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THE SCKIPTURE 
 
 GUIDE TO BAPTISM: 
 
 A FAITHFUL CITATION OF ALL THE 
 
 PASSAGES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 "WHICH RELATE TO THAT OEDIXANCE: 
 
 ■WITH 
 
 EXPLANATORY OBSERVATIONS ; AND EXTRACTS 
 FROM EMINENT WRITERS. 
 
 BY RICHARD'fENGILLY. 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE TWELFTH LONDON EDITION, AND CARE- 
 FULLY REVISED. 
 
 " These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they 
 received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the 
 SCRIPTURES daily, whether those things were so." — Acts xvii. 11. 
 
 " Whatever pretends to exceed the direction of the Word may safely 
 be rejected; cannot safely be admitted."— Dk. Owen. 
 
 ;t public. 
 
 iRCH STREEI 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 
 
 118 ARCH STREET. 
 
PREFATOEY NOTE, , 
 
 BY THE AMERICAIf EDITOR. 
 
 A FEW words relating to the history and usefulness 
 of this volume cannot be unacceptable to the reader. 
 
 In the year 1807, after the completion of his prepara- 
 tory studies at the Baptist college, Bristol, Mr. Pengilly 
 was ordained, in the bloom of his youth, to the pastorate 
 of the venerable first Baptist church at Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne, and in 1809 published the first edition of this 
 work, under the title of ^^ The New Testament on its own 
 Ordinance.^' The tract met with much acceptance, and 
 its publication was followed with great success. Con- 
 structed on sound Christian principles, and free from the 
 aspex'ity and sarcasm of controversy, it has been care- 
 fully read by many thousands, and has led not a few 
 believers in Jesus to follow the example of their Lord in 
 his own ordinance. 
 
 At an early period of the existence of the American 
 Baptist Publication Society, its Board published, in 
 
 (3) 
 
4 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 the form of a tract, a large edition of this work, which 
 has been followed by many subsequent issues to the 
 extent of more than thirty thousand copies. They have 
 also aided in its translation and circulation, in the lan- 
 guages of Germany and France, and rejoice to know that 
 wherever it has been circulated, it has accomplished its 
 high mission. 
 
 Encouraged by a special contribution for the purpose, 
 the Board has now issued it in the form of a neat and 
 portable volume. It has been reprinted from the twelfth 
 London edition, as revised by its author, with such 
 changes as may make it more acceptable to American 
 readers. 
 
 The writer of these lines may, perhaps, be pardoned if 
 he adds, that after a personal friendship with its excellent 
 author for thirty-five years, he feels no small gratifica- 
 tion in conducting this useful production of his venerable 
 brother through the American press. Having already 
 passed the age of man, its author will soon enter on his 
 rest and reward, but, to use the language of good Mat- 
 thew Henry, "as his works follow him in the reward 
 of them, they may stay behind in the benefit of them." 
 
 J. B. 
 
 Philadelphia, 1856, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 t*t — — 
 
 PAQE 
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Passages eelating to Baptism m the four 
 
 Gospels 15 
 
 Character of John's Mission 18 
 
 Mode of John's Baptism 22 
 
 Baptism of Jesus Christ 29 
 
 Christ baptizing by his disciples 34 
 
 John's baptism in ^non 37 
 
 References of Christ to John 40 
 
 Sufferings of Christ, a Baptism 42 
 
 Formal Institution of Baptism 44 
 
 Conclusion of the Gospels 50 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Baptism as taught in the Acts of the Apostles 53 
 
 Baptism at the Pentecost 54 
 
 Philip baptizing at Samaria 58 
 
 Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch 60 
 
 Baptism of Paul 66 
 
 Baptism of Cornelius and his Friends 69 
 
 1* (5) 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Baptism of Lydia and her household 72 
 
 Baptism of the Jailor and his household.. . . 78 
 
 Paul baptizing at Corinth 83 
 
 Baptism of the Disciples at Ephesus 88 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 Baptism as taught in the Epistles. 
 
 Direct allusions to Baptism 91 
 
 Occasional mention of Baptism 97 
 
 Baptism illustrated by events recorded in the 
 Old Testament 99 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 On the grounds and supposed benefits of 
 Infant Baptism 106 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 On the Scriptural Mode of Baptism 145 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 The Spiritual design of Baptism 165 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 I CANNOT better introduce the following work to the 
 reader, than by stating the origin of it : — its reference 
 to my own case and circumstances, he will kindly 
 excuse. 
 
 From my earliest childhood I was taught to say, 
 according to the catechism of the Church of England, 
 that, in my baptism — "I was made a member of 
 Christ, a child of Grod, and an inheritor of the king- 
 dom of heaven." My instructors would readily admit, 
 and in effect taught, the following sentiments, lately 
 given to the world by the Eev. Messrs. Harness 
 and Knight, eminent ministers of the established 
 church : — 
 
 One afiBrms, " With the water of our baptism, the 
 grace of regeneration, the seed of the Holy Ghost, the 
 principle of a higher existence is committed to the 
 soul ; it grows with us as an innate impression of our 
 being. . . As long as the believer trusts to his baptism, 
 as the source of spiritual life, all is well." 
 
 The other adds, " On a topic so interesting I might 
 have well enlarged. I might have told you that only 
 by baptism we are admitted into Christ's flock on 
 earth ;— by baptism we are adopted into his covenant, 
 
 0) 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 incorporated into Ms cliurcli. . .that in baptism all our 
 sins are pardoned, and the Holy Ghost bestowed." 
 And even Dr. Adam Clarke says, " Baptism brings its 
 privileges along with it — it is a seal of the cove- 
 nant, — does not lose its end through the indisposition 
 of the receiver." 
 
 These sentiments, as far as I received them, were 
 very gratifying. I seemed to have been put, by the 
 kindness of my parents and sponsors, into a situation 
 of unspeakable advantages ; and above all, my heaven 
 was secured, and I had nothing to fear in life or 
 death. 
 
 Being, however, afterwards brought under a faith- 
 ful ministry, I observed a most astonishing difference 
 between the statements of the pulpit and the senti- 
 ments I had been taught in childhood, as given above. 
 Here I was taught that all mankind were by nature 
 sinners, depraved and guilty, — that unless they be 
 brought to repent of sin, to believe in Christ, to seek 
 and Jind mercy from God through the Saviour, they 
 must inevitably perish ! — As to what was done for me 
 in infancy, I was assured it profited me nothing. My 
 excellent minister would not hesitate to appeal to his 
 congregation, in the inquiries which recently appeared 
 in a public paper : — 
 
 "Is not the sponsorial part of the baptismal service 
 a fragment of Popery, without the shadow of a founda- 
 tion in the Holy Scriptures ? 
 
 " Are not thousands of children, who show no signs 
 whatever of spiritual regeneration, taught to repeat a 
 DELIBERATE FALSEHOOD from wcek to week, when ac- 
 
INTRODUCTION. y 
 
 cording to the instructions of their Catechism, they 
 declare that at baptism they were made ' members of 
 Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom 
 of heaven ?' 
 
 " Are not multitudes of young people brought to 
 the rite of confirmation, merely that they may renew 
 the solemn farce which was performed by their spon- 
 sors at baptism ; and that they might take a vow 
 which they never intended to fulfill ?" 
 
 What these questions implied, and the preceding 
 remarks expressed, appeared to me awfully serious ; 
 and the contrariety of sentiment which prevailed, and 
 which the foregoing quotations exhibit, was exceed- 
 ingly perplexing. ]My highest and best interest for 
 time and eternity was here involved. On the one 
 hand, I was told that by my baptism " all was well ;" 
 and on the other, that the ordinance, as observed 
 upon me, Avas a " solemn farce !" 
 
 What should I do in this case ? Why this I resolved 
 I would do ; I would take a New Testament, and go 
 through it, and mark down and distinguish in the 
 margin, all those passages which related to baptism ; 
 and when I had done so, I would read them all over 
 in succession, as one chapter, with care and attention ; 
 and as I knew this blessed book was the only original 
 and divine authority on the subject, here, I inferred, I 
 should learn correctly what this ordinance did for 
 children — what was the office of sponsors — and how 
 the ordinance sealed to me the blessing of the covenant. 
 To my surprise, the New Testament was entirely 
 silent upon all these points! I could not find a single 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 passage relating to the baptism of infants — nor one 
 relating to sponsors — nor one about baptism bringing 
 me into the covenant, or sealing me to its blessings ! 
 Every passage I could find, descriptive of the persons 
 baptized, either by John or the disciples of Christ, 
 represented them as persons grown up, instructed, and 
 believing the gospel ; nor could I find any passage 
 relative to their bringing their children with them, or 
 at any period, to be baptized. I found, also, that all 
 the commands and instructions given respecting bap- 
 tism entirely related to its administration to believers, 
 and not one included the duty of parents in securing, 
 by this important ordinance, the spiritual and eternal 
 well-being of their children ! 
 
 Now, when I considered the unbounded benefits 
 said to be consequent upon children's baptism, and 
 the solemn manner in which I was required to repeat 
 these statements in early life, as if they were the plain- 
 est subjects in Scripture, the reader may judge of my 
 surprise in finding them entirely destitute of that 
 sacred authority ! 
 
 In the end, I was brought to believe that the institu- 
 tion was altered — that it was not now observed, where 
 I was early instructed, as originally appointed- of 
 Christ. Yet to alter Christ's institutions appeared 
 to me a very presuming act : it was derogatory to the 
 authority of Christ, and a reflection on his wisdom ; 
 and as I remembered how God manifested his dis- 
 pleasure against any alteration of what He had ap- 
 pointed under the Old Testament, so I inferred He 
 must be equally displeased with any alteration of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 New Testament ordinances. A passage I met with in 
 Matthew Henry's Exposition respecting the conduct 
 and awful fate of Aaron's sons in taking common 
 fire, instead of fire from the altar, to burn inceuse, I 
 deemed very impressive, and quite appropriate to this 
 subject : — 
 
 " Not being holy fire, it is called strange jire; and, 
 though not expressly forbidden, it was crime enough 
 that God ' commanded it not' For, as Bishop Hall 
 well observes here, ' It is a dangerous thing, in the 
 service of God, to decline from his own institutions ; 
 we have to do with a God who is wise to prescribe his 
 own worship, just to require what He has prescribed, 
 and POWERFUL to revenge what He has not pre- 
 scribed.' — Now that the laws concerning sacrifices 
 were newly made, lest any should be tempted to think 
 lightly of them, because they descended to many cir- 
 cumstances which seemed very minute, these that were 
 the j^rs^ transgressors were thus punished for a warn- 
 ing to others, and to show how jealous God is in the 
 matters of his worship. — Being a holy God and sove- 
 reign Lord, He must always be worshiped exactly 
 according to his own appointment ; and if any jest 
 with Him, it is at their peril." On Levit. x. 1-7. 
 
 My mind was considerably exercised upon this 
 subject. " Not willingly," I was constrained to say, 
 " would I jest with Christ's ordinances, or would I 
 support any alteration of his institution. If I knew 
 his will, I would observe and keep it ; for the time is 
 coming when I must stand at his bar to give an ac- 
 count of the deeds done in the body ; and if I was one 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of those who altered his ordinances, or countenanced 
 such a daring presumption, I should have cause to 
 anticipate his divine displeasure." With these im- 
 pressions I came to the determination, that, at any 
 risk, what the Scriptures taught on baptism I would 
 endeavor to receive and hold, that as Christ was to 
 be my only Judge at the last, so He should be my only 
 guide upon this subject. His command to every dis- 
 ciple is " follow me ;" and to enable him to do so, He 
 added, " Search the Scriptures, for they are they that 
 testify of Me." I did search, and here I saw the path 
 of duty plainly marked out by the footsteps of my 
 Saviour, and instructions of his Word ; and his un- 
 bounded love and his infinite dignity, rendered obedi- 
 ence to Him unspeakably solemn and delightful. 
 
 I resolved also to read whatever authors I could 
 meet with upon this subject, and though I was soon 
 brought to decide and acted upon that decision, 
 guided, I hope, by the Word of God ; yet for several 
 years there was not an author that fell in my way, 
 whether treating of the subjects of baptism, or the 
 mode of it, or the spiritual intention of the ordinance, 
 but I felt disposed to examine his arguments. No- 
 thing surprised me more than the strange diversity 
 and opposition of sentiment which I observed between 
 different very eminent writers. What one labored to 
 establish, another as zealously confuted; and I am 
 thoroughly convinced that the only way for an in- 
 quiring mind to obtain solid satisfaction upon the 
 subject is to lay aside all preconceived sentiments 
 and prejudices, and to come, with a teachable spirit, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 to tlie fountain-liead of information,— to take the New 
 Testament and to go through it, allowing one passage 
 to assist in the understanding of another, and here, on 
 heaven's authority, to form his opinions, and regulate 
 his practice. 
 
 But those portions of Scripture which relate to this 
 ordinance are interspersed throughout almost the 
 whole of the New Testament, and for the use of an 
 inquirer upon this subject, a work containing a com- 
 plete collection of all those passages, appeared to me 
 to be exceedingly desirable. Being called, by the 
 grace of Christ, to the important work of the ministry 
 in the body of Christians, with which, from conscien- 
 tious principles, I became united, I felt the want of 
 such a work when referring inquirers to the divine 
 and infallible source of information. Not finding 
 such a work in existence, I resolved to prepare one. 
 My first effort was well received ; and I afterwards 
 enlarged it by subjoining to each section of Scripture 
 a few explanatory observations, and supported the 
 sense I had given by extracts from the works of emi- 
 nent Psedobaptist writers. 
 
 In the prosecution of my task, I have introduced 
 many extracts from the writings of eminent Pgedo- 
 baptist authors, who, though they practised differ- 
 ently from what is contended for in these pages ; yet, 
 some upon one part of our inquiry, and some upon 
 others, have fully granted and allowed the divine 
 authority of what I have endeavored to point out as 
 having that authority, to the attention of the reader. 
 As, however, I have made my work as hrief as pos- 
 2 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sible, tliese extracts must necessarily be stort ; but 
 care has been taken to give the real meaning of 
 every writer in the passages cited. Their brevity 
 can form no objection ; or the same objection might 
 be made against passages cited by the Apostles in the 
 New Testament. 
 
 I have also examined, as far as my limits would 
 allow, 1. The arguments generally urged in support 
 of the baptism of infants ; 2. What evidence exists 
 of the original mode of baptism ; and, 3. What was 
 the spiritual design of the ordinance. 
 
■^ir, ''■^ 'C' 
 ^. ^^ ^<i 
 
 SCKIPTURE GUIDE TC^^feM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PASSAGES RELATING TO BAPTISM IN THE FOUR 
 GOSPELS. 
 
 I. — The Mission, Preaching, and Baptizing of 
 John the Baptist. 
 
 The first place of Scripture where the ordi- 
 nance of Baptism is found, is in the account given 
 of the ministry of John the Baptist, the forerunner 
 of Christ. The surname of " Baptist" was most 
 probably given him because he was ''sent to bap- 
 tize" by Divine authority, and was the first so 
 authorized and employed. As all the four Evan- 
 gelists have given some account of John, I shall 
 unite the testimony of- the foux, and present it to 
 the reader in a continued relation. We have his 
 Mission, his Preaching, and his Baptizing thus 
 recorded : — 
 
 (15) 
 
16 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 John's Mission, from God. Mark i. 1, 2. The beginning 
 of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; as it is writ- 
 ten in tie prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy 
 face, which shall prepare thy way before Thee. 
 
 John i. 6, 7. There was a man sent from God, whose name 
 was John : the same came to bear witness of the Light, that 
 all men through him might believe. Luke iii. 1, 2. Now — 
 the word of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in 
 the wilderness. Matt. iii. 3. Por this is he that was spoken 
 of by the Prophet Esaias, saying. The voice of one crying in 
 the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his 
 paths straight. Luke i. 16, 17. And many of the children 
 of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God : And he shall 
 go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the 
 hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to 
 the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for 
 the Lord. 
 
 John's Ministry. Matt. iii. 1. In those days came John 
 the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Luke iii. 
 3. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching 
 the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ; Mat. iii. 
 2. And saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand. Acts xiii. 24. John preached the baptism of repent- 
 ance to all the people of Israel; xix. 4; saying unto the 
 people, that they should believe on Him which should come 
 after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. 
 
 John i. 19 — 33. And this is the record of John, when the 
 Jews sent priests and Levites to ask him. Who art thou ? He 
 confessed, I am not the Christ. I am the voice of one cry- 
 ing in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord. 
 And they asked him. Why baptizest thou, if thou be not that 
 Christ? John answered, I baptize with water: but there 
 standeth one among you — who, coming after me, is preferred 
 before me. That He should be manifest to Israel, therefore 
 
TO BAPTISM. 17 
 
 am I come baptizing with water. [For God] sent me to bap- 
 tize with water. 
 
 John's Baptizing. Matt, iii. 5, 6. Then went out to 
 him Jerusalem and all -Judea, and all the region round about 
 Jordan. And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing 
 their sins. 
 
 Mark i. 4, 5. John did baptize in the wilderness, and 
 preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ; 
 and there went out unto him all the land of Judea and they 
 of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of 
 Jordan, confessing their sins. 
 
 Matt. iii. 7 — 12. But when he saw many of the Pharisees 
 and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, 
 generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the 
 wrath to come ? Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for re- 
 pentance. And think not to say within yourselves. We have 
 Abraham to our father : for I say unto you. That God is able 
 of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. I indeed 
 baptize you with water unto repentance; but He that cometh 
 after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to 
 bear : He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with 
 fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge 
 his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but He will 
 burn up the chaff with the unquenchable fire. 
 
 Christian reader, there are three inquiries, in 
 relation to the ordinance of Baptism, upon which, 
 I shall imagine, you are desirous of obtaining 
 satisfaction of mind, purely deduced from the 
 Scriptures, namely, — 
 
 I. Who are proper subjects of Christian Bap- 
 tism, according to the authority of Christ, and the 
 practice of his Harbinger and Apostles ? 
 2* 
 
18 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 II. By what mode should the ordinance be ad- 
 ministered, according to the same authority and 
 practice ? 
 
 III. What is the spiritual design of Baptism, 
 and in whom is that design realized ? 
 
 These three inquiries will be kept constantly in 
 view in the following pages. In the foregoing 
 section of Scriptures you have a full account of 
 John the Baptist, with reference to his practice, 
 in which you may notice,— 
 
 1. His Mission was Bivirie. He was "sent 
 from God." He was raised up by the special 
 purpose and power of Grod, and employed in a 
 work entirely his own — succeeding to no one who 
 had gone before him, and followed by no one in 
 the same office. His instructions for his work he 
 obtained by Divine Bevelation, '' The word of 
 God came unto John," and thus his entire work 
 was of God's immediate appointment. 
 
 2. The great Object of his Ministry was to 
 ''prepare the way of the Lord,^^ that is, of Christ, 
 who was immediately to follow him, according to 
 the prediction of the prophets, Isa. xl. 3 ; Mai. 
 iii. 1. This great design John was to accomplish, 
 1 . By proclaiming repentance — impressing on the 
 minds of his hearers their guilt before God ; the 
 necessity of being sensible of it, and confessing 
 it ; and thus, with contrition of heart, to '' turn to 
 
TO BAPTISM. 19 
 
 the Lord their God." 2. By announcing the 
 immediate approach of the long-promised Mes- 
 siah, assuring the Jews that his " kingdom was at 
 hand;" and 3. By seriously charging and exhort- 
 ing them to ^'Believe on Him who should come 
 after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." By these 
 labors, attended with the blessing of Heaven, he 
 was "to make ready a people prepared for the 
 Lord." And this was happily accomplished, in- 
 asmuch as the first disciples of Christ were pre- 
 viously disciples of John. John i. 35 — 47. 
 
 It does not appear, therefore, that the design 
 of John's mission could be realized, in any but in 
 persons come to the years of understanding ; none 
 else could repent of sin ; none else could embrace 
 the glad tidings of the coming Saviour, and there- 
 by be "a people prepared" for the service of 
 Christ, who, within one year, was to follow John, 
 and receive the people so prepared. 
 
 3. His ministry was to be followed by the Ad- 
 ministration of the ordinance of Baptism. His 
 commission from heaven included this ordinance. 
 Baptism, as a Divine institution, was unknown in 
 the church of God previous to the mission of John. 
 But he informed his hearers, that the same God 
 who sent him to prepare the way of the Lord, 
 "sent him to baptize with water," John i. 33 ; and 
 this, too, was preparatory to the ministry of Christ, 
 
20 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 as it was fitted and intended to teach the guilt of 
 isin, and the penitent sinner's purification in the 
 way which the preaching of Christ should bring 
 more fully to light. Of that blessed work of puri- 
 fication Baptism was an appropriate and impres- 
 sive EMBLEM. In accordance with these remarks, 
 we have the excellent 
 
 Matthew Henry. " Baptism with water made way for 
 the manifestation of Christ, as it supposed our corruption and 
 filthiness, and signified our cleansing by Him, who is the 
 Fountain opened." Of John's express commission from heaven 
 for baptizing, Mr. Henry adds, " See what sure grounds John 
 went upon in his ministry and baptism. He did not run 
 without sending; God sent Mm to haptize. He had a warrant 
 from heaven for what he did. . . . God gave him both his 
 mission and his message ; both his credentials and instruc- 
 tions." Expos, on John i. 6 — 14 and 29 — 36. 
 
 4. The persons John baptized had received his 
 ministry, and vjere professed penitents. One 
 particular circumstance is expressly asserted by 
 Matthew, and repeated again by Mark, descriptive 
 of the persons whom John baptized, and by the 
 latter it is asserted of " all" of them, namely, that 
 they were baptized, "confessing their siNS.^r 
 He had preached repentance — exhorted to re- 
 pentance — and of the Pharisees and Sadduce'^s 
 demanded the "fruits of repentance," while he 
 peremptorily rejected every plea they might urge, 
 particularly that in which they generally gloried, 
 
TO BAPTISM. 21 
 
 that they were the children of Abraham; and 
 hence, in accordance with that repentance which 
 John thus preached and demanded, " they were 
 all baptized of him, confessing their sins." Thus, 
 his baptism is expressly called by Mark, i. 4, by 
 Luke, iii. 3, and twice by Paul, Acts xiii. 24, and 
 xix. 4, "the baptism of repentance." This being- 
 admitted, it will follow, that the persons — yea, 
 all the persons — whom John baptized were those 
 
 WHO HAD RECEIVED AND BELIEVED HIS MINISTRY ; 
 
 and, as the " fruit" of their conviction, they openly 
 l^rofessed repentance toward God, and faith in 
 the approaching Saviour. Thus, 
 
 Dr. Erskine. "John's baptism was termed the baptism 
 of repentance, and baptism to repentance; because he re- 
 quired of ALL, whom he admitted to baptism, a profession 
 of repentance, and exhorted them to such a conduct as would 
 demonstrate their repentance genuine." Booth's Pcedolap. 
 Examined. 
 
 Rev. W. Burkitt. " John's baptism was the baptism of re- 
 pentance, of which infants were incapable." Expository 
 Notes on Matt. xix. 13 — 15. 
 
 Rev. T. Scott. "It does not appear that any but adults were 
 baptized by John. — Adult Jews, professing repentance and 
 a disposition to become the Messiah's subjects, were the only 
 PERSONS whom John admitted to baptism." Commentary on 
 Ma«. iii. 5. 6. 
 
22 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 OF THE MODE OF JOHN'S BAPTISM. 
 
 My reader, no doubt, will be aware that the 
 ordinance of Baptism is administered in three differ- 
 ent ways, in different countries, and by different 
 bodies of Christians, namely, by dipping, pouring, 
 and SPRINKLING. He will also be aware, that in 
 whatever way the water be employed, it cannot 
 take away sin. No spiritual benefit can be con- 
 veyed by any one mode more than by another ; 
 but, notwithstanding this, it is a serious and im- 
 portant question tchich of these has Divine 
 Authority'^ How did the Harbinger of Christ, 
 having God's command upon the subject, admin- 
 ister the ordinance? By which of these modes 
 was Jesus baptized ? and his disciples by his 
 sanction ? There can be but one mode that has 
 this Divine Authority ; a deviation from this is a 
 deviation from the revealed will of God, and can 
 be nothing better than a mere human invention. 
 What is that one authorized mode ? Will the 
 Scriptures afford an inquiring mind satisfaction 
 on this subject ? Xo doubt ; they were in-' 
 tended for that purpose, on this as well as on 
 every other subject in which our obedience to God 
 is required. 
 
 Turn, then, your eye, reader, from the diversi- 
 fied opinions and practices of men to that unerring 
 
TO BAPTISM. 23 
 
 and uncliangeable source of information wMch, in 
 these pages, we propose to examine. Two inquiries 
 here suggest themselves : — 
 
 I. What does the word in the original language, 
 employed by the Spirit of God to express this 
 ordinance, signify? The verb baptize expresses 
 an action: does it express the action of dipping, 
 pouring, or sprinkling i 
 
 II. What mode do the circumstances attending 
 the ordinance most evidently imply or favor ? 
 
 I. To express the action by which this ordi- 
 nance is to be administered, the word so chosen 
 is BaTfr^t^co, wMch our translators have not ren- 
 dered into English by a verb of our own language 
 expressive of the same action, but adopted the 
 original Greek word, which, with us, is to baptize. 
 To obtain, therefore, the sense of this word, we 
 will turn to a Lexicon, where the word in ques- 
 tion is explained. We might here call to our 
 assistance lexicogra^ers and other learned 
 writers out of number; but I may with confi- 
 dence affirm that, in citing one, we cite every 
 competent authority on the subject; for, in the 
 proper and primary sense of the word baptize, 
 learned men of all classes and countries are 
 agreed, as I shall show in a future chapter. The 
 following is from the excellent Greek and Eng- 
 lish Lexicon of Dr. John Jones, which erives the 
 
2i SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 plain sense of words without refining or accom- 
 modating : — 
 
 '^ BaTttio, I dip ; I dye, stain. 
 
 Barttl^ca, I plunge; I plunge in water, dij?, 
 baptize; bury, overwhelm. 
 
 Baritl^o/xai, I am plunged ; plunge myself in 
 sorrow ; submit to, suffer. 
 
 BaTttLOfia, immersion, baptism; plunging in 
 affliction.''^ 
 
 " We wonder," say the Edinburgh Presbyterian 
 Reviewers : "if ever there was a person so igno- 
 rant as to deny that bapto meant to dip. — We 
 suppose it never was denied by any one that baj?- 
 tizo, as well as bapto, signifies to dip or immerse. " 
 Fresb. Review, vol. i., 1832. 
 
 To the unlearned reader it may be proper to 
 observe, that the first of these words is the theme 
 or root of the three following, and gives the 
 primary idea of all ; the first sense of which is to 
 dip. The second is the word chosen by Inspira- 
 tion to express the action by which the ordinance 
 is administered, to baptize, that is, to plunge. 
 The third is the same, in the passive form, used 
 by our Lord respecting his sufferings, in Matt. xx. 
 22, 23, and Luke xii. 50. The last is the Scrip- 
 ture name of the ordinance. Baptism ; the first 
 sense of which is immersion. 
 
TO BAPTISM. 25 
 
 According to tMs autliority, to baptize is to 
 plunge, to plunge in water, to dip ; and then, 
 figuratively, to plunge or oyerwhelm, as in sor- 
 row, suffering, or affliction ; and also, that Bap- 
 tism is immersion. I refer my reader to a 
 subsequent chapter of this volume, for a con- 
 firmation of the sense here given ; and, requesting 
 him to associate this sense with the words baptize 
 and baptism, when they occur in future sections 
 of Scripture, in order to observe whether that 
 sense harmonizes with other statements connected 
 with the ordinance, we pass on to notice, 
 
 II. What mode do the circumstances attend- 
 ing the ordinance, as now administered by John, 
 most evidently favor ? 
 
 1. We should notice the place where John 
 administered this ordinance. It was "the river 
 Jordan." If, in reference to the people of Jeru- 
 salem, a situation where water might be easily 
 obtained for sprinkling or pouring was what John 
 required, we read of our Lord, at this place, di- 
 recting the man that was bom blind to go and 
 '' wash in the pool of Siloam ;" so we read of the 
 "Pool called Bethesda," and ''the Brook Cedron," 
 all in or near Jerusalem, and we read of others in 
 the Old Testament ; and, without doubt, at some 
 of them the penitent Jews of that city and neigh- 
 borhood might have received the ordinan(!e if 
 3 
 
26 SCRIPTURE GUTDE 
 
 such were the mode by which John administered 
 it ; and it cannot reasonably be imagined he would 
 have required those persons to go the distance of 
 several miles for the convenience of the River 
 Jordan : it is more reasonable to suppose he 
 would have baptized in every town and village 
 where his ministry had its intended effect, and 
 especially at or near the metropolis. This strongly 
 favors the opinion, that immersion was his mode. 
 Thus, 
 
 Dr. Towerson. "For what need would there have been 
 of the Baptist's resorting to great confluxes of water, — were 
 it not that the baptism — was to be performed by an immer- 
 sion ? A very little water, as we know it doth with us, 
 sufficing for an effusion or sprinkling." Booth's Pcedohaj). 
 Exam. 
 
 2. We should remark next, that not only was 
 the River Jordan chosen by John for his baptism, 
 but Matthew states, the people " were baptized 
 of him IN Jordan ;" and Mark adds, "in the River 
 of Jordan." The idea of going into the water 
 of a river for the purpose of baptizing by sprink- 
 ling on the face, or poming on the head, is too 
 absurd to be entertained. 
 
