water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? (d) And Philip said, 'If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.' And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.' And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the Eunuch, and he baptized him."(e) Here again we have the water and the Spirit, brethren; the Eunuch's faith, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God," the work of the Spirit; and then immediately he is baptized with water.

The same testimony is given us in the preaching of the Gospel to Cornelius, and the first Gentiles. (Acts x.) "While Peter spake, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." And what does Peter say upon this? Does he say, as many professing Christians would have said in our days, "Oh, if men have the Spirit, it does not matter if they are baptized?" No, brethren, Peter had respect to every

(d) Surely no unprejudiced mind can resist the conviction, that the necessity of baptism formed a part of Philip's elementary instruction in "preaching Jesus" to this Eunuch.

(e) Acts viii. 35-38.

part of the word of the Lord; and so, when he saw the work of the Spirit in these Gentiles, he said, "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we ?" "And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord." (f)

We will take one more instance, the jailor at Philippi. (Acts xvi.) When he cried out to Paul and Silas in the terrors of his soul, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." But they did not stop there for they knew that, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." And so the sacred history proceeds thus: "And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his straightway." (g)

Here, again, brethren, the witness of Scripture is complete. We have the work of the Spirit in the jailor's believing, followed by his baptism with water, and all his house. Still we find the apostles acting in every case upon the belief of (f) Acts x. 44-48. (g) Acts xvi. 30-33.

that mysterious truth, declared in our text, that "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

I need not add anything to these testimonies of Scripture, as to the connexion established by Christ and his apostles, between being born of water and born of the Spirit. I proceed,

2. To note some inferences from this record of Scripture.

First, I would observe, that if it were necessary in the days of the apostles, for God's children to be born of water and of the Spirit, in order to enter into his kingdom, it is equally necessary now also. God is ever the same, and his word is ever the same. He is a God of fixed and unalterable principles. Circumstances vary; but principles established by God abide ever the same. Our circumstances here in England are much varied from those of the first members of the visible Church of Christ; but the principle of an outward sign of God's grace and love being given to those who are admitted into Christ's Church, remains unchanged. (h) In the early Church, a few individual Jews, or Heathens, were baptized, with their families, as God

(h) This may be applied further to infant dedication to God, as the principle of both the Old and New Testament.

brought them to faith, and the knowledge of Jesus. In our own land, at present, the larger portion of our population is baptized. The members of the Church, from the earliest ages, have dedicated their children to God, in the holy sacrament of baptism, down to our day. Acting in faith on God's declaration, that the Gospel promises are to them and their children, to believers and their seed after them; (i) looking to the condescending love of Jesus, who of old, "took up little children in his arms, and blessed them;"(k) and guided by the principle and practice of the Lord's people, under the older dispensation, () Christian parents have, in all ages, enjoyed the privilege and comfort of consecrating their children to Christ, in the waters of baptism, from their infancy. They bring their children to the washing of regeneration, in the name of the blessed Trinity, with the fervent prayer and hope, that God will accompany the outward washing with the inward grace, and renewing power of the Holy Ghost. This is well; for it is all they can do for their sinful, helpless infants. It is well; for it is their duty and privilege to do this. It is well, not only because God has,

(i) Genesis xvii. 7;
(k) Mark x. 16.

Jer. xxxii. 39; Acts ii. 39.
(7) Gen. xvii. 10-14.

as I have shewn you, connected the water and the Spirit in many passages of Scripture; but especially, because he has declared in our text, that "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

The second thing to which I would call your attention is, that if any wilfully refuse Christian baptism, and live and die without being born of water, it is a very strong evidence that those persons have never been born of the Spirit. God may make exceptions here; but certainly man must not make them. Christian baptism is a sacrament ordained by Christ himself. (m) He it is who has joined together the water and the Spirit and as we are sure that every one that is born of the Holy Spirit, the incorruptible seed of God, shall be saved; (n) so Jesus assures us in the text, that none can enter into the kingdom of God, except they "be born of water and of the Spirit." The conclusion is obvious, that it is God's rule, in the dispensations of his grace, that those who are born of the Spirit, shall be born of water also. There is nothing strange in this conclusion to the believer's mind. He knows that the Spirit is the Lord's, and the water is the Lord's. He knows that baptism, and "all (n) 1 Peter i. 3-5.

(m) Matt. xxviii. 19.