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                                                                      	We may learn from Christian life s whom we consider
                                                                      Blessed:  Those whom he blesses must be so in the sense
                                                                      which his own lips have given to the word:
                                                                      Blessed are the Pure in heart, for they shall see God,
                                                                      Blessed are the Poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom
                                                                      of heaven.
                                                                      You came therefore that your child might be made Pure in
                                                                      heart and lovely in spirit.
                                                                      Is this anything else than Regeneration;  or would Christ
                                                                      call any one blessed - whose since he retained?
	I press no other argument respecting Baptism than this -                     x	I believe that nothing less than the Being a Child of God,
others have at leng[t]th enough   - displyed the force of the         and an Inheritor of the Kingdom of heaven, would make a
passages which describe the efficacy of the rite.                     child blessed in the eyes of its Redeemer.  This
But I could not press the on you -at least until you can              therefore I believe they become, when he has blessed them.
tell me how much less than the Inheritance of heaven will             And can the Child who is once a Child of God, you ask me
make a child blessed - in the Eyes of its Redeemer - I                incredulously - ever fall away, and isaBaptism to which
would rather have you to think in your own heart whether,             a believing Christian has brought the child, a full and
less than the being a Child of God etc and to remember                certain assurance of its final salvation?
those words of           "Thou blessest, oh Lord, and it              Reader, I would not ask you to answer this question un-
shall be blessed for ever.                                            less you are an experienced Christian:  But if you feel
                                                                      in your heart that you have taken up your cross and
                                                                      followed Christ;  and that you are yourself a child of
                                                                      God, and if therefore you feel that your Salvation is
                                                                      secure;  then do you answer it boldly and say that the
                                                                      Salvation of that new Christian

[Version 0.05: May 2008]