 3. Notice also John's language, addressed to 
 those whom he baptized. " I indeed baptize you" 
 {sv v8aTi) "IN water;" not '^with water," as it is 
 rendered in the English authorized version. The 
 
TO BAPTISM. 27 
 
 passage was translated in water in some of the 
 early versions of the New Testament into our 
 language. It is in water in the Yulgate, Syriac, 
 Arabic, and Ethiopic versions ; it is so rendered 
 by Montanus, and recently, by that pre-eminent 
 scholar, Dr. Campbell (Principal of Marischal 
 College, Aberdeen), whose judicious and, in my 
 opinion, unanswerable Note upon the place I mil 
 lay before my reader : — 
 
 Dr. Campbell. "So inconsistent are the interpreters last 
 mentioned [that is, certain Protestant] that none of them 
 have scrupled to render ev rca lopSai/rj, in Jordan; though 
 nothing can be plainer than that, if there be any incongruity 
 in the expression in tcater, this, in Jordan, must be equally 
 incongruous. But they have seen that the preposition in 
 could not be avoided there, without adopting a circumlocu- 
 tion — which would have made this deviation from the text 
 too glaring. The word (SaTrn^siv, both in sacred authors and 
 in classical, signifies to dip, to plunge, to immerse, and was 
 rendered by Tertullian, the oldest of the Latin fathers, 
 tingere ; the term used for dyeing cloth, which was by im- 
 mersion. It is always construed suitably to this meaning : 
 thus it is, ev vSan, ev roi lopSavri," that is, iti water, in the 
 Jordan. " But I should not lay much stress on the preposi- 
 tion ev, which, answering to the Hebrew beth, may denote 
 icith, as well as in, did not the whole phraseology, in regard to 
 this ceremony, concur in evincing the same thing. Accordingly, 
 the baptized are said to arise, emerge, or ascend, ver. 16, and 
 Acts viii. 39, /roOT or out of the wcnter. When, therefore, the 
 Greek word baptize is adopted, rather than translated into 
 modern languages, the mode of construction ought to be pre- 
 served so far as may conduce to suggest its original import." 
 
28 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 Let the Reader seriously consider what follows. "It is to 
 be regretted that we have so much eridence that even good 
 and learned men allow their judgments to he warped by the 
 sentiments and customs of the sect which they prefer. TTie 
 true partizan, of whatever denomination, always inclines to 
 correct the diction of the Sjnrit hy that of the party." Four 
 Gospels, Note on Matt. iii. 11. 
 
 Terttjllian, who lived within a century after the apostle 
 John, mentions expressly the people, quos Joannes in Jor- 
 dane tinxit, " whom John dipped in Jordan." In Stennet's 
 Ansicer to Eussen. 
 
 Would it not be absurd to render the passage, 
 "John baptized with the Jordan?" and if of 
 necessity it must be "in the Jordan," then it 
 undeniably follows, it must be "in water;" and 
 baptism in water, or in a river, wherever so ob- 
 served throughout the world, is baptism by immer- 
 sion. But I hope to satisfy any candid inquirer 
 on this subject in a future chapter. 
 
 Mr. Hervey, when contending that ev signifies in, adds, 
 " I can prove it to have been in peaceable possession of this 
 signification for more than two thousand years." "Every 
 one knows," he observes in another place, that with "is not 
 the native, obvious, and literal meaning ; rather a meaning 
 swayed, influenced, moulded, by the preceding or following 
 word." Letters to Jlr. Wesley, Let. X. and 11. 
 
 Dr. Lightfoot and Dr. Adam Clarke, "That the bap- 
 tism of John was by p)lunging the body, after the same manner 
 as the washing unclean persons — was, seems to appear from 
 those things which are related of him ,• namely, that he bap- 
 tized in Jordan, that he baptized in Enon, 'because there was 
 
TO BAPTISM. 29 
 
 mncii water there/-" &c. In Br. Clarke's Commentary, at the 
 end of Mark. 
 
 Inference. — If, then, I am a sincere inquirer 
 after the will of God, and disposed to gather that 
 will from what God has been pleased to reveal in 
 his Word for that purpose, I am constrained, from 
 the foregoing Scriptures, to draw the following 
 inference, namely, That John baptized none but 
 those who gave him satisfactory evidence of being 
 conscious of their sin and guilt before God, and 
 whom he exhorted to repent and to believe iu 
 Jesus ; and as to the mode, that he immersed them 
 in water, in the Jordan. 
 
 II. — The Baptism of Jesus Christ, from the four 
 Evangelists. 
 
 Our Lord's Baptism we next jB.nd immediately 
 following the foregoing account of John. This 
 place attaches to it infinite interest, by the infinite 
 dignity of the Person baptized. 
 
 Matt. iii. 13 — 15. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jor- 
 dan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade 
 Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest 
 Thou to me ? And Jesus answering, said unto him, Suffer it 
 to be so now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil aU righteous- 
 ness. Then he suffered him, Mark i. 9. [Thus] Jesus came 
 from Kazareth of Gralilee, and was baptized of John in 
 Jordan. 
 
 3* 
 
30 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 Matt. iii. 16. And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up 
 straightway out of the water. Mark i. 10. And, coming up 
 out of the water, and praying, the heaven was opened, and 
 the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon 
 Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art 
 my beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased. And Jesus 
 Himself began to be about thirty years of age. Luke iii. 
 21—23. 
 
 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending 
 from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And look- 
 ing upon Jesus as He walked, he saith. Behold the Lamb 
 of God, which taketh away the sins of the world ! And I 
 saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. These 
 things were done in Bethabara, where John was baptizing. 
 John i. 28—36. 
 
 What, pious Keader, shall we say of the Per- 
 son baptized in this case I What an honor is 
 hereby attached to the ordinance, and conse- 
 quently to all that duly follow the example of the 
 Kedeemer in it ! 
 
 Let the man who slights and contemns this 
 Sacred institution, calling it "an useless, unmean- 
 ing ceremony, incapable of washing away sin, or 
 of effecting any good," read these verses, and view 
 the immaculate Son of God, who had " no sin" 
 to wash away, proceeding from Galilee down to 
 Jordan "to be baptized." Let him see the 
 "Wisdom of God" entering the streams, and 
 bowing beneath them, 
 
 ''The emblem of his future grave !" 
 
TO BAPTISM. 31 
 
 This, we should suppose, would induce a different 
 sentiment of the ordinance, and silence every 
 objection to the practice of it. And if a sight 
 of Christ in Jordan had not that effect, let him 
 hear and see the approbation of the Father and 
 Spirit testified on this very occasion, and imme- 
 diately upon his submission to this sacred rite. 
 Never was an ordinance so honored ! Here is a 
 dignity given to it infinitely exceeding any of the 
 rites of the Old Testament. Each Person of the 
 sacred Trinity is specially presented, and each 
 Divine Person gives it the testimony of his ap- 
 probation ! The blessed Redeemer submits to be 
 baptized ; the Father, at the instant of his rising 
 from the water, calls Him Ms beloved Son, in 
 whose conduct He was well pleased; and the 
 Divine Spirit, at the same instant, descended 
 upon Him in a visible form ! Oh, to have wit- 
 nessed this scene, how overwhelming ! Nothing, 
 eince the commencement of time, has equaled in 
 sublimity and glory, this wonderful event. 
 
 Four things are to be noticed in this place. 
 
 1. The Reason why Christ would be baptized ; 
 upon which, hear the very learned 
 
 WiTSius. " Our Lord would be baptized, that He might 
 conciliate authority to the baptism of John ; that by his own 
 example, He might commend and sanctify our baptism; that 
 men might not be loth to come to the baptism of the Lord, 
 
32 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 seeing the Lord was not backward to come to the baptism of 
 a servant; that, by his baptism, He might represent the 
 future condition both of Himself and his followers; first 
 humble, then glorious ; now mean and low, then glorious 
 and exalted ; that represented by immersion, this by emersion 
 — and, finally to declare by his voluntary submission to bap- 
 tism, that He would not delay the delivering up of Himself 
 to be immersed in the torrents of hell, yet, with a certain faith 
 and hope of emerging." Peed. Exam. 
 
 2. The Time chosen for fulfilling the promise 
 of pouring forth the Spirit upon Christ. This is 
 noticed and improved by the pious 
 
 Dr. Doddridge. ''Jesus had no sin to wash away, yet 
 He was baptized ; and God owned that ordinance so far as 
 to make it the season of pouring forth the Spirit upon Him. 
 And where can we expect this sacred efi'usion, but in a con- 
 scientious and humble attendance upon Divine appoint- 
 ments V Fam. Expos, on the text. 
 
 3. The Language of Christ, in answer to John ; 
 which is thus explained by an esteemed Commen- 
 tator : — 
 
 The Rev. Thomas Scott. "Thus it becometh us, etc." 
 " We never find that Jesus spake of Himself in the plural 
 number ; and it must therefore be allowed. He meant John 
 also, and all the servants of God, in a subordinate sense. It 
 became Christ as our surety and our example, perfectly to 
 fulfil all righteousness ; it becomes us to walk in all the com- 
 mandments and ordinances of God, without exception, and 
 to attend on every Divine institution — as long as it continues 
 in force. Thus far Christ's example is obligatory." Com' 
 vientary on Matt. iii. 13 — 15. 
 
TO BAPTISM. 33 
 
 4. The Circumstance immediately following Ms 
 baptism, namely, Ms "coming up out of the 
 water," which evidently implies that He went 
 down into it, as is expressly said of Philip and 
 the Eunuch, Acts viii. 38 ; a circumstance re- 
 quired in no mode of baptism but immersion, and 
 hence, we infer that Jesus was buried, or im- 
 mersed in the water. To this mode of baptism 
 our blessed Saviour plainly alludes when referring 
 to his overwhelming sufferings, in Luke xii. 50, 
 which we shall examine hereafter. 
 
 Dr. Campbell's Translation. "Jesus being baptized, no 
 sooner rose out of the water than heaven was opened to Him." 
 Four Gospels, Matt. iii. 16. 
 
 Dr. Doddridge's. " And after Jesus was baptized, as soon 
 as He ascended out of the water, behold, the heavens were 
 opened unto Him." In Loe. 
 
 Dr. Macknight. Jesus "submitted to be baptized, that 
 is, buried under the water by John, and to be raised out of it 
 again, as an emblem of his future death and resurrection." 
 Apostolical Epistles. Note on Kom. vi. 4. 
 
 Bishop Taylor. " 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." Poid. Exam. 
 
 I never, my reader, can think of the Baptism of 
 this Glorious and Divine Person — the Son of God 
 — the Lord from Heaven — the righteous Judge 
 of the last day — the Author of our Salvation, and 
 the Giver of eternal Life, but with feelings of the 
 
34 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 deepest interest. We observe Him here proceed- 
 ing on his long journey, for Nazareth was three 
 days' journey from Jerusalem, and not less from 
 Bethabara ; the object expressly is, "to be bap- 
 tized." We observe Him admitting of no argu- 
 ment against his submission to that rite ; and we 
 ought never to forget how He associated his 
 people, his followers, with Himself, "thus it be- 
 cometh us!" the servant as well as the Lord, the 
 members as well as the Head, "to fulfil all" prac- 
 tical "righteousness;" all that God enjoins and 
 requires. How strong is the obligation to realize 
 what the Saviour here intended ! Who will not 
 concur in the pious decision of Mr. Polhill ? 
 "the pattern of Christ and the Apostles is more 
 to me than all the human wisdom in the world." 
 Nor can any one deny me the following 
 
 Inference. — The Baptism of Jesus, as an Ex- 
 ample, is fulfilled in the baptism of a Believer by 
 Immersion, and in no other case. 
 
 III. — Christ Baptizing, hy his Disciples. 
 
 This is the only mention of our Lord's bap- 
 tizing, or of the disciples doing so by his authority 
 and direction, during his corporeal presence with 
 them ; and, consequently, it claims our very serious 
 attention. 
 
TO BAPTISM. 35 
 
 John iii. 22 — 27. After these things came Jesus and his 
 disciples into the land of Ju.dea; and there he tarried with 
 them and baptized. And they came unto John, and eaid 
 unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to 
 whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and 
 all men come to Him. John answered and said, A man can 
 receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. He 
 must increase, but I must decrease. 
 
 Chap. iv. 1 — 3, When, therefore, the Lord knew how the 
 Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more dis- 
 ciples than John, (Though Jesus Himself baptized not, but 
 his disciples,) He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. 
 X. 40 — 42. And He went away again beyond Jordan, into 
 the place where John at first baptized. And many believed 
 on Him there. 
 
 The import of this passage is simply this, 
 — Jesus went into the land of Judea and baptized 
 certain disciples, many hearing of Him, and re- 
 membering what John had preached concerning 
 Him, flocked to Him, — and soon it was generally 
 known and said, as the happy fruit of his labors, 
 That Jesus made and baptized more disciples than 
 John ; upon which the Saviour departed and went 
 into Galilee. He again, however, visited this in- 
 teresting place, and many more believed on Him 
 there. It is added by the evangelist, that Jesus 
 Himself did not baptize, but his disciples admin- 
 istered the sacred rite in his name, and by his 
 direction and authority; and being thus done, it 
 is the same as if the Saviour had baptized by 
 
36 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 his own hands ; and it is therefore said, '' Jesus 
 baptized." 
 
 The chief thing to be noticed here, and it is 
 certainly of importance on our first inquiry, is 
 this, that Christ made disciples before He bap- 
 tized them. He did not begin by baptizing, and 
 afterwards instructing ; but He first taught them 
 his Gospel, and they believing and embracing his 
 Word, are thereby " made disciples ;" and hence 
 they are said to ''come to Him," to conform to 
 his commandments ; and then, secondly. He bap- 
 tized them. As this is all the Evangelists have 
 recorded respecting Christ's baptizing, through 
 the whole of his ministry, this is, consequently, all 
 in which the Practice of Christ is given for the 
 guide of his people. What we are to understand 
 by ''disciples," or "making disciples," is thus 
 described by 
 
 Dr. Owen. " By the disciples of Christ, I intend them, and 
 them only, who profess faith in his person and doctrine, etc. — 
 This is the method of the Gospel, that first men, by the 
 preaching of it, be made disciples, or be brought unto faith 
 in Christ, and then to be taught to do and observe whatever. 
 He commands." Peed. Exam. So Mr. Baxter: "A dis- 
 ciple and a Christian are all one." Ihid. 
 
 Christ, however, may be heard for Himself, 
 as to what is intended by Ms disciples : " Who- 
 soever doth not bear his cross, and come after 
 
TO BAPTISM. 3t 
 
 Me, cannot be my disciple." Luke xiv. 21. What- 
 ever, therefore, may be said in favor of infant 
 baptism, it cannot be said, that either Christ's 
 Example or Practice afford it any support ; and 
 we shall presently come to his Command on the 
 subject. But in passing from noticing the Prac- 
 tice of Jesus, let me cite the words of one of the 
 most eminent Psedobaptist Commentators on the 
 Bible, England has ever known : — 
 
 The Eev. T. Scott. " The baptism of Jesus was, doubt- 
 less, of adults alone." Commentary on John iii. 22 — 24. 
 
 lY.— John's Baptism, in u^non. 
 
 The next passage we find on our subject is con- 
 tained in a few words. It is, however, of powerful 
 import relative to the Mode. 
 
 John iii. 23. And John also was baptizing in ^non, near 
 to Salim, because there was much water there; and they 
 came and were baptized. 
 
 Of the Persons here alluded to, as baptized by 
 the Harbinger of the Redeemer, nothing is said 
 descriptive of them, except that " they came" to 
 John, as the penitent Jews had before done at 
 Jordan, and, like them, "were baptized;" which 
 implies, that it was their own voluntary act thus 
 to seek this holy rite : and if so, they must have 
 been previously instructed. 
 4 
 
38 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 But, in reference to our inquiry on the Mode 
 of baptism, this passage is of great weight. We 
 have here the Keason assigned, on account of 
 which John chose the place where we now find 
 him pursuing his divinely-appointed work. He 
 is baptizing in JEnon, "because there was much 
 WATER there." No candid Christian, I think, can 
 object to the following 
 
 Inference. — If John chose a place for the 
 purpose of baptizing, on account of one circum- 
 stance necessary for that ordinance, namely, 
 " because there was much water there," then his 
 Mode of baptism required much water: But 
 much water is not necessary for any Mode of bap- 
 tism but Immersion, and hence, without doubt, 
 that was his practice. The same inference was 
 drawn, with as little doubt, by the illustrious 
 Psedobaptists following : — 
 
 Calvin. "From these words, John iii. 23, it may be in- 
 ferred, that baptism was administered, by John and Christ, 
 by plunging the whole body under water." Peed. Exam. 
 
 Dr. Whitby. " On vSara rroXXa 771^ ekci, — Because there was 
 much water there, in which their whole bodies might be dip- 
 ped : for in this manner only was the Jewish baptism per- 
 formed, by a descent into the water, Acts viii. 38, and in 
 ascent out of it, verse 39, and a burial in it. Rom. vi. 3, 4. 
 Col. ii. 12." Annot. on the place. See Drs. Lightfoot and 
 A. Clarke, already quoted. 
 
 My Reader need not be told, that those who 
 
TO BAPTISM. 39 
 
 practice sprinkling never go to rivers, or places 
 of much water, to administer the ordinance ; and 
 if they should do so, the great quantity of the 
 water could not be assigned as the reason for 
 choosing such places ; because in their Mode, a 
 very small quantity only is required. Not much 
 candor is necessary to admit the truth so plainly 
 conveyed as in this passage. 
 
 The remark some have made, that the words, 
 "much water," should be "many waters," and 
 refer to many shallow streams, is sufficiently 
 answered by a learned Psedobaptist expositor, 
 who thus renders and explains the passage : — 
 
 Dr. Doddridge. "John was also, at that time, baptizing 
 at ^non, — and he particularly chose that place, because 
 there was a great quantity of water there, which made it very 
 conrenient for his purpose." " Nothing, isurely, can be more 
 evident, than that [polla hudata,] many toalers, signifies a 
 large quantity of loater, it being sometimes used for the 
 Euphrates. Jer. li. 13. {Septuag.) To which, I suppose, 
 there may be an allusion, Eev. xvii. 1. Compare Ezek. 
 xliii. 2, and Rev. i. 15; xiv. 2; xix. 6; where the voice 
 of many icaters does plainly signify the roaring of a high 
 sea." Fam. Expos. Paraph, and Note on the place. 
 
 Y. — References of Jesus Christ to John, his 
 Baptism and Success. 
 
 As the passage, in the preceding section, 
 contains the last record of John's baptizing, it 
 
40 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 appears proper to follow it by the reference of 
 Jesus to his Harbinger and his labors, when he 
 was no more. 
 
 Mark xi. 29 — 33. And Jesus answered and said unto 
 them, I will also ask you one question. The baptism of 
 John, was it from heaven or of men ? answer me. And they 
 reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say. From 
 heaven ; He will say, Why then did ye not believe him ? 
 But if we shall say, Of men : all the people will stone us : 
 Luke XX. 6, they feared the people; for all men counted 
 John, that he was a prophet indeed. And they answered and 
 said unte Jesus, "We cannot tell. 
 
 Luke vii. 29, 30. And all the people that heard Him, and 
 the Publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism 
 of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel 
 of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. — Matt^ 
 xi. 11. Among them that are born of women, there hath not 
 risen a greater than John the Baptist. He was a burning 
 and a shining light. John v. 35. 
 
 Here observe 1. The Redeemer, in these and 
 other passages, gives John a high eminence among 
 the servants of God : never had our world witnessed 
 a more illustrious man. 
 
 2. From the question which the Redeemer 
 proposed to the Jews, whether the baptism of 
 John was from heaven or of men ? in order to 
 convict them of their guilt in treating John's 
 labors as they had done, it will evidently follow, 
 that it was "from heaven." Had John's bap- 
 tism been borrowed from Jewish proselyte baptism, 
 it would have been of men, for that is unknown in 
 
TO BAPTISM. 4l 
 
 the Word of God, and then the question might 
 have been answered without hesitation, and the 
 design of our Lord, in that case, could not have 
 been realized. 
 
 3. The common people, who heard John's min- 
 istry, the Saviour adds, justified God, that is, 
 approved of the Divine conduct in John's ministry 
 and baptism; and this they evinced in "being 
 baptized with the baptism of John," while classes 
 of higher religious repute, "the Pharisees and 
 lawyers," in contempt of this messenger of God, 
 and his message too, ^'rejected the counsel of God 
 against themselves, being not bajjtized of Him." — 
 Here our Lord plainly indicates that the ordi- 
 nance of baptism was a part of "the counsel 
 of God," that is, his mind and will ; and, as 
 far as this rite is contemned, so far the counsel 
 of God is " rejected ;" and it is, emphatically, 
 " against themselves" if persons thus oppose what 
 God enjoins. 
 
 Inference. — If John, who was but a man, is 
 to be so highly regarded, and his baptism received 
 as "the counsel of God;" so that neglect of it 
 thus meets the marked disapprobation of our 
 Redeemer ; how much more may the Divine dis- 
 pleasure be expected on them who slight this 
 sacred ordinance in that still more interesting 
 form, in which we shall presently find it, — enjoined 
 4* 
 
42 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 by Him, whose name is written, " King of kings, 
 and Lord of lords !" Surely I may add, " If they 
 escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, 
 much more shall not we escape, if we turn away 
 from Him that speaketh from heaven I" Heb. 
 xii. 25. 
 
 YI. — Christ represents his Sufferings under the 
 Figure of " a Baptism.^^ 
 
 Matt. XX. 22, 23. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know 
 not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall 
 drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am bap- 
 tized with? They say unto Him, We are able. And He 
 said unto them. Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be 
 baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with : but 
 to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, 
 but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my 
 Father. 
 
 Luke xii. 50. But I have a baptism to be baptized with j 
 and how am I straitened till it be accomplished ! 
 
 Our Lord, in these affecting and impressive 
 passages, is referring to the greatness of his ap- 
 proaching sufferings, — and, by a metaphor, he 
 calls them " a Baptism. " An interesting question 
 from hence arises, in reference to our second in- 
 quiry, Does sprinkling a little water on the face, 
 or being totally immersed and overwhelmed in a 
 large quantity, most appropriately exhibit an 
 image of the severity of the suffermgs of Christ ? 
 
TO BAPTISM. 43 
 
 The following extracts will, I have no doubt, 
 represent my reader's opinion. 
 
 Dr. Doddridge thus paraphrases the places: "Are you 
 able to drink of the bitter cup of which I am now about to 
 drink so deep, and to be baptized -with the baptism, and 
 plunged into that sea of suflFerings with which I am shortly 
 to be baptized, and, as it were, overwhelmed for a time ?" 
 Fam. Expos., on the place. 
 
 Dr. Campbell's Translation: "I have an immersion to 
 undergo; and how am I pained till it be accomplished!" 
 Four Gospels, in loc. 
 
 WiTSius. "Immersion into the water, is to be considered 
 by us, as exhibiting that dreadful abyss of Divine Justice, 
 in which Christ, for our sins, was for a time, as it were, 
 absorbed; as in David, his type, he complains, Ps. Ixix. 2. 
 / am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me." 
 CEcon. of the Cov. L. IV. o. xvi. s. 26. 
 
 The Eev. James Hervey expresses himself, on this sub- 
 ject, with great energy. "He longed, beneficent, blessed 
 Being ! He longed for the fatal hour. He severely rebuked 
 one of his discijiles who would have dissuaded Him from 
 going as a volunteer to the cross. He was even straitened, 
 under a kind of holy uneasiness, till the dreadful work was 
 accomplished; till He was baptized with, the baptism of his 
 suflFerings, bathed in blood, and plunged in death I" Theron 
 and Aspasio. 
 
 " Sir Harry Trelawney, under whose impressive min- 
 istry," says the late amiable Rev. James Dore, of London, 
 "my first religious feelings were invigorated, referring to 
 those words of our Lord, exclaimed to this eflfect: 'Here, I 
 must acknowledge, our Baptist brethren have the advantage : 
 for our Redeemer's suflFering must not be compared to a few 
 drops of water sprinkled on the face, for He was plunged into 
 distress, and his soul was environed with sorrows.'" Ser- 
 mons on Baptism. 
 
44 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 Inference. — If our Lord intended the ordi- 
 nance of baptism to exhibit an image of the over- 
 whelming sorrows of his soul, in the garden and 
 on the cross, his intention is frustrated by the 
 change of immersion into sprinkling ! And if this 
 be admitted, and it cannot be denied, what de- 
 vout Christian can think of this change but with 
 deep regret ! 
 
 YII. — The Commission which our Lord gave 
 his Apostles about the time of his Ascension 
 into Heaven, containing the formal Institution 
 of Christian Baptism. 
 
 We have already seen that Baptism, as a New- 
 Testament ordinance, was instituted of God, and 
 enjoined upon John as the Herald and Precursor 
 of Christ. It is evident, also, that John admin- 
 istered it upon an admitted or professed acknow- 
 ledgment of faith "in Him who was to come after 
 him." Acts xix. 4. But after our Redeemer 
 had come, and finished his work, an alteration 
 was necessary in this particular circumstance. 
 None on earth, but Jesus, could make that altera- 
 tion ; and He, as Head and Lord of the Church, 
 now does it ; requiring it to be henceforth ad- 
 ministered, " in the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." This I con- 
 
TO BAPTISM. 45 
 
 sider as a renewed institution of the same sacred 
 rite, altered only in its reference to the coming 
 of Christ to set up his kingdom. And, what adds 
 greatly to the solemnity of it in this renewed form, 
 our Lord delayed its institution till his last mo- 
 ments on earth, and then united it with his final 
 parting, and solemn charge, given by Matthew 
 and Mark in the verses following. 
 
 Matt, xxviii. 16 — 20. Then the eleven disciples went away 
 into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed 
 them. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying. All 
 power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, 
 therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teach- 
 ing them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
 you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
 world. Amen. 
 
 Mark xvi. 15 — 19. And He said unto them, Go ye into 
 all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He 
 that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that 
 believeth not shall be damned. So then, after the Lord had 
 spoken unto them. He was received up into heaven, and sat 
 on the right hand of God. 
 
 How solemn and interesting was this occasion ! 
 The Redeemer had undergone the baptism of his 
 sufferings, last described — He had been bathed in 
 blood in the garden ! — He had sunk into death on 
 the cross, under floods of wrath, due to mankind ! 
 But now He is risen triumphant, and is about to 
 ascend to his glory. 
 
46 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 He had appointed his disciples to meet Him 
 ou a mountain of Galilee, where He was to give 
 them his last most solemn and important charge, 
 contained in the verses above. The interesting 
 hour is come : we may be sure the disciples are 
 eager to catch every word from their ascending 
 Lord, and that He would give them his directions 
 in the plainest language possible. 
 
 He begins by encouraging their sorrowful minds 
 by a view of his supreme power in heaven and 
 earth — in heaven, to give them the Holy Spirit ; 
 to employ the angels in their behalf; and, finally, 
 to bestow the kingdom of heaven upon them. So 
 He had all power in earth, to gather his church 
 out of all nations ; to subdue or restrain his 
 enemies ; and to reign over and dwell with his 
 people as Lord and King of Zion. 
 
 Then the Saviour gives them the ever memora- 
 ble Commission for preaching and baptizing, 
 which we cannot too attentively consider. If you 
 think there is any obscurity in the one Evangelist, 
 the other will explain him ; and this explanation 
 you will, no doubt, esteem preferable to ten 
 thousand criticisms. By uniting the words of 
 both, they may be thus disposed : " Go ye, there- 
 fore, into all the world; teach all nations, and 
 preach the gospel to every creature ; him that 
 believeth baptize, in the name of the Father, and 
 
TO BAPTISM. 41 
 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and he shall 
 be paved ; but he that believeth not, shall be 
 damned : and, lo, I am with you alway, even 
 unto the end of the world. Amen." 
 
 Our Great Legislator, who only has the right 
 to enact laws for his church, to whom we must 
 submit, and who will have nothing taken away 
 from, or added to his Word, Rev. xxii. 19, has 
 here described to his apostles the person to whom 
 they are to administer this his ordinance, namely, 
 the believer — the person who shall cordially be- 
 lieve the gospel which they shall preach. And if 
 we allow Him to have expressed his mind clearly 
 and fully, He restricts the ordinance to the believer 
 alone. He has given no direction to admit any 
 other to it ; and who will dare to speak where He 
 is silent ? Who shall enlarge or extend the limits 
 which He has prescribed ? or, w^ho will dare to go 
 beyond, or attempt to remove, the boundaries 
 He has fixed and established ? Surely the mind 
 of a true disciple recoils at the thought. Let us 
 now hear the remarks of some eminent P^edobap- 
 tist writers on these passages : — 
 
 The Rev. Archibald Hall, a Presbyterian. " How grand 
 and awful is that weighty preface to the institution of Chris- 
 tian baptism ! Matt, xxviii. 18, 19. "Who is that daring, 
 insolent worm, that will presume to dispute the authority, or 
 change the ordinances of Him who is given to be Head over 
 all things to the Church? The solemnity of this ordinance 
 
48 SCRIITUBE GUIDE 
 
 is complete ,• and all the purposes of its institution are secured 
 by the authority and blessing of Christ. His laws are not 
 subject to any of those imperfection which are attendants 
 of the best contrived system among men, and frequently 
 need explanations, amendments, and corrections. It is most 
 dangerous and presumptuous to add any ceremony, or to join 
 any service, on any pretence, unto Heaven's appointment." 
 Gospel Worship, Vol. I. 
 
 The late Rev. Charles Simeox, of Cambridge, an eminent 
 Episcopalian, has given us a skeleton of a sermon on this 
 Commission of Christ, in which he proposes to consider, "1. 
 The authority He claimed. II. The commission He gave to 
 his apostles. 1. They were to teach all nations. 2. They 
 were to baptize their converts in the name of the sacred Three." 
 Then, he adds, '' But though they first taught adults and then 
 baptized them, they reversed this 0:ii!ER with respect to 
 infants." 
 
