church-yard seems to have a voice that tells me so. The baptism of infants is a striking recognition of their ruined and sinful state by nature; for what is baptism but a sign of the washing away of the filth of our polluted nature? The Church service on this, as well as most other points, is irresistibly plain and convincing. In the baptism of infants, the priest thus begins his exhortation. Dearly beloved, forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin; I beseech you to call on God the Father, that of his bounteous mercy, he may grant to this child that thing which by nature he cannot have.' Again, We call upon thee for this infant, that he coming to thy holy baptism, may receive remission of his sins by spiritual regeneration. O merciful God, grant that the Old Adam in this child may be so buried, that the new man may be raised up in him.' Let not any one so far misunderstand me as to suppose that I think baptism is any thing more than the outward sign of regeneration, or the washing away of the filth of the flesh: though I believe that if with our Church wę carry little children in faith to Jesus, we have every reason to hope that he will receive them in his arms, and bless them with the inward grace. But my object here is solely to point out how our Church in the baptism of infants, acknowledges the doctrine of original sin. The Holy Ghost has instructed the Apostle to give us such a full comment upon the spiritual Ideath we all die in Adam, that we cannot too often read and pray over the following passages, Rom. v. 12, 21. 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22, 45, 49. Ephes. iv. 22, 24. Col. iii. 9, 10; there are many others in which our nature in Adam is spoken of, in contradistinction to the new and holy nature we receive in Christ Jesus. So essential is a right understanding of this truth, that until we receive it, many of the most beautiful parts of the Church service must appear just as unintelligible to us as if they were written in an unknown language. Nay, worse than unintelligible, they must seem extremely foolish and ridiculous. How absurd (to an understanding not convinced of the original defilement of our nature) must it appear to talk of remitting an infant's sins; of causing the Old Adam to be buried, and his carnal affections to die in him; while all the time the infant as yet has no sins, hearer thinks that the no carnal affections, while the very existence of the Old Adam, or original sin is, doubted by him! The Scripture is so full of testimonies to this important truth, that it seems to mingle with every other doctrine, and serves as a kind of master-key to unlock every other mystery. Take away this, and the Redeemer loses half his praise; the types and sacrifices of the law lose half their significancy; for they shadow forth the sin of our nature, as well as our actual transgressions, and Jesus came to deliver us from the guilt of our nature, as well as from the evil of our lives. Oh, what an unmeaning heap of words has been handed down to us in the law of Moses, the Psalms of David, the confessions of Ezra, Nehemiah, Job, Daniel, Jeremiah, and the rest of God's saints, if that evil nature which caused them to groan did not really exist! Above all, what shall we make of Romans iii. and vii.? What shall we understand by the conflict between the flesh and the spirit, between the old man and the new man, between the carnal and spiritual affections? Was St. Paul dreaming when he said, "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing?"1 Was he beside himself when he declared, "that he found in himself a law that when he would do good, evil was present with 1 Romans vii. 18. 66 him?" That though by divine grace he had learnt "to delight in the law of God after the inward man, yet still he saw another law in his members, warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members?" 2 The apostle of the Gentiles" who laboured more abundantly than they all;" he, who had been caught up to the third heaven, and heard unspeakable words which it was not lawful for him to utter 4' amongst sinful men; he, who ' counted all things but dung that he might win Christ; "5 he, who was "ready, not only to be bound, but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus 6; this chosen vessel of mercy, full of zeal and full of love, and under the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost, so groaned under the burden of the original corruption of his nature; the law of sin warring in his members; that he was compelled to cry out, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 7 And from the time of Paul there has never been a real Christian who has not often felt himself constrained to adopt his language and to say in the language of his soul 1 Rom. vii. 21. 2 Ibid. 22, 23. 31 Cor. xv. 10. "who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" The remedy, as is usual in scripture, follows close upon the complaint: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”1 In this epistle, the Holy Ghost is seen peculiarly to fulfil his sacred office. He shall convince of sin, of righteousness, and of justification. How strong is the language in which he presses the first condemning testimony home to our shrinking conscious bosoms! how sweet and clear the second part of his testimony, when he takes of the righteousness of Jesus and shews it to us, yea, tells us that it is ours, if we will cease to go about to establish our own! And when he is fulfilling the third part of his mission, with what triumphant energy has he inspired the apostle to unfold to us, how we are justified freely by his grace, acquitted so that none can lay aught to our charge, not Satan himself, that accuser of the brethren; for the prince of this world is judged, Satan bruised under our feet! But to return to my subject-" we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin, as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God, 1 Romans vii. 25. C |