sacraments, sensible signs whereby Christ and the benefits of the New Covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers. To this class of ordinances belonged, under the former dispensation of the covenant of grace, the tree of life, animal sacrifices, the rainbow, the circumcision, and the passover. Under the new dispensation of the same covenant, we have Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism is a sign and seal of membership in the visible Church under the new dispensation. It is the personal badge of visible Christianity. "Baptism is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our engrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord's." Let us consider-first, its form; secondly, its signification; thirdly, its subjects; and fourthly, its uses, Firstly. Under the form may be comprehended the author, the administrator, the element, the actions, and the formula. The author of this institution is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is recorded in the commission given to the first ministers of the gospel, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."Mark xvi. 15. "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world."-Matt. xxviii., 19, 20. The administrator of Baptism is an ordained minister of the gospel, not a woman or any other private person. This is clear from the words of the commission itself. The element to be used is water. "Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we."-Acts x., 47. " I indeed baptize you with water."-Matt. iii., II. The Quakers, or Friends, by rejecting water reject the whole ordinance. Romanists by adding oil and spittle corrupt it. The actions are the administration and reception of the element of water by pouring or sprinkling by the minister officiating, and its reception by the person baptized. The question relating to the form of baptism is between us and our Baptist friends. They do not own us as brethren, because they do not think we are baptized, and therefore we are not in the visible Church of God at all. The question is whether the element of water is applied to the subject by pouring or sprinkling, or the subject put into or under it. We assert the former, they the latter. For our mode we claim the authority of Christ and his apostles, and the usages of the languages of inspiration corroborated by the Septuagint, (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), by writers in the Apocrypha, by other writers, Christian and pagan, and by the history of the foundation of the Christian Church. The language of the text, Acts i., 5, is itself sufficient to settle this question with all who are willing to be taught by the highest authority in the universe. the Lord Jesus Christ. "For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." How were they baptized with the Holy Ghost? By the Holy Ghost "coming upon them." ἐπελθόντος τοῦ ἁγίου Πνευμάτος ἐφ' ὑμᾶς, i. 8. “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel [ii., 28, 32]; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh." ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός μου ἐπὶ πᾶσαν σάρκα.-Acts ii., 17; and again, "On my servants and my handmaids will I pour out of my spirit," ii. 18. 'Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear-ἐξέχεε τοῦτο; ii., 33. Jesus then baptized with the Holy Ghost by pouring out, by shedding upon his servants the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost. Baptism is then rightly performed by pouring. The same language is employed by Luke in the 10th chapter, 45th verse of the Acts of the Apostles: Upon the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost"; ἐπὶ τὰ ἔθνη ἡ δωρεὰ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἐκκέχυται. John the Baptist uses the same language in comparing his baptism with that of his divine Master: " I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mighter than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. - Matt. iii., II: and again Mark i., 8, and Luke iii., 16. "So It was predicted respecting the Messiah, shall he sprinkle many nations ; " כֵן יַזֶה גוֹיס רַבִיס Isaiah lii., 15. He sprinkles by the application of his blood for the pardon of sin. His blood is therefore called "the blood of sprinkling." "Ye are come to the blood of sprinkling," αΐματι ῥαντισμοῦ, which speaketh better things than that of Abel; Heb. xii., 24. : He sprinkles with his spirit. "Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you ; וְזָרַקְתִי עַלֵיכֶם מַיִם טְהוֹרִיס and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."-Ezekiel xxxvi., 25, 27. Paul ascribes this to Jesus: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, with the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." διὰ λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσίας, καὶ ἀνακαινώσεως Πνεύματος ἁγίου οὗ ἐξέχεεν ἐφ' ἡμᾶς πλουσίως, διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν. -Titus iii., 5, 6. He sprinkles also with the water of baptism when his ministers and ambassadors administer this ordinance. They act for him, and their act is accounted his. "When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus baptized not, ἐβαπτίξεν, but his disciples." -John iv., I, 2. He sprinkles many nations meritoriously by his blood that purges away our guilt, efficaciously by his spirit that regenerates and sanctifies the soul, and sacramentally by his ministering servants when they baptize with water in his name and as his representatives in this respect, as well as in preaching the gospel, with which the ordinance is connected. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you, by us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." The apostle Paul also refers to the baptism of the Jewish law, "the doctrine of baptisms," βαπτισμῶν διδαχῆς, Heb. vi., 2; many of which were by sprinkling.-Num. xix., 13. "Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from the Lord, |