OBS. 3. It is not the reception of the heavenly gift of grace but the blessing connected with it, that depends on our faith. It operates unto the salvation of him who receives and employs it in faith, but unto the condemnation of the unbelieving and scornful.

Baptism is "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Tit. 3 : 5), connected in this present life with the water of Baptism. (John 3: 5.) We are received by it into the fellowship both of the death and of the life of Christ (Rom. 6: 3, 4), adopted as the children of God, and made the heirs of eternal life. (Rom. 8: 17.) In the old man, who is flesh, born of the flesh, the new man is born, spirit of the Spirit, of the water of Baptism, by virtue of the Word and promise of God. (John 3: 6.) Every baptized person is thus born again, and has a two-fold being in himself—the image of Adam, or, the old man, in so far as he was begotten and born of father and mother, -and the image of Christ, or the new man, in so far as he is born again of water and of the Spirit. But both natures, the old and the new, constitute one person only, and the point of union or the central point is the individual's self-consciousness, his personal self. It is the appointed task of this present life of probation and education, to conduct the new creature in us that is born of God by Baptism, to the maturity of a perfect man in Christ (Eph. 4: 13), in order that it may govern and penetrate the old man, sanctifying and purifying the latter more and more, until the old man is changed and lost in the new creature. (Eph. 4:22; Col. 39.) Further, to be baptized, that is, to be born again, is not all that is necessary to salvation, for when the growth and the improvement of the creature that is born, are not maintained by a sustenance, a superintendence and an education adapted to it, the result is, that it pines away and ultimately dies.

OBS. 1. The selection of water, as the visible element of the Sacrament of Baptism, is not an unimportant or accidental circumstance. Water is, on the contrary, better adapted to be the vehicle of baptismal grace than any other earthly element, because the natural effect of its application corresponds to the supernatural effect

of baptismal grace, and is an image of it. When water is employed in Baptism, it is no longer regarded as merely a purifying element, but also, and indeed, pre-eminently, as one that begets, fecundates, vivifies and regenerates. When water was employed by the ancients in their religious rites, it was beheld less in the former than in this latter aspect, which is as plainly sanctioned by the Scriptures as it is by nature itself. (2 Pet. 3:5; Gen. 1: 2, 20—2:5; Job 14: 9.) OBS. 2.-The Lord says: "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned" (Mark 16: 16), whether he is baptized or whether he is not baptized. The wise and wholesome appointment of God has connected with Baptism the privilege of sharing in the blessings of salvation that flow from Christ's life, sufferings, death, resurrection and exaltation at the right hand of God; these blessings can be obtained by no other means, and in no other way, save by Baptism. We cannot, therefore, be saved without Baptism; but, on the other hand, Baptism without Faith not only confers no benefit, but also aggravates the individual's natural guilt. Now that Faith which is indispensable, in addition to Baptism, is of a two-fold nature:-it is prevenient and also consequential, that is, it precedes Baptism, or, it is the condition essential to the right reception of that Sacrament; it also follows Baptism, or, it is the effect produced by this right reception. The conditions on the fulfilment of which any advantages resulting from Baptism depend are not a thorough understanding, but a simple knowledge, of the way of salvation,—not that mature faith of which the evidence is afforded in a Christian life, but only an assent to the divine appointments, and a wish and ardent desire to obtain divine blessings. The latter frame of mind may be produced in the natural man, even before the blessings of salvation are really communicated, and must necessarily exist, before these blessings can be fully and profitably received; the former, or the Christian character, can be acquired afterwards only, as the effect produced by the right reception and the right application of the blessings of salvation (in the individual's illumination, justification and sanctification, ?? 192, 193). Prevenient Faith (that which precedes) is the rich soil in which Baptism is deposited as the seed consequential Faith (that which follows) is Saving Faith, and is the fruit produced by that seed.

OBS. 3.-The Christian Church introduced Infant Baptism with entire unanimity by virtue of the Spirit by which it is guided into all truth; it has maintained the necessity of such Baptism with firmness and success in opposition to sectarians and separatists, and never can consent to abandon it. The arguments that have been

advanced against the Baptism of infants proceed from erroneous views or a want of understanding. The assertion that the baptismal formula in Matt. 28 19 (for the correct translation of which see

