καρποφοροῦντες ἐν τῇ καρδιά, τον φόβον και την ελπίδα εἰς τον Ἰησῶν ἔχοντες ἐν τῷ πνεύματι.*

"We descend into the water full of sins and pollution; and come up again bearing fruit in the heart, having the fear and hope that is in Jesus Christ through the Spirit."

This, which is only an adaptation and spiritual application of a very highly metaphorical passage in the 47th chapter of Ezekiel, 12th verse, is evidently an objective view of Baptism, (not of the outward act, but of the whole sacrament,) which considers it in the perfect exercise of its instrumental work unimpeded by circumstances; not mentioning the fact, that, in order to such unincumbered exercise of its proper work, the hearts of recipients must have been diligently prepared; though evidently taking advantage of the presence of such preparation in order to heighten the beauty of the imagery; assuming that the moment at which the individual is made over to God in Christ by Baptism, and at which, therefore, his better thoughts and feelings first become acceptable to God, is the first of their existence; and that up to the moment when he formally deposited the burden of his sins in the grave of Christ at Baptism, nothing else but sin was to be found in him, or had any share of his love and attention. And this is so plain and easy of appre hension, that this mode of expression does not appear to us nearly so objectionable as that personification of Baptism which people sometimes carelessly make use of, when they say that Baptism justifies, Baptism regenerates, and so on; whereas, if they are speaking of external Baptism, it is simply the sign and the pledge of a regeneration or second birth into a new condition of life, which is the work of the Holy Spirit; and if they speak of the Sacrament of Baptism-i. e., the outward sign and the inward grace taken together-it is the commencement of a state of salvation of which God's mercy to us in Christ is the cause; it is but the appointed door to all who are rightly prepared into a state of justification, whilst none can truly justify us but Jesus Christ our Lord.

In conclusion, we will just advert to that passage of St. Paul, which appears to have misled some, in which he asserts, "Christ sent me not to baptise, but to preach the Gospel." (1 Cor. i. 17.) We may connect with this, the remark of the Evangelist, St. John, at the beginning of the 4th chapter-" Though Jesus Himself baptised not, but His disciples;" and the direction of Peter, with regard to the reception of the first Gentile converts in the house of Cornelius at Cæsarea (Acts x. 42)— "And He commanded them to be baptised in the name of the Lord." We can hardly doubt, that this abstaining from the administration in their own persons of the Sacrament of Baptism to new converts on the part of our Lord Himself and His two chief Apostles, had some regard to the preservation of that ordinance in its proper light of a simply instrumental rite; or, it might be more proper to say, that, as this ordinance, though held to be ordinarily indispensable to salvation,

*Barnab. Epist. Cathol. c. xi. Cotel. ed. 1700, p. 38.

was undoubtedly looked upon by all of them, not as a cause but a means, and therefore one of the details of the carrying out of the Gospel, it was not the pleasure of the Holy Ghost that they should in their own persons leave the preaching of the grace of God to men, in order to attend to the carrying out of the effects of their own labours. But this cannot furnish any argument to those who contend, in these times, that preaching is more excellent and of greater importance than the Sacrament of Baptism: for, though it be not the proper work of the architect to lay with his own hand the stones of the foundation of the house, yet we cannot say that the laying of the foundation is a thing less important to the completion of the whole, than is the formation of the first design, or the procuring the adoption of it, by the parties the most interested in the building. The laying of the foundation, with the exception of what is called the first stone of it, is a much more humble work than that of designing and developing a noble plan; but we must distinguish between the glory attending a work, and the importance and necessity of the work itself. And Burnet's remarks here certainly appear very pertinent: "It is to be considered that the preaching of the Apostles was of the nature of a promulgation." "Now, when men, by the preaching of the Apostles, and by the miracles that accompanied it, were so wrought on as to believe that Jesus was the Christ, then, according to the practice of Philip towards the Eunuch of Ethiopia, and of St. Paul to his jailor at Philippi, (Acts xvi. 31, 32, 33,) they might immediately baptise them; yet most commonly there was a special instruction to be used before persons were baptised, who might in general have some conviction, and yet not be so fully satisfied, but that a great deal more pains was to be taken to carry them on to that full assurance of faith which was necessary. This was a work of much time, and was to be managed by the pastors or teachers of the several Churches; so that the meaning of what St. Paul says is this-that he was to publish the Gospel from city to city, but could not descend to the particular labour of preparing and instructing the persons to be baptised, and to the baptising of them when so prepared. If he had entered upon this work, he could not have made that progress, nor have founded those Churches, that he did." (Burnet, Art. xxvii.) And it was St. Paul's aim to show, in the passage alluded to, that there was not even a colour for saying that he had baptised any in his own name, seeing that it had been so ordered that he had not baptised any but Crispus and Gaius, and the house of Stephanus, at all.

