bility, must such be lost? Oh! who could imagine so? Who could think that of two helpless babes-babes, it may be, of the same mother-the one leaving the world almost as soon as it came into it, and its baptism, on this account, being prevented? Oh! does not every Christian, and holy and sanctified feeling rise against the thought, that because of this,—that because of what was impossible to be helped, there will be nothing but death and ruin for one little soul; while, for another, the fruit of the same womb, and who may have only lived long enough to receive the ordinance, there is immortality and happiness in store?

Such a view as this is every way repulsive, and has nothing to support it in nature, or in reason, or in the Word of God. No; that Word is against it-it condemns it out and out. "Neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision," says the apostle, "availeth anything, but a new creature." And the blood of Christ, taken and applied by the

Spirit to the soul of an infant, be that infant baptized or be it not, this, and this alone it is, and neither baptism, nor relative holiness, nor anything else. This it is that fits it for entering the kingdom of God. And to what a conclusion would such a view as this lead us? It would be this, to believe, that in one case, a child was to suffer everlastingly because of the want of what was a human impossibility to have supplied. And, in another, that a parent had his child's eternal destinies so much and so completely in his own power and hands, that he could say, it rests with me, it rests with myself whether that little one is to be for ever happy, or for ever miserable; for I can secure the one by having it taken to the baptismal font, or I can fix the other by leaving it without that ordinance being administered.

CHAPTER III.

CONNECTED With this subject, a difficulty must ever be felt by all who seek to limit it-by all who would have some children to be saved, and others not; for it cannot be shewn that there is any difference in the condition of any. They are all of one common stock-all of one family-sinners alike in Adam, and on an even footing, also, in having no other sins that can be charged against them. To limit their salvation, then, cannot but involve in difficulty, and always keep in difficulty, and any attempt to get out of it, and still abide by a limited salvation, must only lead into greater embarrassment and perplexity. And in proof of its doing so, we would only make reference to one other theory which has been advanced. And were it not that it comes

from an eminently gifted, and great, and good man-so extravagant, and untenable, and baseless is it that we would have felt at noticing it at all. So outrageous is it that one cannot help wondering how it ever could have been thought of, more especially by such an eminently pious and godly individual. The theory is this, and the author of it is the justly celebrated Dr. Isaac Watts: "That all infants, those of pious parents being excepted, are, at death, annihilated," that then they cease to be-that their bodies will have no resurrection-and that their souls, like the souls of beasts, perish. To offer anything like a refutation of such a theory as this, were surely superfluous work. It cannot be needed. No. It carries its own refutation in its face. All around us, and all within us, pleads for a continuance of being beyond the grave. Reason asks that it be. Revelation declares that it will be. Life and immortality in the Gospel are brought to light. And there is not a sen

tence or a syllable within the boards of the Bible giving countenance to the very thought of a possibility, that any spirit, once lit up, will ever be extinguished.

We think it evident, then, clear as may be, that the salvation of little children can neither depend upon the character of parents nor the administration of baptism, but that it must rest alone on the atonement and death of Christ; and resting it upon this, all must be its object, if any are. None of them will perish, but all of them be saved, since all are alike unaccountable, and all alike guilty, but guilty only of original sin, from the defilement of which we may believe, in every case, the blood of Jesus purifies and cleans. But it may be said, that Scripture is far from being explicit upon the subject, and that very little information is there given us in regard to it. We admit that there is not much there said about it; but we do not admit, that what is said is not sufficiently explicit and plain.