THE 
 
 BAPTIST 
 
 
 SHORT METHOD. 
 
 IXQUIRERS AM) OPPOSEXTS. 
 
 B Y 
 
 REV. EDWARD TV HISCOX, D. D. 
 
 pijilcttrdpljia: 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
 530 ARCH STREET. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 
 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in 
 and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 S. A. GEORGE, 
 
 BTEREOTTPER, ELRCTROTYPER, AND PRINTER, 
 
 124 N. SEVENTH STREET, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 .'6>:t 
 

 1 W p, ^ 
 
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 jgWHE object of tliis work is to give a 
 ~il clear, condensed, but comprehensive 
 j(e5jr view of those points of difYerence 
 
 ^Gr which distinguish Baptists from 
 other denominations ; and to furnish the 
 best arguments, in the fewest words, and in 
 the most lucid style, for those who wish to 
 know, and those who wish to defend our 
 views. 
 
 Much has been written on the various 
 subjects here treated. But there is no single 
 book that embraces them all, and can show 
 at a glance, what Baptists are, and what they 
 believe. 
 
 The special aim has been to present the 
 subjects in the strongest light ; and to use, 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 not all, but the best arguments, and in the 
 most effective form, for the defence of the 
 truth. 
 
 It will furnish a resume of arguments and 
 authorities, quite sufficient for all ordinary 
 occasions of explanation or disputation — 
 either to answer inquiry, or to meet oppo- 
 sition — in private or public. 
 
 No little stress is laid on the orderly 
 arrangement, the clearness of statement, and 
 the directness of proof, that mark the work. 
 Any question discussed can be found in a 
 moment, and the presentation of the case 
 will be' instantly, understood. 
 
 It should be added, that no Baptist au- 
 thorities have been adduced in evidence. 
 This omission is not because Baptist scholar- 
 ship is not as able, or Baptist authority as 
 weighty, as any other. But to many minds 
 the concessions of opponents seem more 
 than the opinions of friends. And usually, 
 we prefer to call as witnesses those who 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 differ from us, where they bear testimony to 
 the truth. 
 
 Candor requires us also to say — what no 
 one certainly is ignorant of — that Peclobap- 
 tist scholars and divines here cited, notwith- 
 standing their admissions in our favor, still 
 practice sprinkling, and defend infant bap- 
 tism. How they can do it, is not for us to 
 say. We prefer to use their admissions in 
 the cause of truth, rather than to attempt an 
 explanation of their inconsistencies, or under- 
 take to show how good and learned men 
 can habitually -contradict their judgment 
 and scholarship by their practices. 
 
 In the hope that these pages may serve 
 the cause of gospel truth, and a pure order 
 in church life, they are committed to the 
 candid judgment and the kind regard of 
 those for whom they were prepared. 
 
 E. T. H. 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 August 18th, 1868, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 «*. 
 
 CHAPTER I. pags 
 
 Baptist Propositions 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Baptist Peculiarities 13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Baptism 20 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 Infant Baptism 87 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Lord's Supper 121 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Church Officers 161 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Church Government 175 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Baptist History 184 
 
 CO 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/baptistshortmethOOhisc 
 
THE BAPTIST SHORT METHOD: 
 
 WITH 
 
 INQUIRERS AND OPPONENTS. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BAPTIST PROPOSITIONS. 
 
 HE Bible is our only guide, source of 
 knowledge, and standard of author- 
 ity in matters of religion. Whatever 
 is taught in the Scriptures is to be 
 believed ; whatever is there enjoined, is to be 
 obeyed. And what is there neither enjoined 
 nor taught, is not to be imposed on the faith 
 or conscience of any man as of religious obli- 
 gation. 
 
 2. The right of private judgment in the 
 interpretation of the Scriptures. Every man 
 
 9 
 
10 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 has the right to read and explain the Bible for 
 himself, being responsible to God alone for 
 the correct interpretation of the sacred word. 
 
 3. Freedom of conscience. Every one has 
 the right to hold snch religious opinions as he 
 may believe the Bible teaches,- .without hin- 
 drance or dictation from any ; so long as he 
 does not intrude upon, or interfere with the 
 rights and privileges of others by so doing. 
 
 4. Liberty of speech. All men possess the 
 right, not only to believe, but also to profess 
 and declare openly and without fear or harm, 
 whatever religious opinions they may enter- 
 tain, provided they are not contrary to com- 
 mon morality. 
 
 5. The right of worship. Every man has a 
 right to worship God, according to the dictates 
 of his own conscience, and the word of God, 
 as he understands it, without hindrance or 
 molestation; so long as he does not injure or 
 interfere with the rights of others. 
 
 G. Civil governments, rulers, and magis- 
 trates, are to be respected, and in all temporal 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 11 
 
 matters, not contrary to conscience and the 
 word of God, are to be obeyed. But they have 
 no jurisdiction in spiritual concerns, and have 
 110 right of dictation, control, or interference 
 in matters of religious faith and godliness ; 
 but are in duty bound to protect all citizens in 
 the uninterrupted enjoyment of their religious 
 privileges. 
 
 t. The Christian Church is independent of 
 all human authority, and under law to Christ 
 alone. It neither ought, nor of right can 
 have any organic connection with the state ; 
 and for kings, princes, or priests to claim head- 
 ship over it, is a usurpation of divine prerog- 
 atives and treason against God. 
 
 8. Xone but regenerated persons ought to 
 be, or properly can be, members of the church 
 of Christ, which is a spiritual body and 
 separate from the world. 
 
 9. Pastors are not to be imposed upon 
 churches, nor taken from them, without their 
 consent ; but are to be chosen by them with- 
 out constraint, as by free men in Christ, who 
 
12 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 have a right to the choice of their religious 
 teachers. 
 
 10. Christ is the only lawgiver in his 
 church. Consequently the churches cannot 
 make laws for themselves ; but only execute 
 those which he has given. Nor can any man, 
 or body of men legislate for the church. The 
 Xew Testament alone is its statute book, by 
 which, without change, the body of Christ is to 
 govern itself. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 BAPTIST PECULIARITIES. 
 
 /f X what respects do Baptists differ from 
 °OM other Christian denominations? 
 °Gf? This is a question of no small con- 
 \§ cern. Every Baptist should he able 
 to answer it. It is true that every honest 
 mind, searching for truth, will rather ask, 
 "what does the Bible teach?" than "what do 
 men believe ?" Yet the former is often the 
 better learned, by well understanding the lat- 
 ter. For information, if not for authority, 
 the opinions of men, and the creeds of 
 churches, are important to be known. Nor 
 should any man be willingly ignorant of the 
 doctrinal views of his own denomination. 
 
 The following are the more important 
 points, in which Baptists differ from others, 
 
 as to religious opinion. 
 
 2 13 
 
14 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 1. As to Baptism. 
 
 Baptists hold that immersion, dipping, or 
 burying the candidate in water, is the only 
 way of administering that ordinance, taught 
 in the Kew Testament, or practiced by the 
 apostles and first Christians. 
 
 Consequently the mode is essential to the 
 ordinance; and nothing but dipping, or im- 
 mersion, is baptism. Therefore sprinkling, 
 pouring, or whatever else may be resorted to, 
 are not baptism at all, but substitutes for it. 
 
 On the contrary, all Pedobaptists hold that, 
 while immersion is valid baptism, sprinkling 
 and pouring are valid baptism also. 
 
 2. The Subjects for Baptism. 
 
 Who may property, and ought of right to 
 be, baptized? Baptists assert that the only 
 proper subjects for this ordinance, are those 
 who have exercised and professed a saving 
 faith in Christ, and are walking in godliness. 
 
 On the contrary, some hold and teach, that 
 unregenerate persons may, and should be 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 15 
 
 baptized, as a means of grace, while all Peclo- 
 baptists claim that unconscious infants, unre- 
 generate, or incapable of faith, should re- 
 ceive baptism, on the faith of their parents 
 or sponsors. Both of which, Baptists declare 
 to be plainly contrary to the word of God. 
 
 3. The Subjects for Communion. 
 
 Who have the right, and property should 
 come to the communion of the Lord's Supper? 
 
 Baptists assert that those only who are re- 
 generate, have been baptized on a profession 
 of faith in Christ, and are living in a godly 
 and Christian manner, as members of the 
 church, have a right to, or can property par- 
 take of the supper. 
 
 Of course, then, baptism is prerequisite to 
 the communion ; of course, also, the church is 
 to judge of the qualifications of the candidate. 
 
 On the contrary, some believe and teach, 
 that baptism is not prerequisite to the com- 
 munion, and therefore unbaptized persons 
 may rightfully come to the Lord's table. 
 
16 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Some also claim that each one is to be the 
 only judge of his own fitness, and the church 
 cannot deny the privilege to any one who re- 
 quests it. 
 
 All Pedobaptists invite to the communion 
 persons only sprinkled, whom Baptists regard 
 as unbaptized; Catholics give to the laity the 
 communion in one kind only, denying them 
 the cup. All of which Baptists regard as 
 contrary to the Scriptures, and subversive of 
 gospel order in the churches. 
 
 4. The Subjects for Church Membership. 
 
 What class and character of persons should 
 be admitted to membership in, and constitute 
 Christian churches ? 
 
 Baptists hold that only regenerated per- 
 sons, properly baptized, and living godly 
 lives, should be admitted as members of the 
 church of Christ. And that all others, even 
 if within the church, should be cast out ; and 
 if without, should be denied admission. 
 
 Consequently, to receive unregenerate per- 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. It 
 
 sons to membership, whether infants or adults, 
 destroys the spirituality of the body, and 
 forms an unholy alliance between the church 
 and the world, instead of maintaining a broad 
 and distinctive difference between them. 
 
 5. The Form op Church Government. 
 
 What form of government for the Christian 
 church, is taught, or sanctioned, in the "New 
 Testament ? 
 
 Baptists believe that each particular and 
 separate body of believers, meeting in one 
 place for worship, and associated in Christian 
 covenant, as a church of Christ, is, and should 
 of right be, entirely independent of all other 
 persons and bodies of men ; that such a 
 church should govern itself without interfer- 
 ence from any human authority, ecclesiastical 
 or civil, other than its own. 
 
 Others, however, claim and teach, with 
 great diversity of opinion, that individual 
 bodies of Christian disciples should not gov- 
 ern themselves, but be governed by popes 
 
18 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 or bishops, synods, presbyteries, or conferen- 
 ces, consociations, assemblies, or conventions. 
 All of which, Baptists consider as contradic- 
 tory to the word of God, and the practice of 
 the primitive churches. 
 
 6. The Officers of a Christian Church. 
 
 What officers, according to the Scriptures, 
 pertain to the churches ? 
 
 Baptists hold that they are pastors and 
 deacons ; these two, and only these. 
 
 Here, also, they differ from man}-, if not 
 most other denominations, who claim more 
 than two orders in the ministiy, and officers 
 in the churches ; running through a long cata- 
 logue, from pope to pastor, from cardinal to 
 curate, from dean to deacon. 
 
 7. In doctrines, Baptists are what is usually 
 known as Calvinistic, as opposed to Arrainian. 
 They hold the unity of the godhead, and the 
 equal divinity of the Father, Son, and Spirit, 
 the three persons composing it; a full and 
 free salvation proclaimed to all in Christ ; re- 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 19 
 
 demption and the atonement, by the meritori- 
 ous sacrifice of Christ; justification by faith, 
 not by works ; the Holy Spirit the Author of 
 regeneration and sanctification ; the personal 
 election of believers ; the perseverance of the 
 saints ; the resurrection of the body ; and the 
 endless duration of rewards and punishments. 
 Doctrinally, they agree in general with most 
 other evangelical denominations. 
 
 There may be others, but the above men- 
 tioned are the chief points of difference 
 between Baptists and other Christians. These 
 are the questions on which misconception is 
 most likely to arise, and on which information 
 is most frequently desired. And in them all, 
 while they do not claim to be faultless, Bap- 
 tists appeal to the Bible, history, philology, 
 and reason, to justify their views, and sustain 
 their positions. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 BAPTISM. 
 
 HAT is the true and proper mode of 
 ., baptism, as taught in the New Testa- 
 ment ? Baptists answer by saying, it 
 is the dipping, immersing, or burying 
 a candidate in water, in the name of the 
 Father, Son, and Spirit, on a confession of 
 his faith in Christ. 
 
 And as proofs to sustain this proposition, 
 the}' offer the following considerations. 
 
 The Saviour's Baptism. 
 
 Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan. It 
 is said, "And Jesus when he was baptized 
 went up straightway out of the water."* 
 Again it is recorded that Jesus " was baptized 
 
 * Matt. iii. 16. 
 20 
 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 21 
 
 of John in Jordan ; and straightway coming 
 up out of the water."* 
 
 Xow, why did Jesus go down into the 
 water, so as to come up out of the water, 
 unless it was to be dipped or buried in it. To 
 say he went down into the river, to have 
 water poured or sprinkled on him, is too 
 trifling and absurd to have any weight with 
 candid minds. 
 
 Bp. Taylor says, with reference to this : 
 u The custom of the ancient churches was not 
 sprinkling, but immersion ; in pursuance of 
 the sense of the word in the commandment, 
 and the example of our blessed Saviour. "*j" 
 
 Dr. Campbell, in his translation of the 
 Gospels, says : " Jesus, being baptized, no 
 sooner rose out of the water than heaven was 
 open to him. "J 
 
 Olshausen, discoursing on the baptism of 
 Jesus, says : " The one part of the action, — the 
 submersion, — represents the negative aspect, 
 
 * Mark i. 10. f On Matt, hi. 16. 
 
 + Four Gospels. 
 
22 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 the taking away of the old man ; the other, — 
 the immersion, — denotes its positive aspect, 
 the appearance of the new man."* 
 
 Macknight sa} T s : " Christ submitted to be 
 baptized, that is, to be buried under water, 
 and to be raised out of it again, as an emblem 
 of his future death and resurrection, "f 
 
 Lightfoot says : " That the baptism of 
 John was the immersion of the body, in which 
 manner both the ablutions of unclean persons, 
 and the baptism of proselytes was performed, 
 seems evident from those things which are 
 related of it ; namely, that he baptized in the 
 Jordan, and in Enon because there was much 
 water ; and that Christ, being baptized, went 
 up, out of the water. "J 
 
 The Places of Baptism. 
 
 John the Baptist baptized in the Jordan, 
 as well as in other places where an abundance 
 of water was to be found. "And John also 
 
 * Com. Rom. vi. 3, 4. f Epis. Rom. vi. 4. 
 
 % On Matt. iii. 6. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 23 
 
 was baptizing in Enon, near to Saliin, because 
 there was much water there."* 
 
 Why resort to places expressly because 
 there was much water, if sprinkling or pour- 
 ing were used in baptism. A very little water 
 would have served that purpose. But much 
 water implies, to thoughtful minds, an immer- 
 sion in baptism. 
 
 Calvin, whom Scaliger pronounced the most 
 learned man in Europe, says : " From these 
 words of John, (iii. 23,) it may be inferred that 
 baptism was administered, b}^ John and Christ, 
 b}* plunging the whole body under water, "f 
 
 Whitby sa} T s : " Because there was much 
 water there, in which their whole bodies 
 might be dipped."% 
 
 Poole sa}'s : " It is apparent that both 
 Christ and John baptized by dipping the 
 body in the water, else they need not have 
 sought places where had been a great plenty 
 of water. "§ 
 
 * John iii. 23. f Com. in loco. 
 
 % On John iii. 23. \ Annot. on John iii. 23. 
 
24 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Bengel says : " Many waters ; so the rite 
 of immersion required."* 
 
 Curcellaeus says : " Baptism was per- 
 formed by plunging the whole body into 
 water, and not by sprinkling a few drops, as 
 is now the practice. For John was baptizing 
 in Enon near to Salim, because there was 
 much water there, "f 
 
 Of the baptism of the Eunuch by Philip, it 
 is said : " And they went down both into the 
 water, both Philip and the Eunnch, and he 
 baptized him. And when they were come up 
 out of the water the Spirit of the Lord caught 
 away Philip. "J 
 
 Why should Philip and the Eunuch go 
 down into the water, or indeed either of them, 
 but for the purpose of dipping in it. 
 
 Dr.Towerson says : " For what need would 
 there have been of Philip and the Eunuch 
 going into this (the water) were it not that 
 
 * Com. on John hi. 23. 
 
 t Relig. Christ. Inst,, cited by Booth, Ped. Ex., ch. 
 iv. 50. % Acts viii. 38. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 25 
 
 the baptism was to be performed by immer- 
 sion."* 
 
 Calvin says : " Here we perceive how bap- 
 tism was administered among the ancients ; 
 for they immersed the whole bod}^ in water. "f 
 
 Grotius says : " But that this customary 
 rite was performed by immersion, and not by 
 pouring, is indicated both by the proper sig- 
 nification of the word, and the places chosen 
 for the rite. "J 
 
 Venema says : " It is without controversy, 
 that baptism in the primitive church was 
 administered by immersion into water, and 
 not by sprinkling; seeing John is said to 
 have baptized in Jordan, and where there was 
 much water, as Christ also did by his disci- 
 ples in the neighborhood of those places. 
 Philip also, going down into the water, bap- 
 tized the Eunuch. "§ 
 
 * Bap. iii. p. 56. f Com. Acts vhi. 38. 
 
 % Annot. Matt. iii. 6. 
 
 § Eccl. Hist., ch. 1, sec. 138. See Booth Ped. 
 Ex., ch. iv., sec. 76. 
 3 
 
26 baptist short method. 
 
 Meaning of the Word. 
 
 The term "baptize" is, originally and pro- 
 perly speaking, a Greek word ; and rightly to 
 understand the true meaning of it, we should 
 seek the opinions of men skilled in the Greek 
 language. Men who are familiar with its 
 terms ought to know. How do the dictiona- 
 ries define it ? what do the lexicographers and 
 scholars say? 
 
 Donnegan says it means " To immerse re- 
 peatedly into liquid, to submerge, to soak 
 thoroughly, to saturate." 
 
 Schleusner says : "Properly it signifies, to 
 dip, to immerse, to immerse in water." 
 
 Scapula says : " To dip, to immerse, as we 
 do any thing for the purpose of dyeing it." 
 
 Parkhurst says: "To dip, immerse, or 
 plunge in water." 
 
 Alstidius says : " To baptize signifies only 
 to immerse, not to wash except by conse- 
 quence." 
 
 Schrevellius says : "To baptize, to merge, 
 to bathe." 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 2? 
 
 Greenfield says : " To immerse, immerge, 
 submerge, sink." 
 
 Passow saj-s : " To immerse often and re- 
 peatedly, to submerge." 
 
 Schoettgen says: " To merge, immerse, to 
 wash, to bathe." 
 
 Stevens says : " To merge, or immerse, to 
 submerge, or bury in the water." 
 
 Stourdza says: "Literally and always it 
 means to plunge. Baptism and immersion 
 therefore are identical." 
 
 Stephanus says : " To plunge under, or 
 overwhelm in water." 
 
 Stockius says : " Properly it means to clip, 
 or immerse in water." 
 
 Liddell and Scott say: "To dip re- 
 peatedly." 
 
 Robinson says: "To immerse, to sink." 
 
 Anthon says : " The primary meaning of 
 the word is to dip, to immerse." 
 
 Green says: "To dip, immerse, to cleanse 
 or purify by washing." 
 
 Moses Stuart says : " Baptizo means to dip, 
 
28 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 plunge, or immerse into any liquid. All lexi- 
 cographers and critics of any note are agreed 
 in this."* 
 
 Rosenmuller says : " To baptize is to im- 
 merse or dip the body, or part of the body 
 which is to be baptized, going under the 
 water, "f 
 
 Turretin says : " The word baptism is of 
 Greek origin, which signifies to baptize, to 
 dip into, to immerse. "J 
 
 Wilson says : To baptize, to dip one into 
 water, to plunge one into the water. "§ 
 
 Leigh says : " The nature and proper signifi- 
 cation of it is, to dip into water, or to plunge 
 under water."|| 
 
 Yossius says : " To baptize signifies to 
 plunge. "^[ 
 
 Wetstein says: "To baptize is to plunge, 
 
 * Essay on Baptism, p. 51. Bib. Eeposit., 1833, 
 p. 298. 
 f Scolia Matt. iii. 6. % Inst. loc. 19, quest. 11. 
 
 § Chris. Dictionary. || Critica Sacra. 
 
 \ Disp. Bap., dis. 1. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 29 
 
 to dip. The bocly or part of the body being 
 under water is said to be baptized."* 
 
 Campbell says : " The word baptizein, both 
 in sacred authors and in classical, signifies 
 to dip, to plunge, to immerse ; and was ren- 
 dered by Tertullian, the oldest of the Latin 
 fathers, tingere, the term used for dyeing cloth, 
 which was by immersion. "f 
 
 To the same effect is the testimony of many 
 other scholars and critics, familiar with the 
 Greek language. Candid minds, after a suita- 
 ble examination, can have little question that 
 the true meaning, indeed the only proper 
 meaning, of baptizo, is to dip, plunge, im- 
 merse, or bury in water ; and that baptism 
 can only be performed by such an act. 
 
 Significant use of Baptizo. 
 
 Why did our Saviour and his apostles 
 make use of this particular word, baptizo, to 
 express or describe the ordinance which he 
 
 * Coin, on Matt. iii. 6. 
 
 t Trans. Four Gospels. Note on Matt. iii. 11. 
 
30 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 committed to his churches, and enjoined on all 
 his disciples ? The Greek language is rich in 
 terms to express all positive ideas, as well as 
 varying shades of meaning. "Why was this one 
 word alone selected for this special but im- 
 portant use ? 
 
 Baptizo is found eighty times in the New 
 Testament. In nearly seventy, it is used to 
 designate the ordinance of baptism. Dr. 
 Carson, Prof. Stuart, and others, have abun- 
 dantly proven that this word means to clip, 
 plunge, or immerse, and that it means 
 nothing else. Our Saviour, in leaving a com- 
 mand universally binding on his disciples, 
 meant to express it so simply, so plainly, and 
 so positively, that none could misunderstand 
 it. Therefore, this word was used, which 
 means strictly and positively just what he 
 intended and nothing else. 
 
 Bapto is found three times in the New 
 Testament, and this also means to dip, but is 
 never applied to baptism. Why not ? Because 
 it has other meanings also, as well as to dip ; 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 31 
 
 and with this word the ordinance might easily 
 have been misunderstood. 
 
 Louo is found six times^ and means to 
 wash ; to wash the whole body ; to bathe. If, 
 as some say, baptism means to wash, here 
 was just the word to express it. But this 
 word is never applied to the ordinance ; 
 because washing was not meant. 
 
 Nipto means, in like manner, to icash, but 
 to wash the extremities, as the face, hands, 
 or feet, as distinguished from bathing the 
 whole body. This word is found seventeen 
 times, but is never applied to baptism. Why 
 not, if a little water applied to the face may 
 be baptism ? 
 
 Rantizo means to sprinkle, and is found, in 
 the Xew Testament, four times. This would 
 have been the very word used to designate 
 baptism, if, as some say, that ordinance is 
 properly performed by sprinkling. But this 
 word is in no instance so used. Why not ? 
 Because sprinkling is not baptism. 
 
 Keo means to pour, and is found many 
 
32 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 times in its various combinations, but is never 
 applied to baptism. If baptism is pouring 
 water on the candidate, why was not this 
 word sometimes used to express it ? 
 
 Katharizo means to 'purify, to cleanse, and 
 is found thirty times, but never applied to the 
 ordinance of baptism. If, as some say, the 
 ordinance means to purify, this word would 
 have expressed it. 
 
 Let it be asked again, why did Christ and 
 his apostles, of all the words in the Greek 
 language, select always and only that one 
 which means strictly and positively clipping, 
 or immersion, and nothing else, to designate 
 the ordinance which he commanded, and they 
 administered ? Simply, and only, because bap- 
 tism meant dipping, or immersing, and nothing 
 else. 
 
 Allusions to the Ordinance. 
 
 The manner in which the Apostle Paul 
 alludes to baptism, indicates his idea of the 
 nature of it. He says : " Therefore we are 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 33 
 
 burled with him by baptism into death."* 
 And again : " Buried with him in baptism. "f 
 
 Could the apostle have had an} T other idea 
 of baptism, than that of a submersion, in 
 which the candidate was put wholly under 
 water, in the likeness of a burial ? This must 
 have been his conception of it. 
 
 Abp. Tillotsox, on these passages, says : 
 "Anciently those who were baptized were im- 
 mersed and buried in the water, to represent 
 their death to sin ; and then did rise up out 
 of the water, to signify their entrance upon a 
 new life. And to these customs the apostle 
 alludes."J 
 
 Turretin says : "And indeed baptism was 
 performed in that age and in those countries, 
 by immersion of the whole bod}^ into water."§ 
 
 Zwingle says: "When ye were immersed 
 into the water of baptism, ye were engrafted 
 into the death of Christ. "|| 
 
 * Rom. vi. 4. f Col. ii. 12. 
 
 X Works, vol. i., p. 179. § Com. on Rom. vi. 3, 4. 
 
 || Annot. on Rom. vi. 4. See Conant's Append, to 
 Matt. 
 
