scJB 
 
FOR WHOM IS CHRISTIAN BAPTISM DESIGNO: 
 
 A 
 
 NEW DISSERTATION 
 
 ON 
 
 AN OLD CONTROVERSY, 
 
 WITH AN ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE REASONING CONTAINED 
 Iff 
 
 M HALLEY'S SEVENTH LECTURE 
 
 O.N 
 
 THE SACEAMENTS; 
 
 10 WHICH IS ADDED A BRIEF INQUIRE INTO THE MODE OF ADMINISTERING 
 THE ORDINANCE. 
 
 EY 
 
 THOMAS MORELL. 
 
 JOHN JOHNSTONE, 
 
 15 PRINCES STREET, EDINBURGH; AND 
 
 26 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, 
 
 M.DCCC.XLVIII. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT, 
 
 Although circumstances, altogether unavoidable, have 
 hitherto retarded the publication of this little volume, and 
 several works have successively appeared on the subject, 
 the author still feels induced to offer it to the public. It was 
 just about to be put into the printer's hands when Dr 
 Halley's " Reply " to Mr Stovel and Dr Wardlaw was an- 
 nounced as being in the press. As, however, that work 
 does not appear to occupy any new ground, and the learned 
 writer continually appeals to his former arguments, which 
 he considers as still remaining unanswered, the author of 
 this dissertation feels himself justified in sending his work 
 unaltered to the press. In doing so he derives much satis- 
 faction and encouragement from the fact, that Dr Halley 
 has so explained some of the opinions expressed in his for- 
 mer work, as not only to approach nearer to the views 
 herein advocated than he appeared to have done before, 
 but even, on the whole, to corroborate them. Afoot-note 
 has been added, here and there, in those parts of the treatise 
 where the reasoning might seem to be somewhat affected 
 by Dr Halley's views and arguments contained in the 
 " Reply." 
 
 May, 1848. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PREFACE .... 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 CHAP. I. THE COMMISSION . 
 
 CHAP. II. — THE PRACTICE OP THE APOSTLES 
 
 CHAP. Ill THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT 
 
 CHAP. IV. — PARTICULAR TEXTS 
 CHAP. V THE MODE 
 
 PAGE 
 V 
 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 62 
 
 111 
 
 148 
 
 165 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is now about ten years since a change took place 
 in my views on the subject of Christian baptism, at 
 which time I contemplated making public my reasons 
 for renouncing the Pagdo-baptist faith, and penned 
 some of the thoughts contained in the following pages. 
 But my design of publishing had long been over- 
 ruled, and, as I thought, finally relinquished, when 
 the appearance of Dr Halley's Lectures on Baptism 
 gave me a new impulse to return to the subject which, 
 formerly, had so much exercised my mind. I began 
 writing, and soon found myself almost necessitated 
 to mould my thoughts into the shape of an answer to 
 Dr Halley's reasonings, which was anything but what, 
 on resuming my manuscript, I intended. And, 
 though I now offer this little treatise to the public, it 
 is not without extreme reluctance that, in doing so, I 
 place myself in the unenviable and adventurous posi- 
 
YI PREFACE. 
 
 tion of an antagonist to the author of " The Sacra- 
 ments." I have, moreover, a personal feeling of 
 delicacy in appearing in this matter, the nature of 
 which it is quite unnecessary to explain to my readers, 
 but which Dr Halley will understand, and for which 
 his generosity will, I trust, give me credit. I beg to 
 assure the Doctor that every line of this work has 
 been written with sentiments of deep respect for him 
 personally, and deference to his superior learning and 
 scholarship. I feel a full confidence, I own, in the 
 strength of the arguments I have employed; at the 
 same time I have much pleasure in submitting them 
 to Dr Halley's acute powers of analysis, not doubting 
 that, if any error lurks in them, his keen perception 
 will detect it, and that he, if any one, can convince 
 me of the fallacy of my reasonings. 
 
 Perhaps some apology may be expected from me 
 for writing at all on this subject, inasmuch as a for- 
 mal answer to Dr Halley's Lectures was furnished 
 soon after their publication by Mr Stovel. However, 
 it appears to me that different minds may contribute 
 in different ways towards the same object, and, did I 
 not think that the views advanced in this dissertation 
 have some advantage over any that have hitherto 
 appeared, it would, I am aware, only be to offer a gra- 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 tuitous insult to the public, to expect them to give 
 any attention to another work, however small, on the 
 baptismal controversy. 
 
 I, further, beg leave to say that this work was 
 ready for the press ere Dr Wardlaw's " Strictures " 
 upon Dr Halley's views (published as an Appendix 
 to a new edition of his former work on Baptism) 
 came under my notice. On reading those •• Stric- 
 tures," I was led carefully to review my own compo- 
 sition ; and finding many similar views and arguments, 
 1 discovered very little that needed modification. 
 With the line of reasoning that Dr "Wardlaw adopts 
 in the " Strictures," as it regards adults, T cordially 
 agree. In the other, respecting the infant children 
 of believers — which is argued at length in the original 
 work, and defended in the " Strictures" — he appears 
 to me quite at fault. But, if I do not see with Dr 
 Wardlaw on this point, neither do 1 look in the same 
 line of vision with Dr Halley. My third chapter is, 
 therefore, at war with both these learned Doctors, and 
 must stand or fall by its own merits. 
 
 I hope the following pages have been written 
 throughout in the spirit of Christian love; for sure 
 am I, it were better (on this vexed question at least) 
 that nothing were written to instruct the mind, than 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 that un-christian feelings should, through the asperi- 
 ties of disputation, he excited in the heart. 
 
 I dedicate my work to the Baptist and Psedo- 
 baptist Churches of England and Scotland, hoping 
 that, instead of tending to widen the breach between 
 the denominations, it may hare the happy effect of 
 promoting mutual confidence, fellowship, and love. 
 
 THOMAS MORELL. 
 
 Danbury, February, 1847. 
 
FOR WHOM IS CHRISTIAN BAPTISM 
 DESIGNED? 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 On instituting a brief inquiry into the much agitated 
 question of baptism, it seems necessary to make a few 
 preliminary remarks on the mode of conducting the 
 argument. Correct principles of interpretation are 
 of the utmost importance in all discussions upon 
 Scripture truths; and the design of these introduc- 
 tory observations is to point out the respective pro- 
 vinces of analogy and philology, with the view, more 
 especially, of vindicating the use of analogical 
 reasonings, which have been objected to, in turn, 
 by disputants on either side of the baptismal 
 controversy. There appears to be no good reason 
 why, in the discussion of this subject, analogy should 
 be proscribed. If, originating merely in the caprice 
 of imagination, it despised the high authority of 
 
1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Scripture, there might he some ground to take excep- 
 tion against it. But when it is considered that ana- 
 logical reasonings pay the very highest deference to 
 revelation — that it is the truth of the Bible alone 
 about which they concern themselves, and for which 
 they contend — evidently there can be no reason for 
 representing them as irrelevant or inapplicable. 
 Truth must be consistent with itself; all its several 
 parts must harmonize with each other; and it is the 
 object of analogy to vindicate the consistency of truth, 
 to demonstrate that there is no one part of the 
 beautiful fabric that is ill-proportioned — nothing that 
 mars or destroys the perfect order and unity of the 
 whole. We readily admit that, in all cases where it 
 is possible, philology should take the precedence, and 
 that no plausible reasonings from analogy should be 
 allowed to stand against the plain and unequivocal 
 meaning of the words of Scripture, fairly interpreted 
 by the rules of sound criticism. At the same time, 
 it cannot be pretended that analogy is to be excluded 
 from the province of Biblical interpretation. It is as 
 essential in some cases as verbal criticism itself, to aid 
 us in discovering the true sense of a passage, The 
 results of these two different kinds of argumenta- 
 tion, in truth, cannot by any possibility be at vari- 
 ance with each other. If such could be the case, the 
 harmony of truth would be broken. 
 
 Dr Davidson, in his " Biblical Hermeneutics," has 
 well explained the meaning of the phrase, " Analogy 
 of faith," and has made some very judicious and dis- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 1 
 
 criminating observations on the use to be made of it 
 in Biblical interpretation. He says : " The phrase 
 in question means the general tenor of Scripture 
 doctrine, or the clear and unambiguous consent of 
 many passages brought to bear upon such as appear 
 to be dark, difficult, or contradictory. When an 
 interpreter carefully examines the fundamental clearly 
 revealed doctrines of Scripture, and, with complete 
 conviction of their truth, combines them into an 
 harmonious system, he should not put such a con- 
 struction upon a particular place as would clash 
 with their testimony." Again he remarks: "The 
 analogy of faith does not lead to the discovery of the 
 meaning of a passage which is ambiguous or obscure. 
 If we are at a loss to know the precise meaning of a 
 passage, it will not be opened up by means of this 
 rule. It will prevent us from imposing such a sense 
 as would contradict other places, of whose meaning 
 we are assured; but it cannot furnish more valuable 
 assistance. It is negative in its operation, not posi- 
 tive. It constrains the expositor to adhere to the 
 consistency of Scripture with itself, and to self-con- 
 sistency of interpretation ; but where a passage ad- 
 mits of various senses, it cannot point out the one 
 which is true and proper." The meaning of the last 
 clause of these quotations is not quite apparent; 
 otherwise we take the whole of these remarks to be 
 highly important, as defining so distinctly the pro- 
 per province of analogy. " Its operation is nega- 
 tive," it shows what a passage cannot mean; and thus, 
 
J 2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 we may add clearly indicates, in those cases in which 
 the original words of Scripture may support two or 
 more interpretations, which is the right one. For 
 example, suppose the Greek in some particular text 
 to admit (as sometimes happens) of two different 
 renderings. In such a case it is evident that philology 
 will not serve us. It cannot teach us which of the 
 two senses to take. Analogy, however, in such a 
 case, may enable us to decide without hesitation. 
 One of the two significations may he found uncon- 
 genial with the general tenor of Scripture, and we 
 at once reject it ; the other may he every way con- 
 sistent with Scripture, and we unhesitatingly adopt it. 
 Cases of difficulty may, however, sometimes occur, 
 in which we may find ourselves thrown hack upon 
 the doctrine of probabilities, and in the absence of 
 any perfectly satisfactory sense, shall find ourselves 
 necessitated to adopt that which, from a consideration 
 of the connection and a comprehensive view of the 
 whole subject, seems best to accord with reason and 
 with Scripture. We may, indeed, lay it down as a 
 sound principle of interpretation, applicable to cases 
 of this kind, that when a passage admits of two or 
 more different ways of explanation, both of which 
 may be equally accordant with grammatical rules 
 and philological accuracy, the preference must un- 
 questionably be given to that which appears most 
 consonant with right reason, and most agreeable to 
 the whole analogy of the faith. 
 
 In the following investigation into some of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 principal points of the baptismal controversy, we shall 
 use just any kind of reasoning that the occasion 
 may seem to require. If the arguments adduced 
 are not founded upon the solid basis of inspired 
 truth, we shall expect to see them hurled to the 
 ground; nor indeed, in that case, could we wish 
 them to stand. If not fairly deduced from Scripture, 
 let them by all means be rejected ; for they will be 
 worthless. " To the law and to the testimony ; if we 
 speak not according to this word, it is because there 
 is no light in us." If our arguments are illegitimate 
 or illogical, let their irrelevancy and inconclusiveness 
 be made manifest. If unsound, let the flaw be de- 
 tected. If nothing is proved, we hope to have 
 our own mind convinced that our argument is 
 nugatory. We wish, of all things, to be preserved 
 from error ; and no charge of inconsistency, or fickle- 
 ness should intimidate us from changing sides a hun- 
 dred times, if, by doing so, we could get nearer to the 
 real sentiments of Scripture. Honesty, candour, 
 truth, are, we hope, infinitely dearer to us than 
 victory. 
 
14 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 The evangelists Matthew and Mark, as is well 
 known, record our Lord's commission to his disciples 
 relative to the ordinance of baptism in somewhat dif- 
 ferent language. Dr Halley refers chiefly to the 
 statement as given by the former of these two evan- 
 gelists, viz., " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
 baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to 
 observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
 you." His views of the nature and extent of this 
 commission will be best understood by quoting his 
 own words. " The question," he says, " concerning 
 the subjects of baptism is here resolved into one of 
 grammar and criticism. It is simply, what is the 
 antecedent to the word them, or for what noun is 
 that pronoun substituted ? Going forth, disciple 
 all the nations (^^* t« ^), baptizing them (aewow?) 
 — all the nations — into the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them — 
 all the nations — to observe all things whatsoever I 
 have commanded you. So far as the grammatical 
 
THE COMMISSION. 1 5 
 
 construction is concerned, the meaning of the terms 
 is precisely the same as it would be if the words of 
 the commission were, Baptize all the nations. Ad- 
 hering, therefore, to the grammar of the words, we 
 say the commission, which no man has a right to 
 alter, is, Baptize all the nations." * Again, we read : 
 " When he (Christ) says, Teach all the nations, what 
 right have I to exclude any who can be taught? 
 And when he says, Baptize all the nations, what 
 right have I to exclude any who can be baptized? " f 
 In another place, we have these words: "We feel 
 bound by its terms to maintain that it is the duty 
 of the Christian Church both to baptize and to 
 teach, to the utmost extent within its power, ' all 
 the nations,' " &c. ; X an d once more : " To any part 
 of the commission, the discipling, the baptizing, or 
 the teaching, I know only one limitation, and that is 
 the want of ability to execute it." § With these 
 quotations before us, there can be no mistake as to 
 Dr Halley's ideas of the extent of this commission. 
 He openly argues that it is not to be in any way 
 limited; that men, women, and children, are to be 
 indiscriminately baptized; that, in a word, none are 
 to be excluded who can be baptized or taught. The 
 case is put very boldly. We shall see how far Dr 
 Halley adheres to his own principle, and how far 
 that principle is defensible. 
 
 We propose to meet these views of Dr Halley, 
 
 * The Sacraments, pp. 488, 489. f P. 491. + P. 493. 
 § P. 494. 
 
16 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 first, in a course of analogical reasoning; and, after 
 this, we will proceed to examine the question of 
 grammar and syntax. From the very nature of our 
 reasonings from analogy, this part of our discussion 
 will necessarily hare a more especial bearing upon 
 the case of adults. But if our argument be good 
 against the indiscriminate application of baptism to 
 them, it will carry the case of infants along with it. 
 All that applies in the one case, will apply, a for- 
 tiori^ in the other. 
 
 Dr Halley says : " We are to baptize all we can." 
 We beg leaye then, first of all, to ask, How is this 
 commission, which is to be limited only by an impos- 
 sibility of executing it, to be carried into effect ? It 
 will, we presume, be admitted that neither fraud 
 nor force are to be employed; that the administra- 
 tion of any religious ceremony, under such circum- 
 stances, and by such means, would be manifestly 
 uncongenial with the spirit and genius of Christianity, 
 which, disallowing of all physical force or artifice, 
 makes use only of moral means and appliances. 
 But, if Dr Halley will not justify the use of fraud 
 or force (and of course he will not), then, at the 
 very outset, he surrenders the principle of literal 
 interpretation, and no-limitation. We refer him 
 to his own illustration respecting the Canaanites,* 
 in which he intimates, truly enough, that it was 
 the duty of Israel to expel them, vi et armis, from the 
 land. If he stand up for literality, for no limita- 
 * The Sacraments, p, 491. 
 
THE COMMISSION. 17 
 
 tion, except what impossibility imposes, then, to be 
 consistent, he ought to advocate the application of 
 physical force or stratagem. Not doing this, he him- 
 self puts the first limitation upon the words of the 
 commission, and that, too, despite of grammar and 
 syntax. 
 
 Setting aside fraud and force, what then, we ask, 
 is to be done in order to carry out this commission to 
 the widest possible extent ? We learn Dr Halley's 
 opinion upon this point from the manner in which 
 he meets an anticipated objection at page 491: — 
 " Should it be said, that it is impossible to obey the 
 command without some limitation, because great 
 multitudes will not submit to Christian baptism, the 
 reply is obvious, as the command certainly imposes 
 upon us no more than we are able to perform." 
 That is, we are not to baptize those who are not 
 willing to be baptized; and, though Dr. Halley does 
 not say it in so many words, it is plain that the 
 principle on which he would administer the ordi- 
 nance, is that of obtaining the consent of the parties 
 baptized — that willingness is regarded by him as a 
 necessary qualification. But is not this putting a 
 limitation upon the words of the commission ? Is it 
 not running away from his own literal sense ? We, 
 of course, object not to this limitation. We would 
 only have it noted, that even the great advocate of 
 the no-limitation-scheme cannot himself carry it out. 
 But letting that pass, we will now understand that 
 willingness is the supposed pre-requisite for baptism. 
 
18 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 And, here, we must be especially careful lest' our 
 subject should become mystified by any ambiguity 
 that may be found lurking in a word, where perhaps 
 no ambiguity would be suspected. Is this willing- 
 ness to be an ignorant passive compliance with the 
 proposal of the administrator? or is it to be a willing- 
 ness founded on a certain degree of knowledge ? First, 
 we will suppose it to be the former; we will suppose 
 that a simple expression of willingness, without any 
 previous knowledge of Christianity, is sufficient to 
 authorize the administration of the ordinance of bap- 
 tism. To prove that this notion is untenable, will 
 not require much force of argumentation. There is 
 no evidence deducible from the Scriptures that 
 baptism was ever performed on this principle. 
 Paedo- baptists cannot produce one single passage 
 that necessarily implies it. Cases, we are aware, may 
 be instanced, which seem, in some points, to furnish 
 an apparent probability that the apostles were in 
 the habit of baptizing indiscriminately any who 
 offered themselves, without regard to character. But 
 if it should appear that such a practice is inconsis- 
 tent with the fundamental principles of the religion 
 of Jesus Christ, a mere probability, in the absence of 
 positive proof, must be set down at nought. Now r 
 nothing appears to us plainer, than that the theory 
 of baptizing indiscriminately, and irrespective of cha- 
 racter, is totally uncongenial with the nature and 
 genius of Christianity. Our argument lies in a very 
 small space. It just amounts to this, that the prac- 
 
THE COMMISSION. 19 
 
 tice of indiscriminate baptism can in no way be made 
 to accord with the fact (for fact it unquestionably is), 
 that the Bible everywhere treats man as a rational 
 creature, a moral agent, an accountable being. That 
 man is dealt with in this character in the Word of 
 God; that all its appeals are made to him as such; 
 that Christianity, in a word, is adapted to the intel- 
 lectual and moral constitution of man, will, we sup- 
 pose, without hesitation be admitted. Here, then, 
 we take our stand, and, with this cardinal principle 
 as our lever, we imagine it to be a very easy thing 
 to move a world of probabilities. 
 
 This theory of our Lord's commission, which re- 
 gards it as enjoining the universal administration 
 of baptism, on the ground of no other qualification 
 than that of an avowal of ignorant willingness, over- 
 looking entirely the moral accountability of man, 
 which necessarily pre-supposes knowledge, does not 
 treat him even as though he were endowed with rea- 
 son. If any one does but say he is willing to be 
 baptized, no matter how ignorant he may be, no 
 matter though he have no intelligible idea of what 
 he wishes to do, he is a proper subject for baptism ! 
 Why, such a theory makes Christianity the most 
 unreasonable thing in the world ! It represents 
 the Bible dealing with men, in this particular case 
 of baptism, unlike its uniform practice, as if he had 
 no rational or moral capacities ! It brings mature 
 age down to infancy, and treats men as if they were 
 babes, imposing upon them an initiatory rite, and 
 
20 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 thus formally constituting them disciples, though at 
 the time they are entirely in the dark as to the nature 
 of the whole transaction; and while consenting to a- 
 religious act, are, for want of knowledge, incapable 
 of exercising any moral judgments about it ! Can it 
 be, that the very first step in religion should be 
 taken thus blindly? Can Christianity sanction any- 
 thing of the kind? Is it so, that the very act by 
 which we are supposed to become discipled to Christ, 
 has no moral character belonging to it — as must be 
 the case, if baptism, though acceded to willingly, is 
 received ignorantly? The whole tenor of Scripture 
 condemns the supposition — the whole analogy of 
 the faith condemns it. To produce specific pas- 
 sages of Scripture, in opposition to this view of the 
 commission, we take to be altogether a work of 
 supererogation. The whole Bible is against it. 
 The method of proselytizing or making disciples, 
 which such an exposition proposes, reminds us forci- 
 bly of the "practice of certain secret societies, which 
 allow not even the slightest idea of their rules or 
 principles to be known by candidates for admission, 
 until, by the regular forms of initiation, they become 
 bond fide members. It makes Christianity a kind of 
 religious free-masonry, a system of fraud after all — 
 something very different from what, irrespective of 
 this controversy, we have been accustomed to re- 
 gard it. We cannot, therefore, yield our assent to 
 such an explanation of the commission; but we find 
 ourselves honestly and inevitably led to the conclu- 
 
THE COMMISSION. 21 
 
 sion, that whatever the language, "Teach all nations, 
 baptizing," may mean, it certainly does not, and 
 cannot import, that all who avow a mere ignorant 
 willingness are suitable subjects for baptism. 
 
 And now, if we endeavour to imagine, just for a 
 moment, how the commission, as above explained, 
 would have to be carried into execution, we shall see 
 that what we have shown to be unreasonable is also 
 absurd, and even ridiculous. In our own en- 
 lightened land, but very few opportunities could, in 
 the nature of things, occur of administering bap- 
 tism to persons entirely ignorant of the Christian re- 
 ligion. But, if the commission was intended to be 
 performed on the principle we are now examining, 
 doubtless many instances of this kind must have been 
 contemplated. The disciples were to go with the 
 commission in their hands to all nations — to heathen 
 nations — to people entirely unacquainted with Chris- 
 tianity. Amongst these nations, they were to induce 
 all they possibly could to be baptized — not to teach 
 them first, but to baptize them in order to make 
 them learners. How, then, would a missionary 
 going out to a heathen land proceed to carry out the 
 commission thus understood? We may suppose that 
 he would collect the natives around him, and open 
 the business somewhat in this way : Good people, I 
 have come to teach you a new religion, and if you 
 are willing to learn it, the first thing necessary is, that 
 you should be baptized with water, that you may be 
 made learners. Are you willing to be baptized, 
 
22 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 and learn this new religion? Some, we may sup- 
 pose, would, either from curiosity or regard for the 
 teacher, or without any ascertainable motive, accede 
 to the proposal, and would forthwith be baptized 
 with water, in some form, in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and thus be 
 discipled to Christ. Others, we may suppose, more 
 shrewd than their simpler brethren, would think 
 within themselves, that they would, at least, like to 
 know a little about this new religion before they con- 
 sented to submit to baptism; and, therefore, of course, 
 the baptizer would have to wait their pleasure before 
 he could baptize them. But this would be no part 
 of his plan. If a simple avowal of willingness, with- 
 out any previous knowledge, is all that is requisite 
 for baptism, his duty evidently would be, not to 
 teach first, but to act just as we have supposed; that 
 is, he would inquire, first, who were willing to be 
 baptized, and without any further preliminaries, 
 would proceed at once to baptize all who offered them- 
 selves for that purpose. The mere statement of this 
 hypothetical case is quite enough to condemn it. 
 Does it not strike us as a most absurd supposition? 
 And yet, if baptism is to be performed on a mere 
 avowal of ignorant willingness, this would be the 
 only natural way of proceeding. 
 
 Now, on the other hand, in what way should we 
 naturally expect Christianity to make its first ad- 
 vances, and win its way amongst the nations? We 
 should expect that, having first of all summoned 
 
THE COMMISSION. 23 
 
 men to an audience, it would begin, ab initio, to 
 make them acquainted with its leading truths and 
 doctrines; that it would make teaching the very 
 first thing to be done, leaving every one at liberty 
 to form his own judgments concerning the truths 
 made known ; that, instead of making men learners 
 by a formal act of initiation before they have begun 
 to learn, it would, from the very first, make them 
 learners de facto, by conveying instruction to their 
 minds; that instead of immediately setting about 
 the work of proselytizing, which implies, as it re- 
 spects the proselyte, not having the means or oppor- 
 tunity of judging" intelligently and honestly for him- 
 self, it would first of all afford those who might be 
 disposed to receive instruction every facility for under- 
 standing what Christianity is, and would then leave 
 them, as free agents, perfectly at liberty, either to 
 discontinue learning, or to go on in a course of 
 Christian instruction till, from enlightened conviction, 
 they should avow themselves sincere and genuine 
 disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Never should 
 we expect Christianity to make its first appearance 
 in the administration of a formal religious ceremony. 
 Performed on a mere avowal of willingness, without 
 any previous instruction or knowledge — performed as 
 preparatory to instruction, to put people in a capacity 
 to learn, to make them learners — baptism really ap- 
 pears to us a perfect anomaly, a total subversion of 
 the natural order of things. Obviously, the natural, 
 common-sense way is, to begin with teaching ; and 
 
24 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 if so, then, what do we want with haptism as a mere 
 rite of initiation ? " Cui bono ? " What intelligible 
 end can it answer? It cannot be supposed to confer 
 any advantages in the mere matter of learning; for 
 the commencement and progress of the act of instruc- 
 tion itself, whether baptism be resorted to or not, 
 must, in either case, be precisely the same. So far 
 from aiding instruction, initiatory baptism interrupts 
 the natural process of imparting it, being obtruded 
 at a most unseasonable time, and altogether wearing 
 the aspect of a very unmeaning and impertinent cere- 
 mony. Thus, then, we find that reason conspires 
 with Scripture to pronounce an unhesitating verdict 
 against the notion, that a mere ignorant compliance 
 with the proposal of the administrator is a sufficient 
 qualification for baptism ; and we shall hope to make 
 it appear evident before we have done, that there 
 is nothing in the phraseology of the commission, as 
 related by Matthew, which compels us to so unnatural 
 an opinion. Whatever the language of Matthew, 
 considered philologically, may mean, as we said be- 
 fore, we see very plainly, from the whole analogy of 
 the faith, what it cannot mean. Ere long we shall 
 go into this question philologically, and shall do so 
 with the fullest confidence that we shall find nothing 
 in the terms employed, correctly and grammatically 
 interpreted, that in any way disagrees with the uni- 
 form tenor of the Scriptures. 
 
 But we must now examine the other notion of the 
 word willingness, viz., that of its arising out of a cer- 
 
THE COMMISSION. 25 
 
 tain, degree of previous knowledge. It will probably 
 be admitted, that some acquaintance with the doc- 
 trines of Scripture is requisite previously to the ad- 
 ministration of baptism. Having seen already that 
 the principle of no-limitation cannot be carried out, 
 that neither fraud nor force must be made use of, 
 may we not now also presume that it will be ad- 
 mitted that a mere ignorant assent cannot justify 
 the administration of baptism, but that the language 
 of the commission must needs be limited even yet a 
 little further? It will, we think, be admitted, that 
 to baptize any one in a state of perfect ignorance, 
 would be to act contrary to the very spirit of Chris- 
 tianity; that an adult, at least, must have some 
 knowledge of the nature of the act he is about to 
 submit to in offering himself to be baptized. Then, 
 in this case, we ask, How much is to be known as 
 constituting a proper qualification for baptism ? Act- 
 ing on the principle of limiting the commission as 
 little as possible, Dr Halley and our Pasdo-baptist 
 brethren would probably say, that a very small 
 amount of knowledge is sufficient — that the mere 
 elements of Christianity are all that need be known. 
 Be it so ; and we will now therefore understand, 
 that an elementary acquaintance with the Christian 
 religion is the extent of the qualification requisite; 
 that we have no right to impose any moral qualifi- 
 cation; that nothing more is necessary than a bare 
 acquaintance with the leading characteristics of the 
 Gospel. 
 
26 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 Now, we meet this notion on precisely the same 
 principle as that we have just been reviewing. It 
 may be easily shown that while it is a step in the 
 right direction, it nevertheless stops short of that kind 
 of qualification which we conceive the whole analogy 
 of truth evidently requires. The Scriptures demand 
 godly sincerity, purity of motive, genuine principle, 
 in every act of a religious nature; and why, con- 
 trary to all analogy, should our Paedo-baptist friends 
 wish to impair and shake, as it were, to its very 
 foundations the important general principle, that con- 
 scientious conviction and integrity of character are 
 in all cases necessary, and seek to establish, in one 
 particular case, an opposite principle? why should 
 they wish to prove that the ordinance of baptism 
 (not surely the least important of all religious duties) 
 may be rightly performed when the heart [is not 
 right with God? that, provided a man has some 
 general knowledge of Christianity, purity of heart 
 and true religious principle are not essential to the 
 discharge of this particular duty? that this is an ex- 
 ception to all others ? A man of no principle what- 
 ever — one, on the contrary, who entertains an utter 
 hatred and contempt for the truth — may, as is the 
 case in thousands of instances, possess an accurate 
 knowledge of the first principles of the Christian re- 
 ligion. And could we say, supposing such a cha- 
 racter were to solicit baptism at our hands, that there 
 is no need to inquire into his motives ? that we have 
 nothing to do with his character ? that, possessing a 
 
THE COMMISSION. 27 
 
 certain amount of unsanctified knowledge, he, in 
 submitting to baptism, fulfils every condition that 
 is required ? that he does this duty well and rightly ? 
 Such a latitudinarian and dangerous notion is utterly 
 condemned by the analogy of our faith ; and we can- 
 not but believe, until we have clear demonstration to 
 the contrary, that, as in all other cases, so in this, 
 something more than mere knowledge is necessary, 
 in receiving baptism, to impart validity to that ordi- 
 nance. And, strange as it may appear, we, in this 
 judgment, have Dr Halley on our side. He inti- 
 mates (p. 496), that the application for baptism must 
 not be " made scomngly and profanely, for that 
 would be a manifest desecration of the service." 
 Why, this looks as if Dr. Halley would advocate 
 some kind of moral qualification, and would require 
 purity of motive and sincerity : seriousness of charac- 
 ter, at least, he requires. How he can make this 
 consistent with his indiscriminate no-limitation prin- 
 ciple, we must leave him to explain. His views 
 really appear to us to be characterized by an un- 
 precedented singularity. The language of the com- 
 mission, he argues, is to be understood without limi- 
 tation — all nations are to be baptized ; and yet the 
 subjects of baptism, by his own showing, are to be 
 willing subjects. They are also to be sober and seri- 
 ous characters. "Well, to say nothing of the incon- 
 sistency of all this, we are gratified to find the Doctor, 
 after all, approaching to the very verge of our own 
 opinions. He only needs to take one more step in 
 
28 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 advance, and allow that religious principle ought 
 to he required in candidates for baptism, and his de- 
 sertion of the principle with which he set out will be 
 complete. At any rate, he has no right to meet us 
 with his arguments about the literal sense, and no 
 restriction, if we think ourselves more consistent 
 than he is in taking a little additional license with 
 the universal terms employed. 
 
 If any should object to the above mode of reason- 
 ing, that sincerity and even piety may consist with 
 a low degree of knowledge, we readily allow it, and 
 indeed hail the sentiment as an implied further ad- 
 mission from the opposite side, and as manifestly 
 helping our cause. But if it shall be argued, 
 that since sincerity and religious principle may 
 co-exist with a very small amount of knowledge, we 
 have no right to withhold baptism from any who 
 have such knowledge, as we cannot tell that they are 
 not sincere religious characters, this opens a very 
 important question, viz., What is the proper province 
 of the administrator of baptism? Is any discrimina- 
 tion, and if any, what, to be exercised by him in bap- 
 tizing? Is the performance of the rite suspended upon 
 his judgment, or not? Has he the prerogative, or has 
 he not, of judging as to the fitness of candidates? 
 
 Now, that some discrimination must, as a matter 
 of necessity, be exercised, is, I think, very manifest, 
 for — 
 
 1. If baptism was not intended to be administered 
 uniAersally and without distinction, as I think the 
 
THE COMMISSION. 29 
 
 foregoing argument has proved, then it will follow, 
 without any begging of the question, that there must 
 be discrimination ; and if so, of course, there must be 
 some one to discriminate, and this office or duty must 
 devolve upon the baptizer, or upon him in connection 
 with the brethren with whom he is associated. 
 
 2. But, secondly, Dr Halley himself admits, that, 
 in some cases, there must be discrimination; for he 
 says, the ordinance is not to be administered to 
 scoffers and blasphemers — implying, of course, that 
 in particular cases the administrator must judge re- 
 specting the fitness of applicants for baptism. 
 
 3. Supposing that mere acquaintance with the first 
 principles of Christian knowledge were the only 
 qualification required, discrimination would be called 
 for even here. Low as such a qualification is, there 
 would be need for the administrator to judge whether 
 or no it were possessed before he could feel himself 
 justified in proceeding to baptize an applicant. 
 
