through the want of its proper nourishment, that life may have utterly decayed. Alas! that parents, who are ready to toil-yea, sacrifice themselves, if necessary, for their children's bodily health, should ever forget that their souls require a still greater measure of watchfulness and care.

But the limits assigned to our discourse are already passed, my brethren, and I should be unwilling to weary you. The evidence of Scripture, the objection to sponsors, the testimony of the Primitive Church, and such other points as may be necessary, will therefore, be postponed to our next lecture.

LECTURE III.

JOHN III. 5.

EXCEPT À MAN BE BORN OF WATER, AND OF THE SPIRIT, HE CANNOT ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

THE proper character of the blessed sacrament of baptism, as being the ordinance in which our regeneration, or adoption, is perfected, and we become entitled to the precious appellation of the children of God, was the subject of my last lecture, in which, I trust, it was rendered sufficiently clear that a true spiritual change of heart, called in Scripture, repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, was required distinctly, before baptism, in the case of every adult, and after baptism, in the case of every infant. The design of the present lecture is to examine, first, the objections which our Christian friends, of the various sects, make against the sponsors in baptism; secondly, to exhibit the Scriptural evidence belonging to the subject at large; and thirdly, to state the sentiments of the Primitive Christians, and of some of the most distinguished reformers. On the survey of the whole, you will have no difficulty in determining whether the doctrine of the Church, however misunderstood and misrepresented in our day, does not deserve the praise of being called, Scriptural and Apostolic doctrine.

1. First, then, I am to answer the objection made to the office of sponsor in infant baptism. Our rule requires

that three persons, if they can be had, should present each child; two men and one woman, if the child be a male, but two women and one man, if the child be a female. These persons are called God-fathers and God-mothers, because they do the part of a father and mother before God, in dedicating the infant to his service. They are also called sponsors, because they answer for the infant those questions which adults are required to answer for themselves. And herein, say our brethren, is a great absurdity, that any one should undertake to answer for an infant in the solemn duties of religion. A little examination, perhaps, will show, that if this be an absurdity, it is one which runs through the whole frame and constitution of human law, and is by no means peculiar to the case before us.

Let it be well noted, then, as the foundation of this whole matter, that baptism is the act of our adoption. That this act is founded upon a covenant between the Almighty and his creature, in which the creature promises to forsake all that the Lord forbids, to believe all that he reveals, and to do all that he commands: and the Lord, for the sake of the merits and atonement of Christ, and on the conditions covenanted by the creature, promises to pardon his sins, to give him the influences of his Spirit, to bestow upon him the name and privileges of a son, and to be to him a Father. Previous to the act of infant baptism, the minister sets forth the promise made by the Lord in the first place, and then adds, addressing the sponsors, "Wherefore, after this promise made by Christ, this infant must also faithfully for his part, promise by you that are his sureties, until he come of age to take it upon himself, that he will renounce the devil and all his works, and constantly believe God's holy Word, and obediently keep his commandments."

But instead of promise in the

It is very manifest, therefore, that the Church does not ask the sponsors to undertake, in their own persons, that the infant shall keep the baptismal vow. If this were required it might be called an absurdity. this, the Church demands that they shall name of the infant, and considers the infant as answering through them; as undertaking, by their instrumentality, his part of the solemn covenant, on the condition of which, the mercy of God, through Christ, is to be extended to him. Now that this is no absurdity, but a universal principle of law, will be evident on a very brief recurrence to human analogy.

Take, for example, the common case, where orphan or destitute children are bound to a master or mistress, by the overseers of the poor. The indenture by which this is done, is an instrument of writing, containing a mutual agreement, in which the infant promises faithfulness, obedience, and industry, and the master or mistress promises to feed, clothe, instruct, and provide for the infant. Now in this case, every man who has seen such an instrument knows, that the overseers undertake the duties to be performed by the child, and sign their names for him and on his behalf; and yet no one ever supposed that this signing makes them accountable in their own persons; because the duties belong to the infant, the whole transaction is for his benefit, and the law holds him bound to fulfil his part of the contract as soon as he is able to understand it, and punishes him if he refuses to obey.

The same principle occurs when parents bind their own children as apprentices. They undertake for and in the name of their sons, all the duties which belong to that part of the covenant; and if their children fail to perform them, the parents are never held personally liable, for the

the same reason, viz., because it is the children's contract, and not the parents', although the parents sign it, in their

name.

Nor is this principle of law confined to these cases alone. On the contrary, it applies to every other transaction of importance, in which the interests of children are involved. Thus a father, desirous to leave an estate to his son, appoints guardians by his will; or if there be no will appointing guardians, the courts of law will appoint such persons as the Judges think proper, and all the business of the infant must be conducted through his legal representatives until he becomes of age. These guardians buy and sell, lease and release, pay and receive; and all their acts (if legally performed,) bind the infant, on the very same ground; the law allowing them to act for the child's benefit, because he has not understanding sufficient to act for himself.

Here, then, we see a universal principle of law, which was never yet called an absurdity, but admitted by all reflecting men, to be reasonable, just, and necessary. And in no case can it operate with greater force, than in the solemn covenant on which is founded the ordinance of baptism for no covenant can be more perfectly conditional than the covenant of salvation. The Lord, indeed, grants to the infant the privilege of adoption forthwith ; accepting on his behalf, the repentance and faith of those who present him, which suffices until he is able to fulfil the appointed duties of his profession in his own person. All this, however, is on the express condition that he will be faithful and obedient in due time; for if he be not, baptism will not save him, but he will be cast out of his heavenly Father's favor,-disinherited, and his spiritual birth-right will be forfeited forever.