34 BArTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Benson says: "Buried with him by bap- 
 tism : — alluding to the ancient manner of bap- 
 tizing hy immersion."* 
 
 Diodati sa}'s : " In baptism being dipped 
 in water according to the ancient ceremon}', 
 it is a sacred sign unto us that sin ought to 
 be drowned in us by God's Spirit, "f 
 
 Bloomfield says : " There is a plain allu- 
 sion to the ancient custom of baptism by im- 
 mersion ; and I agree with Koppe and Rosen- 
 muller, that there is reason to regret it should 
 have been abandoned in most Christian 
 churches, especially as it has so evidently a 
 reference to the mystic sense of baptism. "J 
 
 Conyreare says: "This passage cannot be 
 understood, unless it be borne in mind, that 
 the primitive baptism was by immersion. "§ 
 
 Sam'l. Clarke, on the same, says : " In the 
 primitive times the manner of baptizing was 
 by immersion, or dipping the whole body into 
 
 * Comment on Rom. vi. 4. f Annot. Rom. vi. 4. 
 X Reeens. Synop. on Rom. vi. 4. 
 § Life and Epist. Paul. Rom. vi. 4. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 35 
 
 the water. And this manner of doing it, was 
 a very significant emblem of the dying and 
 rising again referred to by St. Paul, in the 
 above mentioned similitude."* 
 
 John Wesley says : " Buried with him, — 
 alluding to the ancient manner of baptizing by 
 immersion."^ 
 
 Whitby sa}~s : " It being so expressly de- 
 clared, that we are buried with Christ in bap- 
 tism, by being buried under water. "J 
 
 Fritsche says : " But that in accordance 
 with the nature of the word, baptism was then 
 performed, not by sprinkling upon, but by 
 submerging, is proved especially by Rom. 
 vi. 4."§ 
 
 Est says : " For immersion represents to us 
 Christ's burial ; and so also his death. For 
 the tomb is a symbol of death ; since none but 
 the dead are buried. Moreover the emersion. 
 
 * Expos. Ch. Catech. 294. Ed. 6. 
 f Note, Eom. vi. 4. j Com. in loco. 
 
 § Com. on Matt., vol. i., p. 120. See Conant'9 
 App. to Matt., p. 103. 
 
36 EAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 "which follows the immersion, has a resem- 
 blance to the resurrection."* 
 
 Maldoxatus says: "For in Greek to be 
 baptized is the same as to be submerged, "f ' 
 
 It certainly is not remarkable that these 
 learned and pious men should express such 
 opinions, for it is difficult to see how they 
 could have understood these Scriptures in any 
 other way. 
 
 Opinions of Commentators. 
 
 Many expositors, eminent for their learning 
 and their devout study of the Bible, have re- 
 corded their opinions as to the nature of bap- 
 tism and the manner in which it was origi- 
 nally administered. The great question is, 
 What do the Scriptures teach ? Now what 
 have been the opinions of such men as to the 
 teaching of Scripture concerning baptism ? 
 
 Witsius says : " It cannot be denied that 
 
 * Com. on Rom. vi. 3. Cited by Conant, App. to 
 Matt., p. 100. 
 t Com. on Matt. xx. 22. Luke xii. 50. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 37 
 
 the relative signification of baptein, and bopti- 
 zein, is to plunge, to dip."* 
 
 Zanchius, whose opinion De Courcy de- 
 clares, "is worth a thousand others," says: 
 V The proper signification of baptize, is to im- 
 merse, plunge under, to overwhelm in water. "f 
 
 Bp. Taylor says : " The custom of the an- 
 cient churches was not sprinkling, but immer- 
 sion. "J 
 
 Luther says: " The term baptism is Greek: 
 in Latin it may be translated immersio, since 
 we immerse any thing into the water, that the 
 whole may be covered with the water. "§ 
 
 Melancthon says : " Baptism is immersion 
 into water, which is made with this admirable 
 benediction. "|| 
 
 Bp. Sherlock says : " Baptism, or our im- 
 mersion into water, according to the ancient 
 
 * Econ. Gov., p. 1213. 
 f Works, vol. vi., p. 217. Geneva, 1619. 
 X Doct. Dubit, B. 3, ch. 4, R. 15. 
 § Works, vol. i., p. 71, Wit. Ed. 1582. 
 H Melanct. Catec, Wit. 1580. 
 4 
 
38 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 rite of administering it, is a figure of our 
 burial with Christ, and of our conformity to 
 his death."* 
 
 Cave says : " The party to be baptized was 
 wholly immersed, or put under water, "f 
 
 Beza says : " Christ commanded us to be 
 baptized ; by which word it is certain immer- 
 sion is signified. "J 
 
 Yitringa says : " The act of baptizing is 
 the immersion of believers in water. This ex- 
 presses the force of the word."§ 
 
 Mede says : " There was no such thing as 
 sprinkling used in baptism, in the apostles' 
 days, nor for many ages after them."|| 
 
 Bp. Bossuet says : " To baptize signifies to 
 plunge, as is granted by all the world. "^f 
 
 Grotius says : " That baptism used to be 
 
 * See Bloom., Crit. Dig., vol. v., p. 537. 
 
 f Primit. Christ., p. 1, ch. 10, p. 320, Lond. 1682. 
 
 % Epist. ad Thorn. Tillium., Annot. on Mark vii. 4. 
 
 I Aphor. 884. 
 
 || Discourse on Titus hi. 5. 
 
 \ Stennett against Kussen, p. 174. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 39 
 
 performed by immersion, and not by pouring, 
 appears by the proper signification of the 
 word, and by the places chosen for the 
 administration of the rite."* 
 
 Storr and Flatt say : " The disciples of our 
 Lord could understand his command in no 
 other manner than as enjoining immersion ; 
 for the baptism of John, to which Jesus him- 
 self submitted, and also the earlier baptism of 
 the disciples of Jesus, were performed by 
 dipping the subject into cold water."*)* 
 
 Diodati sa} T s: "Baptized, — that is to say, 
 ducked in the water, for a sacred sign and 
 seal of the expiation and remission of sins. "J 
 
 Calvin sa}*s : " The word baptize, signifies 
 to immerse ; and it is certain that immersion 
 was the practice of the ancient church. "§ 
 
 Sam'l. Clarke says: " In the primitive times 
 
 * Annot. on Matt. iii. 6, John iii. 23. 
 t Bib. Theology, B. 4, sec. 109, par. 4. 
 % Annot. on Matt. iii. 6. 
 § Institutes, S. 4, ch. 15, sec. 19. 
 
40 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 the manner of baptizing was try immersion, or 
 dipping the whole bocVy into water."* 
 
 Bloomfield says : " There is here plainly a 
 reference to the ancient mode of baptism by 
 immersion, "f 
 
 Scholz says : " Baptism consists in the im- 
 mersion of the whole body in water. "J 
 
 Schaff says: " Immersion, and not sprink- 
 ling, was unquestionably the original form. 
 This is shown by the very meaning of the 
 Greek words baptizo, baptisma, and baptismos, 
 used to designate the rite."§ 
 
 Many others, the most distinguished among 
 biblical students and commentators, both 
 dead and living, could be adduced to the 
 same effect. To some minds it may add force 
 to this testimony, to say that all here cited 
 are Pedobaptist authorities. 
 
 * Expos. Ch. Gate., p. 294, Ed. 6. 
 f Expos. Rom. vi. 4. % Com. on Matt iii. 6. 
 
 I Hist. Apost. Ch., p. 488. Merc. Ed. 1851. 
 See also Noel on Bap., ch. iii., sec. 8. 
 
baptist short method. 41 
 
 Historical Evidence. 
 
 Not a few men noted for their learning and 
 industry, have written histories of the early 
 Christian churches, describing the customs of 
 those churches in the times immediately suc- 
 ceeding the apostles. What do they saj 7 of 
 the practice then prevailing, and during the 
 first centuries, concerning baptism ? 
 
 Barnabas, the companion of St. Paul, in an 
 epistle ascribed to him, and which must have 
 been very early written, whoever may have 
 been the author, speaks of baptism as a going 
 "down into the water." "We go down into 
 the water, full of sin and filth, but we come up 
 bearing prints in our heads," is his language.* 
 
 Hermas, writing about A.D. 95, in the 
 " Shepherd," a work ascribed to him, speaks 
 of the apostles as having gone " down into the 
 water," with those they baptized, "and come 
 up again. "f 
 
 * Cath. Epist., sec. 9. Cited by Broughton, Hist. 
 Diet. Art. Bap. 
 
 f Stennett to Russen, p. 143. 
 
42 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Justin Martyr, writing about A.D. 140, 
 speaks of those baptized, as " washed in the 
 
 water,"* in the name of the Father, Son, and 
 B.o\y Spirit. 
 
 Tertullian, writing about A.D. 204, says: 
 the person to be baptized "is let down into 
 the water, and with a few words said, is 
 dipped, "f 
 
 Hippolytus, about A.D. 225. says : " For he 
 who goes down with faith into the bath of re- 
 generation, is arrayed against the evil one, 
 and on the side of Christ. He comes up from 
 the baptism bright as the sun, flashing forth 
 the rays of righteousness."! 
 
 Gregory, A.D. 360, says: "We are buried 
 with Christ by baptism, that we may also rise 
 with him."§ 
 
 Basil, A.D. 360, s&ys : " By three immer~ 
 
 * Apology, sees. 79, 85, 86 ; Reeve's trans.-Orch- 
 ard's Hist. Bap., sees. 1, 2, 3. 
 f Be Bapt., eh. 2. 
 
 % Bis. on the Theoph. 10. — Conant's App. to Matt 
 I Stennett's Reply, p. 144, 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 43 
 
 sio?is the great mystery of baptism is accom- 
 plished ;" referring to true baptism.* 
 
 Ambrose, A.D. 3T4, says : " Thou saidst, 
 I do believe, and wast immersed in water; 
 that is, thou wast buried, "f 
 
 Cyril, A.D. 374, says : " Candidates are 
 first anointed with consecrated oils ; they are 
 then conducted to the laver, and asked three 
 times, if they believe in the Father, Son, and 
 Holy Ghost; then they are dipped three times 
 into the water, and retire by three distinct 
 efforts."^ 
 
 Chrysostom, A.D. 398, sa3's : " To be bap- 
 tized and plunged in the water, and then to 
 emerge, or rise again, is a S3 7 mbol of our de- 
 scent into the grave, and our ascent out of it."§ 
 
 * Baronius, Ann. v. Bing. Antiq., B. xi., ch. xi. 
 
 f Stennett's Ans., p. 144. Bing. Antiq., B. ii., ch. ii. 
 
 X Dnpin's Eccl. Hist., ch. vi. v. 2. — Orchard's Hist. 
 Bap., p. 43, Nash. Ed. 1855. 
 
 § Com. on 1 Cor. Horn. 40, 1. — Bingham's Christ. 
 Antiq., ch. 11. — See also, on all these Fathers, Co- 
 nant's App. to Matt. 
 
44 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Salmasius says : " Baptism is immersion, 
 and was formerly celebrated according to the 
 force and meaning of the name. Now it is 
 only rantism, or sprinkling, not immersion, 
 nor dipping."* 
 
 Bingham, in his Christian Antiquities, says : 
 " The ancients thought that immersion, or 
 burying under water, did more lively repre- 
 sent the death, burial, and resurrection of 
 Christ, as well as our own death to sin, and 
 rising again into righteousness, "f 
 
 Mosheim says: "In this century (the 1st) 
 baptism was administered in convenient places, 
 without the public assembles ; and by immer- 
 sing the candidate wholly in water. "J 
 
 Neander says : " In respect to the form of 
 baptism, it was, in conformity with the origi- 
 nal institution, and the original import of the 
 symbol, performed by immersion, as a sign of 
 
 * Wolf. Orit. Matt, xxviii. 19. De Caes. Yiro. p. 669. 
 
 t Christ. Antiq., B. 11, ch. 11. 
 
 % Eccl. Hist,, B. 1, Cent. 1, part 2, ch. 4. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 45 
 
 entire baptism into the Holy Spirit, of being 
 entirely penetrated by the same."* 
 
 Waddington ssxys : " The sacraments of the 
 primitive church were two, — that of Baptism 
 and the Lord's Supper. The ceremony of 
 immersion, the oldest form of baptism, was 
 performed in the name of the three persons 
 of the Trinity."! 
 
 Schaff says : " Finally, so far as it respects 
 the mode and manner of outward baptizing, 
 there can be no doubt that immersion, and not 
 sprinkling, was the original normal form. "J 
 
 The Ency. Ecclesiastica says : " Whatever 
 weight, however, may be in these reasons, as a 
 defence for the present practice of sprinkling, 
 it is evident that during the first ages of the 
 church, and for many centuries afterward, the 
 practice of immersion prevailed. "§ 
 
 * Ch. Hist., vol. i., p. 310.— Also Hist. Plan, and 
 Train, vol. i., p. 222. 
 
 t Ch. Hist,, eh. 2, sec. 3. 
 
 X Hist. Chris. Ch., p. 488.— Mercersburg Ed. 
 
 I Art. Baptism. 
 
46 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Dr. Whitby says : " And this immersion 
 being religiously observed by all Christians 
 for thirteen centuries, and approved by our 
 Church ;" referring to the Church of Eng- 
 land.* 
 
 Dr. Stackhouse says: " Several authors 
 have shown and proved that this manner of im- 
 mersion continued as much as possible to be 
 used for thirteen hundred years after Christ."f 
 
 Bp. Bossuet says : " We are able to make 
 it appear, by the acts of councils, and by 
 ancient rituals, that for thirteen hundred 
 years, baptism was thus administered, (by 
 immersion,) throughout the whole church, as 
 far as possible. "J 
 
 Dr. Brenner says : " Thirteen hundred 
 years, was baptism generally and originally 
 performed by the immersion of the person 
 under water ; and only in extraordinary cases 
 was sprinkling, or affusion, permitted. These 
 
 * Annot. Rom. vi. 4. f Hist. Bible, B. 8., ch. 1. 
 % Stennett ad Russen, p. 176. Booth's Pedo. Ex., 
 ch. 4. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 47 
 
 latter methods of baptism were called in 
 question, and even prohibited."* 
 
 Hagenbach, in his History of Doctrines, 
 says : " From the thirteenth century, sprink- 
 ling came into more general use in the West. 
 The Greek Church, however, and the church 
 of Milano, still retained the practice of immer- 
 sion, "f 
 
 Coleman, in his Antiquities, says ; " The 
 practice of immersion continued even until 
 the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Indeed 
 it has never been formally abandoned. "J 
 
 Van Colln, in his History of Doctrines, 
 says : " Immersion in water was general until 
 the thirteenth century; among the Latins it 
 was then displaced by sprinkling, but re- 
 tained by the Greeks. "§ 
 
 Winer, in his lectures, says : " Affusion was 
 at first applied only to the sick, but was 
 
 * Hist. Exhib. Bap., p. 306. 
 t Hist. Doct., vol. ii., p. 84. Note 1. 
 X Ancient Christianity, ch. 14, sec. 8. 
 I Hist. Doct., vol. ii., p. 303. 
 
48 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 gradually introduced for others, after the 
 seventh century, and in the thirteenth became 
 the prevailing practice in the West."* 
 
 Bingham, in his Origines, says: "As this 
 (dipping) was the original apostolical prac- 
 tice, so it continued the universal practice of 
 the church for many ages."f 
 
 Augusti, in his Archaeology, says : " Immer- 
 sion in water was general, until the thirteenth 
 century, among the Latins ; it was then dis- 
 placed by sprinkling, but retained by the 
 Greeks. "\ 
 
 Neander sa}'s : " The usual form of submer- 
 sion at baptism, practiced by the Jews, was 
 passed over to the Gentile Christians. Indeed 
 this form was the most suitable to signif}' 
 that which Christ intended to render an ob- 
 ject of contemplation by such a S3 T mbol : the 
 immersion of the whole man in the spirit of 
 a new life."§ 
 
 * Lect. Christ. Antiq. 
 f Antiq. Christ. Ch., B. 11, ch. 11. 
 X Archa?. vol. v., p. 5, vol. vii., p. 229. 
 I Planting and Training, p. 161. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 49 
 
 These quotations do not exhaust historical 
 evidence, but are sufficient to satisfy impar- 
 tial minds, as to the primitive and long con- 
 tinued practice of immersion in the Christian 
 churches. These Pedobaptist writers agree 
 that, for thirteen hundred years, immersion 
 was the universally prevailing mode of bap- 
 tism^ departed from only in special or extra- 
 ordinary cases ; even then abandoned by the 
 Latin or Romish church only, while the 
 Greek and Oriental Churches retained, and 
 do to this day retain, the original form of that 
 sacred rite. 
 
 The Existence op Baptisteries. 
 
 The places sought and prepared for the 
 proper and convenient administration of bap- 
 tism during the early ages of Christianity, 
 clearly indicate the form of the ordinance. For 
 the people would never resort to rivers, pools, 
 cisterns, or other large bodies of water, for 
 the mere purpose of sprinkling the candidates. 
 We know that John the Baptist and the dis- 
 
50 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 ciples of Jesus baptized in the Jordan, and at 
 Enon, " because there was much water there." 
 
 Tertullian says: " Peter baptized in the 
 Tiber at Rome, as John had done in Jordan ; 
 and there was no difference whether a man 
 was baptized in the sea, or a lake, in a river, 
 or a fountain." 
 
 As Christianity spread, and converts multi- 
 plied, in many places, especially in large 
 cities, there were few opportunities for the 
 convenient and agreeable administration of the 
 ordinance. Other cities were not filled with 
 pools, fitted for personal ablutions, as was 
 Jerusalem, where the gospel gained its first 
 converts. Then began to be erected baptist- 
 eries, expressly designed and used for this 
 purpose. These, at first, were constructed 
 in the simplest manner ; but in process of time 
 large, costly, and imposing edifices, were built 
 for this use. 
 
 Mosheim says : " For the more convenient 
 administration of baptism, sacred fonts, or 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 51 
 
 Baptisteria, were erected in the porches of the 
 temples."* This was in the fourth century. 
 
 Broughton sa3^s: "The place of baptism 
 was at first unlimited ; being some pond or 
 lake, some spring or river, but always as 
 near as possible to the place of public wor- 
 ship. Afterward they had their baptisteries, 
 or (as we call them) fonts, built at first near 
 the church, then in the church porch, and at 
 last in the church itself." " The baptistery 
 was properly speaking the whole house or 
 building in which the font stood ; which latter 
 was only the fountain, or pool of water, in 
 which the immersion was performed, "f 
 
 Dr. Murdock says : " The baptisteries were 
 properly buildings adjacent to the churches, 
 in which the catechumens were instructed, and 
 where were a sort of cisterns, into which water 
 was let at the time of baptism, and in which 
 the candidates were baptized by immersioD."J 
 
 * Eccl. Hist. Cent. 4, B. 2, p. 2, ch. 4, sec. 7. 
 t Hist. Diet., Arts. Baptism and Baptistery. 
 X Mosh. Eccl. Hist., vol. i., p. 281, note 15. 
 
52 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Eusebius, Cyril, and Ambrose, all speak 
 of them, as commonly used in their times ; 
 from three to four hundred years after Christ. 
 So do Justin Martyr, in the middle of the 
 second centmy, and Clement of Rome, at the 
 close of the first."* 
 
 Coleman says : "The first baptistery, or place 
 appropriated to baptism, of which any mention 
 is made, occurs in a biography of the fourth cen- 
 tury, and this was prepared in a private house, "f 
 
 Hagenbach says : " That baptism in the 
 beginning was administered in the open air, 
 in rivers and pools ; and that it was by immer- 
 sion, we know from the narratives of the New 
 Testament. In later times there were pre- 
 pared great baptismal fonts, or chapels. The 
 person to be baptized descended several steps 
 into the reservoir of water, and then the 
 whole body was immersed under the water. "J 
 
 * Bingh.Antiq. Chris. Ch., B. 8., ch. vii., sec. 1. 
 Coleman's Anc. Chris., ch. xix. sec. 10. 
 f Ancient Christ'y Ex., ch. xix., sec. 10. 
 t Hist. Christ. Church, ch. xix., p. 324. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 53 
 
 Cave says: "These baptisteries were usu- 
 ally very large and capacious, not only that 
 they might comport with the general custom 
 of those times, of persons baptized being im- 
 mersed, or put under water ; but because, the 
 stated times of baptism returning so seldom, 
 great multitudes were usually baptized at the 
 same time."* „ 
 
 Bingham says : " In the apostolical age, 
 and some time after, before churches and 
 baptisteries were generally erected, they bap- 
 tized in any place where they had convenience, 
 as John baptized in Jordan, and Philip bap- 
 tized the Eunuch in the wilderness, and Paul 
 the jailer in his own house, "f 
 
 The term " baptistery," was applied properly 
 to the pool, or font of water, but was also 
 used to designate the building in which the 
 pool was placed. 
 
 The Ency. Britannica says of the baptis- 
 tery : "In the ancient church it was one of the 
 
 * Primitive Chris., p. i., ch. x., p. 312. 
 f Chris. Antiq., B. II., ch. vii., sec. 11. 
 
54 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 exedrae, or buildings distinct from the church 
 itself. Thus it continued till the sixth century, 
 when the baptisteries began to be taken into 
 the church porch, and afterwards into the 
 church itself."* 
 
 BRANDEsays: "A building destined for the 
 purpose of administering the rite of baptism. 
 The baptistery was entirely distinct from the 
 church up to the end of the sixth century ; 
 after which period the interior of the church 
 received it."f 
 
 Some of these structures are still preserved, 
 and others are well known to have existed ; as 
 those of Florence, Venice, Pisa, Naples, Bolo- 
 gna, Ravenna. That of the Lateran at Rome 
 is considered the oldest now existing, having 
 been erected A.D. 324. That at Pisa was 
 completed in 1160, the entire structure being 
 115 feet in diameter, by 1T2 in height; of a 
 circular form. That at Florence is an oc- 
 tagonal building, 90 feet in diameter, with a 
 
 * Art. Baptistery. 
 
 f Diet. Art. Sci. and Lit., Art. Bapt. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 55 
 
 lofty dome. That of St. Sophia at Constanti- 
 nople, erected by Constantine, A. D. 337, was 
 capable of accommodating a numerous council, 
 whose sessions were held in it. Most of the 
 existing baptisteries are large, elaborate, and 
 costly edifices. 
 
 The pool for baptizing was an open cistern 
 in the centre of the large hall, or main part of 
 the building. 
 
 Now can any one suppose these buildings 
 would have been provided, unless immersion 
 had been the mode of administering baptism ?* 
 
 Usage of the Greek Church. 
 
 It is worthy of no small consideration cer- 
 tainly, that the Greek church, so called, in 
 distinction from the Roman, has alwa} T s prac- 
 
 * For a full account of Baptisteries see Kobinson's 
 History of Baptism, ch. xii., where he has with ranch 
 labor collected a large amount of information on 
 this subject. Also, Duncan's Hist. Baptists, ch. v., 
 sec. 3. Also, Crystal's History of the mode of Bap- 
 tism. 
 
56 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 ticed immersion for baptism. This church 
 extends over Greece, Russia, Egypt, Arabia, 
 Palestine, Ab} T ssinia, and other oriental coun- 
 tries. Like the Romish Church, it practices 
 many absurd and superstitious rites, and 
 holds many corruptions in doctrine ; but as to 
 the mode of baptism, it retains the primitive 
 custom of dipping the candidate. 
 
 Dr. Wall, in his history of infant baptism, 
 says : " The Greek Church in all its branches 
 does still use immersion, and so do all other 
 Christians in the world, except the Latins. 
 All those nations that do now, or formerly 
 did submit to the authority of the Bishop of 
 Rome, do ordinarity baptize their infants by 
 pouring or sprinkling. But all other Chris- 
 tians in the ivorld, who never owned the Pope's 
 usurped power, do, and ever did, dip their in- 
 fants in the ordinary use. All the Christians 
 in Asia, all in Africa, and about one third in 
 Europe, are of the last sort."* 
 
 All the Christians in the world, then, accord- 
 
 * Hist. Inf. Bap. vol. 2. p. 376. Ed. 3. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 57 
 
 ing to this writer, except about two thirds of 
 Europe, and we may add, a part of America, 
 have always practiced immersion for baptism. 
 It is certain that to this day, the Greek Church, 
 even in the severe climates of Russia and 
 Siberia, baptizes, whether adults or infants, 
 by immersion. 
 
 Broughton says: "The Greek Church dif- 
 fers from the Romish, as to the rite of baptism 
 chiefly, in performing it by immersion, or 
 plunging the infant all over in the water."* 
 
 Stourdza says : " The church of the West 
 has then departed from the example of Jesus 
 Christ ; she has obliterated the whole sublim- 
 ity of the exterior sign. Baptism and immer- 
 sion are identical. Baptism by aspersion is, 
 as if one should say, immersion by aspersion; 
 or any other absurdity of the same nature. "f 
 
 Edinburg Encyclopaedia says : "The Greek 
 
 * Histor. Diet., Art. Baptism. Also Ricaut's Gr. 
 ch. 
 t Consid. Orthodox Ch., p. 87. Conant's Append.. 
 
 p. 99. 
 
