INFANT BAPTISM PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY BY JOHN^GILL, D. D. REVISED AND EDITED BY GEORGE B. IDE, D. D. WITH AN ADDITIONAL CHAPTER BY THE EDITOR. ^'jjilahlpljiii. AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 11 > ARCH STREET. 185 1. 5^5 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by the AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PHILADELPHIA : STEREOTYPED BY GEORGE CHARLES, PRINTED BY KING & BilRD. CONTEXTS. CHAPTER I. page Introductory 13 CHAPTER II. Relation of Infant Baptism to Pofert 17 CHAPTER III. Relation of Infant Baptism to Church Estab- lishments 55 CHAPTER IV. Influence of Infant Baptism on Protestant Churches Historically developed G3 CHAPTER V. Certain Extinction of Infant Baptism 110 (3) Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/infantbaptismparOO INTRODUCTION. Every thoughtful observer must be aware, that the present aspects of Romanism are as peculiar as they are portentous. While, as a political power, it is rapidly declining ; while its presence is endured with reluctance even in Italy itself: the ascend- ency of its dogmas and ceremonies, and their hold on the minds of men, seem to be strangely increas- ing. Withered and decrepid as a State, as an Ecclesiastical System it appears imbued with a singular and fearful vitality. Especially is this the case in Protestant lands. The dark shadow of its superstitions is seen returning over nations, from which it was once thought to have been ban- ished forever. In England, in Scotland, on the Continent of Europe, in our own free and enlight- ened America, Popery is extending its influence, and multiplying its triumphs. Its cardinals and bishops tread again the soil from which the Kefor- Co) G INTRODUCTION". mation expelled them. Its schools, and churches/ and convents, rise in every city and village. Its gaudy processions and impious mummeries are en- acted, without rebuke, in the face of heaven. It boasts its converts gathered from every class and- condition, and exultingly points to the long array of " the reconciled. " And while it is thus enlarg- ing its numbers by direct accessions, it is viewed with growing favor hj multitudes not of its pale. Infidels patronize it. Politicians fawn upon it. The gay and the voluptuous give it their suffrage. Mystics, enthusiasts, formalists, worldlings, all unite to countenance its pretensions, or, at least, to affirm its harmlessness. Even the professed churches of Christ oppose to it but a feeble barrier. The more corrupt fraternize with its spirit, ape its forms, and appropriate all of it but its name ; while the great mass of the more pure, however disposed to resist its encroachments, seem well nigh powerless to do so. How is this phenomenon to be explained? In what manner may we account for the startling fact, that amid the blaze of science, the spread of educa- tion, the wide diffusion of intelligence, the awakened INTRODUCTION. 7 spirit of inquiry and of progress — in lands blessed with an open Bible, a free Gospel, and all the ap- pliances of religious instruction — an old, tottering Hierarchy, foul with pollution, laden with abhorred memories, and reeking with the blood of murdered saints, should come forth from the gloom of the dark Past, and flaunting its tattered traditions in the eyes of the nineteenth century, be welcomed and embraced ? Must there not be some latent defect — some insidious weakness in the very heart of Pro- testantism itself, to render possible such a result ? We firmly believe that there is. And we are equally confident that we know what it is. The churches, which abjured Popery at the Reforma- tion, have retained, in the practice of infant bap- tism, the most vital element of Popery ; the prolific germ out of which it grew; the secret principle which has engendered all its baleful fruits, and which is ever tending to reproduce them. The essence of Popery lies in the assumption, that sacraments possess an intrinsic power to confer grace; and that, consequently, those who admin- ister them are constituted channels of intercourse and mediation between God and the souls of men. b INTRODUCTION. All the absurdities and abominations with which Romanism is characterized, are but developments of this central dogma; offshoots from this one poisonous root. But this also is the very core and substance of infant baptism. If its upholders do not regard " it as the merest nullity — a rite as vapid and mean- ingless as it is unscriptural — they must ascribe to it some mysterious efficacy ) some hidden and magical power ; by which it influences the spiri- tual state of its recipients, and brings them under moral relations different from those of others. Ac- cordingly, we find that wherever it is left to unfold itself freely — wherever it is not shorn of its natural proportions and accompaniments by contact with the advocates of primitive truth and order, — it al- ways appears in connection with baptismal regener- ation, infant church-membership, and sacramental holiness. And this is Popery. Here, then, is the rottenness of Protestantism. Here is the weak point in her defences, which lays her open to the inroad of the foe. Here is the wily agent of the Papacy within her very intrench- ments, paralyzing her strength, turning her weapons against herself, seducing her soldiers, and leading INTRODUCTION. V theni off to swell the hostile ranks. Never can she prosper in the struggle, till this dangerous inmate be unmasked and thrust out. As well may the stream be dried up, while the spring-head flows ; as well may pestilence cease, while malaria con- tinues to breathe its infection — as Popery die, while infant baptism lives.. In this state of the moral conflict which is going on in our own and in other lands, it has appeared to the Committee of the American Baptist Publica- tion Society, that a reprint of the celebrated tract of Dr. Grill, entitled, "In/ant Baptism a part and pillar of Popery" might be eminently seasonable and useful. Its author lived in an age resembling, in some of its aspects, that in which our lot is cast. A national Church, joined in unholy wedlock with the State, and Dissent, forswearing her troth to Christ by marrying herself with Tradition, had be- gun to bring forth their natural progeny; and Popery grew apace. The English government be- came alarmed. The partisans of the Establish- ment trembled. All sects and orders were filled with dismay, and united in the general demand, that more stringent penalties should be enacted 10 INTRODUCTION. against the ingress of Popish emissaries, and the propagation of Popish tenets. At this juncture, Dr. Gill, surveying the crisis with his clear eye, and fathoming its causes with his keen and deep- searching logic, lifted up his warning voice, and * showed conclusively, that the source of the evil did not lie in any freedom granted to Romanists, but in infant baptism itself, which, nestled in the bosom of Protestantism, had diffused a Papal leaven through its entire body. It seemed to the Committee, that a production so influential in its own time, and so suited to the present, deserved something better, than to be swept away on the stream of the past, or to be searched out with difficulty in the scarce and dear volumes of the author's miscellaneous works. They, therefore, resolved to revise and publish it ; and appointed the writer of this notice to carry out their decision. On examination, however, it was found that while the reasoning of the treatise was cogent, and its thoughts massive and powerful, its style was such as greatly to unfit it for general circulation. Dr. Gill, with all his immense learning, was remark- INTRODUCTION. 11 able for his involved and slovenly mode of writing, even in an age when less heed was given than now to the graces of composition. The editor was, therefore, instructed by the Committee to make such changes in the literary execution of the work as might, in his judgment, adapt it to modern taste, and prepare it for more extensive usefulness. This, the reader is frankly apprised, has been done. While every thought and argument of the author has been scrupulously retained, and in the connec- tion in which he placed them, the language is al- most wholly new. The book has, in fact, been entirely rewritten ; and, in some cases, a fuller de- velopment has been given of topics deemed too briefly stated. Tbe editor has also verified the authorities cited ; added new ones ; and inserted references to later editions where they exist. In a word, he has taken down " the sword of Goliath" from " behind the ephod,"* where it hung neglected — has stripped off its mouldy covering, wiped away its rust, polished its surface, and done his best to furbish it for the battle. It is true, he might with less time and labor have made a new sword. But * 1 Sain. xxi. 9. 12 INTRODUCTION. then it could not be said of that, as it can be of this, "There is none like it." May it prove mighty for the Lord of Hosts, and for the over- throw of tradition and error. a. b. i. INFANT BAPTISM, A PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Havixg been called upon to maintain cer- tain statements which, in a recent publica- tion, 1 I advanced with respect to infant baptism, or else to retract them, I readily undertake the former; and shall, therefore, in the ensuing treatise, endeavor to explain myself, and to defend the positions then taken. "With this view, it will be proper first to recite the paragraph which has been so strenuously assailed. It is as follows: "The Pedobaptists 1 A Reply to Rev. Peter Clark's Defence of Infant Baptism. 2 13 14 IXFAXT BAPTISM A arc ever restless and uneasy, struggling to sustain, if possible, their unscriptural practice of infant baptism ; although it is no other than a pillar of Popery; a corruption, by which Antichrist has spread his baneful influence' over many nations; which forms the basis of national churches and ecclesiastical establish- ments ; and which, uniting the church and the world, binds them together so firmly, that there can never be a full separation of the one from the other, nor any thorough reform in religion, until it be wholly removed. But, al- though it has so long and so largely obtained, and still does obtain, yet I believe, with a firm and unshaken faith, that the time is hastening on, when it will no more be practised in the world ; when churches will be formed on the model ordained by Christ, and observed by the Apostles ; when the doctrines and discipline of the Gospel will be restored to their primitive purity and lustre; and when the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper will be ad- ministered as they were first delivered, clear from all the superstitious admixtures with which later times have defaced them. All this, I am persuaded, will be accomplished, PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. ID when the Lord shall be King over all the earth, and there shall be one Lord, and His name one." The paragraph, thus cited, consists of several distinct propositions, which I shall endeavor, in the following chapters, to elucidate and establish. And if, in the course of the investi- gation, any thing should be said that may seem to savor of severity, let it be remem- bered that all my remarks are directed against infant baptism itself, and not against the indi- viduals who practice it. For the evangelical denominations adhering to this custom, I cherish the highest regard. I recognize them as members of the body of Christ, and fel- low heirs with the saints. I rejoice in their general advocacy of the doctrines of the Gos- pel; in their Christian spirit; in their un- wearied labors to extend the kingdom of the Redeemer. But while I love and venerate them for their man} 7 excellencies, I do not the less deplore the one error by which those ex- cellencies are sullied. And I deplore it, not because it is fatal to their piety, and will ulti- mately bar them out of heaven; but because, however honestly held, it nevertheless dis- 16 INFANT BAPTISM A honors the authority of the Saviour whom they profess to obey, hinders the supremacy of His laws, and counteracts their own efforts to pro- mote it. May "the Spirit of truth" so en- lighten our minds, that we shall all know and receive " the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." PART AXD PILLAB OP POPERY. 17 CHAPTER II. EELATION OF IXFAXT BAPTISM TO POPERY. My first position is, that infant baptism is a part and pillar of Popery; and that by means of it Antichrist has spread his baneful influence over many nations. The phrase, infant baptism, is employed here and throughout this discussion, in ac- cordance with common usage, although pro- perly speaking, the practice to which it is applied, should be designated infant sprink- ling. That unwritten traditions are regarded by Papists, as of equal authority in faith and prac- tice with the Holy Scriptures, none can doubt who are at all conversant with their writings. The Council of Trent asserts, that "traditions respecting both faith and manners, orally de- livered, and successively preserved in the Catholic Church, are to be received with equal affection of piety and reverence, as the Books 9* 18 INFANT BAPTISM A of the Old and New Testaments." 1 Popish writers even prefer tradition to Scripture. Thus Bellarmine says; " The Scriptures, with- out tradition, are neither simply necessary nor' sufficient ; but unwritten traditions are neces- sary. Tradition alone is sufficient; but the Scriptures alone are not sufficient." 2 Another of their writers affirms, that " the authority of ecclesiastical traditions is more fit than the Scriptures, to ascertain any thing doubtful, even that which may be made out from Scrip- ture ; since ecclesiastical traditions and the common opinion of the church are clearer, and more open and truly inflexible ; while, on the contrary, the Scriptures have frequently much obscurity in them, and may be drawn hither and thither, like a nose of wax: and, as a leaden rule, may be applied to every impious opinion." 3 Bailey, the Jesuit, thus expresses himself. " I will go farther and say, that we have as much need of tradition as of Scrip- ture; yea, more, because the Scripture minis- 1 Session IV. Decreta de Canone Scriptorss. 2 De Verbo Dei, c. IV. Sect. 1, 6. 3 Pighius, apud Rivet. Cathol. Orthodox, Tract I. Quest. C. p. 99. PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 19 ters to us only the dead and mute letter ; but tradition, by means of the ministry of the church, gives us the true sense, "which is not had distinctly in the Scripture. In tradition, therefore, consists the "Word of God rather than in the written letter alcne. It is suffi- cient for a good Catholic, if he understands it is tradition ; nor need he inquire after any thing else." 1 By tradition, these Popish authorities mean, not tradition handed down in the Scripture, but without it, and distinct from it ; unwritten tradition, apostolical tradition, so called ; tra- dition, not delivered by the Apostles in their writings, but, as it is pretended, communicated by word of mouth to their successors, or to the churches. That we may not mistake them, Andradius tells us, that " of necessity, those traditions also must be believed, which can be proved by no testimony of Scripture." And Petrus a Soto still more plainly and openly affirms; "It is a rule infallible and Catholic, that whatsoever things the Church of Rome believes, holds, and keeps, which are not de- >Apud Fdvet. p. 142. 20 IXFAXT BAPTISM A livered in the Scriptures, the same came by tradition from the Apostles; also, all such observances and ceremonies, whose beginning, author, and origin are not known, or cannot be found, were, beyond doubt, delivered by the Apostles." 1 This is the sense which Ro- manists attach to Apostolical tradition. Now, upon this assumed apostolical and ecclesiastical tradition, all the essential pecu- liarities of Popery are based. This is the prolific fountain from which they all spring. This is the standard to which they are all brought, and by which they are all confirmed. And what is there, be it ever so absurd or impious, that may not be proved by it, if once it be admitted as an authoritative rule ? It is upon this ground, that Papists assert and maintain the observation of Easter and Lent ; the adoration of images and relics ; the wor- ship of the virgin Mary ; the sign of the cross ; the invocation of saints ; the sacrifice of the mass ; transubstantiation ; the withhold- ing of the cup from the laity ; holy water ; ex- 1 See the Abstract of the History of Popery. Part II. pp. 252, 253. