in the cheerful exercises of the sancturary and tell what, good man, or angel, can but be pleased? Take but one peep in Zechariah's glass, viii. 3. "Thus saith the Lord I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of hosts. There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem and every man with his staff in his hand, for very age. 5. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof." If the prophet gives us a fair representation, a true picture of the Church in her Millenial glory, you see children shall be in her streets. Who is so misanthropic as to wish it should be otherwise?

Sixth. It is calculated in a peculiar manner, to support the mind of a pious parent, either when he is about to leave his offspring, or when they are called away from him.

The more religion there is upon any possession the more highly will its enjoyment be relished, and the more easily will its alienation be borne. The parent naturally wishes to see his children comfortably established in the world and in the Church before he and they separate. He may, in this, be disappointed. Is he called away before they grow up? In baptism he has already dedicated them to God in a solemn cov. enant, and in a voluntary and cordial manner. It will be easy for him, therefore, now to comply with the scriptural injunction. Jer. xlix. 11.

"Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them, and let thy widows trust in me." Are they wrested from him in early infancy, with Job, he says, "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, and blessed be the name of the Lord," or with David in faith of seeing them in the immortal country, he says, "I will go to him, he shall not return to me." Is the good man taken off, while his children are young, but not before he has got evidence that they are going to be active in building up the Church, the temple of the living God? Will he not, in that case, take up David's soliloquy, when Nathan told him that his son should build the intended house, for which he had laid up so much treasure? "Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God, but thou hast spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come." ii. Sam. vii. 18, 19. On the other hand, should his children not do as he would wish in their youth, he will be comforted that the covenant exhibited in their baptism, secures his own salvation and may yet effect their reformation even in old age. "Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me. an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, and this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. i. Sam. xxiii. 5. The parent's precepts and prayers may do good to the son, when the father has long been in the dust. Eccl. xi. 1. Cast thy food upon

the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.” Prov. xxii. 6. “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it?" What then? Shall the cavils of controversy be allowed to cancel from the tablatures of the Church, the bestowments of grace? Shall rude opposition without any reason, deprive at once, the pious parent of his highest gratification, and rob God of his peculiar right? Shall the sword of sophistry be drawn to sunder the Londs of mutual duty, and divide the ligaments of closest fellowship among the members of Christ's body? Shall any opponent of infants rights and covenant privileges dare sacrilegiously to pillage from the Church, the pledges of her permanency and future glory? In vain. "The inountains shall depart and the hilis be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.-All thy children shall be taught of the Lord.-No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord." Shall the pillars of hoary infirmity be broken down, and all the balmy consolation of parental solicitude be torn away from our New Testament sanctuary? No; rather let the weakest stripling in the camp of Israel, stand forth against the advocates of babes than suffer venerable age to be thus insulted. If

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from the dazzling glare of Jerusalem scenery you wish to recede; if from the sublime heights of Zion and divine documents on her monuments inscribed, you wish to descend to the duskier vale of later story-Agreed. On that area, Providence concurring, we are prepared to shew that infants were baptized in the earliest ages of the Christian era, and that the right of the infants of regular church members to that ordinance, was not, till about the sixteenth century, by any religious body, or even respectable individual, disputed. In the mean time, we readily admit that, by adroit address, your system can be rendered plausible, and by unwearied and examplary assiduity it hasbeen very successfa!.. You are not, however, to suppose that certain victory awaits your cause by reason of the great accession of modern times. Number is tiny proof of any thing. In the pres-ent age and state of the Church, it is presumptive evidence of something else than truth or instituted piety. "The spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some should depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits."" This know also that in the last days perilous times. shall come," &c.—“But there were false prophets > also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, and many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." 1 Tim. iv-ii. Tim. iii..

ii. Pet. ii. 1, 2. If you have the truth upon your side you need neither boast of numbers, nor fear the strongest armies which can be marshalled against your system. Truth will, in proper time, triumph. If you have not, you are not to suppose, that, by high pretensions, loud declamations, bold assertions, and fascinating hymns, you will prevail. With these remarks which, as they are candidly offered, I hope will be candidly received, I bid you, and all the truth you mantain, an affectionate-FAREWELL.