they will do his will, and keep his holy commandments. It has been shown also, that while he is faithful who hath promised, that while all his promises are "yea and Amen in Christ," while

we have the grace and promise of God as our hope, which “hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast;" that the outward solemnities of this sacred ordinance must be ministered, and the conditions of the covenant duly kept, to secure the inward grace and spiritual blessings which are promised by God. All these points, in relation to the holy sacrament of baptism, are in perfect accordance with the sound doctrine of the Church of England, in which it is thus defined in the twenty-seventh article. Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not christened, but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth, whereby as by an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the church, the promises of forgiveness of sin, and our adoption to be the sons of God, by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed. Faith is confirmed, and grace is increased by virtue of prayer unto God. And in the canons of our church, it is declared that sacraments ordained of Christ, be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather, they be certain sure witnesses, and effectual signs of grace and God's good will towards

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