>^j6 
 
 '^ PRINCETON. N. J. ^* 
 
 Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Agnew Coll. on Baptism, No. 
 
 seen 
 
♦ 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 j-fi a>r i't^ 
 
FOUR LECTURES, 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 WORSHIP-STREET MEETING-HOUSE, 
 
 NEAR 
 
 xfFtngiburg Squaw, EontJow, 
 
 DURING THE MONTH OF MARCH, 1826, 
 
 THE HISTORY — THE SUBJECTS AND MODE — THE 
 PERPETUITY— AND THE PRACTICAL USES 
 
 CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. 
 
 JOHN'^VANS, LL. D., EDWIN CHAPMAN, 
 JAMES GILCHRIST, and DAVID EATON. 
 
 -Them who shall believe, 
 
 Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign 
 Of washing them from guilt of sin to life. 
 Pure and in mind prepar'd, if so befal. 
 For death like that which the Redeemer died ! 
 
 Milton. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SOLD BY DAVID EATON, 187, HIGH HOLBORN. 
 
 1826. 
 
PRINTED BY G. SMALLFIELD, HACKNEY. 
 
'/-^ 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The General Baptist Committee, appointed by jhk 
 General Assembly, first suggested these Lectures in 
 the autumn of 1825, and after their delivery requested 
 their publication. With this application the preachers 
 cheerfully complied, under the hope of imparting still 
 greater usefulness to their joint labours. The reader 
 may be gratified to learn, that some individuals became 
 candidates for Baptism at the close of the Lectures; and 
 it is the fervent wish of the Committee, that on their 
 perusal from the Press, others may come forward in dififei-- 
 ent parts of the vineyard, thus spreading far and wide 
 the triumphs of Scriptural Christianity ! Indeed, the 
 Volume is humbly designed, by explaining and recom- 
 mending a much-neglected rite, to promote the glory of 
 God, the honour of the Redeemer, and the eternal welfare 
 of Mankind. 
 
 Mai/ 1st, 1826. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Lecture I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The History of Baptism 1 
 
 Lecture IL 
 The Proper Subjects of Christian Baptism, and the Scriptural 
 Mode of administering that Rite 65 
 
 Lecture IIL 
 The Perpetuity of Christian Baptism maintained 109 
 
 Lecture IV. 
 The Practical Uses of Christian Baptism • 1 67 
 
 ERRATUM. 
 Page 48— for 80,000, read 8,000. 
 

 ^*>V^T**' 
 
 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE 
 
 THE HISTORY OF BAPTISM. 
 
 JOHN 'iVANS, LL. D. 
 
 -The Truth, 
 
 Bestuck by slanderous darts, or 
 With superstitions and traditions taint, 
 Left only in those written records pure. 
 
 Milton. 
 
^. 
 
 Ac^ 
 
 
 LECTURE I. Vf^ ,^, JF 
 
 Having the honour of opening these Lectures with 
 the History of Baptism, I beg your attention to 
 
 Matthew xxi. 25: 
 Whence was it? from Heaven, or of Men? 
 
 This interrogation concerning the origin of Bap- 
 tism, recorded by no less than three of the Evange- 
 Hsts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, shews the impor- 
 tance of the subject for the discussion of which these 
 Lectures have been instituted. It is deserving of 
 serious attention. No thoughtful mind can treat it 
 with indifference. We must obey God rather than 
 man. On the strict observance of this principle all 
 true religion rests. Hence arises the respectability 
 of the professors of every denomination in the pre- 
 sent life, and hence their eternal happiness in the 
 world to come. The dictates of conscience will be 
 appreciated at the tribunal of Heaven. 
 
 At the same time I remark, that however impor- 
 tant may be the subject of Baptism, our investiga- 
 tion must not be at variance with Christian charity. 
 This circumstance is noticed because here a greater 
 want of temper has been betrayed than in almost 
 any other branch of theological controversy. We 
 
 b2 
 
shall not, I trust, add to the number of transgressors. 
 For myself I shall strive to preserve the unity of the 
 spirit in the bond 0/ peace ; and I believe it is in my 
 powder to answer for my brother Lecturers with re- 
 gard to their liberality. Our opponents, the Pcedo- 
 baptists, are an estimable body — by far the largest 
 and most flourishing portion of Christendom. The 
 Church of England has been distinguished for its 
 Tillotsons and Burnets, its Paleys and IVatsons, 
 luminaries of erudition and piety. As to our bre- 
 thren the Dissenters — the Independents have their 
 Watts and Doddridge, and the Presbyterians their 
 Kippis and Rees — their Price and Priestley, with 
 many others, whom we hope to meet in heaven ! 
 The soul here bewildered by fanaticism or shrivelled 
 through bigotry will there be enlightened, purified, 
 and enlarged, throughout the interminable ages of 
 eternity! 
 
 The connexion in which my text stands is too 
 interesting to be omitted on this occasion : And 
 when Christ was come into the temple the Chief 
 Priests and the elders of the people came unto him 
 as he was teaching, and said, By what authority 
 doest thou these things P and who gave thee this au- 
 thority 9 And Jesus answered and said unto them, 
 1 also will ask you one thing, which, if ye tell me, 
 I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do 
 these things. The baptism of John, whence was it 9 
 — from Heaven, or of men P And they reasoned 
 with themselves, saying, If we shall say — FroJti 
 
Heaven, he will say unto us — JVhi/ did ye not then 
 believe in him ? But if we shall say — Of men, we 
 fear the people, for all hold John as a prophet. And 
 they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And 
 he said unto them, Neither tell I you hy what au- 
 thority I do these things. This is a too faithful 
 picture of the state of rehgion in our days. When 
 interrogated concerning Baptism — Whence tvas it 9 
 from Heaven, or of men P — the prompt reply would 
 be, We cannot tell ! Now the prime object of 
 these Lectures is to banish this ignorance from 
 among our fellow-christians, who, on other branches 
 of religion may be well-informed. Thus will all 
 come to a knowledge of the Truth, and be better 
 instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom of Hea- 
 ven. To bear witness to the Truth was one of the 
 ends for which Christ came into the world. 
 
 The History of Baptism will lead us to obey the 
 apostolic exhortation — Call to remembrance former 
 days. We must take a retrospective view of the 
 times that are past and gone by for ever. We must 
 look through the long vista of Eighteen hundred 
 years. This will require some exertion. But our 
 labour will be repaid by the acquisition of sacred 
 Truth, which is to be bought at any price, and 
 not to be sold or parted with for all the treasures 
 of the world. The History of Baptism must be 
 traced, step by step, with patient and undivided 
 attention. A pure mind is an essential requisite in 
 all our inquiries. This, I humbly hope, we bring 
 
with us this evening. These Lectures were insti- 
 tuted for the elucidation of an article of' Revelation 
 which we conceive to be neglected and even de- 
 spised. Our object is good, and nothing ought to 
 divert us from the honourable pursuit of it. May 
 the seed be now sown in honest hearts, and then we 
 may rest assured that we shall not in vain implore, 
 as we would solemnly do, the Divine concurrence 
 and blessing. 
 
 In furnishing the History of Baptism, the limits 
 of a single discourse will bind the preacher down to 
 the observance of the strictest brevity. I can do 
 little more than glance at the several topics which 
 offer themselves, selecting them with care and leav- 
 ing them to make their own impression. This is 
 mentioned to prevent' expectations being raised, 
 which, from the nature of the service, must be dis- 
 appointed. Indeed, my best materials have been 
 drawn from the History of Baptism, a Quarto Vo- 
 lume, by the late Robert Robinson, of Cambridge. 
 It is a vast storehouse of Facts, illumined by genius, 
 enriched with learning, and glowing with the lam- 
 bent flame of civil and religious liberty. Of spiri- 
 tual tyranny the author was the implacable foe. 
 He deemed it an evil of the first magnitude. 
 He saw, during his profound researches into Eccle- 
 siastical History, that it had desolated far and wide 
 the church of God. Alas! alas! that domination 
 over conscience, under any shape and in any degree, 
 still continues to infest any one department of 
 
Christendom. It has hung in sack-cloth the goodly 
 fabric of revealed religion — it augments the clamours 
 of infidelity !* 
 
 In accomplishing the task assigned, I shall beg 
 your attention, 1st, to the History of Baptism in the 
 Apostolic Age; 2dly, during the long period inter- 
 vening between that age and the Reformation ; 
 and, 3dly, conclude with the History of Baptism in 
 our own country. This review, brief and rapid, will 
 be sufficient to answer the interrogation in my text 
 — Is Baptism from Heaven, or of men ? The reply 
 will, I trust, promote the interests of our common 
 Christianity. 
 
 Before I enter on the explication of these periods 
 a word or two shall be said on the term Anabap- 
 tist. It occurs in the quotations I shall have to 
 make from the writings of our adversaries, and is 
 always used in an obnoxious sense. An Anabap- 
 tist is one who is rebaptized, the appellation being 
 derived from two Greek words, denoting the being 
 baptized over again. The designation does not be- 
 long to us — to whom there is one God, one Faith, 
 one Baptism. Deeming sprinkling in infancy no 
 baptism at all, we baptize the individual at riper years, 
 by immersion, on the profession of his faith, agree- 
 
 * See Miscellaneous Works of Robert Robinson, in Four hand- 
 some Volumes, with Brief Memoirs of his Life and Writings, by 
 Benjamin Flower. These, together with his Village Sermons 
 and the Ecclesiastical Researches, a posthumous Quarto Volume, 
 edited by Mr. William Frend, the celebrated mathematician, con- 
 stitute the whole of this truly original author's productions. 
 
8' 
 
 ably to the New Testament. Thus the appellation 
 of Anabaptist has never been recognized by the 
 Baptists, being false and reproachful, the reviling of 
 an enemy. It is, indeed, a term little used of late 
 years, and banished out of good company. Names 
 are necessary and useful to mark the endless grada- 
 tions of opinions in the religious world ; only let 
 them be descriptively just, conveying neither more 
 nor less than is agreeable to truth. They have been 
 wofully abused to the purposes of hatred and strife ; 
 they have been implements used by evil men — to 
 the destruction of the amiable spirit and tolerant 
 genius of Christianity. Having said thus much 
 in justice to ourselves, I would, in the 1st place, beg 
 your attention to the History of Baptism in the 
 apostolic age. 
 
 I commence this review of the apostolic age with 
 the declaration of a Psedobaptist* divine, who, when 
 living, was at the head of the largest body of Chris- 
 tians in the British empire, the venerable John 
 Wesley. His words are these : " The rites insti- 
 tuted by Christ himself were only two, and these 
 were designed to continue to the end of his church 
 here below, without any variation. These rites 
 were Baptism and the Holy Supper, which are not 
 to be considered as mere ceremonies, but also as 
 ordinances accompanied with a sanctifying influence 
 on the hearts of true Christians." 
 
 * The term P^dobaptist conveys no reproach, and merely sig- 
 nifies a Baptizer of Children. 
 
9 
 
 Of the apostolic age we look for its history in the 
 New Testament alone. There we have its interest- 
 ing detail. We need not travel beyond this record. 
 Happily we have it entire in our possession. Indeed 
 it demands our greatest attention. The want of 
 paying it due regard has been the source of innu- 
 merable evils to the church of Christ. 
 
 The account of baptism thus commences in the 
 New Testament : Now in the Jifteenth year of the 
 reign of Tiberius Ccesar, says Luke, ch. iii. I — 3, 
 Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod 
 being Tetrarch of Galilee^ the word of God came 
 unto John, the soti of Zecharias, in the wilderness. 
 And he came into all the country about Jordan, 
 preaching the Baptism of Repentance for the re- 
 mission of sins, John's conduct originated in a 
 divine call. " Three of the evangelists observe, that 
 the coming of this extraordinary man had been fore- 
 told by the prophet Isaiah, and a fourth describes 
 him as a man sent from God, which is further con- 
 firmed by Jesus, who declared that the baptism of 
 John was from heaven and not of menr* 
 
 Matthew (ch. iii.) also informs us, Then cometh Je- 
 
 * It may be remarked that " the wilderness" in which John 
 preached " did not signify, in Judea, an uninhabited country, but 
 woody, grazing lands, in distinction from arable fields, which were 
 champaign or open, and vineyards, olive-yards, orchards, and gar- 
 dens, which were inclosed. There were in the time of Joshua sis 
 cities, with their villages, in this wilderness." 
 
10 
 
 sus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to he baptized 
 of him. But Johnforhad him, saying, I have need to 
 he haptized of thee, and comest thou to me 9 Jesus 
 being a perfect character, who needed no repentance, 
 John hesitated ; but the Saviour added. Suffer it 
 to he so now, for thus it hecometh us to fulfil all 
 righteousness. Then he suffered him. Now mark 
 the manner after which it was performed, and the 
 attestation with which it was accompanied. And 
 Jesus when he ivas haptized went up straightway 
 out of the water ; and lo ! the heavens opened unto 
 hitn, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a 
 dove, (not in the form of a dove, as is too commonly- 
 represented, but gently hovering in its descent,) and 
 lighting upon him ; and lo f a voice from heaven, 
 saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased. 
 
 After his baptism, Jesus soon entered upon his 
 public ministry. Having taught in Galilee, he came 
 into the land of Judea with his disciples, many com- 
 ing to his baptism. Jesus taught the people; and 
 when any believed in him, then his disciples bap- 
 tized them. 
 
 " It was for just and noble reasons, (says Mr. 
 Robinson,) worthy of a wise and benevolent mind, 
 that Jesus estimated John so highly as to pronounce 
 him as great a man as had been horn of women ; to 
 which he added, The least in the kingdom of heaven 
 is greater than he ! It was a comparison between 
 
11 
 
 John and his predecessors, and John and his suc- 
 cessors, in framing the new economy. He was 
 greater than his predecessors, because he first intro- 
 duced a moral assortment of Jews, a hingdom of 
 heaven on earth. He was less than the apostles, his 
 successors, because under the direction of Jesus they 
 brought his plan to perfection, by assorting and in- 
 corporating Jews and Gentiles in societies expressly 
 united for the improvement of the mind, the meli- 
 orating of the heart, and the regulation of the life, a 
 compact practice of piety, and an uniform course of 
 virtue, and so extending and establishing personal ex- 
 cellence, tending to unite all mankind in one family 
 of universal love; and he who, under God, gave a 
 sketch of a design so pure and so generous, ought to 
 be reputed one of the first characters among mankind !" 
 Jesus after his resurrection assembled his followers, 
 and thus made known to them the power he had re- 
 ceived. Matt, xxviii. 18 — 20 : All power is given unto 
 me in heaven and in earth. Asserting his legislative 
 authority, he invested them with this commission. 
 Go ye, therefore, and teach (or disciple) all nations, 
 baptizing (or immersing) them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: 
 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
 commanded you ; and lo! I am with you alway, even 
 unto the end of the world. This commission received 
 its confirmation on the day of Pentecost, and the 
 obedient apostles proclaimed the gospel, not to the 
 
12 
 
 Jews only, but to the Gentiles, even to the most dis- 
 tant nations of the earth. 
 
 The Spirit 
 
 Pour'd first on the Apostles whom he sends 
 To evangelize the nations ; then on all 
 Baptized, shall them with wondrous gifts endue. 
 To speak all tongues, and do all miracles. 
 As did their Lord before them. Thus they win 
 Great numbers of each nation to receive 
 With joy the tidings brought from heaven ! 
 
 Milton. 
 
 Let us now mark the labours of these original 
 Missionaries, and the success attending them. 
 
 At Jerusalem, the capital of Judea, Peter preach- 
 ing the glad tidings of great joy, many, pricked to 
 the heart, repented, and were baptized. Acts ii. 
 The Samaritans believed Philip preaching the things 
 concerning the kingdom of God, and were .baptized, 
 both men and women. Acts viii. 12. The eunuch, 
 upon Philip's preaching to him from Esaias the pro- 
 phet, believed, and was baptized. Acts viii. 35. 
 Paul after his conversion was baptized by Ananias, 
 at Damascus. Acts ix. 18. Cornelius and his friends 
 believed and were baptized. Acts x. 47,48. Lydia and 
 her household believing in the Lord were baptized 
 at Philippi, by Paul. Acts xvi. 14. " The jailer and 
 all his house, believing in the Lord, were baptized. 
 Acts xvi. 33, 34. The Corinthians hearing and 
 believing were baptized. Acts xviii. 8. The Colos- 
 sians were also thus baptized. Coloss. ii. 10 — 12. 
 
13 
 
 The believing Romans were likewise baptized. Rom. 
 yi. 3. The Galatians believing in Christ were bap- 
 tized. Gal. iii. 26, 27. The Ephesians, upon the 
 profession of their faith, were baptized. Acts xix. 
 1 — 5. From all this it appears, that John, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, their disciples, indeed all the 
 first Christians, were Baptists ; that is, receiving the 
 divine message, were admitted by immersion into 
 the profession of the new religion. To put this fact 
 beyond all doubt, I shall transcribe the testimonies 
 of Dr. John Gale on our own side, and of Grotius 
 from the opposite denomination. 
 
 The very learned Dr. John Gale, whose know- 
 ledge of the Greek language has never been ques- 
 tioned, declares in his masterly reply to Dr. Wall, 
 Vicar of Shoreham, in Kent, that the term BaTrri^co, 
 with all its derivatives, signifies dipping, with refer- 
 ence to the art of dying or imbuing the articles 
 with the colours by which they are to stand charac- 
 terized. The profoundly euridite Grotius says, that 
 " Baptism used to be performed by immersion, and 
 and not by pouring, appears both from the proper 
 signification of the word, and the places chosen for 
 the administration of the rite in the New Testament." 
 
 This will lead us to say a few words of the river 
 Jordan, and of Enon, near Salim, the places where 
 immersion was chiefly administered by John, ac- 
 cording to the New Testament. " Jordan is a con- 
 siderable river, running from north to south through 
 the land of Judea. A little below Dan, the stream 
 
14 
 
 forms the lake Samachonites, anciently called Menon. 
 Two miles after leaving the lake is a stone bridge of 
 three arches, called Jacob's bridge, supposed to have 
 been built before the days of Jacob. It afterwards 
 forms the sea of Tiberias, five miles in width, and 
 eighteen in length. Thence, at its opposite end, it 
 again proceeds forward, and after a course of sixty- 
 five miles, some part of the way through a vast de- 
 sert, the rest through a fertile region, it falls into the 
 lake Asphaltites, or the Dead Sea. On the banks 
 of this noble river John fixed his baptismal station, 
 not for the purpose of supplying with drink the com- 
 pany, with their horses, camels, and asses, as a Psedo- 
 baptist writer has supposed, but for the conveniency 
 of receiving repenting candidates by immersion." 
 
 Enon, near Salim, was another of John's bap- 
 tismal stations. This was at least fifty miles north, 
 up the river Jordan, from the place where John had 
 begun to baptize. It is not so easy to describe 
 Enon as Jordan, for geographers are not agreed re- 
 specting it. Some suppose it was a deep spring, 
 others the fountain of the sun ; while some have 
 thought it an artificial reservoir, prepared by the 
 Canaanites, who were the ancient idolatrous inha- 
 bitants of the land. Be this as it may, certain it is 
 there vv^as much ivater; or, as the original may be 
 more forcibly rendered, many waters there ; all 
 which indicates the reason of its choice for the pur- 
 pose of immersion. 
 
 With respect to the river Jordan, it is a curious 
 
15 
 
 circumstance, that painters delineating the baptism of 
 our Saviour, represent it in an absurd and.ridiculous 
 manner. Jesus and John are placed in the middle 
 of the stream, whilst John is in the act of pouring a 
 little water from the palm of his hand on the head 
 of Jesus! In the painted window of the museum 
 belonging to the Baptist Education Society at Bris- 
 tol, may be seen in one of the panes the very posi- 
 tion I have now described. I have often wondered 
 at its being placed there : it ought to have been 
 removed ; substituting in its "room a copy of the 
 beautiful vignette of the Baptism of Jesus by John, 
 in the title-page of Robinson's History of Baptism. 
 John and Jesus are indeed in the middle of the 
 stream, but John is gracefully bending forward 
 the head of the illustrious candidate to receive the 
 wave ! This is in exact unison with the spirit of 
 the New Testament, and devoid of any pictorial 
 discrepancy. 
 
 The usual mode of immersion is by laying the 
 candidate backward, but Mr. Robinson advocates 
 the bending of \i\m forward into the water. " This 
 method," says he, " has more than antiquity to 
 recommend it. It is so easy to the administra- 
 tor, so perfect an immersion, so disengaged to the 
 candidate, so free from giving pain to the spec- 
 tators, a method so decent and expeditious, that it 
 is a wonder it is not universally practised. It re- 
 quires for a middle-sized person, on condition of a 
 proper genuflexion which it is almost impossible to 
 
 m 
 
16 
 
 avoid making in the administration, three feet of 
 water, and' for a very tall man three feet and a half. 
 There are the remains of many ancient Baptisteries 
 abroad, in which are various antiquities descriptive 
 of this mode. The Bishop stood in the water, and 
 the candidate in his Baptism bowed forward under 
 his hand, which is the meaning of Prudentius when 
 he speaks of baptizing the breast, and of TertuUian 
 when he says, Christians of his time were baptized 
 by bowing down with great simpHcity, without 
 pomp, and in few words. The Baptist churches, 
 it may be hoped, will forgive this animadversion. 
 It is the glory of their constitution that an indivi- 
 dual may propose his opinion, and that nobody is 
 obliged to adopt it." Many indications of Baptism 
 by immersion may be seen in the painted windows 
 of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury. 
 
 Such is the history of Baptism in the Apostolic 
 Age, admitting the converts by immersion to the 
 profession of Christianity. And of these individuals 
 were composed the primitive churches. For " there 
 was," says Mr. Robinson, " among primitive Chris- 
 tians an uniform belief that Jesus was the Christ, 
 and a perfect harmony of affection. When congre- 
 gations multiplied so that they became too numerous 
 to assemble in one place they parted into separate 
 companies, and so again and again, but there was 
 no schism ; on the contrary, all held a common 
 union, and a member of one company was a member 
 of all. If any person removed from one place to 
 
17 
 
 reside at another, he received a letter of attestation 
 which was given and taken as proof — and this custom 
 very prudently precluded the intrusion of impostors. 
 In this manner was framed a Catholic or Universal 
 Church. One company never pretended to inspect 
 the affairs of another, nor was there any dominion or 
 any shadow of dominion over the consciences of any 
 individuals. Overt acts were the only objects of 
 censure, and censure was nothing but voting a war- 
 rant of the community." 
 
 Here I would remark, that we are to derive the 
 doctrines we believe, the precepts we obey, and the 
 institutions we observe, from the New Testament. 
 To reject its doctrines is infidelity, to neglect its 
 precepts immorality, and to treat with indifference 
 its institutions will incur condemnation. A modern 
 writer has thus illustrated the subject : " A disposi- 
 tion to obey divine orders wherever they are dis- 
 cerned, either positive or moral, is part of that holi- 
 ness without which no man shall see the Lord. I 
 may be saved without a sacrament, but I cannot be 
 saved without a disposition to obey God's authority 
 wherever I see it. A sacrament is a positive rite, 
 and not to be compared with moral virtue ; but is not 
 a disposition to obey God's order, moral virtue and 
 Christian grace ? Or, can there be any moral virtue 
 or Christian grace without a disposition to obey the 
 authority of Christ wherever I discern it ? Surely 
 obedience to God's command is a moral excellence, 
 though the instances of that obedience may be in 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 positive rites. The command to Abraham to sacri- 
 fice his son was a positive order, and a very strange 
 one too, seemingly opposite to some moral orders 
 given out before ; and yet his disposition to obey 
 when he was sure of a divine warrant in the case, has 
 set him as the head of the believing world, as the 
 hero of faith, the father of the faithful, and the friend 
 of God ! The command of sprinkling the blood of 
 the Passover upon the door-posts of the Israelites 
 was an external positive rite ; if there had not been a 
 disposition to obey that order it would have cost 
 some lives. Was not the forbidden fruit, a positive 
 instance, an external thing ? Setting aside the Di- 
 vine prohibition, there was nothing immoral in eating 
 of that any more than of any other tree, but disobe- 
 dience is an immorality let the instance be what it 
 will. The sincerity and truth of such a disposition 
 is best known by its being uniform and universal. 
 The author of our religion has told us, and added his 
 example to his word, that Thus it hecometh us to 
 fulfil all righteousness : and so ordered himself to 
 be baptized. Baptism was a positive rite, an ex- 
 ternal thing, and yet he calls it righteousness ! 
 Such riorhteousness as became him who was the 
 Holy One of God, became him who had intrinsically 
 no need of any outward ceremony, whose inward 
 purity was perfectly divine — and if it became him to 
 fulfil such sort of righteousness, it can hardly become 
 any who pretend to be his followers to neglect it." 
 So much, my brethren, for the History of Baptism^ 
 
19 
 
 contained within the pure and unsuUied pages of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 But I now quit this hallowed ground, and, 2dly, 
 proceed to take a survey of the long intervening 
 period which elapsed from the Age of the Apostles 
 down to the Reformation. This forms the greatest 
 portion of ecclesiastical history. All I can do is to 
 touch here and there on its more prominent parts, 
 wherever light breaks in respecting the histor'y of 
 Christian Baptism. This shall be done with suc- 
 cinctness and brevity. How and what Baptism 
 was in the age of the Apostles I have shewn, but as 
 the great Milton says with no less truth than 
 poetry, 
 
 at length 
 
 Their Ministry perform'd and race well run. 
 Their doctrine and their story written left, 
 ■ They die ; but in their room, as they forewarn. 
 Wolves shall succeed for Teachers, grievous wolves. 
 Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven 
 To their own vile advantages shall turn 
 Of lucre and ambition — and the truth 
 With superstitions and traditions taint. 
 Left only in those written records pure. 
 Though not but by the Spirit understood ! " 
 
 A curious and striking fact meets us on the 
 threshold of this period — that Infant Baptism, which 
 is not mentioned in the New Testament, is never 
 heard of till nearly the expiration of the second cen- 
 tury. There we learn its existence by a solemn 
 protest against it. Hear the words of Tertullian 
 
 c2 
 
20 
 
 raising his voice against an error which, apparently 
 trifling in its origin, has darkened and degraded the 
 Church of God. His expressions are these : " They 
 whose duty it is to administer Baptism are to know, 
 that it must not be given rashly. Give to every 
 one that asheth thee, has its proper subject and 
 relates to almsgiving. But the command rather is 
 here to be considered, Give not that which is holy 
 to dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine ; and 
 Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither he parta- 
 ker of other merts faults. Therefore, according to 
 every one's condition and disposition, and also their 
 age, the delaying of Baptism is more profitable, 
 especially in the case of little children; for what need 
 is there that the godfathers should be brought into 
 danger — because they may either fail of their pro- 
 mises by death or they may be mistaken by a child's 
 proving of wicked disposition. Our Lord says, in- 
 deed. Forbid them not to come unto me ; therefore 
 let them when they are grown up ; let them come 
 when they understand, when they are instructed 
 whither it is that they come ; let them be made 
 Christians when they can know Christ. What 
 need their guiltless age make such haste to the 
 forgiveness of sins ? Men will proceed more warily 
 in worldly things, and he that should not have 
 earthly goods committed to him yet shall have hea- 
 venly; let them know how to desire this kalvation, 
 that you may appear to have given to one that 
 asketh •" From ^is passage it is evident that In- 
 
^1 
 
 fant Baptism had crept into the Church, otherwise 
 there could not have been this protest against it. 
 But it is to be observed, that even in the days of 
 the Apostles the mysteYy of iniquity began to worh, 
 2 Thess. ii. 7; that before the death of John, Dio- 
 trephes aimed at the pre-eminence, and after his 
 departure there were those who, usurping authority, 
 were ready to corrupt the Church of Christ. The 
 venerable John Wesley in his Ecclesiastical History 
 speaking of this period says, " There is no institu- 
 tion so excellent which the corruption and folly of 
 men will not in time alter for the worse, and load 
 it with additions foreign to its nature and original 
 design. Such was the fate of Christianity. In this 
 century many unnecessary rites and ceremonies were 
 added to the Christian worship. These changes, 
 while they destroyed the beautiful simplicity of the 
 gospel, were pleasing to the gross multitude, who 
 were more delighted with the splendour of external 
 institutions than with the native charms of rational, 
 and solid piety." 
 
 I might here enter upon the explanation of the 
 means used to exchange adults for children, and 
 sprinkling for immersion, in the administration of 
 Christian Baptism. But this I must decline, be- 
 cause it will be the province of my immediate suc- 
 cessor in these Lectures. He will account for it to 
 your satisfaction. I shall only remark, that, " in 
 257, Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, held an African 
 Council, who supposed the sin of Adam was the 
 
22 
 
 cause of the pollution of infants, and that Baptism 
 was necessary to save them. They reasoned thus : 
 * EHsha raised a dead child to life. Jesus came to 
 save all, therefore we should do all we can to save 
 them ; besides,' they say, ^ infants came into the 
 world crying for Baptism I' " — But to proceed with 
 the History of Baptism. 
 
 The conversion of Constantine at the commence- 
 ment of the fourth century, when the Church was 
 taken under the protection of the State, was a fatal 
 step for the purity of religion. Every thing was 
 done to overpower and fascinate the multitude. In 
 iJ70, Galates, the dying son of the Emperor Valens, 
 was baptized by order of the monarch, who swore he 
 would not be contradicted. Austin also had propa- 
 gated Infant Baptism in Africa and transplanted it 
 into Europe. Yet it is curious that he himself was 
 originally a Baptist, having been baptized by immer- 
 sion at Milan, in the 33rd year of his age ! But 
 becoming bishop of Hippo, he wrote against the 
 Donatists, where he says, " Infants are to be bap- 
 tized who can neither believe with their hearts to 
 justification, nor confess with their mouths to sal- 
 vation." Such are the contradiction and violence of 
 apostacy ! Austin very furiously opposed all who 
 dared to differ from him ; and in the council of Mela, 
 416, passed this canon — " It is the pleasure of the 
 Bishops to order, that whoever denieth that infants 
 newly horn of their mothers are to be baptized, or 
 saith that baptism is to be administered for the re- 
 
23 
 
 mission of their own sins, but not on account of 
 original sin derived from Adam, and to be expiated 
 by the laver of regeneration, be accursed." An 
 honest indignation rises at the sound of such tyranny. 
 The Mahometan imposture, in 622, succeeded, a 
 strange mixture of Heathenism, Judaism, and Chris^ 
 tianity. This, for a time, swept away all kinds of 
 Baptism as with the besom of destruction ; and yet 
 it abounds with washings and ablutions of every 
 description. 
 
 The Greek Church, though it has changed the 
 subjects from adults to infants, still retains the mode 
 of immersion. Even in the cold climate of Russia 
 the practice obtains down to the present day, and 
 the rite is performed with great pomp and ceremony. 
 Their interpretation of the word Ba7rT*^a>, (to dip or 
 immerse,) who understand best their own language, 
 is of more value than all that is gathered from 
 Grammars and Lexicons on the subject. The 
 Church of England also, in their Common Prayer- 
 Book, orders the child to be dipped if it can bear 
 it. Of this even some of their members are unap- 
 prized, a circumstance which I have more than once 
 found to my a?tonishment. Indeed, their ancient 
 fonts are made capacious enough for the purpose, 
 and even a baptistery, with steps descending into it 
 for the immersion of one person, I have seen in the 
 church of Cranbrook, Kent. 
 
 The Dissenters from the Church of Rome were 
 in every age numerous, and were characterized by 
 
24 
 
 various appellations. They were named Massalians 
 and Euchites, the one a Hebrew the other a Greek 
 name, both signifying a people that pray, for they 
 placed religion not in speculation, but in devotion 
 and piety. Euchite, among the Greeks, was a 
 general name for a Dissenter, as Waldensian was in 
 the Latin church, and as Nonconformist is in En- 
 gland. Some of these, we are told, dogmatised as 
 the Established Clergy did, becoming Manichean, 
 Arian, and Athanasian Euchites ; others were named 
 after the countries where they most abounded, as 
 Bulgarians, Macedonians, &c.; whilst others took 
 their designation from some eminent teacher, as 
 Paulicians, Novatians, and Donatists, with many 
 more of this description. These were charged by 
 their enemies with damnable heresies, among which 
 was generally the denial of infant baptism. Robin- 
 son, speaking of Novatian, says, " Great numbers 
 followed his example, and all over the Roman em- 
 pire Puritan churches were constituted and flourished 
 through the succeeding two hundred years. After- 
 wards, when penal laws obliged them to meet in 
 corners and worship God in private, they were dis- 
 tinguished by a variety of names, and a succession 
 of them continued till the Reformation." 
 
 The Dissidents, in Spain, were called in general 
 Anabaptists, baptizing converts from Pagans and 
 Jews, whilst they rebaptized all Catholics who came 
 over to their communion. The Paterines, in Italy, 
 were a flourishing sect. The name was given them 
 
25 
 
 by the enemy to signify vulgar, illiterate, low-bred 
 intimating that they were, as indeed was the case, of 
 the lower order of the people. They were accused 
 not of immorality, but of heresy. They objected 
 vehemently against the baptism of infants, justly 
 alleging, " that a child knew nothing of the mat- 
 ter — that he had no desire to be baptized — was in- 
 capable of making any confession of faith, whilst the 
 willing and professing of another could be of no ser- 
 vice to him." 
 
 We come now to the Waldenses, on the precise 
 period of whose origin authors are not agreed. They 
 were, however, the oldest and most formidable op- 
 ponents of the Church of Rome. They had their 
 chief residence in the valleys of Piedmont, at the 
 foot of the Alps, and adjacent parts of the country. 
 They were so called from Peter Waldo, a great Re- 
 former and wealthy merchant of Lyons, or from the 
 valleys in which they resided. Archbishop Usher 
 tells us, that " as the persecution about Stephen, by 
 that dispersion, proved much for the preservation of 
 the gospel in other parts of the world, so was it 
 here ; for those who were not so fit for the war 
 went up and down with more freedom into most 
 parts of Europe, insomuch that JEneas Sylvius, 
 after Pope Pius II., confessed, ' that neither the 
 decrees of Popes nor armies of Christians could 
 extirpate them.' " And on the authority of Matthew 
 Paris, of Westminster, his Grace assures us, that 
 " the Bulgarian or JValdensian heresy had, about 
 
26 
 
 1180, generally infected all France, Italy, and En- 
 gland." The Albigenses were a branch of this sect, 
 and so denominated from the town of Albi, in 
 France, where the Waldenses flourished. As to 
 their sentiments, Rapin says, they rejected baptism ; 
 Dr. Wall tells us, they rejected infant baptism as 
 one of the corruptions of the Church of Rome, and, 
 renouncing it, practised only adult baptism ; and 
 Dr. Allix declares, that it is plain they were utterly 
 against infant baptism. The fact is, that the Wal- 
 denses were what Christians ought to be — most 
 warmly attached to the Holy Scriptures ; even pea- 
 sants among them were known to recite the book of 
 Job by heart, probably from feeling the value of 
 patience under their persecutions ; whilst others 
 could perfectly repeat the whole New Testament. 
 Accordingly, they derived their doctrines, precepts, 
 and institutions, from the fountain head^ and were 
 often called to seal them with their blood. 
 