 On reading the last sentence, the inquirer -with 
 surprise might ask, Who reversed this order ? 
 The answer here is, the apostles. Be versed what 
 order ? The answer is, The order of Jesus 
 Christ ; firat, to teach, and, second, to baptize. 
 Awful thought ! that mortal worms should pre- 
 sume to alter the institutions of the Lord of glory ; 
 yea, to reverse the order He ordains ! 
 
 Here is a candid confession that the order of 
 Jesus Christ is "reversed with respect to infants." 
 A fact, alas ! too plain to be denied. 
 
 With respect to the apostles, however, the 
 cliarge is not true. They never reversed any 
 order or appointment of Christ. He enjoined 
 
TO BAPTISM. 49 
 
 upon them, in his last words, to " teach men to 
 observe whatsoeyer He had commanded them ;" 
 and any adding or taking away, to say nothing 
 of reversing, He solemnly prohibited, Rev. xxii. 
 18, 19. The order of Christ is reversed, but it 
 was not till the apostles and primitive disciples 
 had long quitted the world. 
 
 Poole's Continttators : " Go ye, therefore, and teach, all 
 nations." The Greek is, make disciples of all nations, but 
 that must be first by preaching and instructing them — and 
 Mark expounds it, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 Gospel to every creature ? that is, to every reasonable crea- 
 ture capable of hearing and receiving it. I cannot be of their 
 mind who think that persons may be baptized before they be 
 taught: we want precedents of any such baptisms in Scrip- 
 ture." Annot. in loc. 
 
 Calvist. "Because Christ requires teaching before bap- 
 tizing, and will have believers oxly admitted to baptism, 
 baptism does not seem to be rightly administered, except 
 faith precede." Peed. Exam. 
 
 Saurin. "In the primitive Church, instruction preceded 
 baptism; agreeably to the order of Jesus Christ, "Go, teach 
 all notions, baptizing them," etc. Peed. Exam. 
 
 The Rev. Eicharb Baxter has a very forcible passage, 
 on the same place : " Go, disciple me all nations, baptizing 
 them." As for those who say they are disciples by baptizing, 
 and not before baptizing, they speak not the sense of the text : 
 nor that which is true or rational; else, why should one be 
 baptized more than another? — This is not like some occa- 
 sional historical mention of baptism ; but it is the very com- 
 mission of Christ to his apostles, for preaching and baptizing; 
 and purposely expresseth their several works in their several 
 places and order. Their Jirst task is, by teaching, to make 
 
 5 
 
50 SCRIPTTJRE GUIDE 
 
 disciples, whieli are, by Mark, called believers. The second 
 work is, to baptize them, whereto is annexed the promise of 
 their salvation. The third -work is, to teach them all other 
 things -which are afterwards to be learned in the school of 
 Christ. To contemn this order, is to renounce all rules of 
 order; for where can we expect to find it, if not here ? I pro- 
 fess, my conscience is fully satisfied from this text, that it is 
 one sort of faith, even saving, that must go before baptism ,- 
 and the profession whereof, the Minister must expect." Pasd. 
 Exam. 
 
 The last Scripture we cited closes the informa- 
 tion which the Four Gospels afford us on the 
 subject of Baptism. Before we pass to the sub- 
 sequent books, I beg to remind the reader, that 
 we have now had before us the practice of John ; 
 and the example, practice, and command of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. As yet, we have not met 
 with a single passage, or word, which can fairly 
 be interpreted as indicating that any persons 
 should receive this ordinance, or are proper sub- 
 jects for it, but those who have been first taught 
 the gospel, and who profess to believe it. 
 
 But I am most anxious to impress on the at- 
 tention of an inquirer, the words of Jesus in the 
 Commission which we have just read. Remember, 
 reader, that this Jesus is to be our Judge at the 
 last great and awful day ; and that He will not 
 judge us according to the opinions, creeds, or 
 practices of men, but according to his own Word. 
 Upon this command of our Saviour, I would, 
 
TO BAPTISM. 51 
 
 therefore, beg briefly to add, and leave to the 
 reader's deliberate meditations : — 
 
 1. That WG haye here the enactment of the 
 Divine Law in reference to Baptism : and this 
 Law we find deJivered in language the most 
 solemn, and in circumstances the most interesting 
 and affecting. 
 
 2. That this Law of Jesus is not like human 
 laws, which admit of alterations or amendments 
 None but Jesus has authority to alter what He 
 appoints ; and, coming from the Fountain of 
 heavenly wisdom, who will presume to improve 
 upon His appointment ? And, 
 
 3. This Law is as delightful to the mind of a 
 Christian, as it is solemn. The words, ''baptizing 
 them into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Spirit," imply a public recognition of the glorious 
 change which has taken place in the spiritual 
 circumstances of true converts, in their having 
 passed from the family of sin and Satan, into 
 the family of the Tri-tjne God ! A change, not 
 of the ordinance, but of the power and grace 
 of God, and in the ordinance represented and 
 avowed. 
 
 We now pass on to the Acts of the Apostles. 
 Here we have an historical relation of the labors 
 of the apostles, for above thirty years after the 
 ascension of Christ ; and here we shall find the 
 
62 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 baptism of many thousands of persons. If we have 
 misunderstood the will of Christ on this subject, 
 ike apostles surely did not, and their obedience 
 to his command will correct our error ; but if, on 
 the contrary, we have rightly interpreted his will, 
 their obedience will confirm our opinion. 
 
TO BAPTISM. 53 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BAPTISM AS TAUGHT IN THE ACTS OP THE 
 
 APOSTLES 
 
 "The penman of this Scripture," the Assembly 
 of Divines in their argument to it, assure us, 
 " was Luke the Evangelist, as appears from the 
 first words of it, for the most part an eye-witness 
 to the things he records, being constantly a fel- 
 low-laborer with Paul. His purpose" they add, 
 " in writing this narrative was, as he intimates in 
 his first preface, that the Church might have the 
 certain knowledge of Christ, his gospel, and king- 
 dom ; that our faith might not be built on the 
 uncertain reports of pretenders to truth." Hence, 
 admitting the writer to be a faithful and pious 
 historian, and writing purposely for the direction 
 of the Church of Christ in all following ages ; and 
 above all, under the influence of the Spirit of God, 
 we may safely rely, not only on the accuracy 
 of the accounts, but on the fullness and suflBciency 
 of the information to answer the professed pur- 
 pose. 
 
 We have here, on infallible record, nine in- 
 
54 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 STANCES of the administration of baptism, which 
 we will examine in their order. 
 
 I. — The Baptism at the Feast of Pentecost. 
 
 On this memorable occasion, which was but ten 
 days from the ascension of Christ, when the 
 apostles and disciples were together at Jerusalem, 
 it pleased God to accomplish the promise of send- 
 ing them the Holy Ghost. By his miraculous 
 power they were enabled to speak in different 
 languages to the multitude then assembled at 
 Jerusalem from different nations ; so that every 
 one heard, in his own tongue, the wonderful 
 works of God. Peter delivered to the multitude 
 an impressive discourse, in which he charged the 
 Jews with having crucified the Lord of glory ; 
 but added, that God had raised Him from the 
 dead, and exalted Him to his right hand, as the 
 only Lord and Christ. Upon this follow the verses 
 relating to the ordinance, and descriptive of the 
 subjects of it. 
 
 Acts ii. 37 — 47. Now when they heard this, they were 
 pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest 
 of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do ? Then 
 Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of 
 you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins; 
 and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost : for the pro- 
 mise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are 
 
TO BAPTISM. 55 
 
 afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Then 
 they that gladly received his word, were baptized; and the 
 same day there were added unto them about three thousand 
 souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' 
 doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in 
 prayers; praising Grod, and having favor with all the people. 
 And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be 
 saved. 
 
 Here we must observe, how the apostle Peter 
 obeys Ms Lord's direction in the Commission, He 
 begins by preaching, and said not a word about 
 baptism, till he found some of his hearers evidently 
 answering the character, "he that believeth." 
 Hence, the persons who were baptized are thus 
 described, — 1. Their hearts were deeply pene- 
 trated by the truths they heard, so that they cried, 
 " What shall we do ?" 2. They were exhorted to 
 repent of their sins. 3. They at length ''gladly 
 received the word,^^ and thereon were baptized, 
 and added to the Church. 4. They afterwards 
 continued steadfast in the doctrine of the gospel, 
 and in the practice of its duties. Not a word 
 of this will apply to infants. 
 
 There is, however, one clause in the 39th verse 
 of the above Scriptures, " The promise is to you, 
 and to your children,''^ which is commonly urged in 
 favor of infant baptism ; as if the apostle alluded 
 to some promise, on the ground of which, infant 
 children were deemed proper subjects of Christian 
 
56 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 baptism. To answer which, let the three following 
 things to be considered : — 
 
 1. The promise, to which the apostle alludes, 
 has no relation to infant children, it being the 
 promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost, joined with 
 its effects, of which infants are incapable. The 
 reader will observe that the people, on this occa- 
 sion, were astonished at the effects produced by 
 the gift of the Spirit. The apostle assures them, 
 verses 16 — 18, that it was the fulfillment of the 
 prophecy of Joel, which prophecy is thus ex- 
 pressed, Joel ii. 28 : "I will pour out my Spirit 
 upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters 
 shall prophecy, etc. The apostle having de- 
 livered an impressive discourse, observing his 
 hearers deeply affected and amazed at the gifts 
 of the Spirit, in order to turn their amazement 
 into hope and joy, refers them a second time to 
 this promise, and to their own interest in it, in 
 the following words, verses 38, 39, "Repent, etc., 
 and you yourselves shall receive the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost ; for, by this I assure you of it, the 
 promise is to you and to your children." JS'ow, 
 as the gift of the Spirit, with his miraculous 
 powers, is the object of the promise, and as infant 
 children are incapable of that gift, children in 
 infancy cannot be intended. Thus the following 
 learned Paedobaptists : — 
 
TO BAPTISM. 57 
 
 Dr. Whitby. " These words will not prove a right of in- 
 fants to receive baptism ; the promise here being that only 
 of the Holy Ghost, mentioned in verses 16, 17, 18, and so 
 relating only to the times of the miraculous effusion of the 
 Holy Ghost, and to those persons who, by age, were capable 
 of these extraordinary gifts." Annotations on the place. 
 
 Dr. Doddridge. ''The promise is to you and to your 
 children. Considering that the gift of the Spirit had been 
 mentioned just before, it seems most natural to interpret this 
 as a reference to that passage, in Joel, which had been so 
 largely recited above, verse 17, etc., where God promises the 
 effusion of the Spirit, on their sons and their daughters." 
 Fam. Expos. Note on the place. 
 
 2. The word in the original, tsxva, rendered 
 children, signifies posterity ; and does not neces- 
 sarily imply infancy. 
 
 Dr. Hammond. " If any have made use of that very un- 
 concludent argument, [referring to this passage. Acts ii. 39,] 
 I have nothing to say in defence of them. — The word children 
 there is really the posterity of the Jews, and not peculiarly 
 their infant children." Works, Vol. I. 
 
 LiMBORCH, a learned divine of Amsterdam. "By rsKva the 
 apostle understands, not infants, but posterity; in which sig- 
 nification the word occurs in many places of the New Testa- 
 ment; see, among others, John viii. 39. "If ye were 
 Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham." 
 Whence it appears, that the argument, which is very com- 
 monly taken from this passage for the baptism of infants, is 
 o£ no force, and good for nothing." Comment, in loc. 
 
 3. The words of the apostle immediately follow- 
 ing, explain his own meaning in the most decisive 
 terms : " The promise is to you, and to your 
 
58 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 children, and to all that are afar off, even to as 
 many as the Lord our God shall call,''^ — "to as 
 many of you and your children, and the Gentiles 
 afar off, as God should call by his word and Spirit 
 to this great privilege." 
 
 Matthew Henry. "To this general^ the following limi- 
 tation must refer, eveyi as many of them, as many particular 
 persons in each nation, as the Lord our God shall call effect- 
 ually into the fellowship of Jesus Christ/' Exjiosition of the 
 place. 
 
 Inference — From the whole, it appears most 
 evident, that none were, in this case, encouraged 
 to hope for Christian baptism, but such as gave 
 evidence of being called effectually by grace ; and 
 none were in fact baptized, but such as " gladly 
 received the word." So far, the word of God is 
 our plain guide. 
 
 II. — Philip Baptizing at Samaria. 
 
 Acts viii. 5 — 13. Then Philip went down to the city of 
 Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people 
 with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip 
 spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. And 
 there was great joy in the city. But when they believed 
 Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, 
 and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men 
 and women. Then Simon himself believed also; and when 
 he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, 
 beholding the miracles and signs which were done. 
 
TO BAPTISM. 09 
 
 In this instance, as in the former, the Commis- 
 sion of Christ is strictly obeyed. Philip began 
 his work by preaching Christ to them ; and when 
 they had heard the doctrines and saw the miracles, 
 they were filled with joy. !N'ot a word about bap- 
 tizing till some of the people "believed" the 
 things concerning Jesus Christ ; then " they were 
 baptized, both men and women." 
 
 ;N'ow, if it were the will of Christ that infants 
 should be baptized, and it were true that the 
 apostles, like Psedobaptist missionaries among 
 the Heathen,* were accustomed to baptize chil- 
 dren together with the parents ; then, if any of 
 those " men and women" at Samaria had children, 
 which surely is highly probable, Philip must have 
 
 * In the accounts we are often receiving from Psedobaptist mission- 
 aries among the heathen, our brethren naturally inform us of the 
 children, as well as the adults, they baptize. For example, in the 
 <' Missionary Register" for the year 1821, a Report from South Africa, 
 states — "During the year 1819, twenty adults and twenty-one children 
 were baptized." A missionary in Western Africa, states — " September 
 8d, Sunday— I preached, and then baptized twenty-three adults and 
 three infants." Nov. 29th,— "On the first Sunday of this mouth I 
 baptized thirty-four adults and their children ; forty-eight in all." 
 
 Rev. C. Mault writes from Nagercoil, East Indies : " Last month I 
 baptized five adults and four children." Kev. C. Barfif writes from 
 Huahine, South Sea Islands : " Thirty were added to the Church during 
 our visit, and a number baptized. Among those baptized were sixteen 
 infants." Missionary Chronicle, for November, 1826. 
 
 Are not such accounts quite natural where infant baptism prevails? 
 And why is there a perfect silence throughout the history of apostolical 
 labors on this subject? Their practice surely was not the same. 
 
60 SCEJPTURE GUTDS 
 
 baptized them ; but, had he baptized men, women, 
 and children, is it to be imagined that the inspired 
 historian, writing, as he says, " of all that Jesus 
 began to do and to teach," and "having had per- 
 fect understanding of all things from the very- 
 first ;" and his avowed design being that his 
 reader "might know the certainty of things;" is 
 it to be imagined that he would particularize the 
 two, out of the three descriptions of the baptized, 
 and omit the third ? This I conceive impossible ; 
 and therefore draw this — 
 
 Inference. — When the evangelist states, "they 
 were baptized, both men and women," had infants 
 also been baptized, he must have added, to have 
 completed the record of the circumstance, "and 
 children ;" but not making that natural and ne- 
 cessary addition, I infer, that "men and women" 
 only were baptized ; that no infants received the 
 ordinance with them ; and therefore, that the 
 practice of infant baptism at that time did not 
 exist. 
 
 III. — The Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch. 
 
 The eunuch described in the eighth chapter 
 of the Acts of the Apostles, was a person of high' 
 authority in the kingdom of Ethiopia, but, it would 
 seem, a proselyte to the Jewish religion. He is 
 
TO BAPTISM. 61 
 
 here returning from Jerusalem. Philip is directed 
 to meet him in his way. He found the eunuch 
 reading, as he proceeded in his chariot, the pro- 
 phet Isaiah, chap. liii. T, " He was led as a sheep 
 to the slaughter, " etc. He is desirous that Philip 
 should explain to him, Whether the prophet, in 
 that place, spake of himself or of some other ? 
 and he took him up into his chariot for that pur- 
 pose : upon which the evangelist adds :-^— 
 
 Acts viii. 35 — 39. Then Philip opened his mouth, and 
 began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. 
 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain 
 water : and the eunuch said. See here is water ; what doth 
 hinder me to be baptized ? And Philip said. If thou believest 
 with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and 
 Said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he 
 commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down 
 both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he 
 baptized him. And when they were come up out of the 
 water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, . and 
 the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way 
 rejoicing. 
 
 My reader will not need to be reminded of the 
 Commission of his Redeemer, after perusing these 
 verses. We have here a plain example of the 
 practice of the apostles, before they admitted a 
 person to baptism. Philip might have deemed the 
 eunuch, after having heard the gospel, a proper 
 subject for baptism, by being directed from heaven 
 to teach him, — he might have inferred it also, 
 6 
 
62 SCRIPTUilE GUIDE 
 
 from his sincere request of it ; yet he does not, he 
 dares not, baptize him, until he openly profess to 
 "believe with all his heart;" remembering, no 
 doubt, that Christ had appointed the ordinance 
 for such, and for such only. Nothing can de- 
 monstrate more clearly than this that a declara- 
 tion of faith was indispensably required previous 
 to baptism. 
 
 Those who contend, that servants and children 
 were all baptized in those days, with, and on ac- 
 count of, their masters and parents, would find it 
 difficult to support their hypothesis in this case. 
 It is the greatest absurdity to suppose that Philip 
 would admit the eunuch's servants to baptism, 
 without any profession, or even instruction, when 
 he would object to the pious master, after he re- 
 quested it, unless he was able to give a frank and 
 open profession of faith in Christ. But he bap- 
 tized none but the eunuch ; and therefore we may 
 safely conclude, the apostles had '' no such custom, 
 neither the churches of God." 
 
 We have, in this case, the circumstances at- 
 tending the administration of baptism more 
 minutely described than in any other instance 
 recorded in the New Testament. The reader is 
 requested to observe the following things : — 
 
 1. If sprinkling or pouring were the mode of 
 baptism ordained by Christ, and practised by the 
 
TO BAPTISM. 63 
 
 apostles, we are assured, by the best authority, 
 that travelers through those deserts never omitted 
 to furnish themselves with vessels of water for 
 their journeys ; that this provision was absolutely 
 necessary ; and, if so, the eunuch had all that 
 was required for the ordinance, without waiting 
 till they came to a place of water. See Dr. 
 Doddridge, as hereafter cited, and Dr. Shaw's 
 Travels, as referred to by him. 
 
 2. We are here, however, informed, verse 36, 
 that they proceeded on their journey till ''they 
 came" sTtc ad. "unto a certain water." And it 
 appears that it was the sight of this place of 
 water, that suggested to the eunuch his imme- 
 diate submission to the ordinance. '' See, here 
 is water ; what doth hinder me to be baptized ?" 
 How unmeaning would this be if he had at hand 
 the requisite water before ! 
 
 3. If we admit that the eunuch was not pre- 
 viously provided with water, now when they were 
 "come to a water," it would have been easy, and 
 natural to be expected, for one of the attendants 
 to have conveyed to him as much water as was 
 required, without his, or Philip's proceeding 
 farther. But, though "he commanded the chariot 
 to stand still," no command is given upon this 
 point, — of bringing water to him. But, 
 
 4. Leaving the chariot, verse 38, "they went 
 
64 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 down INTO the water ;" si? to vSoip, in aquam. 
 Here the reader will remark, It was not sufficient 
 to come to the water, which we are often told is 
 all that the original means, for this they had done 
 before ; but here is a second circumstance, — after 
 they had come to it, they went down into it. 
 
 5. The inspired historian also adds, that it was 
 not the eunuch alone that went into the water, 
 but "they went down both ;" and this is repeated 
 again, as if to make doubting on this subject im- 
 possible, "both Philip and the eunuch." Such 
 was the mode of baptism ordained by the Son 
 of God, that it could not, in this case, be admin- 
 istered unless Philip attended the eunuch into the 
 water. And 
 
 6. While in this situation, both of them in the 
 water, and surrounded therewith, "he baptized 
 him;" that is, if the word be translated, "he 
 immersed him," in the name of the Tri-une 
 Jehovah. For this solemn act, the circumstances 
 before noticed were necessary ; but for any other 
 mode they would be absurd. 
 
 T. The sacred rite being performed, it is lastly 
 added, " when they were come up, ix tov vbato^ 
 out op the water," they were parted asunder; 
 probably to meet no more till they should enter 
 the presence of Him to whom they now rendered 
 this act of prompt and cheerful obedience. 
 
TO BAPTISM. 65 
 
 It is not easy to imagine how the mode of this 
 sacred ordinance could be more minutely de- 
 scribed. That we have here an example of im- 
 mersion is allowed by the learned and candid 
 of all denominations. 
 
 Dr. Towerson. " For what need would there have been 
 of Philip and the eunuch going down into this [water], were 
 it not that the baptism was to be performed by immersion ; 
 a very little water, as we know it doth with us, sufficing for 
 an effusion or sprinkling." Poed. Exam. 
 
 Calvin, in his comment on this place, observes, "Here 
 we perceive how baptism was administered among the 
 ancients, for they immersed the whole body in water." 
 
 Dr. Doddridge. "They both went down to the water. 
 Considering how frequently bathing was used in these hot 
 countries, it is not to be wondered that baptism was gene- 
 rally administered by immersion, though I see no proof that 
 it was essential to the institution. It would be very un- 
 natural to suppose, that they went down to the water merely 
 that Philip might take a little water in his hand to pour on 
 the eunuch. A person of his dignity had, no doubt, many 
 vessels in his baggage, on such a journey, through a desert 
 country; a precaution absolutely necessary for travelers in 
 those parts, and never omitted by them. — See Dr. Shaw's 
 Tro.veh, Preface. Fam. Expos. Kote in loc. See numerous 
 other authors in Booth's Peed. Exam. 
 
 Inference. — If I find one evident proof of the 
 mode of baptism, as it was observed in the days 
 of the apostles, whatever that mode may be, I 
 infer that I have ascertained what was their in- 
 variable practice. Because it cannot be imagined 
 that the apostles, having probably witnessed, and 
 6* 
 
66 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 certainly knowing well, the mode by which the 
 Lord Jesus was baptized, and having all received 
 the same instructions from their Lord and Master, 
 could be divided either in sentiment or practice. 
 And if immersion be proved in one case, and from 
 thence it be granted that Jesus was thus baptized, 
 and that He commanded the ordinance thus to be 
 administered, would not the amiable and pious 
 Doddridge, who grants that "baptism was gene- 
 rally administered by immersion," allow me to 
 infer, from the authority of Christ's example and 
 command, that this mode is " essential to the in- 
 stitution ?" Here I have an instance of immer- 
 sion, as admitted and allowed by the most eminent 
 Pffidobaptists ; and from this instance, nothing 
 elsewhere teaching otherwise, I am authorized to 
 conclude, and I do it with the utmost confidence 
 and satisfaction of mind, that immersion was 
 what Christ ordained, and his obedient apostles 
 and disciples invariably practised; and conse- 
 quently, any departure from this practice, is a 
 departure from the revealed will of Christ ; and 
 such an act can be viewed in no other light than 
 an act of rebellion against his divine authority. 
 
 TV. — The Baptism of Paul. 
 Saul, while breathing out threatenings against 
 
TO BAPTISM. 6T 
 
 the disciples of Christ, is met, in his career of per- 
 secution, by the Lord himself, at whose exceeding 
 glory he falls prostrate on the ground. Ananias, 
 a devout disciple, is directed of God to go to him, 
 and teach him what he is to do ; and for his en- 
 couragement in visiting the persecutor, he is 
 informed that Saul was praying, and that God 
 had made him a chosen vessel to Himself. 
 
 Acts ix. 17. And Ananias went his way, and entered into 
 the house; and putting his hands on him, said. Brother Sanl, 
 the Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as 
 thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy 
 sight, and he filled with the Holy Ghost. Chap. xxii. 14 — 16. 
 And he said, the God of our Fathers hath chosen thee, that 
 thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and 
 shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt he his 
 witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And 
 now why tarriest thou ? arise, and he haptized, and wash 
 away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Chap. ix. 
 18. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been 
 scales ; and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was 
 baptized. 
 
 The promptitude of Ananias in baptizing Saul, 
 "who also is called Paul," as soon as he had re- 
 ceived the message from his Saviour, and the 
 restoration of his sight, shows how strictly and 
 promptly this ordinance was observed in the days 
 of the apostles ; and, consequently, how it should 
 be observed to the end of time. Paul is exhorted 
 to arise, and be baptized, and wash away his sins, 
 
68 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 etc. He was to arise, and yield obedience to the 
 command of Christ in baptism, and, at the same 
 time that his body received the washing of water, 
 he was to "call on the name of the Lord," that 
 his soul might be washed and purified by being, 
 through faith, bathed in the "fountain opened for 
 sin." This spiritual purification, immersion in 
 vjater would strikingly represent. Thus some 
 of our eminent poets — 
 
 Milton. — " Them who shall believe 
 
 Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign 
 Of washing them from guilt of sin to life 
 Pure, and in mind prepared, if so befal. 
 For death, like that which the Redeemer died." 
 Paradise Lost, book xiL 
 
 CowPER. — '' There is a fountain filled with blood, 
 Drawn from Immanuel's veins ; 
 And sinners 2:)lunged beneath that flood, 
 Lose all their guilty stains." 
 
 In these instances we have the spiritual design 
 of the ordinance very plainly referred to. " The 
 meaning is not," says an excellent writer, "as 
 if remission of sins were obtained by baptism ; 
 but that, by means of the ordinance, they might 
 be led to the sufferings, death, and bloodshed of 
 Christ, represented in it. " 
 
 All our three inquiries are answered in the 
 baptism of this illustrious man. 1. Respecting 
 the Person to be baptized, — Paul was a Believer 
 
TO BAPTISM. 69 
 
 in Christ. 2. To the Mode, — he himself refers 
 when speaking of his baptism, and that of others, 
 comparing it to a burial ; " Therefore we are 
 buried with him by baptism." Rom. vi. 4 ; and, 
 3. The Spiritual Design is to represent a wash- 
 ing away of sin, obtained in " calling on the name 
 of the Lord." 
 
 Y. — The Baptism of Cornelius and his Friends. 
 
 The next instance records the baptism of the 
 first Gentiles received into the Christian Church. 
 Cornelius was " a devout man, and one that 
 feared God, with all his house." He is directed 
 from Heaven to send for Peter the apostle ; and 
 previous to his coming, he called together his 
 kinsmen and near friends. The apostle having 
 taught them the leading doctrines of the gospel, 
 concludes by repeating what Christ had commis- 
 sioned his apostles to do as their first and chief 
 work, and the testimony of the prophets concern- 
 ing Him, in the two first verses below ; after 
 which we have the introduction of the ordinance. 
 
 Acts X. 42 — 48. And He commanded us to preach unto the 
 people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God 
 to be the Judge of quick and dead. To Him gave all the pro- 
 phets witness, that, through his name, whosoever belie veth 
 in Him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake 
 these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the 
 
70 SCEIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 word. And they of the circumcision which believed, were 
 astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the 
 Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. 
 For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. 
 Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these 
 should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost 
 as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in 
 the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry cer- 
 tain days. 
 
 The order of the Commission is here also ob- 
 served. Peter began by preaching; and not a 
 word of baptism is heard, till the people had 
 heard the gospel, and had given certain evidences 
 of their conversion. Then, and not till then, 
 Peter pleads for their baptism ; and what should 
 be particularly observed, he pleads for it upon 
 the ground of their being, most evidently, true 
 believers, and as having received the Holy Ghost. 
 His language, in verse 47, implies, that if they did 
 not appear to be regenerate persons, any one 
 might object to their baptism ; but, as they had 
 given evidences that could not be disputed, he 
 infers, no one could deny the propriety of their 
 being baptized. Accordingly, 
 
 De. Holland had infallible authority for his observation. 
 "In the first plantation of Christianity among the Gentiles, 
 such only as were of full age, after they were instructed in 
 the principles of the Christian religion, were admitted to 
 baptism." In Br. Wall's Hist. Inf. Bapt. Vol. II. 
 
 As to the manner in which those persons were 
 
TO BAPTISM. Tl 
 
 baptized, nothing is said of it by tlie sacred his- 
 torian, beyond the simple fact. It has been sug- 
 gested, however, that Peter, by the words, " Can 
 any man forbid water," intimates that he required 
 a little water to be brought to him, in a cup or 
 basin, for the purpose of sprinkling ; but the 
 apostle neither speaks of little or much water, nor 
 about bringing it, but simply of water, and, no 
 doubt, he intended as much as the ordinance re- 
 quired. It is most improper to form conjectures 
 upon inconclusiYe statements of Scripture, against 
 that which, by other Scriptures, is evidently con- 
 firmed and established. When persons are said 
 to be baptized, we are bound to infer that they 
 were baptized accordiug to the pattern and 
 authority of Christ. This I conclude was the 
 case in this, and in every other instance. 
 
 It is highly improbable, indeed, that Peter, 
 receiving a cup of water, would command others 
 to baptize, as he might himself administer in the 
 same time that he was giving the instructions to 
 another ; and I should certainly think he would 
 prefer doing so on so interesting an occasion, 
 when the first fruits of the Gentile world were to 
 be received into the Church. Instead of this, he 
 assigns that office to some other person. To me, 
 the idea of any man, servant or visitor, forbidding 
 a cup of water to be brought, for the use of the 
 
T2 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 master of the house, at this interesting time, is 
 most absurd, and never could have entered the 
 apostle's mind. The meaning, I think, certainly 
 is, Can any man forbid the use of water for the 
 baptism of those persons to whom God has given, 
 what is infinitely more important, the baptism of 
 the Holy Ghost ? In other words, Can any one 
 forbid their baptism ? 
 
 YI. — The Baptism of Lydia and her Household. 
 
