^STofPRiScf^ 
 
 I A. 
 
 BV 811 .C764 1850 
 Croly, George, 1780-1860 
 The theory of baptism 
 
THE THEORY OF BAPTISM. 
 
 THE 
 
 REGENEEATION OF INFANTS 
 
 BAPTISM 
 
 VINDICATED ON THE TESTIMONY 
 
 HOLT SCRIPTUEE, CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY, 
 
 THE CHUECH OP ENOLAND. 
 
 BY THK RHV. 
 
 GEORGE CROLY, LL.D. 
 
 RKCTOR OF THK UNITED PARISHES OF ST. STEPHEN, WALIiROOK, 
 AND ST. BENET, LONDON. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 FRANCIS & .JOHN RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. Paul's church yard, and watkrloo place. 
 
 1850. 
 
LONDON : 
 (ilLBERT & KIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 
 ST. John's square. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Introduction v 
 
 I. Ancient Baptism 1 
 
 II. The Two Sacraments 27 
 
 III. Regeneration 43 
 
 IV. The Providential Law of Baptism 57 
 
 V. The Forms of Baptism 86 
 
 VI. Sponsors 104 
 
 VII. The Articles 114 
 
 VIII. Calvinistic Baptism 132 
 
 IX. Anabaptism 146 
 
 X. The Reformers 172 
 
 XI. Circumcision and Baptism 191 
 
 XII. The Second Advent 213 
 
 A 2 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 My object in this volume is, to furnish an original 
 Treatise on Baptism, — succinct, yet sufficient ; di- 
 vested of pedantry, yet containing all the necessary 
 knowledge ; and fearlessly expressing opinions, with- 
 out degenerating into the bitterness of controversy. 
 
 I believe, that all essential principles are within 
 the reach of human discovery; that all essential 
 questions are simple ; and that religion, with all its 
 mysteries, conceals nothing from man which it is for 
 his good to know : and believing, as the result of 
 all, that truth is always attainable by sincerity, I 
 offer this Theory of Baptism. 
 
 Works on Baptism are known to have occupied 
 the intelligence of some among the earliest teachers 
 of the Church, to have been among the labours of their 
 ablest successors, and to have taken a conspicuous 
 place in the controversial writings of the Reforma- 
 tion. Valuable performances are still produced from 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 time to time on the subject ; but, in our day, they 
 have been chiefly limited to portions of the general 
 doctrine. My present purpose is, to give that doctrine 
 entire ; and, showing the consistency of its features, 
 and the ground of their connexion, the origin of its 
 principles, and the importance of their practice, to 
 supply the Protestant with a Manual of Baptism. 
 
 I need scarcely say, that no doctrine can be of 
 higher importance, for none more directly combines 
 spiritual effect with practical necessity. Extinguish 
 Baptism, and we unchristianize Christianity ; impair 
 it, and we insult religion ; leave it to the caprice of 
 the heretic, and we shall soon see it at the mercy of 
 the infidel. 
 
 The sudden rise of dissension on this subject 
 demands the utmost vigilance of the Church. In 
 our feverish time, a touch turns into a distemper. 
 The present disputes may partially subside, but the 
 groimd stripped by the feet of the combatants will not 
 soon recover its vegetation ; it may much more pro- 
 bably turn into a morass, swelled and deepened by 
 many a contribution of evil, and supply a long course 
 of contagion. There never was a doctrinal dispute, 
 which, in so short a period, exhibited a larger variety 
 of the shapes of error, a more helpless confusion of 
 principles, more daring assumptions, or more pusil- 
 lanimous evasions. No controversy of England will 
 add a more repulsive chapter to the Ecclesiastical 
 annals of our time. 
 
INTRODUCTION. VU 
 
 It may justly be suj3posed, that I have no inten- 
 tion of questioning the authority of the Tribunal : and 
 I have as little intention of testing its character. I 
 make no inquiry into the circumstances of its origin ; 
 and certainly have no desire to plunge into that mass 
 of motives, which, in every instance, enwrap and en- 
 cumber, and often ferment and fester round, the chief 
 acts of public power. But, there are objections to a 
 Mixed Tribunal, in the nature of things. 
 
 Without denying that it may have the due feeling 
 for spiritual difficulties ; that it may acquire the due 
 knowledge for spiritual questions ; that it may ex- 
 hibit the due impartiality in the midst of conflicting 
 interests ; and may apply itself to its repulsive task 
 with a zeal which scorns to turn Law into a formality, 
 and leave decision behind ; still, the constitution of 
 such a Tribunal places the Church in difficulty. 
 Standing before that court, it loses a privilege con- 
 ceded to the lowest condition of defence; it cannot 
 challenge its jury. The time may thus come, in the 
 possibilities of the future, when a Mixed Tribunal 
 may be the very last to which, with safety of con- 
 science, or in the exercise of a sound discretion, 
 the Church would submit its cause; when it might 
 see a Socinian deciding on a Trinitarian doctrine, — 
 a Presbyterian on Episcopacy, — an Independent on 
 Church discipline, — or an avowed unbeliever on the 
 whole system of Revelation. 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 If we are told, that this is but like a trial before 
 the Bench in Westminster Hall ; our answer is, that 
 the judges are men trained to jurisprudence ; that 
 they have a professional character to maintain, and a 
 professional penalty to fear ; that they cannot escape 
 from the results of error, or throw up their responsi- 
 bility with their commission. The inherent evil of 
 all temporary judicatures is their intangible nature : 
 while retribution attempts to grasp them, they are 
 gone : public opinion, the Nemesis of our day, has 
 no wings to follow a phantom. 
 
 I now give in outline the Judgment of the Judi- 
 cial Committee. 
 
 " The doctrine held by Mr. Gorham appears to us 
 to be this. That Baptism is a Sacrament generally 
 necessary to salvation ; but, that the grace of Regene- 
 ration does not so necessarily accompany the act of 
 Baptism that Regeneration invariably takes place 
 in Baptism ; that the grace may be granted before, 
 in, or after Baptism ; that Baptism is an effectual 
 sign of grace, by which God works invisibly in us, 
 but only in such as worthily receive it, in them 
 alone it has a wholesome effect : and that, without 
 reference to the qualification of the recipient, it is 
 not in itself an effectual sign of grace : that infants 
 baptized, and dying before actual sin, are certainly 
 saved ; but that in no case is Regeneration in 
 Baptism unconditional. 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 "This question must be decided by the Articles 
 and the Liturgy, without reference to the supposed 
 opinions of their authors, or their supposed tenden- 
 cies to Calvinistic or Arminian doctrines. As we 
 now have them, they must be considered as the final 
 result of the discussion which took place. 
 
 " The Church having resolved to frame Articles of 
 faith, as a means of avoiding diversities of opinion, 
 and establishing consent touching true religion, must 
 be presumed to have decided such of the questions 
 then under discussion as it was thought practicable 
 to decide. But it could not have intended to 
 attempt the determination of all the questions 
 which had arisen, or might arise ; other points and 
 questions being left for future decision by competent 
 authority ; and, in the mean time, to the private 
 judgment of pious and conscientious persons." 
 
 The Judgment, in the first instance, adverts to the 
 Articles alone. — " The Articles drawn up in 1536, 
 distinctly affirm infant regeneration. In the Book, 
 called ' A necessary Erudition for any Christian 
 Man,' or the 'King's Book,' printed in 1543, infant 
 salvation by Baptism is affirmed. But the Articles of 
 1552 and 1562 express the necessity of receiving 
 Baptism rightly ; and the latter express, with respect 
 to infants, that their Baptism is to be retained, as 
 most agreeable to the Church." 
 
 The Judgment then adverts to the Prayer Book, of 
 which it says, that " there are parts of it which are 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 strictly dogmatical, declaring what is to he believed, or 
 not doubted:' " Those parts which are in their nature 
 dogmatical must be considered as declaratory of 
 doctrine^ 
 
 " The Judgment does not decide on the soundness 
 or unsoundness of the doctrines. Its duty extends 
 only to the consideration of that which is by law 
 established to be the doctrine of the Church of 
 England, on the true and legal construction of her 
 Articles and Formularies." 
 
 The opinions of various old leading divines, 
 supposed to resemble Mr. Gorham's, are considered 
 as showing "at least the liberty which has been 
 allowed in maintaining such doctrine." 
 
 The Report ends with stating, that " the sentence 
 passed in the Arches Court ought to be reversed ; 
 and that the Bishop of Exeter had not shown 
 sufficient cause, why he did not institute Mr. 
 Gorham." 
 
 This decision has been objected to by a large 
 portion of the Church. The first point which may 
 occur to the observer, is the remarkable ease with 
 which the appellant seems to have established his 
 own sense of the Articles. The first rule of all 
 argument is, that where two statements of a law 
 exist, differing in clearness, the clearer is to be 
 taken as the interpreter of the more obscure. On 
 the doctrine of Regeneration, the Church has two 
 such statements; that of tlic Baptismal Service, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 tlie most direct, distinct, and unquestionable, which 
 can be expressed in language. In that service, 
 the regeneration of the infant is first prayed for 
 as a Divine blessing; on his Baptism it is de- 
 clared that " this infant is regenerated ;" and the 
 Service closes with a repetition of the assurance, 
 and a thanksgiving for the blessing. Nothing can 
 be more palpably unequivocal than this proof of the 
 mind of the Church. But the language of the 
 Articles is less clear (it shall be subsequently shown 
 that it is equally unequivocal) ; and this comparative 
 obscurity is to be adopted as tlie interpreter of the 
 clear ! Such is the logic ; we shall now see the 
 authority. 
 
 The appellant proposes the Articles as his au- 
 thority, and pronounces them to be ^'precise and 
 do()matic(dr They are neither. It may be only a 
 matter of astonishment how any man, acquainted 
 with their history, or who had ever even glanced 
 over their contents, could hope to impress such an 
 opinion. 
 
 The Thirty-nine Articles are the very reverse of 
 " precise and dogmatical." They are Articles of com- 
 prehension; in the phrase of their day. Articles 
 of peace ; drawn up and prepared for general accept- 
 ance ; and, for that i)urpose, made as (jcneral as 
 possible. 
 
 There are two ways of settling controversy : one 
 by exhausting the argument, and the other bv 
 silencing the arguers. The latter was the way taken 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 by James the First, and this was notoriously the 
 meaning of the title prefixed to the Articles : 
 " Agreed on, for avoiding all diversities of ojDinions, 
 and for establishing of consent." The Judgment 
 misconceives this title. The royal road to universal 
 consent was simply, by forbidding to differ. 
 
 I now refer to Burnet's opinion on the Articles. 
 After alluding to the royal mode of settling contro- 
 versy, he gives us his own two conclusions from 
 their history. 
 
 The one is, " that the subscription does import 
 an assent to the Article ;" and the other, that an 
 Article, " being conceived in such general words, that 
 it can admit of different literal and grammatical 
 senses, both sides may subscribe to the Article, 
 with a good conscience, and without any equi- 
 vocation." 
 
 Nothing can be wider than a comprehension, 
 which thus takes in both sides at once. He then 
 gives an example of three meanings in one Article, 
 all separate, and yet all, as he conceives, allowable. 
 
 " The Third Article, concerning Christ's descent 
 into Hell, is capable of three different senses; and 
 all the three are both literal and grammatical. The 
 first is, that Christ descended locally into Hell, and 
 preached to the spirits there in prison. A second 
 sense of which that Article is capable, is, that by 
 Hell is meant the grave, according to the signifi- 
 cation of the word in the Hebrew. A third sense 
 is, that by Hell, according to the signification of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 Greek word, is meant the place or region of spirits 
 separated from their bodies. 
 
 Burnet then observes, that " all those senses differ 
 very much from one another, and yet they are all 
 senses that are literal and grammatical ; so that, in 
 which of those senses soever a man conceives the 
 Article, he may subscribe it, and he does no way 
 prevaricate in so doing." The Articles are for 'peace. 
 
 " If men would therefore understand all the other 
 Articles in the same largeness^ and with the same 
 equity, there would not be that occasion given for 
 unjust censure that there has been. Where, then, 
 the Articles are conceived in large and general 
 words, and have not special and restrained terms in 
 them, we ought to take that for a sure indication, 
 that the Church does not intend to tie up men too 
 severely to particular opinions ; but that she leaves 
 all to such a liberty as is agreeable with the purity of 
 the faith ; and this seems sufficient to explain the 
 title of the Articles, and the subscriptions that are 
 required of the Clergy to them." 
 
 There can be no question, that, in the opinion of 
 this recognized interpreter of the Articles, and justly 
 received authority, — for Burnet was a very able, and, 
 what is more to the purpose, a very honest man, — 
 the Articles were simply a general declaration of 
 doctrine, extending to the utmost stretch of rational 
 comprehension, and extending, for the sake — not of 
 establishing dogmas, but of appeasing controversy. 
 
Xiy INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Paley, the later authority, who, though not infalli- 
 ble, retains the weight of a man of capacity, and of 
 especial learning on the subject, speaks almost with 
 contempt, of imagining the Articles to be any other 
 than Articles of generalization. 
 
 " Those who contend that nothing less can justify 
 subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles, than the 
 actual belief of each and every separate proposition 
 contained in them, must suppose that the legislature 
 expected the consent of ten thousand men, in per- 
 petual succession, not to one controverted proposition, 
 but to many hundreds." 
 
 He then proceeds to state the actual intents of 
 the legislature. " They intended to exclude from 
 offices in the Church — 1. all abetters of Popery : 
 2. Anabaptists, who were at that time a powerful 
 party on the continent : 3. the Puritans, who were 
 hostile to the Episcopal constitution ; and in general, 
 the members of such leading sects, or foreign esta- 
 blishments, as threatened to overthrow our own." 
 
 All this is palpably opposed to the assertion ; that 
 the Articles are '■^precise and dogmatical." 
 
 Paley, in adverting to the practical subterfuge, 
 which may be sought for in the later laxity of disci- 
 pline, lays down the obvious law of the case. "The 
 inquiry concerning subscription, is ' quis imposuit ? ' 
 and 'quo animo ? ' 
 
 " The Bishop who receives the subscription, is 
 7iot the imposer ; any more tlian the clerk of tlio 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 court, who administers tlie oath to tlie jury and 
 witnesses, is the person who imposes it : nor, conse- 
 quently, is the private opinion or interpretation of 
 the Bishop of any signification to the subscriber, one 
 way or otlier. 
 
 Of the drawers-up of the Articles, whose private 
 opinions we are now so zealously urged to examine, 
 for the purpose of diluting their public declarations ; 
 Paley says, "The Compilers of the Thirty-nine 
 Articles are not to be considered as the imposers of 
 subscription, any more than the framer or drawer-up 
 of a law is the person who enacts it. The legislature 
 of the 13tli of Elizabeth is the imposer, whose 
 intention the subscriber is bound to satisfy '." 
 
 If there are clergymen who omit, in the Bap- 
 tismal Service, those parts in which Infant Regene- 
 ration is pronounced, it shows their consciousness of 
 offence ; but it also shows the necessity for disci- 
 pline. The Church, without desiring to deprive any 
 man of his liberty of opinion, must demand the 
 performance of his pledge. When the pledge has 
 become irksome to the individual, why not throw 
 up charge ? When the principle is changed, why 
 retain the profession ? Why continue liable to a 
 writhe of conscience in every reading of the 
 Liturgy, and expose himself to those stings, which 
 are not the less severe for being secret ; and which, 
 
 ' Moral lMiil()siOp])_y . 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 however an affected courage may bide them from 
 the world, defy all the power of craft to heal ? 
 
 If fears are felt, that the withdrawal of all who 
 are thus tainted would weaken the Church, the fear 
 is groundless. The strength of the Church is in its 
 sincerity. The relief of its incumbrance would be 
 only an increase of its vigour ; the ami:>utation of the 
 decayed limb would give new health to the frame. 
 What the Establishment lost in numbers, it would gain 
 in the most important of all possessions — character. 
 Even those who withdrew would gain in character; 
 the pardon, which we must noM^refuse to their tergiver- 
 sation, we might then give to their independence. 
 
 If falsehood is proverbially vile, equivocation is 
 viler still : falsehood may originate in error, but equi- 
 vocation always sins with knowledge. Falsehood, 
 by its abruptness, rouses the camp; equivocation 
 tries to plant a traitor there. Falsehood puts the 
 understanding to the test ; the business of equivoca- 
 tion is to make the understanding a fellow-con- 
 spirator. If it were the purpose of a man to spend 
 an ignoble life, and close it by a distracted death- 
 bed, it would be impossible to take a surer course, 
 than to assert through life what he denied in his 
 heart, and finally attempt to cover his character by 
 a burst of equivocation. 
 
 Calvinism rejects infant regeneration, on the most 
 obscure of all grounds, — that " Baptism is a sign only 
 
INTRODUCTION, XVll 
 
 to the elect^'' of whose election man can know nothing, 
 and God reveals nothing. It is thus that contradic- 
 tion in terras, a sign without a signification ; yet, 
 laborious efforts have been lately made to entangle 
 the Church in the imputation of Calvinism. To this 
 the simplest answer is the best ; and it is to be 
 found in the simplest contrast of their principles. 
 Calvinism declares, 
 
 " That Christ did not die for all, but only for the 
 elect. 
 
 " That God created the greater part of men for 
 damnation. 
 
 " That the elect cannot lose their faith, nor lose the 
 Holy Ghost, nor be damned, however they may sin. 
 
 " That all who are not elect are necessarily damned." 
 
 In his Institutes Calvin states, that all who fail 
 of salvation have been created under sentence of 
 eternal ruin : that " Almighty God created them for 
 shame in life, and for ruin in death. 
 
 " That they are, from their mother's womb, devoted 
 to inevitable destructio7i. 
 
 " How comes it to pass," he asks " that the fall of 
 Adam has involved so many nations, with their in- 
 fants, irremediably, in everlasting ruin f How, but that 
 it 'pleased God. A horrible decree, I acknowledge. 
 But no one can deny that God foreknew what would 
 be the end of man, before He created him ; and He 
 foreknew it because He fore-ordained it." This is 
 the language of a maniac, not of a theologian. 
 
 a 
 
XVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Predestination," says Calvin, " is the eternal 
 decree of God, by which He determined what He 
 would do with every man. For all men are not 
 created on equal terms ; but to some of them eternal 
 life is pre-ordained, and to others eternal condemna- 
 tion. Therefore, accordingly as a person is created 
 for one or other of those two ends, so, I affirm, he is 
 predestined to either life or death ^" 
 
 To give the deepest colouring to this picture of 
 horrors, he tells us, that " those who are called to a 
 state of salvation ^tq few, compared with those who 
 are left in a state of perdition" He then closes by 
 the representation of the Divine grace abandoning 
 the world, and finishing the great scene of Providen- 
 tial government in universal agony and ruin. "The 
 ffrace of God does not rescue manv from eternal 
 death. It leaves the world in that perdition to 
 which it is doomed." 
 
 Men created to be condemned ! What becomes 
 of justice ? what, of mercy ? In this single sentence 
 they perish together. 
 
 What but fanaticism or fatuity could have ever 
 constructed this desperate creed ; or what stronger 
 contrast can be offered than the doctrines of 
 Scripture. 
 
 "That God is love; that He willeth not the 
 death of a sinner ; that, in his love, He sent his only- 
 
 ^ Instit. iii. 21, ^c. De Pracdest. 607, &c. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 bejTotten Son to redeem the world ; that He calls on 
 all men cvcri/ where to repent ; that Christ died for 
 all; that He will cast out no one who comes to Him ; 
 that He commands all men to work out their own 
 salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that 
 worketh in them, both to will and to do, of his good 
 pleasure." 
 
 Those doctrines of Scripture are the doctrines of 
 the Church of England. What was the contemptu- 
 ous rejection of the Lambeth Articles ? 
 
 Calvinism is as irrational in the conduct of its 
 argument, as startling to humanity in the whole 
 spirit of its conclusions. The natural rule of reason 
 is, to argue from what we know to what we have to 
 learn. Calvinism takes the directly opposite course. 
 Free-agency is an instinct of man : of Free-agency 
 we therefore know something. Prescience is an 
 attribute of God : of Prescience man knows nothing. 
 Yet, Calvinism argues, as if it had perfect know- 
 ledge of Prescience, and as if Free-agency had never 
 existed. — Can we be surprised at its cruelty, or 
 its crudity; that where it is not atrocious, it is 
 absurd ? 
 
 Of the Judicial Council I feel every inclination 
 to speak with deference. But, the discovery of 
 truth is a duty of every man ; and, as wrong premises 
 naturally produce wrong conclusions, it appears to 
 
 a 2 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 me, that this tribunal has assumed wrong premises in 
 at least seven prominent instances. 
 
 1. That the Articles are " precise and dogmatical." 
 This, it has been already shown, they are not, 
 
 never were, and never were inte^ided to be. 
 
 2. That the Baptismal Service is dependent on 
 the construction of the Articles. 
 
 But the Baptismal Service is some centuries older 
 than the , Articles ; has derived no authority from 
 them ; has been always used by the people without 
 reference to them ; would be so used, if the Articles 
 were swept away by a stroke of the pen ; and is 
 direct, practical, and decisive, where the Articles are 
 intentionally theoretical, general, and indecisive. 
 
 3. That the earnestness of the prayers for regene- 
 ration in the Baptismal Service necessarily implies a 
 doubt of the regeneration. 
 
 But prayer is not necessarily doubt. In the Divine 
 summary of supplication, the Lord's Prayer, there 
 is no doubt ; — the reverence to God's name, the 
 coming of his kingdom, the forgiveness of our tres- 
 passes on the condition of our forgiving those of 
 others, are not matters of doubt. 
 
 What knowledge can man give to Omniscience? 
 Yet, we are commanded to pray for all things. It 
 is by the Divine beneficence alone, that the infant 
 lives to receive baptism ; though, to suppose baptism 
 and regeneration capable of being disunited, we must 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 suppose, not the denial of a Divine mercy, but the 
 violation of a Divine promise. Prayer can teach 
 nothing to God ; its chief purpose is, to teach our 
 spiritual wants to ourselves : humility and homage 
 are the true operation of prayer. 
 
 4. That the opinions of distinguished members of 
 the Establishment in other ages, not differing from 
 those of the appellant, having been maintained with- 
 out public censure or reproach, proves, at least, the 
 liberty which has been allowed in maintaining such 
 doctrines (apparently implying, that doctrines, which 
 have passed without censure or reproach in one age, 
 ought to pass free in all others). 
 
 But, to this there are evident objections : — the 
 j)ractical evil of a doctrine may have been unobserved 
 in the beginning ; —laxity of discipline may have been 
 less dangerous in the past than in the present ; — 
 opinions scattered through books are different in 
 point of danger from opinions pressed on the be- 
 lief of the people ; — the speculations of the study 
 may be overlooked, where the practices of the pulpit 
 must be restricted. After all, the true question is, 
 Are those opinions dangerous now f Moral distem- 
 pers undeniably change their nature from age to age. 
 If the slight disorder of one period is envenomed into 
 the ejndemic of another, who can doubt the wisdom 
 of changing the regimen, of burying i\\e fames of the 
 contagion, and, in case of extremity, establishing the 
 cordon. 
 
XXll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 5. That infants are baptized, not because by their 
 innocence they cannot be unw'orthy recipients, but 
 because they make promises by their sureties, which, 
 when they come of age, they are bound to per- 
 form. 
 
 This is a chief argument of all who oppose infant 
 regeneration, but is an obvious fallacy. There is no 
 doubt of the antiquity of Christian sponsorship, of its 
 value as securing, in some degree, personal friends 
 for the infant ; and of its giving, in general, publicity 
 and public respect to Baptism. This explanation is 
 also assigned by the Church as a source of the 
 infant's pledge. 
 
 But we have to do with the facts. The Church 
 does not regard sponsorship as essential, for it 
 requires 7ione in private baptism. And, from the 
 nature of things, an unconscious infant cannot give a 
 pledge of any kind. The sponsor has no power, and 
 therefore can incur no actual pledge : what man can 
 be answerable for the morality of another, twenty 
 years hence ? As an institution, sponsorship is excel- 
 lent ; but, as a bond, its performance must be wholly 
 dependent on contingency. 
 
 The error arises from overlooking the distinction 
 between things tangible and intangible. In property, 
 an infant may be laid under a pledge, which he must 
 eventually perform, or pay the penalty ; but in mind, 
 a pledge is a form whore no penalty can be inflicted, 
 and, of course, no obligation can be imposed. Thus, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXlll 
 
 ill private baptism the reason does not exist, and 
 in public baptism it is inapplicable. 
 
 6. That there are portions of the Liturgy which 
 cannot be construed truly without reference to the 
 faith, hope, and charity, conceived in the Articles. 
 " And in proof thereof, the conclusive instance is 
 the Burial Service, in which a hope is expressed, 
 that God has taken the dead to Himself," be they 
 what they may. 
 
 The instance is singularly unfortunate, for it is 
 utterly the reverse of conclusive. Who can decide 
 on the future condition of any man ? Who can 
 know what influence the Holy Spirit may exert 
 on the mind, in the last moments ? If the multi- 
 tude, who saw only the writhings of the dying thief 
 on the cross, had pronounced him undone, would 
 they have been in the right? And may not his 
 acceptance have been revealed to the world, in part, 
 to warn us against rash and harsh judgments ? Hope 
 is the only language of man's ignorance, in the pre- 
 sence of God's mercy. 
 
 It should also be remembered, that the Church 
 does not read this Service over the unbaptized, the 
 excommunicated, or the suicide. 
 
 7. That, in declaring the right of the appellant to 
 institution, the Judgment merely proposes to settle a 
 matter of discipline, without touching on a matter of 
 doctrine. 
 
 But, the question originates in doctrine ; the appel- 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 lant is stopped by his ecclesiastical superior, on 
 doctrine; a penalty is inflicted, on the ground of 
 doctrine ; and the sentence releases him from the 
 penalty. May not this affect the tenure of the 
 doctrine in his own instance, and in that of all who 
 shall be inclined to follow him ? 
 
 The premises of other reasoners may be still more 
 succinctly disposed of. It is thus argued from 
 James i. 18, and 1 John v. 1 : 
 
 " That Regeneration may be obtained witJiout Bap- 
 tism." 
 
 But, in those texts there is no denial of baptism ; 
 and our Lord, in declaring that regeneration is 
 essential, also declares that Regeneration is, being 
 " born of water and of the Spirit." 
 
 " That the Articles do not define Regeneration." 
 
 No definition can be necessary, where a positive 
 fact is declared, and a positive command is enjoined. 
 But the Articles do give all the definition that we can 
 desire. The Twenty-seventh Article defines Regene- 
 ration to be a thing "whereby, as by an instrument, 
 1. the receivers are grafted into the Church ; 2. the 
 promises of the forgiveness of sin are visibly sealed ; 
 3. our adoption to be the sons of God is also visibly 
 sealed ; 4. Faith is confirmed ; 5. Grace is increased 
 by virtue of prayer." Those are great gifts, and those 
 the Article describes unhesitatingly as included in 
 Regeneration. 
 
 I shall not waste time on the transparent evasion. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 that no injury to Baptism is done, whatever may be 
 the declared tenets of the administrator ; as it must 
 equally convey Regeneration. 
 
 If disbelief in the words of the Service is sanc- 
 tioned in the mind of the priest, how long will belief 
 be retained in the mind of the people ? If Regene- 
 ration is once to be held as a mere chance, how long 
 will Baptism be practised, even as a ceremonial ? It 
 is already one of the tasks of the Clergy, to bring 
 the population to the font. Peasant indolence and 
 sectarian example withhold thousands from Baptism. 
 Must not Christianity deprecate the prospect of Law 
 as an auxiliary to either ? or, is there no higher fear 
 to be felt, in reducing a sacrament to a form ? 
 
 The " Judgment of Charity," as it is called, is a 
 conjecture, adopted for an escape from the enormity of 
 denying Regeneration to the whole infant world. 
 
 What has Charity to do with Law ? Or, if Re- 
 generation is not joined with Baptism in all in- 
 stances, where can be the jjvoof that it is joined in 
 any ? Or, if they are not simultaneous in all, who 
 can prove the case which forms the exception ? Or 
 who can point out the difference between two infants 
 a week old ? Or, if we are to be told, that God sees 
 the difference, where is the revelation ? When 
 Scripture offers no test, nature none, and common 
 sense none, how can conjecture decide ? 
 
 But the logic of this pretence is as trifling as its 
 theology. It professes to hope, what it refuses to 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 believe ; it bids us suppose, what it labours to deny ; 
 and it recommends the Church to receive, on the 
 ground of charity, what itself rejects on the hypothesis 
 of Calvinism. 
 
 The true danger of our day is the restlessness of 
 opinion. The "right of private judgment" is the 
 charter of Protestantism ; but the bustle of obscure 
 petulance, the rashness of ignorance, or the mere 
 vanity of being notorious for the mischief, which 
 the meanest faculties have the power to inflict on the 
 community ; have often created mighty evils, even 
 in the firm-set and guarded mind of England. 
 
 The real object of dread ought to be the possi- 
 bility of addition to the mass of Schism, which 
 already overlays and corrupts so large a portion of 
 the spiritual fertility of England. Every sect finds a 
 reception in our day ; every dreamer can find an 
 audience for his rhapsodies ; every rambling performer 
 on popular credulity can " do great wonders, and 
 make fire come down from Heaven on the earth, in 
 the sight of men \" 
 
 But, the charge is against those who exercise no 
 judgment, and who fling out opinions with no more 
 consideration of their danger, than the rustic who sets 
 a forest on fire, in the preparation of his meal ; and 
 then retires to the next hillock to keep out of the 
 
 ^ Apoc. xiii. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 11 
 
 hazard, and amuse himself with the curl of the 
 smoke as it rises above the conflagration. 
 
 Of all the perils of religion, the most perilous is 
 Schism. He, whose parting prayer was, " Holy 
 Father, keep through thine own name those whom 
 thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we 
 are," well knew and solemnly marked the guilt of 
 Schism. Schism produces leadership, — " I am of 
 Paul, and I am of Apollos," — and with it all the party 
 spirit and vulgar virulence of leadershij^. Schism 
 dips the Gospel itself in the passions, makes religion 
 an instrument, and covers the truths of immortality 
 with the dross and dust of the hour. Intoxicating 
 the low by the temptation of power, and the igno- 
 rant by the affectation of knowledge ; like intoxica- 
 tion, it leaves both bewildered. Schism divides fel- 
 low Christians from the common cause, exhausts the 
 means of the Church in self-defence, and turns the 
 milk from the bosom of the great mother into gall 
 in the lips of her children : it diminishes her ranks, 
 narrows her sphere of usefulness, and, under pre- 
 tence of public spirit and piety, calls in the intriguer 
 and the infidel for her overthrow. 
 
 Man has the right of Schism ; but it is only as he 
 has the right of any other frenzy of self-will, — as he 
 has the right of blinding himself, or the right of sui- 
 cide. England exhibits at this moment thirty-five 
 sects, all frowning at each other ; and two millions 
 of sectaries, ninety-nine hundredths of whom know 
 
XXVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 nothing — but that they are bound to break down 
 the Church. 
 
 It is here that the EstabHshment should labour. 
 The consecration of Churches and the building of 
 Schools have their value, but the reclaiming of men 
 is a more comprehensive and a more necessary 
 achievement. It is here that she should run her 
 walls into the waters, recover the soil from barren- 
 ness, and shut out the sullen flux and reflux of the 
 surge. Nothing is more surprising to the reader of 
 Sectarian annals, than the hasty grounds on which 
 heresy fixes its secession, except the ease with which 
 its pretexts might be swept from under it. This 
 task ought to be the work of the Establishment. 
 With sixteen thousand educated Clergy ; with at 
 least four Universities, which have not yet gauged 
 their religion by their revenue, and begun to calcu- 
 late on the profits of refusing to acknowdedge a God ; 
 and with an old and noble genealogy of public ser- 
 vices, a rich and proud blazon of championship for 
 all the great interests of the people ; the Establish- 
 ment has means of rectifying the balance of the 
 public mind, unequalled in the world. 
 
 Coercion is a word unknown to Christianity. 
 Religion uses but one weapon, but that is from the 
 armoury of Heaven — reason : and that weapon the 
 Church must vigorously use, and use it without 
 delay. I have no desire to echo the alarms which 
 are now actually ringing round us, from hour to 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXIX 
 
 hour. But action is necessary. Every Cathedral 
 should at once be modelled into a college. There 
 are nearly thirty Chapters in England. Why should 
 not those be converted into the towers, from which 
 ardent, intelligent, and indefatigable men kept watch 
 over the land ; cities on hills, conspicuous to every 
 eye round the horizon ; beacons, summoning the 
 whole slumbering defence of Christianity. 
 
 We ought to see the whole accomplished energy of 
 the Church turned to the duty of extinguishing Secta- 
 rian error ; a selection of all the ablest Clergy in every 
 diocese, appointed for the express purpose of combat- 
 ing the prejudices, follies, and fictions which distract 
 the understanding, inflame the irritations, and alienate 
 the patriotism of the people ; a standing body of de- 
 fenders of the Truth, a Council of Christian advo- 
 cacy, constantly employing their pens in instructing 
 the general mind on all the great disputed questions 
 of religion ; in arousing the people to a sense of the 
 wisdom, which in every condition of this wilderness 
 of the world God offers them for the gathering, like 
 the manna of the Israelite ; and in relieving Sec- 
 tarianism itself of the manacles which artifice and 
 indolence, faction and fatuity, have alike rivetted on 
 its understanding. If this were done, there would 
 be an end to heresy in England. We should require 
 no costly drainage of the intellectual soil ; we should 
 have no educational contests ; the operation would 
 be wrought by the jiurified atmosphere and broad 
 radiance of the ascending day. 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Something of this order must be done, and 
 quickly done. The most precious gift of God is re- 
 ligious truth, and He never gave it to be disguised 
 by the arts, indulge the imposture, or be suffered to 
 perish by the negligence of man. In England we 
 may dread no popular violence, but death has many 
 an instrument. The malaria is deadlier than the 
 hurricane. 
 
 The view of Infant Regeneration, which seems to 
 me demonstrative, results from the acknowledged 
 connexion between the Jewish and Christian revela- 
 tions. As this view will be found at some length in 
 the latter part of the volume, T shall here give but 
 its principal features. 
 
 Two great changes of man are necessari/ for an 
 entrance into the kingdom of heaven. The body 
 must rise again, for " flesh and blood cannot enter 
 into the kingdom." The spirit must be " born again," 
 for sin cannot enter into the Kingdom. 
 
 To Abraham, on reaching the border of Canaan, 
 the promise of an everlasting possession of Canaan by 
 himself and his descendants, M'as given, and subse- 
 quently sealed by the Covenant of Circumcision. 
 
 That Covenant was a Sacrament, consisting of an 
 external sign with a " spiritual grace ;" the " Circum- 
 cision of the heart," — Regeneration. 
 
 The sign of that Covenant was commanded to be 
 administered to every male child eight days old ; 
 which thus became entitled to all the privileges of 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXI 
 
 the Jewish Church, and (if it died before actual sin) 
 to an entrance into Canaan in its future state of glory. 
 
 The millions of Israelites, dying in the interval be- 
 tween the promise to Abraham and the invasion of 
 Canaan by Joshua, and dying in faith ; were by this 
 siffn of Rco-eneration entitled to the inheritance of 
 the glorified Canaan. 
 
 On the close of the Jewish dispensation, John 
 the Baptist proclaimed the coming of the Messiah. 
 Christ came, like Abraham, a pilgrim in the World, 
 but like him receiving the promise of possession in 
 glory. 
 
 As Circumcision had been given to Judseism as 
 the sign of a Covenant ; Baptism was given to Chris- 
 tianity as the sign of a Covenant. 
 
 As the Jewish sign entitled the Jewish child to 
 an entrance into the future place of glory with 
 Abraham ; the Christian sign entitled the Christian 
 child to an entrance into the future kingdom, with 
 our Lord. 
 
 As the object in both instances was the same, the 
 Heavenly state ; for whercvei' God visibly reigns, is 
 Heaven ; as the Regeneration in both instances was 
 equally necessary ; and as the Regeneration of the 
 Jewish infant was received at eight days old, what 
 rational doubt can be felt, that Regeneration is also 
 received by the Christian infant at an equally early 
 period ? 
 
 This view meets all the difficulties at once. But, if 
 
XXXll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 we suffer ourselves to doubt, merely because mo caii- 
 not comprehend how an infont can be spiritually new 
 born; what doctrine of Revelation can we receive, or 
 even what ])rocess of nature can we acknowledge? 
 We must deny the existence of light, of the atmo- 
 sphere, of the circulation of the blood, of the growth 
 of a blade of grass ; for in which of them do we not 
 encounter problems utterly baffling the most muscular 
 grasp of the understanding. Who can comprehend 
 the connexion of mind and body? What is life? 
 We look into Nature, like children turning over an 
 immense volume, of which we can scarcely read a 
 line ; we live in the midst of wonders of creative 
 power, magnificent buildings of the Divine hand ; 
 but, like Egyptian temples, covered with hiero- 
 glyphics, waiting for the decypherers of ages unborn, 
 or perhaps to keep their secrets from man for ever. 
 
 Revelation is the language of Heaven ; given, not 
 for our curiosity, but for our obedience. All that in 
 Revelation man can require, is to know that it comes 
 from above. Revelation itself is a science, but whose 
 discoveries must find their full development only be- 
 yond the grave. It is to be mastered only by im- 
 mortals, and belongs to Eternity. 
 
Tnr: 
 
 THEORY OF BAPTISM, 
 
 ERRATUM. 
 IxTHODUCTioN, p. XV., line 5 from the bottom, insert hU after up 
 
 I'HE authority of the Fathers in matters of doctrine 
 has been often, and not unjustly, questioned. Living 
 in ])eriods of personal hazard, — involved in the con- 
 flicts of angry heresies, — and ])erplexed at once with 
 the violences of public faction, and the mysticisms of 
 Asiatic philosophy, — they exhibit the common falli- 
 bility of man. But, in matters of fact, they are 
 valuable witnesses. Their history of ecclesiastical 
 opinions is honest, and their general testimony is to 
 be relied on, as that of individuals possessing ample 
 opportunities of knowing the truth, with no motives 
 for its perversion, and witli the strongest motives 
 for giving it to the world. 
 
 B 
 
 H 
 
XXXll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 we suffer ourselves to doubt, merely because we can- 
 not comprehend how an infant can be spiritually new 
 born ; what doctrine of Revelation can we receive, or 
 even what process of nature can we acknowledge? 
 We must deny the existence of light, of the atmo- 
 sphere, of the circulation of the blood, of the growth 
 of a blade of grass ; for in which of them do we not 
 encounter problems utterly baffling the most muscular 
 grasp of the understanding. Who can comprehend 
 the connexion of mind and body? What is life? 
 We look into Nature, like children turni'nn- ^- -— 
 
 juxi iv/i over. 
 
 Revelation is the language of Heaven ; given, not 
 for our curiosity, but for our obedience. All that in 
 Revelation man can require, is to know that it comes 
 from above. Revelation itself is a science, but whose 
 discoveries must find their full development only be- 
 yond the grave. It is to be mastered only by im- 
 mortals, and belongs to Eternity. 
 
THE 
 
 THEORY OF BAPTISM, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANCIENT BAPTISM. 
 
 The authority of the Fathers in matters of doctrine 
 has been often, and not unjustly, questioned. Living 
 in periods of personal hazard, — involved in the con- 
 flicts of angry heresies, — and perplexed at once with 
 the violences of public faction, and the mysticisms of 
 Asiatic philosophy, — they exhibit the common falli- 
 bility of man. But, in matters of fact, they are 
 valuable witnesses. Their history of ecclesiastical 
 opinions is honest, and their general testimony is to 
 be relied on, as that of individuals possessing ample 
 opportunities of knowing the truth, with no motives 
 for its perversion, and with the strongest motives 
 for giving it to the world. 
 
 B 
 
 H 
 
^ CLEMENS ROMANUS. 
 
 CLEMENS ROMANUS. 
 
 The first evidence, in point of date, is the Epistle 
 of Clement to the Corinthians. 
 
 Clement is presumed to have been Bishop of 
 Rome, and to have been martyred in the reign of 
 Trajan (a.d. 100) ; and the name is conspicuously 
 mentioned by St. Paul : in referring to those disciples 
 who laboured with him in the Gospel, — " with Cle- 
 ment also, and with other my fellow-labourers, whose 
 names are written in the book of life '." The epistle 
 of Clement to the Corinthian Church was highly 
 received by the Christian communities of his time, 
 and was read extensively through the churches. Of 
 this epistle Irenseus speaks, as "written by Clement, 
 who had seen the blessed Ajiostles, and conversed 
 with them ; who had the preaching of the Apostles 
 still sounding in his ears, and their traditions before 
 his eyes." 
 
 On original sin, and the necessity for its purifi- 
 cation, the epistle quotes the authority of the Old 
 Testament '^ 
 
 " Of Job it is thus written, — ' That he was just 
 and blameless, true, and one that feared God, and 
 eschewed evil :' yet he condemns himself, and says, 
 'There is no man free from pollution ; no, not though 
 his life be but the length of a day'.'" The version 
 
 * Phil. iv. 3. ^ tTi. Ci Ka\ i^ii.n 'Iw,5 ovtmc ytypu-rai. 
 
 ' Job xiv. 4. 
 
CLEMENS ROMANUS IIERMAS. 3 
 
 here is from the Scptuagint, which was used in the 
 Apostoh'c age ; it differs slightly in expression from 
 ours. Clement also quotes the memorable language 
 of David : "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in 
 sin did my mother conceive me ^" He subsequently 
 says, in confirmation of the necessity of purifying 
 the original guilt of our nature, — " Let us consider, 
 therefore, brethren, whereof we are made : who, 
 and what kind of persons we came into the world, 
 as it were out of a sepulchre, and from utter dark- 
 ness. He that made and formed us brought us into 
 his own world ; having prepared for us his benefits 
 before we were born \" 
 
 HERMAS. 
 
 The testimony of Hernias, in the work entitled 
 " The Shepherd of Hermas," refers at once to the 
 original pollution of man, and the power of Baptism. 
 Among its expressions is, "Your life is saved by 
 water." In speaking of the redeemed, it says, " It 
 was necessary that they should come up through the 
 water, that they might rest. For they could not 
 otherwise enter into the kingdom of God, than by 
 putting off the mortality of their former life. They 
 therefore, after they were dead, were sealed with the 
 seal of God ; and so entered into the kingdom of 
 God. For, before any one receives the name of the 
 
 ^ Psalm li. 5. ' c. -38. 
 
 B 2 
 
HERMAS JUSTIN MARTYR. 
 
 Son of God he is liable to death ; but ^vhen he 
 receives that seal he is delivered from death, and is 
 assigned to life. Now, that seal is water, into which 
 persons go down, liable to death, but come out of it 
 assigned to life. For which reason, to those also 
 was that seal preached, and they used it, that they 
 mioht enter into the kino-dom of God." 
 
