providing this formulary, but also in not leaving the duty of instruction entirely to the parents; but making it the business of the Church itself, by enjoining upon the clergy the duty of catechizing; and by continuing the institution of sponsors, whom they wished to be persons capable of supplying any deficiency arising from the decease, incapacity, or negligence of the parents, as well as charitably disposed to execute the task. In the present temper of society, perhaps little is to be expected from this quarter; if so, it becomes still more incumbent upon the ministers of the Church, to use every means of remedying the deficiency, but especially to take advantage of that invaluable opportunity of ministerial usefulness, which the season preparatory to Confirmation affords us. Were the intentions of the Church duly fulfilled in this particular, what a powerful instrument would be provided for bringing about a general reformation in morals, so much so, that in time we would venture to hope it would render unnecessary those revolting exhibitions of the terrors of inexorable justice*, which unavoidably harden and exasperate, even while they deter. It is no small misfortune to the Church that a fastidious taste, which prefers display and effect to real utility, should Alluding to a late Execution.

a

have brought into disuse that very profitable part of the regular service, the public catechizing, in the presence of the congregation; a practice, which in addition to the benefit which the children now derive, would also present to the parents the most intelligible statement of Christian doctrine, and an exemplar of the true mode of religious discipline.

A

To proceed then with our enquiry after that method, which may be truly described as the "nurture and admonition of the Lord." knowledge of the relationship, in which we stand to the Lord, is most surely an indispensable requisite. The doctrine of our redemption by Jesus Christ must be unfolded to the understanding of youth in a plain and simple manner, as the sole means whereby we become reconciled to God and restored to his favour; for this, being a work which we could never accomplish, is therefore not required of us, but has been completed by another on our behalf: they must be made to understand, that by virtue of their admission into the Christian Church, they are become members of Christ, and partakers of this great salvation; that their sins and frailties have the promise of pardon, and that they are now required to present the sincere obedience of children, instead of attempting to fulfil the impracticable task which

is sometimes proposed to them; for by their union to Christ the Son of God, they are made the adopted children of God, and may now regard the Almighty no longer as an offended Judge to be appeased, or as a Being wholly indifferent and unconcerned, whose favour needs to be purchased, but as their heavenly Father, to whom they are encouraged by past experience to look up for favour and protection, forbearance and forgiveness, aid and direction, and to look forward to their Father's house above as their home and inheritance; nay more than this, for they are already heirs in possession of the spiritual privileges of the Gospel dispensation, as they are heirs through. hope of God's eternal kingdom of glory in heaven. The former constitute an earnest of the latter, and render them the children of grace, not only in the sense of pardon, but as possessing also the gift of divine life and spiritual strength, by the Holy Ghost. A serious reflection here presents itself, whether the endeavours of youth have not frequently been discouraged by a sense of weakness and insufficiency, or even frustrated by repeated failure, solely because their minds have been left in total ignorance, both of the state of salvation into which they have been brought, and of the gracious promise of strength from

above to which the Gospel entitles them: they are thus robbed of their birthright, and the loss of it is, we see, but indifferently compensated, by the usual routine of worldly motives and rewards, unaided resolutions of amendment, or equally inefficient threatenings and punishments. Strictly in point is the advice given by St. Paul to the Colossians, in words similar to those of our text, " Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged "." In truth, we cannot advance a step in the Christian course, without the consolatory promise of pardon and acceptance through Christ, and of the aid of his Spirit: of this we are assured by our Lord himself, in those memorable words, "As the branch cannot bring forth fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in mec."

The Church, regarding all exhortations to a Christian life and holiness upon any other principle as vain and useless, directs the attention of the learner in the first place to that solemn ordinance of which he is already a partaker, and would have him intelligibly instructed as to the nature of the great benefits derived to him by its means. Covenanted blessings naturally require some such ordi

nance by which they may be communicated and secured, as by a sealed and irrevocable instrument. Such is our baptism: too often it is true regarded as a ceremony useful only for civil purposes, or a mere ecclesiastical rite, instead of a SACRAMENT OF THE GOSPEL, and such an one, as no fear of a charge of popery ought to deter us from maintaining in its full force and efficacy. Asserting as we do in the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, that the outward sign is an effectual means of conveying the thing signified, to infants absolutely, and to adults upon a sincere profession, we are hardly liable to the charge of making the former to be all that is required. Speaking accurately (as we are supposed to do) according to the definitions of the Catechism, which lay it down that a sacrament must consist of two parts, an outward and an inward, both together constituting the essence, the proposition that baptism is regeneration may be inverted, and substituting the definition of the Sacrament for its name, it will stand as follows: -Regeneration is a new birth from sin to righteousness, by which, from having been children of wrath, we are made children of grace, and this benefit is communicated and secured as well as represented, by the outward washing of water in the name of the holy Trinity,