The persons whom we address, have all been devoted to God in their infancy. But have all remembered the obligations which their baptism entailed upon them ? Have all experienced " the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost r ? " Are all walking worthy of Him into whose sacred name they have been baptized? - Are not many at this hour still " uncircumcised in heart and ears?" If we be not con- formed to the death and resurrection of Christ, to what purpose are we called Christians ? We are told by St. Paul, that " he is not a Jew who is one outwardly ; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh : but he is a Jew who is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of Gods." All this is true in reference to those who have been baptized. Our baptism is, in fact, no baptism1, if we be not washed from our " filthiness, both of flesh and spirit." " Neither cir- cumcision nor uncircumcision is any thing ; but the keeping of the commandments of God u." St. Paul, in holy contempt and indignation, calls the ungodly Jews, " the concision," as being unworthy of the name by which the more pious among them were designated x. Let us know then, that even the heathen themselves are in a better state than we, if we " walk not worthy of our high vocations " and that, if we would be Christians indeed, we must answer to the character given of them by the apostle ; we must " worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh2."]
r Tit. iii. 5. s Rom. ii. 28, 29.
1 Rom. ii. 25. u 1 Cor. vii. 19. and Gal. v. 6.
x Phil. iii. 2. y Eph. iv. 1. z Phil. iii. 3.