<*? PRINCETON, N. J. *» 
 
 Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Agnezv Coll. on Baptism, No. 
 
 /09/ c 6 
 
THE 
 
 ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND DOCTRINE 
 
 BAPTISMS, 
 
 DEDUCED FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE, 
 
 AND OTHER AUTHENTIC WRITINGS. 
 
 By JACOB" POST 
 
 Water baptism, in its object and mode of administration, 
 has been a source of contention among professing Christians 
 for nearly eighteen hundred years. Surely, it is time to stay 
 the strife, and spare the Church ! If the author's views be 
 correct, then these vexed questions may all be safely and for 
 ever set at rest. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT ; 
 AYLOT AND JONES, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1851. 
 
f 
 
 
 ONTENTS. G ^ c 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Dissensions about water baptism in St. Paul's days and ever 
 since— was an ancient institution among tbe Israelites, 
 and not appointed by Christ — Tbe operation of water, and 
 also of fire, emblematical of purification — The Jewish 
 practice of baptizing their proselytes with water, adopted 
 by the apostles — The water baptism of John, only tem- 
 porary, preparatory to the coming of Christ, whose bap- 
 tism is to continue to the latest period of time — Christ's 
 baptism, or the baptism of the Holy Spirit, is the only 
 true baptism, and has no connexion with water under 
 any form — Their distinctiveness proved from Scripture 
 and the concurrent evidence of eminent theologians, both 
 ancient and modern ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Our Lord's commission to his disciples to " Gro and baptize 
 all nations," understood by them of his own baptism, and 
 they accordingly went and baptized with the Holy Gfhost 
 — Christ never baptized any with water, neither did he 
 command his disciples so to do, although he permitted it 
 to be so then, as also other practices of the Jews, of which 
 the baptism of proselytes was one — Christ's discourse 
 with Nicodemus on the New Birth has no reference to 
 water baptism, but to the operation of the Holy Spirit, 
 which is Christ's baptism, purifying the evil propensities 
 of the natural man — Water baptism not alluded to in 
 several important writings of the inspired penmen — No 
 directions about it given by Christ to the twelve, nor to 
 the seventy whom he sent forth to preach the gospel — Nc 
 agents appointed by Christ to administer water baptism : 
 these facts may be received as evidence that water bap- 
 tism was not of Christ's appointing . . 14 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. page. 
 
 Some arguments in defence of baptizing with water ques- 
 tioned — Neither the apostles themselves, nor the apostolic 
 churches, examples for us to follow in all things — Christ 
 alone our perfect pattern . . . . . . . • 30 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mode of baptism in the early churches generally by im- 
 mersion, not by sprinkling — Those only baptized who 
 were capable of giving a reason for their faith ; conse- 
 quently not infants — Various absurd practices and 
 opinions regarding water baptism very early troubled 
 the primitive churches . . . . . . . . 42 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Character of the Fathers — The doctrine of baptism, as held 
 by the churches of Rome and of England, briefly stated — 
 The one only true baptism, the baptism of Christ, 
 asserted— The opinion of Archbishop Tillotson and Dr. 
 Cumming, adapted to the present times — Conclusion. . . 57 
 

 I 
 
 -v.v-*- 
 
 \ 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 4^ 
 
 After nearly eighteen hundred years of dis- 
 cord, it still remains an undecided question in 
 the Christian church, In what form or manner 
 ought water baptism to be applied ? — who are 
 the proper recipients of the rite ? — who are the 
 authorized agents to perform the ceremony? 
 and, more than all, what utility or measure of 
 grace is conferred thereby, whether more or 
 less, or at all ? Without attempting to solve 
 the respective merits of these perplexed ques- 
 tions, the author proposes an inquiry into 
 the origin of the rite, its history and doctrine, 
 by which the intelligent reader may judge 
 whether it be, really and truly, an ordinance 
 appointed by Christ or not. 
 
 The many irreconcilable differences of opinion 
 and practice among those who hold the neces- 
 sity of water baptism as an ordinance of the 
 Christian church, are of themselves sufficient to 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 raise serious doubts in the minds of sober in- 
 quirers as to the necessity of the rite altogether ; 
 for we can hardly suppose that our compas- 
 sionate Saviour ordained an imperative duty on 
 his followers, and at the same time left them in 
 doubt or in the dark, to dispute and disagree 
 upon the right mode and manner of perform- 
 ing it. 
 
 Besides the great and fierce contention in 
 regard to the administration of water baptism, 
 there are also differences of opinion as to those 
 who are the proper recipients of the rite, 
 whether infants or adults ; whether converted 
 persons only, or without reference to conver- 
 sion; and still greater diversity of judgment 
 in regard to its efficacy, whether more or less, 
 or any at all. 
 
