which the preceding
extracts are prefixed, if it be expected that the Scriptures
_exclusively_ are to be admitted as evidence in repelling the
accusation, we must confess ourselves utterly at a loss to conceive how
it is possible that any satisfactory _answer_ should be given. But if
our author cannot be answered, let him at least be heard. He says:--

"In the present day, no intelligent evangelical writer would
think of advancing such things as Hooker and some other eminent
and good men have said on the subject of baptism. Men of
reflection and genuine Christian character now perceive
themselves here to be but in cloudy regions, where mighty
minds have strangely bewildered themselves, and refrain from
venturing distinct speculations and positive assertions. They
do not come forward with anything like the confidence of their
predecessors. They speak strongly against the _opus operatum_
of Papists, and papistical Protestants; and though they would
not be thought to deny that grace is, in some way, connected
with baptism in the case of infants, yet they frequently make
it evident that they would rather escape from close discussion.
There is a remarkable instance of this in the Bampton Lectures
of the late Dr. Heber, Bishop of Calcutta. He says: 'Both grace
and comfort, if they are not necessarily inherent in the
washing of regeneration, and the eucharistic bread and wine,
may at least be attained by a proper use of those means.'
Surely this obscure and doubtful passage, on a subject simple
and apprehensible enough in Holy Scripture, is something
different to what ought to be expected from a profoundly
learned ruler of the church. What Christian ever thought of
denying that grace and comfort might be attained by a proper
use of these ordinances? On the other hand, are we to be driven
to the mortification of supposing that, in the present day,
others beside Papists can be induced to suppose that grace and
comfort can be _necessarily inherent_ in any thing material?
Upon the whole, I think it is evident to an observer, that
there is some hesitation and want of confidence among thinking
members of the church with regard to this view of baptism: yet
the idea of a mysterious connexion between the _materiel_ (if I
may use the word) of the ordinances and divine grace, has