Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/91

Rh distinguish it from others; so in the Christian church, by the Lord's example, as well as precept, baptism was instituted in the room of circumcision, which was the ritual adopted by the Jewish and Israelitish people, to represent purification of the mind, and thereby regeneration. But as the Christian church (so called) has hitherto been such rather in name, than in truth and reality; and as it has arrived at it's full period or consummation, and consequently has nothing of the essentials of a church remaining in it; and yet it is of the Lord's appointment, that the two sacraments of baptism and the holy supper be continued in his true church through all succeeding generations; it is therefore considered as an indispensable duty to retain both of these institutions, especially as their uses and significations are now revealed, together with the spiritual sense of the Sacred Scriptures.

Baptism having been instituted in the room of circumcision, as an external sign and memorial of man's admission into the church, and of his future instruction, reformation, and regeneration, as well as of the various trials and temptations through which he must necessarily pass; it is immaterial whether the ceremony be performed in the way of immersion, as practised in warm climates, or in the way of sprinkling or affusion on the forehead, as is practised in northern latitudes. Immersion of the whole body represents indeed the spiritual washing or purification of the whole man: but the same is also signified by sprinkling or pouring water on the forehead alone, because the forehead denotes the interiors of man, and consequently all the exteriors thence derived. It is therefore sufficient, that the element of water be actually applied to the forehead; for the ceremony in this form is equally efficacious in the spiritual world, whether