to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God..... For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?" (1 Cor. iv. 5, 7.) "Love believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." "Beware of false prophets; by their fruits shall know THEM; ye but, observe, that in the same chapter you find "Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matt. vii. 15, 1). "Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the words of understanding" (Prov xiv. 7); but observe at the same time the verse next following: "The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his (own) way." "Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge" (Prov. xix. 27); but judge nothing before the time: God himself hath only "prepared" his "judgments for the scorners" (ver. 29). (ver. 29). "Who art thou that judgest the domestic of ANOTHER? to his own MASTER he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand" (Rom. xiv. 4). "Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye." Obey thou the commandment of the Lord to baptize all the nations, and so shalt thou reconcile the difficulty that some err from the truth. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God" (John vii. 17). "What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endureth with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath made up unto destruction; and that He might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory" (Rom. ix. 22, 23); what are we, that we should attempt to do otherwise? and, without suffering unto the end of this vapour-life of ours, suddenly and beforehand condemn any one for whom Christ died?" (2 Cor. v. 9; and 1 John ii. 2.)

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To the utmost reach of human scrutiny, to the farthest bounds of human foresight, all that receive the outward rite are indeed baptized (though truly Baptism is none, unless it be eternal); and if we would call them any thing less than what God, in all his providence, and in his word, and in his church, and in his sacrament, calls them, is it not plain that we teach one thing, while God teaches another, and even the opposite? in short, that we are found false witnesses, contending against God?

Further since it is most certain that faith in Jesus as the Son of God, whom verily he raised up from the dead, is an integral part of that eternal act which it has been shewn that baptism ought to be and to represent, while we surely know that FAITH altogether transcends the functions of unassisted

humanity as it is written, "No one can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. xii. 3); and again (in John vi. 29), "This is God's work, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent "-therefore, in the outward rite, as it is practised upon infants in our Church, the profession of faith is heard as it were from ANOTHER's lips: the representatives of the Most High and of his holy bride, the fathers and mothers in God, stand responsible for it.

In due season, in the perennial duration of the Divine work towards its consummation hereafter, the baptized infant "with its own mouth makes confession unto salvation ;" but in the transient moment of its incipient representation through the outward and visible sign, it appears not as the child's act only, but rather as the act of ANOTHER in the child; even GoD's act, as in the text above-quoted.

In regard to adults, observe that they (being competent) would in fact deny the faith in keeping silence concerning it when they apply to be baptized. The doctrine to be set forth in reference to their entire and hearty belief is, "This HATH God wrought" for we may not suppose, in reference to God's eternal transaction upon us, nor say, that he will perform it, any more than that he did. The sponsors do not say (in the baptism of infants) "I will believe," but, in the perennial tense of God's own name, “I DO." Upon the like profound but exquisitely accurate principle of everlasting truth, if the adult did not speak with his own lips, and say the same (he having the faculty of human speech *), the fact of God's eternal work in us, commenced no where but in his goodness, and complete in him before the world began (Heb. iv. 3; Rev. xvii. 8; Eph. i. 4), would be denied.

The searching eye of God, "to whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets can be hid ; " He alone knoweth the sincerity of any professor of his truth (whether he be adult or infant; whether he be infant in babyhood, or infant in the imbecility of paralysis, or in that of the dying hour); whether he be true, or mistaken, or guilty of a lie, He alone can tell. To us, and to himself, in this present life, the confession of the baptized avails no further than as verifying the holy symbol of Resurrection into Christ about to be performed upon him; as giving it completeness of meaning, and reality of substance in the truth, and constituting it a lesson of eternal verity, to which he may continually look back, until, being born into the world to come, he shall see his Father's countenance (1 Cor. xiii. 12), and Jesus Christ shall write his name upon him, truly "christening" him " in the name of my God, and in

*Dumb and palsied persons, like other infants incapable of articulate speech, had sponsors in the primitive church.

the name of the New Jerusalem, the city of my God, that cometh down out of heaven from my God, and also in his own New Name" (Rev. iii. 12).

I repeat it once more, that our Baptism is in every case the outward and visible sign of that inward and spiritual grace which God alone confers, and the everlasting reality or present fallacy of which He alone can tell ;-that it is the outward and notable sign, the whole and only possible evidence of "GENERATION from above, or of the implanting of a new life, the manifestation of which is "quickening," or "conversion," and altogether an after-thing. If the seed grow in the spring, certainly it had its life in the autumn: now it is seen; therefore it was received then. But generation and quickening are not the whole of that process which educes a living child: the BIRTH is still to come and verily, verily, baptism is not consummated as past in the outward ceremony, but remaineth, although laid by and disregarded; it remaineth, I say, (at the worst) a present thing, a good title-deed to the inheritance of the saints in life eternal, until death tear off its seal, and the resurrection prove it invalid. O yes, many of the baptized may abort, but we know that therefore they were all begotten. Because like "untimely births," they pass away, therefore they once had a hopeful existence (Ps. Iviii.8). Since Esau sells his birthright, it was his until he sold it*.