 4. But if it be allowed, that, together with know- 
 ledge, sincerity and piety are also requisite, much 
 more will discrimination then be needed; and if, even 
 on the Paedo-baptist hypothesis, it turns out that the 
 administrator must certify himself that a candidate 
 possesses the requisite amount of knowledge, and that 
 he is an honest, sober, and serious character, then, 
 who can say that some further discrimination may 
 not be exercised by him ? who can say that the pre- 
 rogative of judging of the motives and of the religious 
 or spiritual character of his fellow- man is not com- 
 
30 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 mitted to liim y or at least to the Church of which he 
 is the executive ? The whole question comes simply 
 to one of degree. Without converting the minister 
 into an inquisitor, and making one fallible being an 
 infallible judge of another (for God only can judge 
 infallibly), we yet do consider that it is the duty of the 
 Church to preserve its purity in the exercise of that 
 spiritual wisdom which it is supposed to possess, and 
 by which it ought ever to be guided.* Baptism we 
 
 * The following paragraph, from a series of papers on "Church 
 Principles," published in the Christian Witness in the year 1845, 
 s so much to our purpose, that we cannot forbear inserting it : — 
 
 " If it be objected that men cannot make the state of each 
 other's hearts the basis of their fellowship, that communion 
 among men must be ordered according to what appears externally 
 of character and conduct ; this is denied, both as a general pro- 
 position, and in its application to the union of Christians in 
 Churches in particular. There are many, and frequent, impor- 
 tant and sacred relations in human society constantly based on the 
 state of the heart, mutually declared and believed. It is a thing 
 easy and natural to be done, that Christians, feeling within the 
 deep and living work of grace, should disclose the experience of 
 their hearts to those with whom, on things so sacred, interesting, 
 and tender, they can hold sympathy and fellowship. There are 
 *dse, considerate, and delicate ways in which this can be done 
 even by (query, in the case of) young and timid Christians, 
 through pastors and experienced members, as the way in which 
 communion with Churches is sought and obtained. Wisdom 
 and experience in heart religion will qualify Churches and their 
 elders to form judgments generally accurate of the cases thus 
 submitted to their charity and fidelity. The whole principle, 
 in all its applications, that spiritual conversion and piety form the 
 true and only qualification for the communion of saints, is a con- 
 stant exercise of vital religion, a stedfast testimony to it, a 
 frequent and delightful enjoyment of its holy pleasures." 
 
THE COMMISSION. 31 
 
 regard as a Church ordinance, intended to be admi- 
 nistered only to such as are fit to be recognised as 
 members of some particular Church. The platform 
 of a Christian Church is laid down in the New 
 Testament, and the required qualifications of its 
 members; and, consequently, the real fitness of any 
 individual for membership and baptism, depends not 
 upon any human judgments, but upon his conformity 
 to scriptural requirements. If he possesses this 
 conformity, he belongs to the true, spiritual, universal 
 Church, whether he is admitted to any particular 
 Church or not; and, of course, whatever the judg- 
 ment of man may be, is a fit subject for baptism. 
 From the necessary imperfections of all human judg- 
 ments, some may be baptized and admitted to the 
 Church who are unfit for such a privilege ; while, on 
 the other hand, some may be kept back, who already 
 belong to " the Church of the first-born, whose names 
 are written in heaven." 
 
 It may, however, be further objected, that, as it 
 regards admission to any particular community of 
 Christians, the same Church that receives, is compe- 
 tent, in case of necessity, to reject; but that, if baptism 
 has been once administered, it is not within any 
 human power to unbaptize, in case of the party sub- 
 sequently proving unfit for the ordinance. Now, in 
 answer to this, we may say, first, that such cases as 
 these are not likely often to occur — that they are, 
 doubtless, the exception to the rule, especially in well 
 regulated Churches; and, secondly, when they do 
 
32 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 occur, that baptism has been misapplied, and the 
 scriptural intention of the ordinance is defeated.* 
 
 We only remark further, in view of the above 
 admissions, that if, previously to baptism, it be deemed 
 that an elementary acquaintance with Christianity is 
 essential, baptism itself can, in no sense, be explained 
 as an initiatory ordinance. This form of designation, 
 as generally used by Psedo-baptists, is, in this case, 
 evidently inapplicable. If previous knowledge is 
 requisite, baptism, of course, cannot initiate to learn- 
 ing; and consequently the idea, which so generally 
 prevails, of its being the rite of initiation into the 
 school of Christ — a rite constituting an individual a 
 disciple of Christ, however plausible the mere words 
 may sound, is only a vain fancy. Adopted and em- 
 ployed in the strict and proper sense, as an initiatory 
 ordinance, we have already seen what kind of aspect 
 it wears in that point of view. -According to our 
 own opinion, which will be better understood when 
 we have explained our idea of Christian discipleship, 
 it does not inaugurate into discipleship — does not 
 constitute disciples, but simply recognises them. 
 
 And now let us collect into one point of view the 
 substance of what we have debated thus far. Our 
 object has been to canvass the opinion, that the lan- 
 guage, " Teach all nations, baptizing," is not in any 
 way to be limited, but that we are to baptize all we 
 can. We began by remarking that, assuredly, neither 
 fraud nor force must be pressed into service in this 
 * For more on this subject see chapter ii. 
 
THE COMMISSION. 33 
 
 holy warfare. We then showed that, at least, willing- 
 ness, on the part of candidates for baptism, was 
 necessary. We went on to show, that this willing- 
 ness might be understood as either an ignorant or a 
 partially enlightened willingness. We proved that, 
 to baptize on a mere ignorant avowal of willingness, 
 was to treat man like an infant or an idiot, rather 
 than as a rational being and moral agent, contrary 
 to the whole analogy of Scripture truth; and then 
 went on to prove, on the same principle, that mere 
 elementary knowledge could not be viewed as a suffi- 
 cient qualification for baptism — since the Scriptures 
 everywhere require sincerity of heart and piety in the 
 performance of every religious duty. We observed, 
 moreover, that even Dr Halley himself, contrary to 
 his own principle, allows that willingness, and even 
 seriousness, are essential pre-requisites for baptism — no 
 unimportant admission, since it completely surrenders 
 the indiscriminate theory; and, in answering certain 
 objections, we have also proved that it is the preroga- 
 tive of the administrator of baptism to judge of the 
 qualifications and fitness of candidates. Thus far, 
 then, we have advanced, and shall now proceed to 
 give explicitly our own views of the baptismal com- 
 mission; and, in so doing, shall fearlessly go into 
 the question of grammar and verbal criticism. 
 
 It is now, indeed, full time to enter the penetralia 
 of the Temple of truth, and consult the oracle of phi- 
 lology. Like the Grecian oracles, it may perhaps, 
 owing to the necessary imperfection of language, speak 
 
34 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 to us in somewhat ambiguous terms. But then it 
 is a satisfaction to know that it was not designed to 
 be obscure; and happily we have a key to unlock its 
 mysteries — a principle by which to resolve its am- 
 biguity, to decide between its double meanings, and 
 to select, as we believe, without mistake, the true one. 
 "We beg that Dr Davidson's rule may here again be 
 borne in mind, viz., " That analogy teaches what an 
 obscure passage cannot mean ; " and thus, as we said 
 before, goes very far towards leading us to ascertain 
 what it does mean. If, for instance, we have pre- 
 viously concluded that a mere ignorant willingness, on 
 the one hand, and a willingness founded on elemen- 
 tary knowledge, on the other, are not sufficient quali- 
 fications for baptism, we necessarily conclude that the 
 language of Matthew, in reference to the baptismal 
 commission, is not to be interpreted so generally as 
 to make baptism imperative upon subjects thus imper- 
 fectly qualified; and our object must be to show that 
 it can, and may, and does, imply the necessity of some 
 higher qualification. If we merely show that the 
 words of Matthew can support an interpretation im- 
 plying the necessity of sincerity and faith, this is 
 enough — this is all we need do; for, if such an in- 
 terpretation be at all admissible by the rules of 
 grammar and philology, we could not hesitate for a 
 moment to pronounce it the right one, even though 
 the mere language may equally well admit of a wider 
 signification. Into this let us now inquire, critically 
 examining, first, into the meaning of the word pafanvu. 
 
THE COMMISSION. 35 
 
 Very many pages of criticism have been written 
 upon this single word; and, as it appears to me, a 
 great deal of superfluous labour has been bestowed 
 upon it. If the word be rendered simply to teach, 
 such a sense is obviously favourable to the conclusions 
 of analogy ; for though the word pctfanvu may be con- 
 sidered as limiting the necessary knowledge to first 
 principles, yet, without urging the difficulty of exactly 
 defining first principles, it cannot, at all events, be 
 questioned but that saving faith may originate even 
 from them. And, moreover, bringing analogy to bear 
 upon the question, we contend that the very inten- 
 tion of the teaching must be understood to be nothing 
 less than to produce faith, to make converts. We 
 contend, too, that the apostles would so understand 
 it; and that when their Lord said, " Teach and bap- 
 tize," they would immediately, as a matter of course, 
 infer that the object of their teaching must be to bring 
 men to believe the Gospel. Only in this way can 
 the command, " Teach and baptize," be interpreted so 
 as not to clash with the whole doctrine of Scripture. 
 The teaching must be understood as designed to 
 result in faith previously to the administration of 
 baptism. 
 
 But, taking the word in question to signify to dis- 
 ciple, " Go ye therefore and disciple all nations," 
 a rendering which better accords with the etymology 
 of the word, we shall, if we mistake not, still find 
 ourselves conducted to precisely the same result. 
 The verb /utfartvu occurs but four times in the Greek 
 
36 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 Testament — twice in an active, and twice in a passive 
 sense. The first instance of its ever being used in an 
 active signification, is this of the commission, as re- 
 corded by Matthew. The verb must, doubtless, be 
 regarded as a derivative of the substantive pufavhs, a 
 disciple. Consequently, the right way to judge of the 
 proper meaning of the verb is to ascertain, first, the 
 sense in which the primitive noun is used. Let us 
 inquire a little into this. 
 
 The word pafarm is of very frequent occurrence in 
 the New Testament, being applied to the disciples of 
 John as well as to those of Jesus. It is an interesting 
 question in itself, and one that leads direct to the point 
 of our inquiry, Whether the characteristics and quali- 
 fications of the disciples of John and of Jesus were 
 the same? and whether, in these respects, there was 
 any difference between those who were recognised as 
 disciples of Jesus during his ministry and life, and 
 those who were constituted and regarded as such after 
 his death. In respect to both these questions we take 
 the affirmative, to establish which we offer the follow- 
 ing considerations. 
 
 A disciple, in the ordinary sense of the word, denotes 
 one who embraces the tenets or the doctrines of any 
 particular school of philosophy or religion. Thus, 
 by a disciple of Plato, we understand one who 
 believed what Plato taught; by a disciple of Moses, 
 one who believed in Moses and his writings ; and, on 
 the same principle, by a disciple of John the Baptist, 
 we understand one who received what John the 
 
THE COMMISSION. 37 
 
 Baptist was raised up to teach; and by a disciple of 
 Jesus, one who believed in him, and all that he taught 
 and enjoined. The obvious way, then, to judge of 
 the character and qualifications of a disciple is, first, 
 to inquire into the doctrine of the Master; and, to 
 decide upon the point under review, we must take into 
 consideration the characteristics of the Mosaic and 
 Christian dispensations, and the circumstances which 
 distinguish the transition from the one to the other. 
 Now, as it regards the Mosaic or Jewish dispensation, 
 it is unquestionable that, while its ultimate aim, through 
 the medium of typical observances, was to inculcate 
 spiritual truth, it also admitted to a participation in 
 its rites and ceremonies indiscriminately any and all 
 who were descended from Abraham. Under that 
 dispensation no outward or visible distinction was 
 made between one Jew and another. All were 
 admitted, quite irrespective of character, to all the 
 observances and ordinances of religion. He who 
 adhered to the letter of the law of Moses, however 
 ungodly and unprincipled he might be, was, as a Jew, 
 perfect and blameless — an acknowledged disciple of 
 Moses. But it will be admitted, that Christianity, 
 in its principles and requirements, is essentially dif- 
 ferent from Judaism. That was the dispensation of 
 the letter; this of the spirit. The mere outward 
 observance of rites and ordinances cannot constitute 
 a man a Christian. Spirituality is now requisite in 
 every duty that is performed. The letter fades, the 
 spirit alone remains. A mere formalist might be a 
 
38 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 disciple of Moses; only a spiritual person can be a 
 disciple of Christ. 
 
 The period commencing with the preaching of 
 John the Baptist, and extending through the whole 
 life of Jesus till his death, seems to have had charac- 
 teristics peculiar to itself. It was a transition period — 
 a kind of brief intermediate dispensation between that 
 of the letter and of the spirit. It partook, therefore, 
 of the features of both. It was designed to prepare 
 gradually for a more spiritual state of things. John 
 came forth from the wilderness announcing the speedy 
 advent of the Messiah. In the midst of universal 
 formalism he appeared as a great reformer. His 
 mission was, to call the nation to repentance, in anti- 
 cipation of the coming of Christ. He instituted a 
 new ordinance — the baptism of repentance. He taught 
 that something more was necessary than external rites. 
 But to have required satisfactory evidence of repent- 
 ance having taken place, would have been to have 
 anticipated that spiritual dispensation for which things 
 were not yet ripe. Therefore we find, that while he 
 powerfully and solemnly insisted upon the necessity 
 of repentance, and warned the Pharisees of the 
 inutility of his baptism to them unless they brought 
 forth fruits meet for repentance; still, he did not 
 refuse to baptize any who professed to believe in the 
 speedy coming of the expected Messiah. His preach- 
 ing and his baptism were eminently adapted to call 
 off the minds of the Jews from cold, lifeless forms, 
 to the living soul of religion, and thus to " prepare 
 
THE COMMISSION. 39 
 
 the way of the Lord." A disciple of John was not, 
 therefore, necessarily a spiritual person, but one just 
 emerging from the dim shadows of Judaism to the 
 purer and clearer light of Christianity. 
 
 While John was yet in the midst of his public 
 labours, Jesus came into notice as a great teacher 
 amongst the people; and, taking up the same senti- 
 ment as John the Baptist had made the chief theme 
 of his ministry, he preached, saying, " Repent, for 
 the kingdom of heaven is at hand." But it is impor- 
 tant to remark, that during the whole of his public 
 course Jesus was careful not to make a fall disclosure 
 of his designs. The time was not yet come. He 
 shrouded himself in obscurity so long as he was on 
 the earth ; and it was not till he died that, like a sun, 
 he arose from behind the clouds that hung over his 
 cross, and gathered around his tomb, and poured the 
 full blaze of heavenly light over his spiritual king- 
 dom. The preaching of Jesus was indeed spiritual 
 in the highest degree. But Judaism, with its ritual 
 of forms, was not yet abolished, and even Jesus him- 
 self conformed to its rites and requisitions. Things 
 were not even yet ripe for founding a purely spiritual 
 incorporation. The Saviour taught most distinctly the 
 spiritual nature of his kingdom, and yet, yielding to 
 the spirit of Judaism, the time not having arrived for 
 its absolute and everlasting extinction, he seems to 
 have admitted into his kingdom precisely the same 
 class of persons as John the Baptist had done before 
 him, viz., all who acknowledged their belief in the 
 
40 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 near appearance of the Messiah, whether they recog- 
 nised him as the " Coming One" or not; and thus, 
 that kingdom was of a mixed character during his 
 life, though intended to consist eventually only of 
 spiritual people. Real conversion was not, therefore, 
 indispensable to constitute a disciple of Jesus during 
 his life and ministry. 
 
 But, admitting this, I go on to contend, that this 
 is no rule to us for judging of the character and 
 qualifications of a true disciple of Christ. Many 
 were allowed to be called disciples of Christ in the 
 peculiar state of things then existing, "whom Jesus 
 himself never viewed as true disciples, and never 
 contemplated as the persons who were to form his 
 future Church. Nor must we overlook the fact, that 
 many of the disciples of Jesus, even in his own day, 
 were sincere, genuine characters. Take, for example, 
 the twelve apostles. These, with only one exception, 
 were men of true religion — men who believed in Jesus, 
 and kept his commandments. And, though it is 
 admitted that they entertained some mistaken notions 
 respecting the designs of Christ, until the period of 
 his death and resurrection, yet we are told that " to 
 them it was given to know the mystery of the kingdom 
 of God, while to those that were without these things 
 were taught in parables." Observe, again, the mean- 
 ing of the word disciple, as applied to the seventy 
 disciples, of whom we read Luke x. 1, etseq. These 
 evidently were genuine characters; for Jesus sent 
 them out two by two into all the cities of Judea, 
 
THE COMMISSION. 41 
 
 preaching the gospel, and their names are said to have 
 been written in heaven. And surely, when we read 
 that " many believed on him," as we frequently do, 
 making a large deduction for those who may be sup- 
 posed merely to have expressed their faith in him as 
 the Messiah, we are yet warranted to suppose that 
 not a few of them were brought truly to " believe in 
 Jesus," especially as Paul tells us that after the resur- 
 rection the Lord was seen by five hundred brethren 
 at once. This, indeed, clearly proves that amongst 
 the numerous disciples of Jesus, there were at least 
 that number of true converts. How many more there 
 might have been it is impossible to say; but it is 
 hardly to be supposed that all, from all parts of the 
 land, who truly believed on him, were collected to- 
 gether on that particular occasion. If five hundred of 
 the brethren saw him then, no doubt there were in all 
 many more than these in other parts of the country, 
 in those " many towns and villages" where Jesus 
 " went preaching the gospel." Now, these considera- 
 tions are very important; for, not to infer from them 
 more than we are justified in doing, they do most 
 certainly prove that, though the word ftufarbs was used 
 in a loose and general sense, to denote any who pro- 
 fessed their faith in Christ as the Messiah, it was 
 also well known to have a more important sense, as 
 denoting those who were truly converted in heart to 
 Jesus, and were, in the true and best signification of 
 the word, " disciples." 
 
 We may learn, moreover, the true character of a 
 c 
 
42 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 disciple, and the sense in which the word, as employed 
 in the commission, should be naturally understood, 
 from the contrast which the false and treacherous 
 Judas presents to the other eleven apostles. He, like 
 them, was designated both an apostle and a disciple. 
 But we may as well argue that Judas was a true 
 apostle, because he bore the name, and that there was 
 no need for the apostles to be good men, as that he 
 was, in any proper sense of the word, a disciple. We 
 do not form our idea of an apostle from the case of 
 Judas, nor, in any reason, can we decide upon the 
 meaning of the term, disciple, from the fact of the 
 traitor having been called by that name. Judas was 
 no more a true disciple than a tine apostle. Precisely 
 on the same principle we argue that, though many 
 went by the name of disciples during the time that 
 Christ was on the earth, and preparing to establish his 
 kingdom, yet they were not such in any proper or 
 legitimate use of the term, and that Jesus himself 
 never recognised them as such. We may learn what 
 our Lord's own idea of a disciple was from his own 
 language (John viii. 31): " Then said Jesus to those 
 Jews who believed on him, If ye continue in my 
 word, then are ye my disciples indeed." They might 
 be called disciples if they professed their faith in 
 Jesus; but they were not so truly unless they continued 
 in the faith of Jesus. Again, Jesus says (Luke xiv. 
 26, 27) : " If any man come to me, and hate not his 
 father, and mother, and wife, and children, and bre- 
 thren, and sisters, vea. and his own life also, he cannot 
 
THE COMMISSION. 43 
 
 be my disciple; and whosoever doth not hear his 
 cross, and come after me, he cannot be my disciple." 
 Nothing can be more explicit than this. The mere 
 coming to Christ did not constitute a man a disciple, 
 though, in an accommodated and secondary use of the 
 word, he might be called so. Unless a man had prin- 
 ciple enough to sacrifice all for Christ, he was not, in 
 the view of Jesus, a disciple. 
 
 Then, we must not forget that the baptismal com- 
 mission was given after the death and resurrection of 
 Christ, and that those events had shed new light upon 
 the minds of the disciples relative to the nature of his 
 kingdom, and the true character of his disciples. Then 
 it was that the Mosaic economy ceased; then that mix- 
 ed state of things that had distinguished the interme- 
 diate period between the old and new dispensations was 
 brought to a close; then the spiritual reign of Christ 
 properly commenced. Now the apostles understood 
 clearly the nature of Christ's kingdom. Now those 
 truths which before were cast into the shade stood out 
 in bold relief in the broad daylight of the gospel. 
 Now they knew that Jesus was truly the Son of God, 
 and that nothing but faith in his atoning death could 
 constitute any one a member of his spiritual kingdom. 
 Now, too, all that he had so often taught them con- 
 cerning the character of his disciples — that they must 
 be such as were ready to forsake all for him, and such 
 as would continue in his word — would come with 
 fresh vividness and force to their minds, and they 
 would naturally understand that henceforth none were 
 to be recognised as the disciples of Jesus but such as 
 
44 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 answered to this character. When, therefore, after 
 his death and resurrection, our Lord gave the com- 
 mand, " Go, disciple all nations," there is no reason 
 to suppose that they would misapprehend it. They 
 would, doubtless, understand the word " disciple " in 
 the sense in which the Lord had himself explained it; 
 they would understand it as a command to go and 
 convert all the nations. But even if the disciples of 
 Christ did not at first understand the command as we 
 have explained it, our argument remains unaffected. 
 We have the Word of God, and must form our own 
 judgment respecting it ; and it may he that we are in 
 better circumstances to form a correct judgment of 
 our Lord's intention than, at the time (supposing 
 they were left to judge for themselves), the apostles 
 were. Taking all things into consideration, there 
 seems to us no reason to doubt, but that we are to 
 understand the verb, ftetfartiveirt in the sense which 
 our Lord himself has so distinctly assigned to the 
 noun, fcKfarhs. But if it yet be objected, Why should 
 we not understand the word in the more general 
 sense, since all, with no discrimination as to character, 
 were called disciples in the time of Christ ? we reply, 
 agreeably to the above reasoning, The analogy of our 
 faith forbids. The word admits of being understood 
 either in a general or a particular sense, though, as we 
 think, we have shown the latter is the proper signi- 
 fication. But, allowing it to bear either meaning, 
 and, with the acquaintance we have with Christianity, 
 we cannot hesitate for a moment between the two. 
 
THE COMMISSION. 45 
 
 It appears, then, from all these considerations taken 
 together, that though the word, pafarh, is sometimes 
 used to signify merely a follower of Jesus, there is 
 but one accredited sense in which it can be understood. 
 We must assuredly understand it in that sense in 
 which, evidently, Jesus himself intended it to be 
 understood. This, then, is our rule of judgment 
 respecting the meaning of the verb, /*«&»«»«■«« in the 
 commission for preaching the gospel, and baptizing. 
 "We cannot suppose that to make proselytes was all 
 he meant them to do. We cannot imagine that this 
 was the extent of his command. No. We must 
 interpret the verb according to our Lord's own ex- 
 planation of the noun. We must take the command, 
 " Disciple all the nations," in its best sense, as strictly 
 and properly signifying, make converts (as Dr. Camp- 
 bell, in his translation of the Gospels, renders it), 
 make true, genuine believers. The verb ftafartva may, 
 in a free and loose manner, be translated, " Teach." 
 But the full import of the word is not arrived at, till 
 the intended result of that teaching is realized — till 
 sinners are brought to Christ, and made his disciples. 
 Consequently, the best way of rendering the word is, 
 disciple, or make disciples, which involves the notion 
 of teaching, and implies something in addition. Make 
 disciples; that is, preach, instruct, exhort, bring sin- 
 ners to repentance, make them true believers. This 
 we take to be the fair, legitimate meaning of this very 
 significant and comprehensive word — a word newly 
 coined, it would seem, to meet a particular exigency, 
 
46 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 because no existing word could fully express the 
 idea. 
 
 Understanding the word iMtOnrtitan in the sense 
 above explained, the question, whether the words, 
 vavra, ra. '(fa*, are to be taken in a limited sense, or 
 otherwise, is virtually settled. The apostles were, of 
 course, to make all the converts they could. To what 
 objections Dr Halley's theory of baptizing as many 
 as possible lies open, we have already shown ; but the 
 same objection does not apply to the act of making 
 disciples^ since, as a matter of course, they were to 
 do this by the use of appropriate and rational means — 
 means harmonizing with the principles of Chris- 
 tianity. The world was before them, with all its 
 different nations. Into all these nations they were 
 to go, making it their great object to convert them 
 all, if possible, to the true faith, and make all 
 the inhabitants of the earth believing disciples of 
 Jesus. This was their commission. In connection 
 with this great work, they are directed to baptize all 
 the nations ; that is, they were to baptize all that they 
 succeeded in discipling — all the world if possible. 
 The baptizing was to be just co-extensive with the 
 discipling. 
 
 This theory, however, which makes the act of 
 baptizing consequent upon that of discipling, Dr 
 Halley denies. He considers that disciples are to 
 be made by baptizing. " Our commission," says he, 
 " is to disciple as many as we can, by baptizing and 
 by teaching them." fP. 578.) He says, again, in a 
 
THE COMMISSION. 4? 
 
 former part of the lecture (P. 491) zj* As to the limi- 
 tation of the word baptize to those who are taught, 
 we have, according to the letter of this commission, no 
 more right to limit the command to baptize to those who 
 are taught, than we have to limit the command to teach 
 to those who are baptized." Now, without presuming 
 to deny absolutely these assertions of the learned 
 Doctor, we think it will be easy to prove that, in ac- 
 cordance with the rules of grammar, and the struc- 
 ture of language, the act of baptizing may be limited 
 by that of making disciples. If it may without any 
 violation of grammar, then we directly fall back upon 
 the argument from analogy, and say, without hesita- 
 tion, it must. In order to prove this, we have to as- 
 certain whether the action of the participle, fZxvrrt%ovrss, 
 may be subsequent to that of the verb, f^a^rtvtrxrt. If 
 it may, then, taking the verb in our sense of making 
 disciples, rather than in the defective sense of teach- 
 ing, it will follow that the baptizing may be limited to 
 those who are disciplecL The bare possibility of this 
 is all that is necessary for our argument. 
 
 Grammarians, we are aware, teach, that a par- 
 ticiple following a verb, is frequently used in Greek 
 like the gerund in do in Latin, signifying the means 
 or instrument. This we, of course, do not dispute. It 
 is enough for us that this is not always the case — not 
 an invariable rule. The truth is, the sense of a parti- 
 ciple following a verb in Greek, is very indefinite; and 
 in the Greek Testament (and the use of it there is 
 every thing in this case), it very seldom signifies the 
 
48 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 means. And, though the relation of time is but im- 
 perfectly expressed by the participle, yet, more fre- 
 quently than not, it will be found that the action of 
 the participle follows that of the verb. 
 
 That the baptizing in the commission does not 
 necessarily imply the means of making disciples, and 
 may be considered as designed to be performed after 
 the act of making disciples, is abundantly evident from 
 the following passages, in which, as any one may see 
 by turning to them in the Greek Testament, precisely 
 the same construction occurs. Matt. iii. 1 : "In 
 those days came John the baptist, preaching." The 
 preaching here, plainly enough, does not imply the 
 means. John did not come by means of preaching. 
 And, though he preached wherever he journeyed, w 
 are not justified in saying that he preached as he 
 literally went along the road. In the order of time, 
 we must understand that his preaching was consequent 
 upon his coming to anyplace. Matt. xvii. 14: 
 t( There came a certain man, kneeling." The man 
 would have looked very odd had he come by means 
 of kneeling. He kneeled when he had come. The 
 action of the participle " kneeling " is subsequent to 
 that of the verb " came." Matt. xxvi. 55 : "I sat 
 daily with you, teaching." Christ did not sit by 
 means of teaching, and certainly the teaching did not 
 precede the sittiDg. Heb. ix. 6 : " The priests went 
 into the temple, accomplishing the service; " that is, 
 they went into the temple in order to accomplish it; 
 and the service which they had to accomplish, ac- 
 
THE COMMISSION. 49 
 
 cording to the institutions of Moses, could not be 
 commenced till after they had entered the temple. 
 Passages might be multiplied almost without end, in 
 which similar construction occurs. But these which 
 we haye quoted are more than enough for our pur- 
 pose. Sometimes, undoubtedly, the participle is used 
 like the gerund in do in Latin, signifying means. 
 But, from the above examples, it is sufficiently mani- 
 fest that often it is not so used. Nay, it will be found 
 by any who are willing to take tbe trouble to make 
 an induction of passages for themselves, and to 
 examine into this question of criticism, that there are 
 far more cases in which the participle, following a 
 verb, does not admit of being rendered as the means, 
 than of those in which it must be so rendered. In 
 some of the texts adduced, the participle is clearly 
 used for the infinitive, expressing a purpose. In 
 classical Greek this is done by the future participle, 
 whereas these are all participles present. This, 
 therefore, seems to present us with a peculiarity of 
 the Hellenistic Greek. In every instance that we 
 have adduced, some kind of relation manifestly sub- 
 sists between the participle and the foregoing verb. 
 After all, this kind of construction is manifestly very 
 indefinite ; so much so, that it seems impossible to 
 establish any uniform principle of interpretation. The 
 only safe and certain rule, therefore, is to adopt that 
 interpretation which is best supported by the parti- 
 cular circumstances of the case, the connexion of the 
 passage, or the analogy of the faith. The conclusion, 
 
50 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 then, to which we come in regard to the language 
 of the commission is this : That the act of baptizing 
 may be limited to those who are discipled; that as 
 the action of the participle more frequently than not 
 follows that of the verb, the probability is that it does 
 so here ; that the interpretation which makes baptism 
 follow discipleship is the only one that accords with 
 the analogy of the faith ; and, consequently, that that 
 interpretation alone is the right one; that, in plain 
 language, baptism is to be performed only upon those 
 who have been previously discipled to Christ. 
 
 If the view we have thus been led to adopt be just, 
 if it be grammatically and critically correct, it ren- 
 ders almost superfluous any examination of the words, 
 " wavra ra, Wv*" and the pronoun, '« *vrov$," referring to 
 them. However, it can be easily shown that, by the 
 usus loquendi of the Greek Testament, universal terms 
 may be understood in a limited sense. The following 
 are cases in point. " There came out to him all 
 Judea, and all Jerusalem, and all the region round 
 about Jordan." Not every one, surely, without excep- 
 tion ! " And, behold, the whole city came out to 
 meet Jesus." Not literally all the men, women, and 
 children in the city, and little infants too ! " And 
 ye shall be hated of all nations for my sake." This is 
 particularly a case in point, as the very same words, 
 "all nations," are made use of, as occur in the com- 
 mission. Hated by all nations ! It does not mean 
 that they would be hated by infants; nor does it 
 mean that all of mature years, without exception, 
 
THE COMMISSION. 51 
 
 would hate them. No : but plainly it means that 
 a certain class of all nations would hate them (the 
 majority, of course), viz., those who would not em- 
 brace their doctrine. Where, then, is the error of 
 understanding the words u all nations," in the com- 
 mission, in a limited sense ? Who shall say, we hare 
 not a right to do so ? " Disciple all the nations;" that 
 is, disciple all you can ; for here there is no need of 
 limitation, since it was clearly right that the apostles 
 should endeavour, in the use of appropriate means, to 
 disciple all people in the world, not excluding even 
 little children, so soon as suitable means could be 
 brought to bear upon them : " baptizing them " — all 
 nations; that is, all whom you are enabled to disciple; 
 for here limitation is necessary, for reasons which 
 need not be repeated. And we have good and suffi- 
 cient warrant for such limitation, not only from the 
 idiom of the language, which, as we have seen, al- 
 lows the baptism to be considered as consequent upon 
 the discipling, but also from the usus loquendi which, 
 as just proved, justifies our understanding " all 
 nations " in a limited sense. 
 
