-^f^ 
 
 ^^m% 
 
 M:-?U
 
 THE V ^ 
 
 BAPTISTS m ERROR: 
 
 A DIALOGUE 
 
 BETWEEN A CLERGYMAN AND A PARISHIONER 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT OP 
 
 REV. T. J. LEE, M.A., 
 
 VICAR OF CHRIST CHURCH, LUTOX, 
 AND LATK SCHOLAR OF WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 ^TxxvA Edition, (tnxttUA mA (^nlnxQtA, 
 
 ^ID-V.-EIsTT, 1867. 
 
 LUTON : 
 
 W. STALKER, PRINTER, WKLLINGTOW STBEBT.
 
 PREFATORY LETTER. 
 
 Dear Reader, — Not to excite acrimonious contro- 
 versy, but to promote sound and Scriptural views of 
 truth on the subject discussed, do I publish the follow- 
 ing conversation. Infant Baptism is much neglected 
 — in my own Parish lamentably so; and it is this 
 wide-spread neglect of the ordinance which has led 
 me — first to to think much, and finally to write, on the 
 subject. 
 
 The neglectors of Infant Baptism may be divided 
 into three classes, whom we may style the Ignorant, 
 the Simply Negligent, and the Mistaken. 
 
 The Ignorant confound Baptism with Registration, 
 and suppose that when their children have been regis- 
 tered it is as though they have been baptized, blindly 
 confounding a merely human institution with an ordi- 
 nance of the Lord. Such are given also to speak of 
 Baptism as "a naming," as though the reason for which 
 parents bring their children to the font were merely 
 to give them their names, and not, as it surely is, to 
 dedicate them to God, that He, accepting the gift, may 
 sanctify it, grafting them by Baptism, as by an instru- 
 ment, into the Chiu'ch, and sealing the pardon of original 
 sin by spiritual regeneration. Such as these, by reading 
 the following Dialogue, may learn from it what Baptism 
 really is, \4z., God's instrument of regeneration; and 
 when they understand the sacrament better, they will 
 surely cease to neglect it.
 
 The Negligent, on the other hand, are they who 
 understand the nature of this sacrament; look upon it 
 as the instrument whereby God, by His own appoint- 
 ment, doth regenerate; and believe that it is a right 
 thing to be done, and an ordinance in which the grace 
 of God ought to be sought — and that as early as possi- 
 ble — by the Clii-istian j^arent for his child. And yet 
 they keep putting off the time of bringing their children 
 to Baptism — ever intending to come, but ever finding 
 some new excuse for not coming, until in many cases 
 whole families of childi-en are born into the world, 
 without any attempt being made to have them " born ; 
 again of water and the Spirit" into the Church of God. 
 These, also, may derive benefit from the jDerusal of the 
 following Dialogue, for it may serve to remind them 
 that the neglect of the means of grace is the neglect of 
 grace itself; that a neglected Sacrament implies* a 
 neglected Saviour ; and that a neglected Saviour, by 
 His apostle, warns us all, saying, " How shall we escape, 
 if we neglect so great salvation ?" "Ye are gone away 
 from mine ordinances, return unto Me," God says by. 
 the prophet Malachi*' — teaching us thereby that a de- 
 parture from His ordinances is a departure from 
 Himself; and that a return to Him involves a return 
 to His ordinances. 
 
 The third class of neglectors of Infant Baptism are 
 those whom we have called the Mistaken. These are 
 generally called Baptists, because of their pecuhar views 
 on the subject of Baptism; for they reject the Baptism 
 of Infants as an error, beheving that only persons of a 
 mature age ought to be baptized. With much diffidence, 
 in much charity, and without entertaining any hostile 
 feelings against themselves personally, yet, as most 
 strongly opposed to their views on the subject therein 
 * Malachi iii. 7. 
 
 . uiuc r
 
 discussed, I invite the Baptists to read — and that 
 thoughtfully and with prayer — the following pages. For 
 I believe in my heart that the Baptists are mistaken. 
 I believe that they are in error, and that the error is a 
 great one. And I am further persuaded, that if they 
 would allow Old Testament analogy, and New Testament 
 probability, and the positive expressions of certain early 
 Christian authors to have their full weight with them, 
 they would cast off their error, repudiate theii' mistake, 
 and accept, as truth, the teaching of that Article of the 
 Church which says that "the Baptism of yoimg chikben 
 is in any wise to be retained in the Chui'ch, as most 
 agreeable with the institution of Christ."* 
 
 With these remarks I commit the Dialogue to the 
 waves of public opinion, with the earnest hope and 
 prayer that, by the blessing of God, it may be the 
 humble means of enlightening such as are Igxorant 
 on the subject of which it treats; of rousing the Neg- 
 ligent, and of couAdncing the Mistaken — the which 
 if God grant, to Him be the glory, thi'ough Jesus Chiist 
 pur Lord. 
 K.. Believe me, dear Reader, 
 
 Yours ever faithfidly in Him, 
 
 T. J. LEE, 
 
 Cheist Church, Lijton : 
 Advent, 1864. 
 
 * Article xxvii/i
 
 PREFATORY LETTER TO THE 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 Dear Reader, — The first edition of this Dialogue 
 was eulogized by many as an argument against the 
 Baptists; and, as such, was styled by one, "unanswer- 
 able;" by another, "particularly good and useful;" 
 and by a thu'd, as "read with unmixed pleasure." To 
 that argument I have added but little, and for that 
 little I am indebted, not to any researches of my own, 
 but to my kind and learned friend, the Rev. H. Tattam, 
 late Archdeacon of Bedford, who supplied me with the 
 few statements which the Dialogue contains concerning 
 the practice of the Jewish Church in the matter of 
 Infant Baptism. 
 
 But although, as I believe, strong and unanswerable 
 as an argument against the Baptists, the first edition 
 was, I think, faulty in a very serious particular in its 
 statement of the truth ; for in answer to the question, 
 Do you think that the Holy Spirit is always given in 
 Baptism? its reply was, No ; so reducing the Sacra- 
 ment, when unfaithfully administered and received, to 
 nothing but an empty form — a thing which I maintain to 
 be impossible in the case of any ordinance of God. And 
 yet, although in the first edition Baptism was thus, 
 under ceriaiii cireamstanees, shorn of its strength, the
 
 general tone of the Dialogue went to prove that vmder 
 all circumstances it retained its strength, and that all 
 the baptized, whatever their spiritual condition, had 
 been by it united to Chi'ist. Thus the text, " Every 
 branch in me that bcai-eth not fruit, "^' kc, was quoted 
 as shewing that the whole company of the baptized 
 bore the same relation to God, although only its faithful 
 and obedient portion held that relation sa^dngly to 
 itself; so that in the first edition there was a contra- 
 diction between that answer "Xo" to the question, 
 "Do you think that the Holy Spiiit is always given in 
 Baptism?" and the general tone of the work, and, 
 as I conceive, the Truth itself. 
 
 This contradiction I have endeavoured, in this third 
 edition, to remove, and I trust that I have done it 
 satisfactorily ; for while it is not pretended that the 
 Holy Spirit works invariably — to use language that 
 will be familiar to most — a convertiiig work in. Baptism, 
 i.e., that He so changes the dispositions as to produce that 
 new creatui-e which " cannot sin;"f yet it is maintained 
 that the Holy Spii'it does invariably work in Baptism a 
 regenerating work, i.e., that He lodges the soul in a 
 condition of sonship towards God, and of membership 
 towards Jesus Christ, and that He invites it thenceforth, 
 as possessing "the adoption,";}: to seek for itself "the 
 spii'it of adof)tion," and so to fidfil the intention of its 
 Baptism in the obedience of its after Hfe. 
 