 The three following instances, as they relate to 
 households, are commonly urged in favor of infant 
 baptism ; and, indeed, as being the principal sup- 
 port of that practice in the New Testament. The 
 reader will, therefore, the more particularly ex- 
 amine the Scriptures in reference to the persons 
 that constituted the households, and if he find 
 recorded the baptism of one infant, or any thing 
 in the text which evidently indicates it, he will 
 consider the point as settled in favor of infant 
 baptism ; but, if the texts do not contain such an 
 indication of infants, but describe the baptized 
 households as consisting of persons arrived at the 
 years of understanding, and so capable of hearing 
 and believing the gospel, — and especially if what 
 is recorded implies that they actually did hear 
 and believe, then it must be granted, that 
 
TO BAPTISM. T3 
 
 believers' baptism receives all the support these 
 instances afford. The first is of Lydia and her 
 household. 
 
 Paul, whose baptism we have already considered, 
 was now become an apostle of Christ. He with 
 Silas, and probably Luke, the writer of this his- 
 tory, were commissioned from heaven to proceed 
 to Macedonia, and to Philippi, a chief city of it, to 
 preach the gospel. Having arrived, they began 
 their work in the following way, and with the fol- 
 lowing success : — 
 
 Acts xvi. 13 — :15, 40. And on the Sabbath we went out 
 of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; 
 and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted 
 thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a t^eller of pur- 
 ple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard 
 us : whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the 
 things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was bap- 
 tized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have 
 judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, 
 and abide there. And she constrained us. And tbey, [that 
 is, Paul and Silas, who afterward had been imprisoned at 
 Philippi,] went out of the prison, and entered into the house 
 of Lydia,* and when they had seen the brethren, they com- 
 forted them, and departed. 
 
 Lydia, herself, it is evident, had a right to be 
 baptized, according to the order of Jesus Christ, 
 being a believer. But of what, does it appear 
 from- the text, did her household consist ? of chil- 
 dren or grown persons ? Before we answer this 
 
74 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 question, we observe, there are four things which 
 a Paedobaptist must admit and take for granted, 
 before he can urge this place in his favor ; but 
 if he can prove none of them, his argument, to 
 use the learned Limborch's phrase, "is good for 
 nothing." 
 
 1. That Lydia had, at this time, or lately, a 
 husband. 
 
 2. That she had children, and children then in 
 infancy. 
 
 3. That these children were with her at Philippi. 
 
 4. That such children were actually baptized. 
 The whole of these admissions I strongly ques- 
 tion ; for — 
 
 The first is improbable; for, had she a hus- 
 band, she was not likely to be thus engaged in 
 business : and especially as no mention is made 
 of him, though the apostles were repeatedly at 
 her house. 
 
 The second is uncertain; because there are 
 thousands of households in which there are no 
 infant children. 
 
 The third is incredible ; for if, as the text in- 
 dicates, Lydia was come from Thyatira, a journey, 
 including both sea and land, of probably not less 
 than three hundred miles, on business, it is not to 
 be believed she would bring young children with 
 her, if she had any. 
 
TO BAPTISM. 75 
 
 The fourth is inconclusive ; because the word 
 "household" or liouse is used in Scripture when 
 the whole of the family is not included, but the 
 principal part only. See 1 Sam. i. 21, 22. 
 
 The argument, therefore, for infant baptism, 
 grounded upon the baptism of Lydia's household, 
 is extremely weak, as there is no evidence she had 
 either husband or children ; and certainly before 
 any such practice can from this be supported, as 
 an ordinance of the Is'ew Testament, it ought 
 to be undeniably proved from the text, that she 
 had infant children, and that they were actually 
 baptized. 
 
 Should it be replied, in favor of infant baptism, 
 that Lydia at this time was probably a resident 
 at Philippi, although originally from Thyatira, 
 and that consequently her infant children must be 
 with her, — this I would answer, by asking. Must 
 not then her husband be with her ? But this 
 evidently was not the case, for — if Lydia had a 
 husband with her, he surely must be one of the 
 "household," — if he were one included in this 
 household, he must have been baptized, because 
 the household was, — if he were baptized and joined 
 in the same union with Paul and Silas as Lydia, 
 would she say, " Come into my house ?" or would 
 Luke say "they entered into the house of Lydia,''"' 
 supposing there was a believing husband at the 
 
16 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 head of the family ? Impossible. The language 
 employed by the inspired historian evidently im- 
 plies, a single female at the head of a house, and 
 at the head of a business : and the fair conclusion 
 is, that her household were her servants ; or, if her 
 children, that her husband was deceased, and her 
 children so far advanced in life as to join her in 
 her journey, her business, and her worship ; and 
 thus they would be capable of instruction, faith, 
 and baptism, as Christ commanded ; and as is in 
 effect plainly stated of the household in the next 
 section. 
 
 But, more satisfactory to the pious reader than 
 a thousand groundless surmises, the question of 
 Lydia's household may be answered, with the 
 greatest probability, from the last verse above 
 cited. Paul and Silas, being delivered from prison, 
 and quitting the jailor^s house and family, ac- 
 cording to his own request, verse 34, 36, they 
 " entered into the house of Lydia ;" and the reader 
 will observe, this was the only other Christian 
 house in the city, and in this family the only other 
 persons baptized ; and here, undoubtedly, they 
 would meet with her '' household" which they had 
 baptized. Having entered, we read, " when they 
 had seen tJie brethren, they comforted them, and 
 departed." If then Lydia's household be deno- 
 minated "brethren," and were capable of being 
 
TO BAPTISM. Tt 
 
 " comforted" by the word, tliej must have been 
 believers in Christ. 
 
 Dr. Whitby seems to consider this unquestionable. "And 
 when she, and those of her household, loere instructed in the 
 Christian faith, and in the nature of baptism required by it, 
 she was baptized and her household." Paraphrase on the 
 place. 
 
 LiMBORCH. " An undoubted argument, therefore, cannot 
 be drawn from this instance, by which it may be demonstrated 
 that infants were baptized by the apostles. It might be that 
 all in her house were of a mature agej who, as in the exer- 
 cise of a right understanding they believed, so they were able 
 to make a public profession of that faith when they received 
 baptism." Comment in loc. 
 
 Mr. T. Lawson, referring to this argument, says, "Families 
 may be without children; they may be grown up, etc. So it 
 is a wild inference to ground infant baptism upon." Baptis- 
 malogia. 
 
 Assembly of Divines. "0/ tJie city of Thyatira. — A 
 city of Asia — here dwelt Lydia, that devout servant of God," 
 ''And entered into the house of Lydia: doubtless to confirm 
 them in the faith which they had preached to them. — Lydia 
 and HERS, hearing of their miraculous deliverance, could not 
 but be comforted and confirmed in the truth." Annot. on Acts 
 xvi. 14, 40. 
 
 The place at which Lydia was taught and bap- 
 tized must have been remarkably convenient for 
 immersion. The people were " by a river side," 
 verse 1 3, and at a place frequented by the Jews 
 for religious purification by washing in the water. 
 Thus— 
 t* 
 
"78 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 Dr. Doddridge. " On the Sabbath day we went out of 
 
 the city to the side of the river Strymon, where, according to 
 the custom of the Jews, there was an oratory, or a place of 
 public prayer." — "It is certain that the Jews had a custom 
 of building their oratories or proseuchas, or places of public 
 prayer, by the sea-side, or near rivers, for the sake of purifi- 
 cation." Fam. Expos, on the place. 
 
 Joseph John Gurnet. ''Although the baptism practised 
 by John, and by the apostles, did not, in all its circum- 
 stances, resemble those Jewish washings to which I have 
 now adverted; yet it was precisely similar to them in that 
 main particular of immersion in water." Obaerv. on the Pecul. 
 of Friends. 
 
 Inference. — If the inspired word which records 
 the baptism of Lydia and her household and sub- 
 sequently refers to them, is to be my only guide 
 upon the inquiries before us, I must infer, " that 
 they were all believers in Jesus, and were bap- 
 tized as their Saviour ordained." ♦ 
 
 YII. — The Baptism of the Fhilippian Jailor 
 and Household. 
 
 Paul and Silas, having been cast into prison at 
 Philippi, were delivered from their confinement at 
 midnight, by the miraculous interposition of God. 
 An earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, 
 the doors of it were opened, and the prisoners' 
 bands loosed. The jailor, suspecting the escape of 
 the prisoners, drew his sword to destroy himself, 
 
TO BAPTISM^ t9 
 
 but which Paul prevented by assuring him the 
 prisoners were all there. Then follow his con- 
 version and baptism : — 
 
 Acts xvi. 29 — 34. Then he called for a light, and sprang 
 in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 
 and brought them out, and said. Sirs, what must I do to be 
 saved ? And they said. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake 
 unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his 
 house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and 
 washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, 
 straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, 
 he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with 
 all his house. 
 
 Here observe, 1. The jailor bringing Paul and 
 Silas out of the prison, being persuaded that they 
 were the servants of the true Grod, and were now 
 delivered by his power from their unjust and 
 cruel punishment ; and, deeply convinced, at the 
 same time, of his own guilt and danger, urges 
 them to tell him what he should do to be saved ? 
 To this greatest of questions, he received a direct 
 answer: ''Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 thou shalt be saved, and thy house. " It is pro- 
 bable that the jailor's family, alarmed at this 
 awful event, ran to his assistance, as they would 
 consider his life imminently in danger, both by 
 the prisoners in order to escape, and especially 
 by the law, if any had fled. Hence Paul indi- 
 
80 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 rectly spake to the whole, Believe, and thou shalt 
 be saved, yea, and thy house too, in the same 
 way. 
 
 Dr. Doddridge. " Thou shalt he saved and thine hovse. 
 The meaning cannot be that the eternal salvation of his 
 family could be secured by his faith y but that, if they also 
 themselves believed, they should be entitled to the same 
 spiritual and everlasting blessings with himself; which Paul 
 might the rather add, as it is probable that many of them, 
 under this terrible alarm, might have attended the master of 
 the family into the dungeon." Fam. Expos. Note on the 
 place. 
 
 2. "We may next learn from the text, in the 
 most satisfactory manner, of what the jailor's 
 household consisted ; that they were not infants, 
 or persons so young as to be incapable of being 
 taught the gospel, and of believing it; for thus 
 we read, verse 32, " They spake unto him the 
 word of the Lord, and to all that were in his 
 house.''^ This household is instructed, instructed 
 ALL, and then baptized. Infants, therefore, can- 
 not be here included. 
 
 3. Luke further describes the jailor and his 
 household, and shows thereby how the Lord's 
 commission was still strictly obeyed. Paul and 
 Silas first preached the gospel to the whole 
 house, as observed above ; and now we read, 
 verse 34, the jailor "rejoiced, believing in God, 
 with all his house." Then it follows he had 
 
TO BAPTISM. 81 
 
 no infant children, or those words cannot include 
 them, for of this faith they would be incapable. 
 
 Matthew Henry says, "The voice of rejoicing, with that 
 of salvation, was heard in the jailor's house, He rejoiced be- 
 lieving in God, with all Ms house: there was none in his house 
 that refused to be baptized, and so made a jar in the harmony, 
 but they were unanimous in embracing the gospel, which added 
 much to the joy." JExjios. on the place. 
 
 Calvin. "Luke commends the pious zeal of the jailor, 
 because he dedicated his whole house to the Lordj in which, 
 also, the grace of God illustriously appeared, because it sud- 
 denly brought the whole family to a pious consent. Cora- 
 ment. in loc. 
 
 Inference. — As the same pre-requisitesto bap- 
 tism are here specified in relation to the jailor's 
 family as to himself, namely, 1st, that the word 
 of the Lord was spoken to them as to him ; and, 
 2d, that he and they equally believed in God 5 I 
 must, on inspired authority, conclude that we 
 have here nothing more nor less than a plain ex- 
 ample of a believing household baptized, the whole 
 being equally disciples of Christ ; and as to the 
 mode, that it was what the Lord sanctioned by his 
 example and command, a,nd nothing different 
 therefrom. 
 
 Some, in opposing the practice of immersion, 
 have imagined great difficulties in this case. 
 They cannot conceive where the jailor could find 
 a suitable place, and especially in the night, to 
 
82 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 receive tlie ordinance in this form. It is not for 
 us, at this distance of time, to state the place, as 
 the sacred historian has not done so. The Scrip- 
 tures affirm that " he and his were baptized :" 
 what do these words mean ? We reply from the 
 sense of the word, and from the other scriptures, 
 "they were immersed in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus. " Then it falls to the part of our oppo- 
 nents to prove that they were not baptized in this 
 way. These imagined difficulties have not a par- 
 ticle of weight upon the mind that admits that 
 Christ's authority was Paul's only guide. It may 
 not be improper, however, to remind the reader 
 how exceedingly common the practice of cold 
 bathing was, and still is, in the East. That. fre- 
 quent bathing was usual among the Grecians, 
 Romans, and now is in Turkey, in which country 
 this city Philippi stood, is testified by 
 
 Lord Bacon. "It is strange that the use of bathing, as a 
 part of diet, is left. With the Romans and Grecians it was 
 as usual as eating or sleeping,- and so it is amongst the 
 Turks at this day." In Stennet'a Anstoer to Addington. 
 
 Grotius, the most learned and best informed 
 man in Europe in his time, held it highly pro- 
 bable, from the practice of the country, that the 
 jail at Philippi was provided with baths [as is 
 now the case in Calcutta] which would admit 
 of the ordinance in this form without delay. All 
 
TO BAPTISM. 83 
 
 I contend for is, that if immersion was Christ's 
 baptism, the apostles never violated his will in 
 their practice. 
 
 YIII. — Paul haptizing at Corinth. 
 
 The next instance is the baptism of several 
 persons at Corinth, where we now find the same 
 apostle exerting himself to the utmost for the 
 spread of the Messiah's kingdom. Here, though 
 many opposed themselves and blasphemed, jet he 
 zealously persevered, and his labors were crowned 
 with success ; for thus we read : — 
 
 Acts xviii. 4 — 8. And he reasoned in the synagogue every 
 Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when 
 Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was 
 pressed in the Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was 
 Christ. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the Synagogue, be- 
 lieved on the Lord with all his house: and n^any of the 
 Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized. 
 
 A church being formed in this place, Paul 
 afterwards writes them two epistles. In the first 
 of these he laments the unhappy divisions that 
 prevailed amongst them, in contending for differ- 
 ent ministers, as if they had so many Saviours, 
 and had been baptized in their separate names. 
 Upon which he reasons : — 
 
 1 Cor. i. 13—17. Is Christ divided ? was Paul crucified for 
 you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul ? I thank God 
 
84 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 tliat I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius. Lest 
 any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. And 
 I baptized also the household of Stephanus : besides, I know 
 not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to 
 baptize, but to preach the gospel. 
 
 Chap. xvi. 15. Ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is 
 the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted them- 
 selves to the ministry of the saints. 
 
 Paul, at Corinth, as at all other places, begins 
 his work by " testifying" to the people " the things 
 concerning Jesus Christ," and by teaching, not 
 by baptizing, he makes disciples to Christ. He 
 continued his labors at Corinth a year and six 
 months, in which time, "many hearing" his 
 preaching, "believed, and were baptized." He 
 himself baptized but few, namely, Crispus, Gaius, 
 and the household of Stephanas ; and in this he 
 afterwards rejoiced, as none of them, in their 
 angry contentions and excessive partiality, could 
 say, "they were of Paul, for Paul baptized them, 
 and that in his own name ;" for, he adds, the first 
 and chief work for which Christ sent him was, 
 "not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." 
 
 It is not said, the household of Crispus were 
 baptized, though, had it been so, it is certain 
 they were proper subjects of the ordinance, 
 agreeably to the words of the institution ; for he 
 " believed on the Lord, with all his house.''^ Their 
 
TO BAPTISM. 85 
 
 baptism, if obedient to Christ, was a matter of 
 course. 
 
 The persons who composed "the house of Ste- 
 phanas," the last household said to be baptized, 
 are not described where their baptism is recorded ; 
 and had nothing, in any other place, been said of 
 them, this would have been the only house left in 
 such uncertainty ; but, as if it were the design of 
 the Holy Spirit to leave no room for dispute, as 
 to the proper persons to receive the ordinances 
 of Christ, we find this family also described at the 
 end of the epistle, as cited above : they were the 
 "first fruits" of the word of God in Achaia, and 
 " they addicted themselves to the ministry of the 
 saints." They were the first Christian converts 
 in their district, and they exerted themselves in 
 acts of zeal and charity in reference to their 
 fellow, but poorer, or more afilicted disciples ; and 
 hence, we scarcely need add, could not be infant 
 children. 
 
 Dr. Doddridge. " They have set themselves, etc. This 
 seems to imply, that it was the generous care of the -whole 
 family to assist their fellow Christians; so that there was 
 not a member of it which did not do its part." Fam. Expos. 
 Note on the place. 
 
 Dr. Guise. "It therefore seems that the family of Ste- 
 phanas were all adult believers, and so were baptized on 
 their own personal profession of faith in Christ." On the 
 place. 
 
86 SCRIPTURE GXriDE 
 
 Dr. Haioiond. "I think it unreasonable that the apostle'3 
 hare mention of baptizing his (Stephanas') household, should 
 be thought competent to conclude that infants were baptized 
 by him ; when it is uncertain whether there were any such at 
 all in his house." Peed. Exam. 
 
 Dr. Macknight. " The family of Stephanas seem all to 
 have been adults when they were baptized, for they are said, 
 chap. xvi. 15, to have devoted themselves to the ministry of 
 the saints." 42^o*. E2nst. Note on 1 Cor. i. 16. 
 
 We have now found the record of three house- 
 holds baptized by the apostle Paul, or Silas, his 
 companion — Lydia's, the jailor's, and Stephanas'. 
 If it were the constant practice of the apostles to 
 baptize children with their parents, as our Paedo- 
 baptist friends maintain, we should reasonably 
 have expected, and, no doubt, should have found, 
 in various places of Scripture, after naming the 
 baptism of believers, the words added, " and their 
 children," or " and their little ones," as families 
 of young children are expressed in the old Testa- 
 ment. And I infer that this must have been a 
 fact in many instances, because we find in this 
 book many thousands of adults believing and 
 being baptized, or added to the Lord. See Acts 
 ii. 41, iv. 4, V. 14, etc. Would it, then, be pro- 
 bable that three families only would be specified 
 AS FAMILIES, whilc hundreds, or, it may be, thou- 
 sands of other families, are not referred to in the 
 most distant way ? This, I conceive, next to im- 
 
TO BAPTISM. 87 
 
 possible ; and, therefore, infer that the baptism 
 of families was comparatively of rare occur- 
 rence. 
 
 But, in these three cases, we have not the words 
 "and their little ones ;" nor yet ''and their chil- 
 dren," and this expression might be used without 
 necessarily implying infants; but the term "house" 
 or "household" is used, which conveys no idea as 
 to THE AGE of the pcrsons intended ; nor whether 
 they were the children or the servants of the heads 
 of the families ; and, therefore, had nothing been 
 said descriptive of them, it would have been ex- 
 ceedingly inconclusive to have inferred a precedent 
 for infant baptism from the use of the word house- 
 hold ; because there are thousands, yea, millions 
 of families that have no infant children. The 
 writer of this volume has baptized households ; 
 and, among others, a " Lydia and her household," 
 and yet never baptized any but professed be- 
 lievers. From the word " household," therefore, 
 to infer the baptism of infants is completely beg- 
 ging the question. But, as my reader has seen, 
 there is something said of these three households, 
 which indicates the constituents of them : from 
 this it is demonstrably certain, the jailor's and 
 Stephanas' were professedly believers in Christ ; 
 for that which is said of them is of infants impos- 
 sible. And as to Lydia's, if "the brethren" Paul 
 
88 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 and Silas "comforted" in her house were her 
 household, and there were no other Christians in 
 the city but the family they had just quitted, there 
 is no more uncertainty respecting them. Thus 
 while households out of number are referred to in 
 the Scriptures, and nothing is added by which we 
 could learn of what they consisted, it has pleased 
 God to give such information of the baptized house- 
 holds as to lead the reader to infer, that they all 
 were, as the same apostle testifies of the church 
 of which Stephanas and his household were mem- 
 bers, ''called of Grod to the fellowship of his Son 
 Jesus Christ our Lord," 1 Cor. 1. 9. 
 
 The eminent Psedobaptist writers I have cited 
 candidly allow that the Scriptures, regarding these 
 households, teach nothing further upon our in- 
 quiries than what I have endeavored to make plain 
 to the reader. To his own judgment I cheerfully 
 leave the decision. 
 
 IX. — Certain Disciples at Ephesus Baptized. 
 
 This is the ninth and last place, in the Acts 
 of the Apostles, relative to our present inquiries. 
 The question whether the persons here referred to 
 were baptized twice, first with John's baptism, and 
 now Christ's, does not affect the object of our in- 
 quiries. 
 
TO BAPTISM. 89 
 
 Acts xix. 1 — 7. Paul, having passed through the upper 
 coasts, came to Ephesusj and finding certain disciples, he 
 said unto them. Hare ye received the Holy Ghost since ye 
 helieved ? And they said unto him, We have not so much as 
 heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto 
 them. Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said. 
 Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized 
 with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people. That 
 they should believe on him which should come after him, that 
 is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were bap- 
 tized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had 
 laid Ids hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; 
 and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the 
 men were about twelve. 
 
 That in the case of these persons we have an 
 example of adult baptism is clear ; for, 1. They 
 are called "disciples." 2. They "believed." 3. 
 They "received the Holy Ghost." 4. They 
 *' spake with tongues and prophesied ;" and were 
 in number twelve men. We need not, therefore, 
 add another word respecting them. 
 
 We have now, Christian reader, passed through 
 all the Acts of the Apostles, and examined all the 
 instances of the administration of this ordinance 
 recorded in this sacred history ; and to this place, 
 we can confidently assert, That we have nowhere 
 found a single place or passage that describes, 
 records, or implies the baptism of any infant. 
 The reader will not suppose this a hasty con- 
 clusion, when he hears the following Pgedobap- 
 tists : — 
 8* 
 
90 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 Dr. Goodwin. "Baptism supposes regeneration sure in 
 itself first. Sacraments are never administered to begin, or 
 work grace. Read all the Acts, still it is said, they believed, 
 and loere baptized." 
 
 Mr. T. Boston. "There is no example of baptism re- 
 corded in the Scriptures, where any were baptized but such 
 as appeared to have a saving interest in Christ." Works. 
 
 LiMBORCH. " There is no instance can be produced, 
 from which it may indisputably be inferred that any child 
 was baptized by the apostles." Complete Syst. Div. B. V. 
 Ch. xxii. 
 
 Baxter. "I conclude, that all examples 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. And I provoke Mr. Blake, as far as is seemly for 
 me to do, to name one precept or example for baptizing any 
 other, and make it good if he can." Disput. of Right to 
 Sacrarn. 
 
TO BAPTISM. 91 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 BAPTISM AS TAUGHT IN THE EPISTLES. 
 
 We now proceed to examine those passages 
 in the Apostolical Epistles which refer to this 
 ordinance. 
 
 I. — Passages which contain an express allusion 
 to the Mode, and the Spiritual design of 
 Baptism. 
 
 Rom. vi. 3 — 5. Know ye not, that so many of us as were 
 baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death ? 
 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death ; 
 that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory 
 of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 
 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his 
 death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. 
 
 Colos. ii. 12. Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also 
 ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of 
 God, who hath raised Him from the dead. 
 
 The object of the apostl-e Paul in these texts, 
 and their connection, is to show the churches to 
 which he is writing, the necessity of a holy walk 
 and conversation. To this end he puts them in 
 mind of their baptism, the profession they made 
 
yiS SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 in it, and the obligation they took upon them- 
 selves to live according to the truths symboli- 
 cally taught by the ordinance. ''Know ye not," 
 says he to the Romans, "that so many of us as 
 were baptized into Jesus Christ," into his religion 
 or church, "were baptized into his death," into a 
 reliance upon, and conformity to his death, the 
 great design of which was to take away sin ; and, 
 consequently, as our Lord died, and was buried 
 on account of it, so should we die and be buried 
 to the love and practice of it. Then follows this 
 plain and striking allusion to the particular act 
 by which the rite in question is administered, in 
 verse 4, which, with the same allusion in the 
 Epistle to the Colossians, reads to this effect : — 
 
 " Therefore, that is, to express this very de- 
 sign, we are buried by and in baptism, with 
 Christ our Lord ; and as He was raised up from 
 the dead by the glory of the Father, so we at our 
 baptism, wherein we likewise are raised up to 
 walk thenceforth in newness of life; and this is 
 not of ourselves, but through the faith of the 
 operation of God, who thus raised up his Son 
 from the sepulchre to live and reign forever." 
 
 In these places the apostle twice describes 
 baptism as effecting a burial and a resurrection, 
 and as such to be a continued representation 
 of the burial and resurrection of Christ, our 
 
TO BAPTISM. 93 
 
 Pattern and Lord ; and this is realized only in 
 immersion. 
 
 By these plain allusions to the mode of the or- 
 dinance, the sense of the word baptize is most 
 plainly confirmed; and the necessity of "going 
 down into, and coming up out of the water," 
 of "baptizing in the Jordan," and where "there 
 was much water ;" is here evidently explained. 
 Pasdobaptist divines, of the greatest celebrity 
 for learning, have frankly allowed what we have 
 here asserted. We have no difficulty but in 
 making such a selection as would be most useful 
 to the reader. The following are from different 
 denominations of Christians, and the most compe- 
 tent that could be produced. 
 
 Dr. Wall, Vicar of Shoreham, in Kent, and author of that 
 famous work, " The History of Infant Baptism," for which he 
 received the thanks of the whole Episcopal clergy in Convoca- 
 tion. "As to the manner of baptism then generally used, the 
 text-s produced by every one that speaks of these matters, John 
 iii. 23 ; Marki. 5 ; Acts viii. 38 ; are undeniable proofs that the 
 baptized person went ordinarily into the water, and sometimes 
 the Baptist too. We should not know from these accounts, 
 whether the whole body of the baptized was put under water, 
 head and all, were it not for two later proofs, which seem to 
 me to put it out of question. — One, that St. Paul does twice, 
 in an allusive way of speaking, call baptism a burial. The 
 other, the custom of the Christians in the near succeeding 
 times, which being more largely and particularly delivered 
 in books, is known to have been generally, or ordinarily, a 
 TOTAL IMMERSION." Defence of the Hist, of Inf. Bap. 
 
94. SCRIPTUKE GUIDE 
 
 Archibishop Tillotson. "Anciently, those who -were 
 baptized, were immersed and buried in the water, to repre- 
 sent their death to sin ; and then did rise up out of the water, 
 to signify their entrance iipon a new life. And to these 
 customs the apostle alludes, Rom. vi. 2 — 6." Works, Vol. I. 
 Serm. vii. p. 179. 
 
 Archbishop Secker. "Burying, as it were, the person 
 baptized in the water, and raising him out again, without 
 QUESTION, was anciently the more usual method; on accouns 
 of which. Saint Paul speaks of baptism as representing both 
 the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and what is 
 grounded on them, — our being dead and buried to sin, and 
 our rising again to walk in newness of life." Lect. on Cate- 
 chism, L. XXXV. 
 
 Dr. Nicholson, (Bishop of Gloucester.) " In the grave 
 •with Christ we went not; for our bodies were not, could not 
 be buried with his; but in baptism, by a kind of analogy or 
 resemblance, while our bodies are under the water, we may 
 be said to be buried with him." Expos, of the Church. Cate- 
 chism, p. 174. 
 
 Dr. Whitby, (Author of a Commentary on the new Testa- 
 ment, and more than forty other learned works.) "It being 
 so expressly declared here, Eom. vi, 4, and Col. ii. 12, that 
 we are buried with Christ in Baptism, by being buried under 
 water; and the argument to oblige us to a conformity to his 
 death, by dying to sin, being taken hence; and this immersion 
 being religiously observed by ALL CHRISTIANS FOR THIRTEEN 
 centuries, and approved by our Church, and the change of 
 it into sprinkling, even without any allowance from the author 
 of this institution, or any license from any council of the 
 church, being that w^hich the Romanist still urges to justify 
 his refusal of the cup to the laity ; it were to be wished, that 
 this custom might be again of general use, and aspersion 
 only permitted, as of old, in ease of the Clinici, or in present 
 danger of death." Note on Rom. vi. 4. 
 
TO BAPTISM 95 
 
 Rev. Richard Baxter, the most eminent Nonconformist 
 of his age. "Therefore, 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 ; 
 that as the glorious power of God raised Him from the dead, 
 so we should rise to live to Him in newness and holiness of 
 life." Paraphrase on the New Testament. On Rom. vi. 4. 
 
 Dr. Doddridge. " Buried with Him in haptism. It seems 
 the part of candor to confess, that here is an allusion to the 
 manner of baptizing by immersion, as most usual in these 
 early times." Fain. Expos, Note on the place. 
 
 Rev. George "Whitefield. *'It is certain that in the 
 words of our text, Rom. vi. 3, 4, there is an allusion to the 
 manner of baptism, which was by immersion, which is what 
 our own church allows." Eighteen Sermons. 
 
 Rev. John Wesley. "Buried tcith Him — alluding to 
 the ancient manner of baptizing by immersion." Note on 
 Rom. vi. 4. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers, Professor of Theology in the University 
 of Edinburgh. " "We advert to this [the practice of immer- 
 sion] for the purpose of throwing light on the analogy that is 
 instituted in these verses. Rom. vi. 3, 4. Jesus Christ, by 
 death, underwent this sort of baptism, even immersion under 
 the surface of the ground, whence he soon emerged again by 
 his resurrection. We, by being baptized into his death, are 
 conceived to have made a similar translation : in the act of 
 descending under the water of baptism, to have resigned an 
 old life, and in the act of ascending, to emerge into a second 
 or new life." Lectures on the Epis. to the Romans. 
 
 Rev. Albert Barnes. "It is altogether probable that the 
 apostle, in this place, had allusion to the custom of baptizing 
 by immersion." Note on the place. 
 
