world, in a regular manner, a person must be baptized; as almost all Christians agree. The Greek word tis, in John, iii. 5. rendered a man, is comprehensive, it signifies, literally, any one, and includes infants. Since, therefore, no one can enter into the kindom of God, unless he be baptized, and be renewed by the Holy Spirit, and since this kindom belongs to infants, it appears proper, that they should be baptized. What infants in particular ought a minister of the gospel to baptize? When we reflect on the tenor of the Abrahamic covenant, and on the connexion which subsists between Christian parents and their children, and when we compare Gen. xviii. 19. with Eph. vi. 4. and observe, that the infants, who were brought to Jesus, were brought by persons, who had faith, it appears proper to say, that baptism is to be administered to children, when they are presented by parents professing faith, or by other professors, who are willing to consider themselves solemnly engaged to bring up the children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

In Eph. v. 25, 26. it is said "Christ""loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." Here is doubtless a reference to baptism; and the wash

ing of water appears to mean baptism, as emblematical of a spiritual purification. Those, who are capable of believing "the word," and have not been baptized, ought to believe, before they receive "the washing of water." But are not infants a part of that "church,” which Christ "loved," and for which he " gave himself?" and ought not the infants of believers to be sacramentally sanctified and cleansed by baptism?

Our Saviour, bewailing Jerusalem, said, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings; and ye would not!" Jerusalem's children comprehended parents and their offspring. Would not Jesus have gathered both?

On that day of Pentecost, of which we have an account in Acts, ii. the Christian church may be said to have been established, and the kingdom of God in a certain sense to have come.† Did the apostles, on that wonderful day, say any thing, from which we can infer, that the

*See Acts, ii. 47. "The Lord added to the church."

† See Rom. xiv. 17. and Col. 1. 13. compared with John, vii. 39. and Luke, xvii. 20, 21.-When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, the kingdom of God may be said to have come with power. See Mark, ix. 1. and xiii. 30.

covenant connexion, which had subsisted for ages between parents and children, was dissolved by the Christian dispensation? To the Jews, inhabiting Jerusalem and Judea, and convened from distant regions, and to proselytes,* Petert * See Acts, ii. 10.

Jesus said, (Matt. xvi. 18.) "Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church." Upon this rock; (not upon Peter himself; see Acts, iii. 12. but) upon the great truth which Peter had confessed (Matt. xvi. 16.) that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God." This truth is, in one view, the foundation of the Christian church, in distinction from the ancient church. The words, rendered "Jesus Christ,” I. Cor. iii. 11. which ought to have been rendered, Jesus the Christ, probably mean, Jesus is the Christ. See Acts, xvii. 3. and xviii. 5. In another view, Jesus Christ himself is the foundation. Compare Is. xxviii. 16. with I. Pet. ii. 3, 4. The " precious corner stone," the sure foundation was to be laid “in Zion." Therefore, though the Christian church is in a certain sense new, yet it is the ancient church continued. In confessing that Jesus was the Christ, Peter confessed, that Jesus was the illustrious seed promised to Abraham, and the glorious Son of David promised in the prophets; and agreeable to what was remarked in the first discourse, it was through the merits of Christ, who was in the fulness of time to be manifested, as the Saviour of the world, that blessings were bestowed upon Abraham, and upon the ancient church. To signify what honour Simon, the son of Jonas, should have, as the master builder, that should first lay the foundation of the Christian church, by proclaiming, that Jesus is the Christ, seems to have been, at least a part of our Saviour's design in surnaming him Peter, or Cephas, (See Mark, iii. 16. and John, i. 42.) How emphatically the

said, "Repent and be baptized every one of you [literally, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized] in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all, that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

The great promise, which God made to Abraham, and renewed to Isaac and Jacob, and to their seed, and which may be considered, as including all the succeeding promises in the Bible, is thought by some to be the promise, referred to by the apostle in this passage. When God took Abraham into covenant, he made him the father of believers, the father of many nations, and promised to be a God to him, and to his seed after him in their generations. This promise certainly implied the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. It implied all the miraculous operation, and renewing, and sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost, necessary, to continue the church, from one generation to another, to the end of the world. AcApostle proclaimed the great truth, Acts, ii. 36. According to the apostle Paul, who laid the same foundation at Corinth, "Christ crucified" was "unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness."

cordingly, God says in Isaiah, "I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed." "My Spirit," "and my words" "shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed." "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders."* By the prophet Joel, God says, "It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy; your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants, and upon the handmaids, in those days, will I pour out my Spirit."+ All these promises are in perfect conformity to the original promise, made to Abraham; and the accomplishment of each one is part of the accomplishment of that great promise. Some think, that, when the apostle says, "the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call," he has particular reference to the above cited prophecy of Joel, which he had cited near the beginning of his discourse. This seems prob*Is. xliv. 3. and lix. 21. and xlix. 22. Joel, ii. 28, 29.