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 21 treme unction ; prayers for the dead ; auricu- lar confession ; the sale of pardons ; purga- tory ; pilgrimages ; monastic vows ; and other superstitious opinions and practices, more nu- merous than we have space to mention. Among pretended apostolical traditions, in- fant baptism is to be reckoned ; and here lies the chief support to which its advocates ap- peal. Origen, who lived in the former part of the third century, and who was the first 1 1 It has been asserted by Dr. Wall and others, that Irenceus, who wrote about A. D. 178, was an advocate for infant baptism. The passage, from which this opinion has been drawn, is contained in his Treatise against He- resies, Book II. chap. 22, sect. 4. " Omnes enim venit per Bemetipsum salvare ; omnes, inquam, qui per eum renas- cuntur in Deum, infantes et parvulos et pueros et juvenes et seniores. Ideo per omnem venit aetatem, et infanti- bus infans factus, sanctificans infantes ; in parvnlis, parvulus, sanctificans hanc ipsam habentes aetatem, si- lnul et exemplum illis pietatis efiectus et justitias et subjectionis ; in jixvenibus juvenis, exemplum fiens et sanctificans Domino. Deinde et usque ad mortem perve- nit, ut sit primogenitus ex mortuis, ipse primatum tenens in omnibus, princeps vitae, prior omnium, et precedens omnes." "He" — that is, Christ — " came to redeem all by Himself; all, I say, who through him are regenerated unto God ; infants, little children, boys, young men, and older persons. Hence, He passed through every age, 22 INFANT BAPTISM A ancient writer that distinctly approved of infant baptism, represents it as a tradition and for infants became an infant, sanctifying infants : among little children He became a little child, sanctifying those of this age, and, at the same time, presenting to them an example of piety, of uprightness, and of obe- dience; among young men He became a young man, that he might set them an example, and sanctify them to the Lord. Thus, He passed through even unto death, that lie might be the first bom from the dead, Himself holding the primacy in all tilings, the Prince of Life, su- perior to all, and preceding all." It has been argued that Irensms uses the expression, "regenerated unto God," as equivalent to baptism; and hence, that as he employs the phrase in connection with infants, there is here a distinct recognition of infant bap- tism. If this were true, it would follow that our author is incorrect in affirming that Origen was the first of the early fathers who approved infant baptism, since Irenreus lived more than half a century before him. That Dr. Gill, however, was aware of the existence of this passage, and had examined it well before he made the above statement, is proved by his own writings. In a treatise entitled, " In- fant Baptism an Innovation," written previously to the one now reprinted, he says: "I come next to the words of Irenceus, where he says, < Christ came to save all who by Him are born again unto God,' etc. In this, I shall notice only the sense of the phrase, ' born again unto God,' and the injury that is done to Irenjeus, in making it signify baptism, or any thing else but the grace of regeneration. Christ and his Apostles no where PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 23 from the Apostles. The words ascribed to him are these : " For this" — that is, for ori- call baptism by the name of the new birth; and the practice of so terming it among the ancients had not obtained in the time of Iremens. The passage adduced from Justin Martyr does not prove it ; and those cited from Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria are too late. In Irenreus there are two passages in which it is pre- tended that this expression denotes baptism. The one is where he says, " Et iterum potestatem regenerations in Deum dans discipulis, dicebat eis ; Euntes, docete omnes gentes, baptizantes eos in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiri- tus sancti." " And again, giving to his disciples the power of regeneration unto God, he said, " Go, teach all na- tions, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Adv. Haeres, L. III. c. 17. By this power or commission, is meant, not authority to baptize, but authority to teach the doctrine of regeneration by the Spirit of God, and its necessity to salvation, and in order to baptism. This is the first and principal part of the apostolical commission, as the order of the words show ; and it is most reasonable to think, that he should so call the commission, not from its more remote and less principal part, but from its first and more important one. The other passage is where he speaks of certain heretics, as having been seduced to the denial of "the baptism of regeneration unto God." L. I. c. 21, 1. But this shows rather, that baptism and rege- neration, though connected, are two different things, the former being a symbol of the latter ; just as the scrip- tural phrase, "the baptism of repentance," means that 24 INFANT BAPTISM A ginal sin — " the church has received a tradi- tion from the Apostles, even to give baptism baptism is something different from repentance ; baptism being so called, because repentance is a prerequisite to it. For the same reason, it is called the baptism of re- generation, because regeneration is absolutely necessary to it. To all this I merely add, that Ireneeus not only uses the word regeneration in a different sense from baptism elsewhere (see L. IV. c. 59, and L. V. c. 15) ; but in the very passage now in dispute, he most clearly uses it in an- other sense ; since he says, " Christ came to save all who by Kim are born again unto God ;" by Illm, and not by bap- tism. This is explained by what is said of His sanctifying all sorts of persons, infants, little ones, young men, and old men ; which cannot be understood of His baptizing them ; for He baptized none, and, therefore, could not be said to regenerate any in that sense. To consider Henceus as referring here to baptism, is to make him utter a gross falsehood, viz., that Christ came to save such and such only as are baptized. Since, then, his words, without straining them, are capable of another sense agreeable to truth ; as that Christ came to save all who are regene- rated by His grace, — are we not bound to believe that this latter sense is his ? Indeed, to depart from this clear, literal sense of his words, which contains a well-known truth, and to fix on them a figurative, improper one, which makes him say a monstrous untruth, is most cruel usage of the good old father." Gill's Tracts, Vol. II., pp. 389-302. London, 1773. Ireneeus, in the Book from which this controverted passage is tak?n, is arguing against the Valentinians, a PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. ZO to infants." 1 There is, however, little reason to regard the passage as genuine. A large Gnostic sect, who denied the actual incarnation of Christ and asserted that His whole appearance on earth was a mere vision. In opposition to this destructive error, Irenrcus affirms, that the divine nature of Christ entered into real and vital union with our humanity ; that He was truly man, living, breathing, speaking amongst men; and that, as the human race had been alienated from God by the fall of their first head, Adam, so Christ, by becoming their second Head, had effected their restora- tion. In order to achieve this, He became one of them ; identifying Himself with them in all their ages and con- ditions : comprehending within Himself, as their Repre- sentative, all classes ; teaching and exemplifying the truth to all ; and, by His atoning death, bringing all into a new relation to God — a state in which mercy and grace were possible. To prevent misconception, however, the qualifying statement is added, that none would ac- tually attain the blessing of salvation by Christ, but those who should be regenerated by Him unto God ; or in other words, who should experience the transforming efficacy of His blood, applied by His Spirit. I am con- strained to believe, that the simple and entire meaning of Irenseus is, that Christ came to save, and would save, all truly converted persons, of whatever age or rank; 1 "Pro hoc ecclesia apostolis traditionem suscepit, eti- am parvulis baptismum dare." Origen, Comment, in Epistolam ad Romanos. YI. Tom. II. p. 543. 3 26 INFANT BAPTISM A portion of the works of Origen has perished; and those that still exist, have, for the most part, come down to us, not in the original Greek, but in a Latin translation by Rufinus, a writer of the fourth century, by whom they are known to have been extensively interpo- lated. So clearly has this been ascertained, that no judicious critic will place confidence in any writing of Origen, which is to be found only in the translation of Rufinus. 1 Augus- tine, who was a warm advocate for infant bap- tism, also, defends it as a custom of the church not to be despised, and as an apos- tolical tradition generally received. 2 But as he was contemporary with Rufinus, he probably and that, consequently, there is not the slightest allusion to baptism in the whole passage. For similar views, though differing in some particulars, the reader may consult two very able articles ; the one by Dr. Sears, in the Second Part of his Reply to Burgess on Baptism, in the Christian Review, Vol. III. pp. 208- 213 ; the other by Dr. Chase, in the Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. VI. pp. 646-656.— Ed. 1 See Lardner, Works, Vol. II. pp. 482. 497. 2 "Hoc ecclesia a majorum fide percepit." Serm. X. de verb, apost. c. 2 ; De Genesis, Lib. X. c. 21 ; and De Bap- tisrao contr. Donat. Lib. IV. c. 23. 24. PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 27 took, the hint of infant baptism being an apos- tolical tradition from the Latin translation of Origen made by the latter ; since no other ecclesiastical writer previously speaks of it in this manner. The uncertainty of any apos- tolical tradition in favor of infant baptism seems to be conceded by Jeremy Taylor, when he says. 1 " Xow a tradition apostolical, if it be not consigned with a fuller testimony than of one person, whom all after ages have con- demned of many errors, will obtain so little reputation amongst those who know that things have upon greater authority pretended to de- rive from the Apostles and yet falsely, that it will be a great argument that he is credulous and weak that shall be determined by so weak probation in matters of so great concern- ment." 2 Yet it is by "a probation " thus "weak," that many are "determined" in the liberty of Prophesying. TTorks. Vol. Y. p. 552. Eden's ed. London, 1849. 2 This quotation from Jeremy Taylor has not, perhaps, all the force -which Dr. Gill seems to ascribe to it. The Bishop, in pleading for toleration to the Anabaptists, a3 he calls them, gives a summary of the arguments ad- duced in favor of infant baptism, and then of those which •were urged against it. It is in the latter connection, that 28 INFANT BAPTISM A matter of infant baptism ; for not only do Popish writers, as Bellarmine and others, make it an unwritten, apostolical tradition, but even some Protestant Pedobaptists show a good will to place it among the unwritten say- ings of Christ, or of his Apostles ; and satisfy themselves with a supposition so gratuitous. Thus Mr. Fuller, a late Pedobaptist writer, says, " We do freely confess that there is neither express precept nor precedent in the New Testament for the baptizing of infants ; yet, as St. John tells us, that Jesus did many things which were not written, 1 for aught that the passage referred to occurs. He states it, therefore, as the opinion of the opponents of infant baptism, not as his own. A much more satisfactory admission on the same point is afforded by Neander, in his Church His- tory, Yol. I. p. 314, Torrey's Translation. " Origen, in ■whose system, infant baptism could readily find its place, declares it to be an apostolical tradition ; an expression, by the way, which cannot be regarded as of much weight in this age, when the inclination was so strong to trace every institution, which was considered -of special im- portance, to the Apostles ; and when so many walls of separation, hindering the freedom of prospect, had al- ready been set up between this and the apostolic age. — Ed. 1 John xii. 25. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 29 appears to the contrary, infant baptism may have been one of them." 1 In like manner', Mr. Walker argues, " It does not follow that our Saviour gave no precept for the baptizing of infants, because no such precept is parti- cularly expressed in Scripture ; for our Saviour spoke many things to His disciples concerning the kingdom of God, both before His passion, and after His crucifixion, which are not written in the Scriptures ; and who can say, but that among those many unwritten sayings of His, there might be an express precept for infant baptism?" 3 And Mr. Leigh, one of the dis- putants in the Portsmouth Discussion, sug- gests, that " although infant baptism is not to be found in the writings of the Apostle Paul extant in the Scriptures, yet it might be in some writings of his which are lost, and not now extant." 3 All this is plainly giving up 1 Infant's Advocate, p. 71, 150. 2 Modest Plea, p. 268. 3 Narrative of the Portsmouth Disputation, pp. 16-18. We find Dr. Woods of Andover making a similar con- cession. In his Lectures on Infant Baptism, p. 11, he says, " It is a plain case, that there is no express precept respecting infant baptism in our Sacred Writings The proof, then, that it is a divine institution must be made 3* 30 INFANT BAPTISM A infant baptii-.n as contained in the Sacred Writings, and placing it upon unwritten, apos- tolical tradition ; and that, too, conjectural and uncertain. out in some other way." What can this other way mean, but tradition ? It must surely he his intention to affirm that a rite was ordained by Christ, and practised by the Apostles, for which the Scriptures contain no precept. How can he know it ? Whatever he may call the channel by which he professes to have received the proof of such a fact, it resolves itself into tradition ; for to admit as of divine origin an institution concerning which the Bible is silent, is to give up the sufficiency of revelation, and accept the authority of tradition. Prof. Stuart, also, in the Biblical Repository for 1833, p. 385, says, " Com- mands, or plain and certain examples, in the New Testa- ment relative to it" — that is, infant baptism — " I do not find." And Dr. Neander, in his Planting and Training, p. 101, declares, " As baptism was closely united with a conscious entrance on Christian communion, faith and baptism were always connected with one another ; and thus it is in the highest degree probable that baptism was performed only in instances where both could .meet together, and that the practice of infant baptism was un- known to the apostolic age." In his Church History, Vol. I., p. 311, Torrey's Translation, he makes the same admission in still stronger terms. " Baptism was at first administered only to adults, as men were accustomed to conceive baptism and faith as strictly connected. We have all reason for not deriving infant baptism from PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 31 Now, infant baptism, with all the ceremon- ies attending it, for which also apostolical tra- dition is pretended, makes a very considera- ble figure in Popish pageantry. Romanists administer the rite with circumstances of great pomp and show ; such as the consecration of the water ; the presence of sponsors, who an- swer the interrogatories, and make the renun- ciation, in the name of the child ; exorcisms, exsufnations, crossings, the use of salt, spittle, and oil. Before the baptism, the water is consecrated with much solemn parade. First, the priest makes an exorcism ; breathing three times into the water in the figure of a cross, and saying, "I adjure thee, creature of water !" Then he divides the water after the manner of a cross, and makes three or four crossings. Next, he takes a horn of oil, and pours it three times upon the water in the form of a cross, and makes a apostolical institution." Now, if any trace of infant bap- tism were to be found in the New Testament, or in any writing pertaining to the first age of the church, it could not have escaped the searching eye of Neander, whose knowledge of primitive antiquity is admitted by all to be unsurpassed in depth and comprehensiveness. — Ed. 32 INFANT BAPTISM A prayer, that the font may be sanctified, and the Eternal Trinity be present ; saying, " De- scend from heaven, and sanctify this water, and give grace and virtue, that be who is bap- tized according to the command of Thy Christ, may be crucified, and die, and be buried, and rise again, with Him." The sponsors, or sureties, then recite on behalf of the child, the creed and the Lord ! s prayer, renounce the devil and all his works, and answer the questions put in the name of the child. The form of interrogation and reply according to the Roman ritual, is this ; "The name of the infant being called, the presbyter must say, Dost thou renounce Sa- tan ? Answer, I do renounce. And all his works ? Answer, I do renounce. And all his pomps? Answer, I do renounce." Three times these questions are put, and three times the sureties answer. The interrogations are sometimes made by a priest, sometimes by a presbyter, and sometimes by an exorcist. The following question is also added, " Dost thou believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth ?" To which the sponsors reply, "I do believe." PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 33 Previous to being baptized, the infant is breathed upon, and exorcised, that the wicked spirit may be driven from it, and that it may be delivered from the power of darkness, and be translated into the kingdom of Christ. The following is the formula for this part of the ser- vice prescribed by the Papal code. " Let him — the minister, priest, deacon, or exorcist — blow into the face of the person to be baptized, three times, saying, Go out, thou unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost, the Comforter." That of Gregory is slightly different. " I exorcise thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that thou go out and depart from this servant of God." After the infant has been exorcised and blessed, salt is put into its mouth, as a token of its being seasoned with the salt of wisdom; and as an intimation that " by the doctrines of faith, and by the gift of grace, he shall be preserved from the corruption of sin, experi- ence a relish for good works, and be nurtured with the food of divine knowledge." The priest first blesses the salt after this manner, "I ex- orcise thee, creature of salt;" and then, 34 INFANT BAPTISM A having blessed it, lie puts it into the mouth of the infant, saying, " Receive the salt of Avis- dom unto life everlasting." The nostrils and ears of infants at their . baptism are also touched with spittle by the priest, to indicate that their senses are opened to receive the savor of the knowledge of God, and to hear his commands ; and that " as sight was given to the blind man mentioned in the Gospel, whom the Lord, having spread clay on his eyes, commanded to wash them in the waters of Siloam, so by the efficacy of holy baptism, a light is let in on the mind which enables it to discern heavenly truth." Formerly spittle was put upon the eyes and the tongue ; but that part of the ceremony seems now to be laid aside. And yet no farther back than the birth of king James I, it appears to have been in use ; since, at his baptism, his mother sent word to Hamilton, archbishop of St. Andrews, who was to offici- ate on the occasion, to forbear the use of spit- tle, saying, " She would not have a pocky priest to spit in her child's mouth." * The 1 Abstract of the History of ropery, part I, p. 114. PART AND PILLAR OP POPERY. 35 prelate, it was well known, had led so licen- tious a life, as to have become diseased through his debaucheries. * In queen Mary's reign, the practice seems to have been common ; for when the martyr, Robert Smith, was asked by Bonner, in what particulars Papists dissented from the word of God in the administration of baptism, he answered; "First, in hallowing your water ; in conjuring the same ; in bap- tizing children with anointing and spitting in their mouths, mingled with salt ; and with many other lewd ceremonies, not one point of which is able to be proved in God's order." 3 All of which he calls " a mingle-mangle," and "a shameful blasphemy against Christ." Chrism is another ceremony used both be- fore and after baptism. The parts anointed, are the breast, shoulders, and head ; the breast, that no remains of the latent enemy may re- side in the person baptized ; the shoulders, that he may be fortified and strengthened to do good works to the glory of God ; and the 1 Vide Rivet, Animadv. in Grot. Annotat. in Cassan- der, Consultat, p 72. 2 Fox's Acts and Monuments, folio, vol. Ill, p. 400. [Vol. VIII. p. 351. Cattley's ed., London, 1838.] 