58 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Church, as well as the schismatics in the East, 
 retained the custom of immersing the whole 
 body ; but the western church adopted, in the 
 thirteenth century, the mode of baptism by 
 sprinkling, which has been continued by the 
 Protestants, Baptists only excepted."* 
 
 The Pantalogia says : the Greek Church is 
 " that part of the Christian church which was 
 first established in Greece, and is now spread 
 over a larger extent of country than any other 
 established church. Amid all their trifling 
 rites they practice trine immersion, which is 
 unquestionably the original manner, "f 
 
 Ricaut says : " Thrice dipping or plunging, 
 this Church holds to be as necessary to the 
 form of baptism, as water is to the matter. "| 
 
 Coleman says : " The eastern church has 
 uniformly retained the form of immersion as 
 indispensable to the validity of the ordinance; 
 and repeat the rite whenever they have re- 
 
 * Article Baptism. 
 
 f Article Greek Oh. 
 
 % State of Greek Ch., p. 163. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 59 
 
 ceivcd to their communion persons who have 
 been baptized in another manner."* 
 
 Deylingius says: "The Greeks retain the 
 rite of immersion to this day ; as Jeremiah the 
 Patriarch of Constantinople declares."")* 
 
 Dr. King says : " The Greek church uni- 
 formly practices the trine immersion, un- 
 doubtedty the most primitive manner. "J 
 
 Btjddeus says: "That the Greeks defend 
 immersion is manifest, and has been frequently 
 observed by learned men; which Ludolphus 
 informs us is the practice of the Ethiopians. "§ 
 
 Ency. Brittanica, says : " The Greek 
 Church differs from the Romish, as to the rite 
 of baptism, chiefly in performing it by immer- 
 sion, or plunging the infant all over in the 
 water."|| 
 
 The Romish Church claims the right to 
 
 * Ancient Christ'y- Ex., ch. xviv., sec. 12. 
 f De Prud. Past., p. 3, ch. hi., sec. 26. 
 % Rites and Cer. Greek Ch., p. 192. 
 g Theol. Dogmat., B. 5, ch. i., sec. 5. 
 || Art. Baptism. 
 
60 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 change ordinances ; and for that reason, and 
 on that ground alone, abolished immersion, 
 and now practices aspersion for baptism. 
 And this aspersion, or sprinkling, the Protes- 
 tant Churches have received, with other eccle- 
 siastical perversions, from the Komish. But 
 the Greek Church still retains the primitive 
 form of dipping, though in the baptism of 
 children, as in many other things, it has de- 
 parted from primitive usage. 
 
 Design of the Ordinance. 
 
 What was the design of baptism ? What 
 was the ordinance intended to express, or 
 represent? As an outward rite it must be a 
 type, or sign, of some moral truth or spiritual 
 fact, meant to be taught or enforced by its 
 observance. And the form of the rite, the 
 manner of the ordinance, must be such as 
 properly to express its design and meaning. 
 If the form be so changed that its symbolic 
 force is lost, and its design no longer seen in 
 its administration, then, manifestly, it is no 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 61 
 
 longer baptism in fact ; its teaching is lost, 
 and its chief purpose fails. 
 
 But the design of baptism is clearly this : 
 to show forth the death, burial, and resurrec- 
 tion of Christ, who died for our sins, and rose 
 again for our justification. This is the teach- 
 ing of the rite itself. And every candidate 
 who receives the ordinance, professes thereby 
 faith in the merits of Christ's death, as the 
 ground of his own hope and salvation ; fellow- 
 ship with his sufferings, and a declaration of 
 his own death to sin, and rising to a new life ; 
 a putting off the old man as in a burial, and a 
 putting on the new man, as he rises to newness 
 of life in Christ. It also typifies the wash- 
 ing of regeneration, and the renewing of the 
 Holv Ghost ; and declares, in addition, the 
 candidate's hope of a resurrection from the 
 dead, even as Christ, into whose death he is 
 buried, was raised up by the glory of the 
 Father. 
 
 Tyxdale says : " The plunging into the 
 water signifieth that we die, and are bur'ed 
 6 
 
62 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 with Christ, as concerning the old life of sin. 
 And the pulling out again signifieth that we 
 rise again with Christ in a new life full of the 
 Holy Ghost."* 
 
 Adam Clarke says : " But as they received 
 baptism as an emblem of death, in voluntarily 
 going under the water ; so they receive it as 
 an emblem of the resurrection unto eternal 
 life, in coming up out of the water."f 
 
 Dr. Newton says : " Baptism was usually 
 performed by immersion, or dipping the 
 whole body under water, to represent the 
 death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, to- 
 gether; and therewith signify the person's 
 own dying to sin, the destruction of its power, 
 and his resurrection to a new life."{ 
 
 Frankius says : " The baptism of Christ 
 represented his sufferings ; and his coming up 
 
 * Obedience of a Christian Man, p. 143, cited by 
 Conant, App. to Matt., p. 93. 
 f Baptism for the dead ; Com. 1 Cor. xv. 29. 
 X Prac. Expos. Cat., p. 297. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 63 
 
 out of the water, his resurrection from the 
 dead."* 
 
 Baxter says : " In our baptism we are 
 dipped under the water, as signifying our 
 covenant profession, that as he was buried for 
 sin, we are dead and buried to sin."f 
 
 Saurin says: "The ceremony of wholly 
 immersing us in water, when we were baptized, 
 signified that we died to sin. "J 
 
 Buddeus says : " Immersion, which was 
 used in former times, was a symbol and an 
 image of the death and the burial of Christ. "§ 
 
 Pictetus says: "That immersion into, and 
 emersion out of the water, practiced by the 
 ancients, signify the death of the old man, 
 and the resurrection of the new man."|| 
 
 Grotius says : " There was in baptism, as 
 administered in former times, an image both 
 
 * Program, xiv., p. 343. 
 
 t Para. Rom. vi. 4.— Col. ii. 12, et al. 
 
 X Sermons, vol. iii., p. 171. Robinson's Trans. 
 
 I Dogmat. Theol., B. 5, ch. i., sec. 8. 
 
 [| Theol. Chris., B. 14, ch. iv., sec. 13. 
 
64 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 of a burial and a resurrection ; which in regard 
 to Christ was external, in regard to Christians, 
 internal."* 
 
 Abp. Leighton says : " Buried with Christ 
 .... where the dipping into water is referred 
 to as representing our dying with Christ ; and 
 the return thence as expressive of our rising 
 with hiin/'-j- 
 
 Dr. Cave says : "As in immersion there 
 are in a manner three several acts, the putting 
 the person into water, his abiding there for a 
 little time, and his rising up again ; so by 
 these were represented Christ's death, burial, 
 and resurrection ; and in conformity thereunto 
 our dying unto sin, the destruction of its 
 power, and our resurrection to a new course 
 of life. ''J 
 
 Dr. Hammond says: "It is a thing that 
 every Christian knows, that the immersion in 
 baptism, refers to the death of Christ. The 
 
 * Annot. Rom. vi. 4, Col. ii. 12. 
 
 f Comment. 1 Peter hi. 21. 
 
 X Primitive Christ'y, p. 1, ch. x., p. 320. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 65 
 
 putting the person into the water, denotes 
 and proclaims the death and burial of Christ."* 
 
 Dr. Barrow says : ■ " The action is baptizing 
 or immersing, into water." " The mersion 
 also in water, and the emersion thence, cloth 
 figure our death to the former, and our reviv- 
 ing to a new life."f 
 
 Bp. Bloomfield says: "There may also be 
 (as the ancient commentators think) an allu- 
 sion to the ancient mode of baptism by im- 
 mersion ; which, while typifying a death unto 
 sin and a new birth unto righteousness, also 
 had reference to the Christian communion 
 with his Lord, both in death and resurrection 
 from the dead. "J 
 
 Dr. Towerson says : " Therefore as there is 
 so much the more reason to represent the rite 
 of immersion as the only legitimate rite of bap- 
 tism, because the only one that can answer the 
 
 * On Rom. vi. 3. 
 
 t Doctrine of the Sacraments, works, vol. hi., p. 43. 
 % Greek N. Test., on 1 Cor. xv. 29. Baptism for 
 the dead. 
 
66 BAITIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 ends of its institution, and those things which 
 were to be signified by it ; so, especially, if, as 
 is well known and undoubtedly of great force, 
 the general practice of the primitive church 
 was agreeable thereto, and the practice of the 
 Greek Church to this very day. For who can 
 think that either one or the other would have 
 been so tenacious of so troublesome a rite, 
 were it not that they w r ere well assured, as 
 they of the primitive church might well be, 
 of its being the only instituted and legitimate 
 one."* 
 
 Such are the opinions of candid Pedobap- 
 tist divines, as to the design of baptism. 
 Sprinkling or pouring water on a candidate 
 has no force in the direction of this sacred 
 symbolism. It cannot show the death, burial, 
 and resurrection of Christ; nor the disciple's 
 death to sin, and his rising to a new life. If 
 immersion, therefore, be not used, the entire 
 force of the ordinance is destroyed, and its 
 design lost sight of. 
 
 * On Sacram. Bap., part 3, pp. 51-58. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 67 
 
 Sprinkling means nothing, it sets forth no 
 great doctrine of the gospel. Onty when the 
 candidate is buried wholly beneath the water, 
 and raised again, does the beauty, force, and 
 meaning which divine wisdom intended, ap- 
 pear in that sacred ordinance. 
 
 Conveniences for Baptism. 
 
 Not a few defenders of sprinkling, with 
 more boldness than learning or discretion, 
 have asserted, and attempted to show, that 
 there was not a sufficient depth of water in 
 the Jordan, nor convenient means in Jerusa- 
 lem for immersing the multitudes, said to 
 have been baptized by John, and the disciples 
 of Jesus ; especialh r the large numbers con- 
 verted at the Pentecost, and under the subse- 
 quent preaching of the apostles. 
 
 Such assertions indicate the ignorance or 
 the recklessness of those who make them, and 
 show how unfitted by prejudices even good 
 men may be to discuss the merits of a grave 
 subject. An objection so trifling deserves 
 
68 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 small notice. We know that Jesus and the 
 disciples of John were immersed ; and that 
 the early converts to Christianity were 
 "buried with Christ in baptism;" further 
 than this we need not feel bound to prove. 
 But defiuite and posith r e information is not 
 wanting on these points ; and some of it may 
 be of service here. 
 
 Lieut. Lynch, of the United States navy, 
 was, iu 1848, sent out by his government in 
 charge of an expedition to explore the river 
 Jordan, and the Dead Sea. This was done 
 for antiquarian research, and for the advance- 
 ment of science. The expedition passed 
 down the entire length of the Jordan in 
 boats ; made frequent and careful surveys, 
 which were accurately recorded, and officially 
 published. The river was found to vary in 
 width from seventy five to two hundred feet, 
 and in depth from three to twelve feet. At 
 Bethabara, where tradition has fixed the 
 place of our Saviour's baptism, and where 
 John baptized the multitudes. Lieut. Lynch 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 69 
 
 gives the width as one hundred and twenty 
 feet, and the greatest depth, as twelve feet. 
 This certainly must be deep enough for im- 
 mersing candidates. 
 
 It is a well known fact, that thousands of 
 Christian pilgrims from adjacent countries 
 visit this place annually at a certain season, 
 to bathe in the waters where they believe the 
 Saviour was baptized. The expedition wit- 
 nessed one of these scenes, and had their 
 boats in readiness to prevent accidents, which 
 it was feared might occur with so great a 
 crowd of fanatical devotees in so great a 
 depth of water. Had Pedopaptist advocates 
 of sprinkling been there, they might have 
 found an argument as perilous as it would 
 have been convincing, for a sufficient depth 
 of water in the Jordan for the immersion of 
 believers.* 
 
 Dr. Robinson, who made a careful survey 
 of Palestine, including the Jordan, in 1840, 
 makes statements corroborative of what has 
 
 * Lynch's Dead Sea Expedition, chaps. 10, 11. 
 
10 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 here been said. He also cites Seetzen, who 
 visited it in 1806 ; Burckhardt, who explored it 
 in 1812; Irby and Mangles, in 1818, and 
 Buckingham about the same time. These 
 distinguished travelers published the results 
 of their explorations, which can be consulted.* 
 
 Bp. Stanley, who visited the Holy Land 
 in 1853, and also witnessed the bathing of the 
 pilgrims, says of the baptism of John: " He 
 came baptizing, that is signifying to those 
 who came to him, as he plunged them under 
 the rapid torrent, the forgiveness and for- 
 saking of their sins." " There began that 
 sacred rite which has since spread throughout 
 the world, through the vast baptisteries of 
 the southern and oriental churches, gradu- 
 ally dwindling to the little fonts of the north 
 and west."f 
 
 Dr. Thomson, for a quarter of a century 
 familiar with the Holy Land, traversed it in 
 1857, visited the Jordan in the vicinity of 
 
 * Rob. Bib. Researches, vol. ii., sec. 10, pp. 257-267. 
 i Sinai and Palestine, ch. vii., pp. 306, 307. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. *7l 
 
 Jericho, and witnessed the bathing of the 
 Greek pilgrims. Of this singular and ex- 
 citing scene he gives a graphic description. 
 He sa}'s the men ducked the women, some- 
 what as the farmers do their sheep, while the 
 little children were carried and plunged 
 under water trembling like so many lambs." 
 Being Pedobaptists, these oriental fanatics 
 may not have performed their rites properly. 
 But there was evidently an abundance of 
 water. He says ; " The current is astonish- 
 ingly rapid, and at least ten feet deep/' 
 " Two Christians, and a Turk, who ventured 
 too far, were drowned, without the possibility 
 of a rescue." A perilous depth of water, 
 certainly. "At the bathing place it was 
 twent}^ rods wide." " Boats could do nothing 
 in such a current ; and it is too deep to ford."* 
 The city of Jerusalem was most abundantly 
 supplied with water ; to a large extent by 
 pools or cisterns, many of which were of 
 great size. Outside, but near the city, were 
 
 * The Land and the Book, vol. ii., p. 445-6. 
 
72 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 others of still larger dimensions. These were 
 constructed, partly to supply the city with- 
 water for ordinary uses, and partly to furnish 
 convenience for the many ablutions required 
 hy the Mosaic law. They were abundant in 
 the days of our Saviour, and some of them 
 still remain, containing water, and affording, 
 even now, admirable conveniences for the ad- 
 ministration of baptism in its primitive form. 
 Others, now in a ruined state, distinctly re- 
 veal their original form and magnitude. The 
 greater part of them were in good repair, and 
 continued to be used for hundreds of years 
 after Christ, as history abundantly certifies. 
 
 Dr. Robinson also visited Jerusalem, and 
 made careful and extensive investigations 
 touching the topography and antiquities of 
 the holy city. The results published in his 
 researches in 1841, have been fully corrobo- 
 rated by other, and more recent surveys. 
 They are as follows :* 
 
 * Kob. Bib. Eesearches, vol. i., pp. 480-515. See 
 also Thomson's Land and Book, vol. ii., p. 64, vol. 
 ii., p. 446. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 73 
 
 The pool of Bethesda is three hundred and 
 sixty feet long, one hundred and thirty feet 
 wide, and seventy-five feet deep ; and was 
 a considerable pond when full, covering more 
 than an acre of ground. The pool of Siloam, 
 fiftj'-three feet long, eighteen wide, and nine- 
 teen deep, now holds two or three feet of 
 water, which can readily be increased to a 
 much greater depth. The upper pool, three 
 hundred and sixteen feet long, two hundred 
 and eighteen wide, and eighteen deep, covers 
 an acre and a half of ground. The pool of 
 Hezekiah is two hundred and forty feet long, 
 one hundred and forty -four wide, and is 
 partly filled with water. The lower pool, or 
 pool of Gihon, five hundred and ninety-two 
 feet long, two hundred and sixty wide, and 
 forty deep, covers more than three and a half 
 acres. This pool is now dry ; but so late as 
 the time of the Crusaders was fully supplied 
 with water, and free to the use of all. Several 
 others existed, either in the city or in its 
 immediate vicinity. They were all construc- 
 1 
 
74 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 ted with sides gradually sloping inward, so 
 as to make a descent into the water, to any 
 required depth, safe and eas}~, and were 
 doubtless in constant use for purposes of 
 ablution. 
 
 Dr. Barclay, for many years missionary 
 in Jerusalem, (and the mos^ competent and 
 reliable of all authorities, so far as that city 
 is concerned,) abundantly substantiates the 
 above statements.* 
 
 Dr. Thomson, for twenty-five years mis- 
 sionary in Syria and Palestine, in his effort 
 to identify the scene of the Eunuch's bap- 
 tism b}' Philip, says : " He would then have 
 met the chariot somewhere south-west of 
 Latron. There is a fine stream of water, 
 called Murubbah, deep enough even in June 
 to satisfy the utmost wishes of our Baptist 
 friends, "f 
 
 * City of the Great King. See also Prof. Chase's 
 "Design of Baptism," with Dr. Sampson's Article, 
 p. 115. Boston Ed. 1851. 
 
 t The Land and the Book, vol. ii., p. 310. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. ?5 
 
 How fully these facts and authorities vindi- 
 cate the truth as held by Baptists, let each 
 one judge. And how utterly groundless are 
 all arguments urged against immersion as 
 the primitive mode of baptism, because of an 
 insufficiency of water in Jerusalem, or the 
 river Jordan, can as easily be seen. Let it 
 be further remembered, that these researches 
 were not made for the sake of establishing a 
 theory, but for purposes of scientific investi- 
 gation, and chiefly by those who had no 
 doctrinal sympathy with Baptists. 
 
 Origin of Pouring and Sprinkling. 
 
 When, where, and why, did pouring and 
 sprinkling for baptism arise, and this human 
 device supersede the divine institution ? 
 This question Pedobaptists themselves have 
 most fully and satisfactorily answered. Their 
 testimony abundantly vindicates the views 
 of Baptists. 
 
 History records no departure from the 
 primitive custom of immersion, until about 
 
76 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 the middle of the third centuiy, or A.D. 250 
 The first authenticated instance, is that of 
 Novatian. Eusebius gives this case in his 
 histoiy, and no earlier instance could be 
 found by Dr. Wall, in his laborious researches. 
 Good evidence that no earlier case existed. 
 What he failed to discover, in this respect, it 
 would be difficult to find. 
 
 Xovatian being sick, and, as was supposed, 
 about to die, greatly desired to be baptized. 
 As he was believed to be too feeble to be 
 dipped, water was poured profusely over him 
 as he lay upon his bed, so as to resemble as 
 nearly possible a submersion. The word here 
 used, perichuthein, (perfusus,) has usually been 
 rendered besprinkle ; it means rather, to pour 
 round about, or upon and over one. This 
 was doubtless actually done in the case of 
 Novatian. And this, it was thought, would 
 answer the purpose, especial^ as the neces- 
 sity was so great.* 
 
 * See this case treated by Dr. Chase, Design of 
 Baptism, p. 53. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. YY 
 
 Eusebius, the historian, has this account 
 of the case, quoting from Cornelius, bishop of 
 Rome. " He fell into a grievous distemper, 
 and it being supposed that he would die 
 immediate!}-, he received baptism, being be- 
 sprinkled with water on the bed whereon he 
 lay, if that can be termed baptism."* The 
 historian himself seemed doubtful of the valid- 
 ity of this rite. 
 
 Valesius makes the following remarks on 
 the passage: "This word (perichutheis) Ru- 
 finus very well renders besprinkled, (perfu- 
 sus.) For people which were sick, and bap- 
 tized on their beds, could not be dipped in 
 water by the priest, but were besprinkled 
 with water by him. This baptism was 
 thought imperfect, and not solemn, for several 
 reasons. Also they who were thus baptized 
 were called ever afterward Clinici ; and by 
 the twelfth canon of the council of Xeocesa- 
 
 * Eccl. Hist., B. 6, ch. xliii. Bingham Chris. Ant. 
 ch. xi., sec. 14. 
 
78 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 rea, these Clinici were prohibited priest- 
 hood."* 
 
 Dr. Wall makes this statement respecting 
 the case of Novatian. "Anno Domini, 251, 
 Xovatian was, by one part of the clergy and 
 people of Rome, chosen bishop of that church, 
 in opposition to Cornelius, who had before 
 been chosen by the major part, and was 
 already ordained. Cornelius does, in a letter 
 to Fabius, bishop of Antioch, vindicate his 
 right, showing that Novatian came not canoni- 
 cally to his orders of priesthood, much less 
 was capable of being chosen bishop ; for that 
 all the clerg} r , and a great many of the laity 
 were against his being ordained preslyyter, 
 because it was not lawful, they said, for one 
 that had been baptized in his bed in time of 
 sickness, as he had been, to be admitted to 
 any office of the clergy, "f 
 
 * Cited by Booth, Fed. Ex., ch. vil, Ref. ii. Also 
 Chase's Des. Bap., p. 53. 
 
 I Euseb. Eccl. Hist, B. 6, ch. xliii. — Wall's Hist. 
 Inf. Bap., p. 2, ch. 9, 463. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 79 
 
 That such a substitute for baptism was 
 regarded as unscriptural and improper at the 
 time, is evident by the opposition made to 
 Xovatian on that account. But, from this 
 time, the practice of sprinkling continued 
 occasionally to be resorted to, in cases of 
 sickness, and hence denominated " Clinic 
 baptism," from Clina, a couch or bed. 
 
 Bp. Taylor says : " It was a formal and 
 solemn question made by Magnus to Cyprian, 
 whether they are to be esteemed right Chris- 
 tians who are only sprinkled with water and 
 not washed or dipped."* 
 
 Dr. Towerson says : " The firsi mention 
 we find of aspersion in the baptism of the 
 elder sort, was in the case of the Clinici, or 
 men who received baptism upon their sick 
 beds."f 
 
 Vexema says : " Sprinkling was used in the 
 last moments of life on such as were called 
 Clinics.""^ 
 
 * Duct, Dubit., B. 3, ch. iv., E. 15. 
 
 f Sac. Bap., p. 3, p. 59, ch. iv., sec. 110. 
 
 X Bccl. His. 
 
80 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Salmasius says : " The Clinics only, because 
 they were confined to their beds, were bap- 
 tized in a manner of which they were capable: 
 Thus Novatian, when sick, received baptism, 
 being besprinkled, not baptized."* 
 
 Grotius says : " The custom of pouring or 
 sprinkling seems to have prevailed in favor 
 of those that were dangerously ill, and were 
 desirous of giving up themselves to Christ ; 
 whom others called Clinics."^ 
 
 In the Roman Church, pouring for baptism 
 was tolerated in the eighth century, and in 
 the sixteenth generally adopted, as a matter 
 of convenience ; that hierarchy presumptuous- 
 ly claiming the right to change ordinances. 
 
 Dr. Wall says : " France seems to have 
 been the first country in the world, where 
 baptism by affusion was used ordinarily to 
 persons in health, and in the public way of 
 administering it. "J 
 
 * De Vita Martini, eh. 15. Cited by Witsius, B. 
 4, ch. xvi., sec. 13. f On Matt. hi. 6. 
 
 % Hist, Inf. Bap., p. 2, ch. ix., p. 470. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 81 
 
 The same author states that Calvin pre- 
 pared for the Genevan Church, and afterwards 
 published to the world, " a form of administer- 
 ing the sacraments;" of which he adds, "for 
 an office, or liturgy, of any church, this is, I 
 believe, the first in the world that prescribes 
 aspersion absolutely."* 
 
 He further adds: "And for sprinkling, 
 properly called, it seems it was, at 16-45, just 
 then beginning, and used by very few." "But 
 sprinkling for the common use of baptizing 
 was really introduced (in France first, and 
 then in other Popish countries) in times of 
 Popery, "f 
 
 Of England he says : " The offices and 
 liturgies did all along enjoin dipping, with- 
 out any mention of pouring or sprinkling." 
 About 1550, it began to prevail, being used 
 first in the case of " weak children ;" and 
 "within the space of half a century, from 
 1550 to 1600, prevailed to be the more 
 general." The English churches finall}' came 
 
 * Hist. Inf. Bap., p. 2, ch. ix., p. 470. f Ibid. 
 
82 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 to imitate the Genevan, and casting off the 
 domination of the Pope, bowed to the au- 
 thority of Calvin, and adopted pouring instead' 
 of dipping.* 
 
 In 1643 the Westminister Assembly of 
 divines voted in convocation, through the in- 
 fluence of Dr. Lightfoot, by one majority, 
 against baptizing by immersion ; and the year 
 following, Parliament sanctioned their deci- 
 sion, and decreed that sprinkling should be the 
 legal mode of administering the ordinance. f 
 
 The Edinburg Encyclopedia, gives the 
 following accounts of sprinkling:— "The first 
 law to sanction aspersion as a mode of bap- 
 tism, was by Pope Stephen II , A. 1). 153. But 
 it was not till the year 1311, that a coun- 
 cil held at Ravenna, declared immersion or 
 sprinkling to be indifferent. In this country, 
 (Scotland,) however, sprinkling was never 
 
 * Hist. Inf. Bap., p. 2, ch. ix., p. 463-475. 
 
 f Pittman and Lightfoot's works, vol. 13, p. 300. 
 Cited in Debates Campb. and Kice, p. 220. Also 
 Edinb. Ency., Art. Bap. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 83 
 
 practiced in ordinary cases till after the Re- 
 formation ; and in England, even in the reign 
 of Edward VI., (about 1550,) immersion was 
 commonl}' observed." But during the reign 
 of the Catholic Mary, who succeeded to the 
 throne on the death of Edward, 1553, perse- 
 cution drove many of the Protestants from 
 their homes, not a few of whom, especially the 
 Scotch, found an asylum in Geneva, where, 
 under the influence of John Calvin, they 
 imbibed a preference for sprinkling.* 
 
 " These Scottish exiles," says the last quoted 
 author, " who had renounced the authority of 
 the Pope, implicitly acknowledged the au- 
 thority of Calvin ; and returning to their own 
 country, with John Knox at their head, in 
 1559, established sprinkling in Scotland. 
 From Scotland, this practice made its way into 
 England in the reign of Elizabeth, but was 
 not authorized by the established church. "f 
 
 The Encyclopedia Britaxxica, mack to 
 tke same effect, gives the case as follows : — 
 
 * Art. Baptism. f Ibid. 
 