 The ancient Waldenses had an extreme aversion 
 to the Romish clergy, who withheld the Scriptures 
 from them, and took the following very singular 
 mode of insinuating their religious principles into 
 the minds of the gentry. Reinerus, an enemy, thus 
 describes their conduct : " The Waldensian preaching 
 pedlar thus sought out customers : ' Sir, will you 
 please to buy any rings, beads, or trinkets ? Madam, 
 will you look at any handkerchiefs, or pieces ot 
 needle-work for veils? I can afford them cheap.' 
 If, after a purchase, the company ask, ' Have you 
 
27 
 
 any thing more?' the salesman would reply, *0! 
 yes; I have commodities more valuable than these, 
 and I will make you a present of them if you will 
 protect me from the clergy.' Security being pro- 
 mised, on he would go : ' The inestimable jewel I 
 spoke of is the word of God, by which he communi- 
 cates his mind to men, and which inflames their 
 hearts with love to him. In the sixth month the 
 Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of 
 Galilee, named Nazareth,' and so on he would pro- 
 ceed to repeat the remaining part of the first chapter 
 of Luke ; or he would begin with the 13th chapter 
 of John, and repeat the last discourse of Jesus to 
 his disciples. If the company should seem pleased, 
 he would proceed to repeat the 23rd chapter of 
 Matthew; 'The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' 
 seat. Woe unto you, ye shut up the kingdom of 
 Heaven against men — for ye neither go in your- 
 selves, neither suifer ye them that are entering to go 
 in. Woe unto you, ye devour widows' houses.' 
 ' And pray,' should one of the company say, 
 ' against whom are these woes denounced, think 
 you ?' he would reply, ' Against the Clergy and 
 the Monks. The doctors of the Roman Church 
 are pompous both in their habits and their man- 
 ners ; they love the uppermost rooms and the chief 
 seats in the synagogues, and to be called. Rabbi, 
 Rabbi. For our parts we desire no such Rabbies. 
 They are incontinent ; we live in chastity each with 
 his own wife. They are the rich and avaricious of 
 
28 
 
 whom the Lord says, ' Woe unto you rich, for ye 
 have received your consolation ;' but we having food 
 and raiment are therewith content. They are vo- 
 hiptuous and devour widows' houses ; we eat only 
 to be refreshed and supported. They fight and en- 
 courage war, and command the poor to be killed 
 and burnt in defiance of the saying, ' He that taketh 
 the sword shall perish by the sword.' For our parts, 
 they persecute us for righteousness' sake. They do 
 nothing ; they eat the bread of idleness ; we work 
 with our hands. They monopolise the giving of 
 instruction, afnd woe be unto him that taketh away 
 the key of knowledge ; but among us women teach 
 as well as men, and one disciple, as soon as he is 
 informed, teaches another. Among them you can 
 hardly find a doctor who can repeat three chapters 
 by heart of the New Testament ; but of us there is 
 hardly a man or woman who doth not retain the 
 whole : and because we are sincere believers in 
 Christ, and all teach and enforce a holy life and 
 conversation, these Scribes and Pharisees persecute 
 us to death, as their predecessors did Jesus Christ.' " 
 Father Fretzer, the first editor of the complete 
 book of Reinerus, has put in the margin against the 
 above, these words : " This is a true picture of the 
 Heretics of our age, particularly Anabaptists." 
 Mr. Robinson adds, with his usual archness, " Hap- 
 py for the Anabaptists, indeed, if they can affirm all 
 that, with truth of themselves, which the old Wal- 
 densian preaching pedlar affirmed of himself and 
 
29 
 
 his companions." So multiplied and desolating 
 were the persecutions of those truly praise-worthy 
 people, that it roused the muse of Milton to pour 
 out the following fervent prayer to Heaven : 
 
 Avenge, Lord ! thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
 Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold; 
 E'en them who kept thxj truth so pure of old. 
 When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones. 
 Forget not, — in thy book record their groans 
 Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 
 Slain by the bloody Piedraontese, that roU'd 
 Mother with infant down the rocks ! Their moans 
 The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
 To Heaven ! Their martyr' d blood and ashes sow 
 O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway 
 The triple tyrant ; that from these may grow 
 A hundred fold, who, having learn'd thy way. 
 Early may fly the Babylonian woe ! 
 
 ** Nor was this prayer," says Bishop Newton, " in 
 vain — for Cromwell exerted himself in their favour, 
 and his behaviour in the whole transaction is greatly 
 to his honour, even as related by historians, espe- 
 cially by Echard, who was, indeed, not favourable to 
 his memory."* 
 
 * See an Historij of the Waldenses, &c., in Two Volumes, by 
 William Jones, a work of much research and industry ; also, An 
 Excursion to the Mountains of Piedmont, in 1823, and Researches 
 among the Vaudois or Waldenses, Protestant Inhabitants of the Cot- 
 tian Alps, by W. S. Gilly, A. M., Rector of North Frambridge, Essex. 
 Second Edition. At the end of the volume is a List of Subscriptions 
 for these poor, pious, and happy people, commencing with 100 Gui- 
 neas from his Majesty ! A large sum was raised for their ancestors 
 in the time of the Commonwealth, and a pension of £500 per annum 
 
30 
 
 Nor must I pass over in silence John Huss and 
 Jerome of Prague, the morning stars of the Refor- 
 mation in Germany. Among their followers were 
 many Baptists. These celebrated Reformers were 
 (1415) destroyed by the Council of Constance with 
 circumstances of baseness and perfidy. 
 
 I shall here just notice the tumults at Munster, 
 in Germany, about 1525 ; they have been laid to 
 the charge of the Baptists, and proved a fertile 
 theme of calumny against them. The fact is, that 
 it was a civil war occasioned by the nobles and ma- 
 gistrates oppressing the peasantry. Crosby says, 
 " It was begun by a Psedobaptist minister of the 
 Lutheran persuasion, one Bernard Rotman, preacher 
 at the Church of St. Maurice in that city, and car- 
 ried on by him with several other Lutherans for 
 some time before any Baptist had a hand in it. 
 The chief occasion of their rising was the defence of 
 their civil liberties ; when they drew up a mani- 
 festo of their demands, in twelve heads, and pre- 
 sented it to the magistrates^ who had promised to 
 hear their complaints and do them justice : there is 
 but one article that directly regards religion, which 
 was, that they might have liberty to. choose the mi- 
 nisters of their churches and depose them afterwards 
 if they saw occasion." 
 
 granted them in the reign of William and Mary. In the late war 
 they became subjects of France, when the pension was stopped; 
 happily it is now about to be restored to them. These descendants 
 of the ancient Waldenses, in number about 20,000, are the legitimate 
 objects of Christian liberality. 
 
31 
 
 Mr. Robinson, in his Ecclesiastical Researches, 
 says, " MuNSTER, a city rendered remarkable in 
 the History of the Baptists, both by the censures of 
 their enemies, and the apologies of their friends, is 
 the capital of the bishopric so called, in the circle of 
 Westphalia, in Germany. It is the largest of all the 
 Westphalian bishoprics, and yields the bishop, who is 
 a prince of the empire, 70,000 ducats a year. There 
 are in the city five collegiate and six parish churches, 
 a college belonging to the Jesuits, a great number 
 of convents, and other religious houses. The chap- 
 ter consists of forty noblemen, and maintains seven 
 regiments of soldiers. It is easy to judge in what 
 state liberty is even in this late age of the world in 
 this princely episcopal domain ! The condition of 
 the peasants in Germany in 1524 was deplorable, if 
 there be any thing to deplore in a deprivation of 
 most of the rights and liberties of rational creatures. 
 The feudal system, that execration in the eyes of 
 every being that merits the name of man, had been 
 established in early ages in Germany in all its rigour 
 and horror. It had been planted with a sword 
 reeking with human gore in the night of barbarism, 
 when cannibals drank the warm blood of one enemy 
 out of the skull of another ; and it had shot its ve- 
 nomous fibres among men, rooted itself in every 
 transaction in religion, in law, in diversions, in every 
 thing secular and sacred ; so that the wretched rustics 
 had only one prospect for themselves and all their 
 
32 
 
 posterity — one horrid prospect of everlasting sla- 
 very !" 
 
 So much for the affair of Munsterj which has been 
 an inexhaustible source of reproach with Psedobap- 
 tist writers, in violation of truth, and to the destruc- 
 tion of Christian charity. 
 
 As I have mentioned the conduct of the oppressed 
 towards their oppressors, you must not remain ig- 
 norant of the conduct of the persecutors towards 
 the persecuted. I will adduce an instance almost 
 unparallelled in the long and bloody scroll of per- 
 secutions. It is perhaps little known in this coun- 
 try, but ought to be proclaimed in every region 
 under heaven, exciting, wherever it is heard with 
 proper feeling, an honest and generous indignation. 
 
 " The expulsion of the Baptists about this time, 
 by Ferdinand the Second, agreeably to his vow made 
 to the Lady of Loretto, for the extirpation of heresy 
 out of his dominions, must not be passed over in si- 
 lence. They were between 20 and 40,000 in number, 
 and most exemplary members of the community. 
 The Jesuits contrived to publish the cruel edict just 
 before harvest and vintage came on, that they might 
 not carry off the produce of the year. It was 
 Autumn," (says Mr. Robinson,) *' the prospect, the 
 pride of husbandmen. Heaven had smiled on their 
 honest labours ; their fields stood thick with corn, 
 and the sun and the' dew were improving them every 
 moment to give them the last pohsh. The yellow ears 
 
33 
 
 waved homage to their owners ; and the wind whist- 
 hng through the stems and the russet herbage, softly 
 said, Put in the sickle, the harvest is come. The 
 luxuriant leaves too hung aloft by tendrils mantling 
 over the clustering grapes, like watchful parents over 
 their offspring. But all was fenced by an imperial 
 edict, and it was instant death to approach. With- 
 out leaving one murmur upon record, in solemn, 
 silent submission to that Power who governs the 
 universe, and causes all things to work together for 
 the good of his creatures, they packed up and de- 
 parted. In several hundred carriages they con- 
 veyed their sick, their innocent infants, sucking at the 
 breast of their mothers who had newly laid in, and 
 their decrepid parents, whose work was done, and 
 whose silvery locks told every beholder that they 
 wanted only the favour of the grave ! At the borders 
 they filed off, some to Hungary, others to Transyl- 
 vania, some to Wallachia, others to Poland, &c., 
 greater, far greater, for their virtue, than Ferdinand 
 for all his titles, and for all his glory." 
 
 But we now have reached the Reformation, that 
 august period in Ecclesiastical History, whence we 
 date the distinguished spiritual privileges of the 
 present day. It resembles the Oasis of the desert, 
 a verdurous spot, which refreshes and delights the 
 eye of the traveller amidst the surrounding desolation ! 
 Age after age rolled away in hopeless, irremediable 
 slavery. The dense cloud of ignorance and super- 
 stition seeemed incapable of dissipation. The chains 
 
34 
 
 of mental bondage were apparently so riveted toge- 
 ther, that no human arm could sever them asunder. 
 At length Providence raised up a man of an enlight- 
 ened understanding, a pure conscience, and a coura- 
 geous heart. Luther accomplished the task assigned 
 him by Heaven. From kirn, as from the sun, a ra- 
 diance broke forth in every direction — the Christian 
 world emerged into daylight and liberty ! 
 
 It is more than suspected, that Luther and 
 many of the Reformers were Baptists. Erasmus 
 had sown the seeds, when he says, " It is nowhere 
 expressed in the apostolical writings that we bap- 
 tize children." And upon Rom. vi. he adds, " Bap- 
 tizing of children was not in use in St. Paul's time ; 
 and" that " they are not to be condemned who doubt 
 whether children's baptism was ordained by the 
 Apostles." Luther himself thus speaks on the 
 subject, — " Baptism is a Greek word. It may be 
 termed a dipping, when we dip something in water, 
 that it may be wholly covered with water. And 
 although that custom be now altogether abolished 
 among the most part, for neither do they dip 
 the whole children, but only sprinkle them with a 
 little water ; they ought altogether nevertheless to be 
 dipped, and presently to be drawn out again ; for the 
 etymology of the word seems to require that wash- 
 ing from sin is attributed to baptism. It is truly 
 indeed attributed, but the signification is softer and 
 slower than that it can express baptism, when it is 
 rather a sign both of death and resurrection. Being 
 
35 
 
 moved by this reason, I would have those that are 
 baptized to be altogether dipped into the water, 
 as the word doth sound, and the very sense doth 
 signify." 
 
 I shall only add on this head, already so very 
 long, that at the Reformation, the Scriptwes 
 being thrown open to the people, the divine insti- 
 tution of Christian Baptism became diifused far and 
 wide over the earth. 
 
 Hence Bishop Burnet, in his History of the 
 Reformation says, " At this time, 1549, there were 
 many Anabaptists in several parts of England. They 
 were generally Germans, whom the revolutions 
 there had forced to change their seats. Upon Lu- 
 ther's first preaching in Germany there arose many, 
 who building on some of his principles, carried 
 things much further than he did. The chief foun- 
 dation he laid down was, that the Scripture was to 
 be the only rule of Christians. Upon this many 
 argued that the mysteries of the Trinity, and Christ's 
 incarnation and suffering, of the fall of man, and the 
 aids of grace, were indeed philosophical subtleties, 
 and only to be pretended to be deduced from Scrip- 
 ture, as almost all opinions of religion were, and 
 therefore they rejected them. Among these the 
 Baptism of Infants was one. They held that to 
 be no baptism, and so were rebaptized. But from 
 this, which was most taken notice of, as being a 
 visible thing, they carried all the general name of 
 Anabaptists^ 
 
 d2 
 
36 
 
 This will be a proper place to mention the Men- 
 nonites, from Menno, a celebrated Baptist, born 
 1505j in Friesland, and died 1561. He was ordained 
 a Popish priest, and till 1530 was a preacher in the 
 Roman Catholic connexion. He suspected the 
 validity of many things in the church of Rome, and 
 among the rest that of infant baptism. He became 
 a Baptist by the study of the New Testament. 
 During the space of twenty-five years he travelled 
 about with his wife and children, exercising his 
 ministry with wonderful perseverance and exertion. 
 His labours were attended with singular success. 
 His followers were persecuted, but at length legally 
 tolerated by William, Prince of Orange, the founder 
 of Belgic liberty. They are generally Arminians, 
 and are very numerous in Holland. In Amsterdam 
 they established a college, which they designated 
 The College of the Sun, a splendid title, indica- 
 tive, it is presumed, of the light of knowledge thence 
 transmitted by their disciples throughout the Chris- 
 tian world! Knowledge is the parent of sound piety 
 and morals, whilst it forms the only solid basis of 
 civil and religious liberty. 
 
 One circumstance more must be noticed before we 
 take leave of the Reformation. It is this — " Calvin" 
 (says Robinson) " by his influence and power esta- 
 blished a consistory at Geneva, and of course canon 
 and penal laws for the government of his church, 
 the prevention and punishment of heretics. Michael 
 Servetus, a Spanish physician and Unitarian Bap- 
 
m 
 
 list, having occasion to pass through Geneva, was 
 by Calvin's means arrested and thrown into prison. 
 Calvin accused hinn of heresy, and by his influence 
 he was sentenced to combustion by a slow fire ! This 
 sentence was executed 27th October, 1553, by 
 using green bushes, with their leaves upon them, 
 to burn him, and thereby prolonging his misery — a 
 proof that there was no reformation in the articles of 
 tyranny and cruelty !" 
 
 The triennial centenary of this Reformation, im- 
 perfect as it was, received due celebration in 1817, 
 from Churchmen and Protestant Dissenters. Many 
 excellent sermons were preached and published, 
 eloquently expatiating on the inestimable value of 
 the right of private judgment, together with the 
 blessings of civil and religious liberty. 
 
 Such is the History of Baptism, from the Apos- 
 tolic Age down to the Reformation. The cele- 
 brated Voltaire, who thought, as the Anabaptists 
 " made no figure in the world, it was not worth 
 while to inquire" into their modern history, and who 
 took his idea of their state at the Reformation from 
 a superficial view of pictures drawn by their exe- 
 cutioners, who " shewed them about in cages as 
 wild beasts, and caused their flesh to be torn off" with 
 red hot pincers," was so struck with what his good 
 sense obliged him to see, that he passed unsuspected 
 encomiums on such as he supposed the very worst 
 of them. " The Anabaptists" (said he) 'J laid open 
 the dangerous truth, which is implanted in every 
 
38 
 
 breast, that mankind are all ham equal ; saying, that 
 if popes had treated princes like their subjects, 
 princes had treated the common people like beasts. 
 It must be acknowledged" (adds he), " that the de- 
 mands made by the Anabaptists, and delivered in 
 writing, were extremely just. The manifesto published 
 by these savages, in the name of the men who till the 
 earth, might have been signed by Lycurgus !" Mr. 
 Robinson adds, " Mr. Voltaire was a well-bred man, 
 and a lover of liberty, and he could not pass by a 
 little shrine erected to it without bowing as he went 
 along, but the savage worshippers 7nade no figure in 
 the world f Is it not this laying open a secret dan- 
 gerous to the glory of some panegyrists, who write 
 more for wealth and fame, than disinterestedly for 
 the good of mankind ?" 
 
 Thus I conclude this second part of my address, 
 from the Apostolic Age down to the Reformation in 
 Germany. 
 
 But 3dly, I shall present you with a slight sketch 
 of the History of Baptism in our own Country. 
 
 In all the annals of Britain an account is given of 
 ecclesiastical affairs. But the earliest details are so 
 scanty, that much information cannot be derived 
 from them. We have, however, histories of the 
 English and IVelsh Baptists at some length ; and 
 there every thing is found that can gratify curiosity 
 on the subject. My sketch must be very slight in- 
 deed. I have already trespassed on your patience, 
 and shall bring forward only the prominent facts 
 
tending to illustrate the History of Baptism in our 
 own country.* 
 
 With respect to the introduction of the Chris- 
 tian RELIGION into this island, Bishop Newton 
 says, " There is some probability that the gospel 
 was preached here by Simon the apostle. There is 
 much greater probability that it was preached by 
 St. Paul ; and there is absolute certainty that Chris- 
 tianity was planted here in the time of the Apostles, 
 before the destruction of Jerusalem." The wife of 
 Plautius, a Roman general, and Claudia Ruffina, a 
 British lady, are supposed to be of the saints that 
 were in Caesar's household, mentioned by Paul, Phil, 
 iv. 22. Fuller, in his Ecclesiastical History, says, 
 "It is generally agreed that about the year 167, 
 many Pagan temples in Britain had their property 
 altered, and that they were converted into Christian 
 churches, particularly that dedicated to Diana in 
 London, and another near it consecrated to Apollo, 
 in the city now called Westminster." 
 
 Fox, the Martyrologist, has this remarkable pa- 
 ragraph : " Out of an ancient book of the Antiqui- 
 ties of England we find the Epistle of Eleutherius, 
 
 * The reader may conault with advantage Crosby's, Adam Te^ 
 lor' sand Ivimey's Histories of the English Baptists. There is also an 
 Account of the Welsh Baptists, by the late venerable Joshua Thomas, 
 of Leominster ; and an History of the American Baptists, by the 
 Rev. David Benedict, w^ritten with good sense and liberality. Of 
 Robinson's History of Baptism, this gentleman has published an 
 abridgment. 
 
40 
 
 written to Lucius, King of Britain, 169, who had 
 written to Eleutherius for the Roman laws to govern 
 by ; in answer to which Eleutherius says, ' You 
 have received, through God's mercy, in the realm of 
 Britanny the law and faith of Christ. You have 
 with you both the parts of the Scripture; out of 
 them, by God's grace, with the council of the realm, 
 take ye a law, and by that law, by God's sufferance, 
 rule your kingdom !' " 
 
 From the conversion of this Lucius, the first Chris- 
 tian king of Britain, to the time of the persecution of 
 Dioclesian, the ecclesiastical history of this island is 
 for the most part unknown. But Bede and Gildas 
 suppose the progress of the Christian religion to 
 have been considerable. It is however probable, that 
 as the gospel of Christ came so directly into Britain, 
 it would have been introduced in its purity ; accord- 
 ingly, the admission of converts upon immersion 
 must have been introduced, for it was the sole prac- 
 tice of the New Testament. To corroborate this 
 sentiment it shall be added, that about the year 600, 
 when Austin the monk was sent hither to convert 
 the Britons, by Gregory VII., Bishop of Rome, among 
 the other orders issued was this, that ye give Chris- 
 tendome to your childre?i, that, is, baptism! Does 
 not this imply that it was a new practice? for the 
 inhabitants deriving the gospel, not by the circuitous 
 route of Rome, but directly from the apostles, knew 
 nothing of this corrupt branch of Christianity. 
 Austin succeeded in his holy enterprise ; and, con- 
 
41 
 
 verting King Ethelbert and his court, he caused 
 10,000 to he baptized in the Swale, near the Med- 
 way in Kent. It is said, indeed, that the king was 
 so complaisant that he soon after, bequeathing his 
 own palace to the church, retired to Reculver, that 
 the humble and modest monk might be more at 
 leisure in Canterbury. He then turned his atten- 
 tion to the inhabitants of Wales, but they resisted, 
 adhering to their original primitive faith and prac- 
 tice. This incensed the pious missionary, who said 
 in his anger, " Sins, therefore, ye wol not receive 
 peace of your brethren, ye shall have warre and 
 WRETCHEDNESS." Accordingly they were massa- 
 cred by thousands : such is the spirit of adulterated 
 Christianity. 
 
 The British had already formed two large flou- 
 rishing societies at Caerleon in South Wales, and 
 Bangor in North Wales, then the principal religious 
 stations of the Principality.* 
 
 This religion, introduced by Austin from Rome, 
 was the established religion of England for about 
 1000 years : yet were the Britons often the re- 
 fractory subjects of the Papal see, and our Kings 
 occasioned much trouble to his Holiness. They 
 loved too well the spirit of domination themselves, to 
 
 * These places are still in existence ; Bangor being one of the 
 Welsh bishoprics, and Caerleon, a poor, dilapidated town, in a state 
 of apparent desertion. It was an archbishopric once, afterwards 
 removed to St. David's. Indeed it was originally a Roman station ; 
 and the ground on which it stands teems with relics of antiquity. 
 
42 
 
 submit patiently to the evils of a foreign jurisdiction. 
 They relished the sweets of ecclesiastical tyranny. 
 
 In the reign of William the Conq-ueror the 
 IValdenses (noticed under the former head) began 
 to abound in England, many of whom, at least, 
 as I have already shewn, practised Adult Baptism. 
 The sect wonderfully flourished both among the 
 poor and also the higher classes of society. At 
 length Walter Lollard, a Waldensian preacher, 
 made his appearance from Germany. Hence the 
 Lollards, who rejected infant baptism as a needless 
 ceremony. They multiplied in England to that 
 extent, that the archbishop, at his palace in Lam- 
 beth, had a prison erected, called the Lollards tower, 
 still remaining, and known by that appellation to 
 the present day. I have seen the bolts and bars of 
 this hideous dungeon, with the names of the victims 
 scrawled on its oaken pannels, and ejaculations im- 
 ploring the compassion of their hard-hearted perse- 
 cutors ! Thank God, these times are gone by for 
 ever, awfully characterized by a besotted ignorance 
 and an antichristian bigotry! In 1311, Wickliff 
 arose, the morning star of the Reformation. " He 
 was," says Bishop Newton, " the honour of his own, 
 and the admiration of all succeeding, times." The 
 followers of Wickliff in Bohemia are thus described : 
 " They receive no other rule than the Bible, and 
 admit none into their communion till they are dipped 
 in water or baptized." It is not improbable, there- 
 fore, that these sentiments were held also by his 
 
43 
 
 followers in England. Dr. Rees' Cyclopccdia says, 
 "There were several who denied Infant Baptism 
 among the Lollards and Wickliffites." Wickliff, 
 according to Burnet, translated the Bible out of Latin 
 into English, with a long preface before it, in which 
 he reflected severely on the clergy, and condemned 
 the worshipping of saints and images, and denied 
 the corporeal presence of Christ's body in the sacra- 
 ment, and exhorted all people to study the Scripture. 
 Thomas Waldensis calls him one of the seven heads 
 that came out of the bottomless fit, saying, that 
 " He doth positively assert that children are not to 
 be sacrament ally baptized." Wickliff began his 
 work in the reign of Edward III. ; and, after innu- 
 merable attempts made to destroy him, died peaceably 
 in his bed, at Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, 1385. 
 Forty years after his death the relics of his poor 
 corruptible body were dug up, and committed to the 
 flames, with barbarous and relentless fury ! 
 
 During the reign of the Popish-Protestant King 
 Henry the Eighth, many, rejecting Infant Bap- 
 tism, were baptized on profession of their faith. 
 Hence Burnet says, " In 1538, there was a com- 
 mission sent to Cranmer and others to inquire after 
 Anabaptists, and to proceed against them." In 1539, 
 Brandt tells us, that " There were put to death at 
 Delft, in Holland, thirty-one Anabaptists, that fled 
 from England, the men being beheaded, the women 
 drowned." Many of the Baptists were burnt in 
 Smithfield. Indexed, the term Anabaptist had be- 
 
44 
 
 come so much a matter of reproach, that even the 
 KING himself thus singularly adverts to it : " What 
 love and charity," says the brutal Heury, " is there 
 among you, when one calls another heretic and 
 Anabaptist, and he calls him Papist, Hypocrite, and 
 Pharisee ?" He adds, " Be these tokens of charity 
 among you ? I see and hear daily, that you of the 
 clergy preach one against another, teach one con- 
 trary to another, inveigh one against another, with- 
 out charity or discretion !" His Majesty here 
 seems to manifest that there had broken in upon his 
 mind some glimmerings of Christianity. 
 
 In a sermon preached by Bishop Latimer before 
 Edward the Sixth, he says, " The Anabaptists 
 that were burnt here in divers parts of England, as 
 I heard of credible men, (I saw them not myself,) 
 went to their death even intrepid, as ye will say, 
 without any fear in the world, cheerfully." The 
 celebrated Joan Boucher, or Joan of Kent, who 
 was burnt about this time, was supposed to have 
 been a member of a General Baptist church at Can- 
 terbury. She hazarded her life by being a great 
 disperser of the New Testament, just then translated 
 into English, which she used to carry under her ap- 
 parel to court, where she was known to many ladies 
 of quality. Charged with holding erroneous opinions 
 concerning the incarnation of Christ and baptism, 
 and she being a Baptist, was condemned by Arch- 
 bishop Cranmer, and the Bishops Latimer and Rid- 
 ley, all of whom afterwards perished at the stake. 
 
45 
 
 The young King, Edward VI., set his hand to the 
 warrant with tears in his eyes, telhng Archbishop 
 Cranmer " That if he did wrong, since it was in 
 submission to his authority, he should answer for it 
 to God !" She was burnt the second of May, 1550, 
 and suffered with the utmost constancy. William 
 Tyndal also, who first translated into English the 
 New Testament, and burnt in Flanders, was a Bap- 
 tist. In his writings he says, " The plunging into 
 the water signifieth that we die and are buried with 
 Christ; and the pulling out agayn signifieth that we 
 ryse agayn with Christ in a new life !" He speaks 
 also of the Subjects of Baptism, "as repenting and 
 believing, consenting, and submitting themselves to 
 the will of God." This great man was supposed to 
 have been born on the borders of the Principality. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth did not, like bloody Mary, 
 her sister and predecessor, consign many hundreds 
 to the flames, reprieving only one who was con- 
 demned for heresy. She glutted the prisons, and 
 peopled distant colonies, with the victims of her 
 cruelty. Fuller speaking of her reign says, " Now 
 began the Anabaptists wonderfully to increase in 
 the land ; and as we are sorry that any countrymen 
 should be seduced by that opinion, so we are glad 
 that the English as yet were free from that infection ; 
 for on Easter day was disclosed a congregation of 
 Dutch Anabaptists, without Aldgate, in London, 
 whereof seventy-two were taken and imprisoned, and 
 four, bearing faggots at St. Paul's Cross, solemnly 
 
46 
 
 recanted their dangerous opinions. Next month, 
 one Dutchman and ten women were condemned, of 
 whom, one woman was persuaded to renounce her 
 error, six were banished the land, and two more 
 were so obstinate that command was issued out for 
 their burning in Smithfield !" The Queen issued a 
 Proclamation commanding all Anabaptists and other 
 heretics to leave the kingdom. Well might Neal 
 say — "More sanguinary laws were made in her 
 reign than in those of her predecessors. Her hands 
 were stained with the blood of Papists and Protes- 
 tants ; the former were executed for denying her 
 supremacy, and the latter for sedition or Noncon- 
 formity." 
 
 Under James the First and Charles the First 
 the Baptists suffered grievously. James, though 
 complimented as the Solomon and Phoenix of his 
 age, was, according to Burnet, the " scorn of his 
 age ;" and Rapin says, " that, being neither a sound 
 Protestant nor good Catholic, he had formed a plan 
 for uniting both churches, which must have effec- 
 tually ruined the Protestant interest." In this reign, 
 however, the Baptists greatly increased. Chatties the 
 First, by means of Laud, with his High Commis- 
 sion Court and Star Chamber, harassed the Baptists 
 sorely. Under Cromwell they had a respite, and 
 some say he persecuted none except the pious 
 Biddle, an Unitarian, who was banished to the 
 Scilly Isles. Nay, some were elevated to posts of 
 honour, and it is certain the Baptists were aug- 
 
47 
 
 mented throughout the land. The Protector was 
 the friend of religious liberty ^ but could not always 
 follow the inclinations of his heart. 
 
 Charles the Second was the worst of all the 
 Stuart dynasty. In his declaration from Breda, 
 before his return, May 29, 1660, it was said, "We 
 do also declare a liberty to tender consciences, and 
 that no man shall be disquieted or called in question 
 for matters of religion which do not disturb the peace 
 of the kingdom." The Act of Uniformity^ 1662, 
 was an illustration of the sincerity of the monarch — 
 consigning upwards of 2000 pious and learned mi- 
 nisters to every species of distress and poverty! At 
 Brighthelmstone, Lewes, Dover, Calne, Bedford, 
 and Lincoln, the Baptists were savagely treated. 
 Their chief persecutor in Sussex was the man who 
 conveyed the virtuous monarch to France, after his 
 flight from the battle of Worcester, and his tomb, 
 with a long inscription stating his blood-stained 
 loyalty, is still seen in Brighton churchyard ! From 
 the restoration, 1660, to the revolution, only twenty- 
 nine years, more than 60,000 Dissenters suffered for 
 their religion, besides being plundered of two millions 
 of their money! The miserable bigot, James the 
 Second, succeeded, who lost his crown by attempting 
 to introduce Popery. Had he accomplished his pur- 
 pose, the former scenes of oppression and cruelty 
 would have been renewed. It might have per- 
 petually enslaved posterity. 
 
 The cruelties that followed the suppression of the 
 
48 
 
 lytike of Monmoutlis rebellion, in the West of En- 
 gland, facilitated the fall of the Stuart family. The 
 brutal Jefferies made that part of the country, by 
 means of executions, an aceldema, or field of blood ! 
 In this insurrection, occasioned by a zeal for the 
 Protestant religion, the Baptists had their share, and 
 suffered with even cheerfulness and intrepidity. 
 
 Nor must I close the bloody roll of persecution, 
 under the Stuart family, without noticing the vir- 
 tuous and learned Thomas Delaune, a Baptist, who 
 suffered for defending the principles of Nonconfor- 
 mity. By that fiend in human shape. Judge Jefferies, 
 he was condemned to be imprisoned in Newgate, where 
 HE perished with his wife and two small children — 
 the whole of his family! De Foe well observes, 
 " The treatment which the reverend and learned 
 author met with will for ever stand as a monument 
 of the cruelty of the times. They who affirm that 
 the Dissenters were never persecuted in England for 
 their religion, will do well to tell us what name we 
 shall give to this man of merit, than whom few 
 greater scholars, clearer heads, or greater masters of 
 argument, ever graced the English nation. I am 
 sorry to say he is one of near 80 00 Protestant 
 Dissenters who perished in prison in the days of that 
 merciful prince, King Charles II., and were stifled, 
 1 had almost said murdered, in gaols for their reli- 
 gion, in the days of those gentlemen's power who 
 pretend to abhor persecution." 
 
 These dreadful instances of religious oppression 
 
49 
 
 were at last so numerous and aggravated, that they 
 became their own remedy, accelerating with fright- 
 ful rapidity their utter extirpation. In 1689, Wil- 
 liam, Prince of Orange, ascended the throne of 
 these realms, allowing toleration to every class of 
 the religious community. A confession of faith 
 was put forth soon after by the Baptists ; delegates 
 from more than a hundred churches, in England and 
 Wales, met in London for the purpose of inquiring 
 into the state of their cause and adopting measures for 
 their future prosperity. Hitherto they had prophe- 
 sied in sackcloth and ashes ! This was a resplen- 
 dent ERA, which poured forth day-light and liberty 
 over every department of the Christian world ; each 
 individual of every sect sitting under his own vine and 
 his own Jig-tree, none daring to make him afraid. 
 May this divine freedom endure to the end of time ! 
 This may, indeed, be deemed the conclusion of 
 the History of the Baptists. At present they are 
 divided into Particular and General^ the former 
 holding Special, the latter Universal Redemption. 
 The General Baptists are of two kinds — Trinita- 
 rian and Unitarian. The Particular are far more 
 numerous than the General Baptists, who are chiefly 
 to be found in the Midland Counties as well as in 
 Sussex and in Kent. They have not much inter- 
 course with each other, except on public occasions, 
 when they meet together as Protestant Dissenters. 
 At other times, however, I trust they are not want- 
 ing in the exercise of kindness and mutual charity. 
 
 •E 
 
50 
 
 The Particular Baptists have their annual asso- 
 ciations in the country, and their monthly meetings 
 in the metropolis, which form a bond of union con- 
 ducive to their prosperity. The General Baptists 
 have also their associations in the country as well 
 as an Annual General Assembly, held on the 
 Whitsun-Tuesday, at Worship Street, when, after 
 a sermon is preached and the business relative to 
 their churches finished, they dine together in the 
 greatest harmony. 
 
 The Particular and General Baptists have to 
 boast of two names distinguished for their genius 
 and piety — John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrims 
 Progress, and John Milton, the author of Para- 
 dise Lost. Bunyan was always known to have 
 been a Calvinist Baptist, and were it only that he 
 first introduced J'ree communion amongst his own 
 body, I should venerate his memory. When abused 
 for it, his singular reply was, that " he would abide 
 by his faith and practice till moss should groiv on his 
 eye-brows r This was an incontrovertible proof of 
 his integrity. On account of his intellectual, moral, 
 and religious qualities, he is held in everlasting re- 
 membrance! Milton was not known to have been 
 a General Baptist till very recently, by his Treatise 
 on Christian Doctrine, found after it was lost for 
 upwards of a century, and most liberally published 
 by order of his Majesty. Of Baptism he thus speaks 
 — " Under the Gospel the first of the sacraments 
 so called is baptism, wherein the bodies of believers. 
 
