of the Psalms, and the petitions contained in other parts of Scripture; and a careful attention to the requests which the sacred writers offered, the pleas which they used, the order and proportion which they observed, and the confessions, adorations, and grateful praises which they intermixed with their fervent supplications, for personal and publick, temporal and spiritual mercies, will be more useful to the serious Christian, in this part of religion, than all other helps whatever. Above all, the Lord's Prayer, well understood and digested, will teach him what the confidence and leading desire of his heart in every prayer should be; what are the blessings especially to be sought for; and with what moderation and submission he should ask for temporal mercies, compared with the forgiveness of his sins, and deliverance from temptation and the tempter, from evil and the evil one that, in approaching the throne of grace, he may "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness;" assured that "all other things will be added unto him."

ESSAY XXIV.

On Baptism, and the Lord's Supper.

AMONG the ordinances which the Lord hath appointed in his church, as means of grace and acts of solemn worship, some have, from very early times, been distinguished by the name of Sacraments. The word Sacrament originally signified the military oath, which the commanders of the Roman armies required of their soldiers; and it seems to have been thus transferred to these institutions, because they were considered as solemn engagements to be faithful and obedient to Christ, under whose banner all Christians have enlisted. In process of time sacraments were multiplied, which gave rise to immense superstition and absurdity: and, as human nature continually verges to extremes, it may perhaps be found, on impartial enquiry, that the profession and obligation, implied in the ordinances, thus distinguished by the primitive church, are now by numbers too little regarded. The word Sacrament, however, is not found in Scripture; but the nature of those two solemn institutions, which are by protestants called by this name, in a general view may be thus stated. In order that the great truths of the gospel may be exhibited to our senses, and illustrated to our minds, by outward emblems, and the reception of spiritual blessings represented by significant actions; observances, in themselves indifferent, have, by divine appointment, been constituted a part of religious

worship: thus they become honourable to God and profitable to us; and hence positive duties arise, where none before subsisted by moral obligation.

I

Baptism is the initiatory ordinance of Christianity; as circumcision, under the old dispensation, from Abraham to the ascension of Christ, was the door of admission into the visible church. It consists in the application of water to the baptized person, "in the name of the Father, and of the "Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Water is the universal purifier of our persons, garments, houses, streets, and cities; it is essential to the beauty and fertility of the earth; and it is the original element from which every liquor, that quenches our thirst or exhilarates our spirits, is derived. It is, therefore, the constant and most expressive scriptural emblem of the pure and satisfying blessings conveyed to us by the gospel; especially of the purifying, enlivening, fructifying, and consolatory influences of the Holy Spirit: and many ceremonies of the law, as well as the introductory baptism of John, exhibited these benefits by the use of it. The whole of that blessed change, which the apostle describes, may be denoted by the baptismal water: "But ye "are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the "name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." This accords with the Lord's promises by his prophet, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall "be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols "will I cleanse you ;" and with various other passages in the sacred oracles.3 Yet baptism seems more immediately to represent the purifying of the judgment and affections from the pollution of sin, by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. The beginning of this work is therefore described with reference to the outward emblem, as being born of water and of the Spirit: it is called "the washing of rege

1 The design of this compendious publication renders it wholly improper to treat of this subject in a controversial manner. After a long and patient investigation, and mature reflection, the author is a Pœdo-baptist; and his discussions will consequently be most applicable to those, who coincide with him in sentiment and practice. But he considers all as brethren who "iove "the Lord Jesus in sincerity:" and would not willingly offend any man, who conscientiously differs from him in such matters; he therefore reasonably hopes for similar candour from his readers. The disputes about the mode and subjects of Baptism have too long occupied a disproportionate degree of attention; whilst numbers remain ignorant of the nature and obligations of the ordinance itself. Mr. Henry's observation seems well grounded !—' If infant-baptism were more conscientiously improved, its obligation would 'be less disputed.'

2 1 Cor. vi. 9-11. 3 Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27; Ps. li. 2-7; Zech. xiii. 1; John xiii. 8; xix. 34; Eph. v. 26, 27; 1 John v. 6; Rev. i. 5,6; vii. 14,

"neration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which God our "Saviour has shed upon us abundantly:" and it is especially, though not exclusively, meant by "the baptism of the Holy Ghost."

"I

The appointment of this emblem, in the initiatory ordinance of Christianity, emphatically testifies the doctrine of original sin and the necessity of regeneration: for it declares every man, as "born of the flesh," to be so polluted, that unless he be washed with purifying water, he cannot be received even into the outward church of God; and unless he be inwardly cleansed by the Holy Spirit, he cannot be a member of the true church. In this it coincides with circumcision, which implied, that without the mortification of the corrupt nature derived by generation from fallen Adam, and the removal of that obstacle to the love and service of God, no man could be admitted into covenant with him. And, like that ordinance, it is "the seal of the righteous"ness of faith;" for he, and he alone, who possesses the inward and spiritual grace, outwardly denoted by both circumcision and baptism, has a divine attestation to the sincerity of his faith, and to the reality of his justification in the righteousness of the Redeemer. The form of baptism, "in," or into, "the name of the Father, and of the Son, "and of the Holy Ghost," contains an unanswerable argument for the doctrine of the Trinity, and constitutes a perpetual confession of it: it implies also, that the baptized person is the avowed worshipper and servant of God "the "Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," who is become the salvation and portion of all believers.

