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 http://vyww.archive.org/details/godscovenantsermOOwalk 
 
^otf's €ot)cnant: 
 
 A SERMON, 
 
 PREACHED 
 
 ON THK 
 
 THIMEENTfl SUNDAY AUM TRISITY, 
 
 M DCCCXLI V, 
 
 IN TRINITY CHURCH, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS; 
 
 BY THE RECTOR. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 ELLIS & FERGUS, PRINTERS, 
 
 SALOON BUILDINGS. 
 
 1844. 
 
The Church is to us that very Mother of our new 
 birth, in whose bowels we are all bred, at whose 
 breasts we receive nourishment. As many, tliere- 
 fore, as are apparently to our judgment born of 
 God, they have the seed of their regeneration by 
 the ministry of the Church, which useth to that end 
 and purpose not only the Word, but the Sacra- 
 ments, both having generative force, and virtue. . 
 . . . We all admire and honor the Holy Sacra- 
 ments, not respecting so much the service which 
 we do un'o God in receiving them, as the dignity 
 of that sacred and secret gift which we thereby re- 
 ceive from God. 
 
 HOOKXR. 
 
TO THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 BENJAMIN TREADWELL ONDERDONK, D.D., 
 
 BISHOF OF THE DIOCESE OF NEW TORK, 
 
 THIS SERMON, 
 
 WITH THAT FEELING 
 
 OF DUTIFUL REVERENCE AND AFFECTION 
 
 PROPER TO AN OWN SON IN THE FAITH, 
 
 AND WITH A GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE 
 
 OF VERT ABUNDANT KINDNESSES RECEIVED 
 
 DURING TWELVE TEARS OF EPISCOPAL, 
 
 AND A LONGER PERIOD OF PASTORAL 
 
 SUBJECTION, 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELT INSCRIBED, 
 
 BT 
 
 THE AUTHOR, 
 
 W. F. WALKER. 
 
 CHICAGO, FESTIVAL OP ST. MATTHEW, THE APOSTLE, MDCCCXLIV. 
 
If tetoporal estates may be convcy'd, 
 By covenants on condition, 
 
 To men, and to their heirs; be not afraid, 
 My aoul, to rest apeo 
 
 Thft covenaat of giace by raerey made^ 
 
 Do but thy duty, and rely upon't, 
 
 Repentance, faith, obedience, 
 
 Whenever practiced truly, will amount 
 To an authentic evidence, 
 
 Though the deed were antedated at the Font. 
 The Stnaoocuk. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 DEUTEROMONY XXIX. 10, 11, 12, 13. 
 
 Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captaiks 
 of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of israel, 
 
 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from 
 the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: 
 
 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and 
 INTO His oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day: 
 
 That He may establish thee to-day for a people unto Himself, and that 
 He may be unto thee a God, as He hath said unto thee, and as He hath 
 sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 
 
 Solemn, interesting, and instructive must have been that 
 assembling of Israel, on occasion of which the address in the text 
 was deUvered. The captains of the tribes, the elders, the officers, 
 the little ones, the wives, the stranger that was in the camp; young 
 men and maidens, old men and children ; all ranks, ages, and call- 
 ings, in one vast gathering, were presenting themselves before the 
 Lord their God. 
 
 Momentously" concerning too was the object which was to 
 engage them. What eagerness must it have imparted to their 
 looks ; what reverent earnestness to their every step 1 
 
 My Brethren, what a spectacle would such a scene present in 
 an age secularized, and well-nigh sold to this world, as is this of 
 ours! How unreal would be deemed that impress of things 
 eternal, borne by each captain, and elder, and officer, each father 
 and mother, with the pledges of their love, — their little ones, — 
 while thus ihey made acknowledgment of God's mercy and 
 alraightiness ! How should we stand in awe to behold thus a vast 
 multitude, forgetting for a time the perishing things which are not 
 of God, and with faces steadfastly set towards that light whose 
 brightness is unfading, towards those joys whose measure is unfail- 
 ing, towards that God whose characteristic is unchanging, and 
 whose "mercy is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear 
 
6 COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 Him, and remember His commandments to do them." And what 
 a rebuke should we suffer, as we witnessed this immense concourse 
 of all ages and conditions of men, " Standing before the Lord God, 
 to enter into His covenant, and into His oath, to be established for 
 a people unto himself!" For such is the record of the high pur- 
 pose for which Israel was then assembled. "Ye stand this day," 
 says Moses, "all of you before the Lord your God ; your captains 
 of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of 
 Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy 
 camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: 
 that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, 
 and into His oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this 
 day: that He may establish thee to-day for a people unto Him- 
 self, and that He may be unto thee a God, as He hath said unto 
 thee, and as He hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to 
 Isaac, and to Jacob."* 
 
 This record, my Brethren, presents the subject for our address 
 this afternoon; a season which, in our plans for your and your 
 children's good, has been appointed for instructing, "openly in 
 the Church, so many of the children of the parish, as may be sent 
 hither for the purpose, in some part of the Church Catechism ;"t 
 and which has witnessed the " entering into God's covenant and 
 oath, to be established for a people unto Himself," some of our 
 "little ones," mirrors of the kingdom, as the Savior hath given 
 
 it4 
 
 This subject, lying at the very foundation of the catechism — 
 which you have just heard recited — and therefore suggesting 
 itself as most appropriate for consideration at this particular lime 
 
 THE ADMISSION OF INFANTS INTO COVENANT WITH GoD 
 
 may now engage us. 
 
 May the Holy Spirit of God, by whose inspiration the text was 
 penned, be with us, while we briefly show the claims which this 
 subject has to your considerate attention, and the blessings which 
 may be expected to accompany a faithful observance of the 
 Divine will with regard to it! ^ 
 
 I. As Jesus Christ is that "Lamb of God" which was "slain 
 from the foundation of the vvorld,"|l by whose obedience, even 
 unto death,§ it was alone provided, in the eternal counsels of the 
 
 * Deut. xxix. 10, 11, 12, 13. tThe first Sunday in the month. 
 
 {St. Mark x. 14. Some children were baptised "iramediatel) after the last lesson.'' 
 llRev. xiii. 8. i Phil. ii. 8. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 7 
 
 Godhead, that sin should be remitted, and the " names " of any, 
 after man's apostacy from God, be ever "written in the book of 
 life,"* so, IN Him, was established that covenant of promise which 
 had respect to man's recovery, made immediately after the fall;t 
 and which, under various forms, at different times, and to sundry 
 persons, in succeeding generations, was renewed, up to the period 
 of its full and final ratification and confirmation, in the face of 
 angels and of men, in the fearful agonies of Gethsemane and 
 Calvary4 Patriarchs and prophets, therefore, with apostles and 
 martyrs, — "the saints of all ages," — who, "having obtained a 
 good report, through faith, "|| and are "partakers of the glory 
 that shall be revealed,"*^ are indebted for their blessedness to the 
 same mercy, granted to them for the merits of that one obedience, 
 conveyed to them through that one and the same " covenant that 
 was confirmed before of God in Christ,"^ — "the" true "Lamb 
 of God which taketh away the sins of the world."** " There is 
 salvation in no other; for there is none other name under heaven, 
 given among men whereby" any have been, or "can be saved."+t 
 " Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is 
 Jesus Christ."|| "He is the propitiation for our* sins: and not 
 for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1||| This 
 "Lamb" was provided, this "name" was given, this "foundation" 
 was laid, this "propitiation" was offered, this way of "access" 
 opened, when the Almighty promulged of the seed of the wo- 
 man, — " it shall bruise thy head."t It was through this media- 
 lion, Abel "obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying 
 of his gifts. "<^§ It was this Divine object which engaged the 
 faith of Enoch, who was translated " for this testimony."^^ 
 On this "way of access" was fastened the hope of Noah, who 
 "by faith, became heir of" this "righteousness."*** To this de- 
 liverance, the faith of Abraham had regard, by which, " when he 
 was tried," he " offered up Isaac."ttt This was the substance of 
 the promise made to the patriarchs, — " In thy seed shall all the 
 nations of the earth be ble?sed,"J|J which an Apostle expressly 
 
 *Rev. xiii. 8. tGen. iii. 15. 
 
 tSee Homily on the Nativity. ||Heb. xi. 39. §1 Pet. v. 1. 
 
 UGal. iii. 17. **Rev. xiii. 8. ttActs iv. 12. 
 
 tU Cor. iii. 11. 1|||] John ii. 2. 
 
 $^Heb. xi. 4. HHHeb. xi. 5. 
 
 ***Heb. xi. 7. tttHeb. xi. 17. 
 
 tttGen. xxii. 18; .xxvi. 4; xxviii. 14. 
 