36 IXFAXT BAPTISM A head, to denote, " that from the moment of his baptism, he is united as a member to Christ, his Head, and engrafted on his body ; and that he is, therefore, called a Christian from Christ, as Christ is so called from Chrism." This anointing is made in the form of a cross. On applying it to the shoulders, the priest says, " Flee, thou unclean spirit, give honor to the living and true God." On applying it to the breast, he says, " Go out, thou unclean spirit, give place to the Holy Ghost." And when he applies it to the head, he says to the candidate, " I annoint thee with the oil of salvation, that thou mayest have life everlasting." The next ceremoDy is that of signing the in- fant with the sign of the cross. This is made in several parts of the body, especially the fore- head, eyes, and ears, to declare, that "by the mystery of baptism, the senses of the person baptized are opened and strengthened, to en- able him to receive God, and to understand and observe his commandments ;" and to sig- nify that he is now consecrated by the cross to the service of Christ, and to a manful re- sistance against Satan. In PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 37 honey and milk, or wine and milk, were given after baptism ; though the practice has now fallen into- disuse. Infants were also admitted to the Lord's supper. This custom continued for several centuries in the Latin Church, and is still preserved in the Greek Church. 1 Should the reader require proof of the use of these various observances, he may consult an able treatise " on the ancient rites and ceremonies of baptism," by Joseph Yicecomes, a learned Papist, as he is denominated by I>r. Wall ; where he will find them largely treated, and the authorities for them fully cited. These ceremonies are also fully rehearsed and con- demned by the ancient Waldenses, in a tract on Antichrist, supposed to have been written early in the twelfth century. 2 1 For a similar account of the baptismal ceremonies practised by Ptomanists, see Cramp's Text Book of Popery, pp. 122-124. London, 1839.— Ed. 2 Moreland's History of the Churches of Piedmont, p. 173 To this treatise Perrin assigns the date of 1120. But as it contains quotations from the Scriptures with the division of chapters and verses ; -which did not come into use until the latter part of the thirteenth century; either the date is too early, or this division was afterwards in- troduced into it by some copyist. — Ed. 38 INFANT BAPTISM A It may, perhaps, be asked, to what purpose is this account of the ceremonies observed by Papists in the administration of baptism to infants, since they are not used by Protestant Pedobaptists? I answer, it is to show what a prominent place infant baptism, with the osten- tatious ritual attending it, holds in the system Popery; and that, being thus interwoven with its very structure, and contributing largely to its pomp and parade, it may with propriety be called a part of it. Besides, although the ceremonies above described are not all prac- ticed now by any class of Protestant Pedo- baptists, yet several of them are still retained by many who call themselves Protestants. Of this kind, are sponsors ; the interrogations made to them, and the answers given, in the name of infants ; the renunciation of the devil and all his works ; and signing with the sign of the cross. And since these and the others all claim apostolical authority, and most of them, if not all, have as good and as early a pretension to it as infant baptism itself; those, who admit that on this footing, ought to admit these, its adjuncts, also. On this subject the reader is referred to a treatise PART AND PILLAR OP POPERY. 39 by me, entitled, The Argument from Apos- tolical Tradition in favor of Infant Baptism Considered. Most of the ceremonies which have been mentioned, are noticed by Basil, who lived in the fourth century, as then in use, and as derived, not from Scripture, but from tradi- tion. Speaking of the sign of the cross in baptism, he says, " We sign with the sign of the cross. "Who has taught this in Scripture? We consecrate the water of baptism and the oil of unction, as well as him who receives bap- tism. From what Scriptures ? Is it not from private and secret tradition ? Moreover, the anointing with oil, what passage in Scripture teaches this ? Xow a man is thrice immersed ; from whence is it derived or enjoined ? Also the rest of what is done in baptism, as the renouncing of Satan and his angels; from what Scripture have we it ? Is not this from private and secret tradition?" 1 And, in like manner, Augustine speaks of exorcisms and exsufflations in baptism, as derived from an- cient tradition, and of universal use in the 1 De Spiritu Sancto, c. 27. 40 INFANT BAPTISM A church. 1 Now, whoever receives infant bap- tism on the ground of apostolical tradition, ought to receive these also, since they rest on precisely the same foundation. The various ceremonies noticed above, how- ever they may have been subsequently mo- dified and extended, all go back to a very remote antiquity. They are coeval with infant baptism itself, and some of them even pre- ceded it. Pedobaptism was first recognized as an established institution of the church, in the early part of the fifth century. Several doc- tors in the preceding century had, indeed, espoused and asserted it ; and the practice had gradually spread, especially in North Africa. But it was not until the provincial council of Mileve, more correctly called the council of Carthage, held about, A. D., 418, that any canon was passed in its favor. This Bishop Taylor acknowledges. 2 Grotius also takes the same ground, and affirms this to be the first council in which the custom was men- 1 De Peccato Orig. L. II. c. 40. De Nupt. et concup. L. I. c. 20: L. II. c. 18. 2 Liberty of Prophesying. Works, Vol. V. p. 552.-— Eden's ed PART AND PILLAR OF POPERT. 41 tioned with approbation. 1 And Augustine, in his book against the Donatists, written before the meeting of this council, while he asserts that the church had always held infant bap- tism, and that it was most rightly believed to have been delivered by apostolical tradition, ne- vertheless confesses that as yet it had not been instituted or sanctioned by the decree of any council. 2 What, however, had not then been done, was effected soon afterwards, and, pro- bably, in a great degree, through his own in- fluence. At the council mentioned above, over which he himself presided, the following canon was enacted. " Also it is our pleasure, that whosoever denies that new-born infants ought to be baptized — let him be anathema." 3 The decrees of this council were sent to Pope In- nocent I., and by him approved ; 4 thus identi- fying the then nascent Papacy with the earliest canonical sanction of infant baptism. If, then, this rite first received the authority of law from a Popish council, and was first confirmed 1 Comment, on Matt. xix. 14. 2 De Baptismo contra Donatist. L. IV. c. 24. 3 Dupin's Eccl. History Vol. I. p. 635. Dublin, 1623. 4 Madgcburg Centuriators, cent. V. c. 9, pp. 468, 473. 42 INFANT BAPTISM A as an established rule by the Pope himself, may it not well be called a part of Popery ? The two are, in fact, indissolubly united — one - in their origin, their growth, and their results. The same mother-heresy, — Baptismal Rege- neration — which gave birth to Popery, gave birth to Infant Baptism. They were engen- dered in the same dark womb of ignorance and superstition. They came forth together. They grew up together. Together they over- spread the nations. And together shall they disappear before the light of Christ's Gospel, and the brightness of his coming. Further, baptism by immersion, which for thirteen hundred years was generally observed in the Latin Church, and is still universally practiced in the Greek Church, was first changed into sprinkling by the Papists. This was not a mere change in the form of baptism. It was the abrogation of baptism itself. For it is not, as some consider, a mat- ter of indifference whether much or little water be used in baptism. Immersion belongs to the very essence of baptism, and without it, there can be no baptism. As Sir John Floyer ob- serves, "it is no circumstance, but the very PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 43 act of baptism." 1 The same writer also de- clares, that " aspersion, or sprinkling, was brought into the church by the Popish School- men, and that the English Dissenters adopted, it from them. The Schoolmen employed their •wits to find out reasons for the alteration to sprinkling, and brought it into use in the twelfth century." 3 And it must be observed, to the honor of the Church of England, that it has not established sprinkling in bap- tism to this day; sprinkling being permitted only when it is certified, that the child is weak, and not able to bear dipping. In all other cases, the Rubric orders the priest to dip the child warily. The legal sanction of sprinkling in Great Britain came from the Presbyterians during the civil war. The West- minster Assembly of Divines decided for sprinkling against dipping by a majority of only one ; twenty-five voting for it, and twenty- four in opposition to it. On their recommen- dation, it was established by Act of Parliament in 1664. 3 They borrowed it from Geneva; 1 Essay to restore Dipping, p. 44. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. pp. 12, 22. 44 INFANT BAPTISM A and Geneva borrowed it from Rome. That this innovation had its rise from the authority of the Pope, Dr. Wall himself acknowledges, when he affirms that the sprinkling of infants is from Popery. " All the nations of Chris- tians," he says, " that do now, or formerly did, submit to the authority of the Bishop of Koine, do ordinarily baptize their infants by pouring or sprinkling. And though the Eng- lish received not this custom till after the de- cay of Popery, yet they have since received it from such neighboring nations as had begun it in the time of the Pope's power. But all other Christians in the world, who never owned the Pope's usurped power, do, and ever did, dip their infants in their ordinary use." 1 Thus does it appear that infant baptism, both with respect to its subjects, and the mode in which it is now administered, may, with great propriety, be called a part and branch of Popery. But not only is it a part of Popery, and thus contributing to strengthen it, as a part 1 History of Infant Baptism, Vol. II. p. 414. Oxford, 183D. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 45 does the whole ; it is, moreover, its pillar and main support. It is the source from which Romanists, in contending with Protestants, draw the strongest arguments in favor of their to to traditions, and of the authority of the church to alter the rites of divine worship ; on which, as we have seen, the essential characteristics of Popery depend. Papal disputants sadly embar- rass Protestant Pedobaptists, when they bring forward infant baptism, and urge their oppo- nents to prove it by Scripture, both in its sub- jects and in its mode ; and if they cannot do this, then either to give it up entirely, or allow of unscriptural traditions and the authority of the church ; adding the perplexing question, that if they admit unwritten traditions and the custom of the church in one case, why do they reject them in others ? This way of arguing, as Mr. Stennett observes, 1 was used by Cardinal Du Perron, in his reply to king James I., and by Mr. John Ainsworth against Mr. Henry Ainsworth ; and by Fisher, the Jesuit, against archbishop Laud. An instance of the same kind, he adds, is furnished in the controversy et sequitar. 46 INFANT BAPTISM A between Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, and a learned anonymous writer, said to be M. De La Roque, pastor of the Reformed Church at Rouen, in Normandy. The bishop, in order to defend the withholding of the cup from the laity in the Lord's supper, according to the authority of the church, urged that infant bap- tism, both as to subject and mode, was un- scriptural, resting solely on the authority of tradition and custom ; with which, neverthe- less, the pretended Reformed complied ; and, therefore, why should they refuse compliance in the other case ? This reasoning called forth from his antagonist the ingenuous con- es o fession, that to baptize by sprinkling was certainly an abuse, derived from the Romish Church without due examination, as well as many other things, which he and his brethren were resolved to correct. He then thanked the bishop for undeceiving them ; and freely confessed that, in regard to the baptism of in- fants, there is nothing in the Gospel to justify the necessity of it ; and that the passages produced only prove, at most, that it is per- mitted, or, rather, that it is not forbidden. An amusing incident of a similar kind is PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 47 told concerning a Mr. Jeremiah Ives, a Bap- tist minister, famous for his talent at disputa- tion, who lived in the time of king Charles II. The king having heard of his peculiar skill, sent for him to dispute with a Romish priest. This he did, in the presence of the king and of many others, dressed in the habit of an Episcopal clergyman. Mr. Ives pressed the priest closely, showing that to whatever anti- quity Romanists pretended, their doctrines and practices could by no means be proved to be apostolical ; since they are not to be found in any writings which remain of the apostolic age. The priest, after much wrangling, at last replied, that this argument of Mr. Ives was of as much force against infant baptism, as against the doctrines and ceremonies of the Church of Rome. To which Mr. Ives an- swered, that he readily granted what he said to be true. On this, the priest broke up the conference, saying, that he had been cheated, and would proceed no farther ; for he came to dispute with a clergyman of the established Church, and it was now evident, that this was an Anabaptist preacher. The behavior of the 48 INFANT BAPTISM A priest afforded his majesty, and all present, not a little diversion. 1 As Protestant Pedobaptists are urged by this argument to admit the unwritten tra- ■ ditions of the Papists ; so Pedobaptist Dis- senters are pressed, on the same ground, to comply with those ceremonies of the Church of England, which have been retained from the Church of Rome. Dr. Whitby employs this argument with special force, when, after having pleaded for some condescension to Dissenters, in order to reconcile them to the Church, he adds ; " And, on the other hand, if, notwith- standing the evidence produced, that baptism by immersion is suitable to the institution both of our Lord and His Apostles, and was by them ordained to represent our burial with Christ ; and so our dying unto sin, and our conformity to his resurrection by newness of life, as the Apostle clearly maintains the mean- ing of that rite ; 2 if, I say, notwithstanding this, all our Dissenters" — Pedobaptist Dissenters he must mean — " do agree to sprinkle the bap- 1 Crosby's Hist, of the Baptists, Vol. IV. pp. 217, 248. « Rom. vi. 3-6. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 49 tized infant ; why may they not as well sub- mit to the significant ceremonies imposed by our Church ? For, since it is as lawful to add to Christ's institutions a significant cere- mony, as to diminish a significant ceremony which He or His Apostles instituted, and use another in its stead, which they never did in- stitute ; what reason can they have to do the latter, and yet refuse submission to the former? And why should not the peace and union of the church be as prevailing with them, to perform the one, as is their mercy to the infant's body, to neglect the other?" 1 Thus infant baptism is used as the grand plea for compliance with the ceremonies both of the Church of Rome and the Church of England. It is, therefore, the chief prop of these Antichristian Hierar- chies — the final appeal to which they resort for countenance in their unscriptural practices. And so triumphant is this appeal, that no Pedobaptist Protestant or Dissenter has ever been able to stand before it. Further, it is by means of infant baptism that ''the Man of Sin" has spread his baneful influence over many nations. This is abun- 1 Protestant Reconciler, p. 289. 5 50 INFANT BAPTISM A dantly evident from the fact, that through the christening of children, introduced by him, he has made whole nations nominally Christian, and has applied to them the designation of. Christendom ; thus extending the limits of his universal church, over which, as the pretended Vicar of Christ on earth, he claims absolute power and authority. By the same means, he retains his influence over these nations, keeps them in awe of his spiritual prerogatives, and holds them in servile subjection to his will. With this view, he sedulously inculcates the pernicious dogma, that, by their baptism, re- ceived in infancy, they are brought into the fold of the church, within which there is salvation, and out of which there is none ; and that, there- fore, if they renounce their baptism, or aposta- tize from the church, they consign themselves to inevitable damnation. Thus, by his menaces and anathemas, he maintains his usurped do- minion over the submissive and trembling nations. And if, at any time, one of these nations has courage to oppose him, and to act in disobedience to his mandates, he immedi- ately lays it under an interdict ; suspending the sacraments, all public prayers, burials, PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 51 and christenings ; closing the churches ; and forbidding the clergy to administer their func- tions to any but those who, at a great price, purchase the privilege from Rome. 1 By a superstitious dread of these prohibitions, par- ticularly that which withholds baptism from children, nations are induced to comply with the demands of the Papal power, however oppressive and tyrannical they may be. For it appears most dreadful to parents, that their children should be deprived of baptism, by which, as they are taught to believe, they are made Christians, and without which there is no salvation. Hence whole kingdoms have been known to yield to the most arbitrary exactions of Rome, rather than lose what is deemed so very important. What a tremendous influence, therefore, must infant baptism give to Popery ; and how cunningly is it adapted to uphold its power. But the baneful influence, which Antichrist has extended over the nations, through infant baptism, is yet further seen in that poisonous 1 Abstract of the History of Popery, Part I. p. 463. Fox's Acts and Monuments, folio, Vol. 1. p. 326. 52 INFANT BAPTISM A notion, propagated by him, that the sacra- ments, and especially baptism, confer grace by their intrinsic efficacy; " ex opere operato'.' from the mere fact of their administration. In- other words, he has taught that baptism takes away sin, regenerates men, and saves their souls. This is charged upon him by the ancient Waldenses, in the treatise on Anti- christ, to which I have already referred. Speaking of the corruptions of the Papal Hierarchy, they say : " The third work of Antichrist consists in this, that he attributes the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit to the dead, outward act of baptism. In this faith, he baptizes children, teaching that sal- vation is thus to be obtained. On this ground, he confers orders and other sacraments ; and thereon builds all his Christianity. All which is against the Holy Spirit." 