by baptism we are "made the children of God," we
are to understand thereby that we are made something which we were not
before--magically and mysteriously changed; or, whether we are to
understand that we are made the children of God by baptism in the same
sense that a sovereign is made a sovereign by coronation. Here the
apostle's argument is full, decisive, and unanswerable. He does not
say that these children were Christian, or clean, because they were
_baptized_, but they were the children of God because they were the
children of one Christian parent; nay more than that, such children
could scarcely ever have been baptized, because, if the rite met with
opposition from one of the parents, it would be an entire and perfect
veto to the possibility of baptism. You will observe that the very
fundamental idea out of which infant-baptism arises is, that the
impression produced upon the mind and character of the child by the
Christian parent, makes the child one of a Christian community; and,
therefore, as Peter argued that Cornelius had received the Holy Ghost,
and so was to be baptized, just in the same way, as they are adopted
into the Christian family and receive a Christian impression, the
children of Christian parents are also to be baptized.

Observe also the important truth which comes out collaterally from
this argument--namely, the sacredness of the impression, which arises
from the close connection between parent and child. Stronger far than
education--going on before education can commence, possibly from the
very first moments of consciousness, we begin to impress ourselves on
our children. Our character, voice, features, qualities--modified, no
doubt, by entering into a new human being, and into a different
organization--are impressed upon our children. Not the inculcation of
opinions, but much rather the formation of principles, and of the tone
of character, the derivation of qualities. Physiologists tell us of
the derivation of the mental qualities from the father, and of the
moral from the mother. But be this as it may, there is scarcely one
here who cannot trace back his present religious character to some
impression, in early life, from one or other of his parents--a tone, a
look, a word, a habit, or even, it may be, a bitter, miserable
exclamation of remorse.

The third decision which the apostle gives, the third principle which
he lays down, is but the development of