 The Shepherd of Hermas" is a vision, and, as 
 such, exhibits a slight and imaginary story. But its 
 antiquity is proved from its frequent quotations by 
 Irenneus (a.d. 178), Clemens Alexandrinus (a.d. 194), 
 Tertullian (a.d. 200), and Origen (a.d. 230). If 
 written by Hermas, referred to by St. Paul '', — 
 "Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobus, 
 Hermes, and the brethren which are with them," — 
 it must, of course, have been Mritten in the Apostolic 
 age. All those points have been disputed ; but the 
 date of the work has never been placed lower than 
 the middle of the second century ^ 
 
 JUSTIN MARTYR. 
 
 Justin was originally a heathen, and was converted 
 to Christianity in a.d. 132: he was a man of talent 
 and of great diligence. Indignant at the suiforings 
 of the Christians, he wrote two defences of them 
 (Apologies). He died for the faith a.d. 164. 
 
 In the First Apology, addressed to Antoninus 
 
 * Rom. xvi. 14. ' Lnrdiicr, v. ii. 
 
JUSTIN MARTYR. O 
 
 Pius, he says, " I shall now declare to you, after what 
 manner we, being made new in Christ, have dedicated 
 
 ourselves to God Those who are persuaded 
 
 and do believe that the things taught by us are true, 
 and do promise to live according to them, are directed, 
 first, to pi-ay and ask of God, with fasting, the for- 
 giveness of their former sins ; and we also fast and 
 pray with them. 
 
 " Then we bring them to some place where there 
 is water, and they are regenerated by the same way 
 of regeneration, by which we were regenerated. 
 For they are washed with water in the name of God, 
 the Father and Lord of all things, and of our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. For Christ 
 says, ' Unless ye be regenerated, ye cannot enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven ;' and every one knows that 
 it is impossible for those that are once born, to enter 
 again into their mother's womb ^" 
 
 The reason for giving this quotation is not with 
 reference to Infant Baptism, of which it says no- 
 thing ; but in the first place for the proof, that the 
 primitive Christians used the word Regeneration as 
 synonymous with the act of Baptism ; and in the 
 next, to show that they took the declaration, " Ye 
 must be regenerated of Water and the Spirit," as 
 commanding Water Baptism^ for the New Birth ; 
 and not for mere repentance or conversion. 
 
6 JUSTIN MARTYR IRENJEUS. 
 
 In another passage of this Defence of Christianity 
 he says, " Several persons among us, sixty and 
 seventy years old, of both sexes, who were made dis- 
 ciples of Christ in their childhood (ek ttuI^iov) con- 
 tinue uncorrupted ^" But, persons made disciples of 
 Christ in their childhood, seventy years before the 
 period of this Defence, must have been baptized 
 within thirty or forty years of the Ascension. So 
 distinct is the evidence for Infant Baptism in the 
 Apostolic age. 
 
 IREN^US. 
 
 Irenseus was a man of high authority in the 
 Church, from his being trained by Polycarp, from 
 his public labours, and from his actual position as 
 Bishop of Lyons, in France. This position it then 
 demanded especial devotion to undertake, for his 
 predecessor, Pothinus, was martyred; and especial 
 vigour to maintain, for heresy was already springing 
 up on every side. Irena^us may have conversed with 
 many who had seen the Apostles, for he was born in 
 the beginning of the second century. He wrote 
 vigorously and constantly ; but his works have perish- 
 ed, leaving only their names, with the exception 
 of the " Five Books on the Heresies," even of which 
 we have only a Latin translation. He is supposed 
 to have been martyred. 
 
 " " Quum vero pra^scribitur nemini sine Bnptisnio competere 
 salutem," &c. 
 
IRENiEUS TERTULLIAN. 7 
 
 He says, " Therefore, He (Christ) was a blaster, as 
 He had the age of a Master ; not disdaining, nor going 
 in a way above human nature, nor breaking in his own 
 person the law which He had set for mankind ; but 
 sanctifying every several age by the likeness which 
 it has to Him. For He came to save all persons by 
 Himself. All, I say, who by Him are regenerated 
 unto God {re7iascimtiir in Dciim), infants, and little 
 ones, and children, and youths, and elder ones '." 
 
 This testimony to Baptism, as the spiritual second 
 birth, is complete evidence of the doctrine in the 
 second century. Wherever Irenscus uses the word 
 " regenerate," he uses it as synonymous with " bap- 
 tized." 
 
 In his third book ^ where he produces testimonies 
 of Scripture to the Holy Spirit, he says of Christ, 
 " When He gave his disciples the commission of 
 regenerating unto God {potestateyn regenerationis in 
 Deum\ He said unto them, ' Go and teach all nations, 
 baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost.' " The " commission of regene- 
 rating" is every where used by Irenseus as the equi- 
 valent expression for the commission of baptizing. 
 
 TERTULLIAN. 
 
 Tertullian, the son of a Roman, but born in Africa, 
 was one of the most distinguished personages of his 
 
 ' Adversus Hsereses. * c. 19. 
 
8 TERTULLIAN. 
 
 time ; a man of eloquence, accomplished in the 
 best learning of the age, and educated for the law. 
 Born in heathenism, he embraced the Christian 
 priesthood, and his conversion brought a great acces- 
 sion of ability to the Christian cause. Living in 
 the reigns of Severus and Caracalla, when the 
 Church was calumniated, that it might be perse- 
 cuted ; he exerted himself to refute its calumniators* 
 and produced his famous Apology, addressed to the 
 proconsul of Africa, and stating the actual habits 
 and objects of Christianity. 
 
 In his latter years, and probably with decaying in- 
 tellects, he adopted the tenets of Montanus, a fanatic, 
 who attracted disciples by a show of austerity. But, 
 with all his defects, he was a powerful champion, and 
 a great name. 
 
 He says, " It is an acknowledged rule, that none 
 can be saved without Baptism, grounded especially 
 on that sentence of our Lord, 'Unless one be born of 
 water, he cannot be saved \' " This shows that, in his 
 time. Baptism and the second birth were synonymous. 
 
 He then goes into the refutation of cavils as to 
 the Baptism of the Apostles, &c., answering espe- 
 cially the heresy which has returned so largely in 
 modern times. " Impious men raise cavils, and say. 
 Baptism is not necessary for those who have faith, 
 which is sufficient ; for Abraham, without any sacra- 
 jnent of water, but of faith alone, pleased God." 
 
 ^ On Baptism (12). 
 
TERTULLIAN ORIGEN. 9 
 
 To this cavil the answer is as plain and practical 
 now as it was then. " In all matters, the last in- 
 structions bind. The last rules supersede those 
 which went before. Though there were salvation 
 formerly by bare faith, before our Lord's passion and 
 resurrection, yet when the faith is enlarged, to be- 
 lieve in his nativity, passion, and resurrection ; there 
 is an enlargement of the Sacrament, the sealing of 
 Baptism, as it were a garment to our faith, which 
 formerly was bare, but cannot now be without its law. 
 For the law of baptizing is given, and the form of 
 it appointed. ' Go,' says He, ' teach the nations, 
 baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.' And, when to 
 this law that rule is added, ' Except one be regene- 
 rated of water and the Spirit he shall not enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven,' it has bound up faith as a 
 necessity of Baptism, and therefore all believers from 
 thenceforward were baptized." 
 
 The opinions of Tertullian, a bold and passionate 
 writer, varied at times on this subject as on others. 
 But our concern is not with his opinions, but with 
 his facts, and his facts are all for the received iden- 
 tity of Baptism with Regeneration. 
 
 ORIGEN *. 
 
 Origen was an Egyptian, of Alexandria, and the 
 son of a martyr. At an early age he became re- 
 
 * Born about a.d. 185, 
 
10 ORIGEN. 
 
 markable for his learning. Taking the priesthood, 
 his eloquence attracted all ranks, and his writings 
 made a powerful impression. But the Alexandrian 
 philosophy impaired his interpretations of Scripture, 
 and the judgment of Cassiodorus — " Ubi bene nemo 
 melius^ ubi male nemo pejus^'' was fully confirmed by 
 the judgment of the Church. He was put to the 
 torture in the Decian persecution, and it is still 
 doubtful whether he was not martyred. 
 
 He says, " Hear David ^ speaking : ' I was conceived 
 in iniquity, and in sins did my mother bring me forth V 
 showing that every soul that is born in the flesh is 
 polluted with the foulness of sin and iniquity, and 
 that, therefore, that was said which we mentioned 
 before, that none is clean from pollution, though his 
 life be but the length of one day." 
 
 " Besides all this, let it be considered what is the 
 reason that, whereas the baptism of the Church is 
 given for forgiveness of sins, infants also are by the 
 usage of the Church baptized ; when, if there were 
 nothing in infants that wanted forgiveness and 
 mercy, the grace of baptism would be needless to 
 them." 
 
 Tn his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, 
 (B. V.) he says, " In the law it is commanded, that a 
 sacrifice be offered for every child that is born, a 
 pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons, of 
 
 * "Audi David dicenteni, In iniquitatibus conceptussum," &c. 
 
 * Homily viii. on Levit. xii. 
 
ORIGEN. 1 I 
 
 which one is for a sin offering, the other for a burnt 
 offering." For what sin is this one pigeon offered? 
 Can the child that is new born have committed any 
 sin ? It has even then sin, for which the sacrifice 
 is commanded to be offered, from which even he 
 whose life is but of one day is denied to be free. 
 
 " Of this sin, David is to be supposed to have said 
 that which we mentioned before, " In sin did my 
 mother conceive me." " For this cause, also, the 
 Church had from the Apostles a tradition (order) 
 to give baptism even to infants." 
 
 The authenticity of those passages has been dis- 
 puted, on the ground that we have only the trans- 
 lations by Rufinus, a loose and paraphrastical writer. 
 But they are retained, because they are perfectly 
 consistent with other commentaries of Origen, of 
 acknowledged authenticity. For instance, in the 
 homily on Luke xiii. : — 
 
 " Having occasion given in this place, I shall 
 mention a thing which causes frequent inquiries 
 among the brethren. Infants are baptized for the 
 forgiveness of sins. Of what sins? or when have 
 they sinned ? or how can any reason of the laver 
 in their case hold good, but according to the sense 
 that we mentioned even now — none is free from 
 pollution — though his life be but the length of one 
 day upon the earth ? And, it is for this reason, 
 because by the sacrament of baptism the pollution 
 of our birth is taken away, that infants are baptized." 
 
12 ORIGEN — CYPRIAN. 
 
 This homily is translated by Jerome, and is indispu- 
 tably the work of Origen. 
 
 Erasmus at one time was of another ojjinion, 
 but he afterwards admitted its genuineness. Origen's 
 Platonism discountenances his Christianity ; but we 
 require not his opinions, but his facts, and his facts 
 as to the early custom of infant baptism are strong. 
 He was the descendant of an ancient Christian 
 family, and thus, his "forefathers," as Eusebius 
 designates them, or " his grandfathers and great 
 grandfathers," as they are named by Rufinus, must 
 have lived in the Apostolic age. He must, of course, 
 have known, from his own ancestry, whether infants 
 were or were not baptized in the days of the 
 Apostles. 
 
 His extraordinary learning, his remarkable intel- 
 ligence, and even the extent of his travels, for he 
 appears to have visited and resided in nearly all the 
 chief provinces of the Roman Empire ; must have 
 placed all the chief practices of Christianity before 
 his eye. Origen's testimony to infant baptism is 
 undeniable. 
 
 CYPRIAN, A.D. 253. Episc. Ixiv. 
 
 Cyprian was Bishop of Carthage, and a man of 
 eminent ability and learning. Pie was exiled for 
 the faith, and finally martyred, a.d. 258. 
 
 It was customary for the neighbouring Bishops to 
 meet and decide Church questions, and his epistle 
 
CYPRTAN. 13 
 
 was occasioned l)y a letter from Fidus, a country 
 Bishop, ex])ressing the opinion, that a Christian 
 infant could not be baptized before the eighth day, 
 as in the Jewish circumcision. 
 
 The answer is thus headed, " Cyprian and his 
 other colleagues, present in Council, in number 
 sixty-six, to Fidus, our brother, greeting : — 
 
 " * * * * * We have read your letter, as in the 
 case of infants. Whereas you judge that they must 
 not be baptized within two or three days after they 
 are born, and that the rule of circumcision is to be 
 observed, so that none should be baptized and sanc- 
 tified before the eighth day after he is born : we, 
 in our assembly, were all of the contrary opinion ; 
 for, as to what you thought fitting to be done, there 
 was not one that was of your mind ; but all of 
 us, on the contrary, judged that the grace and 
 mercy of God is to be denied to no person that is 
 born. For whereas our Lord, in his Gospel, says 
 'The Son of Man came not to destroy men's souls 
 (animas), but to save them,' so far as in us lies, no 
 soul {anima) is to be lost." 
 
 In this translation of the words of our Lord, the 
 substitution of soul for physical life is observable. 
 But we are still concerned only with tracing: the 
 course of opinion. 
 
 The epistle, after some remarks on birth and 
 circumcision, proceeds to say: — 
 
 " We judge, that no person is to be hindered 
 
14 CYPRIAN. 
 
 from obtaining the grace, by the law now appointed ; 
 and that the spiritual circumcision ought not to be 
 restrained by the circumcision that was according to 
 the flesh ; but that all are to be admitted to the 
 grace of Christ, since Peter, speaking in the Acts of 
 the Apostles, says, " the Lord has shown me that no 
 person is to be called common or unclean." 
 
 "If any thing could bean obstacle to persons as to 
 obtaining the grace, the adult, and elder men, would 
 be more hindered by their more grievous sins. If, 
 then, the greatest offenders, and they who have 
 grievously sinned against God before, have, when 
 they afterwards came to believe, forgiveness of their 
 sins, and no person is kept off from Baptism and 
 grace ; how much less reason is there to refuse an 
 infant, who being newly born, has no sin, save that 
 being descended from Adam, according to the flesh, 
 he has from his birth contracted the contagion of 
 the death threatened of old ; who comes, for this 
 reason, more easily to receive forgiveness of sins, 
 because they are not his own, but others' sins, that 
 are forgiven? 
 
 " This, therefore, dear brother, was our opinion in 
 the assembly ; that it is not for us to hinder any 
 person from baptism and the grace of God, who is 
 merciful, kind, and affectionate to all." 
 
 The reasonings of the Bishop are not equal to his 
 principles, and he obviously, in some degree, alike 
 mistakes the nature of the Jewish rite and the 
 
CYPRIAN. 15 
 
 grounds of the Christian. But his testimony to the 
 actual baptism of infants in his diocese, and in his 
 century, is incontestable; and the genuineness of 
 this epistle is decided, from its frequent quotations by 
 the chief controversalists, Augustin, and others, in a 
 totally different controversy, the Pelagian. 
 
 A passage in his Book on " the fallen," referring 
 to the subject of infant baptism ; gives a striking 
 example of the torrid eloquence of Africa. Cyprian, 
 is addressing the apostates who had yielded to the 
 terrors of persecution : — 
 
 " When you came to the Capitol (the idol temple), 
 when you went with a ready compliance to the com- 
 mission of that horrible crime, did not your limbs 
 tremble, your sight wax dim, your breasts shudder, 
 your arms fall down ? Did not your mind grow 
 amazed; your tongue cling; your speech fail? 
 Could one stand there who was the servant of God, 
 and speak and renounce Christ, who had already 
 renounced the devil and the world ? Was not the 
 altar, where he came to die (spiritually), a funeral 
 pile to him ? Ought he not to abhor and fly the 
 altar of the devil, which he saw smoking and fuming 
 with a horrid stench, as if he saw his place of death. 
 There thou hast immolated thy salvation. Why bring 
 the offering ? why the victim ? you are the offering, 
 you the victim. Thou hast burnt thy hope, thy 
 faith, in those deadly fires. 
 
 " JNIany, too, there were who thought their own 
 
IG CYPRIAN. 
 
 ruin'ilot enough. The people were driven by mutual 
 oaths to destruction : death was pledged to each other 
 in the cup of death. 
 
 " And that nothing might be wanting to the load of 
 their guilt, their infants, carried or led in the hands 
 of the parents, lost what they had obtained in the 
 beginning of their existence { pri??io statim nativitatis 
 eouordio). Shall not they, when the day of judgment 
 comes, say, We have done nothing, nor have we aban- 
 doned the food and cup of the Lord, to come to these 
 profane corruptions. The perfidy of others ruined 
 us ; we found our parents our parricides : it was they 
 who denied for us the Church our mother, and 
 God our Father: so that we, young, unconscious, 
 and ignorant of so great a crime, are bound by others 
 in this confederacy of guilt, we are ensnared by the 
 fraud of others !" 
 
 The assertion in this strong passage respecting the 
 guilt of infants through parental apostasy, produced an 
 argument, in which Augustin overthrew this rash and 
 repulsive conception. Augustin asserts the power of 
 Baptism, and that he who is once regenerated by it 
 cannot afterwards be entangled in the guilt of an- 
 other's sin, to which he does not consent. He ex- 
 plains ; that the guilt of original sin is communicated 
 from the parent, because the infant is not yet a sepa- 
 rate being {anima scparatim vivens). But, when the 
 child has become a separate being {in se ipso alter ah 
 eo qui genuit), he is no longer guilty of his parents' sin. 
 
COUNCILS OF ELIBERIS AND NEO-CSISAREA. 1/ 
 
 THE COUNCIL OF ELIBERIS (a.D. 305). 
 
 " If any one shall go over from the Church Ca- 
 tholic to any heresy, and shall return to the Church, 
 it is allowed that penance {poenitcntia) shall not be 
 refused to such a person, because he acknowledges 
 his fault. Let him be in the state of penance for 
 ten years ; and, after ten years, let him be admitted 
 to communion. 
 
 " But, if they were infants, when they were carried 
 over, inasmuch as it was not by their own fault that 
 they sinned, they ought to be admitted without 
 delay {incundanter)" 
 
 Though there is no direct mention of Infant 
 Baptism in this passage, yet it is obviously implied ; as 
 the infants are said to be " carried over " {transdiicti) 
 from the Church ; it never having been the custom 
 to regard any one, whether adult or infant, as be- 
 longing to the Church, before Baptism. The adults 
 and infants designed for Christians were called Cate- 
 chumens ; the general inquiry relative to an infant, 
 "is he Fidelis or Catechumenus?" being always equi- 
 valent to " Is he baptized, or not ?" 
 
 THE COUNCIL OF NEO-CiRSAREA (about A.D. 314)'. 
 
 Among the subtleties of ancient disquisition was, 
 " Whether a heathen woman, about to become a 
 
 C 
 
18 GREGORY NAZIANZEN. 
 
 mother, should be baptized on her conversion, or 
 should wait until her child was born?" The true 
 question being, whether the Baptism might not 
 extend to the unborn babe ? Thus making the future 
 Baptism of the infant culpable, as a double Bap- 
 tism was forbidden. 
 
 The decision of the council was, that the woman 
 should be baptized at once. " For the mother, in this 
 instance, communicates nothing to the child. Because, 
 in the profession, every one's peculiar resolution 
 (i^'iav TYiv 7rpoaif)e(Tiv, personal intent) is declared." 
 
 The origin of this doubt seems to have been the 
 Jewish rule, that if a female, before the birth of her 
 child, were to become a proselyte, and be, of course, 
 baptized, it was not required that her infant should 
 also be baptized. But this rule referred merely to the 
 case of proselytism, which always required baptism. 
 The infant was thenceforth the child of a Jewish 
 believer, and as Jews were not baptized, the rite was 
 not adopted. 
 
 GREGORY NAZIANZEN (about A.D. 350) ^ 
 
 Gregory was the son of the Bishop of Nazianzum 
 in Asia Minor, and was Bishop of Constantinople. 
 His learning and talents, independently of his rank 
 in the imperial city, placed him at the head of 
 religious opinion in his age. Though not baptized 
 
 8 Oration on Holy Baptism. 
 
GREGORY NAZJANZEN. 19 
 
 himself in infancy, he gives that evidence of the 
 practice of Infant Baptism which is the strongest, 
 from its being referred to less in the shape of argu- 
 ment than as a thing habitually received, 
 
 Tn a sjiecies of funeral panegyric on his intimate 
 friend Basil (though preached before his death), he 
 marks the stages of his career. — In the beginning of 
 his existence {Tr^Cjra r^g riXiKiag) lie was swaddled ^ if 
 I may so call it, by his excellent father, a public 
 teacher of virtue in the country of Pontus ; and 
 was fashioned with that best and most pure formation 
 which divine David rightly calls " of the day." 
 Gregory had previously spoken of three forms of 
 birth, — the physical, the baptismal, and that of 
 the resurrection. The baptismal he called that of 
 the day. He then proceeds to state his boyhood at 
 school, his youth at the university at Athens, then 
 his taking orders, and finally, his distinction as a man 
 of learning and Bishop of Ca^sarea. 
 
 He also compares Basil to Samuel, who was 
 anointed to God from his birth. In another place 
 he renews this example of Samuel, in censuring 
 mothers who were afraid of putting their infants into 
 the water of baptism. " Thou art afraid, fiiint- 
 hearted mother; but Hannah, before Samuel was 
 born, dedicated him to God ; and when he was born 
 presently consecrated him, and brought him uj) in a 
 priestly garment." 
 
 ' (TrrapyaiovTdi. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 GREGORY NAZIANZEN. 
 
 In his " Oratio pro Baptismo,'' Gregory enters 
 largely into the nature of this sacrament ; which he 
 names, in the language of Scripture, the grace, the 
 marking, the anointing, the laver of regeneration, 
 the seal, &c. 
 
 In alluding to original sin, he says, " God has not 
 left his creature without a remedy. But, as He first 
 made us, so He renews us by his divine formation." 
 He then draws the distinction between infant and 
 adult baptism, "To those entering into life it is a 
 seal, to the adult it is a cjrace, and the restoring of 
 the lost image " (of God). 
 
 He also draws the distinction between Regene- 
 ration and Repentance ; cautioning the Christian 
 to be careful of his regeneration, because there is 
 none other afterwards. He acknowledges the value 
 of repentance, " which, however, leaves a scar, costs 
 tears, and may be intercepted by death." He warns 
 the Christian against the delay of baptism, which by 
 sickness may be rendered difficult, or by death im- 
 possible. It appears to have been a conception in 
 this age, that baptism should be delayed as long as 
 possible, for the purpose of including all the sins of 
 a life. Against this custom, which, however, refers 
 chiefly to adults, he argues strongly, from the hazards 
 incident to life. He objects even to those who wait 
 for a particular day, as Epiphany or Easter. 
 
 On the general service of baptism, in reference to 
 infants, he says, " What say you to those who are as 
 
GREGORY NAZIANZEN BASIL. 21 
 
 yet infants, and are not in a capacity to be yet sen- 
 sible of either the grace, or its loss? Shall we 
 baptize them too ? Yes, by all means, if any danger 
 makes it requisite. For it is better that they should 
 be sanctified without their own sense of it, than that 
 they should die unsealed and uninitiated. And a 
 ground of this to us is circumcision, which was given 
 on the eighth day as a typical seal, and was practised 
 on those who had no use of reason," 
 
 Gregory had evidently shared some of the notions 
 of his age, that baptism would be more available, if 
 the child could personally enter into the covenant ; 
 and he recommends delay "for three years, when 
 the infant might be capable of hearing and answer- 
 ing some of the holy words ; or when, if it did not 
 perfectly understand their meaning, it might at least 
 form them." He seems to have overlooked the obvi- 
 ous uselessness of pronouncing words without mean- 
 ing ; but he soon reverts to the more rational rule, of 
 preventing the liability to the accidents of nature, 
 by securing the babe through the laver (baptism). 
 
 BASIL (about A.D. 326). 
 
 Basil was Bishop of Ca^sarea, and the successor of 
 Eusebius. He is regarded as among the ablest of 
 the Fathers. Educated for the law, his style is re- 
 markable as well for logical strength, as for natural 
 ardour. His chief labours were devoted to the de- 
 fence of the Athanasian doctrine, which exposed 
 
22 BASIL. 
 
 him to the wrath of the Arian emperor, Valens. He 
 was evidently a iimn of strong conceptions and clear 
 judgment. His testimony to the essential importance 
 of Bai)tism, at every age, is unquestionable. 
 
 In his " Hortatory Oration on Baptism," in speak- 
 ing of the Jewish practice, he says : — 
 
 " A Jew does not delay circumcision ; because he 
 has the threatening, that every soul which is not 
 circumcised on the eighth day shall be cut oiF from 
 his people. And dost thou put off the circumcision 
 made without hands, in the putting off the flesh, 
 which is 2)erformed in Baptis7n, when thou hearest 
 our Lord Himself say, ' Verily, I say unto you, ex- 
 cept one be born of water and of the Spirit, he shall 
 not enter into the kingdom of God ?' If Israel had 
 not passed through the sea, they had not got rid of 
 Pharaoh ; and unless thou pass through the water, 
 thou shalt not get rid of the cruel tyranny of the 
 devil. 
 
 "If a physician should undertake by any art to make 
 you young again, you would eagerly long for the day 
 in which your florid youth would be restored. And 
 yet now, when it is told you that your soul, defiled 
 with all kinds of sin, may be born again by Baptism, 
 you slight so great a benefit. 
 
 " I know your reason, though you think to con- 
 ceal it. ' I will use the flower of my age in pleasure, 
 and then, when I have had enough, I shall give it 
 over, and be baptized.' Think you that God does not 
 
BASIL. 23 
 
 see your purpose ? or that He will give his grace to so 
 wicked a heart ? If you leave off your sins through 
 
 age, thanks to your inability Who has given 
 
 you a lease of your life ? Do you not see children 
 snatched from the breast, and others dying in the 
 flower of their age ? 
 
 " The devil cries, ' Give me to-day, and give God 
 to-morrow.' But God says, ' To-day, if ye will 
 hear my voice.' The devil gives us hope of to- 
 morrow, but, when to-morrow is come, he, as a frau- 
 dulent divider, asks that day for himself, and gives 
 
 the to-morrow to God Do you not, in like 
 
 manner, put off from year to year, from month to 
 month, from day to day, till a day seize you that 
 you are not aware of, and the opportunity of well- 
 doing fail you with your life Do you say, 
 
 God will then hear me? Yes, because you hear 
 Him now ! He will grant me a longer time. Yes, 
 because you make good use of what He does grant 
 you ! Wretch ! deceive not yourself. Let none 
 deceive you with empty words, sudden destruction 
 
 will come upon you What thoughts will you 
 
 have then? Fool that I was ! Why did I not put 
 off this heavy load of sin, when I might have done 
 it easily ? Why not wash away those foul stains ? 
 Oh, woeful purpose of mine ! for the short pleasure 
 of sin, to suffer eternal torment ! I might now be one 
 of those shining in glory ! Oh, just judgment of 
 God!" 
 
24 CHRYSOSTOM. 
 
 CHRYSOSTOM (died 407) '. 
 
 Chrysostom was the most conspicuous ecclesiastic 
 of his era. Born of an opulent family at Antioch, 
 and educated for the law, he was suddenly struck 
 with a fantastic zeal for the austerities of the hermit 
 life, retired to a mountain cave, and there remained 
 for six years. But, a man of genius, he signalized 
 himself so highly by his preaching, on his return once 
 more among men ; that on the death of Nectarius, 
 the patriarch of Constantinople, Chrysostom was 
 elected to the patriarchate. 
 
 Fond of popularity, he exercised his powers so 
 effectively for popular sympathy, that it became a 
 custom among the multitude to say, " They would 
 rather that the sun should lose his shining, than that 
 they should lose John's preaching." His career was 
 brilliant and unhappy ; but his sermons were vivid, if 
 not always classical; and his character was unstained. 
 
 The testimony of this eminent person to the prac- 
 tice of Infant Baptism in his time is perfectly plain. 
 He scarcely discusses the question, but speaks of it 
 as one would speak of a matter of regular occurrence. 
 For example, among the superior values of Baptism to 
 the Jewish rite, he reckons, its being " unconfined 
 by limitation of age, but that it might be adminis- 
 tered equally in the very beginning of life^ in ma- 
 turity and in old age ^" 
 
 ' Homilies. * Homil. 40. 
 
CHRYSOSTOM. 25 
 
 In another of those homilies ^ in alluding to the 
 growing evils of his time, he says, " The Catechumens, 
 being of this mind (perverted), take no care of a 
 godly life. And those that are baptized, some of 
 them, forasmuch as they were children when they 
 received it, and some as they received it in a fit of 
 sickness, having no mind to live godly, show no 
 good inclination, and they who received it in their 
 health show very little." 
 
 The result of this degeneracy was to be found in the 
 sudden rise of Schism, and the rapid confusion of 
 ideas on all the leading doctrines of Christianitv. In 
 this age rose the controversies on the divinity of 
 Christ, and on original sin, with all the shapes and 
 shades of error which finally brought down the 
 divine wrath, and crushed the Church of Asia under 
 Mahometanism. But, in all this conflict of opinions. 
 Infant Baptism was retained; and in all the Catalogues 
 of the heresies there is no mention of any sect which 
 denied Baptism to infants, where it retained Baptism 
 at all. It was thus practised by the three great sects 
 of the century, the Donatist, the Arian, and the Pela- 
 gian. The use of Infant Baptism had followed the 
 use of Adult Baptism in the Apostolic age: it was 
 adopted, probably, in that age, and by the Apostles 
 themselves ; from the mention of their having bap- 
 tized households ; it being naturally presumed that 
 households implied persons of all ages ; and from 
 ' Homil. 23. 
 
2G CHRYSOSTOM. 
 
 there being no declared exception of infancy. But, 
 from the time when missionary conversions were 
 exchanged for settled Christianity, the Baptism of 
 Christian infants seems to have been general. 
 
 Those extracts from the writings of the first four 
 centuries have been condensed from the learned, but 
 diffuse, History of Infant Baptism by Wall, — a work 
 abounding in references, yet sometimes perplexing 
 the subject by the dubiousness of their application. 
 The passages which have been given here, suffici- 
 ently convey the testimony of the Fathers. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 
 
 The original Anabajitist Heresy arose from igno- 
 rance of the true object of Baptism. Those of the 
 Established Church, in our day, who, admitting Infant 
 Baptism, yet demand previous dispositions, of which 
 infancy is altogether incapable ; evidently regard 
 Adult Baptism as the systematic purpose of the 
 Sacrament, and Infant Baptism as but the ex- 
 ceptional. 
 
 This error is fundamental, and is fatal; the fact 
 being, that infant baptism is the systematic purpose, 
 and adult baptism the exce])tional. And this is ob- 
 vious, even from the nature of things. In the first 
 preaching of the Gospel, as it could be received only 
 by the mature understanding, the converts must be 
 adults, and of course adult baptism must be the ge- 
 neral rule ; but as conversion spread, and those con- 
 verts became parents ; if infants were baptized at all, 
 adult baptism must decrease, while that of infants 
 must increase. If a whole nation were made Chris- 
 
28 THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 
 
 tian, adult baptism in that nation must wholly cease. 
 If the world were made Christian, adult baptism would 
 be no more; infant baptism must be universal. 
 
 We find the principle, — that the first is the excep- 
 tional case, and the second, the systematic ; existing 
 in the most important transactions of religion. In 
 the first age, the Church was governed by a body of 
 extraordinary men, personal witnesses of the mission 
 of our Lord ; constantly occupied in carrying the 
 Gospel through all kingdoms ; arguing in synagogues, 
 preaching in barbarian countries, writing expositions 
 of doctrine to the Churches of Europe and Asia; 
 yet always without any local authority, or fixed 
 place of superintendence. 
 
 But, this government must have been temporary: 
 the Apostleship being distinctly limited to those who 
 had seen our Lord on earth ; with the single excep- 
 tion of St. Paul, who describes his Apostleship as 
 that of " one born out of due time," but who had 
 seen our Lord in vision, and had received his especial 
 command to preach the Gospel. 
 
 And, while it is obvious that those gifted men 
 must pass away ; it is equally obvious, that the best 
 provision for a settled Church must be, in a settled dis- 
 cipline, superintended by settled teachers, men re- 
 sponsible for their rule, with prescribed districts, and 
 always on the spot, to administer to the spiritual 
 wants of their charge. We even find this plan com- 
 menced, in some degree, in the time of St. Paul 
 
THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 29 
 
 himself; who left Timothy at Ephesus, with duties 
 actually comprehending nearly all the duties of the 
 Bishops of our day, — to superintend the teaching and 
 guard the purity of doctrine in the chief Church of 
 Asia Minor, the Church of the Epliesian converts ' ; 
 to judge of the characters of its proposed pastors ^ ; 
 to put the brethren in remembrance of the truth ^ ; 
 and to regulate the conduct of the elders ^ The 
 foundations of the system were thus laid, and were 
 clearly of a distinct nature from the express functions 
 of the Apostolic character. Timothy was subse- 
 quently called away to accompany St. Paul ; but he 
 wrote no Epistle, he exercised no "care of all the 
 Churches," he never acted as an Apostle. 
 
 The case of Titus is even more direct. He was 
 left in Crete to rebuke with all authority^ and to 
 ordain elders. Yet, as the system was still incomplete, 
 he also was called to attend St. Paul, which he pro- 
 bably did, into Dalmatia. But, all ecclesiastical tra- 
 dition attests, that lie returned to Crete, where 
 we may justly conceive that he exercised his former 
 authority, and where he died, upwards of ninety 
 years old. 
 
 I am not about to enter here into the disputed ques- 
 tions of episcopacy ; (questions which, I think, have 
 been insufficiently treated, even in our time ;) but 
 nothing can be better known, than that the settlement 
 of high ecclesiastical authorities {pastores pastorum) 
 
 ' Chap. i. * iii. ' iv. * ii. 
 
30 THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 
 
 over prescribed districts, was the rule of the Church, 
 for the fifteen hundred following years. 
 
 We also find this principle sustained on more than 
 historical testimony, — on the evidence of inspira- 
 tion. The last remonstrances of the last Apostle 
 were addressed to the Seven settled rulers of the 
 Churches of Asia ; those Churches probably reckoning 
 multitudes, spreading over extensive districts, and 
 strongly resembling the episcopal provinces of later 
 times. — "John, to the Seven Churches, which are in 
 Asia .... The mystery of the Seven Stars, which 
 thou sawest in my right hand ; the Seven Stars are 
 the angels (the rulers) of the Seven Churches, and 
 the Seven Candlesticks which thou sawest, are the 
 Seven Churches ^" 
 
 The same principle existed even in the miraculous 
 means of spreading the Gospel. The gifts of miracle 
 were essential to the first formation of the Church ; 
 they broke down heathenism; they relieved the 
 difficulties of Christian labour among barbarian coun- 
 tries ; and they effected, jjerhaps, the still higher 
 purpose of attesting to their possessors themselves 
 the truth of their mission. The Jewish or the 
 Gentile peasant, who felt himself suddenly master of 
 powers which he never possessed before, and of 
 which he could scarcely imagine the possession, — the 
 faculties of speaking all languages, of expelling dis- 
 ease with a word, of giving sight and strength to the 
 
 '"" Apocal, i. 
 
THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 31 
 
 blind and the decrepit, and even of giving life to the 
 dead ; must have felt a conviction of the truth of 
 Christianity, which no power of sophistry could 
 shake. It was almost a physical impossibility, that 
 he could doubt of the inspiration of the Holy Sjiirit, 
 or hesitate in the delivery of his mission to man- 
 kind. 
 
 But it was equally evident, that the possession of 
 those gifts must have been but for a time : that if 
 extended to a later period of the Church, they would 
 have been a source of disturbance to the whole order 
 of society ; and that, in the common waywardness 
 of man, their possessors might have become dangerous 
 to the world. If we find that they required the 
 strongest curb, even in the Apostolic age", what 
 must they have become, when the Church extended to 
 nations, when rank and opulence were among the 
 stimulants to human passion, and when the purity 
 of a primitive and persecuted Church had been ex- 
 changed for the worldly habits and wide supremacy 
 of the thirteen patriarchates of the fourth and fifth 
 centuries ! 
 
 But, the question is not left to human conjecture. 
 It was declared by inspiration, that the time of the 
 miraculous gifts must have a close ; that the progress 
 of the Church must be consigned to less conspicuous 
 qualities ; that the viewless agencies of Providence 
 should be the guardians of a simpler, and yet of a 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiv. 26. 
 
32 THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 
 
 broader career of Christianity ; and that the more 
 " excellent way" of personal virtue should soon be the 
 substitute for the sj3lendours of miracle. " And now 
 abideth faith, hope, and charity." 
 
 It is true that a new burst of supernatural powers is 
 predicted, in the same sentence, by St. Paul ; and that 
 the future shall exhibit the possession of faculties by 
 the Christian, to which even the gifts of the Pentecost 
 were brief and partial. For, in the language of the 
 Apostle, himself one of the most largely gifted with 
 miraculous powers, — " We know in part, and we 
 prophesy in part : but, when that which is perfect is 
 come; then that which is in part shall be done 
 away." The smaller gift shall be merged in the 
 greater. But, in the mean time, and that a time 
 which has now nearly reached two thousand years ; 
 a period as long as from the calling of Abraham to 
 the coming of Christ; the Church has been given 
 into the charge of settled pastorship and personal 
 virtue. The second state has thus been the sys- 
 tematic, the first the exceptional. 
 
 And thus it was with adult and infant baptism : the 
 former, though the immediate, was the exceptional; 
 and if the latter were allowed at all, which has never 
 been doubted, adult baptism must have been designed, 
 ultimately to cease altogether. 
 
 But, the case derives additional evidence from the 
 nature of Baptism itself. Christ has appointed two 
 Sacraments, of wliich the object is the same, — the 
 
THE 7WO SACRAMENTS, 33 
 
 entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Each is com- 
 pletely adequate to that object : for none have ever 
 doubted that the baptized infant, dying in infancy, 
 becomes a member of Christ. Why then have two 
 means been given, each of which is declaredly suf- 
 ficient? Where have we another instance of Divine 
 superfluity? The only solution can be, that the two 
 sacraments have been appointed to two different 
 conditions of things here. In earth, there are two 
 strongly-marked conditions of human existence ; one, 
 in which the understanding is wholly undeveloped ; 
 and the other, in which it is developed, — infancy, and 
 manhood. There are also two conditions of sin, 
 original, and personal. The infant is born under the 
 former, but is evidently incapable of the latter. It 
 is declared, that Baptism washes away all sin ; ])ut, if 
 it were delayed until the development of the under- 
 standing, countless multitudes of Christian infants 
 must die, still under the stain of original sin ; for one 
 of the most remarkable anomalies in human exist- 
 ence is the prodigious loss of infant life; a mortality 
 rare in any other than humankind. 
 
 Whether this early loss of life proceeds from some 
 secret law of nature, or from the mere ignorance 
 of man \ the fact seems to have been always the 
 same. It is computed that, even in the improved 
 
 ' The diseases of infancy form a peculiar class, which seldom 
 extends to more mature years, and then only in a milder type. 
 In infancy they are remarkable for violence and rapidity. 
 
 D 
 
34 THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 
 
 state of medical science in this country, one fourth 
 of all born die before they are five years old. 
 
 Without the arrogance of demanding that the 
 Almighty shall supply a counteraction for every 
 calamity of man; is it inconsistent with those con- 
 ceptions of his mercy, which He has commanded us 
 to receive, that He " who willeth not the death of a 
 sinner," may provide a merciful compensation for so 
 wide a calamity? that He, whose name is Love, may 
 offer the means of rescuing innumerable creatures, 
 burthened with no personal sin, from the effects of 
 the sin of Adam ? and that, calling them from this 
 world before they have the power of " working out 
 their own salvation" through his Spirit ; He may give 
 them a grace of his own? Is it even inconsistent 
 with the highest acts of his providence, that while 
 inflicting on the hearts of their parents one of the 
 deepest pangs of human feeling, the bitter fruits of 
 that sin which brought death into the world, He 
 may administer the sacred consolation, that He has 
 taken them to Himself, and raised them into a world 
 of happiness, without exposure to the anxious hazards 
 and long probation of the life of man ? 
 
 But, while we have the unlimited declaration, that 
 Baptism saves from all sin, original as well as per- 
 sonal, and while the delay of a few years would be 
 equivalent to the rejection, how can man be justified 
 in rejecting a fourth of all the children of Christian 
 parents from Baptism ? The very form of Baptism 
 
TfTE TWO SACRAMENTS. 35 
 
 might silow, tliat it is intended for a period of life 
 which cannot act for itself. Unlike the Lord's 
 Siipi)er, which, according to the habits of the first 
 age, every man administered to himself, in the 
 breaking of bread from house to house, after the 
 Pentecost, and in the subsequent meetings of the 
 converts ; the administration of Baptism, even in the 
 adult, implies the work of others. In that of the 
 infant, the bringing to the font, and the services of 
 the Minister, stamp it with a character of personal 
 helplessness ; while the adult can no more adminis- 
 ter Baptism to himself than the child. 
 
 That Baptism was especially intended for infancy, 
 may also be justly argued from the circumstance, that 
 it was especially intended for the cleansing of original 
 sin, the only sin of which infancy is capable. And that, 
 it was especially so intended, is evident from the fact, 
 that its renewal is never commanded ; as no human 
 being is now capable of the crime of Adam. By the 
 same rule, the Lord's Supper is not the sacrament of 
 infancy, for its renewal is commanded. "Do this, 
 as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of Me ;" 
 its object being the cleansing of personal sins, which 
 cannot exist in infancy, but which recur throughout 
 life, in the weakness of human nature. 
 
 It is on a similar principle; that the initiatory 
 rite of the Jew (being, like Baptism, the sign of a 
 spiritual Covenant, entitling to possession in a future 
 state of glory) was never renewed : the infant by that 
 
 D 2 -i- 
 
36 THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 
 
 one act being entitled to the privileges of the cove- 
 nant of Canaan ; while the Passover, the Day of 
 Atonement, and the other piacular ceremonials of 
 Judaism, were annually renewed, to meet the recur- 
 ring sins of the nation. 
 
 Of the state of infants dying unbaptized, no theo- 
 logian of any understanding will speak dogmatically. 
 The Church of England lends no authority to the 
 ferocities of foreign sectarianism. Having no reve- 
 lation to guide her on the subject, she refuses to 
 follow the guidance of religious temerity. Those 
 infants are in the hands of a God of mercy. Yet 
 there may be vast diversities of condition, even in an 
 immortality where sorrow cannot come. We are to 
 remember that the unbaptized infant does not belong- 
 to the family of the Gospel ; that it is not a fellow- 
 sharer in the inheritance of Christ; and that it is 
 not a partaker of the first resurrection, or of that 
 especial kingdom of glory over which Christ is king. 
 There may be most solemn distinctions between the 
 state of a being passing beyond the grave, stained 
 with that sin which exiled the first man from Para- 
 dise, cost him immortality on earth, and has left a 
 long bequeathment of infirmity and suffering to all 
 his offspring ; and the state of a being purified from 
 all sin by Baptism, and raised into the possession of 
 the si)lcndours and powers of which Christ is the 
 giver and the Lord. 
 
