is not necessary to salvation, let him be accursed.... Sin, whether contracted by birth from our first parents, or committed of ourselves,-by the admirable virtue of this sacrament, is remitted and pardoned.... In baptism, not only sins are remitted, but also all the punishments of sins and wickedness are graciously pardoned of God....By virtue of this sacrament, we are not only delivered from those evils which are truly said to be the greatest of all, but also we are enriched with the best and most excellent endowments; for our souls are filled with divine grace, whereby being made just and the children of God, we are trained up to be heirs of eternal salvation also....To this is added a most noble train of all virtues, which, together with grace, is poured of God into the soul.... By baptism we are joined and knit to Christ, as members to the head.... By baptism we are signed with a character which can never be blotted out of our soul.... Besides the other things which we obtain by baptism, it opens to every one of us the gate of heaven, which before, through sin, was shut."*

Cyril, the patriarch of Constantinople, expresses his own faith, and that of the Greek church, respecting baptism, in the follwing manner. "We believe that baptism is a sacrament appointed by the Lord, which except a person receive, he has no communion with Christ; from whose death, burial, and resurrection, proceed all the virtue and efficacy of baptism. We are certain, therefore, that both original and actual sin is forgiven, to those who are baptized in the manner which our Lord requires in the gospel; so that whoever is washed 'in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,' is regenerated, cleansed, and justified."+-Stapferus, when speaking of the Greek church, says:

"The

* Concil. Trident. sess. vii. can. v. Catechism of Council of Trent, p. 166-175.

+ Confess. Christ. Fidei, cap. xvi. A. D. 1631, ad calcem Syntag. Confess. Fid. Genev. 1654.

Oriental Christians attributing too much efficacy to rites and ceremonies, it is no wonder if they teach the absolute necessity of baptism; that without it no one can become a real Christian; and that it cannot be omitted in respect of infants without endangering their salvation: so that, a priest being absent, and in case of necessity, baptism may be administered by a layman, or by a woman. For the same reason they also teach, that there is an equal necessity of the Lord's supper; which, therefore, they administer under both species to baptized infants."*

Let us now examine the Protestant confessions, respecting this affair. Thus, then, the Confession of Helvetia: "To be baptized in the name of Christ, is to be enrolled, entered, and received into the covenant and family, and so into the inheritance of the sons of God; yea, and in this life, to be called after the name of God, that is to say, to be called the sons of God, to be purged also from the filthiness of sins, and to be endued with the manifold grace of God, for to lead a new and innocent life." Confession of Bohemia: "We believe, that whatsoever by baptism-is in the outward ceremony signified and witnessed, all that doth the Lord God perform inwardly; that is, that he washeth away sin, begetteth a man again, and bestoweth salvation upon him

...For the bestowing of these excellent fruits was holy baptism given and granted to the church."--Confession of Augsburg: "Concerning baptism they teach, that it is necessary to salvation, as a ceremony ordained of Christ; also, that by baptism the grace of God is offered."- -Confession of Saxony: "I baptize thee; that is, I do witness that, by this dipping, thy sins be washed away, and that thou art now received of the true God."--Confession of Wittenburg: "We believe and confess, that baptism is that sea, into the bottom whereof, as the prophet saith, God doth cast all our sins."

* Theolog. Polem. tom. v. p. 82.

Confession of Sueveland: "As touching baptism, we confess, that it is the font of regeneration, washeth away sins, and saveth us. But all these things we do so understand, as St. Peter doth interpret them, (1 Pet. iii. 21.)"*. Church of England: "Baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.... How many sacraments hath Christ ordained in his church? Two only, as generally necessary to salvation; that is to say, baptism and the supper of the Lord."+- Westminster Assembly: "Before baptism, the minister is to use some words of instruction, showing, that it is instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ; that it is a seal of the covenant of grace, of our ingrafting into Christ, and of our union with him, of remission of sins, regeneration, adoption, and life eternal."-Such is the language of modern Pædobaptists in their public formulas.