 Clea\ing to this interpretation of terms, I may state 
 in conclusion that the principle of the first edition was, 
 " God is able and willing to regenerate by Baptism, if 
 he be in%-ited to do so by the prayer of faith ;" but the 
 principle of the thii'd edition expresses itself in three 
 words, \dz., Baptism doth kegenerate. And provided 
 
 * St. John XV. 2. t 1 St. John iii. 9. 
 
 t (pralatians iy. 5.
 
 too high a meaning be not attached to the term "rege- 
 nerate," I am persuaded that this latter principle is the 
 true one, and that on it alone we can arrive at a true 
 idea of the Church, the family, and the people of God, 
 as they are set before us in Holy Scripture, " a mixed 
 multitude," in which " the evil is ever intermingled 
 with the good."* 
 
 Believe me, dear Reader, 
 
 Yom- faithful servant in Christ, 
 
 T. J. LEE. 
 
 Christ Chuech Vicarage, Luton; 
 December, 1867. 
 
 * Article xxxvi
 
 CONVERSATION 
 
 INFANT BAPTISM 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 Clergyman. How do you do, Mrs. Price? 
 
 Mrs. p. Quite well, thank you. Sir; I hope you 
 are well. 
 
 Clergyman. Very well, thank you. And how are 
 the childi-en ? 
 
 Mrs. p. They are all very well, Sir, thank you, 
 except little Emily there ; she has been very poorly for 
 some days : last night I thought she would have died. 
 
 "Indeedl" said the Clergyman, going to the cot, 
 and looking down upon the little one, whose pale face 
 boded but ill for her future health. " Well, she does 
 look poorly. Excuse me, Mrs. Price ; Have you had 
 this child baptized?" 
 
 Mrs. p. No, Sir ; I haven't had any of my children 
 baptized. 
 
 Clergyman. Indeed ! I am soiTy to hear that. But 
 how came you to neglect it, Mrs. Price ? 
 
 Mrs. p. Well, Sir, the Chm-ch is a good way off, 
 you know, and as the Meeting is so near, we've taken 
 to go there, especially on Sunday nights ; and I have 
 heard them say there that none but grown up people, 
 who can repent and speak for themselves are fit to 
 receive Christian Baptism. 
 
 Clergyman. And so you believed what they said, 
 did you, Mrs. Price ? But did you ever thoughtfully 
 consider the matter, or search the Scriptui-es, whether 
 these things are so ? 
 
 Mrs. p. No, Sir, I never did ; but it seemed to me a 
 very unreasonable thing to believe that a little creature 
 that can neither think nor speak is fit to be baptized.
 
 2 
 
 Clergyman. So it may, Mrs. Price ; but Faith takes 
 
 the Word of God for its guide, not human reason. If 
 
 we consulted our reason, we should never believe that a 
 
 man was restored to life by touching the dead body of 
 
 -V Elisha the Prophet, Should we?^' 
 
 Mrs. p. No, Sir ; I'm sure we shouldn't. 
 
 Clergyman. Or if we asked our reason whether it 
 
 is probable that a handkerchief or an apron carried 
 
 from the person of St. Paul was made effectual to heal 
 
 . the sick, and to cast out devils\ would our reason 
 
 T incline us to believe that ? 
 
 Mrs. p. I think not, Sir. 
 
 Clergyman. Or would our reason dispose us to 
 credit the fact that the shadow of St. Peter passing by 
 cured those of disease whom it overshadowed ?'l 
 
 Mrs. p. I am quite certain, Sir, that it would not. 
 
 Clergyman. And yet all these things are written 
 in the Word of God for our learning ; and I find it not 
 an atom more difficult to believe that God can regene- 
 rate the soul of man through the sprinkling of water, or 
 renew it through the breaking of bread or the drinking 
 of wine, if it please Him so to work, than I find it diffi- 
 cult to believe that "God wrought" such "miracles" by 
 a handkerchief or apron carried from St. Paul to the 
 sick, or by St. Peter's shadow overshadowing them. It 
 is with Him to save either by one instrument or the 
 other, according to His own will. 
 
 Mrs. p. So it is. Sir, certainly : we must not dictate 
 to God how to save us, but submit to be saved by Him 
 in His own way. But do you believe that the Spirit of 
 God is always given in Baptism ? 
 
 Clergyman. I believe that there is an operation of 
 the Spirit of God invariably connected with Baptism, 
 Mrs. Price, just as there is with the Lord's supper and 
 with ordination, with matrimony, and with every other 
 ordinance ordained by God himself; and that in respect 
 of Baptism the operation is — that the Spirit of God does 
 by it unite the baptized person to Jesus Christ and His 
 Church. I believe, also, that this act of uniting a soul 
 
 * 2 Kings xiii. 21. f Acts xix. 12. + Acts v. 15.
 
 s 
 
 to Christ is called Regeneration ; for which cause St. 
 Paul, in his epistle to Titus, calls Baptism "the washing 
 of regeneration."*' 
 
 ^[rs. Pkice. But have all the baptized been rege- 
 nerated. Sir? 
 
 Clergyman. Yes, all; bad as well as good. "By 
 one spirit," says St. Paul, "we are all baptized into one 
 body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be 
 bond or free ; and have been all made to drink into one 
 Spirit.''] But of some of these he says, in another place, 
 *' I fear, lest, when I come, I shall bewail many that 
 have sinned already, and have not repented of the un- 
 cleanness and fornication and lasciviousness that they 
 have committed. "j: St. Paul treats all the baptized on 
 the principle that " they are not all Israel, which are 
 of Israel," § but he never forgets that all have been 
 admitted by Baptism into the same state of responsi- 
 bility and of privilege — that all are, by Baptism at least, 
 *'q/ Israel." And so neither does the Church : she 
 bewails many unworthy children, but she reckons them 
 all as sons. 
 
 Mrs. p. But I thought we ought to feel our new 
 birth when it takes place, and be conscious of it all the 
 rest of our lives. 
 
 Clergyman. Did you feel your Jirst birth, Mrs. 
 Price ? 
 
 Mrs. p. No, Sir ; I certainly did not feel that. 
 
 Clergyman. Then why expect to feel your second? 
 You were born into the natural world " of the will of 
 man " without knowing it ; why not expect to be so 
 born "of the \vill of God"|| into the spiritual world ? 
 Nature is a type of grace : suffer the anti-type to re- 
 semble its type, and let both births pass upon the person 
 born without being felt. 
 
 Mrs. p. But still we ought to feel that we have been 
 born again, ought we not, Sir ? I mean, we ought to 
 have something within us to tell us whether our souls 
 are in grace or not. 
 
 ♦ Titus, iu. 5. t 1 ^or. xii. 13. J 2 Cor. xii. 20 21. 
 
 § Rom. ix. 6, 7. 
 
 y Compare St. John i. 13, with St. James i. 18.
 
 Clergyman. Certainly, Mrs. Price ; But when did 
 you begin to feel that you had been born into this 
 world ? It Avas when your powers of existence were so 
 developed that you began to use them, was it not? 
 
 Mrs. p. Yes, Sir, it was. 
 
 Clergyman. Well : so it is with respect to our 
 spiritual birth. We are ushered into the spiritual world 
 at our Baptism without knowing it ; but when we begin 
 to try our position, and to test the reality of our relation 
 to God as His adopted children in Christ Jesus, by 
 " seeking the Lord while He is to be found, and by 
 calling upon Him while he is near,"* then we begin to 
 perceive that the home of our souls is within the com- 
 pass of the " regeneration,"^ and that we have but to 
 seek to find covenanted mercy. It is not scriptural to 
 say to baptized persons, " Ye must be born again," and 
 I cannot bear to hear preachers so misusing that term ; 
 but it is rather scriptural to say to them — " Stir up the 
 gift that is in you, which was given you in the 'washing 
 of your regeneration,' and see that it does not " lie hid 
 in a napkin" like " the buried talent" of the gospel. 
 For so it is that St. Paul speaks to Timothy of the gift 
 he had received in his ordination; and so, surely, should 
 we speak to baptized hearers of the gift they have re- 
 ceived in their Baptism ; for the sacrament of Baptism 
 is at least as gift-conveying, if I may so speak, as the 
 rite of ordination. 
 
 Mrs. p. You do not think that to be "born again" 
 and to be "converted," mean the same thing then, Sir? 
 
 Clergyman. By no means. A verse in St. James 
 shews the distinction between the two admirably. 
 
 Mrs. p. Which is it. Sir ? 
 
 Clergyman. It is the twentieth verse of the fifth 
 chapter, and runs as follows : — " Brethren, if any of you 
 do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him 
 know that he which converteth the sinner from the 
 error of his ways, shall save a soul from death, and hide 
 a multitude of sins." Observe, Mrs. Price, that it is 
 '"the 'brethren^'' who are addressed, and that by these are 
 meant, the company of the baptized. Observe, also, 
 * Isaiah Iv. 6. \ St. Matthew xix. ^H- \'B ,
 
 that they are spoken of as being liable to "err from the 
 Truth," and not to walk worthy of their Christian cal- 
 ling ; and observe, further, that in such a case they may 
 be restored by conversion — not by regeneration^ Mrs. 
 Price, but by conversion : so that it is regeneration that 
 makes a man a brother ; it is conversion that restores 
 the fallen to the brotherhood. 
 
 Mes. Peice. Thank you, Sir; I like that explana- 
 tion. But suppose, now, that one of my children was 
 baptised and another not, would the unbaptized one be 
 any worse oif than the baptized one, provided I dedicated 
 it equally with the other in my prayers to God. 
 
 Cleegymax. I will answer your question by asking 
 another, Mrs. Price. Suppose a man and woman were, 
 through mutual affection, to consent to live together as 
 married people, without passing through the form of 
 7natrimony, would they be as much man and wife as if 
 they had passed through the prescribed form ? 
 
 Mes. p. Oh, no, Sir; they would not be man and 
 wife at all. 
 
 Cleegyman. Or suppose a man, who fancied him- 
 self called to preach the gospel, were to set himself up 
 as a minister of Christ without submitting to '''the laying 
 on of hands, '^ or^ as we call it, to ordination, would he 
 be equally a minister of Chi'ist as one who was not only 
 inwardly called, but also visibly ordained ? 
 
 Mes. p. No, Sir, I should think not. 
 
 CLEEGYMAiSr. No, Mrs. Price, he would not ; it is 
 almost as destructive of piety and true religion to mag- 
 nify the inward grace at the expense of the outward 
 form, as it is to magnify the outward form at the ex- 
 pense of the inward grace — the former produces 
 Pm-itanism, Quakerism, and other corrupt forms of 
 Christianity which point towards an extreme of utter 
 informality and disorder in religion ; while the latter 
 produces Romanism, and a religion of ceremonies and 
 outward signs. And I am bold to tell you, in the 
 strength of these thoughts, that you are as far from 
 obedience to God in neglecting the baptism of your 
 childi'en, as you would be in neglecting the form of 
 matrimony, in case you were going to be married ; or
 
 any other form ordained of God to serve, in the hands 
 of His Spirit, for effecting in His Church the purpose 
 assigned to it; for God, who appointed the ordinance 
 of matrimony to serve as the instrument for effecting 
 the union of woman with man, that they twain may be 
 one flesh, did also appoint the Sacrament of Baptism to 
 serve as the instrument of effecting the union of the 
 Church with Christ, that they twain may be one spirit ; 
 for the Church is " the Bride, the Lamb's wife." Let 
 those who neglect the uniting instrument in the former 
 case, pass on to neglect it also in the latter : but our 
 wisdom is to let the appointed instrument do its 
 appointed work in both. 
 
 Mrs. p. But is it not the prayer of faith which 
 effects the regeneration. Sir ? 
 
 Clergyman. No, Mrs. Price, it is the Sacrament, 
 not the prayer of faith. TJie prayer of faith should ever 
 accompany the administration of the sacrament of Bap- 
 tism, but it neither adds to, nor takes from, that which 
 the sacrament itself effects. 
 
 Mrs. p. I really do not see that. Sir. 
 
 Clergyman. Well, Mrs. Price ; let us consult again 
 the analogy we have seen to exist between the ordinance 
 of Matrimony and the sacrament of Baptism — an 
 analogy suggested by none other than St. Paul, in his 
 epistle to the Ephesians.^'' Which is it that marries 
 people, Mrs. Price, the ordinance of matrimony or the 
 prayers that accompany it ? 
 
 Mrs. p. The ordinance, Sir, of course. 
 
 Clergyman. And suppose there were no prayers, 
 would the ordinance still unite, provided it were duly 
 administered ? 
 
 Mrs. p. Yes, Sir, but it would be very odd. 
 
 Clergyman. It ivould be odd, yea, profane and 
 heathenish, or something worse, to enter upon the 
 marriage state without prayer to God. But still, what 
 I want you to observe is that the state would be entered, 
 provided the ordinance were undergone, whether with 
 prayer or without it. And so it is with Baptism ; for 
 it is Baptism which ties the marriage knot betwixt 
 ♦ Eph. V. 23.
 
 Christ and His Church — and it does it of itself , whether 
 we accompany the administration of the sacrament 
 with the prayer of faith, or not. 
 
 Mrs. p. Then what is the use of the prayers, Sir ? 
 
 Clergyman. The greatest — for not only are they 
 necessary to the decent and reverential administration 
 of the sacrament, but they at once teach a truth, and 
 are intended to secure an additional blessing. They 
 teach a truth — for although it is of the nature of Baptism 
 to regenerate, we nevertheless ask for the regeneration,^' 
 the Church thereby teaching us that God, although He 
 has invested every ordinance of His with an operation 
 of its own, may tuni that operation into evil, if he will. 
 The truth taught, therefore, by the fact of our pray- 
 ing for reujeneration in Baptism, notwithstanding that 
 Baptism is of itself invested with regenerating grace, 
 is, that God requires his sacraments to be reasonably 
 and reverently, and not profanely and carelessly, used, 
 lest He turn their blessing into a curse ; and as the 
 prayer for regeneration itself teaches this truth, so the 
 prayers for the after renewal and future growth of the 
 regenerate, are so "reasonable a service," that it is 
 needless to say anything more of them than what is 
 said in the Article, viz , that in the Administration of 
 the Sacrament of Baptism, " faith is confirmed, and 
 grace increased, by virtue of prayer to God.f " 
 
 Mrs. p. It seems strange though. Sir, that we should 
 ask for what we are sure to have, and seek for what is 
 Ipng before us. If the regeneration is in the Baptism, 
 why seek for it ? 
 