 What then can be more cruel, or even more 
 
THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 37 
 
 criminal, in the parent, than for a caprice, for a crude 
 conception of doctrine, for a mere defiance of the 
 Establishment, or for any thing capable of being 
 prom])ted by the passions, or mistaken by the pre- 
 sumption of man, to expose the infant to so perilous 
 a contingency ! If all the authority of the primitive 
 ages ; if the labours of the ablest, most learned, and 
 most pious men of seventeen centuries ; if all the 
 promptings of nature, that instinctive wisdom which 
 God implants in the heart of man, are on the side of 
 Infant Baptism ; what parent can hope to justify him- 
 self before human nature, or the Creator of human 
 nature, in refusing to his infant that Baptism, whose 
 loss may be felt through an eternity ! 
 
 Our true precedent is, in the Jewish reception of 
 a Proselyte. The first operation was washing with 
 water, to cleanse him from the spiritual pollutions 
 of heathenism. This washing was distinct from the 
 numerous washings prescribed by the law, and it 
 was never repeated. The other rites of Judaism 
 then followed, and the proselyte was finally admitted 
 as one of the people. But the portion of the case 
 especially applicable to the question of Infant Bap- 
 tism is, that though the infants born before his 
 proselytism were thus baptized, those born after it 
 were never baptized ; but, being regarded as Jewish 
 children, underwent only the Jewish rite of the law 
 on the eighth day. 
 
38 THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 
 
 On this subject the Jewish authorities are abun- 
 dant. The proselytism of the parent, in the first 
 instance, was taken to represent the proselytism of 
 all his previous children, and they were all baptized 
 by virtue of that conclusion ; the Rabbinical rule 
 being, " the proselytism of the father redounds for 
 good to all his children^ ." They even urged the 
 rule so far, that if a woman about to become a 
 mother was made a proselyte, and was of course 
 baptized, her proselytism was regarded as extending 
 to the unborn infant, which, when born, thus re- 
 quired no Baptism. 
 
 The Jews, with that singular mixture of truth 
 and error which has marked all their moral history, 
 fully acknowledging that national Baptism was suit- 
 able to great national change, declared, that they 
 had all been baptized at Sinai, by the command to 
 wash their clothing before the giving of the law ; 
 thus overlooking the true and Divine Baptism in the 
 Red Sea. They went further, and baptized, as pro- 
 selytes, infants which they found exposed on the 
 roads, or infants carried away from conquered pro- 
 vinces, which they made servants, or occasionally 
 adopted as children. Lightfoot, the great master of 
 Hebrew antiquity, observes, that " the baptizing of 
 infants was a thing as well known in the Jewish 
 Church, as in the Christian." 
 
 * Gemara — Babylon. 
 
THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 39 
 
 We find no instance, in which this Baptism was 
 rebuked by Christ or the Apostles ; yet they re- 
 buked without scruple the superstitious practices, 
 traditions, and religious innovations of the leaders 
 of Jewish opinion. By this acknowledged precedent, 
 the decisive answer is also made to the cavil, " Why 
 has not a command been given in the New Tes- 
 tament for Infant Baptism ? " Our Lord gave no 
 unnecessary commands ; and this command would 
 have been wholly unnecessary. If a Jew had been 
 sent forth to convert the world to Judseism, he 
 would have included the children in the conversion 
 of their parents, and regarded them, on the prose- 
 lytism of the parent, as entitled to all the privileges 
 customary with the Jewish infant. The Apostles, 
 being Jews, would naturally follow the custom of 
 their country, and regard the infants of a heathen 
 convert as entitled, by the act of the parent, to an 
 entrance into his religion ; the only distinction being, 
 that while to the Jewish proselyte Baptism con- 
 stituted only a part of his admission. Baptism to the 
 Christian convert constituted the whole. 
 
 But, the principle was the same. The infant of the 
 proselyte 7iever underwent the ceremony which de- 
 noted previous heathenism ; it was born a Jew, and 
 from its birth was entitled to all the privileges of the 
 National Religion. Why should one rule exist for 
 the infant of the proselyte, and another for the infant 
 of the Christian, when the rite in both instances was 
 
40 THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 
 
 administered by Jews ? or, why should our Lord be 
 supposed to have rejected the universal custom of 
 his country, without uttering a word in its condem- 
 nation? or, why should He be supposed to have 
 adopted a new rite, of which He has transmitted no 
 knowledge to mankind? or, why should He be pre- 
 sumed to have laid a new and most painful restriction 
 on his Church, in a religion whose express spirit was, 
 to relax the burthens of all ? 
 
 But, the general retention of the Jewish idea in the 
 Baptism of the Christian, may be shown in another 
 striking shape. From the time when the proselyte 
 was received into the Jewish Church, his infants were 
 entitled to the name of " Jews." So, the infants of 
 the Christian converts were entitled to the name by 
 which the whole body of the converts were apostoli- 
 cally and scriptural ly designated — the "holy" (ot ayioi, 
 in our translation sometimes "the Saints^"). 
 
 St. Paul distinctly gives this name to the infants of 
 the converts ; when, in stating the marriage code of 
 Christianity, he forbids the separation of man and 
 wife, through difference of religion (many of the con- 
 verts having been already married to heathens) ; and 
 he not only gives the name, but seems to found upon it 
 the remarkable fact, that the Christian husband sanc- 
 tified the heathen wife, and the Christian wife the 
 
 " The converts were not called Christians, until about a.d. 44. 
 They had hitherto been called by the Jews Nazarenes, and 
 Galilaeans. The name was first given in Syria. (Acts xi.) 
 
THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 41 
 
 heathen husband : " Else were your children unclean ; 
 but now are they holi/ '." 
 
 Unclean was the Jewish designation of heathenism. 
 Thus, St. Peter, in the conversion of Cornelius, says, 
 " Ye know, how that it is an unlawful thing for a 
 man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto 
 one that is of another nation ; but God hath showed 
 me (by the previous vision) that I should not call 
 any man common or imclean" Thus, there was a 
 declared distinction between the Christian infant 
 and the heathen ; the one was holt/ in the sight of 
 the Church, while the other was unclean : and in 
 what could the distinction between two infants 
 consist ; but that the one was capable of being a 
 member of the Church of God, while the other was 
 not capable ; the word, holt/, in the lips of Jews, in all 
 matters of cups, and vessels, and things connected 
 with worship, meaning '^dedicated to Godf" But, if 
 Baptism were equally refused to the Christian infant 
 and the heathen, where lay the distinction between 
 the " holy" and the " unclean?" 
 
 The common cavil, — How can an infant be capable 
 of being made a member of the Church? — is ob- 
 viously answered by the fact ; that in the Mosaic 
 code, given by God Himself, the Jewish child, but 
 eight days old, was thus capable ; and was thence- 
 forth entitled to all the privileges of Judaeism. 
 
 ' 1 Cor. vii. 
 
42 THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 
 
 But, if one infant were thus capable, and thus en- 
 titled, why not another ? The answer to the similar 
 cavil, — How can an infant have the Holy Ghost? — 
 is simj^ly in a reference to the Scriptural truth, that 
 John the Baptist was " filled with the Holy Ghost " 
 from his birth. Thus, in each instance, the capacity 
 is declared, and the cavil falls to the ground. 
 
 The last refuge of negligence or obstinacy on 
 this subject is, — " How can we suppose, that the 
 present omission of the parent may influence the per- 
 petual condition of the child ? " To this must be 
 given the obvious answer, that, in the first place, the 
 neglect ventures the future welfare of the infant, 
 on an acknowledged hazard ; and that, in the next, 
 man is continually involved in the most serious 
 responsibilities by acts over which he has no personal 
 control. The law of dependency is a law of human 
 nature. In nearly a third of life, and in that third 
 of it in which the character is chiefly formed, the 
 child is almost wholly dependent on the parent. 
 Education, morals, fortune, and even, in some in- 
 stances, life itself, are thus dependent. What is all 
 society, but a system of dependence on the aids and 
 alliances of our fellow-men? and how are we en- 
 titled to presume, that a chain which thus extends 
 through every condition and every age of man, is to 
 be broken on the edge of the grave ? 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 REGENERATION. 
 
 Tfie doctrine of the New Birth by the Holy Spirit, 
 holds so high a place in the Gospel, that eminent 
 and essential as all its doctrines are, Regeneration 
 is revealed to man with the fullest detail. It is the 
 only doctrine, on which our Lord condescends to a 
 direct conference with a stranger, allows a prolonged 
 argument, or presses the hearer step by step to- 
 wards truth, if not to conviction. 
 
 The memorable interview with Nicodemus may 
 be best elucidated by a recurrence to the previous 
 history. Our Lord, after confirming the belief of his 
 disciples by the miracle of Cana in Galilee, had come 
 to Jerusalem to the Passover. There He had sud- 
 denly signalized his power, by expelling the money- 
 changers and sellers of cattle from the Temple, an 
 act which cannot be accounted for, but by miracle. 
 For what less than a power which paralyzed human 
 resistance, could have made the grasping traffickers 
 
44 REGENERATION. 
 
 submit to the overthrow of their tables, or the 
 rough peasantry of Judea suffer themselves to 
 be driven out with their cattle, by a solitary 
 avenger ? 
 
 But, this event had a still higher character. It 
 was here that Jesus first publicly proclaimed Him- 
 self the Son of God ; " Make not My Father's 
 house a house of merchandize." It was here that 
 He first declared the doctrine of the Resurrection ; 
 " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise 
 it up." It was here too, that, in the act of 
 expelling the worldly Jew from the court of the 
 Gentiles, He gave the emblematic evidence of 
 the time, when the Gentiles should be called to 
 the knowledge of God. Thus, this single event 
 comprehended all the distinctive features of his 
 mission — his Divinity, his Sacrifice, and his universal 
 Reign. 
 
 It is also evident, that the act was regarded in a 
 spiritual aspect by the people ; for, instead of seizing 
 Him as a public disturber, they only asked, by what 
 prophetic or supernatural authority He acted. " What 
 sign showest thou, seeing that thou doest these 
 things ? " It is equally evident, from the language 
 of Nicodemus, the pharisee and ruler (thus having 
 the authority of both sect and office), that the 
 same impression was made on the hierarchy. 
 " Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from 
 
REGENERATION. 45 
 
 God, for no man can do those miracles ' that thou 
 doest, except God be with him." 
 
 I need not remind the readers of theology, in 
 what perplexities the commentators have involved 
 the motives, the character, and the objects of 
 Nicodemus ; or how striking a proof the whole 
 text supplies, of the advantage of preferring the 
 simplicity of Scripture to the subtleties of man. 
 Nicodemus, from his subsequent conduct, was evi- 
 dently of a timid and narrow nature. But his coming 
 to Jesus by night, might well be accounted for by 
 the object of his inquiry. If he came to ascertain 
 the approach of the kingdom of the Messiah, of 
 all objects the most interesting to the Jewish na- 
 tion ; he came to ascertain an event the most 
 hazardous of all, while a Roman governor ruled 
 over Judea. It was under this very hazard, that 
 the Jewish council subsequently attempted to justify 
 the destruction of Jesus. " What do we ? for this man 
 doeth many miracles. If we let Him thus alone, all 
 men will believe on Him ; and the Romans shall come 
 and take aw^ay both our place and nation ^" 
 
 The kingdom of heaven was the substantial object 
 of the whole preaching of John. " Repent ye, for the 
 
 * The word is remarkable, (Ti)}xe~ia. The same word wliich 
 was used in the demand of the people for a sign. Nicodemus 
 regarded our Lord as having already given, in the expulsion from 
 the Temple, the sufficient sign of his authority, and in this the 
 priesthood had coincided. 
 
 ^ John xi. 
 
46 REGENERATION. 
 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand." Our Lord, in com- 
 mencing his mission, had repeated the proclamation. 
 The first expression of Nicodemus, his addressing 
 Jesus as a prophet, naturally implies, that he came to 
 consult Him on a subject of inspired communication ; 
 " We know that thou art a prophet." Perhajis we 
 may not go too far, in conceiving, that he came as a 
 delegate from the priesthood. But the first words 
 of our Lord disclose the true purport of his in- 
 quiry. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a 
 man be born again \ he cannot enter into the ki7ig- 
 dom of God.'' 
 
 The Jewish conception of the kingdom of God is 
 well known to have been, a temporal restoration of 
 the throne of David, a popular emancipation from 
 the yoke of the stranger, and the full enjoyment of 
 earthly supremacy. To this scene of splendour and 
 sovereignty every descendant of Abraham was pre- 
 sumed to be entitled, by the simple circumstance of 
 his descent ; with, perhaps, some slight religious 
 preliminary ; and in this conception the nation had 
 crowded to the Baptism of John. 
 
 Our Lord undeceives the inquirer at once, by 
 telling him, that the mere fact of being a Jew is 
 wholly insufficient ; he must be " born again." The 
 
 ^ This translation is inexact; it should be "from above" 
 {avwQEv). When Nicodemus speaks of the New Birth, he uses 
 the words " a second time," hvrepov. When our Lord repeats the 
 reference to the New Birth, He repeats diwdey. 
 
REGENERATION. 47 
 
 declaration is so startling to all the prejudices of 
 Nicodemus, that, from this moment, he who came to 
 inquire refuses to believe ; and contends with Jesus as 
 a disputant, whom he had but just acknowledged in 
 the awful and transcendant character of a Prophet. 
 
 It is of importance for the clearing of this great 
 subject to observe, that the essential to the entrance 
 into the kingdom is declared by our Lord to be — 
 Regeneration. " Except a man he horn again he 
 cannot see the kingdom of God." Our Lord does not 
 name Baptism or the Holy Spirit. If the interview 
 had ended here, we might have heard no more than 
 the fact, that Regeneration was indispensable to man. 
 
 But, here is laid down the frinci/ple ; and the whole 
 of the remaining detail is simply its expansion. It is 
 observable, that the questions of the Jew, from this 
 point, are sceptical, and strongly exhibit that mixture 
 of stubbornness and shallowness which characterized 
 the Pharisee. Nicodemus, on the mention of the 
 New Birth, asks, in language almost amounting to a 
 denial, " How can a man be born again, when he is 
 old ?" an obvious physical impossibility. Our Lord 
 then says, that " unless a man be born of water and 
 the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God ;" 
 evidently, that the New Birth is not physical but 
 spiritual ; and, he adds, that the spiritual is as real as 
 the physical. " That which is born of the flesh (the 
 birth by nature) is flesh, and that which is born of the 
 Spirit (the birth of grace) is Spirit :" as the parentage 
 
48 REGENERATION, 
 
 and the offspring are of the same M7id in the former 
 instance, so are they in the latter. 
 
 It is especially observable, that the joint action of 
 water and the Spirit is here decisively declared : and, 
 that we have not the slightest intimation of any sepa- 
 rate effect ; they are not said to act at separate times ; 
 they are not two births, they are two agencies, com- 
 bined to produce one birth, and that birth is Rege- 
 neration. It is quite clear from the context, that 
 both are necessary. By what right, then, are we to 
 separate them ? or, if united, by what power can we 
 suspend the result of their union ? 
 
 Our Lord then adds, " Marvel not^ that I said 
 unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind ' 
 bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the 
 sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh 
 and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born 
 of the Spirit." 
 
 Marvel not ; answer me by no perplexities from 
 physical objects, as you have already done. It is an 
 operation above human knowledge. What does 
 man know of the cause, or the course of the wind ? 
 Yet who can doubt its existence ? Such is the agency 
 
 * Oavfjdat]c. Sometimes expressive of ignorant perplexity. 
 
 ' It is remarkable, that the same word, nitv^xa, is used for the 
 Divine Spirit, and for the wind. The same use holds in the 
 Latin " Spiritus," as if the atmosphere were in some degree an 
 emblem of the Divine Spirit, in its invisibility, its universality, 
 and its power. We can thus also see the singular and immediate 
 appropriateness of the illustration. 
 
REGENERATION. 49 
 
 of the Holy Spirit ; wholly beyond the conception of 
 man ; a Being of whose operations you can know 
 nothing but the existence. The Jew now asks, 
 " How can those things be ? " This is not an en- 
 quiry, but an objection ; " they are impossible." 
 
 Our Lord then rebukes his ignorance of the 
 national doctrine, " that a j)roselyte was like 
 a new-born babe," (a doctrine which the Jews 
 held so strongly, that in some instances they re- 
 garded the Baptism as extinguishing all his former 
 relationships.) "Art thou a master of Israel, and 
 knowest not those things ?" Christ then speaks on 
 his own authority, " Verily, I say unto you, we speak 
 that we do know, and testify that we have seen ; and 
 (yet) ye receive not our witness." He then still more 
 forcibly exposes the inconsistency of the enquirer. — ■ 
 I have now told you facts of my own knowledge, yet 
 you will not believe Me. But if, in things connected 
 with the present condition of man, such as the means 
 of entrance into the Kingdom of God, you thus refuse 
 to receive my testimony; how can you receive my 
 testimony on the subject for which you sought mo, 
 a condition of things so remote from human concep- 
 tions, as the Kingdom of God? "If I have told 
 you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye 
 believe, if I tell you of heavenly tilings ?" 
 
 For, that knowledge is wholly beyond man, it belongs 
 on earth only to one being ; and to him by his dwelling 
 in heaven, a condition wholly incommunicable to 
 
 E 
 
50 REGENERATION. 
 
 existing human nature. "No man hath ascended up 
 into heaven" to obtain that knowledge, "but He 
 that came down from heaven : even the Son of Man 
 which is in heaven^." 
 
 The testimony of Scriptural texts to the existence 
 of Regeneration is ample. The result of the com- 
 bined action of water and the Holy Spirit, is always 
 either implied or distinctly stated, as a direct and 
 real new birth of our spiritual being. It is not Con- 
 version, which is the work of argument, aided by 
 Divine Grace ; nor Renovation, which is the work of 
 human resolve, aided by the same Spirit; it is the 
 possession of a new faculty of holiness, which is 
 entirely beyond human nature, and is communicated 
 solely in the act of Baptism. 
 
 " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel 
 to all creatures : he that believeth, and is baptized, 
 shall be saved '." 
 
 This command obviously referred to adults, and 
 required previous belief; but the Baptism which was 
 additional to that belief, and necessary to its pro- 
 ducing the capability of an entrance into the king- 
 dom, was evidently identical with Regeneration. 
 
 " We have all of us been baptized by one Spirit 
 into one body, and have been all made to drink into 
 one Spirit." In other words; by Baptism we are no 
 longer the Jew disdaining the Gentile, or the Gentile 
 
 ' Jolin iii. ' Matt. xvi. 
 
REGENERATION. 51 
 
 insulting the Jew ; we have become united in Christ, 
 one body, one mind. — A change of the most powerful 
 and complete character, a new state of being, a 
 Regeneration. 
 
 " Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, for 
 the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost." Here is a definite effect, fixed 
 to a definite time, and that effect, the miraculous 
 gifts, distinctly connected with the act of Baptism. 
 
 " Baptism doth also now save us, (not the putting 
 away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good 
 conscience towards God) by the resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ." Here Baptism is the instrument of 
 salvation, the Apostle explaining that this Baptism is 
 more than the visible act, or mere washing of the 
 flesh, but implies a new state of the conscience, a 
 new spiritual birth, Regeneration, 
 
 " Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, 
 that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing 
 of water, by the word." 
 
 "For w^e ourselves, also, were sometime (formerly) 
 
 foolish, disobedient, deceived living in malice 
 
 and envy, hateful, and hating one another." Thus 
 describing the unregenerate state, the Apostle con- 
 trasts it with the regenerate : " But, after the kind- 
 ness and love of God our Saviour towards man 
 appeared, (not by works of righteousness which we 
 had done, but according to his mercy) He saved us, 
 
 E 2 
 
62 REGENERATION. 
 
 by the washing of Regeneration, and renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost ^" 
 
 " Know ye not, that so many of us as were bap- 
 tized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his 
 death?" — "Therefore were they thus buried, that, as 
 Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the 
 Father, even so we should walk in newness of life." 
 
 By Baptism, the converts had entered into a new 
 condition of existence, having died to their former 
 nature ; and the Apostle here exhorts them to make 
 their conduct conformable to their new state : " For, 
 if we have been planted together in the likeness of 
 His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His 
 resurrection." 
 
 Having by baptism passed away from the old 
 being and assumed the new, the Christian should 
 reckon himself "to be dead unto sin, but alive unto 
 God, through Jesus Christ ^"' Such is the effect of 
 Baptism ; an act with which is thus identified a 
 change on earth similar to that beyond the grave, — 
 a new commencement of spiritual being. 
 
 Those passages are given, not as evidences for 
 Infant Baptism, for they all refer to previous faith 
 and repentance ; but as evidences for the direct con- 
 nexion of Baptism with Regeneration ; the mention 
 of Baptism being always joined with spiritual change. 
 
 The cavil, that baptized infants often grow up into 
 
 " Tit. iii. 3, &c. " Rom. xi. 4, c*vc. 
 
REGENERATION. 53 
 
 worthless men, may be equally urged against any gift 
 of Providence. How many squander away every ad- 
 vantage of both mind and body. How many degrade 
 rank, disgrace honourable birth, and make hereditary 
 wealth a bane. May not the highest gifts of the 
 Spirit also be thus thrown away ? Did not Peter deny 
 Christ ? Did not Judas betray him ? Did not the 
 Corinthians bring down the rebuke of St. Paul for 
 their offences against the gifts of the Holy Gliost? 
 and did not St. Paul feel the necessity of a struggle 
 against himself, lest he should be "a cast away?" 
 " Quench not the Spirit." If the Spirit may be 
 quenched, may not Regeneration be extinguished ? 
 
 But, why is Regeneration essential to the entrance 
 into the Kingdom? That question is not to be 
 answered by the narrowness of human knowledge ; 
 we might as justly ask, why is it that " flesh and 
 blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of Christ?" 
 "why has man been created?" 
 
 Why, then, is its existence revealed to us? One 
 reason, at least, is known ; that, as there is now an 
 invisible Regeneration, there shall yet be a visible 
 one ; that, at the latter day, in the second Advent, 
 the living race of Christianity shall visibly and 
 instantaneously begin a new existence, without tasting 
 of the grave, "in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
 trump, when the dead shall be raised incorruptible, 
 and we (the living) shall be changed ^ ;" when the 
 
 ' 1 Cor. XV. 
 
54 REGENERATION. 
 
 promises to the Apostles shall be realized, and when 
 the earth shall be the Lord's. 
 
 " And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto 
 you, that ye who have followed Me ; — in the Regene- 
 ration ^ when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne 
 of his glory, also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging 
 the twelve tribes of Israel." This consummation of 
 glory is not limited to the Apostles : " And every one 
 that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or 
 father, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's 
 sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit 
 everlasting life^" 
 
 If there were to be no Regeneration until the 
 second Advent, the millions of Christians who 
 have died since the Ajiostolic age, must obviously 
 be excluded from that Kingdom which is to be entered 
 by the regenerate alone. Therefore there is a previous 
 and actual Regeneration for every Christian who 
 goes down to the grave ; by which he is entitled to 
 be a sharer in the final and visible " manifestation of 
 the sons of God." 
 
 And this is the direct language of the Apostle : 
 " He which establisheth us with you in Christ, and 
 
 ^ It has been rashly conjectured, that this sentence should be 
 read, " Ye who have followed me in the Regeneration," as if the 
 preaching of the Gospel were the Regeneration. But, though 
 Baptism is pronounced, the Xovrpoy TrnXiyyertalag, (Titus iii.) 
 " Regeneration" is never applied to the mere preaching of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 ' Matt. xix. 28. 
 
REGENERATION. 55 
 
 hath anointed us, is God, who also hath sealed ?is*r 
 "That in the dispensation o{ the fulness of times He 
 might gather together in one all things in Christ, 
 both which are in heaven and which are in earth ; 
 in whom also we have obtained an inheritance." — The 
 
 promise unperformed, but yet secure "In 
 
 whom also, after ye believed, ye were sealed with 
 that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of 
 our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased 
 possession^ ;" — until that distant, but express, day of 
 fulfilment, in the Kingdom. 
 
 The new birth by the Holy Spirit, Regeneration, 
 is given to us here as a sign and security of that 
 inheritance, which the Christian shall receive at 
 the second Advent. 
 
 The whole epistle speaks with the same reference 
 to Regeneration, as a seal, the evidence and pledge 
 of a future possession. " Grieve not the Holy Spirit 
 of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of re- 
 demption ^." " Ye have received the spirit of adoption, 
 whereby we cry Abba, Father'';" a metaphor taken 
 from that Jewish, or Roman, adoption of the child, 
 which was effected at the moment ; the possession of 
 the inheritance, being thus rendered certain, though 
 it was future. Thus, the Regeneration by the Holy 
 Spirit, through Baptism, which constitutes the Chris- 
 
 * -2 Cor. i. 21. ' Ephes. i. 13, &c. 
 
 " C. iv. ^ Rom. viii. 
 
56 REGENERATION. 
 
 tian adoption, precedes, and secures the ultimate 
 possession of the Christian inheritance. 
 
 We find this distinction carried through the highest 
 events of the Gospel history. Christ declared, that at 
 the Transfiguration He would be seen " coming in his 
 Kingdom." He there appeared in glory, and thus 
 gave unquestionable proof of the reality of his second 
 coming ; yet in the subsequent prophecy of the fall 
 of Jerusalem, He declared, that He should not visibly 
 come, until the nation hailed Him as the Messiah. At 
 the Ascension, He declared, that "all power was 
 given unto Him in heaven and earth ;" and in that 
 pledge his Apostles were sent forth to summon the 
 world to his allegiance. But, the visible possession 
 of that power still awaits the time, when the " Son 
 shall come in the glory of his Father, with his holy 
 an els." 
 
 The Regeneration of the Christian in every passing 
 age is real ; yet is only preliminary to a period, when 
 the living Church will be instantly and visibly 
 changed into immortals, and when Regeneration will 
 be Glory. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 That God acts by general laws in Physical Nature, is 
 proved by experience ; that He also acts by general 
 laws in Moral Nature, has the strongest probability, 
 from the course of things. The first value of this 
 knowledge in both instances to man, is — that it tends 
 constantly to sustain a sense of the Divine government, 
 constantly to convince him of a Divine plan in this 
 world, and constantly to impress his understanding 
 and his heart with homage to the great Governor 
 of all. 
 
 It has a secondary, but most important effect, in 
 its consolation to the heart of man, struggling 
 through the inequalities of the world ; in its assur- 
 ance of irresistible protection to patient virtue; and 
 in its proof that man is not delivered up to chance 
 here or hereafter. 
 
 If the countless millions of stars are inhabited, 
 (and who shall deny it, when we see every leaf in 
 our globe teeming with existence?) — if the whole 
 
68 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 character of creation is the diffusion of happiness, — 
 if " God is Love," — may not every orb of those 
 millions have its especial display of the Divine bene- 
 volence ; each forming some great and characteristic 
 scene of the triumph of good ; and each exhibiting 
 some peculiar and magnificent guiding principle ? 
 
 In our world, that guiding principle has been 
 Religion. 
 
 A glance at the history of mankind will show, that 
 all its substantial changes ; all those great revolutions, 
 too profound and too broad for human means ; all 
 those tides of human impulse, which have been in 
 movement from the beginning, and which will be in 
 movement to the last times of the earth ; have been, 
 dependent on Religion. 
 
 Religion was the pledge, given in Paradise, for 
 the universal happiness of mankind. 
 
 Its loss brought death into the world. 
 
 The recovery of Religion, under the covenant of 
 sacrifice, rescued mankind from immediate extinc- 
 tion after the Fall. 
 
 Its loss brought the deluge on the earth, and 
 extinguished mankind, with the exception of the 
 family of Noah. 
 
 The recovery of Religion by the covenant of Noah 
 restored the world. 
 
 Its loss, after the dispersion, was followed by the 
 general guilt, misery, and infatuation, known under 
 the name of Heathenism. 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 59 
 
 Tlie recovery of Religion, by the direct Providence 
 of God, in the call of Abraham, formed the Jewish 
 commonwealth : with it displayed the Divine inter- 
 position among men, the power of miracle, the 
 power of prophecy ; and gave those pledges of Divine 
 consummation which form to this hour the hope of 
 mankind. 
 
 Its loss destroyed the Jewish commonwealth, 
 scattered the nation, and left it under an anathema 
 through all the ages since its ruin. 
 
 The recovery of Religion, in Christianity, gave the 
 world a new system of morals. Faith, Hope, and 
 Charity became principles of action. Immortality 
 was brought nearer to the mind. Heathenism fell ; 
 civilization received a new and nobler form; and a 
 new ardour, and a new success marked the progress 
 of mankind. 
 
 Its loss, in the middle ages, stopped the whole 
 intellectual and moral growth of Europe. The 
 period of national ignorance, of reckless vice, of 
 gross superstition, and of priestly power, known 
 under the general name of Popery, was the direct 
 result of this loss in the most active and intelligent 
 quarter of the globe. 
 
 The recovery of Religion, in the German Reforma- 
 tion, restored the exhausted energies of Europe, 
 relaid the foundations of European freedom, renewed 
 the productive intercourse of the world, urged the 
 spread of all the knowledge important to the 
 advance of nations, softened the temper of thrones. 
 
00 THE TROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 created popular rights, extinguished the system of 
 inveterate hostilities, and, in our day, exchanged it 
 for a general and noble zeal in the propagation of 
 the Gospel to the ends of the earth. 
 
 Those results and contrasts are undeniable. No 
 man who has ever read history, or is capable of 
 drawing a conclusion from history, can, by possi- 
 bility, doubt them. They are demonstrative : Reli- 
 gion has been the prime mover of tbe world. 
 
 Baptism is one of the laws of Religion. It has 
 the regularity, the permanence, and the univer- 
 sality of law. It is as old as the creation ; has 
 been carried through every era of man ; and will 
 crown the consummation of all things. Baptism 
 is at once a purification and a dedication. Seven 
 successive forms of Baptism are declared in the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 The Baptism of the globe by water and the Holy 
 Spirit, at the Creation. 
 
 The Baptism of the globe by the Deluge. 
 
 The Baptism of Israel in the Red Sea. 
 
 The Baptism of Israel in the river Jordan. 
 
 The Baptism of Israel by John. 
 
 The Baptism by the Holy Spirit and by fire at the 
 Pentecost. 
 
 The Baptism of the globe by fire, at the second 
 coming of our Lord. 
 
 The first Ba}>tism. On the formation of the globe, 
 while it was still without form and void, it was covered 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. Gl 
 
 with water; "and tlie Spirit of God moved upon 
 the face of tiio waters." 
 
 This united action of water and the Holy Spirit 
 was evidently of such importance, as to be thouglit 
 worthy of a Revelation ; the only means by which it 
 could ever have reached human knowledge; man not 
 being then formed. 
 
 It was the primary act of God ; the preparative 
 of the world for man. No physical reason has ever 
 been assigned, why the first covering of the globe 
 should have been water; and no moral one, except 
 for the purpose of its being joined with the Holy 
 Spirit. We have also no instance in Scripture of 
 that united action of water and the Holy Spirit, but 
 for purification and dedication. — The globe, intended 
 for the dwelling of a sinless and God-adoring race of 
 beings, was baptized. 
 
 It is true, that mere Matter can have no relation 
 to vice or virtue. Yet, it has constantly been the 
 Divine will, to declare a connexion between the state 
 of man and the state of the globe. Thus, at the fall, 
 the earth was " cursed" for his sake. Thus, after the 
 Deluge, when the Noachic covenant was given, the 
 curse was withdrawn. And thus, the Apostle pro- 
 nounces the earth to be now feeling the calamities 
 of man, and " groaning" for the day when its burthen 
 shall be removed, and the "sons of God" shall be 
 " manifested." 
 
 The second Baptism was ))y the deluge, in which 
 Noah and his family were saved, to renew the popu- 
 lation of the world. In the language of the Apostle, 
 
62 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTfSM. 
 
 " the like figure whereunto, even Baptism, doth now 
 save us \" 
 
 The guilt of the antediluvian world had been 
 universal : violence reigned upon the earth ; and the 
 longevity of man tended to render the lesson of his 
 mortality unavailing. The successive generations, 
 stained with the vices of their fathers, must constantly 
 sink deeper into iniquity. To meet this evil, extinc- 
 tion for the present race, and the shortening of life 
 for the future, were the Divine expedients. After a 
 warning of a hundred and twenty years, the deluge 
 buried mankind. 
 
 But there was evidently more intended by this 
 f^rm of ruin, than the mere ruin. There might have 
 been a thousand ways of destroying the living gene- 
 ration — a simoom, a pestilence, even a shght change 
 in the constituents of the atmosphere, might have 
 struck down all mankind at the instant ; it seems 
 also not improbable, that but a small portion of the 
 globe was inhabited, from the slow encrease of the 
 antediluvian population. But, the burying of the 
 whole globe in water was essential to the purifi- 
 cation of the whole. 
 
 The earth was baptized, for a new career of man. 
 On its restoration from the deluge, a new covenant 
 was made by God ; a perpetual and conspicuous sign 
 of that covenant, the bow in the cloud, was given ; and 
 it was declared, that whatever might be the offences 
 of the human race, the deluge should return no more. 
 ' 1 Pet. iii. 
 
THE PROVIDENTTAL LAW OF BAPTISM. G3 
 
 No analogy can be closer to the whole course of 
 man himself — a state of original sin ; the curse of 
 that sin requiring a purification by water ; a renewed 
 existence before God by Baptism, a new covenant ; 
 a perpetual pledge of that covenant ; and the com- 
 mencement of a new career, exposed to the diversities 
 of good and ill, until all is finished in the grave ; 
 itself only the beginning of another existence of 
 unmixed glory. 
 
 The third Baptism was the passage of the Red Sea. 
 
 " All our fathers were under the cloud, and all 
 passed through the sea, and were all baptized to 
 Moses in the cloud and in the sea ^" 
 
 Within five hundred years of the deluge, that 
 awful lesson had been forgotten ; and mankind, 
 spreading through the world, had fallen into new 
 forms of evil. The crime of the antediluvian 
 world had been violence, the guilt of the passions. 
 The crime of the postdiluvian world had been idol- 
 atry, the guilt of the understanding. For the former, 
 which brutalized man, there was but one remedy, 
 extinction ; for the latter there was but one remedy 
 — the elevation of the understanding by the know- 
 ledge of God. 
 
 To give this knowledge, an expedient of conspi- 
 cuous wisdom was adopted. From one pair, as in the 
 origin of mankind, a nation was to be formed, whose 
 express purpose was the preservation of the true idea 
 
 ' 1 Cor. X. 12. 
 
64 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 of God. The whole history of Israel was a succession 
 of the exclusive agencies of Providence, in its protec- 
 tions, its miracles, its chastisements, its rewards, the 
 inflictions of its justice, and the promises of its mercy. 
 All was a continued assertion of the Divine rule over 
 man. Separated from all other examples of human 
 fortune, or national existence, by the three grand fea- 
 tures, of a Divine law, a Divine conquest, and a Di- 
 vine Sovereignty ; the history of Israel was a great 
 chart of revealed Providence; a translation for all 
 ages of that mysterious language in which the govern- 
 ment of God speaks to man; an opening of those 
 sublime obscurities, which to the human eye rest on 
 the steps of Him "Who maketh darkness his pa- 
 vilions, dark waters, and clouds of the skies." 
 
 Israel, after the slow growth of four centuries, and 
 the stern training of Egyptian bondage, was at length 
 summoned to commence its career, as a nation de- 
 voted to the service of God. For this high office 
 the appointed preparative was a National Baptism ; 
 and, as if to give the fullest evidence of providential 
 will in the choice of the preparative, that Baptism 
 was to be l)y miracle. 
 
 That Omnipotence might have chosen among ten 
 thousand ways, is a truism. That the people might 
 have been rescued by a sign from heaven, that any 
 one of the ten plagues again let loose over Egypt 
 might have paralyzed all its hostility ; that a thunder 
 storm mio-ht have blasted Pharaoh and all his horse- 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 65 
 
 men, or that the pillar of cloud which bewildered the 
 Egyptian pursuit at the Red Sea, might have covered 
 the Israelite march round the head of the Gulph, are 
 all obvious. But none of those would have been 
 Baptism, and Baptism was the instrument demanded 
 for the purification and dedication of the people. 
 
 Thus, the march of the Israelites was led, against 
 all the probabilities of warlike guidance or popular 
 will, along the shore of the Red Sea. Thus, they 
 were led through the waters by the Divine presence, 
 and thus, they were " baptized in the cloud and in 
 the sea." 
 
 It is to be remembered, that Israel had already a 
 distinguishing Sign, as the descendants of Abraham ; 
 had been formed into a Church by the Communion 
 of the Passover ; and had received the most resistless 
 proofs of Divine protection, in the plagues inflicted 
 on its oppressors. Still, one thing more was essential 
 to the full commencement of its powers and blessings ; 
 and that one thing was Baptism ; and it was given 
 by the direct act of Deity. 
 
 The Fourth Baptism was the passage of the river 
 Jordan. 
 
 Strong as are the proofs of the necessity of Baptism 
 given by the passage of the Red Sea, they are even 
 strengthened by the mighty miracle which preceded 
 the possession of Canaan. That possession had been 
 promised to the people, under the guidance of Moses. 
 And after the giving of the law, they would have at 
 
 F 
 
66 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 once received the promised inheritance, but for their 
 rebellion. They were thenceforth sentenced to die 
 in the wilderness. Their Baptism was thus thrown 
 away ; its preparative for the qualities which were to 
 sustain them as a nation was lost ; and of that 
 mighty multitude which had been sanctified through 
 the Red Sea, but two individuals were ever to enter 
 Canaan. The whole living generation remained un- 
 baptized. 
 
 But Baptism was essential to the vast change, 
 implied in the transition from the wilderness into the 
 sovereignty of Palestine. It is acknowledged, that 
 the sojourn in the wilderness offered a national edu- 
 cation, such as no other scene on earth could have 
 offered — in the continual operation of miracle, in the 
 teaching of Moses, in the sublime guidance of the 
 fiery pillar, in the hardihood of a mountain life, and 
 even in the elevation of the mind, trained by the 
 grandeur of nature ; the whole solemnly concluded by 
 the line drawn in the grave between the ancient slaves 
 of Egypt and the young and free natives of the desert. 
 Yet, the period of the sojourn, except the giving of 
 the Law, was evidently a blank in the national exist- 
 ence. The history constantly reverts to the former 
 Baptism, as if to establish the identity of purpose in 
 both. It is not until the actual encampment of Israel 
 in Canaan, that the nation is declared to be free from 
 the shame of Egyptian bondage. Forty years had 
 passed, since an Israelite had heard the sound of an 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. ()7 
 
 Egyptian manacle ; yet the interval was of no historic 
 effect. It was only after the actual entrance into 
 Canaan, that the Lord said, " This day have I rolled 
 away the reproach of Egypt from off you ;" and the 
 declaration was commemorated by giving a name to 
 the place where it was made, " Gilgal \" 
 
 Even the connexion of the two Baptisms forms a 
 part of the instruction which the people are to give 
 to their posterity. 
 
 " Then ye shall let your children know, saying, 
 Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the 
 Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from 
 before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord 
 your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up 
 from before us, until we were passed over ^" 
 
 All the leading features of both are strikingly, 
 and of course intentionally, similar. Moses encamps 
 on the shore of the Red Sea; predicts the destruc- 
 tion of the Egyptians while the people are trembling 
 at the thunder of their chariots and cavalry ; and 
 promises their deliverance by miracle. 
 
 Joshua encamps on the bank of Jordan, there is 
 told, " that the Lord hath delivered into the hand 
 of Israel all the land ; for all the hearts of the country 
 did faint because of them ;" and he there commands 
 Israel to prepare for a Divine interposition. " Sanc- 
 tify yourselves, for to-morrow ye shall see wonders." 
 
 ' Rolling. " Josh. iv. 22. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 At the Red Sea the pillar of cloud and fire, which 
 till then had led the way, moved back, when the 
 peo])le began to enter the sea, to cover their march 
 from the pursuit. In the passage of the Jordan, the 
 ark, the place of " Him that sitteth between the 
 cherubim," led the way, at a distance of two thou- 
 sand cubits below the host; but when it reached the 
 brink of the river, and the feet of the priests who 
 bore it touched the stream, they were commanded 
 to stand still, until the whole body of the people had 
 passed. 
 
 If the object had been merely to carry the Israelite 
 multitude into Canaan, it might, and would, have 
 been effected by simpler means, for Providence wastes 
 no power. The Jewish leader might have reached 
 fords higher up the river, or he might have waited 
 until the mountain floods went down. Before him 
 were the Canaanite and Amorite armies, a strong city, 
 and a hostile land, all to be reached only through 
 a broad torrent, swollen with the snows of Lebanon. 
 
 But the passage by a ford would have had no re- 
 semblance to the march through a sea ; there would 
 have been no miracle, and no identification of pur- 
 pose. The standing of the water in heaps, the march 
 through the bed of a torrent, the peril, the preserva- 
 tion, and the sacred triumph of a new, a difficult, and 
 a magnificent enterprise, were all demanded by the 
 connexion of the two Ba])tisms. 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 69 
 
 The fifth Baptism announced the mission of the 
 JMessiah. 
 
 The besetting sin of the Jewish people, in their 
 latter day, was spiritual pride ; their besetting pre- 
 judice was a fatal belief in the temporal restoration 
 of the kingdom of David ; and both issued in popular 
 vices, which left them no alternative but repentance 
 or ruin. Their holiness was hypocrisy ; their zeal, the 
 struggle of sects ; and their patriotism, a hatred of 
 the Roman. At this crisis of the nation, John ap- 
 peared in the wilderness, proclaiming the advent of 
 the Messiah, and summoning Israel to Baptism "for 
 the remission of sins." 
 
 Isaiah, eight hundred years before, had delivered 
 the singular prediction, that a " Voice from the wil- 
 derness should proclaim the approach of the Lord." 
 Malachi, four hundred years before, had closed the 
 book of prophecy by declaring, that the King of all 
 " should suddenly come to His temple." 
 
 It is among the most striking instances of prophetic 
 fullilnient, that the character of John should have 
 so completely corresponded to the idea of a " Voice." 
 His mission was almost wholly limited to the pro- 
 clamation of the Messiah. He uttered no prophecies, 
 in the ordinary sense of the word ; he wrought no 
 miracles ; he exercised none of those powerful inter- 
 positions in the councils of the great, or those fear- 
 ful ministrations of judgments on the people, which 
 had so largely formed the office of the ancient pro- 
 
70 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 phets. Wlien Judea had beard the proclamation, 
 and received the preparative, the office of this 
 memorable man was done. Though still in the 
 vigour of life, his course was closed, his bold spirit 
 was withdrawn, and he died, only displaying his holy 
 intrepidity in the defiance of a tyrant and the de- 
 fence of virtue. 
 
