eth and is baptized shall be saved.”. -I will illustrate this point.

Here is a man who believes in infant baptism. A child is born to him and he has it baptized. The child grows up, and experiences religion—that is, he believes. He is about to be received into the church, and this question is asked, Is he baptized? Yes, is the answer. He believes, then, and is baptized. And no one can prove that this is not agreeable to the text, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." For the text does not say he that believeth, and is afterwards baptized; or, he that believeth and shall be baptized. Neither can any one prove, from this passage, that baptism after believing is not agreeable to it; for it does not say, he that believeth and has been baptized; but, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.

The object for which the passage is presented, is thisto shew what qualifies for the kingdom of God—to shew what saves men, namely; that faith which leads a man to obey-which leads him to submit to the ordinances of God, baptism among the rest. This is the great object of the passage. The stress is laid on believing, in order to be saved. This is evident from the following words, "He that believeth not shall be damned.”

But here let it be observed particularly, that teaching, and faith, and repentance, must go before baptism, on our principles, as well as on the principles of our Baptist brethren.

According to our principles, no adult is to be baptized before he has been taught, and given evidence of faith and repentance. No parent has a right to baptism, for himself, or his children, before he believes; but then, he may be baptized, and all his straightway. We baptize no household, till the head of the household has been taught, and given evidence of being a Christian.

Were we in the circumstances of the apostles, preaching the Gospel to those who had never before heard it, we certainly should not baptize them before they had been taught the way of salvation, and given evidence that they had cordially embraced it. But having this evidence, should one say, "What doth hinder me to be baptized?" we should answer, "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." And should many,

Acts viii.

36, 37.

Acts ii. 37, 38.

in anxiety, ask, what shall we do to be saved, we should not think of giving baptism any earlier place in our answer than the Apostle did, "Repent and be baptized." To give baptism any earlier place than the Apostle, in the same circumstances, would be contrary to our principles and practice.

Luke xx.

As to the evidence necessary to attend this doctrine, if we had none better than Moses presented in favor of the resurrection, in one verse, it would be our duty to believe it. "Now that the dead are raised, 37, 38. even Moses shewed at the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Here the doctrine of the resurrection is not taught explicitly, but implicitly. It is implied. For the Lord is not a God of the dead, but of the living. But the resurrection is not taught more plainly, in this passage, than infant baptism is in very many. Take the covenant of God with his people, (Heb. viii. 10,) “ I will be to them a God." The token of this covenant he commanded them to put upon their children, and they did it for thousands of years; and he did not tell them to withhold it when he changed the token. Here infant baptism is as really implied, and as plainly taught, as the resurrection was when the Lord declared himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The want of explicit warrant would no more justify us in disbelieving infant baptism, than it would the Sadducees in disbelieving the re

surrection of the dead.

It has been shewn, that the word rendered teach in the text, means to proselyte or disciple. And in order to illustrate the doctrine of this discourse, I remark,

2. Infants may be the disciples of Christ.

I know that some of our brethren consider it altogether inconsistent with the situation of children to call them disciples of Christ. But let us think on this a little. A disciple is a scholar-this is the meaning of the word. And a child is a scholar before he learns his lesson, as well as afterwards. He is reckoned a scholar, when he is committed to the care of the instructer, or has his name put down with others who belong to the school, whether he puts his name down himself, or his parents put it down for him, The church is the school

And

of Christ. The names of all those to whom the token of God's gracious covenant is applied belong upon the records of the church. They are specially connected with the church as her children, included in her covenant, committed to her watch, and care, and prayers. they are in a special manner committed to God-devoted to him-cast upon him as the Psalmist was. "I was cast upon thee from the womb; thou art my God from my" birth..

He says,

Psalms xxii. 10.

Prov.

xxii. 6.

Prov. xiii. 20.