1 The same Popish notion is argued against and exposed by Robert Smith, the martyr, in his examination before Bonner. In reply to a statement of the latter, that " infants are damned, if they die without being baptized," 1 Morland's Hist, of the Churches of Piedmont, p. 118. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 53 he asked this question ; " I pray, you, my lord, show me, are we saved by water or by Christ ?" To which Bonner answered, " By both." "Then," said Smith, "the water died for our sins, and so must ye say that the water hath life, and it being our servant, and created for us, is our Saviour. This, my lord, is a good doctrine, is it not ?"* The leaven of this old and destructive error yet remains even in some Protestant churches, which have retained it from Borne. Hence a child, when baptized, is declared to be rege- nerate, and thanks are returned to God, that it is regenerate. And when it is capable of being catechised, it is taught to say that, in its baptism, it was made a child of God, a member of Christ, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. Such instruction cannot but have a powerful tendency to take off all concern from persons when grown up, respect- ing any vital change of heart, as necessary to prepare them for heaven ; and to encourage in them the fatal presumption, that, notwith- standing their evident want of grace, they yet 1 Fox's Acts and Monuments, folio, Vol. Ill, p. 400 [Vol. VII. p. 352, Cattley's edition, London, 1838.] 5* 54 INFANT BAPTISM A are members of Christ, and shall never perish — are children and heirs of God, and, there- fore, must certainly inherit eternal life. The father of lies himself, as Dr. Owen justly ob- serves, 1 could not have devised a more perni- cious doctrine, or one more calculated to insure the final ruin of the soul. If, then, through infant baptism, this fatal heresy reigns su- preme in lands Papal, and is still widely dif- fused and powerful in lands Protestant, are we not warranted in saying, that by means of infant baptism Antichrist has spread his bane- ful influence over the nations ? 1 Theologoumena, L. VI. c. III. p. 477. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 55 CHAPTER III. RELATION OF INFANT BAPTISM TO CHURCH ESTABLISHMENTS. Nothing can be more evident than that infant baptism is the basis of national churches, and, therefore, the parent of all the mischiefs which arise from the unhallowed union of the spiritual and the profane in the same religious community. If a church be national, it is of course, composed of all the men, women, and children in the nation, who have not volunta- rily withdrawn from it. Of such a church children are originally members, either by birth, and as soon as they are born, being born in the church ; that is, in a Christian country, which is the church ; or rather by baptism, as it is generally expressed. Thus, according to the order of the Episcopal Church, at the bap- tism of a child, the minister says, " We re- ceive this child into the congregation of 56 INFANT BAPTISM A Christ's flock." 1 By the Assembly of Divines, baptism is called " a sacrament of the New Testament, whereby the parties baptized, are solemnly admitted into the visible church." 3 Of this the following explanation is given in the next answer of the Catechism, in which the general proposition, though correct, is virtually nullified by the exception made in the case of infants, who form a large majority of the baptized. " Baptism is not to be ad- ministered to any that are out of the visible church, and so strangers to the covenant of promise, till they profess their faith in Christ, and their obedience to Him ; but infants, de- scending from parents either both or but one of them professing faith in Christ, and obe- dience to Him, are, in that respect, within the covenant, and are to be baptized." 3 Calvin, according to whose plan of church government at Geneva that of the Scotch Church was modeled, denominates baptism " a solemn introduction into the church of God." And Mr. Baxter argues, that "if there be neither precept nor example of admitting church members in all the New 1 Liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 2 Larger Catechism, p. 337. 3 Ibid. p. 338. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 57 Testament but by baptism, tben all that are now admitted ought to come in by baptism. But there is neither precept nor example in all the New Testament of admitting church members but by baptism. Therefore, they ought to come in the same way now." So then infants, becoming members of a national church by baptism, are originally of it, and constitute the materials of which it is com- posed. It is, in fact, by the baptism of infants, that a national church is supplied with mem- bers, and is supported and maintained. Hence, it may be truly said, that infant baptism is the foundation of a national church, and is, in- deed, the very sinews, strength, and life of it. And infants, having been thus admitted mem- bers by baptism, continue such when grown up, even though most dissolute in their con- duct, as multitudes of them are. Many, in- stead of being treated as church members, deserve to be sent to the House of Correction — a punishment which some of them receive; and others are guilty of such flagitious crimes, that they die an infamous death. Yet even these die in the communion of the church. 58 INFANT BAPTISM A And thus the church and the world are united and kept together till death doth them part.. The Independents, according to their prin- ciples, would indeed separate the church and the world. But, in practice, they cannot do it, being fettered and hampered by infant baptism and infant membership. The embar- rassment which this subject occasions them, appears from the great diversity of opinions which they entertain respecting it, and from the endless inconsistencies in which it involves them. They seem sadly at a loss what to do with infant baptism, or where to place it. Some place it on the interest of the infant in the covenant of grace. But here they often contradict themselves and one another. At one time they say it is interest in the cove- nant of grace which gives infants a right to baptism ; at another, that it is by baptism they are brought into the covenant ; and then again, that it is not in the inward part of the covenant that they are interested, but only in its external part, where hypocrites and grace- less persons may be ; but what that external part is, no mortal can tell. Others, not feeling so certain that their infant seed, as such, are PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. b\) all interested in the covenant of grace, say it is not that, but the church covenant into which godly parents enter, which gives their chil- dren with them a right to church membership and baptism. Children in their minority, it is said, covenant with their parents, and so become church members, and this entitles them to baptism ; J for, according to the ori- ginal theory of the Puritans of New England, none but members of a visible church were to be baptized ; 2 though Dr. Godwin is of a different opinion. 3 Hence only such as were children of parents in regular connection with the church were admitted to baptism. 4 In the case of ex- communicated members, the children born dur- ing the period of their excommunication, might not be baptized. 5 Children, when baptized, were not considered confirmed members, until they 1 Disputation concerning church members and their children at Boston, p. 12, 13. Hooker's survey of Church Discipline, Part III., pp. 24, 25. 2 Cotton's Way of the Churches in New England, p. 81. Boston Disputation, p. 4. Defence of the Nine Proposi- tions, p. 115. 3 Government of the Churches of Christ, p. 337. 4 Defence of the Nine Propositions, p. 69. 6 Cotton's Way, p. 85. 60 INFANT BAPTISM A professed faith and repentance ;* yet, during their minority which, after the example of Ishmael, reached till they •were about sixteen years of age, they were regarded as real mem- bers to such intents and purposes, that if their parents were dismissed to other churches, their names were to be inserted with them in the letters of dismission. 2 They were also viewed, while their minority continued, as under the watch and care of the church, and subject to its admonitions and censures, with a view to their moral correction and improvement; 3 though not in such a way as to render them liable to public discipline and excommunica- tion. 4 The original Puritans thought, that by the covenant seed, who have a right to baptism and church membership, were meant only the seed of parents in immediate fellowship with the church, and not of progenitors more re- mote. 5 Mr. Cotton says, "Infants cannot claim right to baptism but in the right of one 1 Cotton's Holiness of church members, p. 19. Boston Disputation, p. 3. 2 Ibid. p. 15. 3 Cambridge Platform, p. 18. 4 Boston Disputation, p. 14. 5 Ibid. p. 19. PART AND PILLAR OP POPERY. 61 of their parents or both ; where neither of the parents can claim right to the Lord's supper, there their infants cannot claim right to bap- tism." 1 Afterwards, however, he qualifies this statement by observing, "It may be con- sidered, whether the children may not be bap- tized, where either the grandfather or grand- mother have made profession of their faith and repentance before the church, and are still living to undertake for the christian edu- cation of the child ; or if these fail, what hin- ders but that if the parents will resign their infant to be educated in the house of any godly member of the church, the child may be lawfully baptized in the right of its house- hold governor." 2 But Mr. Hooker asserts, that " since children as children have no right to baptism, it belongs not to any predecessors, whether near or remote, to confer a right to this privilege." 3 In the term, predecessors, he includes all except the parents themselves ; such as grand parents, great grand parents, etc. Thus, too, the ministers and messengers » Cotton's Way of Churches, p. 81. 2 Ibid. 115. 8 Survey of Church Discipline, part III. p. 13. 6 62 INFANT BAPTISM A of the Conoreo-ational Churches that met at the © o Savoy, declare, that " not only those, who do actually possess faith in Christ, and ohedience to Him, are to be baptized ; but also infants, one or both of whose parents are believers, are to be admitted to the ordinance, and those only." 1 Among the commissioners appointed to re- view the Book of Common Prayer, in the be- ginning of the reign of Charles II., those of the Presbyterian persuasion brought for- ward the following motion: "Whereas, there are divers learned, pious, and peaceable minis- ters, who judge it unlawful to baptize not only children whose parents are atheists, infidels, heretics, or unbaptized, but also such whose parents are excommunicated persons, fornica- tors, or otherwise notorious and scandalous sinners ; we desire that they may not be en- forced to baptize the children of such, until they have made an open profession of their repentance before baptism." 3 At the present day, however, the churches of this denomina- tion, except in a few instances, do not adhere 1 Declaration of Faith and Order. Chap. xxix. p. 48. 2 Proceedings of the Commissioners, p. 22. PABT AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 63 to the principles and practices of their prede- cessors ; but admit to baptism, not only the children of church members, but of those who are not; and, indeed, the children of any, whether religious or irreligious, who may ap- ply to them for that purpose. 1 But supposing that, in all cases, none but the children of parents in full communion with the church were admitted to baptism — would this remedy the evil ? "What are such children ? No better than others. Like all others, they are born in sin, carnal and depraved. They belong to the world, notwithstanding their re- ligious parentage, until they are called out of it by the effectual grace of God. As they grow up, they show themselves to be of the world, living in accordance with its principles, and manifesting the same sinful and corrupt nature which others exhibit. Some of them even become grossly immoral. Yet no notice is taken of them in the way of censure or ex- pulsion ; but they retain their membership, 1 This must be understood as having special reference to the Presbyterians of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It is not true, at least in its full extent, of this excel- lent denomination of Christians in our own country. — Ed. 64 INFANT BAPTISM A into which they were brought in their infancy, and continue in it to the day of their death. And if this be not uniting and keeping the church and the world together, I know not what is. 1 The support which infant baptism lends to worldly and national churches, is moreover 1 Who can estimate the mischiefs which have sprung from such a union? What incalculable injury has been clone to the souls of those, who have thus been trained up in the persuasion, that, by their baptism in infancy, they are incorporated into the Church of Christ, invested with a special interest in the covenant of Grace, and made the peculiar objects of the Divine favor! And what immense evils have thereby been inflicted on the cause of the Sa- viour! How has the lustre of His Gospel been dimmed, its strength weakened, and its progress delayed ! And how has His blood-bought Church, ordained by Him to be the fold of His sheep — the home of the renewed — in the world, but not of it — been robbed of its true function, by being converted into a common receptacle for the pure and the impure ; a great drag-net, inclosing all alike ! Infant baptism tends directly to amalgamate the church with the world. It fills it with secular elements; sub- jects it to the control of unregenerate men ; surrounds it, where circumstances are favorable, with civil en- dowments, patronage, and power ; and thus transforms the Bride of Christ into the bedizened courtesan of the State!— Ed. ART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 65 evident from the fact that it practically nul- lifies all the arguments, which are commonly adduced to show their unscriptural character. It is said, and said truly, in opposition to such organizations, that the members of a visible church are represented in the New Testament as "a spiritual seed" — "lively stones," — " called to be saints" — such as, in the judg- ment of enlightened charity, may be accounted sincere believers. But are baptized infants of this description? The holiness attributed to them, is only a federal holiness, and that altogether chimerical. Are they saints by effectual calling? Can they, on scriptural grounds, be deemed holy ? Do they possess the qualities which, in the New Testament, are invariably ascribed to church members ? And if they cannot, even in the widest charity, be regarded as saints, and yet are admitted by baptism into the church, why may not others be so admitted, of whom it cannot be declared that they are regenerate persons ? Besides it is correctly affirmed by the Inde- pendents, that members of Gospel churches are not only such as have been called by the Spirit of God, but such as manifest their obe- 6* 6Q INFANT BAPTISM A dience to that calling by a corresponding pro- fession and conduct ; such, moreover, as are known to each other by their confession of faith wrought in them by divine power ; and ■ such as willingly consent to walk together ac- cording to the appointment of Christ, giving up themselves to the Lord and to one another by the will of God, in professed subjection to the ordinances of the Gospel. 1 Kow do in- fants possess this character ? Do they evince, by an outward profession and walk, their obe- dience to a divine inward call ? If they do not, and yet are received as church members, why may not others be so received, who give no more evidence than they do ? Do they make a confession of faith wrought in them ? Does it appear that they have such a faith ? And is a confession made, and so made, as to be known by their fellow members ? If not, and yet they are received and owned as mem- bers, then why may not others be so recog- nized, who make no more confession than they do ? Do infants consent to walk with the church of Christ, and give up themselves to 1 Savoy — Declaration, p. 57. PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 67 the Lord and to one another, and profess to be subject to the ordinances of the Gospel? If they do not, as most certainly they do not, and yet are acknowledged as members, why may not others be acknowledged as members on the same footing ? Is it objected to a national church, that persons of the worst characters are members of it, and that by this means the church is filled with men very disreputable and scandalous in their lives ? And is not this true of those in congregational churches, who, admitted as members in their infancy, when grown up are very wicked and immoral, and yet their membership continues? Why, then, may not national churches be tolerated, not- withstanding the above objections ? From all these reasons, therefore, I deem myself fully warranted in saying, that there cannot be a complete separation of the church from the world, nor any thorough reformation in reli- gion, until infant baptism is wholly removed. 68 INFANT BAPTISM A CHAPTER IV. INFLUENCE OF PEDOBAPTISM ON PROTESTANT CHURCHES HISTORICALLY DEVELOPED. [by the editor. 1 ] A SEARCHING inquiry into the effects of in- fant baptism on Protestant communities, would furnish most instructive, though painful results. Such an investigation, impartially conducted, ■would soon show, that this corruption, wher- ever it is not restrained by antagonistic causes, always tends to Romanism, or to Rationalism. In some soils, and under some influences, it 1 At the period when Dr. Gill -wrote, the influence of Pedobaptisin on the churches of the Reformation had only begun to show itself. That influence has since been much more fully manifested. The editor was, there- fore, requested to prepare and insert a chapter on this sub- ject, containing the substance of what we may well sup- pose Dr. Gill would have said, had he lived in our day and seen what we have seen. As the chapter thus pre- pared is closely related to the preceding argument, and depends upon it, it was thought better to publish it in this connection than in an independent form. — En. