twice dead, plucked up by the roots"—but that they may not be such, surely it were our wisdom to speak to them not as to those who are without the Covenant, but to remind them of all which God has done for their souls, and to beseech them not to destroy that which God has done so much to save.
Our Church has so thought: for in that she wishes her Baptismal service (in which she declares, in the clearest terms which could be used, that every child baptised receives thereby Spiritual regeneration) to be always publicly celebrated, "for that it declares unto us our profession," she must have thought the setting forth of our privileges, and of the obligations thereby entailed, a powerful motive to increased diligence. Or, let us hear the words of the ancient Church, where Baptism was continually preached, and see whether in their lips its privileges were a cold and lifeless doctrine. Let us hear St. Gregory of Nazianzum commending Infant Baptism. "Hast thou an infant? Let not wickedness gain an opportunity against it? Let it be sanctified from a babe. Let it be hallowed by the Spirit from its tenderest infancy. Fearest thou the seal of faith, on account of the weakness of nature, as a faint-hearted mother and of little faith? But Hannah devoted Samuel to God, yea before he was born, and when he was born, immediately she made him a priest, and brought him up in the priestly attire, not fearing human nature, but trusting in God. Thou hast no need of Amulets—impart to him the Trinity, that great and excellent preservative." The thrill which those impressive words "impart to him the Trinity" (δὸς αὐτῷ τὴν Τριάδα) echoing to us after 1400 years, still awaken in us, may well make us admire the energy of the faith, which infused into words so simple, a force so amazing. The words are nothing: the fact is the ordinary privilege of Christians: but the faith in the power of God, as manifested in the Baptism of every infant brought to Him, the realizing of those privileges, as implied in these words, overwhelms us, because our faith has not been equal to it. Or do we fear that the leaning on the outward ordinance would lead men away from Christ? Yet who bade us look upon it as an outward ordinance, or apply to it, words which
