regenerated, and numbered among the elect of God, but only a fortunate few, irrespectively chosen, regeneration not always taking place in point of fact, but only in the judgment of charity; and that the words, upon which so much stress is laid, are only general expressions adapted to general forms. But those, who advance this argument in opposition to the plain import of the terms in contemplation, forget, or perhaps do not know, that we find no such general expressions, no such charitable judgment in the formulary of baptism drawn up and used by Calvin (1o); and that the office of our own Church is principally borrowed from that of the Lutherans (1), whose well known sentiments on the subject it is unnecessary to repeat. decisive of the question, subjoined in the Rubric, which declares it to be certain, that baptized children, dying before they commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved (12); a declaration which would be useless and absurd, if it could be so interpreted as to mean those alone, who are included in an absolute, and to us inscrutable, decree of predestination. Let us not however hence imagine, that our Reformers intended to

establish any opinion inconsistent with the salvation of infants unbaptized, On the contrary, no less here, than upon an occasion formerly alluded to, the very reverse appears to have been the fact. For it should be observed, that the passage before us is not original, but borrowed from a work of popular instruction, composed in the reign of Henry, which, after stating, that by this Sacrament we are made the very sons of God, adds, " Insomuch that "infants and children, dying in their infancy, shall undoubtedly be saved there

by, and else not." (13) Now, while the omission of the latter part of the clause in our Liturgy evidently points out the improvement in the creed of our Reformers, the insertion of the short sentence prefixed, "it is certain by God's word," seems no less convincingly to prove, that they speak only of that, which the lips of truth have revealed, and placed beyond conjecture, the covenanted mercy of Almighty God.

On the whole, by explaining this Article in conformity with our baptismal service, we instantly perceive, upon what principles divine election is supposed to proceed, and what is that general promise and will of God, of which it speaks, as expressly de

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clared in the word of God; we perceive, that grace, according to the Lutheran doctrine, is directly taught to be both Universal and Defectible (14), circumstances, which necessarily preclude every idea of an arbitrary selection of individuals. Our benevolent Creator, we are told, possesses no private partiality for certain preordained objects of his bounty, but is equally disposed to all, embraces all indiscriminately with the arms of his mercy, and receives all, when dedicated to him by baptism, into the number of his elect; and when, at any subsequent period of our existence, he withdraws from us the light of his heavenly countenance, the cause of that deplorable change is not imputable to him, but to us, who prove defective on our parts, forfeiting in maturer years our title to eternal happiness, and excluding ourselves from salvation. Thus, when captivated with the pleasures of the world, and subdued by its temptations, we cease "manfully to fight "under the banner of Christ," we completely lose that state of security, in which we before were placed; for it is not sufficient to be once regenerated, and made the children of Heaven by adoption, unless we are daily renewed by the holy Spirit,

which we can never be, while we despise his dominion, resist his influence, and pollute the hallowed sanctuary, which he has ́established in our hearts. Hence therefore, from this diversity in us, (some finally abandoning the hope of their calling, and perishing in their crimes, others by repentance and amendment recovering it,) arises the rule of a personal discrimination in the mind of God; for although his purpose is indeed immutable, and his predestination of the elect, as a collective body, consequently absolute, yet our continuation in that number, or rejection from it, is evidently conditional, depending not upon his irrespective decree, but upon our Christian conduct, "upon our being endued with hea"venly virtues," by which alone, through the merits and for the sake of Christ, we are everlastingly rewarded." (15) And when we recollect, what our Church maintains in her Article of Free Will upon the point of human cooperation with divine agency, we see, that, according to her sentiments, widely differing from those of Calvin, in ourselves is to be found one essential requisite towards the performance of that condition, upon which, when erased

66.

by guilt, our names are again inscribed in

the book of life.

In the preceding observations upon this Article, I have endeavoured to make our Church her own interpreter, and, omitting as unnecessary the elucidations, which might have been easily adduced from other parts of her Liturgy, confined myself to those, which her office of Baptism so appropriately and eminently affords (16). The private sentiments of our Reformers on this occasion, it seems of little importance to ascertain, because, in truth, the question turns not upon what they privately and individually believed, but upon what they publicly and collectively taught; it may notwithstanding be satisfactory to know, that, as far as we are enabled to judge from their writings, they maintained nothing which invalidates, but rather much which confirms, what has been advanced (1). One of them indeed, who was the most copious and explicit upon the subject, has been given up by the Calvinists (if the anachronism be allowable) as a complete Arminian. But this concession proves more, than was perhaps intended by those who made it; it proves, that Arminianism