METIi*>DlST BAPTISM'. 
 
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 JOHN CAREOLli. .* 
 
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 E ATS O N S 
 
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 METHODIST BELIEF 
 
 ^ . AND PEACTICE, 
 
 RBLATIVK TO 
 
 VvTATER BAPTISM, 
 
 Expressed in plain words and arranged in a 
 summary manner. 
 
 '-;■■'*: .'V.,i . 
 
 m 
 
 JOHN CARROLL. 
 
 •M 
 
 " Render a Reason."— Prov, xxvi. 26. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 PRINTED AT THE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE OFFICE, 
 
 1870. 
 
TESTIMONIALS 
 
 fO 
 
 METHODIST BAPTISM." 
 
 '*This little tractate contains the Methodist 
 Views of the Baptismal Qujcstiom — well and 
 forcibly put. The individuality of the writer 
 is here and there appmenty but the argument 
 is well calculated to counsel those who are in 
 any wise perplexed on the subject to which it 
 refers, 
 
 « W. MORLEY PUNSHON, 
 
 **PresidejU WesUyan Conference,** 
 
** This little work, Methodist Baptism, pub- 
 lished by the Eev, John Carroll^ has my ap- 
 proval as a correct exposition of ^ Our Fositiony* 
 in regard to that ordinance, 
 
 *' As to his arguments in support thereof I 
 deem them sound and conclusive ; but of this 
 every reader must form his own Judgment, 
 
 ** I freely dommend the work to the candid 
 consideration of every enquirer after Scriptural 
 truth, 
 
 " JAMEs' MICHA^PSONy 
 
 ** Bishop M, S. Church in Canada. 
 
 "Toronto, Nov. 3, 1870." 
 
"Toronto, November Srdj l8Yt). 
 
 " I have read this publication of Rev, John 
 Carroll^ on Methodist Baptism, and] I think 
 it adrhirably adapted to assist Methodists and 
 ethers in forming a correct opinion of the 
 question of which it treats^ I can confidently/ 
 recommend it, 
 
 *' WILLIAM ROWE, 
 
 <* Gen, Sec. of P. M. ChuroK*' 
 
" Toronto, iViw. 4<A, 1870. 
 
 " This little volume U an honesty direoty clear 
 avowal and defence of Methodid belief in the 
 nature^ mode^ and subject of Christian Baptism ; 
 and after carefully reading it over^ Jias my 
 hearty concurrence, 
 
 ^^ Its vfide tirculation among the Methodist 
 people of this Dominion^ wUl silence many a 
 doubtf and answer many a question by which 
 thoughtful enquirers after truth are often con* 
 fused and perplexed, I wish it a wide circu- 
 iation, 
 
 " WILLIAM M CL URE, 
 
 " Theological Tutor, M. N. CoTmexUm.** 
 
■^ '^^■'^:: 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 ,•;*/■'.■ ; 
 
 
 ^.r':'r■'■ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 TestimoniAla iii 
 
 Advertiaemenfc x 
 
 OUB POSITIONS. 
 
 VIBST POSITION. 
 
 * ... ..... 
 
 h On the Mode of Baptism 11 
 
 2. Belatiag to Penitent Adults li 
 
 3. Rdftting to Infants 11 
 
 Reasons for First Position 12 
 
 First — ^Spiritual Nature 12 
 
 Second — Plunging Impractible 12 
 
 Third — Plunging not Modest 13 
 
 Fourth — Majority Against ,^,^; 14 
 
 Fifth — Overthrows Baptism...,. 15 
 
 Sixth — No Certain Wajrrant for 15 
 
 1. None from John the Baptist 15 
 
 (1) His Baptising in Jord|m..... , 15 
 
 (2) Baptising our JjQX^ 17 
 
 X^) B;?j)tWfl|; ift liapn.. ., 1$ 
 
viii CONTENTS, 
 
 2. None from Christ and His Disciples 1^ 
 
 (2) Christ while oix Earth *. 18 
 
 (^) His Disciples after his Departure 18 
 
 Those at the Pentecost 18 
 
 The Samaritans 20 
 
 Ethiopian Eunuch 20 
 
 Saul of Tarsus 21 
 
 Cornelius and Friends 22 
 
 Lydia and Family 22 
 
 Jailor and Family 23 
 
 Disciples at Ephesus ^....^ 23 
 
 Beason Seventh — No Warrant from Origimal... 24 
 
 (1) Word Bapta 24 
 
 (2) Embapto 25 
 
 (3) Baptise 25 
 
 (4) Baptismos 26' 
 
 Washings and Divers Washings 27 
 
 (5) Burial in Baptism 28 
 
 Planting — Crucifying 2^ 
 
 (6) Conventional and Sacramental Meaning 29' 
 
 Beason Eighth — Effusion best expresses 30 
 
 Synonyms of Baptism 31 
 
 SECOND POSITION. 
 
 Penitent Adults .^. 31 
 
 Justified Adults ... .^^; 32 
 
 Does not Eegenerate 33 
 
CONTENTS. LC 
 
 * 
 
 ; THIRD POSITION. 
 
 PAGI 
 
 Reason First 33 
 
 1, Rite of Initiation 33 
 
 2. Children Capable of Membership 34 
 
 (1) Bom in a State of InitialJustification. 34 
 
 (2) Regarded as Members 35 
 
 (3) Prophets gave no Intimation 35 
 
 (4) Christ denied them not Recognition.,. 35 
 Reason Second — Children may be Baptised... 36 
 Reason Third — Baptism a Means of Dedicating 37 
 
 Question of Explicit Warrant 38 
 
 Reason Fourth — Apostolic Baptism of Families. 38i 
 
 (1) Case of Cornelius 38 
 
 (2) * Lydia and Family 39 
 
 (3) JaUor and Family 3» 
 
 (4) Stephanas and Family 39 
 
 Reason Fifth — Practice of Primitive Church .. 40 
 
 Objection First — Infants denied Baptism 43 
 
 Second — Baptising Infants 44 
 
 Third— Tends to Morality 45 
 
 Conclusion 46 
 
 B 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 This little tract on "Baptism" pretends to 
 nothing very original, much less learned or pro- 
 found on that subject. Neither is it intended as an 
 attack on those who diFer in their practice from 
 us ; but simply to furnish to the mass of our own 
 people, and those who have been but a short time 
 converted, the fruits of our own ministry, a plain, 
 common-sense summary of our views on that con- 
 troverted subject ; to prevent pious minds from 
 being diverted from the pathway of holiness and 
 usefulness to that of speculation and controversy, 
 by those who are forward to obtrude their views 
 upon others, and who magnify the one subject of 
 ** Water Baptism " out of all due proportion. 
 
 It is hoped that this little manual will furnish 
 our ministers and decided, active friends, with a 
 Gift or Loan-book, or one that can be recommended, 
 to put into the hands of the newly-converted and 
 the less informed, and those not able to purchase, 
 or who have not time to peruse, larger ones. 
 
 Besides, it is thought that something; compendious 
 of this kind, kept on hand for such an occasion, 
 would obviate the necessity of much oral explana- 
 tion and discussion, not to mention the preservation 
 to our Church of the fruits of our labor, who might 
 otherwise be alienated by persons not very remark- 
 able for gathering in from the world themselves. 
 
METHODIST BAPTISM. 
 
 OUR POSITION. 
 
 1. The Methodists believe that water applied in 
 the name of the Holy Trinity to a proper candidate, 
 by an authorized administrator, m any forrrif is a 
 valid baptism, hence their ministers administer it 
 in the mode preferred by the person desiring to be 
 baptised. 2. They believe that a penitent adult, 
 who has not been baptised, is a proper subject for 
 baptism, if he profess a firm belief in the truth of 
 Christian doctrine, and resolve to govern his life by 
 its precepts, and they baptise all such who come 
 and demand the ordinanoe. 3. They believe that 
 those infants and children, whose parents are 
 accredited adherents of Christianity, by being bap- 
 tised themselves, and whose consecration to God 
 is demanded by those parents, with the promise to 
 ** bring them up in the nurture and admonition of 
 the Lord," may and ought o the baptised ; and 
 they do baptise them accordingly. Such is our 
 position witn regard to baptism. We come now to 
 the 
 
 REASONS FOR THAT POSITION. 
 
 We present the reasons for each position, seT)ar- 
 ately, in categorical order, beginning, in each case, 
 with the weaker, and ending with the stronger. 
 
12 JReasons for owr Position, 
 
 FIRST POSITION. 
 
