EST: and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Whereupon he was immediately baptized, and went on his way rejoicing.

When the jailor at Philippi, moved with fear, appealed to the apostles, Paul and Silas, saying, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They answered, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house:" upon which it is said (chap. xvi. 34) the jailor rejoiced and was baptized, he, and all his, straightway; BELIEVING IN GOD WITH

ALL HIS HOUSE.

Chap. xviii. 8

"And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, BELIEVED ON THE LORD, WITH ALL HIS HOUSE; and many of the Corinthians, hearing, BELIEVED and were baptized." Chap. viii. 12-"But when they BELIEVED Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, they were baptized, both men and women." Of Lydia, respecting whom it is mere conjecture whether she had either a husband or children, it is said (chap. xvi. 14), "Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household," &c. For a probable illus

tration of which, on looking to the subsequent part of the history, we find it stated (v. 40), that the apostles Paul and Silas, on quitting the prison, "entered into the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed." Again, the apostle says (1 Cor. i. 16), "I baptized also the household of Stephanus ;" which, in chap. xvi. 15, we find noticed as the first fruits of Achaia, and as having addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.

Now, supposing (as indeed many take for granted what, after all, must be a mere supposition), that the houses here spoken of did contain infants, it is in

conceivable how any reference could be made to them in the foregoing texts; viz., "They spake unto him (the jailor) the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house;" whereupon he rejoiced, "BELIEVING IN GOD, WITH ALL HIS HOUSE;" and

was baptized, he, and all his, straightway." Of Cornelius, it is said, "One that feared God, WITH ALL HIS HOUSE." "Ye know the household of Stephanus, that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints," &c. &c. Therefore, as these same households are stated to have been baptized, it is clear that infants could not be included; but that baptized

households were believing households, according to Christ's charge to his apostles, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature: he that BELIEVETH AND IS BAPTIZED shall be saved."

That infants were not the subjects of baptism, is further apparent from the style of the apostolic epistles, which are solely addressed to such as by baptism had put on Christ. Gal. iii. 26—“ For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus; for as many of you as have been baptized into Jesus Christ have PUT ON CHRIST." Consequently, all thus baptized are so far qualified to