house, obviously comprehends only those who believed in his house, not infants; therefore, those alone unto whom they spake the word of the Lord, and who believed, were baptized. The same is evident from xi. 17,“ Forasmuch, then, as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us who believe,"-chap. xviii. 8: "Crispus......believed on the Lord with all his house: and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized." Even the baptism of John, which was but the prelude to that of Christ, is called "the baptism of repentance," Mark i. 4, and those who came to it "were baptized, confessing their sins," Matt. iii. 6, whereas infants are incapable either of repentance or confession. If, then, infants were not meet for the baptism of John, how can they be meet for the baptism of Christ, which requires knowledge, repentance, and faith, before it can be received? IMMERSION. It is in vain alleged by those who, on the authority of Mark vii. 4, Luke xi. 38, have introduced the practice of affusion in baptism instead of immersion, that to dip and to sprinkle mean the same thing; since in washing we do not sprinkle the hands, but immerse them. [The above is taken from a "Treatise on Christian Doctrine," by John Milton, which for nearly a century and a half was supposed to be lost, but which was discovered in the Old State Paper Office, Whitehall, towards the close of the year 1823. It was translated from the original Latin by Dr. Sumner, Bishop of Winchester. The foregoing, from chap. xxviii. p. 404-410, (Bohn's edition) sets at rest the long agitated question, "Was Milton a Baptist ?"—ED.] THE SAINTS' LOVE TO THE LORD. BY THE REV. G. BARKER. "O love the Lord, all ye his saints:" Psa. xxxi. 23. LOVE, while the most beautiful, is the | most powerful of Christian graces it is an equisite ornament and an irresistible force. Like the spreading light, it proclaims its own existence, and cannot dwell in secret, unseen, unknown. As soon may we confine the beams of the sun as hinder love from betraying the place of its retreat, when it trembles or burns in the breast. The exclamation in the above text illustrates this. Obviously it was because the heart was full that the lips spake. The Psalmist's mind was so overwhelmed with a sense of the Divine excellency, that his soul was on fire, and to restrain utterance was impossible. Such always is the power of love to God when it glows in the heart; thus completely does it enthral its subject, and rivet every power of mind and body in gladsome captivity. Let us examine it, its nature, source, and laws. FIRST, THEN, WHAT IS IT? This question is somewhat difficult to answer, and we know that in attempting an answer we may "darken counsel by words without knowledge." Emotions can be more readily felt than described. It is no easy task to analyse them; to reduce a compound emotion to its elementary parts that these may be separately examined. But why attempt it? Because it is of the utmost importance that we should have a correct idea of every duty we owe to Jehovah, even though it be purely one of the affections. Till rightly understood it cannot be rightly rendered. We may surround anything with mysticism till it assumes an untrue value in our estimation; as reasoning may seem profound only because it is dark; as arguments may be unanswerable by being incomprehensible, as a hill appears higher when a cloud hangs on its brow; so till we really understand the nature of love we may suppose ourselves to possess abundance when we have but little. The love which the saint has for his Lord, is a compound of complacency and sympathy, resulting in desire. 1. Complacency; satisfaction, approbation, pleasure. There is complacency when, after wandering from one object to another, seeking rest and finding none, the eye at length rests on God, with a feeling of perfect satisfaction and Thus, by having examined this love a little at length, may we, perhaps, be better able to say whether it dwells in us or whether we have a name to live while dead. Thus, also, may we see what an all-powerful force it must necessarily be where it dwells, laying hold of the very sap and stamina, (so to speak,) of our natures, captivating every power, and swaying the whole man by its gentle, yet resistless energy. We enquire, repose, feeling that here is all that could part of love. And now it is easy to see be desired, that no wish now is ungrati- in what these two will issue; in an fied, that nothing, nothing can be co- attraction towards God, a panting to be veted, except to remain in rapt gaze on near Him, an intense desire to be joined the unspeakable excellency. This, how-to Him, a longing till he can be claimed ever, is not by any means universal: I as the soul's portion. more than fear that many of us know nothing of it. You love sin; God hates it, forbids it, has the power to enforce obedience to his will, and punish the noncompliant. You cannot rejoice in such opposition to your inclinations; you cannot feel pleasure in the character that so contradicts and condemns your own. No, this complacency in God is the attribute of "saints" only; the holy ones, those who are like God, who love and hate the same things that he loves and hates. Not that these were never sinners like the rest; for once they were "darkness," "the children of wrath