from these (latter, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,) he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for His Master's use, and prepared unto every good work- even a vessel of mercy, which God had prepared unto glory."62 Tim. 2 chap. Rom 9 chap. There is a sacredness upon the persons of all that are Christened; and for them to prostitute themselves to any lust is a greater profanation than that of which Belshazzar was guilty, when he desecrated the holy vessels of the Temple.

2. And what is the duty of Adults as regards their Children?

You must dedicate and set them apart by Baptism, as vessels of the Temple, for our Lord's especial use and service, even as ye yourselves have been so consecrated to the Lord. You must make them clean by the laver of regeneration, and keep them clean, while under your charge, in co-operation with God's Holy Spirit. Go, then, ye Christian parents, and if ye be Abraham's seed, follow Abraham's example: First, by doing the works of Abraham yourselves; Secondly, by baptizing your children, as Abraham circumcised his; And, thirdly, by commanding your children and your household, so that they keep the way of the Lord. Nor should the remembrance of the milder Christian Sacrament lose its influence on our faith and practice-gratitude should stir up our wills that we may the more plenteously bring forth the fruit of good works: for,

Abrah'm believ'd the promis'd grace,
And gave his sons to God;

But water seals the blessing now,
Which erst was seal'd by BLOOD.

WATTS.

of Moreover, your Church declares that, itois certain by God's word, that children, which are baptized, dying before they commit actual sin; are undoubtedly saved. But she fears for the spiritual welfare of children, born of Christian parents, but not baptized, and taken into covenant with their God; and considers that God will not hold the parents guiltless. For when Moses' child remained uncircumcised, the Lord sought not to kill the child, but Moses, the father, who should have circumcised him. Exod. 4 chap. 24, v. And Solomon, by the Spirit, saith; "Thou shalt beat a child with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." Prov. 23 chap. 14, v. So that, for aught we can know, even children may have a power given them to resist or comply with the saving grace of God, imparted to them at their baptism, through the prayers of their parents and the church, which produces conversion, and ends in the salvation of all who are thus constrained to good, as twigs that are bent. How great, therefore, is the responsibility of believing parents! In what an awful dilemina are they placed, through their misunderstanding the Scriptures! How inscrutable and fearful is their situation! I trem ble. yes. I tremble for the father more especially: for it is he that sinneth! The tenor of the Scriptures is plainly this: Baptism is necessary, at all events, to the salvation of all born of Christian parents; whether it be unto salvation for children, or unto the grace of repentance and conversion for adults, "when the times of refreshing, and confirming the churches, shall come from the presence of the Lord," and the strengthening of our souls by the reception of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

So that our 27th Article of Religion is most sound and orthodox; The Baptism of young chil

dren is in any wise to be retained in the church, as most agreeable with the Institution of Christand the Rubric before the Order for the Burial of the Dead in our Common Prayer Book rightly directs, That the Office ensuing is not to be used for any that die unbaptized, i. e. of course after they are 8 days old, when they ought to be initiated into the church, as they would have been, if they had belonged to the Jewish dispensation : but not before the 8th day; because the mother is considered unclean 7 days, and the child by touching her partaking of the same misfortune, was not till then fit to be admitted into covenant. Lev. 12 chap. 2, 3, v.

OF JOHN THE BAPTIST AND CHRIST,

We shall obtain a clearer view of the scripturalness and validity of Infant Baptism, if we consider the following points; viz.

1. The difference between John the Baptist's and Christ's Baptism.

2. Why John was emphatically called the Baptist.

3. Why the Baptist was not baptized himself. And,

4. Why Christ was both circumcised and baptized.

1. Now the difference between the two baptisms is manifest enough, and obviously set forth by their respective Authors. John says, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but He that cometh after me, is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize

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you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." "I am not the Christ, but I am sent before Him." "He must increase, but I must decrease." And Christ testifieth of him thus, among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist." And why? because he pointed out Christ more clearly than all who went before him. The ancient prophets beheld Christ afar off, but John saw Him face to face. They prophesied of Him: he pointed at Him, saying, This is He. Yet he that is least in the kingdom of God, or Church of Christ, is greater than hệ, knowing Christ perfectly, and preaching Him perfectly, which John could not do, not having witnessed the death and glorious resurrection of Christ. The disciples of John, like Apollos, when as yet he knew "only the baptism of John," believed in Christ to come; the disciples of Jesus, like Apollos, after" Aquila and Priscilla had expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly," believed in Christ as already come, and were baptized into Christ: the Sacrament, however, sealed unto both the remission of sins. Yet it being essential to Christian baptism to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and thereby profess ourselves to be buried and risen with Christ, and John's baptism necessarily falling short of this main part, his disciples were afterwards baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, that is, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. As, therefore, the Baptists profess Christian baptism, they miscal themselves: for all the Baptist's disciples became Christ's, as soon as he had convinced them that Christ was the Messiah, saying unto them, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world; and thenceforward followed Jesus. But your Church, my Brethren, bears a

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true name, which is, The Apostolic Church, as founded by Peter and the rest of the Apostles, and not by John, whose course, though he announced the Sun of Righteousness, the Light of men, was as brief, as it was brilliant, like the morning star.

2. John was emphatically called the Baptist, because, as St. Paul assures us, he "baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him, which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." Those whom he made his proselytes, he initiated into this new Institution of life by Baptism a rite indeed made use of by the Jews, but never before St. John's mission, to figure out to them repentance and remission of sins, in lieu of Circumcision. Besides, he had the great honor to baptize his Saviour; which, though he modestly declined, (knowing that he was only a servant sent to prepare the way of his Lord, and that he needed it himself,) he yet performed, when the Lord enjoined it; and it was accompanied with a miraculous attestation from heaventhe whole Trinity was manifested, which is the essence of Christian baptism.

3. John the Baptist was not baptized himself, evidently for these two reasons: First, because he had, when an infant, the rite of circumcision performed on him, after the manner of Moses, which was Israel's "baptism unto Moses in the cloud and the Red sea;" 1 Cor. 10 chap. 2, v. Secondly, and chiefly, because his being baptized would have rendered null and void every circumcison that had been performed down from Abraham's time, the father of it, until his own. "Moses therefore gave unto the Jews circumcision, not because it is of Moses,