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النشر الإلكتروني

SERMON XX.

Page 313.

THE HAPPINESS OF A FUTURE STATE.

Preached at the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

Rev. xxi. 47.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I

make all things new. And he said unto me,

Write; for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

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SERMON I.

THE BENEFITS AND DUTIES ATTACHED TO

BAPTISM.

1 PET. iii. 21.

The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

ST. PETER, in the passage immediately before the text, had been speaking of the ark, in which, says he, few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water: he then adds, "the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us." We must understand therefore from hence, that, as Noah and his family were saved, by the ark, from perishing in the flood, so baptism is employed by Christ as the means of saving Christians, through his blood,

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from that destruction which would otherwise swallow them up. If then baptism brings with it so great a blessing, you do well in bringing your children to be baptized, and the Minister of the Gospel obeys the command of his heavenly Master, when he baptizes the children brought to him "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost "

But you must not suppose that the mere act of baptism, though necessary to admit us into the Christian Church, and therefore of great solemnity and importance, is of itself sufficient to obtain all the promises of the Gospel in this life and the next; this St. Peter plainly denies in the text, where, when he speaks of baptism as having the power, through Christ, of saving us, he adds, that he does not here mean merely the outward act," the putting away the filth of the flesh," but "the answer of a good conscience towards God." It is then only, therefore, that baptism will secure to us the favour of our Redeemer, will gain for us the pardon

a Matt. xxviii. 19.

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