5. Children are members of the "kingdom of heaven." 6. They are to be "received" in Christ's name. 7. "It is not the will of God that one of them should perish." 8. The Church is warned "not to despise them," as to their religious condition and claims, for they are the special objects of Divine love and care. Children, then, are reckoned unto Christ, not unto Adam; they are accounted redeemed and saved, not as left in their lost estate by nature. Grace, in their condition, triumphs over depravity and sin.

Still the question recurs, "Are infants in a regenerate state?" This question, which we fear has come to be more technical than intelligible, more curious than edifying, we cannot avoid here. But the answer can by no means be given by a simple yea or nay, because regeneration itself is a term which, in historic theology, has come to receive various significations. The answer, then, depends upon the definition given to this word. In the Church of England theology, where this subject is most thoroughly discussed, the sense in which children are regenerated has been abundantly difficult to settle and make plain. The lowest sense that has been resorted to by divines of that Church, is the introducing of children by baptism into a new state as to covenant duties, privileges, and blessings. Thus Bishop Hopkins, of the 17th century, calls this kind of regeneration "external and ecclesiastical." Others hold to a spiritual regeneration at baptism; and others, that in baptism the promise of regeneration is only sealed, ratified, and made sure, to be actually conferred in infancy if the child die, to be reserved and bestowed only upon repentance and faith, if the child live. As to the moral state of infants prior to baptism that Church has no dogma, but allows a liberty of opinion. One view is thus represented by Dr. Some, of Cambridge University, 1582. He says: "All that die before baptism are not damned, because we are Christians before we are baptized. . . . The Church doth only mark those with this seal [of baptism] whom they either know, or at least do take, before the administration of baptism, to be God's lambs or sheep. . . . Baptism is not the cause, but the seal of our conjunction with Almighty God.” Archbishop Usher, in 1653, allows that to "elect infants," baptized, dying in infancy, "the Holy Ghost doth as truly, and really, and actually apply the merits and blood of Christ in the justifying and sanctifying virtue unto the soul, as the minister doth the water unto the body." Yet, as to those who live, he says: "It is hard to affirm (as some do) that every elect infant doth ordinarily, before or in baptism, receive initial regeneration, and the seed of faith and grace.'

Luther taught, in his Service for Infant Baptism, 1524, a spiritual regeneration "by water and the Holy Ghost," and this is the con

struction which Dr. Waterland earnestly contends for, as the doctrine of the Liturgy and Homilies of the Church of England. But really, on this subject, historical theology is no guide. We must go direct to Revelation; there all is clear; but the stream of Church history has become turbid with the minglings of human invention. That children are in a state of grace, in favor with God, through the atonement, is incontestibly taught in Scripture. That the fruit of the atonement as conveyed to them is not a mere negative justification, not a mere acquittal from liability to punishment, but a positive and moral good, a principle of spiritual life, is equally clear. This is not the fruit of baptism, nor conjoined with baptism by any order of God, as the Church of England authors have erroneously assumed, but it is of the direct grace of God in Christ. It is prior to baptism, and the moral ground of fitness on which the baptism of children rests. And this grace, emanating directly from Christ to the infant, is not conditioned upon its dying in infancy-this is a mere invention of theologians-but comes to all without distinction who are involved in the consequences of the sin of Adam.

With them, sins of the

A fruitful source of misunderstanding on this point lies in the confused ideas respecting spiritual regeneration itself. Regeneration is life-the life of God in human nature. It is a quickening of our nature by the Holy Spirit, whereby we are brought into favor and sympathy with God, and made susceptible of the fruits, the exercises, and enjoyments of holy obedience. Now this life is the direct impartation of the Holy Spirit, as the gift of Christ. In adults it is conditioned on repentance and faith, and is effected through the instrumentality of the "word of God." "Of his own will BEGAT he us, WITH THE WORD OF TRUTH." (James i, 18.) "BORN AGAIN," says Peter, "BY THE WORD OF GOD." (1 Pet. i, 23.) Here is a circumstantiality of the new birth which belongs to adults. also, it is preceded by "the putting off the body of the flesh" (Eph. iv, 22; Col. ii, 11, and iii, 9; 1 Pet. ii, 9.) But does all this prove that in infants there cannot and does not exist a principle of divine life, a seminal regeneration, graciously imparted, or begotten, of the same quality or nature, and from the same efficient source of life as that in adults? differing, indeed, in extent and force, and in the circumstances and conditions of bestowment, but not in essence, quality, or efficacy. The "justification of life," which has come to them, implies this. The word on, life, in this connection, we repeat it, is too marked in its usage to be understood in a merely legal sense. It denotes a moral effect produced in our nature, a quickening of the same. Thus says John: "In him was life, and this life was the light of men. That was the true light which

enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world." (John i, 4, 9.) This "light" is called "To pws τns Swns, the light of the life." (John viii, 12.) In chap. i, 9, the participial form of the verb (exouevov) properly suggests the date of this impartation of the "light of life "it enlighteneth every man " COMING into the world," or more properly, "WHEN HE COMETH into the world." The idea of time is fairly marked. They are the subjects of this "enlightenment," "when [as soon as] they come into the world." It is not a mere intellectual teaching that is meant. The word owricw, "to illuminate," is of very marked significance in the New Testament. It is tantamount to regeneration or the new life. Mark the sense of the word in Heb. vi, 4: "Those who were once enlightened;" and in chap. x, 32: Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of affliction." So the early Christians were called "the illuminated." See also the figurative use of the noun pwc, light, in such passages as Acts xxvi, 18: "To turn them from darkness to light;" Rom. ii, 19: "A light of them which are in darkness;" Eph. v, 8: "Walk as children of light;" 1 Thess. v, 5: "Ye are all the children of light," etc. This "light of life," this "illumination," which places the soul above its natural state, and in contrast with simple nature, dates at the origin of natural life.

With this view accord the sentiments of the old Protestant divines. "Infants," says Bishop Beveridge, "have the seeds of repentance and faith in them, which may afterward grow up to perfection." Bishop Davenant, 1639, says:

"The justification, regeneration, and adoption of little children baptized, confers on them a state of salvation ACCORDING TO THE CONDITION OF LITTLE CHILDREN.".

And again:

"From these things any one may see that infants, by baptism, are indeed placed in a state of salvation, but only relatively to that age and condition of little children."

Mr. Goode says:

"Though the early divines of the Protestant Churches did not generally adopt precisely his [Luther's] view, and express themselves as if they considered an infant capable of the acts of faith, (which Luther seems to have held,) they did speak of an infant as capable of the SEED or PRINCIPLE, or INCIPIENT STAGE of faith."

He further states

That, as in the natural birth there was life previously, so in the spiritual new birth, life-a living principle of faith-must have been implanted, to make the birth by baptism effectual to the production of a being spiritually alive."

The only error of the old divines on this point was in connecting

this element of spiritual life with baptism, whereas it is the direct gift of Christ by his Spirit without reference to baptism.

We are fully aware of the difficulty of reasoning, or of using analogies in a subject which, like this, loses itself in inscrutable mysteries of psychology, and hence we venture only to the extent of what we deem the beaten path of exegesis. We offer no dogma beyond these simple truths: 1. That children are in a state of salvation through the atonement; 2. That the effect of redeeming love to them is direct, and not dependent upon any outward ordinance; 3. That it is not merely legal and negative, but, being expressed in such words as justification, justification of life, righteousness, illumination, membership in the kingdom of heaven, there must also be a moral effect wrought upon them. The extent, manner, and nature of this moral effect we are not called upon to assert, are not able to explain, cannot explain it even in adults; but we hold that it has the efficacy to restore children to the favor and kingdom of God. They belong to the spiritual family of God. We see no absurdity in holding that the incipient stage of spiritual life exists in them, that they are begotten of the Spirit unto a life of holiness. The word denoting the new birth, (yevvaw, John, iii, 3,) denotes, in its literal sense, every stage and degree of life, from its first evolvment, the first quickening of existence, to the literal birth; and why not in spiritual life? An acorn has in it the life of the oak, but not in the same expansion and force. Yet it is the principle of real vegetable life, and it is of the species of oak-life, otherwise it could never become an oak. "The kingdom of heaven is as a grain of mustard seed, which is, indeed, the smallest of seeds, but when it is grown it becomes the greatest of herbs." The natural child has the natural life of a man, but that life as yet performs not the functions, has not the force of adult age. So it has reason and conscience, but not in exercise. The manifestations of these belong to another period; their existence is the endowment of human being. Why may not children be subjects of grace, and of the principle of spiritual life, while yet in an unconscious or nondeveloped age? If children who die can be regenerated, children who live can be equally so. The words of Christ are direct and unequivocal. Except ris, any one be born again HE CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD." Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come to me: FOR OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN."

6.

We have traversed only a part of the general argument. The question of their gracious state, as the direct gift of Christ through the Spirit, being settled, the way is open to consider their ecclesiastical relations as defined in Scripture, and the duty of the Church to them.

ART. IX.-RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.