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bodies of men : And however the world may judge and act, it ought to be supposed that christians will judge and act according to the standard of their religion...the will of Christ made known in holy scripture. It will then be but fair to state the difference between Christ and the opposers of infant baptism; and, if christians will leave the better and follow the worse authority, there is no remedy that I know of; to their own master they stand or fall. He knows their prejudices and party attachments, and he will judge righteous judgment. Christ says, 'Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.' The anabaptist says, little children cannot come to Christ in baptism. And there being no other way appointed, for them to come, therefore they cannot come at all. Christ says, 'Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God, as a little child, he shall not enter therein.' The anabaptist says, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God, as a man or woman, he shall not enter therein. Christ says, that men or women cannot enter into the kingdom of God, except they become as infants; that is, approach, by repentance, as near as possible to their innocence and simplicity. The anabaptist says, that infants must become as men and women; that is, be first defiled by actual sin, that they may exercise actual repentance--for innocency, it seems, is of no account---or they cannot enter into the kingdom of God. If you believe Christ, none but infants, or they whom repentance has brought to a resemblance of their innocency, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. If you believe the anabaptist, none but full grown men and women can enter therein. Christ regards innocence, and its substitute, repentance, as qualifications for baptism. The anabaptist takes age and bulk of body into the account. Choose now whom ye will follow.

5. I have considered the terms, being brought to Christ, and coming to Christ, as meaning the same thing when applied to infants. The infants who are said to have been brought to Christ, are by him spoken of as coming to him. The very same expressions are also used by St.

*

Matthew, in relating the same transaction. By parity of reason, infants are properly said to come to baptism, or to come to Christ by baptism, when their parents or sureties bring them. But however they come, whether by their own strength, or by the strength of others, they were objects of Christ's attention, and as graciously regarded by him, as if they had been men and women. He took them up in his ' arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them."

The strongest assertions that infants are incapable of repentance and faith, can here have no effect. Those infants did, on the faith of those who brought them, obtain the solemn blessing of Christ. And his blessing, I presume, was purely spiritual, It procured them neither wealth, nor honour, nor any worldly advantage-nothing but God's grace and Holy Spirit. To say it did not procure these, is to say, that Christ's blessing is a vain and insignificant ceremony. I conclude, therefore, that spiritual, as well as temporal blessings, may be procured for those who are incapable of transacting for themselves, by the faith and application of others. Such is the goodness and mercy of God, whatever may be the opinion and conduct of some, who call themselves his ministers.

Now, if the blessing of Christ did procure for those infants the grace and Holy Spirit of God, where is the absurdity of believing that baptism by Christ's appointment, and performed by his authorised minister, should procure the grace of regeneration, and the Holy Spirit for those infants, who come to it by the faith of their parents, or of those christians whose charity presents them at the holy sacrament? That the children of christian parents are as capable of receiving spiritual blessings from Christ, as those children were, who were brought to him, cannot be denied. And, we have a right to say, that the faith of christian parents will do as much for their children, as the faith of those, who brought the children to Christ, did for them. To deny this, is to set limits to the power, and goodness, and grace of God; to confine his Spirit

* Chap. xix. 13, 14, VOL. I.

within the circle of our ignorance; and bind him with the fetters of our prejudices.

6. Besides, to confine the advantage of baptism to those benefits, which arise from personal repentance and faith, is an error. Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration, by which we are born into the church of Christ, made members of his body, and put under the guidance of his Spirit. That infants are capable of these benefits, appears from this consideration; that adults are incapable of them, till, by repentance, they become like little children.

