Believer receives a child from God, it is his privilege to receive that child, not as a child of nature merely, but as a child of promise, entitled to spiritual benefits and blessings. To esteem him not to be a child of God before graces are evident in him, is to live not by faith, but by sight; not to trust to promise, but to trust to sense; not to honour God in covenant, but in accomplishment; not to trust his word for what that word is engaged to perform, but practically to distrust the word, by suspending our belief till we see it in its performance. And what is this, after all, but a life of sense and sight, rather than a life of faith and confidence? Whereas a Christian life is a life of faith-credit resting upon the divine word and the most accomplished Believer, after the discharge of all his duties, the exercise of all his graces, and the enjoyment of all his privileges, must, at his last hour, look for comfort to the promise-" Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." Lord, thy promise is to coming sinners; I come as a sinner -save me.' And why is not the promise to him and his children to be acted out in faith, as well as every other promise of the word of God?

Another description of persons, who demur at the argument of the Book, are those, who conclude that our expectations are unwarranted, in attempting to "improve a community of

natural men, into a communion of saints." They reason from the secret, rather than the declared will of God. And because it is said, that "a remnant shall be saved," and that "there is an election of grace," are withheld from proposing the Gospel as a universal remedy. To such, a large portion of Scripture seems to be mere dead letter: they oppose the secret will of God to his revealed will; and because the real Church of Christ consists of the "secret ones" of God, they see no meaning in "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Thus they elevate themselves into the throne of God, arrogate to themselves the "secret things" which "belong" to, and are eminently the attributes of "the Lord our God," while from the "things which are revealed," and" belong unto us and to our children," we are to derive no practical benefit. Thus they have resolved in their practice the great turning-point of faith, how a select Israel of God, is consistent with the offer of the Gospel to every creature. A point, which both the page of Scripture, and the general confession of the Saints, has placed far beyond the ken of the acutest reason; and which, it seems, ever has afforded, and ever shall atford, in this world, exercise for patient faith, and which never shall receive its complete developement, till faith is matured into the full vision of intellectual blessedness before the throne of glory.

Others say, "We can go with you part of the way, but we cannot go your whole length." To such I can only reply, Once admit the principle-salvation by promise, as faith may apply the same and when shall that faith cease to operate, from its apprehension of the first rise of salvation in the electing love of God before the world was, through the calling, conversion, justification, adoption, sanctification, and religious walk of the soul in time, to the final accomplishment of the promise in the complete beatification of that soul in the regions of glory? Only once embark at the fountain of grace, and where can you stop till you arrive at the confluence of glory?

I again commit the work to Him, to the honour of whose grace it is devoted, and implore Him to make it an instrument, however humble, of promoting His cause of free grace and sovereign mercy upon earth.

March 1, 1828.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

IN WHICH IT IS DESIGNED TO VINDICATE BAPTISMAL REGENERA-
TION FROM THE BASELESS ASSUMPTIONS OF PUSEYISM ON

THE ONE HAND, AND THE FAITHLESS DISPARAGE-
MENT OF MODERN EVANGELISM ON THE OTHER.

MORE than twelve years have elapsed since the following work was first published; and it would be unjust to Baptismsl truth, as apprehended by the Author, if he withheld the declaration, in publishing this third edition, that every passing year has confirmed him in his conviction of the rectitude of the sentiments advanced therein, as substantially exhibiting the truth of Scripture, of our Established Church, and of the Church of the Reformation.

The grievous and contradictory errors, which, during this season, have been gaining strength, till they have arisen into the full-blown malignity of evil, have strengthened the author's conviction, that Christianity is the religion of promise, as it is the religion of grace; that Sacraments are the ratifications of the promises, and, like the seal affixed to an instrument, they are the confirmative

seals of the privileges and blessings which that instrument conveys. The Scriptures are the "instruments" or indentures which convey the promises and the Sacraments are the seals which establish them, and by which, at every renewed reception of them, the Believer "sets to his seal that God is true." It is as great an error, therefore, on one hand, to confound the privileges with the seal, and confine them to it, as the doctrines of Puseyism do, restricting the privileges to the seal, without laying the promise as the foundation; as it is in those who oppose that system, to teach us to believe in Baptism, as a supposition or hypothesis, by which the promise is made of no avail, for who can trust in an hypothesis? either error vacates the reality of Baptismal blessings, and reduces the Institution of Christ, in his initiatory Sacrament of Baptism, as formally investing the Believer with the privileges of the Gospel, to a fallacy and a delusion.

I use the word Puseyism as I find it; to designate a system, and from no disrespect to the person whose name it bears. Neither Dr. Pusey nor any Father either of the Ancient or Reformed Church, or any modern advocate for Baptismal blessings, can over-state the eminence of those blessings; for they are all that the blood of Christ ever purchased, all that the Spirit ever shed on the faithful man, all that the everlasting love of the Father of mercies ever conferred on the souls of his elect. It is therefore impossible to over