 The apostle uses the figure of planting, as well 
 as of burying, in allusion to baptism, " If we have 
 
96 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 been planted together in the likeness of his death, 
 we should be also in the likeness of his resurrec- 
 tion." This also agrees with the same mode of 
 axiministering it ; but with no other. 
 
 Dr. Macknight. ''Planted together in the likeness of His 
 death. The burying of Christ, and of believers, first in the 
 water of baptism, and afterwards in the earth, is fitly enough 
 compared to the planting of seeds in the earth, because the 
 effect in both cases, is a reviviscence to a state of greater per- 
 fection." Note on Rom. vi. 5. 
 
 AvSSEMBLY OF DiTiNEs. "If we have been planted to- 
 gether," etc. "By this elegant similitude, the apostle repre- 
 sents to us, that, as a plant, that is set in the earth, lieth as 
 dead and immovable for a time, but after springs up and 
 flourishes, so Christ's body lay dead for a while in the grave, 
 but sprung up and flourished in his resurrection; and we, 
 also, when we are baptized, are buried, as it were, in the 
 water for a time, but after are raised up to newness of life." 
 Annot. in loc. 
 
 Inference. — With certainty I gather from the 
 Scriptures at the head of this section, That the 
 outward form of baptism in the apostolic age was 
 a burial in water. It is made infinitely interesting 
 to the heart of a Christian, by that which it was 
 intended to represent, the death, burial, and re^ 
 surrection of the Redeemer ; and hence, too, I 
 infer, the infinite and irresistible obligation tha 
 baptized person is under, to devote his life to that 
 Lord to whose death and resun-ection he is thus 
 emblematically conformed in the baptismal rite : 
 
TO BAPTISM. 9t 
 
 and I see, also, in these verses, by what principle 
 and power this is all to be realized, " through faith, 
 which is of the operation of God." In none desti- 
 tute of that living principle can this intention of 
 the ordinance be fulfilled. If sprinkling were the 
 mode, and infants the subjects, these passages 
 never could have been written. To the baptism 
 of believers alone, and that administered by im- 
 mersion, will these passages apply. 
 
 II. — Occasional mention of Baptism. 
 
 Eph. iv. 5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. 
 
 1 Cor. xii. 13. For by one Spirit Tve are all baptized into 
 one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be 
 bond or free: and have been all made to drink into one 
 Spirit. 
 
 Gal. iii. 27. For as many of you as have been baptized 
 into Christ, have put on Christ. 
 
 1 Cor. XV. 29. Else what shall they do which are baptized 
 for the dead, if the dead rise not at all ? Why are they then 
 baptized for the dead ? 
 
 To the Ephesians and Corinthians, the apostle 
 is recommending peace and union ; that they 
 should be all of one heart and mind, so that there 
 be no schism in the body, as all were one in Christ. 
 To urge which, he puts them in mind of what they 
 had been uniformly taught, that there was but 
 " One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism ;" and that 
 they " all were baptized into one body, whether 
 9 
 
y« SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 Jews or Gentiles." We should here observe, 
 that the apostle places faith before baptism, as 
 Christ the great Lawgiver had done, Se that be- 
 lieveth, and is baptized. ** One faith, one bap- 
 tismy If this passage were to be expressed 
 according to the general practice of the present 
 day, the order both of Christ and the apostle 
 must be "reuerse(i." The Rev. Charles Simeon 
 admits this. 
 
 In the above verse to the Galatians, the apostle 
 is thought to be alluding to the change of gar- 
 ments which must necessarily take place after the 
 administration of the ordinance ; to which, also, 
 may allude the expressions, "putting off the old 
 man with his deeds," and "putting on the new 
 man," Eph. iv. 22, 24 ; Col. iii. 9, 10 ; and espe- 
 cially, as here, " putting on Christ," as "the Lord 
 our righteousness." 
 
 Db. Adam Clarkie. *' When he [the person baptized] came 
 up out of the water, he seemed to have a resurrection to life. 
 He was, therefore, supposed to throw off his old Gentile state, 
 as he threw ofi" his clothes^ and to assume a new character, 
 as the baptized generally put on new or fresh garments." 
 Comment, on Rom. vi. 4. 
 
 The last verse cited, — 1 Cor. xv. 29, has 
 obtained many interpretations, as the meaning 
 of the apostle in the words "for the dead" is not 
 certain. 
 
TO BAPTISM. 99 
 
 Dr. John Edwards. " Some of the Fathers hold, that the 
 apostle's argument in the text is of this sort : If there should 
 he no resurrection of the dead hereafter, why is baptism so 
 significant a symbol of our dying and rising again, and also 
 of the death and resurrection of Christ ? — The immersion into 
 the water was thought to signify the death of Christ, and 
 their coming out denotes his rising again, and did no less re- 
 present their own future resurrection." In Stennefs Answer 
 to Addington, 
 
 Dr. Macknight. "Christ's baptism was — an emblem of 
 his future death and resurrection. In like manner, the bap- 
 tism of believers is emblematical of their own death, burial, 
 and resurrection." Ajoost. Ejois. Note on Eom. vi. 4. 
 
 Inference.; — If faith preceded baptism in the 
 apostles' days, and the persons who received that 
 ordinance had imbibed the influence of that one 
 Spirit, and had put on Christ as the robe of 
 righteousness, the spiritual adorning of their 
 souls, hoping for their part in the first resur- 
 rection at his appearing and glory, it is most 
 manifest, that none but a genuine convert to 
 Christ could thus be baptized, or enjoy such high 
 and delightful privileges. 
 
 III. — Baptism illustrated by Events recorded 
 in the Old Testament. 
 
 These are the last passages we find in the 
 New Testament which relate to the subject be- 
 fore us. 
 
100 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 1. Cor. X. 1, 2. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye 
 should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the 
 cloud, and all passed through the seaj and were all baptized 
 unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 
 
 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21. The long suffering of God waited in the 
 days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, 
 that is, eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure 
 whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, (not the 
 putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a 
 good conscience towards God,) by the resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 The better to understand the apostle Paul in 
 this first passage, the reader would do well to 
 peruse the account, in the Old Testament, in 
 Exod. xiv., to which he refers. In verse 22, we 
 are told that the Israelites " went into the midst 
 of the Red Sea upon dry ground," that the water 
 divided, opening a passage for them, and forming 
 "a wall unto them on the right hand and on the 
 left." We also learn, that "the cloud" which had 
 conducted them, now removed its situation, stood 
 between the two armies, and concealed the Israel- 
 ites from their enemies ; that it was bright, and 
 " gave light" to the former, while it was " dark- 
 ness" toward the latter. It does not appear that 
 any water actually touched the Israelites in any 
 sense whatever; and hence, the word "baptized" 
 must be used by the apostle in a figurative sense ; 
 and if it has a reference to the mode, we have only 
 to ask, Does the situation of the Jews, "in the 
 
TO BAPTISM. 101 
 
 cloud, and in the sea," best agree to sprinkling 
 with water, or a total burial in it ? Paedobaptists 
 of the highest celebrity will answer : — 
 
 ''WiTSiTJS expounds the place to this effect. 'How are 
 the Israelites baptized in the cloud and in the sea, seeing they 
 were neither immersed in the sea, nor -wetted by the cloud? 
 It is to be considered, that the apostle here uses the term 
 * baptism/ in a figurative sense, yet there is some agreement 
 to the external sign. The sea is water, and a cloud differs 
 but little from water. The cloud hung over their heads, and 
 the sea surrounded them on each side; and so the water in 
 regard to those that are baptized.'" Peed. Exam. 
 
 Dr. Whitby. " They were covered with the sea on both 
 sides, Exod. xiv. 22 ; so that both the cloud and the sea had 
 some resemblance to our being covered with water in bap- 
 tism. Their going into the sea resembled the ancient rite of 
 going into the water; and their coming out of it, their rising 
 up out of the water." Ihid. 
 
 By the apostle Peter, we are taught that as Xoah 
 and his family '' were saved by water," so baptism, 
 the antitype of the water of the deluge, "now 
 saves" the believer ; not by washing his person, 
 or a ceremonial purification, which cannot take 
 away sin ; but the water being a " like figure" in 
 both cases ; that is, exhibiting Christ and his 
 merits, the believer is saved by the sacred reality 
 signified. In this case, baptism is, " The answer 
 of a good conscience toward God:" both the 
 answer given to inquiry at baptism, and the sub- 
 sequent testimony of the mind to God, are con- 
 9* 
 
102 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 scientious, being in accordance with a sincere and 
 heartfelt faith in the merits of a dying and rising 
 Saviour. 
 
 Dr. Owen. "I deny not but that there is a great analogy 
 between salvation by the ark, and that by baptism, inasmuch 
 as the one did represent, and the other doth exhibit Christ 
 Himself." On Hebrexcs. 
 
 Dr. Macknight. " This ansicer of a good conscience being 
 made to God, is an inward answer, and means the baptized 
 person's sincere persuasion of the things which, by submit- 
 ting to baptism, he professes to believe ; namely, that Jesus 
 arose from the dead, and that at the last day He will raise 
 all from the dead to eternal life, who sincerely obey Him." 
 Apost. Epist. Note in loc. 
 
 Inference. — If the exercise of " a good con- 
 science" is associated with the ordinance of bap- 
 tism, in none but a believer in Christ can this 
 union be realized. 
 
 Having now, my reader, completed the chief 
 design of this work in transcribing and laying 
 before you every passage of this sacred volume 
 that relates to the subject of our inquiry, and con- 
 tains any information, whether on the Subjects, 
 Mode, or Spiritual Design of baptism, I have, I 
 humbly hope, fulfilled the task I have assumed, in 
 presenting you with ''the scripture guide to 
 BAPTISM, " Our Divine Master commanded us to 
 "search the Scriptures," and it would meet with 
 HIS gracious approbation if this plan were adopted, 
 in reference to every subject pertaining to his 
 
TO BAPTISM. 103 
 
 cause or kingdom. "To the word and to the 
 testimony," is an inspired maxim in theology, 
 and one from which no Protestant will dissent. 
 "Ye do err," said the Redeemer, "not knowing 
 the Scriptures." 
 
 We ought, therefore, now to be able to answer 
 the inquiries proposed at the beginning : — 
 
 I. Who are proper subjects of Christian bap- 
 tism, according to the authority of Christ, and the 
 practice of his apostles ? 
 
 Answer. We have met with the baptism of 
 many thousands of persons, and the ordinance 
 administered on many different occasions ; but 
 we have nowhere found, through all this sacred 
 book, any one person baptized, Christ excepted, 
 that we have the slightest reason to suppose, was 
 not FIRST INSTRUCTED in the doctrines of the gos- 
 pel and had professed to believe ; but this is 
 either expressly stated, or so implied of all, as to 
 leave no just ground of dispute. 
 
 II. By what mode should the ordinance be 
 administered ? 
 
 Answer. We have nowhere met with a single 
 verse, word, or circumstance which indicates the 
 application of water by pouring or sprinkling ; but 
 wherever any thing is found descriptive of this 
 ordinance, immersion, as the word baptism unde- 
 
104 SCRIPTURE GUIDE 
 
 niably signifies, is plainly implied in circumstances, 
 and confirmed by allusions. 
 
 III. What is its spiritual design, and in whom 
 is it realized ? 
 
 Answer. The passages before us plainly indi- 
 cate, that it was the divine intention this ordinance 
 should exhibit and teach the important change 
 produced by the efiicacy of grace on a sinner, 
 namely his purification /row sin; his death and 
 BURIAL as to the love and practice of it ; his 
 resurrection to a new and religious life ; the 
 UNION and fellowship into which the Christian 
 enters with the Tri-une God ; and his rising from 
 the dead, through his crucified and risen Lord, at 
 his coming. 
 
 Here my pages might close: but when the 
 subject of baptism was first brought under my 
 own examination, and I had read with care these 
 portions of Scripture ; having been taught from 
 early childhood to consider infant baptism of 
 divine authority, I felt anxious to propose a few 
 questions to those competent to answer me ; and 
 I conceive many inquirers on the subject may feel 
 a similar solicitude. On those questions I have 
 obtained satisfaction to my own mind ; and, being 
 desirous the reader, if disposed to propose the 
 same questions, should enjoy the same satisfaction, 
 
TO BAPTISM. 105 
 
 I shall write a few pages to the questions and 
 answers as to me appear satisfactory. Whether 
 the reader may consider them so or not, I leave 
 to his own judgment and conscience, and to the 
 influence of that Spirit whose office it is to "guide 
 into all truth." 
 
 I shall support the answers by quotations from 
 eminent Paedobaptist writers, as I have done my 
 foregoing observations ; and sometimes give such 
 extracts alone as the best and most conclusive 
 replies. 
 
106 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 CHAPTER TV. 
 
 ON THE GROUNDS AND SUPPOSED BENEFITS OP 
 INFANT BAPTISM. 
 
 Question 1. Although in the passages of Scrip- 
 ture you have cited, I have not found an express 
 authority, either by command or example, for the 
 baptism of infants, yet will Psedobaptist divines 
 allow that no such authority is to be found in the 
 New Testament ? 
 
 Answer. BiSHOP BuENET. " There is no express precept 
 or rule given in the New Testament for baptism of infants." 
 Expos, of the Articles, Art. xxvii. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Palmer. " There is nothing in the words 
 of institution, nor in any after accounts of the administration 
 of this rite, respecting the baptism of infants : there is not a 
 single precept for, nor example of, this practice through the 
 whole New Testament." Anstcer to Br. Priestley's Address 
 on the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Luther. "It cannot be proved by the sacred Scripture, 
 that infant baptism was instituted by Christ, or begun by 
 the first Christians after the apostles." Peed. Exam. See 
 also Goodwin, Boston, Limborch, and Baxter, at the close of 
 our second chapter. 
 
 2. What then are we to make of those words of 
 our Saviour, and his subsequent conduct ? Mark 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 107 
 
 X. 14, 16. " Suffer the little children to come unto 
 me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the king- 
 dom of God. And He took them up in his arms, 
 put his hands upon them, and blessed them." 
 
 Answer. If, when the condescending Saviour 
 took these children in his arms, it had been added, 
 "and He baptized them," instead of the words 
 ''and blessed them," then this passage with pro- 
 priety might be adduced ; and, indeed, would have 
 decided the question ; but, as the Holy Spirit has 
 recorded the circumstance, it no more refers to 
 infant baptism than to infant communion, or infant 
 circumcision. It is certain Christ did not baptize 
 these children, for He never baptized at all, John 
 iv. 2 ; and if his disciples, who baptized for Him 
 and by his authority, had been commanded by their 
 Lord to baptize infants, it is certain they would not 
 have "rebuked" the parents or friends of these 
 children for bringing them. 
 
 But this passage, by fair inference, and implica- 
 tion, contains an argument against infant baptism. 
 Here you observe parents bringing their children 
 to Jesus to crave his blessing upon them ; or, at 
 least, that He would "pray," Matt. xix. 13, that 
 the blessing of heaven might attend them. Now 
 let me ask. If baptism would have brought these 
 children into the covenant of grace, or into Christ's 
 church, or secured to them any spiritual benefit. 
 
108 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 would the Lord Jesus have concealed that circum- 
 stance from these parents, and from his disciples ? 
 Would He take them in his arms and bless them, 
 and give them back to the parents without baptism, 
 and without a word upon that ordinance ? Was it 
 ever known that any spiritual benefit was sought 
 from Him, and He did not bestow it ? Here the 
 spiritual good of these children was sought at his 
 hands, and if baptism was the seal, the key, the 
 door to all the spiritual blessings of the covenant 
 of grace as Paedobaptists often describe it, would 
 the Lord Jesus refuse it, — or send them away 
 without it ? This is impossible ; and therefore I 
 infer that infant baptism is no part of the will of 
 Christ ; that it can communicate no good, and 
 ought not to be observed. Some of the most 
 learned Psedobaptists are aware that this passage 
 serves not their cause. Thus : 
 
 Poole's Continuators. " We must take heed we do not 
 found infant baptism upon the example of Christ in this 
 text : for it is certain that He did not baptize these children. 
 Mark only saith, He took them up in his arms, laid his hand 
 on them, and blessed them." Annot. on the place, in Matt, 
 xix. 14. 
 
 Bishop Taylor. "From the action of Christ's blessing 
 infants, to infer they are to be baptized, proves nothing so 
 much, as that there is a want of better arguments^ for the 
 conclusion would with more probability be derived thus : — 
 Christ blessed infants, and so dismissed them, but baptized 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 109 
 
 them not J therefore, infants are not to be baptized." Liberty 
 of PropTiecy. 
 
 3. If the New Testament does not afford an 
 authority for infant baptism, upon what grounds 
 do Psedobaptist divines practise and defend it ? 
 
 Answer. Dr. Edw. Williams, one of its most zealous ad- 
 vocates, aflBrms, "The champions for it, are by no means 
 agreed upon this question. On what is the right of infants to 
 baptism founded?" Notes on Maurice's Social Religion. 
 
 Their grounds are various and contradictory. 
 The early fathers who practised it urged the virtue 
 of the ordinance in taking away sin, and securing 
 eternal life ; adding, the certain ruin of those that 
 neglected it.* The Church of Rome holds, "If 
 any one shall say that baptism is — not necessary 
 to salvation, let him be accursed, "f The Greek 
 Church, by Cyril, patriarch of Constantinople, 
 affirms, "We believe that baptism is a sacrament 
 appointed by the Lord, which except a person 
 receive, he has no communion with Christ. "J The 
 Lutheran Church, and the Church of England, 
 hold both the ordinances " as generally necessary 
 to salvation." The former, agreeing with Calvin 
 and Melancthon, "own a sort of faith in infants," 
 
 * See Origen, Cyprian, and Ambrose in Dr. Wall's Hist, of Infant 
 Baptism, 
 t Catechism of the Council of Trent. 
 J Confess. Christ. Fidel, cap. xvi . 
 
 10 
 
110 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 affording them a right ; while the English Church 
 hesitates not to baptize them, " Because they [the 
 infants] promise by their sureties" repentance and 
 faith, "which promise, when they come to age, 
 themselves are bound to perform."* 
 
 Many learned writers, as well as churches, have 
 expressed their views upon this inquiry. Dr. Wall, 
 Dr. Hammond, and many others, hold that the 
 practice of Jewish Proselyte baptism is the founda- 
 dation of the Christian rite, and as infants received 
 the former, so they should the latter : but Dr. 
 Owen, Dr. Jennings, and others, have proved 
 that no such practice existed among the Jews to 
 afford such a pattern till generations after Christ, f 
 Sir X. Knatchbull assumes circumcision as the 
 proper foundation. — Beza, and after him Dr. Dod- 
 dridge and others, considered the holiness of the 
 children of believers, as making them proper sub- 
 jects. J Matthew Henry and Dr. Dwight, contended 
 that the profession of faith made by the parents to 
 be their children's right to baptism. § Dr. H. 
 F. Burder affirms " The identical principle which 
 pervades and unites the whole of the argument — 
 is that infants are to be baptized solely on the 
 
 * See Episcopal Church Catechism, and Psedobap. Exam. 
 
 f Dr. Judson's Serm. on Christian Baptism. 
 
 % See Beza and Doddridge on 1 Cor. vii. 14. 
 
 2 Treatise on Baptism, and Dwight's Theology on the subject. 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Ill 
 
 ground of connection with their parents :^^ and 
 adds, " it is a connection in the covenant of grace, 
 the covenant of redemption, the everlasting cove- 
 nant, embracing all that man can desire, or all 
 that Jehovah can impart."* An anonymous 
 writer affirms that "children by baptism are 
 actually brought into the covenant of grace." 
 This is denied by another, who replies that the 
 "children of believers $re really and truly in the 
 covenant of grace before their baptism, "f Such 
 endless contrariety and absurdity are consequent 
 upon having no Scripture authority. 
 
 4. Some of the grounds assumed by those 
 churches and eminent men, appear to have 
 weight. Does not the ''holiness-' referred to, 
 existing in the children of believers, and founded 
 an 1 Cor. vii. 14, afford the ground required ? 
 " For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the 
 wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the 
 husband ; else were your children unclean, bxit now 
 they are holy." If holy, they are surely proper 
 subjects of baptism. 
 
 Answer. So many good men have thought : but 
 what is the holiness intended in the above passage ? 
 The apostle says, it results from an unbeliever 
 being sanctified. Now this sanctification cannot 
 
 * Sermon of the Right of Infants to Baptism. 
 t In Paedobap. Examined. 
 
112 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 be spiritual; for that is tlie work of the Holy 
 Ghost upon the mind and heart, and in which an 
 unbeliever has no share or part, Acts viii. 21. If 
 attention be paid to the subject upon which the 
 apostle is speaking, his meaning may be safely 
 gathered. He is advising the Corinthians upon 
 the question, Whether, if a husband or wife who 
 is converted to Christ, has an unbelieving partner, 
 either Jew or idolater, the believer should separate 
 from the connection'^ as in Ezra x. 1-14. The 
 apostle advises. If the unbelieving partner be 
 pleased to dwell with the believer, the believer 
 should not cause the separation. Then follows 
 the passage before us, '' For the unbelieving hus- 
 band is sanctified by the wife ;" or, as Doddridge 
 renders it, '' is sanctified to the wife." 
 
 Now, in what sense can any thing or person, be 
 sanctified, in which there is no moral, or spiritual 
 holiness communicated, and the sanctification is 
 not the work of the Holy Spirit ? The Scriptures 
 afford the reply : the temple, the altar, the offer- 
 ings, the official garments, etc., under the law, were 
 expressly said to be sanctified, when they were 
 appointed by God's law, and set apart to certain 
 specified purposes. Apply this to the subject 
 before us. Marriage is an appointment of God ; 
 and when a man or woman enters into that con- 
 tract, he or she, by God's law, is set apart, and, 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 113 
 
 in that sense, " sanctified," to stand in the relation 
 of husband or wife ; and hence the union is law- 
 ful, and pleasing to God, and shall continue to be 
 so, though one of the parties shall be converted, 
 and the other be an unbeliever. 
 
 If the word holy must be taken in a spiritual 
 sense, and infant baptism inferred from it, the 
 word sanctified, being evidently here of a kindred 
 meaning, would unquestionably afford equal 
 ground for the baptism of the unbelieving parent ! 
 Nor should it be forgotten that the word children 
 in this place, as in Acts ii. 39, signifies posterity 
 of any age, as well grown up, as in infancy. 
 They all have the holiness which the apostle 
 refers to ; and if any have a right to baptism on 
 this ground, all have ; and hence the argument 
 destroys itself. It may further confirm the sense 
 we have given, to add, that Jewish writers inform 
 us of the '* ways and means by which illegitimate 
 children might he purified, or legitimated ;" in 
 which the term purity or holiness, is used in pre- 
 cisely the same sense as that we have given to this 
 passage of the apostle. See Dr. Gill on Deut. 
 xxiii. 2. 
 
 Taking this to be the sense of the passage, the 
 
 inference which the apostle draws from this sancti- 
 
 fication, or appointment by divine law, is natural, 
 
 "else were your children unclean, but now are 
 
 10* 
 
114 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 they holy;" that is, If the union of the parents 
 was not according to the law of God, your chil- 
 dren would be the fruit of illicit connection ; but 
 now, the union being in harmony with God's will, 
 they are free from the impurity of illegitimacy ; as 
 in Deut. xxiii. 2. So some of the most able 
 Paedobaptist writers understand the ajDostle. 
 
 Mr. T. Williams. " The unbelieving husband is sancti- 
 fied by the (believing) wife, etc., so that the connection is 
 perfectly lawful, and the children are legitimate, or, in a cere- 
 monial sense, holy." Cottage Bible, on the place. 
 
 Mblancthon, the Reformer. " The connection of the argu- 
 ment is this, ' If the use of marriage should not please God, 
 your children would be bastards, and so unclean; but your 
 children are not bastards, therefore the use of marriage 
 pleaseth God.' How bastards were unclean in a peculiar 
 manner the law shows, Deut. xxiii." Pcedohap. Exam. 
 
 Shares and Vasques. "The children are called holy, 
 in a civil sense : that is, legitimate, and not spurious. As if 
 Paul had said, ' If your marriage were unlawful, your chil- 
 dren would be illegitimate. But the former is not a fact ; 
 therefore not the latter.' " Ibid. 
 
 Camero. " The holiness of which the apostle speaks, is 
 not opposed to that impurity which by nature properly agrees 
 to all on account of Adam's offence, but to the impurity of 
 which believing wives were apprehensive from their cohabit- 
 ing with unbelieving husbands." Ibid. 
 
 Ret. Albert Barnes. "This passage has often been in- 
 terpreted, and is often adduced to prove that children are 
 * federally holy,' and that they are entitled to the privilege 
 of baptism on the ground of the faith of one of their parents. 
 But against this interpretation there are insuperable objec- 
 tions." Note on the place. 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 115 
 
 Inference. — If the lioliness, which is merely 
 legitimacy of birth, is no title to baptism, then 
 the passage we have considered favors not bap- 
 tism of infants. 
 
 5. From this interpretation, it would appear 
 that the children of believers are no better, or 
 more holy by nature, than the children of un- 
 believers. Is this in accordance with the Scrip- 
 tures ? 
 
 Answer. Most unquestionably so. Thus Psalm 
 li. 5, "Behold," saith the son of pious Jesse, ''I 
 was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother 
 conceive me." Eph. ii. 3. " We," says the apostle 
 Paul, for himself and all the primitive Christians, 
 " were by nature the children of wrath, even as 
 others." Romans v. 12. ''By one man sin 
 entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so 
 death passed upon all men, for that all have sin- 
 ned." Chap. iii. 9, 10, '' What then, are we better 
 than they ? No, in no wise : for we have before 
 proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are 
 ALL under sin ; as it is written. There is none 
 righteous, no not one." And our Saviour affirms, 
 " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that 
 which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Ye must be 
 born again." John iii. 6, T. 
 
 Church op England. " Original sin is the fault and 
 corruption of the nature of every man; and therefore in 
 
116 SCRIPTTIRE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 every person born into this world it deserveth God's wrath." 
 Articles, Art. ix. 
 
 Mr. Dorrington. "Although the parents be admitted 
 into the new covenant, the children born of them are not 
 born within that covenant, but are, as all others, born in a 
 state of rebellion and misery." Vindication of the Church. 
 
 Dr. Adam Clarke. "All are born with a sinful nature, — 
 there has never been one instance of an immaculate human 
 soul [Christ excepted] since the fall of Adam. Through his 
 transgression all come into the world with the seeds of death 
 and corruption in their own nature ; all are sinful — all are 
 mortal — and must die." On Rom. v. 12, 13. 
 
 Dr. Doddridge. "As we all proceed from a corrupt 
 original, we do not more evidently bear the image of the 
 earthly Adam in the infirmities of a mortal body than in the 
 degeneracy of a corrupted mind. Fam. Expos. John iii. 1-10. 
 
 No doctrine can be more dangerous, because 
 calculated to be fatally delusive, than, That be- 
 cause persons are born of pious parents, they are 
 therefore under some peculiar spiritual and ad- 
 vantageous distinction, on account of which they 
 are entitled to sacred privileges, and do not need 
 equally with others the same converting grace and 
 mercy, and the same atoning sacrifice. John the 
 Baptist applied the axe to the root of this tree, 
 at the dawn of the Christian dispensation. " Think 
 not to say within yourselves. We have Abraham 
 to our father." Ye are a "generation of vipers ; 
 Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to 
 come ?" So the Redeemer, when the Jews ut- 
 tered their usual boast " We be Abraham's seed,'* 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. lit 
 
 replied, "I know that ye are Abraham's seed. 
 If GrOD were your Father, ye would love me. Ye 
 are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your 
 father, ye will do." John viii. 33, 37, 42, 44. 
 Such is Christ's testimony of the seed of Abra- 
 ham in their natural, unconverted state. 
 
 6. But it pleased the Almighty, as recorded in 
 Gen. xvii. 1-14, to enter into a covenant with 
 Abraham, the father of the faithful, in which 
 Abraham'' s seed are included as well as himself : 
 "I will establish my covenant between me and 
 thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, 
 for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to thee 
 and to thy seed after thee." Now, believers in 
 Christ are said in the New Testament, Gal. iii. Y, 
 to be " the children of Abraham ;" and if so, must 
 not they be included in this covenant ? and if they 
 are, must not their offspring also, as the seed of 
 "Abraham's children," be also included? Ad- 
 mitting this, surely, such offspring belong to the 
 church of God, and therefore have a right to its 
 ordinances. 
 
 Answer. As this is generally deemed the 
 STRONGHOLD of infant baptism, my reply shall be 
 a little more extended. To understand the sub- 
 ject, the reader should remark, that the Scrip- 
 tures mention several covenants made by the 
 Divine Being with men. Two only of these have 
 
118 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 eternal life promised in them ; namely, the cove- 
 nant of works, and the covenant of grace, The 
 first of these was made with Adam as head of the 
 human race, and which, in a few words, ran in 
 this way, "Do this and live." This covenant of 
 works was, in effect, renewed in the precepts of the 
 moral law at Sinai, of which it was written, "The 
 man that doeth those things shall live by them." 
 Rom. X. 5 ; Lev. xviii. 5. The second, the cove- 
 nant of grace, follows upon the failure of man to 
 obtain eternal life by the former. This covenant 
 is made in Christ Jesus, as the head and repre- 
 sentative of his church, who performs the require- 
 ments of God in his people's behalf ; and to man 
 runs in this way, "He that believeth shall have 
 eternal life." John iii. 15, 16, 36 ; Acts xvi. 31 ; 
 Rom. X. 4, 9. The blessings of this covenant 
 have been enjoyed by every saved soul, since the 
 beginning of the world. See Witsius upon this 
 subject. 
 
