That the word baptize signifies to immerse is the opinion of all learned Greek scholars; and the word immerse will in every case supply the word baptize so as to make good sense, whereas the word sprinkling or pouring will not. Then if the word baptize signifies to immerse, and immersion will always translate the term baptism, and if baptism was administered in the river Jordan, and where there was much water-if they went into and came out of the water-if baptism resembles the sufferings of Christ-if it resembles the state of the Israelites "in the cloud and in the sea;" and if it resembles a death, burial, and resurrection, then let the unprejudiced reader judge whether baptism must not mean immersion, and whether it is not an error to consider either sprinkling or pouring to be baptism.

THIRD, DESIGN AND IMPORT OF BAPTISM. Mark xvi. 16. John iii. 5. vi. 3-8. Gal. iii. 27. iii. 5. 1 Peter iii. 21.

Acts ii. 38; xxii. 16. Rom. Eph. v. 26. Col. ii. 12. Titus

From these passages we find that baptism, preceded by faith and repentance stands in connexion with salvation—is for the remission of sins-is necessary to being born again -shows forth the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, as well as our own death to sin, and rising to walk in newness of life, a putting on of Christ, the washing of regeneration, and the answer of a good conscience toward God.

PRAYER.-No. II.

WHEN the human mind is indoctrinated into certain modes of thinking and reasoning, every exercise of the mind in religion is tinctured with the distinguishing tenets which constitute the capital points of the system. So that the refined doctrinal Christian thinks, speaks, and acts in religious matters, as if the divine approbation and the enjoyment of heaven were made to depend upon right opinions or correct speculations on the topics of revelation. Hence we find that the zeal for correct sentiments gives a peculiar turn to every act of devotion. Baptism, the Lord's Supper, the Lord's day, prayer, and praise, in the apprehensions, and in the observance of such Christians, are attended on as though our acceptance depended upon the ideas or views

which the mind takes of these institutions during the period of time in which we are engaged in them. So far has this matter been carried out in practice, that it is not uncommon to find our favourite points in speculative theology to engross the whole contents of a prayer as well as of a sermon. Men are now taught, both by theory and practice, to confess their whole faith in their addresses to God, as they were wont in other times to confess their sins. Sometimes we hear the terms, "we believe" as often repeated in a prayer as there are principal articles in our creed; and it is not uncommon for men when addressing their Creator, to declare to him not only their own views of his character and government, but to contrast their views with those of other menGod, we thank thee that we do not hold this or that; and that we believe this;"-are often heard in public prayers. And it has become as common to pray the sermon over in the succeeding prayer, as it is to sing it over in a suitable hymn or psalm.

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Prayer to God is one of the most interesting, solemn, and exalted exercises which falls to the lot of mortal man. It should be well understood by all Christians. To contribute something to this is the design of the following pages. Conceiving that when we have been labouring to purge our psalmody and to improve our religious taste in this branch of devotion, it will not be amiss to make an effort to arouse the attention of Christians to their prayers as well as to their songs of praise. Prayer is naturally divided into secret and public, or into individual and social. The Saviour cominanded both. He gave promises to both-to him that enters into his closet, and to him who agrees with others touching any thing for which they should unite in their prayers to God. Now with regard to secret prayers, there is less temptation to depart from the true and proper attributes of prayer, than in public prayer: for in secret we are freed from any restraints or inducements growing out of a regard for the opinions and estimation of others. Our wants or desires are merely to be expressed in simplicity, and just according to our actual views and feelings, when we address no ear but that of him who hears in secret.

It is in perfect accordance with that wisdom and goodness everywhere apparent in the Christian religion, that we are so repeatedly exhorted to enter into our closets, and to ad

dress our Father in secret, to whom, though he is unseen himself, nothing is secret. There is no school under the heavens in which the art of prayer can be so easily acquired -in which the spirit of prayer can be so fully possessed, and in which the language of prayer can be so fully and perfectly attained- -as in the closet, in the fields, or forests,. where no human ear can hear, and where no human eye can see us. Besides, no prayers have so much influence upon ourselves as those which are offered up in secret to God. We are then, and we feel ourselves then, in company with God: alone. We can tell him what we cannot tell any mortal, the nearest and dearest on earth. We can disclose all our secrets, unburden all our griefs, confess all our faults, and pour out all our souls before him. If we are distressed, the declaration of our distresses to him, relieves them; if we are prosperous and joyous, our thanksgivings and acknowledgements to him temper our joys and moderate our rejoicings. Equanimity is not only produced, but always retained, by this heaven-devised appointment. We are prepared for every event when we have come out from the presence of God. But there is everything in reason, in religion, and in our condition and circumstances, to entice us to the closet, and to allure us into the secret recesses to converse with our Father who is in heaven.

