/XJ^'ll. 
 
 Srom f^e £i6rarg of 
 
 (Ret), (^ffen ^enrg QBrot^n, ®. ®. 
 
 ggequeaf^eb fig 0im fo 
 f^ feifirar)? of 
 
 (princefon C^eofogicaf ^eminctrg 
 
 BX 6331.2 .C6 
 
 Confessions of a convert 
 from baptism in water to 
 
 "^ 
 

 
 I Ix, 
 
 ^yu y^^^^f-'^^L^ 
 
 ^^T-X^ a^r ^ 
 
 / fff^. 
 
CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT, 
 
 FROM 
 
 BAPTIS:^! IN WATER 
 
 TO 
 
 BAPTISM WITH WATER 
 
 FROM THE SECONT) ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 V 
 
 \^ 
 
 m 
 
 OF 
 
 .1^^ 
 
 mr/^ 
 
 * DEC 14 1911 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
 No. 265 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
stereotyped by Slote & Moonet, Philadelphia. 
 Printed by W M . S . M a R T i E n , 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 "Who is the author of Confessions of a 
 Convert?" ''Who is Mr. B. ?" ''Who is 
 Mr. R.?" "Is the book fact or fiction?" 
 These are questions which curiosity may ask, 
 but which, for sundry reasons, cannot now be 
 answered. 
 
 There is, however, one query to which a 
 reply may be returned;— it is this, "Why 
 have these 'Confessions' been published to 
 the world?" Not, certainly, because works 
 on the main subject to which they relate are 
 either scarce or unsatisfactory. Writers, such 
 as Edwards, Ewing, Wardlaw, Thorn, Halley, 
 and Godwin, have left but scanty gleaning in 
 this well-trodden field of controversy for any 
 of their successors. But most of their treat- 
 
 Ciii) 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 ises are much too long and learned for popu- 
 lar use. They are far better adapted to the 
 ministers and more reflecting members of our 
 churches than to the mass, who have neither 
 time nor talent for the study of productions 
 so elaborate. The result is, that while those 
 by whom they are read rise from the perusal 
 strong as proof from Holy Writ can make 
 them in their belief of the authority and ex- 
 cellence of a practice so ably defended, as 
 the number of such readers is comparatively 
 small, the effect has been proportionally re- 
 stricted. For general benefit, a different 
 class of books is essential, — books that will 
 interest, while they instruct, and which con- 
 tain reasonings '' made easy '' to ordinary 
 minds. Such a book the writer of the follow- 
 ing pages has endeavoured to produce. But 
 Avhilst, in writing it, he has aimed at popular 
 instruction in general, there is particularly 
 one class whose special benefit he has kept in 
 view— THE YOUNG. Knowing well the means 
 often employed to mislead them on the subject 
 of baptism, he has been anxious to supply an 
 antidote to the arts and sophistries by which 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 they are likely to be assailed. Let ministers 
 and parents aid him by placing it in their 
 hands, and he is assured that it will not be 
 without advantage to their youthful charge. 
 
 If some readers are staggered at a few of 
 the incidents narrated in the following pages, 
 the writer would assure them that he has 
 withheld several other circumstances far more 
 startling than those which are detailed, and 
 which might have been confirmed by many 
 witnesses, solely because they would supply 
 indications of ignorance, superstition, and 
 prejudice which would seem incredible. But 
 he is persuaded that none, who are acquainted 
 with the class of Baptists of whom he has 
 spoken, will deem the portraiture he has 
 drawn either incorrect or over-coloured. He 
 uses the words "class of Baptists," because 
 much of what he has written will apply only 
 to a portion of that body ; a portion, however, 
 by no means small, and one whose sentiments 
 and spirit inflict still greater injury upon their 
 own denomination than upon those whose 
 practice they oppose. But the author is per- 
 suaded better things of many others from 
 1* 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 wliom lie differs, and is confident that they 
 would repudiate as strongly as he does the 
 arguments and proceedings which he has en- 
 deavoured to expose. 
 
 No one desires more devoutly than the 
 writer the dawn of that day when the question 
 of baptism shall cease to vex the church. But 
 recent events — especially the formation of the 
 "Bible Translation Society" and the "Bap- 
 tist Tract Society,'' with the speeches at the 
 meetings of the one, and the publications 
 issued by the other, too plainly show that 
 such a period is distant. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, Pgedo-baptists must defend their 
 principles, and, when requisite, expose the 
 reasonings and practices of their Baptist 
 brethren. And surely this should not offend 
 them, even when the same freedom of speech 
 is used by others which they claim for them- 
 selves. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO 
 
 THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The rapid sale of the first large Edition 
 of the •' Confessions," and the numerous de- 
 mands for it since then which the Publisher 
 has been unable to satisfy, justify the author, 
 at first in the preparation, and now in the 
 re-issue of the volume. It was penned under 
 the comdction that such a work was necessary, 
 and with the hope that it might be useful. 
 This conviction has been confirmed — tliis hope 
 realized — by the result. 
 
 The writer's purpose was — ^by rebuking the 
 narrow spirit, and exposing the shallow soph- 
 isms, of the class of bigoted Baptists whom 
 
 (vii) 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 he describes — to guard the young against their 
 influence. This design it was impossible to 
 accomplish, just because it was impossible to 
 state facts and maintain truth without appear- 
 ing to be uncharitable and severe. He is not 
 surprised, therefore, that a few have censured 
 his production. Many of them, however, 
 have done so from inconsideration. They 
 have overlooked the author's affirmation — 
 that his descriptions applied not to all Bap- 
 tists, but merely to a class of them. No de- 
 nomination numbers amongst its members 
 wiser or worthier men ; but these men know 
 how many there are bearing the same name 
 whose spirit and tactics are truthfully por- 
 trayed in the following pages. Such estimable 
 persons, with a few Paedo-baptists, who live in 
 large towns and in pleasant fellowship with a 
 select circle of the most intelligent and liberal- 
 minded of the various Christian denomina- 
 tions, may deem the sketches inaccurate, or 
 the reasonings needless, which form a large 
 portion of this volume. But a few months' 
 sojourn in some of our rural districts or small 
 towns would correct their mistake, and effec- 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 tually cure them of their misapplied charity. 
 Were they to witness the unworthy arts to 
 which small-minded zealots for "much water'' 
 resort, in order to gain from the young and 
 uninstructed a proselyte to their sect, they 
 would not condemn but commend the man 
 who should expose artifices so dishonourable 
 to the denomination they were designed to 
 enlarge, and so calculated to injure the cause 
 of Christ. 
 
 But the author is aware that his work is 
 not mere narration. It is throughout ar- 
 gumentative. And though he acquits the 
 more respectable Baptists of the spirit which 
 he has exposed, he is aware that many of 
 them, in common with inferior men, rely 
 upon some, at least, of the reasonings 
 which he has refuted. At this he may 
 marvel, but he has no disposition to do 
 more. How some Baptists can be satisfied 
 with the support they derive to their sys- 
 tem from many of their arguments which 
 are answered in the ^' Confessions," he 
 knows not. They may think the Paedo- 
 baptists ^'weak brethren," as too many of 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 them profess to do ; but such brethren can 
 comfort themselves with the thought that, 
 weak as they are, they are strong enough to 
 stand against, and to scatter to the winds, 
 sophisms of those who smile with self-com- 
 placency at their folly. 
 
CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 PAKT I. 
 
 DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 My parents were piouS; but Baptists cf the 
 straitest sect. This even a stranger would very 
 soon discover, but their children knew it right 
 well. I can trace amongst my very earliest impres- 
 sions the idea that it was very wrong to sprinkle 
 babies, and that the ministers who did so were 
 very foolish or very naughty men. I do not think, 
 indeed, that my worthy father and mother ever 
 told me this in so many words ; but I am per- 
 suaded that they, and others who attended our 
 meeting, believed as much ; and I well remember 
 hearing them speak of Psedo-baptists as ^^weak 
 
 (11) 
 
12 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 brethren/' labouring under a dangerous delusion. 
 I am convinced, however, that my parents, who 
 were in other respects very kind and charitable, 
 would never have spoken as they did against their 
 fellow-Christians, had not our minister set them 
 the bad example. He was a little man, and rather 
 corpulent; with a stiff gait, a pompous air, a 
 round and rubicund face, and a very loud voice. 
 He had not been favoured with an academic edu- 
 cation ; but possessed considerable natural talent, 
 was very confident that he knew what haptizo 
 meant, and had been so diligent a student of Dr. 
 Grill, and a few other divines of the same school, 
 as to be well versed in the principal points of their 
 rigid creed. It was his practice, when I was 
 young, frequently " to smoke a pipe," as he 
 phrased it, and to spend an evening at my father's 
 house. These were visits in which I greatly re- 
 joiced, because I was then generally allowed to 
 "sit up to supper," — a. part of the entertainment 
 with which I was much more edified, than I was 
 with the grave conversation, for the sake of which 
 I was kept out of my bed. 
 
 I cannot now recall much that I then heard, for 
 the very good reason that I did not comprehend, 
 and rarely regarded it ; but I well recollect that 
 the subject of immersion was generally introduced ; 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 13 
 
 and there were two passages of Scripture which 
 were so frequently quoted — one about the " much 
 water'' of ^non, and the other about Philip and 
 the Eunuch " going down i7}to the water and 
 coming up out of the water" — that I think I 
 should forget my name sooner than I should for- 
 get them. I also retain very vividly the expres- 
 sion of our minister's countenance, and the sudden 
 change which would come over it, whenever 
 " infant sprinkling" became the topic of remark. 
 Often have I observed, in the midst of cheerful 
 conversation, or even while he was facetious (as 
 he could be), that no sooner was this subject sug- 
 gested than his small laughing eyes shot fire, and 
 his voice and mein assumed an unwonted, and, as 
 I now think, an unnatural solemnity. 
 
 There were some other circumstances in connec- 
 tion with baptism which happened during my 
 earlier years, and which have forcibly recurred to 
 my thoughts since that subject began to engage 
 my serious consideration. During this period 
 death removed my youngest sister, and my 
 parents were most painfully affected by this be- 
 reavement. The belief, however, that their de- 
 parted babe had entered heaven afforded them 
 much support ; and they appeared to be especially 
 consoled by the Saviour's assurance that " of such 
 2 
 
14 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 is the kingdom of heaven.'' At the time this 
 seemed to me very natural ; hut I was not a little 
 surprised, shortly afterwards, when an Indepen- 
 dent, in a conversation with my father, quoted this 
 same passage to prove that infants were suitable 
 subjects for baptism, to hear him say that the 
 words did not describe infants, but only adults, 
 who resembled them in spirit. As the text had 
 often been repeated to me when a child, and had 
 long been a favourite, I was by no means pleased 
 with my father's new application of it; and for 
 this reason I was induced to pay more attention 
 than I otherwise might have done to the reply of 
 the visitor. He said, I well remember, that this 
 could not be the meaning of our Lord, for two 
 reasons. The first of these was, that the original 
 word translated ^'of such" never meant in the 
 New Testament '^ of those who are similar in 
 character," but always of " those who are of the 
 same kind or class." Of the correctness of this 
 statement I could not then judge; but since I 
 became more competent to examine it, I am fully 
 convinced of its truth. The other objection, how- 
 ever, I could appreciate ; for it was plain and con- 
 vincing even to a child. It was this — that when 
 the Saviour said, " Suffer little children to come 
 unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 15 
 
 kingdom of heaven/' be assigned in this latter de- 
 claration a reason, not for his receiving adults of 
 a child-like disposition, but for receiving the child- 
 ren themselves. He then asked my father bow 
 he could suppose that one so wise as Jesus Christ, 
 who spake as never man spake, could have ever 
 conveyed such a sentiment as this, ^^ Suffer the 
 little children to come unto me, because men and 
 women who, like them, are meek and humble, 
 belong to my kingdom ! !'' What answer my 
 good father returned to this reasoning I cannot 
 recollect; but I know that, as the conversation 
 only confirmed my earliest and sweetest impres- 
 sions of these kind words, I was not a little 
 pleased that the Independent had, as I thought, 
 obtained the best of the argument. I also con- 
 sidered it rather strange that, although my pa- 
 rents believed that Jesus Christ loved my little 
 sister, that he would have taken her in his arms 
 had he been on earth, and that he had actually 
 received her spirit into heaven, they nevertheless 
 refused to present her to God in baptism, as 
 my pious uncle and aunt presented my cousins. 
 
 Shortly after entering upon the twentieth year 
 of my age, it pleased Grod, I trust, to discover to 
 me the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and to awaken 
 in my soul an intense desire after salvation. 
 
16 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 Most deeply did I then feel tliat one tiling de- 
 manded my care, and that it became me to seek 
 this with my whole heart. Ordinary pursuits had 
 lost their power to please. Old things had passed 
 away. Truths, with which I had been theoreti- 
 cally acquainted from my childhood, now came to 
 my thoughts with all the freshness and force of 
 an immediate revelation from heaven. Exer- 
 cises, in which I had been wont to engage from 
 constraint or custom, were now my comfort and 
 my choice. To me no spots were so attractive as 
 the sanctuary, and the secret place of prayer ; and 
 no conversation refreshing, or indeed at all con- 
 genial with my state of mind, but such as referred 
 to the great truths and spiritual blessings of the 
 gospel. The serious reader may, therefore, ima- 
 gine that I felt less interest than ever in the fre- 
 quent recurrence of the threadbare su.bject of im- 
 mersion, which continued to be one of the most 
 common topics of discourse when Mr, B., our 
 minister, spent an evening at our house. Indeed, 
 I think about that period more was said on the 
 subject than usual, because a new minister had 
 just been ordained at the Independent chapel, 
 whose preaching had drawn numbers to the place, 
 and amongst them a few from our own congrega- 
 tion. Having sufficient spiritual discernment to 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 17 
 
 discover that there was a better baptism than that 
 of water, and being much impressed with the 
 solemn conviction, that " neither circumcision 
 availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new 
 creature,^ ^ I began literally to loathe the trite 
 theme of which I heard so^much, though rarely 
 anything that was either useful or new. This 
 aversion was strengthened by the heavy condem- 
 nation which our pastor frequently pronounced 
 upon those who sprinkled infants, and still more 
 by the contemptuous and acrimonious tone in 
 which it was sometimes uttered. As at that time 
 my affections went freely forth towards all who 
 loved the Savioui*, these hard sayings and harsh 
 censures grated most painfully upon my feelings ; 
 and more than once I withdrew from company 
 in which I had not courage to speak, but scarcely 
 knew how to be silent. 
 
 I remember being particularly displeased with 
 the positive tone in which Mr. B. was accus- 
 tomed to affirm, that all upon whom water was 
 merely sprinkled or poured were unbaptized ; and 
 that to administer the ordinance to any except 
 adult believers, was '' will worship" and sinful 
 superstition. As I knew several intelligent and 
 serious Independents sufficiently well to be satis- 
 fied that they could not be chargeable with such 
 2"^ 
 
18 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 evils, and was confident, moreover, that their 
 practice was as much the consequence of careful 
 thought and conscientious conviction as that of 
 their accuser, I not only shrunk from these un- 
 charitable criminations, but, for the first time, I 
 began to be conscious of an altered feeling towards 
 their author. Assured that many upright Psedo- 
 baptists " in these things served Christ,^' as sin- 
 cerely as their brethren, I concluded with the 
 apostle Paul, that they were " acceptable to God," 
 and, therefore, that they ought to be '' approved 
 of men/' 
 
 For some time, as I have already intimated, I 
 kept silence. Yet, although my lips were sealed, 
 my thoughts were busy; and the conviction 
 gradually grew up in my mind, and gathered 
 strength from every recurrence of the subject, 
 that my dear parents and their teacher were 
 attaching to an outward rite a degree of im- 
 portance unwarranted by Scripture ; and that, in 
 their zeal for a sign, they underrated, and some- 
 times overlooked, the thing signified. 
 
 But although I had hitherto kept the door of 
 my lips, and many times under a strong induce- 
 ment to speak, on one occasion my feelings broke 
 through all restraints. The conversation had 
 turned upon the case of a young lady in the neigh- 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 19 
 
 bourhood, wlio, it was supposed, sympathized with 
 Baptist views, but had recently joined the Inde- 
 pendent church. This led to some general and 
 very strong remarks against Pcedo-baptists, and 
 their disregard of God's ordinance, which could 
 only have been justifiable upon the supposition 
 that they were doing this wilfully. I had often 
 heard such observations before ; but having that 
 morning been reading the life of Philip Henry, 
 whose views on the subject of infant baptism were 
 so decided, and so influential, the revolting 
 thought crossed my mind that, if Mr. B.'s re- 
 marks were well founded, this most eminent man, 
 and many others who, though dead, are yet speak- 
 ing by their writings and their works, must be 
 utterly unworthy of that high place in the records 
 and regard of the church in which their character 
 and memory have been long enshrined. Under 
 this impression, I ventui*ed to ask Mr. B. whether 
 a Christian man, who, after an honest, searching, 
 and prayerful examination of the Scriptures, had 
 come to the conclusion that it was his duty to de- 
 dicate his children to God by baptism, ought to 
 disregard this conviction, or to follow it? At 
 first he attempted, as I thought, to evade the 
 Cjuestion, and expressed some doubt whether just 
 such a case could happen as I had supposed ; but 
 
20 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 when I mentioned tlie names of Owen, Baxter, 
 Howe, Charnock, Watts, Doddridge, Whitefield, 
 Wesley, and the Henrys, and referred to some of 
 onr Independent neighbours, whose praise was in 
 all the surrounding churches, he rather shrunk 
 from his uncharitable surmise, and said that it 
 was not for him to sit in judgment upon them, 
 and that to their own Master they must stand or 
 fall. Not satisfied with this reply, I pressed my 
 point, when he acknowledged that they must do 
 what they deemed best. ^^ Well, then," I added, 
 " if they entertain the solemn conviction that God 
 requires them thus to dedicate their children, is 
 not this to observe the divine ordinance, to do 
 that which is both good and acceptable, — in a 
 word, to obey the baptismal command ?" With- 
 out a moment's hesitation, he answered in the 
 negative. " Tell me, then,'' I added, ^' what is 
 that in the service which constitutes its essence, 
 and which God chiefly regards ? Is it tJie mode 
 in which it is done, or the spirit P" He paused 
 for a moment, and then began to speak about the 
 signification of the original term. " That,, sir," 
 I replied, '^ is a point in dispute between Baptists 
 and other Christian bodies, who, with at least 
 equal integrity, ability, and learning, maintain 
 that the word does not mean to immerse, just as 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 21 
 
 confidently as you contend that it does. Upon 
 this question I cannot pronounce ; but one thing 
 appears to me perfectly plain, that whether the 
 G-reek word signifies dip, or sprinkle, or anything 
 else, a correct conclusion respecting the meaning 
 of a disputed term is a matter of very inferior 
 importance to that upon which we are conversing. 
 Can you believe," I added, " that a mere verbal 
 mistake (supposing it to be one) would vitiate a 
 service, most sincerely performed in accordance 
 with what is verily believed to be the appointment 
 of God ? Do you think that the religious use 
 of water, in the name of the Trinity, and in the 
 spirit of obedience, is not regarded by the Saviour 
 as the observance of his institution, simply and 
 solely because the element is not employed in 
 sufficient cjuantity, or applied in the most expres- 
 sive mode ? Can a slight error or informality 
 neutralize, and render nugatory, what in all other 
 respects would constitute a sacrifice such as must 
 be well pleasing to God ?" 
 
 In this strain I continued to speak with con- 
 siderable warmth and fluency for some time, and 
 the good minister sat gazing at me with mute 
 amazement. At the close of my appeal, he simply 
 said, " Ah ! you are young yet, and you will, I 
 hope, take a more scriptural view of the subject 
 
22 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 as you grow older ;'^ and tlien he introduced ano- 
 ther topic. I heard afterwards that, on the fol- 
 lowing morning, he remarked to my father's clerk, 
 a prim and puritanical old gentleman, and a very 
 strait-laced member of the church, that I ^' was 
 not half a Baptist," and that he feared I ^' had 
 been among the Independents.'' 
 
 The effect of this conversation upon my mind 
 was considerable. Feeling as I then did the in- 
 calculable importance of what was spiritual in 
 religion, my soul revolted from a system which 
 seemed to me to invest the mere ceremonials of 
 Christianity with a value of their own, distinct 
 from the purpose they were intended to serve, and 
 superior to that state of mind which God regards 
 as of pre-eminent worth. And the longer I con- 
 sidered the subject, the stronger my conviction 
 became that this was a natural consequence of 
 Baptists making a single rite the point of union 
 with each other, and of separation from the Uni- 
 versal Church. I thought, moreover, that I could 
 trace the baleful influence of selecting so narrow a 
 basis for their ecclesiastical system, far beyond the 
 solitary effect which I had noticed. 
 
 But although I strongly disapproved of the 
 opinions and spirit upon which I have been re- 
 marking, my conviction that adult immersion was 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 23 
 
 the most scriptural mode of baptism continued as 
 yet unchanged. I say ^' conviction/^ but the 
 word " impression'^ would more accurately de- 
 scribe my state of mind ; for as I had neither read 
 any defence of a different mode, nor carefully con- 
 sidered the subject, it amounted to little more. 
 Upon this impression, however, I had been al- 
 most persuaded to act, and thus to connect myself 
 with the church amongst whose members I had 
 been brought up. More than once Mr. B. had 
 pressed the duty upon my attention, and had 
 urged me in the accustomed phraseology to " fol- 
 low the Lord,^^ by which he simply meant " be 
 immersed." Many other kind friends also volun- 
 teered their advice and exhortations to the same 
 effect ; and why it was I know not, except from 
 the hope that I should succeed to my honoured 
 father's position, who was a deacon of the church, 
 and what the good people called " a pillar of the 
 place '/' but there was certainly much effort em- 
 ployed to get me safely under the water. 
 
 Just at that time, however, a circumstance 
 occurred which not only caused me to hesitate, 
 but which gave my mind a new bias, and led me 
 first to defer, and finally to decline the religious 
 connection I was about to form. At our family 
 worship one evening, my father read the third 
 
24 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 chapter of Matthew, wliicli describes tlie char- 
 acter and baptism of John ; and while I listened, 
 T was struck, as I never had been before, with 
 the fifth verse, in which it is said, " Then went 
 out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the 
 region round about Jordan, and were baptized/^ 
 As soon as the service was concluded, I re-opened 
 the Bible; and having again read the words, 
 " Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region 
 round about Jordan,'' I exclaimed, " What an 
 amazing multitude must John have baptized, and 
 what an amount of time and labour must have 
 been consumed in immersing them I" On the 
 following day the same thought recurred ', and 
 having read the statement once more, I resolved, 
 if it were possible, to ascertain the probable num- 
 ber of the baptized, and the time which must 
 have been spent in such a service. 
 
 With this design, I consulted, in the first 
 place, Josephus, a commentary, and two or three 
 other books, for the purpose of ascertaining the 
 population of Judea at the commencement of the 
 Christian era. But greater difficulties than I had 
 anticipated prevented me from obtaining that 
 accurate information which I desired. One con- 
 clusion, however, appeared to me incontroverti- 
 ble, — that, at the lowest calculation, the number 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 25 
 
 could not have been less than a million and a 
 half. What proportion of these might have 
 been baptized could^ of course, be only a matter 
 of conjecture; but when I considered the great 
 popularity of John, and the strong and universal 
 terms by which the numbers are described, I 
 was convinced that the total could not be less 
 than one-third of the people, nor under half a 
 million. 
 
 Having satisfied myself upon this point, I pro- 
 ceeded to compute the period which must have 
 been consumed in their immersion. From having 
 frequently witnessed the process, I knew that 
 baptism by this mode could not be administered 
 to an individual, with suitable deliberation and 
 gravity, in less time than two minutes, and, with 
 the utmost despatch consistent with decorum, that 
 more than thirty could not be immersed in an 
 hour. Assuming this to be the average rate at 
 which John performed the service, and supposing 
 that he thus spent ten hours of every day, I was 
 conducted to the conclusion that he might bap- 
 tize two thousand weekly, or about one hundred 
 thousand in a year; from which it was evident 
 that, had he spent no part of this time in travel- 
 ling, preaching, or other employments, but con- 
 tinued almost without intermission in the water, 
 3 
 
26 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 he must have devoted five years of labour to this 
 single work ! I was confounded at the result of 
 this calculation; for I knew, from previous 
 thought and reading, that his public ministry 
 could not have exceeded a year, and was probably 
 restricted to a still shorter period. 
 
 This inquiry shook my previous faith in the 
 divine authority of immersion; and it also re- 
 called to my recollection a conversation I had 
 heard, a few months before, between my uncle 
 and my father on the subject of John's baptism, 
 in which the question was proposed, whether, sup- 
 posing that John's disciples were immersed, they 
 submitted to this process in their usual dress or 
 naked, — or, if not, whether they had brought 
 changes of raiment with them for the purpose, 
 and had constructed sheds, or pitched tents on the 
 banks of the river, in which they could privately 
 prepare for the service. My excellent parent 
 perceived the difficulty in which he would be in- 
 volved by adopting either of these hypotheses; 
 and therefore like the Pharisees, when pressed 
 with another perplexing cjuestion respecting the 
 same baptism, he prudently replied that he could 
 not tell. My uncle, however, would not be satis- 
 fied with this evasion, and proceeded to show 
 that each of the suppositions was equally impro- 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 27 
 
 bable. He added, moreover, wbat struck me at 
 the time, that as there must have been women as 
 well as men who crowded to John's ministry, 
 nothing could be more unlikely, more contrary to 
 the usage of the country and the people, or more 
 revolting to the feelings and habits of Eastern 
 females, than to have consented to be publicly 
 plunged by a man in the presence of a gazing 
 multitude. 
 
