instrument whereby we receive grace, because baptism is a sacrament which God hath instituted in His Church, to the end that they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ, and through His most precious merit, obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness, as also that infused Divine virtue of the Holy Ghost which giveth to the powers of the soul their first disposition towards the future newness of life. As we are not naturally men without birth, so neither are we Christian men in the eye of the Church of God but by new birth, nor according to the manifest ordinary course of Divine dispensation new born, but by that baptism which both declareth and maketh us Christians.- -If Christ Himself who giveth salvation, do require baptism; it is not for us that look for salvation, to sound and examine Him, whether unbaptized men may be saved; but seriously to do that which is required, and religiously to fear the danger which may grow by the want thereof.-It hath been constantly held, that baptism, taken away by necessity, is supplied by desire of baptism.-They whom God's own mercy saveth without us, are on our parts notwithstanding, and as much as in us lieth, even destroyed, when under insufficient pretences we defraud them of such ordinary outward helps as we should exhibit. We have for baptism no day set, as the Jews had for circumcision.--Baptism, therefore,

even in the meaning of the law of Christ, belongeth unto infants capable thereof from the very instant of their birth."-Hooker, book v. sec. xlvi.

By water and the Holy Ghost is there (St. John iii. 5,) meant holy Baptism.--This literal sense. given is agreeable to other texts; as namely, to Acts viii. 33, and x. 47., where water is declared to be the element of Baptism. And expressly again, "Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water." Ephes. v., 26.--That this is the most catholic interpretation appears by St. Augustine, Tertullian, and all the ancient interpreters upon the place who expound it all of Baptism.

-Thus are we instructed in the nature, necessity and efficiency of holy Baptism, that it is the only ordinary means of regeneration or second birth, which gives us a right and title to heaven.-Bishop Sparrow's Rationale.

BAPTISMAL EDUCATION.

From our Lord's solemn declaration and command, from His habitual love and acceptance of little children, and from the combined testimony of Scripture and the Church to the inward grace of the Sacrament, the practice of Infant baptism, and the obligation of baptized Christians to obedience, the subject of baptismal education derives unspeakable importance. Accordingly we find that where

any one of these truths is in any degree lost sight of, there in the same degree is the religious instruction of the young either neglected or ill conducted. Christian parents ought to think much of that precious privilege which the Church has given them, in permitting them to baptize their infant children : For whereas "the natural mind receiveth not the things of God," they may hence derive a great encouragement, to trust that those faithful instructions which they give them, shall be engrafted by God's Holy Spirit on their hearts, so that they may receive the truth in the love of it. Through them the Church would deliver to their children the doctrines of the faith, and it is a truth not to be overlooked, that the mind of a child is as able, nay better able, to receive and understand them, than the cultivated minds of the most learned men : "God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." Whoever omits this duty in the case of his own baptized children, or fails to provide such instruction for those of the poor around him, shows that he is not duly sensible of the freeness of God's grace and mercy: and he imitates those disciples, who, by rebuking them that brought the little children, incurred their Lord's displeasure. By such neglect we are profaning the Sacrament, and can expect no good, but rather evil to result from it; for as Hooker says, The Sacraments are not physical, but moral instruments of salvation, duties

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of service and worship, which unless we perform, as the Author of grace requireth, they are unprofitable, for all receive not the grace of God, which receive the sacraments of His grace."-Book v., sec. xliv. It is but too true, that in many of our schools the Baptismal privilege has been so little set before the children, that some of them, though in the habit of repeating the Catechism by rote, are actually in ignorance whether they have ever been themselves baptized or not. Thus are Christ's children driven from Him, and being left to the sad delusion that they are still the children, not of grace, but of wrath, they are deprived of confidence toward God, and are reduced to the condition of heathen children. Let us rather teach them at the very beginning, in the true spirit of the Scriptures and Liturgy, how great is the love of God toward them, in that they are already brought through Christ into His favour, and that for His sake the Holy Spirit has been vouchsafed to them in their baptism. Let us tell them, that it is through their own continual prayers for His grace, and by their striving to do what they know to be right, that He will certainly abide with them, and lead them in the way of life: and let us warn them, that by their neglect of prayer and resistance to their consciences, He will be withdrawn from them, and leave them "to go astray and speak lies," and do all wickedness, "the wages of which is death." There is little use, in

their merely saying by heart (as we call it) the creeds and catechism: their true meaning should be explained and brought home to their hearts by word of mouth. Let them learn, as soon as they can speak, to pray to their "Father which is in heaven;" and before long it is well to teach them some of the simpler Collects of the Church. Let them read daily those parts of Scripture that are best suited for their years; and it is an excellent practice to write short and easy prayers for them out of the very words of Holy writ. In this way they will best learn to confess and pray for themselves and let us hope and believe, that they will thus "trust in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;" and "not be as their forefathers, a faithless and stubborn generation,―turning their backs, and starting aside like a broken bow." There is every hope, that under such teaching they will grow up in their Baptism, that they will in due time present themselves for Confirmation, become habitual communicants at the Lord's table, and live as His faithful servants and true members of His holy Church.