Ira CHRISTIAN hAPTISM. [SEEM. VII. 26, 27. And " when your children shall say "unto you, what mean you by this service, then ye shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel .in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians ;" and thus should it be among christians. But remember that washing with water in never so so- lemn a manner, and using these sacred names with never so great seriousness by the minister, doth not profit the persons baptized, if they still continue to wallow in their sinful pollutions and take no care to seek purification of heart and life.. You may be washed with the water of baptism, and yet be driven down to hell among the pol- luted souls. Exhortation III. " Do not think yourselves exempt or excused from this ceremony though you are possessed of all the graces signified thereby." Christ himself passed under it. Mat. iii. 13 -17. Those who had received the Holy Spirit received baptism also. Acts x. 47. "Can any man forbid water that these shouldnot be baptized?" As theremust be faith in order to salvation, so it is the common "and appointed way of God that there should be baptism too. Mark xvi. 16. " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." A wilful and entire neglect and contempt of any ordinance of Christ gives too much reason to suspect whether there be any true faith. Exhortation IV. " Take all proper occasions to re- fresh the sense of your baptism on your spirit's, and to act over again between God and your own souls all that baptism implies, though the ceremony itself be but once to be administered to you." When you see baptism administered to others, remember you yourselves were once baptized; recal the season when you were thus washed with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Acknowledgeyour defilement by nature and by practice : Go to the laver that is opened for sin and uncleanness, even the fountain of the blood of Jesus; seek the fresh influences of the purifying Spirit . to cleanse you from all impurities of your heart, and to make you clean and holy. - Give up yourselves afresh with sacred pleasure to God as your Father, to Jesus as your Saviour, to the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier ": renew the surrender of yourselves to Christas his disci- ples, and engage yourselves afresh'to be the Lord's. 5
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