not faith, to whom the Church imparts her's. Great is the faith of the Church." The profession of faith made by the sponsors is the declaration of that faith of the Church, on the ground of which the little ones are admitted into Covenant: and accordingly St. Augustine almost uniformly speaks of this confession[1] of faith, when he alludes to the faith of the sponsors as being available for the child. The sponsors are pledges to the Church: the Church offers her faith to God. And so in our own Church, all the words of comfort and assurance that "God will favourably receive our infants, and embrace them with the arms of His mercy," are addressed on each occasion, not to the sponsors, but to the whole congregation[2]: the sponsors are but subsequently called upon to promise, on the child's part, what is needed, that the benefits of Baptism may be hereafter retained and fully realized. With this view of the relation of the faith of the sponsors and of the Church, agree those cases, in which the children of aliens, whether excommunicate or heathen, were allowed the privileges of Christian Baptism. Of the excommunicate, St. Augustine says, that "no offences of the parent, however heinous, would make him presume to exclude the child from the laver of regeneration in case of danger." With regard to the children of Heathen, it was always reckoned an act of charity to baptize them, "when, through the secret Providence
- ↑ Thus, de Baptismo parvulor. Serm. 294 (al. 14. de verb. Ap.) § 12. "He is healed by the words of another, since he was wounded by the sin of another. It is asked, does he believe in Jesus Christ? It is answered, He does believe. The answer is made for him, who speaks not, is silent and weeps, and by weeping begs in a manner for help. Does that serpent try to persuade men that it avails not? Far be such a thought from the heart of any Christian!" Serm. 351 de Pœnitentia (al. 50. inter. 50.) § 2. "To whom (infants), for their consecration and remission of original sin, the faith of those by whom they are offered, avails, that whatever stains of sin they contracted through others, of whom they were born, by the interrogatory and answers of these may be done away." De Pec. Meritis, l. I. § 25. "they are rightly called faithful, because after a manner they profess their faith through the words of them that bear them," l. 3. § 2. "by the answers of those through whom they are regenerated." Ep. 98. v. 10. "it is answered that he believes."
- ↑ So Burges also p. 27. "The Church enjoineth 1. The minister alone thus to bespeak the congregation."
