experiment may be made, and an increase in religious principle may, by over-sanguine minds, be anticipated as its probable result. But it requires nothing more than the knowledge afforded by past experience, to pronounce with confidence that it will disappoint all such expectation. Not having its foundation in revelation, and not being suited to the circumstances of human nature, its effect, if carried into operation, will no doubt be, in another generation, the revival of the cold superstitions of former ages, and the substitution of the abject slavery of external ordinances for the heartfelt devotion of the spiritual servant of Christ.

By way of conclusion, let me now subjoin a few observations upon some of those leading points of Christian doctrine which have been most affected by being brought into contact with ecclesiastical traditions.

OF BAPTISM.

The rite of baptism bears every appearance of being exactly analogous with that of cir

cumcision under the Jewish ritual, as constituting the initiative introduction into the divine covenant to which it is annexed. That it is universally required of all persons admitted into the Christian church, precisely as circumcision was of all members of the Jewish nation claiming the Levitical privileges, is evident from the command of our Saviour to baptize all nations, and from the whole tenor of his conversation with Nicodemus on the subject. It is moreover selfevident that no command, thus universal in its application, would be lightly given by the great Founder of our faith. We are therefore bound to believe that obedience on our part, accompanied with a due submission of the will, to so positive an injunction, must necessarily be accompanied with some appropriate divine blessing, which we could not receive on any other terms. Granting then, as we necessarily must, the universal obligation of submitting to this ordinance, and the reality of the spiritual benefit annexed to its due per

formance, it remains, in the first place, to be considered how far Christians are justified in deviating from what would seem to have been the primitive usage, by administering it, as is now almost universally practised, to newborn infants. It will not, I think, be difficult to shew that in this practice we are borne out by the spirit, if not the letter, of holy Scripture.

Upon the first preaching of the Gospel, it was natural that the larger portion of the persons coming to partake of this rite should have been adults; and we are not therefore to be surprised that the New Testament alludes only to such cases, and of course considers that service of the heart which consists in repentance for past sins, and acceptance through faith of the terms proffered by the Gospel, as generally coincident with it in point of time. But it by no means follows that what circumstances made necessary at that particular period, should constitute a rule strictly binding in all future ages. As Bishop Taylor observes, the analogy of the case of circumcision,

which shows that God, under the Mosaic law, accepted, during the nonage of the infant, the faith of the parents who brought him to be thus initiated, is quite a sufficient warrant for Christians under the Gospel covenant, in adopting the same system with respect to baptism. We may therefore confidently argue, in opposition to those who would rest the usage of infant baptism upon tradition only, that we have in Scripture as direct a sanction as a strong analogy can afford for our present practice. And we shall be more confirmed in this view of the question when we consider it practically in its results.

Now the expediency of infant baptism may be fairly considered as established, by the moral benefits upon the character which it is found experimentally to produce. A child cannot too soon be made to know that he is "not his own," that "he is bought with a price." If well disposed, he will from the moment that he begins to comprehend the duties of religion, feel a strong additional inducement to a course of early piety, from the

consciousness that his regeneration (that is to say, his abjuration of his natural character, and his assumption of that of a servant of Christ) is not a thing which is to take place at some future indefinite period; but that it is already done. That he is actually assigned over to his Redeemer's service; that the old man is already buried in him; and that he is already spiritually risen again with Christ to newness and holiness of life.

Where then the rite of baptism is duly followed up, as the faculties of the mind develop, by a course of piety and obedience, we cannot doubt that our Lord's command on this subject has been duly and fully obeyed, according to the entire spirit of his intention.

It is as certain then as any other scriptural truth, that the person thus admitted into the Christian covenant, and running his course suitably in it, is accordingly in a state of entire reconciliation with God, and has a claim to all the benefits of the Gospel dispensation. Nor can we doubt that the blessing of the Almighty is upon him, and that the assisting