good conscience;" which, as I shall show, is requisite alike for approach to the Lord's table, and for acceptance of the baptismal rite "the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." We, therefore, see from Peter's own statement, that there may be a baptism which is not the answer of a good conscience, as there is a baptism which is the answer of a good conscience. In other words, there may be, says Peter, the ecclesiastical rite; there may not be, under it, and with it, and inseparable from it, the inner and the spiritual change-in short, there may be the outer baptism, and not the inner. There may be the washing of the forehead, and not the washing of the heart. The great work of the gospel is the inner one; and if men would only recollect, in these days of disputes about a thousand extrinsic points, that the kingdom of God is not "meat nor drink," not dipping or sprinkling, not baptism with water, or any other, but is "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," they would estimate all signs, ceremonies, and rites, by the inner results to which they conduct, and would not put the one in the room of the other. Thus there is a baptism which is strictly and properly regeneration that which the Holy Spirit bestows; and there is a baptism which is not regeneration, but the simple sign of it - that which the minister can give. If we would also ever recollect another fact, I think we should not confound things that differ; namely, that there is a visible church, with visible ceremonies, and that there is an inner church, visible as man may be, but undefinable in its limits by us, being characterized by the inner change and inner feelings; and the one corresponding to the other, as the shell corresponds with the kernel. You have in the outer church, baptism with water; you have in the inner church, baptism with the Holy Spirit; you have in the outer church, communion with those who are partaking of

the bread and wine upon the table; you have in the inner church, that communion which is the consciousness of our fellowship and communion with God the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ; and these two correspond the one to the other. The minister can distribute the bread and wine, and can administer the sacrament of baptism to outer recipients, but the Holy Spirit alone, when and where he pleases, can give the inner baptism; and the Lord Jesus, when and where he pleases, can establish the inner and true communion with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

What is this inner baptism which is here declared to be so vital, and which is not the necessary and the inseparable accompaniment of that outer baptism which has been so often and so fruitlessly administered? It is said to be, "The answer of a good conscience toward God." Now what is meant by the answer of a good conscience toward God? The very first idea that is suggested, and the essential definition of that idea, is found in Heb. ix. 13, "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh" that is, an outer rite, an outer ceremony · "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God!" Here, then, is the answer of a good conscience—it is, in its first and essential feature, a conscience cleansed by the blood of Christ Jesus; and the true baptism is referred to, in connection with this, in the beautiful announcement of which Luther made so much, but of which we make so little, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin;" or if you like, "baptizeth us from all sin;" for I do not think that Barrica and xavaigo are essentially different; and if you ask me what is the baptism that each converted man must have, I would answer, it is that baptism

which is announced in these words, and free to all, like the air we breathe, like the light we see, like the waves of the great deep" the blood of Jesus Christ his Son baptizeth, or cleanseth, us from all sin." What therefore we have to do first in order to get that true baptism, whether we have been baptized in infancy or in riper years, or whether we have not been baptized at all; the baptism that is instantly obligatory upon us, the baptism without which we cannot be forgiven, the baptism which we press as our privilege at this very moment, is instant confidence in this, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us" from venial sin and mortal sin, sin of thought, sin of word, sin of deed, all past transgressionsno sin is so deep in its dye that it will not expunge it; no sinner so inveterate in his sins that it will not forgive him; but an universal amnesty for all that will, in the blood of sprinkling, now, or, it may be, never. Have we consciences thus baptized? Have our hearts been thus cleansed by the blood of Jesus? To ascribe this great efficacy to any rite, or ceremony, or sacrament, is to try to steal a ray of glory from the Lord of the sacrament, and to put it on the sacrament; and whoever does so will find that ray of glory convey a curse only into his own bosom. The only end of making baptism by water do what regeneration does, is to exalt the priest, to magnify the ceremony, and to put a precious rite, precious in its place, in the room of Him who often acts through means, often without means, and sometimes in spite of and against means. If there be one truth in Protestant Christianity more real and precious than another, it is this, that it brings us at once into contact and communion with God; and it is the grand characteristic of every thing that usurps its place, that it keeps us trifling with the minister, or amused with the ceremony, or in contact with the sacrament, or stopping at some of the porches and outer gates of the sanctuary, instead of leading us to

the very holy of holies, and there encouraging us to hold communion and fellowship face to face with God. This is the great feature, this is the precious characteristic, of all true and scriptural religion. Have our consciences been thus baptized? Will you allow me, my dear reader, to question your conscience? I do not want you to answer me, but yourself to answer God; and to ascertain, by the answer that you have within, whether your conscience has been baptized in that blood of sprinkling which cleanseth from all sin.

First, then, I ask, what think you of Christ? What answer do you give to that? What weight do you lay upon his death? What do you think of his atonement? What is he to you? Would you be what you are now, if you had never heard the majestic truth, a God has suffered that sinners might be redeemed? Do you count all but loss for the excellency of him? Would you be ready to part with all for his sake? Can you say, He is my only Mediator; his blood my only trust, his death my only hope; his finished work my only plea, and title to immortality and glory? If your conscience can say, Yes, so far as that question goes, you have the answer of a good conscience toward God.

Let me ask, in the next place, what is your hope, and what is your feeling towards the Holy Spirit of God? Are you satisfied with baptism with water? Are you satisfied with being decent with a decent externalism? Are you satisfied with being a man of indifferent life, but having, on the whole, a good heart one of the greatest possible misstatements and misapprehensions? Do you feel, in all its force, this great prerequisite of heaven, "Except a man be born again," it matters not who he is, from the highest monarch to the meanest subject, "except a man be born - what a change! what a revolution! a transition

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from one state totally distinct from the state into which you are introduced, except a man be born again, he cannot " even "see," much less "enter the kingdom of heaven." Do you feel, therefore, that that change must pass upon you? Is it your petition that that change may pass upon you? Is it your feeling, that though there may be much alloy to be removed, much dross, much deficiency, that yet your heart loves what once it hated, delights in what once it had no pleasure in, and cleaves to Him to whom it never clave supremely before? I say supremely, because a man should love his profession, but not supremely. Men generally perish, not by the love of the forbidden, but through the excessive love of that which is perfectly lawful.

Let me ask, in the third place, what is your opinion of God the Father? Do you think of him with terror? Does your conscience, like poor Eve, run from the sound of his footstep, and seek a hiding-place, not amid the bowers of the garden, but amid the follies, and the vanities, and the frivolities of this present world? Or do you feel his presence delightful? Would you feel, while you were writing in your ledger, if God were visibly to look on, that you could not stand it? If it be so, then there is something in that ledger that ought not to be there. Do you feel, when you are in your counting-house, and adjusting your losses and your gains, that if God were to come in, all would be wrong? The Papal idea is more or less in us all. We think it is all very well to keep God within the four walls of the church; but we will have nothing to do with him outside. You come within the walls of the sanctuary to learn the lessons that you are to go forth in the world to carry out; at your counting-houses, where you may do very much active good, or at your desk, or upon the ocean, or in the parliament, or in the defence of your rights and liberties. For in all these things you are doing God's work, as