they think so. — Some think that all children are regenerate by yirtue of their baptism. Others seem to think that children are incapable of receiving any grace, and Uiat they ought not to be enrolled in the Church till they alie grown up. — Some think that children are naturally inno» cent, and would do no wickedness unless they learned it from others. Others think that it is no use to expect them to be converted when young, and that they must be treated as unbelievers till they come to years of discre- tion.— ^All these opinions appear to be errors, in one direction or another. All are to be deprecated, for all lead to many painM mistakes.
We shall do well to get hold of some settled scriptural principles about the spiritual condition of diildren. To do so may save us much perplexity, and preserve us from grave false doctrine.
The souls of young children are evidently precious in God's sight. Both here and elsewhere there is plain proof that Christ cares for them no less than for grown-up people. — ^The souls of young children are capable of re- ceiving grace. They are bom in sin, and without grace cannot be saved. There is nothing, either in the Bible or experience, to make us think that they cannot receive the Holy Ghost, and be justified, even from their earliest infancy. — The baptism of young children seems agreeable to the general tenor of Scripture, and the mind of Christ in the passage before us. If Jewish children were ^not too young to be circumcised in the Old Testament disp^- sation, it is exceedingly hard to understand why Christian children should be too young to be baptized under the Gospel. Thousands of children, no doubt, receive no