strictly adhering to and following up the same figure of union with Christ, the believer is assumed to be mystically buried with Christ when he descends under the water, and in a figure raised up with Christ when he rises out of the font; and this because Baptism is the appointed means of mystical union with a Saviour Who went down into the grave and rose up again to procure for us remission of sins, and to assure us of victory over sin.

So that the order of sequence of grace in Baptism is not cleansing first and incorporation afterwards, but rather the reverse. It is incorporation into One in Whom is all cleansing; and so we are cleansed. It is incorporation into One Who died, and was buried, and rose again to do away with sin; and so we are supposed to die, to be buried, and to rise again by imputation to us of our Lord's Death, Burial, and Resurrection.

Lastly, being thus federally or mystically incorporated into Him Who is our salvation, we are brought into a state of salvation; and so it is said, Baptism doth now save. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." "By His mercy He saved us by the Bath of New Birth.'

All these scattered expressions respecting the grace of Baptism may be included in the more general expression of union with, incorporation into, or grafting into, Christ as the Second Adam. And all are in remarkable accordance with the terms setting forth the common covenant blessings which the Baptized members of the Church are in the Apostolical Epistles always assumed to have received.

The characteristic phrase of St. Paul in addressing his converts is "in" Christ, i.e. to be "in" Him as a member of His mystical body. Thus, "We being many are one body in Christ" (Rom. xii. 5). "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ ?" (1 Cor. vi. 15). “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members

of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." (1 Cor. xii. 12, 27.) "Ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. iii. 28). "Head over all things to the Church, which is His body" (Eph. i. 22, 23). “That He might reconcile both to God in one body on the cross" (Eph. ii. 16). "The mystery of Christ... that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body" (Eph. iii. 6). "We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones" (Eph. v.30). "The Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God" (Col. ii. 19).

This inherence in the body of Christ is considered by St. Paul to be the ultimate or crowning grace of the dispensation. All possible spiritual and eternal benefits and holy relationships to God and one another are summed up in it (Eph. i. 16-23; iii. 1-6); and yet it is the primary or initial grace, for all the Baptized are assumed to be partakers of it, and considerations drawn from the fact that all in the Church have received it are brought to bear upon the whole Christian body, to fortify them against the commission of the lowest sins, and to establish them in the practice of the most ordinary Christian graces and virtues. When the Christian has to be warned against falling into heathenish sin, he is so warned on the assumption that he has been made a member of Christ (1 Cor. vi. 15), and considerations which derive all their significance from the assumed fact of his having been once made a member of Christ's body are brought to bear upon him to make him humble (Rom. xii. 3-5), peaceable (Col. iii. 15), forgiving, forbearing, charitable, and sympathising (1 Cor. xii. 12-27), and also to make him a good husband (Eph. v. 25), and also a truthful member of the Christian society (Eph. iv. 25).

The foregoing is an attempt to solve, or at least to simplify, a Scripture problem of the highest evangelical and practical importance.

It is a problem all whose terms are to be found in Scripture.

Given certain passages of Scripture, expressly mentioning Baptism, and all of them without exception connecting it with salvation; given a certain mode of address, adopted by all the Apostles, in addressing the whole body of the Baptized (following up a similar principle of address adopted by all the Prophets from Moses to Malachi); and what are we to make of it all? Respect for the written word of God, as the Revelation of His will, compels us to attempt some solution. It is clear, too, that the problem must be solved in subordination to the leading idea of the whole dispensation, which is that the Person of Christ, as the New or Second Adam, is, through the union of the Godhead and manhood in Him, the reconciling medium between God and man, and so the channel of all grace and strength from God to His people.

The solution which I have attempted in the foregoing pages seems to take into account all that Scripture reveals as bearing upon the question.

It may be expressed thus

All men universally come into the world included under the first Adam as their federal head. They are one in him, for God has made all men dwelling on the earth of one blood. Being in him as the head of their race, they derive from him that seed of evil which we call original sin. They derive this evil from his very person, his whole nature, which is communicated to his descendants. God, to remedy this, has brought into the world a Second or New Adam, Who is His only begotten Son in our nature. In order that He may be the full

remedy for all the evils that we have derived from our union with Adam, we must be brought into Him by a new or second birth, answering to our first or natural birth into the first Adam.

Now God has seen fit to ordain that this should not take place at the time when the mental or internal act of conviction takes place, whereby the heathen man first apprehends the truths of redemption, but that it should take place, and be dated from, the time at which the penitent receives a certain outward sign; which sign is the sign of his submission to the whole faith of Christ, and his admission into the fold of Christ. In thus ordaining that they who have certain inward qualifications should receive the benefit of redemption, when they submit to receive this outward visible sign, God has respect to the fact that His Son was not sent into this world as an unembodied Spirit, but in outward visible form in the flesh. He has also respect to the fact that His Son did not institute a purely spiritual state of things, but one which has outward. signs and tokens; so that though its origin is from above, it may take its place amongst the things of time and sense. He has also respect to the fact that His Son did not set forth a mere body of doctrines or opinions, but a body or organization of men united under Him as their mystical Head. He has also respect to the fact that the very body of doctrine which His Son did set forth (spiritual though it be) has throughout continual reference to the Person (body, soul, and spirit) of the Only Begotten; its highest and most mysterious teaching having to do with the communication of His very Body and Blood, as distinguished from His Mind or Spirit. Such is the solution of the problem. It cannot be ignored or pushed aside by any who profess to receive the Scriptures as the word of God.

CHAPTER V.

SCRIPTURE WARRANT FOR INFANT BAPTISM.

WE have now to see whether the teaching of Scripture leads us to restrict Baptism to those who are able, on account of their age, to exercise repentance and faith.

It is plain that if Infants partake of original sin from the first Adam, and if Baptism be the ordained means whereby we are engrafted into the Second Adam, to counteract in any way that original Sin, then Infants need Baptism. All adults have received this infection of nature through their union with the first Adam in a state of utter unconsciousness; so that if Infants are permitted to receive Baptism as a means of obtaining union with the Second Adam, i. e. Regeneration, they are simply permitted to receive union with Him, for purposes of grace, in the same state of unconsciousness in which they have already received union with the first Adam, and with it the infection of his evil nature; all which seems but reasonable.

It is equally plain that if Infants are debarred, owing to their want of consciousness, from receiving Baptism and its attendant grace of union with the Second Adam, then the analogy between the two federal heads does not hold good, and so Christ is wrongly called an Adam; for in such a case the first Adam would transmit sin to all without exception whilst in a state of unconsciousness, whereas the Second Adam would only be able to transmit His healing nature to those who were conscious of what they received from Him. It is in the highest degree improbable