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    portance . But , I wished them to he Jess positive than they generally are , and more caudid to their opponents , and particularl y that they would not introduce a sneer , instead of a serious argument , when they are speaking of the bap * tism of infants . , You will suffer me also to give my opinion upon this controversy . I remark , in the first place , that the baptism which our Lord commanded to be practised , was not that of the Spirit only . This is evident from the direction of Peter , Acts x . 47 , to baptize with water

    those Gentiles who had already received the Holy Spirit . It is altogether probable , then , that thiswas that kind of baptism which our Lord commissioned his discipies to administer to all nations ; and that , as this wab a rite

    initiatory to his religion , water was purposely used on the occasion as an emblem of moral purity , emphatically to represent the singular holiness of all his followers .

    Though this seems , then , to have been first practised upon adults only , and not upon children until ( heir believing parents or guardians required it , yet as

    circumcision , the initiatory rite under a former dispensation , extended to infants as well as to proselytes of riper years , it may hence be strongly argued , that baptism , as

    an initiatory rite into a more perfect religion , was designed also to extend to our infant offspring , and that we , b y this rite , ought to dedicate , our children to God , as the Jews did theirs , by the

    observance ot a more paintul rue ; and hence it appears probable , though ikith was the foundation of baptism in adults , that their children , who could jnot believe

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    Reasons for BaptisingInfants . 7

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    were the subjects of it , as it isalso probable , when Paul baptised Lydia and her household , and the jailor and his whole house , Acts xvi . 15 , 33 . and the house ofStephanus , 1 Cor . i . 16 \ that child * ren made a part of some of those families . It is also evident from

    the history of Christianity , that infant baptism was practised from the very beginning : for , if it had been a new thing at any particu - lar period , that period wotild have been singularly distinguished by historians , and the authors of the

    heresy . > as it would then have beeu called , like those of all other heresies , would have been mentioned by name . As ( his rite , then , marks out the pious dispositions of those

    parents , who thus present their children to .-the'Lord , ex pressing a desire that they may be trained up in his service , and as water is an emblem . of that purity , , which all parents must be anxious to

    characterize their children , as such it canaot be objected to ; and , though children cannot be supposed to enter into any vows

    upon the occasioly yet the solemnity-of thus presenting them to God , must have a goocl effect upon the minds of the parents , and the children themselves must

    afterwards be grateful to those who discovered such an earl y solici - tude for their welfare , and must hence derive an animating motive to rejoice in that system of faith into which they have beeninitiated . How those , however , who have long professed the Christian relu

    gion , and from k the fullest conviction of their minds , can reasonably submit to this as a merel y initiatory rite , it becomes them to explain .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1810, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2400/page/7/