Parents should train up their children in the way they should go. This is the command of God. "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." But what is the way in which the child should go? The child should devote himself to God, to be instructed and sanctified.The parents then should devote him to God. The child should dedicate himself to God publicly. The parents then should dedicate him to God publicly. The child should commit himself to the watch, and care, and prayers of Christians, and walk with wise men, that he may be wise. "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed." The parent, then, should commit him to the affectionate and prayerful attention of the wise and good. The child should put down his name with the followers of Christ, or, as it is written, "Subscribe with his hand unto the Lord." The parent, then, should subscribe for him, when he cannot subscribe for himself, and act for him, when he cannot act for himself, as he would sign a writing, and act up promptly to duty, to secure an earthly estate for the child. And as he would afterwards persuade the child to ratify what he had done, to secure for him an earthly inheritance, so should he, but with great earnestness, persuade him to subscribe with his own hand unto the Lord, and so take hold of the everlasting covenant, which is well ordered in all things and sure; that it may be all his salvation, and all his desire.

Isaiah

xliv. 5.

3. Infants have been disciples of Christ, in the highest, and most important sense-that is, they have been sanctified, formed to his image, and prepared for his kingdom. Samson is called a Nazarite, (that is, sanctified or consecrated) unto God from the womb.

Judges xiii. 5.

1 Sam. i. 28. Jere. i. 5.

Luke i. 15.

It is said of Samuel, in his infancy, that he worshipped the Lord."

66

The Lord says of Jeremiah, "Before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee." The Lord told Zacharias that his son John should be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb."

4. God connects children with their parents in covenant, and dispenses his blessings and curses accordingly. God made a covenant with Adam, in which his children were connected with him, and deeply interested— and had he continued obedient, he and his children would have found the blessings of the covenant a glorious inheritance. But he disobeyed, and he and they felt the Romans frown and curse of God. "And we know that viii. 22. the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together until now."

God made a covenant with Noah. In this covenant his children were included, and so were we. The token of the covenant also was designed for our good, and we enjoy it.

A covenant connexion, between parents and children, is held up prominently to view, illustrated and confirmed, and enforced, by the manner in which God has dispensed his blessings and curses, from Adam to the present time. I therefore remark,

5. God bestows blessings upon children for their parents' sake.

He blessed Jacob and Solomon for their fathers' sake, and many others in like manner. The parents of David, and Samuel; Obadiah, Samson, Isaiah, Jeremiah, John, and Timothy, were professors of religion, and their children were distinguished as the favorites of Heaven.

Gen. vii. 1.

Special blessings have often been bestowed upon children for such reasons as these; "For thy father Abraham's sake."- "For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.”- "For David my servant's sake.". -And such children are "beloved for their fathers' sakes." are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them." On the other hand,

Rom. xi. 28. Isaiah

lxv. 23.

"They

little ones are often destroyed on their parents' account. Such is the connexion between them

Deut. ii. 34.

that God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children.

But if God has special blessings for children on their parents' account, it is highly proper that the parents should enjoy, and improve the token of such blessings. It is calculated to encourage, and strengthen, and urge them forward in parental duty. And this is the case, when the covenant and the token are understood, and embraced, as coming from God, to aid us in the way to heaven. And if it is right that children should have special blessings by the agency of their parents, and on their account; it must be right that they should have the token of the blessing. If one is agreeable to the will of God, the other must be. But I will mention one other intance, in which children were blessed for their parents' sake. "By faith Hebrews Noah being warned of God, prepared an ark

xi. 7.

Genesis

vii. 1.

to the saving of his house." And the reason that the Lord gave for calling him and his family into the ark was this; For thee have I have seen righteous." "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou, and all thy house, into the ark; for thee have` I seen righteous before me in this generation." "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.' "Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord-His seed shall be mighty upon the earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed." "Because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them." Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people."

1 Peter iii. 21. Psalms cxii. 1, 2.

Deut.

iv. 37.

x. 15.

6. It is reasonable, and scriptural, that grace, as well as sin, should abound, in the connexion between parents and children.

*"(not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God.") 'In this baptism the parent who has the righteousness of faith, answers a good conscience towards God, by complying with his requirement, according to the like figure presented in the case of Noah; Come thou and thy family into the ark.' Thus children are blessed on their parents' account, as the children of Noah were on his ac

count.