 Water has been so long and so intimately 
 associated with baptism in the public mind, that 
 it is difficult for them to conceive of a baptism 
 without ivater, and there is a very general 
 opinion, which ages have sanctioned without 
 inquiry, that ministers of their respective con- 
 gregations are the only authorized adminis- 
 trators of the rite. Some, however, question 
 their title to this prerogative ; and in a case at 
 
INTRODUCTION. VU 
 
 law, a few years ago, regarding the validity of 
 the baptism of an infant, the judge decided, that 
 the ceremony might be legally performed by 
 any one, even by the nurse or the midwife. 
 
 The reviewers of a religious periodical, in 
 answer to a number of their correspondents 
 who inquired wherefore their communications 
 on this subject had not been noticed in that 
 work ? replied, that no less than " forty publica- 
 tions had recently come before them on rege- 
 neration in baptism, every writer having an 
 hypothesis of his own," significantly adding, 
 " If any ten, or even six, (authors) among the 
 forty, would concur in the same solution of the 
 question, they would then engage to review 
 such a cluster of publications so harmonizing 
 together." — Christian Observer. 
 
 It may be said, that those denominations who 
 believe in the necessity of water baptism, agree 
 in the rite itself, although they hold conflicting 
 opinions on its utility, and on the form and 
 manner of its being administered, and by whom. 
 Nevertheless, so much importance do many 
 people attach to the doctrines in which they 
 have been educated, that, without further in- 
 quiry, they will not allow any baptism than that 
 
T1U INTRODUCTION. 
 
 after their own form, to be of the least efficacy, 
 or worthy of the name by which it is called. 
 It will not be needful, in this place, to bring 
 into view all the discrepancies of opinion and 
 practice amongst those who hold with water 
 baptism ; a few points of dissension in the pre- 
 sent day may be briefly noticed in this place. 
 Some professors consecrate the baptismal water 
 — some mix salt with it, whilst others use the 
 simple element. One class of persons do not 
 admit that to be baptism at all, which is not 
 administered by a regularly-ordained minister 
 of their own particular church : these use sprink- 
 ling of infants, and the form of a cross on the 
 child's forehead, which is called christening, or 
 christian baptism : some of these attach rege- 
 nerating efficacy to the rite, whilst another 
 class dispute this dogma, but insist on baptism 
 with water being a necessary introduction into 
 a Christian church. Some repudiate all forms 
 of baptism except by immersion of adults, and 
 contend that sprinkling of infants is not Chris- 
 tian baptism. Thus we may frequently find 
 two leaders of the people, both doctors of 
 divinity, at direct issue, each contending for his 
 own particular opinion and practice, One 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 learned doctor denies that those have been 
 baptised at all, who have not been sprinkled by 
 the hands of a canonically- ordained minister of 
 his own church ; whilst the other learned doctor 
 pronounces immersion, or dipping, to be the 
 only true form of Christian baptism, and that 
 all other forms are nugatory and useless. Query, 
 "Who shall decide when doctors disagree?" 
 Answer, Let every one judge for himself ac- 
 cording to Scripture, by the light of truth in 
 his own conscience; for it is certain, if both 
 these learned men may be believed, (and both 
 are equally entitled to credit) then no baptism 
 with water is needful to form the Christian 
 character. One doctor stigmatizes a portion of 
 the people as being unbaptized, and the other 
 doctor denounces all others; so that, if both 
 arguments are to be credited, then there can be 
 no such ordinance as water baptism in the 
 church of Christ. To so great a length is this 
 contention carried by some of the partisans on 
 one side, that they do not scruple to deny the 
 rites of sepulture in their consecrated enclosure, 
 to all those who have not been baptised accord- 
 ing to their own prescribed plan, as not being 
 entitled to Christian burial ! 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Can that be an ordinance of Christ's appoint- 
 ing which is so fruitful of contention among 
 professing Christians, and to which charity, 
 the brightest jewel in the Christian crown, 
 is constantly trampled under foot. Not many- 
 years ago, a popular minister of another per- 
 suasion, was requested by one class of Baptists, 
 to preach a sermon on some especial occasion, 
 in their chapel, to which he assented. After 
 the sermon, the preacher observing that prepa- 
 rations had been made for commemorating the 
 Lord's Supper, and being desirous of joining 
 the communicants, he took his seat amongst 
 them. A deacon of the church now informed 
 him it was contrary to their custom to allow 
 any one to participate with them in the Lord's 
 Supper, who had been only sprinkled, and not 
 put under the water. This, no doubt, was quite 
 consistent with their particular views of water 
 baptism ; but of the love of Christ, may we not 
 say, " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." 
 