 It is scarcely a less striking instance of the con- 
 nexion existing in the providential purposes, that 
 John's summons to the national baptism was given 
 from the eastern side of Jordan, at the precise spot 
 where Israel had encamped, before its miraculous 
 passage. Bethabara, where the people, with Joshua 
 at their head, crossed the river, was the scene of 
 John's baptism, and he there opened the way to a 
 new and nobler Canaan. 
 
 Our Lord came to the baptism of John ; but his 
 baptism was evidently of a distinct and a totally 
 superior order ; it was predictive in all its character- 
 istics, and a type of the bajitism of the Pentecost. 
 As the perfect Baptism of Christianity was to be 
 given in the name of the Holy Trinity ; the three 
 Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, were 
 present at this baptism, by the Voice from Heaven, 
 by Christ, and by the emblematic Dove. 
 
 The descent of the Holy Spirit was seen by John 
 alone, and by him for the purpose of personal con- 
 viction. " He that sent me to baptize with water, 
 the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 71 
 
 the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the 
 same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost ^" 
 If this glorious sight had been visible to the multi- 
 tude, they must have oiFered Him instant homage ; 
 no prejudice could have resisted the Sign from 
 Heaven ; as no unbelief could have refused to hear 
 the voice of God. The Sign which they always de- 
 manded, would then have been given to them. But 
 its results might have been a national revolt, which 
 would have laid them at the mercy of the Roman 
 sword. 
 
 It is characteristic, that John, with the descent of 
 the Spirit in full force upon his mind, yet points out 
 Christ to His disciples, not as the King, but as the 
 Sacrifice ; not as the Messiah, but as " the Lamb of 
 God, that taketh away the sins of the world." 
 
 The Sixth Baptism was the proclamation of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 As the Baptism of John was, in a certain degree, 
 connected with that of Israel at the entrance into 
 Canaan ; the Baptism of the Pentecost was announced 
 by John. " I indeed baptize you with water "nto 
 repentance, but He that cometh after me is mightier 
 than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He 
 shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." 
 
 The most comprehensive and wonder-working of 
 all the changes of mankind had now commenced — 
 
 ' John i. 32. 
 
72 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 the conversion of the world. — The Gosjiel was to be 
 given to the Gentiles. 
 
 It was probable, that for a purpose of this magni- 
 tude and difficulty, new and extraordinary powers 
 would be required. The propagation of a religion 
 was new in the world. Juda3ism made but few 
 proselytes, heathenism wanted none. Preaching was 
 unused by both. It was now to be the great instru- 
 ment of the Gospel. 
 
 The declaration of John, that Christ should bap- 
 tize " with the Holy Ghost and with fire," was now 
 partially fulfilled ; but though the gifts of the Pen- 
 tecost were astonishing instances of power, the dis- 
 course of St. Peter to the people points to a period 
 of still larger and more illustrious fulfilment. The 
 Apostle, in vindicating the gift of tongues, refers to 
 the proj^hecy of Joel : " It shall come to pass in 
 the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit 
 upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall 
 prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and 
 your old men shall dream dreams." But those out- 
 pourings of the Holy Spirit were to be connected 
 with events of the greatest magnitude and the most 
 overwhelming change. 
 
 " I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs 
 in the earth beneath ; blood, and fire, and vapour of 
 smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and 
 the moon into blood, before the great and notable 
 day of the Lord come." 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 73 
 
 In the known language of prophecy, the fall of tlie 
 heavenly bodies denotes the fall of kingdoms; and 
 the fall is here universal. But, no convulsion of any 
 magnitude accompanied the Pentecost. Even the 
 fall of Jerusalem, in forty years after, though a most 
 awful instance of divine wrath, cannot fulfil so vast 
 a prediction of overthroM^ Yet we find the language 
 of the prophet repeated in every instance where pre- 
 diction reaches to the Second Advent. 
 
 Thus Malachi : " Behold, the day cometh, that 
 shall burn as an oven ; and all the proud, yea, and 
 all that do wickedly, shall be stubble : and the day 
 that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of 
 Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor 
 branch "." 
 
 Thus John : " He will thoroughly purge his floor, 
 and gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff 
 He will burn with unquenchable fire." 
 
 Thus our Lord : " As the lightning cometh out of 
 the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall 
 also the coming of the Son of man be. For where- 
 soever the carcase is, there will the eagles be 
 gathered together. Immediately after the tribula- 
 tion of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the 
 moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall 
 from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be 
 shaken : and then shall appear the sign of the Son 
 of man in heaven ^" 
 
 ^ chap. iv. ' Matt. xxiv. 
 
74 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 Thus John, in the Apocalypse : " And the kings 
 of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, 
 and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and 
 every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves 
 in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains ; and 
 said to the mountains and rocks. Fall on us, and hide 
 us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, 
 and from the wrath of the Lamb : for the great day 
 of his wrath is come ; and who shall be able to 
 stand?" 
 
 It is impossible to reconcile the force of those 
 solemn and fearful declarations with the^r*^ Advent 
 of Him, who declared that He was come not to con- 
 demn the world, but that the world through Him 
 might be saved. But the contrast of those prophecies 
 with the character of our Lord, developes a striking 
 principle in the history of his mission. — The First 
 Advent is a type of the Second ; all its leading 
 events, excepting the Crucifixion, being repeated, 
 but on a broader and more conspicuous scale. 
 
 Thus, John came " in the spirit of Elijah," — But in 
 the Second Advent, Elijah himself shall come, and 
 restore all things. 
 
 Thus, the Transfiguration showed Christ in his 
 glory, but only in night, with but Moses and Elijah, 
 as his angels, and in the presence of but three of the 
 disciples. — In the Second Advent, He shall be seen 
 in the glory of his Father, with his hosts of angels, 
 and descending before the eyes of all nations. 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 75 
 
 Thus, the entry of Christ into Jerusalem was the 
 entry of its king, but without the attendant forms or 
 evidence of royalty. — In the Second Advent He shall 
 enter in unquestioned royalty, with the whole con- 
 verted nation rejoicing before Him, surrounded with 
 all the grandeur of earth, and hailed with the uni- 
 versal acclamation, " Blessed is He that cometh in 
 the name of the Lord !" 
 
 Thus, the Last Supper was held in obscurity with 
 his disciples, whose especial character He pronounced 
 to be that of " servants" to each other, and whose 
 first duty was to be their submission to suffering like 
 his own. — But, in the Second Advent, He announces 
 to them the banquet of kings. " I appoint unto you 
 a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me ; 
 that ye may eat and drink at my table in my king- 
 dom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of 
 Israel." 
 
 And thus, the miraculous gifts of the Pentecost, 
 though unanswerable proofs of Divine interposition, 
 are to be regarded as a pledfje of the effusion of the 
 Holy Spirit in the days yet to come. The tongues 
 of fire descended but on a portion of the disciples ; 
 and this visible Baptism of fire was 7iever renewed. 
 The miraculous gifts, though astonishing and widely 
 extended, were still partial in power and limited in 
 duration, and were thus incommensurate to a pro- 
 phecy, which promised gifts universal, and a]i})arently 
 perpetual. 
 
76 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 The language of St. Paul establishes alike the fact 
 of the past, and of the future. The gifts of the 
 Apostolic age were appointed to decay. " Whether 
 they be prophecies, they shall fail ; whether they be 
 tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be know- 
 ledge, it shall vanish away." And he assigns the 
 reason of their limited duration, to their compara- 
 tive imperfection, and their being to be yet followed 
 by perfection : " When that whicli is perfect is come, 
 that which is in part is done away." He then con- 
 trasts the present gifts with the future, as the 
 thoughts of a child with those of a man : " When I 
 was a child I thought as a child." Even with all the 
 powers of miracle, he yet saw "but through a glass, 
 darkly :" but when the promised day should come, 
 he was to see through no obscuring medium of imper- 
 fection ; but, as one sees "face to face^" This consum- 
 mate capacity of intellectual and moral faculties is to 
 be given in the Kingdom of Christ. It is a common 
 error to conceive, that it refers to Heaven, in the 
 usual meaning of the place of the Divine presence. 
 We have no revelation, which carries the mind further 
 than the Kingdom of Christ, the judgment, and the 
 knowledge, that at its close, God shall be " all in all." 
 
 The gifts of miracle communicated to the disciples 
 in the first age form one of the most eminent fea- 
 
 * In the casements of Greece and Italy talc was frecjuently 
 used, which obscured the liji;lit, and made external objects im- 
 j)erfect. 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 77 
 
 tures of Christianity. They also form an exclusive 
 one ; for, excepting Judaism, they belonged to no 
 other religion; and, even in Judaism, were given to 
 man only in the instance of that prophetic period, 
 which was interposed between the decline of Jewish 
 and the origin of Christian knowledge. The subject 
 appears to be capable of larger illustration than it has 
 yet found ; and may yet furnish one of the most im- 
 portant testimonies to the truth of Christianity. But, 
 here I must give only a glance. 
 
 In the first mission of the Apostles to the Jews, 
 their preaching was sustained by gifts of miracle ; 
 but those were wholly connected with the body: — 
 " As ye go, preach, saying. The Kingdom of Heaven 
 is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise 
 the dead, cast out devils ^" The gifts to the Seventy 
 were of the same order. 
 
 After the resurrection, Christ committed his mis- 
 sion to the Apostles: "As my Father hath sent me, 
 even so I send you :" giving them, at the same time, 
 power over the mind, — "Whose soever sins ye remit, 
 they are remitted ; and whose soever sins ye retain, 
 they are retained '^" Immediately before the ascen- 
 sion. He appeared to the Eleven, and predicted a 
 new extent of miraculous power, to be communicated 
 no longer to the Apostles alone, but to their converts 
 among both Jews and Gentiles. " And these signs 
 
 ' Matt. X. '" John xx. 
 
78 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 shall follow them that believe ; In my name shall they 
 cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; 
 they shall take up serpents ; and if they drink any 
 deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay 
 hands on the sick, and they shall recover'." A 
 totally new gift, was here promised, the gift of 
 tongues, which would have been unnecessary to Jews 
 preaching in their own country, but which was of 
 the first necessity where their mission extended 
 through the world. The fulfilment of this promise 
 was appointed for the Pentecost. 
 
 But, on that most memorable day, the gifts of the 
 Holy Spirit were not only more largely given, but 
 were of another order. They were more than mere 
 capacities of external power ; they were new eleva- 
 tions and energies of the individual intellect. Those 
 have been named by St. Paul, "the Word of wisdom ; 
 the Word of knowledge ; Faith ; Prophecy ; and the 
 Discerning of Spirits; with Divers kinds of tongues; 
 and the faculty of interpreting those Tongues ; all in 
 addition to the former gifts of Healing; and the 
 working of Miracles. 
 
 The gradation is striking ; — from the gifts first re- 
 lating to the body, limited to the Apostles, then ex- 
 tended to the Seventy, but, in both, temporary ; 
 next spiritual, but limited to the Apostles ; finally, 
 intellectual and bodily, but extended to the general 
 
 ' Mark xvi. 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 79 
 
 Church. Each successive transmission of gifts being 
 thus adapted to meet the larger necessity, and the 
 changed condition of the religion; yet, in the end, when 
 the first general inii)ression was made by the Gospel 
 on Heathenism, to pass away ; and, within a single 
 generation, commit Christianity to the effect of that 
 impression, and to the natural progress of reason and 
 virtue in the human mind. In all this high pro- 
 ceeding we can still trace the great principle of the 
 providential government — never to waste power, yet 
 never to exhibit a deficiency of power; to suffer no 
 essential impulse to be wanting, yet to suffer no 
 superfluity ; to control free agency to the extent 
 that is required for the good of man, but to leave its 
 action to effect all that it is adequate to perform ; to 
 vindicate the character of Divine interposition when 
 it is necessary, but to withdraw its instruments when 
 they may be exchanged for the common means of 
 man. 
 
 It is also fully consistent with the providential 
 government, that the age immediately preceding the 
 second Advent should witness a restoration of the 
 gifts of the Pentecost, and witness that restoration 
 on a still more illustrious scale. That age is predicted 
 to be one plunged in iniquity, and bearing the strong- 
 est semblance to the desperate vice, and daring vio- 
 lences, of the antediluvian world. 
 
 " This know," says the Apostle, " that in the last 
 days perilous times shall come ; for men shall be 
 
80 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 lovers of their ownselves, covetous, boasters, proud, 
 blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, un- 
 holy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false 
 accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that 
 are good ; traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of 
 pleasure more than lovers of God ^" 
 
 It is scarcely possible to conceive a human crime, 
 or a Satanic temptation, which does not come within 
 this tremendous category. 
 
 Yet, as there is always a certain similarity of pur- 
 pose, whatever may be the diversity of means, in the 
 divine action, nothing could be more probable than 
 a divine interposition, to rescue mankind in their 
 last extremity. Nothing could be more conformable 
 to the whole history of the providential government, 
 than a great future mission of inspired teachers ; 
 even as Noah was given as a " preacher of right- 
 eousness" to the final generation of the antediluvian 
 world. 
 
 But, for this high purpose, no revival of the phy- 
 sical gifts of the Pentecost is promised. The de- 
 mand is spiritual, and the gifts will be spiritual. 
 "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy .'' 
 Thus the gift which St. Paul directed the converts 
 especially to solicit, as the most efifective of all, shall be 
 the especial gift of the Church in the last days. 
 ' Desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may pro- 
 
 ^ 1 Tim. iii. 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 81 
 
 phesy^. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edi- 
 fieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifietli the 
 Church'r 
 
 I press this distinction the more, from its striking 
 proof of the consistency of the whole providential 
 system. The gifts of the early Church, so far as 
 they were applied to the relief of human infirmity, 
 to safety among barbarian tribes, or to the command 
 of the various languages of a thinly peopled globe, 
 would be almost superfluous, even in the existing 
 condition of the world. But, in a century, or even 
 in half a century hence, with the world constantly 
 assuming a new aspect of population and power ; 
 with the tide of habitancy swelling to the ends of 
 the earth ; with the forest and the prairie resounding 
 to the labours of man ; with intercourse speeding 
 through all nations, by inventions rivalling eagles' 
 wings; with the Globe quartered among a few lead- 
 ing languages ; with the forms of Religion encamped 
 on every soil ; with the art of Printing, the greatest 
 civilizer and subduer of all ; breaking down all the 
 old barriers, or pouring forth perpetual streams of 
 knowledge, and turning the parched and barren soil of 
 the human mind into verdure and production ; 
 Where would be the necessity for the earlier gifts, 
 astonishing as they were ? 
 
 ^ Prophecy, in the New Testament, chiefly means inspired 
 preaching. 
 * 1 Cor. iii. 
 
 G 
 
82 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 The true gifts would be those which prepared 
 Religion to meet this fierce and fervid temperament 
 of the world ; the strength for the " pulling down of 
 strongholds:" the intelligence to open the eyes of 
 nations; the fortitude to disdain the dungeon for 
 the truth; the penetration to strij) the heart of the 
 voluptuary to his own startled gaze; the authority 
 to force sullen avarice, and haughty ambition, and 
 cold-blooded selfishness, and stony-hearted pride, to 
 see their sentence written in the grave at their feet ; 
 and, above all, the gift, to create a new conscience in 
 the scoffer ; and make the lips, which came to cry, 
 " Crucify Him, Crucify Him ! " humbly utter, " Lord ! 
 remember me, when thou comest to thy kingdom." 
 And this is the whole order of gifts contained in the 
 original promise, and renewed in the Apostolical 
 promise of the last days. " On my servants and on 
 my handmaidens, I will pour out, in those days, of 
 my spirit, and they shall prophesy \" When this 
 final effort shall be complete the door of the Christian 
 ark will be shut, and the great convulsion will begin. 
 " And I will work wonders in Heaven above, and 
 signs in the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapour, 
 and smoke." 
 
 On this awful period it may be important to re- 
 mind even our present generation, that whatever may 
 have been the public confusions of our period, none 
 
 ' Joel ii. 28. 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 83 
 
 of them bear the character of those final struggles ; 
 that all the calculations have been premature ; that 
 they are all hopeless, and that they have even been 
 virtually forbidden by the declaration, that the time 
 is unknown to angels, and is wholly reserved in the 
 councils of Omnipotence ^. 
 
 It is not less striking, that the especial subject of 
 Infidelity, in those days, will be the Second Advent, 
 " Where is the promise of his coming ?" and that 
 the Apostle rebukes this general scoff, by reminding 
 mankind that the Globe has already undergone 
 two great changes; the first, the sanctification by 
 water at the Creation ; the second, the destruction and 
 sanctification by water at the Deluge. The third is 
 to come, and is to purify the earth by fire. " The 
 heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same 
 word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the 
 day of judgment (condemnation ^ ), and perdition 
 of ungodly men ^." 
 
 The seventh and last Baptism shall, like the first, 
 be the Baptism of the Globe. 
 
 When the long career of human iniquity shall have 
 thus been closed ; when Christ shall have triumphed 
 where He suffered ; and when He shall have achieved 
 his last earthly conquest, the extinction of Death; 
 the Globe will, for the third time, be purified, — but 
 by fire ; and purified to receive a sinless race of im- 
 
 * Mark xiii. 32. ' Kpiffewg. " 2 Pet. iii. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 
 
 mortals ; — " Looking for and hasting to the coming 
 of the Day of God ; wherein the heavens being on 
 fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt 
 with fervent heat. Nevertheless we^ according to 
 his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, 
 wherein dwelleth righteousness '''." 
 
 In tracing this whole vast succession, there is no- 
 thing imaginary. All is fact, and fact authenticated 
 by Scripture. There is a^plan, and it is by the re- 
 gularity belonging to a plan, that the Almighty, in all 
 his works, addresses Himself to the convictions of 
 the human understanding. Wherever this regularity 
 can be proved, the evidence that there is a Supreme 
 Director of the world is irresistible. 
 
 There are thus four Baptisms of man, on the largest 
 scale, in all the great religious Eras of the world — a 
 Baptism of Israel redeemed from bondage — a Bap- 
 tism of Israel entering on the land of promise — a 
 Baptism of the Jews, on the preaching of the Gospel 
 to Judah — and a Baptism by the Holy Ghost, on the 
 extension of the Gospel to the Gentiles. And, in 
 each instance, the baptism has received" the Divine 
 illustration of Miracle. 
 
 There are thus also, three Baptisms of the Globe, 
 taken in the sense of a world in some degree sharing 
 even in the good and ill of man. In the first, " God 
 saw every thing that He had made, and behold, it 
 
 '' 2 Pet. iii. 
 
THE PROVIDENTIAL LAW OF BAPTISM. 85 
 
 was very (pod '." In the next the declaration was 
 made, distinguishing man from the earth, yet describ- 
 ing />>o^A as corrupted. "God looked upon the earth, 
 and behold it was corrupt ; for all flesh had corrupted 
 his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, 
 The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth 
 is filled with violence through them ; and, behold, 
 I will destroy them with the earth." 
 
 On the restoration from the Deluge, "The Lord 
 said in his heart, I will not curse the (ground any more 
 for man's sake ; for the imagination of man's heart 
 is evil from his youth." Man is no longer formed 
 as Adam, upright ; but as Adam fallen. 
 
 The third Baptism is to be final, the Baptism by 
 fire. 
 
 In this succession of the Baptisms of the Globe we 
 may observe another evidence of regularity, a sin- 
 gular correspondence with the three successive condi- 
 tions of man. It is first baptized for a race of man, 
 sinless, yet liable to sin. Next, for a race of man, 
 the " imagination of whose heart is evil from his 
 youth," a race born in sin, and sinning continually. 
 Finally, for a race relieved from sin, and to sin no 
 more, " a world in which dwelletli righteousness '-." 
 
 ' Genesis i. 
 
 ^ The argument of this chapter, succinctly stated, has been 
 lately given in a sermon preached in St. Stephen's, Walbrook, and 
 published by Kenrick, Walbrook. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 
 
 Those forms are Sprinkling, Immersion, and Affu- 
 sion. 
 
 The use of water as an emblem of spiritual purifi- 
 cation, belonged to the earliest period of the Mosaic 
 code. It was thus commanded, " Thou shalt make 
 a laver of brass, for Aaron and his sons shall wash 
 their feet thereat, when they go into the tabernacle 
 of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that 
 they die not ^" So important was the ablution 
 deemed, and so perilous its neglect. 
 
 And this custom of ablution extended to all things 
 connected with the public worship. In the building 
 of the Temple by Solomon, the provision for this 
 part of the ceremonial was large and costly. " He 
 made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, 
 .... and it received and held three thousand baths ^ 
 He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right 
 
 ' Exod. XXX. 
 
 * The bath was seven gallons and two pints. 
 
THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 87 
 
 liaiid and five on the left, to wash in them : such 
 things as they offered for the burnt-offering they 
 washed in them. But the Sea (the principal laver) 
 was for the priests to wash in ^." 
 
 The Jewish custom, in later times, was to multiply 
 those ablutions, which they expressed by " baptizing." 
 The word (to dip) jScitttw occurs but thrice in the 
 New Testament, and never with reference to a 
 sacred purpose. Varying as may be the sense of 
 words in a popular language, there can be no question, 
 that to baptize (j3o7rrt^w) was used even in the com- 
 mon use of water for washing the hands before 
 meals ', the water being poured out on the hands by 
 an attendant; as we may presume, from the customary 
 manner at this day. 
 
 In the Temple service, s'prmkling was the chief 
 mode of purification. Oil, blood, and water, were 
 severally used, the two former presumed to represent 
 the anointing and atonement of Christ ; the latter, 
 the purification by the Holy Spirit. The blood 
 showed how sin was to be expelled, the water how 
 grace was to be renewed. In the consecration of 
 Aaron, " Moses took of the anointing oil, and of 
 the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled 
 it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his 
 sons, and upon his sons' garments with him ^" The 
 purification of the Levites was also by spri7iMin^. 
 
 ^ 2 Chron. iv. * Luke xi. ' Lev. viii. 
 
88 THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 
 
 " And thus shalt thou do unto them, to change 
 them, sprinkle water of purifying upon them ^." The 
 leper was also purified by sprinkling '' ; and thus the 
 Jews consecrated, or purified, tents, and cups, and 
 persons who had touched the dead *. Pouring over 
 the person was also frequent. " Then shalt thou 
 take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, 
 and anoint him ^" Thus was Aaron consecrated for 
 the priestly oflSce ' ; and thus was our Lord baptized 
 with the Holy Spirit desce7idmg on Him. In fact, 
 among the numberless purifications of the Jews, 
 from the person of the high priest down to the 
 vessels of the altar, or even to the common vessels of 
 the table, all seem to have been performed by 
 sprinkling, or pouring; and even the washings of 
 the vessels of the table were called " baptisms" 
 
 In the Old Testament, we have no evidence of 
 immersion, unless we are to regard the passages of 
 the Red Sea and of the river Jordan as immersions ; 
 which they certainly were not, in the ordinary sense 
 of the word. In the New Testament the chief in- 
 stances of baptism almost exclude the idea of im- 
 mersion. 
 
 John summoned all Judea to his baptism ; thou- 
 sands, perhaps tens of thousands, obeyed the sum- 
 
 " Numb. viii. ' Lev. xiv. * Numb. xix. 
 
 ^ Exod. xxix. ' Lev. viii. ^ Mark vii. 
 
THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 89 
 
 iiions. Can we conceive the Baptist to have been 
 equal to the immersion of those multitudes ? 
 
 At the Pentecost three thousand were baptized. 
 Where was the river in Zion for their immersion ? 
 At Philippi, the gaoler and all his household were 
 baptized. Did the Apostle defer this baptism until 
 the day, or lead them forth to the public bath, or 
 the river? They were all baptized at midnight^ and 
 in the gaol. When St. Peter found his last scruple 
 of receiving the Gentiles removed by seeing the 
 gifts of the Holy Spirit poured upon Cornelius, his 
 language is, " Who shall forbid water, that these 
 may be baptized?" He does not say, Come forth to 
 the next public fountain, or the next stream. 
 
 Even in the instance of the Ethiopian baptized by 
 Philip, which bears the nearest resemblance to im- 
 mersion, the evidence may easily be questioned. 
 The Ethiopian, convinced of the Gospel, and taught 
 the necessity of Baptism ; on seeing water by the 
 road side, a rivulet, or possibly a pond, desires to be 
 baptized at once. They both go down into the 
 water, and Philip baptizes the convert. But we are 
 told nothing of immersion ; and when we know that 
 baptism among the Jews so often implied only 
 [)ouring, or washing with water ; that we have no 
 evidence of any immersion being in use among the 
 Jews ; that the Bai)tism of the Pentecost must have 
 been without immersion; and consider the mere neces- 
 sity of either divesting this distinguished personage of 
 
90 THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 
 
 his garments in an open road, and before the eyes of 
 his own people, or plunging him in a rivulet, jjerhaps 
 a ditch, in his garments, and leaving him to the 
 hazards of their remaining upon him as he went on 
 his journey ; we may, without any straining of the 
 sense, fully agree vvith those who conceive that tlie 
 baptism was the same, which had been sufficient for 
 the thousands on the day of Pentecost. 
 
 We are also to remember, on all such subjects, 
 that difficulty, hazard, or even inconvenience, were 
 wholly against the pri7iciple of the Christian ritual ; 
 and, that whatever may have been the subsequent 
 passion for austerities, our Lord established none, sanc- 
 tioned none, and suffered none. He even declared, that 
 M'hile He remained on earth, his disciples should not 
 fast. The mere circumstance of the multitude who 
 came to John's baptism being compelled either to 
 throw off their garments at the river side, or remain 
 in them after their immersion ; would be a sufficient 
 reason, in the absence of all assertion to the con- 
 trary, to conclude that they were only sprinkled '\ 
 
 But, the true question is not, whether immersion 
 may be practised, but whether it is essential. To 
 that question the answer has been now given. Yet 
 it is acknowledged that immersion became a practice 
 
 ^ The usual remark that dc, in the text, may as well mean to 
 the water, as into it, and that it is translated at, immediately 
 after, is not of much weight ; the coming up, Lk tuv vhuTov, shows 
 that they had stood in the water. 
 
THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 91 
 
 of the Eastern Churches at an early period, and that 
 it was generally regarded by them, and even by the 
 Western, as the more perfect form of Baptism. But 
 the immersion was not limited, as in later times, to 
 adults ; it was also applied to infants. 
 
 As the latter part of the first century had shat- 
 tered the Church by heresies, the latter part of the 
 second had corrupted it into superstitions. Thus 
 Tertullian, still our chief authority on the subject, in 
 speaking of Church traditions, states in detail, the 
 customary form of Baptism in his day : " When we 
 come to the water, we there, as we have done a 
 little before in the congregation, under the hand of 
 the Pastor, make a profession that we renounce the 
 devil, and all his pomps, and his angels. Then we 
 are three times plunged into the water, and we 
 answer some few words more than our Saviour in his 
 Gospel has enjoined. When we are taken up out of 
 the water, we taste a mixture of milk and honey, 
 and from that day we abstain for a week from 
 bathing ourselves, which otherwise we do every day *." 
 " They who come to Baptism must use the devotions 
 of frequent prayer, fastings, kneelings, and watch- 
 ings, and the confession of all their past sins ; that 
 they may at least do as much as was done in John's 
 baptism ^" How different was all this toilsome 
 ceremonial from the simplicity of the Apostolic 
 baptism ! 
 
 * De Corona, c. i. &c. '* De Baptismo (20). 
 
92 TFIE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 
 
 As the age of superstition advanced, the rite grew 
 still more formal. Baptism, in the second century, 
 had been performed in the open air; on this, too, 
 we have the testimony of Tertullian. " It is all the 
 same, whether one be washed in the sea or in a 
 pond, or a fountain, or a rivei", or a standing or a 
 running water. Nor is there any difference between 
 those baptized by John in the river Jordan, and those 
 baptized by Peter in the Tiber." But the reign of 
 Constantine, which made Christianity the religion of 
 the throne, gave a sudden impulse to the general 
 pomp of its worship : and portions of the churches, 
 or separate buildings, were appointed expressly for 
 baptizing, and those baptisteries were frequently so 
 large as to allow of several persons being baptized at 
 a time. 
 
 In the excessive heats of the Eastern and Southern 
 climates, where constant bathing is almost a neces- 
 sary of life, baptism by immersion was a habit easily 
 adopted. And yet, even there it was attended with 
 hazards, and was liable to offences of the most re- 
 pulsive nature. In one of the frequent tumults in 
 Constantinople, in Chrysostom's patriarchate; the 
 soldiery were sent into the Great Church on Easter 
 Eve, while the people were assembled for a general 
 baptism. In the letter of complaint written by 
 Chrysostoni, on this occasion, to Innocent, Bishop of 
 Rome, he speaks of intolerable insults to the women, 
 who were already prepared for being baptized, and 
 
THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 93 
 
 were forced to make their escape undressed as they 
 were, many being severely wounded. 
 
 The custom of Trine immersion prevailed largely 
 in the East. Thus Chrysostom says, " The Lord 
 hath delivered to us one baptism, by three immer- 
 sions ; or rather by thrice plunging the head under 
 water ^" 
 
 When men once invade the simplicity of Scrip- 
 ture, the imagination is let loose, and it always 
 teems with laborious folly. The simple act of de- 
 voting the convert or the infant to God became 
 loaded with formalities ; — the use of white robes ; 
 unguents to anoint the body sometimes before bap- 
 tism, sometimes after; the tasting of milk and honey; 
 besides the fastings, prayers, and preparatory disci- 
 pline which have been already mentioned. The 
 Eunomians baptized but one half of the body, from 
 some mystical idea of human corruption. 
 
 Immersion long continued the custom of the 
 foreign churches, and was usual in England, even 
 until the reign of Elizabeth. But the custom of 
 sprinkling had begun so early as the ninth century ; 
 for, a Council (a. d. 816) orders, " Let the priests 
 know, that when they administer Holy Baptism, 
 they must not pour water on the head of the infant, 
 but they must always dip in the font ; as the Son of 
 God gave his own example to all believers, when He 
 
 ' Honi. de Fide. 
 
94 THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 
 
 was thrice dipt in the waters of Jordan ; so it is 
 necessary by order to be kept and used '." In the 
 latter part of this decree, the Council gave a reason, 
 which was no authority ; and took for granted, that 
 which it was impossible to know. But such was the 
 manner of the age. 
 
 Wickliffe, the noblest name of the 13th century, 
 says, " It is not material whether dipping be used 
 thrice or once, or whether water be poured on the 
 head ; but it ought to be according to the custom of 
 the place." Yet, as no command had been given in 
 Scripture for t\\e forrnal Baptism, and as it is of the 
 nature of Christianity to comply with human con- 
 venience in all things non-essential, and as the 
 plunging of infants into cold water must often be 
 hazardous to life in our climate, the Common Prayer 
 Book, at the Restoration, contained this order to 
 the Minister. 
 
 " If the godfathers do certify him, that the child 
 may well endure it, he is to dip it in the water, dis- 
 creetly and warily. But if they certify that the 
 child is weak, it shall suffice to pour water over it." 
 The diiference between this order and the former 
 being simply, that in the latter, the priest was to 
 dip the infant, unless there was an averment against 
 it ; while, in the former, he was not to dip the infant, 
 unless there was an averment /w it. Of course, as 
 
 ' Concil. Anglic, t. i. 
 
THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 95 
 
 that averment is never made, the safer and simpler 
 way is now retained. 
 
 Baptism by Affusion was adopted in instances, 
 where, in case of sickness, necessary haste, or want of 
 sufficient water for immersion ; the only resource 
 was to pour vvater on the Catechumen. But, though 
 this Baptism was regarded as sufficient for a Chris- 
 tian, it was not regarded as sufficient for a priest, 
 and the baptized person was actually precluded from 
 holding the offices of the Church, except under 
 certain qualifications. Thus, in the remarkable 
 instance of Novatian, who had been elected by an 
 ecclesiastical party to the Bishopric of Rome, it was 
 charged in a letter of complaint by his antagonist 
 Cornelius, that Novatian was incapable of being a 
 Bishop ; as incapable, even, of taking Orders. " For 
 all the Clergy, with a great many of the Laity, were 
 against his ordination as presbyter ; as it was not 
 lawful for any one baptized in his bed, as he had 
 been, to be admitted to any office of the Clergy ®." 
 
 The answer of that eminent leader of the Church, 
 Cyprian, to an enquiry, whether affusion in sickness 
 required another Baptism on recovery, decides the 
 question at once, of the practice, and of its validity, 
 in the opinion of the time. 
 
 " Yon enquire, my dear son, what I think of such 
 as obtain the Grace in time of their sickness, whe- 
 
 ' Euseb. H. E. 1. vi. 
 
96 THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 
 
 ther they are to be accounted lawful Christians 
 because they are not washed all over with the water 
 of salvation, but have only some part of it poured 
 
 on them I, according to my humble 
 
 capacity, judge thus : that the Divine favours are 
 not maimed or weakened, so that less than the whole 
 of them is conveyed, where the benefit of them is 
 received with a full and complete faith, both of the 
 giver and receiver." 
 
 "For, the contagion of sin is not washed off in 
 the Sacrament of Salvation, in the same manner as 
 the dust of the skin and the body is washed off in 
 the ordinary and secular bath. It is in another way 
 that the breast of a believer is washed ; after another 
 fashion that the mind of a man by faith is cleansed. 
 In the Sacraments of Salvation, when necessity com- 
 pels, the shortest way of transacting Divine matters, 
 by God's gracious providence, confer the whole 
 benefit." 
 
 • He then quotes Ezekiel : " I will sprinkle clean 
 water upon you, and you shall be clean ^." He then 
 quotes the commands for sprinkling the Levites, and 
 those who had touched the dead ' ; forbids a second 
 Baptism as superfluous, and even as presumptuous ; 
 and, referring to the equal measure of the manna 
 given to the Israelites'^, pronounces it an emblem of 
 that impartiality in the Divine mercy, " by which the 
 
 " xxxvi. 2.5. ' Num. viii. xiii. ^ Exod. xvi. 
 
THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 97 
 
 Gmce tliat was to come in after times was to be 
 equally divided among all God's people ; without any 
 difference of sex or years of age (thus including 
 infants), or respect of persons ^." 
 
 So this manly and intelligent authority settles a 
 question, which, for the time, had excited anxiety, 
 and might have introduced a new schism into an age 
 already fatally prolific of frivolous subtleties, and 
 envenomed distortions of the truth. Instances oc- 
 curred, and probably, from the troubles of the 
 Church, were then numerous, in which Baptism by 
 affusion was the only one which could be adopted. 
 When exile, dungeons, and scaffolds were the general 
 fate of the more conspicuous teachers ; and men 
 were baptized in prison, in flight, or perhaps at the 
 foot of the scaffold, the difficulty of procuring water 
 must often have made immersion imjDossible. 
 
 The histories of the early martyrdoms are known 
 tohave been grossly interpolated in the Dark ages; but 
 their chief statements are probably true; so far as 
 their sufferings are retrieved from their Saintship. 
 Christians, in the hands of heathens, tyrants, and 
 robbers, must have been prepared to find but little 
 mercy; and the difficulties of those high-hearted 
 men may have often defied fable. It is recorded 
 that Lawrence, a contemporary of Cyprian, on his 
 way to death, having converted one of the soldiers 
 
 '' Epist. Cyp. 69. 
 
 H 
 
98 THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 
 
 who were to execute him, the soldier brought him a 
 pitcher of water, to baptize him on the spot *. BasiH- 
 des was baptized in prison by some of the brethren ; 
 an act which, like the baptism of the Philippian 
 gaoler, was probably done with such simple means of 
 affusion as were at hand ; and like the gaoler, he was 
 baptized at the moment, "the same hour of the 
 night, he and all his straightway ^" 
 
 In the twelfth century, Aquinas, the great authority 
 of the age, admits aspersion and affusion, though he 
 prefers immersion, and regards it as the more " lively 
 emblem" of the burial of Christ. 
 
 Bonaventura says that affusion was probably used 
 in the Apostolic age, and was in his time used in the 
 Churches of France ; but he also prefers immersion 
 as the more usual, the more fitting, and the safer ! 
 
 Baptism by immersion, in England, is generally now 
 performed in baptisteries, where care is taken, as far 
 as is possible, to avoid offence. But even under the 
 most cautious provisions, the operation is sometimes 
 injurious to health, and may be often offensive to 
 delicacy. The rite by which the Christian is to be 
 made a member of the Church of Christ, and an 
 heir of salvation, cannot be too far removed from 
 levity and contempt. It seems unquestionable, that 
 females undergoing this rite in the presence of a 
 congregation, or even surrounded only by their 
 
 ' Wal. Strab. de Reb. Eccl. c. 20. ' Hist. Eccles. c. G. 
 
THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 99 
 
 friends, must often wish that some simpler form, to 
 say the least, should be adopted. At present, the 
 argument chiefly relied on for this hazardous and 
 repulsive practice is a metaphor, " Buried by Baptism 
 into His death ;" a phrase which may merely refer to 
 the fact, that the baptized Christian is entitled to 
 begin a new life of morals and faith, and that his 
 past bondage to the world should no more be suf- 
 fered to bind him, than the habits of his life may be 
 presumed to pass the grave. But, a metaphor is of 
 all arguments the weakest; and we must look for 
 the pi-actice of immersion in a climate so adverse, 
 and in manners so sensitive, as those of our country, 
 to the passion for extravagance, or the ambition of 
 singularity. 
 
 There can be no stronger proof of the prevalence 
 of a custom, than its forcing itself into a language. 
 Baptism had become so frequent, that it had thus 
 penetrated, and apparently been used to express the 
 chief changes of life. We find it thus used by our 
 Lord Himself, to express the commencement of his 
 sufferings ^ : we find it used by St. Paul, to express an 
 event to which it bore so little analogy as martyrdom. 
 " What shall they do who are baptized for the dead, 
 if the dead rise not at all ^ ? " 
 
 I need scarcely more than remind the learned 
 reader of the New Testament, that this text has been 
 
 ° Matt. XX. ' 1 Cor. xv. 
 
 h2 
 
100 THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 
 
 one of the problems of Exegesis for a thousand 
 years ; having been discussed in the days of Ambrose ; 
 that it formed the perplexity of foreign expositors, 
 among whom were the great names of Scaliger, 
 Erasmus, and Grotius ; and that it remains still as 
 undecided as ever. Yet this indecision arises simply 
 from the old habit, the " mala consuetudo" of critics, 
 of preferring the pleasure of attack to the benefit of 
 discovery. The whole ground of Christian antiquity 
 has been actually broken up, to find some explana- 
 tory traces of the text, in the writings of the 
 Fathers ; Ambrose, Tertullian, Chrysostom, in his 
 diatribes against the Marcianites, the Corinthian 
 customs, and even the superstitions of the more 
 obscure Asiatic sects, each furnishing its quota of 
 confusion. And yet, the meaning might have been 
 obtained at once, by a mere reference to the context. 
 St. Paul had just called his Corinthian converts to a 
 contemplation of the Kingdom of Christ. There 
 were heresies already denying the Resurrection. 
 The Apostle suddenly, and with powerful and natural 
 feeling, exclaims, — If the Kingdom of Glory be 
 false, how deeply must we all have been deceived ! 
 How utterly must the lives of our martyrs have 
 been thrown away ! How weakly must I have lavished 
 the labours of my struggling and persecuted life. 
 Why do I expose myself to death from day to day ? 
 And this was the language of our Lord. When the 
 wife of Zebedee came to solicit the highest rank in 
 
THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 101 
 
 tlie future kingdom for her sons, Christ asked them, 
 whether they were prepared to undergo the suffer- 
 ings through which He must rise to glory. " Are ye 
 able to drink of the cup that I shall drink, or to be 
 baptized with the baptism that I shall be baptized 
 with," that cup and that baptism being agony and 
 death ? 
 
 The language of the Apostle is, — " Why stand we 
 in jeopardy every hour? By your rejoicing, which I 
 have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily." Then 
 referring to his long struggle at Ephesus ; his fight, 
 more like a fight with wild beasts than a controversy 
 with human beings; he speaks of the vastness of 
 this delusion, if the fact were not, that there is a 
 Resurrection ; it would have been wise in him and 
 them to escape this overwhelming toil, to avoid this 
 perpetual encounter, to think only of the pleasures 
 of sense, and the world, for the short time of human 
 existence. " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we 
 die." He then abruptly turns from this fine apo- 
 strophe to the grave rebuke of their wavering, and 
 warns them against the insidiousness of heresy. " Be 
 not deceived ;" evil opinions corrupt pure principles ; 
 " evil communications corrupt good manners." Exert 
 your understandings. " Awake to righteousness, and 
 sin not" You require this rebuke ; for some (of 
 you) have not the knowledge of God ; "I speak this 
 to your shame." 
 
 The " Baptism for the dead" was not the supposed 
 
102 THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 
 
 substitution of the living for the departed, nor a 
 baptism over the grave, nor a baptism in memory of 
 the departed, nor any one of the crowd of trifling- 
 ceremonies which have been offered in explanation, 
 but which evidently involved neither difficulty nor 
 danger ; it was death, embraced for the sake of. the 
 Gospel. And many had thus died already, and more 
 were about to die. It was the glorious sacrifice of 
 the martyr % the willing baf)tism of the grave. 
 
 The names given by the early Church to Baptism 
 are important, as showing not only the high rank in 
 which it was held, but the spiritual point of view in 
 which it was contemplated. Thus it was named 
 Indulgentia, the absolution. Of which Augustine 
 says, " The Sacrament itself may be given by bad 
 men, but the grace can be given only by God." It 
 was also named ^wrtcr/iog, the illumination; Salus, 
 the Salvation, from its giving an entrance into the 
 Kingdom of Heaven. It was also called the Sacra- 
 mentum, the Mysterium, and the Signaculum, — the 
 Oath, the Mystery, and the Seal, from the contract 
 there made with Christianity. The Seal, in the 
 Apostolic meaning, implied the pledge of the King- 
 
 * In a later age, the similar expression of " Baptism in blood" 
 for martyrdom was used, and was intelligible. Thus Fulgentius 
 writes : " Firmissime tenc, et nullatenus dubites, exceptis illis 
 qui pro nomine Christi suo sanguine baptizantur, nullum hominem 
 accepturum vitam aeternam, qui non hie a nialis suis per peniten- 
 tiam fidemque fuerit conversus," &c. (De Fide.) 
 
THE FORMS OF BAPTISM. 103 
 
 dom. And probably in the double conception that 
 Baptism at once cleared away the guilt of a whole 
 life, and that it was the promise of an immediate 
 advance to future happiness ; baptism was in some 
 instances delayed until a late period of life. Thus, 
 in the memorable example of Constantine the Great ; 
 the dying Emperor addressed the Bishops surround- 
 ing his bed : " Now is the time for me to enjoy the 
 Seal of Immortality, now is the time for me to 
 obtain the Seal of Salvation ^" It was called the 
 Chrism, as the anointing of one who was to share 
 the honours of a future royalty and priesthood : the 
 " Gift" as the pre-eminent work of mercy : and the 
 " Water of Life." 
 
