ESSAY ON BAPTISM 587

Jordan”¹-that He stands personally beside the Baptismal font, and that you still may, if you will, have His hands laid upon your child, and His blessing given to it. You believe this, at least, unless you think that Christ is no real Person, or does not mean what He says-unless you think that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us Not, and that when two or three are gathered in His name,² He is Not in the midst of them. But you do believe it-if you believe anything. Then, if Christ verily stands by the Font to bless the Child, I ask you, parent or Sponsor, what does Christ’s blessing mean, and what is it worth? You have read of the worth of Human blessing before now, you know that it has been sought carefully and with tears (though perhaps it was without tears that you sought Christ’s). Isaac’s blessing gave the Fatness of Earth and the dew of Heaven.³ But a greater than is here. Jacob’s blessing prevailed unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. But a greater than Jacob is here. Shall Christ’s blessing do no more-did you come to Him expecting no more? Was it in the hope of wealth for your child, or of honour, or of length of days that you brought him to be blessed by Christ? Not so. You expected something else than this, or if not, we may learn from Christ’s own lips what you ought to have expected, for those whom He calls blessed must be so in the sense which He has Himself attached to the word-

“Blessed are the pure in Heart, for they shall see God.”

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their’s is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

You came, therefore, that your child might be made Pure in heart and lowly in spirit. Is this anything else than Regeneration, or would Christ call any one blessed whose sins. He retained? I press no other argument respecting Baptism than this, for a thousand volumes of arguments-and you may find more, if you will-would probably be of less weight with you than your quiet answering for yourself of the simple question, How much less than the Inheritance of Heaven will make a Child Blessed in the Eyes of its Redeemer?

§ 25. Nay, but-you object incredulously-can Baptism, to which a believing Christian has brought the child, be a full assurance of its final salvation? I dare not answer; but you, if you are an experienced Christian, and know that you are yourself a Child of God, and that your salvation is secure, may answer boldly, and say that the salvation of that new Christian is as secure as your own, on the same conditions. If, therefore, you feel that there is no farther need for you to resist unto death, striving against sin, no farther need to keep under your body and bring it into subjection, no farther occasion for mortifying your members which are upon the earth;⁴ if you feel that you can dispense with all the aids with which God has furnished you, brave all the dangers against which He has warned

¹ [Mark x. 1, 14.]

² [Matthew xviii. 20.]

³ [Genesis xxvii. 28 (Isaac), xlix. 26 (Jacob); Proverbs iii. 16; Matthew v. 3, 8.]

⁴ [1 Corinthians ix. 27; Colossians iii. 5.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]