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express the proud feeling of our unregenerate nature, until it is taught the faith and the humility required to render Christian Baptism effectual. 'His servants came near and said, My father, if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee' Wash and be clean? Then he went down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean "." No one surely can doubt but that this was intended by God to teach us of the new birth at Baptism; that we should therein be made as a little child, and clean from sin. Indeed, our LORD HIMSELF adduces it as foretelling the calling and conversion of the Gentiles".

But it was our LORD's own great forerunner, the greatest of those who had been born of women, emphatically named the Baptist, who showed water to be the chief means and instrument which GOD would use in the conveyance of His unspeakable gift. For he called, not the Gentiles only, but all the Jews who had supposed themselves, as the holy nation, in no need of washing, to confession of sins and repentance, together with an outward washing; and then, to add dignity to that his Baptism, he baptized even HIM Who should HIMSELF baptize, not only with the outward washing of His ministers, but also at the same time with the HOLY GHOST and with fire.

And now that we come to speak of our LORD HIMSELF, I cannot but mention to you what ancient Divines used much to observe of our LORD's history in the Gospels;-that as He was about to establish Baptism with water as the great means of regeneration, HE HIMSELF seems often to sanctify water to the mystical washing away of sin, not only by what occurred at His own Baptism, but by many lesser circumstances. Thus to take the Gospel of St. John, which is so full of Sacramental doctrine. The first miracle which He did was converting the water into wine that good wine which the Bridegroom had kept to the last. Then follows the discourse with Nicodemus, on the necessity of being born again of water and the Spirit, in order to see the kingdom of GOD. Immediately after this occurs the conversation at the well with the woman of Samaria, respecting the

2 Kings v. 14.

9 Luke iv. 27.

Then is the

living water which the Son of MAN shall give. account of the sick folk healed at the pool of Bethesda, by the Angel descending into the water, and our LORD showing to the impotent man that He was HIMSELF that true fountain of healing which was thereby signified. After that we read of CHRIST'S walking on the sea, and again saving by water. And afterward at the Feast of Tabernacles, on the last and great day of the feast, when water was poured out to commemorate the water flowing from the smitten rock in the wilderness, HE "stood and cried, He that believeth on Me, out of his belly shall flow streams of living water:" which He spake, the Evangelist informs us, of the HOLY GHOST. To this may be added that miracle of sending the blind man to the pool of Siloam; His washing His disciples' feet at the night of the last supper; the water flowing from His side after death; and His miracle at the lake of Gennesareth after the resurrection. All these are in St. John's Gospel alone. And I need not mention how in the other Gospels, almost all that is recorded of our LORD in His ministry, is by the sea of Galilee; there He calls His disciples; there HE delivers His parables; there He passes to and fro; on the borders of the sea performs most of His miracles. I do not say much of these things, but they are noticed by them of old who so much valued Baptism, and its privileges and duties; so that Tertullian in mentioning some things of this kind, says, CHRIST is never without water';" i. e. in the history of CHRIST in the Gospels the subject of water is continually introduced.

Moreover, as we know that the GoD of grace is also the GOD of nature, so we shall generally find a correspondence and connexion in the things of our daily life, with the sanctifying influences of the Gospel. No doubt water is intended to remind us of the gifts of grace. For this reason it is so necessary for natural life; and for this reason no animal requires such daily washing as man, in order to remind him constantly of that washing from sin which his soul requires; to warn him that the one Baptism for the remission of sins must be made to flow over his daily life, by constant renewals of grace and repentance. Even nature's own covenant of the rainbow is by

1 De Bap. viii. 9.

water; it is the sun shining on the rain; and no doubt, in addition to its signification, as a token of the promise of God not again destroying the world by a flood, it is intended to remind us of the Sun of Righteousness looking on the waters of Baptism, and thereby making a crown of glory for His redeemed, who shall sit with HIM on His throne 2. And it is in this double sense of the covenant of nature and of grace, that the Prophet Isaiah speaks of it. "With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy REDEEMER. For this is as

the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wrath with thee nor rebuke thee 3." This is spoken of the forgiveness of sins promised to Baptism.