8 covena:nt with god. 
 
 terms "the Gospel," and says that the "seed" here spoken of 
 "is Christ."* 
 
 This foretold and fore-shadowed Redeemer was believed on by 
 Moses and Joshua, David and Isaiah, and all " the prophets," by 
 whom were "testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the 
 glory that should follow."! "The testimony of Jesus is the 
 spirit of prophecy."^ " To Him give all the prophets witness, 
 that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive 
 remission of sins."|| Those, therefore, who "obtained a good 
 report," through faith, before the incarnation of Christ, obtained 
 it, as such report is now obtained, in virtue of the one covenant 
 of promise made with man immediately after the fall. That cove- 
 nant was with the fathers a covenant of grace and faith, the pro- 
 mises of which they saw only afar off, and through a cloud and 
 temporal veil; with us it is the same covenant of grace and faith, 
 with the promises brought nigh, the veil being removed, so that 
 we behold them with open glory. " The righteousness which is 
 by faith, "^ God made to be its spirit and life; and, the alone 
 Author of salvation by it, the " one Mediator between God and 
 men, the man Christ Jesus, "^ without whom, that which is writ- 
 ten hath been unchangeably true from the beginning, " no man 
 Cometh unto the Father,"** without whom man can do noth- 
 ing.tt It is therefore frequently styled " a perpetual cove- 
 nant,"|J "an everlasting covenant, "|||| a "covenant that shall not 
 be forgotten. "Jl "Both in the Old and New Testament," de- 
 
 *Gal. iii. 8, 16. 
 
 " All these fathers, martyrs, and other holy men, whom St. Paul spake of, had 
 their faith surely fixed in God, wheu all the world was against them. They did not 
 only know God to be the Lord, Maker, and Governor of all men in Uie world; but 
 also they have a special confidence and trust, that He was and would be their God, 
 their Comforter, Aider, Helper, Maintainer, and Defender. This is the Christian 
 faith, which these holy men had, and we also ought to have. And although they 
 were not named Chrisfian men, yet was it a Christian faith that they had ; for they 
 looked for all the benefits of God the Father, tlirough the merits of His Son Jesus 
 Christ, aa we now do. This difference is between them and us, that they looked 
 when Christ should come, and we be in the time when He is come. Therefore, 
 saith St. Augustine, ' Tlie time is altered and changed, but not the faith.' (In 
 Johan Tract 45.) For we have both one faith in Christ. ' The same Holy Ghost 
 that we have, had they," saith St. Paul (2 Cor. iv. 13). ... In effect they and 
 we be all one ; we have the same faith that tliey had in God, and they the same that 
 we have." Homily of Faith ; Second Part. 
 
 tl Pet. i. 11. tRev. xix. 10. HActs x. 43. 
 
 $Heb. xi. 7. HI Tim. ii. 5. **St. John xiv. 6. 
 
 ttSt. John XV. 5. «Jer. 1. 5. ||l|Gen. xvii. 7, 19. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. ^ 
 
 dares our Seventh Article of Religion, •' everlasting life is offered 
 to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God 
 and man, being both God and man. Wherefore they are not to 
 be heard, which feign that the old fathers did look only for transi- 
 tory promises."* Hence, we conclude, in the language of the 
 Westminster Confession, — "There are not two covenants of 
 grace, differing in substance, but one and the same under various 
 dispensations, . . . differently administered in the time of the 
 law, and in the time of the gospel."t 
 
 II. The character of this covenant, my Brethren, is peculiar; 
 it is a holy covenant. It is as strongly marked by this designation, 
 as that it is everlasting. Its foundation is holy ; being laid, as we 
 have seen, in the councils of the eternal and ever adorable Trinity, 
 upon the " only begotten Son of God,"t in whom is the fulness 
 of holiness. Its spirit is holy ; for it is the spirit of the Father 
 and of the Son which pervades it, by which it is animated, and 
 the form made the power of godliness.|| Its end is holy; for it 
 was provided to separate and make holy a people whom God 
 would establish to be, in a preeminent sense. His people.^ Its 
 subjects are holy; being such as are "chosen of God, and pre- 
 cious,"T[ "called according to His purpose,"** "conformed to 
 the image of His Son, "ft "created in righteousness and true 
 holiness."||: 
 
 The grace of holiness, therefore, flows through it, and the fruits 
 of holiness can alone be yielded by it. The one, is in virtue of 
 the sacramental power of God's appointment, by which the thing 
 signified is made the accompaniment of the sign which represents 
 it;|||l the other, is because of the gracious influences of the Spirit 
 of God therein vouchsafed, by which the lost are recovered, the 
 fallen restored, the corrupt renewed, the weak strengthened, and 
 the disobedient led onward in obedience and holiness.§§ So 
 singularly and so emphatically is this a holy covenant, that all the 
 treasures of holiness would seem to be comprehended exclusively 
 within it. For the same Apostle who has taught that " without holi- 
 ness no man shall see the Lord,"^^ has expressly declared that 
 
 *Art. vii., Book of Com. Prayer. tConfession of Faith, chap. vii. 5, 6. 
 tSt. John iii. 18. 
 
 Ill Cor. vi. 17; 2 Cor.iii. 17; 1 Cor. ii. 10; xii. 13; Heb. xiii. 20, 21. 
 $Deut. xxvi. 18, 19. HI Pet. ii. 4, 5; 2 Thess. ii. 13. 
 
 **Rom. viii. 28. ttRom. viii. 29. UEph. iv. 24. 
 
 mils. Iv. 11. ^jRoui. vi. 3-6. HHHeb. xu. 14. 
 
 B 
 
10 COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 *' Strangers from the covenants of promise, have no hope, and are 
 without God in the world;* thus making fellowship in the "cove- 
 nants of promise" necessary to a revealed hope, to which a parti- 
 cipation of holiness is indispensable. In harmony with this, is the 
 teaching of our Article, — which asserts, that, *' The condition of 
 man after the fall, is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, 
 by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling 
 upon God : wherefore we have no power to do good works 
 pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by 
 Christ" — that is, by the covenant of God in Christ — "preventing 
 us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we 
 have that good will."t And this is sustained by the bold decla- 
 ration of the Westminster Confession, that " out of [this covenant] 
 there is no ordinary possibility of salvation."| The members of 
 God's covenant, then, form a regenerate company, have their sins 
 remitted, are given up unto God, through Christ, to walk in new- 
 ness of life,|| are in a "state of salvation,"^ and, by the grace 
 of which they are therein made partakers, are enabled to " do 
 good works, pleasant and acceptable unto God,"t — to " become 
 holy, as He who hath called them is holy ;"^ and, so changed, are 
 a " people peculiar,"** in fulfilment of their high calling of God. 
 Thus, through Moses, the Almighty taught Israel, "the Lord 
 
 hath avouched thee ... to be his peculiar people, that 
 
 thou mayest be a holy people unto the Lord thy God :"tt and, 
 
 again, in the words of the text, " Ye stand this day all of you 
 
 to enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into His oath; 
 that He may establish thee for a people unto Himself, and that 
 He may be unto thee a God, and may spare thee, and may turn 
 away His anger, and His jealousy, and His curses from thee." 
 
 How emphatically holy, then, is God's covenant ! Holy in all 
 that it is, all that it intends, all that it embraces ! 
 
 III. The outward divinely appointed means or mode of admis- 
 sion to a participation in this covenant, the manner by which to 
 "enter," or, as the words are in the Hebrew, "pass into" it, — in 
 allusion to the manner by which covenants were anciently made 
 in the eastern countries, by dividing the sacrifice, and passing 
 
 *Eph. ii. 12. tArt. x. B. C. P. tConfession of Faith, chap. xxv. II. 
 llWest. Confession of Faith, chap, xxviii. 1. 
 
 §Church Catechism. HI Pet. i. 15. 
 
 **Titus ii. 14. ttDeut. xxvi. 18, 9. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 11 
 
 between the parts of it* — its "sign and seal," has varied in differ- 
 ent and succeeding periods of its history. 
 
 From the first establishment of the covenant of recovery, to the 
 deliverance of Noah and his family from "the flood," which came 
 in " upon the world of the ungodly and condemned them with an 
 overthrow,"! the means or mode of "passing into" it would 
 seem to have consisted simply in sacrifice.} Herein was mani- 
 fested a recognition of the great and essential principle, that 
 "without shedding of blood is no remission ;"|| and an attesta- 
 tion of faith, which rendered the sacrifice " more excellent," and 
 secured a participation in the real blessings of the covenant, — in 
 the One Great Sacrifice, the Lamb of God's providing, who was 
 "once, in the end of the world, to appear, to put away sin by the 
 sacrifice of Himself ;§ and so make an " eternal redemption,"^ — 
 "the body of Jesus Christ,"** whose "blood" is that "of the 
 everlasting covenant,"tt which alone can sanctify.|| It has ever 
 been received as a provision of the Almighty, that, as before the 
 fall, the submission of the will of man to that of God should be 
 tested by a divinely imposed restraint, and man's spiritual life 
 preserved by continual obedience, and he be nourished up to 
 ripeness in moral perfection sacramentally, — by participation of 
 
 *Gen. XV. 10, 17. 12 Pet. ii. 5, 6. 
 
 tAdam and his sons offered to God real sacrifices. Adam, in all likelihood, 
 j.eceived some order concerning it; and began to sacrifice by direction of the 
 Shechinah, or Divine Majesty. His sons were instructed by him to perform this 
 duty ; and by his exact conformity with those instructions, Abel's sacrifice was " more 
 excellent" than that of Cain, who offered after the device of his own heart. Else 
 how came Abel to believe that his sacrifice of a beast would be so acceptable to 
 God, as the Apostle says it was by faith? Patrick. 
 
