'it dieth before bishoping? They be confirmed at the ' time of discretion, to learn that which they professed, in the lack thereof, in baptism; taught in age that which they received in infancy; and yet no doubt 'but they be saved by Baptism, not by Confirmation; and made Christ's by christening, and taught how 'to continue by Confirmation .' If children then are made Christ's, and saved by Baptism, previously to a personal assumption of the promise and vow entered into in their name by their sponsors, which personal assumption does not take place till Confirmation, it is plain, that their primary acceptance into Divine favour cannot depend upon the event of their subsequent continuance in it. And it is likewise plain, that the benefits, which they are here stated to receive by Baptism, are believed to be as universal as the administration of the sacrament itself.

I shall finish my reference to the public authorities of the Reformation with the opinion of Cranmer. Upon this, however, there is no necessity of being diffuse, as I have already pointed out the inseparable connection, which he held to exist, between Regeneration and Baptism. I shall therefore only quote a single passage from his book against Gardiner, in which he expresses himself too unequivocally to be mistaken by any one, not disposed to pervert his meaning. 'In Baptism,'

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he says, we must think, that as the priest putteth his hand to the child outwardly, and washeth him with

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water, so must we think, that God putteth to his

hand inwardly, and washeth the infant with his Holy Spirit; and moreover, that Christ himself 'cometh down upon the infant and apparelleth him ' with his own self.'

P Fox's Acts and Monuments, vol. ii. p. 667, 668. ed. 1641.

9 P. 444. ed. 1551. His last sentiments upon the point are thus

CHAP. X.

Recapitulation. Office of Infant Baptism. Salvation of unbaptized Children. Comparison between the respective Offices of Adult and Infant Baptism. Inconsistent Reasoning of the Calvinistical Party. Present Controversy no Logomachy. Uniformity of Opinion unattainable.

BEFORE I Conclude my remarks upon this subject, I shall briefly recapitulate some of the leading points contained in them.

From the obvious import of the language adopted in our Liturgy, from the common form of doctrine held by all the Reformers, Calvin alone excepted, from the early records of our own Reformation, particularly from the writings of Cranmer, who principally conducted that Reformation, and published those writings to promote it, and finally, from the avowed sentiments of the Anti-Calvinistical party, who in the last instance revised our Baptismal Offices, and added a new one for the baptism of adults, I have sufficiently proved, I trust, that Regeneration is contemplated by the Church of England as the appropriate effect of Baptism. To deprive that sacrament of all spiritual efficacy, and to represent it as the mere attestation of the Church to an especial grace which has been previously, or may be subsequently, received, seems little better than to attempt the reduction of it to the old Anabaptistical standard, to a bare sign or symbol of the most lamentable inefficiency.

recorded by Fox, as delivered in the disputation at Oxford, not long before his martyrdom. That doctrine,' he emphatically asserted, is not to be suffered in the Church, which teacheth, that we are not joined to Christ by baptism.' And again: Infants, when they are baptized, do eat the flesh of Christ;' evidently meaning, that they participate in the benefits of his passion. Acts and Monuments, vol. iii. p. 55.

Turning then our attention to the baptism of infants, according to the order of our respective Offices in point of antiquity, we may say, that our Church believes every child to be unregenerated before, and regenerated after, baptism; regenerated absolutely and universally, without the slightest restrictions; and that to this act of Regeneration, her Creed attaches a real state of Divine favour and election, combined with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Nor must we suppose her to ground the efficacy of the sacrament upon the assumption of any previous peculiar disposition possessed by certain infants, to be evidenced in maturer years; but solely upon God's universal promise, and his good-will, declared by his Son Jesus Christ, towards all infants brought to his holy baptism. Her principles are too liberal, to attribute to our almighty and most merciful 'Father' a personal distinction in the donation of his blessings, between those who are alike incapable of individually offending him by actual crime; and too rational to dream of a positive, where nothing but a negative, qualification can be supposed to preexist. Hence, from her idea of the universality of baptismal efficacy, where no disqualification of crime, as in the case of infants, is imputable to the recipient, she pronounces it to be certain by God's word, that children, which are 'baptized, dying before they commit actual sin, are

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' undoubtedly saved;' a persuasion inconsistent with the very basis of Calvinistical Predestination.