159. 2) is unfavorable to it, can be dictated by ignorance alone. The proof has never yet been furnished that the Apostles did not baptize infants; but even if it could be furnished, no argument could be thence derived against the present practice of the Church. For the Church is called, under the superintendence of the Spirit by whom it is guided into all truth, to cultivate and foster the apostolic doctrines and usages, and conduct them to the highest and most complete development which they are capable of receiving.—The objections derived from the nature itself of Baptism seem to be more important. It has been said that the child cannot be baptized, as it cannot yet possess either knowledge or faith, and, in addition, as its own consent has not yet been obtained. Now, it is unquestionably true, that salvation itself, and consequently, Baptism also, cannot be received through compulsion. But when Baptism is administered to the child, compulsion or violence is as little employed, as it is when human knowledge and learning are communicated; for these are often imparted not only without, but also in opposition to, the wish and consent of the child. The decision made by the parents is at once assumed to be the decision made by a minor; and, in the same manner, their Faith also, in a certain sense (in so far, at least, as faith is the condition on which Baptism depends, namely, assent, wish, desire, according to OBS. 2, above), is assumed to be the Faith of the child, previous to the age in which it may act with self-consciousnets, as an independent individual. The bodily life of the child, previous to its birth, is identified with the mother's bodily life, and does not acquire an independent form, until the birth has occurred; thus, too, the mental life of the child, even after its birth, is identified with the mental life of the parents, until the life of its own mind attains maturity and independence, and becomes clearly and distinctly self-conscious. It is undoubtedly necessary that the adult who receives Baptism, should properly understand, or, rather, be acquainted with, the offered salvation, but it is necessary for the following reason only-that he may possess or acquire a wish and desire for the divine blessings, and assent to the mode in which they are conferred. But when the want of an expression of the child's own will is supplied by the distinct expression of the will and consent of the parents, as it occurs in the case of Infant Baptism, these claims are naturally not presented to the child, but are transferred to the parents. When the parents do not satisfy these

claims, either through unbelief or ignorance, the next reference is to the Sponsors of the baptized child, and both are supported by the whole Church, which, like a spiritual mother, fulfils the duties, and exercises the rights of a parent.

OBS. 4.—That awakening which occurs when life is restored after sickness, a swoon or apparent death, cannot be mistaken for the bodily birth with which the operations of life commence; as little ought regeneration to be confounded with a spiritual awakening. When that communion with the Lord which was established through Baptism is not maintained and continually renewed by means of appropriate spiritual care and sustenance, a spiritual state ensues which corresponds to bodily sleep, a swoon or apparent bodily death, and which, if it is not seasonably corrected, terminates in actual or eternal death. The recovery of an individual from such a deathlike sleep through the illumination and calling of the Holy Ghost, is termed his awakening.

$ 190. Continuation. (The Lord's Supper.)

The baptized individual now receives in the Lord's Supper (§ 150. 3), that sustenance which the new man in him needs. Like the mother who imparts to the infant reposing on her bosom the nourishment derived from her own flesh and blood, the Redeemer's eternal love, which is deeper than a mother's love (Isai. 49: 15), sustains believers as "new-born babes" (1 Pet. 2 : 2), born of the Spirit of Christ, with his own flesh and blood, in order that they all may come "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." (Eph. 4 : 13.) Even as Christ took part of our flesh and blood (which sin and death had corrupted, Heb. 2: 14; Rom. 8: 3), in order that he might be made like unto us in all things (Heb. 2 : 17), so, too, it is necessary that we should be made like unto him in all things, by receiving and taking part of his flesh and blood, given and broken for us at his death, glorified at his resurrection, and, at his ascension, raised to the full participation of his eternal glory, and, consequently, of the omnipresence of his divine nature also. (§ 160. 2.) And, in order that we may be enabled to receive this supersensual food into our own nature, which is, in the present life, endowed with the bodily senses, and that we may be assured by our senses of such reception, he has enveloped that

food in Bread and Wine, which are the representatives and most expressive signs of all nutritive power.

OBS. Four different views of the relation existing between the body and the blood of Christ, on the one hand, and the bread and wine, on the other, in the Lord's Supper, have acquired prominence. The Roman Catholic church teaches that the bread and wine are changed by the consecration into the body and blood of Christ, so that after that act, the body and blood alone remain. (Transubstantiation.) To this view, the one which Zwingli maintained, was diametrically opposed; he taught that the bread and wine were merely symbols and signs of Christ's body and blood, that the former are and continue to be bread and wine alone, that they merely represent and remind us of Christ's body aud blood, and that the design and the blessing of the Sacrament consist in the remembrance of Christ, which is rendered more vivid by such a solemn and significant act, and which also gives new vitality to faith. But the words in 1 Cor. 10: 16; "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ," at once show, that both the Roman Catholic and the Zwinglian views are unscriptural, for if there is a communion between the bread and body, and between the wine and blood, both must necessarily be present, and be united with each other. And, in particular, the words of the institution: THIS is my body-THIS is my blood," which are the words of a testament and must therefore be understood in a strict and literal sense, contradict Zwingli's view. It is, further, contradicted by the words of the apostle in 1 Cor. 11: 27, 29, according to which he who eats and drinks unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and eats and drinks damnation [judgment] to himself, because he does not discern the Lord's body; now in such a case, it is evident that that Lord must be present. Besides, this view of the Lord's Supper, deprives it entirely of its character as a necessary institu tion; for such a remembrance of Christ, and such an increase of faith can be produced to the same extent, without the assistance of the Sacrament, by many other means that may be employed. The true central point between these extremes, is occupied, in accordance with the Scriptures, by Luther's doctrine, namely, That both the bread and wine, and the body and blood, are essentially and truly present, and, That that which is heavenly, is received both by the believer and by the unbeliever in, with and under the terrestrial elements. Calvin's doctrine attempts to establish an agreement between those of Luther and Zwingli. According to his view, the