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vows that, in the sense in which they are understood, are rarely if ever perfectly kept; and consequently, agitation and alarm, instead of peace and joy in believing, characterise the services of many, when they approach what they are unwisely and unscripturally taught to consider the deeply mysterious rites of the Christian church. Now, by recurring to the analogy, which we have already described as existing between circumcision and baptism, the Passover and the Lord's supper, we shall be able to clear away the mists by which these institutions of Christianity have been encompassed; in which their own lovely features have been shrouded, and all kinds of fearful distortions have been made to arise, before the eye of the simple and the timid, in the fold of Christ. They have been associated with the gloom of the grove, and the terrific mysteries of the Eleusinian cave; let us contemplate them in their native light and beauty, as they may be seen in the temple of truth.

When circumcision was performed among the Jews, no vow was connected with any part of the ceremony; no intimation was given, that there was any thing mysterious in its operation, any invisible stream of grace communicated in its observance. The plain matter of

"In the Scripture, no perfect definition of the sacraments is to be found." "Why then shoulde we cal them soo?" -Vide an amusing as well as instructive note in Orme on the Lord's Supper, p. 81.

fact, which every Jew well understood, was this; that there was no access for his child to the institutions of worship, no right to enroll him among the privileged descendants of Abraham, if he were not circumcised. To Abraham himself, the rite certainly conveyed no saving efficacy. It is declared by the Apostle Paul, to have been to him, “a seal,”—that is, a divinely appointed visible authentication stamped upon the flesh,—" of the righteousness of the faith, which he had yet being uncircumcized."* It could not be the same thing to his descendants, on whom the rite was to be performed at an age at which they were not competent to the exercise of faith. To them, it was merely the authoritative sign, or seal, stamped on their flesh, of their connexion with Abraham, as heirs of the promises, which had been made to him. A lineal descendant of Abraham had no title to a share in the promises, if the rite had not been performed; while others, who could not trace their descent from him, might, by submitting to the rite, become incorporated with his family, and participate in its privileges. The law delivered at its institution, was, "The uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant." If it be said, The covenant involved a vow; it may be answered, The vow was then performed, when the rite was discharg

*Rom. iv. 11.

† Gen. xvii. 14.

ed. "This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, be tween me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man-child among you shall be circumcised."* So far as this institution was concerned, the part of the covenant which was obligatory on the people was performed, when the rite had been discharged.

The question then arises, What advantages were connected with circumcision? It may be answered, by saying, that the child which was circumcised, was initiated into privilege, and promises;—the privilege, of attending the institutions of worship; the right to plead the promises, which were made to Abraham, and subsequently, as in succession they were delivered, those which were given to his descendants;—the promises generally of the Old Testament. The rite of circumcision, was a bloody rite; corresponding with the nature of the institutions to which it gave access, and with the event by which the types and promises of the Old Testament were to be fulfilled, the shedding of the expiatory blood of the predicted Messiah.

In the same manner, is baptism, an initiation into privilege, and promises; the privilege, of Christian instruction and worship; the right to plead the promises of the New Testament, which are to us and to our children, and are all yea, and amen, in him into whose name we are baptized. The rite of baptism, is the aspersion of water, the element of refreshment

* Gen. xvii. 10.

and purification, emblematic of the effect of Christian nurture upon the mind, and of the Holy Spirit's influence, by whose agency the blessings promised in the gospel, are conveyed into the soul. No vow in its administration is enjoined; no mystery in its operation is supposed; no invisible stream of grace does it involve ; no incomprehensible mysticism about the mode in which it works, need here perplex the mind. The parents, who intelligently present their children for baptism, are those who value the institutions of Christian worship, and the blessings which are offered in Christ's promises themselves, and consider them the richest inheritance into which their children can be brought the minister who properly performs the rite, will enforce upon the parents the duty of bringing up their children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, and present the different motives, which should produce its diligent and cheerful discharge :— and the children, so soon as the promises of Christianity can be unfolded to their opening powers, should be encouraged and exhorted to plead them, on the ground of the right to them, which in baptism was conferred. The seal, by which their connexion with the most gracious dispensation of religion which God ever established in the world was authenticated, though it has not, as in the case of the Jew, left an indelible stamp in the flesh, has yet been visibly placed upon them. The remembrance of its application, with the hallowed desires and expectations which were excited at the

time, and have become associated with the review of the service, should strengthen the faith, and increase the fervour of the parents, in their frequent and persevering prayers for their children; and the knowledge of its application, should inspire those who have been the recipients of the rite with boldness, when they come for spiritual influences and blessings to him into whose religion they have been initiated, and whose name they consequently bear. Of his multiplying descendants on earth, Abraham, in the mansions of repose and blessedness, was ignorant, nor could Israel acknowledge and help them; but Christ lives to receive all who come to him, and liberally to dispense his Spirit's grace unto them.

Be it however carefully observed, that there is a distinction to be made, between the possession of a right to plead the promises of God, and the exercise of that right, in the workings of a devotional spirit, by which the blessings which are promised are brought into actual enjoyment. Esau despised, and at length sold, his birthright. Many of the Jews undervalued, and irrecoverably forfeited, their covenant right. They were the descendants of Abraham after the flesh, and were enrolled, in virtue of having received the initiatory rite, among the Israelites to whom pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; but because they did not value, they did not plead; and because they did not plead, they did