*The above conclusion in the text respecting apostates raised a difficulty in the minds of some who perused this paper in the manuscript. Should the reader find it so, he is requested to reconsider the paragraphs on pages 382, 383, where he will find the legitimate right of all baptized persons illustrated and insisted on (whether they be obedient and dutiful, or backsliding and rebellious), to the estimation and privileges of adopted sons of God; so that, whether they require chastisement or encouragement, whether stripes or a reward, they should always alike be dealt with as his children;—while, at the same time, the fact is maintained, that the Lord knoweth from everlasting whom he hath chosen, and who they are that shall betray him. Surely any one who will, may thence understand that the conclusion in the text of this paper, as above, and all such terms as an untimely birth," "reprobate children," " they that have no root and fall away," "they that bring no fruit to perfection," " trees whose fruit withereth," "twice dead," &c., are used in Scripture, and in our Liturgy, in reference only to the privileges of the baptized, and the position in which they should regard themselves (for they really hold it) during this life; and not in reference to their actual standing in the secret counsels of Him who foresees from all eternity the results of that "FREE WILL" which he made; and of which, therefore, HE foreknoweth what it shall choose to do, and what to leave undone.

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There are, in short. two aspects of every baptized person. First, that in which he is regarded by Almighty God, the angels, the saints, and his own conscience if enlightened-viz. as in Christ during this life. Secondly, that in which he appears to eternal and immutable Omniscience on high. The misapplication of those texts of Scripture in which God vouchsafes to reveal the latter, has plunged some into the fatal error of "baptismal regeneration," (or "that every one dipped, or washed, in the Triune Name, will therefore necessarily be ultimately saved,") which is false: while the misapprehension of such passages as explain the former has involved others in the equally deadly fault of denying the

Anticipating better things, although we thus speak, we rather believe that baptism will grow even more and more unto perfect day; relieving every recipient of it from sin after sin, from time to time, as he ponders its holy mysteries; and ultimately relieving him from this body of sin and death, into the glorious, and actual, and acknowledged liberty of the children of God. We believe, I say, that in continuance it will be fashioned from a purpose contemplated on high, and from a mere profession of words, into profession in act and deed, in spirit and truth, in suffering and martyrdom, in triumph over death and hell, until at length it bloom in everlasting beauty a living being, the child of the living God-the fragment? nay, the MEMBER, of his Christ.

Therefore, let no one, who holds communion with God truly on the way toward the hope set before us-let no one tremble to take upon him the office of a Sponsor towards the offspring those who fulfil the tests of Almighty God (to the best of his judgment under the law of love); -towards the offspring of any one who confesseth his sin and doeth righteousness; who loveth not the world nor the things that are in it, but loveth the brethren in deed and truth; who believeth on the name of the Son of God, and confesseth that Jesus of Nazareth is The Lord, the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Almighty; that He is come and that He is coming in the flesh;-who loveth (I say) both Him that begat and them also that are begotten of him (1 and 2 John). "For the promise is unto us and to our children, and to all that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts ii. 39); and "the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; else were your children unclean, but now are they holy" (1 Cor. vii. 14).

When Paul and Silas prayed in the prison of Philippi (Acts xvi.), having been incarcerated for casting out the spirit of divination (who interrupted their devotions in the household of Lydia, the whole of which they had recently baptized, ver. 15), at the earthquake that ensued, and the opening of the prison doors, the affrighted jailor asks Paul, “What must I do to be saved?" They told him upon the spot, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," AND THOU shalt be saved," say they “THOU AND THINE HOUSE"-" and he was baptized, he and all his, straightway." Now it appears most manifest that this keeper of the prison was a stranger to both the holy men. If therefore his household consisted of adults, the case proves more than is asked or desired; namely, that the blessing was to descend from the "absolute sovereignty of God," "predestination" (and its necessary consequence, the perseverance of the saints," quo ad Deum), which is an ines

timable truth.

father upon his adult offspring, or domestics; for they promised upon the spot, saying, "Thou shalt be saved-thou and thine house." How much more (in that case) should the infant children of his own person begotten, if he had any, be included in the act of grace?

But if his house consisted of infants, the case is a valid example of infant baptism from the New Testament; and so recorded that it proves more than the propriety of the practice; for it goes to establish that the servants also, the wife, and youth, in the righteous man's house, are virtually and actually in the covenant of grace, every one according to his capacity; the adult upon his own confession, the babe upon its sponsor's.

Truly, I cannot conceive a humble and contrite heart, a contrite spirit, meditating upon these views-as taught in so many passages of God's holy book, in all his works of nature, in all providence, in the very essence of his grace, in the sacraments and being of a church, without perceiving also that they are the doctrine set forth throughout the Old Testament in the utter incapacity and consequent condemnation of the natural man; throughout the New Testament, in the unqualified approbation and unlimited perfectibility of the new man, the offspring of the second Adam the quickening Spirit. Surely, if baptism were regarded chiefly and primarily as a profession of faith; if the rite we have been considering were a mere profession of faith, or if the profession were any thing but a very subordinate part of it, and as it were an ulterior consequence or external super-addition; then the very essence of the ordinance, as taught in Rom. vi. 7, 9, et seq., and in Col. ii.-as taught, 1 say, in winter's nakedness and spring's revival, in night and day, in every breath we breathe (seeing that at every instant man expires) then the very essence of the ordinance and sine quà non of the Gospel were lost, even the Resurrection from death, and the Life from a source external and independent of ourselves: for death involves silence, and not profession; and resurrection involves sight, and not faith.

See, then, that the holy act, eloquent beyond the power of words, performed in the condescension of Jehovah to regard the things upon earth, and done by his right arms upon the objects of his choice, is in truth the entrance door and portal of life everlasting, the porch of his holy catholic church, the ingermination of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life-the Lamb that was slain; and, behold! he is alive for evermore.

Enter it, ye little ones, beloved of your God, whose angels do always behold the glory of the countenance of your Father in heaven. "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God......Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as