7. I have before taken notice of the love which Christ shewed for infants. That he regarded their innocence with particular favour, appears from his making them a pattern for all others, who enter into the kingdom of God. That he paid great attention to their interest, is evident from the caution he gave his disciples, not to offend them.* To offend any one, in the language of the new testament, is to put a stumbling block, or impediment in his way to cause him to fall, or tempt him to turn away from his duty, and sin against God; more particularly, to prevent his embracing, or occasion his renouncing the faith of Christ. If it be a sin to neglect the ordinance which God has appointed to introduce men into his church, they who lay infants under a necessity of such neglect, are properly said to offend them. That there is an obligation on infants to be baptised, appears from their being included in the command of Christ to his apostles, to baptise all nations-from their capacity of regeneration, and from the necessity there is of their being born again, that they may enter into the kingdom of God. As they cannot apply for themselves, they lie at the mercy of their parents. What their punishment will be if they neglect their duty, must be left to God, the righteous judge of all men. It cannot be supposed that infants shall suffer for the omission of their parents, unless they continue it after they come to years of discretion, and have been in the way of proper information: but then, the parents' fault becomes their own. That God will receive to his mercy those infants who, through the fault of their parents, die in the state of innocence, without baptism, I firmly believe; for God is not confined by his ordinances, though we are. He may do more than he hath promised -- we are bound to do all that he hath commanded. In this sentiment, the anabaptists must concur with me, or they could have no hope of happiness for those children, who die in their infant state. Let them, then, give some reason why they suppose infants to be capable of admission into the kingdom of God, in the world to come, which is the highest sense of that phrase; and yet not capable of ad. mission into the kingdom of God in this world, which is the lowest sense of it.

* Matt. xviii. 6.

8. There are several expressions of the prophets, which mention the coming in of the Gentiles to the church of God in such a universal manner, that, without doing violence to them, we must suppose their full accomplishment is yet to come; and, that the time is approaching when, according to the determination of God, all the nations of the earth shall gladly obey his call, and come into the kingdom of Messiah. He is to ' have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.'* All the ends of the world shall be turned unto him, and ' all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him.'† 'All kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall do him service. '‡'The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.' Nay, they shall all know the Lord, from the least of them, unto the greatest of them." That these prophecies, and several more of similar import, which might easily be collected, are not yet fulfilled, may be learned from St. Paul, who makes the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles to the kingdom of Christ, the consequence, or at least, the concomitant of the coming in of the Jews.

When this glorious event comes to pass, and all the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our

* Psalm ii. 8. Jerem. xxxi. 34.

† Psa. xxii. 27.

Rom. xi.

+ Psa. Ixxii. 11.

Isaiah xi. 9.

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Lord, and of his Christ, must all the infants of the world be excluded, as unqualified and unfit for the kingdom of Christ? They must either be in the kingdom of Christ, or out of it; for there is no middle state. If they are in Christ's kingdom, they are in a state of salvation. If they are out of it, they are of the world, and God will deal with them as he sees right. It cannot, I think, be an extravagant supposition, to estimate infants at a fifteenth part of the inhabitants of any country: and, can we say those prophecies are fully accomplished, when so large a portion of mankind are shut out from the glorious privilege of being the children of God?

9. I have one remark more to make : When the anabaptists first app 'ared, the christian church universal was in the full posses ion and practice of infant baptism. The universality of the practice shews that it was of apostolical institution. No other principle can account for it. To vilify this practice, and represent it as an innovation destructive of the church of Christ, without being able to produce one text of scripture against it, or that can be made to discountenance it, unless by force and violence, is uncandid, unfair, and unchristian, and demands the serious consideration of every sensible man of the party. I know not how to account for it, but upon the principle that nothing is to be done in the church of Christ, but what is expressly commanded. But, if this principle be true, the anabaptists must not only exclude infants from the one sacrament, but women from the other.

The force of habit and the prejudices of education are seldom overcome by reason and argument. But, with people who are not under the influence of habitual prejudice, we may hope for a candid attention to what has been said on the subject of infant baptism. Where this is given, I persuade myself, that notwithstanding the positiveness, and dogmatical assurance of many of those who oppose it, it will appear that there is, not only sufficient warrant in holy scripture for the practice, but that it is a duty as strongly enjoined by Christ, as if he had expressed it in direct terms. Noise, and clamor, and positive

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