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THE STATE OF INFANTS AFTER DEATH.
they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, and the law of that religion they do profess; and to assert and maintain that they may, is very pernicious, and to be detested."
The meaning of this language is sufficiently obvious. But to remove all possible grounds of doubt on this score, we have but to consult the theological writings of some of the most distinguished members of that body. The Rev. Wm. Twiss, D.D., whom the Assembly, by a unanimous vote, honored with the office of Prolocutor, or Chairman, and who, from this circumstance, may be taken as a fair exponent of the opinions of the body, expresses himself in the manner following, concerning the final condition of many who die in infancy:
"It were worth the knowing of this Author, whether any infants of Turks and Saracens, departing this life in their infancy, are left in this woful estate. If none are left, but all are saved, is it not a pretty guilt of eternal death, for which not any suffer? And you may guess by this whether this Author's pretence of acknowledgment of natural corruption be not only from the teeth outward." Again—"If many thousands, even all the Infants of Turks and Saracens dying in original sin, are tormented by him [the Deity] in Hell fire, is he to be accounted the father of cruelties for this?" Again—"Touching punishment in hell, it is either spoken of Infants, or Men of ripe years. If of Infants departing in infancy, if guilty of eternal death, 'tis no injustice to inflict it; and though he be slow to anger toward some, yet it is not necessary he should be so to others." Again—"It is true many infants we say perish in original sin only, not living to be