 " The very circumstance of Abel's sacrifice having been offered " by faith," proves 
 it to have been with reference to some antecedent revelation, in obedience to soma 
 antecedent command. There would have been no faith in offering that which was 
 not commanded. Such an act would have resembled that " will-worship " (Col. ii. 
 23) which the Apostle speaks of to the Colossians, and speaks of only to condemn; 
 and assuredly, therefore, could never have had the commendation which it is said to 
 have received." Anderson. 
 
 IIHeb. ix. 22. §Ib. vs. 26. Hlb. vs. 12. '"lb. x. 10. tHb. xiii. 20. 
 
 iftThese offerings signified, that man is a sinner, and therefore obnoxious to the 
 just indignation and extreme displeasure of the holy and righteous God; and that 
 God was to be propitiated, and that He might pardon him ; that God would not 
 forgive sin without the atonement of justice, which required the death of the of- 
 fender; but it being tempered with" mercy, accepted a sacrifice in his stead. . . . 
 As they had a relation to Christ, the Great Gospel Sacrifice, who was their comple- 
 ment, so they signified the expiation of moral guilt by His sacrifice, and freed the 
 sinner from that temporal death to which he was liable, as a representation of the 
 freedom from eternal death by the blood of the Cross. Cruden. 
 
12 COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 the "tree of life ;"* so, after the fall, that the " obedience of faith"f 
 should restore him to a •' state of salvation," restraint be the test 
 of the submission of his will, and sacramental grace "renew" 
 him ever more and more "in knowledge, after the image of 
 Him that created Him."| Thus^ it was by "sacrifice, Abel ob- 
 tained witness that he was righteous ;"|| and thus others were 
 gathered into that "Church, of the first-born,"^ who, like Abel, 
 offered "by faith and rightly," "God testifying of their gifts,"l[ 
 by accepting their services and rewarding their persons. Such is 
 the consentient testimony of Doctors and Fathers, indeed of the 
 whole Church Catholic of God, the authoritative interpreter, as 
 she is the authorized keeper, of His holy word.** 
 
 But in a short season, after men had multiplied, they so 
 "corrupted their way upon the earth, "tt that "few" in the num- 
 ber of God's people, "eight souls" only, remembered their 
 calling, when the overthrow of waters came, and the ark, a type 
 of the Church in all ages, bore over its heaving floods that "rem- 
 nant" of "such as would be saved."|| 
 
 "After this, the Jews report that the world took up the doctrine 
 of baptisms, in remembrance that the iniquity of the old world was 
 purged by water; and they washed all that came to the service of 
 
 *Gen. iii. 22. tRom. xvi. 2G. 
 
 tSt. John iii. 5; vi. 51, 54, 58; Titus iii. 5, 6, 7; Col. iii. 10. 
 
 IIHeb. xi. 4. §lb. xU. 23. Ulb. xi. 4. 
 
 "In Abel's sacrifice, there was a direct acknowledgment of tlie promise which 
 spake of the deliverance from sin. His faith beheld the " seed of the woman " tri- 
 umphing over and "destroying Him that had the power ol' death, that is, the devil." 
 (Heb. ii. 14). The firstling of the flock which he offered, whilst, in its death, it tes- 
 tified the fearful penalty annexed to man's transgression, bore witness also to the 
 propitiation hereafter to be effected by Him, who " hath redeemed us to God by His 
 blood." (Rev. v. 9.) It shadowed forth the salvation that was purchased by "the 
 Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.'" (Rev. xiii. 8.) "By faitli" he 
 offered it." 
 
 " No marvel, therefore, that Abel, thus offering "a more excellent sacrifice than 
 Cain," filuiuld, by that sacrifice, or, by the faith which prompted it, (for to either will 
 the word apply,) have "obtained witness tliat he was righteous, God testifying of 
 his gifts." (Heb. xi. 5.) Anderson. 
 
 *''A contrary view of the opinion of the Fathers of the Chuch, that sacrifice was 
 not of Divine Institution, is advocated by Davison, in his Inquiry into the Origin 
 and Intent of Primitive Sacrifice ; but a more accurate examination of their writings 
 made by Faber, in his Treatise on the Origin of Expiatory Sacrifice — a work on 
 the subject second only to that of Arch-Bishop Magee on the Atonement — sub- 
 stantiates the assertion in the text, by quoted passages froiu Augustin, Athanasius, 
 Eusebius, and otliers, in attestation of their views. See Faber's Treatise, sect. vi. 
 chap. viii. pp. 257 — 294. 
 
 ttGen. vi. 12. tU Pet. iii. 20, 21 ; Acts ii. 47. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 13 
 
 the true God, and, by that baptism, bound them to the observation 
 of the precepts which God gave to them."* But as sacrifice had 
 not availed before, so sacrifice and that baptism availed not now to 
 keep in memory among men the nature of their calling, and to 
 preserve them steadfast unto the covenant which God had esta- 
 blished. Though the one witnessed in an almost ever flowing 
 stream of blood to the dreadful penalty of man's revolt, and 
 pointed with most touching emphasis to the Ransom which mercy 
 had offered ; and though the other spoke no less plainly of de- 
 struction and of rescue, of uncleanness and of purity, yet did the 
 race become again rebellious, having their "understandings dark- 
 ened," and " their foolish hearts" so hardened, that "they remem- 
 bered not the Most High God who had redeemed them and saved 
 them ;" but " forgat His wondrous works," in their behalf, and 
 "the judgments of His mouth," and "walked again frowardly, 
 and sinned yet more and more against Him;" "insomuch that 
 they worshipped idols, which turned to their own decay ; yea, 
 they offered their sons and their daughters unto devils."t Thus, 
 the same evils, which had been before enacted, were again repeated; 
 and were continued, till the rebuke given to the mad defiance at 
 Babel prepared the way for a surer " token of the covenant,"! — 
 " a sign and seal of the covenant of grace "|| — of " the righteous- 
 ness which is of God by faith."§ By the token of his unfailing 
 promise, God had given assurance that He would not destroy 
 the men of that new world from off the earth.^ "He" then 
 " thought upon His covenant, and pitied them, and, according to 
 the multitude of His mercies," chose rather to get to Himself 
 glory by electing one, and the seed which should spring from 
 him," — His " heirs by faith, "^— to be especially His own, out of 
 all the families of the earth, to whom he might be a God, and 
 they be to Him a people, loving and obedient, to whom He 
 might commit His oracles, by whom the knowledge of Him might 
 be preserved, from whom should spring the promised "seed of 
 the woman," and "in whom all the families of the earth should 
 be blessed."** 
 
 It was then that Abraham was called, and received the sign 
 of circumcision, which God appointed for him and his seed, 
 after him, in their generations, to distinguish them from the na- 
 
 *Jereray Taylor. IPs. cvi. tGen. xvii. 11. 
 
 llWest. Con. of Faith, chap, xxviii. 1. §PhiL iii. 9. 
 
 UGen. ix. 13, 14, 15. ***Ib. xxii. 18. 
 
14 COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 tions who were not within the covenant of grace, to "be a token 
 of the covenant"* — a "sign and seal" of "the righteousness of 
 faith.".t Circumcision was thus added to sacrifice as a means 
 which God required to be observed in order to a participation in 
 the grace of His covenant: and these two were practiced, until 
 after the exodus from Egypt, and 'during the sojourn of the 
 children ot Israel in the wilderness, when the baptism then 
 customary was Divinely appointed in the command thus given by 
 God to Moses; "Go unto the people and sanctify them to-day 
 and to-morrow; and let them wash their clothes, and be ready 
 against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in 
 the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai."t By this com- 
 mand, Moses was to "sanctify" all the people, by causing them 
 to " be baptised." That such is the meaning of the passage, all 
 authorities, both Jewish and Christian, concur in teaching. Mai- 
 monides, one of the most distinguished of the Jewish authorities, 
 says: "Baptism was in the wilderness just before the giving of 
 the Law; as it is written; 'sanctify them [i. e. baptise them] to- 
 day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes.' "|| 
 
 From this time three things would appear to have been -«ii«n 
 practised as means of being brought within the covenant — Sacrifice, 
 Circumcision, and Baptism. Thus Maimonides says: "By three 
 things did Israel enter into covenant, — by circumcision, and bap- 
 tism, and sacrifice."^ And Rabbi Solomon — " Our Rabbins 
 teach that our fathers entered into covenant by circumcision, and 
 baptism, and sprinkling of blood."^ And St. Paul declares of 
 those whom we know to have received circumcision, and to have 
 practiced sacrifice, that they "were all baptised;" "for all our 
 fathers," says he, "were under the cloud, and all passed through 
 the sea; and were all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the 
 sea."** The same requisition was made of proselytes from the 
 
 *Gen. xvii. 10, 12, 14,23, 24. tib. xv. 6; Heb. xi. 6. 
 