 Shortly after this, Mr. B. called at my father's 
 house; and having, pointedly asked me why I 
 lingered on the threshold of the church, I deemed 
 it my duty candidly to confess the perplexities in 
 which my thoughts had been recently entangled.^ 
 These, however, he ascribed to "carnal reason- 
 ings ;'^ and questioned whether such doubts had 
 not come from the great deceiver. I did not feel 
 very much flattered by these explanations of what 
 I believed to be the sincere operations of an up- 
 right mind; nor was I convinced, when he at- 
 tempted to remove the doubts which I had sug- 
 gested, and to settle the point for ever, by dog- 
 matically declaring, whatever others might say to 
 the contrary, that the word haptizo always meant 
 to dip, and that therefore John could have ad- 
 ministered the ordinance in no other way. I was 
 the less satisfied with this summary mode of dis- 
 
28 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 posing of my difficulties, because I was aware that 
 my minister, notwithstanding the oracular style 
 and sonorous tone in which he mouthed the term 
 ^^ baptizo/' was yet profoundly ignorant even of 
 the Greek alphabet. 
 
 As I felt myself (though not altogether igno- 
 rant of the original language of the New Testa- 
 ment) nearly as much disqualified as my pastor 
 for the settlement of a point upon which profound 
 scholars differed, by any reference to Greek 
 authors, I simply expressed my surprise that he 
 should speak so confidently on the subject; and 
 added, that " if the original word always meant 
 what he had affirmed, one way by which his 
 opinion might be tested, would be to translate 
 every passage where it occurs in accordance with 
 his theory.^' By this process, I suggested, an 
 unlearned reader, such as myself, (for I did not 
 offend the worthy man by using the plural pro- 
 noun,) might form some idea of the fitness, at 
 least, of such a signification. I proposed, there- 
 fore, that we should select a few passages, and 
 substitute the words " dip" and " dipping" for 
 " baptize" and " baptism." To this he yielded his 
 assent. But he did it so reluctantly as to convey 
 the impression to my mind, that he was apprehen- 
 sive the result would not be exactly what he de- 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 29 
 
 sired. I resolved, however, to apply the test; 
 and havinj!: taken a concordance, I turned to 
 several texts, and translated them in the new 
 style. A few of these I remember, and will here 
 repeat, ^^I indeed dip you with water unto 
 repentance ; but he that cometh after me is 
 mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to 
 bear : he shall dip you with the Holy Grhost, and 
 with fire.^' "John did dip in the wilderness, 
 and preach the dipping of repentance. '^ "I 
 have a dipping to be dipped yNiih. -, and how am 
 I straitened till it be accomplished !" " The 
 dipping of John, was it from heaven or of men V 
 " The dipping which John preached.'' " And 
 he said unto them. Unto what then were ye 
 dij^ped ? And they said. Unto John's dipping^ 
 "Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye 
 ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of, 
 and be dipped with the dipping that I am 
 dipped with?" "Know ye not that so many 
 of us as were dipped into Jesus Christ were 
 dipped into his death ? Therefore we are buried 
 with him by dipping into death." " And were 
 all dipped unto Moses in the cloud and in the 
 sea." "For by one Spirit are we all dipped 
 into one body." " Else what shall they do who 
 are dipped for the dead, if the dead rise not at 
 3* 
 
30 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 all ? wliy are they tlien dipped for the dead ?" 
 "As many of you as have been dipped unto Christ 
 have put on Christ/' 
 
 As I thus read these passages, the conviction 
 came upon me with irresistible force that the ori- 
 ginal term could not bear the meaning which the 
 Baptists attempt to fasten upon it ; and when I 
 had concluded, I stared at the minister, . and he 
 stared at me. In this rather ludicrous position 
 we sat for a short time ) and finding that he did 
 not, as I expected, break the silence, I ventured 
 to ask him, whether he could believe that such 
 translations correctly answered to the words of in- 
 spired wisdom, and whether they did not turn the 
 solemn and sublime instructions of Scripture into 
 sheer nonsense, or the grossest absurdity. To 
 this he would not assent : when I begged him to 
 explain to me the meaning of such expressions as 
 ^^ dipped with the Holy Grhost;" ^^ dipped with 
 fire ;" '^ dipped into one spirit ;" " dipped into 
 death;" ^^ dipped into Christ ;'' and "preaching 
 a dipping of repentance. '^ My request, however, 
 was made in vain. The worthy pastor was evi- 
 dently puzzled, though he would not confess it ; 
 and shortly afterwards he pleaded want of time, 
 and took his departure, much preferring, as it ap- 
 peared to me, the passage from the house into the 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 81 
 
 street, to any one of those which I had pointed 
 out to him. 
 
 Mr. B., at the time of his visit, was evidently 
 anxious that I should form one of a company of 
 candidates for church fellowship, who were to be 
 immersed about three weeks afterwards. He had 
 also ventured prematurely to express his belief to 
 several persons that I should be of the number. 
 When, therefore, the reason of my hesitation 
 transpired, it created much surprise and specula- 
 tion. Many minds and many mouths were filled 
 with sundry surmisings as to the real cause of this 
 delay, few of which were charitable or correct. 
 But another circumstance, which occurred at the 
 same time, produced a still greater stir. Amongst 
 the attendants at our chapel, there were two very 
 intelligent and devout young ladies, who had three 
 years before left the Established Church, in which 
 they were brought up, because they could not 
 profit by the preaching which they heard there. 
 As their hearts and their income were large, and 
 their habits inexpensive, their liberality was felt 
 by a great number of the poor, and at public col 
 lections their contribution generally exceeded that 
 of others. But their health was extremely deli- 
 cate ; and by most they were considered as des- 
 tined to an early grave. One of them suffered 
 
32 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 from an affection of the spine, and serious appre- 
 hensions were entertained that consumption had 
 commenced its fatal course in the other. By the 
 perusal of books in favour of immersion, with 
 which they had been copiously supplied, together 
 with the earnest persuasives of Mr. B., the sisters 
 were brought to believe that it became them in 
 this way to profess the gospel. As their dif&dence, 
 however, amounted almost to a disease, and they 
 secluded themselves much from society, they suf- 
 fered a long and severe mental conflict, before 
 they could so far control their feelings as to sub- 
 mit to a ceremonial, which would expose them to 
 what they deemed a most distressing publicity. 
 But they were still more powerfully influenced by 
 a fear, that the service in their case might prove 
 as perilous as it was painful. Yet strong as these 
 objections seemed, they had at length been si- 
 lenced, partly by the confident manner in which 
 they were assured by our minister that God would 
 preserve them from all evil in the observance of his 
 own ordinance, but principally by the conviction 
 that this was a part of the cross which the 
 Christian was commanded to carry. Although, 
 therefore, their repugnance and apprehensions re- 
 mained, a sense of duty preponderated. 
 
 But their feelings were spared; and their con- 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 33 
 
 sciences satisfied, by a striking, though, I believe, 
 by no means a singular occurrence. About a 
 month prior to their decision, a baptismal service 
 had been performed at a small town a few miles 
 from us ; and amongst the immersed there was a 
 young woman, at the time in apparently sound 
 health, who caught a severe cold in the service, 
 which speedily ran on to fever, delirium, and 
 death. The cause was so evident, and the whole 
 case so clear, that even the most contracted Bap- 
 tists in our congregation (and there were those 
 who seemed to think that God would actually 
 work a miracle to counteract what, in some con- 
 stitutions, would be the certain consequence of 
 immersion,) were confounded ; whilst others con- 
 fessed that ^' it was a most mysterious providence.'' 
 This circumstance came to the ears of the two 
 sisters, and it afi'ected them deeply. Their first 
 step was to send for Mr. B. ; but as he still assured 
 them of their safety, without assigning, as they 
 thought, any reason for such assurance, or produc- 
 ing a divine warrant to that efiect, they were not 
 satisfied ; and therefore they wisely resolved to do 
 what they now perceived ought to have been done 
 before, viz., to consult their medical attendant on 
 the subject. His judgment was very strong. He 
 said it would be perilous in the extreme, and that 
 
34 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 he knew scarcely any cause more calculated to 
 quicken incipient disease and accelerate death. 
 This decided them. Convinced that He who de- 
 sireth mercy and not sacrifice, could not require 
 them in such a way to hazard their lives, they 
 wisely declined the service. As their case had 
 created considerable interest, and their expected 
 accession to the church was deemed of much im- 
 portance, their withdrawment caused more com- 
 motion than even my delay. 
 
 What might have been the effect of this occur- 
 rence upon others I cannot state ; but it suggested 
 to my own mind a train of reflections which 
 strengthened my previous suspicion, that immer- 
 sion could not be the only proper mode of baptism. 
 As far as I can now recall them, my thoughts ran 
 in some such train as this. Christianity is a uni- 
 versal system. It is designed for the world. One 
 of its distinguishing features, which is also one of 
 the clearest evidences of its divine origin, is the 
 exact and entire adaptation of its regulatioaS'ln^ 
 requirements to every community, class, and crea- 
 ture under heaven. To say the least, each of its 
 doctrines, and promises, and injunctions, and insti- 
 tutions, is perfectly fitted to men of every clime, 
 character, and condition. Whether they dwell in 
 Iceland or Ethiopia, in the city or the wilderness, 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 35 
 
 amidst the sands of the desert or the springs of 
 the valley, it ordains no service, and requires no 
 observance, which may not be readily performed. 
 It is not a religion of sacred places, set seasons, 
 and costly sacrifices. Its ritual is simple, not 
 severe — suited not to the healthy and robust alone, 
 but also to the delicate woman and the man of 
 gray hairs. And this interesting peculiarity of 
 the whole scheme evidently belonged to the bap- 
 tismal rite as practised in the primitive age. It 
 could be administered in any place, or at any time. 
 Wherever the apostles preached, there and then 
 they could baptize. In the city or the desert, the 
 house or the prison, it was equally and always 
 easy. There was no difficulty, no delay, no ex- 
 emption. Age caused no hesitation ; health con- 
 stituted no barrier. Friends were not alarmed ; 
 physicians were not consulted. The gloom of mid- 
 night was as favourable for its performance as the 
 brightness of noon. Families could observe the 
 rite on the very first hour of their hearing the 
 gospel ; and thousands, apparently without diffi- 
 culty, on the very day, and probably in the very 
 place of their conviction. All this appeared to 
 me to agree well with the general adaptation of 
 Christianity to man's changing circumstances, and 
 with the opinion that baptism was administered 
 
36 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 by the simple and easy method of sprinkling ; but 
 how to harmonize the views of Immersionists with 
 either the genius of the gospel, or the practice 
 of the primitive age, I could not discover. 
 
 I was also impressed with the contrast between 
 this painful and most repulsive mode of baptizing, 
 and the gentle and generous spirit which pervades 
 and adorns the other requirements of Christianity. 
 All these furnish a large and admirable commen- 
 tary upon the declaration, ^^ As a father pitieth 
 his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
 him : for he knoweth our frame ; he remembereth 
 that we are dust.'' In this respect, its services 
 are invested with a character essentially different 
 from the rigid rites of Judaism. It insists upon 
 no specific ritual. It prescribes no precise points 
 or punctilios, the non-observance .of which would 
 vitiate our obedience to its general requirements. 
 No pattern of the spiritual structure, such as 
 Moses saw on Mount Sinai, was shown to Peter, 
 or Paul, or John. No pains nor penalties are 
 threatened for slight violations of the letter or 
 rubric of a ceremonial institute. Much is left 
 open. A large measure of liberty is conceded to 
 the Christian. A generous confidence is reposed 
 in the church. For public worship no precise 
 form has been prescribed, so assured was the di- 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 37 
 
 vine Author of the gospel that he might safely 
 leave such details to the enlightened and devout 
 affections of his disciples. And even the solemn 
 rite which was designed to ^^ show the Lord's 
 death till he come- is described in very general 
 terms; and instead of being enjoined upon the 
 conscience by authority and threatening, it is com- 
 mended to the heart by the gentle and tender 
 appeal, ^^ This do in remembrance of me/' And 
 the other ordinance, baptism, could in my view be 
 no exception to this rule. Indeed, I thought I 
 perceived this, not merely in the perfect ease with 
 which It was administered and received in apos- 
 tolic times, but in the very indefiniteness of the 
 original terms, and even in the disputes which 
 have hence arisen amongst those who would be 
 ^^ wise above what is written,''— ^^ servants,'' who 
 certainly in this point are not '^ above their Lord." 
 I was much impressed with the conviction that, 
 had immersion been essential, the law of baptism' 
 would have been promulgated in language widely 
 different from what it is. We should then have 
 had very minute directions, in words of no mere 
 general, and certainly of no doubtful import. But 
 this would have been as alien from the spirit of 
 Christianity as it would be accordant with the 
 principles of the Baptists. 
 4 
 
58 CONFESSIONS OP A CONVERT. 
 
 For some time, these and similar reasonings 
 suggested themselves to my thoughts ; and firmly 
 believing in the suitableness of every Christian 
 ordinance to the case of all nations, I one day re- 
 solved to consider whether this could be affirmed 
 of immersion. I therefore took a map of the 
 world, and viewed the subject in relation to some 
 of its most important divisions. 
 
 One thing, at the outset of this inquiry, oc- 
 curred to me, that whether immersion might or 
 might not be adapted to the climate of the difier- 
 ent regions of the earth, it certainly does not suit 
 the customs of many of their inhabitants ; nor 
 could it be generally practised, unless their social 
 habits were completely changed. This is parti- 
 cularly the case with Eastern nations, by whom 
 nothing would be deemed more indecent, or felt to 
 be more revolting, than the public exposure of 
 their wives and daughters, and their immersion by 
 a man. And this very feeling, be it remembered, 
 has been inherited from their ancestors, and ex- 
 isted in all its force when the apostles baptized in 
 the very countries where it is still found. Strange, 
 then, that a rite so offensive should have been 
 practised with such ease ; and stranger still, that 
 it should ever have been enjoined. 
 
 But the difficulty arising from climate seemed 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 89 
 
 to me more formidable than that produced by 
 custom. Even in our own country, and other 
 temperate regions upon which my eye rested as I 
 looked over the map, I well knew that immersion 
 was far from being so suitable and safe as might 
 have been expected in any institution which the 
 wise and gracious Saviour appointed to be univer- 
 sally observed. On the contrary, I was con- 
 vinced that it was generally inconvenient, and 
 frequently dangerous. I knew, from medical 
 testimony, as well as my own reasoning, that in 
 many cases where only a predisposition existed to 
 cerebral or inflammatory affections, to congestion, 
 to consumption, and to numerous other maladies, 
 death could only be averted by miracle ; and that 
 to submit to such a service, where serious 
 diseases had begun to develope themselves, would 
 be madness, if not murder. Such would often 
 be the consequence even during the months of 
 summer, and much more amid the snows of 
 winter. 
 
 I was well aware that in warmer regions, like 
 Judea, the pain and peril which attend immer- 
 sion under the clouds and cold of higher lati- 
 tudes would be diminished. But in these coun- 
 tries, where the heat is frequently intense, and 
 the drought all but universal, the scarcity and 
 
40 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 value of the element, so much of which is requi- 
 site for immersing a multitude, presented a diffi- 
 culty of another kind, hardly less formidable. 
 Even in our own country, I knew what special 
 provision, and sometimes protracted preparation, 
 were requisite prior to such a service; and 
 aware, from the statements of Oriental travellers, 
 that few wants were more commonly or keenly 
 felt by the inhabitants of the East than that of 
 water, and that a quantity sufficient for immersion 
 could in few situations be obtained without con- 
 siderable cost and labour, I concluded that no 
 appointment could well have been more unsuited 
 to their circumstances. This I was assured, both 
 from scriptural statements and from modern 
 tourists, must have been the case in Judea, where 
 the Jordan was the only river, and where, 
 throughout a considerable portion of the year, 
 the few narrow channels, occasionally filled with 
 mountain torrents, or fed from intermitting 
 springs, are entirely dry. I knew, moreover, that 
 a solitary well supplied the city of Samaria ; and 
 that the springing up of a small fountain was the 
 strong and frequently the sole reason for the en- 
 campment of armies, or the erection of towns. 
 There were, indeed, baths in the dwellings of the 
 opulent 3 but to suppose that the fishermen of 
 
DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 41 
 
 Galilee could command such expensive luxuries, 
 or conduct their numerous converts from amongst 
 the poor into the abodes of the wealthy and 
 noble, for the purpose of turning their baths into 
 baptisteries, is one of those incredible and mon- 
 strously absurd imaginations to which none 
 would resort, but those who were driven by truth 
 and reason from the fair field of fact and argu- 
 ment. Such reflections confirmed my previous 
 conviction, that dipping does not accord with a 
 religion designed to be universal, and cannot be 
 the baptism which Jesus Christ instituted for 
 " all nations." 
 
 Even to entertain the question, whether immer- 
 sion was adapted to Grreenland, Iceland, Siberia, 
 and similar lands, where, during much of the 
 year, water is obtainable in small quantities, and 
 merely for common use, only by dissolving ice or 
 snow, seemed most absurd. I was convinced that 
 it could not be a question, and that of all possible 
 modes this would be the most difficult and unsuit- 
 able. The suggestion pressed itself upon my 
 mind that, instead of possessing the fitness which 
 •characterizes and commends all God's arrange- 
 ments, and forms so marked a feature of the gos- 
 pel, had the great Author of this institution 
 
 designed to encumber it, and render its observance 
 4 * 
 
42 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 inconvenient, painful, perilous, and, in many 
 situations, impracticable, dipping was the very 
 mode which he would have enjoined. 
 
 These, and other topics connected with baptism, 
 engaged much of my attention at this time ; for I 
 not only felt the necessity of thoroughly exa- 
 mining the subject, but found myself placed by 
 the importunities and displeasure of several Bap- 
 tist friends on the defensive, and therefore com- 
 pelled to give a reason for the hesitation I had 
 discovered. I was also plentifully supplied with 
 books and tracts in favour of immersion, which, in 
 courtesy no less than from inclination, I care- 
 fully perused. Their only result, however, was 
 to suggest new objections to the mode, and to 
 establish me in the belief that the common argu- 
 ments in its favour were the weakest sophisms, 
 and that there was not a text of Scripture which 
 rendered it the least support. 
 
PART II. 
 
 REMINISCENCES AND KEFLECTIONS. 
 
 Although, in consequence of the withdraw- 
 ment of myself, and of the young ladies referred 
 to in a preceding page, the number of candidates 
 had been reduced, the public baptism of the re- 
 mainder was not deferred. On that occasion I 
 of course, occupied my accustomed place in our 
 chapel ; but frequently as I had attended similar 
 services, I had never witnessed one with similar 
 feelings. My recent reflections, and my peculiar 
 circumstances, had invested the performance, and 
 everything relating to it, with unusual interest. 
 When I had been a spectator of such proceedings 
 before, I had surveyed them with a somewhat 
 easy and passive acquiescence. Taught from my 
 childhood to regard the performance as scriptural, 
 I had never dared to criticise its character, or to 
 question its propriety. And yet some vivid and 
 enduring impressions had been left upon my mind 
 by these services, which certainly were not much 
 
 (43) 
 
44 CONEESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 calculated to foster those serious feelings with 
 which everything sacred should be regarded. 
 During my childhood and youth, public immer- 
 sions were simply, but very specially, amusing to 
 me. Most vividly do the feelings still recur, 
 (and had I been a Baptist, I am sure they would 
 have blended painfully with better thoughts,) 
 which arose high in my little heart, when my 
 father lifted me up in his arms, or stood me upon 
 the seat, to see the people go down into the bap- 
 tistery, and to watch Mr. B. (which I did "with 
 all my eyes") as he took'hold of them one after 
 another, and " pushed them," as I was then ac- 
 customed to describe it, " right under the water." 
 But although the entire spectacle was interesting, 
 on one or two of these occasions there were some 
 circumstances which specially impressed me, and 
 somewhat heightened the sort of holiday feeling 
 with which I enjoyed them. One of these was 
 the shrill scream of a woman, as she felt herself 
 going under the water. Another was the strug- 
 gling of a young person, who succeeded in wrench- 
 ing herself from the minister's grasp, and fell 
 with a loud splash into the baptistery. More 
 than once, I recollected that persons fainted in 
 the water ; and I distinctly retain the image of 
 the ghastly and death-like countenance of a wo- 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 45 
 
 man, as her head hung back, wet and motionless, 
 over the arm of the person who dragged her into 
 the vestry. At another time, in an oblivious 
 moment, I actually burst out into a loud laugh, 
 and clapped my little hands with unutterable de- 
 light, (for which, however, I was instantly deposed 
 from my elevated standing-place, and sent to bed 
 as soon as I reached home,) to see Mr. B., who, 
 as I have said, was a short, stiff, portly person, 
 lose his balance and his footing, while attempting 
 to immerse a man twice his own bulk, and him- 
 self fall sideways, and with no small stir and 
 splutter, into the water 
 
 But these juvenile reminiscences, and the 
 apathy which had succeeded them as I grew 
 older, were now supplanted by a disposition to 
 survey the scene as an unbiassed spectator, and 
 to ascertain, if possible, the impression which it 
 was calculated to make upon pious strangers, or 
 the unconverted world. 
 
 There was another cause which gave a pecu- 
 liarity to my state of mind on this occasion. I 
 knew that, in consequence of the circumstances 
 narrated, the service was deemed extraordinary, 
 and that during it many thoughts would be turned 
 towards me, and strong desires cherished that by 
 
46 CONFESSIONS Or A CONVEHT. 
 
 the discourse which was then to be deliveredj I 
 might be either confounded or convinced. 
 
 It is the common custom for two ministers to 
 be engaged at these services ; one to preach, and 
 the other to baptize. This arrangement is in- 
 tendedj I believe, to preserve the preacher, after 
 he has heated himself by his advocacy of much 
 water, (and on few occasions does his blood rise 
 so near to the boiling point,) from the extreme 
 danger of immediately descending from the pulpit 
 to the pool. And no one can question the pru- 
 dence of this division of labour, especially for the 
 sake of such short-necked, apoplectic subjects as 
 Mr. B. But, however discreet, it is difficult to 
 reconcile its necessity, either with the wisdom of 
 Him who commanded his disciples to " teach all 
 nations, haptizing them -," or with the fact, that 
 neither John at the Jordan, nor the apostles on 
 the day of Pentecost, who both preached and bap- 
 tized during one service, and who did not possess 
 the modern and luxurious preservatives of Mack- 
 intosh overalls and mud boots, needed any such 
 security against disease, — a circumstance which 
 makes one shrewdly suspect that tlieir mode 
 of baptism and that of the Immersionists do not 
 agree. 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 47 
 
 The minister who had been engaged to occupy 
 the pulpit on this occasion was extremely popular 
 in his own denomination, and was deemed the 
 most powerful advocate of their peculiarities in 
 that part of the country. He was well known in 
 our town, and much admired by our congregation. 
 Whenever he visited us, our chapel was crowded ; 
 and in general his sermons were powerfully im- 
 pressive. But I was not singular in the opinion 
 that he had been solicited to take a part in this 
 service, not so much on account of his general 
 solemnity, as of his controversial skill. And it 
 was very currently reported that he was called in 
 specially to demolish the objections which I was 
 known to entertain to immersion ; and by some it 
 was most confidently predicted that I should be 
 made ashamed of them, and of myself. 
 
 These rumours had reached my ear, but they 
 did not disturb me. I was thoroughly open to 
 conviction, and fully prepared to retrace my steps, 
 and .submit to immersion, whenever scriptural 
 reasons for it were advanced. Nor, although I 
 considered the references too pointed, and not in 
 good taste, did I fail to join in the petition, which 
 was more than once repeated during the prayer 
 before the sermon, that what was about to be ad- 
 vanced from the pulpit might " convince the gain- 
 
48 CONFESSIONS OP A CONVERT. 
 
 sayers, confirm the wavering, and remove all pre- 
 judice against the ordinances of the Lord!" I 
 could also adopt the supplications then presented, 
 though I could not sympathize with what I feared 
 to be the spirit and design by which they were 
 dictated, "that the enemies of the truth might 
 not be permitted to scatter tares amongst the 
 wheat, that objectors might renounce their carnal 
 reasonings, and that timid disciples might no 
 longer consult flesh and blood by following the 
 Lord afar off/' 
 
 I thought, moreover, that the hymn which was 
 sung after the prayer had been selected with a 
 similar reference to local circumstances. It was 
 the 447th of Dr. Rippon's selection, — a part of 
 which contains a very strange accommodation to 
 adult immersion of the words "Hinder me not;" 
 which were addressed by Abraham's servant to 
 the relatives of Rebecca, when they said to him, 
 " Let the damsel abide with us a few days.'' One 
 verse especially seemed to me a most unwarrant- 
 able misappropriation of a solemn sentiment, and 
 of the Saviour's example, to a doubtful and dis- 
 puted form, — 
 
 " Through floods and flames, if Jesus lead, 
 
 I'll follow where he goes : 
 ' Hinder me not/ shall be my cry, 
 
 Though earth and hell oppose." 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 49 
 
 Probably I might not have noticed this verse 
 80 much, had it not been read in an unusually 
 high pitch of voice, and attracted towards my- 
 self the furtive glances of several, who evi- 
 dently thought that I ought to be confounded by 
 it. 
 
