words I will only add Hooker's comment. "We are plainly taught of God, that the seed of Faithful Parentage is holy from the very birth." 1

Indeed God looks upon the Children of the Church as his own Children, as is evident from the following affecting expostulation of God with his people, during their captivity in Babylon. "Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them [idols] to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?"?

"3

Encouraged by these repeated promises of mercy and love to his Children, all of which the believing Parent will apply to himself and his Child by faith; he will find yet larger encouragement in that act of condescending love, when the Saviour confirmed these promises of mercy in his acceptance of the "Infants,' that were brought to him, and in bestowing his blessing upon them. Will these Parents form a false judgment of our Church's intention in selecting this one passage from the scripture, as the ground of Baptismal blessing, without mentioning one of the above promises;

1 See Ec. Pol. B. v. c. 60. See also this text amply discussed by Wall. "Hist. of Infant Baptism," i. 123. 3 Luke xviii. 15.

2 Ezek. xvi. 20, 21.

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if they should infer, that she conceives the virtue of all the promises to the Children of believers, to be concentrated in this one act of our Lord, when he received Infants into his arms and blessed them? In this act is something beyond promise; it is not a promise given, but a promise acted out; not a word of mercy spoken, but an act of mercy accomplished. "Ye perceive," says the Church," how by his outward gesture and deed he declared his good will toward them, for "-he did not give a promise; but he ratified every promise heretofore given to the Children of believers, by his authentic act and deed;— "he embraced them in his arms, he laid his hands upon them, and blessed them." this accomplishment of promise she encourages the faith of the believer; "Wherefore we being thus persuaded of the good will of our heavenly Father towards this infant, declared by his son Jesus Christ, and nothing doubting," &c: and in the address to the Sponsors, shortly after, she adds, " ye have heard also that our Lord Jesus Christ hath promised in his Gospel, to grant all these things that ye have prayed for which promise he for his part will most surely keep and perform." In the first sentence the congregation is reminded of "the good will of our heavenly Father" towards "infants," first the subject of promise, that promise afterwards practically" declared by his Son Jesus Christ," in his loving acceptance of them and in the

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second sentence the Sponsors are encouraged by the general promise " ask and ye shall have,' to believe that our Lord Jesus Christ will grant all these things that ye have prayed for." Here then are great and abundant promises, promises ratified by the practical kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the days of his flesh, full of encouragement and peace and the benefit of these promises, these faithful Parents will apply to themselves and their offspring.

Nor will they stop here: they will on so important a question, as that of the favor of God towards their Child, not rest merely on the general assurance of the mercy of God towards him in the promise, they will ask further for some particular token, sign, seal and pledge of this mercy in a Sacrament especially appointed for this purpose. If the Child, according to the promise, be a gracious Child, as the offspring of the believer, he belongs to the family of grace; and there must surely be some visible mode appointed by God for his admission into that family, a mode by which the Church shall testify the reception of the Child into her bosom, and afford the Parents and Sponsors, and the Child himself, when he arrives at an age to comprehend his own privileges, a pledge to assure them that such Child does really belong to the family of Christ.

And on looking into the page of scripture, and observing the general practice of the Church

LETTER II.

THE PARENTS.

If 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.

Ir 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," 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.