 As the faith of Abel was evidenced by his sacrifice, and found him accept- 
 ance, so Abraham testified, by sacrifice, that he "beheved in the Lord, and it was 
 counted to him for righteousness," before he was circumcised. It is thus that his 
 circumcisiou became " a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had being 
 uncircumcised;" and that " they which are of faith are the children of Abraham," 
 whether in circumcision or uncircumcisiou. If faith but exist and prove itself in 
 the fruits which are required to flow from it, — the terms of God's covenant will be 
 complied with, and its sui)jects are made " heirs according to the promise." 
 
 tEx. xix. 10, 11. Illssuri Bia., c. 13. ^Issuri Bia., c. 13. 
 
 fin Ex. xix. 10. *»1 Cor. x. 1, 2. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 15 
 
 Gentiles : one ordinance was both for the congregation, and also 
 for the stranger that sojourned with them.* Says Maimonides : 
 "In all ages, when a Gentile is willing to enter into the covenant, 
 and gather himself under the wings of the Majesty of God, and 
 take upon him the yoke of the law, he must be circumcised, and 
 baptised, and bring a sacrifice ; or, if it be a woman, be baptised 
 and bring a sacrifice. As it is written, ' as you are, so shall thy 
 stranger be.' How are you brought into the covenant.^ By cir- 
 cumcision, and baptism, and bringing of a sacrifice; so likewise 
 the stranger, through all generations, by circumcision, and baptism, 
 and bringing of a sacrifice." All this is confirmed by the exam- 
 ple of our adorable Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by whose con- 
 formity with these three institutions in the elder Church, was shown 
 forth their dignity and their importance, with the high and binding 
 duty ever resting on the willing and obedient "to fulfil all right- 
 eousness."t It is expressly testified of Him, that "when eight 
 days were accomplished" from his birth in our nature, "He was 
 circumcised;"! that he was subsequently "brought to Jerusalem 
 to be presented unto the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice, according 
 to that which is said in the law;"|| and that he was baptised by 
 John, under ever memorable circumstances, for that in His bap- 
 tism He was owned as the "Beloved Son" of God."§ And 
 Himself taught men to "suffer it to be so,"^ till "His own self 
 bare our sins in His own body on the tree,"** and "made there 
 (by His one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and 
 sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the 
 whole world."tt Then, with the out-pouring of His own most 
 precious blood, He declared the shedding of blood, in connexion 
 with the covenant of grace, to be " finished ;" and thenceforward 
 dispensed with the bloody sacrifice and bloody circumcision as 
 means of participation in its blessings. Baptism, a "sign" of 
 deliverance and purification, He retained, changing it by most 
 express and solemn appointment into a perpetual sacrament. 
 " He kept this ceremony," says one of our old and learned 
 divines, "that they who were led only by outward things, might 
 be the better called in, and easier enticed into the religion, when 
 they entered by a ceremony which their nation always used in 
 
 *Numb. XV. 15. tSt. Matt. iii. 15. tSt. Luke ii. 21. 
 
 ||Ib. vs. 2-2, 24. $St. Matt. iii. 16, 17. 
 
 nib. vs. 15. *n Pet li. 24. 
 
 ttPrayer of Consecration in Communion office, Book of Com. Prayer. 
 
16 COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 the like cases; and therefore without change of the outward act, 
 He put into it a new spirit, and gave it a new grace and proper 
 efficacy; He sublimed it to higher ends, and adorned it with 
 the stars of heaven ; He made it to signify greater mysteries, 
 to convey greater blessings, to consign the bigger promises, to 
 cleanse deeper than the skin, and to carry proselytes further 
 than the gates of the institution." * So baptism passed on 
 into a Divine Evangelical institution, of the ordination of which 
 two Evangelists give us the record, — "Go ye, therefore, and dis- 
 ciple all nations,f baptising tliem in the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,"t records St. Matthew. This 
 was one of the last commandments our Lord gave upon the earth, 
 when He taugiit His Apostles "the things pertaining to the king- 
 dom of God ;"1| and was therefore enforced with the sanction of a 
 promise, given in the record of St. Mark, which because made by 
 Him shall never fail, — " He that believeth and is baptised shall be 
 saved ;"§ teaching thus positively that which He had negatively 
 taught the "ruler of the Jews," — "Except a man be born of water 
 and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."^ 
 Thus was baptism placed upon the same ground of obligation, as 
 regards its reception, which circumcision had occupied before, — 
 "The uncircumcised man-child, whose flesh is not circumcised, 
 that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my 
 covenant ;"** and with sacrifice, previous to the appointment of 
 circumcision, — without it " the Lord had not respect."tt Bap- 
 tism is now, therefore, the only appointed means or mode by which 
 to " pass into" the covenant of God in Christ, — the only certified 
 "sign and seal" by which " they who are not a people" are " marked 
 out" as " the people of the Lord," and receive a title, to all the bless- 
 ings of the kingdom, which He hath prepared for His chosen-IJ 
 
 •Jeremy Taylor, of Baptism. 
 
 tSo should the words be rendered, and so are tliey In the margin. 
 
 tSt. Matt, xxviii. 19. IIActs i. 3. $St. Matt. xvi. 16. 
 
 USt. John iii. 5. **Gen. xvii. 14. ttGen. iv. 4, 5. 
 
 ttAll to vvliom God's invitations are made known, are "called" (Rom. viii. 30) 
 by Him " from curse and damnation" (Art. xvii.) to a participation in all the bless- 
 ings 'promised to them that love Him," (St. James i. 12). Of "those who are 
 endued with so excellent a benefit of God," (Art. xvii.,) '• they" who " through grace 
 obey the calling" (lb.), and "join themselves to Him in His covenant," (Jer. 1. 5,) 
 " by His spirit working in due season," (Art. xvii.,) are the "called according to 
 His purpose" (Rom. viii. 28); are the "elect according to the foreknowledge of 
 God the Father through sanctilication of the Spirit unto obedience" (1 Pet. i. 2); 
 are the " chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 17 
 
 IV. The subjects proper for admission to the covenant of 
 grace have been the same from the beginning. " Holy Scripture 
 and ancient authors" concur in teaching that "our captains, our 
 elders, our officers, with all our men, our little ones, our wives, 
 and the stranger that is with us," all ranks, ages and conditions, 
 should "enter into covenant with the Lord God, and into His 
 oath, that they may be established for a people unto Himself, and 
 that He may be a God unto them."* Nothing but manifest moral 
 unfitness ever could exclude any from such admission. As the 
 fathers, in whom was the obedient will, so the children, in Hkeness 
 to whom meetness for the kingdom was declared by our Lord 
 to consist,! were all admitted to an equal participation in the co- 
 venant of promise. " He that is eight days old," it was com- 
 manded to Israel, "shall be circumcised among you,"| — be 
 "entered in God's covenant and into His oath," — else "that soul 
 shall be cut off from his people."]] And if our position regard- 
 ing the unity of the Divine Covenant be allowed, if it be con- 
 ceded that the covenant of God formed for man's recovery, from 
 that promulged in paradise to this present be one, of which Jesus 
 Christ has been, is now, and must ever be the one sole mediator, 
 how can it be maintained with satisfaction to us, that in its later and 
 more glorious, the Gospel era, it shall be less comprehensive than It 
 
 and without blame before Him in love" (Eph. i. 4,) — "chosen out of mankind to 
 everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honor" (Art. xvii.); are the "marked out 
 (predestinated) to be conformed to tiie image of His Son" (Rom. viii. 29) by the 
 grace vouchsafed them in the relation in which they are tlms brought to God, through 
 Christ, as " His heirs, joint heirs with Christ;" are the " 'justified' by the washing 
 ol" regeneration; are the 'glorified' by the gift, by the adojition" (Chrys. in Rom. 
 viii. 30,) as "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God " (Eph. ii. 
 19). Hence the whole visible company of those who have entered God's covenant 
 and so are adopted as His people, is appropriately termed ekklesin, in such connex- 
 ions rendered "the Church," — ' an assembly of tlie peojjle called out," "elected," 
 "chosen" (Parkhurst). Those of this "marked out (predestinated)" company, 
 those of this "called," "elected," '-chosen," "adopted" assembly who "walk reli- 
 giously in good works" (Art. xvii.), who fulfil the purpose for which they were 
 "marked out," (predestined) by becoming truly "conformed to the image of the 
 Son," " at length by God's mercy attain everlasting life" (lb.); whilst the others, 
 the " curious and carnal," though by their calling they are equally "children of the 
 kingdom" (St. Matt. viii. 12), yet, not "giving diligence to make their calling and 
 election sure (2 Pet. i. 10), by "working out their salvation with fear and tremb- 
 ling" (Phil. ii. 12), frustrate the grace of Him by whom they were called, predesti- 
 nated, elected, adopted, who is " not willing that any should perish, but that all 
 should come to repentance" (2 Pet. iii. 9), and "shall be cast into outer darkness; 
 there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (St. Matt. viii. 12). 
 
 *Text. tSt. Matt, xviii. 3. 
 
 JGen. xvii. 12. ||Ib. vs. 14. 
 
