The Protestant notes of a church are also interpreted among them in such a manner as to render it a contradiction to suppose that any others than the truly regenerated, are proper subjects of baptism, and entitled to a place in their midst. They claim that the sanctity of the Body of Christ is not corporate but personal, the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart being indispensable; that it must be experienced before any of the ordinances can be administered or any of the privileges of God's house enjoyed; that the churches are not, so to speak, a nursery designed to raise up the multitudes who enter it for the invisible kingdom, for these must already be members of the mystical body of Christ before they are eligible to a place in the visible kingdom. In former centuries false or exaggerated notions with regard to this idea led enthusiasts into lamentable and wicked extremes, which placed them in an attitude of revolution, and were the occasion of much reproach. Owing to these occurrences, the distinguishing principle of the practical theology of Baptists was then regarded almost universally with prejudice. But that state of things having long since passed away, almost all evangelical denominations have approached more or less nearly the once rejected idea. A silent change has been going on, giving to every man's religion more of a personal character, and has begun to pervade all circles in this country, and to exert an influence very generally recognized on American ecclesiastical connections, and thereby upon American thought and development. In Europe, also, in consideration of the fact that that the vast masses of the unregenerate in the churches are claiming the right of modifying or even abolishing the ancient confessions of faith, and of choosing teachers of their own liberal direction in thought, this idea is at present discussed and embraced by men who have heretofore always regarded it as destructive of the interests of both the state and the church. The influential Protestantenverein, with its watchwords of independence and abolishment of confessional tests, is forcing even Lutherans of the straitest sect to propose the free church system, and to prepare for its adoption.1

But it is contended by many that it is impossible so to protect the purity of the church militant as that it shall consist only of those savingly converted to God; and hence that Baptist conceptions of the second note of the Council of Constantinople are too rigid. It is granted that instances may and do occur when unregenerate men enter the churches and retain the confidence of their religious associates for considerable seasons. But inasmuch as "every good tree

1 Cf. Die Synodus und die Kirchenlehre, von D. Chr. E. Luthardt, Leipsig, 1871, pp. 13 14, and Die Frieie Lutherische Volkskirche, von D. Th. Harnack, Erlangen, 1870.

bringeth forth good fruit," it is expected of every member to "bring forth fruits meet for repentance;" and unless these are in greater or less measure exhibited, it is concluded that the heart is not under the influence of divine grace, and recourse is had to firm and wholesome discipline to purge from the church its foreign elements, with which it had hitherto maintained only an external and not a real connection. In this holy walk of its members and in the exercise of discipline, a church both manifests and vindicates its sanctity. Internal and external piety are not opera supererogationis; they occupy, on the other hand, the position of essentials. The figure of the apostle Peter in styling the persons whom he addressed "lively stones, built up a spiritual house," certainly implies that every person who claims membership in a church of Christ must enjoy the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit to some extent at least, and must evince it by a life of godly dealing.

If it be admissible to pause for some reflections with regard to the effect of this principle on society, it might be well to call attention to the peculiar attitude which it forces the church to assume towards the world, and vice versa. In no other civilized nation are the lines of distinction between the two drawn with anything like the same precision as here. Among Baptists, and others who adopt in some measure their theory, only those who have experienced the sanctifying operations of the Spirit are admitted to membership. This circumstance forces those who make pretensions to religion to lay upon themselves such restraints as comport with their voluntary declarations and vows. They feel the obligation to be "a peculiar people, zealous of good works "; and their sense of its importance is heightened every hour by the consciousness that they are closely observed from every quarter, now by those who wish to make their failings the pretext for reproach, and anon by others who look to their example as a theme of encouragement and hope. It may seem trivial to call attention to these matters of detail; but in practical life they are so often considered, and modify in so many ways the course of our lives, that it would be indefensible to neglect them. The criticismfriendly and unfriendly-of the private conduct of Christians; the never-failing impression that the world is expecting of them a course of life and manifestation of spirit that will commend the faith they profess, is a most profitable discipline, and its effects upon American Christianity and civilization it would be difficult to over-estimate.

Although the doctrine that only true believers are entitled to the ordinances and privileges of the Lord's house, draws a distinction between the church and the world, it does by no means alienate the

latter from the former, but rather renders the unbelieving more open to the appeals of the gospel. In those countries where birth gives every man a title to church-membership, the Christian teacher has no right to separate his hearers into two classes, but he is compelled to recognize and treat them all as converted persons. This is felt by the more devout and evangelical, even among them, to be a hindrance to directness and earnestness of effort in the care of souls. But under the opposite system, the ungodly, being in no sense whatever members of the church, can urge no claims from the performance of any religious rites; can encourage their hearts with no flattering hopes, and must apply to their individual cases each pungent warning or pointed instruction or affectionate entreaty which they who minister in the word of God may from time to time deliver. That sometimes a denunciatory and unkindly spirit is manifested by religious teachers in this regard is conceded with sorrow; but extravagances of that nature soon correct themselves, and the Christian community are drawn more closely to the impenitent by reason of their deep interest in their spiritual well-being; while the impenitent are in their turn affected and favorably impressed by expressions of unfeigned concern. Thus, through mutual action and reaction, salutary, often far-reaching, results are produced, which those can best appreciate who have given some attention to the evils of the opposite system.

