even in this early stage of the argument, I might safely and confidently quit the subject, if I had no other duty to perform than to convince a fair and candid inquirer, or one who was disposed to receive the just and legitimate inference from the word of God as a sufficient warrant for this practice but the Baptists have employed other objections, which compel me to pursue the argument. I have, therefore, to invite the reader's attention to an important view of the condition of infants under the Abrahamic and Levitical covenants, which will throw further light upon the subject discussed in this chapter, and will, I am persuaded, give stronger force to the evidence it contains in favour of Infant Baptism.

CHAPTER II.

Arguments in proof of the Church-membership of Infants under the Abrahamic and Levitical dispensations, and of the spiritual nature of the Covenant with Abraham.

In reading the works of the Baptists in defence of their opinions with respect to the rejection of the baptism of infants, I have always observed how greatly embarrassed they appear to be, whenever the argument, which stands at the head of this Chapter, meets them in their course; how vainly they handle it, and how gladly they avoid it, from a sense of the perplexity and difficulty which it necessarily produces in the minds of those, who deny to the infant offspring of believers the benefit of the spiritual covenant. A careful examination of the connexion subsisting between this great distinguishing feature of the whole economy of divine grace and the practice of Infant Baptism, has satisfied me that it is an argument which subverts from the very foundation the whole doctrine of our opponents, not

only with respect to the subjects of baptism, but also with regard to the nature of the rite itself. Nor am I surprised to find, that it is cautiously avoided by them on all possible occasions, and that when it is forced upon them, either by the circumstances of the case, or by the reasoning of their adversaries, they either speedily dismiss it, or else meet it in a mode of argumentation, which proves they are aware that it is fatal to the tenets which they maintain. I must therefore beg the reader to give to it such attention, as the conduct of our opponents plainly shews it to be entitled to.

That infants have been engaged to honour and obey God, and therefore are capable of coming under such an obligation, appears by what Moses says in Deut. xxix. 10, 11, 12, where he tells the nation of Israel, Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God, your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, &c. that thou shouldst enter into covenant with the Lord thy God: To enter into covenant with God, is to be bound and engaged to pay him the honour and acknowledgement which is due to him. And to our purpose let it be observed, that this was a covenant which brought them into a state of favour with God, as may be seen by the 13th verse, in which are mentioned the privi

leges that were granted on God's part of this covenant, to which their infants were admitted; and the purpose of the covenant is also therein declared to be, That God might establish them that day for a people unto himself, and that he might be to them a God: To be a God to them shews their interest in his peculiar favour, and that he would exercise his infinite perfection to their advantage and happiness. It is evident then, from this passage, that infants are capable of being engaged in a covenant with God, and in such a covenant, too, as gives a title to his eternal mercies.

That infants are endowed with this degree of competency is again rendered fully apparent by the appointment of circumcision (Gen. xvii.) which was to be administered to the male infants at eight days old; and this, the apostle Paul says, rendered those who received it debtors to do the whole law. (Gal. v. 3.) It brought them under an engagement thus to fulfil it: and it is worthy of remark, that the favour on God's part of this covenant, into which infants, by circumcision, were admitted, was, that he would be a God unto them. as appears by the 7th verse, which includes all the benefits of the covenant of

grace.

A further proof have we of the possession of this qualification on the part of infants in Exod. xix. Herein may be seen an account of a covenant

made between God and the nation of Israel at that time, in which the people engaged to do all that the Lord commanded them: The Almighty accordingly directed them to be baptized, to take upon them this engagement in and by a solemn baptism, as we are informed in the 10th verse of this chapter, in which God says to Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to-day and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. This was a command to baptize them, and was understood by the learned among the Jews to include their whole nation: and this also was a covenant which entitled them to the peculiar favour of God, and all those benefits which might be expected from his gracious promise, that if they would keep the covenant, which he was now about to propose to them, and into which he was about to lead them, they should be a peculiar treasure unto him, above all people. Now, that the infants of the nation were included in this covenant, and reckoned engaged to the duties on man's part, and to be thereupon also entitled to the favour on God's part, appears in what Moses says afterwards of this affair in Deut. v. 2, 3. forty years after that time-The Lord made a covenant with us in Horeb, (says he) even with us, who are all of us here alive on this day. Now, let it be observed, that many of those to whom he thus addressed himself, were infants when that covenant