to give us a reasonable hope of the spiritual state of the catechumen, of his fixed desire to renounce the Devil, the world and his lusts; and of his willingness to dedicate himself and all dependent on him to the service of the one only living and true God in Christ Jesus, we baptize him in "the laver of regeneration;" we "cleanse him with the washing of water by the word;" we call on him to "arise and wash away his sins, calling on the name of the Lord;" we teach him, that he is thus "born of water and of the spirit ;" that he is "washed and justified and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God:" that " Baptism will now save him; not by the putting away the filth of the flesh, but by the answer of a good conscience toward God."

Thus we go on baptizing all nations, as God blesses our previous training. Parents with their households thus enter the fold of Christ's Church. The benevolent designs of the God of mercy are fulfilled; subsequent instructions supplying what is wanting, either from insufficient faith or tender age, at the actual period of the obligations of Christianity being laid upon the converted native population.

5. For diligent subsequent instructions are to be given; "teaching them," adds our Lord, "to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Here the word is the one ordinarily employed for the gradual communication of knowledge. It is not that which imports simply the discipling of men, the putting them in training as pupils of Christianity; but the teaching them, as scholars somewhat more advanced and capable of receiving ampler instruction, "all things whatever Christ hath commanded."

Baptism, therefore, is evidently not to be confined to those who have a full and comprehensive knowledge of Christianity, but may and ought to be administered,

although much is afterwards to be learned from the pastoral labors of ministers. Baptism is the privilege of the weak and feeble convert, with his children and house still weaker than himself, when the first training has, by the grace of God, touched his own heart and conscience, and he is able to understand and feel the general vows he undertakes.

Then you go on to teach him and his children and family, "all things that Christ hath commanded." They are within the visible Church, they have now entered the ark, they have now separated from idolatry and superstition, vice and crime, worldliness and spiritual death. Teach them, then, all "things whatever Christ has commanded,” as to the duties and vows and habits which are involved in their initiatory obligations to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Teach the father and mother and elder members of the family, so long as the inward life of God appears weak or doubtful in their minds and hearts, what the "birth from above" fully imports; what it is to be really 66 a new creature in Christ Jesus ;" what to have a new heart and a new spirit ;" what to be a "partaker of a divine nature;" to have "the heart of stone taken away and the heart of flesh" communicated.

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Teach them next the importance of the means of grace; the blessed seventh portion of time which the Lord of the Sabbath banks out for spiritual rest and instruction; the necessity of reading Holy Scriptures, of meditation and prayer; the dignity of the public worship of Almighty God; the reasonable subjection and love due to ministers and missionaries.

Teach them, then, gradually, all that Christ hath commanded in his sermon on the Mount and in his other discourses; all his doctrines, precepts, example. Teach them nothing but what Christ hath commanded; no inventions of men, no superstitions, no

additions or subtractions of human ingenuity: but all within the limits of Christ's commandments, communicate faithfully and fully.

Teach also the younger parts of the household, as they grow up, the unspeakable benefits conferred on them in holy baptism, the vows made in their name, the obligations undertaken for them, and which they must either fulfil, or lose all the anticipated blessings and privileges dependant on them. Teach them that as they become capable of moral and personal obedience, they become also responsible for themselves; that they cease to be part and parcel of their believing parents and Godparents, and can no longer be represented by them; but must stand before Almighty God on their own footing, as placed under a dispensation of grace, and having had all the blessings conferred upon them which the mercy of God and the piety of their parents and ministers could bestow.

In this way go on, finally, to teach them the nature and benefits of the second and permanently administered Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, which is to be the means of preserving continually their bodies and souls in the faith, love, and purity of that gospel, into which the first Sacrament initiated them.

It is impossible not to pause here to observe the essential benevolence of Christianity propagated by such a system of gentle, never-ceasing instructions as this; beginning with the first training of the learner, and carrying him on, and all that appertain to him, till this world of conflict is exchanged for one of rest and joy. And surely no part of this system is more evidently compassionate and divine, than that which comprehends the helpless and unconscious infant within the arms of the divine mercy, till he is of age to understand and act for himself this is entirely agreeable to the order of things in

providence as to all matters affecting the state and happiness of children. The parent represents them, acts for them, claims all advantages for them which may accrue, enters into beneficial engagements and obligations, signs contracts, takes possession of titles, dignities, inheritances in their name-on the supposition that the child when of age will confirm by his own acts, when necessary, what the benevolence and forethought of his parent and guardians did and undertook by anticipation for him.

I make the remark, because it is possible that some may have doubts thrown into their minds on the subject of the reception of infants into the Church by baptism. But the commission of our Lord could be understood in no other sense than had, from the time of Abraham, marked the divine proceedings with respect to children. It was addressed to Jews who knew that long before the Mosaical Law, infants had been expressly and by name ordered by Almighty God to be admitted, at the eighth day after birth, into the covenant of grace by circumcision. There had never been any doubt upon the question. The command therefore for the promulgation of the gospel with the corresponding initiatory sacrament of baptism, could never have been understood by them in any other light.

Had the commission been to extend the Jewish religion all over the earth, and had the command run thus, "Go ye therefore and teach" (make disciples, or Jews, of) "all nations; circumcising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you;" no one of the apostles would or could have hesitated for an instant-it would have excited no surprise-it would have been merely the continuance of a principle expressly enjoined in preceding dispensations. There would have wanted no new command under the

gospel, for the admission of infants into God's merciful covenant, any more than there wanted any new commands for the various matters of natural religion, or for the observation of one day's rest after every six days of labor, or for a variety of other things, the principles of which the Church of God had been acting upon for thousands of years. A new command would have seemed, indeed, to call in doubt the merciful will of God in the preceding institution and observance of circumcision.

The apostles, accordingly, long hesitated about admitting the Gentiles at all into the Christian covenant without the observation of the Mosaical Law; but they never doubted whether, on receiving them, they should admit also with them the children and households which formed a part of themselves. That the mercy of God should be enlarged to the utmost comprehension under the gospel was natural and in the course of things; but that it should be narrowed and contracted all at once with respect to the objects of the divine compassion, and that the infants of the Jewish believers should be thrust out of the covenant of grace, on their parents receiving Christ, when they were in that covenant the moment before they received him, would have been wholly contrary to the genius of the gospel, and the order of the divine mercy in the last and most gracious dispensation.

The apostles had already heard their Master say, 66 Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not." They had seen him "take them up in his arms and lay his hands upon them and bless them." They had heard him declare," of such is the kingdom of heaven." No doubt therefore seems ever to have crossed their minds. The baptism of "Lydia and her house ;" and of " the Jailer and all his," is mentioned as a matter of course, and perfectly intelligible to every reader of the Old Testament. St. Paul in the same unartificial manner,