 The lavish eloquence of the Asiatic and African 
 Churches seems to have laboured to give this great 
 instrument of the Divine benevolence due homage. 
 But still, its loftiest and most expressive name was 
 the one given by Scripture, " Regeneration." 
 
 ^ Euseb. de Vita Constantin. 1. 4. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SPONSORS. 
 
 The obvious helj^lessness of infancy renders the care 
 of others necessary during its continuance. Its 
 baptism, its sustenance, and its religion (when it 
 shall be capable of) instruction, are all dependent on 
 the offices of relatives and friends; and in this de- 
 pendence originated the office of Sponsors. 
 
 In the ancient Church there were three classes of 
 sponsorship — for infants ; for adults, who were dis- 
 abled by illness or accident from answering for them- 
 selves ; and for adults. 
 
 One of the errors on this subject, an error which 
 has not been wholly extinguished, is, that sponsors 
 were obliged to maintain the infant in cases of desti- 
 tution. But in such cases they became the orphans 
 of the Church. It is important to state this claim, 
 because the fear of being burthened still deters 
 many from taking the office of sponsor. 
 
 In the early Church, the parents were generally 
 the sponsors ; but as instances must occur where the 
 
SPONSORS. 105 
 
 parents were dead, or distant, or under circumstances 
 which demanded the charities of Christian society, the 
 sponsors might be friends, or strangers, or even indivi- 
 duals prompted by charity alone. As Augustin said of 
 their subsistence, "The whole Church is their mother" 
 — so every Christian ought to feel that the whole 
 Church is their sponsor. The enquiry made of the 
 sponsors at the font was nearly that of our Church Ca- 
 techism, though with rather a more direct apjDlication 
 to the infant. " Does this child believe in God ?" 
 " Does he turn to God?" which of course implied turn- 
 ing from Satan. The sponsors then proceeded to 
 answer for it, that they " renounced the devil, his 
 pomps and his works." But this representation for the 
 infant produced questions on the actual effect of the 
 sponsorship. Thus Boniface demanded of Augustin, 
 how such a substitution could be valid ? " How can 
 it be said that a child has believed, or renounced the 
 devil, who has no thought of those things ? If any 
 one should ask me whether a child will be virtuous 
 or a thief when he shall be a man ? we should doubt- 
 less answer, we know not ; or, if we were asked 
 whether a child in his infancy thought good or evil ? 
 the answer must be the same ; we know not. Since 
 then no one would answer either for his future 
 morals or his present thoughts, how is it that parents, 
 when, as sponsors, they bring their children to bap- 
 tism, can say, the children do those things that their 
 age does not think of?" 
 
lOG SPONSORS. 
 
 Augustin replies, with a subtlety which is veiy 
 far from strength, " The child is called a believer, 
 because he receives the Sacrament of faith. Christ 
 was but once offered in Himself, and yet He is 
 offered not only in the annual solemnity of the Pass- 
 over, but every day for the people, and no one speaks 
 falsely who says that he is offered as the Sacrament 
 of Christ's body is, after a certain manner, called his 
 body, and the Sacrament of his blood is called his 
 blood, so the Sacrament of faith is faith.'' The de- 
 termination to be content with a bad reason, rather 
 than want one, has been the bane of theological 
 argument ; and Augustin's logic has palpably broken 
 down under him. It is equally evident that his 
 error is founded on a misconception of the nature of 
 Baptism. 
 
 A second duty of the sponsors, on which he strenu- 
 ously insists, and with better reason, is the spiritual 
 education of the children. This, however, must have 
 its limits. The parents are the spiritual guardians 
 given by nature, the sponsors are only the spiritual 
 guardians given by choice. Yet, where circumstances 
 deprive the children of the superior source of educa- 
 tion, or when the parents render themselves unfit for 
 its exercise, or in the various instances which Jiuman 
 casualty is constantly bringing before the eye of 
 Christian benevolence ; the care of the young and 
 helpless mind, if not an obligation, might be an im- 
 pulse of honour and virtue. In a world of trial we 
 
SPONSORS. 107 
 
 cannot have too many ties of friendship and protec- 
 tion. Relationship must take the first place, but a 
 more natural and affecting substitute for its loss 
 could scarcely be found than a voluntary relationship 
 of the soul, a kindred pledged in the presence of the 
 Almighty; a spiritual bond formed on motives supe- 
 rior to all the mere obligations of earth, and forming 
 a species of parentage for eternity. 
 
 Augustin enters into large detail on those duties, 
 and enumerates the classes of virtues which the 
 sponsors may be peculiarly expected to enforce — 
 personal purity, the restraint of the tongue from evil- 
 speaking, the avoidance of light language, the study 
 of Scripture, and attendance on public worship. 
 Some of his restrictions, however, go beyond those 
 rational and Christian bounds, and give a singular 
 conception of the spiritual alarms of his day. The 
 sponsors were to caution their young pupils against 
 the practice of divination and soothsaying, and against 
 hanging phylacteries or diabolical characters on their 
 own bodies or those of their relations ^ 
 
 A second order of sponsors were those who an- 
 swered for persons who had suddenly been struck 
 speechless, or been seized with frenzy by the vio- 
 lence of disease ; for such might be baptized, if any 
 of their friends would testify that they had pre- 
 viously desired baptism. This provision was pro- 
 
 ^ Aug. Serm. de Temp. 1G3. 
 
108 SPONSORS. 
 
 bably often found important, in the sudden and 
 violent diseases of the East and South, and especially 
 in the epidemics which have so frequently visited 
 Western Asia and Africa. It would appear that it 
 was not unusual on such occasions, to appoint per- 
 sons publicly for the purpose ; the baptized being in- 
 formed, on their recovery, of the vows which had 
 been thus pronounced by their sureties. 
 
 The third class of sponsorship applied to the adult ; 
 for though the sponsors in this instance were not in 
 general called on to answer for the catechumen, yet 
 instances occurred where the persons brought to the 
 font were too destitute of all knowledge to com- 
 prehend the rudiments of Christianity ; in this case, 
 the sponsors answered for them as children. It was 
 even a part of the office of the deaconess to in- 
 struct the women. In consequence, they gradually 
 became the principal sponsors for females. 
 
 The appointments and exemptions of sponsorship 
 sometimes exhibit the solemn trifling into which men 
 degrade valuable institutions, when the rage of cere- 
 monial invades them. At one period nuns were consi- 
 dered as fit sponsors ; at others, monks were prohi- 
 bited, and are still so prohibited by Rome. The Coun- 
 cil of JMentz forbid fathers to bring their children to 
 the font as godfathers. Presbyters and deacons in 
 the Romish Church are forbidden to be godfathers. 
 By a still more ancient rule, encrgumens, heretics, 
 and penitents, were forbidden ; persons excomnmni- 
 
SPONSORS. 109 
 
 cated, or unbaptized, or known criminals ; or, by 
 some Canons, persons unconfirmed ; were forbidden. 
 The whole subject evidently formed a curious and 
 complicated legislation. But some of these pro- 
 hibitions are of a more practical and of a more in- 
 jurious order. By the existing laws of Rome, spon- 
 sorship is supposed to establish a kind of relationship, 
 too intimate to allow of marriage between the spon- 
 sors. This difficulty, however, impeded only the 
 lower orders. The rich could marry by dispensation, 
 and the difficulty, as usual, was turned into the 
 funds of Rome. 
 
 By the ancient rule, but one sponsor was required — 
 a man for a male, a woman for a female. In the 
 case of infants a woman might be sponsor for a boy, 
 a man for a girl. In later times, to have more than 
 one sponsor was forbidden : the Council of Mentz 
 assigning as the reason, " That as there is but one 
 God, one faith, and one baptism, an infant ought to 
 have but one sponsor." 
 
 The English Reformation exhibited its good sense 
 in sweeping away all those grave frivolities ; and we 
 have the rule of Baptism established in three offices — 
 public baptism for infants in the Church ; private 
 baptism for infants in houses ; and baptism for such 
 as are of riper years, and are able to answer for 
 themselves. 
 
 By the Rubrick, the curates of every parish are 
 enjoined to admonish the people that they defer not 
 
110 SPONSORS. 
 
 the baptism of their children longer than the Jirst or 
 second Sunday after their birth. 
 
 The people are to be admonished, that it is most 
 convenient that baptism shall not be administered 
 but on tHe Sundays (and other holidays), when the 
 greatest number of people come together. 
 
 There shall be for every male child two godfathers 
 and one godmother ; and for every female child, two 
 godmothers and one godfather. Parents are not to 
 stand in this relation. 
 
 Names of palpable offence to propriety shall not 
 be permitted in baptism. 
 
 Attempts of this kind have probably seldom 
 occurred in our more decorous time ; but occasions 
 may have arisen where strong party feeling, or 
 feverish politics, betrayed parents into this inde- 
 corum. In such a case, the first duty of the offici- 
 ating minister would be to remonstrate ; and, if rea- 
 soning failed, his next would be to refuse. No 
 authority could compel him ; no court could receive 
 such a charge ; and there can be no question that he 
 would be supported by the feeling of the whole 
 Christian community. A Sacrament must not be 
 made a scandal. 
 
 PRIVATE BAPTISM. 
 
 By the Rubrick, the curates of every parish shall 
 admonish the people against ba])tism in houses, ex- 
 cept in case of direct necessity. 
 
SPONSORS. Ill 
 
 But, by the 69tli Canon, the minister, on receiving 
 sufficient evidence of the danger of the infant, must 
 attend at the house, either by himself or his curate, 
 and baptize the infant, under a penalty. 
 
 The Rubrick directs that the baptism shall be by 
 pouring water on the infant. And that this is a suf- 
 ficient baptism, and that it is not to be repeated ; 
 but the infant, if it survive, is to be brought into the 
 Church, that the congregation may be certified of its 
 baptism. 
 
 LAY BAPTISM. 
 
 This is a matter of more dubiousness, and has 
 been the source of much discussion, and of various 
 change. In the early ages of the Church, the neces- 
 sity of baptism was so strongly felt, that its loss was 
 regarded, and justly, as one of the deepest calamities. 
 To avoid this misfortune, baptism seems to have been 
 administered, in the absence of the priest, by any 
 hands, those of the new convert, or even an un- 
 believer, or even of persons of stained character. 
 As has been already observed in these pages, the 
 superstition also grew, of conceiving that it was a 
 panacea for all sin, and an immediate passport to 
 heaven. On this ground the Emperor Constantino 
 deferred his baptism till his last hour. " Because, 
 as any one might baptize, and water was always acces- 
 sible, the Sacrament was always within reach of the 
 dying." 
 
 By the Canon, Baptism was the regular office of 
 
112 SPONSORS. 
 
 the priest; but where necessity occurred, laymen 
 and women might baptize. 
 
 The Church of Rome held that Baptism with 
 water, and the invocation of the Holy Trinity, might 
 be administered by any one. 
 
 The validity of Lay Baptism has been chiefly 
 brought into question in England, on baptism by 
 Sectarians. Bnt it is now held, on the authority of 
 the Ecclesiastical Court, that a child baptized by a 
 Dissenter with water, and the invocation of the 
 Holy Trinity, is baptized in the sense of the Rubric 
 and of the 68th Canon. The Canon being promul- 
 gated in 1603, and before there were Dissenters, its 
 application must have been to baptism performed, in 
 emergency, by lay hands. 
 
 Another question arose (in 1806) whether a minister 
 was bound to baptize a Dissenter's child, with the 
 knowledge that he was to be brought up a Dissenter. 
 To this the opinion of Counsel was, that, by the 68th 
 Canon, the clergyman was bound under a penalty to 
 baptize any child which, after due notice, was brought 
 to him. 
 
 Adult Baptism is seldom administered in Eng- 
 land by the Clergy of the Established Church. 
 B.ut, as occasions may occur, in which persons have 
 been left unbaptized, or have been kept back from 
 baptism by their parents, a " form of Baptism" has 
 been prepared for their reception. In the colonies, 
 the conversion of Negroes brings this form into use. 
 
SPONSORS. 113 
 
 Some difficulty arose from the idea, that bajitism 
 entitled the slave to manumission. But this question 
 was decided in the negative by a formal judgment of 
 English law. Fortunately, such difficulties can arise 
 no more in the great Protestant empire, which never 
 showed itself more worthy of the name, and never 
 set a nobler example to nations, than in abjuring for 
 ever all part in that most cruel, sanguinary, and 
 Satanic addition to the general suffijrings of human 
 nature, the hideous traffic in our fellow man. 
 
 The chief references in this chapter are taken 
 from Bingham's " Origines Ecclesiasticse," and the 
 " Ecclesiastical Law," edited by Phillimore. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE ARTICLES. 
 
 The Articles of the Church having been lately used 
 as a refuge from the meaning of its Services, it is of 
 importance to show their true intention. 
 
 The body of doctrine, named the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, was chiefly formed on a series of Articles 
 given to the Church in the reign of Edward VI. 
 After being passed in Convocation, and confirmed by 
 royal authority, in 1562, they were again confirmed 
 in 1571, being "Allowed to be holden and executed 
 within the realm by the assent and consent of our 
 Sovereign Lady Elizabeth," &c. ; and again con- 
 firmed by the subscriptions of the hands of the Arch- 
 bishops, Bishops, and whole body of both houses of 
 Convocation, &c. 
 
 They were again ratified by James I., with a long 
 and strong preamble, still retained, stating the object 
 of their publication to be the quieting of disputes. 
 "Therefore, in those both curious and unhappy differ- 
 ences, which have for so many hundred years, in differ- 
 
TIIK ARTICLES. 115 
 
 eiit times and ])Iaces, exercised the Churcli of Christ, 
 we will, that all further curious search be laid aside, 
 and those disputes shut up in God's promises, as they 
 be generally set forth to us in the Holy Scriptures, 
 and the general meaning of the Articles of the 
 Church of England according to them ; and that no 
 man hereafter shall either print or preach to draw 
 the Article aside any way, but shall submit to it in 
 the plain and full meaning thereof, and shall not put 
 his own sense or comment to be the meaning of the 
 Article, but shall take it in the literal and irram- 
 matical sense." Then follow threats of penalties 
 against all readers in universities, heads of colleges, 
 and divines in universities, who shall impeach the 
 meaning already established by Convocation. 
 
 This preamble shows the especial purpose of the 
 Articles, and shows that they were published less to 
 decide doctrine, a matter nearly hopeless among 
 men, than to close controversy. This disposes com- 
 pletely of the pretence that they are " precise and 
 dogmatical ;" their object being, declaredly, general 
 and quieting. But it will be seen, on furtlier en- 
 quiry, that to the heresy which denies infant Rege- 
 neration they afford ?io refuge, except on the condi- 
 tion of distorting their purpose and perverting their 
 language. 
 
 The Ninth Article. " Of Original, or Birth Sin." 
 " Original sin standeth not in the following of 
 I 2 
 
lie THE ARTICLES, 
 
 Adam, (as the Pelagians ' do vainly talk ;) but it is the 
 fault and corruption of every man, that naturally is 
 engendered of the offspring of Adam ; whereby man 
 is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of 
 his own nature inclined to evil And this in- 
 fection of nature doth remain ; yea, in them that are 
 
 regenerated (renatis) And though there is 
 
 no condemnation for them that believe, and are bap- 
 tized (renatis), yet the Ajjostle doth confess, that con- 
 cupiscence hath in itself the nature of sin" (in the 
 repetition of the word renatis, baptized is used for 
 " regenerate," a sufficient evidence that the translators 
 regarded them as the same). 
 
 The Fifteenth Article asserts the sinless nature of 
 Christ, and adds, that " All we the rest, though bap- 
 tized and born again in Christ, yet offend in many 
 things; and if we say that we have no sin, we de- 
 ceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 
 
 The immediate connexion of regeneration with 
 baptism is here affirmed again; and, perhaps, the 
 more effectively from its not being a direct object of 
 the Article. The connexion is implied in the com- 
 mon language of all the Baptismal Articles. 
 
 The Twenty-fifth Article is " Of the Sacraments." 
 
 " Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only badges 
 
 ' The Pelagians declared, tliat the sin of Adam was personal, 
 and did not descend ; that man still retained his original liberty ; 
 and that Adam was made mortal, and would have died whether 
 lie sinned or not. 
 
THE ARTICLES. 117 
 
 or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather 
 they be certain sure Avitnesses and effectual signs of 
 grace, and God's good will towards us, by which He 
 doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, 
 but also strengthen and confirm our faith in Him. 
 There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our 
 Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism and the 
 Supper of the Lord." The Article then rejects the 
 five Romish Sacraments, as not having any " visible 
 sign or ceremony ordained of God." 
 
 The whole thus concludes. " The Sacraments 
 were not ordained of Christ to be gazed on, or to be 
 carried about ; but that we should duly use them. 
 And in such only as worthily receive the same, they 
 have a wholesome efi^ect or operation. But they 
 that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves 
 damnation, as St. Paul saith." 
 
 This Article defines a Sacrament, distinguishing 
 it from all other acts of worship. The name was 
 first given by Pliny, in describing the pledges given 
 to religion by the Asiatic Christians ; as, in his con- 
 ception, resembling in their force and fidelity the 
 oaths of the Roman soldiery to their standards. 
 
 A Sacrament is an institution of Christ, in which 
 some material thing is sanctified by the use of some 
 form of words, being a covenant between God and 
 man ; by which man acts on one side, and God on the 
 other — man by prayer and practice, God by the 
 secret but sure agencies of his spiritual power. 
 
118 THE ARTICLES. 
 
 Ritual may be appointed by the Church, but a Sacra- 
 ment, being the means of conveying divine grace, can 
 be appointed only by Him who is the sole giver of 
 grace. 
 
 To distinguish a Sacrament from a vow, a prayer, 
 or any species of worship, it is important to remember, 
 that a Sacrament must have matter for its direct 
 object. Worship is mental, declared by words, or 
 actions of the exterior ; Sacraments exhibit a material 
 sign, accompanied and partly explained by acts, 
 words, and gestures ; and with the matter (as water, or 
 the bread and wine), there must be a form of words to 
 indicate its purpose, that purpose being twofold — the 
 one a federal action to unite us to Christ, and thus de- 
 rive a benefit from Him ; and the other to unite us by 
 this public profession and joint partaking with his 
 body, the Church. Thus Baptism has all the essentials 
 of a Sacrament. Water for its matter : " I baptize 
 thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost;" for its form: "Go preach 
 and baptize ;" for its institution. " The answer of a 
 good conscience ;" for its federal rite " Baptism saves 
 us;" for its blessing, the Sacrament uniting us to 
 Christ ; " There is One Baptism, as there is one body 
 and one Spirit — we are all baptized into one body ^" 
 
 But, the final paragraph of the Article, " In such 
 only as worthily receive the same, they have a whole- 
 some effect or operation," is now adopted as one of 
 
 ^ Burnet, 25 Art. 
 
THE ARTICLES. 119 
 
 the refuges of those who deny infant regeneration, 
 and who will not admit it without the qualifying 
 fiction of " prevenieut grace." 
 
 But, in the first place, the framers of the Article 
 in those words evidently had in view not Bap- 
 tism, but the Lord's Supper; which alone could be 
 gazed on, as in the Romish Elevation of the Host, 
 or carried about in procession, as constantly occurs 
 in Popish countries. St. Paul's reference is to the 
 Lord's Supper. 
 
 In the next, this paragraph is simply the substi- 
 tute for one of King Edward's Articles, which denied 
 the efficacy of Sacraments, " ex opere operate," or 
 as a mere charm. (For, Popery often administered 
 them to persons in a dying and insensible state, or to 
 others totally regardless of spiritual reform.) 
 
 The Article was thus meant, as a guard against 
 Popish practices ; its general object being, to limit the 
 Sacraments to two, in denial of the Popish doctrine 
 o^five additional. Finally, the word " worthily," puts 
 the case of infants wholly out of view. To receive 
 a Sacrament either worthily or unworthily, or to do 
 any thing either worthily or unworthily, by the very 
 terms excludes infancy ; for it implies moral volition, 
 of which no infant has a vestige ; we might as well 
 speak of the worthiness or unworthiness of a stone. 
 
 The Twenty-seventh Article treats expressly of 
 Baptism. 
 
 " Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and 
 
120 THE ARTICLES. 
 
 mark of difference, whereby Christian men are dis- 
 cerned from others that be not christened ; but it is 
 also a sign of regeneration or new birth, whereby, as 
 by an instrument, they that receive Baptism rightly 
 are grafted into the Church. 
 
 " The promises of the forgiveness of sins, and of our 
 adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, 
 are visibly signed and sealed ; faith is confirmed, and 
 grace is increased by virtue of prayer, to God. 
 
 " The Baptism of young children is in anywise 
 to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable with 
 the institution of Christ." 
 
 The two former paragraphs of this article apply to 
 Adult Baptism alone, for the obvious reasons, that 
 there is a third paragraph distinctly applying to Infant 
 Baptism ; and also, that the worth and qualifications 
 demanded in the two former are of an order which 
 cannot exist in infancy. "Faith is confirmed and grace 
 is increased," is a sentence which can have no con- 
 ceivable reference to a condition of our nature wholly 
 insensible to faith, and equally remote from grace, 
 being still under original sin. And this argument 
 derives additional evidence from the expression, 
 "they that receive Baptism rightly f which removes 
 it from the case of infancy at once. Right and 
 wrong in spiritual things arc words applicable only to 
 moral choice. An infant is wholly incapable of choice. 
 Years, bringing the use of its understanding, will give 
 it that capacity : but until then, its acts can have no 
 
THE ARTICLES. 121 
 
 more respect to a moral sense, or lie more under 
 a moral responsibility, than the movements of a 
 machine. Our ancestors in the faith knew this as well 
 as we ; they were at least as wise as their successors ; 
 and we must not charge their common sense with 
 asserting palpable absurdities in the most solemn 
 acts on which human judgment could be employed. 
 Thus those Articles, to which Heresy flies from the 
 unquestionable clearness of the Church Services, 
 and in whose pretended dubiousness of expression 
 others " take their stand," offers it no shelter what- 
 ever. Their language is as clear as that of the 
 Services, when it is applied to the evident object of 
 those documents; and becomes ambiguous, as all other 
 language would become, only when it is applied to 
 purposes for which it was never intended. 
 
 Nor are we inclined to agree with those, who take 
 the half measure of supposing that the validity of In- 
 fant Baptism is grounded on the fact, that the infant 
 interposes no obstacle. A negative qualification is a 
 contradiction in terms. The true right of the Christian 
 infant is, like the ancient right of the Jewish infant, 
 that he is born of parents already dedicated to God ; 
 that God has already laid on those parents a duty, to 
 bring their children to his Service, as they themselves 
 were brought; that He has declared a new birth to be 
 the instrument of entering into the future Kingdom of 
 Heaven; that He has appointed a Baptism by water 
 and the Holy Ghost as the direct and actual means 
 
122 THE ARTICLES. 
 
 of that new birth ; and that He has appointed this 
 Baptism without any restriction of sex or age, circum- 
 stance or form. He, in his Omnipotence and Wis- 
 dom, has made no stipulation whatever. Of the 
 Christian infant He has asked nothing, any more than 
 of the Jewish infant of old ; because He asks nothing 
 which cannot be given, and the infant has nothing 
 to give. Of the adult He asks nothing, but to be 
 sincere. What could be simpler than the Apostolic 
 Baptism? On the day of Pentecost the only cry 
 of the multitude was, " Men and brethren, what shall 
 we do ? " The only answer of Peter was, " Repent, 
 and be baptized every one of you in the name of 
 Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." The Apostle 
 did not adjourn the assemblage to other times or 
 teachinsf, or wait for forms of consecration, or 
 interpose any delay whatever : he declared that " the 
 promise was to them and to their children, and to all 
 that are afar off, as many as the Lord shall call." 
 " Then they that gladly received his word were bap- 
 tized, and the same day were added unto them about 
 three thousand souls ! " 
 
 The Baptism of the Ethiopian is a matter of equal 
 simplicity. " Then Philip opened his mouth, and 
 began at the same Scripture (Isaiah), and preached 
 unto him Jesus." " And he baptized him." The 
 gaoler of Philippi only cries out, " Sirs, what must I 
 do to be saved ? " and is answered, " Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy 
 
THE ARTICLES. 123 
 
 house." " And they spake unto him the word of the 
 Tiord, and to all that were in his house." On that 
 night he was baptized, and all his family. 
 
 In those important narratives there does not appear 
 to be any pledge whatever demanded, or any direct 
 promise given, or any line of conduct dictated. All 
 those are left to the suggestion of the understanding ; 
 " Believest thou that Jesus of Nazareth is the 
 Christ?" constitutes the whole confession. When that 
 is sincere, the other observances of holiness follow, 
 from the natural understanding, aided by the Holy 
 Spirit. The whole artificial system of modern conver- 
 sion, the previous struggles, the prescriptive exercises, 
 and the elaborate despair, which make so large a 
 figure in historic saintship, are wholly unknown: 
 the "prevenient grace," which is so constantly 
 called on to meet the presumed difficulties of Infant 
 Baptism, is no where heard of; we owe its existence 
 solely to modern dexterity. In the Apostolic narra- 
 tive, the Gospel is simply preached, the mind com- 
 prehends, the heart feels, and the man is baptized. 
 
 As to the modern question — whether the man who 
 came to the font in mockery or negligence may not 
 still be benefited by Baptism at some later times, 
 the doubt is easily solved on the principles of com- 
 mon conduct. Baptism for the adult is only for the 
 convert ; but the mocker or the negligent is not a 
 convert. If there be any result, it must be only to 
 punish the audacity which could offer this disrespect 
 
124 THE ARTICLES. 
 
 to a ofift of God. The Eucharist, instead of a blessino*, 
 was changed into a punishment to the Corinthians, who 
 had degraded its sanctity. Baptism holds an equal 
 dignity, and, doubtless, would be equally avenged. 
 
 The direct knowledge of the doctrine of the 
 Established Church is naturally to be sought in her 
 Offices. It is in those, that she speaks to the 
 people, who form the great body of the Church ; it 
 is in those that, all consideration of controversy being 
 excluded, she speaks with practical decision ; and it 
 is in those that she draws, for the substantial use of 
 the people, her solemn and full conclusions from the 
 language of Christ and his Apostles. By the plain 
 meaning of those Offices she is bound, and requires 
 her Clergy to be bound. For her sincerity in their 
 language she is accountable to the people whom she 
 teaches, as for their truth she stands to answer before 
 God. Those who shrink from their meaning deceive, 
 or are themselves deceived. 
 
 The doctrine of infant regeneration in Baptism is 
 impressed on all those Services, in every shape, of 
 direct words and of implied intention, of practical 
 precept, and of spiritual operation ; the impress 
 being more especially made in the Offices for Bap- 
 tism. The first exhortation in the " Public Baptism 
 of Infants," declares that all men are born in sin ; 
 and since " Our Saviour Christ saith, none can enter 
 into the Kingdom of God except he be regenerate, 
 by water and the Holy Ghost ;" the persons present 
 
THE ARTICLES. 125 
 
 are called on to pray, that God, of his mercy, will 
 grant to the child " that which hy nature he cannot 
 have ; that he may by Baptism be received into 
 Christ's holy Church, and be made a lively (an actual) 
 member of the same." 
 
 The prayer which follows on the part of the people, 
 repeats the solicitation for the New Birth still more 
 emphatically, if possible. It implores God, that he 
 will " wash and sanctify the child with the Holy 
 Ghost," and enumerates as the results, his beino- de- 
 livered from the Divine wrath (against original sin) ; 
 and his being received into the ark of Christ's Church ; 
 that in faith, hope, and charity, he may pass through 
 the world to the land of everlasting life, to reign 
 with God through Christ, world without end. 
 
 In the prayer which follows, God is called on by 
 all the glories of redemption, as the Helper of all 
 that fly to Him, the Life of them that believe, and 
 the Resurrection from the dead ! to grant that the 
 infant coming to his holy Baptism may receive re- 
 mission of his sin, by spiritual regeneration ; and 
 . . . . that he may come to the eternal kingdom 
 promised through Christ." 
 
 After reading the portion of St. Mark's Gospel \ 
 which describes the blessing of the children by our 
 Lord, — " Suffer little children to come unto me, and 
 forbid them not ; for of such is the Kingdom of 
 God," the Exhortation says, " Doubt ye not, there- 
 
 ' Mark X. 13. 
 
12G THE ARTICLES, 
 
 fore, but earnestly believe, that He will likewise 
 favourably receive this present infant : that He will 
 give him the blessing of eternal life, and make him 
 partaker of his everlasting kingdom." 
 
 It has been already remarked, that those earnest 
 supplications for the Divine mercy to the infant, 
 neither imply any doubt that the mercy will bo 
 granted, nor that the Baptism will be complete in 
 both its parts, the water and the Holy Ghost. In 
 bringing the child to the font we are performing a 
 command of God, and doing an act of the highest 
 good to the infant. Prayer is not doubt. We are 
 commanded " to pray without ceasing," to acknow- 
 ledge every benefit of our lives to be the act of his 
 mercy, and to feel that for all we are to be grateful to 
 the Almighty Giver. Prayer is the natural language of 
 the heart to God; and we use it best, when w^e use it in 
 that perfect confidence, which is the holiest form of 
 hope, and in that perfect love "which casteth out fear." 
 
 On the performance of the Baptism, the declara- 
 tion is made by the officiating minister, " that the 
 child is received into the congregation of Christ's flocks 
 This is followed by the declaration that " the child is 
 regenerate, and grafted into the body of Christ's 
 Church." Those present are then called on to give 
 thanks, for that " it hath pleased God to regenerate 
 the infant with his Holy Spirit, to receive him for 
 his own child by adoption, and to incorporate him 
 into his holy Church." 
 
THE ARTICLES. 127 
 
 Tn private Baptism, whicii is generally presumed 
 to be in emergency or sickness, sponsors are not 
 required; whicli shows that, however advantageous 
 in general cases, they are not deemed by the Church 
 to be essential. The former thanksgiving after 
 Baptism is repeated. " We yield thee hearty thanks, 
 most merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee to 
 regenerate this infant with thy Holy Spirit." 
 
 The child is publicly received on some subsequent 
 day into the Church in this manner, by the minister: 
 " I certify you, that in this case all is well done, and 
 according unto due order, concerning the baptizing 
 of this child, who being born in original sin, and in 
 the wrath of God, is now, by the laver of regeneration 
 in baptism, received into the number of the children 
 of God and heirs of everlasting life." 
 
 The remainder of the private Baptism is a repeti- 
 tion of the public, with the thanksgiving, — " that 
 it hath pleased God to regenerate the infant with 
 his Holy Spirit, and to receive it for his own child 
 by adoption, and to incorporate it into his holy 
 Church." 
 
 If the child should not have been baptized with 
 water, and in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Spirit, the minister is to baptize it according to the 
 form of public baptism. The " Baptism of such as 
 are of riper years" consists of the same prayers and 
 form, except that the catechumens, instead of being 
 
128 THE ARTICLES. 
 
 answered for by sponsors, in general answer for 
 themselves. 
 
 This baptism is seldom required, except in new 
 settlements, or in the colonies. 
 
 In the Catechism, the doctrine is the same in its 
 nature and in its explicitness. " What is the out- 
 ward visible sign in baptism ? 
 
 " Water, wherein the person is baptized, in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 " What is the inward and spiritual grace ? 
 
 " A death unto sin and a new birth unto rioht- 
 eousness : for being by nature born in sin and the 
 children of wrath, we are hereby made the children 
 of grace." 
 
 In the " Order of Confirmation" the bishop de- 
 mands of the persons to be confirmed — " Do ye 
 here, in the presence of God, and of this congrega- 
 tion, renew the solemn promise and vow that was 
 made in your name at your baptism, ratifying and 
 confirming the same in your own persons ?" 
 
 After the sentences, the bishop summons all to 
 prayer. " Almighty and everlasting God, who hast 
 vouchsafed to regenerate these thy servants by water 
 and the Holy Ghost, and hast given unto them for- 
 giveness of all their sins. Strengthen them, we be- 
 seech thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Com- 
 forter." Thus, in this series of Services, there is no 
 
THE ARTICLES. 129 
 
 difference of priiicij)]e. All express the same doc- 
 trine, use the same language, and appeal in the same 
 sense to the declarations of Scripture. 
 
 It is not my purpose to detail the history of those 
 Services. In the English Ritual the office of Baptism 
 may be regarded as divided into three parts — the in- 
 troduction, the preparatory office, and the action of 
 the Sacrament, with the conclusion. The introduction 
 originated in the forms of admitting and instructing 
 the catechumens ; among whom, by a singular exten- 
 sion of the rite, infants were numbered. We find in 
 the manuals of York and Salisbury, the " Ordo ad 
 Catechumennm faciendum," containing the signing of 
 the cross, the imposition of hands, benediction, the 
 sacrament of salt, and the introduction of the infant 
 by the hand of the minister, as a catechumen. Those 
 rites, with the exorcism, were abolished by the 
 English ritual ; but the prayers being retained, the 
 introduction continues partially the ancient office of 
 the catechumen. 
 
 The address of the minister to the people to pray 
 for the infant, has a resemblance to the liturgies of 
 Gaul. The renunciations and professions are those 
 of the Constantinopolitan and Antiochian patri- 
 archates. This once constituted a very formal por- 
 tion of the ceremonial. In the fourth century, Cyril 
 of Jerusalem, speaking to those who had been re- 
 cently baptized, said, " First, you have entered into 
 the vestibule of the baptistery, and, standing towards 
 
 K 
 
130 THE ARTICLES. 
 
 the West, you have heard, and been commanded, to 
 stretcli forth your hands, and renounce Satan, as if 
 he were present ^" 
 
 Those customs are still retained in the patriarchate 
 of Constantinople. The Monophysites of Antioch 
 and Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Armenia, also pursue 
 the same grave formality — turning their faces to the 
 West. Why, is not explained ; unless, perhaps, in 
 contrast to the East, as the birth-place of our Lord. 
 
 Then followed the profession and the benediction 
 of the water. In all the ancient churches the bap- 
 tism was administered in the name of the Father, 
 Son, and Spirit ; though in some, additional words 
 were used. In the Sarum Manual, the order was, 
 that the godfathers and godmothers should receive 
 the infant from the hands of the priest after baptism. 
 The same was in the " Ordo Romanus." 
 
 The siffu of the cross on the infant's forehead has 
 
 o 
 
 been an old source of controversy ; but it appears to 
 have been a still older practice. It was frequent in 
 all the actions of the Christian, and from this habit 
 was naturally transferred to baptism. The " Ordo 
 Romanus," published from MSS. of the tentli cen- 
 tury, appoints the sign to be made " immediately 
 after" the Baptism, and the same rite is adopted in 
 the manuals of Sarum and York. It was derived 
 from the Sacramentary of Gregory. 
 
 ' Cyril. Catocli. Myst. 
 
THE ARTICLES. 131 
 
 Where forms have a mystical meaning attached to 
 them, they almost inevitably degenerate into super- 
 stition, because the obscurity of the meaning gives a 
 latitude for fiction ; but the signing of the cross 
 affects no mystery, and is simply our acknowledgment 
 of a crucified Redeemer. We must not suffer the 
 Papist to engross this noblest of all memorials. 
 
 In Gaul, Spain, and IMilan, the priest washed the 
 feet of the baptized ; and milk and honey were given 
 to be tasted, and white robes were put upon them. 
 Confirmation sometimes followed, and in the Eastern 
 Churches follows at this day. 
 
 The office was followed by an exhortation to the 
 sponsors, a custom which was adopted in the offices 
 of York and Salisbury *. 
 
 * Those statements on the Services have been condensed from 
 Bingham, and Pahner — Origines Liturgicac. 
 
 K 2 
 
CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 
 
 Calvin's natural talents, his indefatigable activity, 
 his unshaken determination, and his inexhaustible 
 perseverance, necessarily gave great weight to his 
 opinions, in an age when the value of opinion was 
 measured by its audacity. From the death of Luther, 
 he was the most renowned theologian of Europe; 
 when that great light w^ent down, he filled the hemi- 
 sphere, if with a more erratic light, with scarcely 
 inferior splendour. 
 
 But his principle was unsound ; it was virtually, 
 that the human intellect is sufficient for all things : 
 he thus rushed into discussions never intended for 
 the comprehension of man, was bewildered at his first 
 step, and has left to posterity, as the work of a 
 wasted life, a larger legacy of error, than perhaps 
 was ever before bequeathed by human presumption. 
 
 But this could not last ; the practical o[)position be- 
 tween Calvinism and Scripture soon became palpable : 
 the utter incapacity of the human intellect to combine 
 
CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 133 
 
 the great half-developed truths of Providence into a 
 system of inevitable decrees and inscrutable severi- 
 ties, rapidly revolted alike the common sense and 
 the common feeling of mankind ; and finally reduced 
 Calvinism to what it now is, — a stagnant section of 
 a "minute philosophy." 
 
 Calvin was an innovator, by the constitution of 
 his mind ; his original impulse was overthrow ; and 
 in his doctrine of Baptism, he employed himself in 
 breaking down the system, which the Church had 
 been building uf) for fifteen hundred years. 
 
 His propositions were : — 
 
 Baptism is not an instrument of Grace, but merely 
 a sign or evidence of Regeneration. 
 
 Regeneration, when it exists at all, exists pre- 
 viously to Baptism. 
 
 Infant Baptism does not convey the Baptism of 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The Elect alone are regenerate. They are regene- 
 rate without Baptism. Election and Regeneration 
 irresistibly confer salvation. 
 
 The infants of the Elect are not received into 
 covenant, on account of the previous Baptism ; but 
 are received into Baptism on account of the previous 
 covenant. 
 
 The statement of Zuinglius is of the same order : 
 with him, the Sacrament conveys no Grace. " The 
 benefits of Sacraments are, that they are ap])ointed 
 by Christ ; that they give witness to his history ; 
 
134 CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 
 
 that they bring before the mind, through the senses, 
 the things signified ; that they are qualified to show 
 the things which they signify ; and that they are 
 helpers to our faith in seeing heavenly things, and 
 are pledges to the brotherhood of the Church '." 
 
 Bullinger merely tells us that " Sacraments are 
 holy things, given to be testimonies and seals of the 
 preached Gospel ; and by visible objects to set before 
 us God's mysteries." 
 
 Thus, all that the Church declares to form the 
 especial purpose of a Sacrament, — the spiritual power, 
 the communion with the Giver of all grace, the 
 covenant performed in both its parts, by the mercy of 
 God meeting and cherishing the obedience of man ; 
 have no place in the Calvinistic plan. 
 
 A tract on Regeneration, by an intelligent and 
 sincere writer ^ has lately revived an old theory of 
 Baptism, as follows : — " The great mystery of our 
 salvation is, that we become members of Christ's 
 body, of his flesh, and of his bones. As the fallen 
 nature of the ' old man' is incapable of attaining to 
 such perfection, a new birth is necessary, whereby 
 the new man may be created, and we may become 
 members of Christ's body, of his flesh, and of his 
 bones. 
 
 " Our regeneration is consequently to be con- 
 
 ' Fid. Chris, p. 
 
 ^ "Reflections on Regeneration," by Lord Redesdalc. — 
 (Kivingtons.) 
 
CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 135 
 
 sidercd in union with Christ's incarnation. And as 
 lie, when He took our nature upon Him, was born 
 of the Spirit and the Virgin, so we, when we put 
 his flesh upon us, are born of the Spirit and of the 
 water. Thus, St. Paul says, 'as many of you as have 
 been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,' and 
 ' by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body ;' 
 and ' Ye are the body of Christ.' The water, in our 
 regeneration, supplies the place of the virgin in his 
 incarnation : the Holy Spirit, acting on both, pro- 
 duces Christ's body. His death also came through 
 the virgin, by whom he was made man." 
 
 " So, likewise, we are baptized into his mortality ; 
 and the Spirit, of which with the virgin he was born, 
 and which raised Him on the third day, assists us 
 with the water in our regeneration, and will raise us 
 also. This interpretation is the only one which 
 explains clearly the words of St. Paul, " Buried 
 with him in Baptism, wherein ye are also risen with 
 him through the faith of the operation of God, who 
 hath raised him." 
 
 All opinions respectfully offered should be received 
 with respect. But })robably we cannot go further 
 in explaining the use of water in a spiritual opera- 
 tion, than that its use, as an emblem, indicates a 
 birth. Thus, as the new-born infant is washed before 
 it is clothed, so the first act of the spiritual birth im- 
 plies a purification. But an analogy is not an ex- 
 planation ; and the whole of the Divine action on the 
 
136 CALYINISTIC BAPTISM. 
 
 heart of man is equally beyond the reach of human 
 explanation. Grace, justification, the vicarious 
 atonement, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, his 
 assistance in our prayers, all his operations, are pal- 
 pably placed beyond that boundary %vhich marks the 
 utmost range of the human intellect. Those must 
 be the discoveries of a future age of spiritual illumi- 
 nation, or perhaps of a future existence. 
 
 It will equally be acknowledged, that the whole 
 body of the Reformers equally fail, when they at- 
 tempt to offer an e.vplanation of this Sacrament. It 
 would only fatigue the reader to give a list of the 
 conflicting oj^inions, the perplexed conjectures, and 
 the obscure conclusions, into which the most dis- 
 tinguished names of the Reformation had betrayed 
 themselves, from Melancthon downwards; until they 
 found that " the foolishness of Scripture was wiser 
 than the wisdom of man," and gladly returned to 
 rest in the simple reception of the truth, and in the 
 faithful submission to the words of the Almighty, 
 
 The temptations which thus misled so many men 
 of unquestioned intelligence, and of equally unques- 
 tioned sincerity, originated in suffering external 
 things and local opinions to interpose between their 
 reason and the Scriptures. Their just abhorrence of 
 the Romish superstition, which attached an actual 
 efficacy to the Sacraments, however received, ren- 
 dered them jealous of their actual efficacy. We 
 thus have Beza connecting Regeneration with the 
 
CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 137 
 
 mere Romish act, and declaring that the fruit of Baj)- 
 tism existed only in the moment when faith began ; 
 which sometimes went before, and sometimes fol- 
 lowed Baptism ^ He even thinks that the infants 
 of Christians are born in Christ — of course regene- 
 rate before Baptism. 
 
 Another source of error M-as the supposition, that 
 faith alone is essential ; a theory on which infant 
 Baptism became almost wholly superfluous, on the 
 ground that no one had a right to salvation unless he 
 had given evidence of having faith ; which no infant 
 can give. 
 
 Another source of error was the Calvinistic doctrine 
 of indefectible grace. The idea, that the Christian 
 once regenerate 7nust continue in the Divine favour, 
 and be unfailingly entitled to future glory ; con- 
 trasted with the sufficient daily proofs that the bap- 
 tized may degrade their Christian profession, made 
 them disunite Regeneration from Baptism '. Hooker 
 observes, on this capital error, " Predestination bring- 
 eth not life without vocation, wherein our Baptism is 
 implied. For, as we are not naturally men, without 
 birth, so neither are we Christian men, in the eye of 
 the Church of God, but by new birth ; nor, according 
 
 ^ Apage liunc errorem operis operati, &c. 
 