 .--> 
 
 I. The Methodists believe that water cpplled in the 
 name of the Holy Trinity to a proper candidate^ by 
 an authorized adminidtrator, in any foUm, is a valid 
 baptism,; hence their ministers administer it in the 
 mode preferred by the person desiring to be baptised. 
 But while they do this, to meet every reasonable 
 icruple- they decidedly prefer affusion to immersion 
 — OP the application of water to the aut ject, rather 
 than the application of the subject to the water. 
 We gire now the reasons for our opinion relative 
 to the form being immaterial to the validity of 
 baptism, and for our preference for the one mode 
 Tather than the other. 
 
 Reason First. — We cannot think, that in a dis- 
 pensation so spiritual as the Christian, which teaches 
 that **God is a spirit;" that the true *'circum- 
 eision is that of the heart and not ol the letter ;'' 
 and thait the *^ Kingdom of God is not meat and 
 drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost, the want of an exact form^ can in- 
 validate an ordinance. It is for this reason, that 
 though we prefer a devotional posture at the Lord's 
 Supper, we administer that ordinance to the scru- 
 pulous, either sitting or standing, as well as kneel- 
 ing. To except the ordinance of baptism, therefore, 
 from a supposed defioieney of the mere quantity of 
 the material element, seems to us totally at variance 
 with the true geuiua of the Gospel despeiisation. 
 
 Second. — Plunging, under aH circumstances, we 
 think, cannot be binding ; whatever may be said 
 for it, it is in most cases very inconvenient, re- 
 
 Suiring the parties to it to leave the house of wor- 
 iiip^ to provide themselves with a change ol 
 
i.'r 
 
 Plunging Inconvenient, 
 
 clothes, — and subjecting the nerves to a shock in- 
 copipatible witJi the composure that should be felt 
 in so solemn a transaction , and exposing the deli- 
 cate of constitution, even in vhis ** temperate'* 
 climate, to very great risks with regard to their 
 health, particularly during one half the year at 
 least. Then, in large inhabited sections of our 
 globe, it would be totally impracticable the greater 
 part of the year, and in some impossible all the 
 year round. Take for instance the extreme North 
 
 K- of this and the Eastern continents, and ihe deserts 
 of Africa, Arabia and South America, the steppes 
 of Russia, and other parts that might be named. 
 We cannot, therefore, think that a rite by which 
 ** all nations" are to be discipled (see the original 
 of Matt, xxviii. 19), and which is the test of sub- 
 mission to the Gospel, would have been inflexibly 
 restricted to a form, which, in a great majority of . 
 cases, would be inconvenient, and in very many 
 impossible, (take those persons on a dying bed, for 
 instance. ) Let those lay on this yoke of bondage 
 who dare ; we Ci\nnot take the responsibility of 
 doing it. Nor can we think it reasonable that 
 
 - Christ T/ould have bound his servants to the use of 
 a form of administering an ordinance, which, in a 
 vast number of cases, would require his miraculotis 
 interposition to prevent the damage to bodily health 
 naturally attending* it. He never could have re- 
 quired what would have to be upheld by miracle. 
 Third. — We administer baptism by plunging 
 with reluctance, especially in its modern form of 
 thrusting the candidate backwards, because we are 
 fully persuaded that it is a novelty invented to 
 conform the mode of baptism to the manner of 
 burial, to which some unwarrantably suppose it to 
 
14 Modern Form of Plunging, 
 
 be compared ; because we are sure it was never so 
 administered in primitive times ; and bec?iuse such 
 a mode is immodest, particularly in the case of 
 females. We cannot bring ourselves to amplify 
 this point as it deserves ; but any person who 
 witnesses a modem immersion, or who reflects on 
 the subject, will easily penetrate our meaning and 
 adopt our conclusion. 
 
 Fourth. — We are certainly somewhat establish* 
 ed in our position by the fact, that it is the position 
 occupied by the largest part of the Christian world. 
 If we may speak of any besides Protestants, we will 
 say that the 80 millions of Romanists are eflpusion- 
 ists and pedobaptists ; or those who sprinkle and 
 baptise children. And if the 50 millions of the 
 Greek Church have held it, and some Eastern 
 Christians practice immersion, it is by no means 
 the immersion of our Protestant Baptists, and it is 
 administered in infancy. But on coming to the 
 Protestant Christian world, there, it is not too 
 much to say, we find three-fourths to practice baptism 
 by effusion, and to administer it to infants and 
 children. The Protestant churches of the European 
 continent of Germany, Switzerland, France, Den- 
 mark and Sweden ; so also the Protestant establish- 
 ments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, and the great body of Dissenters from both 
 the Scottish and English Established Churches. 
 The same may be said of three-fourths of the Chris- 
 tians in the United States. Now among these, it 
 is not too much to say, that we have the prepon- 
 derance of the learning and piety of Christendom. 
 It is some countenance to our opinions to know that 
 they have been and are held by such men as Luther 
 ftnd his co-adjutors ; Calvin and his co-laborers ; 
 
V Pcdohaptists the Majority, , T^ 
 
 Knox and liis fellow -reformera ; by Oranmer, 
 Ridley, and Latimer ; by Richard Baxter ; by Cot- 
 ton Mather, Edwards, aDd Payson ; by Wesley and 
 Whitfield ; by Chalmers and Duff ; and a thousand 
 more equally wise and conscientious. It is a posi- 
 tion not to be overturned with a breath, or these 
 men would not have held it. 
 
 Fifth. — Tf modem immersion is so important to 
 church membership and church existence, as some 
 of its friends contend, the true validitv of the or- 
 dinance is entirely lost ; for the practice of effusion 
 obtained universally, in the Western Church at 
 least, for ages before the Reformation, and long 
 after that event. Meno, in Germany, in 1533, 
 being the first who taught and practiced it in 
 modern times ; and he held it in connection with 
 several fundamental errors, and many extravagances 
 of procedure. The English Anabaptists arose more 
 than a century after Meno. We have thus pre- 
 sented some of the minor considerations ; we pro- 
 ceed now to the weightier ones. 
 
 Sixth. — We do not credit the obligation of 
 plunging, because there is no warrant for it in the 
 word of God. To **the law and testimony" we 
 must all submit ; and '* if we speak not according 
 to this rule, it is because there is no light in us. 
 We take up the New Testament consecutively, and 
 assert there is no warrant for it in the practice of 
 John the Baptist and the Apostles ; none in the force 
 of the original words employed in relation to it ; 
 and none from the supposed allusions to it in the 
 apostolic Epistles. 
 
 (1) Immersion has no warrant from (he practice 
 of John the Baptist. If any person mentioned in 
 Scripture practiced it, it was John ; but we are con^ 
 
16 IrMner&ion no Wofirrafid frcnn Baptists, 
 
 fiient no case of immersion cau bt made out from 
 his practice. If sujh a case could be found, it 
 would prove nothing decisively relative to Christian 
 baptism, which John's was not, as is plain from the 
 V fact that his was a dispensation by itself ; and his/ 
 disciples were re-baptized by apostolic authority. 
 In support of the first position, let two passages 
 from the lips of Christ suffice : ** The law and the 
 prophets were until John ; since that time the 
 kingdom of God is preached," (Luke xvi. 16;) 
 ** Among those that are born of woman, there hath 
 not risen a greater than John the Baptist, notwith- 
 standing, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven 
 is greater than he," (Matt. xi. 11.) These two 
 
 fassages together show that, though the Law and the 
 *rophets came down only to John's preaching, he 
 himself did not belong to that final dispensation 
 called "the Kingdom of God," or "Kingdom of 
 Heaven." And that his baptism was not Christian 
 baptism, is plain from the re-baptising of some of 
 his disciples, as recorded in the nineteenth of Acta, 
 which the reader is requested to peruse — John bap- 
 tised only " unto repentance," and not in the name 
 of the Holy Trinity. 
 
 But now as to the mode in which he baptised : 
 no proof that he plunged any person under water 
 in the modern form can be made out : — 
 
 First. — His baptising in the river Joj-dan, ia 
 supposed to be proof of this. If we take this in its 
 most obvious sense, it does not prove that he went 
 in and plunged them. He might have stood on the 
 shore and poured the water upon the recipients 
 standing on the margin of the river, as all the prints 
 from medals, struck in the time of the early Chris- 
 tian emperors, represent him as doing ; or he might 
 
Immersion by John unlikely, 17 
 
 have sprinkled them standing on the shore, by using 
 a bunch of hysop, as the Jewish priest used to do. 
 Besides, the preposition (en) rendered "in" might 
 be rendered aty or with^ as it is in sundry places in 
 our version of the New Testament. Further, the 
 vast number John had to baptise, — nearly the whole 
 population of Palestine, — and the short time in 
 which he exercised his ministry, rendered their 
 immersion unlikely, especially as the Jewish puri- 
 fy ings, one of which John accommodated to his 
 purpose, comprised plunging in no case, but at most 
 merely embraced stepping into the laver, and laving 
 the water on the body. That, therefore, is settled, 
 that baptising in Jordan does not prove immersion. 
 One supposed proof, therefore, is set aside. 
 