 Now, the covenant made with Abraham was 
 different from either of these, as was the covenant 
 with Noah. It was a special covenant, limiting; 
 its benefits to Abraham and his descendants ; 
 and these benefits were two-fold : — 1. Spiritual 
 and internal, — including justification by faith, 
 and indeed all the benefits of the "covenant of 
 grace." 2. Temporal and worldly, — including 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 119 
 
 an earthly kingdom, all the land of Canaan. 
 Gen. xvii. 8. The first of these was in having 
 Jehovah for *' a God" in a saving sense, conse- 
 quent upon '' the righteousness of faith," and 
 which Abraham and his believing descendants 
 only enjoyed. The second was the gift of God 
 to the whole nation, whether believers or unbe- 
 lievers, and in which Jehovah was " a God" to 
 them all in a special, providential, but temporal 
 sense. 
 
 Thus Abraham's seed are exhibited under a 
 twofold description, corresponding vvith these 
 twofold benefits of the covenant ; and the dis- 
 tinction is given in one word, "faith." Hear 
 inspired authority upon this important point : — 
 
 Rom. ix. 6-8. *'For they are not all Israel which are of 
 Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they 
 all children : that is, They which are the children of the 
 flesh, these are not the children of God." Chap. iv. 12. For 
 He is the "father of the circumcision to them who are not 
 of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of 
 the FAITH of our father Abraham." Gal. iii. 9. " So, then, 
 they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." 
 The former of these were "justified by faith :" the latter, not 
 having faith, are "not the children of God." 
 
 I now beg to inquire of those persons who 
 found an argument for infant baptism on their 
 being, together with their offspring, "the children 
 of Abraham," and thereby in the covenanted 
 
120 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 cliurcli of God, and entitled to its ordinances, To 
 which of these classes of Abraham's seed do they 
 profess to belong ? To that which was of the 
 flesh, and without faith,— or to that class which 
 also possessed the faith of Abraham ? If the for- 
 mer, they must be Jews, and not Christians. If 
 the latter, we are all agreed ; they are believers, 
 and have a right to be baptized according to the 
 order of Christ. — " He that believeth and is bap- 
 tized, shall be saved." 
 
 The argument, therefore, founded upon the 
 Abrahamic covenant for the baptism of infants, 
 when not the temporal but the spiritual benefits 
 of that covenant are the object desired, — and 
 these spiritual benefits being promised only, to 
 faith, and enjoyed only by regenerate persons, — 
 is unscriptural, unfounded, and absurd. 
 
 Dr. Edwari> "Williams exposes the absurdity of Aerec^jVar^ 
 •interest in the covenant of grace, in his Note on Maurice's 
 Social Eeligion, in strong terms. "Our author takes consi- 
 derable pains to maintain a favorite point, which I shall pro- 
 nounce a very precarious hypothesis. It is that of hereditary 
 grace, if I may so express the notion, — that all the children 
 of the godly are absolutely interested in all new covenant' 
 blessings. — But that the interpretation of the Abrahamic pro- 
 mise, Gen. xvii. 7, which Mr. M. and some others have adopted, 
 and which considers the words in their undistinguished ap- 
 plication, is replete with, very absurd consequences. Jehovah, 
 surely, was not the God of Abraham and of his tinhelieving 
 descendants in the same respects." 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 121 
 
 Matthew Henrt. " Grace dotli not run in the blood, nor 
 are saving benefits inseparably annexed to external church 
 privileges ; though it is common for people thus to stretch 
 the meaning of God's promise to bolster themselves up in a 
 vain hope. The children of the flesh, as such, by virtue of 
 their relationship to Abraham — are not, therefore, the chil- 
 dren of God." Expos, on Eom. ix, 6-13. 
 
 Y. But, if this be admitted, did not circumcision 
 bring those who received it into the covenant of 
 grace ? 
 
 Answer. ISTo : in no case whatever. The 
 covenant of grace, as Dr. Burder expresses it, 
 is ''the covenant of redemption, the everlasting 
 covenant." Nothing can bring into that cove- 
 nant but the grace of Grod in Christ Jesus. It 
 existed from the beginning of time. Abel, Enoch, 
 Noah, and, no doubt, thousands of others, though 
 uncircumcised, enjoyed the blessedness of this 
 covenant before Abraham was born. Circum- 
 cision, therefore, is no part of the " covenant of 
 grace ;" and that it did not bring Abraham into 
 it is undeniably clear, for he enjoyed it and all its 
 blessedness many years before circumcision was 
 instituted ; when he was, says the apostle, " not 
 in circumcision, but in uncircumcision." Bom. 
 iv. 10. And that this rite did not bring cMldren 
 into the covenant of grace I have already proved. 
 
 8. In what sense, then, is circumcision ''a seal 
 11 
 
122 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 of the covenant of grace," if it had not this 
 efficacy ? 
 
 Answer. Common as it is to denominate cir- 
 cumcision a seal of the covenant of grace, it is 
 nowhere so denominated in the word of God. In 
 Rom. iv. 11, it is called "a seal of righteousness;" 
 but except the whole verse be quoted, the sense 
 of the apostle is entirely lost. The words are 
 these: ''And he" that is, Abraham, "received 
 the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteous- 
 ness of the faith which he had yet being uncir- 
 cumcised." In no other place is circumcision 
 called a seal ; and let my reader try, after care- 
 fully looking at the whole passage ; to make this 
 applicable to infants, or to infant circumcision or 
 baptism, or to unbelievers in any case, if he can. 
 He will remark, 
 
 1. Circumcision is here spoken of, not in refer- 
 ence to its general administration to the Jewish 
 nation, but to Abraham in particular. 2. It is 
 spoken of, not as it might be received by a person 
 destitute of vital piety; for it is called "a seal of 
 the righteousness of faith," etc. 3. It is not 
 spoken of as sealing what was in future to be be- 
 stowed or enjoyed, but of a blessing long I;efore 
 possessed — " of the faith which he had, yet being 
 uncircumcised." 
 
 I appeal to the serious judgment of the reader, 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 123 
 
 what a perversion of the sense of God's word it 
 must be, to call circumcision, from this passage, 
 "a seal of the covenant," thereby referring to the 
 national administration of that rite to the Jews, 
 and as sealing to them the blessings of salvation, 
 when the apostle so guardedly expresses himself 
 as sealing only what a true and living faith had 
 previously obtained ! This passage can apply to 
 none but Abraham, and those of his posterity, 
 who, like their progenitor, possessed a justifying 
 and saving faith. 
 
 Venema. " Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness 
 of faith, as the apostle afiBrms ,• but this only in respect of 
 such Israelites as were believers." Pcedobap. Exam. 
 
 9. Why, then, was circumcision administered to 
 infants at all ? 
 
 Answer. The intention of circumcision, in its 
 national administration to all the males of Abra- 
 ham's posterity, and those persons "bought with 
 money" in the family of any Jew, and not to be 
 neglected on pain of being " cut off from his 
 people," whether believers or unbelievers, was 
 The separation of the Jeiuish nation from all 
 other nations of the world, in order that to them 
 and by them, God might reveal Himself by means 
 of the law and the prophets, preparatory to the 
 gospel, that He might give them the land pro- 
 mised to their fathers, and preserve an unbroken 
 
124 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 lineage from Abraham to Abraham's promised 
 seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 WiTSius. "The descendants of Abraham were separated 
 by circumcision from other nations, and renounced their 
 friendship ; as appears from the open declaration of the sons 
 of Jacob, Gen. xxxiv. 14, 15. A circumcised person, say the 
 Jews, " has withdrawn himself from the whole body of the 
 nations." And, indeed, circumcision was a great part, and 
 as it were the foundation of the middle wall of 2^o.rtition." 
 Econ. of the Gov., Book iv. ch. 8, § 20. 
 
 Dr. Erskine. "When God promised the land of Canaan 
 to Abraham and his seed, circumcision was instituted for this, 
 among other purposes, to show that descent from Abraham 
 was the foundation of his posterity's right to those blessings." 
 Theolog. Dissertations. 
 
 10. In what sense, then, are we to consider the 
 Abrahamic covenant as continued into the gospel 
 dispensation, and enjoyed by Christians ? 
 
 Answer. So far as the Abrahamic covenant 
 pertained to external privileges and a worldly 
 kingdom, Christians have no interest in it, any 
 more than those servants of God who lived before 
 that patriarch ; or Melchizedek and Lot, who 
 lived at the same time. But so far as spiritual 
 benefits are contained in that covenant, all God's 
 people in all ages have enjoyed them ; and Chris- 
 tians especially, in a more glorious form and 
 measure, under the ministration of the Spirit and 
 government of Christ. " My kingdom," said our 
 Supreme Head, "is not of this world," but "is 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 125 
 
 within you." It is " in righteousness, peace, and 
 joy in the Holy Ghost." John xviii. 36 ; Luke 
 xvii. 21 ; Rom. xy. IT ; 2 Cor. iii. T. 
 
 Dr. Edward Williams. ''New Testament saints have 
 nothing more to do with the Abrahamic covenant than the 
 Old Testament believers who lived prior to Abraham." 
 
 11. Is there, then, nothing typical in the rite 
 of circumcision ? 
 
 Ansiver. In replying to this question, it is my 
 happiness to be able to refer my reader to an 
 authority, which, as a Christian, he will esteem 
 decisive and infallible. Circumcision was a type, 
 but not of baptism, but of " the circumcision of 
 the heart,^^ and '^the putting off the sins of the 
 flesh.^^ And this blessed work is accomplished, 
 not on babes in age, but "babes in Christ ;^^ born 
 from above, and children of God. Hear the in- 
 fallible authority to which I refer, Rom. ii, 28, 29. 
 " For he is not a Jew," an Israelite indeed, 
 " which is one outwardly, neither is that circum- 
 cision," in God's ultimate design, ''which is out- 
 ward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one 
 inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart ; 
 in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is 
 not of men but of God." Phil. iii. 3, "For we 
 are the circumcision which worship God in the 
 spirit, and rejoi'ce in Christ Jesus, and have no 
 confidence in the flesh." 
 11* 
 
126 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 12. According to this, baptism was not institu- 
 ted in the room of circumcision, so as to become 
 its antitype, and fulfillment, and consequently to 
 supersede it ? 
 
 Answer. It is certain that was not the case. 
 1st, Because when the apostles and elders were 
 assembled at Jerusalem to consider the question, 
 Whether those who were turned to God from 
 among the Gentiles should be circumcised ? Acts 
 XV., not a word was said about the end and ful- 
 fillment of the Jewish rite in the Christian ; and 
 had this been the known appointment of Christ, 
 this must have been the decision of the subject. 
 2d, Because, had this been the appointment of the 
 Saviour, it would have been an affront to his 
 authority to continue circumcision for another 
 day after he had substituted baptism in its place ; 
 but circumcision was observed, even by the 
 Apostle Paul, long after Christ had instituted 
 the New Testament rite. See Acts xvi. 3. This 
 would have been a similar impropriety to the 
 offering of " a sacrifice for sin" according to the 
 law of Moses, after Christ had " put away sin by 
 the sacrifice of Himself!" 
 
 The absurdity of urging the baptism of infants 
 from the institution of circumcision, will appear 
 by observing, — 1st, That male children only were 
 to receive that rite ; and 2d, That men servants 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 127 
 
 and slaves were equally commanded to be cir- 
 cumcised when the master was, and that upon 
 pain of being cut off, or put to death. If that 
 divine command, therefore, be applied as de- 
 scriptive of the subjects of baptism, it will equally 
 require the baptism of servants and purchased 
 slaves, willing or unwilling, as well as of infants ; 
 and it would restrict the Christian ordinance to the 
 male sex alone. This being so plainly contrary to 
 the revealed will of Christ on baptism, proves the 
 fallacy of the doctrine. 
 
 In the word of God I see no connection or 
 resemblance between circumcision and baptism, 
 except that they were both initiatory ordinances : 
 the one into the body politic of Israel, the sub- 
 jects of which rite are all the male inhabitants 
 — the other into the body of Christ, which is 
 his church, and the subjects of which are all be- 
 lievers in him. To this the apostle seems to refer 
 in Col. ii. 11-13. 
 
 13. As you allow that circumcision was a seal 
 in reference to Abraham as a believer ; is not bap- 
 tism equally a seal under the New Testament, in 
 a believer's case ? 
 
 Answer. If it be so, it must be understood in 
 the same sense in which the apostle expressed it 
 in the case of the patriarch ; and then it would be 
 a seal of the righteousness of the faith which the 
 
128 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 believer had, yet being unbaptized. But we cannot 
 do better than allow the New Testament to answer 
 our inquiries ; and here I am nowhere taught that 
 any external ordinance is a seal of the covenant 
 of grace, but most plainly instructed, in beautiful 
 harmony with the Spiritual nature of the Mes- 
 siah's kingdom, that the loork of the Spirit on the 
 heart is the only seal of that covenant. 
 
 2 Cor. i. 22. '' Who hath also sealed us, and 
 given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. " 
 
 Eph. i. 13. "Ye were sealed with that holy 
 Spirit of promise." 
 
 Eph. iv. 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit, 
 whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemp- 
 tion." 
 
 Dr. Charnock. "God seals no more than He promises. 
 He promises only to faith, and therefore only seals to faith. 
 Covenant graces, therefore, must be possessed and acted, be- 
 fore covenant blessings be ratified to us." Works, Vol. 11. 
 
 ViTRiNGA. " The sacraments of the New Covenant are of 
 such a nature, as to seal nothing but what is spiritual, nor to 
 be of any advantage, except in regard to those who really be- 
 lieve in Jesus Christ." Peed. Exam. 
 
 14. How, then, is the doctrine of the Church 
 of England to be understood, by which we are 
 taught, that a child by baptism is " regenerated," 
 and is ''incorporated," and "grafted into the 
 body of Christ's church ;" and in another place, 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 129 
 
 " made a member of Christ, a child of God, and 
 an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven ?" 
 
 Answer. To support this doctine by any thing 
 said in the Scripture of this ordinance is impossi- 
 ble : to make it agree with the analogy of faith, 
 as taught by the concurring testimony of the 
 whole of divine revelation, is equally impossible. 
 What is here attributed to baptism, the Scrip- 
 tures ascribe only to the omnipotent agency of 
 the Holy G-host, and to the infinite efficacy of the 
 Redeemer's Cross! See 1 Pet. i. 2, 18-23; 
 iii. 18. Baptism, in the formula of that church, is 
 said to do what nothing short of the power and 
 grace of God is able to perform ; and that chil- 
 dren, as they advance in life, should be taught to 
 believe such a doctrine, and to consider them- 
 selves in the possession of such spiritual advan- 
 tages, merely by having received this external rite, 
 destitute as it is of all saving efficacy, is inex- 
 pressibly lamentable and dangerous ; because it 
 may prove, as it is fitly calculated to be, fatal 
 to their souls ! 
 
 "Dr. Owen observes, 'That the father of lies himself 
 could hardly have invented a more pernicious opinion' than 
 that which connects regeneration with baptism." Pcedohap. 
 Exam. 
 
 Rev. John Hyatt says, " If the church of Christ is his 
 body, and every real believer is a member of that body, how 
 important the question, Are we members of the body of 
 
130 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 Christ ? Millions have been taught to say, that in baptism 
 they were made members of Christ, who have given indubi- 
 table proofs that they uttered falsehood ! ! The members of 
 the body of Christ are united to Him as a head ; and there 
 are no dead, no unsanctified members. All are useful, active, 
 and obedient. Beware of deception — beware of substituting 
 the name for the reality — the form of godliness for the power. 
 Surely, licentious characters cannot presume that they are 
 members of the mystical body of the Son of God. A holy 
 head, and impure members; a pure fountain, and corrupt 
 streams; a good tree, and bad fruit; these are anomalies. 
 If you are united to Him, you are of one spirit with Him.'* 
 Sermons on various Subjects. 
 
 15. But if infants are not to be received into 
 the church by baptism, should they die in infancy, 
 is not their salvation endangered ? 
 
 Answe7\ By no means. How can the want of 
 that endanger their salvation which God hath no- 
 where enjoined or required ? Did not our Lord 
 receive unbaptized children into his arms when 
 on earth, and bless them, and send them away 
 unbaptized ; and without uttering a word about 
 baptism ? And who, then, will say that baptism 
 is necessary that He should receive them to Him- 
 self in heaven ; especially when they remember 
 his gracious declaration in reference to these 
 unbaptized children, " Of such is the kingdom 
 of heaven?" See Matt, xviii. 1-4, xix. 14. 
 
 Persons dying incapable of faith in Christ, are 
 without doubt saved, not by water nor by the 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 131 
 
 work of man ; but by the blood of Christ, and by 
 the power of the Spirit. In like manner, persons 
 dying in faith, but having no opportunity of being 
 baptized, as the penitent on the cross, are saved 
 by the same infinitely efficacious, and the only 
 sufficient means. 
 
 If we do for our children what God hath re- 
 quired, we shall find this quite sufficient, without 
 attempting to do what God hath not required. 
 And should it please God to remove them from us 
 in infancy, it is better to commit their souls to the 
 merits of Christ, than to the unauthorized applica- 
 tion of water to their bodies. The former we are 
 sure saves ; 1 John i. T. And we are equally sure 
 baptism cannot save 4 Acts viii. 13, 23 ; and is not 
 essential to salvation, Luke xxiii. 43. To apply 
 baptism for salvation, therefore, is making a false 
 Saviour of the ordinance, and implies a criminal 
 unbelief in the all-sufficiency of Christ. 
 
 16. Admitting the want of Scripture authority 
 for infant baptism, on what other authority is it 
 supposed to have been founded ? 
 
 Ansicer. Some have urged in its behalf Apos- 
 tolical tradition ; and others, the decrees of 
 Episcopal Councils. Higher authority it has not; 
 and neither of these can Protestants admit. 
 
 Dr. Field. "The baptism of infants is therefore named 
 a tradition, because it is not expressly delivered in Scrip- 
 
132 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 ture that the apostles did baptize infants; nor any express 
 precept there found that they should do so." On the Church. 
 
 Bishop Prideaux. *' Paedobaptism rests on no other 
 divine right than Episco2)acy." Fascicul Controv. Loc. iv. ^ iii. 
 
 In the edict drawn up in the year 1547, by command of 
 Charles V., Emperor of Germany, to allay disputes between 
 the Romanists and the Reformers, tradition is expressly 
 stated as the ground of infant baptism : " Habet praeterea 
 Ecclesia traditiones, &g. Hujus generis sunt baptismus 
 parvulorum et alia;'* that is, "The church, moreover, has 
 traditions handed down to these times from Christ and the 
 apostles, through the hands of the bishops : which whoever 
 would overturn, he must deny the same (viz. the chureh) to 
 be the pillar and ground of truth. Of this sort are the bap- 
 tism of little ones, and other things." Dr. Ryland's Candid 
 Statement. 
 
 IT. If this be granted, when was infant baptism 
 supposed to be introduced ? " 
 
 Answer. There is no certain evidence of it 
 earlier than the beginning of the third century 
 after Christ. At that period it was practised in 
 Africa, and is mentioned, for the first time, by 
 Tertullian, about the year 204, in his work en- 
 titled '*De Baptismo," from which I shall quote 
 hereafter. 
 
 CuRCELL^us, a learned divine of Geneva, and Professor 
 of Divinity. "The baptism of infants, in the two first cen- 
 turies after Christ, was altogether unknown; but in the 
 third and fourth was allowed by some few. In the fifth and 
 following ages it was generally received. The custom of 
 baptizing infants did not begin before the third age after 
 Christ was born. In the former ages, no trace of it appears, 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 133 
 
 and it was introduced without the command of Christ." Poed. 
 Exam. 
 
 Salmasitjs and SuiCERrs. "In the two first centuries no 
 one was baptized, except being instructed in the faith, and 
 acquainted with the doctrine of Christ, he was able to profess 
 himself a believer ; because of those words, He that believeth, 
 and is baptized," Ut supra. 
 
 Venema. " Tertullian has nowhere mentioned Psedobap- 
 tism among the traditions or customs of the church, that were 
 publicly received, and usually observed. For in his book, 
 De Baptismo, he dissuades from baptizing infants, and proves 
 the delay of it to a more mature age is to be preferred. No- 
 thing can be affirmed with certainty, concerning the custom 
 of the church before Tertullian, seeing there is not any where, 
 in more ancient writers, that I know of, undoubted mention 
 of infant baptism." 
 
 The passage alluded to, containing the first 
 MENTION of infant baptism, is the following : — 
 
 Tertullian. "Itaque pro cujusque personae conditione 
 ac dispositione, etiam setate, cunctatio baptism! utilior est; 
 prajcipue tamen circa parvulos. Quid enim necesse est spon- 
 sores etiam periculo ingeri ? Quia et ipsi per mortalitatem 
 destituere promissiones suas possunt, et proventu malse 
 indolis fallL Ait quidem Dominus, Nolite illos prohihere 
 ad me venire. Veniant ergo dum adolescunt, veniant dum 
 diseunt, dum quo veniant docentur : fiant Christiani, dum 
 Christum nosse potuerint. Quid festinat innocens aetas ad 
 reinissionem peccatorum? Cautius agetur in secularibus ; 
 ut cui substantia terrena non creditur, divina credatur. No- 
 rint petere salutem, ut petenti dedisse videaris. ... Si qui 
 pondus intelligant baptismi, magis timebunt consecutionem 
 quam dilationem : fides Integra secura est de salute." De 
 Baptismo. cap. xviii. 
 
 12 
 
134 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 For the benefit of our unlearned reader we will 
 give a translation of this passage : — 
 
 "The delay of baptism, therefore, may be more advan- 
 tageous, either on account of the condition, disposition, or 
 age of any person; especially in reference to little children. 
 For what necessity is there that the sponsors should be 
 brought into danger? because either they themselves may 
 fail of the promises by death, or be deceived by the growth 
 of evil dispositions. The Lord, indeed, says. Do not forhid 
 them to come to me. Let them, therefore, come when they 
 are grown up; when they can understand; when they are 
 taught whither they are to come. Let them become Chris- 
 tians when they can know Christ. Why should this innocent 
 age hasten to the remission of sins? Men act more cau- 
 tiously in worldly things; so that divine things are here in- 
 trusted with whom earthly things are not. Let them know 
 how to seek salvation, that you may appear to give to one 
 that asketh. — If persons understand the importance of Bap- 
 tism, they will rather fear the consequent obligation than the 
 delay : true faith alone is secure of salvation." 
 
 Now I request my reader to observe — 1. That 
 there is confessedly no mention of infant baptism 
 in the writings of any of the fathers, before Ter- 
 tullian, in the beginning of the third century; 
 though the baptism of believers is repeatedly 
 found in various authors ; some of which I shall 
 cite in the next chapter. 2. That when infant 
 baptism is first mentioned, in the Christian father 
 above quoted, it is in a passage where the rite is 
 referred to, not as of something of universal prac- 
 tice and approbation; but where it is opposed 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 135 
 
 and reasoned against as something unknown in 
 the age of Christ and the apostles, and destitute 
 of their authority, for with him their authority 
 would not have been questioned for a moment ; 
 and as something implying danger in reference to 
 sponsors, and absurdity relative to children. To 
 this effect reasons 
 
 RiGALTius, the learned annotator upon Cyprian. " In tlie 
 Acts of the Apostles, we read that hoth men and loomen were 
 baptized when they believed the gospel preached by Philip, 
 but not a word of infants. From the age of the apostles, 
 therefore, up to the time of Tertullian, the matter remained 
 dubious ; and there were some, who, from that saying of our 
 Lord, Suffer little children to come unto me, to whom the Lord, 
 nevertheless, did not command water to be administered, took 
 occasion to baptize even new-born infants. And, as if they 
 transacted some secular business with God, they offered 
 sponsors or sureties to Christ, who engaged that they should 
 not revolt from the Christian faith when adult; which, 
 indeed, displeased Tertullian." In another place he says, 
 " They gave the sign of faith to a person before he was capa- 
 ble of faith itself." Annot. in Cjpr. Epist. ad Fidum ; et 
 Lib. de Lapsis. 
 
 18. Tradition from the apostles, is declared by 
 the Church of Rome to be the authority for in- 
 fant baptism : is this said to be its authority 
 where the practice is Jirst mentioned ? 
 
 Answer. ISTo such authority is ever once 
 hinted at. 
 
 Venema. *' Tertullian dissuades from baptizing infants — 
 which he certainly would not have done, if it had been a 
 
136 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 tradition, and a public custom of the church, seeing he was 
 very tenacious of traditions ,• nor, had it been a tradition, 
 would he have failed to mention it." 
 
 19. Do we find any other innovation intro- 
 duced into the church of Christ, about the same 
 period ? 
 
 Answer. Several. We never read of— 1. The 
 consecration of the baptismal water ; 2. The use 
 of sponsors ; 3. The imposition of hands at bap- 
 tism ; 4. The use of material unction at confirma- 
 tion ; 5. Offering prayers and oblations for the 
 dead, etc. ; we never read of any of these in any 
 Christian writer before Tertullian ; and hence, 
 learned Psedobaptists infer that they were intro- 
 duced about that time. Thus, Mr. Pierce, speak- 
 ing of the third of these, says, that Tertullian is 
 "the most ancient author that mentions this 
 rite ;" and adds, " We make no doubt it began 
 about the time of Tertullian." Vindication of 
 Dissenters, Pt. III. ch. vii. We come to the 
 same conclusion, for the very same reason, re- 
 specting the baptism of infants. The learned 
 divine I cited on the former question, seems wil- 
 ling to admit this : — 
 
 Venema. '' I conclude, therefore, that Paedobaptism cannot 
 be plainly proved to have been practised before the time of 
 Tertullian ; and that there were persons in his age who de- 
 sired their infants might be baptized, especially when they 
 were afraid of their dying without baptism; which opinion 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 13T 
 
 Tertullian opposed, and, ly so doing, intimates that Pcedohap- 
 tism began to prevail." Peed. Exam. 
 
 20. Did the Christian fathers, who first advo- 
 cated the baptism of infants, suppose that some 
 saving benefit was communicated to them by that 
 ordinance ? 
 
 J^iswer. They did. — They held that baptism 
 was necessary to salvation ; that forgiveness ac- 
 companied it ; that infants by it were purged 
 from the pollution of original sin ; and that all 
 persons dying without baptism were lost. Thus, 
 
 Cyprian, A. D. 253. "As far as lies in us, no soul, if pos- 
 sible, is to be lost. It is not for us to hinder any person from 
 baptism and the grace of God ; which rule, as it holds to all, 
 so we think it more especially to be observed in reference to 
 infants, to whom our help and the divine mercy is rather to 
 be granted; because by their weeping and wailing at their 
 first entrance into the world, they do intimate nothing so much 
 as that they implore compassion." 
 
 Ambrose, A. D. 390. "For no person comes to the king- 
 dom of heaven, but by the sacrament of baptism. — Infants 
 that are baptized are reformed back again from wickedness to 
 the primitive state of their nature." 
 
 Chrysostom, a. D. 398. "The grace of baptism gives 
 cure without pain, and fills us with the grace of the Spirit. 
 Some think that the heavenly grace consists only in the for- 
 giveness of sins ; but I have reckoned up ten advantages of 
 it." "If sudden death seize us before we are baptized, 
 though we have a thousand good qualities, there is nothing 
 to be expected but hell." See the original of these passages 
 in Dr. Wall's Hist, of Inf. Baptism. 
 
 12* 
 
138 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 These extracts, which I might have increased a 
 hundredfold, are sufficient to prove that some of 
 the fathers, from about the middle of the third 
 century, considered baptism as essentially neces- 
 sary to salvation ; and in this false view of the 
 ordinance the baptism of infants originated. To 
 this agree the following learned writers : — 
 
 SuiCERUs, Professor of Greek and Hebrew at Zurich. 
 **This opinion of the absolute necessity of baptism arose from 
 a wrong understanding of our Lord's words, Except a man be 
 born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom 
 of heaven." Peed. Exam. 
 
 Salmasius, the very learned historian and critic. ''An 
 opinion prevailed that no one could be saved without being 
 baptized ; and for that reason the custom arose of baptizing 
 infants." Ihid. 
 
 21. But if a profession of repentance and faith 
 was always required before baptism in the apostolic 
 age, how could Christian ministers or churches, so 
 early as the days of Tertullian, admit of the bap- 
 tism of infants, by whom no such profession could 
 be made ? 
 
 Answer. The deficiency, in reference to infants, 
 was ingeniously supplied by introducing "spon- 
 sors.'' They would not dispense with the pro- 
 fession, but they would admit it by proxy. Two 
 or three persons, and in the case of an infant of 
 high rank, from twenty to a hundred, were ad- 
 mitted as "sureties," who professed, in helialf of 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 139 
 
 the infant, to repent, renounce the devil and his 
 works, and to believe the doctrines of the gospel. 
 These sureties are first mentioned by Tertullian, 
 A. D. 204, in the passage I have copied, where 
 they are called '* sponsores," that is, persons 
 \^ho answer, or make themselves answerable, for 
 another. 
 
 Here is religion by proxy ; real, personal, ex- 
 perimental religion ! a thing unheard of before 
 since the world began : but when so many strange 
 absurdities were introduced into the church, as 
 those we have already mentioned, we need not be 
 much surprised at this. To a reader, however, 
 who knows by his own experience, and by the 
 concurrent testimony of every part of the Bible, 
 that there is no real religion but that which is 
 between God and the soul, and is Grod's gift, and 
 in which another can have no share or part, it 
 is grievous to reflect seriously on this alarming 
 innovation. 
 
 22. But do modern Paedobaptists entertain the 
 same view as the ancients, as to the necessity of 
 baptism to salvation ? 
 
