of bitterness that I have been speaking of. I rather think a dying creature, one, of whose recovery we have no hopes, cannot be the object of baptism. That ordinance was never designed to be used among protestants, as extreme unction is among the papists..

We do, and I think with a great deal of justice, refuse to administer the Lord's supper to a person on a death-bed and I cannot see but the argument is as conclusive against this abuse of baptism. He that believes makes not haste. If God has given me a child, I shall resign it to him very often, before I do it in a solemn ordinance; and if he denies me an opportunity of expressing this, in the manner I think it ought to be done, it will be no part of my uneasiness, if it dies unbaptized. It is better I think to leave such a duty undone, than not to have it well done. God never expects it either from you or me, when he has thrown a bar in our way, that we break it, or leap over it. There is no more harm in your not doing it, than there was in David's not building the temple. You had made provision for it, and you did well in that it was in your heart. And though you should not hasten the work, with such an opinion as this, yet take care, that your good be not evil spoken of; that you do not harden others in it, and so become a stumbling block to them that are weak. As the apostle, in a parallel case, says, If any man see thee, who hast knowledge, sit at meat in the idols temple, shall not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things

which are offered to idols; and through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died? but when ye so sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. 1 Cor. viii. 10-12. The argument holds good here. Perhaps you are not so much in haste for the baptism of your child, from a supposition that there is no salvation without it. But what if an uninstructed neighbour puts this sense on the zeal you shew to have it done, and conclude it is, for the same reason that would have moved him to do so? you may in this, lay the foundation of a great uneasiness to him if the providence of God should do, what we have ten thousand examples of, snatch away this child on a sudden. The error of his judgment is enough to throw him into melancholy, and thus through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother offend.*

*

Applications to ministers for dispensing the ordinance of baptism to sick infants, as appeals to their sympathy, are not easily resisted; and yet compliance with such requests is rather to be excused than justified if it indeed admit even of excuse. In most cases, the application proceeds from superstition, and, in all cases, compliance has a tendency to encourage this pernicious emotion, if not in the parties immediately concerned, certainly in others who come to the knowledge of the fact. The tender sorrow excited in the bosom of parents by the sight of suffering infancy, and the painful apprehension of the death of a beloved child, are feelings naturally allied, with superstitious fears, in the breasts of those who are not accurately acquainted with the doctrines and power of Godliness. In such a state of mind arguments which otherwise have little force appear conclusive. 'Baptism being one of the means of grace, it is an act of injustice toward the child

3. It is of all others an opinion the most foolish and impudent, that the salvation which comes by baptism is owing to the regularity of the minister that performs it; and that not a regularity in a moral sense but an ecclesiastical one. By his being a fit minister to baptize, they do not mean, that he shall be sober, of good behaviour, apt to teach, holding fast the faithful word. All this avails him nothing without a lineal virtue, which if it did not come from Anti-Christ, it certainly came through him. Nay, so foolish have some been in this unmannerly doctrine, as to tell us " the very "immortality of our souls is owing to the bap

to deprive him of it in the prospect of death." This is the only argument worthy of being at all examined on this subject. And even this has no weight when placed in the balance against the powerful reasoning of the author. The baptism of dying infants and the administration of the Lord's supper to dying adults, must stand or fall together. To neglect for a length of time the baptism of our children is indeed improper; and to administer the ordinance, hastily, for fear of the child's death, proceeds from the same principle; the want of a conscientious disposition to attend to every ordinance of God on the first opportunity for doing so, according to due order. The seal of circumcision was applied to infants on the eighth day; and this fact shews that the corresponding seal ought not in its application to be needlessly delayed or unbelievingly hastened. Many infants must have died in Israel, before the eighth day, and of course uncircumcised. The private baptism of the sick leads to private baptism as a general practice; and the general practice leads to the abuse of this Sacrament by its administration to the unworthy. A sacrament, belonging to the Church of God as a visible society in covenant with him, ought to be administered publicly before the Church.

"tismal spirit; which, since the apostle's "days, is only conveyed by bishops:"* As if it was not enough to confound the works of grace, unless they destroy those of the God of nature. If you proceed to the ordinance with any such delusions in your head, it is no wonder that you fall short of the benefit. The foolishness of fools is deceit. You ought to be established in the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Be not carried about with every wind of doctrine, or suffered to be tossed to and fro, by the sleight of men, and the cunning craftiness of those that lie in wait to deceive. If you offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil? A wise man's eyes are in his head, but a fool walks in darkness.

SERMON II.

Secondly, I AM to give you some directions that relate to the work itself, and are to be observed at the time of the administration. Under this head I will not crowd you with a multitude of particulars, but only leave with you these three things.

1. Be satisfied, that it is performed according to the rule, given you in the word of God. 2. If it be possible, let it be done in the public assembly of his people.

3. There should be a great deal of seriousness in your temper, whether you bring yourselves or infants to God in this ordinance.

*Dodwell's scrip. ac. of rewards.

1. It is of the utmost importance to the benefit and comfort of this duty, that it be administered according to the word: otherwise, though there may be a washing away the filth of the flesh, there will never be the answer of a good conscience towards God. As if he foresaw how much this ordinance was to suffer by human intrusions, our Saviour sets a bar quite around the institution.

1. By telling the apostles that this order to baptize into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, was the result of his having all power given to him both in heaven and in earth: from which I would conclude, that the solemnity is complete as he left it, and that it wants no more to make it effectual. And then

2. He places a caution on the other side, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And you are to limit the promise with which he closes, by the rules, that he had given them; lo, I am with you always unto the end of the world. This divine presence will attend nothing but a divine ministration, When people leave Christ, and the method of his worship, he will leave them. He has not published his laws, as men do theirs, with such imperfections, that they must be explained and mended. No, he is the rock, and his work is perfect, and all his commandments are sure.

The institution itself is a divine ceremony. It would be of no value if we had not his command for it. We never could be of opin