 * " Fieri non potest, ut qui Spiritias Sancti ope ita Cliristo 
 unitus fuerit, ut unus cum illo Spiritus evaserit, in Christum cre- 
 dere suo tempore vel negligat, vel deinceps etiam desinat." — 
 Gataker, p. 150. 
 
138 CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 
 
 to the manifest course of divine dispensation, new 
 born, but by Baptism, which both declareth and 
 maketh us Christians." He then defines Baptism 
 as " the door of our actual entrance into God's 
 house ; the first apparent beginning of life ; a seal, 
 perhaps, to the grace of election before received ; but 
 to our sanctification here a step that hath not any 
 before it \" 
 
 This opinion would have been more valuable, be- 
 cause more scriptural, if Hooker had omitted the 
 reference to Election ; of all mysteries the most mys- 
 terious, and of which man knows nothing, and can 
 know nothing. 
 
 I shall not go further into this recital of honest error. 
 In every instance, where theologians have attempted 
 to reduce the Sacraments to a human system ; to force 
 them into coincidence with the common operations 
 of life ; or to interpret them by principles adopted 
 from their own idiosyncracies, the attempt has totally 
 failed. They are divine instruments, appointed for 
 divine purposes, and in all senses, above the mani- 
 pulation of man. Our only wisdom can be shown, in 
 taking them as they are given ; in adopting them 
 with that fulness of acceptance and sincerity of faith, 
 which is the highest act of wisdom; in conform- 
 ing our conduct to the vows which they imply ; and 
 in resting our souls in the sacred conviction, that 
 
 ' Eccl. P. b. V. 
 
CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 139 
 
 they are the ordinances of God, and that " thougli 
 heaven and earth pass away, his words shall not pass 
 away." 
 
 In ample contrast and confutation, we may place 
 against those tamperings with the truth, the authority 
 of the most eminent theologian of his age, a writer 
 exhibiting the depth of Hooker, without his cloudy 
 })rolixity, and the learning of VVarburton without 
 his inveterate paradox; the celebrated Water- 
 land". 
 
 Taking for his subject the great text, " But, after 
 that the kindness and love of God our Saviour to- 
 ward man appeared, not by works of righteousness 
 which we have done, but according to his mercy ; He 
 saved us by the washing of Regeneration, and Renew- 
 ing of the Holy Ghost ; which He shed on us abun- 
 dantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour ^" He 
 proceeds to distinguish and define the two great ope- 
 
 * Waterland was tlie champion of the Church in his day. His 
 learning and vigour of understanding attracted early notice, and, 
 after obtaining a fellowship, he became master of his college 
 (Magdalen), at Cambridge. He held also the Chancellorship of 
 York and the Archdeaconry of Middlesex. Though he never 
 obtained the highest rank of the Church, his life was spent in 
 showing himself worthy of all distinction by his defence of its 
 principles. His works, still retaining all their force and fresh- 
 ness, have survived the whole languid and verbose divinity of the 
 earlier half of the eighteenth century. His defence of the Trini- 
 tarian doctrine still stands beside the immortal " Analogy" of 
 Butler. (He died in 1740.) 
 
 ' Tit. iii. 4, 5, 6. 
 
140 CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 
 
 rations of the Holy Spirit, Regeneration and Re- 
 newal. I give but an outline of liis argument. 
 
 " St. Paul has here taught us ' God's method of 
 saving both Jew and Gentile,' under the Christian 
 dispensation. 
 
 "It is done of free grace, and according to his pure 
 mercy, not for any act of our unassisted ability ; but 
 by the washing of regeneration, the Sacrament of 
 Christian Baptism, considered in both its parts, the 
 outM^ard sign water, and the inward sign a new birth 
 unto righteousness, wrought by the Holy Spirit ^ 
 
 " But, while Christ speaks of Regeneration alone, 
 St. Paul speaks also of the Renewing. 
 
 " Regeneration means a s'piritual change wrought in 
 man by the Holy Spirit, in the use of Baptism ; 
 whereby he is translated from his natural state in 
 Adam to a spiritual state in Christ. 
 
 " Regeneration, on the part of the Almighty, means 
 admission into Sonship ; on the part of man it means 
 his entrance into that Sonship. God makes the 
 grant, and it is entirely his act ; man receives only, 
 and is acted upon ; though sometimes active, in 
 qualifying himself, as in the case of adults; and some- 
 times passive, as in the case of itifants. This change 
 carries with it many advantages, but all reducible 
 
 ** " Aqua exhibens forinsecus Sacramentum gratijE, Spiritus 
 operans intrinsecus beneficium gratia?, solvens vincuhini culpae, 
 regenerans hominem in nno Christo, ex uno Adamogeneratum." — 
 August. Ep. ad Bonif. xcviii. 
 
CALVINISTTC BAPTISM. 141 
 
 to two — remission of sins, and eternal l]aj)piness. 
 Those blessings may all be forfeited, if the man re- 
 volts from God, and such a man is no longer in a 
 regenerate state ; but still the original grant remains 
 and the Sonship ^ is still in force, if the revolter shall 
 return. If he thus return, he will not require to be 
 regenerated again ; but he will require to be re- 
 newed. 
 
 " Regeneration stands complete in tw^o things : the 
 grant made to the individual, and the reception of 
 the grant. The former remains always the sjiime ; 
 but the reception may vary according to the condi- 
 tion of the recipient." 
 
 This doctrine evidently does not doubt that the 
 whole benefit of Regeneration may be rendered in- 
 effectual by human perverseness. It merely asserts, 
 that God is always willing to restore the repentant 
 sinner to that sonship which is essential to his en- 
 trance into the Kingdom of Heaven ; and that the 
 gift of Regeneration demands no repetition. 
 
 The next great work of the Spirit is Renovation. 
 It evidently differs from regeneration ; for the latter 
 may bo received by infants ; who certainly can have 
 no sense of the former. The reo:eneration is a single 
 act, w^hich is never repeated : the renewal is an act 
 which may be constantly repeated, and for which we 
 
 ' *' As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be- 
 come the Siyns of God." — Jolin i. 12. Rom. viii. 14. 
 
142 CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 
 
 are to exercise continual supplication. Thus we find 
 that, though the Christian is constantly called on for 
 renewal, he is never called on for regeneration. " Be 
 ye renewed by the renewing of your mind." — The 
 inward man is renewed day by day." The restoration 
 of the fallen Christian is by " renewing him again unto 
 repentance." This renovation, in its reality, its 
 efficacy, and its necessity, is expressed by the strongest 
 images of spiritual change and substantial vigour : — 
 " Putting on the new man ;" or a total abandonment 
 of the past, and a total adoption of the reformed 
 nature. " Having on the breastplate of righteous- 
 ness," or being newly equipped for the conflict with 
 the powers of darkness. " Putting on the armour of 
 light," or shining in the lustrous and impenetrable 
 defence furnished by Divine truth : " Putting on 
 Christ," the loftiest and most sacred of all concep- 
 tions — adopting the holiness, the zeal, and the charity 
 of the Saviour. 
 
 Waterland, like some of our great divines of the 
 preceding century, occasionally ventures to speculate 
 on those movements of the Spirit by which adults 
 are brought to Baptism. Thus, Bull. (Apol.) "In 
 Scripturis dicitur Spiritus divinus, ante conversiones 
 hominis, quasi ad cordis ostium pulsare ; post con- 
 versiones vero interiora domus intrare." But, on 
 subjects hke those, as all our knowledge must be by 
 revelation, — where nothing is revealed, silence is 
 wisdom. 
 
CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 143 
 
 The distinction between the new birth and the 
 renewal was strongly marked by the leading German 
 Reformers ; and is held with equal strength by our 
 Church, in the offices of Baptism, in the Catechisni, 
 and in her public prayers. In one of the Collects ' we 
 expressly pray, " that we, being regenerate and made 
 the children of God by adoption and grace, may 
 daily be renewed by his Holy Spirit ^" 
 
 Regeneration and renovation differ in three things : 
 First, with respect to their effective causes; — the 
 former being the work of the Spirit in the use of 
 water ; the latter being the work of the Spirit and 
 the man together. " Work out your own salvation 
 with fear and trembling ; for it is God that worketh 
 in you both to will and to do, of his good pleasure ^" 
 
 2nd. They differ with respect to repetition ; — the 
 former being given once only ; the latter being con- 
 stantly capable of recurrence. 
 
 3rd. They differ in their nature. — The former, 
 as an act of God, being given once for all, in Bap- 
 tism ; the latter being capable of total extinction. 
 
 In this language respecting the inextinguishable 
 nature of regeneration, Waterland evidently means 
 
 ' For Christmas Day. 
 
 * " There is a mighty difference between regeneration and reno- 
 vation. We can be horn but once, because we can live but once ; 
 but we c;iu recover often, because we can sink often." (Dean 
 Stanhope, Boyle Lecture.) 
 
 ' IMiil. ii. 12, 13. 
 
144 CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 
 
 no more than that God is always ready to receive 
 the returning penitent ; but he gives no countenance 
 to the doctrine of indefectible grace : a doctrine 
 which would practically make all penitence unneces- 
 sary, and exhibit only the violation of the Divine 
 justice by the abuse of the Divine mercy. 
 
 The importance of thus marking the differences 
 between regeneration and renovation, is to be felt in 
 its restraint on fanaticism. In every age of heresy, 
 fanaticism has fastened on the new birth, as its es- 
 pecial privilege. If the fanatic was sincere, he 
 regarded himself as its possessor by an immediate 
 act of Heaven. If insincere, he made it the cover 
 for his imposture. Regeneration in infancy was too 
 remote and too simple for the fervour of the one, or 
 for the fraud of the other. The new birth at the mo- 
 ment of conviction, the sudden elevation from the 
 level of religious life, the direct impulse of the Holy 
 Spirit, the rending of the darkness in which man is 
 wrapped by the narrowness of human faculties, have 
 all been the principle or the pretext of fanaticism. 
 If those fantasies have now died away, who can tell 
 how soon they may again be summoned from the 
 tomb ! While man has passion to stimulate him, 
 ignorance to blind him, or ambition to inflame him, 
 fanaticism will be the armoury in which he will 
 find the most dangerous and the most manageable 
 weapons. Where every man can assume a divine 
 impulse; where every man can assume sudden sane- 
 
CALVINISTIC BAPTISM. 145 
 
 tity ; and where every man can appeal to the extra- 
 vagance of his conduct for the sincerity of his faith ; 
 the pre])arative is the cheapest, and the effect the 
 most irresistible. We have the whole religious his- 
 tory of Europe for our warning. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 The origin of Anabaptism is lost in the darkness 
 which, from the sixth to the twelfth century, covered 
 Europe. In that vast period the blackest super- 
 stition, sustained by the bitterest tyranny, held the 
 human mind and body in subjection. But, God did 
 not wholly leave Himself without witness. Men of 
 vigorous intellects and bold hearts carried the truth 
 from nation to nation ; but the light was in a sepul- 
 chre — it found no sustenance in the surrounding 
 atmosphere, and it was extinguished in the very 
 hands of its bearers. 
 
 Even the Christianity of this disastrous period was 
 scarcely Christian. Living in ages when the art of 
 printing was unknown, unable to procure the Scrip- 
 tures, or to read them if they had been procured ; 
 flying from persecution, or resisting it with the 
 fierceness of peasant retaliation, the early converts, 
 among the fastnesses and forests of Western Italy 
 
ANABAPTISM. 147 
 
 and Southern France, exhibited every eccentricity 
 of a life of solitude, of ignorance, and of uncon- 
 troul. Even the woods and mountains to which they 
 were driven must have contributed to their stern 
 and sullen character. When the Reformation rose 
 broad and full over Europe, its first effect on them 
 was, like daylight suddenly thrown into mines and ca- 
 verns, startling and confusing their dwellers, trained 
 only to the helpless habits of darkness, and guided 
 only by the rude instincts of nature. 
 
 It is, perhaps, thus alone that Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory can account for the first excesses of the Re- 
 formation. The gloomy enthusiasm, the rough pre- 
 judices, the repulsive habits, and the fantastic doc- 
 trines, which scared the eye of rational Christianity, 
 were the product of six centuries of darkness and 
 fear. Yet it is not denied, that the power of Chris- 
 tianity exhibited anew its ancient miracles on human 
 character; that out of those rude materials it wrought 
 noble things; that it raised up aspiring intellects, 
 heroic hearts, generous spirits full of the thoughts 
 which defy alike the temptations and the terrors of 
 the world, and far-sighted spiritual legislators for the 
 establishment of the Church of God on foundations 
 firm as the world ! 
 
 Among those wild sects the Anabaptists had 
 dated their origin from the fourth century ; and, like 
 all sects which professed to take the Scriptures for 
 their guide, they had commenced with truth. Their 
 
 L 2 
 
148 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 especial doctrine was the Visible Kingdom of our 
 Lord on Earth — that most illustrious doctrine which 
 formed the Constitution of the Primitive Church, 
 which constitutes the supreme subject of prophecy, 
 and which supplies the magnificent consummation to 
 the whole cycle of the sacrifices, the sufferings, and 
 the triumphs of the Saviour. 
 
 But they soon degraded this high doctrine, they were 
 tempted by frivolities and fictions. While Rome was 
 yearly canonizing saints and hourly fabricating mira- 
 cles, it was not unnatural, that her feeble antagonists 
 should envy either her faculties of peopling Heaven, 
 or her power of controuling earth. The believers 
 in the visible reign of Christ were betrayed into the 
 dangerous delusion, that the Kingdom was again at 
 hand; that it was to be the inheritance of the living 
 saints ; that the Sovereignty was to be universal, and 
 that the saints were to be superior to all human laws ; 
 their formal declaration being "The Kingdom of 
 Heaven is an assembly of real saints, and ought to be 
 therefore inaccessible to the unrighteous." This was 
 the theory, the next maxim was the practice. — " This 
 assembly of true saints ought to be exempt from 
 all those institutions which human prudence suggests, 
 to arrest the progress of iniquity, and to correct 
 and reform transgressors." This language appears 
 so paradoxical, so direct a challenge to all civil 
 authority, and so daring a defiance to the common 
 understanding of society; that we could scarcely 
 
ANABAPTIS3r. 149 
 
 receive it on the strongest testimony of- the Histo- 
 rian. But the facts soon supplied the^^testimony. 
 
 As acknowledged saintship was thus^necessary for 
 entrance into their covenant, they rejected Infiint 
 Baj)tlsin; and demanded that all adults baptized 
 only in infancy, should be rebaptized ; a custom from 
 which the sect derived its especial name. 
 
 It is memorable, that no great doctrine of Scripture 
 can be ever denied, or diluted, with impunity. The 
 moral deviation rapidly descends into the practical 
 evil ; and what was once simple transgression against 
 the simplicity of the revealed word is enlarged^into 
 public crime, and punished by national infliction. 
 Thus, the early doubts on the Divinity of our Lord 
 were at length visited by the factions, the corruptions, 
 and the murders of Arianism. Thus, the later doubts 
 on the doctrine of Justification by Faith were at length 
 embodied and envenomed into Popery, and were 
 punished by the long slavery of the human mind, and 
 the long havoc of Europe. And thus, lastly, the denial 
 of Infant Regeneration, extended and fomented into 
 the fierce Sectarianism of the German Anabap- 
 tists, flung a large ]Jortion of Europe into formida- 
 ble disturbance; roused civil slaughters, threw back 
 the Reformation, and, in the loss of baptism to mil- 
 lions of infants, produced spiritual evil, perhaps only 
 inferior to Arianism and Popery. 
 
 As if a darker influence than that of man was at 
 work, this evil first broke out in the very birth-place 
 
150 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 of the Reformation, Saxony. The Reformation was 
 too deliberate for the rapid movement, and too 
 cold for the feverish ambition of the Anabaptists. 
 Luther denounced them in vain. Within three 
 years from his first preaching in Wittemberg, 
 he saw the Church assailed by a more dangerous 
 enemy than Rome. 
 
 The Anabaptists had suddenly begun to use wea- 
 pons against which reason was helpless. The con- 
 tempt of Scripture always pays its penalty, in the 
 confusion of the understanding. The Anabaptists, in 
 rejecting infant regeneration, were inevitably driven 
 to the doctrine of visible conversion. All now be-- 
 came the work of inspiration. The Continent rapidly 
 abounded with preachers, declaring themselves in- 
 struments of the Holy Spirit. Visions and predic- 
 tions were the celestial evidence of a mission destined 
 to overthrow the ancient abuses of the earth. The 
 zeal of passion, the dexterity of imposture, and the 
 desire of possession, combined to sweep the heavy 
 formalities of life before them ; and the result was a 
 Superstition, which, compounded of every kind of 
 motives, enthusiastic, and worldly ; like a mountain 
 flood descending from the clouds, but swelled by the 
 swamps and streams of the plain, spread calamity 
 over some of the most flourishing districts of Ger- 
 many, and convulsed the whole. 
 
 Faction, as is always the case in the narrative of 
 religious novelty, soon mingled in the general tumult. 
 
ANABAPTISM. 151 
 
 The peasantry, stung by real or imaginary griev- 
 ances, eagerly joined leaders who offered sovereignty 
 to all the Saints. The three chiefs, Munzer, Stub- 
 ner, and Sturck, found themselves at the head of 
 thousands ; and with a rustic army pouring in from 
 Suabia, Thuringia, and Franconia, they began the 
 march to universal empire ! 
 
 But, the German sovereigns were now alarmed ; 
 troops were hastily collected, a battle was fought, 
 the undisciplined peasantry melted away before the 
 squadrons of the Elector of Saxony ; Munzer was 
 taken and executed, and the Anabaptist war was buried 
 in its own blood. 
 
 But the evil had already spread too widely, to be 
 extinguished by a single defeat ; and Anabaptism 
 had already found strenuous partizans in Switzerland 
 and Holland. At this period, from an insurrection 
 it had began to shape itself into a Church, and con- 
 densing its extravagances into system, issued a 
 Creed. This Creed contained the following heads : 
 " That the Church of Christ ought to be exempt 
 from all sin. That among the faithful all goods 
 ought to be in common. That all tithe and tribute 
 ought to be abolished. That Infant Baptism was a 
 device of Satan. That every Christian had power to 
 preach the Gospel. That consequently the Church 
 stood in no need of Ministers. That in the kinsdom 
 of Christ, magistrates were wholly useless. And, 
 
152 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 that the Almighty still spoke, as of old, to his chosen 
 servants by dream and vision." 
 
 Persecution, the worst of all arguments, now raged 
 against the Anabaptists, and failed. The sect flou- 
 rished, and continued to spread through the most 
 intelligent portions of Europe. At length, in 1 533, 
 twelve years after their outbreak in Saxony, they 
 appeared in arms again. A fanatical levy rushed 
 upon the city of Munster, took it by surprise, and, 
 declaring the city the New Jerusalem, proclaimed 
 their leader, Bockhold (John of Leyden), king. The 
 monarch showed his sense of royalty by marching 
 naked through the streets, and his sense of sanctity 
 by taking eleven wives. But Munster was soon 
 besieged by the troops of Count Waldeck, its sove- 
 reign, and was captured after a desperate resistance ; 
 Bockhold was executed, and the Anabaptist cause 
 broken in Germany. 
 
 During the siege, Bockhold made daring efforts to 
 procure adherents. He declared that God had made 
 a gift to him of the cities of Amsterdam, Deventer, 
 and Wesel, and he sent bishops to preach the King- 
 dom in them. Delirium never exceeded the grave 
 follies and sanctified outrages of those revolters 
 against all the dictates of common sense and all the 
 principles of religion. Their name at length became 
 one of public horror, and the sword fell heavy upon 
 them. Their refusal of baptism to infants, and their 
 
ANABAPTISM. 153 
 
 giving it to adults, had taken the colour of a public 
 crime, and the Anabaptists were on the point of 
 beinof hunted from amonof mankind '. 
 
 If those enormities had been perpetrated in the 
 old forest life of the North, they might have been 
 regarded as the natural result of barbarism ; or if 
 they had first exhibited their blasphemy and blood- 
 shed under the despotic superstition of Popery, they 
 miglit have been attributed to infuriated ignorance 
 revenging itself on remorseless tyranny. But, as 
 the acts of a period signalized by the most powerful 
 advance of the human mind, and consecrated by the 
 purest labours of religion ; they hold up a memorable 
 warning of the madness of superseding Scripture by 
 the insolent fancies of man. The career of the 
 German Anabaptists is one of the blackest pages in 
 the history of infatuation. 
 
 At length, the punishment was exhausted ; and the 
 sect was suffered to rest, under the management of a 
 man of intelligence and moderation, Menno Simon, 
 a Frieslander (1536). Menno spent the remainder 
 of his life in traversing Europe, to visit their little 
 scattered congregations; and by abandoning their 
 principles of revolt, and discontinuing their pretences 
 to supernatural aid, slowly brought them within the 
 endurance of society. 
 
 ' Mosheini, Eccl. History, Cen. xvi. 
 
164 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 The death of Menno (1561) closed the national 
 agitation of the Anabaptists. They thenceforth, 
 under the general title of Mennonites, occupied 
 themselves in domestic divisions : one portion priding 
 itself on retaining the old rigidity of their fathers ; 
 another in adapting their habits to the age. The 
 Flemings soon separated from the Frieslanders, and 
 the Germans from both. The Waterlandians, a name 
 given from a district in Holland, sometimes formed a 
 separate section, and sometimes comprehended the 
 whole. In those solemn triflings and minute dislo- 
 cations the Anabaptists exercised, and absorbed, the 
 fiery temperament which had once aspired to shake 
 all thrones. They have long since ceased to disturb 
 the peace of nations. 
 
 In Germany they still suffer no civil rulers in their 
 communion, and refuse to take on themselves the 
 oflfices of magistracy ; they deny the lawfulness of 
 repelling force by force, and protest against all war. 
 They also object to oaths in a court of justice. All 
 those tenets being founded on their ancient concep- 
 tion of a Kingdom of the Saints, in which, as no 
 crimes can be committed, no civil guardianship can 
 be necessary. Rigidly rejecting Infant Baptism, 
 they regard the Sacraments merely as signs and 
 symbols of the blessings contained in the Gospel. In 
 some of those notions, resembling the Quakers ; like 
 them, they affect to despise secular science, while, like 
 
ANABAPTISM. 155 
 
 them, they add nothing to theological enquiry. Their 
 ideas of the Incarnation have been chimerical — 
 
 " Esse Deum statuunt alii, sed corpore carnetn 
 Humanam sumpto sustinuisse negant. 
 At Diam mentem, tenuis quasi fauce canalis, 
 Per Mariae corpus Virginis isse ferunt *." 
 
 Against this old scholastic fiction some of their Sec- 
 tions protest ; but the chief difficulty is, to ascertain 
 the actual sentiments of any portion of a body at 
 once so fluctuating and so obscure. 
 
 It is impossible to conceive, vrhyAnabaptism should 
 have thus rushed into absurdity ; except on the 
 principle, that when man deserts the simplicity of 
 sacred truth, the God of truth delivers him over to 
 infatuation. But, this principle pervades the whole 
 history of religious error. It accounts for the revolt- 
 ing follies, the sensual guilt, and the visionary fren- 
 zies of heathenism. It accounts for the oracular 
 ravings, the sullen asceticism, and the profane pro- 
 phecies, of the jVIontanists. It accounts for the 
 outbursts of Manichgeism under Faustus,in the fourth 
 century. Even Mahometanism arose from the cor- 
 ruptions of the Greek theology mingling with the 
 savage superstitions of the Desert; like two chemical 
 fluids, each comparatively inactive, until they are 
 poured together, and explode. Wherever the Ana- 
 
 ^ Bolandus. 
 
156 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 baptist trod, his track was marked by the arrogance, 
 and by the sufferings, of religious mania. He Hved 
 denouncing all authority, and he died singing hymns 
 under the hands of the executioner. After the tumult 
 had sunk in Germany, a sect started up in Holland, 
 headed by David George. On his death, charges of 
 so foul a kind were brought against him, that the 
 Senate of Basle, in which canton he had planted his 
 followers, ordered his body to be dug up and burned. 
 If those charges may have been exaggerated by 
 ignorance, or envenomed by hostility, it is not denied 
 that he regarded himself as inspired ; an admission 
 which may justify every colour of every charge. 
 
 At the same period (1555) Nicholas, a West- 
 phalian, founded in Holland " The Family of Love ;" 
 His chief tenet being, that the essentials of all virtue 
 consisted in the feelings of divine love ; and his au- 
 thority for teaching being the conviction of his own 
 commission from Heaven. The hazards of those ec- 
 stasies are too obvious to require illustration, but 
 they painfully prove the necessity of adhering to the 
 strong and pure verities of Scripture. 
 
 In England, the followers of Menno have adopted 
 the name of Baptists; from their disavowing the 
 Anabaptist custom of re-baptizing the adults who 
 joined them from other Sects. Even here they 
 have contrived to separate into two great divisions, 
 the General and the Particular, totally ditfering on 
 the most important points of controversy — the Gene- 
 
ANA BAPTISM. 157 
 
 ral Baptists following the Arminian doctrine, the 
 Particular the Calvinistic. But, except for the refusal 
 of Baptism to their unfortunate infants, they might be 
 forgotten in any present view of the religious anoma- 
 lies of England. They produce nothing. From time 
 to time, by the mere casualty of nature, a man of 
 ability, a Hall, or a Forster, has appeared among 
 them ; but they have offered no succession of litera- 
 ture, no profound scholarship, no vigorous theology, 
 no original addition to the general stores of the 
 understanding of man \ 
 
 ^ As tlie practice of immersing in the presence of the people 
 has been lately resumed, under circumstances calculated to 
 attract public attention, a brief narrative of an open-air baptism 
 is given from " Robinson's History of Baptism." 
 
 " Some years since, at VVhittleford, near Cambridge, forty- 
 eight persons were baptized in the ford of the river. In the 
 morning about 1500 people had assembled. The late Dr. An- 
 drew Gifford, teacher of a Baptist congregation in London, 
 ascended a moveable pulpit near the river. Round him stood 
 the congregation, people on horseback, in coaches, and in carts, 
 forming the outer circle. All were uncovered, and there was a 
 profound silence. The preacher first gave out a hymn, which 
 the congregatii n sang. He then delivered a sermon on the text, 
 ' I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.' At the 
 close of the sermon another hymn was sung. 
 
 " After some interval, the ' Administrator,' in a long black 
 gown of baize, without a hat, and with a small New Testament 
 in his hand, came down to the river-side with several Baptist 
 Ministers, and the persons to be baptized. The men came first, 
 two and two, dressed as usual, except that instead of coats, they 
 had long white baize gowns, tied with a sash. The women fol- 
 lowed, also two and 'wo, all neatly dressed, in gowns of white 
 
158 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 In the ceremonial of Adult Baptism there is hitherto 
 no peculiar injury ; but, in a country like ours, where 
 population is presumed to increase at the rate of 
 300,000 a year, its present forms would be wholly 
 inadequate to the Baptism of an adult population. 
 Those precautions and preparations of order and 
 decorum would be impossible, in the instance of 
 such multitudes ; and immersion must soon be, as it 
 was in the Church of Constantinople, the source of 
 extreme offence to public propriety. 
 
 I now briefly give another exemplification of the 
 
 linen or dimity. Each had a long silk cloak tied over her shoul- 
 ders, a broad ribbon tied over the gown beneath the breast, and 
 a hat on her head. They all ranged themselves by the water-side. 
 
 "The Administrator then read a hymn, which the people sang ; 
 then the portion of Scripture, which is read in the Greek Church 
 on the same occasion, the Baptism of the Ethiopian ; then, after 
 expounding the verses, he took one of tlie men by the hand, and led 
 him into the water, saying, ' See, here is water, what doth hinder ? 
 If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest be baptized.' 
 Then saying, ' I baptize thee in the name of the Father, the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost,' he leaned the man backward, and dipped 
 him once. The man was then led to the house to be dressed. 
 The other men were similarly immersed. The women were then 
 baptized. A female friend took off, at the water-side, the hat and 
 cloak ; a deacon led one to the Administrator, and another from 
 him ; and a woman at the water-side took each as she came out of 
 the river, and conducted her to an apartment in the house, where 
 they dressed themselves. 
 
 " The whole closed with a general meeting of the baptized in 
 the hall, where the Administrator gave a short discourse on civil 
 and religious liberty, the sufficiency of Scripture, the pleasures 
 of a good conscience, and the prospect of immortality." 
 
ANABAPTISM. ] 59 
 
 peril of rejecting a great doctrine of Scripture, for 
 a human suggestion. In the first quarter of the 
 eighteenth century, Methodism first produced any 
 powerful impression in England ; the name had be- 
 longed to a feeble sect in the century before. 
 
 It is not my purpose to detail the doctrines 
 or the practices of Methodism ; I advert merely 
 to its distinguishing tenet, — Adult Regeneration. 
 The two leaders, Whitfield and Wesley, enforced 
 their doctrine of the new birth with memorable 
 popularity : Both possessed of talents : Whitfield a 
 man of strong natural eloquence, Wesley a man of 
 singularly persuasive speech ; both preaching for the 
 multitude, and preaching with the ardour, boldness, 
 and novelty, which win the multitude. The doctrine 
 of instantaneous conversion, — of the sudden penetra- 
 tion of the Holy Spirit to the heart, — of light pour- 
 ing through the old darkness of the mind, — of the 
 total release of the human soul from the chains of 
 Satan, — and of the conscious triumph of grace, — 
 were topics, which fell on the popular mind, like a 
 torch into a magazine. 
 
 But, it is always to be solemnly remembered ; that 
 in all the conversions of Scripture, there is not a single 
 example of physical convulsion. Horror never star- 
 tles the Apostolic converts into virtue ; ecstasy never 
 seals their rescue from ruin. The test is always 
 practical. " If ye love me, keep my comrnandments" 
 is the calm but secure evidence of conversion de- 
 
160 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 manded by Christ. " Not every one that saith unto 
 me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven : but he that doeth the will of my Father, 
 which is in heaven." One great value of this high 
 declaration is, that it furnishes every man v^^ith a stan- 
 dard of his own progress in Christianity. It relieves 
 his religion from the fluctuations of nerves, and 
 brings it to the evidence of facts; an evidence per- 
 fectly manageable by the mind. Our Lord further 
 pronounces, that the most emphatic appearances 
 of Christian security, even the possession of the 
 gifts of the Holy Ghost, must not be considered as 
 proofs of spiritual safety. " Many will say to me in 
 that day, Lord, Jjord, have we not prophesied in thy 
 name ? and in thy name have cast out devils f and in 
 thy name done many wondrous works f and then will 
 I profess unto them, I nemr knew you : depart from 
 me, ye that work iniquity *." It is true, that salva- 
 tion is not the purchase of any works of man, but is 
 the free gift of the Atonement, a mighty operation 
 which God took upon Himself alone; but, it is not 
 less true, that the works of man are the signs of the 
 faith of man ; and that every man can confirm his 
 hope, invigorate his faith, and illumine his spiritual 
 knowledge, only by his increase under God in the 
 works of Christian virtue. 
 
 We find this substantial labour of virtue the cha- 
 racter of Christianity, even in its most incomplete 
 ' Matt. vii. 22, 23. 
 
ANABAPTISM. 161 
 
 development. When John comes to call his nation to 
 the " remission of sins," he practically combines that 
 remission with the performance of the common 
 duties of life. And he brings the principle direct, 
 and down to their capacities, by pressing it on 
 their peculiar conditions. 
 
 To the peasant he recommends the good offices of 
 peasant life. — " He that hath two coats, let him impart 
 to him that hath none ; and he that hath 7neat, let him 
 do likewise." To the publican (the Roman tax- 
 gatherer) he does not commend the good offices of 
 peasant life ; he commands the avoidance of extortion. 
 — " Exact no more than that which is appointed to 
 you." To the soldier he does not commend abstinence 
 from the vices of the publican's life : he prohibits in- 
 jury, false accusation, and rapine. — " Do violence to no 
 man, neither accuse any falsely ; and be content with 
 your wages ^" In all those transactions, which are the 
 actual institute of Christianity, there is not the slight- 
 est reference to mere sensibilities, there is no demand 
 that men shall " believe that they are saved" as the 
 first step to salvation; no summons to those feelings 
 which so early bewilder the sense of right and wrong. 
 No man can learn from John those fancies, which 
 make the height of their fever the measure of their 
 sanctity; inflame the zealot into the lunatic; and 
 arm the persecutor with the most terrible of all his 
 
 ' Luke iii, 14. 
 
 M 
 
162 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 weapons, — the plea, that in the rack and the scaffohl 
 he is " doing God service." 
 
 But the Father of mankind has not so dealt with 
 his infirm children. Seeing, as none other can see, 
 the materials of explosion which lie condensed in the 
 human heart. He has not left them to the chance of 
 every flash from the skies : knowing the distempered 
 power by which man can raise up visions of fury and 
 folly before himself, — alone measuring the danger of 
 that struggle against the thrones and principalities 
 of spiritual darkness, to which all are exposed, 
 and to which perhaps all are summoned, — He 
 gives us one rule ; of such perfect simplicity, that it 
 may be comprehended by every man ; and of such 
 infallible rectitude, that it can deceive no man. 
 " Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and 
 continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, 
 but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in 
 his deed \" 
 
 The first effects of Wesley's and Whitfield's 
 preaching were the natural result of talent and 
 fervour. Addressing the lower ranks, they probably 
 awoke many minds, even of the populace. They 
 might eventually have advanced from awaking the 
 populace to awaking the nation. Religion in England, 
 deeply wounded by the Civil War ; disgusted by the 
 foreign vices of the Restoration, harassed by the 
 
 " James i. 2,'). 
 
ANABAPTISM. 163 
 
 political struggles of the Revolution, and alienated 
 by the factious contempt of all principle, which alter- 
 nately placed a Bolingbroke and a Walpole beside 
 the throne ; had sunk into the languor of formality, 
 if not into the silence of despair. In such a time, 
 those two men might have performed the noblest 
 work of patriotism, the restoration of the national 
 virtue. In England all true reform must come from 
 the higher orders. — The vapour that ascends from the 
 ground, poisons the atmosphere and embarrasses the 
 day ; the cloud that renews the freshness of the air, 
 and leaves the brighter sky, must first gather on the 
 pinnacles of the hills. 
 
 But the preaching of the New Birth inevitably 
 kept them down to the level of the populace. When 
 men are told, and justly, that Regeneration is essen- 
 tial to their entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven ; 
 but told, unjustly, that this Regeneration is still to 
 come, and that its existence is to be known only by 
 Conversion ; the next question necessarily is, by what 
 evidence is conversion itself to be known ? 
 
 On such subjects the million may be indifferent ; 
 but, men suddenly struck with a consciousness of 
 guilt; standing before God, alarmed by the possi- 
 bilities of falling into the hands of judgment before 
 another sunrise ; stung with astonishment at the 
 long-suffering which has spared them through so 
 many years of evil ; and told that they must have a 
 " New Birth" will not, and cannot, be content with 
 
 M 2 
 
164 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 the simple conversion, which consists in daily virtue. 
 Realizing before their mind's eye the irrevocable 
 ruin and deliberate agonies of despair beyond the 
 grave, and believing that their only safety is in the 
 violences of visible conversion ; they will have those 
 violences. Like the Jews rejecting the simplicity 
 of Jesus, they will demand the sign from Heaven. 
 
 To such men the true doctrine of relief would be, 
 that God has already planted in the heart of the 
 infant, in baptism, a principle of redemption ; which 
 has only to be cherished, to ensure the spiritual 
 safety of the man ; that the Christian is already by 
 his regeneration the "temple of the Holy Ghost;" 
 and that the whole duty of man is, by the aid of that 
 Holy Ghost, to purify his temple of the idols which 
 passion, and ignorance, a frail heart and a faithless 
 world, have raised upon its altar. 
 
 But, once taught to deny infant Regeneration, 
 they are driven to seek for it in mature extrava- 
 gance. Tn the early period of Wesley's preaching, 
 some French fanatics, calling themselves prophets, 
 had taught the people the art of convulsion. Wes- 
 ley, a man of a clear head, and a scholar ', was dis- 
 gusted by those displays, and spoke strongly against 
 them. " They are enthusiasts," said he, and his 
 language has something of the enthymeme — " for, 
 
 ' He had been distinguished at Christ Church for logical 
 acuteness, and was afterwards Fellow of Lincoln, and Greek 
 Lecturer. 
 
ANABAPTISM. 165 
 
 first, they think to attain the end without the means, 
 which is enthusiasm, properly so called. And again, 
 they think themselves inspired by God, and are not : 
 but false imagination is enthusiasm ; and that theirs 
 is only imaginary enthusiasm appears from this — it 
 contradicts the Law and the Testimony." 
 
 A woman, calling herself a prophetess, a})peared 
 in London. Wesley, with four or five of his friends, 
 went to visit her. She asked, " why they came?" 
 Wesley answered, " To try the Spirits, whether they 
 be of God." The prophetess first fell into a species 
 of general convulsion ; she then began to speak, but 
 with much convulsive interruption ; what she said 
 was in Scriptural language, and she S})oke as in the 
 person of God, and under immediate inspiration ! 
 She exhorted them not to be in haste in judging her 
 spirit, but to wait upon God, and "He would teach 
 them, if they conferred not with flesh and blood." 
 
 Some of the company were much impressed, and 
 believed that she spoke by the Spirit, but Wesley 
 remained unconvinced. " This," said he, " is in no 
 wise clear to me. The emotion might be either 
 hysterical or artificial. The same words any person 
 of a good understanding, and well versed in the 
 Scriptures, might have spoken. But, I let the matter 
 alone, knowing this, that if it be not of God it will 
 come to nought." Thus, the solemn council of 
 Gamaliel on the preaching of the Apostles, was to 
 be degraded into the impunity of a foolish or 
 
166 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 knavish pretender. We can scarcely be surprised, 
 that so flexible a ' trier of the spirits' should so soon 
 fall into the snare! From this period convulsions 
 followed his own preaching; wherever he went, 
 people dropped down in outcries and hysterics. 
 " The pains, as of hell," says Wesley, " got hold of 
 them." 
 
 Whitfield objected to those displays, and doubted 
 them ; but, on his next preaching at Bristol four 
 persons dropped down in convulsions ; and Wesley's 
 remark was, " From this time I trust we shall all 
 suffer God to carry on his own work, in the way that 
 pleaseth Him." 
 
 The convulsions now became customary. " Where- 
 ever Wesley preached, the same effects were pro- 
 duced ; some of the people were always ' cut to the 
 heart,' they were ' seized with strange pangs,' they 
 ' terribly felt the wrath of God abiding on them,' they 
 were ' constrained to roar aloud,' while the sword of 
 the Spirit was 'dividing asunder their souls and spirits, 
 and joints and marrow ^' " — Such was the time ! 
 
 Field-preaching added to the popularity of Method- 
 ism in the towns ; itinerancy carried it through the 
 country. The convulsions were conceived by some 
 to be the demonstration of Satan, and to be accounted 
 for like the demoniacs of Scripture ; but, by others 
 they were conceived the impulses of Heaven, and 
 their result, conversion. 
 
 ' Southey's Life of Wesley, p. 281. 
 
ANABAPTISM. 167 
 
 Against this result Wesley's brother Samuel 
 strongly remonstrated. " Your followers fall into 
 agonies : I confess it," was the language of his manly 
 letter. " They are freed from them after you have 
 prayed over them : granted. They say it is God's 
 doing : I own they say so. Dear brother ; where is 
 your ocular demonstration ? Where indeed is the 
 rational proof f Their living well afterwards may 
 be a probable and sufficient argument, that they be- 
 lieve themselves : but it goes no further. 
 
 " I must ask a few more questions. Did those 
 agitations ever begin during the use of any Collects 
 of the Church ; or during the preaching of any 
 sermon, that had before been preached within conse- 
 crated walls without that effect; or during the incul- 
 cating of any other doctrine besides that of your new 
 
 birth r 
 
 Waterland, in his clear and strong style, has 
 marked the evils of this preaching. 
 
 1. " The first reflection that I have to make is, 
 that it is improper to call upon those who have been 
 once regenerated in their infancy, to be regenerated 
 again; or to lead them to expect a new birth. Such 
 applications might properly be directed to Jews, 
 Turks, or Pagans." 
 
 2. " I may next observe, how mischievous this is, 
 in many ways. The telling of the common people 
 that they ought now to be regenerated ; instead of 
 telling them that they ought, with God's grace, 
 
168 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 speedily to repent and amend ; is giving them only a 
 dark lesson, instead of a clear one, and throwing 
 mists before their eyes in a most momentous article. 
 If, instead of reminding them to preserve and repair 
 the regeneration which they received in their Bap- 
 tism, they are called on to receive a second, they may 
 be led off from looking back to their baptismal 
 vows, which are excellent lessons of true Christian 
 piety. A further mischief likely to happen in this 
 way, is, that many, instead of carefully searching 
 into their lives past, to see wherein they have offended, 
 which is one of the first steps towards conviction, 
 remorse, and serious amendment ; may be apt to go 
 in quest of what they call impulses, or inward feelings 
 of the Spirit. But, what is worst of all, and what 
 has frequently happened, is, that when men become 
 more ambitious of the honour and authority which 
 the name of the Spirit carries with it, they will be 
 prone to follow any imagination of their own, and 
 presumptuous enough to fasten it upon the blessed 
 Spirit of God." 
 
 3. "As to marks or tokens of regeneration, men 
 should have asked for marks of a renewed heart. 
 And what marks could a man pitch upon, to satisfy 
 himself, in such a case, but a good conscience f Or 
 what marks, to satisfy others, but a, good lifef Some 
 Christians there are, — I hope, many, — who, having 
 been regenerated at the font, have been so preserved 
 by God's grace, in conjunction with their own pious, 
 
ANABAPTISM. ] 69 
 
 persevering endeavours, as never to have experienced 
 any considerable decays of the spiritual state. Must 
 they be called on to recollect the day, week, month, or 
 year of their conversion or regeneration, who, from 
 their Christian infancy, have never been in an uncon- 
 verted or unregenerate state at all ? Or must the 
 same marks, suppose of strong conviction, fearful 
 compunction, stinging remorse — nigh to despair, 
 and the like, be sought for in such persons, who have 
 loved and served God sincerely all their days ?" 
 
 Wesley's own test of this new birth in mental and 
 bodily tortures, that " if it were not of God it would 
 come to nought," was finally given ; the convulsionary 
 conversions, after some period, were heard of no 
 more. His field-preaching ceased to be followed ; 
 and even Whitfield lost his audiences, and seems to 
 have borne the loss without much evidence of his 
 philosophy. Wesley, probably, by founding a species 
 of establishment, escaped this mortification, and con- 
 tinued influential, to an advanced age. 
 