 With all these doubts and discouragements 
 before us, we are driven to choose between two 
 alternatives : either our Saviour has really ap- 
 pointed water baptism as an essential duty to 
 be imperatively observed in his church, and at 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 the same time has left his people in the dark, 
 or in doubt, abont its meaning and mode of 
 administration ; or — which is the safest conclu- 
 sion — seeing that God is a God of order and of 
 love, and not of confusion and discord — that 
 water baptism is not an ordinance of Christ's 
 own appointing, and therefore not obligatory 
 on his followers. To prove this conclusion by 
 the test of Holy Scripture and of sound reason, 
 is the purpose of the following pages. 
 
 Although the author has here given his own 
 reasons for dechning the use of water baptism, 
 and also for doubting its necessity or utility, 
 yet he is far from desiring to condemn those 
 who conscientiously adopt it, but would, in all 
 charity, say, u Let every one be persuaded in 
 his own mind;" his controversy is not with 
 men, but with principles ; he judges no man for 
 his opinions, whilst he advocates and gives a 
 reason for his own : to our own Master, we 
 must all stand or fall. 
 
 J. P. 
 
OEIGIN, HISTOET, AND DOCTEINE 
 
 BAPTISMS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 DISSENSIONS ABOUT WATER BAPTISM IN ST. PAUL S DAYS AND 
 EVER SINGE — WAS AN ANCIENT INSTITUTION AMONG THE 
 ISRAELITES, AND NOT APPOINTED BY CHRIST — THE OPERATION 
 OF WATER, AND ALSO OP EIRE, EMBLEMATICAL OP PURIFICATION 
 
 THE JEWISH PRACTICE OF BAPTIZING: THEIR PROSELYTES 
 
 WITH WATER, ADOPTED BY THE APOSTLES — THE WATER 
 BAPTISM OF JOHN, ONLY TEMPORARY, PREPARATORY TO THE 
 COMING OF CHRIST, WHOSE BAPTISM IS TO CONTINUE TO THE 
 LATEST PERIOD OF TIME — CHRIST'S BAPTISM, OR THE BAPTISM 
 OP THE HOLY SPIRIT, IS THE ONLY TRUE BAPTISM, AND HAS NO 
 CONNEXION WITH WATER UNDER ANY FORM THEIR DISTINC- 
 TIVENESS PROVED FROM SCRIPTURE AND THE CONCURRENT 
 EVIDENCE OF EMINENT THEOLOGIANS BOTH ANCIENT AND 
 MODERN. 
 
 When the Apostle Paul was informed that there 
 were contentions in the Church at Corinth [1 Cor. L] , 
 he plainly intimates that a controversy had arisen 
 on the doctrine of Baptism [a.d. 57], — and alas ! 
 that the question should have continued to vex the 
 church down to the present day [1851]. 
 
2 THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND 
 
 "Water Baptism, an ancient Jewish institution, is 
 supposed to have been practised so long ago as the 
 time of Moses, when the children of Israel sojourned 
 in the wilderness. Frequent ablutions were found 
 to be so necessary to the health of the people, that 
 " divers washings " were enjoined upon them as a 
 religious duty ; hence every pollution of the body 
 described in their sanitary code, was to be purified 
 with water, and this form is continued amongst them 
 at the present day. For instance: a Jew who 
 approaches a corpse is considered by the law of 
 Moses to be unclean, until he has purified himself 
 with water ; and we recently observed, when a fune- 
 ral had passed along Whitechapel to the cemetery, 
 that a number of Jews who had followed on foot, 
 stopped on their way back, at a pump in the street, 
 to wash their hands before returning home. 
 
 The Apostle Paul in writing to the Jews [Heb. vi.], 
 mentions the doctrine of Baptisms [plural], which 
 he classes among their dead works ; and in another 
 place, he speaks of meats and drinks, and divers 
 washings, and carnal ordinances imposed on them 
 until the time of reformation [Heb. ix.] These 
 customary washings with water, among the Jews, 
 were termed baptizing, or purifying, or cleansing. 
 The like symbol was adopted by the prophet when 
 he prescribed for the leprosy of Naaman, the Syrian ; 
 and, "he went and dipped himself seven times in 
 
DOCTBXfTE OP BAPTISMS. 3 
 
 the waters of Jordan, according to the saying of the 
 man of God, and was clean " [2 Kings v.] 
 
