[M2.142L]                                                             [M2.142]								142
                                                                      
                                                                      		If unconditionally attached to it, are we to suppose further
                                                                      		that when the Rite is performed in faith;  and
                                                                      		when for many days previous to it and subsequently to it;
                                                                      		the Parents and Sponsors, being habitual Servants of God,
                                                                      		are engaged in effectual fervent prayer that God would shed his
                                                                      		Spirit upon the Child;  that the Child so brought to the
                                                                      		Font receives no higher blessing than the Child of Parents
                                                                      		who not only have never uttered a single prayer in
                                                                      		its behalf but who neither Serve God;  nor believe in him.
                                                                      		This would be to suppose that Christ spoke falsely when he
                                                                      		said that our Father would give his spirit to those who
                                                                      		ask him.  It would be a blasphemous supposition.
                                                                      		But let it be granted that the Child so offered receives a
                                                                      		higher blessing:  It may next be inquired - whether the
                                                                      		blessing depend on the faith of its Parents, or of its
                                                                      		Sponsors, or of the Minister who performs the rite;
                                                                      		or of the Congregation witnessing it.
                                                                      		On the faith of all, it is most manifest, and in proportion
                                                                      		to their faith of each:  For it is not to be believed,
                                                                      		surely, that God has not at all times another blessing to
                                                                      		bestow in answer to another Christian’s prayer;  or that
                                                                      		the prayer of any Christian soul, either sharing or
                                                                      		sympathising in the rite, would ever be inefficacious
                                                                      		in procuring a higher measure of blessing;  But if Prayer
                                                                      		and faith be efficacious to procure then non prayer and
                                                                      		non faith are efficacious to withhold the blessing:
                                                                      		Therefore we must hold that the child is

[Version 0.05: May 2008]