aggregated. For preserving the memory of the transaction in question,-instead of a transient operation, such as was the application of water to the body in question, suppose the object employed to have been an entry in a Baptism book:-of the transaction in question what would have been the sign?-not the leaf of the book in its blank state, but the mark made-the words written-on that leaf.

In itself nothing can be more trifling than such an inaccuracy: the real matter of regret is-that in this body of pretended instruction, composed by a man who understood not what he wrote, a child should be forced to declare himself to understand, that which, neither to himself nor any one else, is any thing better than unintelligible,

(2). "Wherein the person is baptized"-not wherewith, but wherein-Alas! alas! what a scene of horror presents itself to view! The baptism then must be by immersion-by a thorough dipping or it is no baptism. The whole ceremony-all null and void! Of the myriads in a year, who, under the Church of England discipline, are said to be baptized, how many are the really baptized?-Not one!

All, all of us heathens! all a prey to Satan!all children of wrath! (so we shall see the next answer saying)-all" alive to sin !"-all "dead to righteousness!"-the best works we ever do, or can do, no better than so many sins!!!

(3). [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.]-Here we have a short string of sounds-sounds that are in use to per

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form the office of names-and, by the texture thus given to a mouthful of air, note well the effects produced! a human being rescued or not rescued from a state of endless torment! And, to such an operation, in the character of a cause,-by whom by what-have such effects been attached? -By the deluded or deluding imaginations of a set of presumptuous and domineering men.-Under the name of magic, or some such name, state the same conceit as issuing from a heathen brain, -execration or derision, instead of awe and veneration, are the sentiments it calls forth.

Question 15th.-What is the inward and spiritual grace ? Answer. A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness; for being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace.

OBSERVATIONS.

Note well the sort of story that is here told.The Almighty God,-maker of all things visible and "invisible"- -" of heaven and earth, and all that therein is"-makes, amongst other things, a child; and no sooner has he made it, than he is "wrath" with it for being made. He determines accordingly to consign it to a state of endless torture. Meantime comes somebody,-and, pronouncing certain words, applies the child to a quantity of water, or a quantity of water to the child. Moved by these words, the all-wise Being changes his design; and, though he is not so far appeased as to give the child its pardon, vouchsafes to it a chance-no one can say what chance -of ultimate escape. And this is what the child gets by being " made”—and we see in what way made-" a child of grace."

Thereupon comes the sort of wit, ghostly and ghastly, which, on such occasions, has been so plentifully played off: there we have death, and here we have new birth: death unto sin, new birth unto righteousness. And in this wit we have a subject-not merely for admiration, but moreover for belief:-for belief, of the withholding of which, as if it were in the power of every man to believe or not believe what he pleased, the consequence is what at every turn, and upon every occasion, stares us in the face-a state of endless torture.

Question 16th.-What is required of persons to be baptized?

Answer-Repentance, whereby they forsake sin; and faith, whereby they stedfastly believe the promises of God made to them in that sacrament.

OBSERVATIONS.

Obvious indeed are the observations suggested by this answer. But forasmuch as by the next question these observations are themselves undertaken to be obviated, let this next question, with the answers which it is employed to call forth, be first heard.

Question 17th.-Why then are infants baptized, when, by reason of their tender age, they cannot perform them? Answer.-Because they promise them both by their sureties: which promise, when they come to age, themselves are bound to perform.

OBSERVATIONS.

[Perform them ?]-Perform what ?-Here may be seen a cloud of obscurity and ambiguity, derived from a sort of source-a purely grammatical one-such as in a composition so highly elaborated, and so abundantly examined, would not

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naturally have been looked for. Of such things as are in their nature capable of being performed," the last thing mentioned,-not to say the only thing,-is what is brought to view by the word promises. Yet, on a little reflection, these things, viz. promises, (it will be seen) can not be among the things here in view.-Why ?-Answer -Because God is the person by whom these promises were stated as being made. But, not even in such a composition as this, can it have been supposed or pretended, that when God is the person by whom a promise is made, the person by whom that promise is to be performed is an infant. -An infant? Yea, a just-born infant :—the time allowed for performance being no longer than the interval between its birth and the age at which baptism is commonly administered: an interval commonly of between a week and a fortnight.

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Look a little forwards however, and then a little backwards, and it will be sufficiently clear that, though the things to be performed are indeed promises, yet the person, by whom they are to be performed, is-not the least antecedent, viz. God, but the infant the infant who is considered as the subject of the operation in question, viz. baptism. Why not God but the infant?—Answer, for this plain reason:-because the acts which are held up to view in the character of subjects of promise are "Faith and Repentance;" to wit, the Faith and Repentance above spoken of.

It is not, however, without some violence to grammar-some violation of the rules of grammar -that the language is here reconcileable to the rules of common sense. The number employed in the 16th question is the singular number." What

is required:" the number employed in the 17th question, by which, with its answer, the answer to that 16th question is undertaken to be explained, is the plural number: "Perform them," says the 17th question: promise them, says the answer to it. And this promise them, of what is it the representative? Why-as turns out immediately after-of two things. Here then, between question the 16th (i. e. the question, to which, it being, and with so much reason, considered, that explanation is wanting, explanation, such as we see, is accordingly given)-between this 16th question and question 17th (i. e. the question employed to explain it) a contradiction exhibits itself. Believe the explained question, there is but one thing required: believe the explaining question, there are two things-two very different things, both, required: viz. the faith and the repentance. These are the them which, viz. by their sureties, the children promised: these are the them which, viz. by themselves, they are to perform. For so it is, that according to this law and this divinity, they themselves are thus to be sureties for their own sureties.

From the grammatical, return we now to the religious ground: and thereon to what remains of the task which the poor child has to go through with.

Two things, as above, he is required to do: and that because once upon a time, without knowing any thing about the matter, he promised to do them he promised, that is, other people did, which comes to the same thing. These things are-to repent of sin, whether he has committed