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                                                                      	If unconditionally attached to it, are we to suppose fur-
                                                                      ther that when the Rite is performed in faith;  and
                                                                      when for manybdays previous to it and subsequently to it;
                                                                      the Parents and Sponsors, being habitual Servants of God,
                                                                      are engaged in fervent prayer that God would shed his
                                                                      Spirit upon the Child;  that the Child so brought to the
                                                                      Font receives no higher blessing than the Child of Pa-
                                                                      rents who not only have never uttered a single prayer in
                                                                      its behalf but who neither Serve God;  not believe in him.
                                                                      This would be to suppose that Christ spoke falsely when he
                                                                      said that our Father would give his spirit to those who
                                                                      ask him.  It would be a blasphemous supposition.
                                                                      But let it be granted that the Child s[i]o[s] offered receives a
                                                                      higher blessing:  It may n[m]e[o]x[s]t be inquired - whether the
                                                                      blessing depend on the faith of its Parents, or of its
                                                                      Sponsors, or of the Minister who performs the rite;
                                                                      or of the Congregation witnessing it.
                                                                      On the faith of all, it is most manifest, and in proper
                                                                      tion to their faith of each:  For it is not to be believed,
                                                                      surely, that God has not at all times another blessing to
                                                                      bestow in answer to another Christian’s prayer;  or that
                                                                      the prayer of any Christian soul, either sha[o]r[w]ing or
                                                                      sympathising in the rite, would ever be inefficacious
                                                                      in procuring a higher measure of blessing;  But if Prayer
                                                                      and faith be efficacious to procure then non prayer and
                                                                      non faith are efficacious to withhold the blessing:
                                                                      Therefore we must hold that the child is

[Version 0.05: May 2008]