 Clergyman. It is a mystery, Mrs. Price, I own, 
 and something like saying " Give me this day my daily 
 bread," when the meat is on the table. But still it is 
 necessary, as I have shewn, to a "reasonable service," 
 and it vindicates the truth that the blessing may be 
 withheld — or, rather, not withheld, (for we cannot 
 allow that term in any case) — but, turned into a 
 curse instead of a blessing. For the sacraments must 
 
 * " Grant this child remission of its sins by spiritual regene- 
 ration." — Baptismal Service. 
 
 t Article xxvii.
 
 8 
 
 operate one way or another. There is no bereaving 
 them of an effect; but the effect may be evil instead 
 of good ; and if they are not '' Kfe unto life," then are 
 they " death unto death " to such as receive them. 
 And it is possible — nay, it is necessary for the right 
 understanding of scripture, to conceive such a thing 
 as an unblessed union even with Jesus Christ, and 
 an "unequal yoking" with the Saviour of the world 
 — for all baptized sinners are so yoked to Him : 
 they are "unequally yoked" together with One with 
 whom they have no concord of heart — yet they are 
 yoked ; their marriage with Christ is as real as that of 
 the best of Christians — they are " the Lord's people,"* 
 notwithstanding their sins ; they are " not as the hea- 
 then, as the families of the countries,"! although they 
 are like them in their ways. " Aholah," God said by 
 Ezekiel of the Jewish Church, "played the harlot, 
 when she ivas mine.^''\. and so also by Jeremiah, "Return 
 unto Me, for I am married unto you, saith the Lord." § 
 
 Mrs. p. I see, Sir ; at once God's people, and yet 
 not His, because they have forsaken him. 
 
 Clergyman. Yes, Mrs. Price; nor is the seeming 
 contradiction unreasonable, or unscriptural. In St. 
 John's gospel, the sixth chapter, our Lord says to the 
 Jews in one verse, " If ye ivere the children of Abraham 
 ye would do the works of Abraham," implying that 
 they were not his children; but in another verse he 
 says, " / hioiv that ye are the children of Abraham," 
 implying that they really were so. And so it is under 
 the gospel in the case of the baptized ; for they, what- 
 ever their works, are by virtue of their Baptism, all the 
 people of God. 
 
 Mrs. p. Thank you, Sir ; you have cleared a great 
 difficulty off my mind ; and I confess that I am especially 
 struck by the comparison between the ordinance of 
 matrimony and the sacrament of Baptism, anS I do not 
 see why one should be neglected any more than the 
 other. 
 
 Clergyman. If either might be neglected, Mrs. 
 Price, it should surely be the less important of the two, 
 * Isaiah i. 3. f Ezekiel xx. 32. % Ezekiel xxiii. 6. § Jer. iii. 14. 
 
 ( 
 
 J
 
 which is that which effects the less important union. 
 But if Baptism ties the marriage knot between Christ 
 and His ('hurch, he, surely, is grievously mistaken who 
 can treat with neglect the sign, or sacrament, of so great 
 a thing. 
 
 Mrs. p. Sm-ely, Sii' ; but can you give me some proof 
 from the Bible that there is a w-ork of the Holy Spirit 
 connected with Baptism, and which we may really 
 beheve to be in it ? 
 
 Clergyman. I have given you one already Mrs. 
 Price, and that a very strong one, from 1 Corinthi- 
 ans xii. 13 : but there are many that can be added 
 to it. When was it, for instance, that the Holy 
 Spirit first visibly descended on our Blessed Saviour, 
 declaring Him "• to be the Son of God with power?"* 
 Was it not at His Baptism ? 
 
 Mrs. p. Yes, Sir, I think I remember that it was. 
 
 Clergyman. Yes, it was ; for St. Matthew tells us 
 that when Jesus was baptized. He " went up straightway 
 out of the water : and, lo, the heavens were opened unto 
 Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a 
 dove. and lighting upon Him : and, lo, a voice from heaven 
 saying. This is my Beloved Son, in w^hom I am well 
 pleased." f And it has ever been held by the Chm-ch, 
 that God in Christ did then institute Baptism to be the 
 sign of the covenant of grace, and the \dsible and 
 divinely appointed channel for conveying the Spirit of 
 God to the soul, as the Begenerator thereof, " sanctify- 
 ing water to the mystical washing away of sin." ;|; Not 
 that our Sa\iour needed to be regenerated ; for he 
 needed only, and that for our sakes, that we might 
 believe, to be " declared to be" what He naturally was, 
 '• The Son of God with power." Only it is a significant 
 fact that it was at His Baptism that His generation of 
 the Eternal Father was thus first puMicl) declared to 
 the world. 
 
 Mx-.s. P. So it is. 
 
 Clergyman. Yes, IMrs. Price, it is : and you will 
 further find it true that that sn^ne S])irit, who descended 
 upon Jesus Christ at His Baptism, is still, as of old, 
 ♦ Rom. i. \. t St. Matt. iii. 16, 17. J Baptismal Service.
 
 10 
 
 ever present in the same sacrament; still using it as the 
 grafting instrument whereby branches are grafted into 
 the Living Vine, members of Adam made members 
 of Christ, and the children of men reborn unto 
 God. Our Saviour's words on the subject are express — 
 " Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, 
 he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." *'•' He 
 thereby couples the inward grace which regenerates the 
 soul, with the outward sign through which it is con- 
 veyed — "The Spirit of God moving," as in the first 
 creation, so in the second, which is our new-creation 
 in Christ Jesus unto good works, " upon the face of the 
 waters." f Nor are St. Peter's words to the convicted 
 multitude on the day of Pentecost less plain, " Repent, 
 and he baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus 
 Chiist, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost ;;]: nor St. Paul's, when he tells 
 us, in his Epistle to the Colossians, that we are " Buried 
 with Christ in Baptism, ivherein also ye are risen with 
 Him through the faith of the operation of God, who 
 hath raised Him from the dead." || 
 
 Mrs. p. Well, Sir, there is no doubt that these texts 
 prove that Baptism is God's way, and the time of Bap- 
 tism God's time for giving us His Holy Spirit to seal 
 us as the children of God. But still I don't feel quite 
 clear about the Baptism of little children. You see our 
 Saviour was grown up when He was baptized, and the 
 multitude on the Day of Pentecost were grown up when 
 they were baptized, and every text you have quoted 
 seems to imply that repentance and faith are necessary 
 to the right reception of Baptism. But infants cannot 
 repent or believe. 
 
 Clergyman. No, Mrs. Price, they cannot ; but that 
 is the very point I wish to satisfy your mind upon. 
 Will you allow me to ask you a few questions about it? 
 
 Mrs. p. Oh, yes. Sir; I should be very glad ; I wish 
 to know the Truth. 
 
 Clergyman. Well, then, let me refer you first of 
 all to a passage in 1 Corinthians v. 6, which runs as 
 follows: — "The unbelieving husband is sanctified by 
 
 * St. John k 5. t Gen. ii. 2. + Acts. ii. 38. || Col. ii. 12.
 
 11 
 
 the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the 
 husband: else were your children unclean; but now 
 are they holy." A remarkable passage that, Mrs. Price. 
 
 Mrs. p. Yes, Sir ; but I do not see what it has to 
 do with the baptism of children. 
 
 Clergymax. It has this to do with it, Mrs. Price ; 
 it proves that children born even of one Christian 
 parent inherit Christianity through their birth, and are 
 in a manner •• sanctified from the womb," and should 
 be marked as soon as possible after birth with the mark 
 that distinguishes Christians from the rest of the world. 
 
