still as the words of the passage, as interpreted for ages by the general sense of the Church, seem to connect the outward seal with the inward blessing, the faithful Parent will be desirous that his Infant should be a partaker of the outward seal, that he may, by fulfilling the word, "fulfil all righteousness" also.1

1 If an excessive and too exclusive sense may have been given to this text, as applicable to Baptism by the Church before the Reformation; has not too low and indistinct a sense as specially applicable to that Sacrament been given to it by many since that time? It is true such passages as the following occur both in the Old and New Testament. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and make you clean : from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them." Ezek. xxxvi. 25—27. It is true also that "Spirit " is exegetical or explanatory of its figure "water." And to what has the figure a reference but to the divers washings or baptisms [διαφοροίς βαπτιςμοις] of the legal dispensation spoken of by the Apostle, Heb. ix. 10. This dispensation was confessedly preparatory to that of the Gospel. Now it is the privilege of him who enjoys the full light of day to look back on, and to decypher the imperfect shadows of the morning. It is the province of the Gospel to explain the meaning of the Law. May we not stand then on the eminence afforded us by the positive institution of Baptism, as literally interpreted and as confirmed by the practice of almost the whole Christian world, and thus give a substance to the shadows of the law?

First here is a preparatory process in the "divers washings"

As some of these passages will meet us again in the course of this discussion, I forbear from all further comment on them here, and merely

of the Legal ceremonies; then a frequent reference is made to these as anticipative illustrations of that spiritual purity which was to distinguish the day of the Gospel, as above. Then, as it seems, the Jews gave a practical application to this illustration by the Baptismal reception of proselytes. Next the shadows assume a more substantial appearance in the Baptism of repentance, which marked his ministry, who came to prepare the way of the Lord, and to whom "went out Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins." A stronger light was imparted in the Baptism of him whom thus it became " to fulfil all righteousness." With the advantage of this light we come to the much-contested passage, John iii. 5. to which, if the context be considered, I am not aware that any passage strictly parallel can be found. Our Lord first informs Nicodemus, that without regeneration, `no person can see or comprehend the kingdom of God: and on the Jewish Ruler expressing his surprise, he proceeds further to inform him how the entrance into this kingdom is to be effected, and this is by being "born of water and of the Spirit; " of "water," which, by what he and "Jerusalem " had seen in John's Baptism, was the figure of spiritual purification, and of the "Spirit" of which the water was the significant emblem: which Baptism, when the kingdom of God was established should be its initiatory rite of admission, and which he would fully understand hereafter. Accordingly at ver. 22. of the same chapter it is said, ".After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea and there he tarried with them, and baptized." [See also iv. 1, 2.] And a very few years after at most his meaning receives a full developement in the institution of the Sacrament of Baptism; “Go ye therefore, and teach [or disciple] all nations, baptizing

adduce them as scriptures which strongly apply to the holy fear of a faithful Parent, lest by withholding his Child from Baptism, he should at once be guilty of an offence to that which is

them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

In the antient Church, when the Sacraments were duly estimated, and they continued "daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house;" Acts ii. 46. such a retrospect from light to obscurity, would probably have been entertained. In the modern Church where the Sacraments seem not to be regarded with the same portion of esteem as means of grace, such a retrospect is considered by many as more than questionable. The thing signified is admitted, but the Sacramental sign of such signification is denied.

Will not those who hold this text as inapplicable to Baptism do well to pause before they arrive at a peremptory decision, when they consider that when the "fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea," even these simple figures were applicable to Baptism, as they 66 were all baptised unto Moses, in the cloud and in the sea, 1 Cor. x. 1, 2. And as faith could behold God" figuring thereby " his "holy Baptism," may not the same faith equally extract a Baptismal meaning from words surrounded by so much more luminous a reference from the time, and circumstances, and person, at and by which they were uttered?

The text need not be the subject of strife; neither kind of Baptism is dependent on it; and like other similar questions, Baptism rests not its evidence on one text. But I own that the above retrospect seems to me to justify the sense entertained of this passage by the Church for fifteen hundred years, almost without interruption, as applicable to water-baptism, as well as the adoption of this sense by our Church in the large use she makes of this text both in her adult and infant Baptismal services.

most dear to him of all his earthly blessings, and to the letter of the word of God.

In presenting these grounds of Infant-baptism, I must repeat what was said in the outset of this Letter, that it is by no means my object to attempt a statement of all the grounds which may be adduced in its favour. The view here given, brief as it is, is quite satisfactory to my own mind, and, as it appears to me, will fully authorise every faithful man to present his Child at the font of Baptismal blessedness, with an assured confidence in the promise of a gracious God, that his Child is thus sealed as 66 a member of Christ, the Child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven."

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The believing Parent who has arrived at the above conclusion respecting Baptism, will select Christian Sponsors and joyfully introduce his Child to the full Congregation, that he may enjoy the prayers and spiritual sympathies of the Church. Most heartily will he join in the antecedent prayers for a blessing on the Sacrament; most earnestly will he dissipate all doubt of a favourable reception; and his Child being privileged with the sign and seal of the sacramental blessing, most ardently will he yield his thanks to the Father of mercies, "that it hath pleased" him to "regenerate" his Infant with his "Holy Spirit, to receive" him " for his own child by adoption, and to incorporate him into " his "holy Church." And while he constantly

pleads the promise, he acts like a man who verily believes that it shall be accomplished to him and his Child. He watches his opening faculties, he impresses on him the value of the privileges with which he is invested, he reminds him that the vows of God are upon him, and stimulates him to "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith " he is " called." He sows in hope, and he trusts that he shall be a "partaker of his hope." 2

The Christian, who thus presents his Child at the font for Baptism in our Church, wishes not that one word should be altered, either in the Baptismal Service, or in the formularies more immediately connected with it. He can neither part with the fervent supplications for a blessing, nor with the rich and confident ascriptions of praise for mercies so graciously bestowed and so firmly ratified and sealed; nor would he wish the tone of their expression to be lowered in the smallest degree, for he feels and acts upon this principle, "according to your faith be it unto you." 3

It is this principle of faith in the promise that actuates the whole course of the education of his Child. This Child is "a member of Christ," and is to be educated on this persuasion both with respect to his Parent and to himself. His