But indeed, My Dear Friend, will not the plain truth of the case justify us in further remarking, that the plan of education laid down by our Church in the three formularies already specified, is only regarded by us as calculated to occupy the attention of our childish years while yet under maternal tuition; or that it may do well enough for the instruction of our Charity Schools and the children of the poor : and when we enter upon Greek and Latin authors, is not this very entrance into heathen literature the usual signal for laying aside the early instructions of our former years? or at least of admitting them to so secondary a place in our education, (if indeed it can be called secondary,) that from mere desuetude they are treated with indifference and neglect. And thus these admirable formularies become little more than a dead letter, a rule without practice, a system without observance, a privilege without enjoyment. And can it be the subject of wonder to a reflecting mind, that

the education given by our Public Schools as they were established at the Reformation, or before or after that period. At Winchester and Eton founded before the Reformation, and at the Charter House, founded since, when the purity of the principles of the Reformation had declined, Hebrew is not taught; while at St. Paul's, Westminster, and Merchant Taylor's, founded during Reforming times, the Hebrew language still continues to be taught. The opportunity of early instruction in the rudiments of knowledge, once lost, is seldom regained amidst the occupations of after life; a remark which many of us can confirm by painful experience.

LETTER II.

THE PARENTS.

Ir we ask then, how are the benefits of Infant baptism to be secured, so as to answer the ends of a holy education? we answer, from faith in the general promises made to believing Parents in behalf of their Children, and particularly in the promise made at the celebration of this Sacrament to all who partake of it in faith. And these relate to the PARENTS-the SPONSORS-the INFANT baptised-and the CHURCH.

It is surely no small consolation to Christian Parents and to those who belong to the communion of our Church, in common with others who have entered into the married state, 66 reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God," "that they may see their Children christianly and virtuously brought up" to the " praise and honour" of God. According to the doctrine of our Church, founded on the word of God, the loveliest Child living is " by nature born in sin, and the Child of wrath," "forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin, and none

can enter into the kingdom of God except he be regenerate and born anew of water and the Holy Ghost." It must therefore be the leading desire of these Parents' hearts that their Children should be partakers of covenant mercies, and should be interested in all the blessings connected with that name, than which there is none other given "under heaven whereby we must be saved." And as Baptism has ever been considered by the Church of Christ as that initiating Sacrament, by which the Child receives the solemn investiture of his privileges as a believer in Christ; and as it is eminently so considered by that portion of the Church to which they belong; while they will hope for no blessing upon their Child but as faith draws it from the promise of a gracious God, so they will be desirous that every blessing of the promise should be sealed to him by that Sacrament which is its sign and pledge.

It might be expected, that, as our Church takes for granted, that all the Infants of her members will be presented for the sign and seal of their Church-membership, in the initiatory Sacrament of Baptism, any formal mention of the grounds of Infant-baptism might be spared, and that nothing more was necessary than to insist on the privileges and duties of this Sacra

1 Acts iv. 12.

ment, and to encourage all within the pale of the Church to enjoy the one and to discharge the other. Our Church assumes that all who are engaged in the ordinance, are "persuaded of the good-will of our heavenly Father towards this Infant, declared by his Son Jesus Christ: and" are "nothing doubting but that he favour-ably alloweth this charitable work of ours, in bringing this Infant to his holy Baptism." It assumes, therefore, that all such are convinced of the excellence of the rite, and of the propriety of its institution. And to such all further mention of the grounds of Infant-baptism might seem superfluous. But so low is the general estimate of Baptism among us, that it is to be feared, that few have taken pains to inform themselves of the grounds on which the Baptism of Infants rests. The introduction, therefore, of the more obvious reasons for the administration of Baptism to Infants seems indispensable. I. I say "the more obvious reasons," for it would be quite inconsistent with the plan of this letter, as well as unjust to the subject itself, to attempt any thing like a complete statement of all the grounds that may be adduced in favour of Infant-baptism, within the short compass proposed. What I shall offer, by the blessing of God, are such as are conclusive in deciding my own mind on the subject; and if they should appear to be insufficient to any who may favor

them with a perusal, I must refer such to the authors who have written professedly on the question.

I am aware that the acceptance which this subject will find, will vary with the quarter from which it is presented. If it come from the regions of controversy, and address itself dryly to the mind, apart from those circumstances in which fallen man is found as a rebel to his God, desirous of reconciliation to his favour, and anxious for every mark and pledge which may assure to him and his, the possession of that favor; it will meet with a cold reception probably, and produce no greater effect than the attempts which have preceded it. From those regions of controversy, therefore, where mere mind reigns devoid of feeling, and intolerant prejudice banishes the kindlier dispositions of the heart, I make no approach. Religion is only really acceptable to a mind rightly disposed, or what the Scripture calls an "understanding heart." We do not so much need the logical acuteness of the head to comprehend ideas, as the kindly disposition of the heart to approve and to embrace them. With all the advantages ever yet ascribed to it, I am one, who have long thought that controversy has done more harm to the Church than it has ever done good.1 Truth

1 If the proverbial allusion to express the bitterness of human hatred, is not the hatred of philosophers, or the hatred of poli