 Will it be objected here, that it is not allowable to 
 limit the words, " all nations," in reference to the act 
 of baptizing, while, in reference to that of making 
 disciples, we give them the utmost universality? If 
 so, it may be readily shown, that this is no more than 
 what we do constantly in the common use of lan- 
 guage. If a homely conventionalism may be allowed, 
 we will suppose a command of this sort to be issued 
 
52 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 (no matter whence): Teetotalize all the people of 
 England, giving them the pledge. Could this he mis- 
 understood? Would it not mean, Bring as many as 
 possible over by argument and persuasion to the cause 
 of temperance, and give the pledge to all who, being 
 convinced, are willing to'sign it? No one would argue 
 that, because the command was universal, all were to 
 sign the pledge, convinced or unconvinced. No one 
 would understand it, Make all the people teetotalers, 
 and give the pledge to all, indiscriminately, whether 
 they consent to become so or not. Thus, though the 
 universal terms, " All the people of England," were 
 the antecedents of the pronoun " them," no misap- 
 prehension could take place. Limitation is clearly 
 justifiable, nay, essentially necessary, by the ordinary 
 use of language. Just on the same principle we argue 
 that although the command, " Disciple all the na- 
 tions," is universal, there is no necessity to understand 
 the pronoun them, in a universal sense, and to argue 
 that all, without exception, are to, be baptized, whether 
 they become disciples or not. The question, whether 
 the words of the commission are to be limited or not, 
 cannot, therefore, be decided by syntax. The ques- 
 tion respecting the subjects of baptism is not " resolved 
 into one of grammar." * Grammar and syntax cannot 
 alone settle the question, though, as we have seen, they 
 decidedly favour the notion of limitation. Thus, 
 without any overturning of the principles of language, 
 our case is fairly made out. 
 
 * The Sacraments, p. 488. 
 
THE COMMISSION. 53 
 
 As to the pronoun, alrovs, being masculine, whereas 
 the antecedent, 'ifov, is neuter ; notwithstanding Dr 
 Halley's off-hand way of settling the matter in his 
 foot-note at p. 489,* we consider this peculiarity to 
 be altogether in our favour, and an additional reason 
 for the limitation of the words jravra *«. Ifon. We do 
 not deny that the ahrol? refers to 'LQw, for we would 
 not gratuitously exhibit grosser ignorance than a 
 school-boy. But let us refer to the rule. We 
 find it very well expressed in the "Observations 
 on Greek Idioms " at the end of a very common 
 school-book — "Neilson's Greek Exercises." It is thus 
 expressed : "A common rule of syntax is, that an 
 adjective shall agree with its substantive in gender and 
 number, as well as in case; but, hy the association of 
 ideas, we find this rule violated when the persons or 
 things alluded to differ in number or gender from the 
 substantive expressed." Two examples are given, 
 First, B£$q>os (pi^ovra. ro%ov, where the figitpos (infant) is 
 neuter, but (p'^ovroc is masculine, though referring to 
 9>£<po ? , because the infant was a boy, and the mind 
 associated that idea with the neuter, fytyos. The second 
 example is none other, to be sure, than this very sen- 
 tence from the commission, respecting which our 
 whole dispute is carried on. In this case the idea 
 
 * " I suppose no one will object, that avrovs, being masculine, 
 does not refer to sravra to sVvJj, being neuter; as this would betray 
 gross ignorance of the common rule of Greek syntax, known by 
 every school-boy, respecting the reference of pronouns to neuter 
 nouns." 
 
54 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 associated, as explained under the rule, is supposed to 
 be that of persons (masculine), thus occasioning, or 
 accounting for the pronoun being masculine. We 
 accept the rule, but in this particular instance we take 
 the liberty to vary its application. The association 
 of ideas in our mind is not that of persons generally, 
 but of disciples in particular. The verb, ^nnxxran 
 very naturally suggests to our mind this association 
 rather than the other ; and we account for the pro- 
 noun xlobs being masculine, a different gender from 
 the antecedent, by its alluding, through the associa- 
 tion of ideas, to those who were, or might be made 
 disciples. Therefore we resolve it thus : " Disciple 
 all nations" — that is, as many as, in the use of Chris- 
 tian means, is possible; " baptizing them" — that is,the 
 disciples — as many as become such in all nations of 
 the world. Is not this grammatical? Does not the 
 rule of syntax warrant it? No one can deny that it 
 is accurate idiomatically and grammatically. Now this 
 method of construing just brings us to Dr Carson's 
 principle (and he is not often found tripping), viz., 
 " That the antecedent to the pronoun them is the word 
 disciples, taken, as grammarians speak, out of the verb, 
 disciple." Dr Halley has taken no notice whatever 
 of Dr Carson's explanation of this grammatical pecu- 
 liarity. How is this? For Dr Carson's principle is 
 fatal to Dr Halley's theory; and there it remains 
 uncontradicted, unexposed. It makes little difference 
 whether we follow the letter of the rule quoted above, 
 or adopt Dr Carson's explanation. Both are substan- 
 
THE COMMISSION. 55 
 
 tially the same ; the difference being merely technical. 
 Either method serves to overthrow the indiscriminate 
 theory, and proves that baptism is to be limited to the 
 disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Having now fully examined the language of the 
 commission, as recorded by Matthew, philologically, 
 grammatically, and idiomatically, we find, to say the 
 least, that there is nothing to forbid our understand- 
 ing it in the sense in which we have explained it : 
 " Go and disciple all nations;" that is, make all the 
 disciples you can in all nations, and, having made 
 these disciples, baptize them " in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost/' 
 Then follows a further direction : " Teaching them," 
 (I need not say it is a different word in the Greek, 
 h^aeTKovra) " teaching them to observe all things 
 whatsoever I have commanded you;" that is, carrying 
 them on beyond first principles, and instructing them 
 in the higher doctrines of the faith of Christ. We 
 believe this to be strictly the meaning of the com- 
 mission, and that this is the only way of explaining it 
 consistently with the whole analogy of revealed truth. 
 
 In the whole of this discussion we have hitherto 
 confined ourselves to the language of the commission 
 as expressed by Matthew. Our arguments, we think, 
 have already amounted to a proof that nothing less 
 than genuine faith can be considered as constituting 
 a suitable qualification or baptism, inasmuch as 
 being a disciple is identical with being a believer. 
 And now we shall find this opinion materially 
 
56 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 strengthened by a comparison of Matthew's statement 
 of the commission with that of Mark. Each evange- 
 list gives his own account of the last command of 
 the ascending Saviour; and, as in all other cases, so 
 in this, we ought to avail ourselves of any light that 
 the language of the one may reflect upon that of the 
 other. The words of Mark are : " Go ye into all the 
 world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He 
 that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved ; he that 
 belie veth not shall be damned." (Mark xvi. 15, 16.) 
 Now, what do we most naturally infer from this 
 language in regard to the subjects of baptism? 
 Surely, on aprimdfacie view of the words, we should 
 naturally say that the proper subjects of baptism are 
 believers. Let us look a little carefully into this mat- 
 ter. The language divides itself into two distinct 
 parts. The first of these is, " Go into all the world, 
 and preach the Gospel to every creature." As though 
 our Lord had said, Be this your first concern — im- 
 plying, unquestionably, the priority of preaching to 
 baptism. For this is not an argument founded upon 
 a mere collocation of words. But here is one whole 
 sentence, a complete, logical sentence, containing a 
 beginning, a middle, and an end, and making com- 
 plete sense in itself: " Go into all the world, and 
 preach the Gospel to every creature." Then follows: 
 " He having believed, and having been baptized, shall 
 be saved." If this construction does not, at least, im- 
 ply the priority of preaching to believing and baptiz- 
 ing, scarcely any form of language could be found to 
 
THE COMMISSION. 57 
 
 do so. Our Lord's command is, Go and preach the 
 Gospel — make the people understand the Gospel. He 
 adds, Whoso helieves (believes what you preach), and 
 is baptized, shall be saved. This leads us inevitably 
 to associate the notion of baptizing, not 'with preach- 
 ing, which belongs to the other sentence, but with 
 faith, the result of preaching, which belongs to the 
 same sentence as that in which the notion of being 
 baptized is found. 
 
 Dr. Halley says that this form of language specifies 
 not the persons to be baptized, but the persons to 
 be saved. (P. 507.) It does, undoubtedly, specify 
 who will be saved, and this is evidently the prominent 
 idea in the sentence. "Why, then, is it that baptism 
 should be mentioned in such connexion? Faith is 
 mentioned as being the condition of salvation. But 
 why should baptism be mentioned, which has no 
 saving virtue? This can be accounted for by ad- 
 mitting that, in apostolic times, a well-known and 
 established connexion existed between faith and bap- 
 tism. On any other principle, it seems to us inex- 
 plicable. If it is affirmed that he who believes shall 
 be saved, it is also affirmed that he who is baptized 
 shall be saved. According to the grammatical struc- 
 ture of the sentence, the one is as distinctly affirmed 
 as the other. But the latter would not be true if the 
 baptized were not believers; for none but theologians 
 of the Oxford school will pretend that baptism, in 
 itself, has any virtue to insure salvation. Supposing, 
 for argument's sake, that, in the time of our Lord, faith 
 
 D 
 
58 THE COMMISSION. 
 
 and baptism were inseparably connected; supposing 
 baptism to bave been a public avowal of faitb, as the 
 refusing to be baptized was an evident proof of un- 
 belief; then we can account for baptism being asso- 
 ciated with salvation. It would most naturally be 
 so associated, as being an evidence of the faith which 
 insured salvation. 
 
 Dr. Halley labours to make out that the mention of 
 baptism here in connexion with faith and salvation, 
 is only reconcilable on the principle, that baptism 
 was conceded to all applicants. In this attempt, we 
 think, he signally fails; for, if baptism were indiscri- 
 minate, if it were so common a thing as to be given 
 to any body and every body, how could this account 
 for its being introduced in connexion with faith and 
 salvation? It would rather be a reason for not men- 
 tioning it. He argues, that, " if the apostles com- 
 manded all persons indiscriminately to be baptized, 
 the unbaptized were contumacious, like the Pharisees 
 and lawyers, who rejected the counsel of God 
 against themselves, not being baptized with the bap- 
 tism of John ; and that, under these circumstances, 
 the unbaptized could not be saved." Now, it is ob- 
 servable, that baptism is not even mentioned in the 
 clause that speaks of unbelievers and condemnation, 
 but occurs only in that which mentions believers and 
 salvation. To sustain Dr. Halley's argument, the 
 words of our Saviour ought to have been, " He that 
 believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not, and 
 will not be baptized, shall be damned;" and even 
 
THE COMMISSION. 59 
 
 then the mention of baptism would be superfluous. 
 However, not one word is said about unbelievers 
 being unbaptized, which Dr. Halley makes so much 
 of; but, on the contrary, believing, being baptized, 
 and being saved, are brought together in one sentence, 
 — all which Dr. Halley casts into the shade. He talks 
 only about the unbaptized, whereas our Lord speaks 
 only about the baptized. Now we should not have 
 complained of this, if Dr. Halley had drawn his con- 
 clusion from the case of the unbaptized to that of 
 the baptized, if he had shown how the coutumacious- 
 ness of some persons in refusing to receive an indis- 
 criminate baptism could account for such a baptism 
 being mentioned in connexion with the faith and sal- 
 vation of others. To us nothing is plainer, than that 
 there would have been a great incongruity in thus 
 introducing it, and that no reference to baptism could 
 have been made here, except on the supposition of its 
 being a public avowal of faith in the Redeemer. Dr. 
 Halley's argument, indeed, so far from aiding his 
 cause, seems to us manifestly to help our own. For 
 if, as he argues, the unbaptized were contumacious, 
 and, therefore, could not be saved, the converse of this 
 will be equally true, viz., that the baptized, not being 
 contumacious, would be saved; for the notion that 
 some might be baptized voluntarily who were not be- 
 lievers, and would not be saved, manifestly finds no 
 support from the terms of this commission, which 
 mentions only the baptism of believers. The passage 
 speaks a very plain sense to us. Its testimony seems to 
 
60 . THE COMMISSION. 
 
 be this: Baptism was a public declaration of faith, 
 an act of obedience to Christ. Though haying no 
 saving virtue in itself, it was an evidence of faith. It 
 was also an evidence of decision. It was a casting 
 away of shame, an avowing of Christ before men. It 
 was the outward and visible symbol of an indwelling, 
 soul-subduing, world-conquering faith — the great event 
 of life; and, as such, it is most justly and naturally 
 mentioned in association with the faith which insures 
 salvation. On no other hypothesis can it be explained 
 why baptism should be mentioned in this passage. 
 "We only remark further, that, from the indirect man- 
 ner in which baptism is here referred to, we should 
 naturally infer that the uniform connexion of faith 
 and baptism was, in apostolic times, a well known 
 and well understood doctrine — one on which the 
 apostles did not contemplate the possibility of any 
 mistake arising. 
 
 Now, this phraseology employed by Mark should, 
 of course, have its weight with us in judging of the 
 import of the language employed by Matthew. The 
 words of Mark seem to us to teach, in plain and 
 unequivocal terms, that faith, and nothing less than 
 faith, is to be considered as constituting a suitable 
 qualification for baptism; and we conclude that 
 Matthew's language (independent of the special argu- 
 ments which have been adduced), though verbally 
 different, is to be interpreted on similar principles. 
 
 We find ourselves, then, in every view of this com- 
 mission, whether as expressed by the one evangelist 
 
THE COMMISSION. 61 
 
 or the other, brought to the inevitable conclusion, that 
 the language, " Teach all nations, baptizing," so far 
 from giving any sanction to the indiscriminate admi- 
 nistration of the ordinance of baptism, agrees with 
 the whole mass of Scripture evidence in proving that 
 sanctified knowledge, or saving faith, is the only proper 
 and scriptural qualification for baptism. We find 
 analogy and philology beautifully harmonizing in this 
 conclusion — no discordance, no discrepancy. 
 
62 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 It may, we are aware, be said, that hitherto we 
 have all along been presuming far too much upon the 
 testimony of analogy; that the practice of the apostles, 
 the Abrahamic covenant, and various passages of 
 Scripture, are against us. We now, therefore, shall 
 proceed to inquire into the first of these subjects, 
 taking up the others in turn. We merely premise 
 that, after the conclusions we have already arrived at, 
 we should not expect to find any thing in the Scrip- 
 tures hostile to those great principles of reason and 
 morality which lie at the foundation of both natural 
 and revealed religion ; and are, we conceive, established 
 beyond all dispute by the analogy of the faith. We 
 do not believe there can be any thing in Scripture to 
 overthrow that common-sense view of things we have 
 taken. Fully convinced of the duty of yielding im- 
 plicitly to the plain grammatical sense of Scripture ; 
 admitting that no pre- conceived opinions must be 
 allowed to influence us in any case, where the mean- 
 ing of Scripture is obviously opposed to them, we, 
 nevertheless, are not ashamed to own that we come 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 63 
 
 to the examination of the practice of the apostles, as 
 exemplified in the hook that records their acts and 
 doings, with the honest and conscientious conviction 
 that, in every instance we have on record of apostolic 
 baptism, the ordinance was administered in a manner 
 agreeable to those great principles we have been 
 speaking of; which, as we have said, lie at the foun- 
 dation of all truth and all religion. We believe there 
 are the strongest a priori reasons for expecting that 
 the apostles, in every case, baptized on the supposition 
 that the candidates afforded sufficient evidence of 
 being honest and sincere believers. We have no 
 doubt but that this was the principle upon which they 
 baptized — an opinion, as we shall find, clearly borne 
 out by most of the cases of apostolic baptism men- 
 tioned in the Scriptures, and capable of being justified 
 in other cases which may, at first sight, seem to pre- 
 sent difficulties and objections. 
 
 With these remarks, let us endeavour to ascertain, 
 from the testimony of the Scripture, how the apostles 
 acted in carrying into effect their Lord's commission 
 relative to the ordinance of baptism. We have a 
 notable example, first, in what took place on the day 
 of Pentecost, as recorded in the second chapter of 
 " The Acts of the Apostles." 1 
 
 In this chapter, we have the narrative of the first 
 instance of baptizing by the apostles, after they had 
 received the commission from their Lord. Peter had 
 been preaching a plain and faithful sermon to the 
 Jews who had come to the feast of Pentecost at Jeru- 
 
64> THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 salem. In this sermon he clearly explained the great 
 elementary principles of the Christian religion, and 
 charged home upon the consciences of his audience 
 the guilt of rejecting and crucifying the Messiah. 
 This sermon produced a most powerful effect upon 
 the minds of the people. "They were pricked" 
 (xarsvyyjjcav) — a most expressive word, denoting the 
 poignancy of their feelings; were thus "pricked in 
 their heart, and said unto Peter and 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 re- 
 mission of sins." Now, does it not appear, on reading 
 this statement, that some kind of qualification was con- 
 sidered necessary for the reception of baptism ? First, a 
 plain and pointed sermon is preached, which awakens the 
 minds of the people — strikes conviction into their con- 
 sciences — fills them with the most intense feelings of 
 sorrow — works them up into an agony of distress. 
 Then, to persons in this state of mind and feeling, 
 Peter says, " Repent and be baptized." Conviction, 
 and alarm, and remorse, it would seem, were not 
 accounted by the apostle sufficient qualifications for 
 baptism ; but they must repent. Yes ! they must 
 exercise true evangelical repentance before he could 
 encourage them to be baptized. And this was equi- 
 valent to requiring faith; for repentance flowing from 
 a sense of our guilt, excited by a right view of the 
 character and sufferings of Christ, and the work of 
 man's redemption, must evidently involve the idea of 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 65 
 
 faith. Then, what was the result of this advice given 
 by Peter ? Why, they who gladly received his word 
 were baptized; that is, they who gladly received what 
 he had said concerning the necessity of repenting 
 (implying that they then became the subjects of repent- 
 ance), were baptized, and the same day there Avere 
 added unto the Church about three thousand souls. 
 Three thousand genuine converts were by baptism 
 united on that very day to the Church of Christ ! 
 
 Now, Dr. Halley in his statement of this case, labours 
 hard to prove that the command, " Repent and be 
 baptized," does not imply that the repentance was 
 essential to the baptism : — he is determined to get a 
 divorce, and separate the one from the other. Over 
 and over again does he put the case, as we think, in a 
 very unfair way. Thus he speaks of persons not 
 having repented, being exhorted, without delay, to be 
 baptized. He says: "Persons who were not supposed 
 to have repented, and whose sins, therefore, were not 
 thought to have been pardoned, were exhorted indis- 
 criminately to be baptized." He leaves out one part 
 of the exhortation each time. Peter does not simply 
 exhort the Jews to be baptized, but to repent and be 
 baptized. Just here lies the whole point of debate. 
 We do maintain that the simple and natural meaning 
 of this command is, that repentance was to precede, 
 or, at least, to accompany baptism. There is no 
 arguing on so plain a case. The best and most 
 critical commentators allow that, in the case of adults, 
 it is here implied, that repentance is an essential 
 
66 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 qualification for baptism. Dr. Halley asks, " "Would 
 any Baptist minister at this time exhort a multitude 
 of strangers, in the first moments of alarm, to repent 
 and be baptized every one of them ? " Certainly he 
 would ; but, as times and circumstances are changed, 
 he would not baptize them prematurely; but he would 
 do so directly he had reasonable evidence of repent- 
 ance having taken place. " Would he," says Dr. 
 Halley, " exhort them, in one breath, to repent and 
 be baptized? " Yes; why not? " That is, would he 
 exhort any, being considered at the time as not having 
 repented, to be baptized ?" No; nor did Peter. The 
 apostle did not say to a promiscuous multitude of 
 unconverted, ungodly hearers, Come and be baptized. 
 Nor would any Baptist minister, I may safely take 
 upon myself to say, be ever betrayed into any such 
 egregious absurdity, not even though his audience 
 might all be apparently struck with conviction of sin. 
 To exhort to repent and be baptized, is an immensely 
 different thing from exhorting simply to be baptized. 
 Dr. Halley's argument is, that as Peter's audience were 
 commanded " in one breath," to repent and be bap- 
 tized, therefore, they were baptized without repentance 
 having taken place. Does this follow ? Could they 
 not obey both parts of the command at the same time ? 
 Is there anything that contradicts our theology in such 
 a supposition ? Pricked in their heart, the subjects 
 of bitter remorse on account of their sin, convicted in 
 their consciences, were they not in a most favourable 
 state of mind for being brought to repentance ? We 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLE8. 67 
 
 may, indeed, suppose that they were upon the very 
 point of it, that their minds were just in a transition 
 state, and that all that was needed to cause the tear 
 of true evangelical repentance to flow, was just the 
 word of encouragement that Peter gave them. They 
 were escaping from the terrors of the law, and knew 
 not where to go, or what to do. Just then Peter 
 directed them to the promise of the Gospel. They 
 were agonized with the thought, now brought home 
 to their consciences, of the dreadful nature of their sin. 
 Could they be pardoned ? And Peter says, " Repent 
 and be baptized every one of you, in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins." Oh, 
 what inspiring words ! Now hope takes the place of 
 fear; the tumult of their feelings is hushed into a holy 
 calm ; their hearts are melted within them ; the vehe- 
 ment emotions of anguish give place to the soft and 
 tender feelings of godly sorrow for sin, which the 
 precious promise of pardon has caused spontaneously 
 to flow, and indignation against themselves becomes 
 strangely mingled with love and gratitude to the 
 Redeemer ! Three thousand are effectually wrought 
 upon, and brought to repentance on that same day ! 
 They attend to, they obey the command of Peter : 
 they repent and are baptized. Is there anything 
 incredible in this ? any overstraining of Scripture ? Is 
 it not the most natural view of the narrative, and, to 
 every pious heart, by far the most pleasing? May it 
 not be, that the low and comparatively lifeless state 
 of the Church in these torpid times, incapacitates us 
 
68 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 from imagining or crediting what might have taken 
 place in the first ages of Christianity ? The Church 
 is now, we fear, deficient in faith, and, consequently, 
 has lost much of her power. Though her ministers 
 call upon sinners to repent, they do not look for their 
 repenting. In a healthy and prosperous state oi 
 things, we might expect to witness effects similar to 
 those that were of no uncommon occurrence in the 
 first age of the Church, when Christianity, having 
 come fresh from the hand of its Divine Author, was 
 preached with the earnest and holy eloquence of 
 inspired apostles, the Spirit working mightily with 
 them, and so signally blessing their labours. We 
 shall err greatly, if we estimate the primitive success 
 of the gospel by our present experience and expec- 
 tations. 
 
 As it respects the special events of Pentecost, when 
 our Paedo-baptist friends object, that the three thou- 
 sand who were then baptized could not all have been 
 sincere ; that it is the height of improbability that so 
 large a number should have been savingly converted 
 in so short a space of time; we cannot but remark 
 upon the anomalous position in which they place 
 themselves. For the effect of such an objection is, 
 to impoverish the truths of revelation, to weaken the 
 force of Scripture language, to discredit the power of 
 the Spirit, and to rob of its most distinguishing glory 
 the chief wonder — the most illustrious event of the day 
 of Pen tec ost. W ere not all the occurrences of that won- 
 derful day miraculous ? And was not the great, and, 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 69 
 
 we may say, miraculous, effect of the first apostolic 
 sermon after the ascension of Jesus, though brought 
 about by ordinary means, in harmony with all the 
 rest ? Was not this a glorious manifestation of the 
 Spirit's power? — an earnest of what that Spirit would 
 do in the Church? The whole narrative shows, as 
 plainly as words can show, that the three thousand 
 who were baptized were genuine converts; nor would 
 we, without the clearest evidence, conclude that they 
 were mere professors, and thus blot out of the 
 Word of God one of the brightest passages it con - 
 tains. 
 
 But supposing that all of these three thousand were 
 real converts, that a work of grace had taken place 
 in their hearts; still, Dr. Halley will object, that it 
 was impossible for Peter to know, though they offered 
 themselves for baptism, that they were true believers. 
 For, he says, " There was no waiting for satisfactory 
 evidence ; the presentation of the party for baptism 
 was the only evidence which could have been afforded 
 or required. Evangelical repentance," he says, " is 
 not a thing of which any sinner can assure himself in 
 a few hours — not a thing of which he can furnish 
 satisfactory evidence to others on the same day.'' All 
 this I admit; but then, I ask, what can be more 
 natural than to suppose that, on this remarkable day, 
 in the midst of such supernatural scenes, an inspired 
 apostle should have been supernaturally gifted with 
 an intuitive knowledge of what passed in the hearts 
 of his audience? What difficulty is there in the sup- 
 
70 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 position that Peter knew by inspiration that all those 
 who, under these extraordinary circumstances, offered 
 themselves for baptism, had been effectually wrought 
 upon by the Holy Spirit, and, though so suddenly, 
 were yet truly converted? .On other occasions the 
 apostles might have been left to use their own judg- 
 ments in discerning character; but that they were 
 capable sometimes of reading the heart is certain, as 
 in the instances of Ananias and Sapphira;* and, in all 
 probability, Peter was on this great occasion thus 
 supernaturally gifted. As for Dr. Halley's objecting 
 to giving converts of an hour's standing testimonials 
 of " the assurance of their being already purified and 
 pardoned," I can only say that he makes a theory 
 which we disown. Baptism assures nothing to its 
 subject. It is administered simply on the presumed 
 hope and present belief that the candidate is a true 
 believer. I only remark further, what, indeed, ap- 
 
 * Though, for the special purpose of detecting their hypocrisy, 
 Peter was enabled, on this occasion, to read their hearts, it does 
 not follow that he, or the other apostles, were acquainted with 
 their character by inspiration at the time (whenever it might be) 
 that they received them into the Church. On the contrary, it is 
 evident that, till now, they, by their fair appearances and profes- 
 sions, had deceived the apostles and brethren. They were evi- 
 dently not in their proper place among " the multitude who 
 believed," and who " were of one heart and one soul." Nor can 
 we conceive of a more striking proof that God did not intend his 
 Church to consist of, or be polluted by, such characters, than that 
 awful visitation by which at once their guilt was manifested, and 
 the Church freed from their unlawful intrusion and unhallowed 
 presence. 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 71 
 
 pears to me alone to carry our cause, that the result 
 proved the numbers baptized on this illustrious day 
 to have been worthy subjects of the ordinance — 
 genuine believers; for we read, as the summing up 
 of the whole account, " These all continued in the 
 apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
 bread and in prayers." They continued — the effect 
 was permanent. Thus, then (say what we may), 
 their actual conversion is a fact, and a fact it must 
 ever remain. The sum of all is this : — by the sermon 
 of Peter a very great number were pricked to the 
 heart, and cried out, " Men and brethren, what must 
 we do?" Peter exhorted them to repent and be bap- 
 tized. Three thousand gladly received the word, and 
 were baptized, and added to the Church; nor did 
 these turn out backsliders: they proved themselves 
 to be sincere Christians; for they continued in the 
 apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
 bread, and in prayers. To our minds all this does 
 most distinctly prove, that faith or conversion is to 
 be considered an essential qualification for baptism. 
 
 Our friends may, indeed, remind us that Peter said, 
 " The promise is to you and your children." True; 
 but what promise? Not of baptism, for surely that 
 cannot be numbered amongst the Scripture promises. 
 Something much more worthy of the name of a pro- 
 mise than this, we apprehend, is alluded to. It is 
 quite plain, we think, that the promise which the 
 apostle speaks of, is that of " the remission of sins 
 and the gift of the Holy Ghost;" or perhaps the latter 
 
72 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 blessing only, as Barnes* understands it. Either ex- 
 position settles the question as to the ambiguity of the 
 word " children" proving that it cannot mean infants, 
 but must apply to those who are of an age to be 
 capable of exercising faith, and thus obtaining " the 
 remission of sins;" or otherwise, to such as are capa- 
 ble of being the subjects of the Holy Spirit's influ- 
 ences. The word is evidently to be taken in the 
 sense of posterity, and is to be understood condition- 
 ally. Altogether, there is nothing in this whole 
 account that in the least impairs those great and im- 
 portant principles which, in the first section, we have 
 shown to be established by the whole analogy of our 
 faith. So far from impairing our principles, it builds 
 a buttress to strengthen them. 
 
 Let us now give our attention to the narrative of 
 the preaching of the gospel at Samaria, and the ad- 
 ministration of baptism there by Philip; and see 
 whether, from this account, we can gather anything 
 to illustrate the principle upon which the ordinance 
 was administered. Philip, we learn, came down to 
 Samaria in consequence of the great persecution which 
 had broken out at Jerusalem against the Christian 
 Church. His visit to this place was not a hasty one, 
 not merely for a day or a week, but for a considerable 
 
 * " For the promise ;" " that is, the promise respecting the 
 particular thing of which he was speaking — the influences of the 
 Holy Ghost." — Barnes, in loc. 
 
 In a long note on the preceding verse he shows, that by these 
 are not meant, here, the extraordinary influences of the; Spirit, 
 — See the Note. 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 73 
 
 length of time. Flying from the raging storm of per- 
 secution in Judea, he came to seek a quiet asylum 
 elsewhere ; and so he settled down for a season amongst 
 the Samaritans. While there, he employed himself 
 in preaching Christ, and much success seems to have 
 attended his evangelical labours. These people had 
 formerly been favoured with the instructions of Jesus 
 himself, and we may reasonably suppose that they 
 were, therefore, the better prepared to receive the 
 gospel message from the preaching of Philip. They 
 attended, we find, with one accord to the things which 
 he spoke, and, moreover, they are said to have believed 
 the things concerning the kingdom of God and the 
 name of Jesus; and they were baptized, both men and 
 women. Now, there is no reason to doubt but that 
 those who were thus baptized by Philip were true con- 
 verts and believers. We have not here an account 
 of any sudden excitement. We are not to suppose 
 that these conversions took place in a day. The cir- 
 cumstances, in this case, are different from those of 
 the day of Pentecost. Here was an evangelist sta- 
 tioned among them, and carrying on the good work 
 daily. Instead of multitudes being converted at the 
 same time, we may suppose that the work went on 
 regularly and progressively, but still very prosperously 
 from day to day, and that the Lord, as in the period 
 of time immediately succeeding to the day of Pente- 
 cost, " added to the Church daily such as should be 
 saved." 
 
 Such being the state of the case, it is quite con- 
 
 E 
 
74 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 ceivable that Philip, previously to administering the 
 ordinance of baptism, might have had very good rea- 
 sons for believing that the applicants were suitable 
 characters to be received into the fellowship of the 
 Church. We are not obliged to suppose that they 
 were all baptized instantly and indiscriminately, on 
 their offering themselves for that purpose. However, 
 our cause would suffer nothing even from admitting 
 this; for we believe that the examination of candi- 
 dates, and testing of character, as a rule, was not in 
 apostolic times necessary. 
 
 We must not forget that the early period of the 
 Church was emphatically the dispensation of the 
 Spirit. The day of Pentecost was but the com- 
 mencement of a time of unexampled prosperity, when 
 many thousands of spiritual converts were added to 
 the Church. At that time, we doubt not, the Spirit's 
 presence and influence were felt by the apostles and 
 early disciples. They were, we believe, conscious of 
 an unusual power working with them and amongst 
 them. They felt, they knew, that the work that was 
 going on before their eyes was true and genuine — that 
 it was God's work; and, no doubt, it was " marvel- 
 lous in their eyes." Under these circumstances, it 
 would have been almost like a want of faith in God, 
 to have entertained suspicions as to the reality of the 
 conversion of those who were daily and hourly com- 
 ing forward to avow their faith in the Redeemer. 
 Without resorting to the supposition, that the apostles 
 were inspired to form an immediate and infallible 
 
THE PRACTICE OF TIIE APOSTLES. 75 
 
 judgment of the merits of every case (which they cer- 
 tainly were not), we yet may believe that they were 
 so impressed with the conviction, that the Lord was, 
 in an unusual manner, displaying his power and 
 grace among them, that they would, almost as a 
 matter of course, regard the constant accessions to 
 their numbers, without looking minutely into every 
 individual case, as an evidence of the work of the 
 Lord going on around them. Such, indeed, was the 
 fact; for we never can bring ourselves to believe that 
 those numerous additions to the Church, which we 
 read of as distinguishing the primitive age, were, for 
 the most part, accessions of only nominal professors. 
 There is every reason to believe that they consisted of 
 true believers. We say, then, that the apostles, in 
 such a state of things, instead of looking with cold 
 suspicion upon every instance of profession, would, 
 antecedently to evidence of a contrary kind, natu- 
 rally, and almost necessarily, act upon the presump- 
 tion of its being sincere. They would feel a generous 
 confidence in the motives and character of those who 
 came forward to avow themselves on the Lord's side 
 — a confidence, as had already been proved in thou- 
 sands of instances, not misplaced.. The work was, in 
 a manner, taken out of their hands. God was visibly 
 working among them. They had only to receive those 
 whom he seemed to be bringing to them. Truly, 
 " the hand of the Lord was with them." Thus, they 
 might seem to be baptizing indiscriminately, when, 
 in fact, they were gathering in large harvests of re- 
 
76 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 deemed souls, justified and saved by faith in the Son 
 of God. 
 
