cannot sin, because he is born of God." Ibid. iii. 9.

"In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother Ibid. iii. 10.

"Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." Ibid. iv. 7.

"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him." Ibid. v. 1.

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Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." Ibid. v. 4.

"We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." Ibid. v. 18.

The foregoing quotations from the Epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. John seem to suggest the following considerations:

1. That the change by which any of the children of the Wicked One become children of God, is of the highest possible importance; essential to salvation; and in strict agreement with the representation given by our Lord, himself, in his conversation with Nicodemus.

2. They contain no allusion to infants; but evidently refer to conscious and responsible individuals.

3. That we are divinely authorized to regard adults and young persons, in whom the scriptural evidences of the new birth, or spiritual regeneration, distinctly appear, as children of God.

4. That as an infant cannot possibly exhibit the evidences of such spiritual change, we are not warranted to affirm concerning any infant, baptized or unbaptized, that such change has passed upon him without express revelation from heaven; as in the cases of Jeremiah and John the Baptist, assuming that what is affirmed in Scripture concerning them has respect to such spiritual regeneration.

5. That if infant baptism, duly administered, really has the efficacy attributed to it, the child receiving it would, as his mental and moral powers unfolded, afford evidence of the fact.

6. That when one so baptized has attained the proper exercise of his intellectual and moral faculties, and does not exhibit the specific characteristics of a child of God, as delineated by the pen of inspiration, we are warranted to conclude, that he is not a child of God; both on the ground of the absence of the specific marks required, and on the principle indicated by our Lord himself, "by their fruits ye shall know them."

7. That the spiritual renovation represented both by our Lord and his Apostles as essential to salvation, would, in the case of such child, and in every similar case, remain still to be performed;

since it is not the fact of its having been baptized that would prove its fitness for heaven, but its habitual and unequivocal manifestation of the scriptural characteristics of a child of God, as contradistinguished from the children of the world.

8. That as the spiritual birth of the soul is, in reference to every man, the most important event of all others, and the internal origin and spring of all the present and future happiness of every true believer in Christ; as it is essential to the consummation of the work of human redemption in all persons, and associated with the highest glory to the triune Deity, it follows, that whatever doctrine, or opinion, has a tendency to diminish the importance of such spiritual change, and to obstruct, or prevent, its accomplishment, must be dishonouring as regards God, and destructive as regards man, in degrees beyond the power of human language to describe.

9. That, as the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, both in its principle, and in its practical operation, does really obstruct, and even actually supersede the necessity for, such essential spiritual change, it necessarily incurs the imputation of tending in the highest degree to the dishonour of God, and the destruction of the souls of men.

10. That, as the Church Catechism, in the plainest and most unambiguous language, inculcates this doctrine, it must be, in the highest

degree, inexpedient, and perilous to continue the use of it, in its present form, as a manual of instruction.

In what I have now taken the liberty to address to your Grace, I have, as proposed, confined myself to that portion of the Catechism which requires the catechumen to declare, that he was in his baptism made a" child of God." It is evident, however, that similar objections lie against the other two declarations which are put into the child's mouth, viz. that he was, by baptism, in his infancy, made "a member of Christ," and "an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven;" assertions apparently as anti-scriptural, as that to which the preceding observations are intended to apply, and, perhaps, equally injurious in their influence. Had the inventive powers of the human mind been taxed to the utmost, to discover the most compendious and effectual means, under the guise of religion, of extinguishing the light of the Gospel ; of preventing the salvation of the soul, and of leading men down to the chambers of eternal death and despair, may it not be reasonably inquired whether any possible exertion of those powers could have produced means more fitly adapted to accomplish these disastrous issues, than the brief, but most comprehensive, passage in the Church Catechism now in question? While one of the primary objects of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to lead men to regard the blessings and

privileges, mentioned in this passage of the Catechism, as of essential and transcendent importance, and such as every man should make it his first business to attain, is not, my Lord, its apparent tendency to reduce the importance of these privileges and blessings to the utmost conceivable point, and to prevent men, not only from pursuing them as infinitely valuable and indispensable objects of attainment, but even from considering them, subsequently to the administration of the rite of baptism, as at all necessary? Should your Grace feel hesitation on the subject of assent to these questions, I would fain cherish the hope, that the subjoined considerations, in reference to some of the preceding series of quotations from the New Testament, may tend to remove it. The passages I purpose to select, describe, as children of God,

I. Those who believe in the name of Jesus Christ. John i. 12. (Vide page 7.)

To believe in the name of Jesus Christ, I doubt not, your Grace will admit, is to believe in the twofold constitution of his person; in the divinity of his mission; in the truth of his doctrine; in the facts of his history, particularly in his atoning death, resurrection and ascension; in the promised bestowment of the Holy Spirit, and generally in the nature, objects and effects of his mediatorial work; and, consequently, that those persons who have this faith possess an intelligent and spiritual