Page:Short illustration of the commission given by Jesus Christ to his apostles.pdf/13

 upon supposition that the marriage itself were unlawful, they must of consequence have been an. This of the children can signify nothing more than ; because it is opposed to their uncleanness, as above explained; and because it is stated as an  of the sanctification of the unbelieving parent, without which, the Apostle affirms, they would be unclean; it must therefore be a holiness of the same kind; for spiritual holiness can never depend upon, or flow from, the sanctification of an unbeliever. As the unbelieving party is sanctified, or made holy, only in respect of her being a to the believer, so the children can have no holiness in consequence of this, but that of being a, which affords no argument for their baptism.

We read that Lydia was baptized and "her household; " — that the Jailer "was baptized, he and all his, straightway; " and that Paul "baptized also the household of Stephanas. " These passages are urged as exhibiting examples of baptizing infants, taking it for granted that those houses contained infants who were baptized upon the faith of their parents.

But this is only begging the question in debate. It must first be proved that there were infants in the houses mentioned, for there are many houses without them: and though this were done, which it never can, it still remains to