 But, in truth, we are doing more than we need do. 
 It is not to he expected that we should explain pre- 
 cisely on what principle the apostles baptized, or that 
 we should tell just in what way Philip the evangelist 
 fulfilled his ministerial duties at Samaria. We are 
 told that the Samaritans believed what Philip preached, 
 and that they were baptized, both men and women. 
 It is not a little remarkable, however, that here no- 
 thing is said about children being baptized. If it 
 were customary to baptize them with their parents, 
 this (as men and women are mentioned) strikes us as 
 a singular omission. The account altogether, of what 
 was done at Samaria, affords pleasing evidence of the 
 ready and joyful reception of the gospel in that city, 
 and leaves no room to doubt that Philip's preaching- 
 was abundantly blessed by the great " Head of the 
 Church," and that those baptized by him were true 
 believers. 
 
 There is, however, one particular and well-known 
 case of baptism, which occurred among the others at 
 Samaria, and which presents a difficulty — the case of 
 a man who, we are told, believed and was baptized 
 by Philip, and afterwards proved an impostor. This 
 case is a very peculiar one, and requires looking into 
 fairly and honestly. I refer, of course, to the baptism 
 of Simon Magus. Who and what was he? He was 
 a magician, and he had been in the habit of practis- 
 in his magical arts among the people, and, by this 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 means, had acquired great influence and ascendency 
 over them. He gave out that he Avas some great one, 
 and to him all the people gave heed. They called 
 him " The great power of God," using the most ex- 
 travagant language to express their admiration of him. 
 This was the man who, after hearing Philip preach, 
 professed his faith in the doctrines of the gospel. 
 Now, it was a very remarkable thing for such a man 
 to avow himself a believer. For such an act implied 
 the laying aside of his deceitful arts, sacrificing every- 
 thing in which he boasted, and in which lay the secret 
 of his influence, and giving up his long undisputed 
 power and authority over the people. Of all persons, 
 we should have expected that Simon Magus would 
 have been most hostile to Philip and his doctrines. 
 The mere fact, therefore, of such a man declaring 
 himself a convert would afford strong prima facie 
 evidence of his being sincere, and would be a reason 
 amply sufficient to justify Philip in baptizing him. 
 It may, perhaps, be said, on the contrary, that the 
 fact of Simon being so ready to profess his belief 
 should have been the very reason for suspecting him. 
 I think otherwise. Knowing, as we now do, the 
 whole history of the case, it is undoubtedly easy 
 enough for us to see through the designs of the sor - 
 cerer. But how could Philip, in the first instance, 
 have had any idea that the man was influenced by 
 self-interest? The whole appearances looked the 
 opposite way. How should Philip be supposed to en- 
 tertain the shrewd suspicion at that time, that Simon 
 
78 THE PRACTICE OP THE APOSTLES. 
 
 had any idea of acquiring the art of working miracles 
 and wielding it for his own purposes — that he had 
 any by-ends in view? No doubt the evangelist 
 thought him sincere, and who can say that he had 
 not apparently quite sufficient ground to entertain 
 such an opinion. 
 
 But, in fact, the baptism of Simon along with the 
 rest, can be easily accounted for on the other view 
 that we have alluded to. I do not suppose that the 
 apostles and evangelists were in the habit of institut- 
 ing any minute or particular inquiry into the motives 
 and character of those applying to them for baptism. 
 In those times of the Spirit's power, when the evi- 
 dences of his gracious work were on every hand such 
 as could not be mistaken, there was no need to do 
 so. Conversions were continually being made on a 
 large scale, and there is every reason to believe, that 
 the multitudes thus professing their faith were spiri- 
 tual people. If not, the Church of Christ must have 
 been something very different from what we have 
 been accustomed to think it. Instead of being en- 
 tirely distinct from the world, it must have had a 
 large number of mere worldly characters mixed up 
 with it. Nay, the majority of the Church might 
 have been, and most probably were, on Dr Halley's 
 hypothesis, unconverted persons. A Church of un- 
 converted characters! — it is a contradiction in terms; 
 and there seems no reason to doubt that those large 
 numbers of believers who, at Pentecost, and within a 
 short time after, were gathered into the Church, were 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 79 
 
 true believers, spiritual converts, born not of water 
 only, but of the Spirit also. The exceptions to this 
 are very rare. I know of none but those of Ananias 
 and Sapphira, and the Samaritan magician of whom 
 we are now speaking. No wonder, then, in the 
 midst of so many genuine believers, that occasionally 
 an unworthy person should be admitted. No won- 
 der, while the same good work was going on so pros- 
 perously at Samaria, that one wicked man amongst 
 all the rest should come in without exciting suspicion, 
 and for a time without detection. 
 
 But it may be said, If the apostles had simply to 
 do what the Lord seemed to point out, if he thus took 
 the work into his hands, how is it that he allowed 
 such characters to be admitted into the Church? 
 We can conceive that such solitary instances may 
 have been permitted to occur for a wise end. Such 
 characters were, of course, when exposed, not allowed 
 to remain in the Church. The judgment of God 
 came down in a most signal manner upon Ananias 
 and Sapphira; and as for Simon, w r e cannot for a 
 moment suppose that the disciples would associate in 
 fellowship with him, or regard him as one of their 
 number, after his character became known, and he 
 was pronounced to be in the gall of bitterness and 
 the bond of iniquity. Therefore, we think that these 
 ".ases might have been permitted to occur with the 
 design of exhibiting, in a striking manner, that God 
 wmld not allow such persons to remain in the 
 Clurch, even if they gained an entrance within its 
 
80 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES, 
 
 hallowed enclosure; but that, on detection, they 
 should he immediately cut off. The remarks of Dr 
 Doddridge upon this matter are very much to the 
 purpose. He says, in his " Improvement" on this 
 portion of Scripture, " It may have been intended 
 to teach us that there may be speculative faith where 
 there is no true piety; and," he adds, " if such per- 
 sons, on the profession of that faith, where nothing 
 appears contrary to it, be admitted to those ordi- 
 nances by which Christians are distinguished from the 
 rest of mankind, it is an evil in the present state of 
 things unavoidable, and the conduct of Christian 
 ministers and societies in admitting such, will be less 
 displeasing to God than a rigorous severity." That 
 Simon, moreover, was baptized on the presumption 
 of his being a true believer, is, we think, apparent 
 from the narrative. Even Peter, inspired as he was, 
 did not suspect him till he had offered money, saying, 
 " Give me this power, that on whomsoever I lay 
 hands he may receive the Holy Ghost." Not till 
 then was he suspected of hypocrisy either by Thilip 
 the deacon, or Peter the apostle. But this at once 
 exposed him, and then Peter said, "Because thou 
 hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased 
 with money, thou hast neither part nor lot in the 
 matter; for thy heart is not right in the sight of God, 
 for I perceive that thou art in th^ 1 gall of bitterness 
 and the bond of iniquity ; " that is, I now, from this 
 thought of thy heart, perceive this. But, previously, 
 this had not been perceived nor imagined, and lad 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 81 
 
 it been, we take the liberty to believe that Simon 
 Magus would never have been baptized. There is 
 nothing, then, in this case, formidable as it may ap- 
 pear at first sight, that is in any way prejudicial to 
 our theory. 
 
 Our Pasdo-baptist friends may, perhaps, say that 
 all our reasoning upon this difficult case has been 
 merely hypothetical, and that it is impossible for us 
 to prove that Philip baptized Simon on the presump- 
 tion of his being a believer. To this objection we 
 need only say, that if we cannot absolutely prove our 
 view of the matter, most assuredly Psedo -baptists 
 cannot prove the contrary. In these uncertain cases, 
 therefore, all we can do is to fall back upon first 
 principles. The views which our friends take of this 
 case contradict those principles, while the view which 
 we have proposed is entirely in harmony with them. 
 Let it be granted that we cannot produce mathema- 
 tical demonstration — we can propose a solution of the 
 difficulty, attended with the highest degree of pro- 
 bability; and being the only view that analogy sanc- 
 tions, it seems to us a moral certainty that it is the 
 only defensible, the only true one; and there we rest 
 our cause. 
 
 And now, we cannot but remark upon this case of 
 Simon Magus, that if it were possible for inspired 
 apostles to be deceived as to the character of candi- 
 dates for baptism, it surely can be no matter of sur- 
 prise that uninspired men in the present clay, who act 
 upon the principle of administering the ordinance of 
 
82 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 baptism only to believers, should sometimes find 
 themselves to have formed mistaken judgments, and 
 to have baptized unworthy subjects. This is no more 
 than what would naturally be expected, no more than 
 what must sometimes, in the present imperfect state of 
 things, almost inevitably occur. Moreover, times and 
 circumstances being changed, the principle of form- 
 ing a judgment of the character and suitability of 
 candidates must likewise be changed. In apostolic 
 times, as I think has been shown, there was in most 
 cases but little need to hesitate about baptizing 
 any who offered themselves. In the first flourishing 
 age of the Church, the possibility of hypocrisy was 
 scarcely thought of; and, subsequently, when violent 
 persecution arose against the disciples, the mere pro- 
 fession of Christianity would, on that ground, be 
 justly considered a sufficient guarantee for sincerity. 
 But now, things are different. We have, alas ! too 
 little evidence of the Spirit's presence with us, — no 
 Pentecostal or post-Pentecostal effusions of his divine 
 influences, nor does it cost anything now to make a 
 profession of religion; it is rather accounted respect- 
 able and creditable to do so. Time, therefore, must 
 now be allowed to test character. A hasty and in- 
 considerate administration of the ordinance of baptism 
 can by no means be justified. Every reasonable 
 means must be used, which the spiritual wisdom of 
 the Church can employ, to satisfy itself of the genuine- 
 ness and sincerity of those who seek admission into its 
 holy communion by baptism. Still, using all Christian 
 
THE PHACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 83 
 
 and prudential means, it may sometimes happen that 
 unbelievers, by a wrong application of the ordinance 
 of baptism, may be admitted to the Church. 
 
 Now, Dr Halley endeavours to fasten an inconsis- 
 tency upon us, as admitting baptism performed under 
 such circumstances to be valid, the baptized party not 
 being a believer. "We cannot but think that the 
 Doctor here treats us ungenerously; for, whatever 
 may be the opinions and practices of Baptists in 
 special and difficult cases, he knows that the principle 
 upon which they act remains unchanged. But what 
 is meant by baptism being considered valid, though 
 administered to an unbeliever? Does Dr Halley 
 suppose, that in a case in which a baptized individual 
 turns out a hypocrite, and remains ever after a mani- 
 fest unbeliever, baptism would be considered valid as 
 administered to such a character ? This were mani- 
 festly absurd. In such an instance, the ordinance 
 would be plainly prostituted, the sin lying at the door 
 of the baptized unbeliever; that is, supposing all pro- 
 per care and prudence had been previously used by 
 the minister and officers of the Church. But if we 
 confine the validity to those cases in which the indi- 
 vidual baptized, relapsing subsequently into sin and 
 going back into the world for a time, becomes at 
 length reclaimed, and returns with penitence and deep 
 humiliation to Jesus, seeking re-admission to the pri- 
 vileges of Church communion, there may not be so 
 much, or, indeed, any inconsistency in viewing the 
 original administration as valid. In instances of this 
 
84 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 kind, there would be good reason for believing that 
 the individual was really sincere at the time of being 
 baptized, though left afterwards to fall away. Charity 
 at least, would require us to form such a judgment. 
 In any view, we do not see that we are fairly open 
 to the charge of inconsistency. We act upon a defi- 
 nite principle, which we consider plainly laid down in 
 the Word of God; but if that Word is silent about 
 particular cases that may possibly occur, if it has 
 given us no rule for our direction respecting such 
 cases, then we must use the best judgment we possess 
 in dealing with them. At all events, me must not 
 give up the rule because we cannot always carry it 
 out infallibly. We must not make a stumbling-block 
 of an occasional difficulty. 
 
 The baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch next claims 
 our consideration. Here, as in other cases, Pa3do- 
 baptists contend that we have no evidence that bap- 
 tism was administered on the principle of saving 
 faith being a pre-requisite — that there is nothing in 
 the circumstances to warrant the supposition that 
 this Ethiopian was converted in heart. Dr Halley ar- 
 gues that he had but very little knowledge, being quite 
 unacquainted with the prophecy that he was reading, 
 and that, notwithstanding this, Philip unhesitatingly 
 baptized him on his first acquaintance, and after a 
 very short interview. " We ascertain from the narra- 
 tive," says the Doctor, " that a stranger, utterly ignor- 
 ant of the gospel, was baptized after a few hours' in- 
 struction — a fact explicable only upon the theory that 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 85 
 
 baptism was readily administered to all who desired 
 it." * Now we admit that the treasurer's mind was 
 in great uncertainty and ignorance concerning the 
 prophecies when Philip joined him; and that very 
 soon after this, and also on a very short acquaintance, 
 Philip baptized him. (We can do no other than 
 admit facts.) Still, we think there is good and rea- 
 sonable evidence that, in so short a space of time, he 
 became a true believer, and was in that character 
 baptized, and that Philip, in baptizing him, regarded 
 him as a believer. We give up the disputed passage. 
 (Acts viii. 37.) This, if genuine, would, of course, 
 settle the question at once; but, setting that aside as 
 spurious, it appears to us, from the statement of the 
 case itself, that there is, to say the least, the highest 
 probability of the Ethiopian treasurer having become 
 a convert and a believer previous to his baptism. 
 Extraordinary instances of conversion, as we have 
 already seen, and as will be seen again when we come 
 to speak of Saul of Tarsus, were by no means un- 
 common in those days; and it is very evident that 
 there was a special interposition of the Divine Being 
 in this particular instance. A celestial visitant came 
 to Philip, and instructed him to go to the very place 
 where this Ethiopian was travelling ; and then, again, 
 by some supernatural intimation, some inward and 
 spiritual impulse, the divine prompting of which he 
 could not misunderstand, he was directed to go and 
 actually join himself to the chariot in which the 
 * The Sacraments, p. 518. 
 
86 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 Ethiopian was riding. It would seem as though the 
 Spirit of God had some special design in all this, and 
 it were indeed very strange if that design should 
 be nothing more than merely to make a proselyte. 
 Can we conceive that such an object as this would be 
 worthy of the mission of an angel and of the inter- 
 vention of the Spirit of God ? At least, is it not far, 
 very far more reasonable, to suppose that a nobler 
 object was contemplated? Would not the very cir- 
 cumstances of the case naturally lead us to think 
 that it was the intention of the Spirit of God to con- 
 vert this Ethiopian, and make him a chosen vessel to 
 carry the blessed gospel to that distant land whither he 
 was returning, and use him as an instrument of great 
 good in his own country ? Oh, yes ! and, as it was the 
 Spirit that sent Philip to this man of Ethiopia, we 
 doubt not that there was a work of the Spirit going 
 on in his heart at that very time. It is also not a little 
 remarkable that he should have been reading the 
 Scriptures as he journeyed, evidencing an inquir- 
 ing mind, and, it would seem, a prepared state of 
 heart for receiving instruction. Then we read that 
 Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same 
 scripture which he was reading, and preached unto 
 him Jesus. His heart seems to have been prepared 
 to receive the truth of the gospel; and, as Philip 
 preached Christ to him, his mind opened and em- 
 braced the saving truth, and there appears to be not 
 the shadow of a doubt but that the Spirit applied 
 that truth at that precise time to his heart; nor 
 
THE PRACTICE OP THE APOSTLES. 87 
 
 can we conceive, on a view of the whole account, 
 of any reason for holding a contrary opinion. 
 We stand in no need of the disputed text. We can 
 do very well without it. Whether it be genuine 
 Scripture or not, we doubt not it contains a true 
 Scripture sentiment. The way in which the case is 
 introduced, and the whole aspect that it presents, 
 convinces us that Candace's treasurer became, under 
 the divine influence of the Holy Spirit, a true believer, 
 and was baptized as such. The conclusion of the 
 account, moreover, favours the same opinion, in which 
 we are informed that the Spirit caught away Philip 
 (the whole bears the stamp of something special and 
 supernatural), and that the eunuch saw him no more. 
 It is added, " And he went on his way rejoicing." 
 Rejoicing ! For what ? merely because he had gained 
 some new views concerning the prophecies? If 
 this were all, would the case have been worth 
 relating? He rejoiced because he felt the power of 
 the gospel, and experienced its blessedness in his 
 own heart. He rejoiced as a believer. 
 
 We must now direct our attention to the baptism 
 of Saul of Tarsus. The Scripture narrative of this 
 case, in those parts which are of the most material 
 importance, appears to us, like the others we have 
 examined, to be very simple and intelligible, and 
 quite to favour our cause. The supernatural appear- 
 ance of the Lord to Saul on the road to Damascus — 
 his being struck to the ground with awe — hearing 
 the voice saying to him, " Saul, Saul, why perse- 
 
88 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 cutest thou me?" — his ready subniissiveness and hu- 
 mility, as manifested in his inquiry, " Who art thou, 
 Lord? what wilt thou have me to do?" — the fact of 
 his being arrested in the execution of his commission 
 against the disciples of Jesus, and abandoning his 
 bloody designs— the change which took place in him 
 from that very time — his becoming a praying man; — 
 all these circumstances we have been accustomed to 
 regard as affording undoubted evidence of the con- 
 version of Saul of Tarsus. In fact, we have hitherto 
 always considered that Paul was miraculously, but 
 truly, converted on the way to Damascus, and that 
 the fact of his becoming a praying man, in particular, 
 afforded unquestionable evidence of the genuineness 
 of his conversion. And will Dr Halley, notwith- 
 standing all this, seriously deny the reality of Paul's 
 having been converted previous to his baptism? Can 
 he account for this fiery zealot being changed all at 
 once into a praying man on any other principle than 
 that of some great and marvellous change having 
 taken place in him ? To us, it seems that all contro- 
 versy is, or ought to be, precluded by the indisputable 
 significancy of the circumstances related. It may, 
 indeed, be true that there is some obscurity and diffi- 
 culty connected with the phrase, " Wash away thy 
 sins;" but this cannot alter the facts of the case. We 
 must interpret the doubtful by the plain and the cer- 
 tain, or at least not in such a way as to contradict 
 that which is clear and unambiguous. Will Dr 
 Halley say this is begging the question ? Well, per • 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 89 
 
 haps it is, for we certainly have no right to doubt but 
 that all the circumstances of this narrative seem plain 
 and consistent to Dr Halley, in his view of it. To 
 cast imputations of dishonesty against an opponent, 
 has been the too common way of controversial pugil- 
 ism; and the consequence is, that piety has suffered 
 infinitely more than truth has gained. Let us hope 
 that the days of unchristian disputation and uncharit- 
 able insinuation are gone by, only to be remembered 
 with soitow. We will not breathe a suspicion of Dr 
 Halley's honesty and conscientiousness. We give him 
 full credit for integrity, and can only say, that it is 
 impossible for us to see the matter as he does. All 
 that is related seems perfectly plain to us ; and, as in 
 viewing the whole matter, there seems no room for a 
 misunderstanding, we argue that the only phrase 
 around which any little obscurity seems to hang, must 
 be brought into the clear day-light of the context for 
 illustration. Dr Halley scarcely notices those cir- 
 cumstances which appear to us to decide the question, 
 while we regret to find him mystifying what we think 
 a plain statement, by dwelling almost exclusively upon 
 one doubtful sentence. 
 
 Now, though we do not consider that the onus 
 prohancli lies upon us, we have no objection to give 
 our opinion of the meaning of this disputed language. 
 Dr Halley considers that it signifies the forgiveness 
 of sin, or rather the obtaining of the forgiveness of 
 sin; and he argues that, as Ananias commands Paul 
 
90 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 to be baptized, and wash away bis sins, be hadnot 
 obtained forgiveness previous to bis baptism. (P. 520.) 
 Now, let us adopt Dr Halley's interpretation. We 
 have no objection to abide by it. We tbink it may be 
 tbe right one. To wash away one's sins signifies to ob- 
 tain the forgiveness of sins. What then? Why, the 
 command, " Be baptized, and wash away thy sins," 
 implies, at least, that obtaining forgiveness must be 
 understood as in some way associated with baptism. 
 But how can any one wash away his own sins ? how 
 can a sinner obtain the forgiveness of sin ? Surely 
 there is but one way, and that is conditionally — by 
 faith. As, therefore, obtaining forgiveness is, by the 
 very form of language employed, associated with bap- 
 tism, so also must that faith, without which forgive- 
 ness cannot be obtained, be understood to be associated 
 with baptism. Dr Halley gains nothing by his ar- 
 gument, unless he can prove that Paul did not obtain 
 forgiveness till after he was baptized. This, we ven- 
 ture to say, he can never do; for surely the Doctor 
 himself will admit, that the very form of the exhor- 
 tation implies, that the baptizing and the washing 
 away of sin were to be contemporaneous. Without, 
 therefore, disputing whether faith existed before bap- 
 tism, it is enough for us to know that it existed at 
 the time of baptism, and, consequently, that Paul 
 was baptized as a believer. 
 
 The following explanations may set this matter in 
 a still clearer light. Paul, we consider, was really 
 converted in heart, by a special act of divine grace, 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 91 
 
 when the Lord met him on his journey to Damascus. 
 But he had not, at that time, a clear view of the way 
 of forgiveness through Christ. God, who knew his 
 heart, may, perhaps, he considered to have forgiven 
 him, though he himself might not yet have ohtained 
 a sense of that forgiveness. Whether pardon may, 
 in any special and peculiar cases, be considered as 
 being granted before evangelical faith has been exer- 
 cised, is a point of casuistry which Ave need not enter 
 upon here. But, be that how it may, assuredly no 
 sense of forgiveness can be experienced by the sinner 
 himself until he views the Saviour believingly, and 
 sees the way of mercy through him. Now, we con- 
 sider that the mind of Paul was in a prepared state to 
 receive the good news of pardon and salvation, so 
 soon as it should be made known. He only wanted 
 to have Christ revealed, as able to save " the chief 
 of sinners," in order to his immediately embracing 
 him. He waited only for the word of encourage- 
 ment and hope to enkindle his faith, and lead him to 
 trust in the Saviour. Under these circumstances, faith 
 would take place immediately upon the word of promise 
 being given. Just so it was, we can very well suppose. 
 Paul was directed to go to Damascus, where it should 
 be told him what he was to do — the very thing he 
 wanted to know. He goes into the city; and, by 
 divine direction, Ananias comes to the house where 
 he was lodging. He says to Paul, after having first 
 restored his sight, " The God of our fathers hath 
 chosen thee that thou shouldest know his will, and 
 
92 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his 
 mouth ; for thou shalt be a witness unto all men of 
 what thou hast seen and heard." Then immediately 
 he inquires, " Why tarriest thou?" Why dost thou 
 not at once own thyself a convert — a disciple? As 
 though he had said, I am aware of the change that 
 has taken place in thee — that thou seest the error of 
 thy past course, that thou art now a convinced sinner : 
 arise, therefore, at once, and be baptized, and wash 
 away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord, for 
 no delay is needed. The very exhortation, " Wash 
 away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord," 
 would come, we may suppose, as a sweet word of 
 promise to the soul of the new but yet doubting 
 convert. It was just what, in his state of mind, 
 humbled, subdued, and bowed down with a sense of 
 sin, he needed. Yes, here was an implied promise of 
 mercy; the first ray of hope let into his dark and 
 troubled mind since the solemn and astounding scenes 
 he had Avitnessed but a short time before. His sins 
 might be washed away — they might be forgiven by his 
 calling upon the name of the Lord, and, as is im- 
 plied, trusting in him. Now, if not before, a believ- 
 ing view of Jesus as a Saviour darts into his soul, and 
 he obtains forgiveness, and the happy realization of 
 this invaluable blessing, bringing peace to his soul. 
 He obeys the command without a moment's hesita- 
 tion. He is baptized as a believer, and washes away 
 his sins. I only remark further, that if Paul were 
 not a believer at the time of his baptism, he was so, 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 93 
 
 unquestionably, immediately after; for we read that 
 straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues — 
 that he is the Son of God. (Acts ix. 20.) Taking 
 this into consideration, along with all the other cir- 
 cumstances of the case, it does seem like a mere refin- 
 ing upon Scripture, to deny that Paul was a belieyer 
 when he was baptized. 
 
 It will be understood that we do not rest our cause 
 upon this interpretation of the " washing away of 
 sin." Whatever this doubtful clause may mean, and 
 independent of it altogether, we firmly hold to the 
 opinion, that Paul was a converted man before his 
 baptism ; and, after all, we are by no means sure he 
 was not a believer before the hour in which he was 
 baptized. The very manner in which Ananias first 
 addressed him, seems almost as if he took it for 
 granted that he was such, and had already embraced 
 the Saviour : " The God of our fathers hath chosen 
 thee;" would he have said this if he had not been 
 convinced that Paul was already an evangelical con- 
 vert ? Moreover, he does not exhort him, as in other 
 cases was usual, to repent or to believe; and why 
 should he not have done this, unless he were aware, 
 by divine intimation, that he had repented, and did 
 believe already. If we view the matter in this light, 
 we must then understand the command, " "Wash away 
 thy sins," as Dr Carson and others have done, in an 
 emblematical sense; and we are free to confess that 
 we see nothing unreasonable in so taking it. We do 
 not see anything absurd even in Dr Halley's own 
 
94 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 way of representing this theory, though, he says, to 
 state it appears to him to confute it : " Be baptized, 
 and perform a figurative representation of the wash- 
 ing away of sin." We hold that baptism is a figura- 
 tive representation of washing away of sin, and that 
 every believer, voluntarily acceding to baptism, does, 
 in point of fact, perform this figurative representation. 
 If so, could there be any thing unreasonable in ex- 
 horting to perform it ? But Dr Halley says, " The 
 exhortation is, according to this comment, merely an 
 expletive, as it is included in the previous command, 
 " Be baptized." We do not view it so. It is rather a 
 specifying of the particular thing signified by baptism. 
 Paul might not have understood this, or, his case being 
 a very peculiar one — feeling himself, as he tells us he 
 did, to be " the chief of sinners" — faith being yet weak, 
 he might have needed, for further encouragement and 
 comfort, to have his mind specially directed to the 
 symbolical signification of baptism. Just as the bread 
 and the wine in the Lord's supper are designed, through 
 our senses, to bring to our remembrance the body and 
 blood of Christ, and his atonement for sin ; so the 
 water in baptism is designed, sacramentally, to fix 
 our thoughts upon the blessed truth of the spiri- 
 tual washing away of sin. We view the second 
 clause of this exhortation, not as an expletive, but 
 rather as an exposition of the first. Be baptized, and 
 thus, in figure, wash away tby sins; remember for 
 thy encouragement, in the very act of being bap- 
 tized, the sacramental meaning of the ordinance, 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 95 
 
 viz., that as water cleanses and purifies the body, 
 so the Holy Spirit, through faith, cleanses from all 
 sin. 
 
 Having given these two views of the only doubtful 
 sentence in the whole narrative, we now leave our 
 readers to choose between them, or adopt any other, 
 if they please. Whatever be the particular way or 
 explaining this phrase (which, after all, does not ap- 
 pear to present much difficulty) we never can persuade 
 ourselves that Paul was not a true convert and a 
 true believer at the time of his baptism, and that this 
 glorious fact was not by some means satisfactorily 
 known by his baptizer. 
 
 Dr Halley makes short work of Cornelius, and his 
 family and friends. In replying to him, we will imitate 
 his brevity, and be as concise as possible. We see much 
 the same characteristics in this as in all the other ex- 
 amples we have noticed. Cornelius was a devout* man, 
 and onethatt feared God with all his house, gave much 
 
 * " A devout man." — " Pious, or one who maintained the wor- 
 ship of God." (Barnes in loco.) This is further explained in his 
 note on Acts ii. 5, where we have the following observations : — 
 " Devout men," («y^s; zvXtzfitTs.) — " Literally, men of cautious 
 and circumspect lives, who lived in a prudent manner. The term 
 is applied to men who were cautious about offending God — who 
 were careful to observe his commandments. It hence is a general 
 expression to denote pious or religious men. Luke ii. 25 : " And 
 the same man (Simeon) was just and devout." Acts viii. 2 : " And 
 devout men carried Stephen to his burial," &c. 
 
 f " Feared God."—" This is often a designation of piety. In 
 Acts ix. 31, we read the Churches had rest, and were edified and 
 walked in the fear of the Lord." (See Barnes in loco.) 
 
96 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 alms to the people, and prayed to God alwaye. His 
 prayers and his alms, moreover, were acceptable to God ; 
 for they came up as a memorial before Him. The testi- 
 mony of the two servants (a part of the house that 
 feared God) and of the devout soldier, who were sent 
 for Peter, when they found him, was, that Cornelius 
 was " a just man, one that feared God, and of good 
 report among all the nation of the Jews." Cornelius 
 himself, after making his statement to Peter concern- 
 ing the appearance of the angel to him, and of his 
 immediately sending for Peter, adds, "And thou hast 
 well done that thou art come. Now, therefore, we 
 are all here present before God, to hear all things that 
 are commanded thee of God. Then Peter (we are 
 told) opened his mouth and said, Of a truth, I see 
 that God is no respecter of persons : but in every na- 
 tion he that f ear eth him and tcorketh righteousness, is 
 accepted with him." Now all this quite satisfies our 
 minds as to the character of Cornelius and his family. 
 But notice the last sentiment in particular : " In 
 every nation he that feareth God and worketh righte- 
 ousness is accepted with him." This must denote ac- 
 ceptance in some special sense; for otherwise, as all 
 the Gentiles, without exception, were to be admitted 
 to the common blessings of the gospel, why should 
 marks of character be mentioned as the ground of ac- 
 ceptance ? It will not be disputed that this sentiment, 
 though expressed in a general form, has a particular 
 reference to Cornelius and his family, and kinsmen 
 and friends; that it implies that they were persons who 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 97 
 
 feared God, wrought righteousness, and were accepted 
 of him. These persons, then, were accepted of God, 
 not as all the Gentiles were, but as pious, converted, 
 God-fearing characters. Nor is it too much to say 
 that they were Christians and believers ; for Peter, 
 addressing them, says, " The word which God sent 
 unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus 
 Christ — that word, I say, ye know!' By some means 
 they had already become acquainted with the gospel 
 of Jesus Christ. All they wanted was to be certified 
 of their title to its privileges. We remark, further, 
 that this was another very special instance of divine 
 interposition. The visions preceding it, the appear- 
 ance of the angel, the Spirit signifying to Peter that 
 three men were seeking him — all betoken something 
 more than ordinary. This was the first authorized 
 recognition of the Gentiles. And do not the circum- 
 stances seem altogether to favour the belief, that as 
 the numbers converted on the day of Pentecost were 
 the first-fruits of the Jews, then first avowedly ad- 
 mitted into the Christian Church, so, on this occasion, 
 Cornelius and his family, and kinsmen and near 
 friends, were, through the special work of the Spirit 
 in their hearts, the first-fruits of the Gentiles, gathered 
 into the same Church, where the distinction between 
 Jew and Gentile was henceforth to be unknown ? It 
 will be said, this is mere speculation. To us, how- 
 ever, it appears a very probable view of the case, and 
 it saves our principles, being consistent with all truth 
 and according with the analogy of the faith. There, 
 
98 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 fore, we have no hesitation in adopting it as our view 
 of the matter. 
 
 In reference to the Holy Ghost having fallen upon 
 them, Dr Halley argues, that this was not designed 
 to qualify them for baptism, as the Jews were bap- 
 tized on the day of Pentecost previous to the de- 
 scent of the Holy Ghost. We do not. indeed, 
 say that it was designed to qualify them for bap- 
 tism; but we do say that the bestowment of such 
 an illustrious gift tended to make their qualifica- 
 tion so much the more apparent. Baptism was 
 a Christian ordinance. It had been a matter of 
 doubt with the Jews whether Gentiles were to parti- 
 cipate in Christian privileges. The state of the heart, 
 though they might be converts to the Christian faith, 
 and even believers, might not remove the scruples 
 that were entertained. But the visible outpouring of 
 the Spirit upon them in his extraordinary influences, 
 might well be supposed to silence every objection. 
 Therefore, in this first admission of the Gentiles to 
 the Christian Church, Peter naturally makes his ap- 
 peal to this manifest work of God. It may have 
 been taken for granted, that in other respects these 
 devout Gen tiles were qualified for baptism, and now 
 God openly, as it were, declared his approbation of 
 them. Could any of the brethren from Joppa, who 
 had accompanied Peter, and were present on this 
 occasion, doubt of the Gentiles being admitted to 
 equal privileges with the Jews in the Christian Church, 
 after this signal evidence of God's approval? " Can 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 99 
 
 any forbid water," says Peter, " that these" — these 
 pious, God-fearing Gentiles — " should not be bap- 
 tized, who have received the Holy Ghost, as well as 
 we?" "And he commanded them to be baptized 
 in the name of the Lord;" not because they had 
 received the Holy Ghost, but because they were, in 
 other respects, fully qualified for the ordinance. 
 And, moreover, though the endowments of the 
 Holy Ghost did not in themselves qualify for bap- 
 tism, yet, by evidencing character, they proved them 
 to be suitable subjects; for in all the instances that 
 are related concerning the bestowment of spiritual 
 gifts, we find they were conferred only upon the 
 Church. There is not the least evidence of their 
 having ever been bestowed upon ungodly and un- 
 converted persons. On the day of Pentecost, it was 
 the apostles who possessed these gifts. In the ac- 
 count we have of them, in 2 Cor xii., they were evi- 
 dently confined to the Church, though the manifesta- 
 tion of them was mingled with much infirmity of 
 those possessing them. Our Lord, prophesying con- 
 cerning these things, says, " These signs shall follow 
 them that believe, They shall speak with new tongues." 
 Now all this is most conclusive as to the character of 
 these Gentiles. The very fact of the Holy Ghost 
 falling upon them all, proves that they were good 
 men. We do not pretend to say that this qualified 
 them for baptism; but we do say that it proved 
 they were already qualified — proved that they be- 
 longed to that class of people upon whom alone 
 
100 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 spiritual gifts were bestowed — proved that they were 
 believers. 
 
