lapsed. We may not, and indeed, in some instances, we do not perceive, this inseparable

baptismo peccata ablui significare dicendum est, quam per baptismum peccata jam deleta esse declarari, et publice quodam modo obsignari. Quamobrem, etiam si concederetur Ananiam, cum monuit Paulum, ut baptizaretur, et ablueret peccata sua, invocato nomine Domini, intellexisse, per baptismum, id est, externam illam ablutionem, peccata ablui, non tamen vere per baptismum istum peccata ipsa deleri, eum dixisse continuo sequeretur, sed tantum modo deleta esse palam ostendi et quasi consignari. Atque hac eadem ratione explicandus est locus ille Act. ii. 38. Pænitentiam agite, et baptizetur unusquisque vestrum in nomine Jesu Christi, in remissionem peccatorum. Nam vel baptismo illi, hoc est, solenniter peracta ablutioni, peccatorum remissionem nequaquam tribuit Petrus, sed totam pœnitentiæ, cujus prius meminerat, adscribere voluit: vel si baptismi quoque ea in rè rationem habuit, aut quatenus publicam Jesu Christi nominis professionem continet, eum tantummodo consideravit, aut si ipsius etiam externæ ablutionis omnino rationem habere voluit, quod ad ipsam attinet remissionis peccatorum nomine, non ipsam remissionem vere, sed remissionis declarationem, et obsignationem quandam intellexit. De Baptismo Aquæ, cap. vii. tom. i. p. 724-5. Let any one compare with this passage any of the modern popular commentaries on Acts ii. 38; xxii. 16, (Mr. Scott's for instance) and see how very little they differ from

connexion. To beings of such confined faculties, some portions of truth appear more

what Bp. Pearson calls Socinus' vain endeavour to evacuate the evidence of Scripture.-Pearson on the Creed, Art. x.

The treatise from which this last citation has been made is written expressly to disprove the necessity of water baptism to persons born and educated in Christianity. The following may suffice to justify what I have said in the text.

Nam omnia Evangelistarum et Apostolorum Scripta diligentissime perquirens nusquam nec apertis verbis baptismum aquæ externum omnibus in perpetuum, qui Christiani esse velint, peræque præceptum esse invenio, nec aliquid dictum ex quo eam sententiam elici omnino debere, aut posse, appareat. -De Baptismo Aquæ, Præf. tom. i. p. 709-10.

These extracts will, I trust, be sufficient. I should rather say, that I hope their importance will be an adequate justification for their length. The subject is one which cannot but be interesting to all who have any regard for truth. I hope I have no community of feeling with any one who could make such statements, as I have made, in a party-spirit. But I certainly do not envy the condition of those, who can dismiss such facts without the most serious consideration. It is dangerous to walk on the edge of such precipices. "Nemo diu tutus est, periculo proximus. Nec evadere diabolum servus Dei poterit, qui se diaboli laqueis implicavit."

important than others. We are apt to

consider one truth more valuable than another, because we imagine it to be more practically interesting to ourselves. We do not now, and possibly cannot in any state of existence, take in the whole compass of truth at once, and see it, as God sees it, one and indivisible, like himself, the fountain from which it emanates. And it may be, and no doubt is, the trial of not a few persons, to receive those revealed truths, which are altogether out of the range of our search and comprehension, with the same readiness and submission, as they yield to such as are corroborated by the voice of nature, and the monitions of conscience. But it is a trial differing only in degree from that to which every one must submit, who intends to receive instruction of any sort. In every art or science, many facts and truths are impli citly believed, on no other evidence than the ability and integrity of the teacher. Many continue to be believed and acted on, long after the student has discovered that they are inexplicable.

For a man to close his eyes against the light of the Holy Scripture, and return to heathen darkness, is certainly not a very likely mode of discovering truth in those particular points in which it is most difficult to be found; in those very points where the wisest and most thinking heathens have confessed, that the light of reason and philosophy are too feeble and unsteady to penetrate the gloom. What the most exalted capacities, and the most patient investigation, attained, without any other assistance than the remains of primoeval tradition, or the faint communications derived at intervals from the Jewish people, it is deeply interesting to observe. But may it not be believed, that, what interests us most in such contemplations is the conviction, that some of these illustrious persons possessed a candour, and a straightforward love of truth, which would have led them to receive, with childlike docility, the whole of truth, had it seemed fit to infinite wisdom and goodness, prematurely to lift up the veil, by which, until the fulness of time, it was concealed: and,

very specially, to receive those particular communications regarding the divine nature, which some among us reject, as beyond our comprehension. They did, some of them at least, arrive at that stage in the school of wisdom to know and feel the limits of their natural powers: to know and feel where reason must stop, and revelation begin; where ignorance must be hopeless, unless the Deity vouchsafe to interpose.

It is wonderful to see these noble beings seeking their Creator, if haply" they might feel after him and find him 1," in the thick darkness of that long and dismal night. Still more wonderful is it, to observe what sublime, yet vague and scarcely certain discoveries, they sometimes seemed to make. But more wonderful than all, to see a man who actually holds in his hand the torch which has descended from the fountain of light, and is beaming with a glorious certainty for which they sighed in vain, cast it from him, that he forsooth may

1 Acts xvii. 27.