was not brought to them, but they went down to that, baptizing so many by dipping would have required a week, rather than a day, to dispatch it in.

"It is said, Acts viii. 12, ' But when they believed, Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.' Mark, 1. Believed, and then baptized: these were adult, or grown persons, not infants; and they were heathenish idolaters, strangers to the covenant, and therefore must believe the gospel, and profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him, before their baptism. 2. The persons baptized were women, as well as men: women, under the gospel, are capable of the seal of the covenant, as well as men. Under the law they were; then they were circumcised in the men; now they are baptized for themselves; they were baptized,' &c.

"The Eunuch is instructed before baptized; it was not forced upon him by Philip against his will. It is conviction, not compulsion, that must induce assent; after he had been instructed, he desired baptism; his qualification was, believing with the whole heart; only that faith gives a right to baptism, and entitles to salvation. This Eunuch believed with his whole heart that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. This gave him at once a right to baptism, and a title to heaven. The manner of the administration, he went down into the water, and was baptized by Philip: in those hot countries it was usual to do so, and we do not oppose the lawfulness of dipping in some cases, but the necessity of dipping in all cases. In sacraments, it is not the quantity of the elements, but the significancy of them, that ought to be attended to: as in circumcision, it was not the quantity of the flesh cut off; so in baptism, a few drops of water poured upon me, doth signify and seal, and convey and confirm to me, a right and interest in all the benefits of my Saviour's death and resurrection, as fully as if, with Jonah, I were plunged into the main ocean. Crispus and his household were brought to believe, and were baptized; after whose example many of the people in Corinth believed also.

Saul, as soon as converted, takes upon him the badge of Christianity by baptism; listing himself thereby a soldier under Christ's exalted banner, and entering himself a member of that church which heretofore he had made havoc of.

"In Romans ix. 6, 7, it is said, 'they are not all Israel which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.' Learn hence, that the promises of God to his children and people are firm and stable; they shall not be made void, but be accomplished and made good to those that have a title to them, and interest in them, and fulfil the conditions of them. "Not as though the word or promise of God has taken no effect: all are not Israel that are of Israel." That as all were not true Israelites of old that did bear the name of Israelites; so all are not true Christians at this day who take upon them the name of Christ, and bear the name of Christians. Men are very prone to bear up themselves upon the piety of their ancestors, though strangers in practice to their piety; as the Jews boasted they were of the seed of Abraham, but did not the works of Abraham; whereas men are so far from being God's children because they had godly parents, that Christ told the Jews, who came forth out of Abraham's loins, that they were of their father the devil.*

"In Romans iv. 11-13, the apostle declares the reason why, and the end for which, Abraham was circumcised, seeing he was justified by faith in the promised Messiah long before circumcision. He tells us that Abraham received circumcision as a sign and seal of the covenant made with him, and to his seed, Gen. xvii., and as an obligation that the righteousness of faith was the true way for a sinner to become righteous; which righteousness Abraham had obtained whilst he was uncircumcised, that so he might be the father, in a spiritual sense, of all believers, both Jews and Gentiles, who imitated him in his faith, and in the holiness and obedience of his life. By the appointment of God he was circumcised. Sacraments must be of divine

* John viii. 44.