 That the striking appeals of those two men, who 
 undoubtedly possessed the natural talent of oratory, 
 startled many of the multitude, who had long been 
 sunk in the depths of vice, is perfectly probable; 
 that drunkards and other profligates were occasionally 
 reformed ; and that the colliers of Kingswood, and 
 the miners of Cornwall, may have exhibited signs of 
 reformation, on hearing truths which they perhaps 
 never heard before ; is all within the limits of eccle- 
 
1 70 ANABAPTISM. 
 
 siastical experience. But the result of the original 
 error in their preaching is, the alienation of nearly a 
 million and a quarter of Englishmen from the mild 
 government and scriptural teaching of the Church — 
 a most gratuitous Schism, which, though it may not 
 amount to actual injury, still sustains a minor and 
 peevish irritation; exhibits a poor petulance and 
 worthless activity in small parochial squabbles ; turns 
 a mortified visage on every generous effort of the 
 Establishment ; and makes a virtue of standing aloof 
 from the apostolical labours of a Church, contending 
 for Christianity throughout the world. 
 
 But the Church of Christ knows nothing of vin- 
 dictiveness ; and she could not at this hour adopt 
 a nobler labour than the recall of the Wesleyans to 
 her communion ^ 
 
 " Methodism has long felt the weakness of dissension. Even 
 in its beginning, Whitfield and Wesley sprang " wide as the 
 poles asunder;" Whitfield taking the views of Calvinism, and 
 Wesley those of Arminianism ; though it might be diffi- 
 cult to explain how bodi could have been equally under the 
 guidance of the same Divine Spirit. That chasm has never been 
 closed. 
 
 In 1707 a new feud exhibited a " New Methodist Connexion ;" 
 which bitterly charged the old with tyranny. Another feud is 
 now disturbing the body ; on the charge of arbitrary dismissals 
 of its preachers. 
 
 It would probably be a service, neither tedious nor operose, to 
 restore the whole Methodist population to the Establishment. 
 Its doctrines are the same, its differences of discipline are sha- 
 dowy, and its hostility has long since dwindled down into petty 
 
ANABAPTISM. 171 
 
 An attempt to exhibit the visible gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost is among the recollections of our own time ; 
 and even the pretext of the " gift of tongues" could 
 find followers in the credulity of the multitude. 
 But this fantasy, too, passed away : the public 
 understanding rejected " miracles," which had in 
 them nothing miraculous ; and refused to believe in 
 revelations, alike incomprehensible to the utterer 
 and the hearer. 
 
 Whether, in the confusion of his "mystery," the 
 leader of this short-lived sect preached the New 
 Birth as the foundation of his doctrine, it might be 
 difficult to discover ; but the fiction of the " New 
 Birth" in the adult is scarcely separable from the 
 modern claim of Inspiration ; and that claim will be 
 either the principle of religious folly, or the pre- 
 tence of religious imposture, to the end of the 
 world ! 
 
 personalities, and votes in vestries. Some provision for its 
 preachers would be necessary, and many of them might be con- 
 tinued in their office ; for many are sincere men. The experi- 
 ment would be in the purest principle of Christianity. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE REFORMERS. 
 
 Opinion is valueless in the face of facts. For, opinion 
 may be ignorant, through want of opportunity ; or 
 may be partial, through unconscious prejudice ; and 
 must be fallible, because human. One fact of Scri])- 
 ture is worth all the opinions of all mankind. If we 
 find infant regeneration in Scripture, it should be a 
 matter of perfect indifference to us, whether it has 
 not been seconded by a single voice on earth, or 
 whether it has been carried in the acclamation of 
 the world. 
 
 But, as the opinions of the founders of Pro- 
 testantism have been lately alleged against their 
 acts ; as their presumed perplexities have been 
 argued into a denial of their palpable determinations ; 
 and as we are now called on to nullify their actual 
 words, in consideration of their possible thoughts ; 
 it may be satisfactory to show, by a few brief exam- 
 ples, that the Reformers were not hostile to the 
 Reformation ! 
 
 In a former chapter, a slight sketch was given of 
 
LUTHER. 173 
 
 the principal testimonies to Infant Baptism, from the 
 Christian era to the end of the fourth century. A 
 similar sketch will now be given of its testimonies 
 from the rise of the Reformation. 
 
 LUTHER. 
 
 The name of Luther is in itself a history — the His- 
 tory of the Reformation ; whose noblest part was 
 born with him, and would have died with him, but 
 for its transfer to England. His great quality was a 
 glowing heart. The corruptions of Rome had long 
 been the subject of ridicule to the learned, and of 
 scorn to the multitude. Brave men had asserted the 
 Avrongs of the human mind, and had consecrated their 
 cause in their blood. But Luther was the first, who 
 assaulted Popery on its throne. He alone exhibited 
 the resolution to combat it to the last, and live or die 
 in the struggle. Luther, among all men, was the 
 champion ; he threw the first stone at the giant, and 
 fixed it in his forehead. 
 
 Of Regeneration says this great interpreter of 
 Scripture, " I call Baptism 7iot a corporal or outward 
 washing, but the washing of Regeneration '. To put 
 on Christ evangelically is not a matter of imitation, 
 but of birtJi and new creation, when, namely, I am 
 clothed with Christ Himself." 
 
 Of the change from the sons of Adam to the 
 sons of God, he says, " This is not done by any 
 
 ' Serm. on Salvation. 
 
174 LUTHER. 
 
 change of vestment, or by any law or works, but by 
 the new birth and renewal which takes place at bap- 
 tism ; as St. Paul says, ' Whoever of you are bap- 
 tized, have put on Christ.' " According to his mercy, 
 He saved us by the washing of Regeneration ;" for 
 besides that they are regenerated and renoM'ed by 
 the Holy Spirit to heavenly righteousness and eternal 
 life in Baptism, there is kindled a new life and 
 flame ; there arise 7iew and Jioli/ affections^ new trust 
 in God, hope ; there ariseth a new will -." 
 
 Of the institution of Baptism, " God has or- 
 dained that the word and baptism should be adminis- 
 tered for this purpose, that man might be saved, that 
 is, freed from sin and death, that he might be a par- 
 taker of eternal life, and of the kingdom of Heaven ^" 
 
 Qf infa nt baptism. " Moreover, when we speak 
 of the word of the Gospel, we also include the Sacra- 
 ments, for they have the promise of the Holy Spirit 
 annexed, as well as the remission of sins. Thus 
 Peter, when asked what was to be done ? replies, 
 ' Repent, and let each be baptized in the name of 
 Jesus.' And Christ says, ' Unless a man be born 
 of water and of the Spirit, he shall not come into 
 the Kingdom of God.' This view is manifest, that 
 the Holy Spirit wills, by means of baptism, to exert 
 his influence with efficacy on the mind. So, Peter 
 also says, ' And you shall receive the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost.' 
 
 ^ Comm, on Galat. iii. ^ Horn, do Baptismo, vol. vii. 
 
BEZA. 175 
 
 " And this, too, is the cause why we bring infants 
 also to baptism, following the example of the Apos- 
 tles and the primitive Church. For, because it is 
 certain that the Holy Spirit wills to be efficacious 
 through the water of Baptism, we determine that 
 the action of the Holy Spirit is in the same point of 
 view unimpeded." 
 
 BEZA. 
 
 A Frenchman, a Romish priest, a Protestant con- 
 vert, and a distinguished Greek scholar. He re- 
 sided chiefly in Geneva, where he became the col- 
 league and friend of Calvin. From this period he 
 was regarded as a pillar of the Reformed Church, and 
 bore a principal part in its negociations and public 
 affairs. He made a translation of the New Testa- 
 ment into Latin, which is clear and simple, and still 
 retains its rank in the literary labours of Protes- 
 tantism. Beza was sincere and intelligent, but his 
 conceptions were tinged with Calvinism, in contra- 
 diction to that better reason which frequently shows 
 itself in the midst of his prejudices. 
 
 He says; " As to infants born in the Church and 
 elect, but dying, before they come to the use of the 
 understanding, I think, relying on the word of God, 
 that in birth they are ingrafted in Christ ^" 
 
 " We teach, that the signification of tlie divinely- 
 
 ' G. 103. 
 
176 MELANCTHON. 
 
 instituted Sacraments is not empty, such as that of 
 painted figures, and of otlier common representa- 
 tions, but joined with the very actual commu7iicatio7i 
 of the things signified^ 
 
 MELANCTHON. 
 
 A German, of the Palatinate, distinguished for 
 early scholarship. Appointed Greek Professor in 
 the University of Wittemberg, and thus becoming 
 the associate of Luther, he was regarded as the 
 next eminent leader of the Reformation. The 
 connexion was of advantage to the good cause ; 
 the gentleness of Melancthon softening the violence 
 of Luther — the ardour of Luther invigorating the 
 languor of Melancthon. 
 
 He had a principal part in drawing up the cele- 
 brated Confession of Augsburg, was invited by sove- 
 reigns to visit their kingdoms, and enjoyed perhaps 
 the most extensive and least obnoxious fame of any 
 man of his memorable era. 
 
 / At the Diet of Worms, Melancthon said, " The 
 baptism of infants has been defended with success 
 in the writings of many among us. We are, too, 
 most of us, fathers of families, and certainly we re- 
 flect concerning the salvation of our children. How 
 often have I heard the saying, ' It is not the will 
 of my Father that one of those little ones should 
 perish.' " 
 
 " We liohl, that they in baptism are made the 
 
CRANMER. 177 
 
 Sons of God, that they receive the Holy Spirit, and 
 that they abide in Grace so long as they do not lose 
 it tln-ough actual sin, in that age which is now called 
 capable of reason ^" 
 
 CRANMER (martyred). 
 
 The learning, the services, and the sufferings of 
 this remarkable man are too well known to the 
 English Protestant, to be more than touched on 
 here. It was Cranmer's misfortune to be fond of 
 power, and to be placed within the temptations of a 
 Court ; to be fond of life, and to be tempted to the 
 betrayal of his conscience by the dread of death. 
 But, if his heart was feeble, his faith was sincere ; if 
 his statesmanship was perilous to his honour, his 
 suiFerings restored his name ; and his resignation in 
 the dungeon, and his fortitude on the scaffold, nobly 
 redeemed the errors of his days of splendour. 
 
 Cranmer asks, " How can he be taken for a ,i>ood 
 Christian man, that thinketh that Christ did ordain his 
 sacramental signs and tokens in vain, without effectual 
 grace and operation ? For, we might as well say, that 
 the water in Baptism is a bare token, and hath no 
 warrant agreed on in Scripture for any appeal at all. 
 For, the Scripture speaketh not of any promise made 
 to the receiving of a token or figure only. And so 
 may be concluded, after your manner of reasoning, 
 that, in baptism is no spiritual operation indeed, 
 
 ' Works, vol. iv. 
 
 N 
 
178 HOOPER. 
 
 because that washing in water, in itself, is but a 
 token, &c. &c. ^ 
 
 "The second birth is by the water of baptism, 
 which Paul calleth the bath of Regeneration; because 
 our sins be forgiven us in baptism, and the Holy 
 Ghost is poured into us, as into God's beloved 
 children. So that by the power and working of the 
 Holy Ghost, we be born again spiritually, and made 
 new creatures \" 
 
 HOOPER (martyred). 
 
 A monk of the Cistercian order, converted to 
 Protestantism in the reign of Henry VIH. On the 
 passing of the Six Articles Act, he fled to Swit- 
 zerland. But, on the King's death, he returned to 
 England, became eminent as a preacher, and was 
 appointed Bishop of Gloucester by Edward VI. In 
 this See he distinguished himself by personal virtue 
 and pious diligence. 
 
 But, on the accession of Mary, of evil memory, he 
 was sentenced as "an obstinate and irreclaimable 
 heretic," and burned in his own Episcopal City. 
 
 Hooper says, " The Holy Sacraments are the seals 
 of the Lord's promises, they are outward and visible 
 pledges and gages of the inward faith, and are in 
 number only twain : that is to say, ' baptism and the 
 holy supper of the Lord.' 
 
 ^' Answer to Gardiner, 1. 1. ' Cranmers Catechism. 
 
LATIMER. 179 
 
 "The which two are not void and empty signs, 
 but full; that is to say, they are not only signs 
 whereby something is signified ; but also they are 
 such signs as do exhibit and give the things which 
 they signify indeed. 
 
 " I believe also, that baptism is the entry of the 
 Church ; a washing into a new birth ; and a renewing 
 of the Holy Ghost, whereby we do forsake ourselves, 
 the devil, the flesh, sin, and the world. 
 
 " By his baptism we are changed and altered from 
 'the children of wrath,' .... and, for that cause, 
 the same ought to be given and communicated only 
 to reasonable creatures, which are apt and meet to 
 receive such things, and not unto hells and such 
 like 8." 
 
 LATIMER (martyred). 
 
 The son of a papist, he was converted to protest- 
 antism by Bilney, at Cambridge. A series of bold 
 sermons against the superstitions of Rome brought 
 the hand of the Hierarchy on him, along with his 
 teacher. Bilney recanted ; and afterwards, in agony 
 of mind, returned, sought martyrdom, and wiped 
 away his shame in his blood. Latimer was released, 
 and, on the ascendancy of protestantism, was ap- 
 pointed Bishop of Gloucester. 
 
 On the passing of the Six Articles Act ; Latimer 
 resigned his bishopric in disdain, and retired into pri- 
 
 * On the Creed. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 RIDLEY. 
 
 vate life. But, after some of the vicissitudes common 
 to the leaders of the Church in the reign of a capri- 
 cious and cruel tyrant, he was brought to the stake 
 on the accession of Mary. 
 
 This Confessor died with faith and firmness, predict- 
 ing the triumph of the Reformation ; a noble example 
 to all, who in faithless days may be summoned to 
 die for the name of the Redeemer. 
 
 Latimer says, " We are washed with water, and 
 then the words are added, ' for we are baptized in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost,' whereby Baptism receiveth its strength. Nom% 
 this Sacrament of Baptism is a thing of great weight ; 
 for, it ascertaineth and assureth us, that like as water 
 washeth the body and cleansetb it, so the blood of 
 Christ our Saviour cleanseth and washeth it from all 
 filth of sins ; and so, it appeareth, that we may not 
 seek Christ in the glittering of this world. For, 
 what is so common as water? Yet he professes to 
 be found there, when he is sought with a faithful 
 heart." 
 
 RIDLEY (martyred). 
 
 A man of talent and resolution ; distinguished for 
 classical learning, and still more eminent for his 
 zeal in the cause of the Reformation. On the acces- 
 sion of Edward VI., Ridley was successively ap- 
 pointed to the Bishoprics of Rochester and London. 
 On the death of Edward, the well-founded terrors of 
 
GRINDAL. 181 
 
 the protestauts, at the bigotry of Mary, induced 
 Ridley to share in the attempt to place Lady Jane 
 Grey on the throne. But his protestantism was the 
 great source of the charges brought against him. 
 After a long confinement in the Tower, and a dispu- 
 tation before a committee of popish Bishops at 
 Oxford, he was sentenced as " an obstinate heretic." 
 He was burned, side by side with his brave old friend 
 Latimer, in the Broad Street of Oxford, in 1555, a 
 year to be for ever remembered in England. 
 
 Ridley says, " Now, if after the truth shall be truly 
 tried out, it be found that the substance of the 
 bread is the material substance of the sacrament. 
 Although for the change of the use, office, and dig- 
 nity of the bread, the bread is sacramentally changed 
 into the body of Christ, as the water in Baptism is 
 sacramentally changed i7ito the fountain of Regene- 
 ration, and yet the material substance of it remaineth 
 all one ; as was before, &c. ^ " 
 
 GRINDAL. 
 
 A man of intelligence and vigour. Commencing 
 his career, as a fellow of Cambridge, he was patro- 
 nized by Ridley, whose chaplain he became. On 
 the death of Edward VI. he fled into Germany, where 
 he remained until the accession of Elizabeth. He 
 was then successively appointed to the Archbishop- 
 
 ' Declaration of the Lord's Supper. 
 
182 BUCER. 
 
 rics of York and Canterbury. He was a strenuous 
 prelate, and performed good service in the restoration 
 of Church discipline. Exciting the displeasure of 
 his honest, but arbitrary sovereign, his Archbishopric 
 was finally resigned ; the cause of resentment being 
 his free and decided advice to leave the Government 
 of the Church in point of doctrine to the Clergy, as 
 the fittest for it, by their constitution. He was a 
 protector of the exiled protestants of France, and 
 was a high-minded and public-spirited man. 
 
 Grindal says, " In Baptism, men not greatly regard 
 the water, but account themselves washed in the 
 blood of Christ. So saith St. Paul. 'Whatsoever 
 we be that are baptized, we are washed in the blood 
 of Christ'".' Wherefore, to the faithful receivers 
 you may say, that the water of Baptism is the blood 
 of Christ, and the bread and wine the body and 
 blood of Christ ; for to them it is no less than if the 
 natures were changed '." 
 
 BUCER. 
 
 An Alsacian Monk, converted by Luther : a man 
 of learning, and theological professor at Strasburg, 
 for many years. Harassed in Germany, where 
 he took a leading part in the public transactions 
 of protestantism, and was one of the subscribers 
 of the Interim; he M'us invited to England by 
 Cranmer, and appointed to the professorship of theo- 
 '" Romans vi. ' Custom and verity. 
 
JEWEL. 183 
 
 logy in Cambridge. Dying in England, his body was 
 taken up and burned by the impotent malice of 
 the popish throne. Bucer s pen was indefatigable ; 
 but his mildness of temper inclined him rather 
 to soothe than to convince : it was for others to 
 conquer. 
 
 In the Wittenberg conference, in 1536, held for 
 the purpose of reconciling the Lutherans and 
 Zuinglians, and in which Luther insisted on the 
 several points, — that infants should be baptized ; that 
 their baptism was efficacious ; and that by it they 
 received adoption into the children of God ; Bucer 
 thus declared the opinion of the Zuinglians : 
 
 " We have faithfully contended against the ene- 
 mies of Infant Baptism, as our writings witness. 
 Baptism is counted sacred by us, and our doctrine 
 treats thereof; not as concerning a naked symbol, 
 but as concerning a true laver of Regeneration, which 
 is exhibited to us by the virtue of God, and the office 
 of the ministry, together with water. 
 
 " For we simply believe and teach, that to infants 
 in baptism is communicated true Regeneration, and 
 true adoption into the sons of God; and, that the 
 Holy Spirit works in them, according to the measure 
 given to them." 
 
 JEWEL. 
 
 A leading name of the Reformation, a strong- 
 thinker, an earnest preacher, and a profound contro- 
 versialist ; author of the ablest view of the Reformed 
 
184 JEWEL. 
 
 principles, tbe well-known " Apology ' for the Church 
 of England." But his fortitude was not equal to his 
 feelings. The accession of Mary placed every con- 
 spicuous protestant in sudden peril, and Jewel was 
 deprived of his Oxford professorship, as a first step 
 to the stake. In a moment of weakness, which may 
 well remind Christian men of the great precept, 
 " Let him that standeth, take heed lest he fall ;" he 
 subscribed a popish confession. But Popery, which 
 had humiliated him, could not forgive; and Jewel 
 was about to be brought to trial, as a heretic, when 
 lie fled into Germany. At Frankfort, in the presence 
 of the Protestant exiles, he made a full acknowledg- 
 ment of his grievous error, and was restored. 
 
 On the death of Mary, he returned to England, was 
 received with distinction, and was appointed to the 
 Bishopric of Salisbury. His talents now made him 
 the natural head of all the great Ecclesiastical move- 
 ments of his time. From St. Paul's cross he offered 
 the memorable challenge to the popish world, — " to 
 produce a single testimony from the first six centu- 
 ries, to any one of the peculiar doctrines of popery." 
 His defence of protestantism, was the chief argu- 
 ment of its age. It rapidly spread through all the 
 languages of Europe, and was regarded as the most 
 effectual instrument of the Reformation. 
 
 ^ The word Apology has degenerated into " Excuse," and, as 
 in the case of Bishop Watson's answer to Paine, may be misun- 
 derstood. But, 'AnvXoyla in the original sense, is degraded even 
 by " Defence." Its true meaning was " Refutation." 
 
JEWEL. 186 
 
 ' He was one of the "shining lights," ho wanted 
 only nerve, to be one of the lieroes, of Christianity. 
 
 Jewel says, " We are taught, not to seek that grace 
 in the sign ; but, to assure ourselves by receiving the 
 sign, that it is given us by the thing signified. . . . 
 The power of God, the grace of God the Holy 
 Ghost, the gift of God, are not in the water, but in 
 us, and we were not made because of the sacraments ; 
 but the sacraments were made for our sake I" 
 
 On Baptism and the consent of the Fathers, he 
 says, "The fathers, in the Council of Nice, say thus. 
 Baptism must be considered, not with our bodily 
 eyes, but with the eyes of our mind. Thou seest the 
 water; think then of the power of God that in the 
 water is hidden." Chrysostom, speaking likewise of 
 Baptism, saith thus, " The things that T see, I judge 
 not by sight, but by the eyes of the mind : the hea- 
 then when he heareth of the water of baptism taketh 
 it for plain water ; but I see not simply or barely 
 that I see, T see tlie cleansing of the soul by the 
 Spirit of Godr .... Tertullian saith, " The Holy 
 Ghost Cometh down, and halloweth the water." St. 
 Basil saith, " The Kingdom of Heaven is there laid 
 open." St. Bernard saith, ''Let us be washed in his 
 blood.'" By the authority of these ancient fathers, it 
 is plain that, in the Sacrament of Baptism, by the 
 sensible sign of water, the invisible grace of God is 
 given unto us'." 
 
 ^ Treatise on the Sacraments. ' Ibid. 
 
186 HOOKER. 
 
 HOOKER. 
 
 Author of the great work, " The Laws of Ecclesi- 
 astical Polity" (1594), the defence of the Establish- 
 ment against the Puritans. Living in the period 
 between the struggles of Popery, and the agitations 
 of Puritanism, Hooker's life was uneventful, and is 
 to be marked only by the succession of his volumes, 
 and the rise of his preferments. Fellow of Christ- 
 church, Master of the Temple, a Prebendary, and 
 Subdean, he thus went through a round of those 
 minor preferments, which, to the majority, are temp- 
 tations to sinecurism ; but to him were stimulants to 
 study. Called (less, however, by general conviction 
 than by indolent acquiescence,) the " Judicious V' he 
 was distinguished from his contemporaries, by the 
 novelty of w riting in a philosophical form, by a fear- 
 less search for principles, and by a calm magnitude 
 of view. His style, though usually a chief topic of 
 his panegyrists, is his misfortune ; it has all the faults 
 of a faulty age : though masculine, it is mannered ; 
 though argumentative, it is obscure; and though 
 abounding in thought, its purport is often buried 
 under its multitude of words. No man enters the 
 field in more magnificent armour than Hooker, but 
 his movements are obstructed by the weight of his 
 
 * Hooker's notions (1st and 8th Books) sometimes approach 
 modern Democracy : they seem to have been the groundwork of 
 Locke's more matured and guarded Essay. 
 
HOOKER. 187 
 
 panoply. An abstract of his " Polity" would be more 
 valuable than the great work itself. We should thus 
 have the gems, without the sand and clay of the mine. 
 
 Hooker, in the honesty of his heart, speaks with 
 righteous contempt of the craft of evasion. 
 
 " I hold it for a most infallible rule, in expositions 
 of sacred Scripture, that when a literal construction 
 will stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly 
 the worst. There is nothing more dangerous than 
 this licentious and deluding art, which changeth the 
 meaning of words, as alchemy doth — or would do, 
 the substance of metals ; maketh of any thing what 
 it listeth, and bringeth in the end all truth to 
 notJiingT 
 
 . . . " If, at the time when that Baptism 
 which was meant by John, came to be really and 
 truly performed by Christ Himself, we find the 
 Apostles, who had been, as we are, before baptized ; 
 new baptized with the Holy Ghost ; and in this their 
 latter Baptism, as well a visible descent of fire, as a 
 secret miraculous infusion of the Spirit, — if on us 
 He accomplish likewise the heavenly work of our 
 new birth, not with the Spirit alone, but with water 
 thereunto adjoined, since the faithfullest expounders 
 of his deeds are his own words, let that which his 
 hand wrought declare what his speech did doubtfully 
 utter. The true necessity of Baptism a few propo- 
 sitions considered will soon decide. 
 
 " All things, which are either known causes, or 
 
188 HOOKER. 
 
 set means, thereby any great good is usually pro- 
 cured, or men delivered from grievous evil, the same 
 we must needs confess necessary. 
 
 " And, if regeneration Mere not, in this very sense, 
 a thing necessary to eternal life ; would Christ Him- 
 self have taught Nicodemus, that to see the King- 
 dom of God is impossible, saving only for those men 
 who are born from above. His words following in 
 the next sentence are a proof sufficient, that to our 
 regeneration his Spirit is no less necessary than 
 regeneration itself is necessary to life." 
 
 Hooker argues forcibly from the especial expres- 
 sions of our Lord and the Apostles, to the especial 
 nature of regeneration. It is evident that if it be 
 the will of God to lead man into eternal happiness, 
 his means of effecting this purpose are beyond all 
 limit. If, then, he has told us of an especial way, 
 chosen out of millions, why are we to doubt the 
 validity, and directness of that way ? 
 
 " Unless 05 the Spirit is a necessary inward cause, 
 so water were a necessary outward means to our 
 regeneration, what construction should we give to 
 those words wherein we are said to be neio born, and 
 that even of water ? Why are we taught, that with 
 water God doth purify and cleanse his Church? 
 Wherefore do the Apostles of Christ term Ba])tism 
 a Bath of Regeneration ! What purpose had they in 
 giving men advice to receive outward B.aptism, and 
 in persuading them that it did avail to remission of 
 
HOOKER. 189 
 
 sins! Tlie grace wliicli is given them with their Bap- 
 tism, doth so far depend on the outward Sacrament, 
 that God will have it embraced, not only as a sign or 
 token of what we receive, but as an instrument or 
 means whereby we receive grace." 
 
 He then further defines Baptism, to be a Sacra- 
 ment instituted by God, for the purpose of incorpo- 
 rating the receivers into Christ ; and " so, through 
 his most precious merit, obtain as well that saving 
 grace of imputation which taketJi away all former 
 ffuiltiness, as also that infused Divine virtue of the 
 Holy Ghost which giveth to the powders of the soul 
 their first disposition towards newness of life ^" 
 
 Jewel and Hooker have alike been charged with 
 indecision on the subject of Baptism. But, even the 
 brief quotations which have been given here resolve 
 that charge into ignorance or imposture. I shall 
 now quote no more. The names of Barrow and 
 Beveridge, Sherlock and Tillotson, still retain their 
 honour in the Church ; and nothing can be more 
 authentic than their adherence to this great doctrine 
 of her liturgy. 
 
 But opinions should actually possess no place in 
 the subject. We have the conclusions; the facts 
 are before our eyes ; the written law is in our hands. 
 What argument can be found in flippant conjectures of 
 what the makers of the law may have thought in the 
 
 " Eccl. Polity, 1. V. 
 
190 THE REFORMERS. 
 
 slow process of truth, or what shade is to be thrown 
 on the solid results of their study, by the uncer- 
 tainties which may have once passed through their 
 minds? It is only for the fugitives from truth 
 to take shelter behind opinions. It is only for com- 
 batants, who feel that they cannot stand in the field, 
 to carry on their warfare, alike feeble and furtive, 
 from the swamp and the thicket ; to make darkness 
 an auxiliary, and think escape a triumph. Among 
 all the weaknesses of the antibaptismal heresy this 
 is the weakest. But, without adverting to charges 
 of garbling, the mere use of such an argument is fatal. 
 It is a direct confession of helplessness ; it implies a 
 famine of fact ; it is not a defence, but a surrender 
 at discretion. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 I PROCEED to prove, by what appears to me a new, 
 and an unanswerable evidence, the scriptural truth 
 of infant regeneration. 
 
 It may sound strangely, to express ; that a great 
 rite, divinely commanded three thousand years ago, 
 established in the most remarkable of all nations, 
 and practised widely through the world of antiquity, 
 should be still imperfectly comprehended. Yet, 
 with such research into authorities as it has been 
 within my power to make, I have never found a 
 satisfactory solution of that rite by which the Jewish 
 infant was admitted into Judaism. It is known to 
 the theologian, that the conjectures on this subject 
 have exercised all the learning of conjecture; that 
 by some it has been conceived a species of sacrificial 
 form; by others, the covenant of purification, the 
 nnn n'^2 ; while Michaelis ', who probably has 
 
 ' Com. on Laws of Moses. 
 
192 CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 collected all the laborious conclusions of his coun- 
 trymen on the subject, imagines the purpose to haA^e 
 been " the sign of a covenant into which the pos- 
 terity of Abraham were to enter with the only true 
 God, to adore no other God but Himr He adds that 
 " this purpose was the more intelligible, as it was a 
 custom among the Egyptian priests ; and that thereby 
 Abraham and his descendants were to be regarded 
 as priests, dedicated to the service of the true 
 God." 
 
 But, we may well doubt a solution which takes 
 every thing for granted : first, that the rite was bor- 
 rowed from Egypt, of which we have no record what- 
 ever ; next, the worship ; and next, that Abraham and 
 his descendants were made members of the Sacer- 
 dotal office. We may justly question the priesthood 
 of Ishnael, of the bondslaves of the Hebrews, and 
 of the whole body of the twelve tribes ; for the rite 
 was enjoined alike on them all ^ 
 
 ^ Besides the improbability that He, who has all means at his 
 disposal, would select a rite for his people, taken from the cus- 
 toms of other nations, some of them already idolatrous ; or that 
 for a people peculiarly intended to be separate, He would take 
 a rite common to many ; or that under such circumstances it 
 could be a distinguishing rite, which it was certainly intended to 
 be. 
 
 We have evidence that at least the Arabs adopted the rite from 
 Ishmael ; they performing it in the thirteenth year. We are also 
 to remember that the sons and grandsons of Abraham, after the 
 death of Sarah, were thirteen ; and that to avoid their interference 
 with Isaac, he settled them throughout the East Country ; that 
 
CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 193 
 
 The history of Abraham, with his successive reve- 
 lations, must be our most authentic knowledoe on 
 the subject; and yet the consecutive features of that 
 history seem to have been generally overlooked in 
 those discussions. 
 
 Abraham ^ in his GOth year was called by God to 
 leave Ur of the Chaldees ; and in his 75th year, he 
 was again called, to leave Haran and enter Canaan, 
 and the promise was then given, that " in him should 
 all the families of the Earth be blessed." In his 
 99th year the Covenant was given "that the land of 
 Canaan should be his possession, and the possession of 
 all his posterity, for ever.'' " I will give unto thee 
 
 the Sons of Ishmael were twelve, and were princes or chieftains 
 in the south ; that tlie name of Abraham himself as a man of 
 miraculous visions and promises, might well have been potent in 
 the East and South ; and that, independently of the example of 
 all those Colonies, a rite distinctly commanded by God, and 
 commanded as a pledge of national prosperity and territorial pos- 
 session, would be probably adopted by the warlike tribes of his 
 time. 
 
 In addition ; it is to be remembered, that all the histories of 
 Egypt, Arabia, and the East, were at least a thousand years later 
 than the era of Abraham. Unquestionably nothing has been 
 fo\md, either in argument or testimony, to shake the Jewish 
 origin of the rite, or to derogate from its appointment, as exclu- 
 sively by the divine command. 
 
 Its object has been as much the theme of fruitless disquisition 
 among the writers of Germany as its origin. They generally 
 regard it as "symbolum puritatis;" or as Herodotus says 
 " Kadapt6Tr]T0c e'lreKa." 
 
 ' A.M. 3258. B.C. 2153. Hale's Chron. 
 
194 CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art 
 a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting 
 possession. And I will be their God." 
 
 The Covenant of the possession was thus de- 
 clared. " This is my Covenant, which ye shall keep be- 
 tween me and you and thy seed after thee. Every man 
 child among you shall be circumcised.'" The child was 
 to be taken into the Covenant at eight days old. The 
 uncircumcised man-child was to be cut off from the 
 people. " He hath broken my covenant \" 
 
 It is observable, that this Covenant was strictly 
 local, and bound to the possession of Canaan, whose 
 widest future limits had been already defined. And 
 also that it was separate from the great promise, by 
 which Abraham was to be the progenitor of the Mes- 
 siah; a promise given in Haran four-and-twenty years 
 before his entrance into Canaan, and before even 
 the announcement of its name ; the only declaration 
 being, " a land which I shall show thee." 
 
 But this rite was Sacramental; for it had the 
 " inward spiritual grace," as w ell as the " outward 
 visible sign." The principle of Regeneration was 
 implanted ; from the beginnijag, the rite was the 
 pledge of a renewed nature. It is in the language 
 of Moses, thus recapitulating the Divine promise. 
 
 "And the Lord said unto me, Arise, take thy 
 journey before the people, that they may go in and 
 possess the land, which T svi^are unto their fathers 
 ' Gen. xvii. 
 
CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 195 
 
 to give to them. And now, Israel, what doth the 
 Lord tliy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord 
 thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love liim, and 
 to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart., and 
 with all thy soulf' The Israelites were distinctly 
 commanded to ^'■circumcise their hearts, and be no 
 more stiffnecked ' ;" a change impossible, but by the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 And in that final, and most detailed prophecy, 
 which, while comprehending all the earlier banish- 
 ments of the Jews, seems also to comprehend the 
 present, last, and longest of those expulsions ; Moses 
 distinctly declares to the people, that the first act of 
 God, in bringing them back, will be to " Circumcise 
 thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the 
 Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy 
 soul, that thou mayest lim'^^' 
 
 This is a very remarkable passage ; for it makes no 
 reference to the outward renewal of the rite ; which 
 was virtually superseded by Christian Baptism : but 
 fully refers to that spiritual change, which was once 
 connected with the rite ; and in the same language 
 refers to the preaching of the Gospel, which will be 
 then the religion of the regenerated Jew. 
 
 " For, this commandment which I command thee 
 this day, is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. 
 It is not in Heaven, that thou shouldest say. Who 
 
 ' Deut. X. 16. " Deut. xxx. G. 
 
 o2 
 
196 CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 shall go up for us to Heaven, and bring it unto us, 
 that we may hear it, and do it ? Neither is it beyond 
 the sea, that thou shouldest say, W^ho shall go over 
 the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may 
 hear it, and do it ? 
 
 " But the word is vety nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, 
 and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it '." 
 
 The true interpretation of this language, describ- 
 ing the renewed birth of the Nation, is to be found 
 in the language of St. Paul, describing the preaching 
 of the Gospel to the Jews. 
 
 " Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God 
 
 for Israel is, that they might be saved For 
 
 Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the 
 law. That the man which doeth those things shall 
 live by them. 
 
 " But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh 
 on this wise. Say not in thine heart, who shall 
 ascend into Heaven ? that is, to bring Christ down 
 
 from above But what saith it ? The 
 
 word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy 
 heart : that is, the word of faith, ivhich we preach. 
 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord 
 Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath 
 raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved "." 
 
 But, even while the rite continued, it is the con- 
 stant declaration of the New Testament, that its 
 
 ' Deut. XXX. 1 1 — 14. ' Roinans x. 
 
CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 197 
 
 Avhole value consisted in its spirituality ; and that 
 the Jew wholly forfeited his claim to the privileges 
 of the Abrahamic covenant, when he forfeited his 
 part in that spirituality. 
 
 " For he is not a Jew (an inheritor of the cove- 
 nant), who is one (only) outwardly. But he is a 
 Jew", which is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that 
 of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter ; 
 whose praise is not of men, but of God^." 
 
 Circumcision, then, though differing in its peculiar 
 circumstances, was to the Jew, what Baptism is now 
 to the Christian ; the gift of a spiritual principle con- 
 nected with an external observance, — a sacrament 
 of Resfeneration. 
 
 But, there is not only a similarity of principle ; 
 there is an identity of purpose : the express object 
 of each, in its period, being, an entrance into the 
 eternal Kingdom. 
 
 The covenant with Abraham was a promise, that 
 to him and his posterity Canaan should be given for 
 an everlastiiig possession. It is true that the twelve 
 tribes, within five hundred years after, invaded it, and 
 were its possessors. But, it is equally true, that this 
 possession could not have fulfilled the original pledge; 
 for though Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, performed 
 their part of the covenant, in submitting to the rite, 
 they never possessed Canaan; living in tents, as 
 
 " Romans ii. 
 
198 CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 strangers and pilgrims ; and further, acknowledging 
 that this was the only life which they were to lead, 
 until they descended into the grave. And this Mas 
 also to be the life of all who were born in the long 
 interval from Abraham to JNloses : yet they all held 
 the promise, and declared themselves confident of 
 the possession. 
 
 St. Paul unanswerably adverts to those vast multi- 
 tudes, " many as the stars of the sky in number," as 
 standing in precisely the same circumstances with 
 their great ancestor ; as equally receiving the 
 promise; as equally acknowledging that they were 
 never to enjoy it during their mortal pilgrimage, 
 and yet as equally confident in their ultimate pos- 
 session. " These all died in faith, not having re- 
 ceived (the performance of) the promises, but having 
 seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and 
 embraced them, and confessed that they were stran- 
 gers and pilgrims on the earth." 
 
 He then shows that this confession was, in itself, a 
 proof that they looked forward to Canaan ; because, 
 if it had arisen from the mere irksomeness of feeling 
 that they were strangers in another's land, they had 
 the land of their ancestors, Chaldo^a, lying open to 
 them. " For they that say such things (who speak of 
 themselves as strangers and pilgrims) declare plainly 
 that they seek a country ; but if they had been 
 mindful of that country from whence they came 
 out (Chalda;a), they might have had opportunity to 
 
CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 199 
 
 have returned." Yet, the early descendants of Abra- 
 ham, while in Canaan, remained living in tents, as 
 wanderers ; and, during the two hundred years of their 
 dwelling in Egypt, remained strangers ; still, making 
 no movement towards Canaan ; yet all dying in the 
 conviction that they were hereafter to be its posses- 
 sors : a conviction which to them could be realized 
 only beyond the grave, and, of course, in a land pre- 
 pared for immortals. And such is the direct lan- 
 guage of the Apostle. " Now ', they desire a better 
 country ; that is, a heavenly ^" 
 
 ' The word now is an insufficient translation. Tlie original 
 vvvi implies strong contrast, and here its meaning is, that the 
 Israelites " were so far from" desiring to return to the paternal 
 land, Chaldaea, that their desires were fixed on Canaan, and 
 Canaan in the only condition in which they could ever expect to 
 see it, namely, in a heavenly state, and to be reached only through 
 resurrection. The general disregard of this distinction between 
 vvvi and vvv, in our translation, greatly impairs the energy of 
 St. Paul's style. He constantly uses vv\i, and it is characteristic, 
 for he is the only writer of the New Testament by whom it is 
 used. 
 
 Bloomfield, in his " Annotations," refers to this sense, but 
 slightly. 
 
 ^ This also explains the mysterious expression, " God is not 
 ashamed to be called their God." This distinction is generally 
 supposed to be " the reward of their faith." But the text refers 
 to the original promise connected with the covenant of Canaan, 
 *' I will be their God ;" and the Apostle represents this promise 
 as renewed and realized, by his preparing for them " a heavenly 
 city ;" thus showing, that He has not been alienated, nor will be 
 ashamed to acknowledge them, to the end. 
 
200 CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 The Apostle then clears up a point of espe- 
 cial importance. The general error of theologians 
 on the subject of Canaan is, that its conquest 
 was the completion of the promise to Abraham 
 and his posterity. That it was in part a result 
 of that promise, there can be no doubt: but the 
 Apostle applies himself to prove that it was not 
 a completion, and that it was not even the peculiar 
 object of the promise. Taking a rapid view of the 
 whole range of Jewish history, from the time of the 
 conquest under Joshua; — Gideon with the Judges; 
 David with the Kings, Samuel with the Prophets : the 
 Martyrs who followed, from the Captivity down to the 
 time of Epiphanes : thus comprehending the whole 
 series of the earthly possession ; he declares, that they 
 received not the promise. Apparently, to prevent the 
 supposition, that its fulfilment was impeded by de- 
 ficiencies of their own faith, he distinctly tells us, 
 that "they received a good report through faith:" 
 and concludes by assigning the actual ground of the 
 delay, namely, that the completion was to wait for 
 the coming in of the Church of Christ, " That they, 
 without us, should not be made perfect \" 
 
 Thus, the admission of the infant, by the Jewish 
 rite into the covenant, if limited to this life, would 
 have been comparatively unimportant; the true 
 privilege of the covenant being the eternal pos- 
 
 ' Heb. xi. 39, 40. 
 
CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 201 
 
 session. And that eternal possession was thus to be 
 secured to an infant eight days old ; (unless, on grow- 
 ing- to maturity, his subsequent acts should make him 
 " a cast-away ;") and the rite by which he was thus 
 secured was one administered by man ; and by no 
 other rite could the security be given. The male 
 child remaining uncircumcised, "hath broken my 
 covenant." 
 
 That this external act must have been always 
 connected with a Divine one, namely, the " circum- 
 cision of the heart," is evident. — Because, nothing- 
 stained with sin can be cleansed by the mere act of 
 man. 
 
 That this " circumcision of the heart" cleansed 
 Original Sin, is equally evident. — Because 7io sin can 
 enter into the Kingdom of Heaven beyond the grave. 
 
 That the human act and the Divine were insepa- 
 rable, is evident from the circumstance ; that if the 
 infant died in the next moment, it would be a pos- 
 sessor of the glorified Canaan ; while, if the Divine 
 co-operation were to be delayed, the infant would have 
 died unregenerate : or, if it lived, that co-operation 
 might have been delayed for years, or for ever. 
 
 And yet, this rite, thus commanded, thus essential 
 to immortal glory, thus the act of God, and thus 
 conveying the most exalted of all blessings beyond 
 the grave, was to be administered to a human crea- 
 ture, wholly incapable of comprehending, or even of 
 conceiving, or of taking any voluntary share what- 
 
202 CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 ever, in the ceremonial ; an infant, in the very eai-liest 
 j3eriod of infancy, but eight days old ! 
 
 It must also be asked, whore, in this direct ordi- 
 nance of God, do we find any mention of those pre- 
 liminaries, of which we hear so much in our day ? 
 Where in the command do we discover the necessity 
 of previous election, of prevenient grace, or of 
 parental faith, for the infant? — of that election, of 
 which man can know nothing ; of that prevenient 
 grace, of which nothing is revealed ; or of that 
 parental faith, of which nothing is demanded. We 
 have the whole covenant of the promise distinctly 
 laid before us, by its heavenly Author, and yet in it 
 there is not a syllable beyond the ordinance itself. 
 
 We may well ask, who can point out the differ- 
 ence between the Jewish infant and the Christian ? 
 If the former was capable of receiving regeneration 
 in extreme infancy, why not the latter ? 
 
