As there are some passages where baptized believers are addressed, so there are others in which the doctrines of the gospel are defined and taught. The former correspond to the Liturgy, the latter to the Articles of our Church. It is very important to observe this distinction; for in the different classes of passages different modes of expression must be expected. Of course the whole of sacred Scripture, being inspired by the same Spirit, speaks the same truth; but it is one of the perfections of the Bible that it conveys truth in every form both of statement and application. We are bound, therefore, to study these various forms; and without doing so, we can never hope either to receive or convey the mind of God. Now it is obvious we should naturally look for the principle of assumption in that class of passages in which our baptismal privileges are made the subject of personal appeal. If regeneration were not assumed, the appeal would be altogether powerless. If the writer were to pause to fence in his argument, and check himself by his expository cautions, the whole address would be stripped of force and interest. When St. Paul, _e.g._, with an overflowing heart, writes to the Colossians, “Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, &c.,” he cannot stop to caution them against presumption, or to point out the necessary signs of their election. Just so in addressing baptized persons, he appeals to them as regenerate without destroying the force of his address by cautions as to the nature of regeneration. Such cautions are given in the doctrinal passages of the Scriptures. To these, therefore, we must turn for exact and dogmatical statements of Christian truth. Now, as in the hortatory addresses of the Apostles, regeneration is invariably assumed until sad facts prove the contrary; so in the doctrinal statements of the Bible invariable grace is no less explicitly denied. (1.) In such passages it is laid down as a general law of God’s kingdom that no outward ordinances whatever can invariably convey divine grace. It is our privilege, as believers, to expect His presence while in the way of His judgments we wait for His blessing; but “God is a Spirit and they that worship must worship Him in spirit and in truth,” nor are we anywhere warranted in asserting that any act on man’s part is invariably accompanied with any gift on God’s part. He does not bind His gifts to our actions, even if those actions be hallowed by His own authority. Only examine his language respecting all His appointed ordinances. _Circumcision_. “He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” (Rom. ii. 28, 29.)