 When the preacher, arose all eyes were fastened 
 upon him, and a remarkable stillness was main- 
 tained while he announced his text. It was from 
 Ephesians, iv. 5, — " One baptism. ^^ And I well 
 remember that, as he read it the first time, he 
 gave a very singular and significant emphasis to 
 the word " one/' and accompanied the utterance 
 with an expressive glance of his eyes, and a pecu- 
 liar shake of the head, which were evidently in- 
 tended to convey to us the preacher's full belief 
 that this passage settled the whole controversy. 
 This kind of oratory was varied when he repeated 
 the text. He then paused after the word " one'^ 
 for several seconds ; and during this hiatus turned 
 himself to each gallery, and looked down upon the 
 area of the place, bestowing, as I thought, more 
 attention to our* pew than it deserved, as if to 
 defy all gainsayers; and concluded by bringing 
 out with full force the word '• baptism.'^ I never 
 read the passage, and never shall, without the re- 
 currence of that scene, and the recollection of 
 5 
 
50 CONrESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 Mr. K.'s long-drawn litterance of ''one bap- 
 tism." 
 
 Having up to tliis period of my life attaclied 
 but one meaning to the word "baptism/' in 
 nearly all the passages of Scripture which contain 
 it, it did not then occur to me that in this place 
 it referred to a unity of spirit, not of form, and 
 that the entire fabric of the preacher's argumen- 
 tation rested upon a misinterpretation of his text. 
 But although at the time, partly from my own 
 inconsideration, and partly from the caution with 
 which the preacher avoided all allusion to a di- 
 versity of sentiment on the point, I yielded my 
 mind to his assumption, I have seen since then 
 that it was without the shadow of a proof. 
 Standing as these words do in the very centre 
 of a paragraph which describes the essentials of 
 Christian unity, and surrounded by numerous 
 references, all of which are purely spiritual, it 
 would be exceedingly strange if they designated 
 nothing beyond a rite ; and still more so, if they 
 are to be limited, as the preacher's reasoning 
 assumed, to the mere mode in which such a rite 
 should be administered. Repeatedly in his ser- 
 mon did he take the liberty of reciting the pas- 
 sage as if it had been written " one immersion ;" 
 which, though not without precedent in his own 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 51 
 
 denomination, "was a most disingenuous and uu- 
 "warrantablo artifice, in a discourse designed pro- 
 fessedly to prove the very point wbich was thus 
 taken for granted. I am not sure, however, 
 whether the preacher by so doing did not un- 
 wittingly expose the inconsistency of his own 
 version. At least I believe that this icoidd 
 have been its effect, had he not confined the 
 quotation to the single clause thus torn from its 
 context, and had honestly read the entire pas- 
 sage thus, — " There is one body, and one Spirit, 
 even as ye are called in one hope of your 
 calling. One Lord, one faith, one dipping. One 
 God and Father of all, who is above all, and 
 through all, and in you all." A more incon- 
 gruous juxtaposition it is scarcely possible to 
 conceive. Neither logic nor learning can be 
 necessary to make this apparent. ^'The plain 
 reader'^ (so often appealed to and imposed upon 
 by Baptists) may in such a case be confidently 
 constituted a judge. Piety, no less than rea- 
 son, revolts from a rendering of a passage by 
 which the unity of its parts is so strangely 
 violated, and an importance attached to the 
 mode of administering an outward ordinance, 
 which agrees no better with its design than it 
 does with the essential verities named in the 
 
52 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 same sentence, and with the spiritual dispensa- 
 tion whose vital truths are set forth therein. On 
 the other hand, no conjunction of parts could 
 have been more harmonious or beautiful, if the 
 ^^ one baptism'^ spoken of be not an outward ser- 
 vice, but an inward sanctification, — that baptism 
 of the Spirit which '^ saves us,'^ and which the 
 apostle Peter affirms to be ^-not the putting 
 away of the filth of the flesh,^' a mere ceremonial 
 cleansing, " but the answer of a good conscience 
 towards Grod." 
 
 Before proceeding with my narrative, I may be 
 permitted to make the remark, that neither on 
 this nor on any other public occasion do I remem- 
 ber to have heard the words '^ dip,^' and " dip- 
 ping," and ^'dippers" applied to Baptists and 
 their mode of baptizing. They affirm, and that 
 most truly, that the Scripture terms are not trans- 
 lated from the Greek, but simply transferred ; and 
 to such a mere transference they are so strongly 
 opposed, that solely because the Committee of the 
 Bible Society will not appropriate the sacred 
 money entrusted to their hands for the printing 
 of versions of the Scriptures, in which the ori- 
 ginal is so rendered as to sanction their mode of 
 baptizing, they have formed for this purpose a 
 separate institution. But why do they not con- 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 53 
 
 stantlj abide by this principle, and consistently 
 substitute for ''baptize" and "Baptist'^ the words 
 '' dip" and " dipper ?" Why do they not preach, 
 and write, and change the phraseology of the 
 English Bible, in accordance with the reasons of 
 their withdrawment from the Bible Society ? Why 
 should the transferred expressions be excluded 
 from the language of the Hindu, and retained in 
 that of the Briton? Why should they shrink 
 from the honest course of renouncing all ambi- 
 guous terms ? Were they thus to act, they would 
 never more speak of " hajjtisnis/' but of '' dip- 
 pings ;" nor would they call themselves Baptists, 
 but Dippers. No longer should we hear of Baptist 
 Chapels, Baptist Unions, Baptist Anniversaries, 
 Baptist Publications, Baptist Magazines, Baptist 
 Children's Magazines, and Baptist Missions ; but, 
 in their stead, we should have the true English 
 and/ar nwre accurate phrases of Dipping Chapels, 
 Dipping Unions, Dipping Anniversaries, Dipping 
 Publications, Dipping Magazines, Dipping Child- 
 ren's Magazines, and Dipping Missions. 
 
 And why should they not thus correct their 
 customary phraseology ? If, as Dr. Carson oracu- 
 larly affirms, and as many have maintained before 
 him, the original word haptizo means to dip, and 
 nothing else, what objection can those who adopt 
 5* 
 
54 CONFESSIONS OP A CONVERT. 
 
 this opinion fairly urge against the change ? / 
 know of none except this — that it would demon- 
 strate the folly of their positive assertions, and 
 expose themselves to the loud laugh of impartial 
 men. And of this their avoidance of the only 
 words which accurately describe their practice is a 
 sufficient evidence. They know well that an 
 ^' improved version" of the New Testament could 
 not be made ri'gidly on their principles, without 
 rendering many portions of it unintelligible or 
 absurd. 
 
 But it may be said that if the words " dip'' 
 and ^^ dipping" be generally eschewed, Baptist 
 preachers and writers frequently employ the terms 
 '^immerse" and ^^ immersion," and that this is 
 all the same thing. I am aware that such a prac- 
 tice is common ; and I know, moreover, that these 
 expressions are often so introduced as to lead the 
 unthinking to conclude that they answer both to 
 the original of the New Testament and to the 
 mode adopted by the Baptists ! I do not assert, 
 indeed, for I do not believe, that this is done with 
 a design to mislead ; but that such is the effect of 
 using the word ^^ immersion," I am quite sure. 
 Is it right, therefore, to inquire whether its signi- 
 fication is *■' all the same" as that of dipping ? 
 Every one knows that to '' dip" is to plunge any- 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 55 
 
 thing under water, and almost immediately after- 
 wards to take it out again, — that it includes a 
 double action, and therefore describes most accur- 
 ately the mode chosen by Baptists. But it is 
 otherwise with the verb " to immerse." This 
 term is compounded of two Latin words, which 
 severally mean " in'' and " plunge ;" the former 
 being prefixed to the latter to strengthen the idea 
 which it conveys. And, according to Dr. Johnson, 
 it simply means " to put under the- water ; to 
 cover deep." Unlike " dip," it does not include 
 nor imply the additional act of drawing out of the 
 water that which has just before been put under 
 it ; but its signification is restricted to the single 
 operation of covering, or " sinking deep." It 
 would be applicable to the mode which the Bap- 
 tists adopt, if they simply put their proselytes 
 heneatli the water, and left them there ; if they 
 merely " buried them in baptism," but then aban- 
 doned them ^^ to rise again" as best they could. 
 The word, therefore, is inaccurately applied to 
 their performance : it only describes half of it ; 
 and it usurps the place of a plainer term, which 
 includes the whole, and which is, of all expres- 
 sions, the most suitable and exact which the Eng- 
 lish tongue supplies. This word " immersion," 
 moreover, is as much transferred from the Latin 
 
56 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 as '' baptism" is from the Greek ; but it is recom- 
 mended by a sort of cloudiness — a convenient am- 
 biguity, wbicb mystifies the uneducated mind, and 
 hides the absurdity of translations and actions, 
 which would be instantly seen were the plain word 
 '' dipping'' put in its place. 
 
 But I must return to the sermon. After a 
 short introduction, in which the preacher desig- 
 nated his own denomination " the despised Bap- 
 tists/^ and expressed his perfect willingness to 
 bear the rej^roach of men, in humble words in- 
 deed, but with ill-disguised bitterness of spirit 
 and contempt of those who thus regarded them, 
 he proposed, — I. To offer some observations on 
 the positive institutions of the gospel; II. To 
 establish the claim of believers' immersion to that 
 character; and, III. To meet the objections of 
 those who shrunk from its observance. Having, 
 under the first division of his discourse, pointed 
 out the distinction between moral laws and posi- 
 tive institutions, and made some general remarks 
 upon the importance of the latter, Mr. B. pro- 
 ceeded to prove their permanent obligation, and 
 the consequent duty of every believer to observe 
 them. In all this there was nothing to which I 
 could object, and little which any Christians (with 
 the exception of the Quakers) would have ques- 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 57 
 
 tioned. But yet the antagonistic manner and ar- 
 gumentative tone of the preacher were peculiarly 
 fitted to make a different impression, and to lead 
 the ignorant to suppose that other denominations 
 held and acted upon very different principles. 
 This, indeed, he did not assert, and, I believe, did 
 not design ; but had he done both, he would not, 
 I am persuaded, have succeeded much better in 
 convincing his hearers that on these points, " they 
 were the people, and that wisdom would die with 
 them.'' Throughout, he delivered his sentiments 
 as one having authority to speak on these subjects, 
 and more than once he referred to the Immer- 
 sionists, in a style singularly suited to convey the 
 idea that tRey, if not the very pillar and ground 
 of the truth, were certainly " set," in a very pe- 
 culiar and public manner, " for the defence and 
 confirmation of the gospel." 
 
 When the preacher announced the second head 
 of his sermon, the manner in which he drew up 
 his stately person, and compressed his eye-brows 
 and lips, made it evident to me that he thought 
 himself well prepared to advance something very 
 convincing, and that he wished his audience to 
 understand that he was about to scatter all his 
 adversaries, and conduct his argument to a trium- 
 phant conclusion. And this feeling was evidently 
 
58 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 contagious. Upon the announcement being made 
 by Mr. R. that he would prove believers' immer- 
 sion to be a positive institution of the gospel, 
 there was a simultaneous and sympathetic stir 
 throughout the chapel, and a confused noise cre- 
 ated by various efforts to prepare for what was 
 coming — some comfortably adjusting their persons 
 on the seats; others shuffling the stools and has- 
 socks, to secure an easy posture for their extremi- 
 ties; and not a few coughing when they did not 
 need it, to prevent the interruption and save the 
 trouble when they did. But the moment the 
 preacher opened his lips, the sound of his voice 
 stilled the temporary tumult, and hushed the au- 
 dience into breathless silence. Nor'was I the 
 least attentive of his hearers. Not, indeed, that I 
 expected any thing properly original ; for I had so 
 frequently heard and read what is usually ad- 
 vanced in favour of immersion, as to be perfectly 
 familiar with, and heartily weary of, the flimsy 
 fallacies, the spider's web, by which the unin- 
 structed and undiscerning are entangled and se- 
 cured. Yet I did anticipate, from the reputation 
 of the preacher as a polemic, and the confident 
 tone in which he announced his design, that old 
 reasonings on the subject would be reproduced 
 with new force, or in new forms. But in this I 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 59 
 
 was doomed to disappointment. Nothing could 
 have been more trite than the bold assertions, and 
 nothing more customary than the convenient omis- 
 sions, of his discourse. 
 
 He commenced by saying that the proposition 
 he was about to prove would be considered under 
 two heads: in the first place, he would show that 
 none but believers were the proper subjects of bap- 
 tism j and, secondly, that all who sustained such a 
 character should be immersed. 
 
 The remarks in support of the first point were 
 brief and declamatory. They consisted mainly in 
 strong denunciations of infant sprinkling, and in 
 fervid, if they were not feigned, exclamations of 
 astonishment that any Christian could differ on 
 this subject from himself As my attention, 
 hitherto, had been almost exclusively restricted 
 to the mode of baptism, and the question. Who 
 are its proper subjects ? had but very casually 
 occupied my thoughts, I was not then prepared 
 to controvert the preacher's conclusion, although 
 there was nothing advanced by him which ap- 
 peared to me to have much weight, and some 
 statements I could have easily disproved. In 
 truth, there was only one topic upon which he 
 dilated at any length, — the incapacity of infants 
 to understand the ordinance, and the absurdity of 
 
60 CONFESSIONS OE A CONVERT. 
 
 administering it to them. But upon this point 
 he declaimed with much strength of voice and 
 energy of manner. Again and again he affirmed 
 that no single child had ever been the better for 
 baptism, challenged all the Paedo-baptists in the 
 world to deny his assertion, and, with most con- 
 temptuous tones, denounced the practice and its 
 abettors. All this jarred harshly upon my feel- 
 ings ; and instead of producing conviction, it only 
 excited disgust. It was an appeal, not to reason, 
 but to passion ; and its tendency was not to re- 
 move the doubts of the ingenuous inquirer, but to 
 confirm the prejudices of the narrow-minded par- 
 tisan. And I thought I could discern, during 
 the delivery of some of his strongest denuncia- 
 tionS; decisive evidence of this in the demeanour of 
 several around me. Some of those who had risen 
 from their seats stood gazing intently upon the 
 preacher, and might be seen, at the conclusion of 
 each ejaculation and appeal, giving their heads 
 an emphatic jerk of approbation. Over the fea- 
 tures of others there played a grim smile of satis- 
 faction, which in a few cases became ghastly, 
 from the unnatural contrast which an effi3rt to 
 seem pleased presented with their crimped-up 
 cheeks, corrugated upper lip, and cadaverous 
 countenance : whilst there were a few from whose 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 61 
 
 eyes there flashed the gleams of an unhallowed 
 fire, which the preacher's words had kindled in 
 their hearts. 
 
 These various signs of emotion strongly at- 
 tracted my attention ; and as I then took a con- 
 siderable interest in the congregation, and was 
 zealous for their reputation, I rejoiced to think 
 that but few of our Independent friends were pre- 
 sent to hear and see such a display of uncharita- 
 bleness. 
 
 Much, however, as these objects occupied my 
 thoughts, I was not so engrossed as to allow what 
 might be termed the argument of this part of the 
 discourse to pass unnoticed. Although I had had 
 few opportunities of observing the influence of 
 infant baptism, I had both heard and read 
 enough to convince me that the preacher's dog- 
 matic denunciations of its inutility would be 
 firmly denied by his brethren, and that his de- 
 mand of proof would be readily responded to. I 
 perceived, moreover, that such an objection in- 
 volved a gross fallacy; for it assumed that no 
 advantage whatever could accrue from the ordi- 
 nance, unless at the time of its administration 
 the infant understood its design : whereas it must 
 be obvious at a glance, that if the jparents rightly 
 discern the truth taught in relation to their child, 
 6 
 
62 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 and feel the obligations which they solemnly 
 acknowledge when they thus dedicate it to the 
 Lord, the subsequent influence, both upon them- 
 selves and upon their youthful charge, must be in 
 the highest degree important. 
 
 This, however, was only a passing idea ; but in 
 subsequent reflections upon this sermon, I was 
 strongly impressed with the conviction that the 
 preacher's statements not only involved an empty 
 fallacy, but a heavy imputation upon the God of 
 Abraham and the Saviour of mankind. I saw 
 that the condemnation pronounced upon the bap- 
 tism of infants, solely because they could not com- 
 prehend its design, would, if it were just, equally 
 apply to the circumcision of infants by the father 
 of the faithful, and the hlessing of infants by 
 Jesus Christ. More than once during his sermon 
 Mr. R. exclaimed, ^' How absurd to sprinkle an 
 unconscious babe \" And since then I have asked 
 myself why, for the selfsame reason, it might not 
 also be said, " How absurd to circumcise an un- 
 conscious babe !" " How absurd to hiess it V 
 Surely the Jewish children of eight days old, and 
 the infants enfolded in the arms of Jesus, were as 
 " unconscious" of the design of the service per- 
 formed upon them as are those who are now bap- 
 tized. But were such services '^ absurd ?" They 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 63 
 
 must have been so upon Mr. R.'s rule of judg- 
 ment. Such a fearful condemnation of an ordi- 
 nance and an act, which all acknowledge to have 
 been " divinely wise/' was unquestionably in- 
 volved in his reasoning ; and I should have been 
 the more impressed with the manifest inconsis- 
 tency between this mode of deciding a contro- 
 versy, and the loud professions of reverence for 
 Scripture with which Mr. R.'s sermon abounded, 
 had I not been shocked by its still grosser im- 
 piety. 
 
 But although the preacher's declamation against 
 infant baptism was brief, the young women who 
 composed the bulk of his audience deemed it, I 
 doubt not, quite decisive of the question, or, to 
 quote the words of one of them, "particularly 
 good." Mr. K.'s main purpose, however, was 
 evidently to meet local circumstances, by proving 
 that immersion alone is Christian baptism. To 
 this, therefore, he devoted a considerable portion 
 of his discourse. And whatever else might be 
 defective in the maintenance of his point, there 
 was no lack of zeal. Rarely has so cold a subject 
 generated so much heat. The tongue, the fist, 
 and the foot each performed its part. With sten- 
 torian voice and emphatic stamp, and heavy blows 
 upon the Bible, if not "with start and stare 
 
64 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 theatric," he strove to make his words impressive. 
 His entire manner reminded me of the practice of 
 those savage tribes, who, when engaged in battle, 
 endeavour, by violent gesticulations and horrid 
 clamour, to paralyse or scatter the foes whom 
 they cannot otherwise subdue. And, undoubtedly, 
 if strong positions in reasoning, like fortified 
 places, could be won by assault, or carried by 
 storm, the preacher's victory would have been 
 most complete. 
 
 The substance of Mr. K.'s reasoning on immer- 
 sion will appear in the next part. I shall, there- 
 fore, only add here, that as he advanced no argu- 
 ment which I had not previously weighed, my 
 views at the conclusion of his discourse continued 
 much the same as they were at its commencement. 
 But not so my feelings. These had been most 
 painfully excited by what was advanced under the 
 third head of the sermon, where the preacher pro- 
 posed to remove the difficulties and reply to the 
 objections of those who did not submit to immer- 
 sion. Here I naturally expected something, at 
 least, like a statement of the reasonings which re- 
 strained the great majority .of Christians from 
 "practising this mode of baptism. But I was once 
 more subjected to disappointment. Moral diffi- 
 culties, not mental, were the only ones which the 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 65 
 
 preacher deemed it just or wise to dispose of, or 
 even to name. No person, had he been ignorant 
 of the fact that there were in the world Christians 
 as intelligent and upright as the Baptists, who, 
 after most careful consideration, conscientiously 
 diflfered from them, could have learned, or would 
 have imagined it, from Mr. R.'s remarks. On the 
 contrary, their tendency was to make this single 
 impression, that whilst in theory others agreed 
 with himself, in practice they conferred with flesh 
 and blood. One class was described as shrinking 
 from an admitted obligation, because it was a pain- 
 ful cross; another, because they were too weak in 
 faith to believe that God would preserve them in 
 the observance of his own ordinance. Some were 
 represented as standing aloof, on the ground that 
 immersion was not essential to salvation; and not 
 a few because they were too proud to join so small 
 and despised a community as the Baptists. Many 
 strong things were said upon this last point, and 
 in such a tone as to satisfy me that the preacher 
 had really much more exalted notions of his sect 
 than he professed to have; but I cannot be sure 
 that I correctly report this part of his sermon, for 
 during its delivery my thoughts were diverted, and 
 my seriousness disturbed, by an occurrence of the 
 previous week, which it recalled to my mind. 
 6* 
 
66 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 Meeting one of our old church members — ^a weai 
 but worthy individual — he thus accosted me : — 
 ^' Well, young man, I am sorry to hear that you 
 shrink from the water j but ah! I remember doing 
 the same thing myself for a long time, and I 
 thought that there was nothing at all in the Bible 
 about dipping ; but Til tell you how I learned the 
 truth. One day, when I was walking by a river, 
 these words came to me, just as if any person was 
 speaking into hiy ear, — ' Fear not, little flock, for 
 it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the 
 kingdom ;' and I said to myself, ' Now this little 
 flock must be the Baptists !' for in our town there 
 was no flock so small as they were. I am sure 
 then that they must be right, and I won't resist 
 the truth any longer. So I went to the Baptist 
 minister, and asked him about it ; and he said it 
 was quite correct, and that I ought to go under the 
 water." 
 
 The conclusion of the sermon contained an ear- 
 nest appeal to waverers, and sundry reasons for 
 laying aside every objection, and submitting to 
 ''the Lord's appointment;" and immediately after- 
 wards seven persons were immersed — ^six young 
 females and one man. Most of these I knew, and 
 I had a favourable impression of their sincerity. 
 Of one thing, indeed, I was sure — that prior to 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 67 
 
 their baptisnij they had been subjected by our 
 minister to several examinations as to their religi- 
 ous opinions and history ; that they had also been 
 conversed with by two of the deacons ; and, after 
 all, they had been compelled to pass through the 
 fiery ordeal of appearing personally before the 
 church, and '' giving in their experience," as it is 
 termed — that is, standing up in the face of the 
 people, and telling them what they had thought 
 and felt on the subject of their soul's salvation. 
 
 Of the service itself I shall say but little. To 
 some such an exhibition may seem decent, wise, 
 significant, and even solemn ; but with such im- 
 pressions I have no sympathy. While I looked 
 at the young women, standing on the margin of 
 the pool, decked out in decorated caps, and white 
 vestments, far more tastily arranged than simple 
 convenience required, and marked the manner in 
 which they were severally plunged by the minis- 
 ter, and then, as my eye followed each of them, 
 drenched and dripping (a spectacle anything but 
 impressive), from the baptistery to the vestry, 
 where I knew that the very necessary, but very 
 unapostolical luxuries of brandy, fire, and changes 
 of raiment awaited them, I said to myself, " Can 
 this be Christianity V 
 
 On leaving the chapel, instead of returning 
 
68 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 home, as I had been wont to do immediately after 
 eacli service, I yielded to an irrepressible desire to 
 seek shelter in some shady retreat, where, unob- 
 served, I might review the scene I had just wit- 
 nessed, and indulge the thoughts which confusedly 
 crowded into my mind. Constrained by this feel- 
 ing, and too much engrossed with my own reflec- 
 tions to regard appearances, or care about the spe- 
 culations and surmises which so unusual a course 
 would call forth, I bent my steps towards the 
 nearest egress from the town, and sauntered into a 
 narrow and lovely lane, which terminated in an 
 open glade, whither from my childhood I had 
 loved to wander in search of the wood-flowers, 
 which flourished there in great variety. It was 
 about the middle of IMay : the noon was clear and 
 bright, and the air fresh but balmy. I seated 
 myself upon the trunk of a noble oak, which had 
 just been felled -, and, although the scenery around 
 me was simple and familiar, never before did I 
 survey it with such pure enjoyment, or drink in 
 with so keen a satisfaction the sweet influences of 
 nature with which my senses and my spirit were 
 regaled. Just escaped from the close and noxious 
 atmosphere of a confined sectarianism, into an im- 
 mediate contact with which my thoughts had been 
 so painfully forced during the previous morning, 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 69 
 
 I experienced an elation and elasticity of soul not 
 to be described, and rejoiced with more than or- 
 dinary exultation in the liberty wherewith Christ 
 had made me free. I felt that in that place I 
 could have fellowship with God. Here, around, 
 above, beneath, I read his character, and could 
 realize his presence. The pure, deep gether, the 
 soft yet bracing air, the cloudless sun and cheer- 
 ing light, the fresh fragrance of the hedge-rows, 
 the sweet sound of blithe birds and murmuring 
 breezes amonst the branches ; indeed, the entire 
 scene which surrounded me suggested no senti- 
 ments but such as were hallowed and elevated, nor 
 would it blend with any others. This conviction 
 was forced upon me. Repeatedly did I recur to 
 the service of the morning, and endeavour to fix 
 my roving and reluctant thoughts upon some part 
 of the discourse which I had been hearing ; but the 
 effort proved vain. My mind was predisposed by 
 the objects before me only for much higher exer- 
 cises ; and I felt that to turn from them to the 
 dissection of sophistries, and the discussion of 
 topics so insignificant as those which had exer- 
 cised the utmost vigour of the preacher's mind, 
 and the full compass of his voice, would be to 
 descend from heaven to earth, and almost to dese- 
 crate the glorious temple of the Creator, which 
 his own hand had reared around me. 
 
