The Author of the following discourse hopes it will appear from the perusal of it, that the baptism of infants is a practice which he not only believes to be scriptural, but which he warmly and devoutly loves. As a parent, and as a pastor, one of his most delightful employments has been the dedication of his own children, and of the children of others, to the God of mercy. He endeavours also to cherish in his own heart, and in the hearts of others, the assurance that baptism is a sign of spiritual influences, which our covenant God will graciously bestow upon our children, if we disciple them to Christ by gospel instruction as well as by water, and if we “teach them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded.” The connection between our baptized households and church membership is so intimate, that children should be trained for communion by the parent, as well as by the pastor; and every baptized family should thus strive to be a church of Christ, and seek to possess, by the grace of God, a domestic as well as an individual relationship to “the general assembly and church of the first-born.” Were this made the object of more anxious and prayerful effort, the degree of success, divinely granted, would surprise and bless our hearts; the sacred ordinance in which we delight, would be less ridiculed than it is; the fatal mistakes which are made relative to it, would be corrected; and it would soon become, as in primitive times, universally practised. “If infant baptism were more improved,” says Philip Henry, “it would be less disputed.”

The following discourse is not put forth as a complete treatise on the subject of baptism. It is the mere outline of one branch of an argument which is briefly stated, and which is not even defended from the customary objections. It was preached, and is now published, not so much for those who deny the ordinance to their children, as for those who practice it; to remind them of the privilege which they enjoy, and of the consequent responsibility which they incur. Nothing is said in the sermon about the mode of baptizing, because the object which the preacher had in view did not require it; and because, during the time of its delivery, he was desirous to occupy the attention of his hearers with matters of more importance than the question, Whether, in baptism, the water is to be applied to the person, or the person to the water?—though he believes that the former mode is more scriptural and more seemly than the latter.

As the discourse was occasioned by the baptise of the Prince of Wales, the heir apparent to the British throne, it is now published with the earnest desire and prayer, that he may be spared till, at some distant day, he shall realize “the true idea of a patriot king;” and that the royal house into which he is born, may from one generation to another, present successive princes to the throne of Britain, who shall rule in righteousness, and who, in the scriptural sense of the language, shall be “nursing fathers, and nursing mothers,” to the church of Christ.

Norwich, February 1, 1842.