 Answer. The majority of professed Christians 
 have long avowed, and do still avow, the same 
 doctrine I The Church of Rome has honored 
 those who dare deny it, with an /'anathema;" 
 and the Greek Church, though not so ready to 
 
140 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 anathematize, entertains the same opinion. The 
 Keformed Churches, and the different denomina- 
 tions of Protestant Psedobaptists, whether bearii^ 
 the name of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Con- 
 gregationalists, or Wesleyans, though many of 
 them disavow the doctrine, yet they hold opinions, 
 which, when fairly carried out to their conse- 
 quences, come little short of the same amount. If 
 baptism makes its subjects, as some of them say, 
 '' Children of God and inheritors of the kingdom 
 of heaven ;" or, as all of them, by their leading 
 writers have said, that it brings its subjects "into 
 the church of Christ," or ''into the covenant of 
 grace," or "seals to them the benefits of that 
 covenant," and which is "the covenant of re- 
 demption, embracing all that Jehovah can im- 
 part ;" then baptism saves. If it brings into, or 
 seals the benefits of, the covenant of grace, it will 
 bring to heaven ; for God hath joined these to- 
 gether. And if there be not another luay of 
 bringing into this "covenant of grace and redemp- 
 tion," what must become of those who are not 
 brought in, and who die in that situation ? Thus 
 pressed to consequences, I see no other conclusioa 
 from these premises, but that of Chrysostom, just 
 cited, horrible as it sounds ! Let the Christians, 
 who would recoil at the thought of that conclu- 
 sion, examine rigidly and honestly whether the 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 141 
 
 virtues they join to the rite of baptism, afford not 
 the just and fair ground of it. And if the con- 
 clusion be denied, . let them deny the premises 
 from which it is drawn ; but while they avow the 
 premises, I must be allowed to insist upon the 
 conclusion. 
 
 23. If no spiritual or saving benefit necessarily 
 attends the ordinance of baptism, which evidently 
 is, and ever has been, conceived as the basis and 
 reason of infant baptism by the majority of those 
 that have practised it, why is the ordinance ad- 
 ministered at all ? and of what use is it in the 
 church of Christ ? 
 
 Answer. "God is his own interpreter." The 
 ritual ordinances appointed of God in his church 
 were never, under any dispensation, intended 
 by Him to carry salvation with them. For 
 that purpose "neither circumcision availeth any 
 thing, nor uncircumcision," as the apostle af- 
 firms ; and the same may be said of baptism and 
 the Lord's supper. Salvation proceeds from a 
 source entirely distinct and separate from these 
 ordinances. 
 
 "What, then, you inquire, is the use of bap- 
 tism ? I might reply by asking another question, 
 Of what use is the Bible ? or of what use is 
 preaching the gospel ? The Bible cannot save — 
 nor can preaching save. They are, however, 
 
142 SCfllPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 God's appoiyded means of instructing mankind, 
 and showdng them the way of salvation. Bap- 
 tism is of the same nature, and its intention is 
 the same. It strikingly shows, by an emblema- 
 tical representation, what the Bible and the gos- 
 pel show by the written and preached Word. 
 Baptism proclaims impressively, though no voice 
 is heard, The sinner's pollution, — the penitent's 
 purification, — the believer's death and burial to 
 the sinful practices of this world, — and what the 
 Lord Jesus passed through to work out redemp- 
 tion for his people. It is the prerogative of 
 the Holy Spirit, and of Him alone, to make the 
 truths thus taught by baptism, or taught by the 
 written or preached Word, effectual to salvation ; 
 and each is alike useless without his divine power, 
 Zech. iv. 6 ; 1 Cor. ii. 4 ; iii. 6 ; 1 Thes. i. 5. 
 And on the other hand, each is said to save as 
 the Holy Spirit gives the effectual blessing with 
 them and through them. See 2 Tim. iii. 15 ; 1 
 Cor. XV. 1, 2; 1 Pet. iii. 21. 
 
 Baptism is also of importance in the church, 
 not only by what it teaches, but as an initiatory 
 ordinance ; and being placed at the entrance to 
 the visible church of Christ, it is sl personal pro- 
 fession of belief in, and reliance upon Christ, 
 and a willingness to submit to Him in all things ; 
 and imposes a solemn obligation to a personal 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 143 
 
 dedication to his service and glory. Hence, 
 though not a saving ordinance, it is, like the 
 Lord's supper, of great importance in its proper 
 and Scriptural place. 
 
 24. In a word, Does not the view of Christian 
 baptism for which you contend, lead me to the 
 conclusion that infant baptism is a mere human 
 invention, subversive of God's institution, im- 
 posed upon the church of Christ through false 
 notions of saving efficacy, and without the least 
 Scripture authority ? If so, the confidence 
 placed in it must be vain, delusive, and danger- 
 ous, and the practice of it offensive in the sight 
 of God. 
 
 Answer. The following passage from an emi- 
 nent Scotch divine, is justly applicable to this 
 subject, and I give it as my answer. Let the 
 reader bear infant baptism in mind, while he 
 peruses these solemn observations : — 
 
 Rev. Thomas Boston, author of "Human Nature in its 
 Four-fold State," etc. " The saints have no confidence in 
 man's externals. I call those things so, which God never 
 made duty, but men make them so. These are not only vain 
 confidences, but vain worship and service, that is loathsome to 
 God. Matt. XV. 9. Men are apt to cut the law short enough 
 as it is found in the Word, but men's nature has a wonderful 
 itching after making additions of their okcn to it. Hence a 
 cloud of superstition has darkened some churches, and the 
 simplicity of gospel-worship is despised. Men's inventions 
 are brought in upon, yea, instead of divine institutions ! But 
 
144 scriptuhe gthde to baptism. 
 
 though they should he hound with the tie of Antiquity, as 
 Matt. V. 21 ; — with the tie of Chuech Authority, as Matt, 
 xxiii. 4; or with the tie op Civil Authority, as Hosea v. 
 11; seeing it cannot he set home on the conscience with. 
 Thus aaith the Lord, it is to he rejected, and hy no means 
 complied with, he the hazard what it will. Deut. iv. 2. *Te 
 shall not add to the word which I command you, neither 
 shall you diminish ought from it.' " Sermons and Discourses. 
 Edinhurgh, 1756. 
 
MODE OF BAPTISM. 145 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 ON THE SCRIPTURAL MODE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 I HAVE promised my reader to refer again to 
 the Mode of baptism, and expressed my hope to 
 satisfy any candid inquirer on the subject ; and 
 this I hope to do, not by the quantity of what I 
 write on the subject, but by stating arguments, 
 which I consider irresistibly convincing and de- 
 cisive. In this chapter, as in the former, I shall 
 suppose my reader disposed to put inquiries in- 
 volving all the leading points of the controversy. 
 
 1 Question. Are the most learned and com- 
 petent writers agreed, that the sense you have 
 given, of the words chosen of God to express this 
 ordinance, baptize and baptism, is their ordinary 
 and most proper sense ? 
 
 Answer. More competent authority the learned 
 world does not afford than the following : — 
 
 WiTSius. "It cannot be denied that the native significa- 
 tion of the word jSanTsiv, and (iaTrn^eiv, is to p/unrjo, to dip." 
 Econ. of the Gov. L. IV. c. xvi. g 13. 
 
 Calvin. " The word baptize, signifies to immerse, and the 
 rite of immersion was observed by the ancient church." 
 P(x,d. Exam. 
 
 13 
 
146 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 Alstedius. "To baptize, signifies only to immerse; not 
 to wash, except by consequence." Ibid. 
 
 Beza. " Christ commanded us to hQ baptized ; by which, 
 word it is certain immersion is signified." Ibid. 
 
 ViTRiNGA. "The act of baptizing is the immersion of 
 believers in water. This expresses the force of the word." 
 Ibid. 
 
 H. Altixgius. "The word baptism properly signifies 
 immersion J improperly, by a metonomy of the end, icash- 
 ing." Ibid. 
 
 Scapula. " To bap)tize, — to dip or immerse, as we im- 
 merse any thing for the purpose of dyeing or cleansing it in 
 water." Ibid. 
 
 Dr. Campbell, of Aberdeen. "The primitive signification 
 of baptizma is immersion ; of baptizein, to immerse, plunge, 
 or overwhelm." IV. GosjyeU, Note on Matt. xx. 22. 
 
 BossuET, Bishop of Meaux. "To baptize signifies to 
 plunge, as is granted by all the world." In Peed. Exam. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers. " The original meaning of the word bap- 
 tism is immersion ; and though we regard it as a point of in- 
 differency, whether the ordinance so named be performed in 
 this way, or by sprinkling; yet we doubt not that the prevalent 
 style of administration in the apostle's days was by an actual 
 submerging the lohole body under water." Lectures, as already 
 quoted. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers frankly admits, with multitudes of others, 
 that the word baptism, in the law of Christ, signifies immeiv 
 sion ; and being doubtless well read in the Christian authors 
 of the first centuries, as well as fully aware of what the Holy 
 Scriptures contain upon this subject, he as frankly admits 
 what was " the prevalent style of administration in the apos- 
 tles' days." But the force and power of this high authority 
 of Christ and his apostles the Dr. neutralizes completely with 
 regard to his own practice, by strangely adding, " But we 
 regard it as a point of indiff'erency whether the ordinance be 
 
MODE OF BAPTISM. 147 
 
 performed in this vraj, or by sprinkling." What! a point of 
 indifferency whether Christians abide by what Christ ordained 
 and the apostles practised ! Carry this principle out, and to 
 what would it lead ? Would the Jews deem it a point of in- 
 differency whether they used leavened or unleavened bread 
 in the passover ? Or it is a point of indifferency to Chris- 
 tians, whether they use bread in the Lord's supper, or some 
 other article instead of it ? And if neither Jews nor Chris- 
 tians dare to alter the divine law in these ordinances, what 
 mode of reasoning can lead an humble disciple of Jesus to 
 make such a complete change in the equally solemn and 
 sacred ordinance of baptism ! The apostle Paul evidently 
 would not have admitted this indifferency: "Now I praise 
 you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep 
 the ordinances as I delivered them to you." 1 Cor. xi. 2. 
 Allow a change in any thing the Lord ordains, and what a 
 door do you open ! All the corruptions ever known under 
 the Christian name can then be admitted, and none can with 
 propriety oppose them, but by denouncing the opening of 
 such a 'door. 
 
 The late Dr. Moses Stuart, of Andover, in his work on 
 Baptism, after giving extracts from Hermas, Justin Martyr, 
 Tertullian, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, Dionysius, 
 Gregory, Nyssen, and others, showing baptism to be immer- 
 sion, adds, " ' It is,' says Augusti, ' a thing made out.' So, 
 indeed, all the writers who have thoroughly investigated this 
 subject, conclude. I know of no one usage of ancient times, 
 which seems to be more clearly and certainly made out. 
 I cannot see how it is possible for any candid man, who ex- 
 amines this subject, to deny this." 
 
 2. As in one branch of the Christian church, 
 the Greek language has been continued from the 
 age of the apostles, and with them the words 
 Barttt^to and Bartrtc^a, baptize and baptism, remain 
 
148 SCRIPTTJIIE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 nnaltered, and in common use to this day, — let me 
 ask, How do they understand the words? and 
 Low administer the ordinance ? 
 
 Ret. R. Robinson. " The native G-reeks must understand 
 their own language better than foreigners, and they have 
 ALWAYS understood the word baptism to signify dipping ; 
 and, therefore, from their first embracing of Christianity to 
 this day, they have always baptized, and do yet baptize, by 
 immersion. This is an authority for the meaning of the word 
 infinitely preferable to that of European lexicographers. In 
 this case the Greeks are unexceptionable guides." History 
 of Baptism. 
 
 3. But what is denominated the "Greek 
 Church" is now extended over an immense por- 
 tion of the globe : is the same mode of baptism 
 observed in all the nations included in it ? 
 
 Good and Gregory's Pantalogia, under the article 
 ** Greek Church," thus explains, "That part of the Christian 
 church which was first established in Greece, is now spread 
 over a larger extent of country than any other established 
 church. It comprehends in its bosom a considerable part 
 of Greece, the Grecian isles, Wallachia, Moldavia, Egypt, 
 Abyssinia, Nubia, Lybia, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Cilicia, 
 and Palestine. — It may be observed, that amid all their trifling 
 rites, they practise trine-immersion, which is unquestionably 
 the primitive manner." 
 
 Dr. Wall. •' The Greek church, in all the branches of it, 
 does still use immersion." Hist, of Infant Baptism. 
 
 Sir p. Ricault. " Thrice dipping or plunging, this church 
 holds to be as necessary to the form of baptism, as water to 
 the matter." Peed. Exam. 
 
MODE OF BAPTISM. 149 
 
 4. Is there any evidence in the writings of the 
 fird Christian foihern after the apostles, respect- 
 ing the mode of baptism as administered by them, 
 and in their times ? 
 
 Ansicer. The first Christians after the days of 
 the apostles, could never bring themselves to 
 make so great a change in an institution of Christ, 
 as to substitute sprinkling for immersion. At the 
 end of the two first centuries, a substitute was in- 
 vented for a profession of faith in behalf of infants, 
 as we have seen ; but it required a thousand years 
 to pass before immersion was superseded by any 
 other mode ; except in the case of sick or dying 
 persons. If, then, we can ascertain the general 
 mode of baptism in the first centuries following 
 the apostles, without doubt it will be what the 
 Lord ordained. And happily there is abundance 
 of evidence upon this subject. I shall cite a few 
 short passages, and the references may lead the 
 reader, if disposed, to a deeper investigation : — 
 
 Barnabas, Paul's companion. An epistle ascribed to him 
 has escaped the ravages of time. Two passages refer to bap- 
 tism ; in one he says, " Blessed are they who, fixing their 
 hope on the cross, have gone down into the water." The 
 other, " We descend into the water, . . . and come up out of 
 it, . . . having in our hearts reverential fear, and hope through 
 Jesus." Epist. cap. xi. 
 
 Hermas, honored by Paul's salutation, Eom. xvi. 14. A 
 Latin version of his work, entitled ' The Pastor/ or Shepherd, 
 is extant. In it he speaks of the apostles accompanying the 
 
150 SCRIPTUKE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 persons to be baptized into the water. " The apostles and 
 teachers preached to them that before were dead, and gave 
 them this seal ,• for they went down with them into the water, 
 and came up again." See this and other allusions in Lib. I. 
 vis. 8, sect. 7 ; and Lih. III. similit. 9. 
 
 Justin Martyr, about A. D., 150, wrote "An Apology 
 for Christians, addressed to the emperor, the senate, and 
 people of Rome." In this work he describes the doctrines 
 and ordinances of the church of Christ ; and on baptism has 
 the following passage : — "I will now declare to you also, after 
 what manner we, being made new by Christ, have dedicated 
 ourselves to God, lest, if I should leave that out, I might 
 seem to deal unfairly in some part of my apology. They who 
 are persuaded and do believe that those things which are 
 taught by us are true, and do promise to live according to 
 them, are directed first to pray and ask of God with fasting, 
 the forgiveness of their former sins ; and we also pray and 
 fast with them. Then we bring them to some place where 
 there is water, and they are baptized by the same way of 
 baptism by which we were baptized: for they are washed 
 (£j/ TO) vSari,) in the water in the name of God the Father, Lord 
 of all things; and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the 
 Holy Spirit." Justin Mart. Apolog., II. sect. 79. 
 
 Upon this passage of Justin, Dr. Wall remarks, " This is 
 the most ancient account of the way of baptizing, next to the 
 Scripture ; and shows the plain and simple manner of admin- 
 istering it." And Mr. Reeves, the learned translator of 
 Justin, adds, in a Note, " 'Tis evident from this place of Jus- 
 tin and that of Tertullian (de Cor. Mil. c. 3,J that ponds and 
 rivers were the only baptisteries or fonts the church had for' 
 the first two hundred years. — The catechumen, being brought 
 to the baptistery, was thus interrogated. Dost thou renounce 
 the devil ? — Dost thou renounce the world ? etc., etc. Ans. 
 I do renounce them. — Next he made an open confession of 
 the faith, the bishop asking him, Dost thou believe in God; 
 
MODE OF BAPTISM. 151 
 
 etc., to -whicli the person answered, I do believe. And this 
 form of interrogation the apostle is thought to refer to when 
 he styles baptism the answer of a good conscience towards 
 God." — After this confession is made, the candidate, Mr. 
 Reeves adds, was " thrice plunged under water at the naming 
 of the Three Persons in the blessed Trinity." Apologies. 
 
 Tertullian, (A. D. 204.) "For the law of baptizing is 
 laid down, and the form prescribed : Gro, teach all nations, 
 baptizing them in the name, etc. He bound faith and the 
 necessity of baptism together; therefore from that time all 
 who believed were dipped." " The person to be baptized, in 
 great simplicity ... is let down in the water and with a few 
 words said, is dipped." Again, when speaking of the vain 
 anxiety to be baptized in the Jordan, — "There is no differ- 
 ence whether one is washed in a sea or in a pool, in a river 
 or in a fountain, in a lake or in a channel; nor is there 
 any difference between them whom John dipped in Jordan, 
 and those whom Peter dipped in the Tiber:" Be Bcqjtismo, 
 cap. 2, 4, 7, 13. See more in Be Corona Ilil. cap. I. 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen, A. D. 360. ""We are buried with 
 Christ by baptism that we may also rise again with Him; we 
 descend with Him that we may also be lifted up with Him ; 
 we ascend with Him as we may also be glorified with Him.^' 
 Orat. 40. Stennett's Answer to Hussen. 
 
 Basil, A. D. 360. "Ei* rpun rais KaraSvcecn," &c. "In three 
 immersions the great mystery of baptism is accomplished." 
 jStennett, 
 
 Ambrose, A. D. 374. " Thou wast asked, Dost thou believe 
 in God the Father Almighty ? Thou saidst, ' I do believe,' 
 and wast immersed, that is, thou wast burled. Thou wast 
 asked again. Dost thou believe on our Lord Jesus Christ and 
 his crucifixion? Thou saidst, '1 believe,' and wast immersed 
 again, and so wast buried with Christ." 
 
 Cyril, of Jerusalem, A. D. 374. "After these things ye 
 were led to the holy pool of divine baptism, as Christ was 
 
152 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 carried from the cross to the sepulchre. And each of you 
 was asked, Whether he believed, etc. ; and ye made that 
 saving confession, and descended three times into the water 
 and ascended again ; — and that water of salvation was a grave 
 to you." In another place, when showing how "the whole 
 soul is baptized by the Spirit," from the account given of 
 the spiritual baptism of the first disciples, in Acts ii. 1-4, he 
 thus refers to the mode of water baptism, as an illustra- 
 tion : — 
 
 " For, as he who plunges into the waters and is baptized, 
 is encompassed on all sides by the waters, so wei'e they also 
 baptized completely by the Holy Ghost. — It filled the house 
 tchere they tcere sitting ; for the house became the vessel of 
 the spiritual water ; as the disciples sat within, the whole 
 house was filled. Thus they were entirely baptized, — in- 
 vested soul and body with a divine and saving garment." 
 Again, in another place, 
 
 "Even Simon Magus once came to the laver of baptism; 
 he was baptized, but not enlightened. His body he dipped 
 in water, but admitted not the Spirit to illuminate his heart. 
 His body went down into the pool, and came up ; but his 
 soul was not buried together with Christ, nor with Him 
 raised."* Catach. xx. ^ iv. — xvii. ^ xiv. Introd. ^ 2. 
 
 CHRYSOSTOif, A. D. 398. "To be baptized {Kai KOTaSveadai) 
 and plunged, and then to emerge or rise again, is a symbol 
 of our de-cent into the grave, and our ascent out of it; 
 and, therefore, Paul calls baptism a burial." Homil. XI. 
 in 1 Cor. 
 
 5. Do learned Psedobaptists grant that this 
 
 * Cyril's works, in the original, are in Greek. The copy I had 
 access to (Paris, 1720) is accompanied by a Latin version, from which 
 the sentences above are transcribed. The English translation I have 
 preferred copying from the " Library of the Fathers : translated by 
 members of the English Church." Oxford, 1838. 
 
MODE or BAPTISM. 153 
 
 practice of immersion was tlie general, and es- 
 teemed the only legitimate, mode of baptism, 
 among the early Christians ; and that in this they 
 were obediently following the authority of Christ 
 and the apostles ? 
 
 WiTsiTJS affirms, — "It is certain ttat both Jolin the 
 Baptist, and the disciples of Christ, ordinarily practised im- 
 mersion; whose example was followed by the ancient church, 
 as Vossius has shown, by producing many testimonies from 
 the Greek and Latin writers." Econ. of the Gov. Lib. IV. 
 cap. xvi. ^13. 
 
 Mr. Bower. "Baptism by immersion was undoubtedly 
 the apostolical practice, and was never dispensed with by the 
 church, except in case of sickness,^' etc. Hist, of the Popes. 
 
 G. J. Vossius. "That the apostles immersed whom they 
 baptized there is no doubt . . . And that the ancient church 
 followed their example is very clearly evinced, by innu- 
 merable testimonies of the Fathers." Bisputat. de Bap., Disp. 
 L§6. 
 
 Mr, Reeves. " The ancients carefully observed trine-im- 
 mersion, insomuch, that by the " Canons Apostolical," either 
 Bishop or Presbyter who baptized without it was deposed 
 FROM the ministry." Sco the Canons, 42 to 50. Reeves' 
 Apologies of Justin. 
 
 Encyclopedia Ecclesiastica, a learned and splendid 
 work. "Whatever weight 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 afterwards, the practice of immersion prevailed ; 
 and which seems indeed never to be departed from, except 
 where it was administered to a person at the point of death, 
 or upon the bed of sickness, — which was considered indeed 
 as not giving the party the full privileges of baptism." 
 Article, Baptism. 
 
154 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 6. But the baptism of the Holy Ghost is ex- 
 pressed by the term 'pouring ; " I will pour out 
 my Spirit," etc., Joel. ii. 21 ; realized on the dis- 
 ciples on the day of Pentecost, Acts ii. 11. Now, 
 if by the pouring of the Spirit upon the disciples 
 they are said to be "baptized" with the Holy 
 Ghost, Acts i. 5, does not this favor the pouring 
 of water rather than immersing in it ? 
 
 Answer. If my reader will turn back to the 
 passage produced from Cyril of Jerusalem, he 
 will find the baptism of the Holy Ghost clearly 
 described. The Holy Spirit was truly said to be 
 poured out and to fall, Acts xi. 15, upon the 
 disciples, and then it is added that the divine 
 presence "filled all the house where they were 
 sitting;" and they were therefore " baptized" and 
 "filled with the Holy Ghost." Now, as the word 
 baptize never means to pour, but always, when 
 used in its proper, literal, and obvious sense, to 
 immerse, with the sense of covering, it is evident 
 that the circumstance of filling the house, and 
 filling the disciples by the divine presence, con- 
 stituted the baptism, and not the act of pouring ; 
 and as the Greek father above named, writing so 
 early after the apostles, and in the same language 
 with them, viewed this circumstance as constitu- 
 ting the spiritual baptism, I have no doubt of the 
 accuracy of this interpretation. The baptism of 
 
MODE OF BAPTISM. 155 
 
 the Holy Ghost, therefore, is favorable to immer- 
 sion, not against it. 
 
 Whether that in which a person is said to be 
 immersed rises so as to cover him, — or is poured 
 upon him to the same extent, — or he is put into 
 it, the sense of immersion is the same in each 
 case. So it is with the term baptism. The sense 
 of covering is never absent from the use of the 
 word ; as Dr. Carson has demonstrated in his ela- 
 borate work entitled, "Baptism in its Mode and 
 Subjects considered ;" published by the American 
 Baptist Publication Society. To this able work 
 the reader is referred who wishes a thorough in- 
 vestigation of this subject. 
 
 The word sprinkling is also used with reference 
 to the gift of the Holy Ghost, as it is also with 
 reference to the blood of Christ. Ezek. xxxvi. 25 ; 
 1 Peter, i. 2. The allusion is to the ceremonial 
 sprinkling of blood under the law, and intimates 
 the cleansing efficacy of the blood and Spirit of 
 Christ ; but the word is never used with refer- 
 ence to the mode of baptism. If such allusions 
 to the Spirit's gifts and " diversities of opera- 
 tions" were to authorize anodes of baptism, how 
 many modes might be practised ? But who would 
 set such allusions against the admitted fact, that 
 Christ and the apostles observed and authorized 
 no mode but immersion ? 
 
156 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 7. Admitting the evidence of the original prac- 
 tice of immersion to be decisive, must it not be a 
 display of ignorance and weakness to oppose or 
 contradict it ; and, indeed, to ridicule that mode, 
 as some do, a profane contempt of the wisdom and 
 authority of Christ ? 
 
 Dr. Wall, who explored all the voluminous writers of 
 antiquity in search of evidence of infant baptism, says, "This 
 [immersion] is so plain and clear by an infinite number of 
 passages, that as one cannot but pity the weak endeavors of 
 such Pasdobaptists as would maintain the negative of it, so 
 we ought to disown and show a dislike of the profane scoflTs 
 which some peojile give to the English Anti-psedobaptists 
 merely for the use of dippping ; — when it was, in all proba- 
 bility, the way by which our blessed Saviour, and for certain, 
 was the most usual and ordinary way by which the ancient 
 Christians did receive their baptism. 'Tis a great want of 
 prudence as well as of honesty to refuse to grant to an ad- 
 versary what is certainly true, and may be proved so. It 
 creates a jealousy of all the rest that one says." — "The cus- 
 tom of the Christians in the near succeeding times [to the 
 apostles] being more largely and particularly delivered in 
 books, is known to have been generally or ordinarily a total 
 immersion." Hist, of Inf. Baptism, Pt. 11. eh. ix § 2. And 
 its Defence. 
 
 Dr. Campbell, Professor at Aberdeen. " I have heard a 
 disputant, in defiance of etymology and use, maintain that 
 the word rendered in the New Testament baptize, means more 
 properly to sprinkle than to plunge ; and in defiance of all 
 antiquity, that the former was the earliest and the most 
 general practice in baptizing. One who argues in this manner 
 never fails with persons of knowledge to betray the cause he 
 would defend ; and though, with respect to the vulgar, bold 
 
MODE OP BAPTISM. 15 T 
 
 assertioDS generally succeed as well as argument, and some- 
 times better; yet a candid mixd will always disdain to take 
 the help of FALSEHOOD, even in the supjjort of truth." Lectures 
 on Pulpit Eloquence. 
 
 Edinbuegh Presbyterian Reviewers. ^'"We cannot but 
 regret, therefore, that Mr. Ewing should hare been guilty of 
 so many gross and glaring blunders in his endeavor to make 
 out a case in favor of sprinkling. . . . We have rarely met, 
 for example, with a more weak and fanciful piece of reason- 
 ing, than that by which Mr. Ewing would persuade us that 
 there is no allusion to the mode by immersion, in the ex- 
 pression * buried with him in baptism.' This point ought to 
 be frankly admitted, and indeed cannot be denied with any 
 show of reason." Review, Vol. I. 
 
 8. How long was immersion continued as the 
 general practice among all Christians ? 
 
 Bishop Bossijet. " We are able to make it appear, by the 
 acts of councils, and by the ancient rituals, that for thirteen 
 HUNDRED YEARS, baptism was thus [by immersion] adminis- 
 tered throughout the whole church, as far as possible." 
 Stennet's Answer to Russen. 
 
 Stackhodse. ''Several authors have shown, and proved, 
 that this immersion continued, as much as possible, to be 
 used for thirteen hundred years after Christ." Hist, of the 
 Bible. See also Dr. Whitby, already cited. 
 
 9. At what period, and on what accounts, was 
 the custom of pouring, or sprinkling, first intro- 
 duced ? 
 
 Answer. There is no earlier record, that Dr. 
 Wall could discover, than in the case of !N'ovatian, 
 about the middle of the third century. This man, 
 14 
 
158 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 while unbaptized, as Eusebius records, Eccles. 
 Hist. L. YI. c. 43, "fell into a dangerous disease, 
 and because he was very like to die was baptized 
 in the bed where he lay," (sv xUvtj jtEpi%vOsvta, that 
 is, sprinkled all over in bed,) "if," adds Eusebius, 
 "that might be termed baptism." ISTovatian re- 
 covered ; and by the following circumstance we 
 have remarkably preserved the view which the 
 Christian church generally took of his baptism. 
 The See of Rome became vacant, A. D. 251. 
 Two persons were chosen to succeed, namely, 
 Cornelius, "chosen by the major part," and this 
 Novatian, "in a schismatical way." Cornelius 
 writes a long letter to Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, 
 in which he describes the case of Novatian, and 
 says, as Dr. Wall translates it, "that Novatian 
 came not canonically to his order of priesthood, 
 much less was he capable of being chosen bishop." 
 Let the reader mark the reason assigned, "For 
 that all the clergy, and a great many of the laity, 
 were against his being chosen presbyter ; because 
 it was not lawful, they said, for any one that had 
 been baptized in his bed, (Greek sprinkled over) 
 as he had been, to be admitted to any office of the 
 clergy." WaWs Hist., Part II. ch. ix. § 2. 
 
 Here is the first recorded case of affusion, 
 whether pouring or sprinkling, for baptism ; and 
 here we have a serious objection taken against 
 
MODE OF BAPTISM. 159 
 
 the person so baptized on account of it ; an ob- 
 jection in which "all the clergy" were united. 
 What was the objection ? Was it against Ms 
 situation, as being sick in bed ? or against the 
 mode of the ordinance ? This is important to be 
 ascertained. I answer, It was against hath ; for 
 soon after this time, these two objections against 
 such a baptism were exhibited. 1 . There was an 
 objection against a person sick; because, as the 
 Council of Neocgesarea affirmed by the 12th 
 canon, "He that is baptized when he is sick, 
 ought not to be made a priest ; for his coming to 
 the faith i^ not voluntary, but from necessity." 
 And, 2. As to the mode, while Novatian was 
 living, one Magnus submits this question to 
 Cyprian : — " Whether they are to be esteemed 
 right Christians, who are not washed in the 
 water, but only sprinkled ?" Cyprian answers, 
 that the baptism was to be esteemed good, " ne- 
 cessity compelling to it, and God granting his 
 indulgence^ I leave the reader to reflect on the 
 force of this evidence. 
 
