loo CHRTSTTAN BAPTISM. [SEAM. Vr?. " blood of sprinkling ;" Heb. xii. 24. Now this is par- ticularly applied` to baptism ;" Acts xxii. 16. " Ananias said to Paul, arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord Jesus." Therefore baptism is called the " baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." Mark i. 4. 2. " God bath also provided, for the. removal of the principle of sin,' which defiles the soul of man, by the persuasive arguments of his gospel, which was revealed by the Spirit of God, and by the powerful operations of this Spirit on his heart." It is the Spirit of God, who is appointed to work on the dark and. sinful mindof man, to change his corrupt nature, enlighten his mind, and give him a new bent and bias_ toward holiness. This is called " renewing us by his Spirit, regenerating us, or causing us to be born again by the Spirit, giving us a new heart and a new spirit, sprinkling clean water upon us, and making. us clean, and pouring out his Spirit upon men, and their seed ;" Johnwiii. 3, 6. Ezek. xxxvi. 25. Is. xliv. 3. This also is in scripture applied to the ordi- nance of baptism, and therefore we are said to " be born of water, and öf the Spirit ;" John iii. 5. And the " washing of regeneration' is explained by the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly;" iii. -5, 6. But here I would stay to observe, that though both the cerérnonies of the gospel, baptismand the Lord's-supper, do in some'sort represent both these methods of purifica- tion from sin, that is, by the atoning blood of Christ and by his sanctifying Spirit : yet the Lords-supper more ex- pressly represents the death and blood of Christ, and so more naturally and properly spews forth our pardon and justification from the guilt of sin by the atonement which Christ bath made, whereas it is the more peculiar office of baptism, to represent our regeneration or sanctifica- tion by the Spirit of God or the cleansing Our natures from the, power and principle of sin, by pouring the Holy Spirit upon us under the emblem of water; by which emblem in scripture the Spirit of God is often ex- hibited to us. However, in general. it is to be acknowledged, that Christian baptism in the 'completeness of it, implies a be- lief of both these blessings, even these provisions.of Gott
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