16 COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 is admitted to have been iri its earlier stages ? What authority may 
 be safely regarded as sufficient to cause us to " put asunder" from 
 His covenant those whom God hath once expressly provided shall 
 be joined to Him in it? Certainly, Brethren, no other authority 
 than His whose was the appointment at the first could change it ; 
 on no less evidence than His most express warrant from whom 
 tlie gospel came may we be satisBed that the ^rms of mercy are 
 open less widely now than ever, that the covenant of God is now 
 exclusive of any to whom it was by the Law made open. It would 
 be a trial of our faith and our feelings, such as we could hardly 
 bear, under any circumstances, thus to interpret the New Testa- 
 ment against the Old, the commission of the Son for discipling 
 against that of the Father. When, therefore, we beheld the cov- 
 enant of God opened by Himself, in the beginning, to the "little 
 ones" of His people, that they might be entered into it, we could 
 not bring ourselves to such a restriction of His mercy as now to 
 exclude them from it, except by His own express appointment. 
 No wit of man employed in reasonings on children's disqualifica- 
 tion because of unconsciousness ; no faithless questionings as to 
 what advantage hath it.'* could ever thus persuade us, while the 
 Divine mind once revealed upon the subject, should stand before 
 us unrepealed. Nothing short of an express repeal of His 
 former provision, for their union with Him, nothing less than an 
 express prohibition, longer to bring them to Him, could or should 
 deter us from suffering the little children thus to come to Him, — 
 they concerning whom the Savior declared, "of such is the king- 
 dom of God."* But where is the repeal.'* Where the prohibi- 
 tion.^ Where the record of any such restriction of the covenant 
 of mercy under the gospel.'' In books which contain theories of 
 man's fashioning, but not, my Brethren, in the book of God.t In 
 the gospel we find the doors of mercy thrown wide open as before, 
 by Him through whom mercy first came to our perishing race ; 
 yea, wider, for " now in Christ Jesus," declares the Apostle, "ye, 
 who sometime were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 
 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken 
 
 *St. Mark x. 14. 
 
 t" Since it was ordinary, in all ages before, to have infants baptised, if Christ 
 would have had that custom abolished, He would have expressly forbidden it. So 
 that His and the Scripture's silence iu tliis matter does confirui and establish Infant 
 Uai)ti,-4ni forever.'* Lightfoot. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 19 
 
 down the middle wall of partition between us."* In addition, 
 therefore, to such as were already His own, He provided, *' through 
 the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,"t that 
 those " which in time past were not a people," should "now" be 
 " the people of God ; which had not obtained mercy," should 
 "now obtain mercy."| "If," therefore, "the ministration of con- 
 demnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteous- 
 ness exceed in glory."|| Thus, His commission to His Apostles 
 for " discipling," was made comprehensive as the race of man 
 whom He came to visit and redeem.^ "Go ye," said He, "and 
 teach," or, as it is more correctly rendered in the margin, "disci- 
 ple all nations, baptising them."^ Obviously, this " disciple all 
 nations," must signify all that it can signify, when simply re- 
 garded, — all that are reckoned in the making up of a nation, — 
 all who are included in the number of its people. That infants 
 are of this order of beings must be admitted. Then are they 
 of the people, of the "all nations." 
 
 That the Apostles so understood their commission, we think, 
 is clear. Hence it is, that we find St. Peter, in his memorable 
 sermon on the day of Pentecost, declaring remission of sins and 
 the gift of the Holy Ghost, through baptism, to be the promise 
 for their children, as well as for the convicted multitude them- 
 selves: — "Repent," says he, "and be baptised every one of you 
 in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins; and ye shall 
 receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, 
 and to your children."** What promise .'' Clearly the promise 
 of remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, to "every one 
 baptised in the name of Jesus Christ." Consistently with this, 
 we read, of " Lydia, whose heart the Lord had opened," and of 
 "her household, "ft of the "keeper of the prison," at Philippi, 
 " and all his,"t| and of " the household of Stephanus,"|I|| that they 
 "were baptised." Those passages of scripture in which repent- 
 ance, and faith, and renewal are associated with baptism, accom- 
 panied by a declaration of approval, so far from disproving our 
 position, are most satisfactorily interpreted by it. They are in 
 precise conformity with declarations made in the Old Testament, 
 over and over again, touching the Israelites, whose children, we 
 
 *Eph. ii. 13, 14. tHeb. r.. 10. tl Pet. ii. 10. 
 
 ||2 Cor. iii. 9. {St. John iii. 18, 17. USt. Matt, xxviii. 19. 
 
 *Mcts :i. 38, 39. ttActs xvi. 14. 15. 
 
 Ulb. xvi. 27, S3. mil Cor. i. 16. 
 
^ COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 know, were all caused to "pass," by the appointed sign and seal, 
 " into the covenant."* The Israelites were as explicitly com- 
 manded to repent and be circumcised, as we in the gospel are 
 commanded to repent and be baptised. And as no truly serious 
 and sensible man could find room to argue from such injunctions 
 in the law, that none but conscious subjects, who had professedly 
 turned from their evil ways, should be entered into God's cove- 
 nant by circumcision, for that the practice of the whole Jewish 
 Church, would refute his cavils; so neither can it be justly con- 
 cluded, from corresponding passages in the Gospel, that none but 
 conscious subjects, in whom is the gift of faith, should be entered 
 into God's covenant now by baptism, for that the whole tenor of 
 the Gospel, the teaching and practice of the Apostles, and those of 
 the Catholic Church forbid it. The successors of the Apostles un- 
 derstood their commission, which they received from the Apostles, 
 as the Apostles understood theirs received from Christ. That 
 understanding we have noticed ; and through it, as you liave seen, 
 the "little ones" were baptised; or, in the phrase of Irenaeus, 
 " The infants and little children are regenerated, or born again 
 
 • "The covenant had this property, that whosoever was in it had a right to bring 
 all his children to be entered into it in tiieir infancy. But it was not limited or con^ 
 fined to the off:jpring of Abraham's body, for the words are, 'He that is born in thy 
 house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed, &.C., must 
 be circumcised.' And so a proselyte was to circumcise all his males, (Ex. xii. 48, 
 49,) and then he was to be as one born in the laud. So that the covenant extended 
 then (as it does now) to all of any nation that would come into it; and they were 
 to bring into it all the infant children, not only of their own body, but all that they 
 had the legal custody or possession of" Wall. 
 
 " Suppose our Savior had bid the Apostles ' Go, disciple all nations, circumcising 
 them;' luust they not have circumcised the infants of the nations as well as the 
 grown men, though there had been no express mention made of infants in the com- 
 mission?" Undoubtedly ; because infants had ever previously beeu circumcised to 
 be "entered into God's covenant and into his oath," and the Savior had no where 
 taught that they were now to be excluded from a reception of the same sign. Why, 
 then, the covenant being the same, and baptism being ap2)oiuted " as the sole mode " 
 of entering inlo it, tiie only token of the covenant, without the exclusion of any to 
 whom it had formerly been open, why shall not the commission to "disciple all na- 
 tions, baptising," be understood in as large a sense as it confessedly would, were it 
 "disciple all nations," circumcising them? 
 
 "If baptism and the baptising of infanta had been a new thing, and unheard of 
 until John Baptist came, as circumcision was, until God appointed it to Abraham, 
 there would have been, no doubt, as express couimand for bapti.-iing infants as there 
 was for circumcising them. But wiien the baptising of infants was a thing com- 
 monly known and used, as appears from incontestible evidence from their writers, 
 there needed not express assertions that such and such persons were to be the ob- 
 jects of baptism." Lightfoot. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 21 
 
 unto God."* And the practice has been perpetuated in the Church 
 uninterrupied ; and, with scarce an exception, unquestioned. t 
 The objections of Terlullian, in the second century, objections 
 which grew out of peculiar and private views, but witness to its 
 antiquity and universahty. , The notion of a portion of the Wal- 
 druses, in the twelvth century, was too limited and transient to be 
 regarded as an exception to the uniformity of faith and practice 
 in this regard among "those who professed and called themselves 
 christians." It was reserved for the sixteenth century to instruct 
 us that this doctrine and the practice of the Church Catholic were 
 all wrong. In 1525, a sect arose in Germany, whose distinction, 
 among other things, consisted in their opposing infant baptism, 
 and teaching that baptism ought to be administered only to per- 
 sons come to years of discretion; and which, in strict maintenance 
 of the same error now subsists, and by various arguments suc- 
 ceeds in undermining the faith of many, and so excluding from 
 the covenant of grace and mercy a considerable number of that 
 noblest portion of the heritage of Christ, — those 
 
 " tender gems so full of heaven," 
 
 that when freed thus from Adam's curse, — 
 
 " Not in the twiliglit stars on high, 
 '• Not in ti*a moist flowers at even, 
 " See we our God so nigh."t 
 
 The Church, my Brethren, has known no other doctrine. On 
 this point, 
 
 "The saints of all ages in harmony meet." 
 
 Upon the sure ground of " Holy Scripture and ancient authors," 
 therefore, we take our stand, and, in the language of our twenty- 
 seventh Article of Religion, affirm, that " The baptism of young 
 
 •Adv. Haeres. lib. 2, c. 39. 
 
 t" The custom of our Mother, the Church, in baptising infants, must not be dis- 
 regarded, nor considered needless, nor believed to be other tlian a tradition of the 
 Apostles." St. Augustine. 
 