We all know that when people's minds are filled with any subject, every thing which they see and hear tends to remind them of it. Be it any strong affection or sorrow, they read it in all around them; all outward objects seem to speak their own language; and if they are good persons, all Scripture seems to speak of what is in their own thoughts. Now thus it was with the early Christians respecting Baptism; they valued it so much, they considered all their hopes and fears so intimately connected with it, that they were at all times reminded of it by any thing which brought the outward sign of it to their notice. It had been commanded of old that the children of Israel should have the Law of GOD written on all things, as frontlets between their eyes, on the fringes of their garments and the like; by which it was intended to teach them, that the Law of God should be so deeply engraven on their hearts, that every thing should be connected with it in their remembrance. That it should be on their eyes; that is, on all that they looked upon. Now so was it with the good men of old respecting Baptism. When they looked on the sea they thought of it: it is the wave that washes from sin, they said; the air is as the breath of the Spirit breathing over it 3. Blessed, they said, are they who are in the Evangelical net of the Gospel, whom CHRIST is drawing to the great shore of eternity; when the angels shall separate between the good and the

2 Rev. iv. 3; iii. 21.

4 Deut. vi. 8, 9.

3 Is. liv. 9.

5 Ambrose Hex. &c.

bad. It reminded them of the sea in the temple of Solomon, and of the sea which is before the throne of GoD in Heaven. They were filled with serious thoughts at the contemplation of that great body of waters, as reminding them of the depth and breadth and length of the mysteries of GoD in CHRIST; of HIM whose footsteps are in dark waters, and His ways in the regeneration of the soul past finding out. When they looked on the rivers their thoughts were immediately about Baptism; when they noticed the green trees hanging over the stream they spoke at once of the tree which the Psalmist alludes to, as planted by the waters, whose leaf shall not wither, and whose fruit shall be brought forth in its own season. And from thence, in the same train of thought, they passed to that "pure river of water of life," which St. John saw, "clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of GOD and of the LAMB 6." And of those rivers of bliss which are at God's right hand for evermore. Every little stream, every fountain of water at once spoke to them of Baptism, because their hearts were so full of it. And the water in those hot and dry countries, where for the most part they dwelt,― so powerful in replenishing nature, so refreshing to the thirsty traveller over dry deserts, so more especially needful for washing, the more strongly served to set before them all the comforts of the Spirit, all the graces of the soul, as flowing from holy Baptism. The clouds over their heads reminded them of it when they caught the colours of the sun; the morning dews sparkling on the ground spoke to them of it: a cup of cold water given to the thirsty brought Baptism to their minds. Why, said they, does CHRIST bless a cup of water given to the

proof of love?

Why does He refresh

Why does He

minister water to His

poor for His sake, as the
His strength at the well?
disciples? They at once connected it all with Baptism.

It is evident from this circumstance that they would read the Holy Scripture differently to what we now do, and see in it much more concerning Baptism than men are in these days wont to do; they had the key to its mysteries; it was faith and love, which unlocked to them its deeper meanings. They considered all the outward signs of the Jewish religion to be in

6 Rev. xxii. 1.

7 Tertull. de Bap. viii.

tended for their instruction in the spiritual things of CHRIST'S Church; thus they understood the Song of Moses to be the Song of the LAMB; and both together as making the new song of the redeemed; that which was once sung on the shore of the Red Sea, which had saved them, and that which is with those who have the harps of God by the glassy sea in Heaven 3.

Now there is one thing which I think is evident from all this, that the early Churches did connect forgiveness of sins, and all the blessings of the Gospel, much more with the outward sign than men are wont to do in these days. They could never separate them as men are accustomed to do now in their own minds, as if a man could be baptized at one time, and become a Christian at another. And therefore I think we may conclude from this, that the Apostles must have laid a much greater stress on Baptism than ministers in general now do; for otherwise it were impossible that the Churches which they founded throughout the world, in different places, could all have agreed in receiving this impression; together with the wise and holy men with whom they conversed.

And this we find confirmed by what we read in the Acts of the holy Apostles; for after our LORD had sent them forth to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them "," and saying, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved '," we find the Apostles putting Baptism forward, in a way that ministers of religion would not now be inclined to do, even if they were teaching unbaptized persons in a foreign land; they never, in Scripture, speak of repentance and faith as sufficient without it, but join them together as they are in our LORD's own commission— "Teach and baptize," Believe and be baptized." Thus after St. Peter's Sermon on the day of Pentecost, it is said, "Now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of JESUS CHRIST 2.", And when Philip was sent by the Spirit to instruct the Ethiopian Eunuch, who was returning home reading the Prophet Esaias,

8 Rev. xv. 2.

1 Mark xvi. 16.

9 Matt. xxviii. 19.

2 Acts ii. 37, 38.