self to it. But neither this, nor his profession of Religion, will constitute him such a member. This can be done in no other way, but by means of that mutual covenant between him and the Church, which has been mentioned above.

It will probably be further observed, that, in many cases, a great multitude of Churches have been united together, so as to constitute, in their view, one Church, and to be thus styled in their customary language. Such, for example, are the Churches of England and Scotland, and the Presbyterian Church in America. What is the situation of baptized persons, particularly of baptized Infants, in these Churches? The same, I answer, in my opinion, as in our own. Any number of Churches may unite together in their worship, communion, and discipline; and constitute themselves a single Church. Of this Church, however numerous, or however small, every individual, who belongs to it, becomes a member, either by an explicit, or an implicit, engagement to unite with its several members in their peculiar worship, communion, and discipline.

To those, whom I am immediately opposing, the following observations from Dr. Gill, which have lately come to my knowledge, will undoubtedly have great weight. "Baptism," he observes, "is not a Church-ordinance; I mean, it is not an ordinance administered in the Church, but out of it, and in order to admission into it, and communion with it; it is preparatory to it, and a qualification for it; it does not make a person a member of a Church, or admit him into a visible Church. Persons must first be baptized, and then added to the Church, as the three thousand converts were. A Church has nothing to do with the baptism of any, but to be satisfied, that they are baptized, before they are admitted into communion with it."* It will be easily seen, that these opinions of Dr. Gill coincide with those which I have advanced, in every particular but one. He supposes baptized persons not to be members of the Church in any sense. I consider them, as members of the Church General, but not of a particular Church.

The way is now prepared for an answer to the objection which we are examining. Persons, baptized in Infancy, are baptized on the ground of that Profession of Religion, which their parents have made, when they themselves became members of particular Churches. This I shall have occasion to show hereafter. At present I shall take it for granted. Whenever they themselves make the same profession of Religion; they become entitled to communion at the sacramental table in any Church, which acknowledges their baptism, and their profession, to be scriptural. This communion is that which is customarily called Occasional communion: such, as a member of one Church enjoys with another, of the same communion. Whenever they enter into a Church

* Gill's Body of Divinity, Vol. III. p. 311.

covenant; and engage to adopt the worship, fellowship, and discipline, agreed upon by a particular Church; they then, and not till then, become members of a particular Church. I have heretofore shown, that a profession of religion was necessary to constitute us members of the Church of Christ. It has been here shown, and I hope satisfactorily, that what may be called a Churchcovenant is indispensable to constitute us Members of particular Churches.

If these things be admitted; the situation of persons, baptized in their Infancy, becomes sufficiently plain, with regard to their communion at the Sacramental table. Those particularly, whom I am opposing, cannot, so far as they admit the opinions of Dr. Gill, object any longer to the Baptism of Infants on this score.

With respect to the discipline of persons, baptized in Infancy, my own views are these: It is chiefly committed to their Parents and Guardians; and is supremely administered in religious education, involving instruction, habituation, and government; duties respecting the person baptized, which are of no small importance, and are incumbent also on the Church and on its individual members. But the consideration of this subject, I shall resume, when I come to the examination of Christian discipline.

SERMON CLVIII.

THE EXTRAORDINARY MEANS OF GRACE.-DIRECT ARGUMENTS FOR INFANT BAPTISM.

MATTHEW XXViii. 19.—Go ye, therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

IN the preceding discourse, I considered the principal Objections of the Antipædobaptists to the Doctrine under consideration, so far as I recollected them. I shall now proceed to offer some direct arguments, to prove that Infants are proper Subjects of Baptism.

1. Infants were circumcised in the Church, under the Abrahamic Dispensation: Circumcision was the same ordinance with Baptism: therefore Infants are to be baptized.

The Covenant, made with Abraham, was that, which is made with the Church, under the Christian Dispensation. To Abraham God said, Genesis xvii. 7, I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant; to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. In Lev. xxvi, 3, 12, it is said, If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them, then will I walk among you, and be your God, and ye shall be my people. In conformity to this language, Moses declares to the Israelites, Deut. xxvi. 17, after they had entered into a solemn, public, national covenant with God, Thou hast avouched the Lord, this day, to be thy God; and the Lord hath avouched thee, this day, to be his people.

