of nature, and the higher interests of a moral creature. How many parents have little or no thought beyond the indulgence of their brutish appetites ?

How

means, it is not the mere outward act, unaccompanied by a fuitable inward difpofition. When St. Paul fays, that Chrift fent him not to baptize, but to preach the gospel ; i. Cor. i. 17. he means, that preaching was the principal thing he was to do in perfon; to baptize, he might appoint others under him; and it feems, commonly did : as St. Peter did not baptize Cornelius and his friends him→ felf, but commanded them to be baptized: Acts x. 48. and we read in St. John, that Jefus baptized not, but his difciples. John iv. 2,

WATER-BAPTISM therefore is appointed. And why the church of Rome should not think water fufficient in baptifm, but aim at mending what our Saviour hath directed, by mixing oil and balfam with it, and dipping a lighted torch into it, I leave them to explain.

THE precife manner, in which water shall be applied in baptifm, fcripture hath not determined. For the word, baptize, means only to wash: whether that be done by plunging a thing under water, or pouring the water upon it. The former of these; burying, as it were, the perfon baptized, in the water, and raifing him out of it again, without queftion was anciently the more ufual method: on account of which, St. Paul speaks of

baptifm,

How many know nothing of the importance of a virtuous education? How many are there too bufy, how many too indolent,

baptifm, as reprefenting both the death, and burial, and refurrection of Chrift, and what is grounded on them, our being dead and buried to fin; renouncing it, and being acquitted of it; and our rifing again, to walk in newness of life, Rom. vi. 4, 11. Col. ii. 12. being both obliged and enabled to practice, for the future, every duty of piety and virtue. But ftill the other manner of washing, by pouring or sprinkling of water, fufficiently expreffes the fame two things: our being by this ordinance purified from the guilt of fin, and bound and qualified to keep ourselves pure from the defilement of it. Befides, it very naturally represents that sprinkling of the blood of fefus Chrift, i. Pet. i. 2. to which our falvation is owing. And the use of it seems not only to be foretold by the prophet Isaiah, speaking of our Saviour, be fball fprinkle many nations, Isaiah lii. 15. that is, many fhall receive his baptifm; and by the prophet Ezekiel, then will I fprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: Ezek. xxxvi. 25. but to be had in view also by the apostle, where he fpeaks of having our hearts fprinkled from an evil confcience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Heb. x. 22. And though it was lefs frequently ufed in the first ages, it must almost of neceffity have been sometimes ufed: for inftance, when baptifm was adminiftred, as we read in the Acts it was, to feveral

indolent, to execute the charge? How many ignorant of the real principles of virtue, or deftitute of fkill and addrefs to inftil them in an effectual manner? How many mistake the care really due to their offspring, and unhappily employ their love, in indulging hurtful humours, rather than removing them by the difagreeable severity of wholesome correction? In heaping up large inheritances, rather than providing the better treasures of useful virtue ?

THIS

thousands at once. Acts ii. 41. when it was adminiftred on a fudden in private houses, as we find it, in the fame book, to the goaler and all his family, the very night in which they were converted. Acts xvi. 33. or when fick perfons received it; in which last case, the present method was always taken, because the other, of dipping them, might have been dangerous. And from the fame apprehenfion of danger in these colder countries, pouring the water is allowed, even when the perfon baptized is in health. And the particular manner being left at liberty, that is now universally chofen, which is looked on as fafer: because were there more to be faid for the other than there is: GOD will have Mercy, and not sacrifice. Hof. vi. 6. Mat. ix. 13. xii. 7.

Arch B. Secker's Lect. on the Cat, Vol. 2. p. 222.

THIS inftitution then calls careless parents to reflexion, gives inftruction to the ignorant, and, though it creates no new obligation, yet wonderfully corroborates the calls of nature, as far as free creatures can be bound; I mean, by a deliberate engagement, folemnly entered into, in the prefence of GoD and the face of the world.

BUT parents may die, they may be careless, or otherwise disqualified for the discharge of this duty. What is to be done in this cafe? Are guiltless orphans to be turned out helpless and unprincipled, into a wide difordered world? Are they to suffer for the folly or misfortune of parents? Are moral creatures of fo little importance? Suppose then, that, befides the natural parents, fome near relations or friends were engaged in the fame trust, under a folemn promise of supplying the defects of parental care, whenever they should happen; would not this be providing for

exi

exigences, which must frequently arise in the course of things? Can we take too many fecurities for the discharge of a duty, of fuch great and weighty importance?

BESIDES, the duties to be taught children, are the duties of manly life. Is there not then a further use in the mode of the inftitution? Does it not remind numbers at the fame time of our common obligation of leading a good life; inftructing not only the natural and adoptive parents, but the whole body, who are witneffes of the folemn tranfaction?

THIS provifion, again, has been made by the church, in infifting upon having SPONSORS for the baptized infant. Examine this inftitution in its first principles, and nothing can be more rational; attend seriously to these principles, in the execution of the truft, and nothing can be more useful to the world.

I HAVE Only confidered the child as yet,

as