51 
 
 who engage themselves to pureness of hfe, are im- 
 mersed in limning water to signify their regenera- 
 tion by the Holy Spirit, and their union with Christ 
 in death, burial, and resurrection." Indeed, Milton, 
 were he now living, might join himself to the Gene- 
 ral Baptists in perfect consistency with his leading 
 religious sentiments. There he would be admitted 
 into free and full communion, indulging unreserved 
 love and charity towards all the other professors of 
 Christianity. Pardon my honest enthusiasm. Me- 
 thinks I behold this venerable man — this distin- 
 guished advocate of civil and of religious liberty, 
 sitting down along with us around the Lord's 
 TABLE, and though bereft of bodily sight, yet " inly 
 irradiate," ruminating on the blessed truths of the 
 Christian revelation, whose beams light him onward 
 in his darkling path to the regions of eternal day ! 
 Of John Milton, who, by his late publication, has 
 taken his rank amongst us, we are justly proud ; for, 
 as his biographer. Dr. Summons, eloquently remarks, 
 " He was a man in whom were illustriously com- 
 bined all the qualities that could adorn or elevate 
 the nature to which he belonged — a man who at 
 once possessed beauty of countenance, symmetry of 
 form, elegance of manners, benevolence of temper, 
 magnanimity and loftiness of soul, the brightest illu- 
 mination of intellect, knowledge the most various, 
 and extended virtue that never loitered in her career 
 nor deviated from her course — a man who, if he had 
 been delegated as the representative of his species to 
 
 e2 
 
52 
 
 one of the superior worlds, would have suggested a 
 grand idea of the human race, as of beings affluent 
 with moral and intellectual treasure, who were raised 
 and distinguished in the universe as the favourites 
 and heirs of Heaven." 
 
 The declaration of Milton respecting Baptism is 
 agreeable to his lines in Paradise Lost: 
 
 Them who shall believe, 
 
 Baptizing in the profiuent stream, the sign 
 
 Of washing from the guilt of sin to life. 
 
 Pure and in mind prepared, if so befall, ' 
 
 For death like that which the Redeemer died ! 
 
 By projltient or running water, Milton evidently- 
 meant its greater purity. Baptism being originally 
 administered in the rivers and brooks of Judea. 
 This practice I have often seen performed with great 
 decorum in the profiuent streams of my native Prin- 
 cipality. It is, however, generally administered, 
 both throughout England and Wales, in Baptis- 
 teries, made for that purpose, in places of public 
 worship. Thus was your Preacher baptized by 
 his late much-respected relative. Dr. Caleb Evans, 
 in conjunction with twenty-six others. The spec- 
 tacle was most interesting. In his usual perspicuous 
 and impassioned manner, he preached for an hour 
 from Matt. iii. 15, Thus it becometh us to fulfil all 
 righteousness. The candidates, an equal number of 
 men and women, all dressed in white, were ranged 
 along the middle aisle, from the baptistery near the 
 pulpit. The administrator was twenty minutes in 
 
53 
 
 the water. About 1000 spectators looked on with 
 the profoundest attention ! I feel grateful that I am 
 thus spared, at the distance of upwards of forty 
 years, to bear public testimony to the seriousness 
 and solemnity of that day. It was no other than 
 the house of God — the gate of Heaven ! Nor will I 
 conceal the fact, that in the Baptistery of this 
 chapel I have, during my ministry of thirty-five 
 years amongst you, immersed many a happy convert 
 on the profession of his faith, who thus exhibited 
 the edifying spectacle of being buried with Christ in 
 Baptism, and rising to newness of life! At one 
 time the late Dr. Samuel Stennet and the late Abra 
 ham Booth repaired hither, as also do many other 
 ministers, even to the present day, to administer the 
 ordinance with an impressive eifect. Thus within 
 our walls most frequently have been witnessed those 
 primitive scenes which originated with Christ and 
 his Apostles in the land of Judea. 
 
 I have mentioned that a confession of faith was 
 put forth soon after the Revolution of 1688 ; there 
 was also a Declaration, published in 1646, whose 
 conclusion is so descriptive of the principles and 
 spirit of the Baptists in former times, that it must 
 not be omitted on this occasion : 
 
 " Thus WE desire to give unto Christ that which 
 is his, and unto all lawful authority that which is 
 their due, and to owe nothing to any man but love ; 
 to live quietly and peaceably as it becometh saints, 
 endeavouring in all things to keep a good conscience, 
 
54 
 
 and to do unto every man (of what judgment soever) 
 as we would they should do unto us, tViat as our 
 practice is, so it may prove us to be a conscionable, 
 quiet, and harmless people (no ways dangerous or 
 troublesome to human society) ; and to labour and 
 work with our hands that we may not be charge- 
 able to any, but to give to him that needeth, both 
 friends and enemies, accounting it more excellent to 
 give than to receive. Also, we confess that we know 
 but in part, and that we are ignorant of many things 
 which we desire and seek to know, and if any shall 
 do us that friendly part, to shew us, from the word 
 of God, that w^e see not, we shall have cause to be 
 thankful to God and them ; but if any man shall 
 impose upon us any thing that we see not to be 
 commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ, we should, 
 in his strength, rather embrace all reproaches and 
 tortures of men, to be stripped of all outward com- 
 forts, and, if it were possible, to die a thousand deaths 
 rather than do any thing against the least tittle of 
 the truth of God, or against the light of our own 
 consciences ! And if any shall call what we have 
 said Heresy, then do we, with the apostle, ac- 
 knowledge, that after the way they call Heresy, so 
 worship we the God of our Fathers, disclaiming all 
 heresies, (rightly so called,) because they are against 
 Christ ; and to be steadfast and immovable, always 
 abounding in obedience to Christ, as knowing our 
 labour shall iwt be vain in the Lord." 
 
 An Epitaph shall be here subjoined of an emi- 
 
.30 
 
 nent General Baptist Minister, who suffered in the 
 cause of God and truth. The following Memorial, 
 in golden capitals, is to this day hung up in the 
 Meeting-house belonging to the General Baptists, in 
 the Priory of the White Friars, St. James, Norwich : 
 
 " A Memorial, 
 
 Dedicated to the singular merits of a faithful con- 
 fessor and laborious servant of Christ, who, with 
 Christian fortitude, endured persecution through 
 many perils, the loss of friends and substance, and 
 ten persecutions for conscience' sake — a man en- 
 dowed with every Christian grace and virtue — the 
 Rev. Thomas Grantham, a learned minister of the 
 Baptized Churches and pious Founder of this Church 
 of Baptized Believers, who delivered to King Charles 
 II. our Declaration of Faith, and afterwards pre- 
 sented to him a Remonstrance against Persecution ; 
 both were kindly received, and redress of Grievances 
 promised. He died Jan. 17, 1692, aged 58 years, 
 and to prevent indecencies threatened to his corpse, 
 was interred before the west door, in the middle 
 aisle of St. Stephen's Church, in this City, through 
 the interest and much to the credit of the Rev. Jokti 
 Connould, by whom, with many sighs and tears, the 
 burial service was read to a crowded audience, when, 
 in closing his book, he added. This day is a very 
 great man fallen in our Israel; for, after their Epis- 
 tolary Dispute, in Sixty Letters, ended, that very 
 learned Vicar retaiaed the highest esteem and friend- 
 
56 
 
 ship for him whilst Hving, and was, at his own re- 
 quest, buried by him. — That Mr. Grantham was 
 a very great man appears in those Letters and in 
 numerous printed works ; also when engaged in 
 pubHc disputations, successfully displaying the well- 
 accomplished logician ; for to such exercises of skill 
 and literature he was often called in that disputing 
 age. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, yea, 
 saith the spirit, they rest from their labours, and 
 their works do follow them" 
 
 But I must close this Epitome of the History of 
 Baptism with the declaration of Robert Robinson: 
 
 " Infant Baptism is not of divine appointment, 
 and Christianity is not, in this institute, openly or 
 covertly inimical to the birth-rights of mankind. On 
 the contrary, by requiring personal knowledge and 
 virtue, it is the best friend of a good system of civil 
 government and deserves well of mankind ; it re- 
 moves ignorance, the bane of virtue, and, by educa- 
 ting the world, teaches mankind at once to be both 
 rational and religious, fit members of civil society, 
 and meet to be partakers of an inheritance of the 
 saints in light.** 
 
 By way of improvement I observe, that from this 
 survey of the History of Baptism three inferences 
 may be drawn — that the Baptists are an ancient 
 people, a respectable people, and a conscientious 
 people. ►- 
 
 1 St. The Baptists are an ancient people : to them 
 
0/ 
 
 may be applied the language of Isaiah ii. 7, If^hose 
 antiquity is of ancient days. In examining the 
 origin of sects in the religious world we find many 
 of them of recent date. Some are of mere epheme- 
 ral distinction, starting into notice to-day and to- 
 morrow disappearing in the gulf of oblivion. Tins 
 cannot be alWed of the Baptists. Immersion on 
 
 o 
 
 a profession of faith was the practice of Jesus Christ 
 and his Apostles. From that period it has been 
 traced down to the present day. We may make a 
 similar reply with the Protestant who, when asked 
 by a Catholic Priest where his religion was before 
 th& time of Luther, answered, " My religion was 
 where yours is not to be found — in the New Testa- 
 ment T Time, indeed, I confess, sometimes renders 
 error venerable, and hence it has been held with 
 greater tenacity. But Baptists trace up their cha- 
 racteristic ordinance to the fountain-head, whence 
 truth emanates in all her purity. " Baptism," says 
 Mr. Robinson, " arose pure in the East ; it rolled 
 westward, diminished in lustre, often beclouded with 
 mists, and sometimes under a total eclipse; at length 
 it escaped the eye and was lost among attenuated 
 particles, shades, non-entities, and monsters ; then 
 it took a contrary direction, and, probably, in time 
 it will emerge from every depression and shine forth 
 in its original excellence and simplicity !" Despise 
 not then the day of small things. The little band of 
 Christians that met in an upper chamber at Jerusa- 
 lem, were the honoured instruments of wafting the 
 
58 
 
 glad-tidings of great joy throughout the earth! The 
 grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed 
 in his field, which, indeed, is the least of all seeds ; 
 yet, when it is grown, is the greatest among herbs, 
 and hecometh a tree, so that the birds of' the air come 
 and lodge in the branches thereof. 
 
 Adult Baptism is no antichristian novelty. It 
 is a divine institution, having w^ithin its bosom the 
 energies of resuscitation. Venerable for its years, no 
 man can turn aw^ay from it with contempt. It has 
 been overlooked, but never forgotten. It has re- 
 tained its ovi'n hallow^ed features, unimpaired by the 
 revolution of ages. On its front are inscribed, in 
 conspicuous characters — Persecuted, but not for- 
 saken ; cast down, but not destroyed! In a word. 
 Adult Baptism, having introduced the dispensa- 
 tion of THE Messiah in the land of Judea, will 
 regain its primeval honours — gracing and enriching, 
 by its emblematical significancy, those final tri- 
 umphs of the Redeemer's kingdom, which constitute 
 the Millennial glory! 
 
 Of such a RITE we must not be ashamed. Its 
 origin is divine ; its means simple, employing the 
 purest element of nature; and its tendency admirably 
 adapted to the purposes of practical piety. Adult 
 Baptism, by recognizing the obligations of personal 
 religion, empowers tlie happy candidate to put on 
 Christ with all the virtues and graces which can 
 embellish humanity. By making Religion the sub- 
 ject of a calm and deliberate choice, it stimulates, in 
 
59 
 
 conjunction with the social ordinance of the Lord's 
 Supper, to higher degrees of knowledge and purity, 
 thus shedding an auspicious influence upon the des- 
 tinies of AN ETERNAL WORLD ! 
 
 2. The Baptists are a respectable people. Re- 
 spectability arises from number, education, and good 
 conduct. As to number, though far exceeded by 
 Paedobaptists, yet they are an increasing body in 
 this country. By zeal and exertion they are sur- 
 mounting the obstacles daily, which have impeded 
 their progress. Prejudices are abating, and the rea- 
 sons assigned by them for their peculiar practice 
 excite greater attention. They only want to be 
 heard respecting their principles, which are reflected 
 from the broad and unsullied mirror of the New 
 Testament! The Baptists, also, are every where 
 the friends of education. Like other denominations, 
 they have seminaries for the instruction of their 
 young men training up for the ministry. Among 
 their defenders the Particular Baptists boast of 
 the names of Gill, Stennet, Booth, and Ryland, 
 whilst the General Baptists claim the names of 
 Gale, Foot, Robinson, Toulmin, and Richards, men 
 of talents, learning, and piety. As to good conduct the 
 Baptists vie with their fellow-subjects in obedience 
 to the laws of the realm. In religious concerns, one 
 is their master — even Christ ! And in civil afi^airs 
 they are to be ranked amongst the admirers of the 
 British Constitution — to be enrolled among the best 
 friends of their Country. Nor are they behind their 
 
60 
 
 brethren with regard to acts of benevolence or deeds 
 of jnety. At home they are amongst the foremost 
 to support charitable institutions ; and abroad they 
 are active in promoting measures of general philan- 
 thropy. They yield to none in their ardour for the 
 conversion of the Heathen in foreign lands. There, to 
 their immortal honour, the Particular Baptists have 
 devoted their efforts to the translation of the Holy 
 Scriptures. One class of the General Baptists 
 has also a Missionary Society in the East Indies, 
 whilst another class supports the Unitarian Fund 
 in propagating views which they deem consentane- 
 ous to the New Testament. Indeed, it is a remark- 
 able fact, that the missionaries of this latter society 
 have almost to a man been Baptist ministers of dis- 
 tinguished zeal and activity ; and one of these gen- 
 tlemen has presented Missionary Memoirs to the 
 world.* 
 
 With satisfaction we adduce, in behalf of the 
 respectability of the Baptists, the testimony of 
 Richard Baxter, the most distinguished of the Pu- 
 ritan clergy. He bore them, for many years, a 
 decided hostility. He traduced their principles and 
 denounced their practice, holding them up to the 
 derision of the world! With age came superior 
 wisdom and a portion of Christian charity. Relax- 
 ing his enmity towards the close of life, his words 
 are these : " For the Anabaptists themselves, as I 
 
 * See Wright's Memoirs of his Missionary Life, where the 
 duties of a Missionary are well portrayed. 
 
61 
 
 found that most of them were persons of zeal for 
 religion, so many of them were sober ^ godli/ people, 
 and differed from others in the point of Infant Bap- 
 tism, or at most, in the points of Predestination, Free 
 Will, and Perseverance." Such is the testimony of 
 Richard Baxter, the greatest controversial and prac- 
 tical writer of his age. The principal blemish in his 
 character was the abuse of the Baptists, though he 
 may have had some provocation, for intolerance was 
 the vice of the period in which he lived. In other 
 respects he was amongst the brightest ornaments of 
 Christianity. 
 
 3. The Baptists are a cotiscientious people. 
 
 Mistake not this declaration. Go not away with 
 the idea that I am extolling my own sect at the 
 expense of others. Those who know the preacher 
 best will be the last to suspect him of it. Nor is he 
 holding up the perfection of the Baptists. Like 
 their fellow-christians, they are men subject to the 
 failings and infirmities of humanity. In their efforts 
 to disseminate what they conceive to be truth, their 
 zeal may outstep the bounds of prudence, and their 
 hearts be found incrusted with bigotry. But this is 
 not peculiar to any one sect ; it is common to all ! 
 By the Baptists being a conscientious people, I 
 mean, that their characteristic article of faith has 
 been adopted from strict principle, from a rigid ad- 
 herence to the New Testament. This has been 
 done contrary to custom, fashion, and interest, which 
 exercise an imperious controul over even the religious 
 
62 
 
 affairs of mankind. Hence obloquy, reproach, and 
 sufferings, of the bitterest description. Tivo Bap- 
 tists, William Sawtre and Edmund Wightman, were 
 the Jirst and the last in the British empire to earn 
 the crown of martyrdom ! The latter suffered at 
 Lichfield and the former in Smithfield. It is nei- 
 ther conceit nor obstinacy — neither pertinacity of 
 opinion nor love of singularity that has prompted 
 THE Baptists to differ from their brethren. -A 
 strong line of demarcation has been drawn by the 
 great Head of the Church, among his disciples, 
 which they dare not obliterate. They are a light 
 shining in a dark place; woe be to them if they 
 suffer, either from want of courage or of integrity, 
 that heavenly lamp to be extinguished ! At all 
 times, and on all occasions, the authoritative voice 
 of conscience must be obeyed. Instances of self- 
 denial are in themselves painful. It is not every 
 individual that will practise them. Let us hold 
 fast our profession to the end. Inadequate is the 
 most costly compensation for unprincipled apostacy! 
 Let these divine accents vibrate in our ears — No 
 7nan having put his hand to the plough, and looking 
 back, is Jit for the kingdom of God. 
 
 Finally, from the survey taken of the History of 
 .Baptism, it is evident that, in every age, the Bap- 
 tists have had their full share of persecution. The 
 strangulating cord, the devouring flames, and the 
 decapitating axe, streaming with the blood of its 
 victims, bore witness to their conscious innocence ! 
 
6S 
 
 Covered with the broad shield of integrity, he alone 
 that sits in the seat of the scorner can deride their 
 principles or revile their conduct. They command 
 respect, though they may not ensure veneration. 
 Not, indeed, of the divinely -appointed ordinance of 
 Baptism, but of the beggarly elements of the Jewish 
 dispensation, Paul exclaimed, (1 Cor. xiii. 11,) When 
 I was a child, I understood as a child, I thought as 
 a child; but when I became a man, I put away 
 childish things. Our faith must be apportioned to 
 the several periods of the Church. The ways of 
 Heaven towards man are gradual and progressive. 
 The dawn glimmering along the horizon, is, not- 
 withstanding its feeble commencement, destined to 
 light up and introduce the full blaze of meridian 
 day. The disciples of Christ, realizing the apos- 
 tolic definition, that Baptism is not the putting 
 away thejilth of the Jlesh, hut the answer of a good 
 conscience towards God, have peace within them- 
 selves and are safe for eternity ! 
 
 I conclude in the words of the first Baptist writer 
 of the day, the Rev. Robert Hall, containing a sen- 
 timent which, lying at the foundation of natural and 
 revealed religion, ought to be reverberated from the 
 Equator to the Poles: '^ Inculcate the obligation and 
 inspire a love of that rectitude, that eternal rec- 
 titude, which was with God before time began, 
 was embodied in the person of his Son, and in its 
 lower communication will survive every sublunary 
 change, emerge in the dissolution of all things, and 
 be impressed in refulgent characters on the new 
 
64 
 
 Heavens and the new Earthy ivherein dwelleth righ- 
 teousness T 
 
 Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
 
 GIVE THEE A CROWN OF LIFE ! Amen. 
 
 Postscript. 
 
 Public Baptisms in rivers frequently occur 
 throughout the immense territory of the United States 
 of America. Of this fact the author of the preceding 
 sermon has been assured by the Rev. Mr. Elton, at 
 present on a visit to this country. This gentleman 
 is Classical Professor at Brown University, Rhode 
 Island, over which respectable Baptist institu- 
 tion the writer's worthy friend, Dr. Asa Messer, 
 has long presided, with credit to himself, and with 
 advantage to the religious transatlantic community. 
 The reader will also be gratified to learn, that the 
 truly Christian practice of free communion is, as 
 the Americans term it, " progressing" among them. 
 This has been aided by the republication of the Rev. 
 Robert Hall's Tract on the subject, breathing a 
 spirit of diffusive benevolence, and a generous piety! 
 Surely no good reason can be assigned for any one 
 class of Christians standing aloof here on earth from 
 the wise and good of every other sect, whom they 
 hope to meet in heaven. Indeed, Adult baptism, 
 winnowing the chaff from the wheat, severs the un- 
 believing and immoral from the church, whilst the 
 Lord's Supper binds the brethren of every faith 
 together in the delightful bands of Christian charity. 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
THE PROPER SUBJECTS 
 
 OF 
 AND THE 
 
 SCRIPTURAL MODE OF ADMINISTERING THAT RITE. 
 
 By EDWIN "CHAPMAN, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GENERAL BAPTIST CHURCH AT DEPTFORD. 
 
 " If the force of custom, simple and separate, be great, the force of 
 custom, copulate and conjoined and collegiate, is far greater ; for their 
 example teacheth, company coniforteth, emulation quickeneth, glory 
 raiseth ; so as, in such places, the force of custom is iu its exaltation." 
 
 Lord Bacon, 
 < 
 
The Author of the following Discourse lays not any claim to ori- 
 ginality. He has, without scruple, availed himself of the labours and 
 researches of othei-s. He has presented anew arguments and proofs, 
 which have before been handled vpith far greater power and skill, 
 only from a conviction that the most obvious trutl.s need continual 
 iteration, that they may not fade from men's memories and affections. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 Matthew XV. 3: 
 
 " Why do ye also transgress the commandment 
 
 OF God by your traditions ?" 
 
 As strenuous as were the Jews for the traditions 
 of the ElderSj are some in the present day for the 
 traditions of the Church.; insisting upon them with 
 as much earnestness, desiring as zealously to bind 
 them upon men's consciences, declaring that they 
 possess an authority equal, if not superior, to that of 
 the Scriptures. And this they do, having before 
 them the warning example of God's ancient people ; 
 who, when they had wearied themselves with open 
 and severely-expiated revolts from the service of the 
 Most High, having drained to the very dregs the 
 cup of their idolatries, sought out a new way of 
 disobedience, by making void his law, while they 
 professed a zealous regard for its excellency and a 
 devoted obedience to its requirements : this they do, 
 notwithstanding the fatal witness borne by the 
 Church of Rome against such a practice ; which, 
 by adding tradition to tradition, accumulated the 
 follies, extravagancies, and impieties, of successive 
 Fathers, Councils, and Popes, until there was built up 
 that vast fabric of superstition and religious tyranny 
 which, though shaken, yet stands in great strength : 
 
 f2 
 
68 
 
 this they do, though our Saviour so directly, and 
 with such strong marks of indignation, blamed the 
 Jews for their conduct in this particular, and which 
 should have been a warning to the latest posterity. 
 
 An extraordinary position has been taken by a 
 modern and learned advocate of Infant Baptism. 
 
 " We produce no explicit precept from the New 
 Testament enjoining the Baptism of Infants ; but 
 we go higher still, we produce the very same kind 
 of evidence upon which the genuineness and autho- 
 rity of the books of the New Testament are them- 
 selves established ; the uniform, the universal, the 
 undisputed testimony of the primitive Church. 
 Deny Infant Baptism, and we do not say that you 
 deny the obligation of a precept formally expressed 
 in holy writ: but you deny that upon which the au- 
 thority of holy writ is founded, you subvert the 
 credibility of the Christian Scriptures."* 
 
 Could we agree to this, we must lay aside the 
 Scriptures in this inquiry, deny or dispute their 
 evidence, and consider the cloud of witnesses which 
 they bring, as only a morning mist which has long 
 been dispersed by the sun of tradition ; that glorious 
 luminary which has shone with such fertilizing 
 beams upon the world of priestcraft, superstition, 
 and immorality! But this position having been 
 taken by so distinguished a defender of pure Chris- 
 tianity, himself so excellent a Christian, and so far 
 raised above all suspicion of seeking any thing but 
 * Belsbam's Plea for Infant Baptism, p. 13. 
 
69 
 
 truth ; it has been thought right to exannine it, be- 
 fore proceeding to establish the propriety of Be- 
 lievers' Baptism upon the authority of the New 
 Testament: for, if it be correct, that there is an 
 authority superior to that of the Scriptures, to the 
 command and example of Christ, and to the re- 
 corded obedience of the Apostles, we must then only 
 make use of the Scriptures as confirmatory, not as 
 primary evidence ; and the noble declaration of the 
 Reformed Churches must no longer be triumphantly 
 set forth in speech and writing — " The Bible, the 
 Bible only, is the religion of Protestants.'* 
 
 We deny, however, that we receive the Scriptures 
 of the New Testament solely on the authority of the 
 primitive church. To the testimony of the early 
 fathers we add the testimony of some who, as early, 
 opposed Christianity. But more than on any other, 
 we receive them on the internal evidence which they 
 aiford ; and, without which we could not receive 
 them, though they were attested by all the fathers 
 whose writings are yet extant. We do not despise 
 their testimony. It is highly valuable in its place : 
 yet the simple narratives, the pure and sublime doc- 
 trines, the holy precepts, the evidently unvarnished 
 truth of the gospel writings, are what fix our belief. 
 It is the suitableness of the Christian scheme to hu- 
 man nature, its present wants, its power of unlimited 
 advancement, and its aspiring hopes, which gives us 
 the strongest assurance that, in receiving the word, 
 we are not beguiled by the fables of men, are not 
 
70 
 
 led away by the arts of priestcraft, are not blind 
 followers of those whom superstition did aforetime 
 blind. It is the manifest and^incontestible supe- 
 riority of the gospel to every other religion which 
 has appeared in the world, to the brightest and no- 
 blest pictures of religion, drawn by the master hands 
 of the wisest philosophers who adorned Heathen an- 
 tiquity, which gives it its chief authority in our eyes, 
 and convinces us, that it is, as it professes to be, a 
 revelation from on high, and that its miracles, espe- 
 cially the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, which is so inseparably connected with its 
 whole economy, were indeed performed, and are not 
 the marvellous falsehoods of designing men. 
 
 Any one need only examine the Apocryphal 
 Books of the New Testament, republished some 
 time since, and containing a pretended history of 
 our Saviour's childhood, to be convinced how mainly 
 his belief depends on the internal evidence which 
 the Scriptures yield ; for, he will find therein re- 
 corded such ridiculous and unmeaning transactions 
 as he could not believe on any testimony. 
 
 Again, since Christianity is intended for the mul- 
 titude, and not merely for the studious, for those 
 who have leisure and ability to search into antiquity, 
 to weigh conflicting testimonies, to seek century by 
 century for the truth, amid the mistakes, the cor- 
 ruptions, the folly and superstition, of their fellow- 
 men ; its doctrines and ordinances are surely to be 
 learned otherwise than by such laborious research. 
 
71 
 
 To afford this facility, it would certainly appear, that 
 the books of the New Testament were written, and 
 have been kept in a state of comparative purity by 
 the jealousy of conflicting sects, until, by the glo- 
 rious invention of printing, they are now placed 
 within the reach of the humblest inquirer after 
 truth. 
 
 Is there any thing since the mission of Jesus 
 Christ himself and the labours of his Apostles, for 
 which men are so bound to be thankful as for the 
 writings of the Evangelists, whereby we may know 
 the certainty of those things wherein we have been 
 instructed ? But which, if the position in question 
 be correct, should not be circulated without the opi- 
 nions of the fathers attached ; nay, which perhaps 
 it would be better with the Romanists to withhold 
 from the unlearned, lest simple men should take 
 them for their best guide, and should, upon their 
 authority, reject the traditions of the Elders. 
 
 Since, however, the Scriptures do not so help- 
 lessly depend for their character upon external testi- 
 mony, but contain that within themselves which is 
 of greatly superior value ; if the Fathers, even up to 
 St. Polycarp, owned Infant Baptism as the Church's 
 nursling, much as it would undoubtedly weaken our 
 .cause, yet do we not deem that, by denying it, we 
 should " deny that upon the authority of which holy 
 writ is founded ;" that we should " subvert the cre- 
 dibility of the Christian Scriptures." There might 
 
72 
 
 be presumption in our pretending to understand the 
 commands of Jesus better than the immediate suc- 
 cessors of the Apostles ; but it would still be no 
 more than asserting the right of private judgment ; 
 we should only be found imitating that conduct 
 which, in the Bereans, was called " noble." And, 
 do those who contend most earnestly for the autho- 
 rity of the primitive church, on the subject of Bap- 
 tism, receive implicitly all that the early Fathers 
 have handed down ? Do they not rather bring their 
 opinions and practices to the test of Scripture and 
 reason, trying them as belonging to fallible men ? 
 Do they not bring them to this united judgment 
 without imagining that they are undermining the 
 very foundation of Christianity? What they do on 
 other subjects, we claim to do also on the subject of 
 Baptism. We can perceive no reason for making a 
 distinction, and feel confident that a substantial rea- 
 son cannot be found. 
 
 Having vindicated our right of making a primary 
 appeal to the Scriptures of the New Testament, re- 
 specting Christian Baptism, we will first notice the 
 Baptism of John, since it is indivisibly connected 
 with that of Christ. " The word of God came unto 
 John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness, and 
 he came into all the country round about Jordan, 
 preaching the Baptism of repentance for the remis- 
 sion of sins. Then said he to the multitude that 
 came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of 
 
73 
 
 vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath 
 to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruits worthy of 
 repentance." * 
 
 Of John's Baptism infants were not proper sub- 
 jects, for they can neither "repent" nor "bring forth 
 fruits worthy of repentance." 
 
 Jesus himself submitted to the Baptism of John, 
 overruHng the objections of the Baptist with these 
 remarkable words : " Suffer it to be so now ; for 
 thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."-^ 
 The Baptism of our Saviour took not place until he 
 was about to enter on his* sacred mission, and was a 
 voluntary act. His example, therefore, is completely 
 at variance with the practice of Infant Baptism, and 
 in agreement with the Baptism of those who have 
 arrived at an age to understand the nature of reli- 
 gious obligations, and who feel desirous to walk in 
 the ways of the Most High. 
 
 We will next advert to the Baptismal commission. 
 It is thus recorded by Matthew: " Go ye, therefore, 
 and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost: teaching them to observe all things what- 
 soever I have commanded you.":|: Mark has thus 
 recorded our Saviour's words : " And he said. Go 
 ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
 creature : he that believeth and is baptized shall be 
 saved." § There is a slight difference between the 
 
 * Luke iii. 2, 3, 6, 7. f Matt. iii. 15. 
 
 X Matt, xxviii. 18—20. § Luke xvi. 15, 16. 
 
Words of the two Evangelists ; but it will easily be 
 perceived, that the sense is the same in both ; and, 
 that they particularly agree in stating, that teaching 
 and belief must precede Baptism. An infant, it will 
 be confessed, is incapable either of being taught or 
 of believing ; consequently, is incapable of receiving 
 Christian Baptism as it was ordained by him who is 
 " head over all things to the church.'* 
 
 Attempts have indeed been made to support the 
 practice of Infant Baptism, by rendering the word 
 [xa$rireu(o, " to disciple," and then affirming, that 
 Baptism is the means of that discipling. Such an 
 exposition, however, is not only quite incompa- 
 tible with the language of Mark ; but /AaSTjrguco 
 is also found, on examination of both sacred and 
 profane authors, invariably to include the idea of in- 
 struction. It signifies to make disciples by means 
 of instruction.* Nor does it appear credible, that 
 our Saviour would have made use of an ambiguous 
 term, of one that could be so widely mistaken, as it 
 has been by Mark, if this modern interpretation be 
 correct. 
 
 In agreement with the command of Christ do we 
 find his own practice to have been — " the Pharisees 
 heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples 
 than John."-j- In this passage the making of dis- 
 ciples, and their baptism, are so conjoined, as effectu- 
 ally to preclude all possibility of infants having been 
 among the number baptized. 
 
 * Gale, Lett. vii. pp. 259> &c. ; Lett. viii. f •'ohn iv. 1. 
 
75 
 
 The Apostles also are recorded to have baptized 
 believers, and believers only. On the day of Pente- 
 cost, " they that gladly received the word were bap- 
 tized, and that same day there were added unto the 
 church about three thousand souls ; and they con- 
 tinued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fel- 
 lowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." * 
 Among these we must feel certain that there were 
 not any infants ; for, they could neither receive the 
 word with gladness, nor continue steadfast in the 
 Apostles' doctrine and fellowship. 
 
 The answer of Philip to the Eunuch, when he 
 said, '* Lo, here is water ; what doth hinder me to be 
 baptized ? If thou believest with all thy heart, thou 
 mayest,"'|~ — also teaches us in what sense the Apos- 
 tles understood the command of Christ, what was 
 required of them who came to be baptized, and 
 which requirement, infants, by reason of their ten- 
 der age, could not perform. 
 
 From the testimony of John downwards, we per- 
 ceive, that the witness of Scripture, in regard to 
 baptism, is unwavering ; and is so far from giving 
 countenance to Infant Baptism, that it is completely 
 opposed to such a practice. It becomes our fellow- 
 christians, who differ from us, therefore, to bring 
 forward the most undeniable reasons for departure 
 from that which, in candour, they are obliged to 
 confess, was the practice of Christ and his Apostles. 
 
 The learned author, before quoted, objects — " It 
 * Acts ii. 41, 42. f Acts viii. 36, 37. 
 
76 
 
 is not enough to state that our Lord's direction is. 
 Teach, or make disciples, and baptize ; this, strictly 
 speaking, only enjoins proselyte baptism. It is in 
 vain to allege, that in every case recorded in the 
 New Testament profession was made before bap- 
 tism was administered ; for every such case was the 
 baptism of a proselyte." * We agree that these 
 were all necessarily cases of proselyte baptism, for 
 there vv^ere none but proselytes at that period to be 
 baptized ; but as this part of the subject belongs to 
 the next Lecture, we shall dismiss this attempt at 
 a collateral support of Infant Baptism, by conceding 
 more than will suit the objector's purpose ; that if 
 the Perpetuity of Baptism cannot be shewn by fair 
 inference from Scripture, as well as from the prac- 
 tice of the Fathers, it must, in every form and mode, 
 be discontinued as of no authority. 
 
 So convinced of this have some Psedobaptists-J- 
 been, that they have attempted to bring Scripture to 
 the aid of Infant Baptism ; though it must be obvious 
 to every one acquainted with the New Testament, 
 that there is nothing contained therein of that clear 
 and decisive nature which is necessary to its support 
 as a Christian practice. The words of our Saviour, 
 when his disciples would have prevented the ap- 
 proach of children, " Suffer little children to come 
 unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the 
 kingdom of God," J have been adduced to prove 
 
 * Belsham's Plea, p. 54. f Wall, Towgood, Elliott. 
 
 J Luke xviii. 16. 
 
77 
 
 that they may become members of the Church of 
 Christ; and it has thence been argued, that they 
 must be baptized, since Baptism is the only mode of 
 entrance into the church :* but, if such had been the 
 meaning of our Saviour, why did he not straightway 
 command them to be baptized ? for, that they were 
 children of believers can scarcely be questioned. So 
 far, however, was our Saviour from doing this, that 
 he simply " took them up in his arms, put his hands 
 upon them, and blessed them;"-j- without giving a 
 single hint that they were to be baptized ; without 
 making any reference to that future Infant Baptism 
 which, it is argued, he had in view ; at the same 
 time, also, explaining what he meant by the expres- 
 sion " of such is the kingdom of God," saying, 
 " Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive 
 the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not 
 enter therein." -|- And he who should affirm, that 
 the children of believers, who pay a conscientious 
 regard to the education of their offspring, cannot be 
 more easily instructed in the truths of Christianity, 
 and engaged in the performance of its duties, than 
 those who have grown up to maturity as Jews or 
 Heathens, must wage war against the experience 
 of all ages. 
 
 Again, if the meaning attributed to this saying of 
 our Saviour be correct, is it not strange that we 
 should have no intimation from the Apostles that 
 they so understood his words ? Is it not still more 
 
 * Belsham's Plea, pp. 81, 82. f Mark x. 15, 16. 
 
