this world: I cannot bear the thought of being shut up in a coffin." Her mother advised her to pray to the Lord for deliverance from this fear of death. The next day she asked her, if she was more comfortable. "O yes," answered she, "the Lord has heard prayer: I have no fear of death now. The Lord is a very present help in trouble.”

(the day she died,) overpowered with pain and weakness, as her father entered the room, she said to him with tears, "You see I am not gone yet; O why cannot I die?" Sympathizing with her sufferings, he replied, "The will of God is our standard of duty and comfort; this is the happiness of the saints in heaven; and the more you are conformed to the will of God on earth, the more of heaven will you take into heaven." These words composed her mind.

The last three weeks of her life her Christian experience was evident, progressive, and happy. She said, "What a mercy it is that I have been afflicted, and this afflic- Whilst struggling with the last tion most graciously sanctified! Be- enemy, looking at those about her, fore I was afflicted I went astray, she said, "When shall I leave this but now I have kept thy word. It house of clay? I once dreaded beis good for me that I have been af-ing shut up in a coffin, but how vain! flicted, that I might learn thy sta- Glory, glory, glory! Why stay thy tutes. I would not change places chariot wheels? O come, blest Jesus, with any one in the world.-I do not come, and take my spirit to its heapray that my affliction may be re- venly home. I cannot breathe much moved, but that I may have strength longer. What agony I feel! O moto bear it without murmuring. ther, it is hard work!-Father, pray Lord Jesus, thy will be done.-I am for my release.-I did not think I not afraid to die.-Jesus, I love thy should die so hard. Lord, support charming name. Dying, I'll clasp me."-Her mother said, My dear thee in my arms, the antidote of child, the Lord seems to be predeath." On being asked if she paring you for an easy death." should like to recover, she replied, Raising her dying hands, she ex"Not to live a life of sin, for all the claimed with great earnestness, world." "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Saturday, October 21, her death appeared to be rapidly approaching. She said, “I think I shall go to-night. I have many times longed to spend the Sabbath with you since I have been afflicted; and if I should go to-night, you will long to spend it with me to-morrow. It cheers me to think of being with

Jesus Christ.

"There shall I see his face,

And never, never sin.' "' For further good the Lord spared her a few days longer. She spoke so feelingly to her youngest sister, that she came down in tears. One evening after family prayer in her chamber, she called to her younger brother, and said," Benjamin, do you pray? Yes," he replied. She said, you work in a shop where they sing foolish songs, and have nothing but vain talk, you have more need to pray to be kept from falling into temptation."

་་

?"

"As

On Friday morning, October 27,

sweetness, such as I feel at leaving thee; farewell till the resurrection

answered her father, " I think it very likely that before this sun goes down, you will see the Sun of righteous-morn: then I shall possess thee pure ness in all his glory." She then and immortal, like the glorious body said, with sweet composure, “Come, of my ascended Lord, never more to Lord Jesus, come quickly." To her part." father she said, “Stop a little longer, and you will see me go. I am dying now." About one in the afternoon, she looked affectionately on all around her, and silently took her last farewell of her sympathizing friends. Taking her right hand from her mother's lap, and folding it under her cheek on the pillow, she sweetly slept in Jesus, without a struggle or a groan. Surely, never did death appear in a more inviting form. The happy spirit seemed to say, "Farewell, dear body; I impress upon thy countenance the mark of placid

By her industry, besides paying for her own clothes, she had saved. four pounds. Her disposal of this money showed her love to Jesus Christ and his cause. She left £1 to the Sick Society belonging to Cannon-street congregation; to Newballstreet Meeting, where once she was' one of the singers, £1; to the Bible Society, £1; and £1 to the Baptist Missionary Society. May the Lord Jesus condescend to accept parental praise for the riches of his grace! Amen.

undertaken with the more pleasure, as the writer is not in this instance requir ed, as is too frequently the case, to repel severe censures and sarcasins. Mr. Burder appears in the field of con

troversy as the gentleman, the scholar, and the christian. It is his reasoning only which forms the subject of animadversion." Preface.

The ground which Mr. Burder has taken is thus stated.

How desirable is it that christians of different denominations should be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honour preferring one another;—that nothing "The very direct and manly way in should be either done or said through which Mr. Burder has commenced hosstrife or vainglory, but that in lowli- tilities is worthy of particular attention. ness of mind each should esteem the cable external covenant relation; nor He has not had recourse to an inexpliother better than themselves! And has he detained his readers by entering on the contrary, how indecorous is it, into the very frivolous distinction lately to say the least, when the servants attempted between house and houseof the God of peace envy one hold; nor has the question relating to another; when they vaunt them- the rabbinical practice of bathing pro selves, and are puffed up; when selytes gained much more than a passing they seek their own, and are easily notice. He takes a determined stand provoked! When shall these things on the covenant of grace-the covecease? We are happy in announcnant of redemption-the everlasting ing to our readers that the above-covenant-the covenant under which mentioned Sermon and this Reply are of a different description.