 Mrs. p. But the children of Christians are not 
 " holy," are they, Sir ? 
 
 Clergyman. Not in the sense which implies free- 
 dom from inward sin ; but in the sense in which to be 
 holy implies to be consecrated to, to be of, and to be- 
 long to the Lord — in this sense all baptized people are a 
 "holy people." In this sense the Jews were a holy 
 nation : and yet you know how many of them in every 
 generation were evil. And in the same sense are all 
 Christians, i.e., all the baptized, whether they be men, 
 women, or children, " an holy nation, a peculiar people, 
 that they should shew forth the praises of Him who 
 hath called them out of darkness into His mar- 
 vellous light." * Put you are well aware how many 
 in every generation of Christians fall short of this high 
 calling. Of Christendom, as well as JewTy. may it be 
 said ^vith equal force, " I have nourished and brought 
 up children, and they have rebelled against me. The 
 ox knoweth his o\\mer. and the ass his master's crib: but 
 Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." f 
 
 Mrs. p. That, Sir, is indeed too true : but then you 
 think that because God calls the children of Christians 
 holy, in the sense in w^hich you explain it, they are 
 therefore entitled to Christian Baptism, do you ? 
 
 Clergymax. Undoubtedly I do ; if, through their 
 birth oF Christian parents, they are born into The Good 
 Shepherd's flock, they ought to receive upon them the 
 Good Shepherd's mark, ought they not? You know ^ 
 that every sheep owner has a special mark by which to X 
 
 • 1 Peter ii. 9. f Is. i. 2, 3.
 
 12 
 
 distinguish his o^^^l flocR ; and with this mark he signs 
 thera, both young and old. So it is with Christ : Bap- 
 tism is His mark, and all His sheep, whether they be 
 tlie children of believers, or believers themselves, should 
 have it upon them. 
 
 Mrs. P Especially, Sir, when He himself says — 
 " Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid 
 them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." * 
 
 Clergyman. Exactly so, Mrs. Price ; you have 
 quoted those words just when I should have liked to 
 quote them myself; they suit this part of the subject 
 admirably well, and I think I cannot do better than add 
 to them the words of St. Peter, uttered on the Day of 
 Pentecost, which has ever since the Baptism of the 
 3.000 been a great Baptism day in the Christian Church 
 — '' The promise is unto you, and to your children, and 
 to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our 
 God shall call." f 
 
 Mrs. p. Are there any other proofs in the New 
 Testament m favour of the practice of Infant Baptism ? 
 
 Clergyman. Yes, there are ; one is, what is said by 
 St. Paul of the Israelites being baptized unto Moses, 
 which is a figure of the Baptism of Christians into 
 Christ. 
 
 Mrs. p. Where does"^^ speak of that. Sir? 
 
 Clergyman It is m the tenth chapter of hia 
 first Epistle to the Corinthians, and his words are these : 
 " I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all 
 our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through 
 the sea , and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud 
 and in the sea." How many of the Israelites were bap- 
 tized unto Moses, Mrs. Price ? 
 
 Mrs. p. All of them. Sir. 
 
 Clergyman, The children were not left out of that 
 Baptism, then ? 
 
 Mrs p. What! the mothers leave their infants be- 
 hind them ! Why, the Egyptians would have had them, 
 Sir! 
 
 Cr.ERGYMAN. Ycs, they would, Mrs. Price ; and yet 
 this is what the enemies of Infant Baptism would have 
 
 • 6t. Murk X. 14. f Acts ii. 39.
 
 13 
 
 you christian mothers do. They would have you leave 
 them behind on Egyptian territory, unbaptized, and in 
 their state of nature, while you yourselves, baptized into 
 Christ, are, or ought to be, travelling through the wil- 
 derness towards the Promised Land. 
 
 Mrs. p. O, Sir ! I cannot hold ^vith that at all ; a 
 christian parent should do his best to take all his chil- 
 dren with him when he himself sets out for the king- 
 dom of heaven. 
 
 Clergyman. Yes, Mrs. Price, and his first step 
 should be to dedicate them to the Lord in Baptism, in 
 the full assurance that the Lord will not refuse to take 
 under His protection what is thus committed unto Him. 
 How beautiful is tliat prayer in our BajDtismal Service — 
 " Grant that whosoever is here dedicated unto Thee by 
 our office and ministry may also be endued with hea- 
 venly virtues, and everlastingly rewarded, through thy 
 mercy, Blessed Lord God, who dost live and govern 
 all things, world without end." 
 
 Mrs. p. Yes, Sii-, it is a beautiful prayer ; it 
 reminds me of Hannah dedicating Samuel. ^^ 
 
 Clergyman. And so it may ; but now, Mrs. Price, 
 we have not quite done with New Testament proofs in 
 favour of the practice of Infant Baptism. 
 
 Mrs. p. Have we not really. Sir ? and yet the case 
 seems made out pretty clear too. 
 
 Clergym.in. So it may ; but we must have it clearer, 
 before we have done. Suppose you were to read in one 
 place after another, that whole households were baptized 
 by the early preachers of Christianity, would you not 
 naturally conclude that it was at least very probable that 
 childi-en were included in those households ? 
 
 Mrs. p. Yes, Sir, I should. 
 
 Clergyman. Well, when the jailor at Philippi was 
 baptized, we read that he " was baptized, he and all 
 his." f We read also that when Lydia was baptized, it 
 was with " her household," % and that St. Paul baptized 
 " the household of Stephanas." || Is there not strong 
 presumption that children formed a part of these house- 
 
 ♦ 1 Sam. i. 27, 28. f Acts xvi. 33. t Acts xvi. 16. 
 'I 1 Cor. i. 16.
 
 14 
 
 holds, and that, with their parents, the Apostle grafted 
 also children, by means of this sacrament, as by an 
 instrument, into the infant Church of Christ ? 
 
 Mrs. p. Yes, Sir, there is. But there is no proof: 
 there is nothing, I mean, that seems to make it sure 
 that there were children in the households. 
 
 Clergyman. Nothing beyond the fact, Mrs. Price, 
 that in the households addressed by St. Paul, in his 
 epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, there certainly 
 were children ; for it is not only husbands, wives, ser- 
 vants, and flithers, but children also, whom the Apostle 
 addresses with words of pastoral admonition and counsel. 
 " Children," he says, in Colossians iii. 20, " obey your 
 parents in all things : for this is well pleasing unto the 
 Lord." You can take the argument for what it is 
 worth. It is only one of many in favour of the doctrine 
 of Infant Baptism ; and while its evidence in support 
 of that practice is not demonstrative, it is certainly 
 probable in the very highest degree. 
 
 Mrs. p. So it is. Sir. Is there anything else in the 
 New Testament that seems to shew that we ought to 
 baptize children? 
 
 Clergyman. There is one proof more, and that a 
 most conclusive one. 
 
 Mrs. p. And what is that, Sir ? 
 
 Clergyman. It is the fact that on Baptist principles 
 the epistles of St. Paul could not have been written. 
 
 Mrs. p. Indeed, Sir ; how is that ? 
 