 At the marriage feast in Cana of G-alilee, there 
 were set six water pots, after the manner of the Jews 
 purifying by washing their hands [John ii.] ; "for 
 the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash 
 their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the 
 elders [Mark vii.] When Pontins Pilate yielded 
 to the clamour of the Jews, and had delivered np 
 Jesus to be crucified, contrary to his own convictions, 
 he took water and washed his hands before the 
 multitude, to testify that he cleansed himself, after 
 their practice, from the guilt of that unjust sentence 
 [Matt, xxvii.] ; so in the present day, when a person 
 determines to be clear from the consequence of any 
 doubtful engagement, he is said, to " wash his hands 
 of it." 
 
 Wateb, is a term frequently used in Scripture 
 language as a figure of speech, to denote purifying 
 or cleansing, and the expressions, to purify, to 
 baptize, to cleanse, or wash the body with water, 
 may be used almost interchangeably, as having very 
 much the same meaning. The word fire is also 
 employed in the like figurative language, to describe 
 a medium of cleansing, and both these terms are used 
 as symbols of purification. Whilst, however, water 
 can only cleanse the outside, fire is the purifier of 
 the whole mixture. By this searching operation, the 
 
 b 2 
 
4 THE OBIGLS", HISTOBY, A^D 
 
 dross, and the tin, and the reprobate silver, are all 
 consumed, and nothing but pure gold remains, which 
 alone abides the fire, and is thus made fit for the 
 master's use. Hence it is said of Christ, "He shall 
 baptize you with the Holy Grhost and with fire ;" 
 and one of the Prophets alludes to the office of the 
 Messiah as sitting like a refiner with fire. These 
 passages, and others of Holy Writ, set forth in 
 figurative language the heart- searching and purify- 
 ing nature of Christ's Baptism, the Baptism of the 
 Holy Grhost, to which the outward application of 
 "Water will by no means apply, however piously it 
 may be adm i nistered. 
 
 Many of the Gospel principles and precepts 
 whereby our Lord instructed the people, were de- 
 livered in beautiful and simple language, highly 
 typical. It is important for us, therefore, to dis- 
 tinguish the thing signified from the symbol, lest 
 we mistake the shadow for the substance. And it 
 is worthy of notice, how frequently our Lord took 
 occasion, by the application of some passing circum- 
 stance or other outward object, to instruct the 
 people in things of eternal importance. 
 
 The Jews were exceedingly zealous in making 
 converts from amongst the heathen, and they spared 
 neither time or labour for this object ; so that our 
 Saviour remarked of the Scribes and Pharisees in 
 his day, that they " compassed sea and land to 
 
DOCTEI^E OE BAPTISMS. O 
 
 make one proselyte." In consequence of their un- 
 wearied exertions, many thousand Grentiles were 
 proselyted to Judaism long before the Christian 
 era, and these converts were all baptized. When- 
 ever a proselyte made a public profession of his 
 belief in one only Grod, and in Moses his prophet, 
 &c, then baptism always followed by pouring on 
 water, or slightly washing the convert, and this 
 particular form was called " the Baptism of Prose- 
 lytes," to distinguish it from others. 
 
 This ancient and customary mode of admitting 
 G-entile converts into the Jewish church was clearly 
 followed by some of Christ's disciples : First, there 
 was a public profession of belief in Jesus Christ as 
 the promised Messiah, then the believer was bap- 
 tized with water, "in the name of the Lord Jesus" 
 [Acts viii. and xix.] ; accordingly we find that Philip 
 replied to the eunuch when he requested to be 
 baptized, "If thou believest with all thine heart, 
 thou mayst" (not imperative — thou must). Then 
 they went down together into the water, and Philip 
 baptized him. Others also of Samaria believed and 
 were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon 
 Magus believed and he was baptized, notwithstanding 
 his heart was not right in the sight of Grod [Acts 
 viii.] Likewise many of the Corinthians having 
 heard Paul preach, believed, and were baptized. 
 This manner of admitting proselytes had been in 
 use among the Jews for many generations before 
 
6 THE OBI GIN, HISTOEY, AND 
 
 the apostles adopted it. It is clear, therefore, that 
 water baptism could not have been a new institu- 
 tion of Christ's appointing, but a national custom 
 adopted by the apostles for a season, as they found 
 it practised by their countrymen the Jews: Thus 
 much Dr. Lightfoot, Dr. Halley, and other learned 
 commentators fully admit ; and Archbishop Leighton 
 further remarks, that "the worship and ceremonies 
 of the Jewish church (of which water baptism was 
 one) were all shadows of Jesus Christ, and have 
 their accomplishments in him" therefore to be laid 
 aside. The Abbe Fleury, in relating the manner of 
 the Jews receiving proselytes, as affirmed by their 
 celebrated historian Maimonides, observes, " It wili, 
 I doubt not, be some pleasure to the reader to know 
 the origin of Christian baptism and of the ancient 
 ceremonies which the church observed in it, for they 
 were all borrowed from the Jews." 
 
