ment, and to encourage all within the pale of the Church to enjoy the one and to discharge the other. Our Church assumes that all who are engaged in the ordinance, are "persuaded of the good-will of our heavenly Father towards this Infant, declared by his Son Jesus Christ: and" are "nothing doubting but that he favourably alloweth this charitable work of ours, in bringing this Infant to his holy Baptism." It assumes, therefore, that all such are convinced of the excellence of the rite, and of the propriety of its institution. And to such all further mention of the grounds of Infant-baptism might seem superfluous. But so low is the general estimate of Baptism among us, that it is to be feared, that few have taken pains to inform themselves of the grounds on which the Baptism of Infants rests. The introduction, therefore, of the more obvious reasons for the administration of Baptism to Infants seems indispensable.

I say "the more obvious reasons," for it would be quite inconsistent with the plan of this letter, as well as unjust to the subject itself, to attempt any thing like a complete statement of all the grounds that may be adduced in favour of Infant-baptism, within the short compass proposed. What I shall offer, by the blessing of God, are such as are conclusive in deciding my own mind on the subject; and if they should appear to be insufficient to any who may favor

them with a perusal, I must refer such to the authors who have written professedly on the question.

I am aware that the acceptance which this subject will find, will vary with the quarter from which it is presented. If it come from the regions of controversy, and address itself dryly to the mind, apart from those circumstances in which fallen man is found as a rebel to his God, desirous of reconciliation to his favour, and anxious for every mark and pledge which may assure to him and his, the possession of that favor; it will meet with a cold reception probably, and produce no greater effect than the attempts which have preceded it. From those regions of controversy, therefore, where mere mind reigns devoid of feeling, and intolerant prejudice banishes the kindlier dispositions of the heart, I make no approach. Religion is only really acceptable to a mind rightly disposed, or what the Scripture calls an "understanding heart." We do not so much need the logical acuteness of the head to comprehend ideas, as the kindly disposition of the heart to approve and to embrace them. With all the advantages ever yet ascribed to it, I am one, who have long thought that controversy has done more harm to the Church than it has ever done good.1 Truth

1 If the proverbial allusion to express the bitterness of human hatred, is not the hatred of philosophers, or the hatred of poli

out as the alone volume of inspiration; that it has a decided preference assigned to it above all human productions; and that thus Christian impressions become habitual and customary. I grant, indeed, that these things produce an effect in impressing the youthful mind with the value of Christianity as an external dispensation, and that they ensure respect to our Established Church; but is the effect of all this teaching so powerful as the teaching of heathenism? Are not the principles enforced really heathen; the love of human glory, the cultivation of talent as the means of gratifying ambition, and ácquiring distinction among men? and are not the virtues of heathens more practically recommended to the attention of the young than the graces of Jesus Christ and those spiritual perfections which constitute holiness? Indeed, it has long appeared to me that one fact is decisive of this question, the neglect of Hebrew literature in our general education: had the great truths of Revelation been the subject of general instruction, the language of that Revelation had been more generally cultivated: whereas it is notorious that not only in our ordinary education it finds no place, but that in many of our Public Schools the cultivation of Hebrew literature is altogether excluded from the system. 1

1

It is worth while to observe the attention paid to Scripture instruction, by the importance assigned to Hebrew literature in

But indeed, My Dear Friend, will not the plain truth of the case justify us in further remarking, that the plan of education laid down by our Church in the three formularies already specified, is only regarded by us as calculated to occupy the attention of our childish years while yet under maternal tuition; or that it may do well enough for the instruction of our Charity Schools and the children of the poor: and when we enter upon Greek and Latin authors, is not this very entrance into heathen literature the usual signal for laying aside the early instructions of our former years? or at least of admitting them to so secondary a place in our education, (if indeed it can be called secondary,) that from mere desuetude they are treated with indifference and neglect. And thus these admirable formularies become little more than a dead letter, a rule without practice, a system without observance, a privilege without enjoyment. And can it be the subject of wonder to a reflecting mind, that

the education given by our Public Schools as they were established at the Reformation, or before or after that period. At Winchester and Eton founded before the Reformation, and at the Charter House, founded since, when the purity of the principles of the Reformation had declined, Hebrew is not taught; while at St. Paul's, Westminster, and Merchant Taylor's, founded during Reforming times, the Hebrew language still continues to be taught. The opportunity of early instruction in the rudiments of knowledge, once lost, is seldom regained amidst the occupations of after life; a remark which many of us can confirm by painful experience.

a course of education, Christian in name and heathen in effect, should produce its proper fruits; that a defective principle should issue in a defective practice, and that among all ranks of our people, and all the great moral executive of the country-the Cabinet, the Legislature, the Bar, the Magistracy, and the Pulpit-and in that perhaps chief organ of moral influence, the domestic circle, where first principles are usually formed into practice-the neglect of a sound pious education, provided by our truly Christian Church, should be visited by the state of society we behold; decency substituted for piety, form for substance, ordinances for devotion, and where the rottenness of heathen corruption seeks in vain for concealment under the naildeep film of a Christian profession and a · Christian name.

From this self-inflicted state of moral debasement to raise our still blessed country by the application of that system of education provided by a Church which she still upholds and venerates, is the design of the following hints. I profess myself hopeless of the revival of sound Christianity in our Church, but by a recurrence to the primitive principle on which she is founded, salvation by grace through faith in the Redeemer. This, I apprehend, to be the great prevailing principle of our Baptismal service, and its kindred formularies. It is the free promise of mercy to the children of believing Parents,