The complement, or, better perhaps, the logical and necessary consequence, of the doctrine concerning the subjects of baptism is the rejection of the theory of corporate life, or sacramentalism in all its forms. In truth, the word sacrament has never held a place in the symbols of the Baptists, and as they become more conscious of its suspicious application they are expunging it from their ecclesiastical vocabulary, thus seeking to furnish in all their deliverances a thoroughgoing contradiction of the teachings of the Romish hierarchy. Moreover, the so-called sacraments of confirmation, penance, holy orders, matrimony, and extreme unction, are by them (in common with all evangelical denominations) refused the dignity of an equal place with baptism and the Lord's Supper,-they holding the excessive multiplication of holy offices as one of the arts of priestcraft, and as amounting in the use made of them to an abridgment of that freedom in love to which Christians are called. For the skill with which the sacramental theory has been carried into practice; the minuteness with which all details have been elaborated and adapted to the natural realism of the human mind and heart; and its power to bind even the strongest with a hopeless spiritual bondage, are worthy of study, and excite our wonder.

2

But against no part of this theory of corporate life do the Baptists enter more earnest protests than against the baptism of infants. And this not only because- as is admitted by nearly all who lay claim to exact scholarship—there are no traces of such a practice to be found in the New Testament,' but because it is the contradictory opposite of their fundamental principle concerning believer's baptism, and the source of formalism in religious life, and superficiality of religious experience,-the Pandora's box of evil to the church and to the cause of piety, and the main pillar of popery. By a painful despite to the doctrines of grace many truly evangelical Christians still maintain this abuse; but inasmuch as the practice can have no possible meaning-refine and distinguish as we may-unless a magical efficacy is attributed to the outward performance, not a few of these, unwilling to give countenance to anything so contrary to reason, are adopting the suggestion of Schleiermacher, to defer the ordinance until a profession of faith shall nave been made. Indeed this able author declares: "We (the Prussian establishment) would for our part consent to an ecclesiastical union with the Anabaptists, if they would only refrain from denouncing the baptism of infants as invalid, even where the act is complemented by confirmation." But there is really no intermediate ground between the Baptist position and that of the Romish theology, and they dare not, for death or life, compromise the truth of God on a point so vital. In former years the members of most of the other communions, yielding to their own sense of the incongruity between these two sets of principles, were permitting the custom to fall into decay. Let us hope that it may finally die out of mind, and that men will cease pretending to the ability to dictate the operations of that blessed Spirit which "divideth to every man severally as he will."3

A principle leading to results of this kind, where consistently held and fully believed, cannot fail to modify, nay mould, to a remarkable degree, the character, both private and social, of an entire community; to control their action and condition their history. Let us indicate some of the directions in which this influence would be most sensibly appreciated.

It fosters, perhaps more than any other idea, the sentiment of 1 Consult especially Schleiermacher, Glaubenslehre ? 138, 1, 2. "All traces of the baptism of infants which some profess to find in the New Testament, must first be carried into it." Schleiermacher gives himself some trouble in this connection to explain how this abuse originated in the early churches. Also, Hase Dogmatik, page 426. It is a pious custom deeply founded in national and family life."

2 Luthardt, Kompendium der Dogmatik, § 72, p. 267.

Cf. Zwinglius, de vera rel., page 200.

individuality, of personal independence. M. Guizot, with the eye of a practiced publicist, has devoted special attention to this point, and has with reason asserted that all individuality was, in the antique world, swallowed up in the state.

When you find liberty, in the ancient civilizations, it is political liberty, the liberty of the citizen. The sentiment of personality, of spontaneous action in his free development, was by the German barbarians introduced into the civilization of Europe. It was unknown to the Roman world, unknown to the Christian church, unknown to almost all the ancient civilizations.1

The reason why this sentiment was so early stifled in the church was not any felt inconsistency of it with the doctrines of religion, but the early adoption of the magical conceptions of the means of grace. Each one feeling dependent upon his connection with the church as the only hope of salvation; upon the caprice of its ministers for pardon and acceptance was already in the clutches of a despotism whose iron rule would admit of little that was peculiar to the individual. The soul was bred to superstition and degrading servility, and nothing that would break this bondage-not even the irruption of unsparing Gothic hordes-can be reckoned a calamity.

According to Baptists the exact counterpart of this doctrine is true. Salvation is entirely independent of the ordinances, and spiritual regeneration must invariably precede the administration of them. No priest intervenes between the supplicant and the divine Father of mercies; for the personal union already enjoyed, is too intimate for any medium of intercourse. Thus is produced a consciousness of personal dignity and worth that is most wholesome both to the Christian himself and to the society of which he is a member; for in proportion as the latter understands and appreciates the worth of the former, is a healthy and fruit-bringing connection originated. Nor has history ever shown that this increase of individualism ministers to democratic license. Contrariwise, indeed, the Baptists are notably conservative; a distinguished authority has declared that "naturally their paths are paths of freedom, pleasantness, and peace." The rights of man, intellectual, moral, and political, may be enjoyed and esteemed by men whose quiet life and profitable activity bespeak the citizen of widest public spirit, and of engaging devotion to unselfish ends. A statement to this effect would have been greeted once as disorganizing and anarchical by those who contemned the nature of their kind, and despised the vulgar herd. But that day is past, we trust forever,