 But it is supposed. Secondly, that our Lord's 
 baptism showed how it was done ; as he, after his 
 • baptism, *' went up out of the water." This at the 
 farthest only proves that he was in the water, but 
 it is no proof that he v/ent under it ; much less 
 that John, whom the medals above referred to 
 represent as standing upon the brink and pouring 
 the water from some tiny vessel upon Christ, who 
 stands in a bending position, went in also and 
 thrust him under. It is quite certain that the 
 modem paintings which represent John in the act 
 of plunging the Saiviour backwards, gives an 
 erroneous representation of the real scene, and 
 teaches a historic falsehood. That small vessel, or 
 ** measure " {metros)^ is referred to by John the 
 Baptist (John iii. 34), where he is speaking of the 
 copious effusion of the " spirit" on Christ, com- 
 pared with the limited quantity of water from the 
 hand of John by which it was prefigured, at the 
 time of hia baptismal consecration to the public 
 
18 Our Lord* 8 Baptism not by Immersion! 
 
 ministry, at the age of thirty. Thus no proof of our 
 Lord's submersion can be made out, though we * 
 ^ake the rendering of our version about his "coming 
 up out 0/ the water;" but it requires. very little 
 scholarship to know that the preposition (ei), ren- 
 dered out oft means also from, and that this is its 
 Jlrst meaning. It might, therefore, be rendered 
 ** came up from the water ;" and then it would 
 mean that he had been only at (en) the river side. 
 The baptism of Christ fails> therefore, to prove his 
 submersion, or even that he was in the river at alL 
 Besides, as his baptism was something entirely 
 peculiar to hiniself, all that is said about '* follow- 
 ing Christ in baptism," is simply absurd. Many 
 propose to follow him where he never went. * 'But, " 
 third, "John baptised in Enon near to Salim, because 
 there was much water there. " This is thought by 
 some to imply immersion ; for what other purpose 
 could he re(|uire much water but to immerse the 
 people therein ? I can conceive that' he might re- 
 quire much water in such a hot country as that to 
 slake the thirst of such vast multitudes of people 
 as encamped to attend his ministrations and to 
 satisfy their beasts of burden, [hydata polla) mean- 
 ing many streams. An eminent archaeologist says, 
 •* Enon, by its name, imports a single spring ; 
 * The fountain of on :' but it flowed in several or 
 many springs." Whether a person could have been 
 submerged in one of these streams or not, for it is 
 the streams that are referred to, is far from certain: 
 and that any person was, there is no proof what- 
 ever. This closes the account of the forerunner's 
 baptism ; and we find no instance of immersion. 
 
 2. We pass to Christ and his Disciples. (John 
 iii. 26.) "And they came unto John, and said 
 
The Baptistngs of mir Lord, W 
 
 unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond 
 Jordaa, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the 
 same baptiseth, and all men come to him." (John 
 iv. 1-3.) /'When, therefore, the Lord knew how 
 the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and bap- 
 tised more disciples than John," (though Jesus 
 himself baptised not, but his disciples), — ** he left 
 Judea and departed again into Galilee. " These two 
 are the only passages that we know of which relate 
 to our Lord and his disciples baptising before his 
 removal from the earth. In neither of these have we 
 anything about the foirm ; therefore they do not 
 prove submersion. But as Jesus, or his disciples 
 under his directions, **made and baptised," or 
 made by baptising — '*more disciples than John," 
 although John baptised the people ** of all Judea 
 and Jerusalem, and of the region round about 
 Jordan," it still renders it the more improbable that 
 they were all immersed, if indeed any of them 
 were. No case of submersion, then, is made out 
 before the Penticost. 
 
 3. Let us see what the Apostles did, after that 
 event. After our Lord's resurrection from the 
 dead, and before his ascension into heaven, he gave 
 the eleven a new commission to preach and baptise, 
 and with a new formulary, namely, in the name of 
 the Holy Trinity : ** Go ye, therefore, and teach 
 {matheteusatet disciple) all nations, baptising them in 
 the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost." (Matt, xxviii. 19.) But they were 
 commanded to tarry at Jerusalem until they were 
 endued with power from on high : no case of preach- 
 ing or baptism, therefore, occurs till the Penticost 
 • — on that day, 3,000 souls were baptised. *' Then 
 they that gladly received his (Peter's) word were 
 
19 The Baptisma at the Pentecost 
 
 baptised ; and the same day there were added unto 
 them about three thousand souls." (Acts ii. 41.) 
 Here we have no account of the manner of their 
 baptism, and no one has a right to say that they 
 were submerged. The greatness of their number, 
 the shortness of the time, their want of facilities 
 lor it in a city not distinguished for a plenitude of 
 water, and their contiguity to the Temple, where 
 puritications were performed by sprinkling and 
 laving, render it hignly improbable that they were 
 immersed. 
 
 The next instance is that of Philip the Deacon 
 baptising the Samaritans, who received the Gospel 
 from his lips. ** But when they believed Philip 
 preaching the things concerning the kingdom of 
 God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were bap- 
 tised, both men and women." (Acts viii. 12.) 
 Nothing can be made out from this passage about 
 the form, only that the numbers, the popiuation of 
 a whole city, make it unlikely that Philip sub^ 
 merged them all after the approved modern fashion. 
 But another case of an individual baptism by the 
 same administrator, namely, that of the Ethiopian 
 eunuch, is supposed to be a decisive case of sub* 
 mersion. Let us see, the Evangelist was riding in 
 the chariot with the Treasurer. " And as they 
 went on their way, they came unto a certain water; 
 and the eunuch said. See here is water ; what doth 
 hinder me to be baptised ? And Philip said, If 
 thou bolievest with all thine heart, thou mayest. 
 And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus 
 Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the 
 chariot to stand still : and they went down both 
 into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and 
 h6 baptised him," {lb. viii. 30-38.) If the act of 
 
/ . 
 
 Baptism of the JStliioj^ian Eunuch, 21 
 
 *' going down into the water," and then coming 
 ** up out of the water," mentioned in the 39th 
 vertoe, proves i/miu.rsion, it proves they were both 
 subraert^ed, — Philip as well as the eunuch ; for 
 ** they hoth went," Ac. But this would be proving 
 too much ; therefore it proves nothing. As tho 
 place where this occurred is said to be ** desert," 
 it is very questionable whether the '* certain water" 
 mentioned was deep enough to submerge a person, 
 or anything more than one of those scanty watering 
 places which are so precious in an eastern desert. 
 Besides, the original is not near so favorable to im- 
 mersion as our version: the preposition {eis) ren* 
 dered ** intOf" is often rendered simply to ; and the 
 phrase "out of," in our versioU; in the rendering 
 of the preposition [eh) already mentioned, which is 
 often rendered simply from. No person can, 
 therefore, assuredly make out any more from the 
 original than that they both descended (from the 
 chariot) to the water ; and after the baptism, came 
 up /row* the water. The eunuch's baptism, there- 
 fore, does not prove immersion ; and no artiJBce can 
 make it prove that position. 
 
 The next is the baptism of Si.UL of Tarsus. 
 (Acts ix.. 17^ 18.) ''Ajid Ananias went his way, 
 and entered into the house ; and putting his hands 
 upon him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, 
 that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, 
 hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, 
 and be filled with the Holy Ghost. An immedi- 
 ately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales : 
 and he received his sight forthwith, and arose and 
 was baptised. " Now, thare "is nothing about the 
 modSf in the account of this baptism ; but as it 
 was in ** the house," and was administered "forth* 
 
 / 
 
22 Baptism of Cornelius and Lydia, 
 
 with," — that is, without any cumbrous preparation, 
 it is morally certain it was not by immersion. 
 
 The next was the case of Coknelius. (Acts x. 
 47, 48. ) This was the baptism of a house full of 
 people at the close of a sermon, in the house, 
 whose baptism had not been contemplated, much 
 less provided for by the administrator, as his ob- 
 jection and that of his Jewish friends to baptise 
 them, being Gentiles, was suddenly overcome by 
 the unexpected descent of the Holy Ghost. And 
 the very manner in which he speaks of the water 
 shows that it was brought in, probably in a portable 
 Koman house-bath, common, as archaeologists show, 
 at that time, not unlike a modem wash-stand with 
 a basin inserted as a fixture. " Can any forbid 
 water" (said Peter) " that these should not be bap- 
 tised, which have received the Holy Ghost as well 
 as we ? And he commanded them to be baptised in 
 the name of the Lord. " Are we to be blamed for not 
 seeing immersion in this case ; or for being morally 
 assured that it was by eftusion they were baptised ? 
 
