and the Lord's Supper seal the promises. As signs appointed by God, they give assurance to believers, that the promised blessings of salvation will be theirs. They do not, by any virtue inherent in them, or imparted to them, confer spiritual blessings upon individuals, any more than the rainbow did, of itself, confer the blessings of seed-time and harvest. The rainbow was a sign, a mere sign, that those blessings should be enjoyed by the world at large. As the promise of those blessings was without any condition, the sign gave assurance of them without any condition.

The Apostle says, that circumcision was to Abraham "a seal of the righteousness of faith," that is, of gratuitous justification, which he before had. It was a sign or token, that the blessings of free justification did in reality belong to him, as a believer. When applied to others, whoever they might be, whether old or young, and whether Israelites or gentiles, it was a seal of the promise of what promise? Why, of the promise of the same free justification to them, if they had the same faith as Abraham had. It did not, of itself, by any virtue inherent in it or imparted to it, actually confer spiritual blessings. Nor was it a seal or confirmation of any promise, that God would confer them unconditionally upon all who should be circumcised; for there was no such promise. When applied to Abraham's natural seed, it did indeed seal to them important privileges; but it did not seal spiritual blessings to them, except on the condition of their walking in the steps of faithful Abraham. If they complied with that condition, he would be a God to them, as he was to him. If then you would determine the meaning and the value of the sign, first determine the meaning and the value of the promise, or covenant, "I will be a God to thee and to thy seed." This promise contained an infinite good. But for whom? Not for all the

descendants of Abraham indiscriminately and absolutely, but for those who possessed his faith. Here then you see the meaning and value of the seal. It confirmed the blessings of the covenant to those who were circumcised, on condition of their having faith. Their having faith would constitute them, in the high, spiritual sense, children of Abraham, and the seal would then assure them,

that the blessing of Abraham would be theirs.

The promise uttered a precious truth. The seal confirmed the same truth ;— just as a seal put upon a man's last Will and Testament, confirms what the Will contains. If the Will grants favors absolutely, the seal confirms them absolutely; if conditionally, the seal confirms them conditionally.

The same is true of the external rites, or sacraments, under the gospel dispensation. They are seals or visible confirmations of the covenant of grace. Now this covenant or declared purpose of God sometimes gives a general assurance of the bestowment of spiritual blessings upon sinners, an assurance that God will carry on the work of redemption, and will call sinners with a holy calling. And in reference to this, the sacraments or visible rites of our religion may be understood as giving assurance to the church, that he will save sinners, and will continue to preserve and build up his kingdom on earth, and that he will do it by the means which he has appointed, such as the preaching of the gospel, reading the Scriptures, the instructions, the examples and prayers of pious parents and other Christians, and the dispensations of providence. But the covenant or gospel promise, taken in its personal application, or its application to individuals, secures forgiveness and eternal life to those only who repent and believe. Whatever privileges men enjoy, whatever their external relations may be, or their visible characters, the promise of God does not insure their salvation unless they have true faith, the faith of God's elect. Of course, neither the rite of baptism, nor the rite of the sacred supper, seals or confirms the blessings of forgiveness and salvation to any individuals, except on condition of their having true faith. If you ask, whether it does not always secure to them regeneration and faith; the answer is, that neither the word nor the providence of God evinces that it does so. The promises of God are the same, and the declarations that he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and that those who are given to Christ shall come to him, are the same as they would be, if there were no sacraments. The appointed sacraments or outward rites do not change the doctrines or promises of God's word, but seal and confirm them

confirm them as they are. They do not give assurance of eternal life, except in accordance with the teachings of revelation. Those who receive baptism cannot be saved on any lower terms, than those who do not receive it. The inspired declarations, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven;""He that believeth on the Son hath life; but he that believeth not shall not see life,"-These declarations are as true, as if there were no sacraments, and as true to those who receive the sacraments, as to those who do not. I repeat it, that the outward institutions or rites of Christianity are not intended to make any alteration in the truths or promises of the gospel, or in the terms of salvation, but on the contrary, are intended to confirm them as they are, to show that they are immutable.