 " It is so evident from the ancient records of the Church, that it is to be wondered 
 how some learned persons could run into the contrary opinion." Bingham. 
 
 A chain of testimony, from each century, linking this practice with Apostolic 
 times, Cduld be easily adduced, did these limits permit. 
 
 t Christian Year. 
 
as COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 children is in anywise to be retained, as most agreeable with the 
 will of Christ;" or in that of our text, that "our little ones, with 
 our captains, our elders, our officers, with all the men. our wives, 
 and the stranger that is with us, from the hewer of wood unto the 
 drawer of water, should enter into covenant with the Lord God, 
 and into His oath." 
 
 V. The authority requisite, by which to admit persons into cove- 
 nant with God, has ever been a divine commission, in which this 
 was comprehended. " No man taketh this honor to himself, but 
 he that is called of God, as was Aaron,"* is the emphatic testi- 
 mony of an Apostle. And so has it been in every period of the 
 Church, from the beginning ;t so did the Savior ordain, in that he 
 restricted the office of baptising to the Apostles, and those their 
 successors who should share in their office and powers ;| and so 
 has our Church declared, that it shall be done by a " lawful minis- 
 ter ;"|| one who "has had Episcopal consecration or ordination. ">§ 
 In her restriction of the administration of baptism to a " lawful 
 minister," the Church is sustained by an historic testimony, of the 
 practice of the whole Church, in the days of her purity, when 
 she came "fresh from underneath the Throne of God,"^ as well 
 as by the Assembly of Westminster,** and the Synod of Dort,tt 
 against the lay baptisms of the Church of Rome. In her teach- 
 ing that " he only shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful min- 
 ister, who has had Episcopal consecration or ordination," she 
 finds support in the constant voice of the Church Catholic, in her 
 Doctors and Fathers, confessors and martyrs, from the beginning; 
 and, then, in holy scripture does she point to the record that thus 
 
 *IIeb. V. 4. 
 
 tOnly persons Divinely appointed could ever rightfully execute the office of the 
 priesthood, to which, from the beginning, the keys of the kingdom were entrusted. 
 The heads of families, and the first-born sons were the priests first designated, and 
 they alone exercised ilie priestly office. 
 
 For that, the Patriarchal priesthood, in process of time, was substituted the Leviti. 
 cal ; " the Levites, from among the children of Israel, were taken instead of all the 
 first-born;" "to do the service of the children of Israel, in the tabernacle of the 
 congregation." (Numb. iii. 12; viii. 18, 19.) 
 
 Then, in the fulness of time, came the Christian priesthood, commissioned by our 
 Lord, exclusive of all and every other. (St. John xx. 19—23; St. Matt, xxviii. 16 
 
 ^20.) From the beginning, therefore, have the ministers of God been set apart by 
 
 His appointment; from the beginning to this present has the principle, asserted by 
 the Apostle, prevailed — that " no man taketh this honor to himself" 
 
 tSt. Matt, xxviii. ]!), 20. ||Office of Private Baptism. 
 
 $Pref to Ordinal, B. C P. UThonghts in Past Years. 
 
 **Forni of Government, chap. iv. VII.; Directory, chap. vii. I. 
 ttConf. of Faith, Art. xxx. ; Liturgy, Form of Ordination of Ministers. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 23 
 
 it should be, and so by "the law and the testimony"* prove the 
 doctrine, so that it may " be required that it should be behoved. "t 
 That "without the Bishop, it is not lawful to baptise,"J was the 
 rule deduced from the Scriptures in the Church's earliest days, 
 and has been acted upon by her in every period of her history. 
 He who was empowered by the Bishop was ever "accounted and 
 taken to be a lawful minister;" and, therefore, to admit persons 
 into covenant with God, by baptism, was whhin the terms of his 
 commission; from him might baptism be rightly received. 
 
 VI. The mode in which baptism should be administered, need 
 not at this time specially engage us. For the Church allows such 
 latitude here that all may be satisfied. She provides that the 
 minister "shall dip" the candidate "in water, or pour water upon 
 npon him, "II — that is, shall baptise either by affusion or immer- 
 sion. Either mode is thus placed at the choice of the candidate, 
 whose conscience in such a matter, the Church, with her accus- 
 tomed consideration and charity, would have fully satisfied.^ 
 Baptism by immersion, therefore, would as freely be administered 
 by us as by affusion ; the choice which the Clnirch permits, to be 
 dipped or to have the water poured, we would not withhold. 
 
 VII. The benefits of admission to God's covenant, it is clear, 
 from what has been already adduced, have been at all times great. 
 To be enrolled as part of an elect company,^ made heirs of " ex- 
 ceeding great and precious promises,"** entrusted with "the ora- 
 cles of God,"tt permitted the means of grace and the enjoyment of 
 the special teachings and protection of the Almighty, to have Him 
 in an especial sense for a God, and be regarded by Him as empha- 
 tically His people, would ever be considered as no ordinary marks 
 of distinction, no lightly-to-be-regarded privileges. But, under 
 the gospel, wherein the anti-type is furnished to all the types, and 
 the substance given for all the preceding shadows of the law, 
 God's word of mercy, in connexion with His covenant, is made 
 to be preeminently a word of power; imparting, through the sign, 
 
 *Is. viii.,20. tArt. VI. B. C. P. 
 
 tlgnatius. So Tertullian. || Rubric in Office of Baptism. 
 
 $At the same time, he is taught that " it is not the quantity of water, but God's 
 appointing and blessing it to holy purposes, that gives it all its efficacy." 
 
 "It inusl be noted, that baptism, in the ancient style of the Chinxh, does not ab- 
 solutely and necessarily import dipping or immersion, though that was the more 
 usual ceremony practiced heretofore, as well upon infants as adult persons." 
 
 Bingham. 
 IfEkklesia. *'*2 Pet. i. 4. ttRom. iii. 2. 
 
^ COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 an actual participation in all ihe benefits of Christ's holy Incarna- 
 tion;* effecting an actual incorporation into Hini;t making Him 
 to be unto us " wisdom, tind rightcoiisnesi?, and sanclification, 
 and redemption."t And it is exactly this difference which makes 
 of all former modes of admission to God's covenant mere rites, of 
 baptism a sacrament ; that is, not only a mode of passing into 
 God's covenant, but a means whefeby we are engrafted into Christ, 
 become justified in Him, receive? the spirit of His holiness, after- 
 wards to be developed and increased by its gift in larger measures,|| 
 and a pledge to assure us of the "inward and spiritual grace" 
 therein actually given. 
 
 Such, Brethren, we believe, on abundant evidence from Holy 
 Scripture and ancient authors, to be the peculiar virtue which 
 Christ, His Apostles, and His Church, attach to baptism. The 
 great Hooker comprehended it all in the one striking sentence : 
 " Baptism is a sacrament which God hath instituted in His 
 Church, to the end that they which receive the same might be 
 incorporated into Christ, and so through His most precious merit, 
 obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away 
 all former guiltiness, as also that infused divine virtue of the Holy 
 Ghost, which giveth to the powers of the soul the first disposition 
 towards future newness of life-''-^ 
 
 This view was derived by Hooker immcdiatehj from the teach- 
 ings of the Church, that "they who receive baptism rightly," 
 
 *Rom. vi. 3. tG;il. iii. 27; J Cor. vi. 15; xii. 13, 27; Eph. v. 30. 
 
 " In Hira we actually are by our actual incorporation into that society which 
 hath Him for their Head; am! doth ni ike togeliicr with Him one Body (He and 
 they in that resjiecl havinj; one ii;ime); for which cau.'^e. by virtue of this mystical 
 conjunction, we are of Him, and in llim, even as thougii our very flesh and bones 
 should be made continuate with His." Hooker. 
 
 " In the very act of baptism, tlie Spirit unites us \into Christ, and makes us mem- 
 bers of His body; and if of His body, then of His churcli and kingdom, that being 
 all His body. ' By one spirit we are all baptised into one body' (1 Cor. xii. 13); 
 'As many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ,' (Gal. iii. 
 27.) Bp. Beveridge. 
 
 " [In baptism] made members of Christ." Church Catechism. 
 
 tl Cor. i. 30. 
 
 II" The first portion of sanctifying grace is given at Baptism, which is the seal of 
 justification, and the beginning of sanclification." Bishop Horxe. 
 