 Clergyman. I will try to explain. You have per- 
 haps observed that in St. Pa\d's Epistles all Christians 
 are spoken of as being "m the LordT Thus in Bom. xvi. 
 we have "the household of Narcissus" spoken of as be- 
 ing "m the Lordr Tryphena and Tryphosa as labouring 
 " in the Lord ; " and " the beloved Persis," as labouring 
 much " in the LordT Are wives to submit themselves 
 to their husbands? It is "m the Lord!' Are salutations 
 sent from one Church to another, or from an Apostle to 
 a Church? It is "m the LordP For in Him, it was held, 
 the whole company of believers "lived, and moved, 
 and had their being," Jesus Christ dwelling, through the 
 Holy Spirit, in His body, the Church, and animating its
 
 15 
 
 every healthful member, just as the soul of man dwells in 
 his mortal body, and regulates the movements of every 
 healthy limb. And Baptism was regarded as the means 
 of being united to this body of Christ : ''for by one Spirit 
 are we all baptized," saith St. Paul, " into one body, and 
 have been all made to drink into one Spirit."^' So that to 
 have been baptized, and to be "in the Lord," were terms 
 expressive of the same state, and meant the same thing. 
 
 Mrs. p. I do not quite understand you yet. Sir; or 
 see what that has to do with the Baptism of Children, 
 
 Clergymax. Nay, but you will understand me, 
 Mrs. Price, as soon as I have completed the argument. 
 Let me just ask you one question. Does not St. Paul 
 speak of the children of Christians being "in the Lord," 
 in the very same sense in which he speaks of their 
 parents being in the Lord?" 
 
 Mrs. p. Does he, Sir? 
 
 Clergyman. Indeed he does; for if he says in one 
 place, " Wives submit yom'selves unto yom- own hus- 
 bands, as it is fit in the Lord,''-f — he says in another, 
 "Childi^en, obey your parents i?i the Lord'' I — and this 
 he can only say to them as having been baptized, as 
 well as theii- parents, into the same body, of which 
 Christ is the indwelling life, and made to diink into 
 the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 Mrs. p. I cannot help seeing it, Sir; for it is 
 evident that they are. 
 
 Clergyman. Well but, Mrs. Price, I must now ask 
 you another question. Could an Apostle, on Baptist 
 principles, have written to a Christian Chm'ch in the 
 same way, and addressed its children as well as its 
 grown up people "as in the Lord?" 
 
 Mrs. p. Certainly not, Sir ; for they don't hold that 
 childi-en are "in the Lord" until they have shewn signs of 
 seriousness, and so have of themselves sought for baptism. 
 
 Clergyman. No, they do not; so that according to 
 the Baptists the Church of Christ on earth consists only 
 of grown up people, who alone ought to be baptized, 
 and so be reckoned as "in the Lord," whereas, according 
 
 • 1 Cor. xii. 13. t Col. iii. 18. 
 
 J Eph. vi. 1.
 
 16 
 
 to St. Paul, parents and children alike, through virtue 
 of their common Christianity, and common Baptism, are 
 to be addressed and reckoned as "in the Lord." Here 
 is a discrepancy here, Mrs. Price, between the evident 
 teaching of the Apostle, and the known principles of 
 the Baptists, which not the wisest brain in England can 
 reconcile or set to rights. 
 
 Mrs. p. I'm sure / can't. Sir; it's quite beyond me. 
 
 Clergyman. And it's quite beyond me, too, Mrs. 
 Price ; it is a contradiction, and it cannot be reconciled. 
 
 Mrs. p. But do you suppose that all children who 
 have been baptized will be saved then. Sir? Look what 
 a lot of wicked children there are about, and yet they 
 were most of them baptized when they were infants? 
 
 Clergyman. Ah no ! no ! Mrs. Price ; no, by no 
 means ; one saying of our blessed Lord is quite enough 
 to settle that question. 
 
 Mrs. p. And what is that, Sir ? 
 
 Clergyman. Those words in St. John's gospel — 
 solemn words, Mrs. Price, and searching, — and words 
 which justify the Church view of the "doctrine of Bap- 
 tisms" most entirely as the truth of God. You will re- 
 member them when I quote them — " Every branch in me 
 that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch 
 that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth 
 more fruit." ^' 
 
 Mrs. P. Oh, I remember those words. Sir. They 
 gave me such a sense of peace once when I was ill ; for 
 they came over me all of a sudden, and I seemed to feel, 
 as I thought of them, that God had not cast me oif, but 
 that He was purging me, that I might bring forth more 
 fruit. 
 
 Clergyman. And doubtless He ivas, Mrs. Price, 
 and he gave you to know it by bringing those words to 
 your remembrance by the power of the Holy Spirit. 
 But how awful to the barren and careless believer are 
 those other words, are they not — " Every branch in Me 
 that beareth not fruit, He taketh away ?" Where do 
 you suppose God puts those fruitless branches, when He 
 has taken them away ? 
 
 * St. John XV. 2.
 
 17 
 
 Mrs. p. Into hell, I suppose. 
 
 Clergymax. Yes, Mrs. Price, you are right, for 
 it is written — " Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven 
 in time of thy ^n-ath : and the fire shall consume 
 them.'^ And again, " They shall gather out of His 
 kingdom all things that offend, and cast them into a 
 furnace of fire." And yet again, " It is a fearful thing 
 to fall into the hands of the Living God;"||^ for -'our 
 God is a consuming firc'^J But, observe, Mrs. Price, 
 that whatever becomes of^the branches, and of M'hat- 
 ever kind they are, they are alike spoken of as ix Christ 
 — " Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He 
 taketh away." But now tell me. Are you Tired ? 
 
 Mrs. p. No, indeed, Sii' ; I have enjoyed this con- 
 versation very much : do pray go on. 
 
 Clergyman. Well, I shall not keep you much 
 longer ; for poor little Emily there is beginning to get 
 restless in her cot : but tell me now, did you ever think 
 much about what the Old Testament Scriptures seem 
 to teach on this subject of Infant Baptism ? 
 
 Mrs. p. No. Sir, I never did : but I've heard them 
 say at meeting that the Old Testament is not to be much 
 regarded by us Christians, because it belongs to the old 
 dispensation, you know. 
 
 Clergyman. I am not sm-prised at that ; for there 
 is a great deal in the Old Testament that pleads in 
 favour of one visible church on earth — of the connexion 
 of that church with the state — and of one authorized 
 ministry to teach the people, and administer the rites 
 of that Chm'ch. The Old Testament also contains most 
 striking examples of the exceeding sinfulness of sepa- 
 rating from that one visible Church, and of creating 
 other chm'ches, and other ministries, as Jeroboam 
 actually did to the hurt of himself and his subjects ;§ 
 
 * Ps. xsi. 9— Prayer Book Version, f Heb. x. 31. ± Heb. xii. 29 
 § 1 Kings, xiii. 33, 34. Who can read these verses without 
 being struck with the similarity between Jeroboam's priests 
 and those whom, in our day, Protestant Dissent often sends 
 forth as teachers of the people, advertising women to preach in 
 order to draw a crowd to behold the disgusting novelty, and 
 encouraging boys, and any one whom his own self-conceit thrusts
 
 1*8 
 
 and as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram attempted to do, 
 but in vain.* 
 
 Mrs. p. And are we to take warning from tbeir 
 example not to do as they did ? 
 