 Next comes Lydia and her family, (Acts xvi 15. ) 
 "And when she was baptised, and her househoM, 
 she besought us, saying. If ye have judged me to be 
 faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide 
 there. '■ Here also is nothing about the form. But 
 as it was her (oikos) /«mi^2/> ^ot (oikia) ^^householdy'* 
 as our version wrongly has it, that were baptised ; 
 and as that family, most likely, were comparatively 
 young, or were daughters, as she seems to have 
 been a vigorous woman of business, and we read of 
 no sons conducting business for her, the baptism 
 very probably took ^ace in her domestic apart- 
 ments, and was performed like those of Saul and 
 Cornelius, wliich were certainly not by immtrsion. 
 
Baptism of tJie Jcdlor and Disciples, 23 
 
 In the same chapter (verse 33), we have another 
 baptism recorded, that of the Philippian Jailob ; 
 *' And he took them the same hour of the night, 
 and washedjtheir stripes ; and was baptised, he and 
 all his, straightway." Now observe, here is the 
 baptism of a whole family, probably a large young 
 family, as the jailor seems to have been a vigorous 
 man, not more than middle-aged. They were bap- 
 tised without any previous prepararfcion, or expecta- 
 tion cf the rite, between midnight and morning : 
 baptised in his house, into which he had received 
 Paul and Silas,, and, therefore, it is unlikely by 
 immersion ; but very possibly out of the very house- 
 hold bath, already referred to as in use in those 
 days, out of which he had " washed the stripes" of 
 the two apostles. 
 
 The last instance of a baptism mentioned in this 
 book is that of the disciples of John, whom Paul 
 met at Ephesus, already referred to for another 
 purpose, and of whom it is simply said, ** They 
 were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus ;" 
 (Acts xix. 5), and consequently from which we 
 learn nothing about the form in which it was ad- 
 ministered. We have gone over the baptisms per- 
 formed by John the Baptist, and by our Lord and 
 his disciples before his reis^urrection, and we have 
 examined the eight instances of baptisings by the 
 inspired Apostles after the Penticost, as recorded in 
 the Acts 01 the Apostles, and we find not a single 
 case of submersion of the body in that rite. This, 
 then, is another reason why we cannot think it the 
 exclusive mode, if it be the proper mode at all. 
 
 But it has been asserted that we ignore the true 
 gist of the question, namely, that the very word 
 that wCy in our version anglicise baptise, means im- 
 
r24 Bapto and its Cognates. 
 
 merM, or plnnge ; and Bome of the friends of im- 
 mersion are moving for a new translation of the 
 Bible with this rendering of the word wherever it 
 occurs. This will, therefore, lead us to assign our 
 next reason why we 4o not believe in exclusive 
 immersion, namely : 
 
 SEVENTH-wjPecft'Mue nothing can be proven in favor 
 s>f submersion from the original words employed in 
 connection with baptism,. These words are bapto, 
 embapt% baptizo, and baptismos. Let us take up 
 each of these as they occur in the New Testament, 
 and in the Greek version of th^ old, and see if, 
 from the connection or the occasion, the verba 
 mean to submerge, or be submerged, or the noun 
 mean svhmersion. 
 
 2. Take the word bapto, Daniel iv. 33 : *^And 
 his body (Nebuchadnezzar) was we^with the dew 
 of heaven." {ebaphe), 1 sing, 2 a, ind. pas. from 
 {bapto). Observe, the King of Babylon's oody was 
 baptised with dew ; but dew. descends in the gen- 
 tlest manner possible ; therefore, there may be a 
 baptism by the mildest kind of effusion. In the 
 New Testament, it occurs thrice. (Luke xvi. 24), 
 ** Send Lazarus that he may dip (bapse)ih.e tip of his 
 :finger in water. " To wet the tip of one's finger is 
 jb slight submersion surely. And if it constitutes 
 a baptism, so might the wetting of the face, or 
 head. (John xiii. 26), " He to whom I shall give 
 a sop when I have dipped (embapsas) it.^^ A sop or 
 morsel is not generally seasoned more than on the 
 underside, therefore a person may be baptized with- 
 out being submerged. 
 
 Rev. xix. 13, "He" (whose "name is called the 
 Wcgrd of God") "was clothed in a vesture dipped 
 xp^" or bespattered with "bloody" as that oi a|l 
 
Emhapto and Bipiisa^ 25 
 
 "warriors becomes, which he is here represented as 
 being. An eminent critic says, "The context 
 shows that the writer had in his eye the effect of 
 grapes trodden in a wine press : does the man who 
 treads graj^es in a wine pi-ess plunge his clothes in 
 thbir juice ? Surely not, for the treaders held sup- 
 ports in their hands, to avoid tlft-t plunging. ^^ 
 (C. Taylor. ) The juice is sprinkled upon them, as 
 water may be in baptism. 
 
 3. EmhaptOy compounded from the foregoing and 
 an ew, is used three times. Matt. xxvi. 23, *'He 
 that dippeth (e^nbapsas) his hand with me in the 
 dish." 
 
 Mark xiv. 20, " One of the twelve that dippeth 
 {embaptomenos) with me in the dish." 
 
 John xiii'. 26, ** He had dipped {embapsa) the 
 sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon." 
 The first two passages are more favorable to 
 plunging than any other instance of the use of this 
 word that we have yet given. Still, give as you 
 may, the utmost latitude to the eastern manner of 
 using the hands direct in eating, without the in- 
 tervention of a fork, yet the hand was by no means 
 wholly submerged in the liquid. " Does common 
 decency (says Taylor) tolerate the plunging of two 
 hands in the same dish, at the same time ?" 
 
 4. As to baptizo, the word principally used in 
 reference to the religious rite in question, we will 
 
 ><)nly refer to it in those instances in which there xb 
 some clue to the forniy or thought to be, from the 
 history itself. 
 
 We have already shown that it cannot be proven 
 that John the Baptist immersed a single person, 
 unless the word baptise signifies to plunge. One 
 oase, I think, will show that John himself used it 
 
26 Baptise and Baptismos. 
 
 in the sense of effusion. Hear what he said, " I 
 indeed baptise [haptiso) you with water unto repent- 
 ance : but he that cometh after me is mightier than 
 I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : he shall^ 
 baptise {baptisei) you with the Holy Ghost and' 
 with fire." (Matt. iii. 11, also in Mark i. 8, and 
 Luke iii. 16. ) Now there is no good sense in which 
 we can be said to be plunged in the Holy Ghost, 
 which is always represented as heing poured out^ — 
 as coining upon us^ — as descending ; yet such an 
 effusion is called a baptism^ and John compares hiK 
 water baptism to it ; therefore, it is to be presumed 
 that John's own baptism proper, whatever pre- 
 paratory washing the people resorted to, was ad- 
 ministered by effusion. The word is repeated in 
 this sense by our Lord himself before his ascension, 
 and on the eve of the fulfilment of his forerunner's 
 prophecy, that was to take place at the Penticost, 
 <( Acts i. 5. ) The next place we examine is, 1 Cor. 
 X. I, 2. "Moreover, brethren, I would not that 
 ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers 
 were under the cloud, and all passed through the 
 sea, and were all baptised^ [ebaptisanto) unto Moses 
 in the cloud and in the sea.'^ They were sprinkltd 
 with the drops from the cloud and the spray from 
 the sea, not submerged ; for the sacred historian 
 says, ** The children of Israel went into the sea 
 upon the dry ground : and the waters were a wail 
 unto them on their right hand, and on their left." 
 <Ex. xiv. 29.) 
 
 5. Baptlsmos. This noun occurs four times : 
 
 Mark vii. 8. **The washing {baptismous) of 
 
 cups and pots, and of brasen vessels and tables." 
 
 Is it necessary in order to loash these domestic 
 
 utensils that they should be plunged? Do our 
 
Baptiso and its Derivatwes* 2T. 
 
 housekeepers plunge their cups and saucers and 
 plates, when they wish to wash them after being 
 used ; or do they not pour water upon them ? A» 
 to the tables, hear the language of a learned 
 archaiologist, '* Who ever considers, what cumber- 
 some pieces of furniture taMes vfQVQ—fiftetn or 
 twenty feet long, by four feet broad, and about four 
 feet high — may judge whether they were plunged^ 
 after every meal taken upon them." (C. Taylor.) 
 
 Heb. vi. 2. "Of the doctrines of baptism^* 
 (haptismon.) What the apostle refers to maybe 
 understood by examining the next plsice in which 
 he uses it in this epistle. 
 