The following extracts are from the writings of individuals of different communions. Thus that famous reformer, Luther: "There is in the baptism of infants, the beginning of faith and of a divine operation, in a manner peculiar to themselves."§-Gerhardus: "The sacrament of baptism does not profit without faith; nevertheless it is the efficacious mean by which God of his grace works faith, regeneration, and salvation in the hearts of infants." || Buddeus: "All men should be baptized, who are to be brought to eternal salvation .....No one can be saved except by faith, as our Saviour expressly declares. Now seeing infants cannot be brought to faith by the preaching of God's word; it follows, that it must be effected in another way, namely, by baptism: by which men are born again, and so receive faith, as our Saviour declares....The

*Harmony of Confessions, sect. xiii. p. 395-410.

+ Catechism..

Directory, article Baptism. § Apud Venem. Hist. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 107. Loci Theolog tom. iv. De Bap. § 195.1

effect of baptism, which has the nature of an end, is, in respect of infants, regeneration....That effect, therefore, which immediately results from baptism, consists in regeneration, by which faith is produced in infants ....In baptism a divine virtue is connected with the water, and with the action conversant about it; which is in a particular manner to be regarded....Baptism is not a mere sign and symbol, by which a reception into the covenant of grace is denoted: but by regeneration, which baptism effects, we are really received into that covenant; and so are made partakers of all the blessings peculiar to it. To which blessings (besides remission of sins, or justification, renovation, adoption into the number of God's children, a right to the heavenly inheritance, and a certain hope of eternal life) pertains communion with Christ, and with his mystical body....Concerning the highest necessity of baptism, the thing itself will not suffer us to doubt; seeing it is expressly asserted, that without it no one shall enter the kingdom of heaven, (John iii. 5. 5.)" Deylingius : Baptism is the sacrament of initiation, and, as it were, the gate of heaven; in which a man is regenerated by the washing of water and the word of God, purged from the guilt of sin, and declared to be an heir of all celestial blessings....If Christian parents defer the baptism of their infants; or, seized by the spirit of Anabaptism, or of fanaticism, will not have them baptized at all, then, by the authority of the consistory, or of the magistrate of the place, the infant must be taken from the parents, and when initiated by baptism returned to them."--Vossius: "In infants, upon whom the word has no efficacy, there is room for the sacraments to generate faith in them; without which no one shall see eternal life....It is manifest, that in baptism we are born again, adopted,

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*Theolog. Dogmat, 1. v. e. i. § 5, 6, 7, 8, 10.

↑ De Prudent. Pastoral. pars. iii. c. iii. § 2, 15.

"

received into the covenant of grace; and upon that receive remission of sins, are renewed by the Holy Spirit, and made heirs of the heavenly kingdom.” Mr. Isaac Ambrose: "By baptism we are washed, we are sanctified, we are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."--Dr. Fiddes: There is no "reason for excluding infants from baptism, as it is a means of reinstating them in the favour of God, or of conveying, in virtue of God's appointment, inward and spiritual grace.... ...Baptism is a means of conveying both pardoning and sanctifying grace, to those who are qualified to receive it as they ought." --Mr. Gee: "This sacrament of baptism doth confer on the person baptized the grace of remission, of adoption, and sanctification.... It is granted, that baptism is ordinarily necessary to salvation; that God hath made it the instrument of remission, of regeneration, and of salvation to us."--Anonymous: "It [baptism] was ordained, that the baptized person might by that solemnity pass from a state of nature, wherein he was a child of wrath, into a state of adoption and grace, wherein he becomes a child of God....Baptism was instituted for a sign to seal unto baptized persons the pardon of their sins, and to confer upon them a right of inheritance unto everlasting life: but baptism hath this effect upon infants, as well as upon adult persons; for it washes them clean from original, as it doth men and women both from actual and original sin. I say, it washes them clean from original sin, and seals the pardon of it, and the assurance of God's favour unto them."--Dr. Waterland: "Baptism alone is sufficient to make one a Christian, yea, and to keep him

* Disputat. de Bap. Disp. de Sac. Efficac. § 46,47; disput. iv. § 9. + Works, p. 196.

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Theolog. Pract. b. ii part ii. chap. i. p. 178, 181. § Preservative against Popery, title vii. p. 20, Cases to Recover Dissenters, vol. ii. p. 444, 445.