It is unavoidable, that in all new systems which are to be generally spread and made useful, a general knowledge of the system must precede the particular steps necessary for drawing together a society by which the new system is to be professed and supported; and it may usually be a good arrangement that some should be appointed to keep carrying forward the first knowledge of the system, whilst others receive it as their peculiar charge to bring individuals to a distinct decision concerning it, and to receive from each one the pledge of his intention to support it: but this can never give just occasion for say

ing that the act of taking pledges, and of enrolling individuals into an actual society, linked together by a bond of union for the promotion of one object, is a less important act, with a view to the attainment of any objects contemplated by the system, than that of communicating the first ideas upon the subject-matter in question to the mass of those who were previously uninformed upon it. It is more than probable, however, that they who maintain the superiority of preaching over the Sacrament of Baptism, look only at the present state of things, and, conceiving, whether truly or not, that the far greater proportion of those who have been made subjects of Baptism in infancy, have never, not even at confirmation, fulfilled the essential pre-requisites of repentance and faith, and so have never been effectually converted from sin to holiness, intend only to maintain that the grant of regeneration in Baptism, suspended, as in such cases it must be presumed to be, will not be beneficial to the individuals who have received it, unless they come to fulfil their conversion to God by repentance and faith; and that the most ready, as well as the appointed means, to bring about such conversion, is the preaching of the Word of God: in saying which, if they allude to the case of persons who are now out of the reach of parental and domestic instruction, and all the varied resources of an anxious mother's love, we believe they may be, in a great measure, right; though it is not to be doubted that catechetical instruction, from the lips of a faithful and "well-learned" minister of God's Word, will ordinarily, by God's blessing, if joined with faithful preaching, unspeakably increase and set forward the effect of that preaching upon persons of any age. The conversion to God, which consists in true repentance and faith, is an indispensable accompaniment of a rightly received Baptism; and the preaching, which tends to produce it, or to accelerate its production, where a Baptism has been unfortunately had without it, is so far from being in derogation of that work of Baptism, that it is supplementary to it, and its highest glory is, not to confer the adoption of sons itself, but to assist in bringing into complete efficiency and action a contract of adoption already signed and sealed, but which, from man's carnal will and frailness, has not yet been completed by him in its spirit, and therefore, as yet, ineffectual to his final salvation. And, after all, there is something humbling in being compelled to make so many words about that which, unspeakably important as it is, is but the first step in the Christian course; hardly, indeed, so much ; for it is but the door of entrance upon that course upon which we are to run with patience the race that is set before us. We cannot, whilst engaged upon this humble, though we trust not altogether useless, labour-we cannot but think upon the words of St. Paul, at the beginning of the 6th chapter to the Hebrews: "Leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of Baptism, and of laying on of hands," &c.

Yet one word more we must say, in parting, in the way of advice to those who have frequent occasion to speak and think of the Sacrament of Baptism. The ancients thought more of the inward part of that

