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    Untitled Article

    But here , it may be objected , Of what use is the washing , or the sprinkling with water ? What impression can it make upon the mi mi ? What benefit can it

    convey in one place more than in another , or upon any particular occasion more than in the general usage ? Thus argued Naaman

    the Syrian , when directed by the prophet to wash in the river Jordan , without considering that as toe applied to a prophet , who acted under the divine direction

    he should not dispute his com - mandj merely because it could be easily complied with * He might be right in declaring that the waters of Damascus were as

    good or better than all the waters of Israel , and that his washing in the one could no more heal him than his washing in the other , if he acted only from the impulse of

    his own mind . But , his servants wisely observed to him u If the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing , wouldest thou not have done it ? How much more

    then when he saith unto tliee , wash and be clean ? " They properly considered , that there was a great difference between the same thing , when done only at our own p leasure , and when done under the divine direction ; that the

    simp licity of a thing , is no objection to the utility of it , and that we should not reject a benefit because we may attain it by the easiest means . Indeed , he himself should have seen the difference between

    washing hi Jordan , at tjbe appoint * mfent of a prophet , and as the condition of his recovery from a loathsome disease , and his washing in * ny other riv ^ r without any authoritative assurance of help . We

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    also should remember , that there may be an use in washing children in the name of Christ , when we consider him as directing us to this act in obedience to the divine authority , and that , under these circumstances , there is a wide difference between this and any other washings for which we have no divino command . It is useful to submit to a divine law , to

    recognise the authority ot the Liord Jesus , and devoutly to contemplate all our obligations as his disciples . It must be satisfactory also to devote our offspring to the service of him who gave them , and to know that we yield a cheerful subjection to the divine pleasure , and it must have a practical influence upon us , if we be ail seriously disposed to consider the holy nature of our profession , what purity it requires , what advantages it proposes , And through what an uniformly even path it advances tis to the crown of life . It must

    be also a benefit to children to have their parents thus piously impressed , so as to wish to train them up in the fear of the Lord , and to prepare them , when they themselves attain to years of discretion ^ for embracing with gra * titude that heavenly religion to

    which they are called . I wish your ingenious corre - spondents to pursue this subject in a temperate manner , allowing every one to be fully persuaded in hi « own mind , and remembering that

    meats , or drinks , or the vrashrng away the filth of tfee flesh , do not com pose the grand constituents of our religion . I wish those of them who can , to answer Mr . Emly «' $ previous question , on whicfe a gre ^ t d « J $ * l depend ; and I wisk

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    f 5 Reasons for Baptising Infants

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1810, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2400/page/8/