ferings of Christ, and the pardon purchased by them, will, if he was sincere in his baptismal professions, feel himself powerfully urged by this belief, to renounce the ways of iniquity (5), and submit to the guidance of him whom he acknowledges as his Lord and Redeemer (6).

ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. Baptism not sufficient for salvation, without a change of heart and life.--In Acts 8: 21-23, Peter addressing Simon the Sorcerer, who had received the ordinance of baptism, says v. 13, thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter-repent therefore. And in Matth. 3: 7-10, John the Baptist admonishes in the most earnest manner the Pharisees and Sadducees, who came to be baptized by him, telling them that without repentance and reformation, they could not escape the wrath to

come.

II. Subject continued.--Acts 2: 38, repent and be baptized every one of you. Tit. 3: 5, the washing of regeneration. Acts 13: 24. 19: 4. John's baptism is termed "baptism of repentance," in Mark 1: 4. Matth. 3: 11. John says, I baptize you unto repentance.

In the work on Baptism above referred to, the phrase "washing (or bath) of regeneration," lovτoov nahiyyɛvɛσias, as also the words "washing of water by the word" lovtqov vdatos ev ónuari Eph. 5: 26, are supposed to refer to the Gospel, as the true means of moral purification, in opposition to the Levitical purifications. But in reply to this, it may be remarked, that as the words λουτρον and λουτρον ύδατος washing, and washing of water would naturally be understood by every reader to signify baptism, it would have been necessary for the apostle to

add some explanatory clause, if he intended by them to designate the doctrines of Jesus.1

III. The subjects of baptism must adore God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.-According to the formula of baptism, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the God of those who receive that ordinance. Hence, those who do not receive the doctrines of Jesus Christ or the Son of God, and the doctrines of the apostles or of the Holy Spirit, (§ 9—11) as the doctrines of the Father, with whom the Son and Spirit are one, as the doctrines of their God; either do not receive baptism with a sincere heart, or reject that ordinance after it has been administered to them; that is, either they are not true disciples of Jesus Christ, they are not μαθητευθεις το Χριστῳ made disciples in the name of Christ (Matth. 28: 19. comp. John 4: 1); or they lose that character after having possessed it. For this reason it was, that Christ, when giving his apostles the command to baptize his future disciples, places in immediate connexion with it, the injunction that they should teach the subjects of baptism to keep his commandments. Matth. 28: 20, comp. John 17:20. It was the promotion of his honour (declarative glory) at which Jesus aimed in the institution of baptism; and this too was the design of the Father, when he declared at the baptism of Jesus, that he was his well beloved Son, whom we ought to hear,3 and who would baptize1 his apostles with the Holy Spirit, which Spirit would, after his death, teach mankind through the instrumentality of the apostles.

IV. God is to be worshipped, in the manner prescribed by

1 Tübing. gel. Anzeig. 1803. p. 52.

2 Matth. 3: 17. John 5: 37. comp. with v. 18. and 1: 34.

3 Matth. 3: 17. comp. 17: 5. The same words are used at the baptism and at the transfiguration of Jesus: merely with the additional phrase, "hear ye him."

4 Matth. 3: 16. comp. John 1: 32. Acts 1: 4 &c.

the Father, through the instrumentality of the Son and Spirit. John 12: 49 &c. 16: 7-15. Matth. 10: 20.

V. Baptismal dedication to God is a powerful motive to a holy life. Rom. 6:2-12. 1 Pet. 3: 21. 4: 2. See supra $92.

VI. 1 Cor. 1: 13. Eph. 5: 23-26. § 43. Ill. 4.

§ 112.

The propriety of infant baptism.

That it is proper to receive infants into the visible church by baptism, appears evident from the following considerations. The gracious provisions of God for the salvation of man, such as remission of sins or liberation from punishment, to which we become entitled by baptism, are represented in Scripture, as extending to little children (§ 68, 58). Little children also are, although not immediately after their birth, yet subsequently, to be taught to observe the commands of Christ (1), just as is the case with those who are baptized. Matth. 28: 19, 20. The lawfulness of their early reception (2) among the followers of Christ is rendered the more evident from the fact that, by virtue of their birth and of the duties of christian parents, christianity is already allotted to them by God. Nor is there any thing in the nature of baptism (3) itself, which could disqualify children for being proper subjects of it. Hence the nature of christian baptism does not render it necessary to limit the command of Christ" baptize all nations," (navia ra εvn), to adults. And, as the command of Jesus, in its natural

acceptation, embraces the whole human family, without reference to diversity of age, it is not probable that children (and among the multitudes who embraced christianity, the question concerning children must have arisen) would have been debarred from baptism by the apostles; for the apostles, as well as the other Jewish converts, had always been accustomed (4) to see little children received into the number of God's people by circumcision (5), and to see it done even under the Old Testament dispensation, in which the people of God, confessedly, was not destined to such an unlimited extension as in the church of Christ, into which we are received by baptism. Under these circumstances, the statement of Origen (6), who derives the custom of infant baptism, by tradition, from the apostles themselves, seems to be entitled to our belief. At any rate, no one, even of the most ancient writers of the church, presumed to object to pedobaptism as being of recent origin (7); although the question of its propriety was often agitated.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

I. Children were to be instructed in the principles of christianity.--Matth. 28: 20. Eph. 6:4. The principles of the Essenes were approved of and regarded with admiration, by a part of the Ephesians. And as it was customary among the Essenes to receive strange children and educate them in their principles,1 it would certainly have been altogether unbecoming christian parents, to be negligent in educating their own children in the doctrines and principles of christianity. Hence the apostle requires, that the children of christian parents should be educated, not indeed with the rigour of the Essenes (for to this an al

1 Josephus de Bello Judaico, L. II. c. 8. § 2.

lusion is doubtless made in the words "provoke not your chil dren to anger,” μη παροργίζετε τα τεκνα ύμων), but in the fear and admonition of the Lord, according to the principles and directions of Jesus, which are far more excellent than all the doctrines of the Essenes. Col. 2: 8-10.

II. Children were to be made disciples.—Matth. 28: 19. Michaelis has proved, in his work On the history of the burial and resurrection of Christ (p. 336 &c), that the word μaðŋTεvoate signifies "to make disciples" and not "to teach," [as it is rendered in the common English version]. He proves-1. that no example can be adduced in which the word μaðŋtevei signifies "to teach." Nor could the word in the present case, have this signification, as Christ afterwards mentions "teaching," didaoxovtes, specifically.-2. In Acts 14: 21, the word μaðnTεvε evidently signifies" to make disciples" [here also it is erroneously rendered "taught" in the common English version]. This sense of the word can also be proved from the Fathers of the church. In profane authors it is never used in a transitive sense, though it frequently is used intransitively in the very sense for which we contend. Matth. 27: 57, "to be a disciple," μαθητευειν τινι. Christ probably used the word n, which is found in all the Oriental translations of this passage, and which, according to the common usage signifies "to make disciples."

τενειν

Wettstein also, in commenting on Matth. 28: 19, has proved at much length, that the word μadŋtevɛw may, with perfect propriety, be taken here in that general sense, in which children are also embraced in it.

III. There is nothing in the nature of baptism itself, which could militate against its administration to children. Little chil

1 Comp. Col. 3: 21. and Note 51 in Dissert. II. in Ep. ad Coloss. 2 του κυριου instead of τῳ κυριῳ an education which is pleasing to God, which promotes the glory of God. See Phil. 2: 30 in the Dissert, on that Epistle.