 The baptism of Lydia and the Philippian jailer, 
 with their families, next requires a few words of ex- 
 planation. In regard to the character of Lydia her- 
 self, one would think there can be no mistake; for 
 we are told that she worshipped God. And what 
 language could be more significant than what follows? 
 " Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended 
 unto the things that were spoken by Paul." Indeed, 
 though Dr Halley talks, as usual, of Lydia being 
 baptized by the river side before she returned to her 
 house, having then, for the first time in her life, heard 
 the gospel, yet he himself afterwards admits that she 
 was a believer; that is, he admits that an individual 
 on hearing the word for the first time in her life, be- 
 came a believer. We here, then, have Dr Halley 
 agreeing with us, that Lydia was baptized as a be- 
 liever. But what shall we say concerning her house- 
 hold? " Of her family," says Dr Halley, " we know 
 nothing." We certainly know nothing of them, ex- 
 cept indirectly, from being told that they were bap- 
 tized with her. But, as in all other cases we have 
 found good evidence that those who were baptized 
 were believers, we naturally surmise, in the absence 
 of evidence to the contrary, that the family of Lydia 
 were believers. Moreover, as there is nothing in 
 the narrative to forbid the supposition of their being 
 believers, and as this is the only view of the case 
 that is allowed us by analogy, which happily sheds its 
 not uncertain light upon all such little obscurities and 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 101 
 
 mysteries as these, we conclude without hesitation that 
 the household of Lydia, as well as its head, had "been 
 led to embrace the faith of the gospel. We, therefore, 
 do not need the reflected light afforded by the allusion 
 made to the brethren who were found in the house of 
 Lydia, and Avhom Paul and Silas comforted previously 
 to their departure. Amongst these, however, we 
 believe were included Lydia's sons or servants, who, 
 we doubt not, as they were baptized with her, believed 
 also as she did. 
 
 The account of the baptism of the jailer and his 
 family perfectly agrees with all the rest. The earth- 
 quake, and the circumstances arising out of it, were 
 the means of awakening the mind of the jailer. He 
 is about to kill himself, when Paul calls out, " Do 
 thyself no harm, for we are all here." The calm com- 
 posure of Paul under these appalling circumstances, 
 and the fact of his taking no advantage of the oppor- 
 tunity to escape, seems instantly to have made a deep 
 impression upon the mind of this man. He was 
 struck, we may suppose, with the consciousness of 
 divine interposition; he felt that God was in this, 
 and a conviction of sin was thus brought home to 
 his own conscience. He brings these servants of the 
 most high God out of the prison, and says, " Sirs, 
 what must I do to be saved? " This must have been 
 a cry of anxious concern about his soul, for the per- 
 sonal danger was past. They reply, accordingly, 
 " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
 e saved, and thy house." Then we find them 
 
102 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 preaching the word of the Lord unto him, and to all 
 that were in his house ; and then we are told that he 
 is baptized, he and all his, straightway, and that he 
 and his house all helieve and rejoice together. Dr 
 Halley manages very cleverly to give a different 
 colouring to this plain story, by saying, "As to the 
 jailer, we do not know that he was a believer when 
 he was baptized. He was not a believer a short 
 time before — he was a believer a short time after- 
 wards; but whether his baptism preceded his belief, 
 or his belief his baptism, we do not know. All I 
 know is, that his baptism with his household is men- 
 tioned first, and his believing with his house is 
 reported afterwards in the sacred narrative." Now, 
 leaving the narrative to speak for itself, we remark, 
 that the whole of these occurrences did not occupy 
 more than an hour or two. And if the jailer and 
 his family believed within an hour (probably less) 
 after their baptism, it is a most peculiar refining of the 
 matter to argue (a thing which Dr Halley is too 
 cautious to do openly) that they did not believe at 
 the time of their baptism. We, for our part, are quite 
 satisfied with bringing faith and baptism into so near 
 juxtaposition as this. In arguing upon the language 
 of Peter on the day of Pentecost, Dr Halley's 
 object is to show that the command, " Repent and be 
 baptized," could not have been given on the supposi- 
 tion of repentance then taking place; and yet here he 
 allows that both Lydia and the jailer were believers 
 within an hour of their baptism, although they did 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 103 
 
 not know so much of the gospel as the Jews who 
 were converted by the preaching of Peter. They were 
 now only hearing it for the first time in their lives. 
 However, let that pass, which is beside our present 
 argument. As the jailer and his family had the 
 gospel preached to them, and were baptized and be- 
 lieved, and all in a very short space of time — a small 
 part of the night — we think we are not presuming, or 
 taking too much for granted, in satisfying ourselves 
 that his family, when baptized, was a believing family. 
 Respecting the baptism of households, as it bears 
 upon the case of infants, we must say a few words. 
 It is usual to argue that surely there must have been 
 children, and it may be infants, in some of these fami- 
 lies ; and, as it is said the families were baptized, the 
 infants would, as a matter of course, be included. 
 Now, we need only follow Dr Carson in answering 
 this argument. We are willing to allow that there 
 might have been children in all the families mentioned 
 in Scripture as having been baptized. Does it then 
 follow that these children were baptized with the 
 others ? We will appeal to an authority which we 
 know will be respected by our Paedo-baptist friends, to 
 explain this difficulty. Dr Wardlaw, in referring to 
 the Scripture statements respecting households, viz., 
 " That the apostles spoke the Word of God to all that 
 were in the house," uses these words: " Such general 
 expressions are perfectly common both in conversation 
 and in writing. When we ascribe to a family any- 
 thing of which infants are universally understood to 
 
104 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 be incapable, we never think of making a formal ex- 
 ception of them." * This is a two-edged sword — 
 verily it cuts both ways. It suits our purpose quite 
 as well as Dr AVardlaw's. The whole analogy of 
 Scripture truth shows that faith is essential for bap- 
 tism. It is proved, directly, by the commission, and 
 it is confirmed by the practice of the apostles — it is 
 proved, infer entially, from the fact to come before us 
 in the next chapter — that the only persons now recog- 
 nised as in covenant with God are the believing 
 children of Abraham. Infants, being incapable of 
 faith, are therefore incapable of receiving baptism. 
 Granting, then, that there were children in the bap- 
 tized households, no formal exception of them was 
 necessary when it was said such and such houses 
 were baptized. As children could not believe, it 
 would be understood, as a matter of course, that they 
 were excepted, and not baptized. However, infant 
 baptism can never be proved from the baptism of 
 households, as the mere presumption of there having 
 been infants in those families is ground far too slender 
 whereon to found an argument. 
 
 It only remains for us now to advert to the twelve 
 disciples of Apollos, who were re-baptized by Paul 
 at Ephesus. This case proves unquestionably, that 
 there must have been an essential difference between 
 John's baptism and Christian baptism. t Dr Halley 
 
 * Dissertation on Infant Baptism, third edition, p. 125. 
 T In his recent work, in reply to Mr Stowel and Dr Wardlaw, 
 Dr Halley, in further explanation of his views of the case of the 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 105 
 
 endeavours, in a laboured argument, to evade the con- 
 clusion, but evidently manifests a mistrust of bis own 
 reasoning. The merits of his argument upon this 
 subject in his fourth lecture, are well summed up in 
 a review of " The Sacraments," which will be found 
 in the " Eclectic Review" for February 1845. The 
 reviewer says, alluding to Dr Halley's reasons for the 
 two baptisms being identical, "To us they appear to 
 result in this, that John's baptism was valid if ad- 
 ministered before our Lord's death, but not if ad- 
 ministered after that event. What is this but to say, 
 that John's baptism was valid for his own, but not 
 for the Christian dispensation? than which we can 
 
 twelve Ephesian disciples, argues that it is highly probable they 
 were baptized by Apollos ajter the death of Christ ; that then 
 John's baptism had lost its authority, that consequently their 
 baptism was destitute of divine sanction, and that this was the 
 ground of their re-baptism. Now, supposing that the baptism of 
 these disciples was administered according to the formula of 
 John's baptism after the death of Christ, and admitting that this 
 would be a reason for their re-baptism, we still think, even in 
 that case, that the principal reason would be the essential diffe- 
 rence of the two baptisms. Dr Halley himself admits that there 
 may have been a difference between them, and to us it certainly 
 appears much more reasonable to account for this instance of 
 rebaptism on that ground, than on that of the twelve disciples 
 alluded to having unconsciously become the subjects of a rite that 
 had ceased to receive the sanction of divine authority. Moreover 
 were there not something more than an unimportant difference 
 between John's baptism and Christian baptism, something more 
 than a mere form of words, we cannot understand how the divine 
 sanction should be withdrawn from the one and given exclusively 
 to the other; or, at least, why the mere want of authority in an un- 
 important matter should be made the sole ground of re-baptism. 
 G 
 
106 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 require no more evidence that his baptism was not 
 Christian baptism." Wherein, then, consisted the 
 difference? To answer this question is a matter of 
 no great difficulty. John's baptism was adapted to 
 the intermediate dispensation, which, as we have 
 argued under Chapter I., extended from his time to the 
 death of Christ; Christian baptism was adapted to 
 that new and spiritual dispensation which properly 
 commenced with the death and resurrection of Jesus. 
 John's baptism corresponded with the doctrine he 
 taught — for, as Dr Halley admits, the baptism of 
 John and the doctrine of John are convertible terms; 
 Christian baptism, in like manner, corresponded with 
 the doctrine which the apostles taught after the true 
 nature of Christianity was fully developed. The 
 baptism of John made no discrimination of character 
 requisite in order to its administration; Christian 
 baptism, we may fairly conclude, would invite none 
 to come and receive it but such as fully embraced the 
 apostles' doctrines, and truly believed in Jesus. As 
 it regards the twelve men whom Paul met with at 
 Ephesus, it seems doubtful whether we are to consi- 
 der them as disciples of Apollos, not having yet em- 
 braced the true Christian faith, or whether we are to 
 regard them as already disciples of Christ, though not 
 baptized in his name. Barnes takes the former view, 
 and he thus explains his opinions. He says: "Apollos 
 had correct views of the Messiah to come — views 
 which he had derived from the study of the Old Tes- 
 tament. He was expecting a Saviour that should be 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 107 
 
 humble, obscure, and a sacrifice, in opposition to the 
 prevailing notions of the Jews — he was endeavouring 
 to instruct and reform his countrymen. John preached 
 repentance, and baptized with reference to Him that 
 was to come after him; and this doctrine Ap olios 
 seems to have embraced." (Note on ch. xviii. 25.) 
 In his comment on the word " disciples" he says, 
 " They were evidently in the same situation as 
 Apollos." Then, on the next verse, "Have ye re- 
 ceived the Holy Ghost?" he intimates that the apostle's 
 inquiry had reference to " the extraordinary effusions 
 of the Holy Ghost." " Paul," says he, " would not 
 doubt that, if they had believed, they had received 
 the ordinary converting influences of the Holy Spirit; 
 for it was one of his favourite doctrines that the Holy 
 Spirit renews the heart." Once more (for we can- 
 not resist the temptation, though our quotations are 
 rather extended): " They were just in the state of 
 mind that they were willing to embrace the doctrine 
 when it was proclaimed to them; thus showing that 
 they were really under the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit. God may often produce important changes 
 in the hearts and lives of sinners, even when they 
 have no clear and systematic views of religious doc- 
 trines." If this view of the character of these twelve 
 disciples be correct, then it is evident that they were 
 suitable subjects, according to our view, for the Chris- 
 tian ordinance of baptism, and that they were un- 
 doubtedly baptized as genuine believers in the name 
 of the Lord. Moreover, " The Holy Ghost came on 
 
108 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 them," and they spake with tongues, and prophesied; 
 exercising gifts, which, as we have'said before, were 
 never bestowed upon manifest unbelievers, but were 
 imparted only to those who, there was good reason 
 to suppose, were real Christians, and who ostensibly 
 belonged to the Church, for the edification of which 
 they were given. This alone is sufficient testimony 
 as to their character. 
 
 Dr "Wardlaw, however, takes a different view of 
 this case, and which, perhaps, is preferable to the one 
 given by Mr Barnes. He remarks, that the term 
 " disciple," in the Book of the Acts, is never used 
 except in the sense of a believer in Jesus. Conse- 
 quently, he argues that at some time subsequently to 
 their having been baptized by Apollos, or some one 
 else, into John's baptism, the twelve persons here 
 spoken of became Christians; that when Paul found 
 them, they had received and believed the truth con- 
 cerning Jesus, but on their thus believing had not 
 been baptized into the name of Christ — had not re- 
 ceived Christian baptism. He argues, that, on be- 
 lieving in Christ, they ought to have been re-baptized 
 into the faith of Christ; but probably might not have 
 been aware that this was necessary. Paul coming 
 and finding them in this predicament, explained to 
 them the duty of being baptized in the name of 
 Christ, as they were now believers in him; and ac- 
 cordingly, they forthwith received, without hesitation, 
 the ordinance of Christian baptism. Now, this cer- 
 tainly appears a very probable view of the matter, 
 
THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 109 
 
 and it distinctly marks out the points of difference 
 between John's baptism and Christian baptism, and 
 that, too, entirely in agreement with the view we have 
 given above. The moral evidence which it affords, 
 in the case under examination, seems to amount to a 
 moral certainty that higher qualifications were de- 
 manded for Christian baptism than for John's bap- 
 tism, and that faith in Christ was the proper condition 
 of the former. 
 
 We have now noticed all the instances of baptism 
 recorded in " The Acts of the Apostles," and having 
 thus done, leave it to the candid and intelligent 
 reader to say whether, on the whole view of the 
 matter, the balance of evidence preponderates in 
 favour of the theory, that no qualification is requisite 
 for baptism; or of that which requires repentance 
 and faith in those who offer themselves as candidates 
 for the ordinance. We are quite aware how easy a 
 thing it is to start objections to some of the views 
 and explanations we have given; but the difficulties 
 attendant upon the opposite theory, and the objec- 
 tions lying against it, appear to us far greater. Those 
 objections which may be alleged against the theory 
 which we adopt, seem to us to admit of easy expla- 
 nation (whether the method of explaining them which 
 we have proposed be the best that could be offered, 
 we will not say); while those which pertain to the 
 opposite view, appear to us to shake the very founda- 
 tions of our holy faith, and to unsettle the great prin- 
 ciples of morality and religion. We think, indeed, 
 
110 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 that the view we have taken of the different cases 
 which have come under our notice is the most na- 
 tural, and, taking all the facts and circumstances into 
 consideration, is hest supported and home out hy the 
 narrative. Let the evidence on either side be weighed 
 in the balance of a thoughtful and conscientious 
 mind. 
 
THE ABRAHAMTC COVENANT. Ill 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 Writers on both sides of the baptismal contro- 
 versy, have often charged each other with the incon - 
 sistency of a want of harmony and agreement in their 
 reasonings, and the unfairness of continually changing 
 the principle of argumentation, and shifting the 
 ground of attack. But why should it be deemed 
 necessary to pursue invariably the same line of rea- 
 soning, and no other? Why should it be deemed 
 obligatory to move for ever in the same track, without 
 the least deviation ? Is it a point of honour in this 
 controversy never to take up a new position, even 
 when an advantage can be clearly gained by so doing? 
 Why should we be expected to adhere always to the 
 same modes of thinking? Let mind be free, what- 
 ever be the issue, and let us hope we shall come to 
 the truth at last. 
 
 The opinions of Drs Owen and Wardlaw, similar 
 in the most material points, have long had many 
 supporters, and met with much favour among Ptedo- 
 baptists; but now, Dr Halley comes forward as an 
 objector to each of these divines, avowing a want of 
 confidence in their respective theories, and advocating 
 
112 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 a view which (to use his own words in speaking of 
 it in contrast with that of Dr Wardlaw), " has a 
 wider range, and is the more Psedo-baptistical of the 
 two." The distinguishing feature of Dr Wardlaw's 
 theory is, that children were included in the covenant 
 which God made with Abraham, by virtue of their 
 relation to their parents. Dr Halley, on the other 
 hand, contends that all children, without exception, 
 belonged to that covenant by their own right, as de- 
 scended from the patriarch himself however remote the 
 genealogy. In this we quite agree with Dr Halley, 
 as will be seen in the sequel ; but we differ from him 
 respecting the use he makes of the Abrahamic cove- 
 nant in regard to the question of baptism. Admit- 
 ting the covenant-right of infants under the patriarchal 
 and Jewish dispensations, we nevertheless demur to 
 their right or interest in any covenant under the 
 Christian dispensation. Dr Halley's argument in 
 favour of the covenant-right of infants in these 
 Christian times, rests upon the supposed identity of 
 the Abrahamic and Christian covenants. He argues 
 to the effect, that the covenant made with Abraham 
 was never to be abolished — that it is still in existence 
 — that whereas, formerly, all children born of Jewish 
 parents were included in that covenant, now, all 
 children in all nations of the world are included in 
 it — that being formerly limited to one nation, it is 
 now extended to all — that thus Abraham becomes the 
 father of many nations. " Before the advent," says 
 the Doctor, " Abraham was the inheritor of Canaan ; 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 113 
 
 since, he is become heir of the world." He con- 
 tinues : " The termination of the special privileges of 
 the Jews is the equal bestownient of them, without 
 their speciality, upon all mankind; the fall of Israel 
 is the riches of the world ; the casting away of Israel 
 is the reconciling of the world." Again: "Every 
 Gentile, now, as distinctly as was every Jew, is horn 
 entitled to the external privileges of the gospel." 
 These quotations will suffice to bring before us the 
 leading features of Dr Halley's theory. 
 
 Now, it is a matter of no small surprise to us, that, 
 in discussing this question, no notice whatever should 
 have been taken of Dr Carson's explanation of the 
 Abrahamic covenant. Dr Halley professes great 
 respect for the talents and learning of Dr Carson, what- 
 ever he may think of his style of conducting contro- 
 versy. How is it that his \iews on this subject are 
 passed over in silence ? Dr Halley does, indeed, speak 
 of Baptist friends betaking themselves to what he is 
 compelled to call the desperate course, of maintaining 
 that the covenant of circumcision was a covenant of 
 temporal blessings, although St Paul declares it to 
 have been the promise which the law could not dis- 
 annul; and of insisting, that circumcision was only 
 a civil, political, or national distinction, although St 
 Paul calls it " the seal of the righteousness of Abra- 
 ham's faith." And does Dr Halley, with this passing 
 allusion, dismiss all the reasonings of Baptists upon 
 this subject, and bury Dr Carson's ten "observations"* 
 * Vide Baptism in its Mode and Subjects, p. 214, et seq. 
 
] 14 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 in oblivion along with them? We are at a loss to 
 imagine how he conld include Dr Carson's arguments 
 in reference to the Abrahamic covenant, amongst those 
 which represent it as merely a covenant of temporal 
 blessings. The leading characteristic of Dr Carson's 
 theory is, that the covenant of circumcision had both 
 ^letter and a, spirit; that, in the former aspect, it was 
 to discontinue, while, in the latter, it was to be perpe- 
 tuated in all nations till the end of time. Has not Dr 
 Halley read Dr Carson's views upon this subject? 
 
 We are not sure whether we correctly apprehend 
 Dr Halley's own view of the covenant of circumci- 
 sion; for, while he lays much stress upon its being 
 an evangelical covenant, he, at the same time, speaks 
 of Abraham as being the inheritor of Canaan, which, 
 one would think, can only be understood as alluding 
 to national privileges bestowed upon his posterity. 
 Whether, therefore, in speaking of the Abrahamic 
 covenant as the evangelical covenant, he means abso- 
 lutely to deny that it was in any sense a covenant ot 
 temporal blessings, or that it was in any point of view 
 a civil, political, and national covenant, does not ap- 
 pear quite manifest. If Dr Halley means to assert, 
 that it was exclusively evangelical in its nature, and 
 that nothing of a temporal and national character 
 belonged to it, then we think he only takes a one- 
 sided view of this ancient covenant — looks at it cor- 
 rectly enough in one of its aspects, but overlooks the 
 other. To maintain that the covenant of circumci- 
 sion is merely a covenant of temporal blessings, would 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 1 J 5 
 
 perhaps be to take a somewhat desperate course. 
 This, at least, is not the course that I am disposed to 
 take. On the other hand, it appears to me that Dr 
 Halley himself takes quite as desperate a course in an 
 opposite direction, in maintaining, if such is his 
 meaning, that the Abrahamic covenant was exclu- 
 sively evangelical. Truth often lies between two 
 extremes. So, we believe, it will be found to do as it 
 regards the true nature of the Abrahamic covenant. 
 The two extreme views of this matter are, the exclu- 
 sively spiritual theory on the one hand, and the ex- 
 clusively temporal on the other. Now, we believe 
 that this covenant was exclusively neither the one nor 
 the other. We think it was unquestionably both of 
 a temporal and spiritual nature. With the 3d chap- 
 ter of the Epistle to the Galatians under our eye, 
 we cannot certainly deny its spiritual character ; for it 
 is there represented as a covenant in which none but 
 spiritual people are interested — a covenant formed 
 only with those who possess the faith of Abraham. 
 On the other hand, looking at the terms in which it 
 was expressed when first instituted, and taking into 
 consideration the whole subsequent history of the 
 posterity of Abraham, it seems to us impossible to 
 deny that it was also, in another point of view, tem- 
 poral, and had a regard to the Israelites as a nation. 
 Dr Halley, it seems, considers the Abrahamic cove- 
 nant as identical with the gospel, and, we suppose,* 
 
 * In his recent work in Reply to Mr Stovel and Dr Wardlaw, 
 we find Dr Halley expressing himself precisely in accordance 
 
116 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 he would assign all that is temporal or national, as it 
 regards the posterity of Abraham, entirely to the 
 iSinaitic covenant made with Moses, four hundred and 
 thirty years later. For this, we think, he has no 
 authority whatever. We regard the ancient covenant 
 made with Abraham at that early period, as just fur- 
 nishing the rude outline of all the future religious 
 history of the world. It was the germ of both the 
 Mosaic and Christian dispensations, and they were 
 but the successive developments of this original in- 
 stitution. In other words, the covenant made with 
 Abraham was to be fulfilled in both a temporal and 
 a spiritual sense. During the whole of the patriarchal 
 and Jewish dispensations, that which was temporal was 
 most prominent; on the contrary, under the Christian 
 dispensation, that which is spiritual holds the most 
 conspicuous place, the temporal having faded away. 
 
 This is not mere theory. It can be easily estab- 
 lished by a reference to the Scriptures. I have ap- 
 pealed to the terms of the original transaction with 
 Abraham, as affording proof respecting the temporal 
 provisions of the Abrahamic covenant. Indeed, the 
 language is so explicit, that, I confess, I cannot con- 
 ceive how Dr Halley, or any one else, can controvert 
 the opinion that temporal and national blessings were 
 
 with the supposition here made. He speaks (p. 144) of the 
 visible or national Church of Israel, as being the creation, not of 
 the Abrahamic covenant, but of the Mosaic Law. In speaking 
 thus, we feel quite convinced that he makes a groundless and un- 
 warranted distinction, as, indeed, we think we have sufficiently 
 proved in this and the following pages. 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 11? 
 
 included in the covenant of circumcision. God pro- 
 mises to Abraham a numerous seed. Can it be 
 doubted that this promise had reference to a carnal 
 as well as a spiritual seed ? He promises to be a 
 God to Abraham's posterity. And, while we admit 
 that this is to be understood, in one sense, as implying 
 that he would be specially a God to all believers, can 
 it be doubted that it also implied that he would be a 
 God to them in an inferior sense, irrespective of 
 character — that he would be the God of the descen- 
 dants of Abraham viewed as a nation ? Can it be 
 for a moment doubted, that this was the primary in- 
 tention of the promise? Again, God promises to 
 give to the posterity of Abraham the land of Canaan; 
 and surely the earthly Canaan was intended as well 
 as the heavenly. To my mind, indeed, it appears 
 perfectly plain that the covenant wore two aspects — 
 a temporal and a spiritual; or, as Dr Carson says, 
 that it had a letter and a spirit. Of all the innumer- 
 able things," says Dr Carson, " which have a letter 
 and a spirit with respect to Christ and his people, 
 there is not one instance in which a magnificence is 
 not given to the letter, which can be fully found only 
 in the spirit. So little reason have we to think it 
 strange that God should call himself the God of a 
 whole nation, in a typical sense, when the body of 
 that nation were not his true people."* 
 
 Dr Halley has not adduced a single argument to 
 prove that the covenant of circumcision was not a 
 * Baptism in its Mode and Subjects, p. 222. 
 
118 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 covenant of temporal blessings. He may prove ever 
 so clearly that it was an evangelical covenant, but this 
 does not prove that the same covenant was not also 
 of a temporal nature. Perhaps Dr Halley would 
 argue that the covenant could not have promised 
 temporal blessings, from the case of Ishmael, who* 
 though circumcised, did not share in any such bless- 
 ings. Possibly he might argue, inferentially, from 
 this circumstance, that the Abrahamic covenant must 
 have been solely one of spiritual privileges, and that 
 circumcision sealed these privileges only. But, in 
 reply to this argument (whether Dr Halley would 
 adopt it or not), it is quite sufficient to say, that 
 Ishmael was not included in the covenant in any 
 sense. The distinction between him and Isaac, who 
 was not yet born, could not have been made more 
 explicitly than it is in the account of the first estab- 
 lishment of the covenant with Abraham. Though 
 God promises, in answer to a parent's anxious inter- 
 cession for his living son, to bless Ishmael, that he 
 should beget twelve princes, and should become a 
 great nation; yet he says distinctly that he would 
 establish his covenant with Isaac. Now, the import 
 of circumcision must, of course, be judged of from the 
 nature of the covenant of which it was the sign. As 
 applied to Ishmael, who was not in the covenant, it 
 could have no meaning foreign to the covenant to 
 which it properly belonged. Ishmael, and not only 
 he, but all then belonging to the family of Abraham 
 were circumcised, as belonging to him, as the property 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 119 
 
 of the patriarch, and only as a token of the covenant 
 made with him; for not one of the children of Abraham 
 then living, or of his servants, belonged to the cove- 
 nant, which was made only with Abraham himself, 
 and his seed after him. But the rite of circumcision, 
 though at first applied to all the family of Abraham, 
 was evidently not meant to be perpetuated except in 
 the line of Isaac. Consequently, the covenant as 
 established with the descendants of Isaac, to whom 
 temporal as well as spiritual promises were made, is 
 the only legitimate exponent of the rite of circum- 
 cision."" Nothing, w T e think, can be plainer, as already 
 
 * Dr Halley, in his reply to Dr Wardlaw, says (p. 146) : " I 
 might here inquire if the covenant sign and seal were restricted 
 to the line of Isaac, and if the membership of the Jewish Church 
 was co-extensive with that line. On the one hand, were not the 
 Ishmaelites, although not in the ancient Church, circumcised ? 
 On the other, were not the Edomites, although circumcised in 
 the line of Isaac, excluded from the ancient Church ? The ob- 
 servations made above may be, perhaps, a sufficient answer to 
 these questions. Circumcision was, undoubtedly, the sign or 
 token of the covenant which God made with Abraham. (Gen. xvii. 
 10, 11.) This being the case, it must follow, that so far as it had the 
 divine sanction, it was to be restricted to the line of Isaac. As it 
 was the token of the covenant, and as that covenant was con- 
 fined to the line of Isaac, I know not what can be plainer than 
 that the restriction of the rite to Abraham's posterity, through 
 Isaac, was the intention of its divine founder. On the same 
 principle, we argue, that as the covenant was subsequently per- 
 petuated in the line of Jacob, and not of Esau (Gen. xxxv. 11, 
 12; Rom. ix. 11-13), so it was never intended that circumcision 
 should be observed by the Edomites, but should be again further 
 limited to the seed of Jacob. If the posterity of Ishmael, Abra- 
 ham's own son, and of Esau his descendant, observed the rite of 
 
120 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 shown, than that temporal blessings were promised 
 in the very terms of the covenant as first instituted. 
 It is certainly true, that many of the descendants of 
 Isaac never shared in those specific national privi- 
 leges which were afterwards enjoyed; there were 
 many who never inherited Canaan. What then ? 
 Does this prove that the covenant had no temporal 
 provisions ? Certainly not. The covenant was made 
 with Abraham himself, not with every individual of 
 his posterity, even in the favoured line. Accordingly 
 circumcision is called, not the seal, but the token, of 
 the covenant. It sealed nothing to individuals. It 
 signified that all the promises of the covenant should 
 assuredly be fulfilled as made to Abraham; but it did 
 not signify that those promises should be fulfilled to 
 every individual of the promised seed. They were 
 all fulfilled to Abraham. A numerous seed was 
 given him. God was their God, and he gave them 
 Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. They 
 were fulfilled in the letter, by the bestowment of tem- 
 poral blessings; and as there were always some 
 amongst the Jews, however few, who believed as 
 Abraham did, a spiritual seed mixed up with the 
 carnal, they were, therefore, from the first, fulfilled 
 in the spirit as well as the letter, even as they are 
 
 circumcision, their doing so waswithout the divine sanction. All 
 we are concerned with is the covenant, and with circumcision only 
 so far as it is the sign of that covenant ; and no argument can be 
 worth anything that is founded upon extraneous circumstances 
 and the self-adopted practices (even though divine in their origin) 
 of individuals and nations. 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 121 
 
 still being fulfilled, and will continue fulfilling to the 
 end of time.* 
 
 If other evidence were required of the covenant of 
 circumcision including temporal as well as spiritual 
 blessings, we find that evidence, inferentially, in the 
 fact, that circumcision was not optional — that it was 
 to be enforced upon all the family of Abraham, and 
 all the descendants of Isaac and Jacob : "He that is 
 born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy 
 money, must needs be circumcised." (Gen. xvii. 13.) 
 The judgment denounced against all the uncircum- 
 cised is : " If any man child is not circumcised, that 
 soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken 
 
 * Dr Halley says (p. 149 in his Reply): " If circumcision had 
 been the express seal or sign of membership in the national 
 Churcb, confined to the line of Isaac, it would scarcely have been 
 suspended during the forty years when the ritual and institution 
 of the Church were first ordained." I reply, Circumcision is not 
 regarded by us as the seal or sign of membership in the national 
 Church, but simply as the sign of the covenant. As for its sus- 
 pension, we are not bound to account for it. But what forbids 
 the opinion that it was a faulty neglect on the part of the people, 
 all of a piece with their rebellious spirit and manners in the 
 wilderness ? Or, supposing that circumcision was the seal and 
 sign of membership in the national Church, it is quite a sufficient 
 reason for its disuse in the wilderness, that none of that wicked 
 generation were, in fact, allowed to enter into Canaan, to be in- 
 corporated in the national Church, and to enjoy the temporal 
 blessings of the covenant. » No sooner did their descendants pass 
 over Jordan, and enter upon the promised inheritance, than, by 
 divine direction, the rite was renewed. From that time the 
 nation and the Church were identical, from that time circumci- 
 sion was strictly and regularly practised, and from that time it 
 may be considered to have become, in effect, the seal and sign of 
 membership in the Jewish Church. 
 H 
 
122 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 my covenant." (Verse 14.) No one of adult years, 
 who refused to be circumcised, could belong to the 
 covenant. Abraham was commanded to circumcise 
 all the men of his house. He had authority to enforce 
 the rite upon all. Compulsion was the law of the 
 institution. Would this have been the case, if circum- 
 cision had been the sign of a covenant exclusively 
 spiritual ? The institution of a rite to be thus enforced 
 upou all would, in the case of a purely, spiritual cove- 
 nant, have presented a great anomaly — would have 
 been incongruous with the very nature of such a 
 covenant. But if the covenant wore a civil, a politi- 
 cal, and a national aspect, as well as a spiritual aspect, 
 then the enforcement of circumcision can be accounted 
 for. Involving, in this view, nothing of a moral na- 
 ture, no exception can be taken against the law which 
 made submission to this rite compulsory. We there- 
 fore conclude, from this peculiarity in the application 
 of its sign, as well as from the express terms employed^ 
 in its first institution, that the covenant must have 
 been one of temporal and national privileges, and not 
 as Dr Halley argues, exclusively evangelical. 
 
