←1812
←1812
Comp. Rom. 9.4, 5. These privileges belonged to the Lord’s visible people—not as converted (for the contrary was their palpable character, verses 3, 6.) but as circumcised. Comp. Deut. 14.1. Thus our Lord gave the same investiture to those who manifestly had no true and personal interest in the blessings (Luke 15.2. 31). Our Church therefore, upon the assumed identity of circumcision and baptism, not doubting that the privileges under a more enlarged dispensation were at least equally full—details the Jewish privileges as the substantial appendage of Christian baptism (Catechism). The title in both cases was the admission into covenant with God; though it was virtually a title without possession until it was pleaded and brought out in faith,. We may observe also in connexion with this subject, the distributive individuality with which the Apostle invested the several members of the visible Church with baptismal privileges—“as many of you” (not some, or as elsewhere, all, en masse, Phil. 1.7), “as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” (Gal. 3.27). Would the Apostle have hesitated in making this investiture a matter of thanksgiving? How would this differ from the thanksgiving severally pronounced in our service respecting baptized infants? If this were warranted in the case of Judaizing, backsliding professors (4.19, 20; 5.4, 15) then it is much more so in the case of infants, where no open ground of exclusion can be shown. We conceive this as fully justifying the letter of our service, as applied to the visible church. The spirit of the service, as applied to the true church, is to be explained on the general consistent principle of spiritual and acceptable worship. We cannot help but admire the precise Scriptural accuracy of our Liturgical service. The difficulties which, after all, may remain on some minds, do not belong to the church or Scripture so much, as to an imperfect apprehension of the language and statements of the inspired writers.