164							154
                                                                      
                                                                      	     (After preparatory remarks, perhaps best thus)
                                                                      No Christian will deny that Christ is as ready nnow, as
	Romanism:   They would exempt the Church from the real               ever, "by the further side of Jordan: to receive little
cross of afflictions, and instead of that, have nothing but           Romanism 1	children and to bless them.
painted or carved or gilded crosses."  This and more, of              But some christians will deny that He in any wise considers
value in Leighton’s Commentary on St Peter.  Chap 1.                  baptism of the child as the especial act of presentation 
verse 1-4                                                             to Him;  or that tHe attaches any importanc[t]e[c] to this act;
On Convent life read Blanco White’s Deblado’s letters.                Christ is always ready- they will say, to receive our
                                                                      children.  We pray for them so soon as theyare born;  we
                                                                      present them to Christ at their first breath - does Christ
                                                                      withhold his blessing from the[o]m until water is poured
                                                                      upon their foreheads? or his answer to our prayers until
                                                                      they are presented to him in the set form of the Baptis-
                                                                      mal service.
                                                                      Of this class of Christians, connect and faithful as many
                                                                                  of them are:  I would ask;  first, whether they deny the
                                                                      efficacy in use of the act of Baptism altogether? - or 
                                                                      whether they merely deny that the good which it procures
                                                                      whatever that may be, is confi[o]r[n]ed at the moment of Baptism
                                                                      and neither after nor before.
                                                                      If they deny the efficacy of the act of Baptism
                                                                      altogether;  if they merely consider it as a public
                                                                       and formal confession of faith accompanied by the giv-
                                                                      ing of a name to the child, or as a formal admission into
                                                                      the visinle body comporate of Christendom, then is
                                                                       there assuredly no chance of their consenting to any
                                                                      form og doctrine which

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