In conformity to this covenant, God styled himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and afterwards the God of Israel; JEHOVAH, God of Israel; and THE HOLY ONE of Israel. Moses, and the Prophets, addressing the Israelites, call him perpetually your God; and, when addressing the nation as one, thy God. But nothing is more evident, than that God could not be the God of Israel, or of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in any sense, in which he is not the God of all nations, and of all individuals, except by his own sovereign and gracious determination, expressed in his covenant. Equally evident is it, that no inspired man would style him the God of this nation, or of these individuals, but by his appointment. It deserves to be remarked, that he is never styled the God of Ephraim, nor the God of Judah. The Covenant was not made with either of these divisions of Israel, separately considered, but with the whole nation. Nor is he ever styled the God of Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Solomon, Hezekiah, or Jo

siah; the Covenant having never been made, in form, with either of these persons. But he is styled the God of David, with whom he renewed this covenant in a peculiar form. See 1 Kings vii. and 1 Chron. xvii.

God is also called, as you well know, the God of Zion, or of his Church, for the same reason; to wit, that his covenant is made with her.

Now this is the very Covenant, which is made with the Church under the Christian Dispensation. Of this the evidence is unanswerable. St. Paul, quoting in the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, from the thirty-first of Jeremiah, verses 31—34, says, For if that first covenant had been faultless, to wit, the Covenant made at Sinai, of which Moses was the mediator, then should no place have been found for the second: to wit, that of which the Apostle here declares Christ to be the Mediator. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel, and with the House of Judah: not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand, to lead them out of the Land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant, that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, and their iniquities will I remember no more. It will be observed, that the words of this covenant are the same with the words of that, which was made with Abraham; as, from time to time, publicly and solemnly repeated by the nation of Israel; and the same in substance with those, which God himself used in his original promulgation of the covenant to that Patriarch: all, that is involved in this covenant, being expressed in this single, comprehensive declaration, I WILL BE YOUR GOD, AND YE SHALL

BE MY PEOPLE.

As the Prophet Jeremiah has informed us; as St. Paul, quoting his declarations and commenting upon them, has informed us; that this is the covenant, made with the Church under the Christian dispensation; we cannot, without doing violence to the plainest language of the Scriptures, hesitate concerning this truth. As God made this very covenant with Abraham; as Moses, and all the inspired men who followed him in the nation of Israel, have declared those to be the very words of that covenant; it cannot, as I think, even with decency, be denied to be the same covenant.

But in this covenant, God expressly promised to be a God to Abraham, and to his seed. The proper import of these words is explained by God himself, when promulging the covenant to Abra

ham, Gen. xvi. 10-14, in a manner, which seems to admit of but one construction. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee; Every man-child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he, that is eight days old, shall be circumcised among you; every man-child in your generations; he, that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He, that is born in thy house, and he, that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised; and my covenant shall be in your flesh, for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man-child, whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He hath broken my covenant. The Covenant is here extended to Infants, directly descended from the loins of Abraham; to Servants, born in the house; and to Servants bought with money of any stranger. It is also declared to be a covenant, extending to all succeeding generations of the descendants of Abraham. This, it is to be remembered, is the explanation, which God himself has given us, of the extent of this covenant.

The manner, in which the covenant was, in this respect, understood by Moses, he has taught us in Deut. xxix. 9-15. Ye stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God; your Captains of your tribes, your Elders, and your Officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day; That he may establish thee to-day for a people unto himself, and that He may be unto thee a God; as He hath said unto thee, and as He hath sworn unto thy Fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant, and this oath; but with him that standeth here with us, this day, before the Lord our God; and also with him that is not here with us this day.

In this passage Moses informs us, in the first place, that all Israel, not only the men, but their little ones also, their wives, and the stranger who was in their camp, from the hewer of wood to the drawer of water, were included in the covenant, made, or, in better terms, solemnly renewed, with God on that day.

Secondly; That this covenant, also, was made between God and the succeeding generations of this people, Neither with you only, (that is, with Israel then present) do I make this covenant; but with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God;

AND ALSO WITH HIM, THAT IS NOT Here with us THIS DAY.

Thirdly; That it was the same covenant, formerly made by God with Abraham, and afterwards renewed with Isaac and Jacob. It was the same in substance,-that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, THAT HE MAY ESTAblish thee, thIS DAY, FOR A PEOPLE UNTO HIMSELF, AND THAT HE MAY BE UNTO