Although the outward rite of baptism is designed to indicate that inward purification which is necessary to eternal life, and to show that the blessings of the gospel truly belong to all who receive it in the spirit of faith; it is, in fact, still applied to many, who are not partakers of those blessings. Through the want of godliness in those who are baptized, there is a separation between the sign and the thing signified. Baptism is administered, as it was to Simon the sorcerer, and administered lawfully, so far as the administrator is concerned, while the inward grace is wanting. On the other hand, the inward grace, that is, spiritual purification, unquestionably belongs to many who are not baptized. Indeed all adult persons should give evidence of the beginning of inward purification, previously to baptism. Thus the Westminster Assembly's Confession of Faith teaches, that "grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed to baptism, as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it, or that all who are baptized, are undoubtedly regenerated." The Apostle says; "neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." It is equally true, that neither baptism, by itself, nor the want of it, availeth anything. The grand prerequisite to salvation is faith in Christ. But it is clear, that all who have faith, will be sincerely disposed to obey the divine commands and conform to the divine. institutions. Hence, in all ordinary circumstances, believers will

be baptized, so that in them the outward sign and the spiritual blessing signified will, according to the manifest design of the rite, be joined together. But it is a most palpable mistake to suppose that all who are baptized are therefore the subjects of spiritual purification. For it is evident from Scripture and from facts, that baptism has no more efficacy to regenerate and save the soul, than circumcision had. There is no more reason to conclude, that all who are baptized are renewed by the Spirit, than that all who were circumcised were thus renewed. We know that circumcision was as really a sign of spiritual blessings, as baptism is. It was, the . Apostle says, a sign or "seal of the righteousness of faith." But the sign or seal avails nothing, if the good signified is wanting. It is as useless as a seal upon a blank paper. There can be no more erroneous or fatal opinion, than that which has prevailed so universally in the Catholic church, and so extensively in Protestant churches, namely, that baptism, either by its own inherent virtue, or through the divine blessing accompanying it, certainly insures and even implies the actual regeneration of all who are baptized. Baptism does indeed bring those who receive it into an important relation to the church of Christ and secures to them important privileges, which God often blesses to their salvation. But to regard the outward rite, and to rely upon it, as insuring inward purification by the Holy Spirit, is an error of most fearful tendency, and it has contributed to the fatal delusion of multitudes which no man can number.

Every ordinance of God is important, and ought to be conscientiously and solemnly observed. But how small comparatively was the value which Christ and the apostles attached to external rites. The Apostle Paul says, he was not sent to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and he speaks of it with satisfaction, that he had baptized only a few individuals. It was the preaching of Christ crucified, not baptism, that he regarded as the power of God to salvation. This was the great work which was assigned to him as the Apostle to the Gentiles. The administration of the rite of baptism, being of minor consequence, was committed to others, while he, the chief Apostle, accomplished a higher object, making known the truths

of the gospel, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Had he looked upon baptism as that which would secure the saving influence of the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sin, he most surely would not have treated the subject as he did.

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Baptism, which in its application to adult believers, signifies their spiritual cleansing and their ingrafting into Christ, and seals to them the promised blessings of grace, may also be regarded as a means of their spiritual improvement, by showing them more clearly the importance of those things which are signified by it. And it may, if God pleases, be a means of salvation to persons who improperly offer themselves for baptism while unregenerate. It may press their hearts with the necessity of that inward purification which is signified by the rite, and either at the time of its administration, or afterwards, it may, through divine grace, be the means of their conversion. It may often be the means of saving benefits to infant children, who are offered for baptism by their believing parents. At the very time of their baptism they may, if it please God, be renewed by the Spirit; or the renewing of the Spirit may be granted afterwards, but granted still in a real connection with the ordinance of baptism. So the Confession of Faith represents the matter. "The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered". By the right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is not only offered, but really conferred by the Holy Ghost to such, (whether of age or infants,) as that grace belongeth unto according to the counsel of God's own will, in his appointed time." There are those, to whom, according to the counsel of God's own will, the grace of the Holy Spirit belongeth; that is; God in his sovereign mercy has designed it for them, has chosen them to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit. And "such"-not all who are baptized, but "such as that grace belongeth unto," will," in God's appointed time," experience that purifying influence of the Spirit, of which baptism is the sign. The saving efficacy of baptism depends ultimately on the counsel of God's own will, and is, in his appointed time, applied to the heirs of salvation. By this view of the subject we are freed from the strange and perplexing supposition of a saving efficacy

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