another effect of baptism: "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus; for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ (e)."

FAITH IS CONFIRMED

AND GRACE IN

CREASED BY VIRTUE OF PRAYER UNTO GOD. This is the natural and constant effect of sincere and devout prayer; and we may rest assured that God will not fail to hear those who call upon him at the performance of the holy rite of baptism.

Baptism therefore is a fœderal admission into Christianity; it is the seal of a contract in which all the privileges and blessings of the Gospel are on God's part conditionally promised to the persons baptized; and they on the other hand engage by a solemn profession and vow to maintain the doctrines, and observe the precepts, of the Christian religion.

The spiritual effects of baptism are clearly asserted in the antient ecclesiastical writers; and nothing can mark more strongly the high idea they entertained of the importance of this Sacrament, than the names which they applied to it: they called it a divine indulgence; an absolution from sin; birth in water; a regeneration of the soul; the laver of regeneration; the water

(e) Gal. c. 3. v. 26 & 27.

of

of life; the unction; the seal of the Lord; the illumination; the salvation; the garment of immortality; the priesthood of the laity; and the signature of the faith (f).

The last part of this article asserts the lawfulness of infant baptism. The command given to Abraham, and repeated by Moses, to circumcise children on the eighth day after their birth, plainly proves, that there is no impropriety in admitting infants into a religious covenant; and this command, when applied to baptism, has the greater weight, as it is generally agreed that circumcision was a type of baptism. The practice of the Jews in baptizing proselytes has been already noticed; and it is farther to be observed, that if a proselyte had infant children born to him when he was himself baptized, they were also baptized, though children, born after the father had embraced the Jewish religion, were not baptized. Baptism was instituted by our Saviour in very general terms, "Go ye, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (g)." In this form of baptism there is no restriction or exception whatever. Nations consist of persons of all ages, and therefore

(f) Wall and Bingham, book 11. ch. 1.
(g) Matt. c. 28. v. 19.

infants,

infants, as well as adults, must be included in this command as the objects of baptism; and this inference will be the more evident, when we reflect that the commission was given to Jews, who were accustomed to see infants baptized; and they would of course consider themselves authorized to receive converts to Christianity in the same manner as they had received converts to Judaism. Had our Saviour intended any alteration in the Jewish practice of baptizing, or any limitation with respect to age, he would not have failed to specify it. "If the baptism of infants," says Dr. Lightfoot, "had been as unheard of, as unseen, and as new before the coming of John as circumcision was till it pleased God to enjoin it to Abraham, then there is no doubt but God would have either marked his approbation of it by an example, or have enjoined it by command, as we know that circumcision was enjoined. But since, among the rites of the Jews, there was not a single one more public, or more known, than this very baptism of infants, which was as familiar to them as their circumcision, whether we regard the time when John appeared, or many ages prior to him, it by no means follows, that an example, or an express command,

all

was

was as necessary concerning the baptizing of
infants when John came, as it was concern-
ing the circumcision of infants or others in
the time of Abraham, as being a thing which
had been neither heard of, nor seen in all the
world, before it was instituted by God (h).”
There is nothing in the nature of baptism, which
renders it improper or unsuitable for children :
it is a fœderal rite instituted for the benefit of
those who receive it; and parents, whose duty
it is to provide for the eternal, as well as for the
temporal, welfare of their children, are, by the
law of nature, empowered to cause them to
enter into this engagement, which they may
themselves hereafter ratify and confirm; and
the Jewish writers state this as the ground upon
which they required the infant children of
proselytes to be baptized. If parents be com-
manded to 66
bring up their children in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord (i),"
surely it is incumbent upon them to take care
that they be made members of that religion, in
the precepts and doctrines of which they are to
be instructed. If the promise be made to us
and to our children, without any limitation of
age, why should they not all, since they are to
partake

(h) Harm. in Joan. c. 1. v. 25.
(i) Eph. c. 6. v. 4.

partake of the promise, partake also of its sign? especially since the infants of the Jews were all admitted into the religion of Moses by that solemn sign which was figurative of baptism; and our Saviour and his Apostles called upon the Jews to relinquish the ordinances of the Mosaic dispensation for those of the Christian. Our Saviour encouraged those who brought little children to him; he put his hands upon them, and declared that of such is the kingdom of heaven (k). As the Apostles baptized whole families at once (1), and no mention is made in the Acts or Epistles of adults only being baptized, we conclude that among others they baptized children. There are passages in the remaining works of Clement of Rome and Hermas, both apostolical fathers, which seem to indicate that infant-baptism prevailed when they wrote. Justin Martyr (m) and Irenæus (n) in the second century, and Origen (o) in the beginning of the third, expressly mention infant-baptism as the constant practice of their times; and the same thing appears from an application of Fidus, an African

(k) Mark, c. 10. v. 14.

(1) Acts, c. 10. v. 48. c. 16. v. 15 and 33.

c. 1. v. 16.

(n) Adv. Hær. lib. 2. cap. 39.

(0) Hom. 14. in Lucam.

1 Cor.

(m) Apol. 2da.