 The well-read author of The Biblical Cyclopedia 
 (1824), whilst pleading for immersion, acknowledges 
 that the Jews had a ceremony for baptizing their 
 converts, "which might induce our Saviour [say 
 rather his disciples] to adopt it." Here we have 
 the incidental introduction of water baptism into 
 the Christian church, correctly attributed to the 
 ancient Jewish ceremony of baptizing their prose- 
 lytes, and from this we may learn the very small 
 importance to Christians of the rite itself. 
 
 "Whilst this mode of admitting proselytes was in 
 
DOCTEIKE OF BAPTISMS. 7 
 
 constant use among the Jews, John the Baptist 
 appeared amongst them. Now John was a very 
 remarkable character ; his birth was foretold by an 
 angel, under extraordinary circumstances. His 
 youth appears to have been spent in solitude and 
 retirement, and his food and raiment were of the 
 simplest and meanest quality. It is said of him, 
 that " he grew and waxed strong in the Spirit, and 
 was in the desert till the day of his showing unto 
 Israel;" supposed to be then about thirty years of 
 age. All men accounted John as a prophet, and 
 our Saviour testified of him that he was more than 
 a prophet. John was a man sent from Grod to pre- 
 pare the minds of the people for the coming of the 
 Messiah, having a divine commission to preach the 
 baptism of repentance for the remission of sins 
 [Mark i.] 
 
 At such a juncture, when "divers washings" and 
 " baptisms" were in daily use among the Jews, it is 
 no marvel that the people should flock in crowds to 
 so extraordinary a person as John was, to be bap- 
 tized of him with a baptism peculiarly his own, in- 
 somuch there went out multitudes from Jerusalem 
 and all Judea, who were baptized in Jordan, con- 
 fessing their sins ; hence John's baptism was called 
 "the baptism of repentance," and not "the baptism 
 of proselytes." Then cometh Jesus from Galilee 
 to Jordan to be baptized of John, but he forbade 
 
8 THE OBIGLN", HISTOBY, AKD 
 
 hini, acknowledging that he himself needed to be 
 baptized by Jesus, with the baptism of the Holy 
 Ghost ; but Jesus answering said, " Suffer it to be 
 so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righte- 
 ousness :" then he suffered him. Neither was this 
 a baptism of Christ's instituting, but the baptism 
 of John. The words of our Lord, " Suffer it to be 
 so now," evidently imply that water baptism was 
 designed to be only temporary in its duration, 
 which the declaration of John, on another occasion 
 fully confirms; "I indeed," said he, "baptize you with 
 water, but there standeth one among you who shall 
 baptize you with the Holy Grhost and with fire;" 
 " He must increase, but I must decrease [Luke iii. 
 John iii.] 
 
 Here we may perceive that John, the Water 
 Baptist himself, has described his own baptism and 
 that of Christ, in contradistinction to each other — 
 the one by water, the other by fire ; two of the 
 most opposite and distinct elements in nature. 
 
 Had water baptism been a perpetual institution, 
 John would not have made the acknowledgment, 
 that Christ [and his baptism] must increase, but 
 that he [and his mission of water baptism] must 
 decrease. Now, that which decreaseth cometh to 
 an end ; as said the Apostle, " The covenant which 
 decay eth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away" 
 [Heb. viii.] But the baptism of the Holy Grhost 
 
DOCTEIKE OE BAPTISMS. 9 
 
 abideth for ever. Here then we have the two baptisms 
 distinct as words can place them ; one with water, 
 the other without water. Is it not then presump- 
 tuous to join them together which the Holy Spirit 
 has separated, under the plea of the two being only 
 parts of one and the same baptism, and thus to evade 
 the proof of Christ's baptism being with water? 
 
 The baptism which now saveth is not an outward 
 operation. " It is not the putting away of the filth 
 of the flesh" by the agency of water, "but the 
 answer of a good conscience toward God [1 Pet. iii.] 
 And this the baptism of the Spirit can alone pro- 
 duce, purifying the heart of every evil thought and 
 making it clean, " by the washing of regeneration, 
 and the renewing of the Holy Ghost" [Paul to 
 Titus.] Thus said our Lord to his disciples, " John 
 truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized 
 with the Holy Ghost." Observe, not with water, 
 nor with the Holy Ghost and water, but " with the 
 Holy Ghost." Can anything be more decisive than 
 these words of our Lord, that water baptism is none 
 of his, but the baptism of the Holy Spirit only ? 
 