 The conclusion, then, to which we come from the 
 preceding considerations is, that the Abrahamk cove- 
 nant, viewed as a whole, was of a mixed nature. One 
 part of it was entirely spiritual, having reference to 
 the spiritual seed only — that is, to those who pos- 
 sessed the faith of their father Abraham. In this 
 part of the covenant children never had — could not — 
 have any interest, since, as just signified, it had respect 
 onlv to those who exercised the faith of Abraham. 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 123 
 
 But there was another part of the covenant which held 
 out to the posterity of the patriarch the hope of tem- 
 poral blessings, and promised certain peculiar national 
 privileges to the carnal seed of Abraham. In this 
 subordinate, this inferior part of the covenant, chil- 
 dren were included, as indeed was the whole body of 
 the Jewish nation, infants and adults, males and 
 females. But, then, this was just that part of the 
 covenant which was to be abrogated; and therefore the 
 fact of infants having been interested in this merely 
 temporal and national part of the covenant, affords no 
 proof of their belonging to any covenant under the 
 present dispensation. 
 
 But that we may not avoid anything that seems to 
 countenance the Psedo-baptist theory, we admit, fur- 
 ther, that while one part of the covenant was exclu 
 sively spiritual, having reference to the spiritual seed 
 only, the other was not exclusively temporal : for, in 
 addition to the typical signification of the national bless- 
 ings it bestowed, it also secured to the carnal seed many 
 external religious advantages. Still we shall find that 
 this feature of the case in no way helps the cause of our 
 Psedo-baptist friends. Let us see how the case stands. 
 
 By virtue of this covenant, the whole body of the 
 Jewish nation stood in a peculiar relation to Jehovah 
 — in a relation, we admit, very similar to that which 
 Paedo- baptists suppose still specially to subsist be- 
 tween all baptized children and Jehovah. The Jew- 
 ish nation, in fact, was the visible Church of God, 
 using this phrase in the conventional sense, as includ - 
 
124 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 ing a mixture of persons of all kinds — as comprising, 
 irrespective of character, all who are outwardly in 
 covenant with the Lord. While Jehovah was, in a 
 special sense, the God of the invisible Church amongst 
 the Jews, he was, in another view, the God of the 
 nation. The Israelites were his children, a holy na- 
 tion, a chosen generation, a peculiar people ; and, as 
 such, they had religious privileges which other na- 
 tions did not possess. The apostle Paul, in the 
 Epistle to the Romans, makes an objector ask — 
 " What advantage, then, hath the Jew, and what 
 profit is there of circumcision V and then, he himself 
 meets the objection by replying, " Much every way; 
 chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles 
 of God." " Much every way," says Paul; that is, they 
 possessed advantages, in every respect, over all other 
 nations. And what were those advantages? Why! 
 God was their King. He ever exercised a special 
 watchfulness over them, and protected them as a 
 father protects his children. They were not only 
 born entitled to the special privileges of the Jewish 
 nation, of which, as the apostle tells us, the posses- 
 sion of the oracles of God was the chief, but they, 
 from the moment of their birth, were in covenant 
 with God; they were, in a peculiar sense, by mere 
 carnal descent, the people of God. " They were not 
 only born into the kingdom of Israel," as Dr Carson 
 observes, " but were not afterwards put away for un- 
 belief." No outward or visible distinction was made 
 between one Jew and another — between the visible 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 125 
 
 and the invisible Chnrch. All who belonged to the 
 nation were also recognised as members of the Church. 
 As a nation, they were all the people of God, and 
 were all typically holy. Hence, they all united in 
 the same ritual observances — all were regarded as 
 having an equal interest in the sacrifices and obla- 
 tions — all, without distinction, were admitted to cele- 
 brate the passover, and all alike kept the appointed 
 feasts. Here, then, we have the proper idea of a 
 visible Church; and we see that it well accorded with 
 the substance and genius of Judaism. It was indeed 
 an integral part of it. In this sense we agree with 
 Dr Wardlaw, " The nation was the Church." 
 
 Does this view of things, then, favour the notion 
 of a visible Church in gospel times? We unhesitat 
 ingly answer, No — not in the least degree. There 
 is not a shadow of a reason for supposing that a simi- 
 lar state of things exists now. A visible Church among 
 the Jews is no precedent for a visible Church among 
 Christians. The Jewish polity was a thing sui gene- 
 ris; the spiritual kingdom of Christ is quite another 
 thing : nor are we warranted to look for anything ana- 
 logous to the Jewish theocracy under the gospel dis- 
 pensation. It is certainly true, that the external 
 religious privileges which were secured to the poste- 
 rity of Abraham, are equally enjoyed in these gospel 
 times, and extended, or designed to be extended, to 
 all the nations. But the inference, that these privi- 
 leges are now enjoyed as a perpetuation of the Abra- 
 hamic covenant, is quite groundless. These advan 
 
126 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 tages were only a part of what that covenant secured. 
 It cannot be argued that the Abrahamic covenant, as 
 a whole, was to continue; and, beyond what the 
 Scriptures authorize, who can make selections out of 
 its many provisions and privileges, and say, This was 
 to abide — this to be abolished ? The Scriptures do in- 
 deed teach unequivocally, that the covenant, in that 
 part which concerns believers, was to remain, and 
 continue for ever; but there is no warrant for sup- 
 posing that the other part of the covenant, as such, 
 in- any of its blessings, was to be permanent. The 
 external privileges of the gospel are now possessed, 
 not because similar advantages were secured by the 
 covenant made with Abraham to his posterity, but 
 as being common to both dispensations. They are 
 made universal now by a new enactment — by the 
 command of the great Author of Christianity, " Go 
 ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
 creature." 
 
 The covenant, considered in its spiritual sense, as 
 made with all who possess Abraham's faith, does in- 
 deed still exist : but that more general aspect of it, in 
 which the whole of Abraham's carnal seed were com- 
 prehended, and by virtue of which the Jewish nation 
 was constituted the visible Church of God, has faded 
 away — this peculiar feature has been obliterated. In 
 this view, it was annulled at the expiration of the 
 Jewish Church- state, In its higher and more impor- 
 tant sense it still remains, its original beauty and 
 perfection, unveiled by Jewish forms and ceremonies, 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 127 
 
 shining out more clearly, more beautifully, and more 
 gloriously than it did under the dispensation of the 
 letter. This is the covenant which is referred to in 
 Heb. viii. 10, &c. : " For this is the covenant that I 
 will make with the house of Israel after those days, 
 saith the Lord : I will put my laws into their mind, 
 and write them in their hearts: and I will be to 
 them a God, and they shall be to me a people : and 
 they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and 
 every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord : for 
 all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 
 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and 
 their sins and their iniquities will I remember no 
 more." Observe, too, the apostle's remark upon this 
 covenant in the following verse: ' 4 In that he saith, A 
 neio covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that 
 which decayeth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish 
 away." This new covenant, then, the distinguishing 
 characteristic of which is, the putting of God's laws 
 into the mind, and writing them in the heart of his 
 spiritual people, is the only covenant that is known 
 by Paul and the other writers of the New Testament 
 under the spiritual reign of Christ on the earth. 
 
 This being the nature of the gospel or evangelical 
 covenant, it is plain that infants cannot by any possi- 
 bility belong to it. None but those who believe, as 
 Abraham did, can be considered as included in it. 
 But we apprehend that Dr Halley does not mean the 
 same thing by the evangelical covenant as we do. By 
 giving this designation to the Abrahamic covenant, 
 
128 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 rather than calling it a spiritual covenant, he no 
 doubt means to signify that one express object of it 
 was to provide external religious privileges ; and that 
 the covenant, in this part, was to remain under the 
 Christian dispensation. This evidently is what he 
 means by saying, that " whereas formerly all children 
 born of Jewish parents were included in the covenant, 
 now all children in all nations of the world are in- 
 cluded in it;" and that " every Gentile now, as distinctly 
 as was every Jew, is born entitled to the external pri- 
 vileges of the gospel." Of course, these words of Dr 
 Halley give a true representation of the actual state 
 of things under the gospel dispensation; but the uni- 
 versal religious privileges which he refers to, are not 
 conferred by any covenant, and it is mere assumption 
 to say that they are. The only sense in which the 
 covenant now exists, is as a spiritual covenant formed 
 with believers, and not as one supplying mere outward 
 religious advantages. These are the means of bring- 
 ing men into the covenant, but are no part of the 
 covenant itself. Unspiritual people possess the exter- 
 nal privileges ; spiritual people only belong to the 
 covenant : therefore, that in which unspiritual people 
 have an interest cannot be the gospel covenant. That 
 believers or renewed characters only belong to this 
 covenant is most clearly proved by the words of the 
 apostle Paul, already alluded to in the 8th chapter of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 
 But in order to make this still more apparent, let us 
 notice the reasoning of the apostle in the 3d chapter of 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 129 
 
 the Epistle to the Galatians, where he enters fully into 
 an explanation of the ancient covenant in its Christian 
 import. The whole design of the apostle in this chapter, 
 is to prove, in opposition to the low and worldly ideas 
 of the Jews, that the covenant which God had made 
 with Abraham was, in its highest point of view, purely 
 spiritual. Hence he argues that they who are of faith, 
 no matter whether they be Jews or Gentiles, the same 
 are the children of Abraham. (Verse 7.) He adds 
 in the next verse : " And the Scripture foreseeirjg that 
 God would justify the heathen through faith, preached 
 before the gospel to Abraham, saying, Tn thee shall 
 all nations be blessed." How were all nations to be 
 blessed ? Manifestly by being justified by faith, as 
 Abraham was. If there could be any doubt about 
 this from the phraseology of this verse, the following 
 verse removes it entirely when it says, " So then they 
 which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." 
 In the verses following, the apostle shows the impos- 
 sibility of being justified by law; and then he again 
 speaks, in contrast with this mode of justification, of 
 the blessing of Abraham coming; on the Gentiles 
 through Jesus Christ — that is, the blessing of being 
 justified by faith, as just explained, and as still fur- 
 ther evidenced by the last clause of verse 1 4, taken 
 in connexion with the former part of the verse: 
 " That the blessing of Abraham might come on the 
 Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive 
 the promise of the Spirit through faith!' Here, more- 
 over, we see that besides faith, the outpouring of the 
 
130 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 Spirit was an additional blessing to be bestowed upon 
 the Gentiles through Christ. In the 16th verse, he 
 explains still further how these blessings were to be 
 secured through Christ. He was emphatically the 
 seed through w T hom these invaluable blessings were to 
 come to the Gentiles. He represents these promises, 
 viz., of the bestowment of the Spirit, but more espe- 
 cially of justification by faith, as being identical with 
 the Abrahamic covenant; that is to say, mother words, 
 that the covenant made with Abraham, and confirmed 
 in Christ four hundred and thirty years before the law, 
 and which the law could not disannul, w r as not indeed, 
 in the most important view of it, a covenant of ex- 
 ternal religious privileges, but of spiritual blessings — 
 a covenant in which none but justified believers were 
 included. Whoever believes, belongs to this evangelical 
 covenant — he is a child of God. (Verse 26.) And here 
 we cannot omit to notice that in this connexion we 
 find baptism introduced, implying, as it would seem, 
 that, in this ordinance, believers were visibly intro- 
 duced into this evangelical covenant — this covenant of 
 saving blessings; and from the manner of its intro- 
 duction, we should naturally infer that this was well 
 known to be the express design of the ordinance. Faith 
 being the qualification and the warrant for any one 
 participating in the blessings of this new covenant, 
 the apostle adds (verse 28), " There is neither Jew nor 
 Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is 
 neither male nor female : for ye are all one in Christ 
 Jesus. And if ye be Christ's" — How r ? Not surely 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 131 
 
 as being proselyted to the Christian religion. No, no; 
 that notion will not do here. If ye be Christ's, as be- 
 lievers, a sense which alone is in accordance with the 
 whole of this chapter — " then are ye Abraham's seed" 
 — his spiritual seed — " and heirs according to the pro- 
 mise." How can infants belong to such a covenant 
 as this ? 
 
 Having shown the nature of the Abrahamic cove- 
 nant, both in its temporal and spiritual character- 
 istics — in the aspect it wore to the carnal seed of 
 Abraham, the Jewish nation, and that which it wears 
 to all believers in all nations — a few words are required 
 respecting the sign or token of this mixed, this two- 
 phased covenant. The rite of circumcision was ad- 
 ministered to all male children born of Jewish pa- 
 rents, signifying, as we have before said, that all the 
 temporal promises made to Abraham, in reference to 
 his posterity, should be fulfilled, and expressing the 
 peculiar covenant relation in which they stood to God. 
 The apostle Paul denominates circumcision, " A seal 
 of the righteousness of faith ;" but in giving it this 
 designation, be it observed, he is speaking only of 
 Abraham himself. He is proving to the Jew that 
 Abraham believed before he was circumcised, and that 
 his circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of Ms 
 own faith. Thus, in the case of Abraham himself, it 
 had a special significancy. In the case of others, it 
 sealed nothing personally; but it sealed the truth, that 
 righteousness was to be obtained by the exercise of 
 that faith for which Abraham was so pre-eminently 
 
132 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 distinguished — that all who possessed Abraham's faith 
 should he justified as he was. But circumcision also 
 had a typical, a spiritual import. It denoted, we are 
 taught by Paul, the circumcision of the heart. For, 
 says he (Rom. ii. 28, 29), " He is not a Jew, which is 
 one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is 
 outward 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." In this view, then, circumcision 
 was the appropriate sign of the Abrahamic covenant, 
 considered in its spiritual aspect. The typical sense 
 of circumcision is also most plainly taught in Col. 
 ii. 11: " In whom ye also are circumcised, with the 
 circumcision made without hands, in putting off the 
 body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of 
 Christ." This passage, so often appealed to as evidence 
 of the parallel between circumcision and baptism, 
 really proves nothing of the kind. On the contrary, 
 it proves, as plainly as language can do, that regene- 
 ration, and not baptism, is the Christian circumcision; 
 for it is expressly said, that the circumcision of Christ 
 is made without hands, which at any rate cannot be 
 said of baptism ; and that it consists in putting off the 
 body of the sins of the flesh. Instead, therefore, of 
 proving that baptism has come in the room of cir- 
 cumcision, it simply represents regeneration — desig- 
 nated here by the putting off the body of the sins of 
 the flesh — as the antitype of the carnal ceremony. 
 As for baptism being mentioned in such a connexion, 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. ] 33 
 
 it only serves to furnish another testimony to the 
 host of others of all kinds, as to the proper subjects 
 of baptism, clearly conveying the impression that they 
 ought to be regenerated characters, or believers. But 
 even if baptism has come in the room of circumcision, 
 we shall still find ourselves brought to the conclusion 
 we have already arrived at — that none but regenerated 
 persons are proper subjects of the ordinance. For 
 as the spiritual part of the covenant is that which 
 alone remains, since the casting off of the Jews as a 
 nation, baptism could only come in the room of cir- 
 cumcision considered as the sign of the spiritual form 
 of the ancient covenant; that is, it could only come 
 in the room of circumcision, viewed in its spiritual 
 aspect. In that aspect, we have seen it signified the 
 circumcision of the heart ; and consequently baptism, 
 coming in its stead, could only be administered to 
 those subjects whom circumcision, in this view, con- 
 templated — to those who are circumcised in heart — 
 to those who have put off the body of the sins of the 
 flesh — to believers. 
 
 Such, then, is our view of the covenant of circum- 
 cision — a view which, it appears to us, does more to 
 harmonize the different statements of revelation than 
 any other with which we are acquainted; but which 
 appears to us in no way whatever to favour the prac- 
 tice of infant baptism, but, on the contrary, to afford 
 evidence that none but spiritual persons are proper 
 subjects of the initiatory ordinance of the new cove- 
 nant. To imagine, that because infants, under a very 
 
134 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 peculiar state of things, formerly were received into 
 a visible Church relation with God, they are to be 
 considered as standing in the same relation now, is 
 perfectly gratuitous. This notion of a visible Church 
 is, so to speak, a part and parcel of Judaism; but 
 Christianity owns it not. The tendency of infant 
 baptism, notwithstanding all the conscientious efforts 
 that are made to obviate it, by its advocates and 
 friends, is, unquestionably, to formalism; whereas 
 the whole genius of Christianity is spiritual. The 
 notion of a visible Church may, indeed, very well 
 answer the purpose of an established religion — it may 
 serve to keep national Churches in countenance ; but 
 it can never be made to amalgamate with the laws 
 and institutions of Christ's spiritual kingdom. 
 
 An objection is very commonly urged by Pasdo- 
 baptists against the view we have thus given of the 
 Abrahamic covenant — that, if children are not includ- 
 ed in covenant relation to God now, they are deprived 
 of privileges which they formerly possessed, and that, 
 too, under a milder dispensation. A moment's con- 
 sideration of the facts of the case, will show how little 
 reason there is for originating such an objection. 
 The privileges which the Jews possessed in conse- 
 quence of their covenant relation to God, though 
 many of them of a religious nature, were still na- 
 tional; they were privileges which distinguished the 
 Jewish people from all surrounding nations. The 
 apostle tells us that the principal of these was, the 
 possession of the oracles of God; while other people 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 135 
 
 were left in a state of moral darkness, haying no 
 knowledge of God, or of his revealed will. Under 
 these circumstances, every one must see that it was 
 no small advantage the Jew had over the Gentile in 
 that period of the world, and that it was no little 
 profit that was derived from circumcision. The pri- 
 vileges which Jewish children enjoyed as they grew 
 up, consisted in the special favours shown to them as 
 a nation; and they undoubtedly enjoyed those favours 
 in consequence of their covenant relation to God, as 
 already explained. But now, God no longer confines 
 his divine benefactions to one particular country; he 
 has now no holy nation, no peculiar people, upon 
 whom to bestow special favours as distinguished from 
 all others. The gospel, without the need of a cove- 
 nant to sanction it, is now to be preached throughout 
 all the world ; and all to whom the glad news of sal- 
 vation come, do, in fact, possess, not merely the 
 same, but far higher privileges than the Jews did 
 formerly. No one nation now enjoys them by a 
 peculiar covenant, exclusively of all others. Equal 
 privileges are enjoyed by all to whom the gospel is 
 sent, and there is no one conceivable advantage 
 possessed by baptized children, which is not, in 
 fact, possessed in an equal degree by those who re- 
 main unbaptized. It is astonishing how many errors 
 arise from a forgetfulness of the peculiar circumstances 
 of the Jews as a nation, chosen out of all others for 
 most important ends by Jehovah, and distinguished, 
 in every respect, from all other kingdoms in the 
 
136 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 world. The due consideration of this, is the key to 
 many a difficulty. 
 
 In referring to the reasoning of the apostle Paul 
 in the 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans 
 (which cannot be passed over while treating of this 
 subject), we find ourselves again unhappily at issue 
 with Dr Halley. We agree with him, of course, in 
 saying, " That God had not judicially, by a sentence 
 denounced upon the nation, cast off all the Israelites;" 
 for the apostle's argument in this chapter plainly 
 enough proves the contrary. But his comment upon 
 the words, " If the root be holy, so are the branches," 
 albeit the Doctor says, " So far as Israel is concerned, 
 the illustration is too obvious to be misunderstood," 
 we must presume to controvert. We consider his 
 explanation of this language to be quite at variance 
 with the general course of the apostle's reasoning in 
 this chapter, though he himself, like ourselves, makes 
 his appeal to it. One or the other of us undoubtedly 
 misunderstands that reasoning, and the public must 
 judge between us. Dr Halley represents the branches 
 here spoken of as being holy by a covenant relation, 
 and not by personal sanctity. He says, " They were 
 holy, not by a sanctity independent of their descent, 
 but as springing from the holy root." Now, without 
 entering upon the inquiry, whether there is any war- 
 rant in the Scriptures for the notion of a relative 
 holiness, we certainly think there is not an inch of 
 ground for such a theory to be built upon here. Paul, 
 throughout this chapter, is speaking of converted Jews 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 1'37 
 
 only. The point of his argument is, to prove that 
 God had not cast off his people. He proves this hy re- 
 ferring to the fact, that he himself, and others of his 
 countrymen, were converted to the faith of Jesus. 
 Dr Halley makes out that the evidence of the Jews 
 not heing cast away, consisted in their still possessing 
 religious privileges, though, as a nation, they had 
 fallen from their exclusive relation to Abraham. 
 This, however, is but a very meagre representation 
 of the truth that the apostle is here seeking to esta- 
 blish; it is but a small part of the evidence of the 
 non-rejection of the Jews. Nay, though it may, per- 
 haps, be admitted into the evidence, the apostle 
 himself does not even mention it. It is not his evi- 
 dence. He says nothing about religious privileges ; but 
 the facts upon which he founds his argument are, that 
 he, an apostle of Jesus Christ, was an Israelite; that 
 God had not cast away his people, whom he fore- 
 knew — that is, whom he foreknew as those who would 
 embrace the gospel and believe in Jesus ; that there 
 was still a remnant according to the election of grace 
 — that is, a remnant of believers. These are the 
 apostle's proofs. In the 15th verse, he argues, "If 
 the casting away of them be the reconciling of 
 the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but 
 life from the dead ?" He means, that when the Jews 
 shall be converted and received into the Church, this 
 happy event will lead to one still more glorious — the 
 spiritual resuscitation of the whole world. Those 
 already converted to the Christian faith he speaks of, 
 i 
 
138 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 in the next verse, as the first-fruits — he views them 
 as the earnest of the final conversion of the whole 
 race of Abraham, scattered over the earth, when the 
 fulness of times shall have come. These first con- 
 verts are said to he holy; but the apostle cannot 
 possibly mean that they were merely possessed of 
 relative holiness, for the characters he here refers to 
 are, doubtless, the same that he has been speaking of 
 from the beginning of the chapter. The very use of 
 the word " first-fruits," moreover, is sufficient to 
 prove the apostle's meaning. This term could not 
 apply to persons relatively holy, because this relative 
 holiness would belong to the whole nation . Dr Halley 
 himself considers all Israel to have been relatively holy. 
 "What, then, could be meant by the first-fruits of a na- 
 tion thus relatively holy ? Relative holiness itself is a 
 very questionable doctrine, much more the first-fruits 
 of it. The apostle is manifestly referring, under this 
 figure, to the first Jewish converts. These he very 
 properly calls the first-fruits ; and in saying that they 
 are holy, he means that they are so in the same sense 
 as Christians elsewhere are called holy brethren, 
 saints, &c. Well ! he says, " If the first-fruits be 
 holy, so is the lump." This is meant as a further 
 proof that God had not cast off his people. It is an 
 intimation that the divine counsels and purposes con- 
 cerning the Jews shall assuredly be fulfilled. The 
 figure does not allude to the first-fruits of grain, as 
 the wave-offering, but rather, to the first-fruits of 
 bread. What the quality of the first cake was, such 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. ] 39 
 
 was the quality of the whole mass of dough from 
 which it was made. Those of the Jewish nation who 
 had already espoused the true faith, were the first 
 offering presented to the Lord, and accepted; thus 
 affording an assurance that the whole mass would 
 be in the end in like manner approved: so God 
 had not cast off his people. In further explanation, 
 the apostle adds, " If the root be holy, so are the 
 branches;" and are we to suppose that he now, all 
 at once, turns from true holiness to relative holiness? 
 Why, what could relative holiness have to do here ? 
 The apostle simply repeats in another way the same 
 sentiment as is expressed in the former clause, viz., 
 that the Jews, or at least the remnant of them 
 according to the election of grace, will be accepted 
 as being personally holy. He now speaks of these 
 first converts as being holy branches, springing 
 from the holy root, Abraham : and, of course, he 
 means that they were holy, because they possessed 
 the faith of Abraham; that being his children spirit- 
 ually, they are like him — possess the same personal 
 sanctity as that by which he was distinguished. 
 What need is there to resort to the strange, outland- 
 ish doctrine of relative holiness, to interpret this 
 language ? Why not take it in its simple and natural 
 sense, especially as that sense so well agrees with the 
 connexion? We believe, indeed, that this is the 
 only explanation that accords with the apostle's 
 reasonings, and that it is impossible to make good 
 any other interpretation. 
 
1 40 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 In the verses that follow, the apostle represents, 
 allegorically, the relative circumstances of Jews and 
 Gentiles, under the Christian dispensation. To this we 
 must devote a few lines of explanation. All arguments 
 founded upon figurative language, it is admitted, are 
 of a somewhat precarious nature, and consequently 
 ought, as a general rule, to be avoided in controversy. 
 In explaining them, some license of interpretation is 
 always allowed, and must, in any discussion, be con- 
 ceded by both parties to each other. But, allowing 
 this freedom, that interpretation must still be most 
 approved which agrees best with the literal sense, to 
 be derived from other sources than the metaphor itself. 
 Now, we think it indisputable that the old and new 
 covenants supply the literal sense of the apostle's 
 allegory in this chapter, respecting the olive tree and 
 its branches; which sense we consider we have already 
 given in our view of the nature of the Abrahamic cove- 
 nant. This, therefore, must be our guide in explaining 
 the figure here used; nor can any interpretation be 
 admitted that clashes with the literal sense. Of 
 course, the justness of our explanation of the allegory 
 must depend upon the correctness of our theory con- 
 cerning the covenants. 
 
 This is our explanation : The good olive tree 
 represents Abraham and all his spiritual seed — he 
 the root, they the branches — according with our ex- 
 planation of the previous clause, " If the root be holy, 
 so are the branches." The carnal seed, as finding a 
 place in the ancient covenant, are the lifeless branches 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 141 
 
 in the good olive. They are represented (to make 
 the allegory complete) as belonging to the good olive ; 
 but it is evident that as they had no interest in the 
 covenant, spiritually considered, so neither are they 
 to be regarded as having properly partaken of the 
 root and fatness of the olive. These lifeless branches 
 were to be broken off from the good olive tree ; that 
 is, from Abraham, the root, and believers, the good 
 branches, with whom they had hitherto been visibly 
 united ; the allegory corresponding exactly with the 
 literal sense, viz., that the carnal, the inferior part of 
 the covenant, was to be annulled. But the good 
 olive will continue to grow and flourish — corresponding 
 in idea with the perpetuation of the spiritual seed, or 
 true Church of God. Into this good olive the be- 
 lieving Gentiles were to be inserted — that is, amongst 
 the spiritual seed ; and they were to partake, with 
 them that remained, of the root and fatness of the 
 olive tree — they were to become members of the 
 Church of Christ, and maintain their standing as 
 such, by faith. This, we believe, to bring out the 
 full import of this Scripture allegory. 
 
 Dr Halley having quoted the language, " If some 
 of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild 
 olive, wert grafted in among them, and with them 
 partakest of the root and fatness of the olive," says, 
 " The doctrine surely is, that the inserted Gentiles 
 were placed precisely in the position of the rejected 
 Jews ; that is, were partakers of the same relative 
 holiness." We reply, Certainly not. The Gentiles 
 
142 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 were not grafted in amongst the branches that were 
 broken off — the unbelieving Jews — but amongst those 
 that remained ; that is, those who believed in Christ 
 — who were the spiritual children of Abraham, and 
 constituted " the residue according to the election 
 of grace." The very form of language employed, 
 independent of the principle upon which the A bra- 
 hamic covenant may be explained, forbids Dr 
 H alley's interpretation. The branches that were 
 broken off were the natural branches, the carnal 
 seed of Abraham, who believed not as did Abraham. 
 These never possessed personal holiness ; nor is the 
 allegorical language of the apostle to be understood 
 as implying that they, in any proper sense of the 
 words, ever partook of the root and fatness of the 
 olive tree. Those who had the holy faith of Abra- 
 ham, the holy root, partook of this; and it is amongst 
 them that the Gentiles were inserted. The apostle 
 evidently, as we think, employs the figure of the 
 branches in two different senses. In one part of it, 
 he applies it to the spiritual, believing seed, in the 
 sense of vital, living branches ; in another, he applies 
 it to the carnal seed, whom he calls natural branches, 
 and who may be considered, though in a sense be- 
 longing to the root, as dead and fruitless. Being 
 thus dead and fruitless, they are broken off at the 
 expiration of the Jewish Church-state, and the be- 
 lieving Gentiles are grafted in. The unbelieving 
 Gentiles cannot be meant; for there would be the 
 same reason for their being broken off as the Jews — 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 143 
 
 the natural branches. If in that character grafted in, 
 it would only be to be broken off again, for the same 
 reason as the unbelieving Jews were broken off. It 
 must, therefore, mean believing Gentiles, and we must 
 understand, that they were grafted in amongst the 
 believing Jews. Thus Jew and Gentile become one 
 in the Lord. 
 
 If this view needed confirmation, the course of 
 remarks that follow abundantly afford it. " They were 
 broken off because of unbelief," says the apostle; 
 " thou standest by faith." If the Gentiles were 
 merely grafted into external religious privileges, their 
 standing in those privileges would not depend upon 
 their faith; for both believers and unbelievers are to 
 possess those advantages to the end of time. More- 
 over, it is evident that faith is the condition of being 
 grafted in, from verse 23 : u And they also, if they 
 abide not in unbelief shall be grafted in again." Dr 
 Halley makes out that they are already grafted in; 
 and whereas, before, they were sole heirs of the pro- 
 mise, are now co-heirs with the Gentiles, subject to 
 excision and forfeiture on the same conditions. Dr 
 Halley s theory will not abide a fair scrutiny. The 
 Jews, evidently, on the same principle as the Gen- 
 tiles, can only be grafted in on the condition of faith. 
 The whole of the chapter proves, that the good olive 
 can only mean the spiritual Church of Christ. Into 
 this, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, 
 the ancient people of the Lord shall be admitted; and 
 so all Israel shall be saved. 
 
144 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 Thus, on a fair and impartial view of this interest- 
 ing allegory, we are honestly and conscientiously 
 convinced that Dr Halley's exposition is defective 
 and indefensible, and that the one we have given is 
 the only one that accords with the reasoning of the 
 apostle, and the only one that harmonizes with the 
 analogy of the faith. 
 