institution, not of human invention. The church can make no sacraments; her duty is, with care and caution, to administer them. The elements are cyphers; it is the institution makes them figures: Divine institution is as necessary to a sacrament, as the royal inscription is to current money. The nature of sacraments in general, and of circumcision in particular; they are signs and seals; he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness by faith. It was a prefigurative sign of baptism, which, in the Christian church, was to succeed in the room of circumcision. Circumcision was not a sign only, but a scal also; 'a seal of the righteousness by faith.' The character and description here given of true believers; they are such as walk in the steps of faithful Abraham. They have not only Abraham to their father, but they walk in the footsteps of their father's faith. The great promise which God made to Abraham and his seed, that they should possess that rich and pleasant part of the world, the land of Canaan, under which also heaven itself was typically promised and comprehended, was not made on condition of their performing perfect obedience to the law, but they were to obtain it by faith; that is, by trusting to, and depending upon, the gracious promise of a faithful God. Here is the justification of faith without works, which is the apostle's grand scope, design, and drift; it runs thus: If the promise made to the father of the faithful was accomplished, not by legal obedience, but by the righteousness of faith, then it follows, that all his children were justified by faith, as Abraham their father Therefore, justification is not to be expected by the works of the law, but by faith alone. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.'* All those who would be accepted with God, unto righteousness and life, must be such as do believe in Christ with the heart, and openly confess with the mouth, that he is the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world: if thou confess and believe, thou shalt be saved: for by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.' The + Acts xiii. 39.

was.

* Rom. x. 10.

apostle applies this to his auditory, and tells them, that by the meritorious satisfaction and prevailing intercession of this Jesus, remission of sins is to be obtained, and deliverance from the wrath of God, for which the law of Moses could not, with all its ceremonial washings and sacrifices, cleanse and free them.

6

"But then arose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, that it was needful to circumcise them (the Gentiles), and to command them to keep the law of Moses.' That is, some Jews of the sect of the Pharisees converted to Christianity thought and taught that circumcision and keeping of the law of Moses was necessary to salvation, both to Jew and Gentile Christians. When you will observe, how early the sound doctrine of Christianity was corrupted by erring teachers. And in Acts xv. 10, the apostle asks them Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?' Thus was the ceremonial law in itself both a yoke and burden; and the imposing of it upon the Gentiles is called tempting of God, that is, a dangerous provoking of him, because it never belonged to them, but to the Jews only, which yet were never able to bear it, or so to observe it as to be justified and saved by it. Learn by this, That it was never the intent or design of God, that his people should be justified by their obedience to the ceremonial law; but that, being pressed with the weight, and pinched with the uneasiness of the yoke, they should seek unto Christ for righteousness and life, who alone was the fulfiller of it.

"By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.' It must therefore necessarily follow, that by the works of the law can no flesh, that is, no person, neither Jew or Gentile, be justified before God: all the efficacy which the law now has, being to discover sin, and to condemn for sinning; 'by the law is the knowledge of sin,' by the law we apprehend our malady, but by the gospel we understand our remedy. Therefore no son of Adam, since the breach of the law, can stand justified before God by his best obedience to the com

mands of the law; for that which condemns cannot justify : an after obedience to the law, can never atone for a former disobedience; because the best obedience we can perform to the law is imperfect. Now, he that mixes but one sin with a thousand good works, can never be justified by his works. He that would be justified by his works, must not have one bad work among all his good works; for that one will lay him under the curse and condemnatory sentence of the law, as it is written* Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.'

"All our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.' All our fathers were under the cloud, that is, under the conduct and protection of the cloud; and all passed through the Red Sea, as upon dry land, and as the cloud did guide and direct Israel, so did it cool and refresh them in the wilderness, preserving them from the heat of the sun; it was a covering canopy over them, in a scorching desert. In respect of their enemies, it was darkness to the Egyptians, and consequently protected the Israelites from their enemies, that they could not assault or fall upon them. It had a bright side to the Israelites, and a dark side, to the Egyptians. The Israelites are here said to be baptized in the cloud and in the sea; that is, the cloud which overshadowed them did sometimes bedew and sprinkle them: and the Red Sea, through which they passed, had its waters gathered into two heaps, one on the right hand, and the other on the left, betwixt which the Israelites passed, and in their passage seemed to be buried in the waters; as persons in that age were put under the water when they were baptized; and thus were Israel baptized in the cloud and in the sea all this was a figure, to which our baptism answers: both the cloud and the sea had some resemblance to our being covered with water in baptism, by which we are confirmed in the faith of Christ, and obliged to profess and own him, to trust in, and depend upon him, to serve and obey

Gal. iii. 10.