even as others." Then they could not "rejoice in the Lord." They trembled in affright "at the remembrance of his holiness," as they saw him bow the heavens and come down, to utter his fiery law. But now they see Him in a new aspect, from a new point. They see his glory now, as it beams in the face of his Son; they behold him no longer only as he appears on Sinai's top, but as he appears in the gift of Christ, and as being themselves "found in Christ." They tremble not now to contemplate his unflinching justice, for in Christ they see justice and mercy harmoniously blending in the great work of human salvation. Thus, love produces complacency in their God. 2. Sympathy, fellow-feeling, oneness of thought and affection. Such sympathy the saint has with God; harmony of sentiment; so that there is no clashing, no unpleasant jar when the two are together; what one seeks the other approves, what one condemns the other abhors. This is sympathy with God, then, when we regard anything with the same thought, views, emotions with which God regards it; when we can stamp every act and law of God with our heart's approval. There can be no love to Him without this spirit; two cannot "walk together except they are agreed;" how much less can there be love where there is a disapproval of each other's spirit, words, and ways? The very work of the Holy Ghost is to produce this harmony of heart with the Divine; and this harmony is an essential II. WHENCE IS IT? We ask this question, because plainly none are born with it, because we see thousands who have it not; and in one sentence we reply, It is divine. "We love him because he first loved us ;" not that his love to us is merely the argument that persuades us to love him, but that it is also the spring, the source out of which our love is produced. To produce love we must bear in mind that three things are indispensable ;-a view calculated to excite it; the power of beholding that view; and the capability of being moved by it. Of each of these agencies, in begetting in the mind love to God, we predicate a heavenly birth. 1. The view that excites it is divine; for it should be remembered that it is contrary to the very nature of love that it should be kindled in the heart by a sudden exertion of power. The Christian can say, "I love God, not because I am compelled by mere power, but because to me God is truly lovely. This he himself has given me both to see and feel. I have such a view of him before my eyes, that my heart is enraptured by it; I cannot but love him!" But no mortal, nor angel, ever devised that view; none but God himself could. It is divine. It is the view we have of God in the manifestation of his Son. The moment when we first loved God, was when we first saw the excellency and allsufficiency of Christ, and were enabled to rejoice in him as ours. In the gift of Christ; in his suffering, death, and intercession; in the mercy that redeemed us by his Spirit, who broke our yoke and burst our bonds; in the goodness that has hitherto forborne, pardoned, blessed; | heart of man is not naturally thus tender; in the combination of mercy, holiness, it is a hard, a "stony heart," Paul has power, and wisdom, to save our guilty described our native state in two words, souls, we have the Divine work that "past feeling." Nor is it in the power of excites our love to God. But the work man to change the heart; no appeals of is divine. It was wrought by the great the gospel can soften it ; no mere spectacle, Ruler of heaven only. Nothing of the however excellent, can touch it. What work of man has entered into it. Now, then? Whence this power of the saint bearing that view in mind, we aver con- to feel and be moved by the attraction of cerning it, that divine also, is,- the cross? Again, have we to say, it is Divine. This also is the finger of God; this also is the Spirit's work. Yes; all, ALL is of God! How truly it is said, "By grace are ye saved!" how truly, "We love him because he first loved us." With what force are we made to feel, that, from first to last, our salvation is altogether an expression of free grace, and Divine sovereignty! Thus, are we bound to confess, and do it with joy, that the love we feel for God, he himself has produced. We ask,— 2. The power of beholding it. However lovely an object may be, it calls forth no corresponding emotion, if one is unable to see it. Even the glory of God in the face of Christ cannot be perceived by those over whose soul the vail of darkness is cast; and spiritual blindness is the native condition of all; "darkness hath covered the earth, and gross darkness the people." Thousands hear the gospel daily, in whom it excites neither admiration, gratitude, nor pleasure. Why? because they perceive not its excellency or necessity. To them it is simply an oft told tale, having no connection with, bearing on, or charms for them. And such once were those, who now are "saints in Christ Jesus." What hath made us to differ? Each must answer, "by the grace of God I am what I am." The miracle-worker hath been here; the eyes of the blind have been opened; the Spirit of God has removed the scales from our vision; "He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts, and given us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ." He hath taken of the things of Christ and shown