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 69 becomes the prolific seed of all that is most baleful in the Papal system. Such was its development in the ancient church. Germina- ting first in North Africa , the hot-bed of super- stition and asceticism, it was quickly trans- planted into Egypt, where it thrived luxuri- antly among the dreamy speculatists of Alexandria. Thence it spread throughout the Eastern and Western empires, growing up, side by side, with reverence for the outward and the tangible in religion ; the love of imposing ceremonies ; the adoration of saints and relics ; the worship of images ; prelatic power, and priestly domination ; until, at length, the Ro- man Hierarchy, propped and buttressed by infant baptism, cast its shadow over the na- tions. Similar has been its tendency in the Church of England. At the period of the Reforma- tion, the aspect of this Church was, in some respects, bright with promise. Her creed was, in the main, eminently evangelical. Her early teachers were men of great scriptural know- ledge, of fervent piety, and unblemished lives. A large portion of her laity was also pervaded by a growing love for a pure Gospel. But 70 INFANT BAPTISM A while she abjured the supremacy of Rome, abolished the mass, and purged out the grosser abominations of Popery ; yet, by adhering to infant baptism, with its natural concomitants, Episcopacy, and a State-Establishment, she retained a principle which was calculated to undo all her work, and revive within her own communion the most essential characteristics of the "Man of Sin." The sphere, in which this insidious leaven was thus left to operate, was particularly fitted to develop its influence. The national mind of England, either from constitutional structure, or the long schooling of circumstances, has a strong papistic ele- ment. Sturdy and independent in matters of civil polity, it evinces a strange propensity to be led in religion. It bows to authority. It trembles before august names, and lofty pre- tensions. It is fond of pomp and external show. It venerates the time-honored, the far- descended. In such a state of society, infant baptism found a congenial home, and free scope to work out its Popish tendencies. And how successfully it has done so, the present religious position of that country clearly shows. The land which, around the martyr- PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 71 fires of Smithfield, swore eternal hatred to Popery, is now full of Popish dignitaries, Popish priests, and Popish proselytes. The Church, for which reformers toiled, and con- fessors bled, is Papal all but in name. There are, indeed, many pious, evangelical men still "within her pale.; and the echoes of the Refor- mation have not yet wholly died away in her sanctuaries. But the spirit that animates her, the impulses which guide her, the doctrines and ceremonies which she best loves, bear throughout the unmistakable features of Ro- manism. Shocked by the introduction of dogmas and rites, wearing the abhorred livery of Antichrist, Gospel Truth, and vital Faith, and Scriptural Piety, are forsaking her altars, saying, " Let us depart ; this is not our rest ; it is polluted." It is true, that she now mani- fests much alarm and exasperation at the bold encroachments of the Papacy, and is rousing herself to resist its endeavors to get posses- sion of her island-throne. But there is no opposition to the principles of Romanism in- volved in the struggle. It is simply a contest between two kindred Hierarchies, the one seeking to extrude or absorb the other. It is Tl INFANT BAPTISM A the Mother striving to unseat the Daughter. The sole question at issue is, -whether Pius IX. or Victoria I. shall be Pope of England. The Pontiff of the seven-hilled City longs to wrest the crosier from the Pontiff of Buckingham Palace ; and the latter, like a true woman, has no intention of resigning her power. Here is the whole pith of the controversy. The bishops and clergy of the English Church, while they are straining every nerve to pre- serve her from the clutches of Rome, have no wish to purify her from the tenets of Rome. They are willing enough to trade in Popish wares, only they prefer to do it on their own account. To such a state of lamentable deprava- tion has one of the fairest jewels of Pro- testant Christendom been brought by the de- teriorating presence of infant baptism. This has been " the dead fly in the ointment," that has sullied her purity, and tainted her fra- grance. This it is which, breaking down the fence between her and the world, and letting in upon her all its ungodliness, has filled her once green and nourishing pastures with goats instead of sheep, with wolves instead of shep- PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 73 herds. This it is, which has changed her wholesome teachings into soul-destroying er- rors, transformed her worship into a beggarly imitation of Popish vanities, and reduced her whole Christianity to the mere observance of forms and sacraments. Such a church may continue to be Protestant in name ; but, in essence, it is completely Romanized. An example of the workings of infant bap- tism in a direction different, indeed, but equally mischievous, may be seen in the theo- logical history of Germany. Luther rolled off from the great truths of the Gospel the mass of perversions with which ages of Papal dark- ness had overlaid them. He brought out into clear light, and firmly established the cardinal doctrines of Atonement, of Justification by Faith, of Sanctification by the Spirit. He reformed much, but not enough to render the Reformation secure. And it is even a question whether he did more good by what he took away, or more evil by what he allowed to re- main. In his ecclesiastical system, he left in- fant baptism, and infant membership ; thus opening the church to the world, and uniting it with the State. He either did not perceive 7 74 INFANT BAPTISM A their unscriptural character, or deemed them comparatively harmless. Devoting his whole strength to clearing the rubbish from great principles, he judged it of little importance to remove the corruptions of an outward rite. But in this his wisdom resembles that of an archi- tect, w T ho should lay a broad and deep founda- tion, and erect upon it a massive and lofty structure ; while, at the same time, he leaves unnoticed a small stream flowing silently be- neath it, that must inevitably sap the very ground on which it stands. Thus has it been with the work of Luther. The little rill of infant baptism, welling out from its Papal fountain, has slowly undermined the fabric which he reared, and virtually overturned it. For two centuries, indeed, the doctines which he taught were rigidly maintained. But they were held merely as a dead letter — a theologi- cal creed, for which men would buckle on the armor of controversy, but which had no place in their hearts, and no influence over their lives. This could not last. There came, at length, a change over the public mind ; a breaking away from old paths of thought, and a reckless pushing into new ones. The Church PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 75 was ill prepared for the crisis. She was tho- roughly secularized. The world reveled and rioted in her bosom. The great majority of her members were unconverted. Even her pastors and theological professors were, in most instances, entirely destitute of any ex- perimental acquaintance with the power of Christianity. Such could have no inward wit- ness of the truth of the Gospel, and no illu- mination of the Spirit, to guide them in their inquiries. Hence, led by unsanctified reason, and a sceptical philosophy, they plunged into the wildest and most dangerous speculations. Nothing was regarded by them as proved. Their daring criticism strove to rend and dislocate the Bible ; to show that large por- tions of it were mere forgeries ; that the idea of its divine inspiration was but an enthusi- astic dream ; and that the entire histories of our Lord and of His Apostles were only pious myths. And this state of things has continued, until the Church of Luther — the eldest daugh- ter of the Keformation — has now, to a great extent, become a church of baptized unbe- lievers, crowded, in all her departments, with men who, while partaking her ordinances, and 76 INFANT BAPTISM A filling her offices, laugh her doctrines to scorn, and assail the authority of the very Scriptures from which they preach. Here and there, it is true, one of her sons may be seen strug- gling to oppose the rushing tide of infidelity, and lifting up his voice amid the Babel-clamor of rationalistic sects. But its tones are feeble and uncertain ; he himself is not free from in- fection ; and, in spite of his weak resistance, the pestilence strides on. As these sceptical views are thus embraced and advocated by the appointed expounders of Christianity, it might well be expected that they would obtain wide currency among the people themselves. And such is the fact. In Germany, all belong to the church, having been baptized into it in their infancy, and af- terwards confirmed in their membership, when old enough to pronounce the Creed, and recite the Catechism. In this vast and promiscuous mass, some few may be found who manifest vital religion, appearing, among the multitude of the ungodly, like solitary travellers, walk- ing amidst huo;e catacombs of the dead. With the exception of these, the entire body of Ger- man Protestants may be distributed into two PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 77 grand classes — formalists and rationalists. The first profess a profound veneration for Lutheranisin, as the religion of their fathers and of their fatherland. They cling, with su- perstitious tenacity, to its symbols and formu- laries, and display a bigoted attachment to its ritual observances. This, with an occasional attendance at public worship, and a participa- tion in the Lord's supper once or twice in their lives, comprises the whole of their Christianity. The other class, though still retaining their connection with the church, do not pretend even to a speculative belief in the truth of the Gospel. They are infidels of every type and color, from the neologist who denies the divine authority of Revelation, to the pan- theist who, by deifying Xature, would annihi- late God. This, unhappily, is now the popular class in Germany. From these causes the most disastrous re- sults have followed. Real piety is well nigh extinct. Worldliness, scepticism, and contempt for all sacred things, everywhere predominate. The people flock to demoralizing and infidel lectures, while the temples of God are de- serted, and the Sabbath is turned into a carni- 78 INFANT BAPTISM A val. The Lutheran Church, once so living and vigorous, is now a putrefying carcass, sending out poisonous exhalations over her own and. other lands. This even her own writers admit. Tholuck, — who, though an eminently spiritual man, is yet a strong advocate for the ecclesi- astical system, of which he is so distinguished an ornament, and who, therefore, cannot be suspected of painting it in too dark a hue, — has given us the following graphic description of its present state and character. " A huge corpse — stiff, cold, and livid. What in many of its parts appears like life, is but the life of the corruption itself, by which those parts are dissolving. Only here and there, among its dying members, is there a living one, that with difficulty averts death from itself, or seeks to infuse fresh life into the dead portions around it." 1 1 " Einen grossen Leicknam — starr, kalt und Heidi', •was in yielen seiner Glieder als Leben erscheint, es ist das Leben der Verwesung selbst, das seine Glieder auf- lost; nur mitten unter sterbenden Gliedern nock kie und da ein lebendiges, das mit Miike den Tod yon sick ab- wehrt, oder Lebensfriscke in die erstorbenen Tkeile tun sick ker zu verbreiten suckt." Tkoluck, Predigten, Band I. s. 25, Hamburg, 1843. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. Y9 And what has brought the Protestant Chris- tianity of Germany into such a deplorable condition ? Infant baptism. This, by throw- ing down the barrier with which Christ has environed his church, admitting into her en- closure the unregenerate and profane, and even installing them in her seats of instruction, has produced all these direful evils. Will it be said, that in the present depraved state of humanity, communities might easily be per- vaded by an irreligious and infidel spirit, even if infant baptism had never existed? We grant it. But then the destructive element would be without the church — not, as in this case, within it. However high the tide of ungodliness may rise, all is safe while the church preserves the model ordained by its Divine Founder. Planted on the Rock, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail, it presents an embankment to the swelling waves, which breaks their force, and rolls them harmless back. In a pure church there dwells a recuperative power, that can renovate the most degenerate lands. Living and spi- ritual — in the world, yet distinct from the world — it acts as a correcting and restoring 80 IXFAXT BAPTISM A agent, reproving iniquity, confounding unbe- lief, and holding forth the word of life to a reckless and profligate generation. But if its own light become darkness, how great is that darkness ! When the church itself engenders the disease, when its own bosom is the fountain which sends out the contagion — then the last hope disappears. Such a church cannot be reformed. It must be taken down, and give place to one built on a scriptural foundation, or the land which its presence blights, must sink, beyond recovery, into the gulf of cor- ruption. It may, perhaps, be affirmed, that the moral leprosy with which Lutheranism is infected, has arisen, not from infant baptism, but from certain doctrinal errors in her creed. To this Geneva gives the answer, by showing that even the most rigid orthodoxy cannot long remain pure, in connection with a practice which amalgamates the church and the world. Cal- vin, still more than Luther, founded his sys- tem deeply and broadly on the fundamental verities of the Gospel. But, like Luther, he left the initiatory ordinance unreformed, and thus mingled together the heterogeneous mate- PART AND PILLAE OF POPERY. 81 rials of regenerate and unregenerate. By this single oversight, the city where he taught, and which, illuminated by his doctrine, was once a blazing centre of light — a spiritual Pharos, cheering and guiding the faithful in all lands — has been covered with the black night of Socinianism ; her radiance quenched ; her voices of truth hushed ; and the very pulpit in which her adored reformer preached, polluted by lips that deny the divinity of the Son of God, and the renewing agency of His Spirit. And it is a remarkable fact, and one which bears strongly on the present discussion, that the only bright spot which now shines amid her darkness, was not kindled by any succes- sor of Calvin, but by a member of that body of Christians, whose prominent peculiarity is a rejection of the baptismal dogma which Calvin inculcated. It was through the instrumental- ity of Robert Haldane, a Baptist from Scot- land, that D'Aubigne and his coadjutors were brought to the knowledge of the truth, and incited to the holy labor of proclaiming an uncorrupted Gospel. Thus the solitary fire that burns in Geneva was lighted by a Baptist 82 INFANT BAPTISM A hand ; and even this infant baptism will speed- ily extinguish, if it be not itself destroyed. But a still more striking instance of the pernicious effects of this custom, is furnished by the history of our own country. Never had infant baptism a fairer field, in which to prove whether there be any good in it, than among the Puritan churches of New England. The early founders of these churches had cast off the fetters of a tyrannical Hierarchy in the old world ; and although they were not en- tirely purified from the mischievous notion of the connection of religion with civil govern- ment, yet they brought with them to their new home views respecting the spiritual nature of Christian communities, and the simplicity of Christian worship, much more correct than those which were generally entertained in that age. They were men profoundly read in the Scriptures, of great faith and zeal, and of ex- emplary holiness. Since the days of the Apos- tles, the world has never seen a band of Chris- tians more pure-minded, more self-denied, more conversant with heavenly things. Their situ- ation, too, removed them far from the corrupt- ing contact of other less evangelical societies. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 83 They were alone in the wilderness, with them- selves, their offspring, and their God. Surely then, if infant baptism could ever " cease to do evil, and learn to do well," it would have been here. Let us, then, trace its workings in this secluded position. The original colonists of New England held that the visible church of Christ consisted of professed believers and their infant seed ; that the latter being born in the church, had a right to baptism ; and that, from their rela- tion to the church, they were subject to its watch and discipline. This relation, however, was regarded as a modified one, not entitling the baptized child to the full privileges of membership, and to a participation in the Lord's supper, until he should give evidence of genuine conversion. The anomalous state in which their offspring were thus placed — neither in the church nor out of it — greatly troubled these excellent men, as it ever has and ever will all who hold such unscriptural notions. In process of time, the children of the first settlers grew up, and became them- selves heads of families. Many of these still remained unregenerate. It was, therefore, a 84 IXFAXT BAPTISM A very nice and perplexing matter to determine the true position, with respect to the church, of those who, having been baptized in infancy, did not manifest repentance and faith on their arrival at adult years. Equally difficult was it to settle the point whether the children of such ought to be baptized. These questions occasioned much solicitude, and called forth not a little discussion, throughout the colonies. The diversity of opinion, and consequent agi- tation, at length became so great, that, by the request of the magistrates of Connecticut, the controverted subjects were laid before an assembly of ministers convened at Boston, June 4, 1657. After deliberating fifteen days, they gave the following decision : " That it is the duty of infants who confederate in their parents, when grown up to years of discretion, though not yet fit for the Lord's supper, to own the covenant which they made with their parents, by entering into it in their own per- sons. And it is the duty of the church to call upon them for the performance thereof; and if, being called upon, they shall refuse the performance of this great duty, or otherwise continue scandalous, they are liable to be cen* PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 85 fared for the same by the church. And in case they understand the grounds of religion, and are not scandalous, and solemnly own the covenant in their own persons, wherein they give up both themselves and their children unto the Lord, and desire baptism for them, we see not sufficient cause to deny baptism unto their children." 