84 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 " What principally tended to confirm the 
 practice of affusion or sprinkling, was, that 
 several of our Protestant divines, flying into 
 Germany and Switzerland during the bloody 
 reign of Queen Mary, and coming home when 
 Queen Elizabeth came to the crown, brought 
 back with them a great zeal for the Protestant 
 churches beyond the sea, where they had 
 been received and sheltered. And having 
 observed that at Geneva, and some other 
 places, baptism was administered by sprink- 
 ling, the}' thought they could not do the 
 Church of England a greater service than by 
 introducing a practice dictated by so great an 
 oracle as Calvin."* 
 
 Much more might be added ; but what has 
 been said would seem to be quite sufficient to 
 prove the following facts : 
 
 1. That the baptism commanded and re- 
 ceived by Christ, was immersion, or the dip- 
 ping of the candidate wholly under water. 
 
 2. That this same form was used by the 
 
 * Article Baptism. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 85 
 
 apostles, and early Christians, for many cen- 
 turies after Christ. 
 
 3. That the first recorded departure from 
 this custom of immersion was about A. D. 250. 
 in the case of Xovatian ; no earlier instance 
 being known. 
 
 4. From that time pouring or sprinkling 
 were occasionally resorted to in cases of sick 
 or feeble persons, or tender infants. 
 
 5. But for more than 1300 years, immer- 
 sion was the prevailing practice of the Chris- 
 tian churches in baptism. 
 
 6. The Greek and other oriental churches, 
 have never departed from the primitive mode, 
 but still practice dipping. 
 
 7. And the substitution of aspersion for 
 immersion, was one of the corruptions of the 
 Papal Church, transmitted to, and accepted 
 by Protestant Christians. 
 
 What sincere and honest minded disciple 
 would be willing to disregard the plain com- 
 mand and manifest example of his Saviour, 
 
 and accept a human dogma in their stead ? 
 8 
 
86 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Or what true lover of Christ would knowingly, 
 for convenience, or from prejudice or habit, 
 allow himself to disregard the clearly ex- 
 pressed will of his Lord? "If ye love me," 
 says our Lord, "keep my commandments." 
 
 Appropriate are the words of Cotton Math- 
 er : — " Let a precept be never so difficult to 
 obey, or never so distasteful to flesh and blood, 
 yet if I see it is God's command, my soul 
 says, It is good ; let me obejr it till I die."* 
 
 * Life of Jennings, p. 118. 
 
^ 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 INFANT BAPTISM. 
 
 Z^Jl HE baptism of unconverted children, 
 and unconscious infants, has become 
 common through the Christian world. 
 The Romish Church, the Greek Church, 
 and most of the Protestant churches, practice 
 it. Yet Baptists condemn it as unscriptural, 
 unreasonable, and injurious. They believe 
 that repentance and faith should alwa}'S pre- 
 cede baptism ; and that whenever one exer- 
 cises these, whether old or young, then he 
 should be admitted to the hoi}' ordinance of 
 baptism. But never till he has believed. In- 
 fants incapable of faith, are unfit for baptism. 
 Baptists make the following assertions re- 
 specting this practice : 
 
 1. That there is neither precept nor example 
 found in the ISTew Testament to authorize or 
 
88 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 sanction infant baptism. Nor indeed is there 
 even an allusion to it in the Scriptures, — very 
 naturally, because it did not exist. 
 
 2. That Christ did not command it, nor did 
 either the apostles or early Christians prac- 
 tice it. 
 
 3. That it arose with, and was a part of, the 
 early corruptions of the Christian churches 
 in after ages. 
 
 4. That the practice is presumptuous and 
 censurable on the part of parents, sponsors, 
 and administrators ; and productive of evil, 
 both to the child that receives it, and to the 
 church that allows it. 
 
 If these statements be correct, how can the 
 custom be maintained by intelligent Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 Xot of Scriptural Authority. 
 Nearly all the advocates and defenders of 
 infant baptism have, with considerable candor, 
 admitted that it was not instituted by Christ, 
 nor practiced by the apostles or their immedi- 
 ate successors. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 89 
 
 Dr. Wall, of the English Church, -who 
 wrote the History of Infant Baptism, a work 
 so able, that the assembled clergy, in convo- 
 cation, gave him a vote of thanks for his 
 learned and able defence of this custom, 
 says: " Among all the persons that are re- 
 corded as baptized by the apostles, there is 
 no express mention of any infants."* 
 
 Fuller says : " "We do freely confess there 
 is neither express precept nor precedent in the 
 New Testament for the baptizing of infants, "f 
 
 Bp. Burnett says : " There is no express 
 precept or rule given in the Xew Testament 
 for the baptism of infants. "J 
 
 Baxter sa3 T s : " I conclude that all ex- 
 amples of baptism in Scripture do mention 
 only the administration of it to the professors 
 of saving faith ; and the precepts give us no 
 other direction. "§ 
 
 * Hist. Inf. Bap., Introd., pp. 1, 55. 
 t Infants' Advoc, pp. 71, 150. 
 X Expos. 39 Articles, 27 Art, 
 I Disput. of Eight to Sacra., p. 156. 
 
90 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Luther says : " It cannot be proved by the 
 sacred Scriptures, that infant baptism was 
 instituted by Christ, or begun by the first 
 Christians after the apostles."* 
 
 Dr. Goodwin says : " Baptism supposeth 
 regeneration sure in itself, first. Sacraments 
 are never administered for to begin, or to 
 work grace: you suppose children to believe 
 before you baptize them. Read all the Acts, 
 still it is said, They believed, and were bap- 
 tized, "f 
 
 Celarius says : " Infant baptism is neither 
 commanded in the sacred Scriptures, nor is it 
 confirmed by apostolic examples. "J 
 
 Limborch says : " There is no instance can 
 be produced from which it may indisputably 
 be inferred that any child was baptized by 
 the apostles. "§ 
 
 * Vanity Inf. Bap., part 2, p. 8. See Booth's 
 Pedo. Ex., part 2, eh. i. 
 
 t Works, vol. i., part 1, p. 200. 
 % Shyn. Hist. Mennon., p. 168. 
 \ Com. Syst. Divin., B. 5.. ch. xxii.. sec. 2. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 91 
 
 Dr. Field says : " The baptism of infants is 
 therefore named a tradition, because it is not 
 expressly delivered in Scripture that the 
 apostles did baptize infants ; nor airy express 
 precept there found that they should do so."* 
 
 Xeander says : " Baptism was administered 
 at first only to adults, as men were accustomed 
 to conceive of baptism and faith, as strictly 
 connected. We have all reason for not de- 
 riving infant baptism from apostolic insti- 
 tution, "f 
 
 Olshausen saj-s : " We cannot in truth find 
 anywhere a reliable proof-text in favor of 
 infant baptism. "J 
 
 Hahn sa} r s : " Neither in the Scriptures, nor 
 during the first hundred and fifty years, is a 
 sure example of infant baptism to be found. "§ 
 
 Robert Barclay sa} T s : "As to the baptism 
 
 * On the Church, p. 375. 
 
 t Ch. Hist., vol. i., p. 311. Torrey's Trans. Also, 
 Plant, and Train., vol. i., p 222. 
 % Comment. Acts xv. 14, 15. 
 I Theology, p. 556. 
 
92 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 of infants, it is a mere human traditition, for 
 which neither precept nor practice is to be 
 found in all the Scriptures."* 
 
 William Penn says : there is " not one text 
 of Scripture to prove that sprinkling in the 
 face was the water baptism, or that children 
 were the subjects of water baptism in the first 
 times. "f 
 
 Prof. Lange says: "All attempts to make 
 out infant baptism from the Xew Testament 
 fail. It is totally opposed to the spirit of the 
 apostolic age, and to the fundamental princi- 
 ples of the Xew Testament. "J 
 
 Hagenbach says : " The passages from Scrip- 
 ture cited in favor of infant baptism as a 
 usage of the primitive church, are doubtful, 
 and prove nothing. "§ 
 
 Prof. Jacobi sa}^s : " Infant baptism was 
 
 * Apology, Propo. 12. 
 
 f Def. of Gospel Truths, p. 82. 
 
 % Inf. Bap., p. 101. Dune. Hist. Bap., p. 224. 
 
 || Hist. Doct., pp. 190-193. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 93 
 
 established neither by Christ nor by the apos- 
 tles."* 
 
 Dr. Hanna says : " Scripture knows noth- 
 ing of the baptism of infants."f 
 
 A great number more from the ranks of 
 Pedobaptist scholars and divines have borne 
 similar testimony, which could be cited to the 
 same effect. But, on this specific point, let 
 these suffice. 
 
 Rise of Infant Baptism. 
 
 If the baptism of children was not appoint- 
 ed by Christ, nor practiced by his apostles, 
 what was its origin, and when did it come 
 into use ? 
 
 Tertullian is the first who mentions the 
 custom, and he earnestly opposes it.J This 
 
 * Art. Bap., Kitto's Cycl. Bib. Lit. 
 
 f North Brit. Review, Aug. 1852. 
 
 % Neander supposes that the much disputed pas- 
 sage of Irenasus has reference to this usage — a lit. 
 tie earlier than Tertullian's mention of it. Nean. 
 Oh. Hist., vol. i., p. 311. 
 
94 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 was at the close of the second century, or 
 about A.I). 200. His opposition to it proves 
 two things. First, that it was in occasional 
 use at least ; and second, that it was of recent 
 origin. For it must have been in use to be 
 mentioned at all ; and if it had long been in 
 use, it would have been earlier alluded to. 
 
 Bingham could find no earlier allusion to it 
 than this of Tertullian, though he believed it 
 to have previously existed. Had there been 
 any earlier historic record, he would have 
 found it. It must, therefore, as is generally 
 agreed, have arisen about the beginning of the 
 third century. 
 
 Yenema says: "Nothing can be affirmed 
 with certainty concerning the custom of the 
 church before Tertullian ; seeing there is not 
 anywhere in more ancient writers, that I know 
 of, undoubted mention of infant baptism."* 
 
 Curcellaeus says : " The baptism of infants 
 in the two first centuries after Christ, was 
 altogether unknown ; but in the third and 
 
 * Eccl. Hist., vol. iii., ch. ii., sees. 108, 109. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 95 
 
 fourth, was allowed by some few. In the 
 fifth and following ages it was generally re- 
 ceived."* 
 
 Hippolytus, bishop of Pontus, writing in 
 the first half of the third century, bears this 
 testimon}' : " We in our days never defended 
 the baptism of children, which in our day had 
 only begun to be practiced in some regions, "f 
 
 Bunsen, the learned translator of Hippoly- 
 tus, declares that infant baptism in the modern 
 sense, " was utterly unknown to the early 
 church, not only down to the end of the sec- 
 ond, but indeed to the middle of the third 
 century.''^ 
 
 Salmasius says : " In the two first centuries 
 no one was baptized, except, being instructed 
 in the faith and acquainted with the doctrines 
 
 * Inst. Christ. Relig., B. 1, ch. xii. 
 
 f Hippolytus and his Age, vol. i., p. 184. See 
 Duncan's Hist. Bap., p. 115. — Curtis' Prog. Bap. 
 Principles, p. 101. 
 
 % Hipp, and his Age, vol. hi., p. 180. See Curtis' 
 Prog. Bap. Prin., p. 101. 
 
96 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 of Christ, he was able to profess himself a 
 believer."* 
 
 Curcellaeus says : " The custom of baptiz* 
 ing infants did not begin till the third age 
 after Christ was born. In the former ages no 
 trace of it appears, and it was introduced 
 without the command of Christ, "f 
 
 Such testimony is quite conclusive. Infant 
 baptism was unknown in the churches until 
 the first part of the third centur}^ after Christ. 
 Had it existed before, some trace of, or allu- 
 sion to it, would have been discovered. But 
 the most labored and learned research has 
 failed to make any such discovery. 
 
 It should be added that when the baptism 
 of children did begin to be practiced, it was 
 not the baptism of unconscious infants at all ; 
 but, as Bunsen declares, of "little growing 
 children, from six to ten years old." He de- 
 clares that Tertullian, in his opposition to in- 
 
 * Hist. Bap. Suiceri Thesaur, vol. ii., p. 1136. 
 f Dissert, de Pecc. Orig. Dis. 2, sec. 56. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 97 
 
 fant baptism, does not say one word of new- 
 born infants." Cyprian, an African bishop, 
 at the close of the third century, urged the 
 baptism of infants proper, because of the re- 
 generating efficacy of the ordinance. He and 
 his associates were the first to take this 
 ground.* 
 
 From what Cause did it rise? 
 
 From what cause did infant baptism rise ? 
 That question is not difficult to answer. 
 
 It is well known that at a very early period 
 the notion began to prevail, that the ordinances 
 possessed some special virtue. It was believed 
 that baptism had a sanctifying, saving power ; 
 that in it sins were washed away, and the 
 soul by it was fitted for heaven. Thus the 
 sick were thought to be prepared for death, 
 and salvation secured, or made more certain, 
 by its efficacy. Anxious parents, therefore, 
 desired their d} T ing children to receive baptism, 
 
 * Hippol. and his Age, vol. hi., pp. 192-5. See 
 Curtis' Prog. Bap. Prin., p. 125. 
 
98 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 to secure them against the perils of perdition. 
 Such was the error of a superstitious age. 
 Hence arose infant baptism, as one of the 
 many perversions which early corrupted the 
 doctrines and ordinances of Christianity. 
 
 Vitringa says : " The ancient church, from 
 the highest antiquity, after the apostolic times, 
 appears generally to have thought, that bap- 
 tism is absolutely necessary for all that would 
 be saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. It was, 
 therefore, customary in the ancient church, if 
 infants were greatly afflicted, and in danger 
 of death, or if parents were affected with a 
 singular concern about the salvation of their 
 children, to present their infants or children 
 in their minority to the bishop to be baptized."* 
 
 Salmasius says: "An opinion prevailed 
 that no one could be saved without being bap- 
 tized : and for that reason the custom arose of 
 baptizing infants, "f 
 
 * Observ. Sacr., vol. i., B. 2., ch. iv., sec. 9. 
 f Epist. Jus. Pac. See Booth's Pedobap. Ex., ch. 
 iii.. sec. 3. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 99 
 
 Venema saj'S : " The ancients connected a 
 regenerating power and a communication of 
 the Spirit with baptism." This writer asserts 
 that the early Fathers believed baptism to 
 possess a saving efficacy, and cites Justin 
 Martyr, Irenaeus, Clemens, Tertullian, and 
 Cyprian, as of that opinion ; the last named 
 of whom has been called the inventor of infant 
 baptism.* 
 
 Chrysostom, writing about A.D. 398, as 
 cited b}' Suicerus, says : " It is impossible 
 without baptism to obtain the kingdom. It is 
 impossible to be saved without it." And as 
 cited by Wall, he says: "If sudden death 
 seize us before we are baptized, though we 
 have a thousand good qualities, there is 
 nothing to be expected but hell."f 
 
 W addington, in his Church History, de- 
 clares touching the opinions of the third cen- 
 tury: "The original simplicity of the office of 
 
 * Eccl. Hist., vol. iv., p. 3, sees. 2, 3, 4. See Booth's 
 Pedo. Ex. 
 f Suicer. Thesau. Eccl., vol. i., p. 3. 
 
100 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 baptism bad already undergone some corrup- 
 tion. The S3'mbol had been gradually ex- 
 alted at the expense of the thing signified ; and 
 the spirit of the ceremony was beginning to be 
 lost in the form. Hence a belief was gaining 
 ground among the converts, and was inculcated 
 among the heathen, that the act of baptism 
 gave remission of all sins committed pre- 
 viously. 1 '* 
 
 Thus we discern plainly ivhy, as well as when, 
 this custom arose. An invention of men, 
 based on a perversion of Scripture doctrine, it 
 is now boldly claimed to be an ordinance of 
 God. How can honest and pious men make 
 such a claim ? 
 
 We are reminded of the words of the pious 
 Charnock: "The wisdom of God is affronted 
 and invaded by introducing rules and modes 
 of worship different from divine institution." 
 And we will venture to ask, with the devout 
 Baxter, though both had reference to other 
 subjects ; " What man dare go in a way which 
 
 * Hist, of the Church, ch. ii., p. 53. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 101 
 
 hath neither precept or example to warrant it, 
 from a way that hath full current of both." 
 
 Baptismal Regeneration. 
 
 "We have already seen that the baptism of 
 infants, with that of the sick and the dying, 
 originated in a belief of the saving efficacy of 
 the ordinance. Thus the unscriptural device 
 of infant baptism grew out of the false dogma 
 of baptismal regeneration. A dogma as per- 
 nicious as possible, and as repugnant to com- 
 mon sense, as it is to the Bible ; but one to 
 which the advocates of pedobaptism have ever 
 clung. 
 
 Episcopius asserts that the Milevitan Coun- 
 cil, A.D. 418, declared pedobaptism to be a 
 necessaiy rite.* 
 
 Dr. Wall says: "If we except Tertullian, 
 Yicentius, A.D. 419, is the first man on record 
 that ever said that children might be saved 
 without baptism, "f 
 
 * Theol. Inst, B. 4, ch. xiv. 
 
 f Hist. Inf. Bap., p. 1., ch. xx, p. 232. 
 
102 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Hagenbach says: " The Church of England 
 taught the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, 
 yet with cautions." He cites Jewel, Jackson, 
 Hooker, Ta3 T lor, Pearson, and Waterland, to 
 justify the assertion, which the baptismal ser- 
 vice of that church plainly proves.* 
 
 The words of our Saviour, "Terily, verily, 
 I say unto } t ou ; except a man be born of luater 
 and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of God/' were almost universally 
 applied to baptism, and supposed to teach 
 that there was no salvation without it. 
 
 Wall declares that, "from Justin Martyr 
 down to St. Austin," this text was so under- 
 stood. " Neither did I ever see it otherwise 
 applied in any ancient author." And he adds, 
 "I believe Calvin was the first man that ever 
 denied this place to mean baptism, "f 
 
 The Catholic Church held to baptismal 
 regeneration, and in the Council of Trent thus 
 declared it : "If airy one shall say that bap- 
 
 * Hist. Doctrines, vol. ii., p. 3G6. 
 t Hist. Inf. Bap., p. 2, ch. vi., p. 354. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 103 
 
 tism is not necessary to salvation, let him be 
 accursed."* 
 
 The Greek Church holds the same 
 dogma. Cyril, patriarch of Constantinople, 
 declares: "that both original and actual sins, 
 are forgiven to those who are baptized in 
 the manner which our Lord requires in the 
 gospel. Vf 
 
 Stapferus says : they hold the absolute 
 necessity of baptism, and that, " without it, 
 no one can become a real Christian ; and that 
 it cannot be omitted in respect to infants with- 
 out endangering their salvation. "J 
 
 The Protestant Churches generally have 
 held, and to a degree do still hold, the same 
 unscriptural dogma. Booth cites the following 
 Protestant confessions, which embrace it : the 
 confession of Helvetia ; that of Bohemia ; of 
 Augsburg ; of Saxony ; of TVitternburg ; of 
 
 * Cat. Coun. Trent, p. 165, 175. 
 t Ccmfes. ch. Faith, ch. xvi. 1631. 
 % Theol., vol. v., p. 82. 
 
104 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Sueveland ; of the Church of England ; and of 
 the Westminster Assembly.* 
 
 A large number of Pedobaptist divines and 
 scholars are cited by the same author, as hold- 
 ing this doctrine, including Luther, Gerhardus, 
 Yossius, Deylingius, Fiddes, Whitby, Wilson, 
 Scott, John Wesley, and Matthew Henry. f 
 
 Do its advocates and defenders now take 
 the same ground, and make the same claim for 
 the saving efficacy of baptism ? If not, on 
 what ground, and for what reason do the} r 
 maintain and defend the baptism of infants? 
 Have they any reason for it, only that they 
 have been accustomed to it, and taught to 
 believe it right. 
 
 Reasons for Infant Baptism. 
 1. Some good and honest people verily 
 believe that infant baptism is taught in the 
 Bible. Certainly they have not examined for 
 themselves. A very little effort will show how 
 utterly without foundation is such a supposi- 
 
 * Pedobap. Ex., ch. hi., Eef. 3. f .Ibid. 
 
EAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 105 
 
 tion, and that neither precept nor example, 
 intimation nor allusion, is found in the New 
 Testament, to authorize or sanction it. Read 
 the sacred record through from beginning to 
 end, and nothing of the kind appears. 
 
 2. Its antiquity commends it to many. It 
 has been a long while in vogue, and very 
 generally practiced by various branches of the 
 Christian church. We have seen when and 
 why it arose, and how long and how generally 
 it has been in use. But does that prove it 
 right ? Is a usage necessarily good and true 
 because it is old ? Then we should adopt and 
 practice many absurd superstitions of the early 
 corrupted churches; such as the worship of 
 images, invocation of the saints, prayers to the 
 Virgin, oblations for the dead, consecration 
 of baptismal waters, and many others ; not a 
 few of which came into use about the same 
 time as this ; and some of which are even 
 older. 
 
 Xot what is old, but what is true, should be 
 our rule; not wl^it antiquity, but what the Bible 
 
106 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 teaches, should we obey. Xot tradition, but 
 as Chillingworth declares, " the Bible only, is 
 the religion of Protestants." We should say-, 
 as said Basil, "It is a manifest mistake in re- 
 gard to faith, and a clear evidence of pride, 
 either to reject any of those things which the 
 Scripture contains, or to introduce an}' thing 
 that is not written in the sacred pages." 
 
 3. Others acknowledge that while there is 
 no positive command or authoritative example 
 for infant baptism in the Xew Testament, yet 
 the general principles on which it rests are 
 there found ; the fundamental truths are there 
 taught, from which this custom may be 
 inferred. A strange mode of reasoning. For 
 if we may, by remote deduction and vague in- 
 ference, originate ceremonies, call them gos- 
 pel ordinances, and impose them on the con- 
 sciences of men, then the whole Jewish cere- 
 monial, and the entire ritual service of the 
 Papal Church, may be adopted, and used, and 
 taught, as of divine authority, and binding on 
 believers. # 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 107 
 
 But what a reflection is this on the wisdom 
 and goodness of God, that he should have left 
 positive institutions, designed for universal 
 observance in his churches, to be vaguely 
 inferred from supposed general principles, 
 rather than to have been plainly and explicitly 
 taught in his word. Such reasoning will not 
 serve in matters of religion. Let this maxim 
 of Tertullian have due weight, especially as 
 applied to religious rites : " The Scripture 
 forbids what it does not mention." And with 
 Ambrose we may ask, " where the Scripture 
 is silent, who shall speak?"' 
 
 4. Some suppose that the household bap- 
 tisms mentioned in the Xew Testament must 
 have included infants, and hence constitute a 
 warrant for baptism. Here again is mere in- 
 ference, a foundation quite insufficient for 
 positive institutions to rest upon. It is 
 inferred that these households had infant chil- 
 dren in them, and that such infant children 
 were baptized ; both of which are wholly 
 gratuitous. There are probably few Baptist 
 
108 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 churches in the world, of any considerable 
 standing and history, that have not one or 
 more entire households in their communion, 
 each member of which was baptized on a pro- 
 fession of faith. 
 
 The case of Lydia and her household, bap- 
 tized at Philippi, and mentioned in Acts xvi., 
 is especially relied on. Now observe ; L}'dia 
 was a merchant woman, "a seller of purple," 
 from "the city of Thyatira," and was at 
 Philippi, about three hundred miles from her 
 home, on business, when she heard Paul preach ; 
 was converted, and then " she was baptized, 
 and her household." There is not the least 
 evidence that she had either husband or chil- 
 dren. If she had a husband, why was she so 
 far from home on business. If she had infant 
 children, they would not likely have been with 
 her, on such a journey, for such an object. 
 Her "household," doubtless, were adults, 
 either members of her family, or persons em- 
 ployed in service such as her business required. 
 The most reckless sophism alone could bnild 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 109 
 
 infant baptism on a case like this. A poor 
 cause it must be, that relies for the defence 
 of a permanent religious ordinance, on such 
 evidence. 
 
