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PREFACE.

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HE undue and fuperftitious ftrefs, which has been laid upon BAPTISING INFANTS, by fome ill inftructed Chriftians has, doubtless, been the chief occafion of its being treated with fuch unreafonable oppofition by others. When we hear Auftin, Fulgentius, Gregory and many others of great name, amongst those called the holy fathers, with folemnity pronouncing" That Infants can have no fal"vation, if they die without Baptifm."—"That

we must hold for certain and undoubted that "they are ignis eterni fempiterno fupplicio puniendi to be tormented with the everlasting punishment of eternal fire."-" And, intermi"nabilia gehennæ fuftinere fupplicia, ubi diabolus, &c. That they fuffer the endless tor"ments of bell, where the devil with his angels A 2

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are to burn for evermore."-Again, "As "the UNBAFTISED INFANT cannot go into "the kingdom of heaven, you must acknowledge "be will be in everlasting fire."-Finally, "If "Infants have not had the facrament of falva"tion (i, e. Baptism) for their deliverance from original fin, they pass into perpetual torments." When we hear, I fay, this ceremony of baptifmal-water exalted into an affair of fuch infinite importance, the mind is naturally fhocked it rifes with indignation against the monstrous abfurdity and even impiety of fuch tenets; and (which is but too common to human nature) the tranfports of zeal hurry it into the oppofite extreme: to depreciate and run down, a rite fo unduely magnified: and, whilst pulling it from the high rank it had ufurped in religion, to caft it quite out; and to allow it no ufe nor place in it at all.

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The middle-way betwixt thefe two extremes, is that which is here chofen. It can with no reafon be imagined, that a GOD of infinite mercy, who hateth nothing that he hath made, will permit the having, or the wanting, the ceremony of baptifmal-water, to determine finally and irrevocably the everlasting state of a dying Infant: or, that for the neglect of this ceremonial washing, (which yet the Infant could in no wife help) it shall be doomed to everlasting torments amongst devils and apoftate fpirits. This be far from the almighty JUDGE!

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The Baptifm that faves (a) (or, that at all profits any, whether Infant or adult) is not the external washing, but the answer of a good confcience; or the pious and devout fentiments with which that ceremony is performed. In perfons adult; the religious and fincere affections with which they confecrate themselves to GOD: and in Infants; the unfeigned piety; the gratitude and the faith, with which their parents devote them to him. The meer ceremony of applying water is comparatively of little moment.

But, that the Baptism of Infants is a rite ordained of GOD, and a rite of great advantage and use in Religion, the following treatise, it is hoped, will how. In which it is confidered, rather as a standing token, than as a proper inftrument or mean, of God's mercy and grace to us; a perpetual memorial inftituted in the church, fignifying to believers God's readiness to pour down his fpirit upon them, and his blessing upon their offspring; not properly a canal (as fome affect to talk) by which these are conveyed to us.

The argument from antiquity or apoftolic tradition, has not, perhaps, been often prefented to the public, in fo contracted and clear a light as its importance deferves. It is, principally for the fake of this; and to reprefent the moral purposes of Infant-Baptifm, that the enfuing tract appears.

(a) Pet. iii. 21.

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If fentiments, on the future ftate of dying Infants, may here be thought by fome, too freely expreffed; they may, it is hoped, be admitted as conjectures at leaft, upon an interefting fubject; upon which however the Baptifm of Infants has no effential dependance, that refting fecurely upon other confiderations, whatever force be allowed to these.

The author delights not in controverfie, nor intends to engage in any, on the fubject of thefe papers; having feldom feen good arifing from altercations of this kind. But the light in which the argument is here: fet having been approved by feveral, to whofe judgment he owes great defference, it is here prefented to publick view. As far as it fpeaks truth, may the GOD of truth fucceed it! To his favour it is commended and to the attentive, perufal of the candid and fincere.