The

Christ who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God."* The nature of that answer, and consequently of the baptism to which Peter refers, Paul illustrates, when surveying the marshalled legions of the Christian's foes, he defies the power of the whole, and triumphantly declares the ground on which security is enjoyed: "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." heart is sprinkled from an evil conscience, that is, a conscience uneasy and disturbed by a sense of its guilt before God, by the application of the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel. The answer of such a conscience is: I am safe, not because I have kept my baptismal vow, (for that no individual, who, either by his own lips, or by the lips of others appointed for him, has come under the obligation of a vow, has ever perfectly performed;) but I am safe, because Jesus died for my sins, and rose again for my justification; because I have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope which is set before me in the gospel;

* 1 Pet. iii. 21, 22.

† Rom. viii. 33, 34.

because I am baptized by the power of his Spirit, applying to my conscience the blood which cleanseth from all sin.

This is the baptism, which, like the circumcision of the heart, rises so far in importance above ritual observances, that they may not with propriety be compared with it. Of the baptism which is administered by the hand of man, when compared with this, we may say, as the Apostle did of circumcision, Neither is that baptism, which is outward on the flesh. Whatever instruction and encouragement may be afforded by its administration, it has in it no inherent efficacy; it conveys no grace, it is not essential to salvation. The things which ac- company salvation, work" that one and the selfsame Spirit." For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."* And this passage clearly and closely connects the subject with the interesting summary of essentials, which is given in another Epistle written by the same Apostle; redeeming it from hands employed in ceremonies of human invention, by which it has been confused, perverted, and debased, and presenting it in

* 1 Cor. xii. 13.

harmony with the vital principles of the Gospel, which it has been our endeavour to unfold and establish. "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism," (by the one Spirit into the one body) "one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

As circumcision involved no vow, so neither did the passover. It was a joyful feast, though blended by the infusion of bitter herbs, with the remembrance of bitter sorrows, which were past. It was instituted at the deliverance of the tribes from the bondage of Egypt, and its observance was enjoined through all their generations, that there might be an annual commemoration of their deliverance; and an interesting, popular, and impressive recognition of the fact, that they were all brethren, descended from one common stock, sharing in one common lot of national affliction, deliverance, or prosperity; participating by one common right, in all the national advantages of the religious institutions which God had established amongst them. It was kept by the whole of the people at the same time, and at the same place. On one evening a lamb bled for each of the many households which were

* Eph. iv. 4-6.

assembled to partake of the feast. Whatever distinctions at other times prevailed between the members of the respective households, they were on this occasion laid aside, and all partook of the same lamb, and from the same table; and in the rites and provision of the feast, one household was the same as another household, from the dwelling of the humblest to the palace of the sovereign. It was God's own institution, and the impress of his wisdom is upon it. It annually bound together, in one communion of popular and joyful feeling, all the ranks, and all the members of the community, without destroying the distinctions which are necessary to the welfare, and essential to the existence of society. It was an antidote against the evils which grow out of distinctions in rank, and which are as injurious to the individuals themselves, in whose character they are found, as they are to the general peace and enjoyment of the community;-high-minded domination in the ascending-abject servility in the descending scale. The former was kept in check by the annual recurrence to the bondage of Egypt, blended with the rites of an equalizing religious service. The latter was prevented, by the possession of inalienable religious privileges, in the celebration of which the whole nation became as one family; and every member, how

P

ever inferior his ordinary situation, took his place at the table, not by favour or courtesy, but by admitted and established right. This annual equalization was effected, without mortification to the rich, or the ebullition of democratic feelings in the poor. The charm of a religious solemnity suspended the working of every unworthy secular feeling, and combined the one family of the nation, in the retrospect of its origin, the commemoration of its common deliverance, the reciprocation of fraternal sympathies, the uniform utterance of its thanksgivings and joys.

It

And the supper of the Lord is, in express allusion to the Passover, called by the Apostle a feast. "For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."* is a feast, established to commemorate our deliverance, by the death of Christ, from the bondage of sin, and exposure to wrath. Though it is attended with the bitter remembrance of our own past transgressions, and pensive associations, with the scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary, yet is it a joyful feast. In its celebra

* 1 Cor. v. 7, 8.