78 
 
 strange that St. Paul, who " received not the gospel 
 of men, neither was taught it, but by the revelation 
 of Jesus Christ," * and who gave such minute direc- 
 tions concerning matters of infinitely less importance, 
 should be altogether silent upon this subject, even 
 when he had occasion to speak of the children of 
 believers ? for the passage from his First Epistle to 
 the Corinthians, which is considered so powerful a 
 support of Infant Baptism,-!^ says not a word upon 
 the subject, and can only be quoted by Paedobap- 
 tists, if they first undeniably prove that infants must 
 be baptized. The following is the passage in ques- 
 tion : " For the unbelieving husband is sanctified 
 by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified 
 by the husband : else were your children unclean ; 
 but now are they holy.";}: " That is/' say they, 
 " your children would be Heathens, unqualified for 
 baptism." ^ So it might mean, if it were distinctly 
 proved, on other grounds, that Infant Baptism is a 
 Christian ordinance: but to bring this passage for- 
 ward as an argument, must surely expose their 
 poverty of scriptural proofs. If we examine the 
 context we find that the reasoning of St. Paul is not 
 concerning Baptism, or any Christian ordinance, but 
 about the lawfulness of putting away a wife or hus- 
 band because of unbelief: from such a question 
 another naturally arose respecting the legitimacy 
 of children ; for, if conversion to Christianity re- 
 
 * Gal. i. 12. t Belsham's Plea, p. 83 ; Towgood in loco. 
 
 i 1 Cor. vii. 14. § Belsham's Plea, p. 83. 
 
79 
 
 quired the separation of husband and wife, their 
 children, in a Christian's estimation, must be illegi- 
 timate. St. Paul wisely and humanely decided, as 
 our Saviour had before done, that a natural con- 
 nexion, a connexion which was before all law, and 
 all religion, should not be broken by religion ; and 
 rightly imagined, that if there were, according to 
 the Jewish notion, any ceremonial uncleanness in 
 the unbelieving husband or wife, it was more than 
 compensated by the holiness of the believing part- 
 ner; and, that the children of such union were per- 
 fectly legitimate. He justly considered the marriage 
 tie too sacred to be divided by any thing save guilt ; 
 and, that only by guilt could children be rendered 
 unholy or illegitimate. The passage evidently, 
 therefore, contains not any allusion to the words of 
 our Saviour quoted above, and our questions remain 
 unanswered. 
 
 The language spoken by our Saviour to Nicode- 
 mus has been alleged as proof that infants must be 
 baptized, and thus made members of the Christian 
 Church, — " Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a 
 man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God."* The word t<9, 
 rendered " a man," it is very properly said, signifies 
 any one, without reference to sex or aget-l- but 
 unless Paedobaptists could prove that infants are 
 born of the Spirit, as well as of water, they have no 
 riglit to force an entrance for them into the church ; 
 * John iii. 5. f Belsham's Plea, p. 82. 
 
80 
 
 nor will it avail them to say, that we cannot tell, it 
 those adults who present themselves for baptism are 
 moved by a spirit of true devotion. That is a ques- 
 tion which their own consciences alone are capable 
 of answering, which their own consciences must an- 
 swer. If they have any sinister end to gain, if there 
 be any hypocrisy in their professions, the sin rests 
 upon their own heads. It is quite different with re- 
 gard to infants : they are brought to baptism at a 
 time when there was never witnessed in any one 
 either ordinary or extraordinary operations of the 
 Holy Spirit ; when they are totally unconscious of 
 the act which is performed upon them ; when, con- 
 sequently, there can be to them only that ritual 
 birth, which is the outward and visible sign of that 
 inward birth which Christ declares imperative. 
 Moreover, are Psedobaptists prepared to go the 
 whole length of their assumption ? Will they per- 
 mit infants, or children, to exercise the privileges of 
 church membership ? Will they admit them to the 
 Lord's table as soon as they are baptized ? The 
 elder church did this also, and in so doing was more 
 consistent than its modern imitators ; just as Cal- 
 vin's own fearful and stupendous doctrines were 
 more consistent than those doctrines as they have 
 been softened among the great majority of those 
 who now call themselves by his name. 
 
 The 38th ver. of the 2d chap, of the Acts of the 
 Apostles has been brought forward by Paedobaptists 
 as favouring their cause : " Then Peter said unto 
 
81 
 
 them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you into 
 the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins ; 
 for the promise is to you and to your children."* 
 It is sufficient on this to remark, that children in 
 such a connexion evidently mean posterity, and that 
 the conjunction of repentance with baptism clearly 
 points out to what description of persons these 
 words were addressed by Peter ; and, as far as re- 
 gards them, sufficiently indicates the nature of the 
 rite. Whether their descendants were to be bap- 
 tized is left undecided by this passage, and must 
 therefore be otherwise determined. 
 
 An argument, which at most only amounts to 
 probability, and, therefore, is insufficient to prove a 
 Christian obligation, has been drawn from the cir- 
 cumstance of whole households having been bap- 
 tized, as is related in the following account : " And 
 a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of 
 the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God, heard 
 us, whose heart the Lord opened that she attended 
 unto the things which were spoken of Paul ; and 
 when she was baptized and her household," ^cc.-f- 
 This circumstance standing alone would not be of 
 any importance to either side of the controversy, since 
 children are not mentioned ; but if it were allowable 
 to reason from probabilities, we should say, the pro- 
 bability is, that Lydia was an unmarried woman. 
 However, since such kind of reasoning must ever be 
 of the smallest possible weight with every man of 
 * Belsham's Plea, p. 82. f Acts xvi. 14, 15. 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 candid mind, the fair way to judge of this narrative 
 is, by comparing it with similar narratives, connected 
 with which there may be circumstances that will 
 determine to which side of the controversy the evi- 
 dence from the baptizing of Lydia's household 
 inclines. 
 
 A remarkable circumstance happened to Paul and 
 Silas in the prison at Philippi, which roused the 
 attention of the jailer, and caused him to come 
 trembling, and to fall down before them, saying, 
 " Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? And they said. 
 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
 saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him 
 the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his 
 house. And he took them the same hour of the 
 night and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he 
 and all his straightway ; and when he had brought 
 them into his house, • he set meat before them, and 
 rejoiced, believing in God with all his house."* If 
 there were infants in the house of the jailer, it is 
 manifest that they were not in the number of those 
 mentioned ; for to infants the Apostles would not 
 have preached, neither could they have " rejoiced, 
 believing in God." 
 
 St. Paul wrote in his first epistle to the Corinthians, 
 i. 16, " I baptized also the household of Stephanas." 
 That infants were not therein included is shewn by 
 what he writes in the 16th chapter of the same epis- 
 tle : " Ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is 
 * Acts xvi. 30—34. 
 
83 
 
 the first fririts of Achaia, and that they have addicted 
 themselves to the ministry of the saints." Certainly 
 infants had not so addicted themselves ; on the con- 
 trary, they need the most careful and tender ad- 
 ministering unto. The evidence from the baptizing 
 of households is, therefore, in favour of Believers' 
 Baptism. 
 
 These are the principal proofs u^hich are attempted 
 to be drawn from scripture in favour of Infant Bap- 
 tism : how powerless they are we have seen. Ma- 
 nifestly failing in these, our opponents have recourse 
 to other arguments, the chief of which we will 
 proceed to examine, as briefly as is consistent with 
 truth and candour. 
 
 " The rite of circumcision," it is urged, " being 
 appointed to infants among the Jews, as a symbol 
 of their admission into the congregation of the 
 chosen people, and the privileges of the holy nation, 
 this institution countenances an expectation that some 
 rite might be appointed under the new covenant, 
 by which infants might be admitted into the holy 
 community which is now distinguished as the chosen 
 people, the kingdom of God and of Christ."* Ad- 
 mitting this, though we cannot perceive the justness 
 of the parallel, the two dispensations being so essen- 
 tially different in their constitution and purpose; 
 yet, admitting this to have been a natural expecta- 
 tion, in what words of Christ, or of his Apostles, do 
 we find it fulfilled ? — In what language is the com- 
 * Belsham's Plea, p. 80. 
 g2 
 
84 
 
 parison drawn ? — Where are the plain directions for 
 infant baptism which answer to the open command 
 for circumcision ? They are not to be found ; and, 
 therefore, from the premises laid down upon which 
 to prove the propriety of Infant Baptism, the fair 
 inference is, that baptism is not instead of circum- 
 cision, but is quite unconnected with it ; that the 
 purposes to be answered by it are essentially differ- 
 ent : for is it credible, that Christ and his Apostles 
 should have substituted one rite for another, without 
 noticing the substitution by a single word — without 
 once putting them in opposition? It does not ap- 
 pear credible ; especially when we remember, that 
 our Saviour was accustomed to mark any change 
 with peculiar precision ; as, when he declared, " Ye 
 have heard that it hath been said. Thou shalt love 
 thy neighbour and hate thine enemy ; but I say 
 unto you, love your enemies."* Yet a passage from 
 one of Paul's epistles has been supposed to coun- 
 tenance this idea : " In whom also ye are circum- 
 cised with the circumcision made without hands, in 
 putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the 
 circumcision of Christ, being buried with him in 
 baptism. "-I- But is baptism a circumcision made 
 without hands ; and especially the baptism of in- 
 fants ? — Not any more than the Jewish circumcision 
 was performed without hands. And we may learn 
 what St. Paul meant by this expression, when he 
 calls it " the putting off the body of the sins of the 
 * Matt. vi. 43, 44. . f Col. ii. 11, 12. Belsham's PI. p. 81. 
 
85 
 
 flesh ;" and when in his epistle to the Romans he 
 says, " Circumcision is that of the heart, in the 
 spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of 
 men but of God." This inward circumcision answers, 
 we perceive, to the new birth, of which our Saviour 
 spoke ; and " being buried with Christ in baptism," 
 is subsequent to that inward change, and cannot be 
 confounded with it, or render it unnecessary. 
 
 For want of that one solid foundation, which, if 
 it were a Christian ordinance, would surely be found 
 in the plain declarations of Scripture, the advocates 
 of Infant Baptism are accustomed to trace it to more 
 than one source ; though this appears a strange way 
 of pleading for its authority. We have already seen 
 them vainly urging inferences from passages of 
 Scripture, and pressing upon our notice the circum- 
 cision of the Jews. We have now to examine ano- 
 ther position equally fallacious. The Jews, it is 
 said, baptized proselytes to Judaism together with 
 their infants. The ceremony of baptism was there- 
 fore borrowed by our Saviour from the Jews. He 
 gave no directions for departing from their practice 
 in regard to infants, therefore infants born of bap- 
 tized persons ought to be baptized.* Supposing 
 that the Jews did thus baptize, though strong and 
 reasonable doubts are entertained by many upon 
 that point, it would still be a very remarkable cir- 
 cumstance if Christian baptism were at once the 
 substitute of circumcision, and the adoption of that 
 * Wall ; Belsham's Plea, p. 3. 
 
86 
 
 Jewish baptism which it is said was administered 
 after circumcision ; that it should answer to the 
 former standing ordinance among God's ancient peo- 
 ple, and should also be an extension of that latter 
 ordinance which applied only to proselytes and their 
 children ! And if the argument from the supposed 
 initiatory baptism of the Jews be any thing worth, 
 its testimony is in favour of Anti-baptists ; for it is 
 only pretended to have been the baptism of pro- 
 selytes and their children who were born at the 
 time — a purification from the defilement of Hea- 
 thenism. Paedobaptists cannot, therefore, make use 
 of this weapon of controversy without turning its 
 point into their own bosoms. 
 
 Their strong hold, if indeed it be strong, is what 
 they deem " the undisputed testimony of the pri- 
 mitive church ;"* but which testimony we deem 
 neither undisputed nor in their favour. 
 
 It is acknowledged,'!" that the first writer who 
 speaks plainly of the baptism of children is Ter- 
 tullian, a presbyter of the church at Carthage, 
 about the year 200, and that he only speaks of it in 
 order to blame the practice. His words are thus 
 translated : " Therefore, according to every one's 
 condition and disposition, and also their age, the de- 
 laying of baptism is more profitable, especially in 
 the case of little children ; for what occasion is there, 
 except in case of necessity, that the sponsors should 
 be brought into danger? Our Lord, indeed, said, 
 * Belsham's Plea, p. 13. f Idem, p. 14. 
 
87 
 
 Do not forbid them to come to me, therefore let them 
 come when they are grown up ; let them come when 
 they understand, when they are instructed whither 
 it is that they come. Let them be made Christians 
 when they can know Christ. Why need their guilt- 
 less age to make such haste to the forgiveness of sins ?" 
 " Observe," writes the distinguished author of the 
 ' Plea for Infant Baptism,' " for it is a very material 
 circumstance in the case, that TertuUian mentions 
 Infant Baptism incidentally, as a fact which hap- 
 pened to come in his way, as a case illustrative of 
 the doctrine which he was endeavouring to establish. 
 He was not treating the subject professionally, as I 
 am now. It was not an immediate object with him 
 either to exaggerate or to extenuate the fact. He 
 merely takes notice of it as a general, or rather an 
 universal practice ; which every one who knew any 
 thing of the state of Christianity, or who might read 
 his works, were well acquainted with, as what no 
 one would think of calling in question, and as a prac- 
 tice not peculiar to Carthage, or to the churches of 
 Africa, but which obtained through the whole Chris- 
 tian world."* We should certainly imagine from 
 this paragraph that the passage in question was 
 transcribed from some work of Tertullian's of a ge- 
 neral nature, a Catholic epistle, or a treatise of Chris- 
 tian doctrine ; but it is found in a small tract written 
 against the Montanists, a sect which had arisen at 
 Pepuza, in Asia Minor. TertuUian is, moreover, 
 * Belsham's Plea, pp. 14—16. 
 
88 
 
 treating the subject of Baptism professedly, and 
 treating of it in opposition to the opinions of the 
 Montanists, that all should be baptized who could 
 ask to have that ordinance performed.* Also, if 
 we may argue from Tertullian's manner, supposing 
 that the baptism of little ones, for he speaks not of 
 infants, were in his time the universal practice of the 
 Church, is it not strange that with so great freedom, 
 and without any apology or appeal to ancient au- 
 thority, he should oppose this universal practice ? — 
 that he should set forth his individual opinion, as 
 though it were a commonly-received opinion ? — that 
 if he knew it to be a practice derived from Apostolical 
 authority, he should so boldly attack it as unreason- 
 able and un scriptural ? Thus, supposition and ap- 
 peal to probabilities would serve our cause equally 
 with that of our opponents ; but in reality they 
 cannot serve either ; for, to conjectures there will be 
 found no end, or the liveliest imagination would gain 
 the victory. The most that can be proved from 
 Tertullian is, that the baptism of children was prac- 
 tised in his time. So also were the sign of the cross 
 in baptism, anointing the baptized, and giving them 
 milk and honey. How widely the baptism of chil- 
 dren had obtained does not appear ; and we cannot 
 be silenced by assumption without proof. 
 
 It is freely allowed that after the time of Tertullian, 
 and as the doctrine of Original Sin gained strength 
 
 * Robinson's Hist. Bap. pp. 170, 174—176; Mosheim's Ecc. 
 Hist. Vol. I. p. 236. 
 
89 
 
 and consistency in men's minds, the practice of 
 children's baptism made rapid strides ; and we shrink 
 not to confess, soon, and without much opposition, 
 became the general practice of the Church ; and in 
 the time of Cyprian was still farther reduced to the 
 baptism of infants of eight days old ; or at least in 
 an assembly held at Carthage, over which he pre- 
 sided, it was agreed that such should be the prac- 
 tice of the African church .^*f 
 
 And that the change from Believers' Baptism to 
 Infant Baptisrri should have* been effected with so 
 little controversy, so easily, so quickly,-|~ is sufficiently 
 accounted for by the prevalence beforehand of the 
 doctrine of Original Sin, and of the notion that bap- 
 tism was necessary and sufficient to its cleansing. 
 We are not to imagine, however, that Infant Bap- 
 tism, or even Children's Baptism, was practised 
 without discrimination immediately on their being 
 acknowledged as valid. They were at first used 
 only when death was apprehended, and eternal sal- 
 vation thereby end angered. :{: The exception by de- 
 grees became the rule, in an age when ignorance and 
 superstition spread their dark clouds over the Chris- 
 tian horizon.^ That the practice of Infant Baptism 
 should follow the doctrine of Original Sin, since 
 baptism, it was asserted, could alone cleanse it, must 
 be considered a necessary, a natural, a certain step ; 
 a step demanded by the best feelings, and closest 
 
 * Robinson's Hist. Bap. pp. 196, 197. f Belsham's Plea, p. 23. 
 + Tertullian. § Mosheim's Ecc. Hist. Vol. I. p. 259. 
 
90 
 
 ties of human nature ;* lest those miserable little 
 ones, who might be cut off in their infancy, should 
 be doomed to the anguish which dieth not, to the 
 torment which never ceaseth. 
 
 We scarcely need mention Origen, who lived ten 
 years after TertuUian, since his commentary upon 
 the Romans is only extant in a confessedly infamous 
 translation by Rufinus,* and his commentary on 
 Luke, in a translation by him whom Mosheim de- 
 nominates *' The foul-mouthed Jerom." And if we 
 were to argue from these translations, they would 
 prove just as much for Original Sin as for the bap- 
 tism of children, " parvuli :" for Origen says, or is 
 made to say, " For this also it was that the Church 
 had a tradition, or order from the Apostles, to give 
 baptism even unto little ones." And again, " Little 
 ones are baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Of 
 what sins? Or when have they sinned? It is 
 because by the sacrament of baptism the pollution 
 of our birth is taken away, that little ones are bap- 
 tized."'!' They who will depend upon Rufinus and 
 Jerom, and urge Origen's testimony, must take with 
 them such a load of other matter, that we may well 
 leave them to groan under their self-imposed bur- 
 den. 
 
 Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, writers who flourished 
 in the second century, the former forty, the latter 
 sixty years after the Apostolic Age,;|: have been ap- 
 
 * Gale, Lett. xiii. pp. 526, 527 ; Belsham's Plea, p. 29. 
 
 t Idem. t Mosheim's Ecc. Hist. Vol. I. pp. 161, 181. 
 
91 
 
 pealed to, not as speaking plainly of Infant Baptism, 
 but as evidently referring to it.^*' In regard to the 
 first of these writers, you will be able to judge how 
 little he supports the practice, nay, how fully he 
 supports the practice of Believers' Baptism by a 
 quotation from his celebrated Apology addressed to 
 the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.-|- 
 
 " I will shew you how we dedicated ourselves to 
 God, when we were made new in Christ, that I may 
 not seem to do wrong by omitting anything. As 
 ihany as are persuaded, and do believe that those 
 things which are taught and spoken by us are true, 
 and engage to live accordingly, are instructed to pray 
 and implore of God, with fasting, the forgiveness of 
 past sins, we praying and fasting together with them. 
 They are then led to a place where there is water, 
 and they are regenerated, with the same kind of re- 
 generation with which we were regenerated ; for in 
 the name of God, the Father and Lord of all, and of 
 Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they are then 
 washed in water ; for also Christ has said, * Except 
 ye be regenerated, ye cannot enter into the kingdom 
 of heaven.' We learned the reason of this from the 
 Apostles, that since we were born at first without our 
 knowledge, by necessity, and brought up in wicked 
 customs, we should not continue children of neces- 
 sity and ignorance, but of choice and knowledge, 
 and receive forgiveness of our former sins by water.":[: 
 
 * Belsham's Plea, pp. 14, 15 ; Towgood. 
 
 t Mosheim, Vol.1, p. 161. J Justin's Apology, I. ad finem. 
 
92 
 
 This paragraph is not only without mention of 
 Infant Baptism, but contains direct evidence that 
 such was not the practice in Justin's time. He 
 speaks of " choice and knowledge," of " being per- 
 suaded and believing," before baptism was adminis- 
 tered. He is careful to inform the Emperor pre- 
 cisely how they dedicated themselves to God, that 
 he might not " do wrong by omitting any thing." 
 If Infant Baptism had been their practice, if they 
 had thus dedicated infants to God, he would there- 
 fore have mentioned it, and not have presented a 
 garbled statement. And if they had been thus ac- 
 customed by baptism to make infants members of 
 the Church, there was abundant reason for men- 
 tioning it to the Emperor, since the Christians were 
 charged with barbarous and inhuman practices to- 
 wards them, of murdering them, and making some 
 impious use of their blood;* which calumny, the 
 mention of Infant Baptism, and the consequences 
 following thereon, would have been amply €ufficient 
 to refute ; and we can only account for Justin Mar- 
 tyr's silence on the subject by supposing him alto- 
 gether ignorant of such a practice ; especially when 
 he speaks so plainly of the baptism of Believers. 
 
 Irenseus was Bishop of Lyons in the latter part 
 of the second century. He was in his youth the 
 disciple of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who was 
 a disciple of the Apostle John. Irenaeus had there- 
 fore great opportunities of learning the truth ; and if 
 * Gale, Lett. xii. p. 455. 
 
93 
 
 he had left any testimony in favour of Infant Bap- 
 tism, it must have been very powerful : but all the 
 evidence which is adduced from him is a passage, 
 doubtful both as to its genuineness and its meaning : 
 " He came to save all persons by himself; all per- 
 sons I say who are by him regenerated unto God : 
 infants and little ones, and children, and youths and 
 elder persons."* In the first place this is quoted 
 from a Latin translation out of the Greek of Irenseus, 
 by an unknown writer, whom the learned agree to 
 have taken great liberties with the text.']' There is 
 one book of Irenseus yet extant in the original 
 Greek,^ upon comparing which, with the transla- 
 tion, the numerous faults which have been com- 
 mitted, the liberties which have been taken with 
 the sense, and the changes which have been made 
 in the meaning of the author, do most clearly ap- 
 pear.*^ So that it is by no means certain, if this 
 passage, in its present state, was written by Ireneeus. 
 2. The latter part of the chapter from which it is 
 taken contradicts the former. It is first said, that 
 Christ was baptized at the age of thirty, and that 
 he suffered in the third passover following; which 
 would make him thirty-three years of age at the 
 time of his crucifixion ; and then it is afterwards 
 stated, that he lived to about fifty years. Irenseus 
 can hardly be charged with this contradiction when 
 he had such good opportunity of knowing the pre- 
 
 * Belsham's Plea, p. 14. f Gale, Lett. xii. p. 465. 
 
 X Mosheim, Vol. J. p. 181. § Gale, Lett. xii. p. 465. 
 
m 
 
 cise truth from St. Polycarp, and when, by no cal- 
 culation, worthy of credit, can the term of our Sa- 
 viour's life be protracted later than his thirty-fifth 
 year.* 
 
 3. If we suppose this passage to be a faithful trans- 
 lation, it is a begging of the question to assume that 
 by regeneration is meant baptism, and indeed we think 
 the contrary may be proved by another passage of 
 the translation, wherein it is said, speaking of the 
 Holy Spirit, " For God promised to pour him out 
 upon his servants and handmaids in the latter days, 
 that they might prophesy: wherefore he descended 
 upon the Son of God, when he became the Son of 
 man, accustoming himself in him to dwell among 
 mankind, and to rest in men, and to dwell in the 
 creatures of God; working in them the will of the 
 Father, and of old, making them new," or regene- 
 rating them, " in Christ." -j* It is manifest from this 
 passage, that by " regeneration" Irenaeus understood 
 that inward change which our Saviour signified when 
 he said^ " Except a man be born of the Spirit he 
 cannot enter into the kingdom of God." He also, 
 in another place, speaks of " the baptism of regene- 
 ration,":}: John came preaching " the baptism of re- 
 pentance." It will not be imagined that baptism 
 and repentance are the same thing ; so neither can 
 we suppose that, by a precisely similar expression, 
 Irenseus permits us to believe that he esteemed bap- 
 tism and regeneration as the same. 
 * Gale, Lett. xii. p. 465. f Ibid. p. 495. J Ibid. p. 496. 
 
93 
 
 4. If Irenaeus wrote, "infants, little ones, children, 
 youths, and elder persons," a question arises, what 
 ages are signified thereby? Were they infants lite- 
 rally from their inability to articulate, or infants in 
 a wider sense ? From some expressions concerning 
 the young men, and the elder persons, it is conjec- 
 tured that Irenaeus assigns ten years to each of the 
 several stages which he mentions.* If so, the age 
 of infants will reach to ten, before which age chil- 
 dren are capable of instruction, of having that seed 
 sown within them, which shall thereafter spring up 
 and display, " first the blade, then the ear, after that 
 the full corn in the ear." And now, having seen 
 what was the opinion of Irenaeus concerning rege- 
 neration, all that can be learned from this much 
 boasted passage is, that Christ came to make holy 
 persons of all ages, leaving the question of baptism 
 to be determined by other authority. 
 
 The Fathers of the second century so far, there- 
 fore, from giving countenance to the practice of In- 
 fant Baptism, are opposed to it, so far as we are able 
 to learn their opinions. Whatever credit, then, we 
 may be disposed to give the Church of that period 
 for faithfully preserving the institutions of the Apos- 
 tles, is so much added to the cause of Believers' Bap- 
 tism ; and, confirms us in the continuation of that 
 ordinance as it was performed by John, as it was 
 submitted to and practised by Christ and his Apos- 
 tles, as it was commanded to be observed by our 
 * Gale, Lett. xii. p. 501. 
 
96 
 
 Master when he was about to leave the scene of his 
 arduous labours, of his death, and of his resurrection 
 from the dead. 
 
 In considering the mode of performing Christian 
 Baptism, the first thing which claims our attention, 
 is the meaning of the word ^aTrri^co, as it is used 
 by Greek writers. On this point, however, we 
 mjjst, for want of leisure and opportunity, content 
 ourselves with stating the conclusion to which Gale 
 arrives after a laborious research among them. It 
 is, that the word invariably signifies to dip, immerse, 
 plunge, or cover, either literally or metaphorically.^ 
 We the more readily content ourselves with giving 
 the result of another's inquiry, since they who prac- 
 tise aspersion do themselves confess that such is the 
 primitive meaning of the word ; though they con- 
 tend that it also signifies affusion and aspersion.^ 
 This we shall not deny; but must at the same time 
 call to their remembrance that, when it does thus 
 signify, it is spoken of things which, from their na- 
 ture, admit not of dipping or plunging ; as, when 
 the sea-coast is said to be baptized by the waves, a 
 fleece to be baptized in dew, or a man to be baptized 
 in sorrows. As, however, for the' reasons above 
 stated, we decline any personal inquiry among the 
 Greek writers, we shall claim no more than the ad- 
 mission of our fellow-christians, that the primitive 
 
 * Gale, Lett. iii. 
 
 t Belsham'sPlea, pp. 61— 63; Wall; Towgood, in verbo. 
 
97 
 
 meaning of (^aTrri^cu is to immerse ; supporting that 
 admission, however, by the authority of the few lexi- 
 cographers within our reach. 
 
 Hedericus gives the various words by which it 
 may be rendered in the following order: "1, to 
 immerse, to cover with water, or, to overwhelm in 
 water: 2, to wash clean, wash away or purify, to 
 wash."* It is this secondary meaning of BaTrri^co 
 upon which Paedobaptists chiefly formed their argu- 
 ment for aspersion : but since the primitive meaning 
 of the word is to immerse^ or cover with water, and 
 since washing clean, or washing away, can unques- 
 tionably be best performed by immersion, there is 
 no reason to suppose that the secondary meaning 
 excludes the primary, but rather, that the latter is 
 included in the former. 
 
 3. Hedericus says, BaTrrj^o) is rendered " to bap- 
 tise," when it signifies the sacred rite;-|~ which, as 
 it is merely changing Greek for Roman characters, 
 yields us not any evidence: but we cannot fail to 
 remark, that if the word had never been either Lati- 
 nized or Anglicised, the probability, nay, almost 
 the certainty, is, that the present part of our inquiry 
 would not have been needed. 
 
 Schrevelius renders BaTrr/^co by the following ar- 
 rangement of words : " To baptize, to immerse, to 
 wash.";}: Pasor, in the succeeding order: "To im- 
 merse, to wash clean or purify, to baptize." The 
 
 * " 1, mergo, immergo, aqud ohruo; 2, ahluo, lavo." 
 f " Baptizo, significatu sacro." % " Baptizo, mergo, lavo" 
 
 H 
 
9j8 
 
 same remarks will apply to these two lexicographers 
 as to Hedericus, and you perceive that they all agree 
 in giving immersion as the primary sense, 
 
 Parkhurst writes thus : " Baxri^o) from BaTTTcu, to 
 dip. 1, To dip, immerse, or plunge in water. 2, 
 Ba;rTi^ojw,ajj* (Mid. and Pas.,) to wash one's self, be 
 washed, wash, i. e. the hands, by immersion or dip- 
 ping, in water. The LXX. use Ba:rT<^oju,a< (Mid.) 
 for washing one's self by immersion. 3, To baptize, 
 to immerse, to wash with water in token of purifica- 
 tion from sin, and from spiritual pollution. 4, To 
 baptize as the Israelites were unto Moses in the cloud 
 and in the sea. 5, In a figurative sense, to baptize 
 \yith the Holy Ghost. 6, Figuratively, to be im- 
 mersed, or plunged in a flood or sea, as it were, of 
 grievous aflBictions and sufferings." 
 
 Here, not only is immersion given as the primary 
 sense, but it is kept in view through all the secon- 
 dary senses. 
 
 Lastly, and of highest authority, Schleusner thus 
 renders Ba;rri^ft> — " 1, Properly, to immerse and 
 dye, to plunge in water. f 2, To wash away, to 
 wash, to cleanse by water.J 3, Hence it is trans- 
 ferred to the solemn rite of baptism, by which Christ 
 ordained, that all who had been instructed in the 
 fundamentals of the Christian religion, and who. 
 should desire to embrace and profess it, should be 
 
 * " Immergo, abluo, haptizo^ 
 
 f "Proprie, mmergoacii}fing^Oyin,aqi(^^i^^mej;gQ" 
 
 + " AbluOt^ lapQ, aqud purgo.'" 
 
99^ 
 
 initiated, Matt, xxviii. 19 ; so that ^otTTT/fo) may be 
 rendered, To baptize, to administer baptism, to 
 perform the act of baptism, or, to bind any one to 
 the profession of the Christian rehgion by the rite 
 of baptism."^ He afterwards gives some metapho- 
 rical meanings, which, of course, for our present 
 purpose it is unnecessary to quote. 
 
 This powerful testimony from various lexicogra- 
 phers our Paedobaptist brethren do not attempt to 
 deny, and yet contend, not only for the lawfulness of 
 affusion and aspersion on particular emergencies, but 
 as a general practice. We would ask them, how- 
 ever, if it be not a rule, and a rule necessary to secure 
 us from a world of fancies, both in translation and 
 interpretation, to employ the primitive sense of a^ 
 word invariably, unless there be some circumstances 
 connected with it, which plainly point out a different 
 use, or which render its employment impossible? 
 Since then our fellow-christians allow, that immer- 
 sion is the primitive sense of ^olttti^o), it becomes 
 them to shew the reasons which render it impossible 
 or improper to be followed in the performance of the 
 Christian ordinance: why they do not even asperse 
 so as to cover the whole body, but only with a few 
 drops from the fingers, or at most, with as much as 
 
 * '* Hinc transfertur ad baptismi ritum solemnem, quem, ut, qui- 
 curique esserit ' instituti religionis Christianse initiis eamque amplecti 
 et profiteri vellent, initiarentur, Christus instituit. Matt, xxviii. 19. 
 Ita, ut ^airrii^u sit, baptizo, baptismum administro, actum baptismi 
 exerceo, seu, baptismi ritu obstringo aliquem professioni religionis 
 Christiance.^' 
 
 h2 
 
100 
 
 the hollow of the hand will hold. It is in fact the 
 minister's hand which is baptized. 
 
 Also, if they still contend that, by the use of a 
 word with various significations, we are left at liberty 
 to choose a secondary meaning, according to our 
 conveniency or caprice, when there is not any ob- 
 stacle in the way of our taking the primary mean- 
 ing ; if the matter be thus perfectly indifferent, and 
 our own inclination is to be the sole guide, why do 
 they always asperse the face ? Why not the hand, 
 or the foot, which would be far less inconvenient to 
 the infant, and would not call forth those shrill 
 expressions of dissatisfaction which are sometimes 
 heard above the solemn voice of the minister ? They 
 will pardon this, even though it should bear to them 
 the appearance of ridicule. It is not so meant. It 
 is only said to shew how open to every species of 
 attack is such a latitudinarian mode of interpreta- 
 tion ; to what distance from the original mode of 
 administering the ordinance it will permit us to go, 
 even until the very act itself shall become senseless 
 and ridiculous. 
 
 We turn now to the argument for immersion 
 which is contained in Scripture. The word baptize 
 is found twice in the Old Testament, and twice in 
 the Apocrypha. Arguments drawn from apocryphal 
 books we must decline for ourselves and refuse to 
 others. One of the passages from the Old Testa- 
 ment is affirmed to be mistranslated by the LXX.* 
 
 * Belshatn's Plea, p. 69. 
 
101 
 
 We shall, therefore, confine our remarks to the only- 
 remaining passage, which occurs in the Second Book 
 of Kings V. 14: " Then went Naaman down, and 
 baptized himself seven times in Jordan, according to 
 the saying of the man of God," or, as it is rendered 
 in the received version, " and dipped himself," &c. 
 This passage appears clearly in our favour, especially 
 when we recollect that immersion is the primitive 
 sense of baptism. The direction of Elisha was, "Go 
 and wash thyself seven times in Jordan," and hence 
 it is argued, that washing and baptizing are the 
 same.* In this case they undoubtedly were, but 
 we have seen that washing is not opposed to immer- 
 sion, but may include it. The use of the word bap- 
 tize, to express the act which Naaman performed, 
 appears, therefore, clearly to point out what kind of 
 washing Elisha prescribed, and Naaman submitted 
 to — that it was washing by immersion. But, " by 
 the law in Leviticus," it is said, " water was to be 
 applied in two modes to the recovering leper. In 
 one form it was to be applied seven times, that was 
 by sprinkling; in the other form only once, and that 
 was bathing. But as the order to Naaman was to 
 wash seven times, it was probably intended that the 
 water should be applied only to the infected part." -|- 
 The prophet only ordered the Syrian to apply water 
 in one form : so that the law in Leviticus was broken 
 through, and therefore can afford us no light on the 
 matter; unless we suppose that Elisha joined the 
 * Belsham's Plea, p. 68. f Wem. 
 
102 
 
 two modes together, taking the number of times 
 from one, and immersion from the other. We have^ 
 however, before disclaimed mere hypothetical rea- 
 sonings. Leaving, therefore, the case of Naaman to 
 make its due impression in our favour, we will pro- 
 ceed to the New Testament. 
 
 " Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, 
 and all the region round about Jordan, and were 
 baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins."* 
 " And John also was baptizing in iEnon, near to 
 Salim, because there was much water there." "j* 
 Why John should have chosen places where there; 
 was much water for the purpose of baptizing, ex- 
 cept he baptized in the primitive sense of the word, 
 it is difficult to conjecture. But "Let it be con- 
 sidered," says Towgood, " how valuable and scarce 
 water was in those parts, how hot the climate, how 
 numerous the crowds who flocked to John's bap- 
 tism, from what distant parts they came, how long 
 they tarried to hear his doctrine and instructions : 
 let these be considered, and there will appear sundry 
 good reasons for his choosing this well-watered and 
 fruitful country, for the place of his preaching, with- 
 out any regard had to the convenience of dipping." :j: 
 But John did come " preaching in the wilderness of 
 Judsea,"^ in "that desert and barren region, that dry 
 and thirsty land," where our author thinks he certain- 
 ly would not have entered upoij l^is ministrations, and 
 
 * Matt. iii. 5,Q. ' f John iii. 23. 
 
 + Towgood on Infant Baptism, p. 82. §. Matt. iii. 1. 
 
103 
 
 it was afterwards that he baptized in Jordan and at 
 i^non. Since then he did preach where no water 
 Was, and in the passage before us it is stated, that 
 he baptized in iEnon, near to SaUm, because there 
 was much water there, We must still prefer the reason 
 given by the Evangelist to Psedobaptist objections. 
 
 It is said again, " If these multitudes were all 
 dipped, how was it done? Were they naked? This 
 modesty forbids. Had they all change of raiment^ 
 to undress, and put on dry apparel when they came 
 out of the water? This the vastness of the multi- 
 tudes, the openness of the country, and the great 
 distance whence they came, will not easily admit ; 
 and, that they stood in their wet garments, and 
 hearkened to John's doctrine^ Or travelled in theni 
 many miles to their homeSj seems equally improba- 
 ble."* These are merely captious objections. Doe^ 
 any one attribute indecency to the Hindoos, because 
 they every day, in great numbers, dip themselves 
 naked in the Ganges ? Or are we to try the customs 
 of other countries by those of our own ? And in 
 Eastern regions public baths are hot only a luxufy, 
 but a necessary of life, to which people, without 
 scruple, resort. Whether John's disciples were 
 baptized naked, or partially clothed, is equally tin- 
 importantr The force of the wotd, and of the rea- 
 son given by the Evangelist for baptizing in MiXioii, 
 cannot thus be set aside. 
 
 Concerning the Baptism of Jesus it is said, " And 
 * Towgood, pp. 102, 103. 
 
104 
 
 Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway 
 out of the water."* Respecting that of the Ethio- 
 pian Eunuch, "And they went down into the water, 
 both Philip and the Eunuch ; and he baptized him : 
 and when they were come up out of the water," "j* 
 &c. To evade the evidence from these passages, it 
 is said, " As waters run in the valleys, they might 
 go down from the chariot (sig) to or unto the rivulet, 
 (for geographers find but little streams there,) and 
 Philip baptize by pouring water on him : and from 
 thence go up to the chariot again, in the most per- 
 fect consistence with this account of the matter." :J; 
 If pouring or sprinkling were the primitive sense of 
 the word baptize, we " might" admit this forced in- 
 terpretation sooner than abandon it ; but as immer- 
 sion is the primitive sense, we prefer a plain to a 
 conjectural rendering, the general testimony of the 
 learned, to a partial criticism. 
 
 Mr. Belsham moreover allows, " There is, upon 
 the whole, reason to believe that the prevailing prac- 
 tice in the Apostolic and succeeding ages, was to 
 baptize by immersion, though it cannot be proved 
 that this was the universal rule, and some cases are 
 mentioned in the New Testament in which it has 
 been thought most probable that baptism was ad- 
 ministered by affusion."^ Does not this admission 
 supply an ample argument against the propriety of 
 aspersion as the general practice, even if it should be 
 
 * Matt. iii. 16. f Acts viii. 38, 39. 
 
 + Towgood, p. 106. § Belsham's Plea, pp. 73, 74. 
 
10^ 
 
 admitted in particular cases ? It is confessed that 
 immersion was the prevailing practice ; but it can- 
 not be proved that pouring was not used. To prove 
 a negative is indeed difficult ; but want of power to 
 prove a negative will not, by a reasoner so logical as 
 Mr. Belsham, be held a valid argument against that 
 which is positive. The question should rather stand 
 in the following form: Immersion is the mode 
 spoken of and practised ; can it be proved that any 
 other was made use of? The answer is, " There 
 are some cases mentioned in the New Testament in 
 which it has been thought most probable that bap- 
 tism was administered by affusion." But allowing 
 the full weight of this probability, of what avail is it 
 against a positive fact? How can it give counte- 
 nance to the general forsaking of an Apostolical 
 practice ? Nay, even granting the exceptions to 
 have been proved, instead of being only probable ; 
 why is the exception made the rule, and the rule 
 scarcely allowed to hold the place even of an ex- 
 ception ? This needs strong defence ; no less strong 
 than an impossibility to comply with the rule. This 
 defence cannot, and will not be pleaded. 
 
 Towgood takes great pains to prove, that under 
 the Jewish dispensation there were various ceremo- 
 nies of sprinkling, washing, pouring, and immersion ; 
 and that they are all indiscriminately called bap- 
 tisms: in proof of which he cites Heb. ix. 10, 
 " Meats, and drinks, and divers baptisms." To 
 
106 
 
 shorten the argument, we will allow all that is here 
 demanded; but of what consequence is it? Because 
 under the Jewish dispensation there were various 
 sorts of baptism applied to different purposes, will it 
 follow, that Christian baptism, which is expressly 
 called " one baptism," may be performed in all these 
 different modes? Let it first be proved that these 
 various baptisms were interchangeable, before any 
 argument be drawn from thenCe ; and even then^ 
 we cannot perceive how their case would be made 
 out in opposition to the primitive sense of the word, 
 and the acknowledged practice of the Apostolic age. 
 
 The defenders of aspersion further allow, that im- 
 mersion was the practice of the primitive church j* 
 and to support this admission, we may, in passing, 
 call to remembrance the size of various ancient bap- 
 tisteries and fonts which are still in existence, and 
 which could only have been formed for the purpose 
 of immersion. 
 
 But the lawfulness of aspersion is argued because 
 " baptism by affusion, especially in cases of sickness 
 and supposed danger, was practised by the Church 
 in a very early age."-^ It is, however, further ac- 
 knowledged, that " this mode of baptism was disap- 
 proved, except where it was believed to be indispen- 
 sable ;^' and, that persons so baptized were judged 
 incapable of holding any office in the Church.J To 
 prove the exception is not, as we hate before argued, 
 * Belsham's Plea, p. 74. f Idem. J Idem. 
 
107 
 
 to establish it as the rule. It rather renders the rule 
 more imperative, when the occasions of the excep 
 tion are considered ; viz. sickness, the being bed- 
 ridden, and danger of death.* 
 
 The first administration of baptism by sprinkling 
 of which we have any account, took place in Africa, 
 in the third century ;•!• a place and age fruitful in 
 corruptions of Christianity. Gennadius, Bishop of 
 Marseilles, at the end of the fifth century, speaks of 
 pouring and immersion being indifferently made use 
 of. But, even in the thirteenth century, Thomas 
 Aquinas and Bonaventure, though they speak of 
 affusion and sprinkling as not uncommon, prefer im- 
 mersion as the more general and the safer practice. 
 In the Rubric of King Edward VI., (1449,) the 
 order is to dip the child in water thrice, so it be dis- 
 creetly and warily done ; but if the child be weakly, 
 it shall suffice to pour water. In the Common 
 Prayer-Book, after the Restoration (1662), the order 
 is, if the godfathers do certify that the child may 
 well endure it, to dip it into the water discreetly and 
 warily ; but if they certify that the child is weak, it 
 shall suffice to pour water upon it.;}: We lay not 
 much stress upon these testimonies, but they serve 
 to shew by what slow degrees that practice was ad- 
 mitted which is now followed by the great majority 
 of the Christian world. 
 
 We have set forth our reasons for immersion ; we 
 
 * Robinson's Hist, of Baptism, pp. 440, &c. 
 
 t Idem. p. 449. X Belsham's Plea, pp. 14, 15. 
 
108 
 
 have endeavoured satisfactorily to answer objections : 
 and, until it can be shewn that immersion is not the 
 primitive and common meaning of the word ^oltt- 
 ri§(o, and was not the practice of Christ and his 
 Apostles ; or, that there are circumstances which 
 totally prevent or render improper the immersion of 
 Believers, we must hold our cause good, our prac- 
 tice unimpeachable. 
 
THE 
 
 PERPETUITY OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM 
 
 MAINTAINED. 
 
 By JAMES GILCHRIST. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 Matthew xxviii. 18—20: 
 
 "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, 
 All power is given unto me in heaven and 
 in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things 
 whatsoever i have commanded you: and, lo, 
 i am with you alway, even unto the end of 
 
 THE WORLD. AmEN." 
 
 The subject of the present Lecture is the Perpe- 
 tuity of Christian Baptism. That is, we have to 
 consider whether it be a permanent rite of Chris- 
 tianity. But, before entering directly on the sub- 
 ject, a few preliminary observations seem necessary. 
 Though we meditate all due fairness and the great- 
 est possible brevity, we must bespeak a candid and 
 patient attention. We would not wilfully offend 
 against Christian charity in treating of what we 
 deem a Christian Institution ; nor would we inten- 
 tionally make unreasonable demands upon your 
 time and patience. But our subject is austerely 
 controversial and peculiarly uninviting or repulsive 
 to those mindig. which are already in a state of in- 
 
112 
 
 difference or disinclination ; for it must be addressed 
 exclusively to the understanding and the conscience, 
 both of which are usually (at least in persons of re- 
 flection) more inert respecting positive than respect- 
 ing moral duties. Rhetorical ability, if we possessed 
 it or wished to employ it, would not be available on 
 this occasion ; for our subject is one which can nei- 
 ther captivate the imagination nor rouse the pas- 
 sions. We have, therefore, no allurements to hold 
 out — no attractions to present ; we rely for effect 
 solely on plain statement and fair argument. 
 
 The object of this Lecture is to prove the perma- 
 nent obligation of Christian Baptism. But to pre- 
 vent all misunderstanding it may be proper to define 
 our meaning. Christian Baptism is, in our consci- 
 entious belief, the immersion of adults making a 
 profession of repentance toivards God and faith in 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. Infant Sprinkling is, in our 
 humble, fallible judgment, not Christian Baptism; 
 but a complete perversion of the original institution. 
 This part of the controversy has been already dis- 
 posed of; and we recur to it merely for the sake of 
 explicitness in what remains to be stated in this 
 Lecture : for, we might seem to make common 
 cause with those of our Christian brethren who 
 advocate and practise infant sprinkling, if we did 
 not guard against misapprehension. But nothing 
 can be farther from our design or less connected 
 with our reasoning. If we prove the perpetuity of 
 a Divine Institution, will it follow that a perversion 
 
of that Institution ought to be perpetuated? As 
 well might it be argued that, by establishing the 
 immutable truth and unrivalled excellence of Chris- 
 tianity, we perpetuate all its corruptions. What 
 never had a Divine origin for its authority never can 
 have a Divine sanction for its perpetuity: much less, 
 if less be possible in such a case, that which is a 
 spurious copy of the heavenly original, — a counter- 
 feit representation of the genuine ordinance. If we 
 had no choice but between Pcedobaptism and Anti- 
 baptism, that is, between sprinkling infants and na 
 ritual practice with water whatever, we should not 
 hesitate to decide for the latter ; inasmuch as no 
 ceremony is preferable to an unscriptural ceremony, 
 and still more to a perversion or abuse of a Divine 
 ordinance. On this ground we, as Protestants, dis- 
 allow the unscriptural rites and ceremonies of the 
 Church of Rome ; on this ground we would consci- 
 entiously omit the observance of the Sacred Supper 
 containing the commemorative symbols of our Lord 
 and Saviour, rather than receive them in the form of 
 Transubstantiation, or as desecrated and profaned 
 into a qualification for a civil office. 
 
 It is sufficiently evident, then, that in advocating 
 the perpetuity of the right in question, we do not 
 make common cause with Psedobaptists. There is 
 one view, however, in which they may be consider- 
 ed as uniting in auxiliary alliance with us. They 
 hold the perpetuity of what they conscientiously 
 deem Baptism. But on what ground do they hold 
 
 1 
 
114 
 
 it? Their main ground of reliance, the very rock 
 of their defence, is the authority of the Fathers — the 
 theological writers who lived comparatively near to 
 the times of the Apostles. From the writings of 
 some of these Fathers it is sufficiently evident, that 
 as early as the latter part of the second or beginning 
 of the third century. Infant Baptism, as well as In- 
 fant Communion, was practised, at least in some 
 churches. This we are willing to admit as a histo- 
 rical fact: for whatever our opinion of the Fathers 
 may be, we are not disposed, with the ingenious 
 Robert Robinson, to question or disallow their testis 
 mony, at least in a case of this description. Whe- 
 ther the fact can sanction the practice ; whether 
 the practice be of Divine authority merely because 
 it existed in the time of the Fathers ; whether they 
 have supplied a precedent that bars all remoter 
 search or interdicts all higher appeal ; whether, in 
 short, the authority of the Fathers can decide the 
 question respecting Christian Baptism, is matter of 
 controversy; and many are the controversies which 
 have been written on the subject : in which, as we 
 humbly conceive, the arguments for Infant Sprink- 
 ling have been most triumphantly refuted. 
 
 There is one thing, however, incontrovertibly evi- 
 dent from the history and from the writings of the 
 Fathers ; which is, that they held the Perpetuity of 
 Baptism. In this, and in this alone, they give the 
 " unanimous voice of Christian antiquity" concern- 
 ing the present question. In this they all agreed. 
 
115 
 
 though they differed much respecting the nature, 
 the design, the administration of Baptism. They 
 had, evidently, no idea that it was of temporary ob- 
 hgation, or of proselyte origin and intention. They 
 give no intimation that it was merely to grace the 
 arrival of the Gospel and usher in the New Dispen- 
 sation, or that it was exclusively connected with the 
 introduction and planting of Christianity. They 
 were strano;ers to the notion of its being intended to 
 initiate Christianity into the world ; or to initiate a 
 family, a tribe, a race, a nation, or the whole world 
 of human beings as an aggregate or collective pro- 
 selyte, into Christianity.. Here, if we were satisfied 
 with the kind of evidence and reasoning which 
 satisfy some inquirers, we might take our stand on 
 the firm foundation or vantage-ground of " Christian 
 antiquity." 
 
 But after all, we lay so little stress on the autho- 
 rity of " Christian antiquity," that we would not 
 have even alluded to it had it not been for the pur- 
 pose of refuting an argument employed against us. 
 By disallowing the authority of the Fathers in sup- 
 port of Pcedobaptism, we destroy (it is urged) the 
 very foundation on which the Perpetuity of Baptism 
 rests; for (it is alleged) we have no evidence, except 
 from the writings of the Fathers, that it was to con- 
 tinue in full force as a Christian rite : but they 
 prove (it is further urged), that infants were baptized 
 in their time ; therefore, if we refuse Baptism to 
 
 i2 
 
116 
 
 Infants, we ought, in consistency, to reject it alto- 
 gether.* 
 
 If this sort of reasoning deserve any notice, it is; 
 not for any intrinsic merit. But some persons con- 
 fidently receive mere statements on the high autho- 
 rity of great names ; and many have neither leisure 
 nor aptitude for analyzing arguments or for ascend- 
 ing to first principles. 
 
 Had all the records of " Christian antiquity" (im- 
 
 * The argument does not stop here ; and we must sincerely con- 
 fess that the length to which it is pushed has occasioned us deep 
 concern. " It is upon this evidence alone [the testimony of the 
 Fathers] that we admit the Scriptures as genuine. You cannot, 
 consistently, reject thjs rite [Infant Baptism] without, at the same 
 time, rejecting those inestimable records which contain the charter 
 of our immorlal hopes. In fact, there is no book of that collection 
 which forms the New Testament, the evidence of which can be 
 compared in clearness and decision with that which establishes the 
 Apostolic origin of Infant Baptism." 
 
 We speak the words of truth and soberness, when we say, that 
 these and similar statements (for they are often reiterated) astounded 
 us : and the time has been when they might have completely anni- 
 hilated our weak and wavering faith. We may yet complain 
 
 hospitio prohibemur arense : 
 
 Bella cient, primaque vetant consistere terra. 
 
 We merely record here our humble protest against a wanton ex- 
 posure of " those inestimable records which contain the charter of 
 our immortal hopes" to unmerited suspicion : but from the present 
 workings of our mind, it is probable that we shall not be able to 
 satisfy our conscience without speaking very fully and very explicitly 
 on such subjects. Nam et priiis, quam incipias, consulto, et, ubi 
 consulueris, mature facto opus est. 
 
117 
 
 posing as the sound is) perished ; had all the Writings 
 of the Fathers been buried with them in the earth ; 
 Christianity, with all its doctrines, and duties, and 
 immortal hopes, would have remained entire : and 
 if we had no better evidence or surer guide than they 
 supply respecting any question whatever, we must 
 either rely solely on our own reason, or blindly fol- 
 low that blind guide. Tradition, through all the 
 frightful labyrinth, or intellectual and moral wilder- 
 ness, of Popish error, absurdity, and superstition. 
 They were the fathers of Popery ;* and in no other 
 
 * We have just as little deference for the cant of candour as for 
 any other cant; and we have no affection for that unmeaning ap- 
 pellation Catholicism; nor have we any inclination to confer a 
 goodly name upon one of the worst hierarchies that ever inthralled 
 the souls and bodies of men, and spread around it intellectual and 
 moral desolation in the earth. And notwithstanding the modish 
 sentimentality about the merits of the Monks and the Medici, the 
 profound learning, holy charity, and virgin purity of cloisters ; the 
 imposing pomp, and solemn grandeur of Catholic worship ; v/hich 
 are all no doubt very fine, and romantic, and picturesque, though a 
 little fretted with the grotesque to heighten the effect ; still (as poor 
 persecuted Galileo said, when he came forth from the dungeon of the 
 Inquisition to the light of day) still our opinion is unchanged. 
 Popery, though somewhat mollified by age, and much shorn of its 
 malefic potency, is still so radically and essentially bad, that we 
 despair of its amendment; and perhaps this intolerable nuisance, 
 like many other evils, will remain for many centuries on the earth 
 as a mystery of Providence, to exercise the faith and patience of 
 the righteous ; though it may supply reckless reasoners and empty 
 wits with food to their levity, or with a plea for their impiety. But 
 let not the reader suppose that we are capable of bigoted antipathy 
 to Catholic Claims or Catholic Emancipation, or that we could 
 
118 
 
 sense are they worthy of a paternal appellation : but 
 the Bible, the Bible alone, without any addition, 
 ally, or auxiliary, is the guide of our faith and prac- 
 tice as Protestants and Christians. 
 
 We have only to bring the argument founded on 
 " Christian antiquity" to the test of one undeniable 
 fact, to prove its absolute nullity. We disallow infant 
 communion, or the admission of mere children to the 
 sacred supper, containing the commemorative sym- 
 bols of our Divine Lord, our heavenly Saviour, 
 though it was practised and sanctioned by the Fa- 
 thers — does it follow that we ought in consistency to 
 reject the ordinance altogether ? Or would it be fair 
 to argue that by rejecting the errors of the Fathers, 
 the absurd opinions of " Christian antiquity," we 
 give up the doctrines of the Gospel, and the truth 
 of Christianity ? The one mode of reasoning would 
 be just as fair and reasonable as the other. The 
 writings of the Fathers prove that the early Chris- 
 
 possibly join in the vulgar hue and cry of No Popery. We hold it 
 to be as unjust and as unchristian as -it is impolitic, to inflict any 
 civil disability or disadvantage on any man, be he Catholic, Pagan, 
 Turk, Jew, or Infidel, merely for his reUgion or irreligibn — merely 
 for his modes of worship, and of faith, or of opinion. And we 
 receive it as a token for good, we hail it as "an auspicious sign of 
 the times, bad as in some respects they are, that even the gross and 
 daring charlatanerie in impiety of Christian-Evidence Society Men, 
 receives the only condign punishment it merits at the hands of man, 
 contemptuous impunity : and surely such men can never be counted 
 ivorthy of suffering persecution ; nor can any sound reasoner ever 
 deign to accept their bravading challenges. 
 
119 
 
 tians (and alas ! such Christians many of them were 
 — so devoid of primitive simplicity and purity !) had 
 received Baptism and the Lord's Supper as abiding 
 ordinances of the Christian dispensation; but they 
 prove nothing more : they cannot give a vaUd sanc- 
 tion to any perversions or abuses of divine doctrines 
 and ordinances. These perversions, these abuses, 
 can be traced to their origin, and satisfactorily ac- 
 counted for; but whether they could be accounted 
 for or not, the abuse of any thing can never be turned 
 into a fair argument against its legitimate use ; and 
 it carries absurdity on the very face of it to endeavour 
 to prove that a superstitious perversion of an insti- 
 tution ought to supersede the institution itself in its 
 pristine purity, or that a spurious copy is to be pre- 
 ferred to the genuine original. 
 
 Having adverted thus much to the mode of de- 
 fending Infant Baptism by the authority of " Chris- 
 tian antiquity," we dismiss it with one remark. To 
 our mind it fully proves one thing ; that is, the 
 essential weakness and utter defencelessness of the 
 Psedobaptist cause: for if it possessed any latent 
 principles — any inherent energies or capabilities, it 
 must have acquired strength in the hands of so many 
 able advocates. 
 
 It seems not irrelevant to our subject, before pro- 
 ceeding directly to the question of perpetuity, to 
 devote a few remarks to its opponents, the Anti- 
 baptists. And the first remark which occurs is, that 
 they are, and always have been, few in number. We 
 
120 
 
 can only enumerate Faustus Socinus, and a few who 
 embraced his opinion in Poland, and Thomas Emlyn, 
 and a few others, in England; and though their 
 number seems on the increase, it is still very small ; 
 and so far as we know\ there is not a single church 
 or congregation anywhere existing avowedly Anti- 
 baptist. We must not omit to mention the Quakers, 
 the most consistent of all the rejectors of baptism. 
 They are not, however, so properly Anti-baptists as 
 Anti'institutionists. They reject Baptism as a carnal 
 ordinance, and for the same reason they reject the 
 Lord's Supper. 
 
 Anti-baptism may be considered as of recent origin ; 
 for so far as we have been able to ascertain, Socinus 
 was the first person of any intellectual distinction wha 
 adopted it.'^ In his disputation concerning the Bap- 
 
 * The reports of " Christian antiquity" respecting the few visionary 
 mystics who were accused of rejecting water baptism altogether, like 
 the Quakers, are so unsatisfactory, as to be hardly worthy of notice. 
 Perhaps Dr. John Jones may be able to throw some light on this 
 dark subject in the Monthly Repository. The Valentinians are ac- 
 cused of substituting various superstitions of their own for baptism ; 
 and the Manicheans are charged by Austin with saying, that Water 
 Baptism does nobody any good : but Cyril of Alexandria reports 
 that they had a substitute for it. A lady at Carthage, of the name of 
 Quintilla, and the female Ranter of her day, seems to have obtained 
 some notoriety as an Anti-baptist : for good Tertullian conferred 
 importance upon her, by writing a treatise on Baptism. It is 
 difficult to treat such subjects with becoming gravity ; but the ex- 
 ample of Robert Robinson warns us to beware. It becomes us to 
 imitate Heraclitus rather than Democritus, at least with such follies 
 as are in any way united to religion. 
 
121 
 
 tism of Water,* he supposes an opponent to say, Do 
 you wish to be another Novatus, and to abolish the 
 baptism of Water ? From this we were at first dis- 
 posed to infer that Novatus had set the example of 
 rejecting baptism ; and we should not have been 
 much surprised at this or any thing else in such a 
 priest of Carthage ; but by recurring to his history 
 we were soon convinced that this was not the fact, 
 and that the allusion had respect to a false accusa- 
 tion brought against him, because he held (at least 
 in one part of his priestly career), that persons who 
 had apostatized from Christianity to Paganism ought 
 not to receive baptism again, or be admitted into the 
 church : for he maintained with Novatian, another 
 intriguing, factious priest, that baptism ought not to 
 be repeated in the same person ; and yet that none 
 could be received directly from idolatry into the 
 church without being baptized ; and therefore that 
 such as had gone over from Christianity to Heathen- 
 ism, were debarred from both for ever after. 
 
 Though the Anti-baptists be of small number, and 
 recent origin, they are truly respectable when tried 
 by a mental and moral standard. This acknowledg- 
 ment is due to them, and it is cheerfully awarded by 
 us. For if it be a proud sentiment in the bosom of 
 ambitious warriors to encounter foes of renown, it 
 must be a nobler, because a purer satisfaction, in fair 
 
 * De Baptismo Aquae Disputatio, Caput xvli. Quid igitur? 
 Dixerit fortasse quispiam, Num tu alter Novatus esse vis, et aquae 
 baptismum abrogare ? Minime gentium, &c. 
 
122 
 
 and honourable controversy, to contend with illus- 
 trious opponents. And who can think of such men 
 as Faustus Socinus, and Thomas Emlyn, and Robert 
 Barclay, without respect ? All of them distinguished 
 by purity of mind, simplicity of life, and energy of 
 character, and all of them persecuted for their honest 
 love of what they deemed truth, and of freedom of 
 speech in professing their opinions. 
 
 There is one remark more in reference to the Anti- 
 baptists. They make in general common cause with 
 us on the Paedobaptist controversy. They hold that 
 the only Christian baptism is that of the immersion 
 of Adults making a profession of faith in Christ. In 
 this indeed they merely agree with many of the most 
 enlightened and candid critics of all persuasions, 
 when not writing under the influence of party pre- 
 judice and feeling. Socinus rejected Infant Baptism 
 as a manifest error, which had no countenance from 
 Scripture or from reason, and which produced many 
 bad effects, and was associated with great errors. 
 He thought nothing was more clear than that faith 
 and repentance ought to precede baptism, if admi- 
 nistered at all. See his life by Toulmin, and Ro- 
 binson's Ecclesiastical Researches. 
 
 Equally express to the same purpose is the lan- 
 guage of Barclay, the accredited organ and able 
 advocate of that respectable body of people com- 
 monly called Quakers. His words are, " As to the 
 baptism of infants, it is a mere human tradition, for 
 which neither precept nor practice is to be found in 
 
123 
 
 all the Scripture." The same is the opinion of our 
 contemporary Anti-baptists. It is indeed a remark- 
 able fact, that the most eminent of them actually 
 were Baptists before they renounced the rite in ques- 
 tion, and became advocates for its non-perpetuity. 
 This accounts, perhaps, for the ungracious manner 
 and scornful spirit of some of them towards the 
 Baptists ; for the renouncers of a party or of a prin- 
 ciple are usually its least generous opponents. We 
 might, if we chose, apply the argumentum ad ho- 
 minem with some eifect to our quondam Baptist 
 brethren. We might urge, that we have a special 
 claim on the score of relationship, if not to their 
 forbearance and generosity, at least to their justice 
 and candour. We might say to them, It will seem 
 to betray some soreness of feeling — some trouble- 
 someness of conscience — some sense of shame, in 
 reference to your dereliction of Baptism, and your 
 desertion of the Baptists, if you shew an ungracious 
 spirit towards them ; and if, instead of taking up a 
 neutral position, you transfer all your favour to their 
 Paedobaptist opponents. 
 
 There is but one remark more which I will allow 
 myself to make before proceeding to the ultimate 
 question ; and it is in reference to the chief motive 
 avowed for opposing the perpetuity of baptism. That 
 motive, as set forth by Socinus, and Emlyn, and 
 others, is the laudable desire of promoting the peace 
 of the Christian church, by rooting out of it a vex- 
 atious controversy. But if the object could be at- 
 
124 
 
 tainedj this is such a desperate remedy for the disorder, 
 as amputating a Hmb for some inconsiderable ailment. 
 In this spirit of peace-making we might reject the 
 perpetuity of the ordinance of the Lord's Supper : 
 we might reject the doctrines of the gospel and 
 Christianity altogether to get rid of stormy contro- 
 versies ; which after all may, like the storms which 
 rage in the atmosphere around our dwellings, do 
 more good than harm. 
 
 But the proposed remedy, supposing it could take 
 effect, is not only worse than the disorder, but it 
 possesses no remedial virtue : it has no efficacy as 
 an antidote. Instead of removing or abating, it 
 only aggravates the evil, by adding a new contro- 
 versy. It is not peace, but more w^ar : it is not a 
 principle of harmony, but another apple of discord. 
 What Anti-baptist of common sense, and common 
 observation and reflection, can reasonably hope to 
 persuade all Christians into his opinion ? But un- 
 less he can do this, his anti-controversial invention or 
 discovery is a useless nostrum ; and by his weakness 
 or his quackery, he only increases the disorder of 
 the Church, and leaves it in a more controversial 
 condition than he found it. Where there was but 
 one schism in reference to Baptism, there must be 
 now two schisms : where there w^ere only two con- 
 tending parties, there must be henceforth three. In 
 addition to the sects ot factions of Baptist and Paedo- 
 baptist, there must be the Anti-baptist sect or fac- 
 tion in the Church of Christ, which should be as 
 
125 
 
 entire as the seamless robe he wore, when he sup- 
 pHcated with such intense earnestness, affectionate 
 tenderness, and holy fervor. That they all may he 
 one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that 
 they also may he one in us ; that the ivorld may be- 
 lieve that thou hast sent me. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of the motive just 
 adverted to, there is another which hardly any 
 would care to avow, but which we fear has no 
 small influence, and that is, disinclination to incon- 
 venience and reproach, or to incur disadvantage and 
 odium for conscience^ sake. There is some incon- 
 venience, and there is not a little odium connected 
 with Believers' Baptism, at least under certain cir- 
 cumstances. And to speak plainly what we think, 
 this is the most stubborn, the most formidable ob- 
 jection to its perpetuity that we have to contend 
 with. This is the only argument that we have any 
 dread of, or despair of successfully combating. Many 
 persons may be met with who profess themselves 
 convinced on the subject, but who cannot encounter 
 the opposition presented to their imagination, or 
 overcome their own reluctance, so as to submit to 
 what they believe to be a divine command. When 
 such persons are pursued every where, and haunted 
 night and day with troublesome convictions, it can- 
 not be surprising if they should be ready to take 
 refuge, and find peace, in the doctrine of Anti-bap- 
 tism. And this particular case has only to be 
 generalized to give the same motive a wider range. 
 
126 
 
 It must also be confessed (and why should we 
 not employ the most unreserved explicitness ?), that 
 the conduct of some Baptists has caused offence, and 
 created disaffection. They have laid undue stress 
 upon baptism. They have employed it as a weapon 
 of uncharitableness. Some have made it essential 
 to salvation, and many have made it a prerequisite to 
 Christian fellowship, which is in effect to desecrate a 
 peaceful ordinance of Christ into an unholy instru- 
 ment of hostility against his own body.* Ignorant, 
 
 * It gives us inexpressible satisfaction to find amongst our Bap- 
 tist brethren such an advocate for Christian Hberahty on this point 
 (technically termed free communion) as the eloquent Robert HaU ; 
 for by this designation he is known far and v^ide in the earth ; and 
 by this designation he will be known in the remotest times of suc- 
 cessive generations yet to come. His eloquence is not the ad cap- 
 tandum vulgus of gaudy show, empty pomp, or fantastic singularity, 
 (the cheap and common substitute for originality) ; for it is as sub- 
 stantially intellectual as it is exquisitely classical. In an age of 
 meretricious rhetoric and mock eloquence ; when a sound reasoner 
 dreads as an imputation what was once a distinction ; when every 
 unthinking or half-reasoning speaker and writer must figure and 
 flourish as a rhetorician, it is some consolation that there is yet a 
 Hall amongst us. We most sincerely rejoice to find that the sublime 
 mind of an author, who delighted and instructed us in our youth, is 
 not sicuti effceta parente. Would that we could add in his own 
 words, " Like a prolific mother exulted in her n/umerous offspring *\' 
 For if by any possibility of Divine decree, or of mental error, we 
 must hereafter dwell far apart in the opposite extremes of infinite 
 existence, we wish to have at least as much as possible of the lux- 
 urious delight of communing with his pure and sublime intellect 
 here on earth. Our purest delight, indeed, in this imperfect state, 
 has often some alloy; and after rapturously enjoying the glorious 
 victory over the strict communionists, we had the mortification of 
 
127 
 
 incapable, and rash men too (as if they could have 
 a right or a call to injure a good and sacred cause) 
 have clamourously declaimed (might we not say have 
 raved and railed ?) when, had they been wise, grave, 
 and discreet persons, well instructed into the king- 
 dom of heaven, they would have soberly reasoned, 
 and mildly persuaded, out of the Scriptures. Some- 
 times also the unseemly manner of some of our bre- 
 thren in performing the rite has given a rude shock 
 to inveterate prejudice, and created much disgust or 
 aversion. They have too much affected public ex- 
 hibition, without any regard to circumstances, or to 
 individual temperament. There are persons of weak 
 
 seeing the hero who achieved it delivering up his armour to the 
 vanquished opponent for the sake of certain fundamentals ; as if in 
 pity or scorn for their weakness he would encourage them to renew 
 the contest against him when he no longer possessed either weapon 
 or shield. The British tar, who with such romantic generosity gave 
 a cutlass to his disarmed foe, prudently retained one for himself. 
 We have not seen Mr. Kinghom's reply to " Terms of Communion," 
 and perhaps never shall see it ; but he must be a weak controvertist 
 indeed if he cannot make a stout resistance to his too bravely generous, 
 though mighty, opponent. We would fain address a few words to 
 Mr. Hall on the subject ; and sure we are that they would have 
 nothing of the odium theologicum in them : for proceeding from 
 deep-seated deference, they could not be asperously controversial, 
 but gently and submissively expostulatory ; and if our arguments 
 should receive refutation from such a distinguished opponent, 
 [veteran was in our mind, but it awakened a tender, and perhaps 
 selfish, regret,) our defeat would not be inglorious ; though we trust 
 none but some higher and holier motive than ambition shall ever 
 move us to controversy, especially with one who consecrates his 
 supereminent endowments to the glory of God, and to the good of 
 
128 
 
 nerves, and much hysterical excitabihty ; and there 
 are some who possess, so to speak, a kind of hydro- 
 phobic timidity. Why should such persons, or in- 
 deed any persons, be made the subjects of a public 
 spectacle to a staring (perhaps a profane) multitude? 
 What is there in the New Testament to warrant this? 
 Did Philip first collect a multitude around the Ethi- 
 opian nobleman before he baptized him ? Did the 
 Apostles and Evangelists purposely collect a multi- 
 tude around any one of the many persons they 
 baptized? Is there a single intimation that they 
 
 men. We now feel indeed that we are doing violence to our defer- 
 ence by saying what may offend the modesty and piety of that very 
 mind which is the object of our admiration ; but we have been 
 insensibly led on, without having any intention of writing a eulo- 
 gium ; and now that it is written, we have not sufficient sternness of 
 purpose to destroy this last work of our hand, and creation of our 
 mind. 
 