them to us. Thus, at this point also, we see the divinity of our love for God. Now, still bearing in mind the view that excites our love, we assert that divine also is, 3. The capability of feeling it. There is a lovely object, three men are looking at it, but with very different emotions. The first has defective eyes, he cannot see its excellency at all, the figure only calls up in his mind aversion: the second sees its beauty, but it calls up no emotion, for his heart is callous, and no scene can soften or touch it: the third sees, and is charmed, his heart is touched, his soul is melted, that spectacle entrances and bends his whole nature; he is irresistibly drawn towards it. His heart was tender. Now with regard to divine things, the III. WHAT ARE ITS LAWS? How is it regulated? How is it increased or diminished? And how does it act? 1. It is increased by communion with the lovely. The Holy Spirit employs the same means to strengthen, as to produce it. It is made to deepen and enlarge as our hearts are brought into contact with Christ. The more we see of his glory and excellency, under the influence of the Spirit, the more we love him. John loved much, Mary loved much; but these two had a keen perception of his loveliness. They saw more in him than others did; they understood him better than others did; they entered more completely into his views, feelings, and work than others did; they held closer fellowship with him than others did; and they loved him more than others did. Thus is it ever. The Spirit makes the presence of Christ with the soul, to increase the soul's love for its Saviour. 2. It is the strongest force to which a man can be subject. Every man is under the government of his heart. All his powers, bodily and mental, are the slaves of his dispositions. This is the law of human nature; and one which operates beautifully, under Divine grace. Love is the mightiest of the heart forces. No other can equal it in power of endurance or strength; and the love of God is the strongest love. Where it dwells it " strains us"-shuts us up to one course of action. We might expect this: a love con so Divine in its origin, the offspring of the Spirit; the only emotion that feeds on the highest excellency: this must be mighty. If mere human love can stimulate us as nothing else human can, to self-denial, exertion, suffering, even to death; then what an incalculable force must Divine love exert on the man in whom it glows; a love doubly Divine, as it is produced by Divine influence, and terminates on a Divine object! 3. It is the best regulator of action. Love works towards and for its object, keeps its eye on it, consults its desires and welfare. Hence the brother's love is the pledge of the sister's protection; the husband's love is the guarantee of the wife's happiness. So when we love God, this prompts us to seek in all things his glory; we become the guardians of his interest; we seek to imitate him. Love guides us to his word, that we may learn, then do, his will. No other attribute we have could do this,-no other supply the place of love. Now, observe, first, How largely saints are indebted to God! Not all who call themselves Christians can comfortably sing "A debtor to mercy ALONE." They are saved by mercy, that they confess; yet not all by mercy; some, however little, by their improvement of grace (a misnoma for what is intended as an improvement upon grace.) They have no difficulty with the atonement, that is undoubtedly Divine; so far salvation is certainly the work of God; but then faith, gratitude, love, surely these are within the capacities of man? No; not We have seen that not only are we indebted entirely to the grace of God, for the atonement through which we are accepted, but equally so for the ability to see it, its necessity and excellency; for the faith that lays hold of it, and the love that we return for it. We may be grateful but not self-gratulatory. No place is left us, except prostration before the throne crying, "Not unto us, O God, not unto us, but unto thy name be all the glory." Second: How comfort is lost and the church enfeebled, not because God hath forgotten you, but because you have forgotten Him. You say, "I am in such trouble, I am afraid I don't, and never did, love God," but were you not once in raptures, your heart so full of love that you cried, “O love the Lord, all ye his saints?" How can you say you never loved God? "Ah, but that is long ago, I was young then, I did not know how much evil I had in me then; I am afraid I was deceiving myself." No such thing; you never were nearer right in all your life than you were then. Now where were you at that time? Why, you had just given your heart to Jesus; his Spirit had just shown you for the first time his transcendent excellency, and you were so enraptured with the view, you gazed long, and the longer you gazed the more you loved. You lived in holy, intimate, and delightful fellowship with him. By and by, however, the cares of life and pleasures of time began to divide your attention with the Saviour, then love to him became cool, and you called your first ardour "youthful enthusiasm ;" and this is how Christians lose their comforts, and then they expect to regain them by mourning, lamenting, and looking within themselves. It will not do. You can have them back