people as his, till they have received an entire renova- tion of their nature, and a meetness for that glory to which he would exalt them.
Let me not, however, be misunderstood. I am far from saying that our fallen nature renders us incapable of enjoying heaven, provided we be washed from our guilt in the blood of Christ, and be renewed by his Spirit in our inward man. On the contrary, not only will the Lord Jesus Christ, in that case, receive and acknowledge us as his, but " God the Father also will rejoice over us with joy, and rest in his love, and joy over us with singing d ;" and both the Father and the Son will be eternally glorified in us. But this I say, that, till we are restored to the Divine image, the Lord Jesus can never have pleasure in us, nor can God the Father ever recognise us as his peculiar and redeemed people ; for our Lord has repeatedly, and in the most authoritative manner, asserted, that, " Except we be born again, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven6." If ever we would belong to Christ, we must be so renewed, as to be made, if not in act, yet in desire and endeavour at least, " pure, as Christ him- self is puref," and " perfect, as our Father which is in heaven is perfects"
But here arises the question, By what power can this change be effected ? And I answer, (as I under- took, in the third place, to shew,) it is by the Spirit of Christ alone that this change ever was, or ever can be, wrought.
To imagine that this change is of necessity wrought in baptism, is a very fatal error. I presume not to say that God cannot accomplish it then as well as at any other time. Nor do I deny but that God does, on some occasions, make that ordinance the means of peculiar benefit to the soul. But the mere admi- nistration of the baptismal rite can no more sanc- tify a man, than the administration of the Lord's supper can. And if a man at the Lord's supper may, by receiving it amiss, " eat and drink his own
d Zeph. Hi. 17. e John iii. 3.
1 1 John iii. 3. e Matt. v. 48.
l232 ROMANS, VIII. 9. [1864.
damnation11 ;" so, by receiving baptism amiss, he may receive a curse rather than a blessing. This was actually the case with Simon Magus, who, though baptized by Philip the Evangelist, remained in the very "gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity1." There is, doubtless, (and I wish the avowal of it to be distinctly noticed,) a great change effected in bap- tism. But it is a change of state, and not of nature. By baptism a person is admitted into covenant with God, and obtains a title to all the blessings of the Christian covenant, exactly as a Jew by circumcision became entitled to all the blessings of the Jewish covenant. St. Paul says, " To them, as Israelites, (who have been admitted into covenant with God by circumcision,) to them " pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises1"." But were they therefore renewed, and sanctified, and saved ? Surely not : for the Apostle " appealed to God, that, notwithstanding their title to these bless- ings, he had " great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart" on their account1. So then it is with those who have been baptized : they have a title to all the blessings of salvation ; a title which, in an unbaptized state, they did not possess. But the actual possession of those blessings can only be ob- tained by the exercise of faith in Christ for the justi- fication of their souls, and by the influence of the Holy Spirit for their restoration to the Divine image. To regard it in any other view, is to assimilate it to the extreme unction of the Papists, and to lead men into the most fatal error.