70 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 This impression was deepened when I took out 
 my pocket-bible, and read in succession the 40th 
 chapter of Isaiah, the 17th chapter of John's gos- 
 pel, and the liith and following chapters of the 
 Epistle to the Eomans. Here I felt that I had 
 communion with the God who had stretched out 
 the heavens and formed the earth. The noble, 
 generous, sublime sentiments of the sacred page 
 bore the impress of the same mind, and presented 
 many of the same features as the natural scenery 
 of the spot in which I sat. Their separate in- 
 fluences also perfectly harmonized. As the light 
 and the air blended with each other, so did the 
 teachings of the two books which I was then pe- 
 rusing. But neither of them agreed with the 
 theme to which my thoughts had been directed. 
 Here was nothing narrow — nothing little. The 
 sentiments were sublime; the range of vision 
 ample ; the spirit generous and divine. Between 
 the erect form and noble aspect of religion as here 
 presented, and that cramped, and crippled, and 
 creeping thing, the unnatural and ungainly mo- 
 tions of which I had that morning watched with 
 shame and sorrow, I saw and felt that the differ- 
 ence was immeasurable. Most deeply did I then 
 realize the truth, that as ^^ high as the heavens 
 are above the earth, so high are God's ways 
 
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS. 71 
 
 above our ways, and his thoughts above our 
 thoughts.'* 
 
 While I was musing thus, my attention was at- 
 tracted towards a singular and stunted tree, which 
 stood near the spot on which I was sitting. Its 
 trunk was knotted and gnarled. Its branches 
 were curiously twisted, and but scantily clothed 
 with foliage; and in its general appearance it 
 presented a very striking contrast to several noble 
 elms and oaks which flourished around it. Cu- 
 rious to ascertain the cause of this difference, I 
 left my seat, and proceeded to the spot where this 
 deformed tree was growing, when the explanation 
 immediately presented itself. On the one side, 
 near a hedge, within a few feet of which it stood, 
 a deep ditch had been dug, which, some years be- 
 fore, had severed some of its main roots, and cut 
 off a large portion of its supplies ; whilst on the 
 other side there was a footpath, which had been 
 much used when the tree was young, and had ma- 
 terially impaired its vigour. Here, thought I, do 
 I see a true emblem of the system from which I 
 had been so strongly repelled. Though, like this 
 tree, planted in a large place, and in a fruitful 
 soil, and possessing those essential truths, and 
 that vital spirit, which might have secured its 
 generous growth, its range has been restricted, its 
 
72 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 roots impaired by man. The deep ditch, of an ex- 
 clusive creed, and the constant tramp of sectarian 
 feet along its narrow pathway, have checked its 
 growth, changed its form, covered what might 
 have been a straight and sturdy trunk with un- 
 sightly excrescences, and left upon its crooked 
 boughs but a sickly and scanty foliage. 
 
PART III. 
 
 EEASONIXGS AND REPLIES. 
 
 During the morning of the day after the ser- 
 vice just described; I had occasion to be much in 
 the town, and was not a little amused at the sig- 
 nificant manner in which two or three attendants 
 at our chapel, whom I happened to meet, eyed 
 and addressed me. But my most formidable ren- 
 counter of this kind occurred on my return home, 
 where I found Mrs. B., our minister's wife, with 
 her two daughters. They had evidently called for 
 the purpose of ascertaining the impression which 
 had been made by Mr. R.'s sermon ; and just as I 
 opened the parlour door, I heard my mother, whose 
 voice was usually mild and soft, exclaim with con- 
 siderable animation, " No ! Mrs. B., I am quite 
 sure that George is sincere F' Her face was flushed 
 as I entered the room, and all the ladies appeared 
 rather confused ; but, although I divined the cause, 
 I did my best to put them at their ease. After 
 the usual preliminaries, and without the slightest 
 7 (73) 
 
74 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 reference to the subject, the worthy visitor sud- 
 denly turned towards me, and said, " Well, Mr. 
 G-eorge, and what did you think of the sermon 
 yesterday morning ? Your mind is settled now^ I 
 hope ! Oh ! dear, was it not convincing ? What 
 a wonderful man that Mr. R. is ! Did you ever 
 hear such arguments ?" Unwilling to debate 
 these points with the lady, of whose character I 
 entertained a much higher estimate than of her 
 judgment, and anxious not to disturb the compla- 
 cent satisfaction which the preacher had afforded 
 her, I endeavoured to evade the subject. But the 
 attempt was vain. Determined to satisfy her cu- 
 riosity, and attain the object of her call, she con- 
 tinued to assail me with interrogatives, until, in 
 order to prevent any misconstruction of my silence, 
 I was compelled to confess that I could not quite 
 agree with the estimate she had formed of Mr. R., 
 or his oration. No sooner had the words passed 
 my lips, than both mother and daughters burst 
 forth into a simultaneous and confused clash of 
 tongues; and, from amidst the mass of broken 
 ejaculations which they heaped upon my unfortu- 
 nate head, all that I could distinctly hear, and 
 that only because they were often repeated, were 
 the words, — ^^ Dear ! I am surprised T' '■'' Well ! 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 75 
 
 it is sad I" " Ah ! I did hope better things." 
 '' What will my poor husband say V 
 
 As soon as the ladies had a little relieved them- 
 selves in this way, the worthy matron turned again 
 to me, and said, '- But, 3Ir. George, was n't the 
 Eunuch baptized?" ^'Certainly, ma'am," I re- 
 plied. " But was n't he immersed, I mean ?" " I 
 do not know that he was." " Dear me, Mr. George, 
 why does n't it say so ?" " Not that I am aware 
 of, ma'am." ^'Well," she added, with uplifted 
 eyes and hands, " I am surprised. Why, does n't 
 it say that he ' went down into the water, and came 
 up out of the water V and is not that just the same 
 as if it was said that he was immersed V^ " Not 
 exactly so, Mrs. B. ; for you may remember it is 
 stated that both Philip and the Eunuch went down 
 into and came up out of the water, — and you do 
 not, I presume, believe that Philip baptized him- 
 self as well as the Ethiopian ?" " Why no, to be 
 sure. Well, I declare, I never thought of that, 
 now." And then, recovering a little from her 
 surprise, she added, " But, perhaps, he did after 
 all : why not ? It might have been so, you know ; 
 and as it says that they both went down into the 
 water, it was so, of course." "Well, Mrs. B.," 
 I observed, " you are the most consistent Baptist 
 I ever met with, and you are even wiser than your 
 
76 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 husband ; for though I. have often heard him lay 
 much stress upon the same words, to prove that 
 one of the persons to whom they refer was im- 
 mersed, he will not, as fairly as you have done, 
 allow that this was also the case with the other." 
 ^' Thank you for your compliment, Mr. George," 
 rejoined the worthy wife; ^' but I dare say my 
 husband is right, for he never goes farther than 
 the Bible." ^^ I beg your pardon," I added, ^^ but 
 I am pretty sure that both he and other Baptists 
 do so, whenever they use these words, which sim- 
 ply mean that they went down from the chariot 
 to some water by the wayside, and then went up 
 again, as a proof that either of them was im- 
 mersed. You know that yesterday Mr. E.. came 
 down from the pulpit, and stood at the edge of the 
 baptistery, while Mr. B. was baptizing ; but was he 
 immersed ? Yet he went down to the water just 
 as much as Philip and the Eunuch. Perhaps," I 
 added, '^ you may remember, when I called at your 
 house last week, that you opened the door your- 
 self, and apologized to me for doing so, by saying 
 that your servant had just gone down to the brook 
 at the bottom of your garden to fetch some water. 
 Now, I am sure that you did not intend me to un- 
 derstand from your words that Betsy had been bap- 
 tized." ^' Oh ! Mr. George," said the good lady, 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 77 
 
 " now you are joking." " Not so, ma'am, I assure 
 you ; I merely mention these cases because the lan- 
 guage applicable' to them conveys exactly the same 
 idea, and no other, as the words upon which Mr. R. 
 dwelt so long, which you have just quoted as a 
 clear proof of immersion, and which form the 
 most efficacious means of making Baptist con- 
 verts." 
 
 Just at this point of the conversation, the 
 eldest daughter interposed the remark, that the 
 words were not going down " to" and coming up 
 ^' from," but going down '^ into" and coming up 
 ^^out of" the water. I allowed that there was 
 some apparent force in her remark, but requested 
 that, on her return home, she would ask Mr. R., 
 who was still at her father's house, to read from 
 a Greek dictionary the various significations of the 
 original terms, to the translations of which in 
 this passage he had attached so much importance ; 
 and also to point out some of the texts, of which 
 there was a great number, where the same words 
 had been rendered " to" and '^ from." I assured 
 her that, if she could persuade him to do this, she 
 would never more think the argument which he 
 had founded upon them worth a straw, and would 
 be ashamed of those who supported their system 
 by reasoning so false, and, to uninstructed per- 
 7* 
 
78 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 Bons, so delusive. To this I added, that even 
 were it otherwise, as the words do not describe 
 the act of baptism, but merely* what took place 
 prior to its administration, they furnished no 
 solution of the problem how the ordinance was 
 performed, whether by plunging, pouring, or 
 sprinkling. 
 
 Having been drawn thus far into discussion, I 
 ventured to ask the ladies whether they could 
 suppose that this African nobleman would have 
 gone down, as he is represented to have done, 
 direct from his chariot to be dipped, either in the 
 travelling dress which he wore, or in other gar- 
 ments put on for the occasion ? I inquired, fur- 
 ther, whether in the place where this baptism was 
 administered, and which was " desert,'^ it would 
 seem at all probable that a suitable spot for 
 immersion should have been so easily found ? 
 And I appealed to the young ladies, whether 
 they had not learned enough of Eastern deserts 
 while at school to satisfy them that the thirsty 
 traveller through such a region is about as 
 likely to meet with a stream of gold, as a 
 stream of water there, deep enough for such a 
 purpose. 
 
 Whether the mother thought that I was 
 making some impression upon her daughters or 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 79 
 
 not, wlio seemed amazed at these and other 
 arguments, which had hitherto been carefully 
 concealed from them, I do not know, but she 
 soon rose to depart; and as she retired, she 
 whispered into my ear, ''Do, Mr. George, lay 
 aside your carnal reasonings, and take up the 
 cross. ^^ I thanked her, smiled, and said good 
 morning. 
 
 In the course of that week, several circum- 
 stances came to my knowledge which convinced 
 me that Mr. R.'s sermon had given the highest 
 satisfaction to the Baptists; and I also heard 
 that, by some of them, my steadfastness was 
 charitably ascribed to pride, obstinacy, and other 
 similar causes. All this -I should have disre- 
 garded, had I not ascertained that Mr. B. had 
 not only allowed these unkind surmises to be 
 uttered in his hearing without rebuke, but that 
 he had helped to give them currency. I learned, 
 moreover, that the preacher, also, who remained 
 two or three days in the town, had with very bad 
 taste, to say nothing stronger, affirmed that, it 
 after such clear and scriptural proofs of immer- 
 sion as he had advanced, I still clung to my 
 previous prejudices, he feared that I must be 
 sinning against light, and, like the Pharisees, 
 
80 CONrESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 wilfully rejecting the counsel of Grod against 
 myself. 
 
 Affected, and somewhat stung, by these ungen- 
 erous and injurious insinuations, I became anxious 
 in some way to shield my own reputation, and to 
 set forth the reasons which had convinced me that 
 immersion had no scriptural support. But how 
 to effect these objects, I could not for a time dis- 
 cover ; and as I had recently abstained from in- 
 tercourse with the Independents in our town, lest 
 my change should be ascribed to their efforts, I 
 was shut up to my own resources. At length, 
 however, I resolved to address a letter to Mr. R., 
 stating some of the considerations which compelled 
 me to reject the reasonings which he and others 
 deemed so irresistible, and containing a remon- 
 strance against some of the unworthy methods by 
 which, in his discourse, he attempted to bias and 
 prejudice his hearers. I determined, moreover, 
 to circulate two or three copies of this letter 
 amongst the congregation, with the hope that it 
 might both vindicate my character and serve the 
 cause of truth. This was rather a bold step, and 
 I felt it to be so ; but my motives had been so un- 
 kindly misconstrued, and honour and fairness had 
 been so set at naught, that I was impelled to do 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 81 
 
 what, under other cii'cumstances, I should have 
 shrunk from. 
 
 Having devoted the spare hours of several days 
 to the task, I produced the following epistle : — 
 
 " ,S' , June, 18—. 
 
 " Rev. and dear Sir, — From my childhood 
 I have regarded your office with reverence, and I 
 trust that nothing I am about to write will appear 
 to indicate a different state of feelino;. 
 
 ^^ I have reason to believe that you are not un- 
 acquainted with the fact, that my views have re- 
 cently undergone a change on the subject of bap- 
 tism ; and, if I am not misinformed, when you 
 consented to preach at this place a short time since, 
 you did so at the urgent solicitation of Mr. B., 
 and partly with the design of counteracting the 
 consequences which he apprehended might arise 
 from my altered sentiments. I am also aware that 
 some strong things have been said to my prejudice 
 since the delivery of your sermon, to account for 
 what is deemed, by a few, my obstinate adherence 
 to error, and, unless I am strangely misled, by 
 yourself as well as by others. Now, as I believe 
 that, in this matter, I can truly say, ^ Herein do 
 I exercise myself, always to have a conscience void 
 of offence,' I cannot be easy under such imputa- 
 
82 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 tions ; and, in self-defence, I address this letter to 
 you, though its contents will also be submitted to 
 the consideration of others. 
 
 ^^ As the principal purpose for which I take my 
 pen is to show you that I have sufficient reason 
 for rejecting the opinion you so confidently main- 
 tained, that there is no baptism but immersion, I 
 need not trouble you with a narrative of the cir- 
 cumstances which have brought me to this conclu- 
 sion. I shall therefore proceed at once to the con- 
 sideration of your recently delivered discourse; 
 and if I am able to show that the arguments it 
 contained were inconclusive, I think my conduct 
 will be entitled to a more kind and candid con- 
 struction than it has hitherto received. 
 
 " It will be in your recollection that, at the out- 
 set of your reasoning, you advanced the bold as- 
 sertion that the original term haptizo would bear 
 but one signification — that its invariable import 
 was to immerse. This, therefore, you assumed to 
 be its meaning in your text ; and by so doing you 
 readily reached the conclusion that immersion 
 alone was baptism. Like some other points in 
 your sermon, there was a speciousness in this re- 
 presentation, which was singularly adapted to cap- 
 tivate the ignorant and unreflecting ; but a weaker 
 or more worthless fallacy I do not believe the 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 83 
 
 whole sect of the Baptists would have been able to 
 construct. It is founded upon two things — a false 
 assumption, and a false assertion. The false as- 
 sumption is, that the apostle referred, in the words 
 * one baptism,^ to a ritual observance, and not to a 
 spiritual privilege, — to the baptism of water, not 
 of the Spirit. This you very composedly took for 
 granted, and evidently wished your hearers to re- 
 gard as a point which no one denied, or would ever 
 venture to dispute. Now, did I not suspect that 
 you had yourself assumed, without examination, 
 the same thing which you wished your hearers to 
 assume, I should propose to you the inquiry — 
 Was this fair and honourable ? To me it appears 
 very surprising that any one, who even casually 
 look at the connection in which these words occur, 
 should understand them as you did. But it is 
 still more extraordinary that you should so under- 
 stand them, who maintain that the term '■ baptism' 
 means merely '■ immersion' or a - dipping.' Such 
 a translation of the word in this place would alone 
 I should have imagined, have been quite sufficient 
 to satisfy any one that the inspired writer must 
 have had a different idea in his mind from the 
 mere mode of administering a Christian ordinance. 
 Even upon the theory which you reject, that the 
 word baptism means an outward purification, there 
 
84 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 would be a great incongruity in its introduction in 
 the midst of a number of references to subjects 
 purely spiritual. But your translation renders the 
 incongruity still greater. To see this, you have 
 only to substitute the words ' one dipping' for 
 ^ one baptism/ and then to read the entire passage. 
 This simple process, with most, would, 1 am per- 
 suaded, be decisive ; and if, with this new version 
 of your text (and it is your own,) you can believe 
 that the inspired writer intended such a reference 
 as you suppose — if you can see any propriety in 
 his connecting together ^ one faith, one Lord, and 
 one God and Father of all,' with ^ one dipping,' — 
 I can only express my amazement, and avow my 
 fear that nothing I could write would change your 
 opinion. All that I could then require from you 
 would be the reasons (and they ought to be very 
 strong) which induce you to affix a meaning to 
 the word ' baptism' so out of harmony with the 
 context. 
 
 '' But I think I can anticipate your method of 
 meeting this demand. You will adduce the other 
 false assumption, or, more correctly, false asser- 
 tion, which was frequently repeated during your 
 discourse, that to immerse was the sole signification 
 of the original term. To this opinion I have no 
 doubt many of your hearers gave their assent : 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 85 
 
 and if they did not, it was certainly no fault of 
 yours ; for the statement was so made as to convey 
 the strongest assurance to the uninformed that it 
 had never been denied, and could not possibly be 
 disputed. But, sir, was it right to foster so false 
 an impression in an assembly, the great majority 
 of whom had never heard a sermon, nor read a 
 line, from which they could learn the true state 
 of the controversy ? Knowing, as you did, that 
 many of the most enlightened and eminent divines 
 have firmly denied the very thing which you so 
 confidently asserted, how could you withhold that 
 fact from your congregation, and thus produce 
 an erroneous impression ? 
 
 " But it is not necessary for me to adduce their 
 authority to prove that the word haptizo has moye 
 than one signification. Limited as my knowledge 
 of Grreek may be, I understand it sufficiently to 
 affirm that your assertion is erroneous. Of this, 
 the commonist school lexicon will furnish conclu- 
 sive evidence. But I will not attempt to discuss 
 the classical meaning of the term, nor is it neces- 
 sary, since your assertion was confined to its use 
 in the New Testament. Yet how you can assign 
 such a sense to it there, and particularly in some 
 passages, I cannot conceive. Do you really believe 
 that the Israelites, who, we are told, were hay- 
 8 
 
86 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 tized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, were 
 really dipped, when you know that the cloud 
 went ^ hefore^ them, and that they passed through 
 the sea ^ on dry ground T Can you think that 
 the apostle, when he calls the various purifica- 
 tions 'of the Jews ^divers baptisms,' only referred 
 to dippings, although sprinkling was the ordinary 
 mode ordained and practised, and that of which 
 he was speaking in immediate connection with 
 these words ! You are well aware that the terms 
 ^ washing' and ^ tables,' in the common transla- 
 tion of Mark vii. 4, are, in the original, ' bap- 
 tizing' and 'beds.' You know, moreover, that 
 what in the preceding verse is called the u-asliing 
 of their hands is here designated a baptism. The 
 following is the literal translation of the passage : 
 ^ For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they 
 wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradi- 
 tion of the elders. And when they come from 
 the market, except they baptize, they eat not. 
 And many other things there be, which they 
 have received to hold, as the baptism of cups, and 
 pots, brazen vessels, and beds/ or couches. Now, 
 can you, contrary to the express declaration of 
 the Evangelist, that washing the hands (which 
 was generally performed by water being poured 
 upon them) was a baptism, hold to your assertion 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 87 
 
 that there can be no baptism but the dipping of 
 the entire person ? And will you adopt, for the 
 sake of this worthless theory, the absurd fiction 
 that they dipped their bodies and their beds ? 
 Again, when on the day of Pentecost the pro- 
 phecy of Joel was fulfilled, ^ I will pour out my 
 Spirit upon all flesh,^ by the bestowment of that 
 divine influence which Peter describes as being 
 ' shed forth' upon them, do you imagine, will you 
 venture to declare, that they were then dipped 
 with the Holy Ghost ? Yet, if you are consist- 
 ent, and if the word haptizo has no other mean- 
 ing than that which you give to it, you must do 
 this ; for the very descent of divine influence de- 
 scribed as a ^pouring out,^ and a ^shedding 
 forth,' was the spiritual baptism which Jesus had 
 promised just before his ascension, when he said, 
 ' Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not 
 many days hence/ But seriously, can you im- 
 pute to John and to Jesus Christ, what in ordi- 
 nary cases you would call the folly of selecting a 
 word which signifies ^ to dip and nothing but to 
 dip,' in order to describe a ^ pouring out' and a 
 ^ shedding forth V Had you not a false theory to 
 support, I am sure your common sense would re- 
 ject as utterly absurd such a meaning of the term 
 employed by the Saviour. Similar remarks apply 
 
88 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 to the case of Cornelius. When Peter saw the 
 spirit ^ falV upon the centurion and his company, 
 ' tlien^' he states, ^ remembered I the word of the 
 Lord, how that he said, John indeed hoptlzed with 
 water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
 Ghost.' Was a promise ^ to dip' with the Holy 
 Ghost performed when his influence merely ^feW 
 upon them ? Such is the gross absurdity which 
 your way of understanding the word haptizo would 
 compel you to believe. 
 
 ^^ But I need not multiply these examples. I 
 will therefore proceed to the next topic in your 
 discourse. After repeatedly affirming (for argu- 
 ment there was none) that haptizo always meant 
 to immerse, you attempted to support your asser- 
 tion by adducing ^ other terms used in the New 
 Testament to describe the ordinance.' These, I 
 am confident, were your very words, for they 
 attracted my attention so strongly as to imprint 
 themselves indelibly upon my memory. For a 
 moment after this announcement, I expected some 
 startling novelty, and greatly wondered what this 
 could be. But imagine my surprise, on discover- 
 ing that the expressions which were to do so 
 much towards deciding the dispute were no others 
 than the hackneyed ^ into' and ^ out of the water/ 
 the inconclusiveness of which in proof of immer- 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 89 
 
 sion has been so often demonstrated. When, 
 therefore, I heard jou name the 8 th chapter of 
 the Acts, I could not repress a smile at my own 
 simplicity in expecting an original argument on 
 the Baptist side of the controversy ; but as you 
 read the expressions ^ into the water/ and ' out of 
 the water,' repeating the words ' into' and ' out 
 of,' and laying a very heavy emphasis upon ^ in' 
 and ' out,' my smile gave place to shame and sor- 
 row; and I found it impossible to restrain the 
 risings of what I thought then, and think still, 
 was a righteous indignation, that a man of sense, 
 and a minister of truth, should so pervert the 
 meaning of Scripture terms, and impose upon the 
 credulity of the people. I reasoned thus within 
 myself,— ^ Mr. R. either knows the original of 
 this passage, or he does not. If he does not, how 
 unworthy and unwarrantable are all his preten- 
 sions to knowledge ! but if he does, how can he 
 venture to handle the word of the Lord thus de- 
 ceitfully, and by so doing, not only confirm, but 
 studiously convey a false impression!' I am 
 aware that you did not assert in so many words 
 that the ' into' and ' out of did by themselves 
 describe immersion. Had you so done, there 
 would indeed have been less caution, but more 
 candour; less contrivance, but greater integrity. 
 8* 
 
90 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 But although you did not so far commit yourself, 
 the effect upon your hearers, both of what you said, 
 and of what you omitted, was precisely the same 
 as if you had told them in plain terms — ' The 
 meaning of into and out of is immerse/ This was 
 my conviction when I heard you ; and since then it 
 has been confirmed by two circumstances which 
 have come under my notice. 
 
 " One of these occurred in a recent conversation 
 with Mrs. B., whom you thoroughly convinced, to 
 use her own language, that the words ^ meant all 
 the same as baptize.' I met with the other, last 
 Sabbath, when, as superintendent of our Sunday 
 School, I happened, while writing at my desk, to 
 overhear a female teacher of the Testament class 
 (one of the very persons, by the way, who were 
 baptized after your sermon,) explaining the history 
 of Philip and the eunuch to her pupils. As my 
 curiosity was excited by the circumstance, and I 
 rather wished to hear how she understood the 
 words of which you made so sad a use, I remained 
 in the same spot until the children read the pas- 
 sage in which the prepositions occur, when the 
 teacher stopped them, and thus addressed one of 
 her pupils. ' Well, Jane, who is here said to have 
 been baptized? Child. — 'The eunuch.' ^And 
 what is baptism, Eliza V ' To be put under the 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 91 
 
 water, teacher/ ' Very true, my dear ; and now 
 can you tell me where it is said that this was the 
 way in which Philip baptized the eunuch V For 
 a time there was a pause ; and on a repetition of 
 the question, I saw several of the girls carefully 
 conning over the history to find (as I supposed) 
 the word ' dip,' or some similar expression. But 
 the search was ineffectual. Not a child could 
 make the desired discovery, or hit upon the answer 
 which their teacher required. Upon this, she 
 proceeded, as nearly as I can recollect, but I will 
 not be confident that I retain every expression, in 
 the following strain : ' I am quite surprised, my 
 dears, that you cannot answer my question. No- 
 thing can be plainer. Why, is it not said that 
 they went down into the water, and came up out of 
 the water ? and don't you know that this means 
 that the eunuch was immersed ? Don't you re- 
 member that Mr. R., when he explained this pas- 
 sage to us, said that nothing could be clearer ?' 
 By this appeal the poor children were silenced ; 
 but I hope they were wiser than their teacher, and 
 far from being satisfied. 
 
 ^' I should not have mentioned these cases, had 
 I not been persuaded that they furnish a fair sam- 
 ple of the kind of reasoning upon which very many 
 Baptists found their belief in the authority of im- 
 
92 CONFESSIONS OP A CONVERT. 
 
 mersion. Though young, I have not been unob- 
 servant ; and my opportunities of ascertaining the 
 class of arguments which are most approved by 
 your denomination, and to which its ministers give 
 the greatest currency, have been considerable. I 
 think, therefore, that without presumption, I may 
 venture to affirm that nine-tenths of the members 
 of the church in this town are as firmly convinced 
 that to go down into, and come up out of the 
 water, means to be immersed, as they are that you 
 intended to convey to them that impression. Do 
 you deny this ? Then will you revisit this place, 
 and, without any previous intimation of your de- 
 sign, will you accompany me to the houses of any 
 twenty members of the church, and ask their 
 opinion on the point? I will readily abide by 
 the result. 
 
 " But 1/ou, I am satisfied, require no proof of 
 my assertion. You know too much of your own 
 denomination. How then can you sanction, still 
 more employ, a mode of representation which 
 you must be aware only serves to foster a 
 very gross misconception ? I shall pass over 
 your emphatic ' inW and ^ out oV with the 
 single remark, that this method of proving im- 
 mersion resembled that by which a certain 
 preacher proved that the punishment of the 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 93 
 
 wicked must be eternal, because the Scripture 
 assures us that it will be not only ' for ever/ but 
 for ' eYerniore.' 
 