"The Task," says Mr. Birt, " of writing the following pages has been VOL. XIV.

desire, and all that Jehovah can impart.' From this covenant he professes to derive all his claims and arguments: this he makes the foundation upon

we live, embracing all that man can

which the whole of his system rests." | were entitled to circumcision of the Ibid.

ground of their connexion with their parents; therefore, infants, on the ground of their connexion with their parents, are entitled to baptism." P. 18.

We have attentively examined Mr. Birt's answers to these arguments, and have endeavoured if possible to detect any false reasoning in them, and we are obliged to

Mr. Burder "by no means pleads for the right of all infants to that ordinance, but for the right of those infants only whose parents, or one of whose parents, we should be authorized to baptize, in case baptism had not before been administered. The correct title to his Sermon would have been, "The exclusive right of the infants of believers to baptism."" P. 11. The basis of Mr. Burder's argu-say, not only that we think them ment is the connexion between pa- if we were not aware of the force of valid, but that we should wonder, rents and their infant offspring. education, how any Pædobaptist could read this Reply without becoming a Baptist. We shall now present our readers with a few extracts, in the form of Answers to Questions.

"Mr. Burder says, 'the point of primary importance in the present argument is, the connexion established under the former economy between parents and their infant offspring. By

virtue of that connexion infants were circumcised, and if that connexion has never been by Divine appointment dissolved or diminished, then, by virtue of that connexion, infants should be baptized.' This connexion, thus stated to have been established under the former economy, by virtue of which Mr. Burder says infants were circumcised," he represents as a connexion in the covenant of grace. He does not even in- | timate that the covenant of grace was in being, or that such a connexion subsisted between parents and their offspring, previously to the days of Abraham, but maintains that in his time, and with him, the Divine Being made the covenant of grace, containing a stipulation or establishment, which united children with their believing parents in all its interesting privileges, and that by virtue of this stipulation infants were formerly circumcised, and of course are now to be baptized." P. 12.

Mr. Burder endeavours to prove an analogy between circumcision and baptism.

1. Is not a profession of faith requisite previously to baptism? Answer. Yes. The Baptists require this profession from the candidate; the Episcopalians, from the sponsor; and Mr. Burder and his friends, from the parent, or parents.

"Both [of the latter] parties, by rejecting personal religion, and acting on the supposition of that which is relative, are equally opposed to the Baptists. The majority of Pædobaptists in general believe in baptismal regeneration, while the minority as generally assert that the children of believers have a common interest with their parents in the covenant of grace. The blessing claimed on each side is of the utmost importance, yet neither party refers to evidence for its belief; but they both, like the advocates of transubstantiation, believe, notwithstandis not by its fruits we are made acing the entire absence of evidence. It quainted with the value or importance of infant baptism. With one class of its patrons it assumes regeneration without conversion, and with the other, holiness without piety. It is, on every ground hitherto taken for its support, a cause that in this world produces no effect-a means connected with no end

"His argument is this: That the ordinance of circumcision, which belonged to the covenant with Abraham, was designed to exhibit the very same blessings which are denoted by the ordinance of baptism.' The argument,' he says, may be divested of all com- a cloud that affords no rain-a tree plexity. The covenant with Abraham that yields no fruit." P. 6. Should it is the same in substance with that be objected that the apostle calls the under which we live. The same bless-children of a believing parent holy, notings of that covenant are denoted both by circumcision and by baptism. The Covenant, then, being the same, and the ordinance being in import the same, the subjects entitled to its administration are also the same, But infants

withstanding the unbelief of the other parent;-we reply, that this holiness was not, like that for which Mr. Burder pleads, connected with the covenant of grace, but a lawfulness to be retained in opposition to being put away,

See Ezra x. 3;-a holiness, like that of meats, which, though forbidden under the law, are lawful to be eaten under the gospel, being sanctified, or made holy, by the word of God and prayer. See 1 Tim. i. 3—5

2. Do the Baptists withhold from their children any thing truly valuable?

not through a connexion with Abraham, or any other believer, that we are ac cepted of God, and obtain an interest in his covenant and grace," P. 16,

The argument from the covenant made with Abraham, if it have any force at all, is in favour of the Bap tists, and against Mr. Burder. "As many of you as have been baptized in"The Baptists yield to none of their toChrist have put on Christ. There fellow-christians in appreciating the is neither Jew nor Greek, there is advantages attendant on children being neither bond nor free, there is nei born in a country where the true God ther male nor female: for ye are all is acknowledged, his testimonies made one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be known, and his prescribed worship ob- Christ's, THEN ARE YE ABRAHAM'S served. No class of the community SEED, and heirs according to the can estimate more highly than they promise." Gal. iii. 27-29. Accorddo, the superior privileges of those ing to this reasoning of the apostle, children, whose parents, by their example and pious care, train them up in the seed of Abraham NOW are they the nurture and admonition of the who have put on Christ, and who are Lord. On these points there is no dif- the "children of God by faith." The ference. It is to the claim of a special example of circumcision also is a and exclusive interest for the descend-gainst Mr. Burder. He and his ents of believers in spiritual and eter-friends defend the baptism of the nal blessings that Mr. Burder gives his support, and to which the Baptists object. It is on this question that in these strictures we are at issue." P. 7.