1 This decision was not received with entire unanimity. Many looked upon it as an inno- vation, calculated to lead to very evil con- sequences. The disputes and contentions re- specting it grew at last to be so violent, that a General Synod was deemed necessary, in or- der to secure peace and uniformity of practice in the churches. Such a body, called by the order of the General Court, met at Boston, in the year 1662. In due time, the fruits of their wisdom appeared in the shape of the fol- lowing Propositions. 1. " They that, according to Scripture, are members of the visible church are the subjects of baptism. 2. The members of the visible church, ac- cording to Scripture, are confederate believers, 1 Mather's Magnalia, Book V. p. 63. 86 INFANT BAPTISM A in particular churches, and their infant seed, that is, children in their minority, whose next parents, one or both, are in covenant. 3. The infant seed of confederate visibl-e believers are members of the same church with their parents, and when grown up are person- ally under the watch, discipline and govern- ment of that church. 4. These adult persons are not 'therefore to be admitted to full communion, merely because they are, and continue to be members, without such further qualifications as the word of God requireth thereto. 5. Church members who were admitted in minority, understanding the doctrine of faith, and publicly professing their assent thereto, not scandalous in life, and solemnly owning the covenant before the church, wherein they give up themselves and their children to the Lord, and subject themselves to the govern- ment of Christ in the church, their children are to be baptized." 1 These propositions having been submitted to the General Court, an order was passed by it, October 8, 1662, commending them to all 1 Mather's Magnalia, Book V. p. 64. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 87 the churches in the jurisdiction. 1 Thus backed by the civil authority, the decision of the Sy- nod was soon generally acquiesced in by the Kew England churches. In this manner arose the celebrated " Half- YTay Covenant," according to which, persons making no profession of a change of heart, if they only exhibited a fair outward morality, were permitted and required, on the ground of their baptism in infancy, to appear before the church, recognize their connection with it, acknowledge their covenant obligations, and bring their children to baptism. Thus was the door opened to let the world into the church. Thus, within about forty years after the landing of the Pilgrims, and while the patri- archs of the May-Flower were scarcely dead, the original strictness of their discipline was so far changed as to admit an arrangement, which virtually effaces the separating line be- tween the holy and the unholy, between the conscious subjects of renewing grace, and the votaries of earthliness and sin. And this rapid deterioration was caused by infant baptism. Had it not been for its existence and influ- 1 Mather's Magnalia, Book V. p. 64. 88 IXrAXT BAPTISM A ence, the offspring of believers, while unrege- nerate, would have been viewed as belonging, where they actually do belong, to " them that are without;" as sustaining no relation to the church different from that of other impenitent persons ; and as deriving from their religious parentage only the privilege — a precious one indeed — of being the special objects of Chris- tian solicitude, instruction, and prayer. But as such children were supposed, in consequence of their baptism, to hold some undefined and impalpable place in the church, the inconsis- tency of so regarding them, and yet practi- cally treating them as in the world, greatly disturbed these Puritan Fathers, as it has their descendants ever since. Hence they devised a plan by which baptized adults, who were still unconverted, might be brought away from the court of the Gentiles, and be made, at least, to confess themselves proselytes of the gate. Another reason which led them to this course, was the erroneous idea which they entertained — an idea growing out of infant baptism — that it was the particular appointment of God to perpetuate his kingdom on earth by heredi- tary descent. When, therefore, they saw their PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 89 children arriving at maturity, anil becoming themselves parents, without possessing that spiritual character which would fit them to take their place at the Lord's table, they be- came greatly alarmed for the continuance of religion in future times. 1 To guard against this danger, they resolved that their sons and daugh- ters, if not prepared to make a full profession, should, at any rate, make half of one, and so far own the covenant as to bring their infants within it ; in this manner serving as a sort of intermediate conductors to convey the faith of the grand parents to the grand children, and thus securing the transmission of grace to posterity. The corrupt principle contained in this measure, and the evils which resulted from it, cannot be described more forcibly than they have been by the eloquent Dr. Wisner, who, as a Pedobaptist, cannot be supposed to have over- drawn the picture. " Persons were permitted to come and make, in the most solemn circum- stances, the most solemn of all professions, when they did not regard themselves, and were not regarded by others, as having at all in 1 Mather's Magnalia, Book V. p. C3. ft* 90 INFANT BAPTISM A heart given themselves away to God, and trusted in Christ, and yielded themselves up to be the temples of the Holy Ghost. And as to the promises which were annexed, of ediir eating children in the fear of the Lord, and submitting to the discipline of the church, on the one hand, and of watchful care on the other, they too soon came to be alike disre- garded, both by those who exacted and by those who made them. Parents did not, and soon were not expected, to fulfill their engage- ments, in form so solemn and significant ; and churches did not, and soon were not expected to fulfill theirs. Thus the most solemn and impressive acts of religion came to be regarded as unmeaning ceremonies ; the form only to be thought important, while the substance was overlooked, and rapidly passing away." 1 It was not to be expected that the evil would stop here. The progress Ox degeneracy is ever more decided and rapid, the longer it continues. It is like the letting out of im- prisoned waters, which rush along with a force and volume constantly increasing. Accordingly, the same writer thus graphically records the 1 Wisner's History of the Old South Cliurch. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 91 consequences to which it soon led. " And now another and still more fatal step was taken in this downward course. Why should such a difference be made between the two Christian sacraments, which reason infers from the na- ture of the case, and the Scriptures clearly determine, require precisely the same qualifi- cations ? If persons were qualified to make, in order to come to one ordinance, the very same profession, both in meaning and in terms, required to come to the other, why should they be excluded from that other ? The practical result, every one sees, would be, that if the innovation already made were not abandoned, another would speedily be introduced. And such was the fact. Correct moral deportment, with a profession of correct doctrinal opinions, and a desire for regeneration, came to be re- garded as the only qualification for admission to the communion. This innovation, though not as yet publicly advocated by any, there is conclusive proof had become quite extensive in practice previously to 1679. The churches soon came to consist very considerably, in many places, of unregenerate persons — of those who regarded themselves, and were re- VZ INFANT BAPTISM A gardcd by others, as unregenerate. Of all these tilings the consequence was, that within thirty years after the commencement of the eighteenth century, a large portion of the clergy, through the country, were either only speculatively correct, or to some extent actually erroneous in their religious opinions, maintain- ing regularly the forms of religion, but in some instances having well nigh lost, and in others, it is to be feared, having never felt, its power." 1 To such a state had the Puritan churches of New England been brought by infant baptism, within a single century. Silently but surely it had done its work, sapping successively the safeguards of truth and purity, until by the abandonment of the principle, that none but " living stones " should be incorporated into the house of God, the last defence gave way, and a torrent of corruption flowed in. The world emptied itself into the church. There was, in fact, no longer any world. It was all church. Everywhere men avowedly uncon- verted belonged to her communion, presided over her interests, served at her altars. "With 1 VTisner's History, etc. PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 93 a membership and ministry thus alike carnal, it was not to be supposed that she would re- tain, for any length of time, even a theoretical belief in the grand teachings of revelation. These, however, were not at once repudiated. The forms of faith, which have become fixed in a community, do not suddenly pass away. Truth leaves the heart and the lips long before it leaves the creed. For a considerable period, therefore, a dead, leaden orthodoxy hung over New England, hiding, like a shroud, the rot- tenness beneath. But this could not continue. An incipient change began to be perceived. The distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel were not, indeed, denounced and opposed. They were pass-ed over. While still keeping their place in Confessions and Articles, they were quietly dismissed from the Pulpit, to make room for moral essays, and panegyrics on the beauty of natural virtue. The down- ward process, having gone thus far, must go farther. Men are never satisfied with what is merely negative. They demand the positive ; and when once they have discarded positive truth, their next step is to embrace positive error. Hence, we find that as early as the 94 INFANT BAPTISM A middle of the last century, opinions involving a denial of the proper divinity of Christ, the depravity of human nature, the need of atone- ment, and the work of the Spirit in regenera- tion, were extensively adopted in Massachu- setts. Advocated at first by some prominent ministers of Boston, they spread for fifty years through the country, pervading the graceless clergy and the still more graceless laity ; until, the season of incubation having expired, the monstrous egg broke at last, and the great Unitarian Apostacy stood revealed in all its hideousness. Now, we affirm that this most disastrous consummation was the direct result of infant baptism. It was the product of a series of agencies of which infant baptism was the be- ginning and author. Its proximate cause is doubtless to be found in the practices growing out of the half way Covenant. But what ori- ginated the half way Covenant ? "Would this strange device have ever seen the light, had it not been for the illicit union of the church with infant baptism ? Do not all the writers of that period expressly declare, that its sole purpose was to induce irreligious parents, who PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 95 had been baptized in infancy, to make a formal recognition of the covenant, so that their children might be brought to the font, and thus infant baptism be perpetuated ? "Without infant baptism, such a measure would never have been dreamed of, nor could the slightest pretence have been set up for its adoption. Infant baptism, then, we say again, is the original and real parent of New Eng- land TJnitariamsm. And as in Geneva, so here, the first check given to the rampant heresy came from those who had never acknowledged Pedobaptism. When the banner of an insulted Christ lay soiled and trampled in the dust, the venerated Stillman and Baldwin caught it up, and wav- ing it abroad in the breeze, sent the war-cry of Immanuel echoing over all the hills and vallies of New England ; until the few, " faith- ful found among the faithless," had time to rally and make head against the overwhelming defection. A Pedobaptist historian very can- didly informs us, that " at the beginning of the present century, all the Congregational churches in Boston, with a single exception, had renounced the faith of the Puritans. The 96 INFANT BAPTISM A Old South. still stood upon the platform of the fathers, though her pastor was a semi-Arian. But when the enemy came in like a flood, the Loid lifted up a standard against him. In the year 1803, the Baptist churches in the city were visited with a precious revival, in which the Old South shared to some extent." 1 A few of the members of this Church, occasionally worshipping with the Baptists, became revived, and established a prayer meeting among them- selves ; from which a renovating movement commenced, that has been the origin of all the Orthodox Congregational Churches with which the City of the Pilgrims is now blessed. Thus when infant baptism had put out the fire on all its own altars, with the exception of one solitary shrine, and had caused it even there to burn dim and low ; the flame was kindled again from altars which this unscriptural rite had never been suffered to profane. And while, amid the Egyptian darkness that settled down over the Pedobaptists in Boston, the Baptists, in their Goshen at the North End, 2 thus walked in 1 Moore's Boston Revivals, p. 28. 2 The part of the city in which the Baptist churches were located. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 97 unclouded light, and showed themselves valiant for the truth ; so, throughout the land, feeble and scattered as they were, they stood firm by the cause of their Master. Though thousands around were casting off the authority of Jesus, not a man of them wavered in his allegiance. From all their places of worship the ensign of the cross streamed out undepressed and un- tarnished ; and from all their pulpits the God- head of Christ, and the sovereign eflicacy of His blood, were distinctly and earnestly pro- claimed. To the memory of these brave- hearted men justice may never be done in this world. But we doubt not, that in the great day of decision, when all events and instru- mentalities shall be placed in their true light, it will appear that to the Baptists of Massa- chusetts belongs the honor of having been the first to arrest the overflowing scourge ; that they were the Abdiels who remained faithful in the midst of revolted multitudes ; that it was they, who, when all seemed lost, threw themselves, single-handed, into the van of the battle, and held the field against fearful odds, until, behind their sheltering front, the broken ranks of Orthodoxy were formed anew. Peace 9 98 INFANT BAPTISM A to the ashes of these Christian heroes ! May their names and their deeds be precious to New England, as they are already blessed in heaven ! The great facts, which have been thus briefly reviewed, are full of instruction. They teach us, with the truth and certainty of his- tory, that infant baptism, whenever operating without restraint, will inevitably corrupt the communities that uphold it. Either, by intro- ducing the dogma of baptismal regeneration, and attributing saving virtue to outward forms, it will develop itself into essential Romanism ; or, by admitting the unregenerate into the church, and joining together what God has put asunder, it will prepare the way for a dead and soulless Faith, soon to be quickened into a living Infidelity. Whichever direction it takes, and in whatever shape its influence is displayed, it is " evil, only evil, and that con- tinually." We cannot but regard it as the most pernicious heresy which has ever sullied the primitive simplicity of the Gospel. We are constrained to believe, that, directly or indi- rectly, it has done more than all other cor- ruptions combined, to pollute Christianity, to PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 99 enfeeble her power, and to keep back the hour of her final triumph. It is, in fact, the origin of most of these corruptions, — the source from which they have sprung, and by which they are constantly fed. In a word, we look upon it as the most dangerous element that now exists in the Church. And it is all the more dangerous from the slow and insidious manner in which it accomplishes its results. Were it to stand out in open day, with its real nature and tendencies fully revealed, the whole host of God's people would rise up to banish it from the earth. But it acts silently and covertly, reaching its ends by steps so circuit- ous, and by a progress so imperceptible, that the consequences are not seen till the catas- trophe comes ; and even then they are refer- red, not to the primal cause, but to some one of the intermediate agencies which it has set in motion. To the views here expressed it may be ob- jected, that there are several denominations of Christians in this country, who practice infant baptism, and yet maintain evangelical senti- ments, and exhibit an evangelical spirit. This is cheerfully admitted. Nevertheless, it does 100 INFANT BAPTISM A not shake our confidence in the soundness of the position we have taken. In these deno- minations, infant baptism is not allowed it3 free and natural development. It is restricted and hemmed in by a counteracting power. And this power goes out from the Baptist Churches. While claiming no superiority over their evangelical sisters, in general correct- ness of doctrine, or purity of Christian char- acter ; they do claim — and Scripture sustains the claim — that, on the particular subject of baptism, they alone hold the truth ; and what they firmly believe, they fearlessly declare. By their constantly increasing numbers ; by their almost universal diffusion ; by the scrip- tural and even self-evident nature of their principles, — a wide public opinion has been created unfavorable to infant baptism. This prevailing sentiment acts not on Baptists alone ; nor on those only who are immediately under their influence. It affects all classes. It penetrates even the guarded inclosure of Pedobaptist churches, producing an uncon- fessed, but ever active distrust of an institu- tion, to which the Bible lends no sanction. This is shown by the sad complainings which PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 101 are utterred in certain quarters, respecting the diminution in the number of baptized children, and the difficulty of persuading pa- rents to comply with a custom, for which they can find neither