3fiRM. vII.J CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. ]0S gion which was .contrived by the wisdom and grace of Gad, the Father, it was published and preached to the world by Jesus Christ, his Son, and it was confirmed and established by the miraculous giftsand operations of the Holy Spirit. It implies also a resolved obedience to the authority and commands of the Father, a professed be- lief of the gospel, as taught us by the Son, with a de- pendance on the grace and salvation of Christ, as carried on by all his offices of Prophet, Priest and King, toge- ther with a compliance with all the ,outward discoveries; and all inward influences of the Holy Spirit : This is the duty, and these are the engagementsof every professor of Christianity. As circumcision was the mode of entrance into the Jewish church, and becoming a professed disci- ple of Moses, and hereby an obligation arose to perform and practise the whole Jewish law ; Gal. v. 3. so by baptism, we lay ourselves under a holy obligation to practise the whole religion of- Christ, and to wait forall its promised blessings. We hope for the love and grace of the Father, the salvation of Jesus Christ, his Son, and the sanctifying and comforting influences of the Holy Ghost; and we are hereby devoted to the service and honour of the blessed Trinity,. God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; whose adorable unity in respect of the 'godhead, and whose three distinctions, in respect of their personal characters, have been set beforeyou at large in a former sermon on this same text. Having -said thus much in describing the ceremony itself, and what is the spiritual meaning of it, we come now in the second place to enquire, ,Who are the subjects of this ordinance of baptism, or to whom it is to be administered ? To this I answer, The first, the most proper, or at least the most evident subjects of it, are persons who 'confess their sins, and profess to repent'of them, and who 'accept' of this grace and salvation offered in the gospel.: These who have been taught the chief doctrineseand dir- ties of the gospel of Christ,- and profess to believe and receive them, and to comply with them: Those who take upon them the religion of Christ, become his disciple and give up their names to him. Here is no.difáerence, 'whether Greek or Jew, whether male or female, asthert was in the Jewish ceremony of circumcision, which be- H 4
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