 We are also to remember the close connexion 
 of Jud?cism with Christianity ; — that the religion 
 of Christ was only an expansion of the rehgion 
 of Moses, freed from the burden of its ritual, and 
 the limits of its legislation : — that the Author of 
 both was the One God : that Christ came, not to 
 abolish the law, but to " fulfil the law ;" that, in the 
 establishment of his Church, He adhered even to 
 forms which might seem, to our short-sightedness, 
 unimportant resemblances of the old ; "when He 
 appointed Apostles, making their number tliat of 
 
CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 203 
 
 the patriarchs of the tribes ; and when He sent forth 
 the disciples to preach, making their number seventy^ 
 in obvious reference to the Elders, chosen by Moses 
 at the giving of the Law^ and followed by the 
 Sanhedrin, established from the age succeeding the 
 Captivity. 
 
 We find this principle pervading the whole mis- 
 sion of our Lord. lie thus preaches in the syna- 
 gogues, goes up to the great feasts, presents Himself 
 in the Temple, makes its purification the first and 
 last displays of his national miracles, adopts the 
 memorial of his death from the Paschal Supper — 
 only simplifying the form ; and adopts the sign of 
 introduction into Christianity from the sign of 
 introduction into Judajism, — also only simplifying 
 the form. 
 
 The princij)le even goes beyond his mission. We 
 find it continued, in the connnand, that the Gospel 
 should first be preached exclusively to the Jews ; 
 and that the Apostles should continue in Jerusalem, 
 notwithstanding their personal peril, until the de- 
 scent of the Holy Spirit. We find it in the descent 
 of the Holy Spirit, on the day of giving the Law ; and 
 in the similitude even of the Apostolic commission, 
 "Go fortli, teach, and baptize," to the process of 
 conversion by the Jew\ 
 
 ■* Exod. xxiv. 
 
 ' The proselyte was received with baptism, sacrifice, and cir- 
 cumcision. The two latter were abolished by Christianity : the 
 
204 CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 In this succession of coincidences, where is the 
 interruption ? In the Law, the baptism of the 
 child accompanied the baptism of the proselyte 
 parent, as a matter of course. If there had been 
 any doubt on the subject of Christian infancy, it 
 must have been declared by our Lord, or discussed 
 by the Apostles : — infants were constantly before 
 them ; our Lord lays his hand on them in blessing, 
 makes their innocence the model of his disciples, 
 takes them in his arms, and pronounces, that "of 
 such is the kingdom of God." Every infant round 
 Him had been received into the Jewish Church, and 
 was believed by every Jew to be regenerated in the 
 act of reception, and to be thus entitled to the pos- 
 session of glory with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
 Have we the slightest remonstrance against this 
 belief? Our Lord had no hesitation in rectifying 
 error, in rebuking presumption, or in enlightening 
 the national views of immortality. Nothing could 
 be bolder than his language to the rulers, nothing 
 more explicit to the people, nothing more confiden- 
 tial to his disciples ; yet, in three years and a half of 
 this incessant outpouring of Divine wisdom, we find 
 not a single warning against infant baptism. 
 
 Yet, the subject was one of the very highest im- 
 portance ; for it decided the future condition of all 
 the infants who might die before the time of ado- 
 one as the sign of a covenant ended, tlie other of a ceremonial 
 ccasinsj with the death of Clnist. 
 
CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 205 
 
 lescence; and in whose instance, if regeneration 
 were a delusion, it was a delusion which humiliated 
 the whole national belief, from the day when the 
 people and their children " were baptized to INIoses 
 in the cloud and the sea." 
 
 If it should be objected to the inseparability of 
 regeneration from baptism, that it has long since 
 been obviously separated from the Jewish rite, once 
 equivalent to baptism ; the true answer is, that the 
 sign of the covenant of Canaan has been divinely 
 abolished. It was thus abolished, at the time when 
 John first came preaching "Baptism for the remis- 
 sion of sins." 
 
 The local covenant, through Abraham, was then 
 displaced by the universal covenant, through Christ. 
 The Jewish dispensation was thenceforth at an end, 
 " The law and the prophets were until John." 
 
 The perseverance of the existing Jews in this sign 
 shows nothing but the persevering infatuation of an 
 unhappy people. Yet, it is impossible to look upon 
 them without longing for the time when the veil shall 
 be taken from their eyes; when Rabbinism shall 
 cease to be their religion ; and when, abandoning 
 their fictions, they shall be taught to build on " the 
 foundation of the prophets and apostles." 
 
 I am not about to discuss the prospects of Judfcism. 
 But it is impossible to forget, that we are grafts of 
 the great olive ; and that the period when its trunk, 
 splintered by so many a thunder-stroke, shall branch 
 
20U CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 forth again, will be the period of regeneration for the 
 world. But, fallen or risen, Judah offers the mightiest 
 moral of the earth to man. 
 
 Of all the powerful evidences for the truth of 
 Christianity, the most powerful is the condition of 
 the Jewish people. From the fall of the Temple, 
 their existence stands in direct contrast to the whole 
 course of human things. In the midst of a world 
 of feverish activity, of perpetual vicissitude, and of 
 continual progress, we see a portion of mankind, 
 standing in the same position in which it stood 
 almost two thousand years ago, untouched by time, 
 unshaken by vicissitude, neither crushed nor conquer- 
 ing, neither ruined nor restored. 
 
 A great living Anomaly ! a people, yet not a 
 nation ; with a law, yet without a government ; with 
 a religion, yet without a worship ; hopeless, yet not 
 despairing; imdone, yet not destroyed; exerting 
 vast influence, yet without power; accumulating 
 immense wealth, yet always stricken with poverty ; 
 holding all nations in scorn, yet the servant of all ; 
 sitting at the gate of imperial treasuries, yet without 
 public rank in any country of the globe. 
 
 But, of all its characteristics, the one which most 
 arrests the eye of the reasoner, is its resistance to 
 chanjre. Chano^e is the law of the world ; all life is 
 fluctuation ; yet, in the midst of that perpetual roll 
 of living surges, one frozen pile stands up : we see 
 in that Ocean one lonely spot, — unworn by the per- 
 
CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 207 
 
 petual currents, unshaken by the storms of ages, 
 unvisited by vegetation, untouched by the sun, and 
 unmoved in all the heavings of the great sea-bed of 
 society. 
 
 Even the most resistless laws of nature are not 
 suffered to approach this singular people. While 
 population is pouring through its flood-gates from 
 every part of Europe ; while colonies are less a 
 territorial aggrandizement than a national necessity ; 
 less an expansion of power than a relief of pressure ; 
 while famine, and poverty, and faction, and even 
 crime, — all the squalid but fierce agents which shake 
 mankind from their homes, — are in hourly action ; 
 and future kingdoms are rising from those sullen 
 sources, round the circumference of the globe, like 
 meteors ascending from the mists of the horizon, 
 yet to take their places in the Galaxy, and contribute 
 their steady illumination to man ; neither fear, nor 
 hope, nor poverty, nor adventure, has ever been able 
 to move the Jew. 
 
 While the human race, within the last half cen- 
 tury, — like Israel itself, when its Egyptian bondage 
 was about to be broken, — is increasing by sudden 
 millions, as if in the preparative for some irresistible 
 impulse, or vast emancipation of mind ; the popula- 
 tion of Judah has probably not increased by a single 
 birth, since the day when Hadrian ran his plough 
 through the ruins of the Temple. 
 
 Yet, though the position and permanency of the 
 
208 CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 Jewish people have been the topics of every observer 
 of national characteristics, I doubt whether the 
 chief purpose of their continuance has ever come 
 sufficiently before the general mind. In Providence 
 there is a reason for all things ; and especially for every 
 part in the framework of the living world. Why, 
 then, has a people, which takes no share in the move- 
 ment of the great machine, been suffered to lie so long 
 among its springs and wheels ? Why has it not been 
 fused and lost among nations, like its own Ten Tribes ? 
 Why not absorbed in the sands of that moral desert 
 in which it has pitched its tent once more ? Why 
 has it not sunk from the sight of man, like the 
 empires dropped into the grave, with their crowns 
 and swords, on the great highway of change from 
 Babylon to Rome ? Why has it not, like them, 
 forfeited its existence with its use ? — Dust to dust ! 
 
 It is, because it still has an involuntary use, — yet 
 one of the highest importance, and one which could 
 not be supplied by any other nation of the world, — 
 its perpetual, direct, and living testimonial to 
 Christianity ! 
 
 And this is the evidence, not of solitary events, 
 but of superhuman system, of stern circumstance, 
 of inflexible fact, of cold realities, inscriptions on 
 the living rock, voices of the tomb, still speaking 
 to attest the Divine descent of every doctrine, 
 principle, and prediction of Christianity. That a 
 remnant, in the latter day, shall be rescued from 
 
CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 209 
 
 their hereditary blindness, is prophetic ; but if this 
 were the sole purpose of Jewish existence during the 
 eighteen centuries since the national fall, why such 
 a waste of that high expediency, which we never 
 find lavished in the designs of Providence ? Why 
 might not the name have been preserved in some 
 fragment of society, like their own Karaites; or in 
 some border of Heathenism, like the Syrian Chris- 
 tians ; or in the spot where the ashes of the Ten 
 Tribes sleep under the foot of the Moslem tyrant, 
 or the Arab robber? Why should the population 
 meet us by thousands in every corner of the world ? 
 Why should Judreism be fixed face to face with us 
 wherever we move? Why compel us to look upon 
 the same immemorial lineaments, the same unchange- 
 able pursuits, the same stern identity of prejudice, 
 the same proximity of existence, yet, with a chasm 
 deep as the grave between, the impassable line of 
 demarcation between the Jew and mankind ? 
 
 Who, while the Jew exists, can doubt the ful- 
 filment of the prophecies, the preaching of the Bap- 
 tist, the rejection of Christ, the divine spread of the 
 Gospel, or the fated fall of his country ? Who can 
 doubt the anathema imprecated by his own lips ? or 
 the unexampled vengeance by which it was fulfilled ? 
 We have all the great facts of Christian history 
 embodied in the existence of the universal exile. 
 AVhat but the Jew could substantiate them, — and 
 what is wanting to their substantiation ? 
 
 p 
 
210 CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 But, in this point of view, its purpose is perfect. 
 Custom, tradition, and even history, may grow con- 
 fused and melt down : all the forms by which man 
 stamps the past on the present, and transmits both to 
 the future, may perish. But here, side by side with 
 Christianity, travels down through all ages, a living 
 witness, perpetually in the presence of mankind, 
 incapable of confederacy, unconscious of its service, 
 yet, in all its hostility, giving an evidence which 
 it is utterly impossible for rational inquiry to resist. 
 Men may disregard all evidence, as men may 
 clasp their hands on their eyes, and deny the 
 day. But, in the continuance of that people is sup- 
 plied to the world a resistless answer to infidelity. 
 Scepticism withers within the shadow of that 
 ghastly testimony : we might as well doubt the 
 reality of death, with the charnel open beneath 
 our eyes. 
 
 And this use would be well worthy of this extra- 
 ordinary interference with the course of things. 
 Christianity calls a World to conversion : countless 
 millions may still be brought within its fold. The 
 coldness and selfishness of man require to be per- 
 petually urged to the acceptance of its truth : 
 infidelity, if disgraced in name, is in the heart of 
 thousands and myriads ; for every man, to whom God 
 is not all in all, is practically an infidel. But, against 
 this sleepless fever of human perversion, and per- 
 petual bewilderment of the human mind, an anti- 
 
CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 211 
 
 dote is provided, in the existence of Judaeism, 
 utterly invincible, in the common exercise of the 
 understanding. 
 
 Christianity vras founded on miracle. The whole 
 mission of our Lord was marked by evidences of his 
 power over nature and man. The change of those 
 illustrious means, from external demonstration to 
 internal faculty, in the mission to the Gentiles, 
 Mas still but a change of miracle. When the 
 Apostolic age passed away, and with it the Apos- 
 tolic inspiration ; there was to be left one great 
 substitute, the miracle of an indestructible people ! 
 — Judaeism, smote for its offence against Christ, yet 
 maintained for its service to Christianity. Shadowy, 
 yet strong alike against the casualties of nations 
 and the work of time, it was appointed to remain, 
 until it shall vanish in the rising glory of "the 
 Kingdom." 
 
 It is true that the language of prophecy is lofty 
 and exulting, and that the restitution of Israel is 
 alluded to in all the images of earthly splendour; 
 but a calmer inquiry would show that those scenes 
 are not of this world. — Paradisaic loveliness of the 
 Globe ; life, without the troubles which belong to 
 all human existence ; eyes untouched by tears, and 
 happiness inaccessible to change ; have no relation 
 to the sons of Earth. The creatures of original 
 infirmity must bear their burden, until they lay it 
 down in the grave. 
 
 p 2 
 
212 CIRCUMCISION AND BAPTISM. 
 
 For tliose heavenly immunities man must await " a 
 better country, that is a heavenly." He must be an 
 immortal in a land of immortality, the subject of an 
 immortal throne, an heir of Christ, and "equal 
 with the angels !" 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE SECOND ADVENT. 
 
 The attributes of God are unlimited in number and 
 power. It is not inconsistent with the declared 
 principle of Providence in this world, to conceive, 
 that the whole universe is only a developement of 
 those attributes, in giving happiness to the countless 
 ranks of sentient being; nor inconsistent with its 
 ways, to conceive that those attributes have a certain 
 order in their develoj)ement. This at least we know, 
 that, in our world, tbe two attributes especially 
 developed, are Justice and Mercy. We know, also, 
 that they have an order in their developement, suit- 
 able to the natural order of things ; that two Dis- 
 pensations have been given, succeeding each other ; 
 and that the former, the Jewish, has especially 
 embodied the attribute of Justice ; while the latter, 
 the Christian, has especially embodied the attribute 
 of Mercy. 
 
 The whole im]>rcss of the Jewish law is retribution 
 
214 THE SECOND ADVENT. 
 
 for guilt. Its original maxim is, " without shedding 
 of blood there is no remission :" but, shedding of 
 blood implies loss of life, for "in the blood is the 
 life." Sacrifice is always before the eye. Even the 
 covenant of the possession of Canaan is founded in 
 a vision of national suffering. 
 
 In this sacred declaration, when God promises 
 Abraham the possession, and Abraham asks, " Lord 
 God, how shall I know that I shall inherit it?" the 
 Divine answer is given, in a command of sacrifice ; 
 that sacrifice including all the animals usually offered : 
 the heifer, the she-goat, the ram, the turtle-dove, and 
 the pigeon. When the sun is going down, the vision 
 returns ; " a horror of great darkness" falls on him ; 
 and the prophecy is given : " Know of a surety that 
 thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not 
 theirs, and shall serve them ; and they shall afflict 
 them four hundred years '." Then, in confirmation 
 of the words, is shown an emblem of their Egyptian 
 bondage. " And it came to pass, that, when the sun 
 went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking fur- 
 nace, and a burning lamp that passed between those 
 pieces." The extent of the land is finally defined : 
 " Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the 
 river of Egypt unto the great river, the river 
 Euphrates ^" 
 
 ' This includes the time of their wanderings in Canaan. From 
 the birth of Isaac to the Exodus was four liundred years. 
 ^ Gen. XV. 
 
THE SECOND ADVENT. 215 
 
 The same character extends through the whole 
 dispensation. The Law is given " on account of trans- 
 gressions;" the people are punished in the wilder- 
 ness ; Canaan is entered with the sword ; and the 
 corrujitions of the Canaanites are punished by 
 slaughter; the dispensation is finally sealed in the 
 blood of the Messiah ; and that consummate crime 
 is punished by the fall of the nation. 
 
 The Second Dispensation bears the impress of 
 jMercy from the beginning; there is no thunder 
 from Sinai, no violent possession, no extermination 
 of the possessors, no yoke of ordinances, no sacrificial 
 blood. The Law has passed away : Glory to God, 
 and peace and good-will to man, is the spirit of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Yet, diverse as are those two great lines of 
 Providence, they finally converge : Judseism and 
 Christianity meet in the Second Advent. Nothing 
 more remarkable is to be found among all the won- 
 der-working processes of the Divine government, than 
 the minute similitude which has been carried down 
 between the entire of the Jewish and Christian 
 Dispensations, from the birth of both. 
 
 I take but a fragment of each. 
 
 Moses, with Aaron for his speaker, demands the 
 liberation of the Jews from the house of bondage. 
 
 They lead the people through the Baptism of the 
 Red Sea into the wilderness, with the pillar of cloud 
 and flame, the light of Jehovah, as their guide. 
 
216 THE SECOND ADVENT. 
 
 The Law is given from Sinai. 
 
 The twelve explorers of Canaan are sent forth. 
 
 Aaron dies on the way to Canaan. 
 
 Moses gives his charge to Joshua, one of the 
 explorers. 
 
 Moses sees the promised land from Mount Pisgah, 
 but, without entering it. 
 
 Moses dies, but not by infirmity ; and Joshua, 
 with the ark, the place of the divine glory, leading 
 the way, passes through the river Jordan ; the people 
 are baptized, and the conquest of Canaan begins. 
 
 I now observe the outline of Christianity. 
 
 John, the " Voice," first comes, to proclaim the 
 mission of Christ, declares the release from the 
 yoke of ordinances, and summons the Nation to 
 Baptism. 
 
 Christ, with the Holy Sjiirit descending on Him, 
 is baptized, along with the people, in the river 
 Jordan. 
 
 Christ, by the Holy Spirit, is led up from Baptism 
 into the wilderness. 
 
 Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, declares the 
 new Law of Christianity. 
 
 Christ appoints the twelve apostles, and sends them 
 forth to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. 
 John the Baptist dies. 
 
 Christ gives the charge to Peter, of beginning the 
 preaching of the Gospel to the world. 
 
 Christ dies ; before the Gospel has been preached 
 
THE SECOND ADVENT. 217 
 
 beyond Judaea; but having seen the Kingdom, from 
 the Mount of Transfiguration. 
 
 At the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends, the 
 people are baptized, and the conquest of the world 
 is begun. 
 
 When we remember, that those events of indu- 
 bitable similitude were actually fifteen hundred years 
 asunder ; and that there was no discoverable necessity 
 for their resembling each other, (since Christ might 
 obviously have completed liis mission without refer- 
 ence to the acts of Moses;) it is utterly impossible 
 to doubt that they had a purpose, and the very pur- 
 pose which they have effected on the minds of all 
 sincere inquirers into scriptural truth, — a conviction 
 of the Divine origin of Christianity. 
 
 On the subject of that final Kingdom, in which 
 both dispensations shall combine under the sove- 
 reignty of Christ, the process might be traced with 
 equal precision. 
 
 The promise of Canaan to Abraham embraced, as 
 has been already observed, tw^o conditions of Canaan, 
 wholly distinct ; the earthly possession, and the 
 heavenly. The Kingdom of Christ similarly em- 
 braced two conditions, equally distinct; the present 
 wide, but imperfect and struggling possession of the 
 world by Christianity, and the future reign of glory. 
 Neither Christ nor his Apostles ever spoke of the 
 earth during their mission, or that of those who 
 were to follow them, but as a scene of difl^culty : 
 
218 THE SECOND ADVENT. 
 
 to the Apostles a place of toil and peril ; to their 
 successors, often a place of persecution ; and, even 
 at the last, exhibiting a crisis of that prolonged and 
 dubious strife with the passions and perversions of 
 man, in which religion will seem to be all but over- 
 whelmed ; and where Christ shall finally descend, only 
 to see his Church in devastation, infidelity lording it 
 over the multitude, and Himself almost a stranger. 
 " When I come, shall I find faith upon the earth ?" 
 But his language of the second condition of the King- 
 dom never fails in its strength and lustre ; the children 
 of his faith are still to be the children of " his Father 
 which is in Heaven ;" all the conceptions of human 
 magnificence are weak to the "glory that shall be 
 revealed ;" and in that House " of many mansions," 
 the highest place of power, splendour, and happi- 
 ness, is already secured for the sons of the First 
 Resurrection. 
 
 Still, it is important in the highest degree, that, in 
 those inquiries, we should be led by the lights of 
 Scripture alone. Unhappily, there is no doctrine 
 which has suffered more by the mixture of human 
 frivolities. Its simplicity, solemnity, and truth have 
 been seized on by imaginations frenzied with vanity, 
 or stimulated by imposture. The glorious vision, of 
 which the full radiance would be too bright for 
 the mortal eye, and of which but "the skirts" can be 
 seen, even by the spiritual gaze of the adoring Chris- 
 tian : has been degraded into a Mahometan paradise, 
 
THE SECOND ADVENT. 219 
 
 or even a scene of factious and worldly ambition ; 
 and the land of intellectual grandeur, celestial power, 
 and angelic beauty, lies hidden in the fumes from 
 the altar of the passions. 
 
 The heretics of every century since the Christian 
 era, the primitive Anabaptists, the Fifth-Monarchy- 
 men, the ancient fanatic, and the modern pretender, 
 have thus effected all the evil that was within the 
 means of fiction and folly. But, even where the search 
 was sincere, two especial errors have hitherto been 
 fatal to the interpretation. All the inquirers seem 
 to have forgotten, that the kingdom of the visible 
 throne of Christ must be a kingdom of immortals. 
 This recollection would at once extinguish all their 
 theories, or bring them back to the sobriety of 
 Scripture. The second of those errors is, the attempt 
 to fix the period of the Second Advent by calcula- 
 tion. For this vanity. Scripture furnishes no surmise 
 whatever : we have, besides, the highest of all autho- 
 rities telling us, that, of this period " knoweth no 
 man, not even the angels." 
 
 Of the kingdom, it is only 'v\isdom to keep silence 
 where Scripture has forborne to sj^eak. But the 
 outline is clear. The actual existence of a future 
 place of glory, as the peculiar place of the fathers of 
 the Jewish Church, is declared in the most distinct 
 language. When our Lord denounces the guilt of 
 the living Jew, He tells him, that he shall be cast out 
 from the presence of " Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." 
 
220 THE SECOND ADVENT. 
 
 When He convicts the Sadducees of Scriptural 
 ignorance, in the denial of the Resurrection, He 
 declares Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be living at 
 the moment; and founds on this fact his proof of 
 the future resurrection. When He is transfigured, 
 the later leaders of Israel are seen with Him in 
 glory; and JMoses and Elijah not only speak with 
 Him, but speak of an event of this world, " his death, 
 which He was to accomplish in Jerusalem." 
 
 The language of Christ to his Apostles, is that of 
 man with man, — Galilean peasants, they were in- 
 capable of comprehending mysteries, and his words 
 have all the plainness of reality. He tells them, 
 that they shall " sit on twelve thrones, judging 
 (governing) the twelve tribes ;" and that He shall 
 " drink of the fruit of the vine with them in his 
 Father's kingdom." On the night of the last supper 
 He tells them, " I go to prepare a place for you. . . 
 I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that 
 where I am, there ye may be also." He tells them, 
 that He will send the Holy Spirit to them ; and the 
 Holy Spirit is sent. He tells them that they shall 
 be baptized with the Holy Spirit " not many days" 
 after, and they are so baptized : and that they shall 
 be his witnesses in Judaea, through all nations ; and 
 such they were. All of those declarations, which were 
 capable of being realized at the time, were realized 
 to the letter : why are we, then, to doubt that the 
 rest will be realized with the same directness ? 
 
THE SECOND ADVENT. 221 
 
 When our Lord ascends in the sight of tlie 
 Apostles, two angels suddenly stand beside them, 
 who say, " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing 
 up into Heaven ? This same Jesus, which is taken up 
 from you into Heaven, shall so come, in like manner 
 as ye have seen him go up into Heaven." For what 
 conceivable purpose could this ascent have been 
 thus made visible, or those angels have been sent 
 thus to declare, that He was to return from Heaven, 
 as they had seen Him ascend; but to impress on the 
 Apostles the actual reality and visible nature of his 
 return ? He might have passed away in a thousand 
 conditions of form and circumstance ; He might have 
 gone invisibly, as He had gone before the Apostles into 
 Galilee ; He might have communicated his departure 
 by a Divine voice, or by those angels alone ; and 
 the evidence would have been indubitable. But, He 
 clearly desired to add the evidence of their own 
 eyes, and thus give them the highest conceivable con- 
 viction of his return in the body. 
 
 On the personal reign of Christ there is much 
 obscure indecision in the Christian world ; a sort of 
 sickly affectation of tenderness in the handling of 
 truth ; and a not unusual practice of that mockery of 
 moderation, and habitual motto of indolence, — " Let 
 time, the great interpreter, tell." But, it is the 
 business of the honest follower of Scripture, to suffer 
 no doctrine of the faith to be stifled in the nursing 
 of this decorous ineptitude. 
 
222 THE SECOND ADVENT. 
 
 If doubt could ever have been justifiable ; how 
 much more justifiable was it in the Jew, shrinking 
 from the idea of an Incarnate God treading his way 
 through the world in pain and privation, and dying 
 on a cross ? than in the Christian, shrinking from his 
 triumph ? Yet, for that error, Judah was stricken 
 for ever ; its sun fell from the sky, and its footsteps 
 were sent to wander in darkness through the world. 
 
 The subject is boundless; but I must conclude. 
 Regeneration is the substantial virtue of Baptism. 
 Without Regeneration, baptism loses its significance 
 and its use : with it, Baptism is the only declared 
 entrance to the Kingdom of the first Resurrection. 
 
 The belief in the Personal reign of our Lord has 
 scarcely yet taken its true rank in religion. Of late 
 years, though rather doubted than denied, it has 
 existed more in the essays of the theologian, than 
 in the living hope and intellectual conviction, which 
 kindles the heart, and moulds the mind. Even In- 
 fidelity has scarcely yet assailed it, and it is aban- 
 doned to grave indifference. 
 
 Yet, it is this doctrine which, of all others, it will 
 be most essential to the safety of the Church to pre- 
 pare against assault; for it is here that the chief assault 
 of Infidelity will be finally made. How many, or 
 how few years may still be interposed between us and 
 that tremendous period, it is not for man to tell. But 
 the doctrine of "' The Kingdom" will be the express 
 point of trial between the true Church and the 
 
THE SECOND ADVENT. 223 
 
 adversary. "Where is the promise of his coming?" 
 will be the outcry of the sceptic, echoed from a 
 scoffing world. 
 
 It is already ominous, that Regeneration should 
 be put forth as the perplea^ity of our time. If 
 Infant Regeneration shall be doubted, Baptism must 
 be degraded : if Regeneration shall be but a name, 
 Baptism can be but a form : the day on which it 
 sinks into a ceremonial, it perishes as a Sacrament. 
 Where, then, shall the Church hide her head from 
 these words, WTitten by the hand of Inspiration 
 before her eyes, — " Except a man be born of water, 
 and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom 
 of God ? " 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 SCRIPTURE, CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY, and the CHURCH of 
 ENGLAND. By the Rev. GEORGE CROLY, LL.D., Rector of the 
 United Parishes of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, and St. Benet, London, 
 In 8vo. 8s. 
 
 XX. 
 
 A PLAIN CHRISTIAN'S MANUAL; or, Six Plain Ser- 
 mons on EARLY PIETY, the SACRAMENTS, and MAN'S LATTER 
 END; Uncontroversial, but suited to the Present Time. By JOHN 
 WOOD WARTER, B.D., Christ Church, Oxford, Vicar of West 
 Tarring, Sussex, Rural Dean and Surrogate. In small 8vo. 3s. 6d. 
 (Now ready.) Also, a Cheaper Edition. Price 2s. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 ENGLISH BALLADS, and other POEMS. By Lord JOHN 
 MANNERS. In small Svo. 4s. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 A NEW EDITION of The BOOK of COMMON PRAYER 
 andADMINISTRATION of the SACRAMENTS, with copiousNOTES, 
 Practical and Historical, from approved Writers of the Church of Eng- 
 land ; including the Canons and Constitutions of the Church. Selected 
 and arranged by RICHARD MANT, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Down, 
 Connor, and Dromore. 
 
 *»* This Work is printed verbatim from the Quarto Edition, and uni- 
 formly with D'Oyly and Mant's Family Bible, and forms a suitable com- 
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 *** The QUARTO Edition may still be had, price \l. I6s. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 The ATHENIAN STAGE: a Handbook for Students. 
 From the German of Witzschel, by the Rev. R. B. PAUL, M.A., and 
 the Rev. T. K. ARNOLD, M.A. In 12mo. (With a Plan of a Greek 
 Theatre.) 4s. {Just published.) 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 The CHRISTIAN LIFE: a Manual of Sacred Verse. By 
 the Rev. ROBERT MONTGOMERY, M.A., Author of "The Omni- 
 presence of the Deity." Third Edition. In a pocket volume. 5s. 
 
BOOKS PUBLISHED 
 
 XXV. 
 
 OCCASIONAL SERMONS. Preached at West- 
 minster Abbey, in March and April, 1850. By CHRISTOPHER 
 WORDSWORTH, D.D., Canon of Westminster. In Eiglit Numbers, 
 price Is. eacii. Contents : 
 
 No. 1. Counsels and Consolations in times of Heresy and Schism. 
 No. 2. On Pleas alleged for Separation from the Church. No. 3. The 
 Doctrine of Baptism with reference to Prevenient Grace. No. 4. An 
 Inquiry whether the Baptismal Office of the Church of England may be 
 interpreted in a Calvinistic sense. No. 5. Inquiry, Part 2 ; Argument 
 from Internal Evidence. No. 6. Inquiry, Part 3 ; Argument from K\- 
 ternal Evidence. No. 7. The Church of England in 1711 and 1850. 
 No. 8. The Church of England and the Church of Rome in 1850. 
 Conclusion. 
 
 *** These SERMONS may be had in a VOLUME, price 8s. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 THE KING'S MESSENGERS; an Allegorical Tale. By 
 the Rev. WILLIAM ADAMS, M.A., Late Fellow of Merton College, 
 Oxford. Fourth Edition. 2s. 6d. {Now ready.) 
 Also, by the same Author, 
 
 1. The SHADOW of the CROSS. Ninth Edition. 2s. 6d. (Also a 
 cheaper Edition, is.) 
 
 2. The DISTANT HILLS. Fifth Edition. 2s. 6d. 
 
 3. The OLD MAN'S HOME. Niiith Edition. 2s. 6d. (Also a cheaper 
 Edition, Is.) 
 
 4. A COLLECTED EDITION of the above SACRED ALLEGORIES. 
 With Portrait and Memoir of the Author. 10s. 6c?. 
 
 5. The WARNINGS of the HOLY WEEK. Third Edition. 5s. 
 
 6. The FALL of CRCESUS. 3s. Qd. 
 
 7. BONCHURCH ; containing a Biographical Notice of the late Rev. W. 
 ADAMS. With Portrait and Plates. 2s. 6d. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 A SAFE PATH for HUMBLE CHURCHMEN; in SIX 
 SERMONS on the CHURCH CATECHISM, adapted to the Com- 
 ple.\ion of the Times. By JOHN MILLER, M.A., of Worcester 
 College, Oxford. In 8vo. 4s. 6d. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 A HANDBOOK of GREEK SYNONYMES. From the 
 
 French of A. PILLON, Librarian of the Bibliotheque Royale, Paris. 
 Edited, with Notes, by the Rev. T. K. ARNOLD, M.A., Rector of 
 Lyndon, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 12mo, 
 6s. 6d. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 SERMONS. By the Rev. FRANCIS B. WOODWARD, 
 M.A., Curate of St. Stephen's, Dublin, In 12mo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 The CHURCH SCHOOLMASTER. By the Rev. 
 
 SANDERSON ROBINS, M.A. In small 8vo. 5s. 
 
BY MESSRS. RIVINGTON. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 HYMNS and POEMS for the SICK and SUFFERING. In 
 
 connexion with the Service for the VISITATION of the SICK. Edited 
 by the Rev. T. V. FOSBERY, M.A., Perpetual Curate of Sunningdale. 
 This Volume contains 233 separate pieces ; of which about 90 are by 
 writers who lived prior to the ISth Century: the rest are modern, and 
 some of these original. Amongst the names of the writers (between 70 
 and 80 in number) occur those of Sir J. Beaumont — Sir T. Browne — F. 
 Davison — Elizabeth of Bohemia — P.Fletcher — G. Herbert — Dean Hickes 
 — Bp. Ken — Norris — Quarles — Sandys — Bp. J.Taylor — Henry Vaughan 
 — and Sir H. Wotton. And of modern writers : — Miss E. B. Barrett — 
 The Bishop of Oxford — S. T. Coleridge — Sir R. Grant — Miss E. Taylor 
 — W. Wordsworth — Rev. Messrs. Chandler — Keble — Lyte — Monsell 
 — Moultrie — and Trench. Second Edition. In small 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 LETTERS in Vindication of the CHURCH of IRELAND; 
 
 addressed to an English Member of Parliament. By the Rev. JOHN 
 M. MAGUIRE, B.A., late Scholar of Trinity College, Dublin; Vicar 
 of Boyle, in the Diocese of Elphin. In small 8vo. 6s. {Just published.) 
 
 XXXIIl. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW of the DOCTRINE of REGENE- 
 RATION in BAPTISM. By CHRISTOPHER BETHELL, D.D., 
 
 Lord Bishop of Bangor. Fifth Edition. In 8vo. 9s. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 A SECOND VOLUME of PAROCHIAL SERMONS. 
 
 By the Rev. THOMAS AINGER, B.D., Vicar of Hampstead, Mid- 
 dlesex. In ]2mo. (Preparing for publication.) 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 The GREEK TESTAMENT ; with a critically revised Text ; 
 a Digest of various Readings; Marginal References to Verbal and 
 Idiomatic Usage ; and a copious Critical and Exegetical Commentary 
 in English. Including the results of the labours of the most recent 
 foreign Commentators. For the Use of Theological Students and Minis- 
 ters. By HENRY ALFORD, M.A., Vicar of Wymeswold, Leicester- 
 shire, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 2 vols. 8vo. 
 Vol. I. 1^. 4*. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 ONE LORD, ONE FAITH: Discourses, Doctrinal and 
 Occasional. By JOHN BESLY, D.C.L., Vicar of Long Benton, and 
 sometime Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. In Svo. 12*. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 The LIFE of ANSELM, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTER- 
 BURY. Translated and abridged from the German of F. R. HASSE, 
 Professor of Evangelical Theology in the University of Bonn, by the 
 Rev. WILLIAM TURNER, M.A., Vicar of Boxgrove. In crown Svo. 
 6s. 
 
BOOKS PUBLISHED 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 PAROCHIAL SKETCHES. In Verse. By the Rev. 
 ROBERT WILSON EVANS, B.D., Vicar of Heversham, Author of 
 "The Rectory of Valehead," and "The Bishopric of Souls." With 
 Woodcuts. In small 8vo. 6s. 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 LECTURES on the APOCALYPSE, Critical, Expository, 
 
 and Practical ; delivered before the University of Cambridge ; being 
 the HULSEAN LECTURES for 1848. By CHRISTOPHER 
 WORDSWORTH, D.D., Canon of Westminster. Second Edition. To 
 this Edition is added, A DISCOURSE on the MAN of SIN (which may 
 be had separately, to complete the former Edition). In 8vo. 14*. 
 
 *^* A Supplemental Volume, containing the Original Greek Text, 
 withMSS. Collations, and an En GhisH Translation amc? Harmony, with 
 Notes, and an Appendix to the Lectures, is now ready. In 8vo. 12*. 
 
 XL. 
 
 The CHRISTIAN CHARACTER : Six Sermons preached in 
 
 Lent. Contents: — 1. The Christian's Faith. 2. The Christian's Love. 
 3. The Christian's Hope. 4. The Christian's Charity. 5. The Chris- 
 tian's Joy and Sorrow. 6. The Christian prepared for Death. By 
 JOHN JACKSON, M.A., Rector of St. James's, Westminster, and 
 Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen. Second Edition. In small 8vo. 4s. 
 
 XLI. 
 
 The Seventh Edition of 
 INSTRUCTIONS for the USE of CANDIDATES for 
 HOLY ORDERS, and of the PAROCHIAL CLERGY, as to Ordina- 
 tion, Licences, Induction, Pluralities, Residence, &c. &c. ; with Acts of 
 Parliament relating to the above, and Forms to be used. By CHRIS- 
 TOPHER HODGSON, M.A., Secretary to His Grace the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury. In Svo. {In the press.) 
 
 XLII. 
 
 COMFORT for the AFFLICTED. Selected from various 
 Authors. Edited by the Rev. C. E. KENNAWAY. With a Preface by 
 S. WILBERFORCE, D.D., Lord Bishop of Oxford. Fifth Edition. 5s. 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 SCRIPTURAL COMMUNION with GOD ; or, the PENTA- 
 TEUCH, and the BOOK of JOB ; arranged in Historical and Chro- 
 nological Order, and newly divided into sections for daily reading ; 
 with Introductions, and Prayers; and Notes for the Student and 
 Inquirer. By the Rev. GEORGE TOWNSEND, D.D., Canon of 
 Durham. Complete in 2 vols. Svo. 2l. 5s. 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 The HISTORY of EUROPE during the FOUR LAST 
 CENTURIES. For the Use of Schools and Young Persons. Edited 
 by the Rev. JOHN SEDGWICK, M.A., Demy of Magdalen College, 
 Oxford, one of the Masters in the Ordnance School, Carshalton. In 
 small Svo. 6s. 6d. 
 
 XLV. 
 
 HOLY THOUGHTS; a TREASURY of TRUE RICHES, 
 
 collected chiefly from our Old Writers. Fifth Edition. In pocket size. 
 Is. 6d. 
 
XLVI. 
 
 The GOSPEL NARRATIVE of the PASSION of OUR 
 LORD HARMONIZED, with REFLECTIONS. By the Rev. ISAAC 
 WILLIAMS, B.D., late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. Fourth 
 Edition. In small 8vo. 8s. 
 
 Lately published, the other Volumes, viz. : 
 
 1. The INTRODUCTION, containing THOUGHTS on the STUDY 
 of the GOSPELS. 8s.— 2. The NATIVITY. 8s. 6f/.— 3. The MI- 
 NISTRY (Second Year). 8s.— 4. The MINISTRY (Third Year). 8s. 6d. 
 —5. The HOLY WEEK. 8s. 6c/.— 6. The RESURRECTION. 8s. 
 
 XLVII. 
 
 ESSAYS on SUBJECTS connected Math the REFORMATION 
 in ENGLAND. By the Rev. S. R. MAITLAND, D.D., F.R.S., 
 F".S.A., sometime Librarian to the late Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
 Keeper of the MSS. at Lambeth. In 8vo. 15s. 
 
 Lately published, by the same Author, (uniformly printed,) 
 The DARK AGES; ESSAYS illustrating the RELIGION and 
 LITERATURE of the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Centuries. 
 Second Edition. 12s. 
 
 XLVIII. 
 
 The HOLY BIBLE, containing the OLD and NEW 
 TESTAMENTS ; with a COMMENTARY arranged in Short Lec- 
 tures for the Daily Use of Families. By the Rev. CHARLES 
 GIRDLESTONE, M.A., Rector of Kingswinford, Staffordshire. 
 Re-issue. PARTS I. to VIII. are published, price Gs. each. 
 
 The arrangement of the Lectures has been adapted to the purpose of 
 Family Reading ; but the Exposition Avill be found equally available 
 for private study; being at once explanatory and practical, and com- 
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 advantage of an uniform and constant interpretation of the whole 
 Bible by the same Expositor. 
 
 *^* This Work is now in the course of re-publication in Twelve Monthly 
 Paris, price 6s. each, forming Six thick Volumes, 8vo, price 3l. 12s. (at 
 which 2)rice the Work may now be had comp)lete.) 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 An ESSAY on the OFFICE of the INTELLECT in 
 RELIGION, with especial Reference to the EVIDENCES of a 
 REVELATION, and the PROOF of CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 
 By WILLIAM EDWARD SCUDAMORE, M.A., Rector of Ditch- 
 ingham, and formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. In 8vo 
 9s. 
 
 L. 
 
 CHURCH HYMNS; or, HYMNS for the SUNDAYS, 
 FESTIVALS, and OTHER SEASONS of the ECCLESIASTICAL 
 YEAR, as observed in the Church of England. Compiled, with an 
 Introduction, by HENRY STRETTON, M.A., Perpetual Curate of 
 Hixon, Diocese of Lichfield. In 18mo. 2s., or 20s. for a dozen 
 Copies. 
 
BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MESSRS. RIVINGTON. 
 
 LI. 
 
 SERMONS on MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. By the 
 Rev. GEORGE TOWNSEND, D.D., Canon of Durham. In 8vo. 
 125. 
 
 LII. 
 
 A FIRST CLASSICAL ATLAS. Containing Fifteen Maps, 
 coloured in outline. Edited by the Rev. T. K. ARNOLD, M.A., 
 Rector of Lyndon, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 7s. 6d. 
 
 " These Maps are executed with great accuracy, and apparently quite 
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 tional inducement for work." — Guardian. 
 
 LIII. 
 
 CABRAMATTA, and WOODLEIGH FARM. By Mrs. 
 FRANCIS VIDAL, Author of " Tales for the Bush," &c. Any profits 
 from the sale of this Edition will be offered to the Bishop of Sydney, for 
 the Cathedral. In royal 18mo. 6s. Qd. 
 
 Lately published, by the same Author, 
 
 1. TALES for the BUSH. Third Edition, bs. 
 
 2. WINTERTON ; a Tale. 3s. Qd. 
 
 LIV. 
 
 SERMONS, University and Parochial. By EDWARD 
 THOMAS VAUGHAN, M.A., Vicar of St. Martin's, Leicester, 
 Honorary Canon of Peterborough, and late Fellow of Christ's College, 
 Cambridge. In small 8vo. 6s. 
 
 LV. 
 
 GROTIUS de VERITATE RELIGIONIS CHRISTIANS. 
 
 A New Edition, with ENGLISH NOTES and Illustrations. For the 
 Use of Students. By the Rev. J. E. MIDDLETON, M.A., of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge ; Lecturer on Theology at St. Bees' College. In 
 12 mo. 6s. 
 
 LVI. 
 
 PLAIN SERMONS on the HOLY SACRAMENTS and SER- 
 VICES of the CHURCH of ENGLAND. Preached in the Parish 
 Church of Fordham, Cambridgeshire, in Lent, 1849. (Inscribed, by 
 Permission, to the Rev. W. L. Jacobson, D.D., Regius Professor of 
 Divinity in the University of Oxford.) By the Rev. BENJAMIN 
 WILSON, B.A., Curate. In 12mo. Qs. 6c/. 
 
 LVII. 
 
 REPORTS of NEW CASES, decided in the CHANCERY, 
 COMMON LAW, and ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS, with an 
 Abridgment of New Statutes affecting the Laws relating to the 
 CHURCH and the CLERGY. Edited by H. W. CRIPPS, Esq., M.A., 
 Barrister-at-Law. Part II. In 8vo. 5s. 
 
 * ^* This Part contains (amongst other Cases) all the stages of the 
 Case of (iorham v. the Bishop of Exeter, in the Arches Court and the 
 Privy Council. 
 
 Lately published, PART I., price 5s. 
 
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