[M2.141L]                                                             [M2.141]								141
                                                                      
                                                                      		had brought up our children to Christ, and in a set form
                                                                      		of mocking words had asked his blessing upon them, that
                                                                      		it would have been bestowed?
                                                                      		We have no record of an insincere petition made to
                                                                      		Christ (x)  But in all petitions which he quoted, he taught
But he speaks to us of  Insincere petitions;  and he tells            		the petitioner that it was the faith in which the petition
to us that those who offered them "Had their reward"                  		was made, which (I speak reverently) permitted
That reward was the Honour in the eyes of men which they              		him to grant it.  To suppose that a petition offered
denied:  and, "Greater damnation."                                    		without faith would have been granted, is to make Christ’s
Such I believe to be the efficacy of the Baptismal prayers            		repeated words meaningless.
uttered without faith.                                                		But is it in accordance with God’s dealings that the
                                                                      		Child should thus be made a sufferer for the parents’ sin?
                                                                      		It seems to me futile to put this question - or to
                                                                      		answer it.  If the parent did not bring the child to be
                                                                      		baptised at all, would the entire omission be any more
Whether it render it so or not most therefore be decided              		the fault of the child than the unbelief of the parent
on abstract grounds; nor must our decision be influenced              		in the act of bringing it:  But the Child, according to
by any doubt or denial of what is again and again scripturally        		the maintenance of Baptismal Regeneration, would suffer
asserted & practically manifest that the sin of                       		for the sin of Omission.  Therefore why not for the Sin
the parent is visited on the child.                                   		of Infidelity;  if that sin renders the act in the sight
                                                                      		of God the same as an Omission x. 
                                                                      		The question is therefore whether the formal bringing the
                                                                      		Child to Christ and formally asking for his blessing would
                                                                      		have procured it that blessing, and whether the
                                                                      		subsequently instituted Rite of Baptism be one to which
                                                                      		that blessing is thereafter formally attached, or only
                                                                      		conditionally attached to its faithful performance.

[Version 0.05: May 2008]