passive unresistingness is most favourable, inasmuch as "Gratiæ Divinæ non ponit obicem," it puts no bar to the operation of God's grace. (Cardwell's Conf., p. 356.)

9. Infancy connects itself most fittingly with the ideas of Birth and New Birth, i.e.,

Natural Generation of Blood and the Flesh; Spiritual Regeneration of Water and the Spirit. 10. Similarly, the Analogies of "Lighting a Lamp," "Sowing Seed," "Quickening into Life,” "Grafting a Bud," "Adopting into a Family," "Starting in a Race," "Commencing a Journey," &c. all these are seen to be most appropriate when referred to the passive unconsciousness and unresisting receptivity of a new-born Babe.

:

INFANT BAPTISM.

SCRIPTURE ONLY.

1. By God's express command, Infants were admitted into covenant with Him. (Gen. xvii. 9— 12; Acts vii. 8; S. Luke ii. 21.)

2. Neglect of this, severely punished. (Gen. xvii. 14; Exod. ix. 24.)

3. Christian Church, only the Jewish expanded from one nation to all. (Isa. ii. 2; Hag. ii. 7; S. Matt. xxiv. 14; S. Mark xi. 17.)

4. Moses was the Taiday@yos, Child-Bringer; Christ was the S.Saokaλos, Child-Teacher. (Acts vii. 37; Gal. iii. 23-5.)

5. Jewish Covenant (like Temple, Altar, Sacrifices, Priesthood, &c.) typified and foreshadowed a similar Covenant under Christ. (Isa. lvi. 7; Heb. xiii. 10; &c.)

6. Christian children, not likely to be worse off than Jewish. (Heb. vii. 22; viii. 6; ix. 14; xi. 40.)

7. No Prohibition uttered by Christ or Apostles against Infant Baptism; but the reverse.

8. Divine reception of Infants, Divinely transferred from O. T. to N. T. (S. Mark x. 16.)

9. Unwillingness, at first, to recognize the propriety of this, sternly rebuked. (S. Mark x. 13, 14; S. Luke xviii. 16.)

10. This reception afterwards treated as a matter of course by the Apostles. (Acts ii. 39; Gal. iii. 26-9; Rom. iv. 16; 1 Cor. vii. 14.)

II. They baptized, not only the Corinthian Stephanas, the Thyatiran Lydia, and the Philippian Jailer, but their Households. (1 Cor. i. 16; Acts xvi. 15, 33.)

12. These few Households, only typical samples; like the few cases of Adult Baptism here and there recorded on special occasions.

13. These Householders, chiefly "In-fantes," i.e. non-speakers; children not old enough to have a voice in the matter; since otherwise they would not so unanimously have cast in their lot with a Church that was despised and rejected of men;" a "sect of Nazarenes," everywhere spoken against. (Acts xxviii. 22; Isa. liii. 3.)

14. Justin Martyr, in his "Apology," or Defence, written about A.D. 150, to describe and explain the manners and customs of the Church, speaks of friends of his who had been "Christ-ened," (Baptized) in their infancy, 70 years previously, i. e. within the Apostolic period of the first century.

15. In Col. ii. 12, iii. 12, 20, Children are pointedly addressed as "Buried with Christ in Baptism; Risen with Him from their watery grave; Elect of God, holy and beloved," &c.; and therefore under obligation to fulfil the law

of Christ, as Jewish children were "debtors to the law of Moses." (Exod. xii. 48; Gal. v. 3.)

16. On this principle Christ acted during His Ministry; influencing His hearers, as children, through the heart rather than the head; arresting their attention by Miracles and Parables; engaging their affections by kind words and deeds, and then saying, "Follow Me." (S. Luke v. 3-11; S. Mark vii. 37; S. John ii. 11; vi. 26.)

17. It was a similar kind of practically Infant Baptism that the Apostles ministered everywhere to the "multitudes," who were "straightway" added to the Church, because they "gladly received the Word" into their hearts; though their heads must necessarily have contained the most rudimentary and childish knowledge of Christian faith and duty. (Acts ii. 41; vi. 7; viii. 12, 38; x. 48; xiv. I; xvi. 15, 33.)

18. The Apostles did not attempt to convince the Understanding of the Heathen, or delay Baptism until they could grasp the "mysteries of the Faith," any more than Enlistment is delayed until the Recruit shall have learned his Drill. They swayed their hearers by describing God as a powerful, loving, and beneficent Ruler, Whose service they would do well to enter, with child-like faith and willing obedience. Having thus touched their hearts and won upon their affections, they gave them at once a good start upon the new road by Baptism, leaving head-knowledge and intellectual apprehension to bring up the rear at some future period more or less remote, and deal with difficulties as they might arise. (Acts xiv. 15-17; S. Matt. vi. 34; xviii. 3; S. Mark x. 15.)

19. This was done by Christ's command, and (as shewn § 16) in accordance with His own system

of teaching; in spite of the risk-foreseen of course -that some would fall away; which cases of defection and failure, it is to be noted, are as simply and candidly narrated, as previous adhesions and (S. Matt. xxviii. 19; S. John vi. 66; Acts v. 1-11; viii. 13; S. Luke ii. 50, 1; xviii. 34; xxiv. 45; S. John vii. 17; xii. 16; xiv. 11; xvi. 12-28; Gal. iii. 1; Heb. v. 12.)

success.

Anabaptism.

INFANTS OR ADULTS. DIPPING OR

POURING.

(a) In order to justify their Separation, and exonerate themselves from the guilt of "rending the Body of Christ" by needless Schism or Division, Anabaptists (like other Dissenters) are bound to prove that the whole Catholic Church was entirely wrong, from the first to the sixteenth century in which they originated, and has continued in the wrong ever since.

(b) In other words, that either Christ could not, or did not, "send the Holy Ghost to guide the Church into all truth," as He promised; or else, that the Holy Ghost, being sent, could not, or did not, fulfil His mission; and that consequently the "Gates of Hell" have "prevailed against her," in spite of Christ's assurance to the contrary. (S. John xvi. 13; S. Matt. xvi. 18.)

(c) Or again. If they insist on going to Scripture alone, which Scripture they receive as a Tradition solely on the Church's authority, as its witness and keeper through successive ages, they should explain why they "hear the Church" when speaking about the Word, and refuse to hear the same Church when speaking about the Water! (Art. xx.; Eph. v. 26.)

(d) They must shew further

1. That Infant Baptism is opposed to Common Sense and Scripture, in the straightforward, honest use of both.