 Clergyman. I can only reply to your question, 
 Mrs. Price, by saying that it is of the Old Testament 
 scriptures that St. Paul speaks, when he says that " all 
 Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable 
 for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruc- 
 . tion in righteousness;")^ and that it is of the Old 
 T Testament also that St. Peter speaks, when he says 
 that "we have the more sure word of prophecy, where- 
 unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that 
 shineth in a dark place — knowing this first, that no 
 prophecy of the Scriptures is of any private interpreta- 
 tion ; for the prophecy came not in old time by the will 
 of man, but holy men of old spake as they were moved 
 . • by the Holy Ghost."t And \*feen I read the Old 
 Testament, the more I become rooted in the principles 
 of the Church, and alienated from the multiplied 
 disorders and manifold entanglements of Protestant 
 Dissent. It is very easy to get rid of all such impres- 
 sions as the Old Testament naturally produces by 
 saying, O, that belongs to the Jews ! That belongs to 
 the old dispensation! and so forth; but to me the Old 
 Testament Scriptures are those identical writings of 
 which St. Paul said to the Christian Timothy, " From 
 a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which 
 are able to make thee wise unto salvation. I 
 
 Mrs. p. It never struck me before. Sir, that it is of 
 the Old Testament that the Apostles thus speak; and 
 our Lord, too, when he says,*! "Search the Scriptures: 
 
 forward into public notice, to fill the puljjit, in utter disregard 
 of the admonition of St. James, " My brethren, be not many 
 teachers (didaskaloi), knowing that we shall receive greater 
 condemnation. " While self-knowledge teaches the wise to " put 
 themselves in the lowest place, " is it not as true of Protestant 
 Dissent as it was of Jeroboam, that it makes " of the lowest of the 
 people priests of the high places," and "whosoever will it conse- 
 cratethhim, and he becomes one of the priests of the high places P' 
 * Numbers xvi. 
 t 2 Tim. iii. 16. .f 2 Peter, i. 19-21. § 2 Tim. iii. 16.
 
 19 
 
 for they are they which testify of me" — for it could 
 not have been the New, because the New Testament 
 was only at that time in the writing. 
 
 Clergyman. And in our Lord's time had not yet 
 begun to be written. But, however, the Old Tes- 
 tament argument in favour of Infant Baptism is, 
 perhaps, t^.e most clenching of any we have had yet 
 to do with. 
 
 Mks. p. How so. Sir ? 
 
 Clergyman. Well, it frames itself in this way. 
 You know that there are two covenants, the covenant 
 of works and the covenant of grace 
 
 Mrs. p. Yes, I know that. 
 
 Clergyman. You know, also, that the covenant of 
 works had circumcision for its sign — a rite that in its 
 very nature pointed at the character of the covenant of 
 which it was the sign. For as the law " worketh 
 wrath, "f and "the ministration of the law" was a 
 *' ministration of death, "f" so it had for its visible sign a 
 rite that involved the shedding of blood. 
 
 Mrs. p. Yes, Sir, I have heard that as well. 
 
 Clergy'man. You know, also, that the covenant of 
 grace has Baptism for its sign — a sign which equally 
 well agrees with the nature of the covenant which it 
 typifies. For it is easy, signifying that God has eased 
 our shoulder of the burden of the law of Moses, and, 
 through the satisfaction of Christ, of the guilt of sin ; 
 and it is purifying, seeing that as our " bodies are 
 washed with pure water,"$ so God "purifies the heart 
 by the faith "I of Christ. 
 
 Mrs. p. I had hardly considered these signs in 
 their relation to their separate covenants : but now you 
 speak of it, it seems quite plain. 
 
 Clergyman. And now let me ask you a question. 
 Did God, who was the Author of the covenant of 
 works, and who gave circumcision to be the sign 
 of it, expressly command that children should be 
 circumcised? 
 
 Mrs. p. Undoubtedly He did. 
 
 ' -* St. John T. 30. t Kom. ir. 15. t 2 Cor. Hi. 7, 8. 
 § Heb. I. 22. ir Acts XV. 9. 
 
 t
 
 20 
 
 Clergyman. Well, is it not also probable, nay, is 
 it not absolutely certain, unless God is wonderfully 
 given to change, which we know He is not, that He 
 who is the Author of the covenant of grace, and who 
 has given Baptism to be the sign of that covenant, wills 
 and intends children to be baptized ? 
 
 Mrs. p. I should think so, Sir. Indeed it seems 
 impossible that He should not : quite impossible that 
 God should so change His mind. 
 
 Clergyman. Yes, Mrs. Price, and there is another 
 thing ; ought not every shadow to be like its substance ? I 
 for instance. Is not youj- shadow like you ? 
 
 Mrs. p. Of course it is. Sir. 
 
 Clergyman. Well, but was not the covenant of 
 works the shadow which the covenant of grace cast 
 before it ? — the law, as St. Paul says, " the shadow of 
 good things to come ? " '^' 
 
 Mrs. p. Yes, it was. I 
 
 Clergitman. Then there ought to be a likeness 
 between the two ; and if children were circumcised 
 under the one, they ought to be baptized under the 
 other ; if they received the sign of the one, they should 
 receive the sign of the other : for otherwise there is a 
 discrepancy between type and antitype which calls in 
 question even the wisdom of God in adapting the one 
 to the other. 
 
 Mrs. p. There is no contradicting that. Sir. 
 
 Clergyman. But I must ask you one other ques- 
 tion, Mrs. Price. Which is the most comprehensive, 
 the law or the gospel ? or M-hich was intended of God 
 to take in most people, the covenant of works, or the 
 covenant of grace ? 
 
 Mrs. p. The covenant of grace, I should think. 
 
 Clergyman. Of course it was ; for it is not 
 through the law, but through the gospel that " in 
 Abraham's seed all the families of the earth are to be 
 blessed."! But if room was found for infants in the 
 less comprehensive covenant, shall not room be found 
 for them in the more comprehensive one ? 
 
 * Heb. X. 1. t Gal. iii. 8.
 
 21 
 
 Mrs. p. I should think so. Sir; we should expect 
 to get more into a large room than into a small one. 
 
 Clergyman. Exactly so, Mrs. Price : and yet the 
 Baptist teachers, though compelled to admit, perforce 
 of Old Testament teaching, that room was fovmd for 
 children in the less comprehensive covenant of works, 
 find no room for them in the far more comjDrehcnsive 
 covenant of grace ; although the Head of that covenant, 
 even its Mediator, Jesus, expressly says, "• Sutler little 
 children to come unto Me, and forbid them not." 
 
 Mrs. p. I must say that sounds very unreasonable. 
 
 Clergt^man. It is unreasonable, Mrs. Price, and 
 contrary to all that is probable in religious subjects; 
 directly contrary to the Old Testament, and almost as 
 plainly contradicted by the New. 
 
 Mrs. p. How is it that the New Testament has 
 nothing positive in it on this subject, Sir ? 
 
 CLERGYMAisr. Bccausc the subject was not a disputed 
 one when the New Testament was written, Mrs. Price. 
 There are several important questions that cannot be 
 decided out of the New Testament, without an appeal 
 to early Church History as well; as, for instance, whe- 
 ther we are bound, as a part of our duty to God, to 
 observe the Lord's Day; and what form of Church 
 Government we ought to range ourselves under, as the 
 order that comes of God. Had these things been dis- 
 puted at the time, something clearer would have been 
 wi'itten about them. And so it was with Infant Baptism. 
 It was handed down so easily from the Jewish Church 
 to the Christian, and the admission of children into the 
 one by circumcision served for such a precedent for the 
 admission of children into the other by Baptism, that 
 little or nothing was said about it in the earlier ages 
 of Christianity. And that is the reason why the New 
 Testament writers are comparatively silent on the 
 subject. 
 
 Mrs. p. Is there anybody else who in those times 
 wrote anything about it? 
 
