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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 should
not
be
baptized?"
As
there
must
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. Acknowledge
your
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