 " Leaving you, however, to reconcile your in- 
 genious, but certainly not ingenuous device, with 
 fairness and truth, permit me to press the in- 
 quiry — How could you honestly found your argu- 
 ment as you did upon these words ? Whatever 
 others may imagine, yow, I am satisfied, do 
 not hold that going down into the water, and 
 going down undei' the water, are one and the 
 same thing. You onust know that the veri/ 
 utmost, which even the least scrupulous and most 
 determined Baptist can make these words mean, 
 is that the Evangelist and the Ethiopian stood in 
 the water. But do they require even this signifi- 
 cation, or can you fairly force it upon them ? I 
 confidently answer. No. And ere the terms can 
 be made to serve your purpose thus far, you must 
 be prepared to show that it is their constant, or 
 at least their common import. But I am sure 
 you are too cautious to affirm any such thing, and 
 are well aware of the fact, that in a great number 
 of texts they are translated ' at/ ' to,' or ' unto,' 
 and ' from f and moreover, that they would not 
 admit of any difi"erent rendering. Of this use I 
 will present you with two instances ; and I might 
 
94 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 give two hundred. ^ I am not sent but unto (not 
 into) the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' ^ And 
 his fellow-servant fell down at (not into) his feet.' 
 These are specimens of the use of the word which 
 you read mto ; and how far they sanction or con- 
 demn such a disingenuous use of it, I might con- 
 fidently leave to every impartial judge. Of the 
 sense in which the original word rendered ^ out 
 of/ in the 8th of Acts, often occurs, the following 
 are examples. ^The baptism of John, whence 
 was it 1 From heaven, or of men V ^ He riseth 
 from supper,' 
 
 ^^Now, sir, do you suppose that your recent 
 hearers in this place could have gathered, or ima- 
 gined, from your mode of dealing with these ex- 
 pressions, that they were capable of any construc- 
 tion but one ? I do not ask, whether you in- 
 tended to produce the impression that you were 
 conveying the only signification they would bear, 
 but sure I am that this was the efiect both of 
 what you said and of what you omitted. No one, 
 unless they were better informed on the point 
 from other quarters, would have conceived, from 
 the use you made of the translation, that they 
 ever meant ^ in,' ^ to,' ^ unto,' ^ at,' or ^ from.' 
 And yours, I fear, has not been a solitary case 
 of successful delusion in the same line. I know, 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 95 
 
 indeed, that some ministers of your denomination 
 are too honourable and too upright thus to impose 
 upon the confidence and credulity of their flocks. 
 They would scorn, for the sake of a pulpit tri- 
 umph, or a party purpose, to withhold from the 
 people what was due both to themselves and to 
 the truth of God. Instead of declaiming, as you 
 did, upon the into and out of, they would confess, 
 as indeed some of them have done, that these 
 terms decide nothing. 
 
 " And why do any act otherwise ? Why do 
 they restrict the meaning of these indefinite words, 
 and give them in penny tracts and pulpit oratory 
 such singular prominence ? You may deem my 
 explanation of this circumstance rather uncharita- 
 ble ; but I cannot resist, and I will not conceal the 
 conviction that it is done for two reasons. In the 
 first place, I believe these words receive so much 
 honour because no better proof of immersion can 
 be found in the Bible : tolerably conclusive evi- 
 dence, by the way, that the whole theory is a castle 
 in the clouds. And, in the second place, I cannot 
 divest myself of the conviction, that this is also 
 done because the argument thus obtained is spe- 
 cious, and more calculated to captivate the igno- 
 rant, and to make converts to your creed, than all 
 the elaborate disquisitions of your most learned 
 
96 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 apologists. Is not this the truth ? Do you not 
 know, that were you to inform the mass of your 
 people that the original words had various mean- 
 ings, and decided nothing in favour of immersion, 
 their prejudices would be shocked and shaken to 
 the very foundation, and that by this single blow 
 the strong pillars of their confidence in the divine 
 right of dipping would be destroyed ? Only try 
 the experiment. Preach a thoroughly impartial 
 sermon on this passage. Bring forward the paral- 
 lel texts ; and by these illustrate the various sig- 
 nifications of the original terms here translated 
 ^ into ' and ^ out of,' and mark the result upon the 
 members of your church. What would many of 
 them think and say ? Would they not suspect 
 your orthodoxy, or conclude that you had turned 
 Independent ? As your candid and truthful expo- 
 sitions drew from their fond embrace the mono- 
 syllables in which they had long trusted, would 
 they not cry out with sorrow and alarm, ' You 
 have taken away our strong confidence, — and what 
 have we more V 
 
 " Your next argument in favour of immersion 
 was founded upon what you designated ' the places 
 in which the ordinance was administered.' When 
 I heard you announce your intention of taking this 
 ground, I was greatly gratified, because I had pre- 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 97 
 
 viously arrived at the conviction thai there was no 
 method in which the point in debate might be 
 more fairly viewed, or more readily determined. 
 Having, moreover, paid particular attention to this 
 very point, and having thus had my conviction 
 confirmed, that immersion could not have been the 
 ordinary mode of baptizing in the primitive age, I 
 was rather curious to know how you would deal 
 with some of the circumstances in which the ordi- 
 nance was administered by the apostles. These, 
 instead of sanctioning your practice, had appeared 
 to me to furnish the clearest proofs against it ; 
 and my impression was that no sophistry, nor 
 special pleading whatever, could make it appear 
 otherwise. And may I add that, notwithstand- 
 ing your announcement as you proceeded, I 
 could not avoid the suspicion that even you 
 held the same opinion? So limited was your 
 selection of some places, and so silently did you 
 pass over others, that I was constrained to admire 
 your discretion, whatever I might think of your 
 impartiality. 
 
 " Several localities are specified in the New 
 Testament where the ordinance was administered. 
 John and the apostles, we learn, baptized in 
 jEnon, Jordan, and Jerusalem, in the city of 
 Samaria, in Damascus, in Corinth, in Philippi, in 
 9 
 
98 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 Ca9sarea, in Eptesus, in a desert, in a private 
 house, and in a prison. When, therefore, you 
 announced your intention of proving immersion 
 from ' the places' in which baptism was per- 
 formed, your hearers had a right to expect some 
 reference at least to the major part of those men- 
 tioned in the Acts of the Apostles. But nothing 
 could seem to have been further from your 
 thoughts. No, sir; not one of these numerous 
 spots, did you so much as name. As if aware 
 that even an allusion to them would damage your 
 cause, or defeat your design, you shunned, with 
 the utmost caution, Solomon's porch and the 
 other preaching stations at Jerusalem; neither 
 did you think it necessary to go through Samaria, 
 and visit a city supplied from a solitary well, and 
 where, consequently, there could be neither 
 ^ much water' nor many Baptists to gladden your 
 eyes or help your argument. With equal circum- 
 spection, you kept at a safe distance from Damas- 
 cus and Csesarea ; and would on no account cross 
 the boundary of Asia Minor, or look towards 
 Ephesus, Corinth, and Philippi. All these were 
 ' dry places,' abandoned to the evil spirits of the 
 sprinklers, and very dreadful to those who prac- 
 tise dipping. 
 
 ^^ It is true you brought us ' into' the ' desert/ 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 99 
 
 where Philip baptized the eunuch, and kept us 
 there so long that we were heartily glad to get 
 ^ out of it again. But, strange to say, you never, 
 during all this time, once told us to what place 
 we had been allured by your syren tongue, and 
 few of your hearers imagined that they were sur- 
 rounded by arid wastes and scorching sands. And 
 why was this ? Did you apprehend that the mere 
 name ^ desert' would have originated reasonings, 
 or suggested suspicions unfriendly to your de- 
 sign ? Were you fearful that it might diminish 
 the force or destroy the illusion of the decisive 
 ' into' and ^ out of,' or that it would instantly dry 
 up the broad river with which your heated and 
 airy fancy, as with the deceitful mirage which 
 mocks the weary traveller, had watered that dry 
 and thirsty land ? If so, I commend your cau- 
 tion. It was admirably prudent. Had you done 
 otherwise — had you faithfully described the fea- 
 tures of an Eastern desert, and, particularly, had 
 you told us the well-known fact that, instead of 
 being a place of broad streams and admirable bap- 
 ^tisteries, the only water there is found in a few 
 scanty, shrunken, diminutive rills and fountains, 
 your reasoning from ' the places' in which bap- 
 tism was performed would have been sadly 
 damaged. And if you had then added, what I 
 
100 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 presume you must have known, that all the tra- 
 vellers since the days of Jerome have failed to 
 discover, in the region through which the 
 Ethiopian journeyed, any stream deep enough for 
 an immersion, the consequences would have 
 been, first, the amazement of your confiding 
 hearers, and, secondly, the annihilation of your 
 poor argument. 
 
 ^^ After having seen you studiously shun many 
 noble cities, I was not surprised at your keeping 
 far aloof from the house of Cornelius, and shrink- 
 ing with dread from the prison at Philippi. The 
 latter, especially in tlie dead of night, was one of 
 the most unpleasant and inconvenient places into 
 which a worthy Baptist minister could have been 
 thrust ; and I question whether he would not find 
 it quite as easy in such a situation to burst the 
 prison bolts and bars as to immerse an adult. To 
 create a bath or construct a baptistery in an East- 
 ern dungeon, to change apparel, and make other 
 preparations, to stand up to the middle in water 
 until the gaoler and family were dipped, and^ 
 moreover, to do all this in ^ the same hour of the 
 night' on which he was converted, certainly de- 
 manded such conveniences and resources as fully 
 to justify the dislike with which you turned from 
 such a spot and such a service. I know that some 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 101 
 
 of your brethren are ^ very bold 'j and however 
 their physical powers may be restrained, they act 
 upon the principle that their spirits are free. And 
 ^ free' indeed they sometimes are, — so free that, 
 finding no good baptistery within the prison walls, 
 they have ventured, without authority, to open its 
 doors, and to lead Paul with the gaoler and his 
 household through the city to some river in the 
 neighbourhood ; and having seen the converts well 
 dipped in the dark, they have led them back 
 again, and safely restored them to their cells, if 
 not to the stocks ! I do not charge this folly 
 upon you, because you acted the wiser part of 
 saying nothing on the subject. 
 
 '•^ And now, sir, permit me seriously to ask, why 
 you omitted all these references to ' the places' in 
 which baptism was administered. Was it because 
 the circumstances of Eastern cities, dwellings, 
 deserts, and dungeons could throw no light at all 
 upon the practice of the apostles ? Or was it be- 
 cause the light thus obtained would have made 
 revelations of which your hearers had never 
 dreamed, and have disclosed diificulties and engen- 
 dered doubts which would have seriously obstructed 
 your design ? 
 
 ^^ You cannot but know that many wise and up- 
 right men reject your theory of baptism, amongst 
 9* 
 
102 CONFESSIONS OP A CONVERT. 
 
 other reasons, because tliey cannot reconcile it 
 with ^ the places' and circumstances in which the 
 rite was originally practised. Now, their objec- 
 tions were entitled to your attention, and, before 
 you spoke so positively on the point, you ought to 
 have noticed them. And I, for one, should have 
 been much interested to have heard by what pro- 
 cess, for example, the three thousand could have 
 been dipped at Jerusalem on the very day of their 
 conviction. As all the apostles must have been 
 occupied in this labour at the same time, they 
 must have required either a dozen separate baptis- 
 teries, or one at least twelve times as large as that 
 in which you officiate. Now, it would have been 
 a piece of information, as curious as it would be 
 valuable, had you even surmised in what part of 
 the city, or from what source, especially during 
 the passover, when water was so precious, the de- 
 spised Galileans could have obtained this large 
 supply. It would also have been interesting had 
 you suggested how the multitude were so speedily 
 prepared for the service, and the whole affair des- 
 patched with so much ease and expedition, as the 
 inspired narrative would lead us to suppose. You 
 do not believe, I presume, that these foreign Jews, 
 who had been drawn by mere rumour to the place 
 where Peter was preaching, and without the least 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 103 
 
 conception of the result, came there, like those 
 whom Mr. B. recently immersed, suitably dressed 
 for the occasion, or that each of them brought a 
 baptizing suit under his arm. How then was the 
 ablution performed ? Were they all plunged in 
 their ordinary apparel ? and after their drench- 
 ing, did they in this picturesque condition walk 
 back to their places of abode, to the great edi- 
 fication of the boys and girls of Jerusalem ? Or 
 do you suppose that, as soon as they heard the 
 command, ' Be baptized, every one of you,' they 
 dispersed, and were seen running in every direction 
 through the streets of the city to their respective 
 dwellings, to procure changes of raiment for the 
 purpose ? And what do you think of the case of 
 the apostles ? Had they on the morning of that 
 day foreseen the duty they would be called to dis- 
 charge ? and had they made this necessary provi- 
 sion? Something of this kind must have been 
 done both by the baptized and the baptizers, if 
 the former were initiated by dipping. 
 
 " I could have wished, also, that you had said 
 something about the time which must have been 
 consumed in this process. When you saw Mr. B. 
 baptize seven adults in our chapel, he took about 
 half an hour in that service. Now, had he con- 
 tinued at the same work, without relaxation, for 
 
104 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 six hours (the very utmost period which the apos- 
 tle could have occuj^iecl in baptizing the 3000,) he 
 would have administered the rite to about ninety 
 persons. Possihli/, with great diligence and de- 
 spatch, the number might have been doubled, 
 though it would have been wet and weary work. 
 Now multiply 180 by 12, (the number of the apos- 
 tles,) and you will have a total of 2160. A greater 
 number than this it must have been physically 
 impossible for them to have immersed ; but even 
 then, nearly a third of the converts would have 
 remained unbaptized. And all this supposes that 
 no preparation whatever was requisite for the im- 
 mersion of this multitude ; that every thing was 
 perfectly ready, and immediately at hand ; and that 
 there was a river or reservoir just at the preaching 
 station, with suitable dresses, separate apartments, 
 and every other requisite for the service. How 
 pleased would many of your hearers have been — 
 none more than myself — had you explained how 
 all this was accomplished ! Considering the cir- 
 cumstances, the immersion of so many in so short 
 a time must have been almost as miraculous as the 
 gift of tongues, or any other of the wonders of that 
 memorable day. But you wisely abstained from 
 such presumptuous speculations, and discreetly 
 avoided the road to Jerusalem. Ah, sir ! silence 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 105 
 
 is ofttlmes more significant than speech, and such 
 circumspect omissions suggest strange surmisings. 
 ^'But although the majority of ^ the places' in 
 which baptism was performed during the first age 
 of Christianity was disregarded, you did not, I 
 allow, altogether omit a reference to those locali- 
 ties. Out of the nine named in the New Testa- 
 ment, two have secured the signal favour and 
 special patronage of your denomination, and these 
 in your recent sermon (most unfairly, I think) 
 monopolized .your attention. As I listened to you, 
 I was forcibly struck with a parallel between your 
 case and that of Lot, when he parted company 
 with his generous relative. Although the whole 
 land of sacred history lay spread out before you, 
 Judea, Samaria, Syria, Asia Minor, and Macedo- 
 nia, and you had the opportunity of traversing its 
 entire extent, you looked over its varied scenery, 
 but could discover no ground on which to con- 
 struct a theory or raise an argument in favour of 
 immersion. No sooner, however, did your wan- 
 dering and weary eye rest upon the ^ well-watered ' 
 plains of Jordan, and upon ^^non, with its many 
 springs, than, exulting in the imaginary advan- 
 tages of such localities for frequent immersions, you 
 gladly separated yourself from those who, like Abra- 
 ham, fear not to take any direction, — you hastily 
 
106 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 turned from the dry regions which the apostles 
 traversed, and from the arid spots where they bap- 
 tized; and, at the risk of higher interests than 
 those of a denomination, here you resolved to pitch 
 your tent, and found your theory. 
 
 " You may possibly smile at my comparison, but 
 I will now turn to topics which should make you 
 serious. Permit me, then, to inquire why you 
 selected Jordan and JSnon only, and maintained 
 throughout your discourse the silence of the grave 
 in regard to the features of those more numerous 
 places which I have named ? And allow me also 
 to ask, whether it never struck you as strange that 
 you and your brethren, who so loudly profess to 
 tread in the steps of inspired men more closely 
 than others, and to conform more exactly to their 
 proceedings, should be forced to go for their strong- 
 est arguments to the practice of John, while they 
 shun the path of the apostles. 
 
 ^' But there is another consideration connected 
 with the baptisms of the great forerunner of our 
 Lord which deserves your particular attention. 
 You are well aware that the two references upon 
 which you rely stand alone. It was John only 
 who selected Jordan and j^non, because these 
 spots were abundantly supplied with water. No- 
 thing of this kind is stated in reference to any of 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 107 
 
 the apostles. Not a syllable occurs in the Acts 
 which would sanction the supposition that they 
 fixed upon streams for preaching-stations ; and not 
 even the most shadowy allusion can be discerned 
 which would support the belief that they needed 
 much water for their baptisms. On the contrary, 
 it is perfectly evident that at all times, and in all 
 places, they found enough for this purpose. In- 
 stead of going to the Jordan, or to ^non, they 
 obtained, as we have seen, an ample supply on the 
 very spots where they delivered their message, 
 whether this was done in a city, a dwelling, a dun- 
 geon, or a desert. Now how do ymi account for a 
 difference so very marked, and so very remarkable ? 
 If John chose these two stations solely because 
 they supplied water enough for dipping his disci- 
 ples, is it not singular that none of the apostles 
 should have ever made any similar selection ? 
 They also baptized great numbers; and if they 
 did this by immersion, it is not easy to explain 
 the great difference between his proceeding in this 
 respect and theirs. Upon your scheme, it is very 
 unaccountable, if much water was necessary 
 merely for baptism, that John should have been 
 stationary, and the apostles itinerating; that he 
 should have been obliged, for the sake of 
 sufficient baptismal water, to remain long at 
 
108 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 Jordan and JEnon, while they went everywhere, 
 and, wherever they went, found an ample supply. 
 " But there is a key to this mystery, though it 
 is not that which you carried into our pulpit. It 
 is found in the peculiar circumstances of John ; 
 and will be easily discovered, if the simple ques- 
 tion be but fairly answered, — For what purpose 
 did he require water in the greatest quantity, in 
 order that he might fulfil his mission, and con- 
 tinue his ministrations amongst the multitudes 
 that came to his baptism ? I need not remind 
 you (for you have quoted the words often enough) 
 that he baptized in ^non 'because there was 
 much water there. ^ Hence it appears that the 
 ample supply of this necessary of life was the 
 chief motive for this selection. If, then, we can 
 ascertain ivhi/ water was most needed, we shall in- 
 stantly discover the reason of his choice. Was it 
 then for the performance of baptism, or for any 
 other purpose ? Now I readily allow that ' much 
 water' must have been required, not merely for 
 the immersion, but even for the affusion of the 
 myriads who came to John's baptism ; but, how- 
 ever great the quantity which might have been 
 necessary for such a service, the question is this, 
 — Was not much, vety much, more essential for 
 any other use ? This is the pivot upon which the 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 109 
 
 exi^lanation of the passage turns. If it can be 
 shown that a quantity immeasurably greater than 
 would be requisite for the immersion of his fol- 
 lowers was in daily demand for a different pur- 
 pose, it cannot be supposed that the evangelist 
 would have assigned the weaker reason for John's 
 selection of jEnon, and have disregarded the 
 stronger. 
 
 ^' If you will admit the reasonableness of this 
 rule of judging, the dispute may be speedily de- 
 cided. In the fii'st place, you have only to com- 
 pute the numbers that went to John's ministry j 
 in the second place, to consider the prodigious 
 quantity of water which such a multitude must 
 have required for themselves and their cattle; 
 and, finally, to compare that quantity with what 
 would have been sufficient for their immersion, — 
 and the reason of John's choice will be instantly 
 apparent. After such a comparison, could any 
 candid person hesitate for a moment to allow that 
 immeasurably more water was essential for the 
 ordinary use of these myriads than for their 5ap- 
 tkiUj however administered ? And if so, is not 
 the inference much more probable that John 
 fixed upon the vicinity of Jordan and ^non ' be- 
 cause there was much water there,' that his nu- 
 merous auditors might not be compelled to leave 
 10 
 
110 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 his ministry by the scarcity of this necessary of 
 lifcj than your very unsatisfactory theory ? Let 
 the two explanations be placed before any impar- 
 tial person, and I will readily abide by their de- 
 cision. But nothing like this was attempted in 
 your sermon. On the contrary, you never uttered 
 a syllable which could have led us to suppose that 
 there was any purpose whatever for which the 
 waters of ^non might have been required, ex- 
 cept that of immersing the people ; nor even that 
 a different motive for John's selection ever had 
 been, or ever could be assigned. 
 
 " But I must here break for a moment the 
 thread of my observations upon this point, for the 
 purpose of making a single remark. When you 
 founded your argument upon the places which 
 John chose, you reasoned in such a manner as to 
 produce the impression that, unless he had been 
 within reach of a large stream, he could not have 
 baptized the people ; but some of your writers, 
 who also insist upon the same point, see no diffi- 
 culty whatever in the supposition that the apostles 
 dipped 3000 in Jerusalem during a single after- 
 noon, and multitudes in other places, as soon as 
 they were converted. All this, in their view, was 
 very possible ; indeed, it was perfectly easy, — 
 nothing more so ! How it was so easy they do 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. Ill 
 
 not inform us ; but they are infallibly sure of the 
 fact. It was absolutely necessary, forsooth, that 
 John should have kept hard by Jordan or ^non, 
 to obtain sufficient water for his immersions ; but 
 the more fxivoured apostles could find enough for 
 theirs anywhere. I marvel much that the oppo- 
 site representations of your advocates, and their 
 contradictory reasonings, do not convince you that 
 your immersion scheme has in it nothing of the 
 coherence and consistency of truth, and that what 
 you build up with one hand you are compelled to 
 pull down with the other. 
 
 " But I must return to ^non. And I do this 
 in order to ask in what way you conceive it to 
 have been possible for John to have fulfilled his 
 course, had he ministered in any place which did 
 not yield much water ? Had he chosen a spot 
 where the supply was scanty, would ' Jerusalem, 
 and all Judea, and all the region round about 
 Jordan,' have gone to his baptism ? Great as was 
 his fame, would that have been sufficiently attrac- 
 tive to overcome the dread of a dry and thirsty 
 land, or to have induced a multitude to expose 
 themselves in that hot climate, even for a single 
 day, to the terrible efi"ects of the want of water ? 
 Need I remind you of the motive which prompts 
 the wandering Arab to pitch his tent, and the tra- 
 
112 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 veiling caravan to form an encampment ? Do you 
 not know that they are always influenced by the 
 very reason which, I believe, led John to the 
 Jordan ? Is it necessary for me to adduce evi- 
 dence of the factj that in the East a well or water- 
 spring has, far beyond any other cause, attracted 
 multitudes to its locality, and caused villages and 
 cities to spring up around it ? When, therefore, 
 you recollect that the attendants upon John's 
 ministry could rarely have been fewer than the in- 
 habitants of a large town, and that he continued 
 his labours through a part of the year when many 
 of the springs of Judea had failed, must it not be 
 evident that, had he not selected a station where 
 water was both abundant and unfailing, the mul- 
 titudes that came to his baptism could not even 
 have been sprinkled, much less supplied and satis- 
 fied ? He, therefore, wisely fixed upon JEinon ; 
 and he did this, I am persuaded, for precisely the 
 same reason which induced Moses to select another 
 and very similar place of sojourn in the wilder- 
 ness. ' And they came to Elim, where there were 
 twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm 
 trees ; and they encamped there by the waters.' 
 
 ^' The natural explanation of John's choice is 
 both illustrated and confirmed by other considera- 
 tions. In the first place, the literal translation of 
 
REASONINGS AND HEPLIES. 113 
 
 the original words (as you well know), rendered 
 ^ much water/ would be ^ manij waters / and the 
 terms evidently designate several small streams or 
 wells, like those at Elim, and not a body of water 
 fit for a baptistery, such as you would delight in, 
 and as your representations, without proof or pro- 
 bability, led your unreflecting hearers to believe 
 existed in that place. And, secondly, with this 
 opinion, but with no other, the facts agree, that 
 Josephus, who describes all the principal fountains 
 of Judea, never so much as names iEnon ; and, 
 further, that a solitary well is all that now remains 
 to mark the position of this far-famed source of 
 much water and more controversy. 
 
 ^' But while I do not believe that the springs 
 of ^non were suitable for plunging a multitude, 
 Jordan, I grant, was deep enough to dip and 
 drown the whole population of the land. In that 
 ample stream, indeed, immersion was quite possi- 
 ble. But is it probable that the neighbourhood 
 of this river was chosen for such a purpose merely, 
 when a different supposition accounts so much 
 better for its selection ? I was just going to say, 
 you surely would not found an argument upon the 
 expression ' in' Jordan : but I had forgotten, for 
 a moment, that you did this in your sermon ; and 
 that, by so doing, you demonstrated still more 
 10=*^ 
 
114 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 than before the miserable weakness of a cause 
 which required such support, — whilst, moreover, 
 if you did not impose upon yourself, you sadly 
 misled that portion of your hearers who could be 
 caught by the mere sound of words and show of 
 argument. Surely, you must know that ' in,' 
 when used as it is here, before the name of a 
 place, commonly signifies ^ at/ You would, I am 
 convinced, admit that this is its meaning, when 
 we read ' in ^non,' and ^ in Bethabara.' And no 
 one would hesitate for a moment to admit that the 
 words ^ at ^non,' and ' at Bethabara,' would ex- 
 actly convey the import of the expression. Why, 
 then, should a different construction be forced upon 
 the same term when ^ Jordan' follows it ? I am 
 sure that you can give me none, except it be this : 
 that ^ in' supplies a more plausible argument for 
 immersion than ^ at.' 
 