Upon the question of the salvation of infants dying unbaptized, our Liturgy is altogether silent; because, in providing an Office for the attainment of security, to have speculated upon the extent of Divine mercy, independent of the prescribed means of grace, would have been perhaps unwise, and certainly irrelevant to the professed object in her view. I should however remark,

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that, in deciding against the exclusion of all unbaptized infants from salvation, the continental Reformers were unanimous; nor is the last of their number, Calvin himself, to be excepted, who nevertheless did not adopt this decision without certain obvious restrictions peculiar to his creed". The sentiments of our own Reformers upon the subject were not, we may presume, fastidiously singular. Nor is this presumption wholly destitute of proof; for, to omit other circumstances, in a public document, which was drawn up for the reformation of ecclesiastical laws, by virtue of a royal commission, under the presidency of Cranmer, the exclusion of unbaptized infants from salvation is expressly denominated a scrupulous and impious superstition b.

But, although our Liturgy itself contains no direct allusion to this particular point, an indirect one occurs. In the Catechism the sacraments are stated to be, not

a The Zuinglians admitted to salvation all infants, dying unbaptized, of every description; the Lutherans all born of Christian parents, and perhaps (they argued) all others, adding however, that this latter point had not been clearly revealed; but Calvin only those whom God may have included in a secret decree of predestination; to which number he conceived the children, not of mere Christian, but of truly pious, parents to have the greatest chance of belonging.

b Illorum etiam impia videri debet scrupulosa superstitio, qui Dei gratiam et Spiritum Sanctum tantopere cum sacramentorum ' elementis colligant, ut plane affirment, nullum Christianorum in'fantem æternam salutem esse consecuturum, qui prius morte fuerit occupatus, quam ad baptismum adduci potuerit; quod longe secus habere judicamus. Salus enim illis solum adimitur, qui sacrum hunc baptismi fontem contemnunt, aut superbia quadam ab eo vel contumaciter resiliunt; quæ importunitas, cum in puerorum ætatem non cadat, nihil contra salutem illorum authoritati scripturarum decerni potest.' Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, p. 17. See also Bampton Lecture, pp. 68, 275. pp. 70, 265. third edit.

universally, but only generally, necessary to salvation;' a statement which plainly implies, that salvation may be attainable without them.

If therefore we acquit our Church (as in reason we ought) of excluding from mercy those who are prevented by the fault of others from participating in the sacrament of Regeneration, it will be absurd to accuse her of professing a weak and childish reverence for the ideal sanctity of a mere sacramental element. It will be absurd to suppose, because she considers baptism as the ordinary and certain means of salvation in infancy, that she therefore attributes this effect to the bare external administration of the holy rite, according to the scholastical phrase, ex opere operato. For it is not to the virtue of the consecrated element, but to the word of God, that she ascribes it; to that word of God which does not return unto him void, but accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent.

When these things are duly considered, we immediately perceive the reason, why the Office for the baptism of infants was subsequently adopted, with a few slight alterations, for that also of adults. The sense ascribed to the former Office by those who compiled the latter remains on record; and I have shewn, that it precisely corresponded with that for which I have been contending. Indeed, because some doubts upon the point were then raised, they revised the former Office itself, and made an addition to it for the express purpose of removing them. With the full persuasion therefore, that 'Baptism is our spiritual Regeneration,' and that God's sacraments have their effects, where 'the receiver does not put any bar against them,' when compiling a Baptismal Office for those solely, who truly repent and believe in riper years, they adopted the almost entire form which had been previously ap

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