 We cannot quit this note without saying that a religious denomi- 
 nation, distinguished by its Halls, its Robinsons, and its Fosters, 
 (and here the plural term is literally appropriate,) has no reason to 
 shrink from an intellectual comparison with any other denomina- 
 tion. The Presbyterian and the Independent denominations are 
 highly respectable, and could produce many names fit to rank with 
 or to rank above that of a Gale or a Gill ; but we know not what 
 names they have to rank above those we have indicated. And if we 
 point to native genius and talent, where shall we find a match for a 
 Bunyan, a Booth, or a Fuller ? Indeed the ingenious and highly 
 gifted Robinson belongs to this class rather than to any other. When 
 I look at the supereminent development of native genius and talent 
 in the Baptist Denomination, I cannot but infer that the very pectc- 
 liarity which is so obnoxious to some persons, has a kind of natural 
 attraction or affinity for great minds. 
 
129 
 
 tiiade Baptism a part of social and public worship ? 
 There is a wide difference between timidly shunning 
 and importunately or ostentatiously courting public 
 notice or wonder ; and I entertain no doubt what- 
 ever that the public exhibition which has been so 
 much affected, both in adult immersion and in infant 
 sprinkling, (which in my native country is performed 
 in the face of the whole congregation,) is a part of 
 that Popish love of spectacle which commenced in 
 the time of those very Fathers who are so much 
 venerated by some as high and sacred authorities. 
 
 Perhaps these remarks will be as unwelcome to 
 some Baptists as my remarks in general will be to 
 their opponents. I do not, however, stand up here 
 to please a party, but to advocate truth, and to speak 
 without disguise or reserve my sincere opinions and 
 honest convictions. And I am not sorry that an 
 opportunity has occurred of proving, that I have no 
 slavish fears or fetters upon my mind ; for this is at 
 least some guarantee that I speak what I think, and 
 mean what I say. I am wholly incapable of being 
 either the organ or the tool of a party ; and that 
 party, or those persons, who do not wish my un- 
 conditional, my unfettered co-operation, may easily 
 contrive to do without it. 
 
 But it is now more than time to come to the ques- 
 tion at issue. And here we shall endeavour, with as 
 much brevity as possible, first to combat the objec- 
 tions made to the Perpetuity of Baptism, and then to 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 state the evidence on the authority of which we main- 
 tain its permanent nature or perpetual obhgation. 
 
 The objections may be ranged under three heads, 
 or rather they may be resolved into three distinct 
 objections. The first is that of the Quakers: the 
 second is founded on the supposed proselyting cha- 
 racter of the rite, as if intended merely to initiate 
 Jews and Gentiles into Christianity : and the third 
 is founded on the supposition, that it was intended 
 merely for the introduction of Christianity, and ex- 
 clusively connected with the apostolic or miraculous 
 age of the church. 
 
 The first of these objections, though the most 
 plausible of all the three, will not detain us long ; 
 for we do not hope to make converts of Quakers 
 to our opinions by convincement ; and no other 
 controvertists are likely to take up their position, 
 or adopt their mode of argumentation. In- 
 deed, their reasonings are so very spiritual in their 
 essence, and have so little of tangible substance, 
 that it is hardly possible to lay hold of them, or to 
 imbody them in a sensible form. But we have the 
 illuminating guidance, the admirable simplicity and 
 ingenuity of their venerable oracle^ Barclay ; and 
 their doctrine, as stated by him, is this : that there 
 are two baptisms spoken of in the New Testament ; 
 the one carnal, the other spiritual ; the one the bap- 
 tism of water — the other the baptism of the Spirit ; 
 the one the baptism of John — the other the baptism 
 
131 
 
 of Christ ; the former the figure of the latter, and 
 therefore commanded for a time, but not to continue 
 for ever, being intended to give place to that which 
 it figured. 
 
 To omit all other considerations, the whole history 
 of the Apostles and Evangelists presents a most in- 
 surmountable objection to this theory. For how 
 was it that Water Baptism did not give place to the 
 Baptism of the Spirit ? Why did the Apostles and 
 Evangelists employ the carnal ordinance of water 
 long after they had received the true, the antitypical, 
 the spiritual baptism ? Why did they ever baptize 
 at all with water in the name of Christ their Lord 
 and Saviour ? 
 
 On this point even the ingenuity of Robert Bar- 
 clay is sadly at fault ; and he meets the difficulty 
 with a very lame sort of argument, and in a very 
 faultering manner. " As to the insinuated absurdity 
 (he writes) that the Apostles baptized with water 
 without a commission, it is none at all ; for they may 
 have done it hy a permission, as being in use before 
 Christ's death, and because the people, nursed up 
 with outward ceremonies, could not be weaned wholly 
 from them." This has at least the merit of honest 
 frankness and amiable simplicity, which are always 
 infinitely preferable to subtle sophistry or artful mys- 
 tification. Such a modest apology for argument as 
 " they may have done it hy a permission" merits 
 gentle treatment, and therefore we will not inflict 
 
 k2 
 
132 
 
 upon it any cross-examination, or put it to the torture 
 of logical scrutiny. 
 
 But the grand difficulty of the Quaker theory is 
 Christ's commission to his Apostles to teach all 
 nations, baptizing them. And how does Robert 
 Barclay solve it ? As Alexander undid the Gordian 
 knot. He cuts it asunder at once, by resolutely de- 
 nying that Water Baptism is meant, and by earnestly 
 interposing his mere affirmation that it was the spi- 
 ritual ordinance, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the 
 Apostles were commanded to administer to all na- 
 tions. But even the affirmation of a Quaker, though 
 a very respectable substitute for an affidavit, is wholly 
 inadmissible in lieu of proof. There is one remark 
 of Barclay so singularly curious as to merit quota- 
 tion. " Though (he says) in reason it be sufficient 
 on our part to deny that it is by water, [the Apostles 
 are commissioned to baptize,J yet I shall premise 
 some reasons why we do so. The first is a reason 
 yielded to by all, that we ought not to go from the 
 literal signification of the text, except some urgent 
 necessity force us thereunto." Must we believe, 
 then, that to give the Holy Spirit, or any thing 
 of this nature whatever that may be, (for we do not 
 pretend to know what a Quaker may mean by the 
 Apostles administering spiritual baptism in the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spi- 
 rit,) is the literal meaning of the word baptize ? The 
 fact seems to be, that the mind of Robert Barclay 
 
133 
 
 was by this time so completety under the force of 
 theoretic habit — was so possessed with the idea of 
 Water Baptism being a Jlgurat'we matter — that he 
 was entirely off his guard (for nothing is more com- 
 mon than for hah'it or force of custom to produce 
 some extraordinary blunder or glaring absurdity) 
 when he wrote the above sentence ; so that he did 
 not perceive it to be directly subversive of his own 
 reasoning, and a clear testimony, a positive proof, 
 against his own theory. The other reasons he 
 adduces have as little reason or scriptural evidence 
 in them : in fact they are wholly irrelevant to the 
 question at issue. But we will now release you from 
 the Quakers. They are Anti-mstitutionists. The 
 founders of the sect had an " urgent necessity for- 
 cing them thereunto," and constraining them to- 
 depart from the literal meaning of certain passages 
 of scripture. Their object was to get rid of religious 
 institutions as carnal ceremonies. Their aim was to 
 strip religion of all externals, that piety might de- 
 pend wholly on the inward illuminations and move- 
 ments of the Spirit. Nor is it unintelligible or 
 inexplicable that men so highly moved and agitated, 
 as to be denominated Quakers, (as others have been 
 more recently denominated Shakers,) should fall into 
 this error. 
 
 We come now to the Proselyte objection. And 
 here we have to examine not the amusing fancies and 
 ingenious theories of a heated imagination in the 
 form of fanaticism, but the dull and doubtful legends 
 
134 
 
 of Tradition, in the last stage of baldness and de- 
 formity. Even the mythology and fabulous history 
 of Heathen antiquity possess some redeeming qua- 
 lities as objects of our curiosity ; but the legendary 
 lore of the Jewish Rabbins is a mass of mere ab- 
 surdity, not only devoid of all authenticity and cre- 
 dibility, but w^ithout a single ray of genius to enliven 
 its darkness, or to relieve its dulness. It is not a 
 little surprising, after the manner in which our Di- 
 vine Teacher, Jesus, the Lord and Lawgiver of Chris- 
 tians, has spoken of the traditions of the Elders, and 
 concerning the Scribes and Pharisees, that any Pro- 
 testant theologians should appeal to their successors 
 of subsequent centuries as authorities in matters of 
 religion. But the authority of the Rabbis, like that 
 of the Fathers, was wanted for a purpose ; and sure 
 enough Rabbi Maimonides is a fit compeer for Father 
 Augustine. 
 
 Dr. Wall and his coadjutors, in their eagerness to 
 fortify a weak cause by foreign auxiliaries, did not 
 exercise sufficient sagacity to perceive, that if they 
 could prove any thing by Rabbinical authority, they 
 would prove too much for their purpose ; and that 
 instead of establishing Infant Baptism, they would 
 only supply arguments for setting aside Baptism 
 altogether, except as a mere proselyting rite, to 
 initiate a whole family, tribe, or race of human 
 beings into Christianity, and never to be repeated 
 in any of their descendants. Accordingly Emlyn, 
 Wakefield, and other scholastic reasoners of the 
 
135 
 
 same description/ were inspired with the hope of an 
 easy triumph ; (and without a cheap victory all 
 triumph was hopeless;) for they thought they had 
 only to adopt the notion of Proselyte Baptism as 
 having existed among the Jews, to argue against the 
 perpetuity of Baptism as a Christian ordinance. 
 
 But the question resolves itself simply into this : 
 First, is it certain that Proselyte Baptism existed 
 among the Jews at and previously to the time of 
 John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ and his Apostles? 
 Secondly, if it did exist' at and previously to that 
 time, will this prove or disprove any thing what- 
 ever respecting Christian Baptism ? 
 
 As to the first question, we have no hesitation in 
 replying to it by a most decided and unqualified 
 negation. Some who have taken part in this con- 
 troversy are very strenuous in their assertions, and 
 very eager to have the matter admitted or taken for 
 granted ; but they have never yet produced any 
 clear or positive proof: and all that the more modest 
 and guarded friends of the opinion insist on is, its 
 high probability. Dr. Rees,^ for example, in his 
 Cyclopedia, under the article Baptism, thus writes : 
 " Dr. Wall has made it highly probable, to say the 
 least, from many testimonies of the Jewish writers, 
 who without one dissenting voice, [this is rather 
 hardy in the Doctor, but he was only saying after 
 
 * We have supposed the Doctor to be the writer of the article; 
 but even if he did not write it, it is his by virtue of his Editorial 
 office. 
 
136 
 
 many more confident men ; and even the most cau- 
 tious are emboldened by numbers,] allow the fact, 
 that the practice of Jewish Baptism obtained, before 
 and at, as well as after, our Saviour's time." The 
 Doctor then, with all his Psedobaptist bias, with all 
 his diligent inquiry, critical sagacity, and advantage 
 of the labours, and services, and suggestions of others, 
 (and during his Editorialship he must have been a 
 kind of Consul or Dictator in the Republic of Let- 
 ters,) was not prepared to venture more than a claim 
 to high pj'ohahility for Jewish Baptism. 
 
 Though the opinion in question was got up, or 
 eagerly laid hold of, for a particular purpose, yet many 
 of the ablest Psedobaptist critics and theological an- 
 tiquaries reject it : as, for example. Dr. Owen, Jen- 
 nings, the author of Jewish Antiquities, and (not to 
 mention more, for he is a host in himself) that 
 able advocate of Christianity, at whose feet Paley 
 sat ; that patient, diligent, and candid inquirer. Dr. 
 Lardner, who thus writes in his Letters to Dod- 
 dridge : " As for the Baptism of Proselytes, I take 
 it to be a mere fiction of the Rabbins, by whom we 
 have suffered ourselves too often to be imposed upon." 
 If we must bow our understandings to the high au- 
 thority of great names, here is an authority mightier 
 far than a whole army of mere scholastic men, who 
 endeavour by confidence to make up for lack of qua- 
 lification to give an opinion. Dr. Benson, too, who 
 was inclined to take the matter for granted, before he 
 had fully inquired into it, says, " I cannot find that. 
 
137 
 
 the Jews do at present practise any such thing as 
 that of baptizing the Proselytes that go over to 
 them, though they are said to make them wash 
 themselves. [And without controversy they have 
 always had divers ivashings — if these must be called 
 haptisms.*] Where is there any intimation of such 
 a practice among the Jews before the coming of our 
 Lord? If any one could produce any clear testi- 
 mony of that kind from the Old Testament, the 
 Apocrypha, Josephus, or Philo, that would be of 
 great moment." Paraphrase on the Epistles of Paul, 
 p. 641. 
 
 Honestly and nobly spoken by a Psedobaptist, 
 who was a candid and diligent inquirer ! The fact 
 is, that the Old and New Testaments, and even the 
 Apocrypha, are wholly silent respecting the exist- 
 ence of any Jewish Baptism ; and Josephus, the 
 Jewish historian and antiquary, and Philo, the Jew- 
 ish Plato (as he has been styled), are equally silent 
 on the subject ; though they mention proselytes and 
 circumcision as applied to them. Nor have we even 
 any Rabbinical authority for the opinion earher 
 than the Babylonian Talmud, (a very appropriate 
 
 * We have been not a little amused in the small quantum of 
 research deemed sufficient for our purpose, to find that many remarks 
 in the casual controversy of cursory conversation, to which we. had 
 given some credit for originality and spontaneity, were after all a 
 bundle of chips out of the Common-place Book ; which is, no doubt, 
 a rich mine of intellectual treasure — an exhaustless armory of mighty 
 talents — a well-furnished wardrobe for all occasions of pompous show 
 and fine display. 
 
138 
 
 appellation,) or a Collection of Jewish Traditions 
 and Comments on the Law^ published at the begin- 
 ning of the sixth century of the Christian era. 
 
 We have spent more time on this Jewish ques- 
 tion than it deserves ; and we cheerfully dismiss it 
 by referring those who desire fuller and minuter 
 evidence to a Review^ of the Authorities for the ex- 
 istence of Jewish Proselyte Baptism, appended to 
 the last edition of Dr. Gale's Reflections on Dr. 
 Wall's History of Infant Baptism. We should be 
 glad to see that Appendix published as a pamphlet 
 for the benefit of those who have any curiosity con- 
 cerning the question ; but who have not time or 
 inclination to rummage a musty library. Dr. Gale, 
 like Dr. Gill_, and a good many other good Doctors, 
 may be considered as gone by; for the fashion of 
 controversy, like that of the world, passeth away. 
 Indeed we should deem it quite a work of superero- 
 gation to write a single sentence on the subjects and 
 mode of Baptism ; and it is a task to which the 
 humblest description of logical ability is fully com- 
 petent. The English, the Scotch, and the American 
 Baptists, have all, in the most supererogatory man- 
 ner, settled the question as completely as scripture 
 and reason can settle any question whatever. And 
 we desire no other Counsel in the cause than the 
 Psedobaptist advocates themselves, with all persons 
 who will be at the trouble to think, and who can 
 analyse statements and arguments ; provided always 
 that they sincerely wish to know and do their duty, 
 
139 
 
 and are not seeking to find a plausible plea or decent 
 apology for avoiding inconvenience and odium, or 
 for soothing their own reluctance. 
 
 We had intended to notice the reasonings (for 
 such we term them in courtesy) of Emlyn and the 
 Anti-baptists in favour of Jewish Proselyte Baptism. 
 But, on close inspection, we found them too weak 
 to merit review or refutation. Take a specimen from 
 Emlyn's Previous Question : " I think, (says Em- 
 lyn,) impartially, that Mr. Wall, [he had not then 
 received his Doctoral distinction,] after others, has 
 made it highly probable at least, from very many 
 testimonies of the Jewish writers, who, by what I 
 can find, [more modest than even Dr. Rees,] with- 
 out any one dissenting voice, allow the fact. And 
 it is hard to be denied that there is a broad intima- 
 tion, even in the Gospel itself, of such a known 
 practice among the Jews in John the Baptist's time, 
 in that question of the Pharisees: ff^hi/ haptizest 
 thou then, if thou he not the Christ, nor Elias, nor 
 a Prophet P They wondered not at proselyting [ob- 
 serve the word employed] by baptism ; for they 
 asked not, What meanest thou by this action? as 
 they had probably done had it been a novel and 
 strange ceremony ; but only they demand by 
 what authority he thus made Proselytes, [Proselyte 
 again without ceremony,] i. e. among the Jews, 
 who were already of the true church and faith; and, 
 therefore, without some new dispensation^ he could 
 have no authority to baptize or proselyte [is to bap- 
 
140 
 
 tize identical with to proselyte?] among the Jews. 
 They speak as if they knew such baptism to be of 
 that great importance that none but one authorized 
 to introduce a new state of religion might authorize 
 this practice of it. How come they to esteem it of 
 so much more signification than other ceremonies 
 which they scrupled not to admit upon less autho- 
 rity than that of a great Prophet? I suppose it was 
 because they had been accustomed to such a solemn 
 use of it as that of proselyting persons to the true 
 religion. I own this is not expressly nor demon- 
 stratively to be shown from the text ; but I see no 
 sense of it so fair and natural as this ?" 
 
 We put it to every person of even common ap- 
 prehension, whether such a crude mass of hypothe- 
 tical verbiage, erected on the basis of a broad inti- 
 mation, can be worthy of logical dissection. Mr. 
 Emlyn is supposed to have convinced Mr. Gilbert 
 Wakefield and other learned persons. All we will 
 say is, that whoever are convinced by the statements 
 of Mr. Emlyn's Previous Question must have an 
 extraordinary faculty for easy convincement ; for it 
 would be difficult to find, in the whole compass of 
 literature, any thing more clumsy and bungling, we 
 say not as argument or reasoning, but'as mere theory. 
 
 We have now disposed of the question respecting 
 Jewish Proselyte Baptism. And what is the result? 
 Plainly this r that nothing can be inferred from it or 
 established by it respecting any subject whatever: 
 for that which itself requires to be proved cannot be 
 
141 
 
 nn admissible witness or valid proof concerning any 
 question at issue: and to attempt to settle a dispute 
 or terminate a controversy by disputable or contro- 
 vertible evidence, is manifestly as absurd and vain as 
 to endeavour to raise a superstructure or erect a 
 building without a foundation. But granting it to 
 be firmly established or clearly proved, that there was 
 such an ancient Jewish practice; — nay, more, that it 
 was an essential rite of the Mosaic Dispensation or 
 Divinely appointed in the Jewish Religion ; — grant- 
 ing all this, (and as we can afford to be liberal of 
 concessions, and as our opponents beg the question 
 with so much importunity, we are willing to bestow 
 it upon them as a small gratuity, merely for the 
 sake of argument,) what benefit will the concession 
 impart? What will it establish? Will it prove that 
 a Jewish Baptism and Christian Baptism are identi- 
 cal? Or, that the one is to be administered for the 
 same purposes and to the same description of per- 
 sons as the other ? You might as well attempt to 
 prove, that Christianity and Judaism, or that Jesus 
 and Moses, are identical. The two persons are not 
 more distinct and dissimilar than their respective 
 Dispensations. The one was essentially national 
 and earthly, — the only consistent and exclusive 
 Church Establishment that ever existed in the 
 world, — being part and parcel (if we may disfigure 
 the language of our reasoning with such a barba- 
 rism, though sanctioned by high authority) of the 
 Civil Polity, or rather. Theocracy of the Jews : the 
 
142 
 
 other is essentially intellectual, and moral, and hea- 
 venly; and, in reality, embraces none but such as 
 individually receive its sublime truths and comply 
 with its moral requirements. If any sort of Baptism 
 was employed to proselyte or initiate a family, a 
 tribe, a race into Judaism ; will it or can it perform 
 the same office as to Christianity ? If a whole peo- 
 ple, young and old, ignorant and informed, virtuous 
 and vicious, (including in them, too, successive gene- 
 rations,) could be received into the Jewish Church, 
 or rather, Jewish Nation ; does it follow, that such 
 either can be or ought to be received into the Chris- 
 tian — we mean the real, the pure Christian Church, 
 or Church of Christ — that Church of which He, and 
 He alone, without vicegerent, partner or rival, is the 
 sole Head, the only Lord? If Baptism could make 
 mere infants Jews, can Baptism make mere infants 
 Christians, in the proper acceptation of the name or 
 designation ? It may be said, by a common abuse 
 of words, (than which no entities are more abused,) 
 that new-born infants are christened, and that they 
 receive their christian name by a ceremony with 
 water, be it "immersion, aifusion, or sprinkling: but 
 will this ceremony — can this ceremony — constitute 
 the poor, passive, unconscious babes, real or living 
 members of that intellectual, moral, and spiritual 
 Church, which is spoken of in the New Testament 
 as the hodi/ of Christ, because he is its intellectual 
 and moral and spiritual HeadP But we now feel 
 as if we were lavishing argument upon a worthless 
 
143 
 
 theme. If men would think clearly, no reasoning 
 would be necessary on such a question ; and unless 
 they will think clearly, all our reasoning must be 
 useless or unavailing. 
 
 Much use has been made of the words Proselyte 
 and Initiate in this controversy; but it may be ne- 
 cessary to examine their import — for no words are so 
 much abused as those which are most frequently 
 employed, or with which changes are rung most 
 incessantly in our ears — for, to use the Quaker ex- 
 pression, there is usually " some urgent necessity 
 forcing thereunto." A Proselyte is one that has 
 come from strangers or foreigners and joined some 
 particular people, so as henceforth to submit to their 
 laws and customs, and to share in their fortunes ; 
 that is, if theologically considered, he is a convert. 
 To proselyte, therefore, is to make a convert of, or 
 to admit as a convert. To initiate is to cause to 
 enter, or to introduce. Now, the question as 
 to the Christian Religion is this : What descrip- 
 tion of human beings can be received or intro- 
 duced as proselytes into a profession of it, the 
 enjoyment of its privileges, and the discharge 
 of its duties? To this, individual conviction and 
 choice and compliance arc necessary. It neces- 
 sarily follows, therefore, that there cannot be an 
 aggregate proselyte or convert to the religion of 
 Jesus Christ. A family, in its collective character, 
 or tribe, or r^ace, cannot be initiated into it. Nor 
 can the introduction of progenitors into the religion 
 
144 
 
 of the gospel, or into the kingdom of Christ, be a 
 patent of Christian Nobility to entail upon their 
 descendants hereditary possession of its titles and 
 privileges. 
 
 Some of our Anti-baptist, as well as Paedobaptist 
 Christian brcthi'en, employ very inexplicable state- 
 ment and phraseology in reference to the present 
 question. Mr. Frend, in his Letters to Bishop 
 Prettyman, thus writes : " Compared with the Jews, 
 all the Heathens were impure ; and if any one, sen- 
 sible of his errors and impurities, became a convert 
 to the Jewish worship, baptism was the ceremony 
 previous to his initiation." [There is here a full 
 assurance of faith in Rabbinical authority, which 
 Dr. Rees, Mr. Emlyn, and others, never attained ; 
 or, which at least they never had courage to confess 
 before the world,] " The Heathen, who was in- 
 troduced into the congregation of the Jews, became 
 holy like his nevv^ brethren, and there was no subse- 
 quent baptism to initiate his now Jioly offspring into 
 the father's religion. They were all born holy in 
 the holy religion; and if the first-fruits [root we be- 
 lieve it is, if intended as a quotation] were holy, so 
 were the branches. In the same manner the Apos- 
 tles, on converting any individuals among the Hea- 
 then, purijied them from the impure mass by bap- 
 tism : they were set apart as a peculiar people ; and 
 their offspring required no new purification, since 
 they were not born, like their fathers, in impurity.''' 
 
 So far as vvc comprehend this statement, (for per- 
 
145 
 
 haps there is some hidden se7ise which we know not 
 how to find out,) we have already disposed of it. 
 And being in some uncertainty about the meaning, 
 we are unwilling to institute any verbal scrutiny or 
 logical analyzation. We shall, therefore, only very 
 humbly submit whether the whole statement be not 
 rather too theoretic and somewhat too darkly adum- 
 brated in ambiguous phraseology for plain, uncolle- 
 gian understandings. The learned Mr. Gilbert 
 Wakefield advocated the same sort of theory, and 
 endeavoured to fortify it by an inexplicable kind of 
 argument about correlative, derivative, and heredi- 
 tary holiness, drawn from two of the passages of 
 Paul's Epistles, which are hard to be understood; 
 and which even the learned (alas ! they are usually 
 the authors of civil discord in the kingdom of God) 
 are apt to wrest to the destruction of all that is best 
 in the religion of that peaceful Jesus who prayed so 
 fervently for the union of his disciples. For if there 
 be a passage more obscure than another in that sa- 
 cred book, which, though our only guide to happi- 
 ness and heaven, must contain many things hard to 
 be understood, it is sure to be made a theme of 
 controversy; or, what is not better, and manifestly 
 more unreasonable, it is brought in as a witness, or 
 rather as a judge, to settle the dispute; though, in 
 the very nature of things, it can serve only to darken 
 what was already obscure enough to cause difference 
 of opinion — to render confusion worse confounded, 
 and to aggravate and perpetuate the contention of 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 Christian brethren. O! happy state, where they 
 shall see eye to eye; and have no such worthless 
 things as the words of earthly language, that im- 
 perfect medium of intercommunication, as causes of 
 discord among them ! The very prospect of it gives 
 some refreshing rest from the ungrateful toils of 
 controversy, in which it is so difficult to engage 
 safely to ourselves and profitably to others. But we 
 are forgetting our task. 
 
 In our younger and Paedobaptist days we were 
 exceedingly perplexed concerning the intelligible 
 nature and legitimate use of the argument founded 
 on correlative, derivate, and hereditary holiness;* 
 
 * This perplexity did not arise from want of such assistance as the 
 learned Gilbert Wakefield could afford ; for the Old Testament in 
 the Hebrew, and the New Testament in the Greek, were the subjects 
 of our intense and often {unhappily for our health) intemperate 
 study : and the labours of most of the learned critics were as familiar 
 to us as the pages of popular authors. And if we have long ceased 
 to give our days and nights to them, the sole reason was, that they 
 did us more harm than good. For one doubt or difficulty they solved, 
 they involved us in the most tormenting perplexities. We never had 
 any doubt about the main thing of all, till they inflicted it on our un- 
 derstanding ; and therefore we were glad to remove them from our 
 sight as destroying angels to our peace. Different minds require 
 different regimen and remedies. To some, much critical study or 
 reading is, no doubt, a salutary regimen ; and to others it is a sort of 
 necessary remedy for the defects of nature. A few philosophic critics 
 like Dr. Campbell would be worth having ; but as for mere verbal 
 men, (who have been, somewhat too wittily perhaps, compared to 
 mites,) whether for the Sacred Scriptures, or for the Ancient Classics, 
 they may be very safely dispensed with : a moderate portion of sound 
 sense and sound philology is worth a whole library of them. And 
 
147 
 
 and it was in reality the cause of our disruption 
 from our first congregation, almost immediately- 
 after having preached three long sermons in de- 
 fence of Infant Baptism, which convinced all the 
 hearers, but which, by the reaction produced, de- 
 stroyed all convincemenf in the mind of the preacher. 
 It is now time to advance to the objection on 
 which some of the ablest Anti-baptists chiefly rely; 
 for they consider the theory of Jewish Baptism as 
 only a kind of out-post, or sham fortress, that may 
 offer some resistance before they retreat to the cita- 
 del : and some of them have given it up as wholly 
 untenable. In " Particulars of the Life of a Dissent- 
 ing Minister, written by Himself,"* the author says, 
 
 unless our memory be much at fault, we would just as soon take Dr. 
 Geddes, or Mr. Wakefield, or even Mr, Bellamy, for our critical 
 guide to the understanding of the Sacred Scriptures as any of the 
 English or German enlighteners of our darkness. There must surely 
 be enough for all the purposes of faith and hope and piety and virtue 
 that has no dependence on new versions and improved renderings 
 and better texts and emendations, &c. Alas ! if our faith and edifi- 
 cation must rest on or be adjusted by such means. There is an 
 objectionable mode of speaking of Scripture as a dead letter: but I 
 know of nothing so much calculated to reduce it to a mere mass of 
 verbality as the constant intermeddling and alteruig and trimming of 
 mazy, metaphysical, half-reasoning men : to say nothing of rash and 
 indecent liberties with a book so sacred as the Bible. 
 
 * If we quote this unamiable and querulous author, it is because 
 necessity is laid upon us. If Anti-baptists of a better spirit had 
 thought proper to commit themselves with the Public through th^ 
 Press, we would not have conferred the distinction of notice on one 
 who has been at so much pains and expense to obtain splenetic 
 notoriety and the nickname of The Discontented Minister. 
 
 l2 
 
148 
 
 " The conclusion of Emlyn now appeared just ; [a 
 just conclusion from false, alias, unjust premises!] 
 but I inferred it from premises that seemed to me 
 more legitimate. I do not yet see sufficient grounds 
 for his data. Nor am I affected by the reasonings 
 of the Rev. Gilbert Wakefield, which involve one of 
 the most monstrous of religious positions. Besides, 
 I am satisfied, that he has totally misinterpreted 
 some passages of the Scriptures, especially 1 Cor. 
 vii. 14. See Monthly Repos. Vol. IV. p. 444." 
 
 The objection to the Perpetuity of Baptism, on 
 which this author and other Anti-baptists rely, is, 
 that it was appointed exclusively for the Apostolic 
 age in connexion with miracles, and to terminate 
 when these ceased. His words are: "It is clear 
 that Baptism is included in the commission of the 
 Apostles, and was a part of their office, and a rite to 
 be performed by them alone, [hold there, and we 
 shall have firm footing,] or, [fie upon or, as one said 
 of hut^ at most, by such as should ivitness, or [an- 
 other or!~\ hope to witness, the signs which are 
 promised in respect to those that should believe. 
 [Admirably cautious statement, no doubt for more 
 legitimate pretnises!^ The command extends only 
 so far as to include those whom the signs should 
 follow. This reasoning [how the very name of the 
 poor thing is abused!] appears to me so conclusive, 
 that I hesitate [why should a brave logician be irre- 
 solute?] not to confine Baptism within the Apostolic 
 age. [It deserved to be confined where miracles 
 
149 
 
 were at hand — it is not fit to be at large in the Gos- 
 pel Dispensation.] Whatever were the reasons for 
 the institution of a rite of temporary obligation, the 
 fitness of it to the time, and the specific nature of 
 the words in which it is commanded, which describe 
 exclusively such circumstances as could then only 
 take place, [whether is this inadvertence or courage- 
 ous assertion ?] are to me irrefragable arguments for 
 considering Baptism as of temporary obligation and 
 of peculiar design." 
 
 This, then, is the whole case — the entire amount 
 of irrefragable argument for the non-perpetuity of 
 Christian Baptism. If the Dissenting Ministers of 
 the Anti-baptist Persuasion be dissatisfied with the 
 special pleading or irrefragable arguments of their 
 Discontented Brother, they should move a new trial. 
 If he has been suffered to mismanage or to betray 
 their cause, it is entirely their own blame. They 
 have had sufficient time to prepare and to appear, and 
 cannot complain if they suffer judgment by default. 
 Their silence virtually renders him their accredited 
 organ — their sole and responsible advocate. We 
 should be glad to have more statement from them, 
 for we feel quite sure that the more they print, the 
 better for our purpose. Our duty would be easier, 
 and the discharge of it more satisfactory, if we had a 
 better hold of them. Nor is the Dissenting Minister 
 to be considered an incapable advocate. He prides 
 himself not a little on his learning; and he is much 
 superior to Mr. Wakefield, Mr. Emlyn, &c., as a 
 
150 
 
 thinker. He does not make a long statement or ar- 
 gument, and we have no doubt the sole reason was, 
 that he had sagacity enough to perceive many words 
 would not mend the matter. He has perhaps done, 
 essentially, as much justice to the theory as could be 
 done to it by any Anti-baptist. 
 
 With all who know how to institute a logical 
 scrutiny, or to analyze argument, we might safely 
 leave the statement of the Dissenting Minister, with 
 the italics we have introduced and the few words 
 we have inclosed within brackets ; for, like a false 
 witness on cross-examination, it either speaks what is 
 manifestly untrue, as in saying, "the specific nature 
 of the words which describe exclusively such cir- 
 cumstances as could then only take place ;" or it 
 prevaricates, as in first saying Baptism was a part of 
 the office of the Apostles, and a rite to be performed 
 by them alone; yet, allowing in the same breath, 
 that it might be performed by others, provided they 
 should witness miracles ; then prevaricating from 
 that, by saying, others than either the Apostles or 
 those who witnessed miracles, might perform the 
 rite, provided only they hoped to witness them : and 
 then, like a false witness, it concludes the whole tes- 
 timony with the effrontery of affirming the evidence 
 to be undeniable — the arguments irrefragable. 
 
 It may be asked, what could tempt the author to 
 give such a shuffling statement ? But it should rather 
 be asked, what could tempt him to make a state- 
 ment at all of an unsound theory? for, having once 
 
151 
 
 yielded to that temptation, the other followed of ne- 
 cessity, (as the prevarication of a witness, who has 
 not a true but a fabricated story to tell,) for he soon 
 found it would not do to say, that because the com- 
 mission was given to the Apostles, they only were to 
 perform the rite of Baptism : for he recollected that 
 others besides the Apostles baptized, even in Apos- 
 tolic times, and with Apostolic approbation too: so 
 that he was obliged to shift his ground and abandon 
 the very position which he had taken up as the 
 basis of non-perpetuity; viz. that "Baptism was a 
 part of the office of the Apostles, and a rite to be 
 performed by them alone :" in short, he was obliged 
 to do that as a theorist, which is, in a witness, pre- 
 varication and self-contradiction : for a fictitious 
 theory, and a fictitious or false story, differ from one 
 another only as the intellectual differs from the mo- 
 ral. People, who catch at any twig of apparent 
 argument, may say the eleven apostles only were 
 commanded and authorized to baptize, and, there- 
 fore, that no others ought to baptize. Thus far the 
 position seems fair and goodly: but those who adopt 
 it must not, cannot consistently, stop here. They 
 must be prepared to maintain that all besides the 
 Apostles who baptized, invaded the ApostoHc office, 
 infringed upon the commission given to the Apostles, 
 and set at nought the authority of Christ. Nor is 
 this all — they must be prepared to charge the Apos- 
 tles with the guilt of aiding and abetting in this in- 
 vasion of the Apostolic office — this infringement on 
 
152 
 
 the commission given by Clirist, and this contempt 
 of his authority ; for those persons who, though 
 not Apostles, baptized in the Apostolic Age, did so 
 with the perfect knowledge of the Apostles them- 
 selves ; and moreover there is not the slightest inti- 
 mation that the Apostles disapproved, rebuked, or 
 punished, them in any manner for so doing. In 
 short, the Quaker position, that the Apostles and all 
 the rest may have baptized hy a permissicm, is less 
 untenable than this. 
 
 The theory of the non-perpetuity of Baptism then 
 is not supported by the supposition that it was part 
 of the office of the Apostles, and a rite to be per- 
 formed by them alone. But the theorist affirms it 
 was to continue only as long as miracles remained : 
 for when Jesus Christ gave the commission to his 
 Apostles, he added, ^nd these signs shall follow 
 them that believe: in my name shall they cast out 
 devils : they shall speak with tongues, 8^c. 
 