 Dr. Xeander says : " We cannot prove that 
 the apostles ordained infant baptism : from 
 those places where the baptism of a whole 
 family is mentioned, we can draw no such 
 conclusion."* 
 
 Prof. Jacobi says, with reference to these 
 household baptisms : " In none of these in- 
 stances has it been proved that there were 
 little children among them." - )* 
 
 Dr. Meyer, in his Commentary, says: 
 " That the baptism of children was not in use 
 at that time, appears evident from 1 Cor. vii. 
 14."$ 
 
 Dr. De Wette, in his Exposition, says of 
 Lydia's baptism : " This passage has been ad- 
 duced in proof of the apostolical authority of 
 
 * Planting and Training, p. 162, N. Y. ed. 1865. 
 
 f Kitto's Bib. Cycle, Art, Bap. 
 
 X Comment, Acts xvi. 15. 
 10 
 
110 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 infant baptism ; but there is no proof here 
 that any except adults were baptized."* 
 
 Dr. Olshausen says: "Baptism ensued in 
 this case, without doubt, merely upon a pro- 
 fession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah. But 
 for that very reason it is nighty improbable 
 that her house should be understood as in- 
 cluding infant children." 
 
 And he adds : " There is altogether wanting 
 any conclusive proof-text -for the baptism of 
 children in the age of the apostles. "f 
 
 Most manifestly, all of her household, who- 
 ever they were, or whatever their age, be- 
 lieved — as she herself did — before they were 
 baptized ; of this opinion also were Whitby, 
 Lawson, the Assembly of Divines, and other 
 Pedobaptist authorities. 
 
 The case of the Philippian jailer, and his 
 household, mentioned also in Acts xvi., is 
 another often referred to by the advocates of 
 this rite. Now, observe that Paul and Silas 
 
 * Com. N. T., Acts xvi. 15. 
 
 t Com. N. T., Acts xvi. 14, 15. Kendrick's Trans. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. Ill 
 
 being released from their confinement, spake 
 the word of the Lord to the jailer, "and to all 
 that were in his house." Whether adults or 
 infants, the gospel was preached to them. 
 And the jailer "was baptized, he and all his, 
 straight way." Then, "he rejoiced, believing 
 in God, with all his house." Observe the 
 jailer's family was baptized; but first, thej r 
 listened to the word ; then they believed in 
 God ; and then they rejoiced in their new- 
 found hope. Such a record could never have 
 been made of unsconscious infants. Not a 
 word is said of children ; there is not even the 
 most remote allusion to them. But the lan- 
 guage most conclusively implies that those 
 who were baptized, were those who did believe, 
 and did rejoice. So that, whether the persons 
 were old or young, it must have been be- 
 lievers' baptism. 
 
 Bloomfielp says : " It is taken for granted 
 that his family became Christians, as well as 
 himself."* 
 
 * Com. on Acts xvi. 31. 
 
112 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Such is the faith of Baptists, and such the 
 command of Christ : " Believe and be bap- 
 tized." Calvin, Doddridge, Henry, and other- 
 Pedobaptists, declare that in this case they 
 all believed, and, therefore, they were bap- 
 tized, and did rejoice. 
 
 The household of Stephanas, baptized by 
 Paul, and by him mentioned in 1 Cor. i., is 
 also quoted in support of this baptismal 
 theory. Paul says: "And I baptized also the 
 household of Stephanas." It is inferred here, 
 in like manner, that because a household was 
 baptized, therefore, that household had infants 
 in it, incapable of faith, and they too were 
 baptized. How entirely gratuitous is such an 
 inference, and how utterly without foundation 
 must be a theory based on such an assumption. 
 If there were children, why not somewhere 
 some mention of them? Households are 
 constantly being baptized, and admitted to 
 the fellowship of Baptist churches, but with- 
 out infant baptism. Doddridge, Guise, Ham- 
 mond, Macknight, and others, regard this case 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 113 
 
 as giving no countenance to the custom of 
 baptizing infants. 
 
 Of this very family of Stephanas, Paul, in 
 the sixteenth chapter asserts, were " the first 
 fruits of Achaia ;" and he adds : " they have 
 addicted themselves to the ministry of the 
 saints." This sounds, not as if said respect- 
 ing infants, but as describing the Christian 
 activities of adult believers. And such be- 
 yond all question were the household of 
 Stephanas. 
 
 5. Again, some have claimed that baptism 
 came in the place of circumcision. Hence it 
 is inferred — only inferred — that as all the 
 male Jewish children were circumcised, so all 
 Christian children, both male and female, 
 should be baptized. What the connection is, 
 would require a sage to discover. Reasoning- 
 becomes unreliable when facts are perverted, 
 resemblances forced, and unfounded assump- 
 tions accepted as arguments to sustain a 
 theory supported neither by facts nor authori- 
 tative teachings. Baptism did not come in 
 
114 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 place of circumcision, has no connection with 
 it, and no reference whatever to it. For con- 
 sider these things. 
 
 a. If baptism, a Christian ordinance, was 
 designed to take the place of circumcision, a 
 Mosaic rite, would not Christ so have stated, 
 or the apostles have mentioned the fact? But 
 they never alluded to airy such design. 
 
 b. Circumcision applied only to males. If 
 baptism takes its place, why are females bap- 
 tized ? 
 
 c. Circumcision was an external sign of an 
 external union with a national congregation, 
 to secure the separation of the Jewish people 
 from all other nations and races, and their 
 unity as a nation. Baptism is an external 
 sign of an inward and spiritual work of grace, 
 already wrought in the heart ; and indicates, 
 not the separation of races, but the unity of 
 the true people of God, of all races as be- 
 lievers in Christ, without distinction of blood 
 or tongue. 
 
 d. If baptism did take the place of circum- 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 115 
 
 cision, evidently the apostles did not know it ; 
 else they would have made some mention of 
 it, either in the council at Jerusalem, or in 
 epistles written for the guidance of the 
 churches, or on other occasions, when both 
 these subjects were discussed, and directions 
 given respecting them. But no allusion is 
 anywhere made to any such substitution. 
 
 e. Jewish Christians did not understand 
 that baptism had taken the place of circum- 
 cision ; otherwise, they would not have in- 
 sisted that converts to the Christian faith 
 should receive both these rites. Indeed the 
 whole attempt to found a Christian ordinance 
 on a Jewish ceremony is unreasonable and 
 absurd. 
 
 Objections to Infant Baptism. 
 
 1. Its assumptions are false. It claims to 
 be a gospel ordinance, when it is an invention 
 of men. Christ did not appoint it ; the apos- 
 tles did not practice it ; the Scriptures do not 
 
116 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 sanction it. This is sufficient reason why it 
 should not be held as a Christian rite. 
 
 2. It impugns divine wisdom, and insults 
 the divine authority ; because it claims to be 
 needful, or useful in the church, though 
 Christ, by not appointing it when he insti- 
 tuted the church, virtually decided it to be 
 neither needful nor useful. And also by 
 binding this service on the consciences of 
 Christian parents, as of religious obligation, 
 when God has not commanded it, there is an 
 unwarrantable assumption of authority, and a 
 grievous wrong is committed. Divine wisdom 
 knew best what positive institutions to or- 
 dain, and what positive commands to lay upon 
 the people. 
 
 3. It deprives Christian converts of the 
 pleasure and privilege of believers' baptism. 
 For having received the rite in their uncon- 
 scious infancy, without their knowledge or 
 consent, when in after years they become re- 
 generate and truly united to Christ, they can- 
 not go forward in the voluntary discharge of 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 117 
 
 this duty, and be baptized on a confession of 
 their faith, without discrediting and rejecting 
 their earlier baptism. 
 
 4. Because it appears like a solemn mockery, 
 for parents and sponsors, to become sureties 
 for the child about to be baptized, and declare 
 for it, that they believe in God's holy word, 
 and the articles of the Christian faith, as con- 
 tained in the apostles' creed; that they will 
 renounce the vain pomp of the world, the 
 devil and all his works, with all covetous and 
 sinful desires of the flesh. 
 
 5. Because it requires the officiating minis- 
 ter to declare what is false, in the very per- 
 formance of what should be a most sacred 
 service. He declares what is false when he 
 says : " I baptize thee ;" since he rantizes, or 
 sprinkles, and does not baptize at all. Still 
 more, and if possible more recklesslv, when 
 he asserts that in this act the child, "is re- 
 generate, and grafted into the body of Christ's 
 church ;" and also when in prayer he thanks 
 God, " that it hath pleased thee to regenerate 
 
118 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 this infant, with thy Holy Spirit ; to receive 
 him for thine own child by adoption ; and to 
 incorporate him into thy holy church." This 
 is solemnly declared, when no such thing is 
 done, and when the minister who says it, and 
 all who hear it said, know that no such thing 
 is done : — unless indeed, they do, in their 
 hearts, believe in baptismal regeneration. But 
 the child is not regenerate, nor adopted of 
 God, nor incorporated into the church of 
 Christ by this act. The service falsifies the 
 facts. 
 
 6. But, and perhaps worst of all, infant bap- 
 tism teaches still, to a certain extent, baptismal 
 regeneration ; of which false and dangerous 
 dogma this rite was born. It is more than a 
 false statement, — it is a pernicious and de- 
 structive error to teach, or allow the notion, 
 that a few drops of water on the face with any 
 form of words, no matter what, can make that 
 child regenerate, a child of God by adoption, 
 and a member of Christ's church. If the 
 child when grown believes all this, — and why 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 119 
 
 may he not believe it, if thus solemnly taught 
 by parents and minister? — he believes him- 
 self a child of God and an heir of heaven, 
 sealed and sanctified by the Spirit, and in the 
 narrow way of life, while blind to the fact that 
 he is still unregenerate, in the gall of bitter- 
 ness, a child of sin, an heir of wrath, and in 
 the broad road to death. Such perversions, 
 — such blind leadings of the blind, — are too 
 serious, and too sad, to be countenanced by 
 Christian men or Christian churches. 
 
 7. Infant baptism, in some sense, — though 
 its advocates are not agreed in what sense, — 
 makes the child a church member, and thus 
 introduces an unsanctinecl, unregenerate mem- 
 bership into the nominal body of Christ ; mak- 
 ing that body carnal instead of keeping it 
 spiritual ; thus destroying the distinction 
 which the Founder of the church designed 
 should be maintained between it, and the 
 world. For even if the infant, as such, is not 
 a member, yet when grown to maturity he is 
 admitted to full membership, with no other 
 
120 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 demand for, or evidence of, regeneration. The 
 purely spiritual character of the church is 
 thereby destroyed ; and, like other associations, 
 the spiritual and the carnal indifferently make 
 up its communion. 
 
 The words of Prof. Lange are weighty, and 
 should be pondered by Protestant defenders 
 of this Papal emanation : " Would the Protes- 
 tant Church fulfill and attain to its final 
 destiny, the baptism of new-born children 
 must of necessity be abolished. It has sunk 
 down to a mere formality, without any mean- 
 ing for the child."" 
 
 There may be other objections to this prac- 
 tice, but these are sufficient, it would seem, 
 to deter any candid and conscientious Chris- 
 tian, who takes the Bible for his guide, from 
 giving it any countenance or support. 
 
 * Hist. Protestantism, p. 34. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 . XOTHER point of difference between 
 J '\^ Baptists arid other denominations, is 
 their custom with reference to the 
 communion of the Lord's Supper. 
 Baptists practice what is called a restricted 
 communion, inviting to that ordinance only 
 such as have been baptized, that is, immersed, 
 on a profession of faith in Christ, and are 
 "baptized members in good standing, of regu- 
 lar Baptist churches." While Pedobaptists 
 practice what is called a free communion, 
 and invite persons whom they consider bap- 
 tized, in whatever way, or connected with 
 whatever churches. And some denomina- 
 tions go farther and hold a really unrestricted 
 communion, to which all, who choose, may 
 come, without condition or limitation. 
 11 121 
 
122 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD.' 
 
 "Who have a right to partake of the Lord's 
 Supper? And what qualifications or condi- 
 tions are necessary to give them that right, 
 or entitle them to that privilege ? 
 
 The great majority, on all sides, agree that 
 baptism is prerequisite to the privileges of 
 the Lord's table, and that baptized believers 
 alone are the proper subjects for this ordi- 
 nance. But what is baptism ? That, after 
 all, is the vital question. Pedobaptists hold 
 that persons may be properly baptized by 
 dipping, pouring, or sprinkling, and that 
 either mode qualifies subjects for the Supper. 
 Baptists hold that pouring and sprinkling are 
 not baptism at all, and, therefore, do not 
 qualify for the communion. Consequently 
 such persons are not, by them, invited to the 
 Lord's table. 
 
 This custom of the Baptists is called strict, 
 or close communion, while the usage of Pedo- 
 baptists is termed free, or open communion. 
 Nearly all Baptists in the United States, and 
 a large part of those in Europe, are " strict 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 123 
 
 communion ;" while the Catholic, Greek, and 
 the greater part of Protestant Churches, prac- 
 tice "free communion." Which are right? 
 Which course is most in accordance with the 
 spirit and teaching of the Xew Testament, the 
 nature and purpose of a Christian church, and 
 the design of the sacred Supper itself? 
 
 The Four Yiews. 
 
 There are in general four views taken of 
 this subject, as to the proper limits to which 
 the privileges of the communion should ex- 
 tend. 
 
 1. Those who believe that for one to be 
 properly qualified to partake of the Supper, 
 he should be regenerated by the Spirit, be- 
 coming truly a believer in Christ ; that he 
 should be baptized on a profession of his 
 faith — meaning by baptism, immersion, or 
 dipping — and that he should be living in a 
 godly manner as a member of the church. 
 Such persons have a right to the table of the 
 
124 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Lord, and no others have. Of this class are 
 the great body of Baptists in all lands. 
 
 2. Those who believe that all persons, bap-' 
 tized in whatever wa} r , by sprinkling, pour- 
 ing, or immersion — calling these all baptism 
 — have a right, and should be admitted to 
 the Lord's Supper. In general they require a 
 godly life ; but whether persons are baptized 
 in infancy on the professed faith of sponsors, 
 or in later years on their own, is immaterial. 
 Of this class are Pedobaptists generally — 
 Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregation- 
 alists, Methodists, Lutherans, and others. 
 
 3. Those who hold that baptism is not 
 necessary in any form, to precede the com- 
 munion, or to prepare one for it ; and that 
 the church has no right to say who shall, or 
 who shall not partake of the Supper ; but 
 every one who desires has the right to enjoy 
 this privilege, without question or condition. 
 Of this class are the Free-will Baptists, so 
 called, a few Pedobaptists, and some smaller 
 bodies. 
 
BAI>TIST SHORT METHOD. 125 
 
 4. Those who hold that baptism is prere- 
 quisite to the communion, and that nothing 
 but immersion is baptism ; but who will so 
 far yield to the honest convictions of indi- 
 viduals, as to admit them to the ordinance on 
 such convictions, rather than on the facts in 
 the case, or the judgment of the church. 
 Thus, if one honestly believe he has been bap- 
 tized — even though he has not — and that he 
 has a right to the Supper — even though he be 
 mistaken, — yet because he believes so, he 
 should be admitted to the ordinance. Of this 
 class are the greater part of open communion 
 Baptists, and, also, immersed members of 
 Pedobaptist churches. 
 
 The Baptist View. 
 
 The following, in general, will express the 
 view of the denomination on this subject : 
 
 1. Baptists regard the Lord's Supper as 
 commemorative and sjmibolical. It com- 
 memorates the sufferings of Christ for our 
 redemption, and teaches that, like as the 
 
126 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 natural life is supported by bread, so the 
 spiritual life is sustained and nourished only 
 by feeding on Christ as the bread of life. It 
 is not a test or expression of the fellowship 
 of the disciples one with another, except in- 
 directly, but of each one with Christ, his per- 
 sonal Saviour and the Head of the church. 
 It expresses the unity of the faith of those 
 who, together, partake, and the oneness of 
 their trust in him, who, to each alike and to 
 all, has become "wisdom,, and righteousness, 
 and sanctification, and redemption." 
 
 2. Baptists hold that there are three im- 
 perative conditions to the privileges of the 
 Lord's Supper : — 1. Regeneration : being born 
 of the Spirit and made a new creature in 
 Christ. Without this, no one can rightfully 
 be a member of the church, or enjoy any 
 privileges in the household of faith. Without 
 this, one cannot possibty be a member of 
 Christ's spiritual body, and should have no 
 organic connection with his visible church. 
 2. Baptism : being buried with Christ in 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 127 
 
 water, on a profession of faith in him. This 
 ordinance must precede the Supper, and is 
 the way and rite of initiation into the visible 
 church. No person, though regenerate and 
 godly, can properly receive the communion 
 without baptism. 3. Godliness : an upright, 
 consistent life of Christian virtue, in imitation 
 of the example of the Lord, and in obedience 
 to his commands. For though one may have 
 been truly regenerated and properly baptized, 
 yet, if he be a disorderly walker, violating his 
 covenant obligations, living in sin, and trans- 
 gressing the precepts of Christ, he has no 
 right at the Lord's table. 
 
 3. Baptists claim that the Lord's Supper, 
 strictly speaking, is a church ordinance, to be 
 observed by the church, and in the church. 
 That it cannot properly be administered or 
 partaken of by those out of the church ; that 
 members, in their individual capacity, cannot 
 administer and receive it. Nor can the 
 church authorize individuals to administer 
 and receive it. The church must act in its 
 
128 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 official character in the administration of it, 
 and individuals he within the church to re- 
 ceive it. Consequently, to reach the com- 
 munion in a scriptural way, we must be re- 
 generated as the spiritual qualification, and 
 baptized in water as the outward and ritual 
 profession of an inward cleansing, a death to 
 sin, and a rising to newness of life. 
 
 4. Baptists claim that they not only may 
 not, but ought not to invite to a participation 
 in the ordinance, any who are not properly 
 qualified for it, as the} 7 understand the scrip- 
 tural qualifications. They believe it is the 
 solemn duty of the church which spreads the 
 Supper, to judge of the qualifications of those 
 who wish to partake, and invite none but re- 
 generate, baptized, and godly persons, to it. 
 To invite, or permit all, without conditions, 
 to receive the communion, is to allow the vile 
 and the profane, the carnal and the impure, 
 triflers with the truth, and contemners of the 
 grace of Christ, to mingle with his spiritual 
 people, and eat and drink in solemn mockery 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 129 
 
 the s} T mbolic flesh and blood of the Son of God. 
 For if the rule be allowed, to this extent will 
 the abuse be sure to go. This would be dis- 
 loyalty to Christ. He has made his churches 
 custodians of his sacred ordinances ; and they, 
 with the most watchful fidelity, should guard 
 them from all profane intrusion and improper 
 use. 
 
 5. Baptists are firmly convinced that in 
 order to maintain the purity and spirituality 
 of the churches, it is absolutely necessary to 
 restrict the communion to regenerate and 
 godly persons, baptized on a profession of 
 their faith. To adopt any other rule, or 
 allow any larger liberty, would break down 
 the distinction between the church and the 
 world ; would bring in a carnal and uncon- 
 verted membership, with which to overshadow 
 the spiritual, and control the household of 
 faith ; would virtually transfer the communion 
 from the house of God to the temple of Belial. 
 To keep the church pure, the ordinances must 
 be kept pure and unperverted, both as to their 
 
130 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 form, and application, the manner in which 
 administered, and the persons to whom ad- 
 ministered. 
 
 6. Baptists give the following reasons, in 
 justification of their course in the following 
 cases. 
 
 a. They do not invite Peclobaptists to the 
 communion, simply because they do not re- 
 gard such persons as baptized ; they having 
 been 011I3' sprinkled. And even though such 
 persons think themselves baptized, yet their 
 thinking does not make it so. If they desire 
 the Supper, let them submit to baptism, as 
 Christ has commanded. 
 
 b. They do not accept the invitation of 
 Pedobaptists to commune with them, for the 
 same reason. The}^ believe that such persons, 
 being unbaptized, have no scriptural right to 
 the communion, and therefore to partake with 
 them, would be to encourage an error, and 
 give their presence and influence to uphold a 
 perversion of the order and ordinances of 
 Christ's house. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 131 
 
 c. They do not invite immersed members 
 of Pedobaptist churches to the communion, 
 because, though such persons be truly re- 
 generate, and properly baptized, the}* are 
 walking disorderly as disciples, by remaining 
 in churches which hold and practice serious 
 errors as to both the ordinances. These 
 churches use sprinkling for baptism, and 
 administer the ordinance to infants ; both of 
 which are contrary to Scripture, as such per- 
 sons themselves allow, by demanding immer- 
 sion for themselves, on a profession of their 
 faith. And 3*et, by remaining in such churches, 
 they give their countenance and influence to 
 uphold and perpetuate what they acknowledge 
 to be errors, and thus help to impose on others, 
 what they will not accept for themselves. 
 This is not orderly Christian walking ; and 
 therefore, very properly, Baptists do no invite 
 them to the Lord's Supper. 
 
132 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 Open Communion Yiew. 
 
 1. Sprinkling is not Baptism. — The first 
 class of open-communionists are those "who 
 believe that none but baptized persons should 
 be admitted to the Lord's table, and that the 
 church is the rightful judge of the fitness of 
 candidates. But they assert, that persons 
 sprinkled are scripturally baptized ; and, there- 
 fore, should be admitted to the Supper. Pedo- 
 baptists generally take this ground. They 
 agree with Baptists, that baptism is pre- 
 requisite to the communion ; but claim that 
 sprinkling is valid baptism. 
 
 Pedobaptists, if satisfied with their own 
 baptism, can enjoy their own communion. 
 Baptists do not assume to judge them ; but 
 when the}' claim the right to commune with 
 Baptists, and demand that their sprinkling be 
 recognized as valid baptism, then they ask 
 too much, and what cannot be conscientiously 
 granted. First let them prove their baptism 
 scriptural. The whole question of communion 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 133 
 
 with them, really is a question of baptism 
 after all. Let there be an agreement as to 
 the baptismal rite, and the communion contro- 
 versy will cease. 
 
 2. Baptism is not prerequisite. — The second 
 class of open-communionists assert that the 
 ordinances sustain no necessaiy relation to 
 each other; that baptism can claim no priority; 
 and that the Supper is in no vital sense a 
 church ordinance. Consequently baptism is 
 not a condition of, nor prerequisite to, the 
 communion, and unbaptized persons may 
 partake of the Supper. This theory virtually 
 denies the memorial and symbolic character 
 of the ordinance, and holds it as a sign and 
 service of Christian fellowship. Such a 
 course of argument, however plausible, is re- 
 jected and condemned by the great body of 
 believers, the world over. 
 
 Baptism, as the public declaration of faith 
 
 in Christ, and the rite by which the disciple 
 
 is " added to the church," must precede the 
 
 Supper, which is an ordinance wholty within 
 12 
 
134 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 the church. Submission to the first ordinance 
 is, therefore, a condition to the privileges of 
 the second ; and thus baptism is said to be 
 prerequisite to the communion. 
 
 But the open communion Baptists have 
 taken the ground that baptism is not an 
 essential qualification for the communion, and 
 consequently that unbaptized persons could 
 properly partake of the Supper. Wishing to 
 meet their Pedobaptist brethren in a free 
 communion, but still asserting that sprinkling 
 is not baptism, they saw no way of doing it 
 but by declaring baptism non-essential to the 
 communion, and not a condition to the privi- 
 leges of church fellowship. 
 
 Pedobaptists have accepted the conclusions 
 and are willing to meet their Baptist brethren 
 at the Lord's table ; but deny the premises, 
 and condemn the reasoning which repudiates 
 their baptism. They say, free communion is 
 right and good, but baptism is prerequisite, 
 and sprinkling is valid Christian baptism. A 
 privilege offered on such terms they do not 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 135 
 
 highly prize, nor care often to accept. Thus 
 free communion Baptists, and free communion 
 Pedobaptists constitute a discordant fellow- 
 ship; a Christian union without harmony. 
 
 That the ordinance of baptism is prerequi- 
 site, and admits to the ordinance of the Sup- 
 per, and the privileges of the church, is mani- 
 fest from the following considerations : 
 
 a. Observe the example of our Saviour at 
 the institution of the Supper. Who sat down 
 with him to partake of the paschal meal, and 
 then receive the symbols of his body and 
 blood ? Xot unbaptized persons, surely. But 
 a small and selected company of his disciples, 
 who had received either John's baptism or his 
 own. For good reasons all baptized disciples 
 were not present ; but certainly no unbaptized 
 persons were there. 
 
 b. The language of our Saviour, used in the 
 great commission, and other similar forms of 
 speech, if not conclusive proof, bears strong 
 evidence in its favor, and is against the 
 supposition that the unbaptized can rightfully 
 
136 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 partake of the communion. His command is, 
 to teach all nations, baptizing them ; his prom- 
 ise is to those who believe and are baptized.. 
 This is the order; teaching, believing, baptiz- 
 ing. Where does the Supper come in ? Baptists 
 say, after the teaching, believing, baptizing, 
 and being thus "added to the church." But 
 suppose it comes in before. Then, where be 
 fore ? Before the believing? Before the teach- 
 ing ? Why not ? And let the communion be 
 given, as Pedobaptists give baptism, to those 
 who have neither believed, nor been taught, 
 as in the case of infants. Infant communion, 
 as practiced from the third to the ninth cen- 
 tury, would be no more unscriptural than 
 infant baptism, as now practiced. Nor would 
 infant communion, after baptism, be more 
 inconsistent, than adult communion without 
 baptism. 
 