3. Was the covenant which God made with Abraham and his seed the covenant of grace?

"So far are the Holy Scriptures from representing Abraham as the federal head, in the covenant of grace, that he is scarcely, if at all, exhibited even as a type of the Messiah. In this point of view, Melchisedec and others are greatly pre-eminent to Abraham. On account of his eminent faith and obedience, Abraham is presented to us as the pattern of believers, and has the honour to be styled, the father of all them that believe, and the friend of God. But in the covenant of grace, the covenant of redemption, the everlasting covenant, the covenant under which we live,' he has no pre-eminence over any other true believer in our Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham saw his day, and was glad, and obtained his interest in the covenant of grace, and a participation of its blessings solely by FAITH in him, who is head over all things to the church;' and this honour have all the saints of every age, country, and description, under heaven. They are, without exception, heirs of God, aud joint heirs with Christ, whose righteousness is unto all, and upon all that believe, for there is no difference. It is by believing in Christ ourselves,

infants of believing parents only: whereas circumcision was administered to all the male infants without distinction.

4. What was the design of circumcision? Answer. To keep distinct from the rest of the world that people from which the Messiah was to spring.

"Thus it appears that circumcision was solely an appendage to the nationmade with Abraham-that pious paal and temporary covenant which God rentage constituted neither the reason nor rule of its administration-and that it was merely a Jewish rite, appointed by God, like its fellows, for a particular purpose, and for a specific time. This time being filled up, and the Divine purpose accomplished by the appearance and work of the Son of God, it was laid aside, with the whole ritual of the Jews, as a garment worn out and of no further service." P. 25.

5. Are our Pædobaptist brethren consistent with themselves?

"We and they unanimously caution men against all creature dependence, and testify to the Jew and also to the Greek, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. The Baptists bear their common testimony at the font, but there our brethren drop it; and in direct opposition to the injunction of the gospel, they teach men to say within themselves, We have Abraham to our father."" P. 31.

which the whole of his system rests." were Ibid.

grou Mr. Burder "by no means pleads par for the right of all infants to that ordi- gr nance, but for the right of those infants only whose parents, or one of whose parents, we should be authorized to baptize, in case baptism had no before been administered. The corre title to his Sermon would have be "The exclusive right of the infan believers to baptism."" P. 11.

The basis of Mr. Burder ment is the connexion bet rents and their infant offsp

"Mr. Burder says, primary importance in the ment is, the connexi under the former e parents and their inf virtue of that conn circumcised, and if never been by Di solved or dimir of that conneTM baptized.' T to have beer mer econo

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iconwho die in

and certainly distinction." P. 9.

vy. Bu children."

was the ground take. ancients for administering usm and the Lord's-supper to infants? Answer. The supposition that they were necessary to salvation.

"In this part of Christendom, the notion of the eucharist's being essential to the salvation of dying babes is ex

o the Pædobaptists | ploded, and the practice of infant comAuswer. Not, if they munion has consequently ceased. Let with themselves. For it only be conceded that dying babes are saved, and ism, with a partial, the practice of infant bastism would also very speedily and equally decline. dawful aspect, makes a

without distinction

order amongst dying babes The whole solicitude of Christians se of regeneration, and a very and personal religion." P. 9. ing a comparatively small number would then be directed to moral agents, others in the covenant of grace, We hope that this work will be leasing the vast and incalculable madestitute of those blessings, extensively read, on account not we are essentially necessary to their only of the powerfulness of its reaare and eternal felicity.* Spartially considers this subject, can avoid being thankful that the Bible does not lead him to so awful a conclusion, and that he is not by Divine

Who that

soning, but also of the excellency of its spirit.

authority connected with a practice, Supreme Attachment to the House of the implications of which are so truly appalling? But although the sentiments of the Baptists on this subject, are so benevolent and unrestricted as to lead

God, exemplified in the Character of David. A Sermon occasioned by the Decease of Mr. Daniel Humphrey, a worthy Deacon of the Church in Eagle-street, Holborn, London; Preached on Lord's-day, Nov. 11, 1821. To which is appended on Address delivered at the Interment. By Joseph Ivimey. pp. 31.

The High-church Clergy, who so freely and severely censure the doctrines of Calvin on account of their predestinarian principles, would do well to consider, that their practice of infant baptism, and their notion of In this Funeral Sermon and Adbaptismal regeneration, imply a repro- dress, Mr. Ivimey has piously and bation of myriads of children who die affectionately discharged a mournin infancy, which far surpasses in hor-ful duty; and, in calling the attenror any doctrine which even they them-tion of survivors to those excellencies selves can impute to Calvinism. These Divines should first take the beam out of character and conduct by which of their own eyes (eye), before they the deceased was honourably disattempt to remove the mote out of their tinguished, he has neither omitted to brother's eye." refer to their evangelical origin, nor