 When the Apostle Peter was at Cesarea, at the 
 house of Cornelius, who had called together his 
 kinsmen and near friends to meet him, the Holy 
 Spirit fell on all those which heard the word. 
 Peter seeing this, said, " Then remembered I the 
 word of the Lord, how that he said, John, indeed, 
 
10 THE OBIGIN, HISTOEY, AXV 
 
 baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with 
 the Holy Ghost" [Acts xi.] Thus we hare the 
 testimony of the Apostle Peter, that this little com- 
 pany of believers were baptized through the instru- 
 mentality of the Gospel preached by him, with the 
 Holy Spirit, that is, with Christ's baptism. The 
 historian informs us, they (as being proselytes) were 
 afterwards baptized with water. Here again, we have 
 two separate and distinct baptisms, the one which is 
 Christ's baptism, inward and saving, without water; 
 and afterwards, the other, outward and formal, with 
 water, according to the custom of those days. Now 
 these Cesarean converts were all Gentiles, hence, 
 probably, Peter's appeal to the Jews, " Can any man 
 forbid water that these should not be baptized ?" 
 Eor water baptism being a Jewish ordinance applied 
 to their proselytes, they might raise objections to 
 its being conferred on Gentiles who had not em- 
 braced Judaism. Again, we find the same marked 
 distinction between the two baptisms : when Peter 
 and John were sent into Samaria, it is said, they 
 prayed for the believers that they might receive the 
 Holy Ghost, for as yet he had fallen on none of 
 them ; only, " they were baptized in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus," the customary form which the Apostles 
 adopted when they used water baptism ; then, that 
 is, some time after they had been baptized with 
 water, the Apostles laid their hands on them, and 
 
DOCTBLSTE OF BAPTISMS. 11 
 
 they received, or were baptized with, the Holy G-host, 
 in which operation water had no part. In short, 
 the New Testament, the divine record of the 
 Christian dispensation, nowhere says there are two 
 baptisms, one of water and another of the Spirit, 
 which make together one Christian baptism ; but, 
 plainly, there is one laptism. As there is but one 
 Lord, and one faith, so there is but one baptism; 
 not two Lords, two faiths, or two baptisms, but 
 only one. Neither is it said, that this one baptism 
 consists of two parts, for it is in itself complete and 
 entire, requiring no outward and visible sign, like- 
 ness, form, or figure, to make its character and 
 office known in the experience of every repentant 
 sinner who is willing to submit to its purifying 
 operation, by coming to Christ, the only true Bap- 
 tizer and Saviour of men. 
 
 The Apostle Paul writes to the Eomans, " As 
 many as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were bap- 
 tized into his death," — " buried with him by baptism 
 into death." That is, a death unto sin, and a new 
 birth unto righteousness, as he himself elsewhere 
 explains it : " Knowing our old man to be crucified 
 with him, and the body of sin destroyed." This 
 figurative language of the Apostle evidently sets 
 forth the cleansing, purifying, and humbling nature 
 of Christ's baptism. Consonant herewith was our 
 Lord's query to two of his disciples, — " Are ye able 
 
12 the Omars', histoby, a:n*d 
 
 to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and be 
 baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" 
 [Matt, xx.] Certainly our Lord did not here allude 
 to the outward cup with wine, or the outward bap- 
 tism with water. On another occasion, he feelingly 
 and forebodingly exclaimed, " I have a baptism to 
 be baptized with, and how am I straitened till 
 it be accomplished !" [Luke xii.] And again, when 
 the all-important work, which his Father had given 
 him to do, was nearly accomplished, and his body 
 was about to be offered up on the cross, as an expi- 
 atory sacrifice for the sins of the world, he prayed, 
 saying, " Father, if thou be willing, remove this 
 cup from me : nevertheless, not my will but thine 
 be done" [Luke xxii.] Surely, no one will affirm 
 that the baptism and the cup here alluded to refer 
 to anything of a tangible or material nature, but 
 as representing a state of suffering for righteousness 
 sake. And herein are we instructed, that the 
 followers of a crucified Lord must also stand 
 resigned, and submit to sacrifice when called upon 
 to suffer for his sake and the gospel's, should it be 
 required, even unto death, agreeable to our Lord's 
 declaration to those two disciples, " Te shall indeed 
 drink of the cup that I drink of, and of the baptism 
 that I am baptized withal, ye shall be baptized"* 
 
 * Both these Apostles afterwards underwent great persecution 
 in their Master's cause, and one of them suffered death. 
 