According to our faith in God will be our requests, and according to our confidence in his promises will be our assurance of acceptance with him. When in spirit and in truth we call upon the Lord, our words are well ordered, because they are the words of sincerity-the language of the heart. When we speak from the heart, there is a propriety in our terms, and a pathos in our expressions, which easily distinguish them from all the language of art, and the studied forms of speech. Therefore it is that we improve so much in the style of our prayers when we are much practised in secret prayer. Barrenness in language, and a dry, frigid, and stiff style in prayer, argues that the person is a great stranger to secret communion with God. Besides, no man who has been much or long in the habit of conversing with God, can either be ashamed or afraid to pray in the presence of men; for surely he that is wont to converse with the king, will never want language nor feel himself embarrassed when he speaks in the presence of the king's servants.

Some, no doubt, will urge their own experience against this last paragraph, and will feel that it is incorrect as respects themselves. But before their experience can be regarded as of any weight against a position so plain in terms, and so plausible in fact, two things must be fully considered: first, Whether they have been only occasionally or habitually-whether at long or short intervals-they have been accustomed to address their Heavenly Father in secret. And in the next place, whether fluency of speech belong to them in any instance on any subject. If fluency of speech belong not to them on other subjects, we do not suppose that habitual secret prayer will give them a fluency of speech, or an appropriateness of terms, which they do not possess, and cannot acquire on other subjects.

Without transcending the bounds of that love that hopes all things, we might say that a good number of our public prayers seem to be rather prepared for the ears of men than for the ears of God. There is so much of the studied and set phrase of ordinary and artificial composition in our addresses to the throne of the universe, that there is more apparent concern in the speaker to please the ears of his auditors than to worship and adore the majesty of the universe. He seems more desirous of securing the praise of men for his attainments than the approbation of the Deity for his sincerity and spirituality.

These remarks are not offered with any desire or with the least intention to promote or cherish a spirit of criticism on the performances of others, but to put every one on his guard against temptations to a departure from all that is valuable in prayer, from all that is sacred in devotion, and from all that is pleasing to HIM whose approbation is more to be desired than the smiles of all the universe besides. But I must approach still nigher the subject I have in view and make some remarks on the matter and manner of our prayers.

Whether it has been from the Manuals of the Church of Rome, from the Common Prayer Book of the Church of England, or from the Directions for Prayer in the Westminster Confession I will not now deign to inquire; but so it is that there appears as great a defection from scriptural usage, as great a departure from right reason in this part of the sacred worship, as in any other of the wise and gracious institutions of heaven.

These departures from Scripture and reason may be classed under certain general heads, among which the following are the chief:-1. Uniformity as respects the subject matter. By uniformity in the matter of our prayers, is meant, a certain methodical and stated expression of the same sentiments and sentences in every address to God. Some people pray in such a monotonous strain of sentences, that after you have heard them twice or thrice, you can always anticipate the next sentence; and if you are obliged to attend upon such prayers for a considerable time, they become perfect opiates to your understanding and senses, and are more to be desired for their soporiferous than for their devotional powers. Such forms of prayer, (for forms they really are) argue that the person is immutably the same in his wants, sins, desires, and thanksgivings; or that he has, by indefatigable industry made out as many phrases as constitute one prayer of ordinary length, which is to serve him longer than the garments of the Israelites, which did not require a stich or a patch for forty years. This is one extreme, towards which, on the same side, there are many approximations, which, though not so glaring, are nevertheless as exceptionable. Call upon some of this class to pray, and let the occasion be what it may, you must expect to hear the same sins confessed, the same depravity lamented, the same petitions offered, the same thanksgivings repeated. All the difference between their thanksgivings before or after meals, and their public prayers, is, that the former are shorter than the latter. That in the public assembly, or that by the social hearth, is a long prayer; and that before dinner or supper is a short prayer. This is the effect of bad example or of habit. For what is there in reason or in the Sacred Writings which could lead a person to think that when dinner or supper calls to give thanks to God for the repast provided, we should break forth into a long confession of the sins of all our past lives, a declaration of all our duties, a recital of all our petitions, or even a summary of all our thanksgivings? Can we not rationally and scripturally thank or bless God for the favour before us through Jesus Christ our Lord ? Again, when we are called upon to thank God in the morning for the mercies of the night, and supplicate his protection through the day, can we not confine ourselves to what is obviously the design of the exercise? And in the evening when we are called to