 Heb. ix. 10. "Which stood only in meats and 
 drink, and divers washings^^ (haptismois), the same 
 word, though used in another case. Now I think 
 that no person will deny but that the Apostle 
 refers, in this second passage at least, to various 
 forms of purif); ing prescribed by the Levitical law, 
 and which consiste<il, seldom if evei, in plunging' 
 the whole person, but in laving, pouring^ and sprink' 
 ling. And if the plural form of the word in the 
 former passage does even refer to the baptism. 
 ** unto repentance," and baptism ** in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus," the mode may be illustrated by 
 the "diverse washings" of the old dispensation. 
 The word, therefore, cannot be restricted to plung* 
 ktg. But it is thought by some, that its use in two 
 passages, not yet cited, favors the idea of immcr^ 
 sion. For this reason, we have reserved them for 
 consideration out of consecutive order. These are 
 passages which speak of being " buried in baptism,'* 
 in supposed allusion to the administration of the 
 rite by immersion. Let us see : 
 
 Bom. vi. 3, 4, "Know ye not that so many of ua aa 
 
28 Buried in Baptism. 
 
 were baptised {ebaptisthemen) into Jeaus Christ were 
 baptised into his death ? Therefore we are buried 
 with him by baptism {tou baptismatos) into death ; 
 that like as Christ was raised up by the glory of 
 the Father, even so we also should walk in new- 
 ness of life. " 
 
 Col. ii. 12. ** Buried with him in baptism ; 
 wherein also ye are risen with him through the 
 faith of the operation of God. " Now it is evident 
 that in neither passage has the Apostle any refer- 
 ence to the mode of outward baptism. His argu- 
 ment and intention were practical. His meaning 
 amounts to this: — **A8 by your public baptism 
 you have pledged yourselves to a death of sia, and 
 the world, and idolatry, just as Christ died to the 
 world literally ; so you, having experienced the 
 quickening energy of that spirit which raised up 
 the body of Christ, ye have received power to live 
 and walk in newness of life." Besides, there is no 
 real resemblance between even the modem novelty 
 of thrusting a person backwards into the water, and 
 the modern burial in an earthen grave, which such 
 mode of baptism was adopted to resemble. You 
 do lay a person on his back in ordinary burials, it 
 is true; but after that, you throw earth upon him, 
 more like the effusion of water in baptism, than like 
 immersion. Further, the ancient manner of burial, 
 was seldom, if ever, of the kind here referred to : 
 the body, like Christ's, was most generally deposit- 
 ed (often standing upright) in a sepulchre or tomb, 
 in the side of a rocky hill ; what resemblance did 
 that bear to immersion? Also, why not seek a 
 resemblance between the other matters which the 
 Apostle mentions in the two verses following the 
 one we have quoted from Romans, to illustrate our 
 
ChrUt^a Baptimn of Blood, 29 
 
 obligations to eschew sin and live to God ? Such 
 as planting and crucifixion. In planting^ we first 
 dig a hole, and after putting in the root, or bulb, 
 we throw in earth, more like effusion than anything 
 else. As to crucifixion, there is no resemblance 
 that I can imagine, to baptism in any form, unless 
 it refers to the effusion of blood from the hands and 
 feet, from the lacerated back and temples, and 
 from the wounded side of Christ, which, as well as 
 the blood which ^oozed through the pores of hia 
 sacred skin on the night of his agony, and which 
 he more than once calls a baptism, be meant : 
 another proof, by the way, that baptism does not 
 always mean immersion. We recite the instances 
 last referred to : ** But 1 have a baptism {baptisma) 
 to be baptised with [baptisthenai) ; and how am I 
 straitened till it be accomplished !" ( Luke xii. 
 50) ; ** Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall 
 drink of, and to be baptised {baptisthenai) with the 
 baptism {baptistna) that I anx baptised with 
 {baptisomai) ?" (Matt. xx. 22.) We will not insult 
 the good sense of our readers by expounding a 
 meaning so plain as that of these passages. 
 
 We have cited instances enough to show that, 
 though the first, or ideal meaning of baptiao might 
 have been to dipt its conventional, or sacramental 
 meaning was to cleanse or consecrate ; and from all 
 the cases referred to, it does not appear that it was 
 ever performed by immersion^ but it is morally 
 certain that the word was applied to what was 
 done only by effusion. We have a similar instance 
 of a word employed in a minnified sense in relation 
 to the other sacrament of Christ. The word deipnon, 
 supper^ in the sense of a full meal, is applied to the 
 morsel of bread and sip of wine, which inspii'atioii 
 ealls *^Th£ Lord's Suffer." We prefer effusion. 
 
30 How the Spirit Baptises, 
 
 Eighthly. — Because it best expresses the imparta^ 
 Hon of the Holy Spirit^ which is the fact it is princi' 
 pally intended to prefigure. The baptism by the 
 Holy Ghost was conferred by the descending of the 
 baptismal element. 
 
 A few texts will tend to confirm this : — 
 
 Luke xxi V. 49. ' ' Behold I send the promise of my 
 Father upon you. " 
 
 John i. 32. "I saw the spirit descending from 
 HEAVEN like a dove, and it abode upon him. " 
 
 Acts ii 17. ** This is what was spoken — I will 
 POUR OUT my Spirit." 
 
 Acts ii. 33. * ' Jesus having received of the Father, 
 hath SHED FORTH this which ye see and hear." 
 
 Acts ii. 2, 3. ** Suddenly there came from Heaven^ 
 and APPEARED UNTO THEM cloven tongues." 
 
 Acts viii. 15, 16. "That they might receive the 
 Holy Ghost ; for as yet he was fallen upon none 
 of them." 
 
 Acts ix. 17. ** Ananias put his hands on Paul, 
 that he might be filled with the Holy Ghost. " 
 
 Acts X. 38. " God anointed Jesus of Nazareth 
 with the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Acts X. 44. " The Holy Ghost fell on all." 
 
 Acts xi. 15. "The Holy Ghost fell on them, 
 even as on us at the beginning." 
 
 Acts X. 45. "They of the circumcision were 
 astonished, because on the Gentiles was poured 
 out the gift of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Acts XV. 8. " Giving them the Holy Ghost, even 
 a'? unto us. " 
 
 Titus iii. 6. " The Holy Ghost, which he shed on 
 us abundantly. " 
 
 1 Peter i. 12, " The Holy Ghost sent down from 
 heaven. " 
 
/ Synonyms of Baptism* 31 
 
 Eph i. 13. '* Staled with the Holy Spirit of 
 promise. " 
 
 These passages give us, as synonymous with 
 baptize — Sending down ; coming ; giving ; falling ; 
 shedding ; pouring ; sitting or abiding upon ; an' 
 ointing ; filling and sealing. 
 
 * ** In all these synonymous words, (says Taylor) 
 there is not one that raises the idea of plunging j or 
 even af)proaches it, yet they all refer to baptism. 
 * The apostles shall be baptized with the Holy 
 Ghost,' is the prediction ; the Holy Ghost was 
 POUREi) OUT upon them, is the accomplishment. 
 Even Paul, who was then absent, speaks of the 
 Holy Ghost as being shed on him, doubtless at his 
 baptism (Acts ix. 17) ; perhaps, however, the in- 
 stance of our Lord's is tJie most complete, of baptism 
 by the Holy Ghost ; and in that we have the very 
 height of certainty there was no plunging ^ nor any- 
 thing like it ; although almost all the synonyms 
 meet in his person ; — as descending^ comingy filling^ 
 anointing, sitting or abiding, and sealing. ^^ This 
 closes our argument on the mode. 
 
 SECOND POSITION. 
 
 The Methodists believe that a penitent adult, who 
 has not been baptised, is a proper subject for baptism, 
 if he profess a firm belief in the truth of Christian 
 doctrine, and resolve to govern his life by its precepts; 
 and they baptise all such who come and demand the 
 ordinance. That the adult, who believes to the 
 conscious justification of his soul from the guilt of 
 sin, who has not been baptised, may and ought to 
 receive that ordinance, there is no dispute. If 
 there were any proof necessai y, we have an explicit 
 
32 Second Position — Cornelius, 
 
 one in tlio case of Cornelius and his friends. Said 
 the Apostle Peter, **Can any forbid water that 
 these should not be baptised, who have received 
 the Holy Ghost as well as we ?" Some there are 
 who think that no others should be baptised. One 
 passage is principally relied on as teaching this ; 
 namely, the one which relates to the Ethiopian 
 eunuch (Actsviii.) "And the eunuch said, See, 
 here is water : what doth hinder me to be bap- 
 tised ? And Philip said. If thou believest with all 
 thy heart, thou may est." Some think this decisive. 
 But may not a person * ' believe with all his heart" 
 all the eunuch said he believed without possessiuc 
 the peace of God ? Let us see — "And he answered 
 and said, / believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of 
 Ood.^^ True, but are there not many who believe 
 that, who are not consciously justified ? And do 
 not all penitents believe as much as he ? But that 
 all were not justified whom the Apostles baptised 
 or proposed to baptise, will appear from a few 
 passages from the Acts of the Apostles. Take, 
 Acts li. 38, "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, 
 and be baptised every one of you in. the name of 
 Jesus Christ /or the remission of sins (not because 
 he have received forgiveness of sins), and ye shall 
 receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. " We see from 
 this text, instead of repelling the penitent because 
 he has not received forgiveness, we have ground to 
 encourage him to expect forgiveness in submitting 
 to the ordinance. 
 