DOCTEIKE OP BAPTISMS. 13 
 
 [Matt, xx.] Not the outward cup with wine, or the 
 outward baptism with water, but both are to be 
 understood symbolically ; just so, our Lord called 
 Peter and Andrew, who were fishermen, to follow 
 him, and he would make them "Fishers of men" 
 [Matt, iv.] A figure of speech shadowing forth the 
 power which those disciples would receive to con- 
 vert men to Christ. 
 
 The ancient writers on ecclesiastical subjects, as 
 Cyprian, Chrysostom, and others, and many also 
 among the moderns, make a clear distinction be- 
 tween water baptism and the baptism of Christ. 
 
 " Eev. William Dell, m.a.," Master of Caius 
 College, Cambridge (1660), wrote an excellent trea- 
 tise, clearly proving that water baptism is not the 
 baptism of Christ. His arguments from Scripture, 
 and sound reasoning, are striking and convincing. 
 
 " Eev. Joseph Trapp, d.d.," (1700), a learned 
 clergyman of Wadham College, Oxford, who pub- 
 lished, among other works, a treatise " On being 
 Bighteous overmuch," has these remarks, — " With 
 water, the pollution of the flesh is put away ; but 
 by Christ's baptism with the Spirit, the answer of 
 a good conscience is known; purged from dead 
 works to Grodward." To these testimonies to the 
 distinctiveness of Christ's baptism and water bap- 
 tism, many others might be added. 
 
14 THE OEIGLN", HISTOET, &ETD 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 our lord's commission to his disciples to " go and baptize 
 all nations," understood by them op his own baptism, 
 and they accordingly went and baptized with the 
 holy ghost — christ never baptized any with water, 
 neither did he command his disciples so to do, although 
 he permitted it to be so then, as also other practices 
 op the jews, op which the baptism of proselytes was 
 one — Christ's discourse with nicodemus on the new birth 
 has no reference to water baptism, but to the opera- 
 tion of the holy spirit, which is christ's baptism, puri- 
 fying the evil propensities op the natural man— water 
 baptism not alluded to in several important writings 
 op the inspired penmen — no directions abodt it given 
 
 BY CHRIST TO THE twelve, NOR TO THE seventy WHOM HE SENT 
 FORTH TO PREACH THE GOSPEL. — NO AGENTS APPOINTED BY 
 CHRIST TO ADMINISTER WATER BAPTISM : THESE FACTS MAY 
 BE RECEIVED AS EVIDENCE THAT WATER BAPTISM WAS NOT 
 OF CHRIST'S APPOINTING. 
 
 " Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in 
 the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'"' 
 
 [Matt, xxviii. 19. 
 
 This command of our Lord to Ms disciples after his 
 resurrection is brought forward in favour of water 
 baptism, and is sometimes designated " the great 
 
DOCTBIKE OF BAPTISMS. 15 
 
 law of Christian baptism ;" and perhaps it is, of all 
 others, the text, if rightly understood, that would 
 decide the controversy between those who contend 
 for an outward baptism with water, and others who 
 hold the baptism without water, which is spiritual. 
 
 It therefore becomes all who enter upon an inves- 
 tigation of the subject, to approach it with a desire, 
 above all other considerations, to discover the mind 
 of Christ herein, and not merely to support a pre- 
 conceived opinion of their own. 
 
 If we say, as some hold the doctrine, that " truly, 
 as the Scriptures do testify, the baptism of the Holy 
 Ghost is Christ's Baptism ; yet nevertheless, as he 
 sanctioned water baptism, this, therefore, is his 
 also." Here we maintain two baptisms in opposi- 
 tion to the doctrine of the Apostle who acknowledges 
 only "one Lord, one Faith, and. one JB aptism, one Gtod. 
 and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, 
 and in you all" [Eph.iv.] ; and on another occasion, 
 the same Apostle writes "By one spirit," [not by 
 water, but] by one spirit, " are we all baptized into 
 one body" [1 Cor. xii.] ; by which we are to under- 
 stand, that all those who are truly baptized by one 
 spirit in this one baptism are made living members 
 of Christ's body, which is his church ; but water has 
 no power of conferring on its recipients a member- 
 ship in this church, however devoutly it may be 
 applied. If, to escape the dilemma which the notion 
 
16 THE OEIGItf, HISTOBT, AtfD 
 
 of water baptism being also Christ's baptism 
 clearly involves, we resort to the convenient expedient 
 of joining the two together, calling them " two parts 
 of the same baptism," then we assume a liberty which 
 the New Testament nowhere sanctions, but clearly 
 forbids, as in the preceding chapter is more fully 
 set forth. 
 
