And why should it be thought a thing incredible that the Spirit of God should regenerate the spirit of man by water? Water is the mean of natural life. At the Creation, water was the element on whose "face the Spirit of God moved," when the earth beneath was " without form, and void ;" and, He, making it to "stand out of the water" and in the water, gave it beauty and fertility. Water has been employed in miracles. And seeing there is an order, and a connecting link, and a simplicity of means, observable in all the works of God, it should not be a matter of surprise, that the soul itself, mysteriously inhabiting, and vivifying and sympathising with, an animal frame, should undergo its great moral change by means which at once illustrate the earthliness of its fallen nature, the power of God its Saviour, and its connection with all things on every side. But how inconsistent is man! He will believe that the heavens

God." But (a) miraculous gifts are not an evidence of Regeneration. In this case of the first Gentile convert, they appear to have been bestowed in order to certify Peter that he should not hesitate to baptize a person to whose becoming state of mind the Holy Ghost Himself bare public testimony. But that Cornelius was not in a state of salvation, and therefore, was not regenerate before Baptism, is evident from the declaration of our Saviour, (b) "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." If, however, Cornelius had the blessing of Regeneration before Baptism, his case is only an exception to the general rule.

(a) Mat. vii. 22. (b) Ma. xvi. 16.

and the earth, and the soul of man, from nothing came! He will believe, that nearly all sublunary things are from the earth and the water; and yet he will not believe a doctrine the truth of which is established upon proofs, more numerous and quite as strong as those which satisfy most men, that bread and wine, in the Supper of the Lord, are means whereby the faithful have a mysterious Communion with His most blessed Body and Blood, and obtain Remission of their sins, and all other benefits of His Passion. * Had the doctrine, however, in question, been somewhat equivocally stated, the line of duty would have been plain but when little or no obscurity envelopes it, no course seems to be left to the believer in revelation, but, without hesitation, thankfully to receive God's mercies in His own way, being assured, that what he "knows not now he shall know hereafter."

+"I would," says the excellent Leighton, "recommend one thing to you-learn to look upon the ordinances of God suitably to their nature, that is, spiritually.”

* Lu. xxii. 19, 20.

Joh. vi. 53-58.

1 Cor.. x 16.

↑ Comment on St. Peter, chap. iii. v. 21.

CHAP. IV.

On Infant Baptism.

The advocates of Infant Baptism are the advocates also of the Baptism of all penitent believers, who have not been already baptized, on the ground, that the Lord's commission to the Apostles "to baptize all nations," ended not with them,* and that such persons are frequently called, in the word of God, to receive, by the mean under consideration, the spiritual blessings which are held out to them by Christof which Regeneration is not the least. But it is main tained, that God, who is a God of Mercy, and + has admitted little children into His visible Church, and " is the same yesterday, to day, and for ever," has appointed, in these last days, that the blessings of Christianity shall be offered and conveyed, by Baptism, to children, notwith

*Mat. xxviii. 18-20. + Gen. xvii. 11. Jo. ii. 16. "God will do them benefit, before they can do Him service: and that is no new thing in religion, that God should love us first." Bp. J. TAYLOR.

standing they are incapable of "repentance towards God, and of faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ." And the arguments, which can be advanced in support of this statement, are neither few nor unimportant.

1. It is probable, that God, who is "gracious" and "glorious in holiness, hating iniquity," would not, under the Christian dispensation, leave the children of his people" lying in wickedness," as aliens and foreigners, and strangers from the Covenants of Promise, for an indefinite period; but that he would appoint some mean by which sin might early lose its deadly sway, and the heart," delivered from the power of darkness," might become the blessed habitation of the Spirit: and this is the more probable from the fact, that, at least from the call of Abraham to the coming of "the Saviour of the world" in the flesh, the Church was favoured with an * ordinance for bringing children into the covenant of God.

2. The baptism of their children is that very thing which parents, who had come up out of the water having "washed away their sins," would most ardently desire. And who does not see, that such a dedication as visibly made their children the children of God, would lay parents under fresh obligations, as well as afford them the

* See Gen. xvii. 5, 11; and xxi. 4.

strongest ground for encouragement and hope that their endeavours to bring them up for God would not be in vain? And few will say, either that children do not need Regeneration, or that they cannot receive the Holy Ghost. Moreover there is nothing in baptism that renders it improper for them. Is medicine withheld from children, because they cannot acquaint the physician with their disorder, or because it is supposed they are not duly sensible of it? or because they know not His goodness, who furnishes them with the means of relief? What reason, then, is there, a parent may well say, why my child, that is guilty, polluted, and ready to perish, may not be baptized" for the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost ?"

3. If children had not been baptized from the very first, the question of their exclusion would have been speedily + mooted by the believing Jews: because their children, and the children of their forefathers who received the law, were sepa

* Job xv. 14-16.
Ma. vii. 20-23.

Ps. li. 5. Jer. xvii. 9.
Rom. v. 12, 18.

"These children, therefore, that were circumcised, stood obliged for want of Baptism, to perform the law of ceremonies, to be presented in the temple, to pay their price, to be redeemed with silver and gold, to be bound by the law of pollutions and carnal ordinances; and therefore, if they had been thus left, it would be no wonder if the Jews had complained and made a tumult: they used to do it for less matters."-Bp. TAYLOR.