sacrament-that part which is the mere gift of God, the adoption, than they did of the outward, and therefore they called it regeneration, and commonly spoke of it as such; we think more of the preparations of the heart, on account of their being so sadly often unfulfilled, than we do either of the outward or the inward part of the sacrament; and we are inclined, therefore, to make repentance and faith, or conversion to God, the instrument of the adoption, instead of being, as they were ever held to be, only the essential pre-requisites to that sacrament, which is itself the instrument of the adoption; and many vehemently protest against ascribing the adoption or regeneration-for they are the same thing to the instrumentality of the Sacrament of Baptism, appealing to the passages we have before alluded to in support of their notions; to which we may add this one: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." (1 John v. 1.) But, as we have before observed, a general assertion of the blessings which the Word of God, or the faith of Jesus Christ, has brought to the world, will not invalidate the particular directions of the Lord Himself for a regular and acceptable introduction of each individual into the enjoyment of the highest blessings brought down to us by His Word and His faith. Peter's well-intended resistance to our Lord's emblematical act, was very quickly and shortly met by the reply, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in Me:" and it is obvious that the question, in this instance, was about an outward washing, though symbolical or emblematical, in which respect it is similar to that which takes place in Baptism. But too many allow themselves to talk about "water Baptism," a mere outward act," "a ceremony of introduction," and so on, till they forget that they who duly receive Baptism, do, upon the occasion of their so doing, publicly cast in their lot with Christ, as none others do, and that, having thereby obtained, according to His promise, the substantial gift of the adoption of sons, and of grace to help them in every time of need, they have bound themselves to continue His servants, even to the loss of all things, and suffering of all kinds, till they shall be made partakers of His highest promises in another and a better world: and from this view of Baptism we must not allow our minds to be distracted, by any peculiarities in the administration of that sacrament which may prevail in this our country, which has, by the blessing of God, been long since christianised; such as the fact, that Baptism is generally, here amongst us, administered to infants, whose faith and repentance are engaged for by their sureties, until the period of their confirmation, by which time they ought to have experienced their perfect work in themselves; or that the comparatively small number of those of riper years who are admitted into the Church seem (if such be the case) to be allowed to reckon too certainly upon thereby obtaining all the blessings of the covenant of grace, without having sufficiently impressed upon them the necessity of those preparations of the heart which, as we have so often observed, are essential pre-requisites to a beneficial reception of the grant of adoption formally made in Baptism. For Christian Baptism cannot be one thing at one time and in one place, and another thing at another time and in

another place; one thing in India, in the hands of our missionaries and their heathen converts, and another in England, where the offspring of Christian parents, claiming the privilege of a holy seed, are ordinarily the subjects of the ordinance; one thing in the time of Nicodemus, and the other rulers who believed in Jesus, but did not undergo His Baptism, and another in these times, when some are inclined to think that the inward preparations of the heart before God may, and ought to, stand for everything. Neither should we allow our minds to be distracted by the errors of any who seem to exalt the visible sign of the ordinance into a sacrament of itself, and to attribute to it such powers and virtues as can with truth be ascribed only to the gifts and graces which are the inward part of it, and which are themselves conditional, though proceeding (where they are truly had) directly from God Himself: for it is a part of our Christian duty to keep our eyes open, under all circumstances, however troublesome or vexatious, to the light of God's own Truth. We may not let any emotion impel us to draw too much to the one side, because the prevailing error appears to be to draw too much to the other. The object of man, now saved, or looking to be saved, by the mercy of God in Christ, must be, as was that of His great pattern and exemplar, "to fulfil all righteousness;" and, in order that he may have a reasonable probability of so doing, he must hold on a reverently obedient, and an even humbly docile course; having Scripture for his guide, and the general tenor of the teaching of his Church for his ordinary, but not infallible, adviser in the interpretation of Scripture, and as far from presuming to call any ordinance which God hath instituted for our use ineffectual or unnecessary, as from magnifying any of the Almighty's own instruments and means into an equality of power with that of Himself or His dear Son.

NOTE. In taking leave of this subject for the present we would wish to state distinctly, as our words may seem ambiguous to some, that we do not consider the inward and spiritual part of the Sacrament of Baptism as the full measure of the regeneration spoken of and indicated in such passages as James i. 18; 1 Pet. i. 3; 1 Pet. i. 23; John i. 12, 13; 1 John ii. 29; 1 John v. 1; and others of the same description. These and such-like passages are, as we have observed in page 581, "the beautiful promises of a universal change in the religious and moral nature of the believer," irrespective, at the time of their being indited, of any other outward means of grace than the great message of the Gospel at large. It was not, however, our assigned task to explain the extent and manner of this change; but to draw a sketch, as faithfully as might be, of the Church of England view of the Sacrament of Baptism. The fact of the ancient Church having fixed upon the term Regeneration as well fitted to express the translation of the believer, by the appointed instrumental means of Baptism, from his natural state in Adam to his state of adoption and sonship in Christ, cannot, of course, deprive the word of its more extended application in many passages of the Gospels and Epistles, to the whole change wrought by the message of the Gospel in man's moral and spiritual frame, especially that part of it which consists in his conversion, any more than this latter use of it can interfere with its application to another purpose in Matt. xix. 28. To have followed the word Regeneration through the whole extent of each of its meanings would have filled up the limits of an ordinary article of itself, and would at all events have led us far enough away from the subject of Baptism.