ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



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never to witness it!) whether we are bound to baptize children 

 of such apostates on the ground, that the son shall not bear the 

 iniquity of the father, — Ezekiel 18 ; or because God calls the 

 children of the idolatrous Israelites still his children — Ezekiel 

 16, 21 ? We doubt not that when children of apostates are 

 brought for baptism you resist firmly, pointing out to the par- 

 ties that they have excluded themselves from the covenant, or 

 rather proved never to have belonged to it. And although 

 under the aspect that those apostate parents had indeed been 

 thoroughly instructed, and at the time of their baptism made 

 a good outward profession (which however by the result proved 

 to have been specious and from worldly considerations) the 

 passages above quoted might seem to plead in favor of their 

 children, yet we deem it safest and best that they be not bap- 

 tized, unless one of the parents, either father or mother, has 

 remained faithful, for then are the children holy. Our reasons 

 for the above opinion are : — 1, Children are not in the cove- 

 nant of grace but by their parents. How then can their true 

 admission into the covenant be presumed when their parents 

 have made a feigned and God-provoking profession, or so- 

 lemnly violated it by the sin of heathenism and devil-worship. 

 With respect to the children of idolatrous Jews the case was 

 different. They were called God's children and received cir- 

 cumcision notwithstanding the apostacy of their parents. 

 They entered not by their immediate parents, but in virtue of 

 the covenant already made with them in Abraham, Isaac and 

 Jacob, to which they could appeal as giving them still a right 

 to the blessings of the covenant. 2, Baptism can freely be 

 withheld from such children without prejudice to them, for we 

 all maintain, in opposition to popery, that not the mere absence, 

 but the wilful disregard of baptism, is condemnation. 3, We 

 consider the suspense of baptism in such cases advisable as 