precept nor example in the Word of God. In some sections, indeed, the practice seems rapidly falling in desuetude. And were ministers and theological teachers to cease striving to uphold, by their bare au- thority, a rite which they never have proved, and never can prove, to be of divine appoint- ment, the masses would soon lay it aside alto- gether. Thus circumscribed and impeded, infant baptism does not display its full character and tendency. Born in the twilight of supersti- tion, it puts forth all its energies for evil only when surrounded by its native element. Un- der the noon-day of truth which Baptists are now pouring upon it, its eyes are dazzled ; it becomes torpid ; its huge limbs shrivel up ; it assumes the shrunken form of a mere act of "symbolic dedication;" even some of its friends begin to treat it as a small affair, and almost to ignore it. Yet, even in this shorn and crippled state, it 102 INFANT BAPTISM A is neither dead nor harmless. It must, under any circumstances, operate as a fatal injury, or a gross injustice, to those on whom it is ad- ministered. If, as they grow up, it lead them, as it naturally may, to suppose themselves in a peculiar relation to God, bearing the seal of His covenant, and set apart as His special property ; it will inevitably render them se- cure in their impenitence, under the persuasion that by virtue of their baptism they shall cer- tainly obtain grace at last ; and thus it will prove the direct means of their everlasting destruction. Or if, in spite of this delusive impression, the divine Spirit should reach their hearts, convince them of their lost condition, and bring them to Christ ; then it will act as an unrighteous bond to withhold them from duty. A ceremony, in which they bore no conscious share ; vows, made by others in their name, without their consent or knowledge — will be urged as arguments to prevent them from obeying the plain command of the Sa- viour, first to believe, and then to be baptized. In both these cases, infant baptism is a fla- grant wrong. In the one, it is a snare to the soul ; in the other, a trap to the conscience. PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 103 But this is not the only evil which it is pro- ducing, at the present day, among the Pedo- baptist communities of our own land. In some directions, its old Popish leaven is busily working. Already, through its operation, a large portion of the Episcopal denomination has become essentially Romanized, both in spirit and in practice. And in certain sections of the Presbyterian body, views are advanced with respect to its efficacy, and the moral po- sition of its subjects, which involve the very germ of Popery. No — infant baptism has not lost its venom under the bright sun of the nineteenth century, and in the free air of re- publican America. And if it does not, at last, render this country Papal or infidel, it will be owing, under God, to the resistance it meets with from the Baptist churches. Let their light be withdrawn, and a few generations would see our now broad and happy land covered with spiritual darkness, rotting be- neath the stagnant waters of Formalism, or swept by the wild waves of a God-denying Liberalism. One more great truth has been evolved by our inquiries. It is, that when Christian bodies, 104 INFANT BAPTISM A retaining infant baptism, become corrupt, they have no inherent power to throw off the con- taminating influence, and spring forth into new life. If a church, built on the apostoli- cal basis of admitting to membership only the avowedly regenerate, should in procees of time be debased by the intrusion of secular ingre- dients, it has the element of restoration within itself. The remedy lies in a recurrence to its own first principles ; in the enforcement of that fundamental law of its constitution, which requires, that God's spiritual house should be composed of spiritual materials alone. But it is widely different with a Pedobaptist church. It can derive no help from a resort to its first principles. These first principles have done all the mischief. The regarding it as an ele- mentary rule, that the church of Christ con- sists of believers and their unconverted seed, thus mingling together the " lively stones " of the sanctuary, and " the wood, hay, and stub- ble " of the world — has been the very well- spring of the corruption which overspreads it. How, then, can it put away this corruption, while its source remains ? Such a result is clearly impossible. It may manifest occasional PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 105 amendment. There may be in its history in- tervals of revival and of comparative purity. But they will be partial and evanescent. The same prolific fountain will continue to send out its streams to deluge and pollute it anew. For such a church there is no alternative but to re- nounce its first principles, and adopt the plat- form of the Bible, or sink, at length, in irre- claimable degeneracy. The history of the world does not furnish an instance of a Pedobap- tist church, remaining such, that has radically and permanently reformed itself. The Church of England has not done it, and never can do it. She must cease her unholy alliance with the State ; she must cease to admit to her com- munion the worldly and the profane ; in other words, she must cease to be Pedobaptist — cease to be herself — and be transmuted into a new, spiritual church, modeled according to the pattern of the Gospel — before the Spirit of Holiness will revisit her tabernacles. The Church of Germany has not done it, and never can do it. All the learning, and piety, and zeal of the noble band of evangelical men, that are now rising up in her midst, will never dispel the gangrene from her vitals, unless the 106 INFANT BAPTISM A cause be removed, by the removal of infant baptism, and its attendant evils. There may be, in particular spots, signs of spasmodic life ; and here and there individuals may be- found who appear truly awake to the concerns of eternity. But over the great body of her communion, Death will still reign in all the intensity of its power. It is not from a church so sunk in the mire of secularity, that the redemption of Germany is to come. The day of that redemption is indeed dawning ; but its beams emanate not from the lecture- rooms of the universities, nor from the pulpits of endowed cathedrals. It is from the little companies of baptized believers, gathered by Oncken, and Kobner, and Lehmann, that there goes forth over the land of Luther and Me- lancthon, the mornina; li^rht of a second Refor- mation ; a Reformation which shall be com- plete, as the first was partial, and which shall overthrow the citadel of darkness, as that did its outworks. So it has been, and so it will be ever. The records of every century since infant baptism arose, corroborate the state- ment, that communities, plunged by it into moral decay, never recover by any impulse PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 107 from within. The energy, which shall fully reanimate them, must come from without ; and even then the result can be perfectly secured, only by taking their whole frame-work in pieces, and reconstructing it on a scriptural basis. For evangelical Pedobaptists, of whatever name, we cherish the most fraternal feelings. We salute them as brethren in Christ. We know them to be devoted, heart and soul, to the same holy Cause, in which we humbly toil. We believe that they desire, with a sincerity and earnestness unsurpassed by our own, the abolition of every form of superstition and unbelief, and the spread of a pure Gospel throughout the earth. But, at the same time, we are solemnly convinced, that so long as they cling to infant baptism, they can never see these ends entirely accomplished. How can they hope to demolish Romanism, while they strive to perpetuate, in their own organi- zations, the very key-stone of its whole sys- tem; the chief instrument which brought it into being, and which will inevitably build it up again, the same in substance, if not in name ? Or how can they look for ultimate 103 INFANT BAPTISM A triumph in the conflict with infidelity, if they cherish among themselves a traitor, that, fast as they can drive one army from the field, will bring a fresh one into it ? This is but the labor of Sisyphus repeated. The stone of victory, rolled almost to the mountain-top, ■will rebound and fall back into the abyss. Such efforts, to be successful, must begin at the foundation. The axe must be laid at the root. Infant Baptism — that old Upas tree, which, with its death-distilling branches, Un- godly Church-Membership, State-Religions, Prelacy, Popery, and Scepticism, has for four- teen centuries shaded and blasted the world — must come down, before the pure light of Heaven, and the sweet breath of Life, can cir- culate freely over the expanse of our dark- ened and diseased humanity. How momentous is the part assigned to those who hold the ordinances of Christ as He delivered them ! We cannot doubt that it is the purpose of God to introduce, through their instrumentality, that general return to primitive order, which is to herald the crown- ing conquests of the Gospel. From the time of the first departure from apostolical purity, PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 109 even down through all the darkest eras of the subsequent Apostacy, there has always been a succession of men, who, abjuring all commu- nion with Rome, have, under different names, and in different countries, kept the word and the testimony of Jesus. And the rapid growth, in our own day, of the true descend- ants of these ancient witnesses, their advanced position, their disciplined array, their increas- ing influence and resources, furnish significant indications, that their great work is soon to be achieved. What a solemn mission is theirs ! How do the coming destinies of the church and of the world hang upon it ! Their prin- ciples must prevail, or tradition, imposture, and infidelity will still hold the field. Their banner must wave from every tower and bat- tlement of Zion, or final victory can never be hers. May "the Captain of Salvation" give them grace to fulfill the trust committed to their hands. 10 HO INFANT BAPTISM A CHAPTER V. CERTAIN EXTINCTION OF INFANT BAPTISM. It is true, that from the fifth century until now, this pernicious error has held sway over the greater part of those who have borne the Christian name ; bringing with it all the cor- ruptions of doctrine and of discipline which inevitably follow in its train. It is also true, that, though its power has been checked, and its hold on the public mind weakened, it is still widely prevalent ; substituting, through- out whole nations, a mere nominal Christianity for the pure and life-living Gospel; propping up time-worn abuses ; and retarding the moral emancipation of the world. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that the time is hastening on, when, strongly intrenched as it now is in the superstitious veneration of the masses, and upheld, from interested motives, by lordly priests and bloated hierarchies, it shall be ut- PART AKD PILLAR OF POPERY. Ill terly and forever extirpated. The Scriptures teem with the delightful announcement, that a day shall yet dawn on the earth, when Chris- tianity shall not only universally prevail, but shall be wholly freed from the numerous per- versions by which its energies have been im- paired, and its beauty disfigured. In that predicted period, "the Man of Sin" shall be destroyed, and every trace and relic of his influence be swept away. The doctrines of the Gospel will shine out in their primal lustre, and its ordinances again be restored to apos- tolical purity and simplicity. Christ " shall be King over all the earth, and there shall be one Lord, and His name one." 1 In other words, "one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism," shall be acknowledged and received by all Christians : and there shall be a universal agreement with respect both to the inward essence and the outward institutions of the Gospel. In this glorious reign of truth and holiness — the "latter day," which inspiration promises, and for which every pious heart must fervently long — infant baptism will no 1 Zecli. xiv. 9. 1 12 IXFAXT BAPTISM A more be practiced, but will vanish and be for- gotten, as the shadows of the morning twi- light melt before the risen sun. This I most confidently believe. As firmly as I believe that the Gospel shall yet subdue the world, so' firmly do I believe that, in the consummation of its triumphs, infant baptism, with every other antichristian custom, will be driven out of the church, and be cast into the same bot- tomless pit with the Beast and the false pro- phet. The reasons on which my belief is founded, are partially implied in the state- ments above made. It may be desirable how- ever, that I should adduce them more particu- larly, and at greater length. I believe this, because, in the time referred to, churches will be formed on the same model with those in the days of the Apostles. That this will be the case, is clearly manifest from the teachings of prophecy. " And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin ; and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning ; afterward thou shalt be called, The City of Righteous- PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 113 ness." 1 " Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places ; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof. Their children also shall be as afore- time, and their congregation shall be estab- lished before me." 3 "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament." 3 Xow the apostolical churches contained only bap- tized believers, or such persons, and such alone, as had by baptism made a public pro- fession of their faith. The church at Jerusa- lem — the first Christian Church that was in- stituted — consisted of the Apostles and others who had been converted and baptized during the ministry of our Lord ; and then of those who, on the day of Pentecost and subsequently received the truth, and were added by baptism, to the company of the disciples. 4 The next Christian Church was at Samaria; and this was composed of men and women, who were baptized on believing the Gospel preached by 1 Isa i. 25, 26 2 Jer. xxx. 18, 20. 3 Rev. xi. 19. 4 Acts ii. 41 : iv. 4. 10* 114 IXFAXT BAPTISM A Philip. 1 The Church at Corinth consisted of those who, having heard the word from the lips of Paul, believed and were baptized. 3 Of similar converts were the Churches at Rome, Philippi, and Colosse composed. In all the New Testament, not a single instance of in- fant baptism nor of infant membership is re- corded, or even intimated. Nor is there the slightest hint that any were ever received into churches, who had not been baptized on a personal profession of their faith. If there- fore, such was the apostolical constitution of the Church ; and if, in the latter day, this constitution is to be restored ; it follows that infant baptism will then be no more practiced. I believe this, because the ordinances of the Gospel will then be administered as they were originally appointed, free from all the present intermixtures of superstition and corruption. Such I consider to be the meaning of that vision of the Apocalypse — the opening of the temple of G-od in Heaven* — seen by St. John immediately after the sounding of the seventh trumpet. I interpet this as a symbolical an- 1 Acts viii. 12. 2 Acts xviii. 8. 3 Rev. xi. 19 : xv. 5. PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 115 nounceinent of the restoration of the worship, doctrines, discipline, and ordinances of the Gos- pel to their free use, and to their primitive purity. In the coming era of scriptural light and knowledge, " the tahernacle of the testi- mony" — the pure truth of God — so long shut up by ecclesiastical tyranny, or hidden behind the veil of perversions and false glosses, will be thrown wide open, revealing its treasures to every eye, and filling every mind with its heavenly radiance. In this broad and bright illumination, every form of error will shrink away, and be annihilated. The teachings of the Gospel will be rightly understood, and cordially embraced. The Lord's supper will be administered, clear of all the corruptions and ceremonies, introduced into it by Papists, and retained by Protestants. In like manner, the ordinance of baptism will be purified and brought back to the scriptural model. In the first ages of Christianity, it was administered to believers alone, and by immersion only. So will it be in the future age of renovation. Of course, then, infant sprinkling will be prac- ticed no more. I believe this, because Christ will then be 116 INFANT BAPTISM A King over all the earth in a spiritual sense ; the one Lord -whose commands -will be obeyed with great precision and exactness, as they are made known in His Word. Among the com- mands which He has given, baptism is included ; and as he will be acknowledged the one Lord and Head of the Church, — and not the Pope, whose power will then be ended — there will be one Baptism, which will be administered to one class of subjects only, and by immersion only — the one mode which He has ordained in His statutes, and confirmed by his example. Infant sprinkling, therefore, will be practiced no more. I believe this, because, in the advancing period of Zion's glory, the name of Christ, that is, His religion, will be one and the same in every part of the world. In spirit, in doc- trine, in form, it will be precisely what it was when it came, all stainless and living, from its Divine Founder. Now it appears various, dis- cordant, even contradictory, owing to the dif- ferent manner in which it is professed and exhibited. But in the latter day, it will be uniform and harmonious in all its branches, as embraced, felt and manifested by all Christians. PART AXD PILLAR OF POPERY. 117 And as baptism is a part of Christ's religion, this also will be observed in a uniform manner by all who bear Christ's name. For since the name of Christ, or the Christian religion in all its parts, will be the same in ail who pro- fess it ; I, therefore, am firmly persuaded, that baptism will be practiced alike by all, accord- ing to its primitive institution ; and, ■ conse- quently, that infant sprinkling will be forever abolished. I believe this, because, in the latter day, " the watchmen of Zion will see eye to eye.'' 1 As the appointed teachers of Christianity will be of one mind, with respect both to its doc- trines and its duties, and will alike preach the one, and practice the other ; so the people, un- der their ministrations, will be all of the same belief; receiving the truths of the Gospel in the love of them, and submitting to its pre- cepts and institutions, without any difference among themselves, and without any variation from the word of God. There will then no longer be any strife about baptism. All will agree, that its proper subjects are believers, and its right mode immersion. Thus infant 1 Isa. lii. 8. 