 The order of the words in the great com- 
 mission denotes the relation which the acts 
 the}' express bear to each other. They forbid 
 the supposition that one can lawfully overstep 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD 137 
 
 the commanded ordinance of baptism into the 
 most sacred privileges of the church, any 
 more than he can overstep repentance, or 
 faith into the ordinance of baptism. 
 
 c. The Xew Testament history affords no 
 instance which can be supposed to favor the 
 theoiy of communion without baptism. But 
 abundant evidence is furnished in facts and 
 circumstances mentioned, to show that all 
 communicants were baptized persons. Apos- 
 tolic instruction with reference to the supper, 
 and reproofs administered for an abuse of 
 that ordinance, all are addressed to churches, 
 and church members, and suppose that all 
 such were baptized believers. 
 
 Those who believed, and gladly received the 
 word, were baptized ; then added to the church; 
 then they continued steadfast in the apostles' 
 doctrine, and in breaking of bread, and in 
 pra}*er. 
 
 d. The almost unvarying and universal 
 belief and practice of Christian churches, in 
 all denominations, and in all ages, should be 
 
138 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 accepted as important testimony in this case. 
 Both Roman Catholics and Protestants, Bap- 
 tists and Pedobaptists, with singular unanim- 
 ity, declare the necessity of baptism as pre- 
 requisite to the communion. 
 
 Justin Martyr says : " This food is called 
 by us the Eucharist, of which it is not lawful 
 for any to partake but such as believe the 
 things taught by us to be true, and have been 
 baptized."* 
 
 Dr. Wall, who searched the records of 
 antiquity for facts illustrating the history of 
 the ordinances, says : " No church ever gave 
 the communion to any persons before they 
 were baptized. Among all the absurdities 
 that ever were held, none ever maintained 
 that any person should partake of the com- 
 munion before he was baptized, "f 
 
 Dr. Doddridge says : " It is certain, that 
 so far as our knowledge of primitive antiquity 
 
 * Cited by Davidson, on Bap. and Com., p. 217. 
 f Hist. Inf. Bap., p. 2, ch. ix. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 139 
 
 reaches, no imbaptized person received the 
 Lord's Supper."* 
 
 Dr. Dick, in his Theology, says: "Xone 
 have a right to the holy table, but those who 
 have been previously purified by the washing 
 of water, and the word."f 
 
 Dr. Cave says : The communicants in the 
 primitive church were those " that had em- 
 braced the doctrine of the gospel, and had 
 been baptized into the faith of Christ. For 
 looking upon the Lord's Supper as the high- 
 est and most solemn act of religion, they 
 thought the}' could never take care enough in 
 the dispensing of it. "J 
 
 Dr. Coleman, in his "Christian Antiqui- 
 ties," says of the administration of the Lord's 
 Supper in the early ages : " Xone, indeed, but 
 believers in full communion with the church 
 were permitted to be present." And again: 
 " But agreeably to all the laws and customs of 
 
 * Lectures, pp. 511, 512. 
 
 f Theol. Lee., 92. 
 
 % Primit. Christ'y, part 1, ch. xi., p. 333. 
 
140 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 the church, baptism constituted membership 
 with the church. All baptized persons were 
 legitimately numbered among the communi- 
 cants, as members of the church."* 
 
 Baxter says : " What man dare go in a 
 way which hath neither precept nor example to 
 warrant it, from a wa}< that hath a full current 
 of both ? Yet they that will admit members 
 into the visible church without baptism, do 
 so."f 
 
 Bingham, in his able work on the antiqui- 
 ties of the Christian church, says, that 
 preparation for the communion in the ancient 
 times, " was the performance of the conditions 
 and obligations which every man laid upon 
 himself in baptism." "As soon as a man was 
 baptized, he was immediately communicated ;" 
 that is, admitted to the communion. Baptism 
 therefore uniformly preceded the supper. J 
 
 * Anc. Christ'y Ex. ch. xxi., sec. 8. 
 f Plain Scrip. Proof, 24. 
 
 X Christ. Antiq., B. 15, ch. viii., sec. 1. — B. 12, 
 ch. iv., sec. 9. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 141 
 
 Dr. Dwight says : " It is an indispensable 
 qualification for this ordinance, that the candi- 
 date for communion be a member of the visi- 
 ble church of Christ, in full standing. By 
 this, I intend that he should be a man of piety, 
 that he should have made a public profession 
 of religion, and that he should have been bap- 
 tized."* 
 
 Dr. Griffin says: "I agree with the advo- 
 cates of close communion in two points. 
 1. That baptism is the initiatory ordinance 
 which introduces us into the visible church ; 
 of course, where there is no baptism, there 
 are no visible churches. 2. That we ought 
 not to commune with those who are not bap- 
 tized, and of course are not church members, 
 even if we regard them as Christians."f 
 
 Dr. Hibbard says : " In one principle, 
 Baptist and Pedobaptist churches agree. 
 They both agree in rejecting from communion 
 
 * Syst. Thcol. Ser., 160, B. 8., ch. iv., sec. 7. 
 t Letter on Bap., 1829, cited by Curtis on Com., 
 p. 125. 
 
142 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 at the table of the Lord, and in denying the 
 rights of church fellowship to all who have 
 not been baptized."* 
 
 The notion of communion without baptism, 
 is of recent origin, and can neither greatly 
 influence the Christian world, nor long sur- 
 vive. Baptists will, to no considerable ex- 
 tent, accept such, inconsistencies, or sacrifice 
 principle for a seeming union ; and Pedobap- 
 tists will reject a free communion, which dis- 
 owns their baptism and annuls their church 
 membership. 
 
 3. The Church is to Judoe? 
 
 The third class of open communionists are 
 those who claim that the right to the Lord's 
 Supper is based on no ground of prescribed 
 conditions, no ritual preparation, but upon 
 each one's own convictions of fitness and duty. 
 The church cannot decide who is fit to come, 
 nor can it rightfully keep any away from the 
 
 * Chris. Bap., p. 2, p. 174. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 143 
 
 communion. But every oue who believes him- 
 self fit, and wishes to partake, may come and 
 eat and drink in that holy service. Not the 
 judgment of the church, but the conviction 
 of the individual, decides the question. 
 
 Baptists hold that it is the right of each 
 church to judge and decide who maj^, and 
 who may not, come to the ordinances it ad- 
 ministers. And still more, that each church 
 is bound by the most sacred considerations 
 of duty and fidelity to Christ, to exclude from 
 it all who in their judgment have not the 
 scriptural qualifications to receive it. It is 
 not the prerogative of the church to make 
 conditions ; but to see that the conditions of 
 the gospel are complied with. 
 
 Each church must be its own interpreter of 
 truth and duty, so far as its own action is 
 concerned; just as each individual must be 
 the interpreter and judge of his personal 
 obligations. It would be absurd to say that 
 the convictions of an individual must be the 
 authoritative standard by which the body is 
 
144 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 bound to act. In such a case the most holy 
 service of the church might be crowded by 
 the vile and profane, invading the sanctity 
 of the household of faith, and making common 
 the affecting memorials of a Saviour's suffer- 
 ings and death. 
 
 If the judgment of the church must yield 
 to the opinions of individuals in one thing, 
 why not in another? If each man who 
 chooses, may come to the Lord's table, with- 
 out regard to the judgment of the church, 
 then he may also demand baptism, without re^ 
 gard to the judgment of the church. So also 
 if the church is to have no judgment, and the 
 convictions of the individual are to be the 
 rule, any one may take his place in the coun- 
 cils of the body, vote in its meetings of busi- 
 ness, demand to be enrolled as one of its 
 members, claim any other privilege, and exer- 
 cise any other right accorded to its members, 
 since there is none more exclusive, none more 
 sacred, than that of the communion. If that 
 is common, all others may be. But this 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 145 
 
 course would completely disorganize and 
 destroy the church as an organic body. 
 
 Such a course also would effectually destroy 
 or prevent all discipline in the church. Since, 
 if the bod}' has no right to direct who shall 
 come to its communion, nor to debar or re- 
 strain those outside from its privileges, though 
 believed to be unfit ; it certainly has no right 
 to control or restrain those inside, though 
 known to be unworthy. Unless indeed the 
 outside world has more privileges in a Chris- 
 tian church than its own members. Thus 
 also a member excluded for heresy, disorderly 
 walking, or immoral conduct, would only be 
 dismissed into a larger liberty ; since as a 
 worldly and carnal man he could come to the 
 Lord's table on his own convictions of fitness, 
 when, as a member, he was judged unworthy, 
 and denied the privilege. 
 
 No secular society or association but has 
 
 its regulations. And the body judges of the 
 
 fitness of persons applying for membership ; 
 
 and also decides when they have violated 
 13 
 
146 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 their pledges, and merit exclusion from its 
 fellowship. No one could expect to enjoy the 
 privileges of such a society without becoming 
 a member ; nor to become a member on his 
 own convictions of fitness without complying 
 with the prescribed conditions ; nor to con- 
 tinue in membership, except as he continued to 
 comply with those conditions. And of all 
 these questions, the body, not the individual, 
 is to be the judge. Much more carefully 
 should the order of God's house be guarded 
 by those to whose trust it has been committed. 
 It would be criminal indifference to his com- 
 mands to allow the safeguards with which he 
 has surrounded the sanctity of his institutions 
 to be broken down, and those institutions to 
 be profaned. 
 
 It is, therefore, both the right and the duty 
 of the church to judge who are suitable sub- 
 jects for the communion, inviting to it those 
 who are, and debarring from it those who are 
 not. And in this the body does not interfere 
 with the right of private judgment in matters 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 147 
 
 of personal duty ; but denies the right of the 
 individual to dictate to the church ; and re- 
 fuses to substitute personal convictions for 
 the laws of Christ as interpreted by the judg- 
 ment of the body. 
 
 Pedobaptist Close Communion. 
 Pedobaptists are close communion, as well 
 as Baptists ; as really so, if not quite as 
 rigidly so. They act on the same principle, 
 of not admitting to the table of the Lord un- 
 baptized persons. Thus do Pedobaptists re- 
 ject from their communion an}' and all, unless 
 they believe them to have been baptized. 
 They may be persons of unquestioned faith 
 and godliness ; converts of undoubted piety ; 
 their nearest kindred and dearest friends ; yet 
 they must be baptized before they can take 
 the Supper. Baptists only do the same ; apply 
 the rule to them, as they do to others, and 
 refuse to invite them as they refuse to invite 
 others, and for the same reason — because 
 they have not been baptized. 
 
148 BAPTIST SHORT METIIOD. 
 
 A communion, to be really free and open, 
 must have no restrictions, and no conditions. 
 It must admit any and all who choose to 
 come to it. Its rule must be the personal 
 convictions or wishes of the individual. The 
 moment the church assumes to judge, and 
 imposes conditions on the candidate, that mo- 
 ment it restricts the privilege to a special 
 class, and practices a restricted, or close, 
 communion. This, Episcopalians, Presby- 
 terians, Congregationalists, Methodists, and 
 others do ; and then reproach Baptists for 
 doing the same. 
 
 There is, therefore, properly, no free com- 
 munion, but that which imposes no conditions ; 
 demands nothing ; asks no questions ; but 
 spreads the table, and leaves it for all who 
 wish to come. This practice, though con- 
 demned by nearly all evangelical Christians, 
 Baptists and Pedobaptists alike, as contrary to 
 Scripture, reason, and authoritative precedent, 
 is consistent with itself; — what can be said of 
 no other form of so-called open communion. 
 
BATTIST SHORT METHOD. 149 
 
 Dr. Hibbard says : " The charge of close 
 communion is no more applicable to the Bap- 
 tists, than to us (Pedobaptists) ; inasmuch as 
 the question of church fellowship with them is 
 determined by as liberal principles as it is 
 with any other Protestant churches. So far, 
 I me.an, as the present subject is concerned ; 
 i. e., it is determined by valid baptism."* This 
 is a candid acknowledgment of the truth in 
 the case. 
 
 In one respect, Pedobaptists are more ex- 
 clusive in their practice of a close communion, 
 than even Baptists ; inasmuch as the former 
 exclude from the Lord's table a large class of 
 their own members; viz., baptized children. 
 Baptists do not deny the Supper to their own 
 members in good standing. If children are 
 suitable subjects for baptism, it seems most 
 unreasonable to exclude them from the Supper. 
 If they derive advantage from the one, would 
 they not derive equal advantage from the 
 
 * Chris. Bap., part 2, p. 174. 
 
150 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 other? If the}- can receive the one on the 
 faith of sponsors, why not receive the other in 
 the same wa} r ? By denying the communion 
 to baptized children, Pedobaptists act con- 
 trary to the traditions of the ancient churches, 
 which they are accustomed to cite with so 
 much assurance, in defence of infant baptism. 
 Do they not know that those ancient churches 
 practiced infant communion, as well as infant 
 baptism ? And that for man} T centuries ? 
 
 Zwingle, as quoted by Bingham, declares 
 that the Helvetian rubric requires, " That a 
 newly baptized child should have the Eucharist 
 in both kinds administered unto him."* 
 
 Maldonatus asserts that the custom con- 
 tinued in the Roman Church for six centuries; 
 and Bona sa}'S, it was not abrogated in 
 France till the twelfth century, f 
 
 Bingham says : " We might insist upon tbe 
 known practice and custom in the ancient 
 church, of giving the Eucharist to infants 
 
 * Chris. Antiq., B. 15, ch. iv., sec. 7. 
 
 f Bingham's Chris. Antiq., B. 15. ch. iv., sec. 7. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 151 
 
 which continued in the church for several 
 ages. It is frequently mentioned in Cypri&n, 
 Austin, Innocentius, and Gennadius — writers 
 from the third to the fifth century. 3Ialdo- 
 natus confesses it was in the church for six 
 hundred years ; and some of the authorities just 
 now alleged, prove it to have continued two or 
 three ages more."* 
 
 Coleman says: "After the general intro- 
 duction of infant baptism in the second and 
 third centuries, the sacrament continued to be 
 administered to all who had been baptized, 
 whether infants or adults. The reason alleged, 
 by Cyprian and others, for this practice, was 
 that age was no impediment. Augustine 
 strongly advocates this practice. The custom 
 of infant communion continued for several 
 centuries. It is mentioned in the third Coun- 
 cil of Tours, A.D., 813 ; and even the Council 
 of Trent, A.D., 1545, only decreed that it 
 should not be considered essential to salvation. 
 
 * Chris. Antiq., B. 12, ch. 1, sec. 3. 
 
152 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 It is still scrupulously observed by the Greek 
 Church."* 
 
 Such appear to have been the usages 
 through many centuries. And it would seem 
 more consistent for Pedobaptists either to 
 administer the communion to infants, or to 
 abandon their baptism. Since they pretend 
 to repudiate baptismal regeneration, that 
 ordinance can have no significancy or im- 
 portance, unless it admits its subjects to the 
 Supper, and a full church fellowship. 
 
 Objections Answered. 
 
 There are several stereotyped objections 
 and attempted arguments, which Pedobaptists 
 are accustomed to urge against strict com- 
 munion as practiced by Baptists. These are 
 used either in condemnation of the custom 
 which excludes them, or to perplex the minds 
 of those who are inquiring after the truth 
 Such objections, though they have little real 
 
 * Anc. Christ'y Ex., ch. xxi., sec. 8. See also 
 Bingham, B. 15, ch. iv., sec. 7. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 153 
 
 force, yet being specious, the}^ often greatly 
 perplex the Train st rue ted. 
 
 1. Peclobaptists ask: "Why do 3-011 not 
 invite us to your communion? Is it because 
 you do not consider us Christians?" 
 
 To this the simple answer is : We do not 
 invite you, because you have not been bap- 
 tized. And Baptists might retort by asking : 
 " Why do you not receive to your communion 
 unbaptized converts? Is it because you do 
 not think them Christians ? If the Lord has 
 received them, why do not you ?" 
 
 2. Again it is said : " Baptism is not a sav- 
 ing ordinance. Why then make it a test of 
 communion ?" 
 
 To this they answer : Why do you make it 
 a test of communion, by refusing to commune 
 with any, unless they have been, as 3-011 say, 
 baptized ? We urge baptism, not because it 
 is saving, but because Christ has commanded 
 it. Shall we refuse to obe3 r his command 
 unless it is in something saving ? Is that the 
 spirit of our obedience? Shall we stop to 
 
154 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 inquire, if some divine injunction be saving, 
 and if we think it so, obey ; but if not, disre- 
 gard it ? Baptists do not baptize candidates 
 to save them ; but because they are saved 
 already, which in this ordinance they publicly 
 declare. Those who recognize Christ as their 
 law giver, should not presume to question the 
 propriety, or decide as to the importance, of 
 his commands. The duty of the disciple is to 
 obey. It is an eye servant who asks whether 
 this or that act of obedience will save him. 
 
 3. Or the objection may take this form : 
 " You make too much of baptism ; you make 
 it a saving ordinance, by insisting so strenu- 
 ously on a form, as necessary to the commu- 
 nion." 
 
 To this it is replied : We do not make it 
 saving. We simply know it is the command 
 of our divine Master ; and as those who wish 
 to obe} T him in all things, we desire honestly 
 to do so in this. That we do not regard it a 
 saving ordinance, is clear from the fact that 
 we will not administer it to any except those 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 155 
 
 who are regenerated, and therefore saved 
 already. You are the ones who make baptism 
 a saving ordinance, b} r administering it to 
 unconscious babes, incapable of repentance 
 and faith, as if in some mysterious wa} r their 
 salvation became the more certain because of 
 its efficacy. 
 
 4. It is thus objected : " We invite you to 
 our communion ; why do you not show the 
 same liberal and generous spirit toward us?" 
 
 To which Baptists answer : You can well 
 afford to invite us to the Lord's table, because 
 you acknowledged that our baptism is valid 
 and scriptural. But we do not believe your 
 baptism to be scriptural or valid. It is not a 
 question of personal courtesy, but of con- 
 science, and Scripture teaching. We regard 
 you as unbaptized persons. How then can 
 we consistently ask you to partake of the 
 Lord's Supper? Our positions differ greatly. 
 
 5. This objection is also urged: "It is the 
 Lord's table. Why then do you exclude any 
 of the Lord's people from it ?" 
 
156 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 To which Baptists answer : It is the 
 Lord's table. For that very reason we have 
 no discretion in the matter : we have no right 
 to do less or more than he has directed. If 
 it were our table, we would then have a right 
 to invite all. It will not do to love our breth- 
 ren so well that we disobey our Lord for the 
 sake of pleasing them. What the Master has 
 commanded, we must observe and do. Sym- 
 pathy for the disciple must not obliterate our 
 sense of obligation to our Saviour. At his 
 table, we must abide by his instructions, and 
 not invite guests at our discretion, to the 
 disregard of his regulations. 
 
 6. Sometimes it is said : " If the Lord has 
 received us, why should not you?" 
 
 To this they repty : Christ has received you 
 into spiritual fellowship : so do we. But 
 Christ has not received you to his visible ordi- 
 nances. The objection supposes that all whom 
 Christ receives to pardon and justification 
 the church should receive to its communion. 
 If so, then Pedobaptists ought to receive to 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 15 T 
 
 the Supper, all converts so soon as they have 
 exercised a saving faith, without waiting for 
 baptism. This is a mistake, as they them- 
 selves allow. The Lord receives children 
 dying in unconscious infancy, idiots, the in- 
 sane, and perhaps many others ; but is that a 
 reason why the church should take them to 
 the communion table ? 
 
 7. This objection is often urged : " We hope 
 to commune in heaven together ; ought we 
 not therefore to commune together on earth ?" 
 
 It is likely that this, with other similar 
 objections, is urged more to find fault with 
 " close communion," so called, than because 
 it has any real reason, or logical force in it. 
 It is based on a misconception of the differ- 
 ence between the earthly and the heavenly 
 states of the church. It supposes that all 
 should be invited to the Lord's Supper here, 
 with whom we hope to commune hereafter. 
 If this be so, then Pedobaptists, as well as 
 Baptists, are committing a grievous error, 
 
 and as grievous a wrong. For they too re- 
 14 
 
158 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 fuse to invite man}' here, with whom they 
 may expect to mingle there. We may hope 
 to meet many from among Papists, heretics, 
 and the heathen in heaven. Many unprofessed 
 and unknown, but true disciples, who never 
 have come into visible fellowship with the 
 saints, are doubtless scattered abroad. 
 
 Christ has given his churches laws, regu- 
 lations, officers, and ordinances, to fit it for 
 its work, and meet the conditions of its earth- 
 \y state ; all of which it should now, in strict 
 obedience, observe, but none of which will be 
 necessary or possible in the future state. 
 The heavenly communion will be a spiritual 
 one, in which even now all true believers do 
 have fellowship. 
 
 8. Baptists are often accused of being 
 "bigoted," "unkind," "sectarian," "thinking 
 themselves better than others," "opposed to 
 Christian union," because they practice strict 
 communion. 
 
 Pedobaptists, too, practice a restricted com- 
 munion, and are therefore open to the same 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 159 
 
 charge. But why should Baptists be cen- 
 sured for not inviting unbaptized persons 
 to the Lord's table ? They honestty be- 
 lieve they ought not to do it. Fidelity to 
 Christ requires this of them. So they believe. 
 If sprinkling be baptism, or if baptism be not 
 prerequisite to the Supper — show it ; prove 
 them in error, and they will most cheerfully 
 abandon their position and their practice ; 
 prove them mistaken, and none will rejoice so 
 much to know it as themselves. 
 
 They have no love nor desire for close 
 communion, on an}- other account than be- 
 cause it is demanded of them if they would 
 be obedient to their Lord, and consistent with 
 truth and principle. They practice it under 
 great temporal disadvantages ; bearing the 
 censures of their brethren on this account. 
 They are misunderstood, misrepresented, 
 reproached, and sometimes abused, because 
 of their course. And } r et they are conscientious 
 in it. Xone endure so much obloquy because 
 of it, and none would be so glad to abandon 
 
160 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 it as they, could they see themselves in the 
 wrong. 
 
 If they are in error, they need instruction, 
 not censure ; if they are right, they deserve 
 approval and co-operation, not abuse. But 
 until they are shown to be mistaken, all un- 
 kind reproofs and severe accusations are out 
 of place ; they appear very much as if those 
 who make them have a secret conviction that 
 they themselves are in fault, which unpleasant 
 conviction they wish to hide, by assaults upon 
 others. 
 
 Let those who love our Lord and Saviour, 
 be kind and generous toward all men ; pray- 
 ing evermore for the illumination of the Holy 
 Spirit ; diligently searching the Scriptures to 
 know the truth; striving to do the will of 
 God in all things, honestly, as those who must 
 o-ive an account. 
 
CHAPTER TI. 
 
 CHURCH OFFICERS. 
 
 HAT are the officers of a Christian 
 church ? How many orders are there 
 in the ministiy ? These are questions 
 which have greatly divided the Chris- 
 tian world. 
 
 Baptists assert that the officers of a Chris- 
 tian church are pastors and deacons — these 
 only. According to the Xew Testament 
 there can be no others. In this opinion agree 
 some other denominations, while others still 
 contend that there are three orders, deacons, 
 priests, and bishops. The various Episcopal, 
 or prelatical, sects hold this view. Others add 
 to this number, and the Romish Church car- 
 ries the list up to ten or twelve, ending with 
 the Pope. The question is one of interest 
 
 161 
 
162 BAPTIST SHORT METIIOD. 
 
 and importance, as it enters into the organic 
 life of Christianity, and becomes vital to those 
 who cling to the scriptural model of all things' 
 in the church. 
 
 It is not, therefore, so much what this or 
 that church practices ; but what did Christ 
 teach, and how did the inspired apostles con- 
 struct the churches the}' founded ? If we can 
 ascertain these points, we shall find the ob- 
 ject of our search, in the divine plan. 
 
 In the New Testament the words bishop, 
 pastor, presbyter, elder, are used ; all indicate 
 the same office, and therefore officially mean 
 the same thing. They are not unfrequently 
 applied to the same individual. The bishop, 
 called also presbyter, or elder, was the pastor, 
 or overseer, of the spiritual flock, watching 
 and guiding it, as the shepherd does his 
 charge. The deacons were chosen to attend 
 to the temporal interests of the church, as will 
 be seen by the histoiy of their first appoint- 
 ment, in the sixth chapter of the Acts. This 
 was done, in order that the apostles might be 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 163 
 
 unburdened by temporal cares, and left to 
 give their whole attention to the spiritual 
 welfare of the people. 
 
 The word deacon means a "minister," a 
 "servant," It is sometimes applied to the 
 apostles, and even to Christ himself, who 
 "came not to be ministered unto, but to 
 minister, and to give his life a ransom for 
 many." While some of the first deacons may 
 have labored in word and doctrine, as well as 
 the apostles, yet their special official work as 
 deacons was to minister in temporal, as the 
 apostles did in spiritual things. 
 
 For, thus when the multitude of the disci- 
 ples was called together, and requested to 
 select " seven men, of honest report, full of 
 the Holy Ghost, and wisdom," to perform 
 temporal service to the needy, it was in order 
 that the apostles, relieved of this care, might 
 11 give themselves continually to prayer, and 
 to the ministry of the word." It appears, 
 therefore, that, strictly speaking, deacons, in 
 no official sense, were an order in the ministry 
 
164 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 of the word. They were officers in the church, 
 but for temporal service, and not for spiritual 
 ministry ; though some of them were successful 
 preachers of the word. 
 