 St. Paul informs us that when in distress of soul 
 for sin, Ananias came to him and said (Acts xxii. 
 16), " Arise and be baptised, and wash away thy sins, 
 calling on the name of the Lord." This language 
 implies that he was not justified prior to his baptism. 
 
/ Cam/phellism — Third Positiovu' 33 
 
 Simon, the Sorcerer, who '* believed" and re- 
 ceived baptism from the hands of the Evangelist 
 Philip in Samaria (Acts viii. ), did not believe with 
 a faith that puritied the heart ; for we find the man 
 of God proving him, a little while after, '* in the 
 gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. " A 
 proof of this that the recipient was not always a 
 regenerated person ; and that baptism did not 
 always (as the Oampbellites assert it does), confer 
 regeneration. Having disposed of the two firaty I 
 proceed to the last, or 
 
 THIRD POSITION. 
 
 The Methodists believe that those infants and chit- 
 dreUf whose 2^^^^^^^ o,'"'^ accredited adherents of 
 Christianity y by being baptised themselves^ and whose 
 consecration to God is demanded by those parents, 
 with the promise to bring them up in** the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord, " may and ought to be bap- 
 tised ; and they do baptise them accordingly. 
 
 First Reason. — Because baptism is the rite of 
 formal initiation into t/ie visible churchy and infanta 
 have a claim to membership in thai church. As to 
 the church itself, it includes all the covenanted 
 worshippers of the true God in opposition to false 
 religionists of all kinds. * * The word ^congregation,* 
 as it stands in our version of the Old Testament, 
 (and it is one of very frequent occurrence in the 
 books of Moses), is found to correspond in the 
 Septuagint, which was familiar to the New Testa- 
 ment writers, with ecclesia ; the word which, in our 
 version of these last, is always rendered — not 
 * Congregation,* but * Church, ' This, or its equival-- 
 
34 Baptism the Rite of Initiation, 
 
 ent, * ihVIr,' is probably no other than * circle,' that 
 is assembly, ecclesia. " (Archbishop Whately.) 
 
 1. As to its being the rite of initiation, it is, I 
 think, denied bv none, and therefore not requiring 
 proof. It may be well, however, to adduce two or 
 three considerations on this point. "Go ye there* 
 fore, and teach" {mathttUAatey make disciples, or 
 Christians of) "all nations," (by what means?) 
 " baptising them in the name^of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Matt, xxviii. 
 19) ; "For as many of you as have been baptised 
 into Christ have put on Christ" — assumed the pro- 
 fession of Christianity. This is plain from the next 
 verse : "There is neither Jew nor Greek," &c., 
 (old distinctions and connections are abolished) 
 " for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." As a further 
 proof of its initiatory character, the apostle par- 
 allels it with circumcision^ by which Abraham and 
 his family were brought into visible, formal cove- 
 nant relationship to God. " And if ye be Christ's, 
 then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to 
 the promise." (Gal. iii. C7-29.) Hence we hnd 
 that when the Apostles baptised persons, they re- 
 garded them as added to the visible church. 
 "Then they that gladly received his word were 
 baptised, and the same day there were added unto 
 them (the disciples) about three thousand souls.'' 
 (Acts ii. 41.) Now we proceed to show — 
 
 2. That children are capable of, and have a right 
 to membership. We proceed to present the reasons 
 for this : 
 
 (1) Infants are bom in a state of initial justifica- 
 tion, by virtue of the atonement of Christ, in which 
 state, they continue till it is forfeited by personal 
 transgression. " As by the offence of one (the first 
 
. Further Proofs of Infant Baptism, 35 
 
 Adam) judgment came upon all men to condemna' 
 tion ; even so by the righteousness of one (the 
 second Adam, Christ) the free gift came upon all 
 men unto justification of life." (Rom. v. 18.) 
 
 (2) They were regarded as members from the 
 time of Abraham's circumcision. " And Abraham 
 circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as 
 God had commanded him." (Gen. xxi. 4.) This 
 seal of the covenant, or earnest of ** the promise," 
 was administered to children as well as parents, 
 (although the law of Moses supervened as a 
 fence against idolatry, and a '* school master" to a 
 people very slow to learn), down to the time of 
 Christ, the people with their "little ones" appear- 
 ing in every covenant transaction before God. 
 
 (3) The old Testament prophets never gave any 
 intimation that this relationship of children should 
 cease under the Mesiah, but on the contrary, that 
 their privileges should be continued and couiirmed. 
 Isaiah predicted of the Good Shepherd that he 
 should " gather the /a wt5 with his arm, "(xl. 11), 
 — would show a particular interest in the young. 
 He represents those who would flock to Christ 
 from all parts as bringing their " sons and daugh* 
 ters." '* And they shall hang upon him (on Christ) 
 all the glory of his father's house, the qfspring and 
 the issue.^^ (xxii. 24.) 
 
 This is a fair opportunity for saying, that instead 
 of demanding an " explicit warrant" for the church 
 membership of children, as the opponents of infant 
 baptism do, it fairly devolves on them to present 
 the positive proofs for the denial of formal recog- 
 nition to the *' little ones, " who had been recognized 
 under every preceding dispensation. 
 
 (4) Christ himself did not deny them recognition 
 
S6 Yotmg Children brought to Christ, . 
 
 •when they were "brought to him." This was A 
 fair opportunity for him to say that they were not 
 entitled to it, and that their relation to the visible 
 Church was to cease, and he would have done it, 
 if he had designed that this should be the case, and 
 that especially as some forbade their coming, and 
 rebuked them that brought them. (Mark x. 14.) 
 ** But Jesus was much displeased, and said unto 
 them. Suffer the little children to come unto me, 
 and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of 
 God." How authoritative ! Let little children, thoae 
 BO small that he could *' take them up in his arms" 
 •^come unto me. How shall they come? They 
 cannot now come literally^ as then ; they cannot 
 come morally f as an adult ; and yet they may come. 
 It follows, therefore, that they may come cere- 
 monially in the ordinance of God. But this appears 
 especially from the reason assigned by Christ him- 
 self: "For of such is the kingdom of God." If 
 you understand the "Kingdom of God" to mean 
 His Church on earth, as it sometimes does, then 
 Christ asserts " little children" to be its members ; 
 and shall not their membership be formally recog- 
 nized ? If the phrase means the Church trium* 
 phanty then it appears that children are fit for that 
 kingdom. And if so, why not receive the sign 
 which distinguishes its heirs ? But further : 
 
 Second. — Children may be baptised, because bap" 
 ti87n is the mark of discipleahip, and they may be* 
 come effectually disciples, or scholars. That it is 
 the characteristic badge ^.* a disciple we have 
 already shown from Mattbtw xxviii. 19. And as 
 to their capacity for scholarship, when are persona 
 generally supposed to learn any thing the most 
 effectuaUy, in infancy or age ? And that there is 
 
 ( 
 
Ba/ptism a Means of Dedicating, 37 
 
 no exception to the general nile, where religion i» 
 concerned, Christ asserts that we must ** become 
 like little children" if we would ** enter the king- 
 dom of God. " Timothy, * * from a child, " knew the 
 ** Holy Scriptnres, which are able to make us wiser 
 unto salvation." And are not Christian parents to 
 bring up their " children in the nurture and ad- 
 monition — the doctrine and diseiplme — of the Lord?" 
 This shews their susceptibility of discipleship ; but 
 without the onark^ they hare no consistent right 
 to the privileges of that state. 
 