 Clergyman. Oh, yes; there was a wiiter called 
 Justin Martyr, who lived about forty years after the 
 time of the Apostles, and he informs us that in his day
 
 22 
 
 there were many Christians who had been "-made 
 disciples of Christ xvhen they were infants^ Irenaeus 
 also, who lived about thirty years after Justin Martyr, 
 has in his writings the following- remarkable expres- 
 sion: — "He (Jesus Christ) came to save all persons by 
 Himself; all, I say, who are regenerated by Him unto 
 God; infants, and little ones, and children, and young 
 wen, and old mew; 'and in these early writers, you 
 should observe, the terms made disciples or discipled, 
 regenerated, and baptized, are terms used to signify the 
 same thing; it being generally assumed by them, as it 
 is in the Baptismal Service of the Church, that the gift 
 which God intends to convey by Baptism is really con- 
 veyed by it, viz., the gift of regeneration, or "grace of 
 life," as the seal of the remission of sins. There was 
 another writer also, called Origen, w^ho lived one hun- 
 dred years after the Apostles, and he says, " Infants are 
 baptized for the remission of sins ; and if it be asked 
 "What sins, or at what time they sinned; our answer is, 
 No one is free from pollution, though his life should be 
 but the length of one day upon the earth." And to 
 these quotations from the writings of the earliest fathers 
 I must add an interesting historical fact, which took 
 place in Africa about one hundred and fifty years after 
 the times of the Apostles. There lived in those days a 
 Bishop called Fidus, who entertained some doubts 
 w^hether children ought not to be bajDtized on the 
 eighth day, in order to bring the administration of 
 Baptism into more perfect conformity with the admin- 
 istration of circumcision. In order to settle this ques- 
 tion, Cyprian, who was then Bishop of Carthage, called 
 together an assembly of sixty-six bishops, who unani- 
 mously concluded that children might be baptized as 
 soon as they were born, if the parents so thought fit. 
 And this fact, of the truth of which there is no doubt, 
 is quite sufficient to show us w^hat w^as the practice of 
 the Church wdth respect to the Baptism of infants in 
 those early times. Nor are these records of early 
 Christian practice all that we have to guide us in this 
 matter, beyond what is written in H oly cripture ; for 
 the early Church itself had a guide in the piactice of
 
 23 
 
 the Jewish Church for many generations before St. John 
 the Baptist. The Jews used to baptize proselytes to 
 their religion — men, women, and children. Thus in 
 the Tahnud we read that ''a person is not a proselyte 
 until he be both circumcised and baptized."* And 
 Mainionides, a Je^-ish writer, has the folloAA^ing expres- 
 sion of the opinion of the effect of this Jewish Baptism 
 on the infant children of the heathen : — "An Israelite 
 that takes a little heathen child, or that finds a little 
 heathen inlant, and baptizeth him for a proselyte — 
 behold he is a proselyte."! So that when omx Lord 
 adopted Baptism to be the sign of the Christian cove- 
 nant, the practice of baptizing infants had long been a 
 settled thing in the Jewish Chm'ch. I consider the 
 point now proved. 
 
 Mrs. p. I really am very much obliged to you, Sir, 
 for all the information you have given me on the subject. 
 I certainly do think very differently about it, from what 
 I did. If it is not tiring you, Sir, before you go may I 
 ask you one or two questions ? 
 
 Clergyman. By aU means, Mrs. Price; I shall be 
 pleased to answer them, if I can. 
 
 Mrs. p. If infants ought to be baptized. Why was 
 not Jesus Christ himself baptized when he was an 
 infant? 
 
 Clergyman. Because He came into the world to 
 become the Author of the covenant of which Baptism 
 is the sign : and He coidd not become the Author of a 
 covenant until He had arrived at years of maturity, 
 neither could He receive that which He had not yet 
 instituted. Baptism as a Christian ordinance was not 
 in existence when Christ was an infant. And besides 
 this, as the Messiah, and a Teacher come fi'om God, 
 our Lord had not only to originate the Gospel and its 
 ordinances ; but He had also to vindicate, as of Di\ine 
 oiigin, the rites and customs of the Jewish law. To 
 the latter object He devoted the first thirty years of his 
 life, which He spent in faultless obedience to the law 
 of Moses; to the former he devoted the thi-ee years 
 
 * Talm. in Jebamoti, cap. iv. f Maimonides in Avadim, cap. viii.
 
 24 
 
 and a-half which intervened between His baptism and 
 His death. You will see my meaning when I have 
 quoted the words of a celebrated Christian poet, who 
 has wi'itten admirably on this subject, as follows : — 
 
 " By blood and water too, 
 God's mark is set on thee, 
 That in thee every faithful viewy 
 Both covenants might see.""^ 
 
 Mrs. p. I think I understand : and now let me ask 
 you one more question: — When do you ba2:)tize ? for I 
 am fully resolved to bring my children to Church, and 
 not to delay any longer. 
 
 Clergymais^. In the middle of the service, Mrs. P. 
 as the rubric directs. 
 
 Mrs. p. But why do you Baptize in the middle of 
 the service, Sir? Would it not be more comfortable 
 after the congregation have gone out ? 
 
 Clergyman. It might be, Mrs. Price ; but the 
 rubric enjoins us to baptize after the second lesson, and 
 that for two reasons. 
 
 Mrs. p. And what are they. Sir ? 
 
 Clergyman. One is the reason stated by the Church 
 herself, which is, that the people present may them- 
 selves be reminded of their own baptismal vows, and be 
 stirred up to the more faithful performance of them ; 
 and the other is that by baptizing in public we bear 
 witness to the importance and efficacy of intercessory 
 prayer. " Pray one for another," says St. James ; and 
 where is the occasion on which the prayers of God's 
 people could be more appropriately asked than when 
 infants are being admitted by Baptism into the Church, 
 and when the young of the flock are being gathered 
 into the fold ? Such is the force of this reason in many 
 minds, Mrs. Price, that even when Baptism is irregu- 
 larly administered after the service, they make a point 
 of staying behind to join in the prayers of the service. 
 For every thoughtful Christian cannot but reflect, that 
 though Baptism does of itself \mite with Christ, yet it 
 by no means insur-es after-faithfulness in such as have 
 been by its means wedded to the Lord; and that when 
 taken from t\\^ font, the baptized are ushered into a 
 
 I
 
 25 
 
 sphere of temptation and conflict often under cii'cum- 
 
 stances very disadvantageous to their growth in grace, 
 
 a: id therefore they regard the prayers as occupying a 
 
 most important place in the pubHc administration of 
 
 ( Baptism, and join in them with all their hearts, com- 
 
 \ mitting the keeping of such as are being baptized into 
 
 [ the hands of God, and beseeching Him to let the eye 
 
 of His providence watch over them for good to the end 
 
 of their days. For these two reasons, then, I always 
 
 baptize after the second lesson, as the Chiu'ch directs. 
 
 Mrs. p. Thank you. Sir. I quite understand now 
 why the administration of Baptism shoidd be as public 
 as possible ; for the more the prayer of faith accompa- 
 nies it the better. You wiU see me, I hope, at the Church 
 , with all my children, the very- next opportunity. 
 
 Clergyman. That is right, Mrs. Price : and do 
 pray before you come that you may have faith of the 
 operation of God in and tiu'ough the ordinance : for 
 "according to your faith shall it be unto you:" the 
 more faith in those who bring the children, the more 
 gi'ace for them. 
 
 Mrs. p. I will try, Sir : and I thank you exceed- 
 ingly for the trouble you have taken to put me right 
 on the subject. Good bye. 
 
 I
 
 I 
 
 W. STALKER, PRINTER, WELLINGTON STREET, LUTOIT.
 
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