 From this period, A. D. 250, onward, sprink- 
 ling was permitted, but only in a case of neces- 
 sity, and in prospect of death ; originating in a 
 false view of the necessity of the ordinance to 
 salvation. "France," says Dr. Wall, "seems to 
 have been the first country in the world, where 
 
160 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 baptism by affusion was used ordinarily to persons 
 in health." This affusion, or pouring, in the 
 Church of Rome, was first tolerated in the eighth 
 century, while immersion was still the established 
 law of the church ; and so things stood for several 
 hundred years. In the sixteenth century, pouring 
 was generally adopted. The rituals of that church 
 prove this to a demonstration. See Robinson's 
 History of Baptism, and Bishop Bossuet, just 
 cited. 
 
 The Church of England held the original prac- 
 tice of dipping longer than many continental 
 nations. Erasmus says, A. D. 1530, "With us 
 [the Dutch] they have the water poured on them ; 
 in England they are dipped." The Rubric to 
 this day instructs the clergyman, "he shall dip in 
 the water discreetly and warily;" but it allows 
 an exception, "but if tliey shall certify that the 
 child is weak, it shall suffice to pour water upon 
 it." The Catechism requires the youth to ex- 
 press the form of baptism only as by immersion, 
 "Water wherein the person is baptized." In 
 the early history of this church, "the offices or 
 liturgies," says Dr. Wall, " did all along . . . 
 enjoin dipping, without any mention of pouring 
 or sprinkling." In A. D. 1549, first appeared 
 the exception for " weak" children : four years 
 afterwards, the word thrice, after the order to dip, 
 
MODE OF BAPTISM. 161 
 
 was omitted. Sprinkling began to prevail about 
 A. D. 1550, and " within the time of half a cen- 
 tury, from A. D. 1550, to 1600, prevailed to be 
 the more general, as it is now almost the only way 
 of baptizing." Dr. Wall's Hist, of Inf. Bap. Pt. 
 II. ch. ix. § 2. 
 
 10. In what proportion of the Christian world 
 has immersion been continued down to the pre- 
 sent time ? 
 
 Answer. Dr. Wall. " What has been said of thia custom 
 of pouring or sprinkling water in the ordinary use of baptism, 
 is to be understood only in reference to these icestem parts of 
 Europe : for it is used ordinarily noTvhere else. The Greek 
 Church does still use immersion; and so do all other Chris- 
 tians in the world, except the Latins. All those nations of 
 Christians that do now, or formerly did submit to the autho- 
 rity of the bishop of Rome, do ordinarily baptize their infants 
 by pouring or sprinkling; but all other Christians in the 
 world, who never owned the Pope's usurped power, do and 
 ever did dip their infants in the ordinary use . . . All 
 the Christians in Asia, all in Africa, and about one-third 
 part of Europe, are of the last sort." Hist, of Inf. Bap. 
 Part II. ch. ix. 
 
 Does my reader wish me to proceed any fur- 
 ther? To my mind the subject is perfectly set- 
 tled ; because the evidence adduced before us 
 has been, not so much in criticism upon words, 
 as in plain historical facts ; facts admitted 
 beyond dispute ; and, as they include the prac- 
 14* 
 
162 SCRrPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 tice of the apostolic age, they are decisive upon 
 the subject. 
 
 The contention, therefore, that the word bccptize 
 has other senses besides to immerse, and that the 
 prepositions rendered into and out of, in the bap- 
 tism of the eunuch, may be rendered to and from 
 the water; all this is perfect quibbling and trifling, 
 when the fact is conceded, that Jesus, and his 
 apostles, and the primitive Christians, observed 
 and authorized the ordinance in this form. Thus 
 the late editor of Calmet, after warmly contending 
 against the views of the Baptists, adds, "Here 
 again, I say, let me not be understood, I believe 
 that immersion was practised by John." Why, 
 granting this, he grants all; for if this was the 
 form in which "the Lord of glory" was baptized, 
 and that He authorized, we want no more. 
 
 To a person disposed to question the evidence 
 for immersion, I would beg to propose the fol- 
 lowing inquiries, founded upon the historical 
 facts briefly given in the foregoing pages, and 
 which he may more fully examine in the works I 
 have referred to : 
 
 1. How came it to pass, that the early Chris- 
 tian writers expressed the rite of baptism by such 
 Greek and Latin words and phrases, exclusive of 
 baptizo, as signify, to he plunged; to be buried; 
 to be dipped ; to be immersed ; to be let down in 
 
MODE OF BAPTISM. 16o 
 
 the water; and to be encompassed by the water on 
 every side? 
 
 2. How came it to pass, that when affusion or 
 sprinkling was had recourse to, as an expedient 
 in prospect of death, and the person recovered, 
 he was not deemed so properly baptized as to be 
 admissible to any sacred office ? 
 
 3. How came it to pass, that the fathers should 
 name, as suitable places for baptizing, "the sea, 
 a pool, a river, a fountain, a lake, a channel, the 
 Jordan, the Tiber ;" and that the baptism may be 
 alike " in" any one of them ? 
 
 4. How came it to pass, that by the authority 
 of the " Canons Apostolical," if a bishop or pres- 
 byter baptized by any other way than immersion, 
 yea, trine-immersion, he should be deposed ? 
 
 5. How comes it to pass, that those Christians 
 with whom the command of the Lord Jesus to 
 baptize is in their native tongue, have, in all ages 
 of their history, observed this mode ? 
 
 6. How comes it to pass, that the ancient 
 rituals of those churches in which pouring and 
 sprinkling now prevail, solemnly enjoined, or do 
 still enjoin, the mode of immersion ? 
 
 1. How came it to pass, that the whole Chris- 
 tian world, however afterwards divided, uniformly 
 observed immersion, except in sickness, for thir- 
 teen hundred years after Christ ? 
 
164 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 ^ow, though the evidence I have produced 
 upon these points from ancient and modern writers 
 be brief, it is beyond doubt, that what the above 
 inquiries state, are incontrovertible historical facts, 
 and if the New Testament contained no decisive 
 evidence on the subject, the above facts afford a 
 most indisputable proof that immersion was the 
 original, and, if so, the divinely authorized mode ; 
 and consequently that which should be invariably 
 and unalterably observed to the end of time ; for 
 who dares to alter what Christ ordains ? " The 
 Lord is at hand!" And He has most solemnly 
 warned every man, — " Know thou that for all these 
 things God will bring thee into judgment!" See 
 Eccles. xi. 9 ; xii. 13, 14 ; Rev. xxii. 18-21. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL DESIGN OF BAPTISM. 165 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL DESIGN OF BAPTISM. 
 
 That this sacred ordinauce was intended by 
 the Great Head of the church to be symbolical, 
 and to teach by an expressive and visible sign 
 what the gospel taught by the word preached, is 
 a truth too evident in the New Testament to be 
 doubted ; and that the particular form or mode 
 of it was to be indicative of some important truths, 
 and that its observance was to have a beneficial 
 influence on the Christian church, are equally 
 clear. This we have partly anticipated, and shall 
 only briefly add :■ — 
 
 1. Baptism was to teach the sinfulness of man, 
 and the necessity of forgiveness and spiritual 
 purification, in order to eternal life. These 
 truths are implied in Peter's words, when exhort- 
 ing to the ordinance, " Repent, and be baptized 
 for the remission of sins;" and in the case of 
 Ananias, "Arise, and be baptized, and wash 
 away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.'' 
 Acts ii. 38, xxii. 16. 
 
 2. Baptism was intended to show forth the 
 
166 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 Christian's entire abandonment of a life of im- 
 piety, and Ms entrance upon a new life of devo- 
 tion and dedication to God. The metaphor of a 
 burial expresses the former, and that of a resur- 
 rection the latter ; both emblematically exhibited 
 in this institution. 
 
 3. Baptism was intended to present a figure of 
 our Lord's overwhelming sufferings. — To this 
 most interesting circumstance our blessed Re- 
 deemer himself alludes in affecting terms. Matt. 
 XX. 22, 23 ; Luke xii. 50. 
 
 4. No less does baptism pre -represent what the 
 Christian anticipates as tJie destiny of his oivn 
 human nature, when he shall descend like his 
 Kedeemer into the grave, and at his Saviour's 
 second coming be raised to glory. In no way 
 but immersion does the ordinance answer these 
 several designs. 
 
 5. And, finally, this sacred rite, in reference to 
 its subjects, appears evidently designed to form a 
 liyie of separation between the world and the 
 church. A baptized person, in the primitive 
 age, was considered as having comfe out from the 
 ungodly, and assumed the character and profes.- 
 sion of a follower of Christ. " As many of you 
 as have been baptized into Christ, have put on 
 Christ," Gal. iii. 27. Just as when a person, 
 entering the service of an earthly -prince, puts on 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 161 
 
 the attire by which the servants of that prince are 
 distinguished ; so the Christian, by baptism, puts 
 on, as a garment, an open profession of his Lord 
 and Master ; declaring that he is no longer his 
 own, or the servant of sin and Satan, but bought 
 with a price, and now surrenders himself to Him 
 that loved him and died for him. This entire 
 separation of the church from the world our 
 Saviour most plainly taught in John xv. 19; 
 xvii. 6, 9, 20, 21 ; and xviii. 36. As did also the 
 apostles ; see, as an example, 2 Cor. vi. 14 to 18. 
 In none but believers can these doctrinal and 
 practical uses of baptism be realized. 
 
 In closing, I request my reader's attention to a 
 few thoughts, suggested by the general objections 
 of opponents to the practice for which I have 
 contended ; and add my reasons in a summary 
 form, for abiding strictly by that practice. 
 
 I. — Objections to Exclusive Believers^ Baptism. 
 
 1. In the form of objection to the principles 
 of the Baptists, relative to this ordinance, it has 
 been remarked that " the majority of Christians, 
 with whom are associated an immense number 
 of great, good, and learned men, have held, and 
 do hold, the opposite views ;" and, it is asked, 
 " Can they all be wrong ?" 
 
168 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 Answer. I admit that a large proportion of the 
 professed Christian inhabitants of the world, with 
 whom are joined many eminent writers, are against 
 us. But is a majority never wrong, — never found 
 on the side of error ? Let my reader ask, 
 " Whether the majority of professed Christians 
 do not think differently from him upon some 
 equally important points ?" and how little does 
 he think of the consequence of numbers upon 
 those points ! The Chinese plead their majority 
 against Christians ; the Catholics against Pro- 
 testants ; etc., etc. ; but who feels the force of an 
 argument in the plea? — And "as to great men 
 and great names," says Dr. A. Clarke, "we find 
 them enrolled and arranged on the side of all 
 controversies ;" and I will allow my opponent to 
 reckon them up by hundreds, or thousands, and 
 place them all on the side of infant baptism ; — I 
 will take, and place on the other side, Christ and 
 his apostles, and then I appeal to my reader, 
 Who has the best support ? — though my number 
 be but " a little flock" in the comparison. 
 
 Now I must be allowed to insist upon it that I 
 have Christ and the apostles with me, giving their, 
 sanction to believers' baptism ; and all must admit, 
 that their sanction is not to be found on the oppo- 
 site side. Much, then, as I venerate the good 
 and learned men referred to ; as not they, but 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 169 
 
 Christ is my Lord and Master, and is to be my 
 sole Judge at the last day, I hesitate not to quit 
 denominational connection with any majority, or 
 with any particular eminent men, supposing I am 
 found in a minority, if Christ is with ]me there. 
 
 2. It has also been objected, '' That our prin- 
 ciples are of recent origin, and were unknown 
 previous to the appearance of certain enthusiasts 
 in Germany, at the time of the Reformation." 
 
 Answer. Our principles are as old as Chris- 
 tianity. We acknowledge no founder but Christ. 
 With enthusiasts in G-ermany, or in any country 
 or age, we have no connection, and our forefathers 
 never had. Enthusiasts may be designated by the 
 same name ; but that proves nothing. — Myriads 
 of persons holding our distinctive principle, that 
 is, the baptism of believers only, have appeared 
 in all ages of the Christian era. From Christ to 
 nearly the end of the second century, there were 
 no others ; at least, if there were any, their his- 
 tory is a blank. After that time, myriads of per- 
 sons holding that principle have appeared in 
 almost every age. 
 
 Without enlarging upon a subject that might 
 fill volumes, I refer my reader to a recent pub- 
 lication, entitled "A concise History of Foreign 
 Baptists," by G. H. Orchard; though but a 
 duodecimo volume, in it will be found indubitable 
 15 
 
ITO SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 evidence of the existence of large bodies of Chris- 
 tians in different countries, from the earliest times 
 down to the Reformation, who uniformly opposed 
 infant baptism as unscriptural, and leading to 
 fatal delusion. Such was the sentiment of the 
 ancient Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Henricians, 
 the Petrobrusiaus, the Paterines, the Berengarians, 
 etc., etc. Innumerable multitudes of persons, dis- 
 tinguished by these and other names, bore a faith- 
 ful testimony for Christ for ages ; — many died 
 martyrs to the faith, whose life and death bore a 
 lovely transcript of the doctrines of pure unadul- 
 terated Christianity, and who, if living at the 
 present age, would come under the denomination 
 of Baptists. They described infant baptism, or 
 the making of infants Christians by baptism, as 
 one of the grossest doctrines of Antichrist. — The 
 leading or distinctive principles of no denomina- 
 tion of Christians can be traced back to the apos- 
 tolic age with more clearness and indubitable 
 certainty than those of the Baptists. 
 
 In reference to Great Britain, in particular, 
 during the first centuries, it may be affirmed, that 
 from the first introduction of Christianity into it 
 until Pope Gregory, A. D. 596, sent over Austin 
 with a number of monks to convert the people to 
 the Catholic faith, we have good reason for be- 
 lieving that believers' baptism alone prevailed in 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. lYl 
 
 that country ; for Austin, finding differences to 
 exist between his views and the British Christians, 
 called their ministers together, and proposed 
 "three things," in order to their having his favor 
 and protection. The second of these things was, 
 "That ye give Christendome to children," 
 that is, that they should baptize them: good 
 proof that they did not do so before. And it is 
 known that Pope Gregory, above referred to, de- 
 creed as follows :■ — " Let all young children be 
 baptized, as they ought to be according to the 
 traditions of the fathers." What an evidence is 
 this of the omission of infant baptism, and the 
 kind of authority by which it was authorized and 
 urged I See Ivimey's History of the English 
 
 The reader should also be informed, that infant 
 communion began about the same time as infant 
 baptism, and attended it till about A. D. 1000. 
 It was administered for the same reason, that is, 
 on account of its saving efficacy. In the east it is 
 still continued. 
 
 3. It has been said, in the form of objection, 
 " That we make too much of the ordinance, — that 
 we give it too great a prominence, and attach too 
 much importance to it." 
 
 Who, I would ask in reply, make the most of 
 this ordinance, — they who administer it to make 
 
It 2 SCRIPTTJRE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 the baptized members of Christ, or members of 
 his church ; and who hasten the administration 
 of the rite as a security to the soul ? — or they who 
 never think of bringing their dearest relatives to 
 it till they make a profession of faith in Christ, 
 and give evidence of being already converted and 
 saved ? The objection might be returned with 
 tenfold force. 
 
 4.' The body of Christians, called Quakers, as 
 they do not observe the ordinance in any form, 
 ought to be impartial judges in this controversy ; 
 and they are opposed to your practice. 
 
 Answer. While the Friends oppose all ritual 
 ordinances, they grant, all we want, that we have 
 the example of the apostles with us ; and deny 
 that authority for infant baptism. Thus, 
 
 William Penx. " There is not one text of Scripture to 
 prove that sprinkling in the face was water baptism, or that 
 children were the subjects of water baptism in the first times.'* 
 Defence of Gospel Truth, against the Bishop of Cork. 
 
 E. Bathurst. "Infant Baptism . . . they [the Friends] 
 utterly deny, as a thing by men imposed, and never by God 
 or Christ instituted. — Yet we grant the baptism of those that 
 had faith to entitle them to it. This was the baptism of 
 John." Teat, and Writings. 
 
 George Whitehead. "What great hypocrisy and in- 
 sincerity are those persons justly chargeable with, in the sight 
 of God, angels, and men, in their not practising that baptism 
 they have pleaded for from the practice of the apostles ; but, 
 instead thereof, rantism, or sprinkling of infants, to make 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 1Y3 
 
 them thereby members of Christ, and of his church militant!" 
 Truth Prevalent. 
 
 5. On the mode it is objected, '' That it is more 
 troublesome and inconvenient than the usual mode 
 of sprinkling ; and quite a cross to submit to it." 
 
 Jyisiuer. I admit this, as certainly the feeling 
 of human nature ; but I beg to inquire, Is the 
 trouble and inconvenience too great, and the 
 cross too heavy to be borne, if it be proved that 
 Christ sanctioned that mode by his com.mand and 
 his example ? Who, as a Christian, if present on 
 the banks of Jordan when Christ was baptized, 
 would refuse or object to be the next person to 
 be baptized after Christ, and in the same way ? 
 And, if then, when the Holy Spirit was visibly 
 descending, and the Father's voice was heard, 
 you would cheerfully have entered the streams 
 of Jordan, is not the ordinance the same now, 
 equally binding, endearing, and as much under 
 the eye and the blessing of heaven ? Without 
 doubt : and surely your Redeemer has done 
 enough and suffered enough for sinners, to entitle 
 Him to this act of obedience from them, supposing 
 it does give them a small degree of trouble, and 
 inconvenience, and a cross to bear after him. 
 Hear his ov*^n words, — "He that taketh not his 
 cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of 
 Me." See Matt. x. 38; Luke tx. 26, and xii. 8, 9. 
 15* 
 
1Y4 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 6. It is further objected, " That the testimonies 
 of learned PEedobaptists in favor of immersion go 
 for nothing, if they themselves observed a differeitt 
 mode in their own practice ; — that their own prac- 
 tice must appear to their minds as having more 
 convincing scripture authority." 
 
 Answer. That by no means follows, — and is not 
 the fact. The most eminent writers who have 
 practiced sprinkling have readily and candidly 
 admitted that they had not scripture authority 
 for that mode, either by command or precedent ; 
 but they had other reasons for it. The most com- 
 mon is that given by Dr. Chalmers in the extract 
 we have copied. To the " indifferency" of Dr. C, 
 Mr. Baxter and others have added "expediency:" 
 that "the climate in cold countries renders an 
 alteration desirable." But few authors, who have 
 thoroughly examined the subject, pretend to ques- 
 tion the scripture authority of immersion ; or assert 
 that sprinkling has such evidence. 
 
 1. But it is added, " The quantity of water can 
 matter nothing ; any more than the quantity of 
 wine or bread in the Lord's supper." 
 
 Answer. This is granted, providing only there 
 be a sufficient quantity to fulfill Christ's command. 
 It is not the quantity that is contended for, but a 
 confoimity to the pattern of Christ ; and any de- 
 
REASONS FOR THE ORDINANCE. 115 
 
 parture from that pattern renders the act no 
 longer an act of obedience to Him. 
 
 8. But, another objects, " I have, I hope, re- 
 ceived the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is 
 the thing signified ; and I do not see the neces- 
 sity of submitting to this rite, as it cannot take 
 away sin, or do me any good." 
 
 Answer. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is 
 made, by the Apostle Peter, the very reason why 
 those that received it should receive this ordinance, 
 " Can any man forbid water that these should not 
 be baptized which have received the Holy Gho-st 
 as well as we ?" And as to the good the ordi- 
 nance can do, and its inability to take away sin, I 
 again refer to Him w^ho had no sin to take away, 
 and needed no good from religious services, yet 
 traveled a long journey "to be baptized," and 
 silenced every objection against it by affirming 
 " Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." 
 
 II. — Reasons for the Baptism of Believers only. 
 
 1. Because I am quite sure that I have plain 
 Scripture authority for believers' baptism ; but 
 to authorize the baptism of infant-s not a word in 
 the New Testament is to be found. 
 
 2. Because the baptism of believers is in har- 
 mony with the doctrines of the gospel, and the 
 
1Y6 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 nature of Christ's kiDgdom, which " is not of this 
 world," but spiritual, the religion of the heart, the 
 mind, and the soul, and extends no further amongst 
 men than faith and Christian experience extend. 
 John i. 11-13. 
 
 3. Because baptism, being an act of obedience 
 to Christ, must have Christ's command, or autho- 
 rity ; the baptism of believers only has this ; 
 " Can that be obedience," inquires Mr. Baxter, 
 " which hath no command ? Who knows what 
 will please God but Himself; and has He not 
 told us, what He expects from us ?" 
 
 4. Because the supposed spiritual connection 
 between believers and their infants, constituting 
 some distinction of a spiritual nature, entitling 
 such infants to baptism, and not possessed by 
 other infants, is unsupported by the word of God 
 and contrary to reason and fact. There is no 
 spiritual difference in the human family without 
 experimental religion, or vital Christianity ; and 
 that is not of carnal propagation, but the work of 
 the Holy Spirit, and possessed only by believers 
 in Jesus. John i. 13; vi. 63 ; 1 Peter i. 23. 
 
 5. Because- the doctrine of infant baptism, 
 namely, " that children by it are brought into the 
 covenant of grace, which is the covenant of re- 
 demption," or the benefits of that covenant sealed 
 to them, is opposed to all the leading doctrines 
 
REASONS FOR THE ORDINANCE. ITt 
 
 of the gospel, whether according to the views of 
 Arminians or Calvinists. What, in this case, be- 
 comes of the doctrine of God's election ? of the 
 necessity of repentance ? of the new birth ? of 
 conversion ? of faith in Christ ? and of justifica- 
 tion through faith ? etc. All these are superseded 
 by baptism, if the above doctrine be true. 
 
 6. Because of the dangerous practical tendency 
 of infant baptism. If children, advancing into 
 life, believe the above doctrine, they are likely to 
 rest satisfied in the "benefits sealed," and without 
 any further concern, without faith or piety, live in 
 the hypocrite's hope, and perish with a ''lie in 
 their right hand !" 
 
 T. Because, admitting the doctrine that bap- 
 tism now, and formerly circumcision, brought 
 infants into the covenant of grace and redemption, 
 the horrible conclusion will follow, that children 
 dying before baptism can be administered to them, 
 and before the eighth day appointed for circum- 
 cision, must die out of the covenant of redemption 
 and therefore inevitably perish forever! This 
 being impossible, because being contrary to God's 
 just government, and to his word, the doctrine 
 cannot be true from which such a conclusion is 
 justly to be drawn. 
 
 8. Because infant baptism goes to unite the 
 world with the church of Christ. Have not the 
 
178 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 Yilest infidels in Christendom received the seal of 
 the covenant, if infant baptism can give it, and 
 thus been "grafted into the body of Christ's 
 church ?" How grossly absurd ! How lament- 
 able, that they should have cause to pour con- 
 tempt upon Christianity by the errors of its 
 professors ! 
 
 9. Because I would not have the impression 
 on my mind while in this life, or the remembrance 
 at the bar of future judgment, that I had "re- 
 versed" Christ's order, which is the case in infant 
 baptism, or altered the mode which his wisdom 
 ordained ; preferring to follow my Saviour's 
 plain and endeared example, and to abide by his 
 sacred and authoritative instructions. 
 
 I will now imagine that you, my reader, are 
 convinced that we have the truth on this sulyject : 
 allow me then, in behalf of Christ, to exhort you 
 practically to attend to this sacred institution. 
 Do you ask. What is prerequisite to baptism ? I 
 answer these three things ; — (1.) To see and feel 
 that you are a sinner, and need the remission of 
 sins, Acts ii. 38. (2.) That you believe that 
 Jesus is the Son of God, and rely on him as 
 your only Saviour, Acts viii. 37. (3.) That you 
 
CONCLUSION. IT 9 
 
 feel willing to forsake all ungodliness, and to de- 
 Yote jour future life to the service and glory of 
 your Redeemer ; willing, and not ashamed, to 
 put on Christ, and follow him to the skies, Rom. 
 vi. 4 ; Gal. iii. 21. 
 
 If these things are found in you, and you are 
 convinced of the will of Christ, delay not doing 
 his will. "If ye love TTie," said he, "keep my 
 commandments.''^ Do not entertain frivolous 
 excuses. 
 
 1. Do not say "you are too young." At twelee 
 years of age your Lord appeared in public, doing 
 the will of his Father ; if you have reached that 
 age, it is high time to commence a life of dedica- 
 tion to Christ. Go, youthful reader, and follow 
 the Lamb in the morning of life. Who knows but 
 yoar sun may go down at noon I His promise is, 
 " They that seek me early shall find me." 
 
 2. Do not say "you are too old." If you have 
 far exceeded the age above-mentioned, and yet 
 hear the Saviour's voice "Follow 7?ie," you are 
 not too old to obey his endeared commands. 
 
 3. Do not say " what good can it do you V 
 Behold your Lord entering the waters of Jordan ! 
 Are you wiser or better than He ? Beware that 
 you reflect not on his wisdom. 
 
 4. Does the ordinance appear a cross to you ? 
 and especially so, as it is something that does not 
 
180 SCRIPTUKE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 
 
 fall in with the taste and fancy of the world ? 
 Thank Grod for that. Christ never intended his 
 religion, or his ordinances, to suit the fancies of 
 unregenerate men; and the more objectionable 
 this ordinance is to such persons, so much more 
 effectual is it as a line of demarcation between 
 the world and his church, as the Lord Jesus in- 
 tended. And as to the cross, — do you think it is 
 too heavy ? Behold Him passing through the 
 baptism of his inconceivable sufferings for you ! 
 Behold Him carrying the cross upon which he 
 was suspended for many hours ; and thereon, by 
 his dying pains, working out eternal redemption 
 for you! And will you, turning from these 
 unparalleled scenes, say the cross of baptism 
 is too heavy for you'^ Impossible, if you feel 
 aright. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 Prize Essay, its merits being sufficiently declared by the u lani- ^P* 
 mous award of the committee to whom it was submitted- -all ^>r 
 members of the Church of England — after an examination of )>|^ 
 sixty-four manuscripts. The book is, of course, free from all sec- >^ 
 ^SK tarian bias, and is marked by great ca"holicity. as well as breadth -^^^ 
 M of view." ' ys*^ 
 
 ^J2j\ From the Chri<tian Beview. l^^ 
 
 P^ " Chri<t in his char;»cer incarnation, teaching, death, offices, ^i^ 
 tK &c., ci>u>t;tutes the thi'ia-- nf the book. The s j'le is clear and 'S*^ 
 jj* forcible and we are constrained to say that we have rarely ^^ 
 ^♦>-, road a work more deeply imbued with the evangelical spirit. ^Ve ^♦^ 
 
 ^i J^fp« oar readers will avail themselves of this truly valuable ^ 
 ^*^ contribution to our Christian lit^^rature." tK^ 
 
 ^ From, the Southern Baptist. ^^ 
 
 ^^*A'^ " A book like this has been long needed. The author is a Rap- ^^J^ 
 ^■k:^ tist of high reputation. Af er the inimitable narratives of the ^^ 
 "^■♦|'n Oospel, this is the best life of Christ we have yet sev;n. It is an >t^^ 
 
 ;g? e.'iceileut manual for the use of Bible classes.'' ^ 
 
 *tf^ From the Episcopal Recorder. ^^ 
 
 »^ '■ To the American Baptist I'ublication Society we are happy to f^T^ 
 ^tX) express our obligation for this work. We think there are few ^ij^-^ 
 
 ^^ works directed to the same object that can rival it for perspicuity ,<-^ 
 ^tjf^ and skill of constracticn " ^^ 
 
 P% » • i» » » pjjO 
 
 ^^*5^ 118 ARCH STREET rillLADELPHIA. t-J^ 
 
 ^'Ji?y V \f V "^ ">/ \f " ^ V V ^ "u* V " -vD'.iti^ 
 
 4 
 

 „ 1^ A .S^ /^ 
 
 mmmmi 
 
 A Biography. By Joseph Belcher, D.D. | 
 Siiperb Mezzotint of Carey and his Pundit^ | 
 
 -4nd oiTicr Engravings. ^ 
 
 12mo. 306 pp. Price 80 eta. ^ 
 
 The illustrious subject of this Memoir, its Interesting style, and the 
 mauy new facts and incidents introduced combine to render it a 
 very'iniportant ailditiun to our Missionary Literature. It has been 
 hailed by the public press with universal approbation. 
 
 Prom the CJiristian Observer, (Presbyterian). 
 
 "The personal history of Dr. Carey is a bright illu3tration of 
 Divine grace, and the sketch of it given In this Memoir, olTers to 
 Christians of every class, a hallowed example of the power of faith 
 to encourage or sustain their eflbrts to promote the great interests 
 of religion." 
 
 From the Christian Herald, (Presbyterian). 
 
 '•Dr. Belcher has executed his task not only skilfully, but with 
 an affection, appreciation, and sympathy, which gives a peculiar 
 charm to the work." 
 
 From the P)-esbyterian. 
 
 " We think the author of this work has! done well In preparing a 
 new biography of so excellent a man. * * * It is a more 
 complete and readable Memoir than that with which the Christian 
 public have been so many years acquainted.'' 
 
 From the Watchman and ReJUdtfrr. 
 " This volume is one of the most readable, as well as valuable 
 of all our Missionary Memoirs. The engravings, which are seven 
 in number, illustrative and well-chosen, add, with a neat typo- 
 graphical aspect, atiraction and interest." 
 
 From the Christian Review. 
 " Such a popular account of the life and labors of the father of 
 English Baptist Missions, has long been needed. We recommend 
 t!ie work to our readers, praying that it may deepen the Missionary 
 sjpirit in our Churches." 
 
 From the National Magazine, 
 "The Baptist Church has been greatly honored of God in her 
 Missionaries. * * * Dr. Carey will never be forgotten for his 
 labors in Oriental literature. * * * Xhe book before us is 
 one of great interest. * * * It is a worthy contribution to 
 our Missionary Literature. 
 
 lis ARCH STREET, PHILADELPHIA.