 "The immediate eft'ect of the Spirit in BaiJtism. is the remission of all sin, and 
 removing our natural disability to the worship and service of God, and the sentence 
 of condenmation under which we were all born; (Rom. v. 16;) and other graces 
 are wrought in us by that Holy Spirit, which, by baptism, receives us under its pro- 
 tection, gradually, and according to the capacity of the recipient." Johnson. 
 $Eccles. Polity, Book V. 57. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 25 
 
 "are regenerate, and grafted into the body of Christ's Church ;" 
 are " born again, and made heirs of everlasting salvation, through 
 pur Lord Jesus Christ:"* that "baptism is not only a sign of 
 profession, and mark of difference, whereby christian men are dis- 
 cerned 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 pro- 
 mises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons 
 of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed."+ And 
 mediaielij, through tliese teaciiings, from our Lord and His Apos- 
 tles ; the latter of whom expressly taught the Roman christians and 
 Galatian converts that they were "baptised into Christ ;"| and 
 the Corinthians, that "by one Spirit we are all baptised into one 
 body ; and Iiave been all made to drink into one Spirit ;" and 
 "are the body of Christ ;"|| and to Titus, pronounced baptism 
 absolutely to be "the washing of regeneration,^ and renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost ;"^ and, affirmed, that "baptism now saves us, 
 by the resurrection of Jesus Christ," if it be received with "the 
 answer of a good conscience, towards God :"** for that we " be 
 baptised for the remission of sins ; and receive the gift of the Holy 
 .Ghost :"tt and our Lord, as the Instructor of all His Church, 
 " always, even unto the end of the world, || to Nicodemus, the 
 enquiring ruler, in that interview of the night, characterised it a 
 being " born again." " Except a man be born again," were His 
 ever memorable words, " born of water and of the spirit, he can- 
 not enter into the kingdom of God."|||| Upon which words of our 
 Lord, the learned Bishop Beveridge remarks, — " That we may 
 be thus born of the spirit, we must be born also of water which 
 our Savior here puts in the first place. Not as if there were any 
 such virtue in water, whereby it could regenerate us ; but because 
 this is the rite or ordinance appointed by Christ, wherein He re- 
 generates us by His Holy Spirit; our regeneration is wholly the 
 act of the Spirit of Christ. Seeing Baptism is instituted by Christ 
 Himself, as we cannot be born of water without the Spirit, so nei- 
 ther can we in an ordinary way be born of the Spirit without water, 
 used or applied in obedience and conformity to His instUution. 
 
 *Art. tOffice of Baptism, Book of Com. Prayer. 
 
 tRom.vi. 3; Gal. iii. 27. jjl Cor. xii. 13, 27. 
 
 §The Homily has it, " The fountain of the new birth." Homily on the Naticily. 
 UTitus iii. 5. *^] Pet. iii. 21. ttActs ii. 38, 39. 
 
 ttSt. Matt, xxviii. 20. ||i|St John iii. 3, 5. 
 
 D 
 
26 COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 Chirst hath joined them together, and it is not in our power to 
 part them ; he that would be born of the Spirit must be born of 
 water also." The catholicity of this interpretation of our Lord's 
 words is illustrated by the Baptismal Liturgies of the whole An- 
 cient Church. Every vestige of christian writing, which God has 
 preserved to us from the ancient Church, that explain the words, 
 ** Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit," assumes that 
 they declare, that in baptism, we are born from above through our 
 Savior's gift ; every passage which speaks of the privileges of 
 baptism at all, implies the same.* 
 
 So the Catechism of our Church teaches, thai " being by nature 
 born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the 
 children of grace." 
 
 So our twenty-fifth Article of Religion, " Of Sacraments." 
 "Sacraments ordained of Christ, be not only badges or tokens of 
 christian men's profession ; but rather they be certain sure wit- 
 nesses, and effectual signs of grace, and God's good-will toward 
 us, by the which He doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only 
 quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our faith in Him." And 
 our twenty-seventh Article, "Of Baptism," as you have just 
 heard, that " Baptism is not only a sign of profession, but it is 
 also a sign of regeneration, or new birth, whereby, as by an in- 
 strument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the 
 Church ; the promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adop- 
 tion to be the sons of God, are visibly signed and sealed." 
 
 And the Creed, — that " baptism" is " for the remission of sins." 
 
 So the Synod of Dort, " The ministers, on their part, admin- 
 ister the sacrament, and that which is visible, but our Lord giveth 
 that which is signified by the sacrament, namely, the gifts and in- 
 visible grace ; washing, cleansing, and purging our souls of all 
 filth and unrighteousness ; renewing our hearts, and filling them 
 with all comfort; giving unto us a true assurance of His fatherly 
 goodness, putting on us the new man, and putting off the old 
 man with all his deeds." " For the sacraments are visible signs 
 and seals of an inward and invisible thing, by means whereof, 
 God worketh in us by the power of the Holy Ghost."t 
 
 So the Westminster Confession ; " Baptism is a sacrament of 
 the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the 
 
 "See Pijsey on Baptism. 
 
 tCoiif. of FaiUi, Arts. XXXIII, XXXIV. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 27 
 
 Solemn admission of the party baptised into the visible Church, 
 but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, 
 of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins* 
 and of his giving up to God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in 
 newness of life."* 
 
 So the great Calvin ; "Christ works the spiritual cicumcision 
 in us, not with the intervention of the ancient sign, which had 
 place under Moses, but of baptism. Baptism, then, is the sign 
 of the thing exhibited, which circumcision figured being absent."t 
 
 And Luther, — " To put on Christ evangelically, is not a mat- 
 ter of imitation, but of birth and new creation ; when, namely, I 
 am clothed with Christ Himself, i. e. His innocence, justice, wis- 
 dom, power, salvation, Ufe, spirit, &c. We are clothed with 
 Adam, clothes of skins, mortal clothes, and a garment of sin. 
 This raiment, i. e. this corrupt and sinful nature, we contracted 
 by our descent from Adam, which St. Paul calls the old man, 
 and which is to be ' put off with its deeds,' (Eph. iv. ; Col. iii.) 
 that out of sons of Adam we may be made sons of God. This is 
 not done by any change of vestment, not by any laws or works, 
 but by the new birth and renewal which takes place at Baptism ; 
 as St. Paul says, 'Whoever of you are baptised, have put on 
 Christ;' ' according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of 
 regeneration.' For there is kindled in the baptised a new life and 
 flame, there arise new and holy feelings, fear, trust in God, hope, 
 &c. ; there ariseth a new will. This, then, is properly, truly, and 
 evangelically to ' put on Christ.' Therefore, in baptism, there is 
 not given us a clothing of legal righteousness, or our own works, 
 but Christ is our raiment. .But He is not law, nor legislator, nor 
 work, but a Divine and unspeakable gift, which the Father gave 
 us, to be our Justifier, Life-giver and Redeemer. Wherefore, 
 Baptism is a thing most powerful and efficacious."^ A testimony 
 this, Brethren, just in accordance with thai eloquent voice of the 
 ancient Church', which taught, that in Baptism, " we were at once 
 freed from punishment, and put off all iniquity, and were also born 
 from above, and rose again with the old man buried, and were 
 redeemed, sanctified, led up to adoption, made brothers of the 
 Only-begotten, and of one Body with Him, and counted for His 
 flesh, and even as a Body with the Head, so were we united to 
 
 *Couf. of Faith, chap, xxviii. tOn Rom. vi. 4, 5. 
 
 t Luther on Gal. iii. 27, 28. 
 
28 COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 Him."* " As when thou art recasting iron or gold, thou ntiakest 
 it pure and new once more, just so the Holy Ghost also, recast- 
 ing the soyl in baptism as in a furnace, and consuming its sins, 
 causes it to glisten with more purity than all purest gold."t 
 
 And, my Brethren, why not all these ? Are they more than 
 simple witnesses to the teachingsof Inspiration .'' Are they other 
 than voices in harmony with that of the Church Catholic, uttered 
 in the execution of her rightful office, — interpreting Holy Scrip- 
 ture? Reflect again, and make answer to your consciences and 
 to God. 
 
 Did not our Lord ordain His Apostles to "disciple all nations, 
 baptising them.?"} Did He not teach, that "He that believeth 
 and is baptised shall be saved .''"|| And that "except a man be 
 born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom 
 of God ?"§ 
 
 Did not St. Paul declare that by this, "the washing of regene- 
 ration," or as the Homily has it, "the fomitain of the new birth," 
 " and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, we are saved .''" for that 
 " by one spirit we are all baptised into one body ; and are " made 
 to drink into one spirit;" are "baptised into Christ;" made 
 " members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.'" and 
 so are "washed, sanctified, and justified.'*" 
 
 Did not St. Peter write, that " Baptism saves us," if it be re- 
 ceived otherwise than hypocritically, "with the answer of a good 
 conscience toward God .^" for that it is " for the remission of sins, 
 and the gift of the Holy Ghost .^" and, that to " wash away" our 
 " sins," we should " be baptised .?" ICloquently and truly, there- 
 fore, wrote the sainted Taylor, " As ii was in the old, so it is in 
 the new creation ; out of the waters God produced every living 
 creature : and when at first ' the Spirit moved upon the waters,' 
 and gave life, it was the type of what was designed in the renova- 
 tion. Everything that lives now, ' is born of water and the Spirit ;' 
 and Christ, who is our Creator and Redeemer in the new birth, 
 opened the fountains, and hallowed the stream : Christ, who is our 
 Life, went down into the water of baptism ; and we, who descend 
 thither, find the effects of life ; it is living water, of which whoso 
 drinks needs not to drink of it again, for 'it shall be in him a well 
 of water, springing up to life eternal.' "^ 
 
 *Chrvsostom on Rom. v. 17. +I1> on 1 Cor. xv. 29. 
 
 tm. iviatl. xxviii. I'J. ll'St. iMark xvi. 16. 
 
