supported by the inestimable privilege of having been made God's children, before they themselves knew good or evil; who have on the whole been uniformly kept within Christ's fold, and are now thanking their heavenly Father for having placed them thus early in this state of salvation, into which, had it been left to their frail choice, they had never entered; who rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, that they were placed in the Ark of Christ's Church, and not first called, of themselves to take refuge in it out of the ruins of a lost world[1].
All this, people will in the abstract readily acknowledge; they will confess that Scripture is the only ultimate authority in matters of Faith, while still they will probably find on examination that some of these grounds have occasioned them to hold Baptismal Regeneration to be an unscriptural doctrine; and if they examined Scripture at all, yet still the supposed effects of this, and of a contrary doctrine, the supposed character of those who hold it, or the reverse, were in fact their rule for interpreting Scripture; or perhaps wearied with the controversy (which is and must be in itself an evil) they came to the conclusion that, if we but hold the necessity of Regeneration, it matters not when we suppose it to take place,—thus assuming, in fact, the unscripturalness of the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, since if God has connected Regeneration with Baptism, it must be of importance.
This is very natural; for men must lean upon something. Our Reformers, in their interpretation of Scripture, besides the divine means of prayer, leant on the consent and agreement of the "old holy Catholic Doctors," who had received their doc-
- ↑ "They with whom we contend are no enemies to the Baptism of infants; it is not their desire that the Church should hazard so many souls by letting them run on till they come to ripeness of understanding, that so they may be converted and then baptized, as Infidels heretofore have been; they bear not towards God so unthankful minds as not to acknowledge it even among the greatest of His endless mercies, that by making us His own possession so soon, many advantages which Satan otherwise might take are prevented, and (which should be esteemed a part of no small happiness) the first thing whereof we have occasion to take notice is, how much hath been done already to our good, though altogether without our knowledge."—Hooker, b. v. § 64, p. 287.