 If this prediction or promise (for it may be con- 
 sidered as either or both) of miracles warrant any 
 argument at all, it is not against the perpetuity of 
 baptism, but against the perpetuity of faith. It 
 proves not the former, but the latter, to be of tem- 
 porary nature and obligation. Had the language 
 been differently worded ; had it not been expressed, 
 these signs shall follow them that believe, but these 
 signs shall follow them that are baptized, then per- 
 haps there might have been some show of evidence 
 or appearance of force in the argument ; though even 
 
153 
 
 in that case it would have been merely an appearance 
 and not a reality : but as the case stands, there is not 
 even a plausible pretence made out, unless any kind 
 of mere juxta-position be admitted as demonstration. 
 
 In short, according to the mode of argumentation 
 which we are now combating, it might be attempted 
 to prove not only the non-perpetuity of Baptism, but 
 the non-perpetuity of the Lord's Supper, and Chris- 
 tian worship, and Christian union : nor these merely, 
 but the non-perpetuity of every thing peculiar to the 
 gospel — of Christian faith, and profession, and obe- 
 dience, and in fact of Christianity. Miracles were 
 (and of necessity must be, if they were to exist at all, 
 and we are not now reasoning with those who deny 
 their existence) concomitant for a time with Bap- 
 tism, and with every thing else in Christianity. But 
 does it necessarily follow as a legitimate inference, 
 that they were inseparably conjoined, or absolutely 
 coexistent? Will any Christian man, who pretends 
 to be a reasoner, (and we would not reason with any 
 other description of man on the subject,) argue that 
 the one must terminate with the other ? Or that 
 when miracles ceased, Christ's commands and insti- 
 tutions became null and void ? 
 
 Here we feel that we securely stand, not only on 
 the firm foundation of expUcit Scripture, but on the 
 vantage-ground of reason. Give us plain statement 
 in the name of argument, and we rejoice to meet it, 
 because we know how to deal with it. Our sole 
 aversion is to mere special pleading of advocates, 
 
154 
 
 whose main talent is quibbling and mystification, and 
 who in fact (for it is oftener the result of incapacity 
 than of tortuous design) can neither think logically, 
 nor express their thoughts clearly and definitely. 
 And it cannot also surely be wrong in itself, or offen- 
 sive to God, and to wise and good men, to possess an 
 unconquerable antipathy to carping contention about 
 the writings and authority of such blind guides as the 
 Popish Fathers and Jewish Rabbins, and to inex- 
 plicable argiifications (for we want some strange 
 name for such unaccountable entities) about deriva- 
 tive and hereditary holiness, and to petty criticisms 
 founded on obscure and detached texts, like that 
 of Mr. George Dyer (now, we believe, a confirmed 
 and able-minded Deist) ; as if the apostolic expres- 
 sion, as many of you as were baptized, must, by 
 right or by wrong, necessarily imply that some of 
 the members of the apostolic churches w^ere never 
 baptized, and of course that said implication must 
 go as a legitimate premise to assist the hroad intima- 
 tion of good Mr. Emlyn, as the foundation of an 
 irrefragable theory to overthrow a divine ordinance. 
 When Titan and the Titanides war against the gods, 
 and strive to hurl Jupiter from his throne, there is 
 at least some subhmity in the spectacle ; but when 
 a pigmy race of intellectual beings mock the thunder 
 of reason with the rattling of empty words, this sub- 
 dues our logical antipathies, — it is too much for our 
 gravit3\ 
 
 It is necessary that your patience should be speedily 
 
155 
 
 released ; but one thing more must be noted before 
 leaving this branch of the subject. It is the incon- 
 sistent, incompatible, self-contradictory, and mutually- 
 destructive nature of the objections and arguments 
 employed against the perpetuity of Christian Bap- 
 tism. They not only cannot form an efficient al- 
 liance ; they not only cannot coalesce and co-operate, 
 but they cannot co-exist as logical entities : the one 
 destroys the other. The argument drawn from mi- 
 racles is incompatible with that founded on Jewish 
 practice, or Rabbinical authority. According to the 
 one. Baptism was to initiate Jews and Gentiles into 
 the Christian religion : according to the other, that 
 was not its office at all — no part of its use or design ; 
 for it was to usher in the Christian religion to the 
 world. According to the one. Baptism is a prose- 
 lyting rite, to be applied to Jews and Heathens, 
 whenever Jews and Heathens are converted, or shall 
 be converted to Christianity, even to the end of time: 
 according to the other. Baptism was a sign or seal of 
 conversion by miracles, and to terminate when they 
 ceased. Now these two theories are not only as 
 different in their logical, as an acid and an alkali are 
 in their physical nature, but they have similar re- 
 lations or affinities ; and if they be united, the one 
 must neutralize or destroy the properties of the 
 other. And those who do unite and hold them to- 
 gether in their compound theory, stand convicted 
 either of logical fatuity, or of intentional quackery. 
 They are welcome to their choice in this dilemma; 
 
156 
 
 but no cant of candour and charity shall make me 
 falsify at once the plain dictates of my reason and 
 my conscience. 
 
 What then do the Anti-haptist reasonings (for 
 such we call them in courtesy) prove, but their own 
 invalidity, or rather logical nullity? Do they not 
 force us upon this one conclusion, that Christian 
 Baptism was disliked, and that being disliked, (no 
 matter for what reason,) it was to be got rid of, if 
 possible, under some plausible pretext or decent 
 apology ? And such men as think they are at li- 
 berty to take counsel of human policy in such a 
 case, and that they may conscientiously abandon 
 Adult immersion, and (lest religion should be stript 
 too bare of externals) betake themselves to Infant 
 sprinklifig, or Infant dedication, as a harmless and 
 useful superstition, for which they allege no scrip- 
 tural sanction or divine warrant, will never be at a 
 loss for pretexts and apologies. No wonder, then, 
 that Christian Baptism has been silently renounced, 
 or clandestinely abandoned ; for hardly any of the 
 Anti-baptists have come manfully forward to pub- 
 lish their recantation, or to shew cause and justifica- 
 tion for the dereliction. And our chief difficulty in 
 putting them on their trial was to find documents — 
 written evidence — to produce against them. For 
 though they have been secretly and busily engaged 
 in forming an Anti-baptist faction, they have been 
 very cautious of committing themselves by publish- 
 ing any thing in the shape of a manifesto. 
 
157 
 
 Mr. Thomas Emlyn has thrown together a few- 
 crude doubts and conjectures : Mr. Gilbert Wake- 
 field, Mr. William Frend, and Mr. George Dyer, 
 have given curious specimens of the intellectual ema- 
 nations which may proceed from learned men who 
 have enjoyed all the advantages of Cambridge. The 
 author of Particulars of the Life of a Dissenting 
 Minister, also we believe a very learned man, for he 
 boasts of his learning, has given a statement which 
 has at least the merit of being plain and intelligible. 
 And there is a Dr. Walker, of Dublin, who we be- 
 lieve has written something on the subject ; but 
 though we have not been able to procure a sight of 
 that something, whatever it is, we feel a kind of 
 moral certainty (for we know the Doctor's caliber 
 well enough), that it contains nothing worthy of 
 notice. 
 
 But we have a right to challenge our Anti-baptist 
 opponents to come forth in full array of scripture 
 and reason. Let them not lurk in ambush to fall 
 upon the weak and the unwary, who have not lei- 
 sure to study, or aptitude to defend, a controversial 
 question. Let them not skirmish in secret with 
 mere logical tyros, who are apt to mistake banter 
 for argument, an overbearing manner for overpower- 
 ing reasoning, and a triumphant air for an actual 
 ovation. Let them not carry on a petty war of in- 
 terminable controversy with doubtful positions and 
 useless quibblings, instead of fair and manly reason- 
 ing : but let them come to some open and decisive 
 
158 
 
 engagement with us ; and if they can achieve the 
 victory, they shall have all the honours of a triumph ; 
 for we will not only peacefully surrender, but we 
 will unite with them in alliance as auxiliary forces, 
 with all the intellectual weapons and moral power 
 we may possess, to aid in extending their conquests. 
 We have no wedded affection for immersion, ab- 
 stractedly considered, for it is attended with some in- 
 convenience, and frequently with not a little odium: 
 and if it be not an ordinance of Christ of perpetual 
 obligation, but a worn-out, foolish superstition, who- 
 ever can satisfy our reason and ease our conscience 
 on the subject, will confer an obligation which shall 
 be gratefully received. But if, as we sincerely be- 
 lieve, it is not a foolish superstition, but a divine 
 ordinance, it is our duty to vindicate, with all the 
 ability God hath given us, its divine dignity in the 
 Church, and to clothe the scorner of it with shame, 
 and to stop the month of the gainsay er. If we can- 
 not induce our opponents to the open plain of fair 
 and honourable controversy, or to acknowledge a 
 defeat ; if we cannot subdue their reason by our ar- 
 guments, or conquer their antipathy by our persua- 
 sions, we shall at least have the satisfaction of abating 
 their pretensions. And such a satisfaction is not, 
 we trust, in a sacred cause inconsistent with true 
 piety or Christian humility. We love not contro- 
 versy, nor would we glory in polemical might or 
 prowess ; but it is our duty to be valiant for the 
 truth. It is impossible to be weak and irresolute in 
 
159 
 
 a strong cause, and when trebly armed with scripture, 
 reason, and a good conscience. 
 
 One remark more, and that is, the manifest in- 
 consistency of rejecting or abandoning one institu- 
 tion of Christ, and receiving or retaining another. 
 If to parry the charge of inconsistency it be said, 
 there is more evidence for the one institution than 
 for the other, I deny the allegation ; and a mere de- 
 nial is as valid and good as a mere assertion. But 
 I will do more ; I will undertake, if the opponents 
 require it, to make out as strong a case for the noa- 
 perpetuity of the ordinance of the Supper as ever 
 they have yet made out for the non-perpetuity of 
 Baptism. Unbelievers consistently reject Christian 
 institutions, for they reject Christianity. Quakers 
 consistently reject Baptism, for they also reject the 
 sacred Supper. Even the Freethinking Christians, 
 (as they designate themselves, for the purpose, no 
 doubt, of a broad intimation,) who have, if we may 
 believe them, the only true church of God upon 
 earth in the outward form of a debating society, have 
 consistency, inasmuch as they reject Baptism, to- 
 gether with the sacred Supper and Public Worship, 
 and all the outward symbols and signs of religion. 
 But with what consistency can any persons reject 
 Baptism who observe the Lord's Supper? With 
 what decency can they set at nought (not to say 
 scorn and ridicule) the former as unnecessary, un- 
 reasonable, and useless, whilst they profess to re- 
 verence the latter? They ought either to hold 
 
160 
 
 both or abandon both : the two stand or fall to- 
 gether. Both rest on the same foundation : they 
 have both equally the sanction of the same autho- 
 rity. 
 
 We have now neither time nor physical strength 
 left for going much at large into what remains of 
 the subject. But if we have been successful thus 
 far, we have, in reality, nothing more to do. Our 
 task is fully performed ; our case is completely 
 made out. The onus prohandi — the burden of 
 proof, lies on our opponents. It is for them to 
 make their defence. It is for them to shew cause 
 and make justification (if they can) for deserting 
 Apostolic practice, and for rejecting an institution of 
 Christ. We cannot be justly arraigned, or fairly 
 put to proof, for remaining true to our duty and 
 faithful in our allegiance to the authority of our 
 Divine Lord, the Christian Lawgiver. To that au- 
 thority we submit as immutably imperative upon 
 our conscience. We hold it to be our sacred duty 
 to reverence and obey all the edicts of that autho- 
 rity; and where there is no limitation or restriction 
 as to time, place, or practicability,'^ we hold that 
 
 * I was applied to, about two years ago, to baptize a young relative 
 of an enfiinently intellectual friend, now, alas ! no more, for she sank 
 rapidly under one of those awful maladies to which the human frame 
 is liable in this state of imperfection. I declined compliance with the 
 application on the ground of impracticability on my part, from the 
 state of my health and peculiar nature of my complaint at the time : 
 though it would have afforded me much pleasure to officiate had the 
 state of my health permitted : for seldom has the rite of Baptism 
 
161 
 
 they arc, and must be by their very nature, of per- 
 manent obligation. The New Testament is the sole 
 authentic record of the authority of Christ, and, con- 
 sequently, of Christian faith and practice ; for it is 
 not only the sacred depository of Christian truth and 
 the charter of Christian privilege, but the sole rule — 
 the exclusive directory of Christian duty. This au- 
 thentic directory of Christian duty contains both ex- 
 plicit precept and abundant example for Baptism as 
 an institution of Christ : for, it is incontrovertibly 
 evident, that it was commanded by Him, sanctioned 
 by his accredited ministers or ambassadors to the 
 world, and practised in all the primitive churches. 
 In proof of this we might quote not a few, but many 
 passages ; and these not obscure or doubtful ; but 
 clear and certain. This, however, is the less neces- 
 sary, as you have the record in your possession and 
 can inspect it at your leisure. 
 
 The command of Jesus is, Go ye, and teach all 
 nations, baptizing them: and what is thus express 
 in the imperative is equally express in the declara- 
 
 been more graced with youth, beauty, amiableness, and accomplish- 
 ment, united to intelligence, purity of mind, and unsullied character, 
 or to comprehend all that I could have desired in a fit subject of 
 Christian Baptism — Christian piety and virtue. May she be stead- 
 fast and immovable, and endure to the end. If any one can rea- 
 sonably and conscientiously plead impracticability as a subject of 
 Baptism, on account of health, we should hold the plea valid, as 
 establishing exemption from obligation, so Jong as the plea remained 
 good : so also in non-attendance in public worehip — non-observance 
 of the Sacred Supper, &c. 
 
 M 
 
1G2 
 
 live form ; for the words of our Lord are, He tJiaf 
 believeth and is baptized. Teaching and baptizing 
 are conjunct in the authoritative command; and be- 
 lieving and being baptized are conjunct in the au- 
 thoritative declaration of the Christian Lawgiver. 
 If, then, every person should submit to be taught 
 Christian truth (for this is correlative with the obliga- 
 tion to teach it; and that too, not only on the Apos- 
 tles, but on every Christian, so far as he himself 
 knows it) ; every one who does so submit, ought to 
 submit also to be baptized. If it is the duty of 
 every reasonable being, to whom the Gospel is ad- 
 dressed, to believe Christ's doctrine; it is equally 
 the duty of every believer to be baptized in obedi- 
 ence to Christ's authority. For the same reason, 
 that the one (the duty of beheving) is of perpetual 
 obligation ; the other (the duty of being baptized) 
 is also of perpetual obligation. They are inseparably 
 concomitant — they are absolutely co-existent. They 
 are indissolubly conjoined by the immutable autho- 
 rity of the Christian Dispensation.* 
 
 * I have just received a well-written letter, containing doubts and 
 inquiries, from a young friend who heard the Lecture delivered. It 
 gives me sincere pleasure to find him taking a conscientious interest 
 in religious subjects now that he is left without an earthly parent : 
 and I cannot persuade myself that the influence, which is now in 
 operation upon his mind, will be as the earh/ dew; when, as I be- 
 lieve, he knows that his excellent mother, after being long tossed 
 about in the restless element of skepticism, was glad to find refuge 
 and rest, where only refuge and rest can be found. The only parti- 
 cular in my young friend's letter, which I have left untouched in 
 
163 
 
 When a law is made absolute, i. e. when it is 
 given without an express limitation or restriction as 
 to time or circumstance, it is, by its very nature, of 
 perpetual obligation, if not repealed by the same 
 authority which enacted it. Unless, therefore, it can 
 be proved, that Baptism is impracticable, or that it 
 has been repealed by Divine authority, or that it was 
 expressly temporary, it must be by the very nature of 
 
 writing this Lecture out for the press, is the declaration of Paul : For 
 Christ sent vie not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel. If he re- 
 consider the matter he will be convinced, I think, that the above 
 declaration is subversive of his own argument : for it proves that 
 others besides the eleven apostles might baptize : for Paul, though 
 not sent (or specially commanded by Jesus) to baptize, did baptize 
 several persons. As to others, besides the eleven, being permittedy 
 (the Quaker mode of doing away with water baptism altogether,) I 
 am persuaded my young friend will abandon it as wholly untenable. 
 I refer him, and others who have the same doubt, to what Thave said 
 on the topic in another place. If we reject any part of Christianity 
 on such slight grounds, we shall be carried much farther (if we be 
 consistent) than we are at first aware. The expression of Paul means 
 nothing more, in fairness of interpretation or construction, than that 
 the main object of his mission was to preach the gospel. And a 
 Baptist Missionary to the Hindoos might, with perfect propriety, em- 
 ploy the same language. The Apostle might have said, that he was 
 sent not to work miracles, but to preach the Gospel ; not to organize 
 churches, exhort the brethren, &c. &c., but to preach the Gospel. 
 The negative is, in such a case, not an absolute negation, but a kind 
 of idiomatic comparative, which may be found in many places of the 
 Old and New Testament : as I will have mercy and not sacrifice, &c. 
 &c. I had intended to allot a part in the Lecture for passages that 
 had been, or might probably be, raised up as objections : but it after- 
 wards occurred, that any thing of the kind I had seen was, when 
 closely inspected, too frivolous to merit such distinction. 
 
164 
 
 the case of permanent obligation. But Baptism is not 
 impracticable ; it has not been repealed by Divine 
 authority ; and it is not expressly temporary, i. e. 
 it is enjoined ahsolutely : therefore. Baptism is of 
 perpetual obligation — it is a permanent institution 
 of the Christian Dispensation. 
 
 The only plausible ground for doubt, concerning 
 this question, is the presumption of temporary in- 
 tention on the part of Hun by whom the command 
 is given — the institution is appointed. But what 
 reason is there for this presumption ? How can we 
 know the intention of the Lawgiver but from the 
 law itself? What right have any, who profess to 
 reverence and obey the authority of Christ, to pre- 
 sume that he had a temporary intention in the ap- 
 pointment of Baptism r Would they not have just 
 as much right to presume temporary design in every 
 other appointment or command? Might they not 
 find some plausible warrant for this latitude of pre- 
 sumption in mere theory founded on Rabbinical 
 authority, or on the circumstance of miracles? Has 
 Jesus Christ given any intimation of temporary in- 
 tention in the enactment, or of its being of tempo- 
 rary obligation ? Or, have any of his Apostles, the 
 accredited organs and interpreters of his intentions, 
 given the least intimation of temporary design or 
 temporary obligation ? 
 
 But enough, — instead of prolonging the argument 
 I ought to apologize for trespassing upon your pa- 
 tience ; but I was willing to pursue the exhaustive 
 
165 
 
 mode to the utmost with the subject ; that a ques- 
 tion, which is yet new, might be settled once for all, 
 before it shall have become inveterate by duration ; 
 and before the unsound opinion shall have become 
 the badge of faction in the kingdom of Christ, (for 
 there is no Anti-baptist Denomination yet,) or the 
 war-whoop of a powerful party. 
 
 Grant me your indulgence one moment longer, 
 whilst I conclude with a description of argument so 
 plain and popular that it must come with some force 
 to the understanding of every common-sense, unscho- 
 lastic inquirer. What would be your own conclu- 
 sion, respecting the rite in question, if you had no- 
 thing to judge by, or to reason from, but the New 
 Testament? What was your opinion, so long as 
 you formed an opinion for yourselves, solely from 
 this sacred record of Christian faith and practice ? 
 Did you ever doubt — did you ever suppose or sus- 
 pect that the Perpetuity of Baptism could be bi'ought 
 into doubt by a believer in Divine Revelation before 
 you found it was actually doubted or denied by per- 
 sons around you ? But with whom did the doubt 
 and denial originate ? Not with plain, common- 
 sense Christians ; but with a few Quaker fanatics 
 (the Shakers of that day) on the one extreme ; and 
 with a few scholastic theologians on the other; who 
 whiled away their learned leisure in musty libraries 
 with dreamy theories founded on Rabbinical autho- 
 rity: and who were not remarkable for strong sense, 
 sound reasoning, or clear and comprehensive views. 
 
166 
 
 Any principle whatever may be doubted and denied ; 
 for nothing is easier than doubt and negation. But 
 it is your privilege and your duty to judge for your- 
 selves directly by the Scriptures, concerning both 
 moral and positive precept. Our parting request 
 is, exercise your own understanding in humble 
 dependence on the Father of lights. Call no man 
 master on earth in matters of religion. Suffer no 
 man to tyrannise over your reason or your con- 
 science ; and, least of all, suffer any man to banter 
 or ridicule you out of your convictions, or into the 
 neglect or dereliction of your duties: for, in the 
 solemn day of final retribution, it will be no valid or 
 availing plea, at the tribunal of Christ, that some of 
 your fellow-men had sufficient influence over your 
 mind to make you disregard His instructions and 
 commands. 
 
THE PRACTICAL USES 
 
 0&ri£fttan ^apii^in« 
 
 BY DAVID EATON. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 Gal. iii. 27 : 
 
 For as many of you as have been baptized into 
 Christ, have put on Christ. 
 
 My Christian Brethren, 
 
 Three Lectures have been delivered in this place 
 on The History of Baptism, on The proper Subjects 
 and the Scriptural Mode of administering that Rite, 
 and on its Perpetuity ; in which it is presumed, that 
 sufficient argument and evidence have been adduced 
 from Scripture, from history and reason, to demon- 
 strate that baptism by immersion was the primitive 
 mode, and that the proper and only objects of it 
 were those who were capable of instruction, of judg- 
 ing, and of choosing for themselves, — persons who 
 had real repentance towards God, and faith in our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord was himself baptized, 
 and he commanded that all those who believed in 
 his name should be baptized. His Apostles, who 
 were appointed to teach men the way of salvation, 
 were Baptist ministers ; the first churches of Christ 
 which they planted were Baptist churches : and had 
 all who professed the Christian name faithfully ad- 
 hered to the truth and simplicity of Apostolic times, 
 the same order, faith, and practice which they es- 
 tablished, would have continued without interruption 
 to the present hour. 
 
 It will be allowed, that nothing can alter a divine 
 
 N 
 
170 
 
 law but the same authority by which it was enacted ; 
 and as no alteration of this kind is even pretended 
 to have taken place, it follows, that the law of Chris- 
 tian Baptism is of perpetual obligation. These several 
 particulars, however, having been discussed at large, 
 and with such ability and research as have, we trust, 
 produced conviction in your minds, it is now my 
 duty, by way of closing these Lectures, to point out 
 some of its practical uses. Were we to look at Bap- 
 tism in the abstract, as a mere external rite, then we 
 freely confess it might be difficult to point out its 
 practical uses beyond that of conscientiously obey- 
 ing a divine command. Bathing the body in water, 
 either for health or pleasure, may be useful or other- 
 wise, and be perfectly indiiferent in itself. But simple 
 as the mere act may be, it is no longer a matter 
 of indifference, but of serious duty, when enforced 
 by a divine command. With the view, then, of aba- 
 ting prejudice and of removing mistakes, we shall 
 allow that Baptism of itself may be unimportant, 
 and even that all outward ceremonies, or mere bodily 
 services of any kind, are in the same abstract sense 
 of no positive value. Whether they consist in being 
 immersed in water, in the eating or abstaining from 
 certain kinds of food, in observing any particular days 
 or customs, in assembling together to eat bread or 
 drink wine, to pray, to sing hymns, to read the 
 scriptures, or to hear sermons, the mere outward 
 observance of these things will not, and cannot, im- 
 part holiness and insure salvation. No, " the king- 
 dom of heaven consisteth not in meats and in drinks," 
 
171 
 
 in names or in ceremonies, " but in righteousness 
 and peace, in a holy spirit." But although this con- 
 cession is made, what Christian will say, that all the 
 outward means of grace, or of religious improve- 
 ment above enumerated, because they have no in- 
 herent value, no certain influence, may all be safely 
 discarded? But if this would shock his mind, and 
 he would retain some of them for the sake of their 
 evident utility, then we ask. Do those which he 
 would retain stand on any better or firmer ground 
 than those of positive command ? This surely will 
 not be pretended. The whole ritual law of Moses 
 was a positive appointment, consisting in outward 
 ceremonies. But what Jew on that account could 
 neglect them without incurring the high displeasure 
 of Almighty God ? Surely, then, for the sake of 
 consistency, we ought no longer to hear, by way of 
 objection, of useless bodily service, mere outward 
 ceremony, and the like, when speaking of Christian 
 Baptism. It is surely any thing but argument to 
 contend, that because the means of acquiring re- 
 ligious knowledge and virtue, or indeed any kind 
 of knowledge, do not exert a sort of magic in- 
 fluence over the mind, they are therefore to be 
 neglected. 
 
 Allow me to remind you, that rehgious know- 
 ledge and habits are acquired just in the same way 
 as any other knowledge or habits — by the diligent 
 use of means. Religion is social in its nature, and 
 of benevolent tendency in all its appointments. And 
 if we assemble ourselves together in conformity 
 
 n2 
 
172 
 
 with its dictates and spirit, whether to pray unto 
 God, to sing his praises, and to speak of his good- 
 ness, to read the Scriptures, to hear sermons, or to 
 observe acts of rehgious duty ; if these are regularly 
 and seriously used, though only as means to an end, 
 are they not subservient to virtue? Do they not 
 tend to form our characters and habits ? Do they 
 not exhibit our sense of dependence and of moral 
 obligation ? Do they not openly express our belief of 
 those religious principles which we cherish in our 
 hearts, and which so seriously influence our minds 
 and conduct ? It is upon this broad ground, and in 
 this enlarged sense, that we now bespeak your can- 
 dor, and solicit your attention. Having thus ex- 
 plained ourselves, and in some measure cleared the 
 ground, we may now proceed to consider Baptism 
 in connexion with the economy of the gospel, of 
 which it forms a part. 
 
 To some persons, indeed, our labour here would 
 appear altogether unnecessary. They would ask. 
 Did Christ come forth from God ; was he the di- 
 vinely appointed Saviour of the world ; and did he 
 command all who received his gospel to be baptized 
 in his name? Having ascertained these facts they 
 would conclude. As God does nothing in vain. Bap- 
 tism must answer some good purpose ; it must have 
 a moral tendency. There must be far greater safety 
 and satisfaction in obeying this divine command, 
 than in relying on any doubtful criticisms respecting 
 either the mode of its observance, or the perpetuity 
 of its obligation. 
 
173 
 
 We shall, however, endeavour to explain and 
 illustrate the subject by inquiring ^r*#, into the 
 nature and constitution of a Christian church. — ^The 
 gospel is a religion from heaven, complete in all its 
 parts, and cannot be improved by any human sa- 
 gacity. Its design was to enlighten, to bless, and to 
 save mankind, by calling them out from the world 
 and forming them into a spiritual church or temple, 
 holy unto the Lord. In the words of the great 
 Mr. Locke, " A Christian church is a voluntary 
 society of men joining themselves together of their 
 own accord, in order to the worshiping of Almighty 
 God in such a manner as they judge acceptable to 
 him, and eifectual to the salvation of their souls. It 
 is a free and voluntary society. Nobody is born a 
 member of any church ; otherwise the religion of 
 parents would descend unto children by the same 
 right of inheritance as their temporal estates, and 
 every one would hold his faith by the same tenure 
 he does his lands — than which nothing can be more 
 absurd." 
 
 A Christian church, according to the New Tes- 
 tament, was a religious assembly selected and called 
 out of the world, by the doctrines and preaching of 
 the Gospel, to the true worship of God in Christ 
 Jesus. All the members of it were to be equal, and 
 all of them who were qualified might teach and ex- 
 hort each other to their mutual edification. But 
 order and discipline were to be impartially observed ; 
 and the members, however ignorant on their ini- 
 
174 
 
 tiation, were to be instructed and trained up in the 
 principles of truth, piety, and virtue. A church so 
 constructed could have no connexion with the dark, 
 corrupt, and wicked world from which it had been 
 separated. It was to be the depository of divine 
 truth, and was to shine as a light in a dark place. It 
 was to enlighten by its rays all within the sphere of 
 its influence, and to send forth sounds only of glad 
 tidings, of peace and salvation, to all people. This 
 church is represented as the body of Christ, as being 
 in spiritual union with him, and with one another as 
 its members. They were to put away from amongst 
 them all malice, guile, and evil-speaking ; they were 
 to crucify the flesh with its evil affections and desires ; 
 they were to be holy, harmless, and undefiled ; to 
 love as brethren, to bear each others' burthens, and 
 to be helpers of each others' joy ; they were to keep 
 themselves in the love of God, to exhort each other, 
 and to build each other up in their most holy faith, 
 having their affections fixed on things above, and 
 their conversation in heaven, from whence they 
 looked for the Saviour, for the promised mercy of 
 God in Christ Jesus, unto eternal life. This, to the 
 first Christians, was the glorious object of all their 
 hopes, and enabled them to exhibit those noble ex- 
 amples of patience and long-suffering, of self-denial 
 and resignation, of piety and devotion, those deeds of 
 mercy and labours of love, which have embalmed 
 their memories and immortalized their names. Amidst 
 all the dangers and vicissitudes of their Christian 
 
176 
 
 course, they had an eye steadily fixed on the great 
 recompence of reward. Such were their love to 
 Christ and devotion to his cause, that they cared 
 for no labours or sufferings ; they counted not their 
 lives dear to them if they could but win Christ, and 
 be found of him in peace, and be counted worthy to 
 share in his resurrection. 
 
 Such was primitive Christianity, and such were 
 its pure spirit and benevolent effects. Its light and 
 its benefits were to be extended far and wide. As 
 Christ tasted death for every man, the Gospel was 
 to be preached to every creature. All were invited 
 to partake of its blessings ; and the only qualifications 
 necessary for sharing in its hopes and its joys, were 
 repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Of whatever clime or colour, character or 
 condition, they had been, all who sincerely repented 
 and embraced the Gospel, all who turned to the 
 service and worship of the one only God, with full 
 purpose of heart henceforth to walk in nevvness of 
 life, were assured of the Divine favour ; " their sins 
 were forgiven them ;" " they were justified by their 
 faith ;" they were entitled to all the privileges of the 
 Gospel, and had " access to all that fulness of grace 
 wherein they stood." 
 
 But liberal and gracious as the preaching of the 
 Gospel was, wide as stood the gates of mercy and of 
 the Christian Church, they were closed against the 
 wicked, they were inaccessible to the worldly-mind- 
 ed and insincere ; and if any such found an entrance 
 
176 
 
 there, and continued to be perverse and impenitent, 
 they were excluded : nor could they, or any mem- 
 ber who might act an immoral or unworthy part, be 
 again admitted, until, by repentance and reforma- 
 tion, the sin committed, or the cause of scandal, was 
 removed and done away. Those laws which were 
 given by the Head of the Church to preserve its 
 purity and moral order, provided alike for the ad- 
 mission and exclusion of its members. Hence the 
 door of admission was open to those converts only, 
 who believed and were baptized ; to those who were 
 not ashamed of Christ. It was not sufficient for 
 men to receive the Gospel, and from fear, or some 
 unworthy motive, to conceal their faith. Such per- 
 sons had no share in its promises and consolations. 
 Had this cautious pohcy been allowed, it would 
 have greatly interfered with the spread of the Gos- 
 pel, and have deprived us of what, at this day, is one 
 of the strongest evidences of its truth — namely, the 
 bold and fearless zeal of the Apostles and first Chris- 
 tians in the cause of Christ. Converts were to enter 
 the Church by Baptism openly and in the face of 
 the world, and to witness a good confession before 
 men. Cheerful submission to this ordinance was at 
 once the test of their sincerity and obedience. For, 
 be it remembered, that to be baptized and openly to 
 profess the Christian name was attended, in those 
 days, with no inconsiderable risk and danger. The 
 disciples being thus separated from the world and 
 united together in the bonds of faith and love, ob- 
 
177 
 
 serving the ordinances of the Gospel, worshiping 
 God, and walking uprightly before him, became the 
 visible church of Christ, holding forth the word of 
 life. 
 
 The laws and discipline of the Church were wisely 
 intended to preserve the purity of its character, doc- 
 trines, and institutions, and proved effectual for the 
 purpose so long as they were strictly adhered to. 
 The wisdom of their appointment is abundantly evi- 
 dent from the great confusion, corruption, and error, 
 which resulted from their neglect, even to the utter 
 disgrace of the Christian name. Indeed, the con- 
 stitution and discipline of national churches, by their 
 use and abuse of worldly power, form a lamentable 
 contrast with those founded by the Apostles. Nor 
 are some Dissenting churches entirely free from 
 blame in paying so little regard to church-order and 
 discipline.* They seem to have exchanged the word 
 church for that of congregation, in which any person 
 taking a seat becomes a member of it, whatever may 
 be his opinions or conduct; in which the congregation 
 attend the discourses of the minister with little more 
 of religious intercourse with him, or with one an- 
 
 * By church-order and discipline we do not mean that officious 
 and vexatious intermeddling with trifles in private life, respecting 
 dress, taste, amusements, &c., which has justly fallen into disrepute ; 
 far less do we mean to recommend defamation on account of a differ- 
 ence of opinion, or coercion in violation of the rights of conscience. 
 Our views are directed solely to the purity of religious principles and 
 worship — and to the moral rectitude of the members of a Christian 
 church. 
 
178 
 
 other, with a few exceptions, than if they attended 
 lectures on chemistry, or any other branch of sci- 
 ence. This, however, applies more immediately to 
 London and to large cities. No doubt due allowance 
 must be made for diiference of times and chano-e of 
 circumstances. This mode of conducting: relig-ious 
 societies may, perhaps, have its advantages. But we 
 own, it appears to us cold and heartless, and but a 
 meagre substitute for the cordial religious fellowship, 
 " the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace," the 
 warmth of affection, which pervaded and so greatly 
 distinguished the primitive churches. 
 
 II. We shall now review those impressive pas- 
 sages of Scripture which are connected with the 
 Practical Uses of Baptism. — The sacred writers so 
 frequently and solemnly introduce this Rite in con- 
 nexion with the duties and hopes of Christians, that 
 they appear to have regarded it as calculated to exert 
 a highly moral and religious influence on the mind 
 and character. They connect it with repentance 
 and remission of sins — with faith in the Messiah and 
 an open profession of his religion — with the death 
 and resurrection of Christ — and with salvation. It 
 will not be denied that much of the moral merit of 
 actions depends on the motives by which men are 
 influenced : and howeVer unimportant some actions 
 may appear, yet if they are performed from a sense 
 of duty, of reverence, and of obedience, to God, 
 though only to the extent of giving a cup of cold 
 water, such services will not lose their reward. 
 
179 
 
 1st. Baptism is connected with repentance and 
 the remission of sins. John the Baptist commenced 
 his ministry by preaching " the baptism of repent- 
 ance for the remission of sins."* Oar Lord began 
 his ministry, by calUng on the Jews to " Repent ; 
 for the kingdom of heaven" was " at hand."f And 
 we are informed, that " Jesus made and baptized 
 more disciples than John." J Peter, in his sermon 
 on the day of Pentecost, " said unto them. Repent, 
 and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission 
 of sins."^ Ananias exhorted Paul, on his conver- 
 sion, " And now why tarriest thou ? Arise, and be 
 baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling upon the 
 name of the Lord." || Whether a man had been a 
 persecutor like Paul, or an idolater, a Jew, or a 
 Heathen, on his repenting and becoming a Chris- 
 tian, all that he had been before was, by baptism, 
 washed away; he became a new creature; he now 
 had new principles, new hopes, new motives, new 
 duties, and a new character. 
 