 Beside these, there are no other scriptural 
 officers in the Christian church. Clerks, 
 trustees, or others, may be appointed by the 
 bodj* to perform special service ; but they are 
 not divinely designated. Pastors, by what- 
 ever title they may be known, have the same 
 work and office, and are all of the same grade, 
 dignity, and authority. Xo one has a prece- 
 dence of, a pre-eminence over, another. Xor 
 is their rule over the church one of authorita- 
 tive dictation, but rather of instruction and 
 guidance. In the primitive churches there 
 were no high orders of clergy, placed over 
 other and lower grades, and over the churches 
 themselves, ruling with despotic power. All 
 were equal among themselves, and all equally 
 ministered to the churches. 
 
 Xeander says : " The word presbyter, or 
 elder, indicated rather the dignity of the 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 165 
 
 office, since presbyters among the Jews wore 
 usually aged and venerable men ; while bishop, 
 or Ejnscojws, designated the nature of their 
 work, as overseers, or pastors of the churches. 
 The former title was used by Jewish Chris- 
 tians, as a name familiar in the synagogue, 
 while the latter was chiefly used by the Greek 
 and other Gentile converts, as more familiar 
 and expressive to them." "They were not 
 designed to exercise absolute authority, but 
 to act as presiding officers, and guides of an 
 ecclesiastical republic ; to conduct all things 
 with the co-operation of the communities, as 
 their ministers, and not as their masters."* 
 
 Coleman says: "It is generally admitted 
 by Episcopal writers on this subject, that in 
 the Xew Testament and in the earliest 
 ecclesiastical writers, the terms 'bishops,' 
 'presbyters,' or 'elders,' are s}-noirynious, 
 and denote one and the same office." "The 
 office of presbyter was undeniably identical 
 
 * Introd. to Coleman's Primit. Ch., p. 20.— Ch. 
 Hist., vol. i., p. ] 84. —Plant, and Train., p. 147. 
 
166 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 with that of bishop, as has been shown above." 
 11 Only two orders of officers are known in the 
 church until near the close of the second cen-. 
 tury. Those of the first, are styled either 
 bishops or presbyters; of the second, cZea- 
 cons."* 
 
 This author cites many of the early Chris- 
 tian Fathers who took the same view of the 
 subject, and declared the equality* of the 
 primitive ministry, and that two orders only 
 were known in that ministry. Among these 
 fathers are Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Jus- 
 tin Martyr, Irenaeus, Jerome, Chiysostom, 
 Theodoret, and others ; authorities extending 
 from A.D. 100, to A.D. 1000. 
 
 Mosheim says : " The rulers of the churches 
 were denominated, sometimes presbyters, or 
 elders, — a designation borrowed from the 
 JewsA and indicative rather of the wisdom 
 than the age of the persons ; and sometimes 
 also bishops ; for it is most manifest that both 
 
 * Ancient Christ'y Exemp., ch. viii., sec. 6. — Ch. 
 vi., sec. 5. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 16? 
 
 terms are promiscuous^ used in the New 
 Testament, of one and the same class of per- 
 sons." " In those primitive times each Chris- 
 tian church was composed of the people, the 
 presiding officers, and the assistants, or dea- 
 cons. These must be the component parts of 
 every societ}'."* 
 
 Gieseler asserts : " The new churches every- 
 where formed themselves on the model of the 
 mother church at Jerusalem. At the head of 
 each were the elders, (presbyter, bishop,) all 
 officially of equal rank, though in several 
 instances a peculiar authority seems to have 
 been conceded to some one individual, from 
 personal considerations, "f 
 
 Waddixgtox declares: " It is also true that 
 in the earliest government of the first Christian 
 society, that of Jerusalem, not the elders only, 
 but the ' whole church,' were associated with 
 the apostles; and it is even certain that the 
 terms bishop, and elder, or presbyter, were in 
 
 * Eccl. Hist, Cent. 1, p. 2, ch. ii., sec. 5, 8. 
 t Ch. Hist., Period 1, Div. 1, ch. ii., sec. 29. 
 
168 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 the first instance, and for a short period, 
 sometimes used synonymously, and indis- 
 criminately applied to the same order in the 
 ministry."* 
 
 The Pantalogia says : " There is no scrip- 
 tural difference, between bishop and pres- 
 bj'ter." Furthermore, the same competent 
 authority adds: " To this purpose the declara- 
 tion made of the functions of bishops and 
 priests, signed by more than thirty-seven 
 civilians and divines, among whom were thir- 
 teen bishops, Cranmer and others included, 
 affirm that in the New Testament there is no 
 mention of any degrees or distinctions in 
 orders, but only of deacons, or ministers, and 
 priests, or bishops, "f 
 
 Abp. Usher declared: "'That bishop and 
 presbyter differed only in degree, and not in 
 order."J 
 
 Bp. Burnett says : " As for the notion of 
 
 * Hist. Oh., ch. ii., sec. 2. 
 
 f Art. Bishop and Presbyter. 
 
 % Cited by Coleman, An. Christ'y, ch. viii., sec. 6. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 169 
 
 distinct offices of bishop and presbyter, I 
 confess it is not so clear to me."* 
 
 The Ency. Britannica says : " The identity 
 of the office of bishop and presbyter, being 
 thus clearly established, it follows that the 
 presbyterate is the highest permanent office 
 in the church, and that every faithful pastor 
 of a flock, is successor to the apostles, in 
 every thing in which they were to have any 
 successors, "f 
 
 The Acts states that Paul called together 
 the "elders" (presbj'ters) of the Ephesian 
 church. But in the 28th verse, he names 
 these men "overseers," (bishops). In this 
 case the terms certainly were applied to the 
 same persons, and were evidently used inter- 
 changeably to designate the same office. J 
 
 Paul and Timothy, in their address to the 
 Philippian Christians specify three classes, 
 and evidently regard these as constituting 
 
 * Vindication Ch. of Scotland, p. 336, cited in 
 
 Pantalogia, Art. Bishop. 
 
 f Arts. Presbyterian. % Ch. xx., verses 17, 18. 
 15 
 
170 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 the entire body. They say, " To all the 
 saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi 
 with the bishops and deacons." Saints, bishops," 
 and deacons, therefore, constituted the entire 
 membership — the whole church. The pastors 
 are here called bishops, rather than presbyters 
 or elders.* 
 
 Timothy is instructed by Paul as to the 
 qualifications of pastors to be ordained and 
 placed over the churches. These officers are 
 called "bishops." Particular directions are 
 given in this chapter as to " bishops" and 
 " deacons," but no mention is made of elders 
 or presbyters ; clearly because the}' were the 
 same as bishops, f 
 
 Titus is likewise directed by Paul to ordain 
 pastors over the churches in Crete. These 
 pastors he called " elders" in the fifth verse, 
 and " bishops" in the seventh verse. Here 
 bishop and elder must mean the same persons, 
 and indicate the same ofnce.J 
 
 * Phil. i. 1. t Tim. iii. 1. 
 
 % Titus, ch. i., verses 5, 7. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 171 
 
 Two things are, therefore, abundantly evi- 
 dent : 
 
 1. That the primitive churches had but two 
 orders of officers; viz., pastors, called bishops, 
 presbyters, or elders, indifferentrv, whose 
 duties were spiritual, as teachers and rulers 
 of the churches; and deacons, whose duties 
 related to the temporal affairs of the churches. 
 
 2. That these pastors, by whatever name 
 called, were equal in office, dignity, and au- 
 thority among themselves. That no one of 
 them was set over others, as belonging to a 
 higher rank. 
 
 During their lifetime, no doubt, the apostles 
 were regarded with a peculiar reverence, as 
 having received their appointment directly 
 from Christ, and having been specially in- 
 spired to qualify them for their work. But 
 in all this they had no successors. After 
 their death, such pastors as had been ordained 
 by the apostles would, for that reason, receive 
 special regard from the churches, and the 
 younger clergy. And this special regard 
 
172 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 might deepen into reverence so profound as 
 would concede a higher official attitude than 
 that which the common clergy held. This 
 would naturally lead to the recognition of a 
 higher rank and order in the ministry. 
 
 Moreover, in process of time, as the first 
 planted churches in the more important cities 
 grew older and stronger, they might easily 
 claim, and have conceded to them, a pre- 
 eminence over the newer and feebler, especi- 
 ally the suburban and rural churches. In 
 like manner, the pastors of the older city 
 churches could, without difficult}', assume a 
 pre-eminence over the pastors of the feebler 
 churches about them. In this way grew up 
 the rule of the metropolitan over the provin- 
 cial churches, and the authority assumed by 
 the pastors of the former over their brethren 
 in humbler positions, resulting finally in a 
 clerical caste, or higher order of clergy. 
 
 Gieseler, in his history of the church, de- 
 clares that, "After the death of the apostles, 
 and the pupils of the apostles, to whom the 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 1*73 
 
 general direction of the churches had always 
 been conceded, some one among the presby- 
 ters of each church was suffered gradual^ to 
 take the lead in its affairs. In the same ir- 
 regular way, the title of bishop was appropri- 
 ated to this first presbyter."* 
 
 Thus matured in process of years that vast, 
 complicated, and despotical system of ecclesi- 
 astical life and hierarchical authority, called 
 prelatical, culminating in the oppressive domi- 
 nation of the Greek and Roman churches. 
 The whole prelatical system is oppressive to 
 the people ; destructive of spiritual life in the 
 churches, subversive of the ends contemplated 
 by the gospel ; calculated to accumulate in- 
 fluence in a few prominent churches, and 
 concentrate power in the hands of a few of 
 the prominent and ambitious clergy, the better 
 to lord it over God's heritage. 
 
 This broad departure from apostolic prac- 
 tice, and from the order and simplicity of the 
 apostolic age, was natural though unscrip- 
 
 • * Church Hist,, Period 1., Div. 1., ch. iii., sec. 32. 
 
174 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 tural Its course of evil progress is easily 
 traced in history, and generally conceded by 
 scholars and divines. Not the less to be' 
 regretted, that it was begun soon after the 
 apostles and their immediate successors had 
 ceased to watch over and guide b} T their 
 wisdom and piety the churches they had 
 planted. Such perversions should not be 
 perpetuated in the kingdom of Christ. 
 
3 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 
 
 APTISTS differ from most other de- 
 nominations, in their view of what 
 constitutes a true scriptural form of 
 government for Christian churches. 
 Here as elsewhere, the question should be, 
 "what does the New Testament teach?" 
 
 There are now in use three principal forms 
 of ecclesiastical government. 
 
 1. The Prelatical; where the governing 
 power lies in prelates, or bishops ; as in the 
 Romish, Greek, English, and most of the 
 oriental churches. 
 
 2. The Presbyterian ; where the governing 
 power resides in assemblies, sessions, presby- 
 teries, and synods ; as in the Scottish Kirk, 
 the Lutheran, and the various Presbyterian 
 
 churches. 
 
 175 
 
1 TO BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 3. The Independent; where the governing 
 power resides entirely in the body of the 
 members of each single and separate church; 
 or congregation ; as among Baptists, Con- 
 gregationalists, Independents, and some other 
 small bodies. 
 
 Now which of these forms is taught in the 
 New Testament, or best accords with the 
 constitution and government of the apostolic 
 churches ? 
 
 Baptists hold that a Christian church is a 
 congregation of baptized believers in Christ, 
 worshipping together ; associated by mutual 
 covenant in the faith and fellowship of the 
 gospel. Though the aggregate of the saints, 
 the entire body of the people of God, is some- 
 times spoken of as "the church," or the 
 church universal ; yet, by churches, is meant 
 not ecclesiastical societies, or systems of 
 many churches confederated, but single, 
 separate, visible congregations of Christian 
 disciples, definitely organized, with laws, 
 officers, ordinances, discipline, and duties as 
 
TAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 177 
 
 directed by Christ, maintaining his worship, 
 and doing his work. 
 
 That such is the New Testament idea of a 
 church seems evident from the mention made 
 of the apostolic churches. There were " the 
 churches throughout all Judea, and Galilee, 
 and Samaria." Also, "the church which was 
 in Jerusalem." They " ordained them elders 
 in every church." " The church of God which 
 is at Corinth." "The churches of Galatia;" 
 "the churches of Asia;" "the churches of 
 Macedonia ;" " the church of the Laodiceans ;" 
 "the church of the Thessalonians ;" "the 
 church that is at Babylon." Such are the 
 terms used, in the New Testament, to desig- 
 nate the churches of apostolic times. 
 
 A church is "the body," as related to 
 Christ, who is "the head." It is a "spiritual 
 temple," as being composed of regenerate and 
 spiritual members, and distinguished from all 
 secular and unsanctified organizations. In 
 its relation to the maintenance and support 
 of the divine law, and its proclamation and 
 
178 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 propagation of the gospel, it is " the pillar and 
 ground of the truth." 
 
 Each such separate worshiping congrega- 
 tion, so organized, and so walking, is a Chris- 
 tian church, independent of all, others, and 
 having no ecclesiastical connection with any, 
 though maintaining a friendly Christian in- 
 tercourse with all. It has no power to enact 
 laws, but only to administer those which 
 Christ has given. The government is admin- 
 istered by the body of the members, where no 
 one possesses a pre-eminence, but each enjoys 
 an equality of rights ; and in matters of opin- 
 ion, the majority bears rule. The pastor ex- 
 ercises such control only over the body, as his 
 official and personal influence, together with 
 his single vote, may give him. His rule is in 
 his teaching and guidance in matters of truth 
 and duty, and in his directing and ordering 
 the assemblies, whether for worship or business. 
 
 That this view of church structure and 
 government is according to the New Testa- 
 ment, appears evident from a study of the 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 179 
 
 sacred records themselves. The apostles re- 
 garded and treated the churches as indepen- 
 dent bodies. Their epistles are directed to 
 the churches as such, and the members are 
 addressed as equals among themselves. The 
 apostles reported their doings to the churches, 
 and enjoined upon them the duty of discipline. 
 They recognized the right of the churches to 
 elect their own officers ; a primary and funda- 
 mental right, which being conceded supposes 
 all other rights necessary to a self-governing 
 communit}' acting under divinely given laws. 
 Neander, the distinguished historian, saj's : 
 " The churches were taught to govern them- 
 selves." " The brethren chose their own offi- 
 cers from among themselves." "In respect 
 to the election to church offices, the ancient 
 principle was still adhered to, that the consent 
 of the community was necessary to the valid- 
 ity of every such election, and each one was 
 at liberty to offer reasons against it."* 
 
 * Introduction to Coleman's Primit. Christ" y, p. 
 19.— Ch. Hist., vol. i.. p. 199. Plant, and Train., p. 156. 
 
180 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 This is said of the primitive churches and 
 with this view agree the most able scholars 
 and historians. 
 
 Mosheim declares of the first century : 
 "In those primitive times each Christian 
 church was composed of the people, the pre- 
 siding officers, and the assistants, or deacons. 
 These must be the component parts of every 
 society. The principal voice was that of the 
 people, or of the whole body of Christians." 
 " The assembled people, therefore, elected 
 their own rulers and teachers." Of the 
 second century he adds : " One president, or 
 bishop, presided over each church. He was 
 created by the common suffrages of the whole 
 people." "During a great part of this cen- 
 tury, all the churches continued to be, as at 
 first, independent of each other. Each church 
 was a kind of small independent republic, 
 governing itself by its own laws, enacted, or 
 at least sanctioned, by the people."* 
 
 * Eccl. Hist., Cent. 1, Part 1, ch. ii., sees. 5, 6. 
 Cent. 2, ch. ii., sees. 1, 2. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 181 
 
 Dr. Whately says of the primitive church- 
 es: "Though there was one Lord, one faith, 
 and one baptism for all of these, yet they 
 were each a distinct independent community 
 on earth, united by the common principles on 
 which the} T were founded by their mutual 
 agreement, affection, and respect."* 
 
 Dr. Burton ssljs : " Every church had its 
 own spiritual head or bishop, and was inde- 
 pendent of every other church, with respect 
 to its own internal regulations and laws."f 
 
 Dr. Barrow says : " At first every church 
 was settled apart under its own bishops and 
 presbyters, so as independently and separately 
 to manage its own concerns. Each was gov- 
 erned by its own head, and had its own 
 laws. "J 
 
 Waddington says, on this subject : " It is 
 also true, that in the earliest government of 
 
 * Kingdom of Christ, pp. 101-156. N. Y. edition. 
 
 t Cited by Coleman, Primit. Christ'y, p. 50. 
 
 t Treatise on Pope's Supremacy, Works, vol. 1. 
 
 p. 662. Coleman Primit. Ch., p. 50. 
 16 
 
182 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 the first Christian society, that of Jerusalem, 
 not the elders only, but the whole church, 
 were associated with the apostles ; and it is 
 even certain that the terms bishop and elder, 
 or presbyter, were in the first instance, and 
 for a short period, sometimes used synony- 
 mously."* 
 
 Coleman says : " These churches, wherever 
 formed, became separate and independent 
 bodies, competent to appoint their own offi- 
 cers, and administer their own government, 
 without reference or subordination to any 
 central authority, or foreign power. Xo fact 
 connected with the history of the primitive 
 churches is more fully established, or more 
 generally conceded, "f 
 
 Gieseler, speaking of the changes in eccle- 
 siastical order which occurred during the 
 second century, says : " Country churches 
 which had grown up around some city, seem, 
 with their bishops, to have been usually, in a 
 
 * Hist, of the Ch.. p. 41. 
 
 f Primit. Christ'y, Exemp., ch. iv., sec. 4. p. 95, 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 183 
 
 certain degree, under the authority of the 
 mother church. With this exception, all the 
 churches were alike independent, though some 
 were especially held in honor, on such grounds 
 as their apostolical origin, or the importance 
 of the city in which they were situated."* 
 
 That the first churches were independent 
 bodies seems, therefore, to be clearly proved. 
 Dr. Barrow, Dr. Burton, Abp. Whately, and 
 not a few other Prelatists of distinction, in 
 addition to those already cited, and the long 
 list of authorities not prelatical, agree in this 
 opinion. In this respect, therefore, the Bap- 
 tists are clearly founded on the New Testa- 
 ment order of church structure and church 
 life. 
 
 * Ch. Hist., Period 1, Div. 1, ch. hi., sec. 52. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BAPTIST HISTORY. 
 
 is sometimes asked : " When and 
 where did the Baptists originate ? 
 Who were their founders? What is 
 their history?" These are questions 
 of interest ; but a more important one would 
 be : " Are they right ? Is their faith accord- 
 ing to the teachings of the New Testament?" 
 Many things, which are old, are not true. 
 Creeds and sects may boast a venerable an- 
 tiquity, while the word of God utterly condemns 
 them. Any organization that cannot reasonably 
 claim Christ for its founder, has small right 
 to the name of a Christian church, no matter 
 how old it may be. 
 
 Baptists claim to be built on the foundation 
 of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ 
 184 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 185 
 
 himself being the chief corner-stone. If this 
 claim be well founded, whether they have a 
 written history of one century or of twenty 
 matters little. Yet whatever of the past be- 
 longs to any, it may be well to know. And 
 Baptist history constitutes one of the most 
 interesting chapters in the records of Christi- 
 anity. 
 
 During the apostolic age even, the doctrines 
 of the gospel became corrupted, and its ordi- 
 nances soon after. Both Jewish and Gentile 
 converts brought into the churches many of 
 their old religious notions, and incorporated 
 them with the faith of Christ. These, together 
 with the many philosophical ideas of the 
 times, and the perversions to which the truth 
 is always exposed from the ignorance and 
 selfishness of men, very early turned the 
 churches aside from the faith once delivered 
 to the saints. ' Still there were many who in 
 simplicity and humility maintained the doc- 
 trines and customs in their original purity. 
 Those churches which were strongest and 
 
186 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 most prosperous, were most exposed to cor- 
 ruption by alliances with the world. 
 
 When at length the period of martiydom 
 and persecution terminated ; when a nominal 
 Christianity took possession of a throne, and 
 church and state became united, then religion, 
 in its prevailing forms, lost its simplicity and 
 its power, and a temporal hierarchy took the 
 place of the church of Christ This was the 
 great apostacy of the early times. But all 
 the churches and disciples did not follow in 
 the wake of this sad departure from the truth. 
 Many congregations and communities of true 
 worshipers, kept the doctrines of the gospel, 
 and practiced its ordinances, nearly, or quite, 
 in their primitive purity. And this they con- 
 tinued to do through all the ages of darkness 
 and corruption that followed. They were 
 never identified with the Roman or Greek 
 churches ; they never were in alliance with 
 states ; never formed hierarchies. As inde- 
 pendent congregations, or small communities, 
 with no other band of union than a common 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 18f 
 
 faith, fellowship, and sympathy, often obscure 
 and unobtrusive, taking the word of God as 
 their guide, they sought to realize the idea, 
 not of a temporal, but a spiritual kingdom in 
 the gospel dispensation. 
 
 These religious communities were, by the 
 dominant hierarchies, called sects, and stig- 
 matized as heretics. As such they were 
 traduced and persecuted continually. And 
 though they may have had their errors, they 
 were the best and purest defenders of the 
 Christian faith, and the truest representatives 
 of the first disciples of Christ then existing. 
 The state churches were the heretics; while 
 those so called sects were the true successors 
 of the first Christians. 
 
 They were defamed and oppressed. Calum- 
 niated and martyred, because they bore wit- 
 ness to the truth of God, and testified against 
 the errors and vices of the so-called churches, 
 history has never done them justice, and 
 perhaps never will ; because history has been 
 too much written in the interest of their ene- 
 
188 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 mies, or from their standing. Tortured and 
 tormented by those who should have been 
 their defenders, crowns and mitres alike- 
 pledged to their destruction, they could do 
 nothing but suffer. And this they nobly did, 
 as Christ's faithful witnesses. They were 
 known by various names in different ages, and 
 in different lands, but retained the same 
 general characteristics. 
 
 In the first and second centuries, Messalians, 
 Montanists, Euchites, were terms which dis- 
 tinguished some of these sects. 
 
 In the third, fourth, and fifth centuries arose 
 the Xovatians. Increasing with exceeding 
 rapidity, they quite overspread the Roman 
 empire, in spite of the cruel and destructive 
 persecutions which they suffered. 
 
 In the fourth century the Donatists ap- 
 peared, as a new form of existing sects, or a 
 new phase of the old faith. They multiplied 
 rapidly, spread extensively, and long survived. 
 
 In the seventh century appeared the Pau- 
 licians, attracting much attention, and calling 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 189 
 
 down upon themselves the wrath of the Rom- 
 ish church. Still they increased greatly not- 
 withstanding their many persecutions. 
 
 That these Christian communities should 
 have been faultless could not be supposed. 
 But they were the best of the ages in which 
 they lived, and maintained the purest forms 
 of gospel truth and practice. Without the 
 advantage of organization and association, 
 they differed somewhat among themselves. 
 
 But in general they all professed to take 
 the New Testament as the rule of their faith 
 and practice. They held to a spiritual church 
 membership, and received only regenerated 
 persons to the ordinances. Denying the or- 
 thodoxy of the Romish church, the} r re-bap- 
 tized persons received from that body, and 
 hence were called Anabaptists. Infant bap- 
 tism they rejected, according to Allix, Mos- 
 heim, Robinson, and other historians. Bap- 
 tism they administered by immersion, as 
 indeed did all Christians during those ages. 
 Robinson calls them " Trinitarian Baptists." 
 
190 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 It is said, that the Empress Theodora, after 
 having confiscated their property, caused to be 
 cruelly put to death no less than one hundred 
 thousand Paulicians, for no other fault, or 
 offence, than their religious faith. 
 
 About the close of the tenth century ap- 
 peared the Paterines ; substantially the same 
 people no doubt as had previously existed 
 under other names. They too rejected infant 
 baptism, and protested against the corruptions 
 of the Romish church ; in consequence of which 
 they suffered long and severe persecutions. 
 
 In the eleventh century, and the ages follow- 
 ing, were the Waldenses, Albigenses, Yauclois, 
 Cathari, and Poor Men of Lyons. These 
 were new names, and names usually given by 
 their enemies. They increased, even under 
 their persecutions, to a wonderful extent, and 
 attracted the notice, if not the s}*mpathy of 
 all Europe. 
 
 It is not pretended that these ancient sects 
 were known by name as Baptists ; but in 
 general they held the more prominent and dis- 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 191 
 
 tinctive opinions which have alwa} T s character- 
 ized the Baptists. 1. Thus they declared and 
 defended the rights of faith and conscience, 
 and the freedom of worship. 2. They denied 
 the authority of popes, and the right of kings 
 and states to interfere with the people in 
 matters of religion. 3. They rejected infant 
 baptism. 4. They baptized by dipping. 5. They 
 held the Bible to be the only rule and au- 
 thority in concerns of religious faith and 
 practice. 6. They admitted none to the 
 churches except regenerated and godly per- 
 sons. 
 
 Now it is conceded by all historians of note 
 that such churches and communities did 
 exist, separate from, and persecuted by, the 
 prevailing state churches and civil authorities 
 during all the ages from the apostolic to the 
 reformation. 
 
