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STATE OF INFANTS AFTER DEATH.

from the "Articles devised by the King's Highness Majesty, to establish Christian quietness and amity among us, and to avoid contentious opinions, &c. 1536:"

"Item, the promise of grace and everlasting life, which promise is adjoined unto this Sacrament of Baptism, pertaineth not only unto such as have the use of reason, but also to infants, innocents, and children; and they ought therefore, and must needs be, baptized: And that by the Sacrament of Baptism they do also obtain remission of their sins, the grace and favor of God, and be made thereby the very sons and children of God; insomuch as infants and children dying in their infancy shall undoubtedly be saved thereby, and else not."

And the same opinion was maintained in the English Church, certainly as late as Swedenborg's time—possibly it may be held by some in that church even at this day. Thus Matthew Scrivener, the learned author of a work on the use of the Fathers, tells us that—

"Either all children must he damned dying unbaptized, or they must have baptism. The consequent is plain from that principle in Christian religion, which Anabaptists have been constrained to deny, to uphold their other, That all sin not washed away or expiated, exposes to damnation: and the principle in Christian religion is, That children come into the world infected with original sin; and therefore if there be no remedy against that provided by God, all children of Christian parents, which St Paul says are holy, are liable to eternal death, without remedy. Now there is no remedy but