 ^SSt. John ill. 5. liJereniy Taylor, of Baptism. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 29 
 
 We go down into the waters, in Adam, dead ; we rise up 
 again, in Christ, alive; and so it is written, "as in Adam," in 
 whom we all are by nature, bearing his sin, and sharing in its con- 
 demnation, "all die;" "even so in Christ," in whom baptism 
 places us, taking us out of Adam, and delivering us from the con- 
 demnation of that " birth sin," " shall all be made alive."* And 
 in the case of infants, as in that of adults, is all this true ; in all 
 alike, where there exists not an averse will and an evil heart of 
 unbelief to turn away the flowing stream, is there an inflowing 
 upon the soul, through the 
 
 " Great laver of Baptismal birth," 
 
 of that Spirit of the Redeemer, by which His whole body is ani- 
 mated, governed and sanctified. In all is their Maker's image 
 defaced; their old bodies, born after Adam, are corrupt; but by 
 this insertion, as a seed or graft, into the very mystical body of 
 Christ, the Spirit generates a new principle of life ; their corrupti- 
 ble defects are begun to be laid aside ; original sin, in the case of 
 infants, orignal and actual in that of penitent and believing adults, — 
 repentance and faith being required in adults, to put them in the 
 fit condition for the reception of that grace of God in which child- 
 ren are, that they may oppose no obstacle to the operation of the 
 Holy Spirit, which children do not, — is remitted, and the Holy 
 Ghost given, by which, and by which alone, God may be served 
 acceptably ; which, working in the baptised both to will and to 
 do, gives them power, which otherwise they had not, " to do good 
 works, pleasant and acceptable to God."t 
 
 Therefore are we rightly said, in Holy Baptism, to be regene- 
 rate," to be "born again," to be "saved." Is not, as from a 
 birtli, our state new, as " members of Christ .''" Our relation new, 
 as chosen "children of God .^" our characters, hopes, and pros- 
 pects new, as " inheritors of the kingdom of heaven .''" 
 
 Such, Brethren, are 
 
 "the stores that come 
 
 From our Baptismal well, 
 
 . . . blessings numberless and strange."! 
 
 *1 Cor. XV. 22; Art. ix. B. C. P. 
 
 tArt. X. B. C. P. 
 
 "The inward and spiritual grace" in baptism, is "a death unto sin and a new 
 birth unto righteousness; for, being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, 
 we are hereby made tlie children of grace." Church Catechism. 
 
 t Baptistery. 
 
80 COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 " Happy," then, may we exclaim with Tertulliam, " happy the 
 sacrament of our water! whereby, being cleansed from the sins of 
 our former blindnes?, we are made free unto eternal life."* And, 
 
 invokingly, with a great christian poet, — 
 
 ". ■ J ; . ' • n 
 
 " Bear me, great flowing fountains, bear me still 
 
 I'pou your heaving breagl; 
 Bear me yet onward to th' eternal hill 
 
 Where I at length may rest !"t 
 
 And well may we be called upon, when, by the Church, suCh 
 blessing has been imparted, to "give thanks unto Almighty God 
 for these benefits," on behalf of ourselves, whom •' He has vouch- 
 safed to regenerate by water and the Holy Ghost, and given for- 
 giveness of all our sins ;"f and of all who are admitted to the 
 same holy fellowship; and to " make our prayers unto Him that 
 we may lead the rest of our lives according to this beginning."|| 
 
 VIII. The peculiarity and magnitude of the benefits of admis- 
 sion to God's covenant, now by baptism, enforce upon our most 
 solemn consideration, that profession in the Creed, " I acknow- 
 ledo^e one baptism for the remission of sins;" and, showing the 
 virtue which the Savior has lodged in his Church, to be thus dis- 
 pensed, teaches its unspeakable importance where ft may be had. 
 
 And, why, my Brethren, will you not believe this.'' What do 
 you gain by so jealous and so mean a spirit, such i' slowness of 
 heart to believe" all these things which the Scriptures have spoken, 
 and which the Church would teach you '* out of the same," but the 
 loss of most consoling and comforting thoughts ; and of blessings 
 such, as "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered 
 into the heart of 'man to conceive,'*"'^ in all their fullness ! We 
 have depicted but the faintest outline of them ; and yet they would 
 seem to be enough to fill us all with wonder, and to inspire us 
 with greatest reverence unto that holy sacrament. Though, prac- 
 tically, too many of you disown it, yet you dare not condemn it, 
 either for yourselves or for your children. You dare not pro- 
 nounce it " vain and empty." You dare not say that it cannot 
 profit. Then, why will you not be believing and obedient."* Why 
 will you not let it be unto you and yours according to God's 
 
 "TertuUian of Baptism. tBaptistery. 
 
 i Prayer in Confirmation OlFice; B. C. P. 
 
 II " " Ofiice of Baptism; B. C P. $1 Cor. ii. 9. 
 
COVENANT WITH GOD. 31 
 
 word? If, as you admit, it cannot destroy; why will you not 
 make trial of its power to saver" The Savior hath pronnised, "If 
 any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctiine, whether 
 it be of God."* Be persuaded to apply to the subject now pre- 
 sented, this practical test. Put aside the proud and speculative 
 reasonings of the intellect; and let the warm feelings of the heart 
 lead you to seek a knowledge of the doctrine, in the observance 
 of it. So shall you have the witness in yourselves, that " not by 
 works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His 
 mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renew- 
 ing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly, through 
 Jesus Christ our Savior ;"t and brought us *' unto Mount Zion, 
 and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and 
 to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly 
 and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to 
 God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 
 and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood 
 of sprinkling, that speaketh belter things than that of Abel. "| 
 
 Dear Brethren, " See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. 
 For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, 
 much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that 
 speaketh from heaven !"j| Remember that teaching of the Apos- 
 tle, "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the 
 
 DOCTRINE OF ChRIST, HATH ACT GoD. He THAT ABIDETH IN 
 THE DOCTRINE OF ChRIST, HE HATH BOTH THE FaTHER AND 
 THE S0N."§ 
 
 IX. Brethren Baptised, who in t!ie " fountain of the new birth," 
 the " laver of regeneration," have been brought into the kingdom. 
 of the Resurrection, made subjects of the new creation, consider 
 your calling. " As He who hath called you is holy, so be ye 
 holy in all manner of conversation," else may ye fall from the 
 grace wherein ye stand, and finally " be cast aways."^ Though 
 " not every deadly sin, willingly committed after baptism, is sia 
 against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable ; nor the grant of re- 
 pentance to be denied to such as fall into sin after baptism ; yet, 
 if after we have received the Holy Ghost, we depart from grace 
 given, and fall into sin ; unless by the grace of God we arise 
 again, and amend our lives ;"** our having " entered into God's 
 
 *St. John vii 17. tTitiis iii. 5, 6. tHeb. xii. 22, 23, 24. 
 
 IJIb. vs. 25. §2 John 9. f 1 Cor. ix. 27. "'Art. XVI, B. C. P. 
 
32 COVENANT WITH GOD. 
 
 covenant and into His oath," and been "established for a people 
 unto Himself," will but render our last state worse than the first, 
 make all our gifts and privileges a savor of death unto death ; and 
 finally bring us into th(t hopeless condition of apostates. Writes 
 the Apostle, " It is impossible for thoj^e who were once enlight- 
 ened," i. e. were once baptised,* "and have tasted of the heavenly 
 gift, and' how made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted 
 the good word of God, and the jiowers of the world to come, ^f 
 they should fall away,\ to renew them again unto repentance ; see- 
 ing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put 
 Him to an open shame."| In this world, the sign of Christ upon 
 their foreheads is but the seal (awful perversion !) of their aggra-r 
 vated condemnation ; and in the world to come, glistening with 
 an unimaginable brightness, for the eternal flame into which it 
 shall be enkindled, shall burn in upon their souls deeper than all 
 other fires, and make them conspicuous for their misery in a world 
 of the unutterably miserable. O my soul, come not thou into this 
 sin ! O Holy and Merciful Savior, Thou most worthy Judge 
 eternal, suffer not us or ours to fall from Thee ! But, give us 
 repentance for all our sins, and faith to keep us ever pursuing* 
 ever going " on unto perfection." And may our children, being 
 taught by us the nature of their calling, be made partakers of the 
 same gifts and grace ! And, 
 
 '* Grant," to us all, " O Lord, that as we are baptised into 
 the death of thy blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ, so by con- 
 tinual mortifying our corrupt affections, we may be buried with 
 Him ; and that through the grave and gate of death we may pass 
 to our joyful resurrection, for His merits, who died, and was 
 buried, and rose again for us, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord* 
 Amen." II 
 
 'Baptism, from the beginning, was called illumination. So Justin Martyr, Ire- 
 naeus, and others. 
 
 ti. e. Apostatise from the living God. Heb. iii. 12. Jib. xii. 4, 5, 6, 
 
 llCollect for Easter Even, B. C. P. 
 
iff 
 

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