 2dly. It is connected with faith in Christ and an 
 open profession of the Gospel. " For ye are all the 
 children of God by faith; for as many of you as have 
 been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." As 
 if the Apostle had said. You are his ; you have es- 
 poused his cause and professed his name ; you have 
 thus declared your belief in his Divine Mission and 
 doctrines, and are therefore bound to obey his com- 
 
 * Mark i. 4. f Matt. iv. 17. % John iv. 1. 
 
 § Acts ii. 38. II Acts xxii. 16. 
 
180 
 
 mands. The Apostle reasons on the same princrple 
 with the Galatians, who were for adding to the 
 Gospel the ceremonial law: " I testify to every man 
 that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the 
 whole law." In like manner we observe, every one 
 that is baptized lays himself, by that act, under an 
 obligation to obey all the laws of Christ. 
 
 3dly. Baptism is connected with the death and 
 resurrection of Christ. " Know ye not, that so 
 many of you as were baptized into Jesus Christ, 
 were baptized into his death ? Therefore, we are 
 buried with him by baptism unto death : that like 
 as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory 
 of the Father, even so we also should walk in new- 
 ness of life. For if we have been planted together 
 in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the 
 likeness of his resurrection." * Again ; " Buried 
 with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with 
 him through the faith of the operation of God, who 
 hath raised him from the dead." -J- This language 
 is no doubt figurative, and is to be considered as 
 emblematical of our death unto sin, and of our re- 
 surrection unto a life of righteousness ; it is lan- 
 guage, however, which is very impressive, and very 
 significant to a Baptist ; but which we conceive no 
 Paedobaptist or Anti-baptist can use with strict pro- 
 priety. It cannot belong to their views ; and when 
 the language of Scripture does not expressly and 
 fairly support any doctrine or practice, it is surely a 
 ♦ Rom. vi. 3—5. f Col. ii. 12. See also 1 Cor. xv. 29. 
 
181 
 
 strong presumption against its truth and useful- 
 ness. 
 
 4thly. Baptism is connected with salvation. " He 
 that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." ^ 
 "The like figure whereunto baptism doth now save 
 us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but 
 the answer of a good conscience towards God) by 
 the resurrection of Jesus Christ." -j- By referring to 
 these passages, we do not wish to be understood, 
 that because we say, Baptism is connected with sal- 
 vation, we think a mere ceremonial observance of 
 the rite will ensure future happiness, or that those 
 who, from early instruction and the circumstances 
 of life, have been led to overlook its importance, 
 or, after having conscientiously investigated the Scrip- 
 tures, have not been able to satisfy their minds that 
 they are bound to submit to immersion — cannot be 
 saved. We think our Lord and his Apostle intended 
 only to teach, that by sincere repentance and sub- 
 mission to this solemn rite, believers were assured 
 of the remission of their past sins, were thus re- 
 conciled to God, and put into a state of privilege 
 and safety. Jesus Christ and his Apostles uniformly 
 taught, that it is only by persevering in a course of 
 well-doing believers can assure themselves of final 
 acceptance with God. 
 
 We shall mention another moral purpose of this 
 rite. It is represented as the bond of love and union 
 to Christians, who have but " one Lord, one faith, 
 * Mark xvi. 16. f 1 Peter iii. 21. 
 
182 
 
 one baptism."* " For by one spirit we are all bap- 
 tized into one body."'|- All other distinctions are to 
 be laid aside ; there is henceforth to be among you 
 " Neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free ; 
 for ye are all one in Christ Jesus i'"^ one body, one 
 family, one kingdom, of which Christ is both Lord 
 and head. Water is a symbol of moral purity. It 
 is at once simple and significant, wholly uncon- 
 nected with superstition or parade ; fitly represent- 
 ing our dying unto sin and our rising to newness of 
 life. Some Christians would strip the Gospel of all 
 external ordinances, and others, religious worship 
 of every outward form, and would consign it to 
 the silent meditation of the mind. Do such persons 
 understand human nature ? Or do they forget that 
 the Gospel was intended for the poor — more for the 
 million than for the philosopher? How would they 
 improve the condition and provide for the wants and 
 weaknesses of man without using the means which 
 religion authorizes or prescribes? How would they 
 instruct the ignorant, rouse and fix their attention ? 
 How would they feed the hopes and strengthen the 
 faith of the Christian, and excite him to a patient 
 continuance in well-doing, without periodical in- 
 struction ? Why, truly, by stripping religion of 
 those very means which Divine Wisdom had pro- 
 vided to engage the attention and to meet the frailty 
 of our condition. Christians were to teach, and to 
 exhort each other, and to build each other up ; to 
 * Ephes. iv. 5. f ^ Cor. xii. 13. + Gal. iii. 28. 
 
183 
 
 aid and assist the young, the weak, and the waver- 
 ing. The Gospel, however, is too spiritual in its 
 nature to employ many ceremonies, and none which 
 are not significant and useful. It has only two posi- 
 tive rites — Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and these 
 are standing evidences of its truth and divine origin, 
 as we can trace the observance of them by Chris- 
 tians through a long series of ages to its very be- 
 ginning. By the first, we make an open pro- 
 fession of faith in Christ. By the second, we 
 renew, from time to time, our sense of gratitude to 
 God, our love to Christ and to his cause, and there- 
 by " shew forth his death until he shall come," a 
 second time, " without sin unto salvation." The op- 
 position of certain persons to the use of means, it is to 
 be feared, arises from some obliquity of mind, or 
 from some dislike or prejudice which they have fos- 
 tered, rather than from their want of evident utility. 
 But Believers' Baptism is far from being, we con- 
 ceive, a mere ceremony. Does it not enter into the 
 association of our moral and religious feelings as 
 connected with the order of the Church and the 
 public profession of Christ ? Does not its utility 
 here evidently recommend it? Is it not at once a 
 sign of faith in his Divine mission and of our volun- 
 tary obedience to his laws ? By publicly confessing 
 him before men, do we not manifest our love and 
 obedience to him, and evince our attachment to his 
 cause ? Indeed, it seems hard to conceive, after 
 attentively considering the Scriptures above quoted, 
 
184 
 
 and the principles, the hopes and prospects which 
 they hold out, how Baptism can produce any other 
 than a moral influence on the character of him who 
 thus, by a solemn and public act, devotes himself to 
 the service of Almighty God in the Gospel of his Son. 
 
 III. Baptism is favourable to free inquiry, and 
 to the personality of Religion. 
 
 As all men must appear before the judgment-seat 
 of Christ, so all men should inquire and judge for 
 themselves. No man can be a Christian by proxy, 
 any more than he can be wise and good by proxy, 
 or than he can be saved by proxy. He ought not, 
 then, to take his religion upon trust, or profess the 
 Christian religion, or any form of it, as a matter of 
 course, and be this or that, merely because his pa- 
 rents or instructors were so before him. To do so is 
 disgraceful to his rational nature as a man, and un- 
 safe for him as a Christian. If he would prefer any 
 just claim to personal religion and virtue, he must 
 inquire ; and, with the Christian name, practise the 
 Christian virtues. To do this, he must store his 
 mind with the lessons of divine truth and goodness. 
 He must receive the Gospel in the love of it. He 
 must " hear the word of God and keep it, and bring 
 forth fruit with patience." If he be " wise, he must 
 be wise for himself," and " be able to give a reason 
 of the hope that is in him." But amidst the cus- 
 toms and pleasures, and multifarious pursuits of life, 
 if great care have not been taken to " train up the 
 child in the way he should go," how very diflScult is 
 
185 
 
 it to induce persons to examine closely, and to think 
 seriously on religious subjects ; and how many pro- 
 fessing Christians are there, who have never inquired 
 into the grounds and reasons of their faith, and who 
 know not what are its peculiar principles, duties, 
 and obligations! All these things, however, come 
 of necessity under the serious consideration of a con- 
 sistent Baptist. He cannot otherwise be admitted 
 as a member of the Church.* His merely taking a 
 seat or a pew will not be deemed sufficient. He 
 must inquire and be satisfied before he acts, and 
 thus be able to render a reason for his conduct. 
 And what could stimulate the mind of man more, 
 or be better calculated to induce him to serious exa- 
 mination into the evidences and obligations of reli- 
 gion, as well as to impress upon him a deep sense of 
 its importance, than a solemnity which brings all his 
 inquiries and resolutions to a point ; which makes 
 them terminate in a distinct and solemn act ; which 
 
 * Whilst fairly discussing a subject, or examining a principle, no 
 one will be so uncandid as to imagine that we would deny the name 
 of Christian to, or exclude from our Christian communion, those who 
 might conscientiously dissent from our view of the primitive constitu- 
 tion of a Christian Church. We pretend not to infallibility. " Let 
 every man judge for himself; for to his own master he must stand or 
 fall." Though satisfied that our views are correct, we yet allow that 
 charity is better than faith ; it is the very " bond of perfection." In- 
 stead of widening the differences, therefore, between sincere Chris- 
 tians, we would rather say, without one iota of principle being given 
 up on either side, " Let us love as brethren, and what we know not 
 now, we shall know hereafter." " As far as we have attained, let us 
 hold fast the same things, and walk by the same rule." 
 
 O 
 
186 
 
 places him in new and singular circumstances; 
 which imposes upon him a new name and a new 
 line of duty ; and which often exposes him, by igno- 
 rant and prejudiced people, to ridicule, if not to great 
 loss and suffering? But, like a wise man, he has 
 previously counted the cost, and is determined, at 
 all hazards, to follow his Master through evil and 
 through good report; to learn of him; to imitate his 
 example, and thus to fulfil all righteousness. Bap- 
 tism, then, far from being an unmeaning rite, is, we 
 repeat it, associated in the mind with the most inte- 
 resting and important considerations. It forms a 
 pause in life. It presents a period to which the 
 thoughts may be turned back with advantage. 
 Baptists can recollect the time when, with holy 
 resolutions, they devoted themselves to the service 
 of God. They can examine the progress that has 
 been made ; or, if otherwise, may be led to serious 
 reflection, to contrition, to salutary resolves, and to 
 new exertions. It also lays a just foundation for 
 our being addressed on our duties and prospects, 
 and on the errors of our lives, or the defects in our 
 Christian character. An erring brother, on our 
 principles, might reasonably be addressed thus: 
 " You have, after due deliberation, solemnly pro- 
 fessed yourself a Christian. You can, therefore, 
 have no plea of ignorance, or excuse for habitual 
 levity and sin. Remember your Baptismal vows, 
 and your awful accountability. Contrast the bad 
 example which you are now setting, with the holy 
 
187 
 
 resolutions which then employed your thoughts ; 
 when^ by ' being baptized into Christ you put on 
 Christ ;' what piety and religious joy then engaged 
 and delighted your mind ; how fervent were your 
 hopes; how bright were your prospects! Your 
 heart may indeed be perverted, and your thoughts 
 be changed by the delusions of the world, but there 
 is no change in God or in truth. Heaven and eter- 
 nity are still the same. It is still true, that human 
 life is short and uncertain, and that ' the fashion 
 of this world passeth away.' My brother, bethink 
 yourself; it is not too late; the gates of mercy are 
 never shut ; retrace your steps ; repent, and God will 
 forgive you. * Return to your first love,' and be, as 
 in days passed, determined * to live soberly, righte- 
 ously, and piously, in the present world ;' to live as 
 one who is ' looking for that blessed hope, and the 
 glorious appearance of the great God, and of our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ.' " 
 
 In these several respects, then. Baptism is an in- 
 telligible rite. It is an act of the judgment; it 
 expresses the feelings and convictions of the mind. 
 These are all personal acts of religion, and of course 
 must have a moral tendency. We shall conclude 
 our line of argument under this head, in the words 
 of the late venerable and pious Dr. Toulmin: " Bap 
 tism is a solemn rite, by which is made a voluntary 
 declaration of becoming the disciples of Christ. It 
 is a voluntary declaration, because it is a personal 
 
 o2 
 
188 
 
 profession of faith. It is a solemn one, because it is 
 made in obedience to a divine command."* 
 
 IV. Baptism is connected with religious liberty 
 and the rights of conscience. 
 
 It is our boast that no class of Christians has more 
 highly valued, or better understood, these all-im- 
 portant subjects, suffered more for them, or more 
 zealously contended for them, than the Baptists. 
 Without religious liberty no liberty is complete. 
 No true dignity or elevation of character can be 
 acquired. Truth itself can have no fair chance of 
 displaying its power, or of being duly considered. 
 When God condescends to speak, all should hear ; 
 when He commands, all should obey. Has he 
 graciously revealed his will unto men, and in all 
 that appertains to faith and practice, is it plain and 
 level to their common understandings ? What pre- 
 sumption, then, for any man, or any class of men, 
 whatever high-sounding titles they may bear, to 
 come officiously between me and my Maker, and 
 to say, " God designed not his revelation for you ; 
 he has not spoken to your understanding but to 
 mine ; and I must be to you the interpreter of his 
 will, and you must believe my explanation of it, or 
 be damned !" Were I to admit the bold assumption, 
 and to receive my faith dictated in this arbitary man- 
 ner from another, the Scriptures would be as no- 
 
 * See his Four Discourses on Baptism, a work well worth the 
 perusal of a serious and inquiring mind. 
 
189 
 
 thing to me, and my religion could not be pleasing 
 to God. Where shall I find the scriptural proof 
 that God will require an account of my faith and 
 religious conduct of another, and not of me ? Or, if 
 the State provide me with religion, where can I read 
 that the State will answer for me at the bar of Christ ? 
 If this can never be true, nor can ever be done, but 
 I must give an account for myself, and by my own 
 conduct stand or fall, what less can be allowed than 
 that I should have the liberty to read and think, and, 
 with such helps as I can get, exercise my own un- 
 derstanding, and decide for myself? I cannot judge 
 for you, neither can you judge for me. I cannot 
 worship by your creed, any more than you can wor- 
 ship by mine. To our " own Master we must stand 
 or fall ;" and to him alone, as the King of Christians, 
 and the only lawgiver to his church, are we accoun- 
 table for the use of the powers and means afforded 
 us ; and woe be to that church or to those men who 
 shall maintain and enforce the contrary. Implicit 
 faith and passive obedience are beneath the dignity 
 of a rational being. They induce that mental slavery 
 and oppression which artful priests have but too 
 successfully entailed upon the Christian world. 
 
 As General Baptists we disclaim all human au- 
 thority in matters purely religious. We have no Mas- 
 ter in religion but Christ, and no creed but the Bible. 
 In all that concerns the service and worship of our 
 Maker, his laws are our only guide. No human 
 authority can be admitted. Conscience belongs to 
 
190 
 
 God alone, and is far beyond both the power and 
 the capacity of the civil magistrate. But the right 
 which we claim for ourselves we most cheerfully 
 allow to all others, however much they may differ 
 from us. " Let every man be fully persuaded in 
 his own mind." No one who is a real friend to 
 truth, and to the perfectibility of man, who believes 
 in God and in the sure word of prophecy, who looks 
 forward to the time when knowledge shall cover the 
 earth, and when all shall know the Lord from the 
 least to the greatest, but will promote, by every 
 means in his power, the extension of religious liberty 
 to all men of all opinions ; for truth has nothing to 
 fear. We rejoice that this noble and liberal spirit is 
 by no means confined to our own denomination ; far 
 from it: but we do unhesitatingly affirm, that re- 
 ligious liberty, the right of private judgment, and 
 the sufficiency of the holy Scriptures, are sentiments 
 essential to the very existence of a General Baptist 
 Church ; and when the Baptists fail practically to 
 observe these principles, they must forfeit all claim 
 to virtue and consistency. The law of Baptism, 
 indeed, authorizes them to initiate converts into the 
 Christian church, and to train them up to Christian 
 excellence, but not to make creeds for them, or to 
 domineer over their faith. " Stand fast, therefore, 
 brethren, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made 
 you free." May you never have reason to know its 
 value by its loss. Forget not the sufferings and la- 
 bours of those worthies who, in former days, strug- 
 
191 
 
 gled so nobly against spiritual tyranny in high places, 
 who braved every danger, and made the most costly 
 sacrifices for religious liberty and the rights of con- 
 science ; and then, without going through the same 
 painful process, you will benefit by their labours and 
 experience; more especially if you estimate it, as 
 you ought to do, as next in value to religion itself. 
 For surely liberty, civil and religious, is amongst the 
 most precious of the gifts of God. It is of such 
 vital importance, that without its light and heat we 
 droop and die. If there be aught desirable in this 
 lower world ; if any thing can ennoble human nature; 
 if there be any thing truly " lovely and of good re^ 
 port ;" if there be any thing glorious in virtue, or 
 praiseworthy in man, not to say precious iii the 
 sight of God, it must consist in the wide range of 
 intellectual freedom, wisely directed, and duly im- 
 proved ; in the unfettered contemplation of the mind 
 on truth and virtue, on the evidences and principles 
 of natural and revealed religion, and, above all, on 
 the character and perfections of Almighty God. 
 These great subjects of reflection, exerting their pure 
 and benevolent influence on the heart, will fill it 
 with love to God and love to man, and mould the 
 character to purity and righteousness. This is true 
 religion ; this is real piety ; which, mingling with 
 our emotions of homage and devotion, shall ascend, 
 sweet as the evening sacrifice, and surround with 
 acceptable praise, and with grateful incense, the 
 throne of God. 
 
192 
 
 V. We cannot do justice to our subject without 
 noticing Infant Baptism, and the many evils with 
 which it is connected. We do not, indeed, allow it 
 to be Baptism at all ; but owing to its extensive use, 
 and for the sake of distinction, we shall speak of it 
 as such. It is far, however, from our wish to in- 
 dulge in uncharitable feelings, or in uncandid re- 
 marks, towards those who from conviction differ from 
 us. Those who sincerely believe it to be sanctioned 
 by divine authority, act consistently in the observance 
 of it ; and among them we cheerfully admit are to 
 be found many of the wisest and best of men and 
 of Christians. Notwithstanding which, and we 
 trust they will pardon our great plainness of speech, 
 the practice appears to us so unauthorized by Scrip- 
 ture, so utterly puerile in itself, so incapable of all 
 benefit to the child to whom it is administered, that 
 our wonder is, that it should have obtained so long 
 and so widely. That it should still do so, especially 
 in the present enlightened state of the world, presents, 
 we think, one of those problems which will admit of 
 no satisfactory solution. None, we believe, pretend 
 to say that there is any direct precept for, or example 
 of, it in the New Testament. However sanctioned, 
 then, by tradition, it can be only matter of inference 
 and deduction. Nor is there any direct historical 
 evidence of its observance till several centuries after 
 the introduction of Christianity. It most probably 
 came in with the doctrine of Original Sin: it was 
 fit that the bane and the antidote should come to^ 
 
193 
 
 gether. Those who introduced it had possibly some 
 superstitious ideas relative to the saving power of 
 Baptism, independently of its moral influence on 
 the mind. For, we find that it became a practice 
 with many as early as the beginning of the fourth 
 century to put off their baptism till near their death, 
 that having no opportunity of sinning after it, they 
 might, through its saving efficacy, triumphantly enter 
 heaven. Need we add, that this was a superstitious 
 and gross perversion of the rite ? — A babe, in the 
 nature of things, cannot be the subject of law, or of 
 moral obligation. How then stands the case ? When 
 a child is baptized, a solemn religious service is per- 
 formed ; but whom does such service concern ? Not 
 the child, surely, who knows nothing about it. It 
 may, indeed, religiously affect the parents, the spon- 
 sors, or those who are present ; but the child it can- 
 not aifect. As far as it is concerned, personal religion, 
 choice, and benefit, are entirely out of the question. 
 
 In the next place, what are the moral effects which 
 this ceremony produces on the minds of those who 
 are concerned in it? In most cases, instead of at- 
 tending to it from pure religious feeling, they seem 
 to attend to it in mere compliance with law and 
 custom — as a sort of merry-making, and often- 
 times a very intemperate one — rather than to dis- 
 charge a religious duty. On such occasions the 
 sponsors promise and vow three things in the child's 
 name: and how do they in general perform their 
 vows thus solemnly made ? In most cases by taking 
 
194 
 
 no farther notice of them, and in some by never 
 seeing the child again^ and but seldom in any by 
 discharging in a proper manner the moral obligation 
 which they have incurred. What can any thinking 
 man designate this kind of religious farce and per- 
 jury, but a practice highly discreditable to religion, 
 and injurious to all concerned in it? We readily 
 allow, that many of our observations will not equally 
 apply to the Dissenters, who practise this rite with 
 seriousness and religious feeling. The ceremony, 
 however, is equally unscriptural in both. 
 
 But further : we contend, this practice does great 
 injury to the child ; for with a name a creed is im- 
 posed on the infant, while it is incapable of judging 
 for itself " what is right." As the child grows up, 
 its young mind is impressed with a sense of the 
 sacred obligation which it contracted in infancy, 
 and that no less than the favour of God, and the 
 hopes of heaven depend on his holding fast the doc- 
 trines of his creed or his church. Thus the mind 
 is early prejudiced, and becomes enslaved to certain 
 opinions and practices ; and its early prepossessions 
 too generally forestall all due exertion of the under- 
 standing, and incapacitate the future man for fair 
 inquiry and impartial examination. By this process 
 you may indeed make Roman Catholics or Pro- 
 testants, Churchmen or Dissenters ; but you will 
 never make rational, enlightened, Bible Christians. 
 Far better were it to have no haptism than a spurious 
 one— 'Si ceremony not only void of utility, but preg- 
 
195 
 
 nant with evil — one which entirely reverses the 
 apostolic plan ; which was, first to teach, to disciple, 
 and then to baptize ; not first to baptize, and dis- 
 ciple and teach afterwards. Our Lord declared, 
 that his kingdom was not of this world. What, 
 then, shall we say to a practice which confounds the 
 world and the church together ; which converts the 
 gospel into a mere geographical term, so that if a 
 child happen to be born in what is called a Chris- 
 tian country, he is of course born a Christian ! But 
 it would seem like insulting common sense to offer 
 proof that men, wherever born, are no more born 
 Christians than they are born lawyers or physicians. 
 Every national church, however, must be established 
 on the principle that all who are born in the nation 
 are born members of it ; that it provides for them 
 the best religious instruction, and takes eifectual 
 care for the salvation of all its members. But how 
 does a national (mis-named Christian) church do 
 this ? Why thus : — Its members are said to be all 
 born in sin, and to deserve God's wrath and condem- 
 nation ; but are made, by Infant Baptism, to pass 
 through the laver of regeneration ; and, aided by the 
 words of the priest, are purified from their corrupt 
 nature, the. curse and evil of Original Sin are re- 
 moved, and they thus become members of Christ, 
 children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom 
 of heaven. Thus all are made Christians in their 
 infancy ; and when they die, however infamous 
 their lives may have been, they are declared to be. 
 
196 
 
 by the same authority, all dearly beloved brethren^ 
 departed " in sure and certain hope of a glorious 
 resurrection" ! 
 
 Look at the moral state of society, in which be- 
 lievers and unbelievers, the most vicious and the 
 most virtuous, are all mixed together, and yet all 
 are considered as the Christian Church. If this 
 were the case, we must reverse our Lord's words, 
 and say, " Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, 
 that leadeth unto life, and many there be who go 
 in thereat." These are only a few of the revolting 
 consequences and absurdities which result from In- 
 fant Baptism and a National Church, and from 
 confounding the church and the world together. 
 To say nothing of that long black list of crimes and 
 calamities which has afflicted the world under the 
 pretext of religion, what evils and spiritual oppres- 
 sion has not priestcraft, armed with the civil power, 
 produced ? Survey, with the aid of ecclesiastical 
 history, the monstrous assumptions of power and 
 the structures of tyranny which it has raised; — hier- 
 archies grasping the sceptre of heaven and earth, 
 with popes of infallible pretensions, with cardinals, 
 bishops, and archbishops, together with priests in- 
 numerable, of every grade and description, who, 
 uniting their unhallowed power in conclaves, coun- 
 cils, and inquisitions, in convocations, star-chambers, 
 and spiritual courts, committed all sorts of enormi- 
 ties for the good of souls and the glory of God. 
 Pious kings, too, uniting their temporal power and 
 
197 
 
 right divine to a holy zeal for religion, gloried in 
 having destroyed or converted millions of men for 
 the good of the Church ! And how were they con- 
 verted ? Why, according to the barbarous custom 
 of those savage times, Christian kings were thought 
 to be justified in putting the people of a conquered 
 army or province to the sword, unless they professed 
 to become Christians, and submitted to be baptized. 
 The latter alternative was of course preferred ; and 
 this wholesale way of making Christians was gloried 
 in as a great triumph of religion. This mode of 
 making converts, however it might suit the Mahom- 
 medan religion, is truly abhorrent to the spirit of 
 the Gospel. On all such occasions, baptism by 
 sprinkling, without individual consent or choice, 
 and contrary, as it plainly is, to the very genius of 
 Christianity, has ever been a ready and convenient 
 auxiliary of oppression and injustice. 
 
 That this mode of initiation has been abused when 
 it has been adopted to countenance the most arbi- 
 trary and atrocious measures, we do not dispute ; 
 but this does not affect our argument, that the evils 
 above-mentioned are the natural consequence of 
 making the world Christian without its possessing 
 either the knowledge or spirit of Christianity. But 
 had the church continued in its primitive state, and, 
 according to its true intent, been a congregation of 
 faithful men, acting from virtuous deliberation and 
 choice, observing the ordinances of the Gospel, 
 and the order therein laid down, such evils could 
 
198 
 
 never have existed. To us it is evident, that no 
 national church, even the best of the Reformed, 
 could long exist without the conscription law of 
 Infant Baptism, and the worldly interests by which 
 it is upheld. No other method would keep up its 
 members. Dismiss this unscriptural ceremony ; take 
 away the groundless doctrine of Original Sin ; take 
 away the tithes and preferments, the worldly motives 
 and honours ; let its ministers cease to " raise their 
 mitred fronts in courts and parliaments ;" leave it to 
 stand alone, and to exist, like other sects, by its own 
 merits, and we venture to predict, that at no great 
 distance of time every national church would be re- 
 duced to comparatively little more than the mere 
 shadow of its former greatness. What applies to 
 one national establishment, holds equally true of 
 them all. They are all equally inimical to pure 
 and unadulterated Christianity. We are aware that 
 we are treading on tender ground ; but we fearlessly 
 express our own most serious conviction, that until 
 the unnatural union, wherever subsisting, between 
 Church and State be dissolved, and until all penal 
 statutes and restraints on conscience be removed, all 
 interests against the truth be done away, till then 
 it never can have fair play : Divine truth and good- 
 ness cannot prevail ; they cannot spread themselves 
 over the earth ; they cannot run and be glorified. 
 All we ask is, that religion may be left to itself. 
 It made the greatest progress, not only when un- 
 aided by, and unconnected with, the civil power, 
 
199 
 
 but even when opposed by it. Restore moral order 
 and discipline. Revert to the simplicity of primi- 
 tive times. Let there be now, as at the first, a 
 complete separation between the Church and the 
 world : " For what concord hath Christ with Be- 
 lial?" Let all its votaries honestly " strive together 
 for the faith of the Gospel." Let its pure, benevo- 
 lent, and liberal spirit pervade the earth. Then all 
 injustice, all war and slavery, those worst of human 
 ills, will cease to outrage religion and to oppress the 
 world. These, however, can now exist, and rage, 
 and be carried on by most religious kings, by a pious 
 priesthood, and by National Churches : but none of 
 these abominations could receive countenance from 
 truly Christian Churches, constituted according to 
 Gospel order. Theirs is a spurious Christianity, 
 consisting of creeds and articles of human invention, 
 and imbodied into a political church for political 
 purposes, in which religion is converted into an en- 
 gine of state rather than regarded as the rule and 
 motive to virtue. — " If Christian nations were na- 
 tions of Christians," war and slavery could not exist; 
 righteousness and truth. Christian love and mercy, 
 would triumph, and the Gospel would be found 
 now, as in primitive times, glad-tidings to all people, 
 and the power of God unto salvation. " I speak as 
 unto wise men, judge ye what I say." 
 
 Lastly, Not longer to trespass upon your pati- 
 ence, we shall conclude our argument by briefly 
 recapitulating the topics which we have discussed. 
 
200 
 
 We have observed, that Baptism was a solemn rite 
 instituted and sanctioned by Jesus Christ, and en- 
 joined upon all who should receive his gospel ; that 
 the Apostles were Baptist ministers, and the first 
 churches of Christ Baptist churches ; and that had 
 all who professed the Gospel, continued faithfully to 
 hold the same faith and practice and order which 
 the Apostles did, all Christian churches would now 
 exactly resemble theirs. We have observed, that 
 Baptism is connected with an open profession of 
 Christ, with repentance and the forgiveness of sins, 
 with the death and resurrection of Christ, with per- 
 sonal religion and the rights of conscience, and with 
 the answer of a good conscience towards God : that 
 by Baptism Christians were called out of and en- 
 tirely separated from the world, and by which sepa- 
 ration they became the visible Church of Christ. 
 Had they multiplied and spread themselves over 
 the earth, maintaining their pure principles and 
 benevolent character, what sufferings would have 
 been spared to mankind ; what scandal would have 
 been avoided ; and what extensive blessings would 
 have been enjoyed ! We have contended, that many 
 and great evils have resulted from the practice of 
 infant baptism ; " that infants are mere machines 
 and utterly incapable of every requisite to Baptism ; 
 that it subverts the very base of the Christian church, 
 by giving those the name who have not the thing, 
 and by transferring the whole cause of Christianity 
 from the wise and pious few, to the ignorant multi- 
 
201 
 
 tude, who, being supposed Christians, interfere in 
 religion, derange the community, invade the offices, 
 and convert the whole into a worldly corporation."* 
 To our apprehension, if the New Testament be 
 our rule, no line of argument can be more plain and 
 conclusive than that which has been pursued in 
 these Lectures ; but to some persons something more 
 is necessary to conviction than reason and demon- 
 stration. He that would hear must have a willing 
 ear; and he that would be delighted with seeing 
 the truth must have a single eye. We allow, in- 
 deed, that our peculiar rite is very unfashionable, 
 for fashion in our day affects religion as well as 
 every other thing : hence many dislike it and are 
 ashamed of it, rather than that they have any thing 
 valid to object to it. If it were generally practised, 
 they would then be Baptists ; they would go with 
 the multitude : but on this ground what become of 
 their principles and integrity? All should bear in 
 mind the solemn declaration of our Lord, " He that 
 is ashamed of me, and of my words, of him will I 
 be ashamed before my Father and his holy angels ;" 
 while his humble and despised followers should feel 
 encouraged by his gracious declaration, that " who- 
 soever confesseth me before men, him will I confess 
 also before my Father, which is in heaven." Our 
 numbers, it is true, are not great, nor is our cause 
 popular. And because the arguments of our oppo- 
 nents fail to convince us, we are scoffed at, and that 
 often by those from whom we might reasonably ex- 
 * Robinson's Hist, of Baptism. 
 P 
 
. 202 
 
 pcct better things. But if we be true to our prin- 
 ciples, no disproportion of numbers or depression of 
 circumstances will prevent us from zealously con- 
 tending for truth, and for w4iat we judge involves 
 our duty to God, and thus the present and future 
 welfare of our souls. We may be " troubled, but 
 we are not distressed. We may be cast down, but 
 we are not destroyed. We may be perplexed, but 
 we are not in despair." 
 
 Call to mind the former days; recollect the trying 
 circumstances of the Apostles and first Christians, 
 and take them for an example of persevering zeal 
 and fortitude. Their religion was not fashionable, 
 nor were their numbers great. Fierce and numerous 
 were their enemies, and perilous were their times 
 and condition. They were surrounded with dan- 
 gers ; yet how firm was their faith, how great were 
 their zeal and their virtue ! But if they had been 
 dismayed by opposition and dangers, had they not 
 stood their ground in the hour of trial, had they not 
 persevered through evil and through good report, 
 had they not gloried in witnessing a good confession 
 for the name of Christ, — all the invaluable blessings 
 of his Gospel had been lost to the world. If they 
 had only consulted their ease and their safety; if 
 they had shrunk from observation and dreaded the 
 charge of singularity ; if one had gone to his farm, 
 and another to his merchandise, and had cared for 
 none of these things — the Gospel had never reached 
 our ears, enlightened our minds, or comforted our 
 hearts : it would never have soothed and cheered the 
 
203 
 
 cli amber of affliction, or gilded with hope the cell 
 of despair; it would never have illumined or smooth- 
 ed the bed of death, or have enabled the expiring 
 saint to point with exultation to the joys of heaven. 
 Let us then, my brethren, not be discouraged by the 
 difficulties which may be in our way. Let us man- 
 fully bear our testimony to what we believe to be 
 truth, and to what we judge to be right; knowing, 
 that true wisdom consists in maintaining the recti- 
 tude of our lives and the integrity of our hearts. 
 
 If we have expressed ourselves strongly, with the 
 warmth and frankness of honest conviction, it has 
 yet been done with perfect good-will towards all 
 men. Our zeal, we trust, will never transport us 
 beyond the bounds of Christian candour and charity. 
 Where we cannot agree with others, we would, with 
 kindly feelings, agree to differ. Far from quarreling 
 with our fellow-christians, who have the same right 
 to judge for themselves that we have, on disputed 
 points of faith and practice, we fondly cherish the 
 hope, that good men of all parties and of all opi- 
 nions, will hereafter join " the general assembly and 
 church of the first-born — and the spirits of just men 
 made perfect ;" when all error and imperfection will 
 be done away ; " when we shall know even as we 
 are known ;" and when, no longer subject to ordi- 
 nances, to darkened minds and to a divided faith, we 
 shall enter, in that world of light and joy, upon an 
 endless career of ever-increasing knowledge and hap- 
 piness, and God be all in all. Amen. 
 
204 
 
 DR. EVANS'S 
 EXTEMPORANEOUS ADDRESS 
 
 At the Conclusion of the Lectures. 
 
 Christian Brethren, 
 Having had the honour of opening these Lec- 
 tures on Baptism, permit me to say a few words by 
 way of conclusion. In my own name, and in that 
 of my colleagues, I thank you for your constant and 
 full attendance — your kind and patient attention. 
 May any good impressions made prove not like the 
 morning cloud, and the early dew which goeth away ! 
 May the subject that has engaged your attention be 
 the theme of meditation and of prayer. God grant 
 you courage and integrity to follow the honest con- 
 viction of your hearts ! 
 
 What CONSCIENCE dictates to be done. 
 
 Or warns us not to do ; 
 Tliis teach us more than hell to shun. 
 
 That more than heaven pursue ! 
 
 Remember the words of our Saviour : If ye know 
 these things, happy are ye if ye do them. Yielding 
 obedience to the great Head of the Christian Church, 
 you will be happy in your progress through life, 
 happy in death, and happy through the countless 
 ages of eternity. Amen. 
 
 GEORGE SMALIFIELD, PRINTER, HACKNEY.