 ^' You and some of your brethren must possess 
 an extraordinary measure of that faith which re- 
 moves mountains, or I am sure the gigantic diffi- 
 culties which oppress your theory of John's 
 baptism would, long ere now, have crushed it to 
 the dust. But so far from this, they have not 
 made you either stumble or stagger in your adven- 
 turous course of bold assertion. If, for instance, 
 the forerunner of Jesus was such a Baptist as you 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 115 
 
 imagine, he must have spent his days up to the 
 waist in water, plunging, with breathless haste 
 and undiminished vigour, the multitudes who 
 flocked to his baptism. Such bodily exercise may, 
 in your esteem, differ essentially from that ^ which 
 profiteth little ;' and possibly this mode of living, 
 which to me seems more allied to that of the fish 
 than of the man, may appear dignified and delight- 
 ftd. ^ There is no accounting for tastes ;' but I 
 have grave doubts whether, even if you survived 
 the experiment, a month's labour, such as you 
 impute to John, would not marvellously modify 
 your views and feelings, and prepare you to adopt 
 those milder measures which you now abhor. Be 
 that as it may, it appears to me, and to many 
 more, that the wet and weary work which you 
 assign to the honoured herald of the Messiah, and 
 in which, if he immersed all his converts, his time 
 and energies must have been wholly absorbed, ac- 
 cord but very little with the sublime purpose he 
 was sent of Grod to fulfil, or with the certain fact 
 that a large proportion of his time was occupied 
 in preaching the gospel of the kingdom. 
 
 •^ To these remarks I have only to add a brief 
 reference to the long period which John's baptisms 
 (if they were immersions) must have consumed. 
 It was this view of the subject which first shook 
 
116 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 my faith in your doctrine of baptisms ; and the 
 more I have considered it, the stronger has the 
 conviction grown that it was physically impossible 
 for him to have dipped his proselytes. If he did, 
 he plunged as many every day as the most expert 
 and vigorous immersionist in Christendom could 
 now do in a week, and thus performed the work of 
 seven weary years in less than one ! If you can 
 either believe this, or, upon your principle, draw 
 from the Scripture history any different conclusion, 
 I shall greatly marvel. 
 
 " But I must now consider your closing argu- 
 ment, and that which you intended to be so in 
 more senses than one. It was deduced, you will 
 remember, from the words of Paul, '• hurled with 
 him in baptism.' In this metaphor you thought 
 you could discover a very distinct allusion to dip- 
 ping. Now I had frequently heard this passage 
 quoted by Baptists before I heard it from you \ 
 but I know not how it was that you contrived, 
 either by your delivery or your mode of illustra- 
 tion, to suggest to my imagination more vivid con- 
 ceptions on the subject than I had ever before en- 
 tertained. I was constrained, for instance, while 
 Mr. B. was administering the ordinance, to look at 
 the whole proceeding as a burial service, the bap- 
 tistery as a species of sepulchre, and our worthy 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 117 
 
 pastor as the sexton in this very singular kind of 
 interment. All that seemed wantino; to render the 
 resemblance perfect was, that the officiating per- 
 son, instead of descending icith the party about to 
 be ' buried in baptism/ should merely stand on 
 one side of ' the watery grave •/ while a deacon, or 
 some other spiritual sub-sexton, stood opposite to 
 him, and, with ropes duly adjusted, should have 
 slowly let down the body into the baptistery, 
 
 " It is possible that, in your expositions of this 
 passage, you have not been accustomed to carry 
 out the idea quite so far as I did ; but yet I think 
 you do this rather further than reason or Scripture 
 warrants. For what is the effect which your use of 
 the term ^ buried in baptism ' must have produced 
 upon uninstructed persons ? Unacquainted, as 
 they are, with the ancient method of entombment, 
 they would think merely of a common grave, and 
 fancy some resemblance between the lowering of a 
 corpse and the plunging of a convert. This, I 
 admit, like some of your other representations, is 
 well calculated to catch and captivate the ignorant. 
 But you know that the idea thus suggested is not 
 the sentiment of the passage, — that Paul never 
 saw, nor heard of, nor imagined a burial like that 
 which is most common amongst ourselves; and, 
 therefore, that he could not have intended any al- 
 
118 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 lusion to it. This, whatever other use you may 
 make of the words, you ought to have explained, 
 and not to have fostered the delusion which, upon 
 this point, is so prevalent amongst the Baptists. 
 I do not believe that the apostle alluded to any 
 mode of burial; but if he did, it is self-evident 
 that it must have been, not to a mode like ours, 
 which was then unknown, but to that which was 
 practised in Judea. What that was, you know. 
 Instead of loioering the body into a grave, it was 
 candied into a cave or chamber, such as the sepul- 
 chres of our Lord and Lazarus, and there placed 
 on a shelf, or in a niche, ^ as the manner of the 
 Jews was to bury.' Did your late hearers dream 
 of this, when you declaimed to them about being 
 ' buried in baptism V Had they known the simple 
 fact which I have just stated, and been compelled 
 to seek for a correspondence between a burial in 
 Judea and a baptism in Salem Chapel, how per- 
 plexed, how confounded would they have been ! 
 That most elaborate part of your sermon, sir, would 
 have only confused, instead of convincing them. 
 An acquaintance with Jewish rites and Oriental 
 customs is, generally, in high repute, on account 
 of the light which this knowledge throws upon 
 many Scripture allusions. Would that this branch 
 of biblical literature was more cultivated by your 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 119 
 
 denomination I It would, I am convinced, greatly 
 promote the right understanding of God's word j 
 hut — it would annihilate your most popular argu- 
 ments for immersion. 
 
 "But, however important the knowledge of 
 ancient usages might generally be, it is by no 
 means necessary to destroy the illusion created 
 by your misapplication of the words ^buried in 
 baptism,' if you would only translate them in 
 exact accordance with your theory and practice. 
 If, instead of saying ^buried in baptism/ you 
 were to say ^ buried in dipping/ I feel convinced 
 that all your rhetoric would fail to produce the 
 belief that a representation so strange and sense- 
 less could have proceeded from an inspired pen. 
 
 " Hitherto my reasoning upon these misused 
 expressions has been founded upon the assump- 
 tion that they contain some reference, at least, to 
 baptism by water, if not (as you imagine) to the 
 mode of its administration. This, in your ser- 
 mon, you quietly took for granted, as many of 
 your brethren had done before you. But, in 
 reality, is there any such reference either in the 
 6th of Romans, or in a parallel passage in the 2d 
 of Colossians ? Is it quite so evident as you ap- 
 peared to think that Paul spake merely of an out- 
 ward rite, or ceremonial observance ? Might he 
 
120 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 not have intended to describe an mioard opera- 
 tion, a spiritual cleansing ? The word ' baptism' 
 alone decides nothing on this point. It 7nai/, in- 
 deed, designate the application of water, but it 
 max/ refer to the influence of the Holy Spirit. 
 This, surely, you will not dispute. The ' promise 
 of the Father,' which Jesus left with his disciples 
 when he ascended to his throne, was this, — ^Ye 
 shall be haptized with the Holy Grhost •' and in 
 these words he described, as John had done be- 
 fore him, the grand peculiarity of the Christian 
 dispensation. Why the word ' baptism' was thus 
 specially selected to describe divine influence, I 
 need not stay to inquire; but that it ivas so 
 selected is certain, and, doubtless, amongst other 
 reasons, because no term beside was equally ex- 
 pressive. Sanctioned, then, and sanctified as this 
 word was, by John and Jesus, to designate that 
 spiritual influence which renews the heart, is it 
 probable that the apostles should never have 
 called the same blessing by the same name? 
 Nothing would seem more unlikely than this. 
 On the other hand, nothing could be more reason- 
 able than to expect that they should, in this mat- 
 ter, conform to the teaching of their Master, and 
 use the term ^ baptism' as he had used it, to de- 
 scribe the Spirit which he had given them. 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 121 
 
 Whether they have done so can only be ascer- 
 tained by carefully considering the connection in 
 which the word is found. 
 
 ^^ I shall, therefore, proceed to the paragraphs 
 where the words ^buried in baptism' and ^by 
 baptism' occur. And I am persuaded, that if you 
 will but lay aside the sectarian spectacles through 
 which you have been accustomed to look at these 
 isolated expressions, ascertain the leading senti- 
 ment and scope of the passages of which they 
 form a part, and compare them with other meta- 
 phorical terms of the same kind with which they 
 are connected, your confidence in the argument 
 which you founded upon them in favour of ^ im- 
 mersion' will be somewhat shaken. 
 
 ^'I cannot here give a very minute and ex- 
 tended exposition of the passages which contain 
 the doubtful term. There are, however, two 
 or three considerations which would, I think 
 carry the conviction to any unbiassed mind 
 that in both the apostle refers solely to a 
 spiritual state. 
 
 "1st. It will not, I believe, be questioned 
 that every other term employed in connection 
 with the words ^baptize' and 'baptism' in these 
 Scriptures describes spiritual blessings. A dif- 
 ferent signification can scarcely be given to the 
 11 
 
122 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 following expressions, whicli form parts of tlie 
 passage in the Epistle to the Komans : ^ dead to 
 sin/ ^planted together in the likeness of his 
 death/ ^ our old man crucified with him, that the 
 body of sin might be destroyed/ '■ freed from sin/ 
 ' dead with Christ/ ^ dead, indeed, unto sin.' 
 Now, in the very midst of these descriptions of 
 the great spiritual change through which all 
 believers have passed, we meet with the words, 
 * Know ye not, that so many of us as were bap- 
 tized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his 
 death ? Therefore we are buried with him by 
 baptism into death/ Why, then, should these 
 words be supposed to refer to a mere sign, whilst 
 all the others describe the thing signified ? It is 
 not very probable that Paul intended to treat of 
 two subjects in one single paragraph. Neither 
 was it usual with him to compound things that 
 difier so completely, as he has done in this place, 
 if some of his references are to the baptism of 
 water, and others to the renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost. And why should such an unnatural sup- 
 position be entertained ? It surely is not favour- 
 able to the clear comprehension of the passage, 
 however useful it may be deemed to countenance 
 immersion. 
 
 ^^ Similar remarks apply to the parallel state- 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 123 
 
 ments in the Epistle to the Colossians. Here, in 
 the closest possible connection with the words 
 ' buried with him in baptism/ Christians are de- 
 scribed as ^ complete' in Christ, ' circumcised with 
 the circumcision made without hands, in putting 
 off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circum. 
 cision of Christ,' ^ risen with him through the 
 faith of the operation of God,' and ' quickened to- 
 gether with him.' Now, why assign a totally 
 different sense to figures so very similar as those 
 which are here brought together, apparently at 
 least to illustrate one subject, and that subject 
 purely spiritual ? I cannot discover the least 
 reason why this should have been done. Without 
 referring to the other expressions, though they 
 strengthen the argument, it may suffice to select 
 two of the words which are here introduced toge- 
 ther, * circumcision' and ^ baptism/ The former 
 of these you would, I suppose, acknowledge to be 
 entirely figurative. ■ This indeed is unquestion- 
 able, because many of the Christians at Colosse, 
 being Grentiles, were, in a literal sense, uncircum- 
 cised. But if it is certain that the term ' circum- 
 cision' was used to designate a purely spiritual 
 state, * the circumcision of the heart,' is it proba- 
 ble that Paul intended the similar term ' baptism' 
 to denote a merely external ordinance ? If the 
 
124 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 one describes what is spiritual, why should not 
 the other ? Strong reason ought to be assigned 
 for so strange a difference. 
 
 "2d. But this conclusion obtains additional 
 support from other expressions which stand in 
 connection with the disputed terms. It is said, 
 for example, that we are ^baptized mto Jesus 
 Christ,' and ^ into his death ;' that we are ^ buried 
 with him, by baptism, mto death/ clearly the 
 death which the apostle describes in the same sen- 
 tence as being ^ dead to sin.' Could this have 
 been affirmed of water baptism ? Is the external 
 rite in any sense a baptism ' into Christ,' or ' into 
 death V Do we thus ^ die indeed unto sin,' or is 
 this great change wrought by the better baptism 
 of the Holy Spirit? Moreover, those who are 
 said to be ^ baptized into death' are also described 
 as * raised up from the dead,' hy the same bap- 
 tism. This is most evident from the following 
 statement in the Epistle to the Colossians. 
 * Buried with him in (or by) baptism, wherein 
 (or whereby) also ye are risen with him.' Hence 
 it is most evident, whatever the operation may be, 
 whether of water or of the Spirit, that it is one 
 by which we pass from death unto life. But how 
 is this wrought? By what agency are we raised 
 into newness of life ? The apostle shall answer 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 125 
 
 these questions, and decide the doubtfal case. 
 In one of the two passages he tells us that this is 
 done ^ by the glory of the Father / and in the 
 other, 'through the faith of the operation of 
 God/ I can scarcely suppose that you would 
 assign two causes, a ritual and a spiritual, for 
 the production of one joint effect, or maintain 
 that the death and burial of a believer are 
 effected by an outward ordinance, while his re- 
 surrection is wrought by the glory of the Father 
 and by faith. And yet I know not how you 
 can do otherwise, if you hold to that interpre- 
 tation of the text which you advanced in your 
 discourse. 
 
 '' These, however, are not the only parts of the 
 context which throw light upon the words ' bap- 
 tized into his death,' and 'buried with him in 
 baptism.' If you will read again the passage 
 in the 6th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, 
 you will find th^ four different, but yet very 
 similar terms, ' dead,' ' buried,' ' crucified,' and 
 ' raised,' introduced in immediate connection, and 
 apparently to illustrate the same subject. Now, 
 is it probable that representations so closely 
 related to each other should be thus connected, if 
 some of them were intended to describe an 
 outward rite, and others an inward renovation? 
 11* 
 
126 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 On tlie contrary, would it not be far more ac- 
 cordant with ordinary rules and apostolic usage 
 to understand the ^ death' and the ^crucifixion/ 
 the ' burial' and the ^ resurrection/ in reference 
 to one and the same great spiritual change ? 
 
 " 3d. I have yet another consideration to sub- 
 mit to you in confirmation of the view now ad- 
 vanced. It is this : that if the apostle, in these 
 passages, refers to a symbolical ordinance merely, 
 he unquestionably ascribes to it efiects which you 
 would trace to a much higher source ; or, in other 
 words, he teaches the doctrine of baptismal regen- 
 eration. This neither of us will admit ; but how, 
 with your view of the meaning of the word ^ bap- 
 tism,' you can deny it, I do not understand. He 
 says, you will remember, that we are ^ buried ivith 
 Christ, hi/ baptism, into death/ He does not, you 
 perceive, state merely that baptism resembles a 
 burial, but that it ^s so. Whatever the baptism 
 of which he speaks may be, he represents it as the 
 instrument of the Christian's spiritual death and 
 burial. It introduces him ' into death,' — it buries 
 him with Christ ; and in the parallel passage, as 
 we have seen, he ascribes the Christian's spiritual 
 resurrection from the dead to the same cause. 
 Now, what can that baptism be, by which we thus 
 die unto sin and live unto righteousness, but the 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 127 
 
 same which Peter says ^ saves us V And is this 
 the baptism of water, or of the Holy Ghost ? The 
 apostle just named answers the question, by affirm- 
 ing that it is ' not the putting away the filth of 
 the flesh, (l e. not a mere external purification,) 
 but the answer of a good conscience towards God/ 
 And to me it seems amazing that any evangelical 
 Christian can take a diflPerent view, or imagine 
 that the inspired writer intended to teach us that 
 we are in any sense dead unto sin, and buried 
 with Christ, by a mere immersion of the body in 
 water. 
 
 "I am deeply convinced that your interpreta- 
 tion of these words unintentionally countenances 
 the deadly delusion of baptismal regeneration. By 
 attaching, as you do, such peculiar importance to 
 this single ordinance, and supporting a literal in- 
 terpretation of the term ^baptism,' in the texts 
 under consideration, you are giving your sanction 
 to a class of teachers, and a system of error, with 
 which, in all other points, you have no sympathy. 
 I was much impressed by this conviction a short 
 time since, when calling at the house of one of our 
 absentee Sunday scholars. I saw a tract lying on 
 the table, which had been just left there by the 
 curate of our parish, who is a semi-papist and a 
 zealous advocate of sacramental efficacy. It was 
 
128- CONFESSIONS OP A CONVERT. 
 
 published, I think, by the Christian Knowledge 
 Society, and professedly written to prove baptismal 
 regeneration. Having requested permission to 
 peruse it, I was not a little struck to find that the 
 two passages upon which I have been commenting, 
 and particularly the words * baptized into Jesus 
 Christ,' and ^buried with him, hy baptism, into 
 death,' were relied upon as main pillars of that 
 dangerous heresy. Having returned the tract, I 
 am unable to quote it extensively, but I well re- 
 member one passage. ^In these words St. Paul 
 describes the greatest spiritual change which can 
 be experienced, — a death unto sin, and a life unto 
 righteousness. And this he expressly assures us 
 is wrought in baptism, or ^ h}/ baptism,' — words 
 which clearly point to the instrument by which it 
 is effected. What, therefore, can be plainer from 
 hence than that baptism is the sacrament of regen- 
 eration V And how, with your view of the import 
 of the word in these Scriptures, you could rebut 
 this reasoning, or avoid this conclusion, I cannot 
 conceive. To me it appears that the doctrine of 
 baptismal regeneration inevitably follows from your 
 interpretation. 
 
 ^' What I have hitherto written has been merely 
 in reply to your leading arguments for immersion ; 
 and I have abstained from direct evidence in fa- 
 
EEASONIXGS AND REPLIES. 129 
 
 vour of a different mode. Nor is such evidence 
 necessary to justify the course which I have re- 
 cently taken. If it can be shown that immersion 
 could not have been commonly practised in apos- 
 tolic times, it will follow that some more simple and 
 significant mode must then have been in use. Whe- 
 ther this was pouringj or sprinkling, or both, cannot 
 now be certainly ascertained from the sacred writ- 
 ers. Upon these immaterial points they are just 
 as silent as they are respecting immersion. In 
 your sermon, you demanded a single passage which 
 required sprinkling ; but, surely, you had forgot- 
 ten that your brethren, with equal firmness, but 
 with no better success, ask you to produce a com- 
 mand to be immersed. There is neither, — a pretty 
 clear evidence that the author of this service did 
 not attach to the method of its observance that 
 measure of importance which is ascribed to it by 
 you. My belief is — and I found it, amongst other 
 reasons, upon the absence of minute direction re- 
 specting the mode — that the essence of the rite 
 consists in the application of water to the body 
 (irrespective of method or quantity) as an emblem 
 of spiritual truths. And I believe, also, that mode 
 to be the best by which these truths are most 
 vividly represented to the mind. What this is 
 can, I think, be a matter of inference only. Your 
 
130 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 inference favours immersion; mine affusion. In 
 that method you discern a symbol of the Spirit's 
 operations. But this I cannot discover. In sprink- 
 ling or pouring, on the contrary, there appears to 
 me a beautiful and most expressive image of these 
 operations; — an image which, in my view, shadows 
 forth as vividly as any visible act could do things 
 spiritual and divine. 
 
 " I shall now bring this letter to a close. But 
 before I do so, permit me to present two or three 
 questions for your candid consideration. And, in 
 the first place, I would request you to reflect, whe- 
 ther your mode of baptism agrees either with the 
 Scripture doctrine of divine influence, or with those 
 accurate representations on this subject which you 
 are accustomed to address to your hearers. In 
 the sacred writings, we are taught that the Holy 
 Spirit is the gift of Grod, — that his influences are 
 poured out upon us from on high. But is this the 
 idea which your mode of baptizing is adapted to 
 convey ? When you take a convert and plunge 
 him under the water, do you imagine that such an 
 act would easily and naturally suggest the truth, 
 that the sacred influence which the water repre- 
 sents is shed down upon us from God ? Is there 
 the slightest correspondence between such a doc- 
 trine and such a practice ? On the contrary, is 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 131 
 
 there not between them the utmost variance ? If 
 immersion is adapted to teach anything it is this, 
 that we are applied to the Spirit, not that the 
 Spirit is applied to us, — that our souls must be 
 dipped in his influence, not that his influence must 
 descend upon our souls. Did I not know that on 
 this point your preaching was more sound than 
 your practice, and that the orthodoxy of the pulpit 
 would counteract the heterodoxy of the baptistery, 
 I should contemplate your immersions with serious 
 alarm. 
 
 ^' But permit me, in the second place, to inquire 
 how you can account for the remarkable disagree- 
 ment between your mode of symbolizing divine 
 influence, and that which God had enjoined and 
 sanctified under the former dispensation. As the 
 spiritual grace is the same in all ages, it would be 
 natural to expect that, if symbols were employed 
 at all, the mode of their employment would also 
 be the same. And this, I believe, will be found 
 to have been the fact. Now of all the " divers 
 baptisms " administered under the law, there was 
 not one which resembled yours. In no single in- 
 stance did priest or Levite plunge the people. Of 
 this the evidence is complete. But sprinkling, on 
 the contrary, was constantly employed. If, then, 
 this mode, enjoined by God to represent the shed- 
 
132 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 ding forth of his Spirit, was for ages deemed best 
 suited for this purpose, why should it have been 
 superseded by another, certainly not more expres- 
 sive, and as I conceive much less so? Can you 
 discover any good reason for such a change, or 
 indeed any reason at all ? And is there any mi- 
 thority for it ? I can neither imagine the one, 
 nor discover the other. And, therefore, in the 
 absence of both, I cling to the consecrated symbol, 
 and would even venture to offer the advice that, 
 in your future discourses on baptism, you speak 
 with less dogmatism and contempt concerning a 
 mode of baptizing originally selected by infinite 
 wisdom, and consecrated for ages, as the emblem 
 of the Spirit's grace. 
 
 ^' There is a third question with which I am 
 tempted to trouble you. It is this ) How, upon 
 your views, do you account for the circumstance 
 that, in all the predictions and promises of the 
 Holy Spirit contained in the Old Testament, you 
 never meet with any allusion to divine influence 
 which agrees with your favourite mode of repre- 
 senting it ? Had God intended to appoint immer- 
 sion as the standing and only symbol of the Spirit's 
 operation to the end of time, might we not have 
 expected to find some metaphor or some reference 
 in accordance with this practice ? But there is 
 
EEASONINOS AND REPLIES. 133 
 
 none. Not a line, not a word occurs in psalms or 
 prophecies which alludes, even in the most remote 
 manner, to dipping, plunging, or any such mode 
 of employing the element which God has conse- 
 crated for the service of his sanctuary. But while 
 there is not a syllable which agrees with immer- 
 sion, there are several very striking descriptions 
 of the dispensation of the Spirit which allude to 
 the mode which you reject. Need I remind you 
 of such passages as the following ? ' Then will I 
 sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be 
 clean.' ' So shall he sprhikle many nations.' ' I 
 will pou7' water upon him that is thirsty, and floods 
 upon the dry ground : I will j)our my Spirit upon 
 thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.' 
 ^ And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will 
 pmir out my Spirit upon all flesh.' Now, how is 
 this ? "With the importance which you attach to 
 your mode of baptizing, how do you account for 
 the very strange circumstance (to say the least of 
 it,) that numerous prophecies of the descent of the 
 Holy Ghost should exactly agree with affusion, 
 but never with immersion ? 
 
 " And between these prophetic representations 
 
 of the Old Testament, and the history of their 
 
 accomplishment in the New, the accordance is 
 
 most exact. Here we read that the Holy Spirit 
 
 12 
 
134 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 ^ came upon' those that received him; that he 
 ^fell upon' them, was ' shed upon' them, and was 
 ^poured upon' them. Now, as visible symbols 
 and audible sounds are only two forms of lan- 
 guage — the one addressed to the eye, the other to 
 the ear — we might therefore naturally expect, 
 when both are employed to represent one thing, 
 that some correspondence would be found between 
 the mode of representation. And this correspond- 
 ence exists between the ' divers baptisms' of the 
 law (which were principally sprinklings) and the 
 manner in which the prophets describe the divine 
 influence, of which these sprinklings were the 
 sign. Why, then, should no such agreement 
 appear under the gospel ? While the same ver- 
 hal form is retained, what reason can be assigned, 
 or imagined, why the visible should be changed ? 
 Why should the counterpart of a promise to p>our 
 out be found in the very different mode of 
 plunging in? And why, moreover, should a 
 long consecrated symbol of the Spirit's influence 
 be superseded by another, which presents no ac- 
 cordance whatever with the language either of the 
 Old Testament or of the New ? How is all this 
 to be explained ? 
 
 " But I must trouble you with one question 
 more, and it shall be the last. Without asking 
 
REASONINGS AND REPLIES. 135 
 
 you to account for the singular circumstance 
 (singular, I mean, if the word 'baptism' only 
 signifies immersion) that, when the Sayiour's 
 promise — 'Ye shall be hajytized with the Holy 
 Ghost' — was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, the 
 Spii'it was ' shed forth' upon them, I should like 
 much to know how it could have happened, when 
 Peter saw that ' the Holy Ghost fell npo7i' Corne- 
 lius and his company, that then ' he remembered 
 the word of the Lord, Ye shall be baptized with 
 the Holy Ghost V Believing, as you do, that the 
 word baptize describes a mode of applying the 
 body to water, and that mode to dip, I am sure 
 that anything which ^fell ' upon a person would 
 never remind you of a baptism. It would be one 
 of the very last things to suggest such an idea. 
 How, then, did it happen that the descending 
 symbol of divine influence had precisely the oppo- 
 site effect upon Peter's mind which it must have 
 had upon yours ? Why did such an action, 
 unless there was a correspondence between it and 
 the usual mode of baptizing, bring an idea to the 
 apostle's thoughts that no Immersionist would 
 have ever entertained ? Surely he must have had 
 very different associations with the word baptism 
 from those which your practice is calculated to 
 form. And I see not how to account for this 
 
136 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 difference, except upon the supposition that Peter 
 had been accustomed to administer the ordinance 
 by pouring, whilst you deem dipping a more ex- 
 cellent way. 
 
 "But I will now close these remarks. If I 
 have spoken with honest freedom, forgive me. 
 My object has been to put my points with plain- 
 ness of speech, because this letter is designed for 
 other eyes besides yours. 
 
 " Believe me/' &c. 
 
