Well, but our brethren say, "You and your children is nothing more than you and your posterity,' or your children when they become adult.

But a little attention will convince us, this cannot be the meaning. This is contrary to the natural construction of the words-The promise is to your children; not shall be to them, when they become believers. The people, to whom these words were spoken, were Jews and Proselytes, who had always been used to see infants comprehended with their parents in covenant transactions, and therefore would naturally suppose, their infants to be intended. To suppose, that by your children, the Apostle meant only their adult descendants, is to make him speak nonsense; for then he must be understood thus, 'The promise is to you and your children, but not as your children, or as being related to you, any more than if they were children of Pagans; but if they should live to adult age, should be called by the gospel, and should believe, then the promise will be to them, as it is now to you.'

Now why are children joined with their parents, as joint partakers of the same promise, if they derive no benefit from this relation, but are to stand upon precisely the same footing with the children of heathens and infidels? Farther; it should be remembered, that the great promise of the Abrahamic covenant, which probably is here referred to, and called by way of eminence, THE PROMISE, viz. I will be a God to you and your seed; this promise, I say, did eertainly belong to the infant children of Abraham, and of his spiritual seed; and the seal of this promise was expressly ordered to be applied to such. But our brethren generally say, The promise here intended is the promise of the spirit, contained in the foregoing words, Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.' Be it so. If then it appears that the promise of the Spirit is in fact made, not only to believers, but also to their children, even to infants; the reason will hold, why they should be baptized. It is expressly promised, Isaiah xliv. 3. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring; i. e. thy little ones, as the fol

lowing words shew; and they (thine offspring) shall SPRING UP as among the grass and as willows by the water courses. They shall grow up under the influences of my Spirit and blessings of my covenant, as grass under the kindly smiles of heaven, and as willows by the fertile banks of rivers.

There can be no doubt with any one who believes the scriptures, but the divine Spirit often has great influence in forming the mind into a preparation for virtue and usefulness, even in its infant state. John was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. Isaiah was called and formed from the womb. Jeremiah was sanctified from the womb.

Samuel grew up before the Lord. I question not but all, who are born and educated under the gospel covenant, have, even in early childhood, some gentle excitations to virtue from the Spirit of grace, as a fruit of this promise to believers and their children. Now since the promise of the Spirit does in fact belong to little children, baptism, the sign of the promise, belongs to them also. Let them be baptized→ for the promise is to them. Note here; their

receiving the Spirit was not a condition, but a consequence of their baptism. Be baptized and ye shall receive, &c. So upon the Samaritans mentioned, Acts viii. the Spirit was poured out after they were baptized: So that children are to be baptized upon this general promise, even before they can, by a holy life, give evidence of their having actually received the Spirit. That in the gospel age, as well as in former dispensations, children should be received into covenant together with, and upon the faith of their parents, is plainly foretold, Isaiah lxv. 22. They are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And chap. xlix. 18, 22. They (the Gentiles) shall gather themselves together, and come to thee-And they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

6. The accounts we have of some whole families being baptized, upon the faith of their respective heads, afford an argument of considerable weight, that the Apostles understood their commission as extending to infants, and practised accordingly.

If infants were baptized, it is by no means probable, we should be informed of their names or ages; we could expect only to be told in general, that such persons were baptized and their families: And so much we are told. Paul baptized the household of Stephanas, 1 Cor. i. 16. Lydia, when the Lord opened her heart to receive the word, was baptized and her household, Acts xvi. 15. The Jaylor, upon his believing, was baptized, he and all his, verse 33.

This Lydia was of the city of Thyatira; but she now dwelt at Philippi; here she had a house, in which she lodged the Apostles for some time, and she had a household with her. Whether they were children or servants, or both, and what their exact ages were, it is not said, nor is it material. The story represents them as baptized upon her faith; and this is all that is to the purpose. It will be suggested perhaps, that they might be baptized upon their own faith. But the story gives no intimation of any one's believing, but Lydia. Take the account as Luke has left it, and they were baptized upon her being judged faithful to the Lord.