assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in, through Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end."

"THE PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE, IS THE SEED OF THE CHURCH OF GOD.":

To attempt one spiritual act, except on this ground, is PRESUMPTION; not to expect the most consummate blessedness to flow from the confident application of the promise, is UN

BELIEF.

1 Hooker, b. v. s. 63.

LETTER VII.

SENTIMENTS OF THE REFORMERS.

BUT it is highly important to ascertain whether this view of the subject of Baptism, and the interpretation given above be confirmed by the Reformers. It will therefore be my object in this chapter, with the blessing of God, first, to show the concurrent testimony of our own Reformers, on this subject; and then to establish this by the united voice of the Churches of the Reformed. And as it appears to me, the result of the following extracts may be expressed in the opening words of King Edward the Sixth's Catechism." It is the duty of them all, whom Christ hath redeemed by his death, that they not only be servants to obey, but also children to inherit." "To obey" is the duty of an inferior, "to inherit" is the privilege of a child: and it is that discharge of duty which is the rich privilege of holiness, that is the characteristic feature of the Gospel. Into this it will be seen that the Child of the believer is admitted at his Baptism.

TINDAL, Martyr.

"And to know how contrary this law is unto our nature, and how it is damnation not to have this law written in our hearts, though we never commit the deeds: and how there is no other means to be saved from this damnation than through repentance toward the law, and faith in Christ's blood, which are the very inward baptism of our souls, and the washing and the dipping of our bodies in the water is the outward sign. The plunging of the body under the water signifieth that we repent and profess to fight against sin and lusts, and to kill them every day more and more, with the help of God, and our diligence in following the doctrine of Christ, and the leading of his spirit, and that we believe to be washed from our natural damnation in which we are born, and from all the wrath of the law, and from all the infirmities and weaknesses that remain in us, after we have given our consent unto the law, and yielded ourselves to be scholars thereof, and from all the imperfectness of all our deeds done with cold love, and from all actual sin, which shall chance on us while we enforce the contrary, and ever fight there against, and hope to sin no more. And thus repentance and faith begin at our baptism and first professing the laws of God, and continue unto our lives end, and grow as we grow in the Spirit. For the perfecter we be, the

greater is our repentance, and the stronger our faith. And thus as the Spirit and doctrine on God's part, and repentance and faith on our part beget us anew in Christ: even so they make us grow and wax perfect, and save us unto the end, and never leave us until all sin he put off, and we clean purified, and full formed and fashioned after the similitude and likeness of the perfectness of our Saviour Jesus, whose gift all is."

"But when we believe in God, and then do all that is in our might, and not tempt him, then is God true to abide by his promise, and to help us, and perform alone, when our strength is past.”—“And therefore, because we be never taught the profession of our baptism we remain always unlearned, as well the spirituality, for all their great clergy and high schools, as we say, as the lay people. And now because the lay and unlearned people are taught these first principles of our profession, therefore they read the Scripture, and understand and delight therein."1 -"Yet there is sin remaining in us, but it is not reckoned, because of faith and of the Spirit, which fight against it wherefore we have enough to do all our lives long to tame our bodies, and to compel the members to obey the Spirit and not the appetites: that thereby we might be like unto Christ's death and resurrection, and might fulfil our baptism, which signi

1 Fathers of the English Church, vol. i.

pp. 31-33.

fieth the mortifying of sins, and the new life of grace. For this battle ceaseth not in us, until the last breath, and until that sin be utterly slain by the death of the body.'

"The faith of a repentant soul in Christ's blood doth justify only, and the sacrament standeth in as good stead as a lively preacher; and as the preacher justifieth me not, but my faith in the doctrine: even so the sign justifieth not, but the faith in the promise which the sacrament signifieth and preacheth. And to preach is all the virtue of the sacrament; and where the sacraments preach not, there they have no virtue at all. And, sir, we teach not as ye do, to believe in the sacrament or in the holy church, but to believe the sacrament and holy church." "

2

FRITH, Martyr.

"This outward sign doth neither give us the Spirit of God, neither yet grace, that is, the favour of God. For if through the washing in the water, the spirit of grace were given, then should it follow, that whosoever were baptized in water should receive this precious gift; but that is not so, wherefore I must needs conclude, that this outward sign, by any power or influence that it hath, bringeth not the spirit or favour of God.-Moreover if the Spirit of God

1

Fathers, &c. vol. i. p. 61.

2 Ibid, vol. i. p. 277.