 When the reformation under Luther and 
 his coadjutors broke out, these sects to a 
 great extent fraternized with, and were lost 
 in the multitudes of the reformers. Such as 
 
192 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 continued their separate existence, as the 
 Waldenses of Piedmont, yielding to the in- 
 fluence of the reformers, did from sympathy - 
 what the persecutions of the Papists had 
 never been able to compel them to do — 
 abandoned dipping for sprinkling in baptism, 
 adopted infant baptism, and took the general 
 forms of religious life, into which Pedobap- 
 tist Protestantism grew. 
 
 The Welsh Baptists. 
 
 Few denominations have a better claim to 
 antiquity, than the Welsh Baptists. They 
 trace their descent directly from the apostles, 
 and urge in favor of their claim arguments 
 which have never been confuted. 
 
 When Austin, the Romish monk and mis- 
 sionary, visited Wales, at the close of the 
 sixth century, he found a community of more 
 than two thousand Christians, quietlv living 
 in their mountain homes. They were indepen- 
 dent of the Romish See, and wholly rejected 
 its authorit}-. Austin labored hard to convert 
 them, — that is, to bring them under the Papal 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 193 
 
 yoke ; but entirety failed in the effort. Yield- 
 ing things in general, he reduced his demand 
 upon them to three particulars. 1. That they 
 should observe Easter in due form, as ordered 
 b}' the church. 2. That they should give 
 Christendom, or baptism, to their children. 
 3. That they should preach to the English, 
 the word of God, as directed.* 
 
 These demands of Austin prove that they 
 neither observed the Popish ordinance of Eas- 
 ter, nor baptized their children. They how- 
 ever rejected all his overtures, whereupon he 
 left them with threats of war and wretched- 
 ness. Not long after, Wales was invaded by 
 the Saxons, and many of these inoffensive 
 Christians cruelly murdered, as was believed, 
 at the instigation of this bigoted zealot, the 
 exacting Austin. 
 
 The Dutch Baptists. 
 The Baptists of Holland have a history that 
 
 * See Benedict's Hist. Bap., p. 343, and authori- 
 ties there cited. 
 17 
 
194 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 reaches back to a very remote period, if not 
 to the apostolic age, as some confidently as- 
 sert. And this antiquity is conceded by his- 
 torians who have no sympathy with their 
 denominational sentiments. 
 
 Mosheim, in his church history, says : " The 
 true origin of that sect which acquired the 
 name Anabaptists, is hid in the remote depths 
 of antiquity, and is consequently extremely 
 diffcult to be ascertained."* 
 
 Zwingle, the Swiss reformer, contemporaiy 
 with Luther, declares : " The institution of 
 Anabaptism is no novelty, but for thirteen 
 hundred years has caused great disturbance 
 in the church, "f Thirteen hundred years be- 
 fore his time would have carried it back to 
 within two centuries of the death of Christ. 
 
 Dr. Dermont, Chaplain to the king of Hol- 
 land, and Dr. Ypeij, Professor of theology 
 at Groningen, a few years since received a 
 
 * Eccl. Hist, vol. iv., p. 427. Mac. Ed. 1811. 
 See Introd. Orchard's Hist. Bap., p. 17. 
 f Introd. Orchard's Hist. Bap., p. 17. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 195 
 
 royal commission to prepare a history of the 
 Reformed Dutch Church. That history, pre- 
 pared under roj'al sanction, and officially pub- 
 lished, contains the following maul}' and 
 generous testimony to the antiquity and or- 
 thodoxy of the Dutch Baptists. " We have 
 now seen that the Baptists, who were for- 
 merly called Anabaptists, and in later times 
 Mennonites, were the original Waldenses, and 
 have long in the history of the church received 
 the honor of that origin. On this account, 
 the Baptists may be considered the only Chris- 
 tian community which has stood since the apos- 
 tles, and as a Christian society, which has pre- 
 served pure the doctrines of the gosyel through 
 all ages."* 
 
 Mosheim says of the persecutions of this 
 people in the sixteenth century : " Yast num- 
 bers of these people, in nearly all the countries 
 of Europe, would rather perish miserabty by 
 drowning, hanging, burning, or decapitation, 
 
 * Hist. Ref. Dutch Ch., Ed. Breda, 1819. See 
 Ency. Relig. Knowledge, Art. Mennonites. 
 
196 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 than renounce the opinions they had em- 
 braced." And their innocency he vindicates 
 thus : " It is indeed true that man}' Anabap- 
 tists were put to death, not as being bad 
 citizens, or injurious members of civil societ}', 
 but as being incurable heretics, who were con- 
 demned by the old canon laws. For the error 
 of adult baptism was in that age looked upon 
 as a horrible offence."* That was their only 
 crime. 
 
 This testimony is all the more welcome, be- 
 cause it comes from those who have no eccle- 
 siastical sympathies with Baptists, but who, 
 in fidelity to history, bear honest testimony 
 to the truth which history teaches. The cir- 
 cumstances under which their evidence was 
 produced, give it additional force. 
 
 Card. Hossius, chairman of the council at 
 Trent, says : " If the truth of religion were to 
 be judged of by the readiness and cheerfulness 
 which a man of any sect shows in suffering, 
 
 * Eccl. Hist., Cent. 16, sec. 3, part 2, eh. iii. 
 Fuller's Ch. Hist., B. 4. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 197 
 
 then the opinions and persuasions of no sect 
 can be truer or surer, than those of the Anabap- 
 tists : since there have been none, for these 
 twelve hundred years pas£, that have been 
 more grievously punished.'"* Many thou- 
 sands of the Dutch Baptists, called Anabap- 
 tists, and Mennonists, miserably perished by 
 the hands of their cruel persecutors, for no 
 crime but their refusal to conform to esta- 
 blished churches, f 
 
 The English Baptists. 
 
 At what time the Baptists appeared in Eng- 
 land in definite denominational form, it is im- 
 possible to say. But from the twelfth to the 
 seventeenth century, man}' of them suffered 
 cruel persecutions, and death b}' burning, 
 drowning, and beheading, beside many other, 
 
 * Orchard's Hist. Bap., sec. 12, part 30, p. 364. 
 
 t Benedict's Hist. Baptists, ch. iv. Neal's Hist. 
 Puritans, vol. h\, p. 355. Sup. Fuller's Ch. Hist., 
 B. 4. 
 
198 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 and sometimes most inhuman tortures. And 
 this they suffered both from Papists and Pro- 
 testants, condemned by both civil and eccle- 
 siastical tribunals, only because they persis- 
 ted in worshipping God according to the 
 dictates of their consciences, and because they 
 would not submit their religious faith and 
 worship to the dictates of popes and princes.* 
 In 1538, royal edicts were issued against them, 
 and several were burnt at the stake in Smith- 
 field. 
 
 Brande writes that: "In the year 1538, 
 thirty-one Baptists, that fled from England, 
 were put to death at Delft, in Holland ; the 
 men were beheaded, and the women were 
 drowned, "f What crime had the}' committed 
 to merit such treatment as this ? 
 
 Bp. Latimer declares that : " The Baptists 
 
 * Sec Histories of Baptists, by Crosby, Ivimey, 
 Danvers, and Benedict. 
 
 f Hist. Beformers. See Benedict's Hist. Bap., p. 
 303. Neal's Hist, Puritans, vol. i., p. 138. Note, 
 vol. ii., p. 355, Sup. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 199 
 
 that were burnt in different parts of the king- 
 dom, went to death intrepidly, and without 
 any fear,"* during the time of Henry Till. 
 
 Under the rule of the Popish Mary, they 
 suffered perhaps no more than under that of 
 the Protestant Elizabeth. During the reign 
 of the latter, a congregation of Baptists was 
 discovered in London, whereupon several were 
 banished, twenty-seven imprisoned, and two 
 burnt at Smithfield.f 
 
 Dr. Featley, one of their bitter enemies, 
 wrote of them, in 1633: " This sect, among 
 others, hath so far presumed upon the patience 
 of the state, that it hath held weekly conventi- 
 cles, re-baptizing hundreds of men and women 
 together in the twilight, in rivulets, and in 
 some arms of the Thames, and elsewhere, 
 dipping them all over head and ears. It hath 
 printed divers pamphlets in defence of their 
 
 * Lent Sermons. Xeal's Hist. Purit., vol. ii., p. 
 356. 
 
 f Wall, cited by Neal, Hist. Puritans, vol. i., p. 
 137. Vol. ii., p. 358, Sup. 
 
200 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 heresy ; 3 r ea, and challenged some of our 
 preachers to disputation."* 
 
 Bailey wrote, in 1639, that: "Under the 
 shadow of independency, they have lifted np 
 their heads, and increased their numbers 
 above all sects in the land. They have forty- 
 six churches in and about London. They are 
 a people very fond of religious liberty, and 
 very unwilling to be brought under bondage 
 of the judgment of others. "f 
 
 The first book published in the English 
 language on the subject of baptism, was trans- 
 lated from the Dutch, and bears date, 1618. 
 From this time they multiplied rapidly through 
 all parts of the kingdom. The first regularly 
 organized church among them, known as such 
 in England, dates from 160T, and was formed 
 in London b}' a Mr. Smyth, previously a 
 clergyman of the established church. 
 
 In 1689, the Particular Baptists, so called, 
 held a convention in London, in which more 
 
 * Eng. Bapt. Jubilee Memor., Benedict's Hist. 
 Bapt., p. 304. f Ibid. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 201 
 
 than one hundred congregations were repre- 
 sented, and which issued a confession of faith, 
 still in use and highly esteemed. 
 
 The last Baptist martyr in England was 
 Edward TVightrnan, of Burton upon Trent, 
 condemned by the Bishop of Coventry, and 
 burnt at Litchfield, April 11, 1612.* 
 
 American Baptists. 
 
 The history of American Baptists runs 
 back a little more than two and a quarter 
 centuries. In this country, as elsewhere, they 
 were cradled amidst persecution, and nur- 
 tured by the hatred of their foes. This has 
 been their fortune in every age, and in every 
 land. 
 
 Roger Williams, a distinguished and an 
 honored name, was identified with the rise of 
 the denomination in America. He has been 
 called their founder, because he organized the 
 first church, and was intimately connected 
 
 * Eng. Bap. Jubilee Memor., Benedict's Hist. Bap. 
 
202 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 with their early history. Williams was born 
 in Wales, 1598, educated at Oxford, England, 
 came to America in 1630, and settled as min- 
 ister of the Puritan church in Salem, Massa- 
 chusetts. Not long after, he adopted Baptist 
 views of doctrine and church order, on ac- 
 count of which he was banished by his fellow 
 Puritans, and driven out of Massachusetts, in 
 the depths of a rigorous winter, in a new and 
 inhospitable country. Having wandered far 
 and suffered much, finding the savage Indians 
 more generous and hospitable than his fellow 
 Christians, he finally reached, and fixed his 
 future home at, what is now Providence, R. I. 
 Here, with a few associates of like faith, he 
 founded a new colony, calling both the city 
 and the colony Providence, in recognition of 
 the divine guidance and protection, which he 
 had in so remarkable a manner experienced. 
 
 In 1G39, Mr. Williams received baptism 
 from one of his associates, there being no 
 minister to perform that service. He in turn 
 baptized his associates, and a church was or- 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 203 
 
 ganized, of which he was chosen pastor. He 
 was also appointed first Governor of Rhode 
 Island. Free toleration was granted in mat- 
 ters of religion. Thus Roger Williams be- 
 came the first ruler, and Rhode Island the 
 first state, which ever gave entire freedom to 
 every person, to worship God, according to 
 their own choice, without dictation or inter- 
 ference from civil or ecclesiastical authorities. 
 
 On account of this unrestricted toleration, 
 many Baptists, as well as other persecuted 
 religionists from other colonies and from Eu- 
 rope, collected in considerable numbers at 
 Providence, and spread through the colon} 7 . 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that all the Bap- 
 tist churches in America grew out of the one 
 which Roger Williams founded. It is even 
 doubtful whether any single church arose as 
 an outgrowth of that. As immigration in- 
 creased, other churches grew up, having no 
 connection with this ; and with considerable 
 rapidity the sentiments of Baptists spread into 
 adjoining colonies, particularly west and south. 
 
204 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 For a long time, however, they vrere sorely 
 persecuted, especially in Massachusetts and 
 Connecticut. 
 
 In 1644, the present First Church in New- 
 port, R. I., was organized. But whether the 
 present First Church in Providence was con- 
 stituted before this date, is still a disputed 
 point. Both claim priority. In 1656, the 
 Second Church, Newport, was formed. Then 
 followed, in order of time, the church in Swan- 
 sea, Massachusetts, 1663; First, Boston, 1665; 
 North Kingstone, R. L, 1665; Seventh Da}" 
 Church, Newport, 1671 ; South Kingstone, R. 
 I, 1680; Kittery, Me, 1682; Middletown, N. 
 J., 1688; Lower Dublin, Pa,, 1689; Charles- 
 ton, S. C, 1690; Philadelphia, Pa., 1698; 
 Welsh Tract, Del., 1701; Groton, Ct., 1705. 
 Others, not mentioned, arose within this 
 period, in these and other Colonies. 
 
 TVith the increase of population, Baptists 
 rapidly increased and widely spread over the 
 countiy. Edwards' Tables give one hundred 
 amd thirty-seven as the number of their 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 205 
 
 churches in 1TG8. According to Asplund's 
 Register, in 1790 they had eight hundred and 
 seventy-two churches ; seven hundred and 
 twenty-two ordained, and four hundred and 
 forty-nine unordained ministers ; with sixty- 
 four thousand nine hundred and seventy-five 
 church members. According to Benedict's 
 History, in 1812 there were two thousand six 
 hundred and thirty-three churches ; two thou- 
 sand one hundred and forty-two ordained 
 ministers ; one hundred and eleven associ- 
 ations ; two hundred and four thousand one 
 hundred and eighty-five church members. 
 
 Allen's Triennial Register gives, for 1836, 
 three hundred and seventy-two associations ; 
 seven thousand two hundred and ninety-nine 
 churches ; four thousand and sevent}--five 
 ordained, and nine hundred and sixty-six 
 unordained ministers ; five hundred and seven- 
 teen thousand five hundred and twenty-three 
 church members, including the small denomi- 
 nations of Seventh Day, Six Principle, and 
 
 Free-Will Baptists. According to the Ameri- 
 18 
 
206 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 can Baptist } T ear Book, in 1868, there were 
 of regular Baptists in the United States, six 
 hundred and thirty associations ; thirteen 
 thousand three hundred and fifty -five churches ; 
 eight thousand five hundred and seventy-four 
 ordained ministers ; one million one hundred 
 and nine thousand nine hundred and twenty- 
 six church members ; total in America, including 
 the British provinces, six hundred and forty-six 
 associations ; thirteen thousand nine hundred 
 and sixteen churches ; eight thousand nine 
 hundred and thirt}'-one ordained ministers ; 
 one million one hundred and forty-nine thou- 
 sand nine hundred and ninet}'-two church 
 members. These figures must be below the 
 facts, since full returns are never reported. 
 
 Other Baptists. 
 
 Besides these, there are in America probably 
 not less than two hundred thousand of other, 
 and smaller sects, practicing immersion, not 
 in fellowship with, nor reckoned as a part of, 
 the great Baptist family. 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 207 
 
 The Seventh Day Baptists, so-called on 
 account of their observing Saturday, or the 
 seventh day of the week, as their Sabbath, on 
 the ground that the Jewish Sabbath was 
 never abrogated. They are estimated at 
 about seven thousand. 
 
 The Free Will Baptists, who take their 
 name from their views of the freedom of the 
 human will. They practice open communion. 
 Their number is about fifty-four thousand. 
 
 The Six Principle Baptists, thus designated 
 because their doctrinal confession is based on 
 the six points mentioned in Hebrews vi. 1, 2. 
 Estimated at three thousand. 
 
 The Anti-Mission Baptists, called also Old 
 Baptists, and Ironsides ; found chiefly in the 
 south-west. They do not favor missions, 
 Sunday-schools, or other religious moral re- 
 form movements, lest they should seem to 
 interfere with the divine decrees. They are 
 Antinomian in doctrine, and are said to num- 
 ber one hundred and five thousand. 
 
 The Campbellites, Disciples, or Reformers, 
 
208 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 as they ore variously called, a sect that 
 grew up under the leadership of Alexander 
 Campbell, of Virginia, and were at the first 
 chiefly drawn from Baptist ranks. They in- 
 sist on the absolute necessity of baptism to a 
 full and complete conversion; thus, as they 
 are generally understood, holding substanially 
 to baptismal regeneration. According to 
 their estimate, they number not less than five 
 hundred thousand. 
 
 In addition to these there are the members 
 of the Church of God, or Winebrennarians as 
 they are generally called, whose numbers are 
 reported to be from twentj'-five to forty thou- 
 sand ; the Tunkers, numbering about twenty 
 thousand ; and a number of churches of 
 Brethren whose statistics are not accessible. 
 
 Other Facts. 
 
 Benevolent Societies. Baptists in the United 
 States have the American Baptist Missionary 
 Union, organized in 1814, for foreign mission 
 work ; Board located in Boston ; expenditures 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 200 
 
 reported for 1861-8, two hundred and twenty- 
 one thousand seven hundred and seventy-four 
 dollars American Baptist Publication So- 
 ciety, organized in 1824, for the publication 
 of Baptist literature ; Board located in Phila- 
 delphia ; receipts reported in 1867-8, two 
 hundred and thirty-four thousand four hun- 
 dred and twelve dollars. American Baptist 
 Home Missionary Society, organized in 1832, 
 for home mission work ; Board located in ]STew 
 York ; receipts in 1867-8, one hundred and 
 seventy thousand six hundred and sixty-two 
 dollars. American and Foreign Bible Society, 
 organized in 1838, for Bible work, at home 
 and abroad ; Board located in Xew York ; 
 receipts in 1867-8, a little more than seven- 
 teen thousand three hundred and seventy- 
 three dollars. 
 
 The Southern Baptist Convention, during 
 the year 1867-8, received for home and foreign 
 missions, forty-three thousand eight hundred 
 and two dollars. 
 
 The American Bible Union received, for 
 
210 EArTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 1867, fifty-five thousand one hundred and 
 twenty-seven dollars. 
 
 There are some other societies of lesser note, 
 general in their objects ; beside many religious 
 and benevolent organizations, for local mis- 
 sionary and charitable purposes. 
 
 Institutions of Learning. Baptists have, in 
 the United States, twenty-four colleges and 
 universities, eleven theological schools, and 
 a large number of smaller institutions of 
 learning. 
 
 Periodicals. About forty periodicals, most- 
 ly weekly, are sustained by them at this time. 
 Baptists Elsewhere. 
 
 In Great Britain there were reported, for 
 1867, two thousand three hundred and seven- 
 ty-nine churches ; two hundred and thirty- 
 seven thousand eight hundred and forty-eight 
 church members ; and in Sunda\--schools, 
 nineteen thousand five hundred and eighty 
 teachers, and one hundred and seventy thou- 
 sand nine hundred and seventy-five scholars. 
 But there are many Baptists, in the British 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 211 
 
 Isles not associated, and consequently not 
 reported in these statistics. 
 
 American Baptists have also, connected 
 with their mission work in Europe and Asia, 
 six hundred and sixty-five churches, number- 
 ing, according to latest reports, forty-one 
 thousand eight hundred and eighty-two mem- 
 bers. These are distributed as follows : in 
 Germany, including Poland, Denmark, and 
 Russia, fourteen thousand two hundred and 
 eighteen. In Sweden, six thousand four 
 hundred and eleven; Norway, seven hundred 
 and sixty ; Prussia, three hundred and fifty- 
 one ; China, three hundred and seventy-two ; 
 Bangkok, fifty-four; Nellore, thirty-eight; Bur- 
 mah, including Assam, nineteen thousand 
 and eighty. These figures are necessarily 
 below the facts. 
 
 It is estimated that in the half century 
 since the beginning of the Burman mission, 
 in Burmah and adjacent provinces, there 
 have been not less than eighty thousand con- 
 versions, besides other and incidental results 
 
212 BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 
 
 from the mission work. It is also estimated 
 that in the field of the German mission, led by 
 the Rev. J. G. Oncken, during the thirty-three 
 years, or one third century, since 1834, there 
 have been fifty thousand conversions. What 
 are the results of British Baptist mission work 
 in foreign fields, we have not now the means 
 of stating. 
 
 Doctrinal Views. 
 
 The Baptist denomination in the United 
 States hold and practice strict communion. 
 In Great Britain, Baptists are about equally 
 divided between strict and free communion. 
 The larger and more influential city churches, 
 and the more popular and publicly Jvnown 
 ministers, belong to the free communion 
 party ; while those of the rural districts and 
 countiy towns, more generally practice close 
 communion. 
 
 The denomination in America is strictly 
 Calvinistic in doctrine, but avoiding the ex- 
 tremes of Arminianism and Antinomianism ; 
 what in England is called "moderate Calvin- 
 ism." Though diversities of personal opinion 
 
BAPTIST SHORT METHOD. 213 
 
 in many cases may incline to either extreme, 
 the "general atonement" view is for the 
 most part adopted, while the "particular 
 atonement" doctrine is held by not a few. 
 The freedom of the human will is declared ; 
 and the sovereignty of divine grace; with the 
 absolute necessit}^ of the Spirit's work in sal- 
 vation, are maintained. 
 
 In England, Baptists are sharply divided, 
 not only as to the communion question, but 
 also between the general and particular atone- 
 ment views; the latter considerably preponder- 
 ating as to numbers. The mission churches 
 in Europe and Asia are moderately Calvinistic 
 in doctrine, and strict communion in their prac- 
 tice. Baptists are rapidly multiplying through- 
 out the world ; their social influence is steadily 
 and largely increasing; and the great doctrines 
 of human liberty, and a strict conformity to 
 the word of God, for which they have plead 
 so long and suffered so much, are attracting 
 more earnest attention from thoughtful minds 
 everywhere. 
 
WORKS CONSULTED IN THE PREPARATION 
 OF THE FOREGOING PAGES. 
 
 Booth's Pedobaptism Examined. 
 Pengilly's Guide to Scripture Baptism. 
 Carson on the Mode and Subjects of Baptism. 
 Noel on Christian Baptism. 
 Waymarks to Apostolical Baptism. 
 Crystal's History of the Mode of Baptism. 
 Campbell and Rice's Debate on Baptism. 
 Hiscox's Baptist Directory. 
 Chase's Design of Baptism. 
 Davidson on Baptism and Communion. 
 Hayne's Baptist Denomination. 
 Bailey's Manual of Baptism. 
 Robinson's History of Baptism. 
 Benedict's History of the Baptists. 
 Orchard's History of the Baptists. 
 Duncan's History of the Baptists. 
 Curtis's Progress of Baptist Principles. 
 Cutting's Historical Vindication. 
 Conant's Meaning and Use of Baptizein. 
 214 
 
WORKS CONSULTED. 215 
 
 Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History: 
 
 Neander's History of the Christian Church. 
 
 Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 Gieseler's Church History. 
 
 Waddington's History of the Church. 
 
 Jones's Church History. 
 
 Milner's History of the Church. 
 
 Cave's Primitive Christianity. 
 
 Bingham's Christian Antiquities. 
 
 Neander's Planting and Training of the Churches. 
 
 Hagenbacli's History of Doctrine. 
 
 Coleman's Ancient Christianity. 
 
 Neal's History of the Puritans. 
 
 Witsius' Economy of the Covenants. 
 
 Coleman's Primitive Church. 
 
 Barrows on the Sacraments. 
 
 Adam Clark's Commentary. 
 Henry's Commentary. 
 Whitby's Commentary. 
 Gill's Commentary. 
 Benson's Commentary. 
 Comprehensive Commentary. 
 Pool's Annotations. 
 Diodati's Annotations. 
 Doddridge's Family Expositor. 
 Olshausen on the New Testament. 
 Beta's Xew Testament. 
 Townsend's New Testament. 
 Bengel on the New Testament. 
 
216 WORKS CONSULTED. 
 
 Hammond on the New Testament. 
 Bloomfield's Greek New Testament. 
 Campbell's Four Gospels. 
 Ripley on the Gospels. 
 Trollope's Analecta, New Testament. 
 Hackett on the Acts. 
 Macknight on the Epistles. 
 Conant's Revision of Matthew. 
 
 Encyclopedia Brittanica. 
 Pantalogia ; Diet. Art. Sci. and Lit. 
 Brando's Diet. Sci. Art. and Lit. 
 Broughton's Historical Dictionary. 
 Wilson's Christian Dictionary. 
 Kitto's Cyclopedia Bib. Literature. 
 Calmet's Bible Dictionary. 
 Cyclopedia Relig. Knowledge. 
 Smith's Bible Dictionary. 
 Treasury of Bible Knowledge. 
 Buck's Theological Dictionary. 
 
 Dick's Theology. 
 
 DwightV Theology. 
 
 Knapp's Theology. 
 
 Storrs and Flatt's Bib. Theology. 
 
 Robinson's Biblical Researches. 
 Stanley's Sinai and Palestine. 
 Barclay's City of the Great King. 
 Osborn's Palestine, Past and Present. 
 Lynch's Dead Sea Expedition. 
 Thomson's The Land and the Book.