 THiRi>. — Baptism is a means of dedicating to the 
 Holy Trinity^ and children may and ought to b© 
 dt^dicated. There is that in the parental heait 
 which leads the parents, when they come under 
 the infiueiice of true religion, to desire that the 
 favor which they enjoy from God should be sealed 
 to their children, to whose worship and service 
 they are. forward to pledge themselves that they 
 will bring them up. This is seen in the desire and 
 demand of a newly-converted heathen or Jew, who 
 would never think of their little ones being ex- 
 cluded unless their teacher repelled them. A con- 
 verted Jew of our acquaintance made that the 
 ground of his electing a pedobaptist church when 
 he publicly professed the faith of the gospel. Cir- 
 cumcision furnished such a means of dedication to 
 the pious Israelites, and their religion required it. 
 Baptism furnishes a similar means of having the 
 ** name of the Lord" "called upon" the child at 
 the same time that he receives a name. The name 
 was given among the Jews at the time the child 
 was circumcised and devoted to God — witness the 
 circumcision of John the Baptist, as recorded by 
 St. Luke. 
 
38 The Question of Explicit Warrant, 
 
 As to the objection that there is no explicit war- 
 rant for infant baptism, which is urged by its 
 opponents, besides the fact that there wa,s none 
 needed where children had always enjoyed the 
 privilege of church membership, we have to say, 
 that these objections admit females to communion, 
 with the church for which there is no explicit, but 
 only an inferential, warrant. We know it is said 
 that the word anthropos^ "man," in the text 
 *' let a mem examine himself, and so let him eat of 
 that bread, and drink of that cup," (1 Cor. xi. 28), 
 is either male or female^ but anthropos in the 
 above text no more includes females than ethne, 
 *' nations," in the text which commands us to dis- 
 ciple all nations by baptising therriy includes infants 
 as well as adults ; for there is no nation but what 
 is coBfiposed of a large proportion of the former. 
 But if we have no explicit warrant, we have some- 
 thing very much like it, in the next reason we 
 assign for our practice, namely : 
 
 Fourth. — The example of the Apostles in bap- 
 tising whole families, in which it is fair to presume 
 there were some infants. And if there were not, 
 yet, as they baptised older children by virtue of 
 their parents' faith, and they never baptised the 
 head of a family but they baptised " all his house" 
 — how much more brants, that can so much more 
 easily be trained up **in the nurture and admon- 
 ition of the Lord," than those whose habits are 
 partially formed ? We particularize the instances : 
 
 The first is the case of Cornelius. (Acts x. 
 47, 48. ) It may be said there is no evidence that 
 there were any but adults in the company, at the 
 house of this Centurion. But it appears from St. 
 Peter's own account of the transaction (Chap. xi. ) 
 
Apostolic Baptism of Families, 39 
 
 that the Apostle was to speak ** words" to him 
 ** whereby he and all his house (oikoSy family) 
 should be saved." (v. 14.) Now if his relation- 
 ship to Christ brought a blessing to his family as 
 well as himself, is it likely that the seal of that 
 covenant mercy would be denied to them which 
 was accorded to him ? Is not the fair inference, 
 from the narrative and the circumstances of the 
 case, that they were all baptised, both old and 
 young ? The next is still more explicit, namely : 
 
 Second. — The case of Lydia and her family, 
 (Acts xvi. 15), she was baptised and her household. 
 Many have harped upon the word "household,'* 
 and argued that it included her workpeople, who 
 must have been adults. But it happens that the 
 original word is oikoSy house, or family, and not 
 olkiay ** household," so that the introduction of the 
 rfyers of ** purple" is entirely gratuitous, especially 
 as we have no evidence that though Lydia was 
 " a seller of purple," she was a manufacturer of it. 
 We have another instance in the same chapter, 
 namely : 
 
 Third. — That of the Philippian Jailor, "and 
 all his. " A middle-aged vigorous man, such as his 
 astions and position declare him to have been, most 
 likely had >oung children in his family. And if 
 they were all adults, as some maintain, they were 
 baptised without previous instruction, for they 
 were baptised " forthwith" after his own conver- 
 sion. And if grown up children, who are capable 
 of "believing," may be baptised before believing 
 by virtue of a father's faith, how much more 
 younger ones, who can be so much more efifeci 
 tually trained in accordance with their baptism ? 
 
 Fourth.— Vdkvl baptised " the household of Stb- 
 
40 Practice of the Primitive Church, 
 
 PHANAS." A'nd here again the word is oilsoSf 
 family, and not o«'iia, "household." 
 
 Besides those above mentioned, we have several 
 other Christian families mentioned in the Scriptures 
 of the New Testament, such as those of Gaius, and 
 Orispus, and Narcissus, and Onesiphorus, who, 
 as Christians, must have been accredited by bap- 
 tism. Now it would be very remarkable indeed if 
 in the only eight families which chanced to be men- 
 tioned, there were no young children. How often 
 do those who deny baptism to infants, have the 
 privilege of baptizing whole families 'i Seldom, we 
 surmise. The com/mimity of goods which obtained, 
 for a time at least, in the Apostolic Church at 
 Jerusalem (Acts iv. 34-37) is an evidence that the 
 children were recognized as of the church ; else 
 what encouragement would the parents have had to 
 put their property into the common stock, if in the 
 event of their own death, by martyrdom or other- . 
 wise, their children would receive no benefit, as not 
 being of the church, according to the doctrine of 
 those who deny them baptism ? Now, a strong 
 comment on our expounding and inferences from 
 these facts, is our next reason. We baptize in- 
 fants, — 
 
 Fifth. — Because it was the practice of the Church 
 from the earliest times. 
 
 In confirmation of this position, I shall make but 
 two extracts, but these from works not of party 
 controversy, but of general interest and standard 
 merit, intended for the edification of the universal 
 church, namely, Buck^s Theological Dictionary and 
 Dr. Gavels ^* Religion of the Ancient Ch/rvitians.^^ 
 The language of Buck is as follows : — 
 
 ** From the year 400 to 1,160 no society of men 
 
Custom of Baptising In/ants, 41 
 
 in all that period of 750 years, ever pretended to 
 say it was unlawful to baptise infants ; and still 
 nearer the time of our Saviour there appears to 
 have been scarcely any one that so much as ad- 
 vised the delay of infant baptism. Irenaeus, who 
 lived in the second century, and was well acquaint- 
 edwith Polycarp, who was John's disciple, declares 
 expressly that the church learned from the apostles 
 to baptise children. Origen, in the third century, 
 affirmed that the custom of baptising infants was 
 received from Christ and his apostles. Cyprian, 
 and a council of ministers (held about the year 254) 
 no less than sixty-six in number, unanimously 
 agreed that children might be baptised as soon aa 
 they Were born. Ambrose, who wrote about 274 
 years from the apostles, declares that the baptism 
 of infants had been the practice of the apostle# 
 themselves, and of the church, till that time. The 
 Catholic church everywhere declared, says Chry- 
 sostom, in the fifth century, that infants should be 
 baptised ; and Augustin affirmed that he never 
 heard nor read of any Christian, catholic or sec- 
 tarian, but who always held that infants were to be 
 baptised. " 
 
 The language of the historian of the ancient 
 church is as follows : — 
 
 ** From the persons ministering we proceed t^ 
 the persons upon whom it was conferred, and they 
 were of two sorts, infants and adult persons. How 
 far the baptising of infants is included in our 
 Saviour's institution is not my work to dispute ; 
 but certainly if in controverted cases the constant 
 practice of the church, and those who immediately 
 succeeded the apostles be (as no man can deny it 
 is) the best intrepreter of the laws of Christ, the 
 
42 CypriarCa Counsel, 
 
 dispute one would think should he at an end. For 
 that it always was the custom to receive the chil- 
 dren of Christian patents into the church hy bap- 
 tism, we have sufficient evidence from the greatest 
 Sart of the most early writers, Irenasus, Tertullian, 
 >rigen, Cyprian, &c. , whose testimouies I do not 
 produce, because I find them collected by others, 
 and the argument thence so forcible and concluaive, 
 that the most zealous opposers of infant baptism 
 know not how to evade it ; the testimonies being 
 80 clear, and not the least shadow that I know of 
 in those times of anything to make against it. 
 There was indeed in Cyprian's time a controversy 
 about the baptising of infants, not whether they 
 ought to be baptised, (for of that there was no 
 doubt), but concerning the time when it was to be 
 administered, whether on the second or third, or 
 whether, as circumcision of old, to be deferred till 
 the eighth day ; for the determining of which, 
 Cyprian sitting in the council with sixty-six bishops, 
 writes a synodical epistle to Fidus, to let him 
 know, that it was necessary to be deferred so long, 
 that it was their universal judgment and resolution, 
 that the mercy and grace of God was not to be 
 denied to any, though as soon as was bom: con- 
 cluding that it was the sentence of the council,/ 
 that none ought to be forbidden baptism and the 
 grace of God ; which as it was to be observed and 
 retained to\. ards all men, so much more towards 
 iinf ants and new-born children. That this sentence 
 of theirs was no novel doctrine St. Augustine 
 assures us, where, speaking concerning this synodi- 
 cal determination, he tells us, that in this * Cyprian 
 did not make ai^y new decree, but kept the faith 
 of the church most firm and sure.'" (Pr. Cdve.) 
 