 My exposition of the Abrahamic covenant, as given 
 in this chapter, differs, as will be found, from Dr 
 Wardlaw's idea of that covenant, as well as from that 
 of Dr Halley; but this difference has respect, chiefly, 
 to the inferences of these learned divines. I am not 
 much concerned to dispute upon the point, whether 
 the covenant-right of infants was derived from their 
 immediate relation to their parents, or from their 
 remote connexion with Abraham; though I doubt 
 not the latter is the truth. Whichever view be 
 adopted, we deny the inference on either side, and 
 that precisely on the same ground. Infants, whether 
 on account of their descent from Abraham, or from 
 parents of the stock of Abraham, belonged to the 
 covenant of old only in its national and typical 
 aspect, which also, as we have before explained, 
 secured to them many external religious advantages; 
 but they never belonged to it in its spiritual aspect, 
 as having respect only to spiritual people. And this, 
 let it be constantly remembered, was the very soul of 
 the covenant. It was in this view that, even as made 
 with Abraham, so long a time ago, it was strictly 
 evangelical. It was in this sense that it was to be 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 145 
 
 permanent— never to pass away. In this view it still 
 abides; and all who are of the faith belong to it, 
 being blessed with faithful Abraham, w T ho was the 
 great ancestral type of all true believers to the end 
 of time. To answer a particular purpose, the cove- 
 nant wore, for a time, an inferior aspect. That end 
 has been answered ; the political and temporary has 
 terminated, the spiritual and everlasting alone re- 
 maining. Infants might belong to it formerly — they 
 cannot belong to it now. We deny even the possi- 
 bility of their being included in the covenant in 
 this spiritual dispensation, whether this supposed 
 right be claimed for all universally, on Dr Halley's 
 theory, or only, as on Dr Wardlaw's interpretation, 
 for the children of parents who are believers. Dr 
 Wardlaw's explanation of the covenant made with 
 Abraham, as being a spiritual covenant, accords pre- 
 cisely with our own views, nor could we wish for a 
 more complete advocacy of our cause than we find in 
 his Strictures on Dr Halley. He shows, just as we 
 ourselves are wont to argue, that this covenant exists 
 only with spiritual people — with those who possess 
 the faith of the patriarch Abraham; but then, he 
 most inconsistently, as it appears to us, includes the 
 infants of believing parents in this covenant. For 
 this we are at a loss to discover the shadow of a rea- 
 son. Nothing of the kind is even hinted at in the 
 New Testament, when the nature of the new cove- 
 nant is explained. The apostle clearly enough 
 teaches, as Dr Wardlaw himself perfectly under- 
 
146 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 
 
 stands, that this covenant is formed with believers, 
 and, mark! with believers only; and, therefore, cer- 
 tainly not with the children of believers. Dr Ward- 
 law's argument is, that a divinely instituted connexion 
 existed formerly between parents and children, which 
 has never been repealed. We deny, in the strongest 
 terms, that such a connexion ever existed; but even 
 if it did, it was only in a temporal point of view — only 
 to last so long as the seed of Abraham after the flesh 
 were to be preserved as a distinct race, for a specific 
 purpose. There was nothing spiritual in it. It be- 
 longed to that part of the covenant which was to 
 pass away, together with all the peculiar laws and 
 institutions of the Mosaic ritual. The Abrahamic 
 covenant, however, held a decided superiority over 
 the Sinaitic, as expressly recognising the efficacy of 
 faith in justifying our souls, and distinctly represent- 
 ing all believers as, in this higher and more spiritual 
 sense, in covenant with Jehovah, whether in patri- 
 archal, Jewish, or Christian times, and even to the 
 end of the world. In this, from the very nature of 
 the case, infants never had, and never can have, 
 either part or lot. Consequently, by refusing to re- 
 cognise them as in covenant with God now, we do 
 them no injustice. They possess, in fact, far higher 
 privileges of a religious nature in these Christian 
 times, than ever were enjoyed by infant Hebrews 
 during the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations ; but 
 no covenant exists now with them, nor can we con- 
 sider baptism, the rite of initiation into the new cove- 
 
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. 14/ 
 
 ?iant, as in any sense applicable to their circumstances. 
 The infants of believing parents are, of course, spe- 
 cially favoured, as being intrusted to those whose 
 anxious endeavour it will be to bring them up in the 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord; but the new 
 covenant is formed, not with them, but with their 
 parents. In the blessings of that covenant they par- 
 ticipate indirectly; but the covenant itself, as, I think, 
 we have abundantly shown, exists only with believers. 
 
148 PARTICULAR TEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PARTICULAR TEXTS. 
 
 We have now given our views of the baptismal com- 
 mission, the practice of the apostles, and the Abra- 
 hamic covenant, which we consider to furnish the 
 three main arguments in the controversy on baptism 
 — a controversy which has so long troubled the 
 Church, and which we cannot flatter ourselves is likely 
 very soon to be brought to a peaceful end. It may, 
 perhaps, have been permitted for wise and useful 
 purposes to engage so long and so largely the thoughts 
 of Christian people; for however comparatively unim- 
 portant the question may seem in itself to some minds, 
 doubtless many collateral truths and doctrines, which 
 might have been in a measure lost sight of, have, in 
 the agitation of the controversy, been brought forward 
 into a more prominent point of view than would other- 
 wise have been the case. Indeed, the subject is so 
 interwoven with every line of theology, that we con- 
 fess we have no sympathy with those who represent 
 it as trivial and unimportant, and who think that 
 the time devoted to its discussion is only so much time 
 misapplied and thrown away. 
 
 Having discussed the three great divisions of the 
 
PARTICULAR TEXTS. 149 
 
 subject, it only remains for us now to notice a few 
 texts bearing upon the general question, that nothing 
 of importance may seem to be avoided. Our exami- 
 nation of these will occupy comparatively but a short 
 space in our little work, which it is our aim to make 
 as concise as possible. 
 
 The first passage that requires our attention, is the 
 well-known one which occurs in Matt. xix. 14: 
 " Suffer the little children to come unto me, and for- 
 bid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
 With much of Dr Halley's reasoning upon this text 
 we entirely agree, only differing from him in the 
 conclusion he arrives at. The Doctor says (p. 568): 
 " If infants are members of the kingdom of heaven, 
 they ought, by the officers of the Church, to be re- 
 cognised in that relation." That there is a propriety 
 in recognising infants at their innocent age as belong- 
 ing to the kingdom of heaven, we readily allow. Our 
 Lord recognised them as such when he took them in 
 his arms and blessed them ; and, doubtless, we ought to 
 dedicate our children to the Lord, and recognise them, 
 with pleasing emotions and grateful acknowledgments, 
 as belonging to the kingdom of God — a truth most 
 delightful in itself, and especially consolatory to 
 parents, if called upon to part with beloved offspring 
 in infancy. But we see here no formal act of recog- 
 nition. We see nothing more than what might most 
 naturally and appropriately have been done if baptism 
 had never been instituted. It was a mere accidental 
 circumstance, moreover, which led Jesus so kindly 
 
150 PARTICULAR TEXTS. 
 
 and condescendingly to take notice of little children; 
 and why may we not suppose that his benevolent de- 
 sign, in thus taking the little children in his arms and 
 blessing them, was to assure the minds of Christians 
 in all succeeding time, that although Christianity 
 provided no rite, as before, specifically for children, 
 yet they were not overlooked and cast off, as having 
 no part in the blessings of redemption? This seems 
 to us a reasonable way of understanding thig interest- 
 ing act of the Saviour; but certainly we see nothing 
 here that, in order to its perpetuation, calls for the 
 interference of the " officers of the Church/' nor do 
 we regard this passing act, beautiful in its simplicity, 
 as having the remotest allusion to baptism. It was 
 a pleasing act, free of all formality, by which children 
 (supposing them to die in their infancy, ere guilty of 
 actual sin) were recognised as belonging to the king- 
 dom of heaven — safe for eternity. Dr Halley says 
 (p. 568): "They (infants) are not indeed members 
 of a particular Church or Christian society, for that 
 is formed by the voluntary act of Christian men, and 
 every man joins any such society on his own election, 
 and is received on the approbation of its members. 
 Were he rejected by them, he would not be expelled 
 from the kingdom of God. Were all these particular 
 Churches dissolved, the kingdom of God would re- 
 main a kingdom which cannot be moved." On all 
 this we have no comment to make, except to say, 
 which is hardly necessary, that it fully expresses our 
 own views. But when Dr Halley asks, " How is an 
 
PARTICULAR TEXTS. 151 
 
 infant to be recognised as a member of the kingdom 
 of Christ ? is not baptism the proper recognition of 
 a member of Christ's kingdom ? " we unhesitatingly 
 answer, that in the case of infants, baptism is not the 
 proper recognition of a member of Christ's kingdom. 
 Adults become members of the kingdom of God by 
 their own " voluntary act;" that is, by faith in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. This is the regular, scriptural 
 condition of belonging to the kingdom of God, and 
 it is with this act alone that baptism is everywhere in 
 the Scriptures associated. Again, Dr Halley says: 
 " Infants have all the spiritual blessings of the 
 covenant of grace; they are redeemed from death; 
 they are entitled to everlasting life; their interest 
 in Christ is sure and certain, until they forfeit 
 it by wilful transgression." True, most true. " If 
 they cannot have faith, they do not need it; if they 
 cannot have repentance, God requires it not from 
 them." And we add, on the very same principle, 
 neither do they need baptism, nor does God require 
 it to be administered to them. That baptism, irre- 
 spective of faith, the only scriptural condition of sal- 
 vation, is the sign of the blessings of the evangelical 
 covenant, we contend is not in proof, and we cannot 
 allow it here to be simply taken for granted. Bap- 
 tism, as a public act, in which an individual declares 
 his faith in Jesus, and expresses emblematically the 
 hope that his sins are washed away, and by which, 
 at the same time, he is recognised as belonging to the 
 kingdom of Christ, has a manifest and beautiful sig- 
 
152 PARTICULAR TEXTS. 
 
 nificancy; but we are at a loss to conceive what mean- 
 ing there is in baptizing innocent infancy as a sign of 
 their belonging to the kingdom of heaven. We won- 
 der not at the gross heresy and absurdity of baptismal 
 regeneration growing out of such a notion. It is its 
 natural offspring. 
 
 If I am reminded of the admission made in my 
 first chapter, viz., that Christ admitted into his king- 
 dom any who were disposed to follow him, converted 
 or unconverted, I merely have to say, in explanation, 
 that a condition was required even in their case. They 
 were, at least, required to acknowledge their faith in 
 Christ as the Messiah ; and though such persons might 
 be indiscriminately admitted into the kingdom of God 
 in its then imperfectly unfolded state, the case of in- 
 fants remains just where it was. Incapable of saving 
 faith, they are equally incapable of that lower exercise 
 of faith which was required of all who, even in 
 Christ's day, were recognised by baptism as members 
 of his kingdom. " Infants, indeed," as Dr Carson 
 well argues, "are saved out of the ordinary way." 
 Included in the second Adam by covenant relation, 
 they participate in the blessings of that redemption 
 which he has wrought out. They belong, from the 
 moment of their birth, to the kingdom of God. " They 
 have a title to heaven, clear and incontestable, which 
 no man can abrogate, and no Church has a right to 
 gainsay. They are bought with a price — with the pre- 
 cious blood of Christ;"* but not being saved condi- 
 * The Sacraments, p. 569. 
 
PARTICULAR TEXTS. 153 
 
 tionally by faith, and regarding baptism, on the ground 
 of the arguments advanced in the former chapters, as 
 properly the believer's ordinance, we wait for clearer 
 evidence than we have yet met with, that this ordi- 
 nance is in any way applicable to infants — that they 
 have any need of it, or lose anything by its being 
 withholden. 
 
 The next passage which requires our notice, will be 
 found in John iii. 5 : " Except a man be born of 
 water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king- 
 dom of God." In explanation of this, Dr Halley re- 
 fers to a declaration, made in a previous lecture, viz., 
 that " of the kingdom of God there are the internal 
 grace, and the external sign — the internal grace called 
 the birth of the Spirit, and the external sign called the 
 birth of water." " No one," he says, " is of the king- 
 dom without the birth of the Spirit, and no one is re- 
 cognised of the kingdom in its visible administration 
 without the birth of water." And then, after a few 
 connecting sentences, he demands, speaking of in- 
 fants : " Had they the internal grace, who should 
 deny them the sign ?" Now, observe ! what was 
 this internal grace ? We take Dr Halley's own expla- 
 nation as given above : it was " the birth of the 
 Spirit." Surely Dr Halley will not pretend that all 
 infants are the subjects of this spiritual birth — that 
 every infant coming into the world is regenerated 
 This were anew doctrine, indeed. And if it cannot 
 be argued that all infants are " born of the Spirit," 
 then they do not possess the internal grace that Dr 
 
J 54 PARTICULAR TEXTS. 
 
 Halley speaks of, and consequently no injustice is 
 done them by denying them the external sign. Dr 
 Halley adds further: a Had they the external sign, 
 we contend for no more." And quite enough, too; 
 for if they had the external sign, it could not have 
 been given them because they had 'the internal grace; 
 for, even admitting that some might be " sanctified 
 from the womb," and that, therefore, in their case, 
 the outward sign would not be misapplied, this would 
 be no wan-ant for the universal application of that 
 sign by the baptism of all; for that could only be 
 done on the presumption that all had the internal 
 grace — that is, " the birth of the Spirit." " Had they 
 neither the grace nor the sign," says Dr Halley, " how 
 could they belong to the kingdom?" We answer, 
 they belonged to it, as signified before, as being in- 
 cluded in the second Adam. " Born neither of water, 
 nor of the Spirit, how could they have entered it V 
 They entered it by natural birth, and nothing but 
 subsequent guilt could exclude them from it. 
 
 But it will, no doubt, be objected against us, that, 
 in all this, we overlook the plain declaration of the 
 text, that none can belong to the kingdom but those 
 who are " born of water and of the Spirit." Now 
 we wish to avoid nothing, to blink no difficulty, to 
 shrink from no fair investigation. We consider that 
 our Lord is here speaking of the divinely revealed con- 
 dition of belonging to the kingdom of Christ. That 
 condition, as he plainly tells Nicodemus in a previous 
 verse, is nothing less than regeneration — " Except a 
 
PARTICULAR TEXTS. 155 
 
 man be born again, lie cannot see the kingdom of 
 God/' Then follows, in further explanation of the 
 matter — " Except a man be born of water and of the 
 Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." 
 Here, then, as in so many other instances (taking 
 the birth of water to denote baptism), we have bap- 
 tism and regeneration brought into juxtaposition. 
 What can be more significant ? Baptism is here in- 
 troduced, just as it is in the commission as given by 
 Mark — " He that believeth and is baptized, shall be 
 saved." It does not mean that baptism is, from any 
 efficacy in itself, essential either in the one case or the 
 other; but only as understood uniformly to accom- 
 pany faith or regeneration. But it does seem here to 
 be taken for granted, that the same qualification was 
 requisite for baptism as for belonging to the kingdom 
 of God. The baptism of water is, in our view, men- 
 tioned by our Lord as being the public avowal of 
 faith, a decided religious act on the part of the rege- 
 nerated individual, whereby he declared himself to be 
 on the Lord's side, expressed his desire before the 
 world to belong to his kingdom, and thus afforded 
 evidence of his sincerity. This was, then, a public 
 act, in which the believer, the regenerated child of 
 God, openly declared that he was not ashamed of 
 Christ — a test that was especially needed in those days, 
 when even a Jewish ruler came secretly to Jesus by 
 night, for fear of the Jews ; and hence it is, that our 
 Lord said, " Except a man be born of water and of 
 the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom ot God." 
 
156 PARTICULAR TEXTS. 
 
 Now, infants cannot fulfil these conditions; they can- 
 not repent and believe, and, so far as it is a Christian 
 duty, become regenerate, and own Christ before men; 
 and it is, we think, quite clear that their case was 
 not here under consideration. Our Lord did not 
 mean to say that infants, who are incapable of fulfil- 
 ling any conditions of salvation, and are an exception 
 to the ordinary rule as to the method of salvation, did 
 not belong to him and his kingdom. He was ex- 
 plaining to Nicodemus what was essential, according 
 to the Scripture rule, for salvation. He first tells 
 him (verse 3), that regeneration is necessary, and 
 then, he adds to this, baptism, as a public avowal ot 
 faith and discipleship ; but the peculiar circumstances 
 of children of an innocent age were clearly not under 
 contemplation. 
 
 We must now advert to a series of passages to 
 which Dr Halley appeals, as leading to the conclu- 
 sion that baptism was the only outward and visible 
 recognition of any one belonging to the kingdom ot 
 heaven, and that this was administered in the most 
 indiscriminate manner to the multitudes who followed 
 Jesus, and wished to identify themselves with him. 
 These texts are, Matt. xi. 12: "From the days of 
 John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven 
 suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force ;" 
 — Luke xvi. 1G: "The law and the prophets weie 
 until John ; since that time the kingdom of God is 
 preached, and every man presseth into it;" — and 
 Luke vii. 29 : " And all the people that heard him, 
 
PARTICULAR TEXTS. 15? 
 
 and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with 
 the baptism of John." Now, we raise no objections 
 to Dr Halley's inferences from these texts. We ad- 
 mit that the very language implies " much popular 
 excitement." Nor do we, for a moment, contend 
 that " every man, by faith unfeigned and true re- 
 pentance, pressed along the narrow path," or that 
 these promiscuous multitudes were all " converted by 
 the Spirit of grace." We admit, too, from the com- 
 parison which is instituted between Matthew's state- 
 ment and that of Luke, that a great part of the 
 multitudes of people who flocked to Jesus was, by 
 baptism, received into the kingdom of God. We 
 have nothing to object to Dr Halley's conclusion, 
 that the taking of the kingdom of heaven by violence 
 in one Gospel, is expounded, in the other, to mean 
 being baptized with the baptism of John. Upon this 
 comparison of passages, however, and the purpose for 
 which Dr Halley appeals to them, we have one or 
 two things to remark. 
 
 First, It is not Christian baptism that is here 
 spoken of, but the baptism of John. I have said, in 
 the jirst and second chapters, that, while John insisted 
 upon the necessity of repentance, and was, in fulfil- 
 ment of his particular commission, calling off the 
 minds of the Jews from the form to the spirit, that it 
 was no part of the duty of his office to wait for de- 
 cided evidences of the repentance being sincere ; that 
 while preparing the people for a more spiritual dis- 
 pensation, and warning them against the conse- 
 
1 58 PARTICULAR TEXTS. 
 
 quences of hypocrisy, as lie did the Pharisees, whom 
 he called " a generation of vipers," he yet could not, 
 consistently with his particular office, withhold bap- 
 tism from any who desired it at his hands. Fhave 
 also argued, that the baptism which was performed 
 under the direction of Jesus during his life, differed 
 nothing from that of John; that, in fact, the period 
 of John's baptism extended till the death of Christ. 
 I have, therefore, no difficulty in admitting, that 
 these promiscuous multitudes were received into the 
 kingdom of heaven, in its then undeveloped state, by 
 baptism. But this baptism, I repeat, was John's 
 baptism, and not Christian baptism. 
 
 But, secondly, It is not necessarily implied that the 
 multitudes here spoken of were baptized by Jesus; 
 for it is the past participle that is used by Luke (chap- 
 ter vii. 29): "And all the people that heard him, 
 and the publicans, justified God, having been baptized 
 with the baptism of John." But, in truth, it matters 
 not whether they were baptized by John or by Jesus; 
 for the case of the twelve re-baptized disciples at 
 Ephesus (to mention nothing more) must ever stand 
 as an irrefragable proof of an important distinction 
 existing between baptism before and baptism after the 
 death of Christ. 
 
 Thirdly, We cannot forbear to notice, as it now 
 comes immediately before us, that in the very con- 
 nexion in which the passages we have been consider- 
 ing occur, we meet with a very remarkable declaration, 
 tending to confirm the distinction we contend for be- 
 
PARTICULAR TEXTS. 159 
 
 tween John's baptism and Christian baptism, viz., 
 " Among them that are born of women there hath 
 not arisen a greater than John the Baptist; notwith- 
 standing, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven 
 
 ling. 
 
 is 
 
 greater than he." What can this mean, but that the 
 brief dispensation to which John's baptism belonged 
 was only preparatory to one greatly superior — the 
 dispensation of the Spirit — to commence when 
 Jesus should ascend to the Father, as argued in the 
 first chapter of this work? Taking this into account, 
 together with our Lord's frequent declarations con- 
 cerning the spirituality of his kingdom (never 
 realized while he was on earth), and the true cha- 
 racter of his disciples — in view, also, of the case 
 of re-baptism just alluded to — I do not see how we 
 can avoid the full conviction, that the law of Chris- 
 tian baptism must be regarded as stricter — more spirit- 
 ual, than that of the baptism of John, and, conse- 
 quently, though all the multitudes spoken of in the 
 verses we have been investigating were baptized by 
 Jesus himself, that our principles as to the spiritual 
 qualifications requisite for Christian baptism remain 
 unaffected and uninvalidated. 
 
 Let us now turn our attention to the well-known, 
 the noted text, occurring in 1 Cor. vii. 14 : " For the 
 unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the 
 unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; else 
 were your children unclean, but now are they holy.'' 
 On the full examination of this text Dr Halley, does 
 not enter in those of his lectures which are already 
 
160 PARTICULAR TEXTS. 
 
 before the public; hut apprizes us of his intention to 
 do so in a remaining lecture on baptism yet to appear. 
 Nevertheless, I feel inclined to propose an exposition 
 of this text, which has ever held so conspicuous a 
 place in the baptismal controversy. 
 
 The subject that the apostle treats of in this chapter 
 is that of marriage. On this he discourses very much 
 at large in a long chapter of forty verses. But it is 
 observable that he does not claim inspiration for all 
 that he says upon this subject, but explicitly declares 
 that, in some instances, he gives only his own judg- 
 ment. This is clearly the case in regard to the ques- 
 tion on which he delivers his opinion in the 12th, 
 13th, and 14th verses of this chapter; which, also, 
 sufficiently accounts for his speaking familiarly of 
 things, concerning which it might be thought beneath 
 the dignity of the Holy Spirit to give any revelation. 
 The case on which Paul here gives his judgment is, 
 whether a believer, married to an unbeliever, ought 
 to separate. He decides in the negative, assigning as 
 a reason, that the unbelieving husband is sanctified 
 to his wife, and the unbelieving wife to the husband. 
 The preposition " h " appears, here, to be clearly used 
 in the sense of " in respect to," as in 1 Cor. xiv. 1 1 : 
 " Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, 
 I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he 
 that speaketh shall be U Ipo* ^A^a^s ; a barbarian to 
 (in respect to) me." In Gal. i. 16., we find also a 
 similar use of this preposition, " When it pleased God 
 to reveal his Son h ifth, to me, that I might preach him 
 
PARTICULAR TEXTS. 161 
 
 iv ro7$ ifoiiriv, to the heathen." Taking this, therefore, to 
 be the meaning of the preposition, the apostle gives 
 his opinion to this effect : If you are already united 
 to an unbelieyer, you must remain so, the marriage 
 law is sacred, and must he preserved inviolate. The 
 unbelieving husband is sanctified to the wife, and the 
 wife to the husband. He adds, else — if it were not 
 so, if the marriage relationship were not held sacred — 
 your children would be esteemed unclean, whereas 
 they are holy. From the connexion, I think it is 
 evident, that the sanctification spoken of is not to be 
 understood in a moral or religious sense, but that it 
 is simply a marriage sanctification that is intended, 
 and, of course, on the same principle, I interpret the 
 words " unclean " and " holy," as applied to the 
 children. 
 
 Paedo -baptists have generally argued that the holi- 
 ness of the children here spoken of is to be understood 
 as a relative holiness. But this is a notion that 
 cannot be sustained. If relative holiness were in- 
 tended, I ask, Why should the separation of the 
 parents affect that holiness? United, or ununited, 
 one of the parents would still be a believer ; and why 
 should not the children be relatively holy (if this is 
 meant) on account of the faith of the believing 
 parent, whether separated or otherwise from the 
 other? If this relative holiness depend only upon 
 the faith of one parent — if that is sufficient, as the 
 apostle represents it to be — why should the union of 
 both be necessary to render it valid ? Why should it 
 
162 PARTICULAR TEXTS. 
 
 be impaired by separation ? If faith in both the 
 parents were essential to render the offspring holy, 
 then we could understand how the dissolving of the 
 conjugal bond might affect it. But it is not so; for 
 faith on one side is enough. Will it be said, that, by 
 the separation of man and wife, the children might 
 be left to be brought up by the ungodly parent, and 
 that they could not be esteemed, under such cir- 
 cumstances, as holy ? It is a sufficient reply to this, 
 that the children might fall to the lot of the believing 
 parent, and surely they would then be relatively holy. 
 But, if it should be said that both parents must live 
 together, and their children with them, forming one 
 family, to render the children holy, this will involve 
 the absurdity of arguing, that though the faith of 
 the believing party is that which constitutes the 
 offspring holy, still they cannot be holy without the 
 unholy parent. In every view, this notion of relative 
 holiness seems to break down altogether; nor does it 
 appear at all probable that the apostle had any such a 
 figment in his thoughts. 
 
 I conclude, then, that the holiness here spoken of 
 is simply a marriage holiness; that it can mean no- 
 thing else. The husband and wife must not separate; 
 they are sanctified to each other. For a believer to 
 form a union with an unbeliever would indeed be 
 sinful; but if such union is already existing, it must 
 on no account be broken. Christianity cannot in any 
 case (with one exception) annul the law of marriage 
 as a divine institution, an ordinance of God. It does 
 
PARTICULAR TEXTS. 163 
 
 not bring confusion into the marriage relation, and 
 destroy the natural sanctity of wedlock. But by dis- 
 solving the marriage relation, illegality would be 
 stamped upon it, the past union would be represented 
 as unlawful and, consequently, the children born under 
 such circumstances (that is, since one of the parents be- 
 came a believer) would be considered as bom in unlaw- 
 ful wedlock — they would be regarded as illegitimate — 
 they would be unclean instead of holy. I admit such 
 a sense of the word " holy * to be unusual. But 
 the holiness of the children, as already argued, is to 
 be understood in the same sense as the sanctification of 
 the unbelieving partner, spoken of in the first part of the 
 verse, which cannot be regarded as of a religious na- 
 ture ; but, as Albert Barnes well says, " the unbelieving 
 husband was sanctified in regard to the subject under 
 discussion — that is, in regard to the question, whether it 
 was proper for them" (the husband and wife) " to live 
 together, or whether they should be separated or 
 not ?" so are we to regard the children as " holy" in 
 regard to the subject under discussion; and the sum 
 of all is in perfect agreement with the whole scope 
 of the apostle's reasoning — the marriage relation of 
 the parents is legitimate, and the offspring are legiti- 
 mate. 
 
 Such, then, appears to me to be the meaning of this 
 much- controverted passage of Scripture. But whether 
 the principle upon which we have explained it be 
 right or wrong, one thing, at least, seems plain, 
 namely, that whether the holiness here spoken of be 
 
164 PARTICULAR TEXTS. 
 
 regarded as a marriage holiness, or as a relative holi- 
 ness, neither of these views favours, in the least 
 degree, the universal and indiscriminate theory which 
 Dr Halley advocates. But as he has not yet given 
 us his view of this passage, possibly he may have some 
 new light to shed upon it; and we shall wait with 
 some curiosity for his exposition. Perhaps, after all, 
 he may think with us, that the text has nothing at 
 all to do with the subject of our controversy. 
 
 There are a few other texts of Scripture besides 
 those we have examined, which bear upon the ques- 
 tion we have been discussing, but which do not seem 
 to us to call for any specific notice. Here, therefore, 
 we bring to a conclusion our reasonings upon the 
 question, who are the proper subjects of baptism; 
 having shown, as we think, in the preceding chapters, 
 that the ordinance is designed, not ^for all persons of 
 all ages and all shades of character, universally and 
 without distinction, but only for believers. 
 
THE MODE. 165 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 THE MODE. 
 
 Regarding the practice of indiscriminate baptism, 
 whether of adults or infants, as a great prostitution 
 of a Christian ordinance — as on the one hand secur- 
 ing no intelligible good, and on the other, haying a 
 tendency to occasion much harm by confounding the 
 distinction between the Church and the world — my 
 principal design in writing upon the question of bap- 
 tism was, to vindicate it from these perversions and 
 evils — to show that it is properly the believer's ordi 
 nance — the ordinance of the Church. But having 
 ventured to launch my little bark upon this stormy 
 controversy, I will not altogether dismiss the subject 
 without saying a few words concerning the mode of 
 administering the ordinance of baptism. The two 
 branches of this much agitated question, viz., the 
 subjects and the mode, are quite distinct from each 
 other, and require to be pursued in an altogether dif- 
 ferent line of argumentation. There is nothing com- 
 mon between them. So entirely unconnected are 
 they with each other, that it has ever appeared to me 
 to be nothing less than a very remarkable phenome- 
 
166 THE MODE. 
 
 non, that those who contend for infant baptism should 
 uniformly advocate sprinkling, or something less than 
 dipping, as the right mode of baptizing ; while those 
 who have maintained the cause of what is technically 
 termed " believers' baptism " have, without exception 
 (as far as I know), contended for immersion or sub- 
 mersion. I do think it a very singular circumstance, 
 that there is no third party, as formerly, to advocate 
 and practise immersing infants'; or a fourth, which I 
 believe there never has been, to adopt the method of 
 sprinkling believers. I have, however, reason to be- 
 lieve that, mingled in the mass of both denominations, 
 there are not a few of the latter class — not a few who feel 
 it impossible to surrender the conviction, that believers 
 alone are the proper subjects of baptism, but who, 
 nevertheless, are not convinced that immersion is 
 absolutely necessary to render baptism valid — who 
 think that any mode is allowable. Now, undoubt- 
 edly, there must be a right and a wrong to every 
 question ; and in this matter we ought to get at the 
 truth if possible, and every one ought to be " fully 
 persuaded in his own mind." But this part of the 
 question, I freely confess, never has assumed that 
 importance in my estimation which seems, in every 
 point of view, to belong to the other. The inquiry 
 into the subjects of baptism involves great questions of 
 truth in theology; this, in itself alone, affects no impor- 
 tant principles of morality or religion. As a positive in- 
 stitution, it, of course, involves the moral principle of 
 obedience to the command of the Redeemer. If Jesus 
 
THE MODE. 167 
 
 has enjoined immersion, and that alone, and if we are 
 not at liberty to deviate from the literality of a positive 
 institute ; then, though there is nothing moral in dip- 
 ping (nor, indeed, in any other mode), it becomes a 
 moral duty, on account of our Lord's command; and 
 though, were I to enter upon any lengthened discus- 
 sion concerning the mode of baptism, I should feel 
 that I was not making a stand for any great 
 principle, yet I would acknowledge, with all seri- 
 ousness and submissiveness of spirit, the duty of 
 knowing and doing the whole will of Christ. It is 
 this conviction that brings me briefly to turn my at- 
 tention to the question of the mode of baptizing. I 
 will, therefore, without pretending to enter upon a full 
 investigation, state how this question presents itself to 
 my view. I do not purpose to attempt a dissection 
 of Dr Halley's lecture on the mode of baptism, but 
 shall just touch upon some of its principal arguments. 
 That the word B««r<n£* uniformly signifies to dip, I 
 will not venture to assert, or undertake to prove. I 
 believe, however, that it is pretty generally admitted, on 
 both sides, that the word does mean to dip — that this is 
 its generic meaning, and its most usual meaning. Dr 
 Halley, if I understand him aright, admits as much as 
 this. But it appears quite evident that the word also 
 bears the sense of covering by superfusion. This is 
 admitted by Dr Cox, who says, as quoted by Dr Hal- 
 ley, " a person may indeed be immersed by pouring r , 
 but immersion is the being plunged into water, or 
 overwhelmed by it. Were the water to ascend from 
 
168 THE MODE. 
 
 the earth, it would still be baptism, were the person 
 wholly covered by it." The examples adduced by 
 Dr Halley seem also incontrovertibly to establish this 
 meaning. I shall not enter upon any minute inves- 
 tigation of the instances which Dr Halley has adduced, 
 as I wish to cut short this part of the discussion. And 
 it is the less necessary to do so, as I could add nothing 
 to what has been done in the way of proving, that over- 
 whelming or superfusion is a sense of the word Barri^a. 
 I would only say, to prevent misapprehension, that I 
 do not see how, granting affusion to be baptism, the 
 question becomes only u one of degree;" for the very 
 examples which Dr Halley has produced are of such 
 a nature, that they do not allow us to understand the 
 superfusion indicated by Bavri?&> to be partial. Even 
 those very examples represent it as complete. The 
 bladder floats on the top of the wave — it will not dip; 
 but it may be overwhelmed (baptized) by the wave 
 breaking over it. So the sea-shore, though not 
 dipped into the water, is supposed to be quite over- 
 whelmed (baptized) with it. Thus far we surrender 
 the question of immersion, and, in doing so, feel no 
 small pleasure in finding ourselves in such good com- 
 pany as that of Dr Cox; and are most happy, after 
 the antagonistic position we have so long maintained, 
 to be for once agreed with Dr Halley. On the other 
 hand, Dr Halley concedes not a little to us, as it re- 
 gards the baptisms of the Pharisees alluded to in the 
 New Testament, admitting, as he does, that their ex- 
 treme superstition may account for what might other- 
 
THE MODE. 169 
 
 wise seem the strange and almost incredible custom 
 of immersing, not only pots, cups, brazen vessels, &c, 
 but even couches. We are glad, also, to find, after 
 having very much at length argued against the prac- 
 tice of immersion by the apostles in many cases, on 
 account of the scarcity of water in Jerusalem and 
 many parts of Palestine, he, in his appendix, expressly 
 signifies his desire that that part of his lecture should 
 be " looked upon cautiously." " I am bound," says 
 he, " to acknowledge that these difficulties (viz., aris- 
 ing from scarcity of water, &c.) may be attributed to 
 our ignorance of the circumstances." 
 
