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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
gifts
and 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
engagements
of
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 before
you
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
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