r perdition,
"_before the morning stars sang together, or ever the sons of God
shouted for joy_."

The ministers of the Church administer to all adult converts from
paganism, Judaism, or Mahometanism, who make a credible profession,
and to all infants, whose sureties engage for their Christian
education, the rite of baptism, signifying the remission of past
sin, original or actual, and pledging the communication of whatever
grace is needful to remedy or assist the weakness of nature in the
moral warfare with temptation.

But Calvinism not only abjures this indiscriminate bestowment of
grace; but denies that even the elect are regenerated in baptism,
leaving it to the arbitrary determination of God's decree, at what
given period, and under what circumstances, they shall be,
instantaneously, and without regard to any foregoing state of mind
or habits of life, transformed into the beloved, and loving, and
lovely children of God[4]!

In a word, Calvinism supposes and requires an order of
administration totally distinct from that which actually exists in
the visible Church of God. And, accordingly, various Calvinistic
communions, which have separated from the Church since the
Reformation, have attempted a literal "fellowship of _saints_,"
presuming to discriminate from the mass of nominal Christians those
who have experienced the conclusive and saving change of Calvinistic
conversion, and admitting such only to the full enjoyment of Church
privileges and to the Lord's table. It seems not a little
surprising, that not only sagacious individuals but extensive
communities should persevere in an attempt which, in the nature of
things, can lead only to disappointment; for, the sincerity of that
species of conversion which is supposed to be final, of that grace
which is said to be irrevocable, can never be decided until the
Judge of all has pronounced his verdict. In the meantime, the terms
of communion _must_ agree in some measure with the actual state of
man; and when the matter is quietly examined, it appears that even
in Calvinistic communions the terms of membership are reduced to a
profession of the received "faith and order," and an assurance, on
the part of the initiated, that he believes himself to be a
converted person by God's special grace. This is all that is
required besides evidence of good moral character; more than this is
impracticable. The spirit of Calvinism can never be fully embodied
in a system of Eccl