the custom of putting questions to those who were about to be baptized as to their faith and repentance: and something of this kind had passed between Philip and the Eunuch, when Philip told him that “if he believed with all his heart he might be baptized, and the Eunuch answered, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” In every such case there doubtless is _the baptism_—because there has been _the birth_—of the Spirit. But though St. Peter’s words _may be_ applicable to such a custom, if it prevailed in his time, yet, as Archbishop Leighton says in his Commentary on this text, ‘This questioning and answering farther expresses the inward questioning and answering which is transacted betwixt the soul and itself, and the soul of God. The word,’ he says, ‘is _judicial_, and means the interrogation used in law for the trial and executing of processes: and this is the great business of conscience, to hold courts in the soul; and it is of continual necessity that it be so. This “answer of a good conscience unto God” (as likewise its questioning to enable itself for that answer) is touching great points that are of chief concern to the soul, its justification and sanctification; for baptism is the seal of _both_, and purges the conscience in both respects. Now, the conscience of a real believer inquiring within, upon right discovery, will make this answer unto God;—“Lord, I have found that there is no standing before Thee, for the soul in itself is overwhelmed with a world of guiltiness; but I find a blood sprinkled upon it, that hath, I am sure, virtue enough to purge it all away, and to present it pure unto Thee.” And this the Lord does agree to, and authorizes the conscience, on this account, to return back an answer of peace and safety to the soul. So for the other: “Lord, I find a living work of holiness on this soul. Though there is yet corruption there, it is as a continual grief and vexation: and if I cannot say much of high degrees of grace, yet I may say, there is the beginning of them;—at least this I most confidently affirm, that there are real and earnest desires in the soul after these things. It would know and conform to Thy will, and it would gladly walk _in all well-pleasing_ unto Thee.” Now He that sees the truth of these things, owns it as His own work, and engages to advance it and bring it to perfection.’ Such is the intercourse which the purified conscience hath with God; and wherever this is, there is the “baptism” which is unto salvation. In the examination which has thus been made into the Scripture-testimony concerning the Christian Sacrament of Baptism, no text has been—at least intentionally—overlooked, from which any additional information could be obtained on the subject. * * * * * From the passages which have been considered, the following conclusions may be taken as the Summary of the whole:—