present Articles; and, by thus retracting, has virtually admitted that it may have a good sense. In the case of Infant Baptism, since infants, as such, manifestly have neither faith nor repentance, though the faith of others is so far accepted for them, that they should be admitted to Holy Baptism, its benefits are conveyed to them through the Sacrament, not through their faith. For if, as has been recently argued, on the anti-mystical notion of a Sacrament, "the faith of the receiver is the true consecrating principle—that which really brings down Christ to the heart of each individual," and the doctrine that the faith of others is accepted for the individual is regarded as "scholastic," (i.e. a mere human speculation); Baptism can manifestly to infants be no Sacrament at all, since the "true consecrating principle" is wanting. The Romish Church has led men into practical error by insisting so exclusively on the opus operatum, i.e. the intrinsic efficacy of the Sacraments, and omitting to insist upon (although it holds) the necessity of faith and repentance on the part of the adult receiver, not indeed as constituting the Sacrament, but as necessary conditions of its efficacy to us: but this error must not be met by the doctrinal error of the Zuinglians, that faith is not only the means, whereby we are fitted to receive the grace of the Sacrament, but that faith, in fact, constitutes the Sacrament. The words of St. Augustine, above alleged, "The Sacrament of itself is of much avail," and his frequent maxim, (wherein he is speaking of Infant Baptism,) "Children are faithful because they have the Sacrament of faith," (Baptism) express the efficacy of Baptism upon infants, by virtue of God's ordinance. And this is all which the opus operatum could express with regard to children; since no one would hold that Baptism would be of any ultimate avail, unless its graces were subsequently cherished and cultivated.
I instanced the above-cited fathers, in proof that the views of Baptism, which they derived from the Apostles and from Scripture,—we from Scripture and from them,—so far from being, in themselves, cold or lifeless, or productive of carelessness, were tamest and affectionate, and a source of vigilance: not, of course,
