Watts - Houston-Packer Collection BX5207.W3 S4x 1805 v.3

102 CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. {SERI. VII. are of great use and importance again. When we are baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, we do humblyaccept of God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as our Father and our God : We accept of the Son of God as our Saviour, especially by the blood of his sacrifice, and of the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier by his gospel, and his powerful influences.. 4. Baptism implies also by necessary consequence, a " profession of our obligation to God the Father, the Son and the HolySpirit and our engagement to act con- sistently with this solemnity ;" that is, to live agreeably to these favours we receive from God, Nz iz. the pardon of our sins, and the sanctification of our souls; to watch . against sin for time to come, to abstain from all pollutions of flesh and spirit : for we are not washed by the blood and Spirit of Christ that we may defile ourselves again. We engage to carry on thework of repentance and mor- tification of sin all our lives, as well as to live upon Christ by faith for the remission of daily rising transgres- sions. In short, it includes ,a holy resolution through the grace of Christ, and by the aids ofhis Spirit to follow every other means which God bath appointed for the rooting out of sin, with all its defilements from the soul, and restoring us to purity and holiness, and the likeness of God. Thus baptism becomes a seal of the covenant of grace between God and men, an acceptance of his blessings, and engagement to their correspondent duties, even as circumcision was to Abraham, " a seal of his justification by faith ;" Rom.. iv. 11. and an eminent proof and assurance of his obedience. Persons who desire baptism, and yet will not take these obligations upon them, have no claim to this ordinance : And therefore John dFove away the scribes and pharisees from this baptism, because they would not " brim,; forth fruits meet for repentance ;" Mat. iii. 7 -9. 5. Baptism being significant of all these blessings and these duties, " it becomes the appointed ceremonyyand sign of professing the whole Christian religion, and the `rite or form ofentering into the visible church of Christ." Those who are baptized are professed christians ; they are avowed disciples of Christ. And herein also the sa- cred names of Father, Son and Spirit have their proper plain significancy. Baptism is a profession of the reli-

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