only as you received them at first ;-by "looking unto Jesus." It will be when you return as at first, to holy and close communion with him that your drooping comforts will revive, and shows us too how the church is enfeebled; your evidences become bright. This and it is so. Numbers of our churches are as sound asleep as the dead in their graves. The death-shriek of heathennothing for their mission, they do nothing millions never reaches them; they care for Christ; the gospel is folded in a napkin, and buried “The banner unlifted, the trumpet unblown." Imbecility, inconsistency, instability mark them. The second advent, the dawn of judgment-day, would scarcely rouse them! "Are these the Lord's doings?" No; it is that the Lord's people have left their first love. Did that remain, the church would be mighty still. Oh may the Lord revive us again, and cause us to repent and do our first works. "Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, Leighton Buzzard. THE COMMON ENGLISH VERSION:-THE WORD "BELIEVE.” THE Greek verb pistuein, answering to the Greek noun pistis, faith, or trust, has three meanings: first, to believe a thing to be true, or a person to speak truth; secondly, to confide, trust, or place faith in a person or thing; and thirdly, to intrust a thing to a person. The English verb believe, as commonly used by lip and pen, does not mean to trust or confide in, but only to believe that a person speaks truth, or that a thing is true: that is, it expresses only the first of the three meanings of the Greek verb pistuein. Again: instead of having the same likeness to the noun faith, as pistuein has to pistis, believe is quite a different word in form from faith, and does not shew that it has reference to faith, as pistuein often shows, by its form, that it has to pistis. Whenever, therefore, the Greek verb pistuein means to put faith in, and corresponds in meaning to the noun pistis-faith, the verb to believe has these two defects as a translation of pistuein: first, it does not, in common use, mean to put faith in a person or thing at all; and secondly, if it is known often to have that meaning in the English translation, it nevertheless often conceals the connection of a passage. Thus, as Dr. Trench, Dean of Westminster, remarks, by the use of believe, as the translation of pistis, in the last verse of the tenth chapter of Hebrews, instead of faith, which is the translation of pistis, in the first verse of the next chapter-"Now faith," &c., "the loop and link connecting" the two chapters has been dropped in our version, and the most natural transition obscured" that is, the transition from the words, we are of them that believe" (properly-have faith) "to the saving of the soul," to the words, "Now faith," &c. (See Dr. Trench's work "On the Authorised Version," &c., second edition, 1859, p. 89.) 66 Dr. Trench thinks that the reason why the verb believe was used by the translators of the English Scriptures, instead of some verb expressing the exercise of faith, was because we have no verb, such asto faith, answering in form to the noun faith, just as pistuein does to pistis. His words are:While pistis is faith,' and pistos 'faithful,' when we reach pistuein there is no proceeding further in this line; we betake ourselves perforce to 'believe,' a word excellent in itself, but with the serious drawback, that it belongs to quite another family, and stands in no connection with 'faith' and 'faithful' at all." It is true that it has this defect, but this is surely far from being its chief defect. The word believe, instead of being "excellent in itself" as a translation of pistuein, has a strong tendency to mislead men, even as to the way of salvation. For since that word, as used in common life, means simply to admit a thing to be true, it is of necessity understood to have that meaning when met with in the New Covenant, unless the reader has been told that believe is sometimes used there in the unusual sense of put faith in or trust. And even if he do know this, he cannot perhaps tell where it is used in this sense; or he has at the least to use an effort to force his mind to attach to the word a meaning which it does not convey in common life; and even then, perhaps, he does not realize the full meaning of the passage, till he substitute for believe a better word. But even this is not the full extent of the evil, for a very considerable number of those who expound the English Scriptures teach the people that to believe, in the sense of merely admitting the truth of what is taught in the New Covenant, if that admission be combined with moral life and a certain form of religious worship, is all that is necessary to salvation; and the word believe enables them, with the full appearance of correctness, to adduce in proof of this passages which, in the original, express not merely assent, but trust and faith for salvation, in what is assented to. 66 Neither is Dr. Trench quite correct in saying that we must betake ourselves 'perforce" to the word believe. English translators have probably been led to use it by following too closely Latin versions of the New Covenant, rather than by the impossibility of finding a more correct translation and mode of expression than believe in and believe on, in the sense of place faith in or on Christ," &c. It is |