118 INFANT BAPTISM A sprinkling will no more be contended for ; and Christians will in all things serve the Lord with one consent, 1 Another reason why I firmly believe that infant baptism will hereafter entirely cease, is, because Antichrist will be utterly consumed by the Spirit of Christ's mouth, and with the brightness of his coming. 3 In other words, Romanism, with all kindred systems of false- hood and impiety, will be annihilated by the pure and powerful preaching of the Gospel, when Christ shall come to take to Himself His power, and reign spiritually in the churches, in a manner more glorious than He has ever yet done. Then all antichristian doctrines and practices will be entirely abol- ished, even the whole body of antichristian worship. Not a limb of Antichrist shall re- main, but all be consumed. Now as I fully believe, and think it has been clearly shown, that infant baptism is a part and pillar of Popery, a limb of Antichrist, a branch of su- perstition and will-worship, introduced by the Man of Sin, — when he shall be destroyed, this shall be destroyed with him. 1 Zep. iii. 9. 2 2 Thess. ii. 8. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 119 Nor am I shaken in this belief by the fact, that, in various ages, wise and good men have embraced and practiced infant baptism. It is a part of " the wood, hay, and stubble," laid by them upon the foundation. It is one of those works of theirs — the product of human device and invention — which the bright day of the Gospel shall declare to be a falsehood ; and which the fire of the word will try, burn up, and consume, though they themselves shall be saved. And, therefore, being utterly consumed, it shall no more appear in the world. When the angel, foretold in the Apocalypse, shall descend from heaven with great power, to proclaim the fall of spiritual Babylon, the whole earth shall be lightened with his glory. 1 Before the blazing splendor of truth, that will surround his path, all darkness shall be re- moved, and all works of darkness be made manifest and cast off — among which infant baptism is one. Then shall the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. 3 That is, the knowledge of the word, ways, worship, truths, and ordinances iRev. xriii. 1, 2. 2 Isa. xi. 9. 120 INFANT BAPTISM A of God, shall universally prevail ; and all ig- norance, misconception, or abuse of them be banished forever. The ordinance of baptism will then be disentangled from the mass of tra- ditions which have so long encumbered it, and appear once more in its native lustre. It will be observed in strict accordance with its origi- nal mode and design, and every corruption of it be scrupulously rejected. Hence, as infant baptism is such a corruption, it will, in that day, be abhorred and cast away. Since we are taught in Scripture, that the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper are to continue until the coming of Christ at the end of the world; 1 and since these or- dinances have been greatly and very generally corrupted ; it is not reasonable to suppose that their Divine Author will allow them always to remain in this deformed and vitiated state ; but that in the spiritual reign of Christ — the blissful period that is to usher in His final Ad- vent, — every perversion which has been made of their intent, and every addition or curtail- ment which has marred their inspired model, will be scattered, like chaff, before the might 1 Mutt, xxviii. 19, 20; 1 Cor. xi. 26. PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 121 of the triumphant Gospel. And as in relation to baptism, there must be, on the one side or the other, a mistake with respect both to its subjects and its mode ; and as I am thoroughly persuaded that this mistake exists on the side of the Pedobaptists ; so I as firmly believe, for the reason given, that it will be removed, and infant sprinkling be no more used. The time when this happy consummation will take place, is that predicted in the message to the church at Philadelphia, 1 whose state I re- gard as emblematical of the spiritual reign of Christ in the latter day. In this conclusion I am confirmed by the character given of that church and of its members. It is described as having kept the word of Christ ; and this, I conceive, prefigures the conduct of Chris- tians in the millenial age ; when not only will the doctrines of the Gospel be purely preached and openly professed, but its ordinances also, baptism and the Lord's supper, which, — espe- cially baptism, — have been sadly corrupted in almost all former periods except the apostolic, will be restored to their pristine purity and glory. Hence it is promised to this church, 1 Pvev. iii. 7-12. 122 IXFAXT BAPTISM A and through it to the churches of that future era which it represents, that because it had truly and faithfully kept the word of Christ's pa- tience, it should be delivered from the hour of temptation which should come upon all the earth. It is also exhorted to hold fast what it had, and to maintain both doctrines and ordi- nances as they were delivered by Christ and his Apostles, and as it now held them in their primitive simplicity and incorruptness.* 1 This interpretation of the learned author will not hear the test of sober criticism. The Apostle John was instructed by our Lord to address a message to the church in Philadelphia — a church existing in his own time, and in the region which had been the principal scene of his own labors. In this message, allusion is made to the state and character of the church, and to recent events in its history. Its steadfastness and fidelity are commended ; and a promise is given to it of triumph over the Judaical party, by whose factious conduct its peace, in common with that of all the early churches, had been greatly disturbed. Then follows the animating assurance of preservation in the approaching hour of temptation, which should come upon all the world ; by which is un- doubtedly meant one of those severe and general perse- cutions which took place under the Roman emperors. Now that there is much in this message instructive and profitable to Christians in all ages, as well as to those to whom it was primarily directed, none will deny. But to PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 123 These are the principal reasons why I be- lieve, with a strong and unwavering faith, that the time is coming, and I trust is not far off, when infant baptism, with its numerous pro- geny of baleful influences and results, will be banished from the earth, no more to pollute the fair face of Christianity, and no more to deceive the souls of men. In our own times, a great and just alarm is felt at the rapid increase of Popery, and the spread of principles kindred with it, and tend- ing to its propagation. The Beast seems reco- vering from his deadly wound, 1 and with invi- gorated energies, is preparing for a last effort convert it into a prophecy, and make it, in fact, a sym- bol of one of the grand epochs in the unfolding destinies of the Gospel, — when not the slightest hint of such an application is contained in the message itself, — is a mode of expounding Scripture altogether arbitrary and fanciful. It is unquestionably true, that the universal prevalence of Christianity is the subject of numerous scriptural predictions ; and that, in the period of their fulfilment, the doctrines and institutions of the Gospel will be purely held and kept. But it is not true that the state of the Philadelphian Church was designed by the Holy Spirit to be a prophetic emblem of that period. — Ed. 1 Rev. xiii. 3, 12. 124 INFANT BAPTISM A to regain the mastery of the world; while the numberless bands of his auxiliaries and sate- lites — Baptismal Regeneration, Sacramental Efficacy, Formalism, Mysticism, and Political Intrigue — in diverse array, and with motley, banners, are mustering, thick and fast, to the onset. Every thing betokens the coming on of the final struggle between the powers of Light and of Darkness. This combat Protest- antism is in no condition to meet successfully. By retaining Infant Baptism, she keeps in her very citadel the chief supporter and prime minister of the foe ; insidiously sapping her strength, betr.aying her defences, spiking her artillery, and waiting but for a fitting moment to lay her, prostrate and helpless, at the feet of her victorious enemy. Down with the trai- tor! Tear off his disguise, and lay bare be- neath it the uniform of the Papacy ! Wash his painted face, and read on his brow "the mark of the Beast." Thus detected and renounced, send him back to the camp of Antichrist, where he belongs. Then, and not till then, may the Protestant host, united under the broad standard of " the truth as it is in Jesus," formed in Gospel order, and moving on to the PART AND PILLAR OF POPERY. 125 exulting war-cry, " One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism," hope to scatter the forces of Super- stition and Falsehood, and bear the uplifted ensign of Salvation in triumph over the world. THE END VALUABLE 1300KS PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETF 118 ARCH STREET, PHILADELPHIA. COMPLETE WORKS OF ANDREW FULLER. THREE VOLUMES. OCTAVO. The complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller; with a Memoir of the author, and a likeness. Price $6 00 in cloth or sheep ; $6 50 in half calf or turkey morocco. " Fuller's Works might, without any very remarkable impro- priety, be designated an Encyclopedia of Polemic, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology. With giant steps he traverses the whole empire of revelation, and of reason as its handmaid. He is the Bacon of Scripture. It is a Library in itself. The Bible and these Works will suffice to make any man a first rate theologian." — Rev. Dr. Campbell in the London Christian Wit- ness. BAPTISM IN ITS MODE AND SUBJECTS BY ALEXANDER CARSON. This work contains a brief Memoir 'of the author, with his r eply to Rev. Dr. Miller, &c. One octavo volume of 550 pages. Price $1 50 in sheep or cloth ; $1 60 in half calf or half turkey morocco. " Let those who think that the solemn immersion of believera in water is not baptism, answer, if they can, fairly and withou> evasion, the learned, candid, and decisive work of Mr. Carson.'- "Rev. B. H. Draper, LL. D. HISTORY OF BAPTISM. BY I8AAC T. H1NTON. A History of Baptism, from inspired and uninspired writings. This is a beautiful edition, from new stereo- type plates. It has also been published in England. I2mo. 348 pages. Piice 65 cents in cloth or sheep THE TERMS OF COMMUNION, BT ROBERT B. C. HOWEIL A beautiful edition from new stereotype plates, and the price reduced to 60 cents. Its wide circulation in this country, and its republication in England, aie the best testimonials of its usefulness. THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. BT JOHN BUNTAN. This edition contains a likeness of the author and four engravings. Price 60 cents. THE HOLY WAR. BT JOHN BUNTAN. A new edition with six engravings. Price 60 cents. " One of the greatest books ever made." — Albert Barnes. MARRIED LIFE.-A WEDDING GIFT. BT JOSEPH BELCHER. An elegant miniature volume of 128 pages, with gilt edges and ornamental covers. Price 30 cents. SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. BT R. FENGILLT. The many thousands of this able work which have been sold attest its excellence. It contains 90 pages Price 25 cents in cloth, and 6^ in paper covers. PENGILLY'S GUIDE AND BOOTH'S VINDICATION. This volume contains two treatises. First, Pengilly'% Scripture Guide to Baptism. Second, Booth's Vindica- tion of the Baptists from the charge of bigotry, in refus- ing communion at the Lord's table to Peedobaptists. Price, 25 cents in cloth, and 20 cents in half binding. SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT. BT SAiiU^L W. LYND. One volume, 12 mo. 231 pages. Trice 60 cents. TRACTS. One hundred and seventy-one Tracts are published by the Society and sold at the rate of 15 pages for a cent; 375 pages for 25 cents ; 1500 pages for one dollar. FRET'S SCRIPTURE TYPES. The Scripture Types. A course of Lectures by Joseph Samuel C. F. Frey. A new edition, in two vol umes. Vol. I. contains 306 pages ; Vol. II. 320 pages. Price, 50 cents per volume Also, in ono volume, fur $1.00, in cloth, sheep, or half-calf. " The peculiar circumstances of the author, as a natural des- cendant of Abraham ; he having sustained, for a number of rears, the office of a Jewish Rabbi, for which he had been regu- larly educated; gave him an opportunity of obtaining a supe- rior knowledge of the Mosaic dispensation, and of the Jewish ceremonies and customs, both ancient and modem, thus ena- bling him to embody in these Lectures much valuable informa- tion. This work should be found in the Libraries of Bible Classes and Sunday Schools." — Spencer H. Cone, D. D. " Having carefully read this u ork of Rev. C. F. Frey, I do very cordially unite in recommending it as one of mnch "value. It is, though abounding in information, highly devotional and practical in its character." — William R. Williams. D. D, THE BAPTIST HARP. The Baptist Harp : a new collection of Hymns for the Closet, the Family, Social Worship and Revivals. It contains 583 Hymns and 5 Doxologies. Two sets of stereotype plates have been prepared, large and small. The pocket edition is only 25 cents. The medium size (printed from the same plates, but with a wide margin,) 30 cents. The large edition, 35 cents. Various styles of ornamental binding, according to price, from 35 cents to S2.00. M We hesitate not to say that in some important respects, \* must give it a decided preference to anv volume of the kin. we have ever yet seen." — Christian Revieio, Boston, Afass. "We are willing to pronounce it unsurpassed, nay unequalled.'- — Southern Baptist, Charleston, S. C. INFANT BAPTISM. The Scriptural and Historical Arguments for Tnfr.nt Baptism examined ; by J. Torrey Smith, A. M. An able work on the Covenant of Circumcision, with a re- view of the New Testament Arguments, and thorough examination of the Historical Evidence derived from the Christian writers of the first five centuries. 25 cte. COMMUNION. BY T. F. CURTIS. 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BAXTER'S SAINTS' REST A beautiful edition ; bound in cloth. 444 pages. 40 cts. BAXTER'S CALL. Baxter's Call to the Unconverted. 18mo. 177 pages. 15 cents. PIKE'S GUIDE TO YOUNG DISCIPLES. An excellent work for Young Converts. 465 pages. 40 cents. BAPTIST FAMILY LIBRARY. In six volumes, in uniform binding. Price $3.75. 1. Hinton's History cf Baptism. 4. Banyan's Holy War 2. Howell on Communion. 5.- Baptist Manual. 3. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 6. Booth's Reign of Grace, SUNDAY SCHOOL BOOKS. The Society has issued many interesting volumes for Sunday School Libraries. The publications of the American Sunday School Union, and of the American Tract Society are also kept for sale. AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOC1KTT. THE DEACONSHIP BY R. B. C. HOWELL, D.D. From the " Christian Review," Rev. S. F. Smith, Editor. " This is the only treatise or extended discussion on the office of Deacons, which we have ever seen. The subject has occasionally called forth an essay at a minister's meeting, which has been read, approved, and laid aside ; but nothing of any importance has before found its way to the press. The treatise of Dr. Howell is calm, clear, full, and Scriptural. In nine brief chapters, it exhibits the origin and nature of the Deacon's office, the qualifications for the office, the election and ordination of deacons, their general and specific duties ; the means of creating and sus- taining the necessary revenues in the church, deaconesses, the duty of the churches and the ministry to co-operate with the deacons, and the importance of faithfulness on the part of the latter. The chapter on the revenues of churches seems to us to have but a loose connection with the subject under discussion ; and although its principles may be sound, we doubt if it had not better been reserved for another occasion. Dr. H. takes the ground that the office of deacons is perpetual, and that their calling is to take care of all the temporalities of the church. Hence he assigns to them not only the customary duties of dea- cons, but also, ex-officiis, the duties which in New England are commonly devolved on a Society's Committee and Treasurer. He recommends that a person elected by the church to the office of deacon should be presented by the church to the pastor, who is to pray for and afterwards to lay his hands upon him. He suggests that in all well egulated Baptist churches, there are female members who AMERICA* BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. are, though not by express designation, deaconesses; that they are needed and useful in all countries, and in oriental ones, indispensable. Our modern churches have retained the office without the name. The volume is a sound and sober exhibition of opinions which we believe are,«on the whole, capable of being sustained by Scripture, — well arranged and well expressed. We hope the little book will find a wide circulation, and do good in promoting among the churches uniformity, order and pirty." From the " Baptist Memorial," Rev. Dr. Babcock, Editor. " Pastors and Deacons should both study this treatise. " From the Rev. J. Newton Brown, Editor of the " Encyclo- pedia of Religious Knowledge." " Several years ago, I was led to examine the subject of the Deaconship with special care, and regretted that there was nothing in the shape of a treatise upon it at all satisfactory. I then embodied my inquiries in the form of a sermon, and delivered it on two occasions, by request, at the ordination of Deacons. The sermon was so much approved as to be solicited for tne press ; but I never pub- lished it. I mention the fact to show you the preparation of my mind for examining with care the work of Dr. Howell ; and I rejoice to say that I found the subject treated by him so perfectly to my satisfaction, that I shall never be tempted again to give my discourse to the press. I fervently bless the Head of the Church for directing Dr. Howell's attention to the subject. I thank him, and I thank the American Baptist Publication Society, for a work on the office of Deacons, which I trust is destined to form an era in our churches, of clear, definite, settled, scriptural views and practice. How really astonishing it is to a re- aecang mind, that while so many hundreds of volumes have been written on the Pastoral office, and with such excel- lent effect, we have had absolutely nothing before, worthy to be called a treatise on the office of Deacon — though the latter is of equ-ally Divine Institution and Authority— and scarcely inferior in importance, all things considered, to the well-being and efficiency of a church of Christ. Such a work is truly an augury of better times."