 The argument which is founded upon the account 
 of the baptizing of the Israelites in the cloud and in 
 the sea, and also that which is built upon the facts 
 recorded respecting the day of Pentecost, although 
 upon these two cases Dr Halley places his chief de- 
 pendence, do not, we own, either of them commend 
 themselves to our calm judgment. We are surprised 
 that Dr Halley should think so much of these two 
 examples, that he should even say that he must be 
 understood as "continually leaning upon them;" for to 
 us (we may be dull of comprehension) nothing seems 
 plainer than that the allusions are highly figurative 
 in both instances. Notwithstanding all that has been 
 said, we do still think that the entrance of Israel in- 
 to the sea — their passing through its deep places — 
 the waters being as a wall to them on either side — 
 the cloud covering and enshrouding them — and then, 
 their emerging from the deep again on the opposite 
 
170 THE MODE. 
 
 side — we do think that this graphic description of 
 their passage through the Red Sea is, by a very strik- 
 iDg figure, most naturally called a baptism. And, as 
 this was the grand event by which they were rescued 
 from the Egyptians, and brought immediately, and 
 from that time ever after, under the guidance and 
 teaching of Moses, it does seem to us that this myste- 
 rious passage through the deep is most appropriately 
 and beautifully designated a baptism to Moses in the 
 cloud and in the sea. It was an emblematical im- 
 mersion ; and, from that day, the children of Israel 
 were, in a figure, baptized into the faith of Moses. 
 
 As it regards the baptism of the day of Pentecost, 
 it will, perhaps, create a feeling of surprise in the 
 minds of some, when I avow my conviction, that the 
 wind and the fire alluded to, had no modal significa- 
 tion whatever. The baptism of that day was purely 
 a spiritual baptism — the baptism of the Holy Ghost; 
 and we cannot conceive of anything symbolizing the 
 mode or manner in which the Spirit comes to the 
 mind and the heart. When we read of the Holy 
 Ghost "coming upon the disciples," of its being 
 " poured out," and " poured down," and other similar 
 forms of expression, we can only understand these 
 phrases in a figurative sense, as denoting simply the 
 bestowment, or the abundance of the gifts and influ- 
 ences of the Spirit. To interpret them in the way in 
 which they are usually done by Peedo-baptists, and 
 hence to derive an argument for a particular mode of 
 water baptism, viz., affusion, as best resembling the 
 
THE M DE. 171 
 
 supposed mode in which the soul is haptized by the 
 Spirit, is to materialize a divine influence, and to con- 
 struct a baseless argument upon a mere figurative turn 
 of expression. But we have other reasons for the 
 opinion we have mentioned. The occurrences of the 
 day of Pentecost are generally considered as the ful- 
 filment of the language of John the Baptist :* " He 
 shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." 
 The baptism of the Holy Ghost is, we believe, under- 
 stood figuratively, the wind being its emblem; but 
 the baptism of fire is taken literally, as being accom- 
 plished by the flames of fire coming and resting upon 
 the heads of the disciples. Now, this seems to us a 
 strange and unnatural blending together of the figu- 
 rative and the literal, and we think it much more 
 significant, and much more in consistency with the 
 glorious object of the day, to understand the baptism 
 in one sense only — as the baptism of the Holy Ghost 
 solely in a spiritual sense. Now, it is remarkable, 
 as favouring this view, that when Jesus apprizes his 
 disciples of the approaching baptism of the day of 
 Pentecost, he says nothing about the fire, but simply, 
 " Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many 
 days hence." By the baptism of fire which John 
 alluded to, I imagine, was meant the fire of persecu- 
 tion, which Jesus afterwards referred to when he 
 said,t " I am come to throw fire upon the earth, and 
 what would I but that it were already kindled; but 
 I have a baptism to be baptized with" — (yes, he had 
 * Luke iii. 16. f Luke xii. 49, et seq. 
 
172 THE MODE. 
 
 to pass through this baptism of fire as well as his dis- 
 ciples ); — " and how am I straitened till it be accom- 
 plished ! Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on 
 earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division." By 
 John's baptism of fire, therefore, we understand being 
 overwhelmed with trouble and sorrow, or plunged, as 
 it were, into the fires of persecution. If this be the 
 case, then, the lambent flames, like cloven tongues, 
 which came and sat upon the disciples' heads, while 
 they were very expressively emblematical of the most 
 distinguished gift of the Spirit on that day, viz., the 
 power of speaking in other tongues, had no allusion 
 to baptism whatever. To call this a baptism of fire, 
 is at the best a far-fetched and unnatural notion. 
 How could a small flame of fire like a cloven tongue, 
 coming and sitting upon the head of the disciple, 
 symbolize sprinkling, or pouring, or any other mode 
 of applying water. Fire is, in any view, a poor em- 
 blem of water. 
 
 Well, then, again, the wind ! If this is emblematical 
 at all, it may just as well be regarded as an emblem 
 of immersion as of sprinkling, and better. For while 
 the Rantists say, "The wind came upon them," which, 
 however, bears no resemblance to sprinkling, nor even 
 to pouring, unless that pouring be complete supervi- 
 sion, the Baptists may say, " The wind completely 
 surrounded them, so that they were symbolically im- 
 mersed in it." But, the truth is, neither party can 
 appeal to this ; for we do not know that there was 
 any wind at all. The Scripture account does not say 
 
THE MODE. 173 
 
 that there was. It simply says there came a noise as 
 of a mighty rushing wind. All we can learn is, that 
 there was a loud mysterious noise, which filled the 
 house where the disciples were assembled ; and, surely, 
 we can neither of us make a noise to symbolize a 
 visible action either of sprinkling or immersing. The 
 baptism of Pentecost was, then, a spiritual baptism, 
 and that alone. It was the extraordinary bestowment 
 of spiritual influences and gifts, and from this nothing 
 can be argued as to the mode of water baptism, or, if 
 anything, setting the emblems aside, it would doubt- 
 less favour immersion, as the minds of the disciples 
 were entirely absorbed by the Spirit, and all their 
 powers and faculties wholly subjected to its influence. 
 
 The only instance, so far as I have discovered, in 
 which Dr Halley argues directly in favour of sprink- 
 ling, as one of the meanings of /3««"r/2> 5 is that in 
 which he reasons upon the language of the apostle 
 Paul, in Heb. ix. 9-14. If his exposition of 
 these verses is right, then (to borrow his words), 
 " our case is clean gone." If sprinkling be proved 
 in one instance to be a meaning of baptism, it is as 
 good as a hundred. I must, here, to do justice to 
 Dr Halley's argument, give his words entire, though 
 the quotation will be rather long. 
 
 He says: " I think the divers baptisms of the Jews, 
 mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews, include, if 
 they do not exclusively denote, the purifications by 
 sprinkling performed in the Jewish temple. I solicit 
 attention to the context. The apostle had described 
 
174 THE MODE. 
 
 the material sanctuary of the first covenant, ' which/ 
 he says, ' was a figure for the time "being, in which 
 were offered oblations and sacrifices, which could not 
 perfect the worshipper, as to his conscience; enjoined 
 until the time of reformation, in respect only to 
 meats and drinks, and divers baptisms, ordinances of 
 the flesh. But Christ being come, a high priest of 
 future good, through a greater and more perfect 
 tabernacle, not made with hands, not by means of 
 the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his 
 own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for 
 us, entered once for all into the most holy place. 
 For if the blood of calves and goats, and the ashes of 
 a heifer sprinkling the unclean, purify so far as the 
 cleansing of the flesh; by how much more shall the 
 blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit 
 offered himself spotless to God, purify your con- 
 science from dead works, for the service of the living 
 God?' My conviction is, on reading the whole 
 paragraph, that the divers baptisms included the 
 sprinkling of the blood of calves and goats upon the 
 altar, and the sprinkling of the unclean with the 
 water of separation, in which were mingled the ashes 
 of the heifer. Those baptisms were ordinances of 
 the flesh; and these sprinklings were for the cleans- 
 ing of the flesh. Those baptisms could not purify 
 the conscience. The blood of Christ, of which the 
 blood sprinkled upon the altar, and the ashes 
 sprinkled upon the unclean, were figures for the time 
 being, does purify the conscience."* 
 
 * The Sacraments, pp. 383, 384. 
 
THE MODE. 175 
 
 Now, it will be observed that Dr Halley gives bis 
 own translation of tbe verses above quoted; and to 
 question the accuracy of any part of it may, perhaps, 
 appear presumptuous. Yet, as it is universally ad- 
 mitted that the structure of some of the sentences is 
 peculiar, and that there is some difficulty in proposing 
 any perfectly satisfactory rendering, we feel the less 
 hesitation in questioning whether Dr Halley's transla- 
 tion of the 9th and 10th verses is the best that can 
 be given; and in venturing to propose instead of it, a 
 somewhat diiferent rendering, Dr Halley represents 
 the oblations and sacrifices as having been enjoined 
 in respect only to meats, and drinks, and baptisms. 
 To this, I confess, I can attach no definite idea. I 
 do not know what it means. It may be gramma- 
 tical, but I cannot think it brings out the true mean- 
 ing of the inspired writer. Stuart renders " £and all 
 the] ordinances pertaining to the flesh had respect 
 only to meats," &c, supplying the words, " and all 
 the," for which I can see no sufficient reason. Dr 
 Halley (verse 10) adopts the reading hxaiaputri, taking 
 this noun in apposition with /3^«5v, TopuM, and fav- 
 rirpois, and so making the ordinances of the flesh 
 to be explanatory of the meats, drinks, and bap- 
 tisms, and to apply to them alone. Stuart adopts 
 hxuiaparx (the authority for either word is about 
 equal); but though we do not, in this verse, follow 
 his translation, we give the preference to the reading 
 (%i)icttapa,ra), which he sanctions. So far as the use of 
 the preposition •« is concerned, our authority is 
 
176 THE MODE. ' 
 
 Dr Bloonrfield,* We would translate as follows : 
 " Which (sanctuary) was a figure for the time being, 
 in which were offered oblations and sacrifices, which 
 could not make him who performed the service per- 
 fect in respect to his conscience, being only ordinances 
 of the flesh,t together with meats, drinks, and divers 
 ablutions, enjoined until the time of reformation." 
 
 This we believe to be correct in point of grammar, 
 and we also believe that it expresses the true senti- 
 ment of the inspired writer. These two verses are 
 those only which affect our reasoning, as will be seen 
 directly. We shall make use of Dr Halley's transla- 
 tion of the remaining verses so far as reference to 
 them may be required. 
 
 Now, on analyzing this whole paragraph, com- 
 mencing with the 9th verse, and ending at the 
 14th, bearing in mind the altered rendering we 
 have suggested in the 9th and 10th verses, it ap- 
 pears to me that what is said in the first part (verses 
 9, 10,) finds its parallel in what immediately follows 
 (verses 11, 12), and that then, in a concluding sentence 
 
 * Vide Bloomfield, Gr. Test., in loco. 
 
 + It may possibly be objected tbat oblations and sacrifices are 
 not ordinances of the flesh ; but we think it is very plainly im- 
 plied that they are to be regarded in that light, in the 13th 
 verse, where the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifices, mingled 
 with the ashes of the victim, is said to " purify so far as the 
 cleansing of the flesh." This does not imply that they had not 
 a more important design and signification; but it does fully jus- 
 tify their being designated carnal ordinances (literally, righteous- 
 nesses of the flesh), as well as the meats, drinks, and baptisms. 
 
THE MODE. 177 
 
 (verses 13, 14), this parallel is taken up again. Let us 
 explain our meaning. 
 
 All those Jewish rites that are first enumerated, 
 and designated ordinances of the flesh — not only the 
 meats and drinks and baptisms, as Dr Halley re- 
 presents, but also the oblations and sacrifices — 
 find their proper parallel in the one offering of 
 Christ. The contrast is between oblations and 
 sacrifices, together icith meats, drinks, and bap- 
 tisms, ordinances of the flesh, and the blood of 
 Christ, which has obtained eternal redemption for us. 
 Then, in the following verses, as I said, the parallel is 
 taken up again, but in a more specific form, as it re- 
 gards the first part of it. The meats, drinks, and 
 baptisms are now left out of the consideration; and 
 the contrast is noticed as exhibited, more especially 
 between the sacrifices of the Mosaic ritual, and the 
 great sacrifice of the Redeemer of mankind. Sprink- 
 ling is mentioned in this second parallel, not as a 
 thing separate from the sacrifice, but rather as a part 
 of the sacrificial rite, as properly belonging to it, as 
 involved in the very offering of sacrifices ; and very 
 justly so, for never was an oblation or a sacrifice 
 offered without the accompanying ceremony of sprink- 
 ling the blood of the animal offered, and its ashes 
 mixed with water upon the unclean. So, then, the 
 contrast here is simply between the sacrifices of the 
 Levitical priesthood (including the sprinkling) and 
 the sacrifice of Jesus Christ; and there is no allusion, 
 as I see, in the latter, that is the sprinkling, to the 
 
178 THE MODE. 
 
 baptisms before spoken of — no reason to suppose that 
 those baptisms are expounded by the sprinklings — 
 that the latter are exegetical of the former. 
 
 Dr Halley says: " The apostle had made no refer- 
 ence whatever in the first part of the parallel (verses 9, 
 10) to the sprinkling, if it were not included in the bap- 
 tisms." We reply, agreeably to the above exposition, 
 it was included in the sacrifices. He says, " It was not 
 a gift, nor a sacrifice." We repeat, Though not a sa- 
 crifice, it was involved in the sacrifice. Subsequently, 
 the Doctor speaks of the apostle (on supposition of 
 the baptisms not being identical with sprinkling) as 
 " excluding the sprinklings from his enumeration, and 
 immediately, as though he had mentioned them, 
 making them the strength of his argument." We 
 reply, He does not exclude the sprinklings, for they 
 were so well known to accompany the oblations and 
 sacrifices, that they needed no specific notice; that is, 
 they needed not to be mentioned by name. In taking 
 up the parallel the second time, they are specified, 
 showing that, besides the contrast between the blood 
 of bulls and the blood of Christ, there is also the ad- 
 ditional point of contrast between the cleansings of 
 the flesh by these sprinklings, and the purifying of 
 the conscience by the application of the blood of Christ 
 through the Eternal Spirit. We think, then, that Dr 
 Halley's exposition of these verses, founded upon a 
 doubtful translation, is fairly questionable; that the 
 explanation we have given has, at least, equal claims to 
 be received with his; and, therefore, that no conclu- 
 
THE MODE. 179 
 
 sive argument can be deduced from this portion of 
 Scripture in favour of explaining baptism by sprinkling. 
 
 I have expressed my conviction that the word, /3«sr- 
 *%*> may denote superfusion as well as immersion; but 
 this appears to be the widest latitude we are allowed 
 to give it. Whether the former mode was ever em- 
 ployed in apostolic times, it is, we believe, impossible 
 to determine. But from the admitted signification of 
 the word, viz., to dip, together with the frequent cus- 
 tom of resorting to rivers and streams of water for the 
 purpose of baptizing — going down into the water, and 
 coming up again out of it — whatever may be the exact 
 meaning of the Greek prepositions employed — there can 
 be no doubt, one would suppose, but that immersion 
 was the customary mode of baptizing in those times. 
 
 The only remaining question of any importance, is 
 that which Dr Halley has discussed in the first part 
 of his lecture on the mode of baptism, viz., whether, 
 conceding that the word /W<r/2> means to dip, and 
 even admitting that it means to dip only, we are not 
 still at liberty to deviate from the strict letter of the 
 baptismal commission, considered as a positive insti- 
 tution. This narrows the whole question within a 
 very small space. All philological investigation, in 
 fact, becomes superfluous if it can once be shown that 
 positive institutions are not binding, verbatim et 
 literatim. The whole stress of the controversy, 
 therefore, rests upon this single point. Into this let 
 us inquire honestly and impartially. 
 
 Dr Halley instances, in proof of his own view of 
 
180 THE MODE. 
 
 the case, that positive laws are not binding as to the 
 letter, first, the positive command given to the Israe- 
 lites in reference to the injunctions laid upon them by 
 Jehovah : " And thou shalt bind them for a sign up- 
 on thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between 
 thine eyes; and thou shalt write them upon the posts 
 of thy house, and upon thy gates." In regard to 
 this, we submit that it is not a case in point. It was 
 a command certainly; but it was very different from 
 a positive institution; nor do we imagine that it 
 was ever intended to be obeyed literally. It was 
 a bold, figurative way of enjoining upon the people 
 the duty of keeping the commands of God con- 
 tinually in mind, and nothing more. Next, Dr 
 Halley refers to " the kiss of charity." But here, 
 again, we can see nothing analogous to a religious 
 institution or ordinance. It was simply a command 
 to the Christians of those times to manifest their affec- 
 tion, their holy love towards each other, in accord- 
 ance with their usual mode of salutation; and we ful- 
 fil the spirit of it (all that in such a case is required) 
 by exchanging u the holy kiss" for the right hand of 
 Christian fellowship. Neither do we regard the Lord's 
 Prayer as a positive institution. It was a mere passing 
 circumstance that led to its being uttered and taught 
 to the disciples. One of them said, " Lord, teach us 
 to pray, as John also taught his disciples." And he 
 said unto them, " When ye pray, say Our Father," &c. 
 But, if this be a positive institution, it then becomes a 
 question, as in the case of baptism, whether we do right 
 
THE MODE. 181 
 
 to omit it in our prayers — whether we ought not 
 uniformly to make use of this comprehensive form. 
 
 The next instance we have to notice is found in the 
 phrase v^xxov hTtrvov — the Lord's supper. Dr Halley 
 argues that, if we think ourselves at liberty to over- 
 look the plain letter of the law in this case, and con- 
 sider ourselves to fulfil our Lord's command fully and 
 sufficiently, whatever time of the day we meet to- 
 gether to break bread in commemoration of him, then, 
 by parity of reasoning, we fulfil his command in re- 
 ference to baptism, simply by the use of water, irre- 
 spective of mode. Now this, we admit, is a case in 
 point; because, in the ordinance of the Lord's supper, 
 we have the example, not merely of a common com- 
 mand, but of a positive institution, equally important 
 with that of baptism. Yet here, be it observed, that 
 the designation which Paul has given to the ordi- 
 nance is not found in the terms of the institution 
 itself, and therefore, whether we make it an Z^o-rov or 
 a foirvov, we in no way deviate from the original insti- 
 tution, or from the words of our adorable Redeemer. 
 
 The question, whether, under any circumstances, it 
 can be allowable to change the elements, is more to 
 the purpose. That " a man of stern temperance prin- 
 ciples, who conscientiously believes, after careful and 
 devout examination, that it is his duty to abstain from 
 wine at the supper," perfectly fulfils the intention of 
 the ordinance by substituting water for wine, is, I 
 think, not quite self-evident. The firmest adherent 
 to the principles of total abstinence would not, I be- 
 
182 THE MODE. 
 
 lieve, refuse to drink unfermented wine in the cele- 
 bration of the Lord's supper; and it cannot, I pre- 
 sume, be proved that that was not the kind of wine 
 used in the first institution of the ordinance. I, how- 
 ever, can cheerfully subscribe to the first part, and 
 answer affirmatively to the last, of the folio wing quo- 
 tation from Professor Stuart, given by Dr Halley, in a 
 note at p. 3L5: "The whole symbolic instruction 
 conveyed by the ordinance of the Lord's supper is this: 
 what food and drink, represented by the more impor- 
 tant articles of the same, are to the body for its 
 nourishment and support, and comfort ; that a cruci- 
 fied Saviour is to the soul, for its life, and preservation, 
 and comfort. Could not the inhabitants of a coun- 
 try, then, to whom it might not be possible to procure 
 bread and wine, when it was proper to celebrate the 
 Lord's supper, employ other elements which would 
 symbolize the death of Christ, and the benefits of 
 that death to the believer with like significancy?" I 
 certainly can do no other than answer this question 
 in the affirmative. What, then ! must we at length 
 give in ? Must we at last surrender, and honourably 
 lay down our arms, and cast ourselves upon the gene- 
 rosity of our conquerors ? I confess I do not see that 
 the controversy is yet brought to this issue. I could 
 almost, in my heart, wish it were. But the reply to 
 the case put by Stuart, so far as Dr Halley reasons 
 from it to baptism, is obvious, viz., that the change 
 of the elements under the circumstances supposed, 
 would arise from inevitable necessity, which cannot, of 
 
THE MODE. 183 
 
 course, be pleaded for changing the mode of baptism 
 from immersion to sprinkling or pouring. Therefore, 
 we do not see that this case, or that of the stern tee- 
 totaller ^ can justify any deviation from the strict letter 
 of the law respecting baptism. 
 
 There is yet one other case to which we must ad- 
 vert, viz., the law of the Sabbath. "As a Jewish 
 ordinance," says Dr Halley, "the enactment of the 
 Sabbath was peculiarly strict and severe, so far as la- 
 bour was concerned." " Six days shalt thou labour, and 
 do all thy work: but the seventh is the Sabbath of 
 the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt do no manner of 
 work." And yet, he argues, when the disciples, going 
 through the corn-fields on the Sabbath-day, plucked 
 the ears of corn, and rubbed them in their hands be- 
 cause they were hungry, which was undoubtedly a 
 violation of the letter of the law, our Lord defended 
 their act as a justifiable breach of the positive law of 
 the Sabbath. u But," says Dr Halley, " what was the 
 principle of the defence ? Undoubtedly that, provided 
 the benevolent and religious objects of the Sabbath 
 were secured, the letter of the enactment was not 
 worth the inconvenience of a brief cessation from food." 
 All this we readily allow, so far as it is explicatory of 
 the law of the Christian Sabbath, in respect to which 
 a relaxation from the strictness of the Mosaic law of 
 the Sabbath was permitted and introduced by the 
 authority of Christ as "Lord of the Sabbath-day." 
 The case of David eating the shew-bread, was clearly 
 one of necessity — a sufficient reason, we consider, for 
 
184 THE MODE. 
 
 disregarding the letter of the positive law; for thus 
 far we readily allow that a positive institution is not 
 binding to the extent of a moral law. Hunger might 
 justify the breach of the former, though of course not 
 of the latter. Jesus reminds the Pharisees that there 
 were cases, even under the Mosaic dispensation, in 
 which positive law might be set aside, viz., cases of 
 necessity; but without signifiying that there was any 
 actual necessity for what his disciples did (for the 
 circumstances of the case do not imply that they 
 were driven to this act by absolute starvation), he 
 asserts that it is his prerogative to relax the law of 
 the Sabbath still further, and on that ground he vin- 
 dicates their act of plucking the ears of corn. He 
 was greater than the temple, and could alter all its 
 services, and all its laws, if so he pleased: he was 
 " Lord of the Sabbath," and was fully authorized, 
 therefore, to prescribe in what way it should be kept. 
 Under the Jewish dispensation, it would have been a 
 sin to have eaten the shew-bread, had it not been a 
 case of urgent necessity; and so, for the priests to 
 have profaned the temple by slaying the animals for 
 sacrifice would have been a sin, but for necessity ; but 
 to have plucked ears of corn, and rubbed them in 
 the hand, without absolute necessity, would, according 
 to the law of the Jewish Sabbath, have been a sin 
 admitting of no excuse. Jesus, however, was intro- 
 ducing another dispensation. He asserts his autho- 
 rity over the Sabbath, and we perfectly agree with Dr 
 Halley in his appropriate language, that " the law of 
 
THE MODE. 185 
 
 the Sabbath is now obligatory in the generosity of its 
 spirit, rather than in the severity of its letter; but we 
 are not yet brought to see that " this is the true con- 
 struction of every positive institution." It were strange 
 to argue, because our Lord has taught us that the 
 Christian Sabbath is to be kept on a different prin- 
 ciple from the Jewish, that, therefore, we are at 
 liberty to change his own positive laws and insti- 
 tutions. We can by no means see the way clear to 
 this conclusion. 
 
 But what shall we say concerning those works of 
 mercy, which are also pleaded as exceptions to the 
 literal observance of the law of the Sabbath ? It was 
 allowable, notwithstanding the rigour of the law of 
 the Jewish Sabbath, to pull an ox or an ass out of a 
 pit on the Sabbath-day ; and I must admit that the 
 moral of our Lord's appeal, " Doth he take care of 
 oxen, or saith he not this for our sakes 1" is, that works 
 of mercy were to be done on the Sabbath-day, rather 
 than adhere to the strict letter of the law, which, in 
 some cases, might take away the liberty even of doing 
 good. Our Lord, we must candidly allow, does 
 teach, that a work of mercy may supersede the rigo- 
 rous precision of a positive law. I cannot but admit 
 that the proverbial form of expression, " I will have 
 mercy and not sacrifice," leads us to this principle. 
 But then comes the question, How is this principle 
 to be applied ? How far are we to carry it out ? By 
 what rule are we to judge, in particular cases, 
 
186 THE MODE. 
 
 whether the letter of a positive law is to be obeyed, 
 or whether it is to be overruled by mercy ? Here is 
 the gist of the whole matter. Taking too much licence, 
 it is impossible to say to what lengths we might be 
 led. The plea of mercy, for instance, as it respects this 
 very law of the Sabbath, might prove far too conve- 
 nient for lazy and lukewarm professors. What end- 
 less reasons might be assigned, on the score of mercy, 
 for neglecting the public duties of the day! Even 
 good men might, on this principle, practise much self- 
 deception, justifying a frequent misappropriation, even 
 to a great extent, of the hallowed Sabbath hours. 
 Who, then, is to decide what are the claims of mercy, 
 or when they are so urgent as to rise in importance 
 above the plain letter of the positive institution ? The 
 latter, surely, ought to be guarded, and certainly its 
 claims ought not to be set aside for light reasons. If 
 something is due to mercy, something is also due to 
 law. As for deciding upon the respective claims of 
 each, it would require a special illumination (which 
 we do not profess to have) to do it, and, therefore, we 
 can only regard this matter as one, concerning which 
 it is the duty of every one to form a conscientious 
 judgment for himself. As it regards the law of bap • 
 tism, we take the command of Christ to be explicit, 
 viz., that baptism is to be performed by immersion, 
 or, at least, by complete superfusion ; but, supposing 
 this to be universally acknowledged, it is not for us 
 to say that those who practise pouring or sprinkling, 
 
THE MODE. 187 
 
 on the principle that Christ requires mercy and not 
 sacrifice, are not justified, in their own conscience, in 
 thus far deviating from the plain letter of the law. 
 This is a question upon which we have no sufficient 
 data to argue — on which we have no authority to de- 
 cide; and which, therefore, we leave amongst other 
 cases of conscience, and say " Let every one be fully 
 persuaded in his own mind." 
 
 There is one other argument of Dr Halley's which 
 we must just glance at before we conclude. He says, 
 that the institution of the Sabbath was antecedent to 
 Moses, being enjoined by the fathers ; that the law 
 which requires us to keep the seventh day has never 
 been repealed ; and that, nevertheless, we keep, instead 
 of that, the first day of the week, for which we have 
 no commandment anywhere in the New Testament. 
 He thinks we do right in observing the first day of 
 the week, after the example of the apostles and dis- 
 ciples, though not having any law for so doing, and 
 though the seventh day, as a positive institution, has 
 never been repealed. Agreeing with the Doctor in 
 this opinion, we yet do not see how it helps his cause, 
 as it respects baptism. For though, in this case, we 
 set aside the original law of the Sabbath as instituted 
 from the creation, the fact of our having the example 
 of the apostles as our authority for this, which cannot 
 be pleaded for any change in the mode of baptism, 
 makes all the difference between the two cases. Surely 
 there is no argument in saying, because apostolic 
 
188 THE MODE. 
 
 authority changed the Sabbath from the seventh day 
 to the first, therefore, we may make any other change, 
 at our discretion, in any other positive institution. 
 This argument clearly proves too much, and therefore 
 is of no value. Let it be proved that the apostles 
 baptized by sprinkling, though the terms of the insti- 
 tution enjoin immersion, and we admit a valid case is 
 made out. We would, in such a case, follow their 
 example without hesitation, though, in doing that, we 
 might, like them, violate and act contrary to the plain 
 letter of the law. 
 
 But are we, after all, right in speaking of the 
 original Sabbath as a positive institution ? Where 
 are the terms of its institution to be found ? We 
 read, indeed, that after the works of creation were 
 completed, God rested on the seventh day, and that 
 he blessed that day and hallowed it. But he did not 
 say to Adam, Thou shalt keep this seventh day as a 
 Sabbath, and this only, and it shall be so kept for ever ; 
 and, therefore, though the early Christians kept the first 
 day instead of the seventh, they broke no positive law 
 in doing so. We admit that the consecration of the 
 seventh day was virtually enjoined from the creation; 
 but as no formal command was given to keep holy 
 that day, of course there was nothing that needed to 
 be formally repealed. But the practice of the apos- 
 tles and first disciples was a virtual abrogation of the 
 seventh- day Sabbath, a$d a virtual substitution of 
 the first in the place of iU This is all the authority 
 
THE MODE. 189 
 
 that the nature of the case required for the change 
 which originated, and which we consider as obliga- 
 tory upon us as if enjoined by express positive precept. 
 But it is quite impossible to argue from this to bap- 
 tism, and it certainly cannot be appealed to for estab- 
 lishing, as a general principle, that a positive institu- 
 tion may be superseded and set aside altogether, and 
 that something else, as we may deem fit or desirable, 
 may be put into its place. To what lengths such a 
 licentious principle might lead, it is impossible to 
 predict. 
 
 I have now noticed the chief of Dr Halley's argu- 
 ments on the mode of baptism, and I think I have 
 done so with perfect impartiality. In bringing the 
 whole of our discussion to an end, it is my fervent 
 hope, and my earnest prayer, that the agitation of 
 these questions may have the effect of teaching us all 
 to exercise a candid and charitable spirit towards 
 each other, and may tend to draw all nearer together 
 by the bonds of fraternal and divine love. That we 
 all shall be brought to a coincidence of opinion upon 
 the subject of baptism, is too much to expect. It 
 promises, as long as the world stands, to be an open 
 question. We confess to entertaining strong opinions 
 about it ourselves. We think the tendency of Paedo- 
 baptism is to irreligion and infidelity, and, did not 
 the better principles of many of its advocates supply 
 a powerful counteractive, the consequences would, 
 we believe, ere now, have been of a very serious na- 
 
190 THE MODE. 
 
 ture. It is a matter of congratulation and thankful- 
 ness, however, that, while differing in respect to an 
 external rite, the generality of Baptists and Pasdo- 
 baptists hold in common the great essential truths 
 and principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that, 
 therefore, we are essentially one. Let nothing sepa- 
 rate us from each other. Let there he no strife be- 
 tween us ; or let us only strive to outdo each other in 
 Christian activity and usefulness. Let there be no 
 envy or jealousy; but rather, in the generous and 
 magnanimous spirit of our religion, let us rejoice in 
 each other's prosperity, honour each other's motives, 
 and co-operate with each other in all good works, as 
 being all interested in a common cause — having one 
 Lord and one faith, if not one baptism. But how 
 strange that we cann%t fairly complete the quotation 
 — that, through our misunderstandings, this third 
 particular, which could be affirmed concerning 
 Christians in the time of the apostles, as well as the 
 other two, cannot be uttered in application to them 
 now ! However, this point, in which we are not all 
 one, is just that which is least important. It is a 
 non-essential; whereas the others, in which, happily, 
 we agree, are essentials. Let our minor differences, 
 then, be forgotten, and our denominational peculiari- 
 ties be absorbed in that common Christianity where 
 all inferior distinctions are lost sight of, and faith and 
 love, as the prominent features of the Christian cha- 
 racter, present themselves to the view in all their 
 
THE MODE. 191 
 
 glory, and beauty, and perfection. " For ye are all 
 the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as 
 many of you as haye been baptized into Christ have 
 put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, 
 there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male 
 nor female ;" and we will add, in full view of the 
 preceding verse, respecting all who have truly put on 
 Christ — " There is neither Pasdo-baptist nor Anti- 
 paado-baptist, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus," 
 
 THE END. 
 
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EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 17 
 
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EDINBURGH AND LONDON- 19 
 
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 Minister of the Free Church, Johnstone. 
 
 Post 8vo, cloth, price 3s., and on Fine Paper, cloth extra, price 5s., 
 
 INAUGURATION of the New College of the Free Church, 
 JL Edinburgh, Nov. 1850; with Introductory Lectures on Theology, 
 Philosophy, and Natural Science. 
 
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 THE Duty of Young Men at the Present Crisis : An Address 
 Delivered to the Edinburgh Young Men's Protestant Society, 
 February 11, 1851. By Thomas M'Crie, D.D., LL.D., Honorary Presi- 
 dent of the Society. 
 
 Second Edition, foolscap 8vo, cloth, price 2s., 
 
 TJATIONALISM and Popery Refuted: Three Discourses on 
 _IX the Authority of the Scriptures. By J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, 
 D.D. Translated from the French, 'with a Preface. By the Rev. W. 
 K. Tvveedie, Edinburgh.