PAKT IV. 
 
 PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 
 
 One Sabbath afternoon, a few days prior to tbe 
 appearance of the foregoing letter, I went, by in- 
 vitation, to take tea at the house of one of the dea- 
 cons of the church, where I was soon joined by 
 another gentleman who sustained the same of&ce. 
 Under all the circumstances of the case, I was 
 somewhat surprised at the apparent friendliness of 
 this proceeding, because I was aware that both 
 these gentlemen were much displeased with me 
 on account of my recent conduct. But the 
 mystery of this unexpected act of courtesy was 
 soon dispelled; and I discovered that the meeting 
 had been concerted with the benevolent design 
 of rescuing me from the error into which I had 
 
 fallen. 
 
 It was, however, with no small difficulty that 
 
 the brethren brought on the discussion upon 
 
 which they were intent; for they were evidently 
 
 anxious that I should not divine their purpose, 
 
 12* (137) 
 
138 . CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 and I was not a little amused at their awkward 
 attempts to introduce the subject. In no respect 
 indisposed to discuss the point upon which they 
 apparently deemed themselves invulnerable, I, at 
 length, frankly stated what I supposed to be 
 their design, and begged them to throw off all re- 
 straint in conveying to me their opinions. Upon 
 this one of them, after expressing his high re- 
 spect for my parents, and the hope which he had 
 entertained that I should have trod in their 
 footsteps, added, ^' But I am exceedingly sorry, 
 my dear young friend, to find that you hesitate 
 to take up the cross and follow Christ.^' Had I 
 not been familiar with the phraseology in current 
 use amongst the Baptists, I might have mistaken 
 this for a lamentation over my religious indeci- 
 sion, and should never have conceived that it 
 merely referred to doubts on the subject of im- 
 mersion. But I had been initiated into these 
 mysteries long enough to know the sense in 
 which these terms were employed, and, in 
 consequence, was scarcely surprised at the arro- 
 gant assumptions which they involved, I there- 
 fore replied by simply saying that, in declining 
 immersion, I was quite unconscious of having 
 disregarded either the precept or example of the 
 Saviour. 
 
PROSELTTISM AND PERSECUTION. 139 
 
 I was proceeding to advance more in self-defence, 
 but mj lecturer interrupted me with the question, 
 " What ! did not Jesus Christ saj— ' Thus it be- 
 cometh us to fulfil all righteousness ?' ^' and then 
 added, in a style meant to be singularly solemn, 
 but with intonation and emphasis quite original, 
 the following lines from Rippon's Hymns : — 
 
 " Hear the blest Redeemer call you, 
 
 Listen to his gracious voice ; 
 Dread no ills that can befall you, 
 
 While you make 7ds ways your choice. 
 Jesus says, ' Let each believer 
 
 Be baptized in my name ;' 
 He himself tn Jordan's river 
 
 Was immersed beneath the stream." 
 
 The good man's elocution, the tone of satisfaction 
 with which he recited the last two lines, and the 
 expression of the mingled complacency with him- 
 self and compassion for me with which he fixed 
 his eyes upon mine, as I sat gazing at him with 
 mute surprise, overcame me ] and a propensity, for 
 the indulgence of which (though prevention was 
 often impossible) I had been repeatedly punished 
 at school, proved irresistible, and I so far lost the 
 power of self-control that, in spite of every efibrt, 
 
140 CONFESSIONS OP A CONVERT. 
 
 I burst into a loud laugli. It was a sad slip. I 
 saw instantly that it had exposed me to just cen- 
 sure, and my character to much misconstruction. 
 This soon repressed my risibility, which otherwise 
 would have been only increased by the severe 
 frown with which it was met, and the sad lamen- 
 tations over my levity. Having endeavoured, as 
 well as I could, to convince the good man that it 
 was far from my intention to treat either him or 
 his opinions with disrespect, I recurred to his quo- 
 tation, expressed my desire to do whatever the 
 Saviour had enjoined, and requested him to fur- 
 nish me with a proof of the assertion that he ^' was 
 immersed beneath the stream." 
 
 My demand was readily met in the usual way. 
 Without a moment's hesitation he quoted Mark i. 
 9, where it is said that Jesus " was baptized of 
 John in Jordan." The emphatic manner in which 
 he pronounced the preposition '' in" created the 
 suspicion that he understood it to mean "under;" 
 and I therefore asked him whether he considered 
 the words " in Jordan" to mean that our Lord was 
 plunged below the surface of that river, or, accord- 
 ing to the language of the hymn, that he '' was 
 immersed beneath the stream ?" Having answered 
 in the affirmative, I requested him to turn to the 
 fourth verse of the same chapter, where it is said 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 141 
 
 that " John did baptize in the wilderness ;" and I 
 then inquired whether he did not believe that the 
 word '' iu" must have the same signification in 
 both passages. Upon this he began carefully to 
 con over and collate the two verses, and kept me 
 waiting some time for his reply ; and, as if he felt 
 a vague premonition of the consequence of answer- 
 ing my question in the affirmative, he expressed his 
 desire to know why I had put it to him, and said 
 " he could not exactly see what the wilderness had 
 to do with the subject." As, however, I would 
 neither satisfy his curiosity, nor withdraw my de- 
 mand, he at length admitted, though with evident 
 reluctance, that "he supposed it might be so.'' 
 " Well then,'' I added, " you must be aware that 
 the wilderness of Judea was about as full of sand 
 as the channels of the Jordan were full of water. 
 If, therefore, the words '■ baptized in Jordan' mean, 
 as you suppose, ^ being immersed under the water 
 of that river,' must not the similar expression, 
 ^ did baptize in the wilderness,' mean '• being im- 
 mersed under its sand?' Besides," I added, '' in 
 a text to which Baptists are particularly partial, 
 it is said that ^John was baptizing in ^^non;' 
 which you are aware was not a river, but a place. 
 Now you do not, I presume, believe that he im- 
 mersed his followers U7ider Mno^ : and yet you 
 
142 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 have precisely the same reason for believing this 
 that you have for thinking that they were im- 
 mersed under Jordan." 
 
 The good man sat staring, and, as I thought, 
 startled at the discovery which I had made to him ; 
 but instead of attempting to strengthen his posi- 
 tion, or extricate himself from the difficulty into 
 which his bold assertion had brought him, he 
 began to expatiate upon the qualities of the tea, 
 and to apologize for taking an extra cup. This 
 parenthesis having been filled up, I again requested 
 his attention to the point which I had presented, 
 when he said, ^^ But if the words ^ in Jordan' do 
 not mean to be immersed, tell me what can they 
 mean V " That," I replied, " is not my business ; 
 but yet I have no objection to comply with your 
 request. In the first place, then, for the reason 
 which I have stated, it is very certain, whatever 
 else they may signify, that the expressions cannot 
 bear the sense which you put upon them. This, 
 undoubtedly, is not the idea which they naturally 
 suggest ; it never entered into any head but that 
 of a Baptist, and can only be received by giving 
 to the word ' in' a meaning which would, were the 
 same signification retained in several other passa- 
 ges, render them sheer nonsense. But," I added, 
 " there is no difficulty in answering your question. 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 143 
 
 Baptists, in common with others, understand the 
 words ^ in the wilderness/ ' in ^non/ and ^ in 
 Bethabara/ to mean ^ at^ those places ] and why 
 should not the passage ^ in Jordan' have a similar 
 signification ? Why, instead of bearing its usual 
 import, when it occurs before the name of a place, 
 should the word ' in' here, and here only, be ren- 
 dered ^ into' or ^ under V Do show me the reason 
 of this strange difference, and explain why the two 
 passages might not change places, and be as fairly 
 rendered ^ at Jordan,' and ' under ^non,' as • at 
 JEnon,' and ^ under Jordan ?' " 
 
 Upon this a short pause ensued ; and then the 
 other deacon (in order, as I thought, to raise the 
 siege, with which his brother was sorely oppressed) 
 demanded of me how John administered the rite, 
 if it was not by immersion. I replied, ^^ that this 
 was a point upon which no one could speak with 
 confidence, because the inspired writers themselves 
 had attached so little importance to the mode of 
 baptism, that they had not penned a single syllable 
 on the subject. We were, therefore," I added, 
 " left entirely to inference ;" and I then proceeded 
 to state my reasons for this belief, that either 
 pouring or sprinkling must have been generally 
 employed in the service. As, however, most of 
 these have already appeared in the preceding 
 pages, I will not repeat them here. 
 
144 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 Although closely engaged with the two breth- 
 ren, I did not fail to remark that the servant, who 
 had passed round the tea, and who was a member 
 of a Wesleyan Society in the town, was very 
 deeply interested in the conversation ; and that at 
 the close of the refreshment she made much unne- 
 cessary work for herself, and, without appearing 
 to listen, was evidently lingering in the room for 
 that purpose. I learned afterwards that the poor 
 girl had been beset by master, mistress, and minis- 
 ter ; and, but for the well-directed instructions of 
 her class-leader, would in all probability have been 
 beguiled, as many uninformed young women had 
 been before her, by strong assertions, and two or 
 three worthless plausibilities, to renounce her early 
 dedication to God, and, without the slighest war- 
 rant to be re-baptized. 
 
 Shortly after this interview my letter appeared, 
 and created no small stir in our congregation. 
 Moreover, I soon discovered that I had incurred 
 the displeasure of many of them. Some, with 
 whom I had been acquainted from my childhood, 
 became cool and distant. Others, who wished to 
 keep up the appearance of friendship, could with 
 difficulty disguise their dislike, A few, with more 
 courage, ventured in different ways to set before 
 me the evil of my doings. One old gentleman 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 145 
 
 turned up his eyes, and shook his head, at what 
 he termed " the forwardness and presumption of 
 so young a man" as myself, in writing as I had 
 done to an experienced minister like Mr. R. 
 Another was quite shocked at the '^ impiety'^ with 
 which I had attacked what, with an air of infalli- 
 bility, he assumed to be an ordinance of God. By 
 some, it was whispered that I had been influenced 
 by sinister motives ; and a brother of our pastor 
 boldly avowed his belief that I had been drawn 
 into the snare of the devil, and had reason to dread 
 the judgment which befell Elymas for perverting 
 the right ways of the Lord. Some of the softer 
 sex, with whom, in general, I had been rather a 
 favourite, became all at once intensely bitter in 
 their feelings against me, and very strong in their 
 denunciations. Two of these even volunteered a 
 visit of condolence to my mother, whose sorrow 
 in having such a son they supposed must have 
 been most severe. 
 
 There was one of our members who deemed 
 himself a very " mighty man" in this controversy, 
 because he had published a small tract of quota- 
 tions from Paedo-baptist writers copied from Booth, 
 which were thought to countenance immersion, — 
 a common but most contemptible mode of attack, 
 
 especially in Baptists, who profess to repudiate 
 13 
 
146 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 human authority^ and to draw their arguments 
 solely from Scripture. This champion of the 
 cause had made no secret of his intention to take 
 me to task, as he phrased it ; and I was accord- 
 ingly forewarned of the danger to which I stood 
 exposed. 
 
 I was not surprised, therefore, when, one after- 
 noon, he presented himself at our counting-house ; 
 though, I confess, it was just then with considera- 
 ble reluctance that I laid aside some intricate ac- 
 counts which I was endeavouring to balance, and 
 entered the polemical arena with this new combat- 
 ant. He did not, however, give me any chance 
 of evading the subject ; but began almost imme- 
 diately to utter his surprise and regret that I 
 should have forsaken '' the old paths,' ^ in which 
 my excellent father had so steadily walked. Hav- 
 ing assured him that what I had done was the 
 result of anxious thought and much prayer, he 
 expressed his conviction that I was deluding my- 
 self, and wondered that I should have '■'■ set up '' 
 my judgment against such men as Baxter, Burkitt, 
 and some others whom he named. I replied that, 
 instead of setting up my judgment, I had endea- 
 voured to lay it down, and learn at the feet of Je- 
 sus what he would have me do. " But have you 
 read my ^ Cloud of Witnesses V '' he hurriedly in- 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 147 
 
 quired. " I have, sir." " Well, and did not that 
 satisfy you ?" '^ Yes, sir, it did most perfectly on 
 one point." " Ah I I am glad to hear that — very 
 glad. I thought a young man of your intelligence 
 would be convinced by names of such weight. I 
 rejoice in it, my dear sir; I do, indeed. Still, it 
 is no more than I might have expected from you ; 
 and I am thankful that any humble performance of 
 mine should have yielded satisfaction to a doubting 
 but upright mind like yours." 
 
 How long the loquacious tractarian would have 
 gone on in this self-complacent strain, had I per- 
 mitted him to proceed, I cannot tell ; but I was 
 compelled to interrupt his congratulations, by in- 
 forming him that the one thing of which his pro- 
 duction had so thoroughly satisfied me was, not 
 the authority of immersion, but the miserable and 
 pitiable weakness of a cause which was driven from 
 the fair field of Scripture argument to hunt through 
 the volumes of Pagdo-baptists, and to tear out of 
 their connection shreds of sentences and scraps of 
 passages, in which, contrary to their general sen- 
 timent and practice, a few of them had dropped 
 some careless statement or candid concession, 
 which the unscrupulous controversialist eagerly 
 seized upon, and then strove to pervert into a kind 
 of sanction to his peculiarities. '^Yes, sir/^ I 
 
148 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 added, ^^I am satisfied that the stolen support 
 thus brought to prop up a fabric of error, which 
 cannot sustain itself, will only accelerate its fall. 
 Such aid, the cause of truth can never require nor 
 receive. But,'^ I continued, ^' have you consid- 
 ered the consequence of your method of maintain- 
 ing immersion ? You know that the eminent men 
 whose names you have arrayed against their own 
 practice and principles condemned the very course 
 which your denomination has chosen, and them- 
 selves pursued the ojyposite. If, then, you attach 
 so much weight to their authority when it seems 
 to be for you, you dare not disregard it when it is 
 strongly against you ; and if a few single sentences 
 apparently favourable to immersion are deemed so 
 decisive, how can you reject the volumes and treat- 
 ises directly against it, which so many of them have 
 written ? Beware !" I said ; " you are brandishing 
 a two-edged sword. You are bringing witnesses 
 into court who will certainly put you out of it. 
 You are receiving the testimony of men who, 
 with one voice, reject your reasonings and renounce 
 your practice. But yet I am not surprised that 
 the advocates of immersion should seize upon 
 every scrap of evidence which may come to hand, 
 and make so much of the little which they can find 
 in the writings of wise and learned men to get the 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 149 
 
 sliglitest countenance to their proceedings. It 
 must be, I am aware, both a humiliation and a 
 mortification for a Baptist to cast his eye over the 
 shelves of a large theological library, and to find 
 there scarcely a writer of any note or weight who 
 has belonged to his denomination. With a few 
 noble exceptions, the whole array of divines is 
 against them. Where there is one eminent Bap- 
 tist writer, there will be found a hundred on the 
 opposite side. It is not wonderful, therefore, that 
 your defenders should eagerly rake over the folios 
 and fragments of fathers, reformers, prelates, pu- 
 ritans, and non-conformists, in search of shreds and 
 patches, torn from the consistent texture with 
 which they were originally interwoven, in order to 
 form what, after all, is but a scanty and ill-assorted 
 coverlid for the bare system they were anxious to 
 protect. But having obtained such small assist- 
 ance to their cause, they would be wiser were they 
 not to expose both its weakness and their own, by 
 holding up, as they do, their ill-gotten gain to 
 public gaze, and allowing all around them to see 
 that it is miserably flimsy, and utterly worth- 
 less. '^ 
 
 I perceived that I had touched my visitor upon 
 a tender place, and that he began to feel some 
 jealousy for his own reputation as an author; 
 13* 
 
150 CONFESSIONS OP A CONVERT. 
 
 I therefore checked myself, and changed the 
 topic. 
 
 Our conversation, however, had not flowed in 
 the new channel long before he suddenly inter- 
 rupted it, by stating that he wished to say a 
 word to me about what I had written to Mr. R. 
 Having expressed my readiness to hear his re- 
 marks, he proceeded to express his disapproba- 
 tion of the course which I had selected, and was 
 especially dissatisfied at my endeavouring to circu- 
 late my letter amongst the congregation. "If 
 your own mind," he said, " had been made up on 
 the subject, why should you try to unsettle 
 others ? What good can it do ? I know several 
 young persons who were quite decided upon the 
 point, and would soon have been baptized, but 
 who have been much disturbed by what you have 
 written; and some of them, I am told, already 
 begin to raise objections against Grod's ordinance. 
 I consider it wrong, sir," he added, with much 
 energy, " very wrong indeed, to draw away the 
 thoughts of serious inquirers from the path of 
 duty." 
 
 Although I could with difficulty conceal the satis- 
 faction with which I heard this piece of intelligence, 
 other emotions were still stronger, and I was un- 
 able to resist the temptation to reply with more 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 151 
 
 warmth and asperity, perhaps, than became me. 
 ^' With regard to myself," I said, '' I am quite 
 prepared to hear my motives misrepresented, and 
 my conduct maligned, for having written to Mr. 
 R., just as they were for taking the course which 
 rendered that letter necessary. On this point I 
 feel no concern, and shall offer no vindication. 
 But how astonished I am, Mr. I., to hear i/ou 
 condemn me for calling the attention of others to 
 the subject of baptism, when your minister and 
 most of the members of the church (yourself in- 
 cluded) are continually doing the same thing. 
 You know well enough that no sooner do young 
 persons in our congregation evince any serious- 
 ness, and seem to be inquiring after salvation, 
 than they are assailed on the subject of immer- 
 sion, supplied with numerous tracts in support of 
 the practice, and allowed no rest until they are 
 under the water. Yes ! and you know even more 
 than this. You are well aware that some of our 
 zealots for dipping do not confine their efforts to 
 those who worship with them, but move heaven 
 and earth to proselyte from other Christian bodies 
 in the town.^^ I then named two or three in- 
 stances of this ; and added, " It is notorious that 
 complaints have been repeatedly made by other 
 pastors in the place of the efforts which persons in 
 
152 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 our congregation have put forth to draw from 
 under their ministry young disciples whom they 
 had been instrumental in bringing to the Saviour. 
 Instead of seeking their society with a view to 
 confirm their hearts in faith^ and hope^ and holi- 
 ness, undue advantage has been taken of their in- 
 experience to induce them to be immersed. In- 
 stead of directing the eye of the half-awakened 
 sinner upwards to the cross, it is pointed down- 
 wards to the baptistery. Instead of fostering in 
 such the conviction of sin, and confining their 
 view to the Saviour, their serious thoughts have 
 been diverted, and their early impressions dissi- 
 pated by these proselyting efi"orts. Had immer- 
 sion been the sacrament of salvation, it could not 
 have been thrust into greater prominence, nor 
 propagated with more zeal than it is by some in- 
 dividuals whom we both well know. Nor are 
 these parties exceptions to the general spirit and 
 proceedings of your own denomination. In making 
 immersion a term of Christian profession, and in 
 many cases of communion, the Baptists invert 
 the order of things established by the Saviour, 
 fix the pyramid upon its point, and cherish 
 habits of thought and feeling which dry up the 
 sources of charity, and prevent the development 
 of that magnanimity which pure religion pro- 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 153 
 
 duces. And it is notorious that, of all Chris- 
 tian sects, the Baptists are the most prose- 
 lyting. How strange, then— how marvellous- 
 familiar as you are with such facts as these, 
 that you should censure me for doing what 
 your own people are so often chargeable with ! 
 But I thoroughly understand all this ! To assail 
 the faith of a Psedo-baptist is perfectly right; but 
 to inject a doubt into the mind of a Baptist is ex- 
 tremely shocking ! Try might and main to con- 
 vert the one to immersion,— this is laudable ; but 
 touch the prejudices of the other, and, if you do 
 not wish to be covered with hornets, and stung 
 till you are frantic — flee !" 
 
 At first my worthy visitor demurred to my 
 
 charges; but he soon deserted that ground, as 
 
 if convinced that it was untenable, and said that 
 
 Christians ought to contend earnestly for the 
 
 faith once delivered to the saints, and that 
 
 "they should not suffer a single pm of the 
 
 tabernacle to be removed from its place." He 
 
 then declared that his main objection to my 
 
 letter was its spirit; and I requested him to 
 
 name those parts which he deemed improper. 
 
 This he declined; and doubtful, from the manner 
 
 in which he did so, whether he had seen what 
 
 he censured, I pointedly put the question, and 
 
154 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 had mj suspicion confirmed. Having expressed 
 my surprise that he should condemn what he 
 had never heard, he admitted that he had re- 
 lied upon the representations of others; and 
 further, as he was the father of a family, that 
 he had determined that what he understood was 
 a very dangerous production should not enter his 
 house. 
 
 Just as he made this avowal, the thought oc- 
 curred to me that, although I had seen in many 
 of our friends' dwellings controversial pieces in 
 favour of adult immersion, I had never noticed a 
 single work on the opposite side of the question. 
 I said, therefore, that I supposed I had no greater 
 cause for complaint than others who had written 
 in support of the same opinion, and whose produc- 
 tions, I doubted not, had been just as carefully 
 withheld from his children. And I then inquired 
 whether he himself had ever read a single defence 
 of what he contemptuously termed " infant sprink- 
 ling j" and requested him, if he had, to name it. 
 He professed that he had seen a good deal of what 
 Psedo-baptists had to say for their practice ; but 
 he could not just then recollect the title or author 
 of any particular volume of theirs which he had 
 ever perused, and acknowledged that he had no 
 euch book in his possession. Other questions eli- 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 155 
 
 cited tlie fact, of which my previous suspicion was 
 stroDg, that his acquaintance with Paedo-baptist 
 publications was confined to the disjointed frag- 
 ments and garbled extracts which he had met with 
 in Baptist books and magazines. Similar cases, I 
 well knew, were very common. Many strenuous 
 sticklers for immersion, and some who were accus- 
 tomed to denounce in strong language a diiferent 
 practice, would, I was satisfied, be found as igno- 
 rant as this individual. And I thought then, and 
 think still, that even authors might be named who 
 could not possibly have read the writings to which 
 they professed to reply. 
 
 Not long after the conversation just described, 
 Mr. B. called at my father's house, and solicited 
 a private interview. Supposing that he had come 
 to controvert my opinions, and having an indefina- 
 ble sort of reverence for his person and office, 
 which I had retained from my childhood, I rather 
 shrunk from the interview ; and should have felt 
 far less restraint in discussing the baptismal ques- 
 tion with many men of much greater skill. But 
 he soon removed my nervousness, by stating that 
 he simply wished to see me in reference to the 
 Sabbath-school. And then, aft^r some rather mys- 
 terious generalities about the importance of my 
 position as its superintendent, and the necessity 
 
156 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 of good fellowship between the teachers and my- 
 self, he inquired whether^ with my altered views 
 on the subject of baptism, I did not deem it my 
 duty to resign that office. As, in my great sim- 
 plicityj I had never imagined that a difference of 
 opinion on a mere form would disqualify me for 
 the management of an institution designed, as 1 
 supposed, to teach, not sectarian rites, but spiritual 
 religion, I was confounded by the suggestion ; and, 
 for a minute I felt as if I had been stunned. Ob- 
 serving my astonishment, Mr. B. entreated me not 
 to understand his question to imply the slightest 
 dissatisfaction with the manner in which I had 
 discharged the duties of my office. On the con- 
 trary, he commended, in no measured terms, the 
 order and efficiency which had resulted from my 
 effijrts, and acknowledged that the institution had 
 never prospered so much as since I undertook its 
 superintendence; but, he added, he now feared 
 that ^^ the unhappy change'^ in my sentiments 
 would prevent in future that harmony which had 
 existed hitherto between the teachers and myself. 
 On this account alone, he assured me that some 
 friends had suggested the propriety of my with- 
 drawment, and that he agreed with their opinion. 
 Had I yielded to the indignant feelings which 
 this communication excited, I should have strongly 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 157 
 
 expressed the shame and sorrow with which I re- 
 garded such a display of bigotry and ingratitude, 
 and should instantly have resigned my office. For 
 more than four years I had devoted my best ener- 
 gies, both on the Sabbath and during the week, 
 to the business of the school. I had watched over 
 its proceedings with the deepest interest, and with 
 untiring diligence. And I had seen it rise from 
 a state bordering upon extinction to such pros- 
 perity that we numbered more children than any 
 similar institution in the town. With the excep- 
 tion of two elderly men, who had been in office 
 prior to myself, and who were, therefore, opposed 
 to all new measures, I had, as I believed, secured 
 the confidence and esteem of the teachers ; several 
 of whom, and these the most intelligent and effi- 
 cient amongst us, had been enlisted by my per- 
 suasions. Indeed, so little reason had I for sup- 
 posing that I was regarded with an unkind feeling, 
 that, only a few months prior to the occurrences 
 which have been narrated, they had a tea-meeting, 
 at which Mr. B. presided, for the purpose of pre- 
 senting me with a splendidly-bound copy of Cal- 
 met's Dictionary, as a testimonial of their regard. 
 Strongly, however, as my feelings had been 
 aroused by Mr. B.'s proposal, I was happily ena- 
 bled to control them. I, therefore, simply expressed 
 U 
 
158 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 my surprise that, on so slight a ground, and in so 
 short a time, the views which he and others had 
 formed of my fitness should have undergone so 
 great a change ; but I promised to give his sug- 
 gestion my best consideration. Upon this he arose 
 to depart 3 but, before he left the room, my 
 thoughts glanced over the teachers of the school, 
 and, as the names of one and another occurred to 
 me, between whom and myself there had existed 
 the most cordial regard, I could not resist the 
 conviction that they were not parties to this petty 
 persecution. I therefore asked Mr. B. whether a 
 meeting had been held on the subject ; and 
 being answered in the negative, I inquired how he 
 had ascertained their sentiments. These inter- 
 rogatories elicited the fact, that the proposition 
 submitted to me had originated with four or five 
 individuals, who were church members, and very 
 rigid immersionists ; and that this cabal had con- 
 trived to keep their fellow teachers in profound 
 ignorance of their proceedings. I also suspected, 
 what was subsequently confirmed, that the disunion 
 which they feared was that which was expected 
 to result from the influence of my opinions and 
 proceedings upon others. I therefore told Mr. B. 
 that as I had received office from the teachers, I 
 would call them together at the earliest oppor- 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 159 
 
 tunity, lay his suggestions before them, and act 
 in accordance with their wishes. 
 
