This done, at least, by one of the parents, their children would also be eligible for baptism, otherwise would they be ineligible. (1 Cor. vii. 14.)

Whether spiritual regeneration ever accompanied baptism, the Scriptures do not determine. There is nothing for it in the general, that we should venture to set it forth as a doctrine; and nothing against it in the particular, that we should think or speak against it as impossible. All things are possible with God, and therefore this is not impossible. God is gracious, and heareth the prayers of his people, and consequently, as Jeremiah (Jer. i. 5) and John the Baptist (Luke i. 15) were sanctified from the womb; and Timothy was favoured and blessed in his childhood, through the faith of his mother and grandmother (2 Tim. i. 5, iii. 15): so, it may be, that many children are blessed in and from their baptism, in answer to the prayers of parents and others who on those occasions surround them. The Lord chooses his own time for beginning the good work in each of his children, which he faileth not to perform and perfect (Phil. i. 6); and nothing is more just than the expectation of a gracious answer, which is cherished by his people, as often as prayer is really made in this sacrament; nor can any thing be more suitable than thanksgiving for the blessing sought, when, coming in the way of obedience, God's covenant is pleaded according to that scripture, which says, "the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts ii. 39); and, "ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matt. vi. 7); nor ought we to ask less than the new birth unto righteousness,

the new and heavenly nature, at the time when, by the Church, a new name is given in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and when that new name is recorded among the names of those who worship together in the Spirit, and call upon the name of Jesus our Lord. To ask, or desire, or expect less, would be to unchurch ourselves. The confession and profession, therefore, being made, the prayer used is what it ought to be-a prayer for the Church of God to use when seeking God's blessing for her children, a prayer which calleth for the blessing which the Lord alone can give; but a prayer which the Church may well use while conferring the privilege of membership, a new birth among the saints, by means of Christ's own ordinance, a sacrament which that Church is commanded to observe.

“O merciful God, grant that the old Adam in this child may be so buried, that the new man may be raised up in him. Amen.

"Grant that all carnal affections may die in him, and that all things belonging to the Spirit may live and grow in him. Amen.

"Grant that he may have power and strength to have victory, and to triumph, against the devil, the world, and the flesh. Amen.

"Grant that whosoever is here dedicated to thee by our office and ministry, may also be endued with heavenly virtues, and everlastingly rewarded through thy mercy, O blessed Lord God, who dost live and govern all things, world without end. Amen.

"Almighty and everliving God, whose most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins, did shed out of his most precious side both water

and blood, and gave commandment to his disciples, that they should go teach all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, regard, we beseech thee, the supplications of thy congregation; sanctify this water to the mystical washing away of sin; and grant that this child, now to be baptized therein, may receive the fulness of thy grace, and ever remain in the number of thy faithful and elect children, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Now, that the blessing thus sought may be granted in many cases, when sought, is not to be denied; for what is it? It is, that the old man (Adam) may die and be buried in the person of the baptized, and that the new man (Christ) may live and appear in him. It is, to be born from above, to have a new nature given to him, that standing in Christ vouchsafed which is not the effect of penitence and faith, but the cause thereof, and of all the fruits of righteousness and true holiness in the lives of the baptized; it is not the outward and visible sign which the Church bestows, that is prayed for; but the inward and spiritual grace, which, we repeat, the Lord alone gives.

And that many are the individuals who can testify, that from their earliest infancy they were visited with convictions of sin, and deeply impressed with the importance of prayer-with fears of hell, and hopes of heaven, is a known fact; and that these things are contrary to nature, and according to grace, is most certain. To such the writer, with thanksgiving, can set his seal; and can also bear witness, that--all through a subsequent course, which was certainly not religious— these things, in connexion with the recollected prayers

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of a pious parent, which he well knew ever followed him, were never effaced from his mind; but were again and again revived and strengthened, by the same Spirit, unto the full assurance of hope, of which, through the tender mercy of our God and Saviour, he is now a partaker.

And that children were baptized, and became genuine members, with their parents, in the Apostolic Churches, is not only probable from the fact that twelve whole families are mentioned in the New Testament as having been Christians; * but is certain, from the Apostle's special addresses in his Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians; and not only from the distinct nature of those addresses to parents and children respectively, but from his quotation and argument, which fully prove that there were young children among them.

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord (i. e., remember and revere the authority vested in your parents by the Lord): for this is right. Honour thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long upon the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition (the doctrine and discipline) of the Lord." (Eph. vi. 1-4; vide also, Col. iii. 20, 21.)

He quoted the fifth commandment, a commandment

* Lydia's, Acts xvi. 15; the jailor's, Acts xvi. 33; that of Stephanus, 1 Cor. i. 16; that of Priscilla and Aquila, Rom. xvi. 5; that of Nymphas, Col. iv. 15; that of Philemon, verse 2; that of Crispus, Acts xviii. 8; that of Onesiphorus, 2 Tim. i. 16, and iv. 19; that of Aristobulus, Rom. xvi. 10; the Elect Lady's, and that of her sister, 2 John i. 13; and that of Cornelius, Acts x. 2, 48.

which was given to Israel shortly after their baptism unto Moses, whose baptized children, as we have seen or may infer, were of all ages from the youngest upwards, just as we are bound to believe those were at Ephesus and Colosse, because their parents were commanded to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

It is not impossible, therefore, seeing the nature of the Apostle's address, but highly probable, that some of these children might be spiritual from their baptism and from their infancy; but whether they were or not, this is certain, their standing in the Church before men was legitimate, even as ours is; for, being baptized, they were recognised and addressed as members by the Apostle of the Lord, as we, in like manner, now are by those who have authority in the Church of God, and which seems to have been the practice of the Church from age to age.

MILNER, in his "History of the Church of Christ,” adduces remarkable evidence in point. He makes mention of a council of sixty pastors, pretty early in the third century; many of whom had probably conversed with those who had received an account of apostolic customs, and who lay under injunctions from the apostle John himself or his immediate successors, just as a man receiveth facts and commands relative to usages and customs from his grandfather through his father. Cyprian, a distinguished Christian, then Bishop of Carthage, is his hero at this stage of the history, and no one of all the fathers was more to be relied on. If we insist that no doctrine is to be conceded to the authority of the fathers—for that they nearly all erred-unless it be according to the word: