331. "FORBID THEM NOT." REASONS FOR INFANT BAPTISM. BY THE REV. M. F. SADLER, RECTOR OF HONITON LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. TRACTS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. I. "FORBID THEM NOT." 1d. II. "WE HAVE AN ALTAR." 1d. III. "SO SEND I YOU." 1d. ON THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. IV. "LAYING ON OF HANDS." d. A TRACT ON CONFIRMATION, chiefly intended for those who have not received Confirmation in early youth. V. "LET US DRAW NEAR." d. REASONS FOR RECEIVING THE HOLY COMMUNION. VI. "THE MYSTERIES OF GOD." 1d. A TRACT ON THE DOCTRINE OF HOLY COMMUNION. IN PREPARATION: Tracts on "Popular Objections to receiving Holy Communion;" on "The Offertory;" "Daily Service;" "Schisms and Divisions;" "Baptismal Regeneration;" "The Obligations of the Baptized;" "Baptism and Conversion ;" "Repentance and Conversion ;" 'Faith; or, What am I to believe?" "First Principles;" "Marks of the Church;" etc. 66 "FORBID THEM NOT." REASONS FOR THE BAPTISM OF INFANTS. WHEN our Saviour Jesus Christ ordained the Sacrament of Baptism, He evidently intended that, through it, His people should receive some great benefit. There may be differences of opinion as to the nature of the benefit which we receive in it, and there have been serious disputes as to whether all who are baptized receive, or may receive, a blessing at the time of Baptism: but that the Lord intended it to be a means of grace and a sign of goodwill, no one who receives the Scriptures as the Word of God can doubt; for in eleven or twelve passages of Holy Writ, things pertaining to salvation are connected with the reception of Holy Baptism.* A considerable number of Christians in these latter days have held the opinion that the benefits which our Lord intended that we should receive in Baptism cannot be received by Infants, and so that the Baptism of those who are born of Christian parents must be put off till the children can believe and profess for themselves. I purpose, in the following pages, to show that the blessing which Christ intended that we should receive in Baptism can be received by Infants, and so that it is our duty to bring them to Holy Baptism. I shall confine myself to Scripture, inasmuch as the persons who now reject Infant Baptism refuse to take into any account the testimony of the Universal Church. They insist that the devout and learned of every age, till about three hundred years * Mat. xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 16; John iii. 5; Acts ii. 38, 39, xxii. 16; Rom. vi. 1-4; 1 Cor. vi. 11; x. 1-10, xii. 13; Gal. iii. 27; Eph. iv. 5, v. 26; Col. ii. 12; Tit. iii. 5; Heb. x. 22; 1 Pet. iii. 21. |