 This proposal was so reasonable, and yet so 
 perilous, that it fairly nonplused my good pastor ; 
 and, after a pause, he said that he would have 
 some further communication with friends on the 
 point, and hoped that, meanwhile, I would not call 
 a teachers' meeting, nor name to any one the sub- 
 ject of our interview. 
 
 It would not interest the reader, were I to detail 
 the numerous schemes and unworthy proceedings 
 with which the narrow-minded men, whose plans 
 had been frustrated by my proposal to Mr. B., 
 endeavoured to drive me from my post. Making 
 up by diligence what they lacked in ability, I was 
 at length so impeded and annoyed that I deemed 
 it my duty to withdraw from the school ; and what 
 increased the pain of relinquishing engagements 
 in which I had long taken great delight was the 
 circumstance that, contrary to my earnest desire, 
 several of the teachers would follow my example. 
 
 This, however, was not the only annoyance to 
 which I was exposed. Few days passed for two 
 or three weeks in which I did not receive one or 
 more anonymous letters, — most of them bitter and 
 badly written, and, without one exception, convey- 
 ing rather the spleen than the sentiments of their 
 
160 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 writers. The bulk of these I destroyed at the 
 time ; but there were two or three which I con- 
 sidered worth preservatioUj and these, although I 
 little imagined then that such a destiny awaited 
 them, shall now be presented to the public. 
 
 The first of these communications was the pro- 
 duction of a very pragmatical pedagogue in our 
 neighbourhood, who preached in a village a few 
 miles from us, to a congregation consisting chiefly 
 of his own pupils, and who had occasionally occu- 
 pied Mr. B.'s pulpit. He was, however, by no 
 means popular ; and his magniloquence, though at 
 first it astounded a few, at length disgusted all. 
 To some it may seem incredible that a man could 
 have written anything so absurd as the subjoined 
 epistle ; but had they known the writer, or had 
 they been but ten minutes in his company, all 
 doubts upon this head would instantly vanish. 
 The question of authorship, however, was not de- 
 termined merely from internal evidence ; but the 
 sapient scribe was so well satisfied with his pro- 
 duction, and so assured that it had settled and 
 silenced me for ever, that, from sheer vanity, he 
 could not keep his own secret. 
 
 ^^ Sir, — I have read your conceited and imper- 
 tinent letter to Mr. R ; and I would not have 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 161 
 
 worn out the knib of a single goose-quill in ex- 
 posing your folly, but that such stupidity as yours 
 deserves the sharpest strokes of the ferule of 
 truth. I am only sorry that I cannot make you 
 stand upon the dunce's form, with a fool's cap 
 upon your empty skull. 
 
 " I should think it beneath me to answer your 
 letter : it would be quite a degradation ; indeed, I 
 have too much self-respect. Besides, it would only 
 puff you up with more of that vanity which already 
 makes you, in your own conceit, as big as a bal- 
 loon, and as empty. You ought, sir, to be made 
 to write the copy ' Amend your manners,' until 
 you cried Peccavi. 
 
 '^ You talk a great deal about John the Baptist 
 and the apostles. Now, I should like to be in- 
 formed what you can know of the capability of 
 these mighty men of God. To say that John 
 could only immerse so many in a day, and that 
 the apostles, at Pentecost, found any difficulty in 
 getting water, or administering the holy ordinance 
 to the three thousand, is quite absurd. It only 
 betrays your ignorance. This is the effect, sir, of 
 pride. 'Beware of philosophy and vain deceit.' 
 I almost fear you do not believe in the inspiration 
 of the apostles. What ! mch men not ahle to bap- 
 tize thousands in a day, or hundreds in an hour ! 
 14* 
 
162 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 Do you not know that they could work miracles, 
 and remove mountains ? I repeat it, — 'tis quite 
 absurd. Jesus Christ told them that ^ all things 
 were possible to him that believeth.* Could they 
 not, then, easily immerse thousands almost in no 
 time ? There were giants on the earth in those 
 days. I am quite ashamed of your ignorance. 
 But I will not waste words upon one so wedded to 
 his own opinion, — it would only be throwing pearls 
 before swine. I shall leave you, therefore, to the 
 remorse which you will one day feel for having 
 rejected the counsel of G-od, and drawn away 
 from the truth vain and giddy persons like your- 
 self. I hope you will soon repent of this, your 
 
 wickedness. 
 
 " Your well-wisher, 
 
 ^^ Magister Docet.^' 
 
 There was another literary curiosity, written, as 
 I conjectured, by some young woman who was a 
 recent convert to immersion. The phraseology is 
 unchanged ; but I have corrected the orthography, 
 and supplied the punctuation of the following ex- 
 tract : — 
 
 ^' I was sorry that you should write so about the 
 baptism in our chapel. 'Twas a sweet season to 
 me. As I saw the young ladies standing at the 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 163 
 
 side of the water, I thought to myself that they 
 looked to me just like the shining ones in the 
 pictures of Pilgrim's Progress that stood upon the 
 brink of the river; and then I thought how beau- 
 tiful it must have been to see such a many as John 
 baptized, all dressed in lily-white robes, like angels 
 in heaven, by the river Jordan and the river 
 ^non,— and what a grand sight it must have 
 been on the day of Pentecost ! I never in my 
 life saw the path of duty to be baptized so plain 
 as I did then ; and I was so convinced by that 
 sweet sight that I thought I could stand back no 
 longer." * 
 
 One other extract from these epistles must 
 suffice. The writing was that of a female, and 
 came, I suspected, from one of " the young ladies" 
 referred to in the preceding communication. 
 
 " I can speak, sir, from experience, of the bene- 
 fits of baptism. When I was baptized, I felt that 
 I was buried with my Saviour. I shall never for- 
 get that season. All your arguments, sir, and all 
 the arguments in the world, will never turn me. 
 
 * I should like to have had the ideas of my fair correspondent upon 
 the altered appearance of the "shining ones," as they emerged from 
 the baptistery with their "Uly-white robes" closely clinging to their 
 bodies, rendering the movement of their limbs difiacult and ungainly, 
 and leaving a stream of the sacred element in their train. 
 
164 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 I would put my experience against them all. And 
 if you, instead of disputing about baptism, had 
 been baptized as I was, you would have been happy 
 too. Many times have I thought of the precious 
 words, — 
 
 ' The holy eunuch, when baptized, 
 
 Went on his way with joy ; 
 And who can tell what rapturous thoughts 
 
 Did then his mind employ V 
 
 " This was my experience ; and I am sure I 
 can use his language, and say, 
 
 ' Blessed pool ! in which I lately lay, 
 
 And left ray fears behind 
 What an unworthy wretch am 1 1 
 And God profusely kind.' " 
 
 But other communications reached me at the 
 same time, of a very diiierent description, and 
 which I deemed an ample compensation for all 
 the censure which had been cast upon me ! Of 
 these, that which was to me the most interesting 
 came from an estimable young man, whose history 
 I will briefly sketch. He was an only child. 
 His parents, who resided' near the seacoast, about 
 thirty miles from us, were influential members 
 of an Independent church, and much esteemed 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 165 
 
 for tlieir works' sake by members of other com- 
 munities besides their own. About five years 
 before the time of which I write, they had ap- 
 prenticed their son to a silversmith in our town, 
 who was a member of the Baptist Church. Ho- 
 nourable themselves, they never suspected that 
 those under whose care they had placed him 
 would take advantage of his youth, and exert the 
 influence which they derived from their position, 
 to make him a proselyte to immersion. No stipu- 
 lation, indeed, had been made, — ^because they had 
 not imagined that any such precautions would 
 have been necessary, to restrain his master and 
 mistress from tampering with him in order to 
 attach him to their own party. But their confi- 
 dence was misplaced. 
 
 At an early period in his apprenticeship, and 
 ere he had discovered any signs of seriousness, 
 efibrts were made to give his mind a Baptist bias. 
 In this proceeding a daughter, some years older 
 than himself, was the most active agent ; but her 
 parents were not idle. Frequently at supper, as 
 I afterwards learned from his lips, the subject 
 was introduced, and strong representations set 
 forth of the duty of immersion, and the evils of a 
 difierent mode of baptizing. It was not, there- 
 fore, surprising that one so inexperienced should 
 
166 CONFESSIONS OP A CONVERT. 
 
 have become an easy convert to the opinions thus 
 pressed upon his attention. 
 
 I knew the young man well. He was a most 
 regular attendant at our chapel, and a teacher in 
 our school. His manners were gentle, and his 
 habits retiring ; but, as I thought I had observed 
 a disposition to seek my company, I had re- 
 peatedly, at the close of business on a summer 
 evening, sauntered with him through the green 
 lanes, and occasionally conversed on the sub- 
 ject of personal religion. Although I was 
 aware both of the opinions of his parents, and 
 of the unwarrantable attempts which had been 
 made to proselyte him, as he was not then a 
 decided Christian, I carefully abstained from 
 any reference to a subject so unsuited to his 
 state of mind. More than once, indeed, he had 
 alluded to the topic, and was evidently anxious to 
 hear my sentiments upon it; but I adhered to 
 my resolution. This course, however, in conse- 
 quence of my own state of mind, and the indigna- 
 tion with which I regarded the conduct of those 
 with whom he dwelt, I found extremely difficult. 
 Whether he understood my motive for acting 
 thus, I cannot say ; but his growing seriousness, 
 and the increasing proofs of gratitude and affec- 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 167 
 
 tion which I received from him, satisfied me of 
 the propriety of the plan I had pursued. 
 
 In this state our relations to each other con- 
 tinued up to the period when I renounced my early 
 views of baptism. But from that time there had 
 been a very manifest change in his conduct. When 
 we met on the Sabbath, indeed, his salutation and 
 smile wore the same bland and affectionate cast as 
 they had been wont to do ; but instead, as before, 
 of seeking my society, he evidently shunned it. I 
 was pained at this, — more so, I think, than by 
 any other result of my altered opinions ; for I 
 knew him to be a generous and thoroughly inge- 
 nuous youth, warm in his attachments, honourable 
 in principle, and perfectly transparent in his gen- 
 eral conduct. I resolved, therefore, to seize the 
 first favourable opportunity which might be pre- 
 sented for ascertaining, from himself, the cause of 
 the change which I had noticed. This, however, 
 was rendered unnecessary by the following letter, 
 which he slid into my hand one Sabbath morning : 
 
 " My dear Friend, — For by this name I hope 
 you will still permit me to call you, although I 
 am fully convinced that I have forfeited all claim 
 to that privilege. You must, I fear, have wondered 
 much at my reserve and distance of late ; and, 
 
168 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 when I reflect upon it, I am quite overwhelmed 
 with shame, that I could have ever made such a 
 return for the kindness I have received from you, 
 and the good I have, I hope, derived from your 
 conversation. * * * * I could write much 
 more on this subject, but I forbear. 
 
 ^' I could also give you a long account of the 
 causes which induced me to act towards you as I 
 have recently done ; but as, in so doing, I should 
 not only expose myself, but also others whose 
 names I wish to conceal, I will not enter into par- 
 ticulars. The fact is, that I heard such strong 
 things said against you, and so many evil motives 
 assigned to account for your change on the subject 
 of immersion, that I almost believed what I am 
 now convinced was utterly false, and thought that 
 I ought to follow the advice of certain persons who 
 earnestly persuaded me to shun your society. All 
 the reparation I can now make for having allowed 
 myself to listen to such calumnies, and entertain 
 such suspicions, is to confess my fault, which I do 
 with sincere sorrow, and to crave your generous 
 forgiveness. 
 
 " But this is not the only purpose for which I 
 have taken up my pen. I do so both to convey 
 information, and to ask for it. You are well aware 
 that my dear parents are Independents ; and I may 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 169 
 
 add, that, although most charitable towards other 
 Christians, they are firm believers in infant bap- 
 tism. I know, too, that they regard this ordi- 
 nance as a great privilege, and, when rightly 
 observed, very profitable both to parents and to 
 childi-en. Often have I heard them refer to the 
 season when I was thus dedicated to God, as one 
 of the most impressive of their lives ; and I know 
 that they look upon this service as an evidence of 
 Grod's special regard to the young, a striking sign 
 of our need of the Holy Spirit's influence, and a 
 gracious pledge of his readiness to grant this bless- 
 ing to them and to theirs. 
 
 *^ But frequently as I have heard them make 
 observations upon the practical importance of this 
 service, they never, that I can recollect, treated of 
 it in a controversial tone ; and, therefore, when I 
 entered my present situation, I was quite ignorant 
 of the reasons by which Baptists and Independents 
 support their respective opinions. In this state 
 of ignorance, however, I did not continue long, — 
 at least as to one side of the controversy. You 
 are aware that Mr. and Mrs. A., and, indeed, all 
 the family, are very strong Baptists ; and it would 
 be difficult for any one to be long in their house 
 without making this discovery. At first, indeed, 
 the subject was mentioned in my presence with 
 15 
 
170 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 caution ; but after a few months, I became rather 
 weary of its frequent recurrence, and was occasion- 
 ally pained to hear heavy reflections thrown out 
 against the Christian denomination amongst whom 
 I had been brought up. 
 
 "At that time, as I cared for none of those 
 things, my impressions were but slight, and of 
 short continuance. Still I often wondered that 
 pious people like Mr. and Mrs. A. should talk so 
 much to me upon such a subject, and should say 
 scarcely anything respecting the state of my soul. 
 Thus things continued until the beginning of last 
 year, when more direct attempts were made to 
 bring me to believe that immersion is the only 
 proper mode of baptism, and, I am ashamed to 
 add, with success. I say ^ashamed,' because I 
 now perceive that I was led to this conclusion 
 without anything like a fair investigation of the 
 subject, and without seeking information, or even 
 counsel, from my parents and former pastor. In- 
 deed, to confess the truth, I had so far caught the 
 spirit of those from whom I had received my im- 
 pressions in favour of immersion as to conclude 
 that not a word could be said in favour of a differ- 
 ent practice, and that my beloved relations were 
 only to be pitied, if not condemned, for the delu- 
 sions under which they were held. This state of 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 171 
 
 mind, together with the fear of giving them pain, 
 in part restrained me from what I see now was my 
 bounden duty. But I must add that, had not Mr. 
 B. and my master persuaded me not to make any 
 such communications, I scarcely think I should 
 have acted as I did. 
 
 " These were my circumstances, when I heard 
 that you had expressed some doubts as to the duty 
 of being immersed ; and, notwithstanding my pre- 
 vious views of your character, I was brought to 
 ascribe your conduct to pride, worldly-mindedness, 
 and other unworthy motives. 
 
 " This was my state of mind, though I had oc- 
 casionally some misgivings as to its propriety, up 
 to the time when a copy of your letter to Mr. R. 
 came into my hands. What my feelings were after 
 I had read it, I will not attempt to describe. At 
 first I was disposed to be angry. Your reasonings 
 so completely struck from under me the ground 
 upon which I had founded my belief in immer- 
 sion, that I was both mortified at my own igno- 
 rance, and vexed with you for having exposed it. 
 But I have since read your letter repeatedly, and 
 have carefully considered its arguments; and I 
 now write, not only to apologize for my unjust 
 suspicions, but to thank you, which I do most 
 
172 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 sincerely, for the light you have thrown upon my 
 mind. 
 
 ^^ Mr. and Mrs. A. do not know that I have 
 seen what you have written, and, if they did, 
 would he much displeased ; for not only had they 
 admonished me never to read what they described 
 as a ' wicked' production, but expressed their de- 
 termination not to allow it to enter their family. 
 I believe, however, that they begin to suspect 
 the truth, from my having hinted at one or two 
 of your arguments against immersion, and asked 
 how they could be answered. This was particu- 
 larly the case a few evenings since, when Mr. B. 
 supped at our house. But my queries brought 
 me no satisfactory replies 3 indeed, I was fairly 
 silenced by the evident surprise and displeasure 
 with which they were received. Perhaps I ought 
 to have been more candid ; but I assure you that, 
 although upon other points I can speak freely, 
 the family with whom I reside are so sensitive 
 on baptism, that I fear they would change their 
 behaviour towards me entirely, did they know 
 what I have now communicated to you. But I 
 do not intend to maintain my reserve much 
 longer. I think it right, however, to give the 
 whole subject rather more consideration than I 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 173 
 
 have yet donej before I express my decided 
 opinion upon it; and I am particularly anxious 
 to investigate one or two topics, upon which your 
 letter does not touch. By far the most important 
 of these has been so frequently stated in my hear- 
 ing, and will, I am persuaded, be pressed with 
 so much force when my doubts are discovered, 
 that I will venture to solicit you to favour me 
 with your views upon it. • It is this, — If the 
 word translated baptize does not mean to im- 
 merse, can it be shown that it means to sprinkle 
 or to pour ? I never learned Grreek, and cannot 
 therefore ascertain this point for myself; but 
 you, I doubt not, have considered it, and I shall 
 therefore be thankful for the result of your re- 
 flections. 
 
 "1 shall hope to see you soon; but for the 
 present I would prefer a short reply to an inter- 
 view. 
 
 ^' 1 am, &c." 
 
 "T. S. — You know Isaac, the porter at Messrs. 
 L. & Co.'s, and I think you will be interested to 
 hear a little concerning him. He came from the 
 same town as I did, and at the time of his 
 removal was under very strong religious con- 
 victions. But he was then extremely ignorant, 
 15* 
 
174 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 and greatly required instruction on the essentials 
 of the gospel. Instead, however, of obtaining 
 what would have been so useful to him, he was 
 beset by some of our zealous friends on the 
 subject of baptism, who filled his mind with the 
 opinion that immersion was the only scriptural 
 mode of performing it, until he thought himself 
 so much wiser than his former friends, and even 
 minister, that, from, being thoughtful and hum- 
 ble, he became conceited and censorious. Know- 
 ing his parents, and feeling some interest in his 
 welfare, I have lately sought opportunity to speak 
 with him on the subject, and to tell him some 
 of the things which are contained in your letter. 
 The effect has been so to shake his faith in 
 his former opinions, and, what is better, in 
 the infallibility of his instructors, that he seems 
 ashamed of himself, and is, I hope, beginning to 
 feel more than ever that ' the kingdom of God 
 is not meat and drink.' If this were known, I 
 fear I should be deemed as mischievous a person 
 as yourself." 
 
 This letter, as might be supposed, gave me 
 sincere satisfaction; and I was too much in- 
 terested in the circumstances of my friend to 
 delay my answer longer than necessary. I 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 175 
 
 therefore, on the next day wrote the following 
 reply :— 
 
 '' 3Iy dear . — " I sincerely thank you for 
 
 your frank and friendly communication. It was 
 as gratifying to me as it was honourable to your- 
 self. I had remarked the change in your conduct 
 towards me to which you refer; and I had also 
 (rightly as I now learn,) conjectured the cause. 
 
 '' I candidly confess that I am much surprised at 
 the stir which has been created by a circumstance 
 BO unimportant as my change of opinion on a point 
 so little connected with the great purpose of life ; 
 but I am more than surprised, I am deeply grieved 
 at the bitter feeling which this occurrence has ex- 
 cited. I meet with some manifestation of it almost 
 daily; and if I needed any additional reason for 
 disbelieving the divine origin of immersion, I 
 should find it in the unkind and unchristian spirit 
 which it seems to foster in its advocates. I be- 
 lieve that creeds, like characters, may be known 
 by their fruits ; but when I find a single religious 
 rite, yea, the mere mode of administering that rite, 
 raised into a prominence so disproportioned to its 
 importance, and, instead of fostering spiritual ex- 
 cellence, kindling unhallowed fires, I feel assured 
 that it cannot be of Grod. 
 
176 CONFESSIONS OP A CONVERT. 
 
 ^ But I will proceed to notice the topic upon 
 wliich you solicit my sentiments. I have often 
 heard the argument you have mentioned ; and I 
 did not advert to it in my letter to Mr. R., because 
 it was not advanced in his sermon. But its refu- 
 tation is most easy. Indeed, the objection (for 
 argument it is not,) is only a bold assumption, 
 which has been exposed and exploded a hundred 
 times, but which the Baptists reproduce just as if 
 it had never been answered, or was quite unan- 
 swerable. I have called this ^ a bold assumption,* 
 but it would be more correct to describe it as a 
 combination of such assumptions. It assumes, 
 first, that the original word describes some mode 
 of using water ] secondly, that in this consists the 
 very essence of baptism ; thirdly, that Independents 
 agree with Baptists upon the former point; but, 
 fourthly, that while admitting that the original 
 word describes the mode of baptism, they main- 
 tain that it does not mean to dip, but to pour or 
 to sprinkle. All these advantageous points being 
 seized, the conflict is short, and the victory sure. 
 But there is nothing to which this theory corre- 
 sponds more closely than it does to the Hindoo 
 fable, which fixes the globe upon the back of an 
 elephant, the elephant upon a tortoise, and the 
 tortoise upon — nothing. Every assumption upon 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 177 
 
 which the requirement you have named rests is 
 false. Instead of admitting that the original word 
 means to pour or sprinkle, Independents contend 
 that it describes no mode of baptism whatever. 
 They are well aware that, in some passages, it 
 could no more be translated to sprinkle than to 
 dip, to pour than to plunge ; and they maintain 
 that the term is used simply and solely to desig- 
 nate a rite — an outward purification, without any 
 reference whatever to the mode of its administra- 
 tration. They consider that the word 'baptize,' 
 when it does not designate the work of the Spirit, 
 bears a general signification — just such as belongs 
 to the expression ' sanctify,' when used in connec- 
 tion with the ceremonial observances of the Leviti-, 
 cal economy. The name, however, thus applied 
 to these ceremonial sanctifications did not describe 
 nor imply the mode of their administration, al- 
 though sprinkling was that most in common use. 
 But yet these very services Paul designates ' divers 
 baptisms,' — a plain proof that he used the word, 
 as I understand it, to signify a divine ordinance, 
 but not the particular mode of its observance. 
 
 "A little consideration will show you that 
 there is a close correspondence between the words 
 'baptism' and 'Lord's supper.' The latter de- 
 signation is far more descriptive than the former. 
 
178 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 Literally, it means a meal ; indeed, the principal 
 meal of the Jews. But who will maintain that 
 the reception of a very small piece of bread, and a 
 very small quantity of wine, answers to the exact 
 meaning of the word ? Is this to eat a supper ? 
 Nothing can be more evident than that the words 
 ^Lord's supper' merely designate an ordinance, and 
 do not describe the manner of its administration. 
 Suppose, then, that the word baptism originally 
 meant an immersion, as certainly as the word 
 supper originally meant a meal, might not the 
 one word be used as a general name of a religious 
 service, without referring to the mode in which it 
 was performed, equally with the other ? And 
 would not the supposition that it was so used be 
 highly probable ? If, then, all that Baptists say 
 as to the original import of the disputed word 
 was correct, it would go for nothing, unless they 
 could overthrow the mass of proof which may 
 be advanced to show that it must have lost its 
 primary signification, and, like the term ' sup- 
 per,' have become a mere name for a divine ordi- 
 nance. All this is true, even supposing that 
 the term did originally mean ^dip and nothing 
 but dip.' This, however, is a false assump- 
 tion, Hhe baseless fabric of a vision,' which 
 
PROSELYTISM AND PERSECUTION. 179 
 
 dissolves the moment the light of evidence is let 
 in upon it 
 
 ^'I cannot but fear that some Baptists, who 
 require proof that the word in the New Testa- 
 ment means ' sprinkle/ lay themselves open to a 
 grave charge. If they know (and how can they 
 be ignorant ?) that Paedo-baptists maintain what 
 I have stated, viz., that the word has no reference 
 to mode at all, they resort to an unworthy artifice, 
 when they ask for evidence of the very point 
 which is denied, and triumph as if they had ob- 
 tained a victory, just because that is not esta- 
 blished which was never affirmed. If, indeed, 
 Independents asserted that haptizo meant to 
 sprinkle, just as Baptists assert that it means to 
 immerse, then they might be fairly called upon 
 to make good their theory. But when they 
 contend that the term does not describe any 
 mode, to require them to show the contrary, and 
 thus to contradict themselves, and overthrow 
 their own system, is certainly not veri/ reason- 
 able. 
 
 *' Hence, then, you will see how unfair the 
 demand is respecting which you have sought my 
 opinion. And you will further see^ that the 
 only evidence in support of any mode of baptism 
 must be circumstantial. Upon that ground, I 
 
180 CONFESSIONS OF A CONVERT. 
 
 have endeavoured to reason out the point in my 
 letter to Mr. R. ; and from it, I am confident, no 
 opponent of immersion can be driven. 
 
 '^ With a sincere desire that you may be led to 
 a correct conclusion on this and every other sub- 
 ject, believe me, my dear friend/^ &c. 
 
 I am in possession of many other facts, which 
 would further illustrate the sentiments and spirit 
 of some Baptists; but enough, I presume, has 
 been written to show the weakness of the one, 
 and the exclusiveness of the other. I will, 
 therefore, bring my narrative to a close. Fully 
 convinced that Christian baptism, though not 
 immersion, was both a duty and a privilege, 
 and not having been dedicated to God in that 
 ordinance during my infancy, I felt that it be- 
 came me to fulfil this obligation immediately. 
 I therefore applied for baptism to the Indepen- 
 dent minister in our town, who readily acceded to 
 my request by publicly administering to me that 
 ordinance. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 10 
 
 01021 2829