When the apostles went forth "to teach," or disciple" all "nations," to baptize them in this name, and afterwards to teach them more fully all things which Christ had commanded, that they might observe them; the converts, whether made from among the Jews or gentiles, were baptized on an intelligent profession of repentance and faith. When the Jews made proselytes to their religion, they circumcised the adult males on such a profession, according to the nature of their dispensation; and Podo-baptists, in similar circumstances, would baptise adults both male and female on a profession of faith in Christ. But we maintain, (for reasons which have been repeatedly assigned,) that as the Jews also ircumcised all the males in the families of the proselytes, who were incapable of personally rejecting the Jewish religion; so, the apostles baptised the households of their converts, including the females, and only excluding such, as,

1 John i. 31-33; iii. 3-8; Tit. iii. 5, 6. Deut. xxx. 6; Jer. iv. 4 ; Rom. ii. 28, 29; vi. 11.

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being able to answer for themselves, gave evidence, by word or deed, that they did not obey the truth. Nay, we are of opinion that those children, who had one believing parent, though the other continued an unbeliever, were thus admitted, as relatively holy, into the visible church of Christ.' The adult convert, by receiving baptism, virtually acknowledged, according to the obvious meaning of the ordinance, that he was a sinner by nature and practice, that he repented of his sins, and believed in Christ for the forgiveness of them; that he renounced idolatry, and all other objects or forms of worship, "to serve the one living and true "God," in whose name he was baptized; that he cordially believed the truths of the gospel, and relied on the mercy of the Father, on the mediation of the incarnate Son, and on the grace of the Holy Spirit, for complete salvation; and that he sincerely purposed to forsake all his sins, and every confidence, pursuit, interest, or indulgence which interfered with these engagements. Thus he openly joined himself to the Lord, according to the new covenant in Christ Jesus: and, embracing its benefits as his portion and salvation, he solemnly vowed to renounce the world, deny himself, bear his cross, endure persecution and hardship, and fight against sin and Satan, as a faithful soldier of Jesus Christ, to the end of his days: and doubtless prayers, instructions, professions, and engagements to this effect, accompanied the administration of baptism, as circumstances required or admitted of them. Such a solemn transaction would tend exceedingly to confirm the faith, to excite the love, to strengthen the mind, and to encourage the hope of the true convert. And though a hypocritical profession could answer none of these purposes: yet we cannot determine, that confused views, partial convictions, and general purposes of following Christ, might not frequently terminate in true conversion; even by means of this ordinance, and the prayers, instructions, and admonitions, which preceded, attended, and followed it: for it does not become us to limit the operations of the Holy Spirit. The public administration of baptism, would likewise honour God and the Christian religion: establish and edify believers, by reminding them of their privileges and vows; make way for subsequent exhortations, admonitions, or censures, in respect of the baptized person, as occasion required; and excite the attention of numbers to the peculiar doctrines of Christianity.

The baptism of the infant offspring, of such converts, was likewise a solemn declaration, that they desired the same Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; Acts xvi. 3, 15, 33; Rom. xi. 16-25;

1 Cor. i. 16; vii. 14.

blessings for their children, as they had chosen for their own portion and they thus pledged themselves to the church, "to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the "Lord" giving them every instruction, and using_all means of rendering them wise unto salvation. When they brought the children, which were afterwards born to them, to be baptized; they virtually renewed their former profession and engagements, and declared their persevering purpose of instructing and commanding their households in the fear of God: and as the children grew up, such of them, as profited by these means, would personally accept of the privileges, and enter into the engagements peculiar to Christianity, in the manner which will be shortly considered.

As the number of professed Christians increased, the baptism of infants would proportionally grow more common: and, when the progress of the gospel among Jews and gentiles was less rapid, the baptism of adults would not occur so frequently. This accords with facts, even in the earlier and purer days of the church: and afterwards when the progress of error and superstition made way for the nominal conversion and baptism of whole nations, the baptism of adults was seldom heard of, in countries previously professing Christianity. The indiscriminate administration of infant baptism, however, arising from a concurrence of causes during many centuries, has produced many very bad effects: and the abuses, misapprehensions, and criminal conduct, which are too manifestly connected with it, have given many pious persons a rooted aversion to that way of administering the ordinance, and have furnished them with plausible objections. But when a Christian parent is persuaded, notwithstanding all these crimes and abuses, that the baptism of the infant offspring of believers accords with the word of God, and, in compliance with what he judges his duty, presents his children to be baptized; he solemnly ratifies and renews the profession and engagements of his own baptism; he avows his earnest desire, that the covenant made with him may be for the good of his seed also; and he engages to bring them up in the faith and obedience of the gospel, as far as his instructions, discourse, example, and prayers can have any influence. As they grow up, he, or other pious relations, may profitably explain to them the nature, meaning, and engagements of baptism; the blessings it signifies; the advantages of being thus early admitted into the visible church, and trained up as her children; and the aggravated guilt of deliberately rejecting the salvation and service of God, from pride and carnal affections; or even of 'Jer. xxxii. 88-40; Acts ii. 38, 39.