InfantB Denied Baptism. 43 
 
 Having given a very brief and plain summary of 
 the reasons for Methodist belief and practice rela- 
 tive to infant baptism, we proceed to notice some 
 common objections, not disposed of in the preceding 
 expositions and arguments. 
 
 ' First — It is often said infanta ought not to he 
 baptised because they cannot believe. Is there anv 
 scripture which says, or implies, that all candi- 
 dates for baptism must believe ? We know of no 
 such scripture. The oft quoted text may perhaps 
 be recited. "He that believeth and is baptised 
 shall be saved, and h6 that believeth not shall be 
 damned." (Mark xvi. 16.) That a person who 
 comes to years of maturity must personally believe 
 in order to salvation, we are more than willing to 
 admit ; and that such a person, if not previously 
 baptised, should submit to baptism, we readily 
 agree. And if you like, you may sustain it by the 
 above quoted text. But if that passage proves that 
 infants are debarred from baptism, because they 
 cannot believe, it equally debars them from salva- 
 tion. For faith is made essential to the latter in 
 explicit terms, a proof of this that the text only 
 applies to the case of adults. This text, therefore, 
 proves more than the opponents of infant baptism 
 intend, and therefore proves nothing. Besides, 
 the order and force of the words do not necessarily 
 imply the necessity of belief prior to baptisin in 
 any one. ** He that believeth and is baptised,'* 
 &c ,-not, and then is baptised. The wolrds aie 
 perfectly reconciled with a baptism before or after 
 belief. If, as we have shown, a baptism adminis- 
 tered in infancy be valid, then the person's subse- 
 quent belief in adult years does not make the 
 repetition of his baptism necessary. His sincere 
 
44 Baptising Infants. 
 
 BDd cordial belief in maturity is the very thing 
 contemplated by his being ** discipled" in infancy. 
 All the grown-up child of Christian parents has 
 to do is to seek grace to be faithful to his baptismal 
 obligations. A great deal of the demand for bap- 
 tism on the part of persons, on being truly convert- 
 ed, from considering the practice of the apostles in 
 baptising their converts, arises from not consider- 
 ing the different characters of the two classes of 
 converts. The one is converted from the neglect of 
 what they always professed to be important ; the 
 other from the grossest of eirors, as well as sin, to 
 what they once regarded as false. When our mis- 
 sionaries meet with success among Jews and heath- 
 ens similar results follow with regard to baptism, 
 which took place under the labors ov the Apostles. 
 Like them, our Evangelists baptise the believer, 
 and like them they baptise his family. 
 
 Agabij we may have it objected, what good can 
 baptism do an infant ? We might answer by asking, 
 what good did circumcision do the Jewish infants ? 
 Yet God required it. Perhaps, also, they would 
 find it hard to answer. What good can water bap- 
 tism do an adult ? We can conceive one benetit, 
 among many others, to the baptised child over one 
 who is not, if properly taught the obligations of 
 baptism, it will be a continued restraint upon him. 
 And we have always observed the best behaved 
 and God-fearing among the children of Psedo- 
 baptists who properly understood and performed 
 their duty in this patticular. 
 
 But it may be asked, does not the credit of Chris- 
 tianity require that when a person is converted, 
 who has wandered long and far from his baptismal 
 obligations, that he sEoUld be re-baptised on his 
 
Tends to Morality. 45 
 
 return to God ? No more than the apostate after 
 adult baptism, when he is restored, particularly 
 where that restoration takes place far from the 
 time, or place, or both, of his baptism. 
 
 An objection against infant baptism which weighs 
 very much with many devout persons is, that it 
 tends to Jormality — that is, that it is calculated to 
 make the subjects of it rest in their nominal con- 
 nexion with the Christian Church, and neglect to 
 seek the renewal of the heart. This may be an in- 
 cidental abuse of it, m some cases, we admit. But 
 we think it constitutes a true motive to seek the 
 thing signified, and that it has that effect on the 
 rightly instructed, we certainly know. But are 
 there no dangers attending the opposite doctrine ? 
 Are there not those among its advocates who give 
 an undue prominence to water baptism to the 
 neglect of the heart ? Who rest on their adult 
 baptism, and neglect **to stir up the gift within 
 them ?" And are there not many adherents of 
 adult immeiaion, who boldly assert that that is 
 the only regeneration taught in the Scriptures? 
 We know of a case of a convert to immersionist 
 views, who tea^sed his once pious Methodist brother, 
 by letters and otherwise, for several years, till that 
 brother lost his religious enjoyment, and neglected 
 both family prayer and the s(»cial means of grace, 
 and is now neither Methodist nor Baptist. To dis- 
 cover its moral and religious effects look at the ad- 
 herents of our opinion. We do not constitute the 
 whole of the Fcedobaptist Israel, yet, |for every un 
 questionably pious Immersionist (and we are happy 
 to confess there are many) furnished us, we will 
 produce an equally exemplary Methodist, to say 
 nothing of others. 
 
46 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The above are the reasons (perhaps too concisely 
 expressed to be perspicuous to every one without a 
 sec(md perusal) of Methodist belief and nractice 
 relative to water baptism. We furnish tnem to 
 all interested that we may not be turned aside 
 from the great work of promoting personal religion, 
 and ** spreading scriptural holiness over the land,'* 
 to oral discussions which do no good, and often do 
 harm. They constitute a reason why we dare not 
 repeat the baptism of a person once baptised, 
 whethftr in adult years or infancy, in any form in 
 the name of the Holy Trinity. We might retain 
 some otherwise desirable persons, if we did, but 
 we dare not sacrifice principle to anv consideration. 
 If we have failed in satisfying any of the correctness 
 of our views and practice, we aavise them to seek 
 religious fellowship elsewhere. If we have done 
 them any good in any respect e are thankful ; and 
 sincerely wish them prosperity in the name of the 
 Lord wherever they may unite. 
 
 Having written in a kindly spirit, in vindication 
 of our own doings only, and having a more impor- 
 tant work to attend to. we must very much alter 
 our mind if we notice any strictures which this 
 little work may by possibility call forth. Wishing 
 both friends and opponents a richer baptism of the 
 Holy Spirit, we add no more. 
 
CASE AND HIS COTEMPORARIES ; 
 
 Oft, THB 
 
 1CAHADIAH ITIHEKAirr'S MEHOBIAL. 
 
 OONSTITUTOro A 
 
 BIOGEAPHICAL HISTOEY OP MBTH0DI8M 
 
 ^ IN CANADA, 
 
 From its introdmtion into the Province, ttU the death o/tht 
 Rftv. William Cabb, in 1855. 
 
 JOHN CARROLL. 
 
 Publlahed at the WasLSTAif Book Room, Toronto. 
 Price $1.90 the two volumes. 
 
 [8U OYBft. 
 
OPINIONS OF THF PRESS, 
 
 *'Mi*. Carroll has performed a valaable service. 
 Arouud the Rev. William Case, hs the principal 
 6gure, he has grouped a large body nf the found- 
 ers and leaders of Canadian Melhodis»" *' — Meth' 
 odist Quarterly, 
 
 " Mr. Carroll wields a ready pen, and his style 
 IS popular and pleasing. Case and his Cotem- 
 poraries Areihe common property of Methodism." 
 — Canada Christian Advocate, 
 
 ** Mr. Carroll's style is chaste and racy, and 
 exceedingly natural, and he will not lack a host 
 of readers." — Cohourg World, 
 
 ** It is neatly got up as to its typography and 
 binding. We anticipate for the work an exteu- 
 flive circulation." — Hastings Chronicle, 
 
 "We take pleasure in ranking the author 
 among our choice friends. The book merits an 
 extensive sale." — Ghiide to Holiness, 
 
 ** It gives a very graphic, interestinc:, and en- 
 tertaining account of the origin and early history 
 of the Methodist Church in Canada. The typo- 
 graphy and the binding are creditable, and the 
 style is Mr. Carroll's — easy, racy, lively and gra- 
 phic." — Waterloo Chronicle, 
 
 " Our esteemed Brother Carroll appears to have 
 an especial titness for the work he has chosen. 
 His delineations of character are of photographic 
 vividness and fidelity. It is fitting to lay a wreath 
 on the graves of those who have fallen on the 
 field, and to twine a garland for the silvery locks 
 of tho»e who ftre left behind.'' — Recorder, 
 
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