SERM. take Christ to be our master-that we be VI.

come his followers-that we are made one of that great body of which he is the head. Now this is done by baptism;-baptism is the ceremony which was appointed by himself for our admission into that society which he came to establish. The meaning of baptism is washing,' which may either be done, you know, by dipping the body into water, or by sprinkling water upon it it is immaterial which. This is a proper and significant representation of what it is meant for, namely, of that cleansing from the guilt of our first pa rent which is brought about in us, by taking Christ for our master. As water removes all foulness from the body, so be coming the servants of Christ removes all the foulness of sin (which had deprived us of the favour of God) from the soul.

We become by baptism, as the catechism expresses it, members of Christ, children

of

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of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of SERM. heaven. "Members of Christ," i. e. we become united to him in a similar manner as the members of the body are to the head. "Children of God," i. e. we are again restored to God's favour, he looks on us again as his sons; our likeness to him, which had been much impaired by the fall of Adam, is restored. Inheritors of the kingdom of "heaven," that is, we gain a title of being happy for ever both in body and soul: this had been lost by Adam's transgression, both for himself and his posterity; had it not been for Christ, when we had died there would have been an entire end of us; through his means, if it be not our own fault, we shall not only rise again and be immortal, but our immortality shall be accompanied likewise by infinite happiness. You will observe that I put in the clause, if it be not our own fault;' for there are certain conditions on our part to be performed after

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bap

SERM. baptism, without which we shall not be en

VI.

titled to the privileges of it; nay, if we neglect these conditions, there is reason to believe that we shall be in a far worse state than if Christ had never come. Christ has procured immortality for all mankind, that is, eternal existence; but whether this eternal existence shall be happy or miserable, depends on themselves; by their own misconduct they may turn what was meant as the greatest of blessings into the greatest of

Curses.

After the catechism has recited the privileges to which baptism gives us a claim, it proceeds to set forth the conditions on which we may secure them; and those conditions our god-fathers and god-mothers promise in our name that we shall observe. They are three; first, that we should renounce what God forbids; secondly, that we should believe what he teaches; thirdly, that we should do what he commands.

Our god

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god-fathers and god-mothers promise, first, SERM. that we should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh. We have reason from scripture to believe that there is an evil spirit called the devil, who being at enmity with God does all he can to counteract his gracious designs, and who is permitted to a certain degree to tempt to wickedness the sons of man. With this evil spirit, our sureties. engage that we shall have no concerns; that we shall avoid or resist him. They engage, also, that we shall renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world; that is, that we shall not be seduced by the attractive appearance of outward objects to seek to obtain any unlawful power, dishonest profit, or any forbidden pleasure. They engage, also, that we shall renounce all the sinful lusts of the flesh: the apostle

St. Paul will tell you what this means

SERM." Now the works of the flesh are manifest,

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adulteries, fornication, uncleanness, ha

tred, varience, wrath, strife, seditions,

envyings, and such like: "we promise to renounce then whatever God forbids, every sin of every kind, and having done this, a way is opened for the performance of the other two promises made in our name; for to abhor and fly from what is wrong, are the first steps towards doing what is right. It was engaged for us then, secondly, that we should believe all the articles of the Christian faith. These are to be found at large in the scriptures; in the scriptures is contained every thing which God teaches, the chief heads, however, are thrown together in what is called the Apostle's Creed. The authority on which our belief is claimed, is so great, and the proofs, on which the objects of it are founded, are so strong, that, to those who examine into the matter, there is no room for hesitation.

It