 Truly it was a great and holy calling conferred on 
 those ministers of the Lord, to " go and teach all 
 nations, baptizing them," . . . and all those who 
 have ever since been rightly called and anointed for 
 the work of the Christian ministry, being " inwardly 
 moved thereto by the Holy Grhost," have had a 
 measure of the same gracious gift to perform the 
 same office. This baptizing power, whatever it was, 
 whether with water or without it, being given by 
 Christ himself, is clearly his own baptism — the 
 baptism which now saveth, and which ever did save — 
 it is that which purifies the heart, and gives the 
 victory over sin — that by which a man is regenerated 
 and born again — that by which his heart is made 
 clean and holy — by which all the sinful lusts of the 
 flesh being washed away, he becomes even as a new- 
 born babe — regenerated, born again : this, and only 
 this, is baptismal regeneration. By living and 
 abiding under this purifying influence, and by no 
 other power, is a man enabled to renounce the devil 
 and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this 
 
DOCTEINE OF BAPTISMS. 17 
 
 wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh. 
 All men must allow that this is the character of 
 Christ's own baptism ; then comes the query, Has 
 water any agency whatever in effecting this super- 
 human change in the heart of unregenerate fallen 
 man ? What power can one of the outward elements 
 of nature possibly possess to perform the inward 
 work of grace in the heart ? 
 
 Supposing we have no higher evidence to aid our 
 inquiry, we may examine the text quoted by the 
 gift of our rational understanding ; and if we are 
 truly desirous of discovering the truth, we shall be 
 instructed by observing, that " teaching," and " bap- 
 tizing," are both included in our Lord's commission, 
 teaching or preaching which here implies believing, 
 as the effect of teaching, having precedence, so we 
 read [Actsx. 44], "while Peter yet spake, the Holy 
 Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." 
 The preacher taught them in the demonstration of 
 the Spirit, with power and authority ; they believed 
 the word spoken, and were baptized with the Holy 
 Ghost. Again, as has been before noticed, the 
 same Apostle testified, when he was at Cesarea, at 
 the house of Cornelius, that, " as he began to speak 
 [to teach, to preach the Gospel], the Holy Ghost 
 fell on all those present, as upon the disciples on the 
 day of Pentecost — individually, collectively, and 
 simultaneously. 
 
18 THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND 
 
 But besides these striking facts to guide our 
 inquiries, we find in our Lord's commission to his 
 disciples no mention at all of water > but a baptism 
 quite distinct and different from all those which 
 were in use in those days, whether that of the Jews 
 who baptized their pagan proselytes in the name of 
 one God, and Moses his prophet — or of John, who 
 baptized repentant sinners in his own name, — or of 
 the disciples of Christ, who baptized their converts 
 in the name of "the Lord Jesus." These several 
 forms were all limited to individuals, for water 
 baptism can only be administered to one person at 
 one time ; but the baptism, which our Lord confided 
 to those his servants whom he qualified to perform 
 it, embraced families and congregations, as well as 
 particular persons, in all nations, and was to be 
 poured forth on the hearts of believers, not on their 
 bodies, in the name and the power of " the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost." [Mark the distinction.] 
 
 It is asserted by the advocates for water baptism, 
 but without proof, that our Lord in giving this 
 commission to his disciples, intended water baptism, 
 because, say they, " the baptism of the Holy Grhost 
 is Christ's prerogative alone, and cannot be per- 
 formed by human agency." Truly the power is in 
 Christ only, but he calls and qualifies, and empowers 
 his own agents to do his own work; for it is 
 expressly declared again and again, that these 
 
DOCTEINE OE BAPTISMS. 19 
 
 messengers of our Lord so authorized by him, did 
 baptize with the Holy Ghost. [See Acts viii. 17 j 
 x. 44, 45 ; xi. 15 ; xix. 6 ; &c] 
 
 The Apostles were endued with power to forgive 
 sins [John xx.], to heal diseases [Acts iii. xxviii.], 
 and to restore the dead to life [Acts ix.], why- 
 should it be deemed incredible that they possessed 
 the Divine gift of baptizing with the Holy Grhost ? 
 
 To construe our Lord's commission to his apostles 
 to mean a command to baptize with water, would 
 lead to the dangerous conclusion, that the one re- 
 generative, saving baptism, is by the outward appli- 
 cation of water, whereas we may perceive our Lord 
 expressed nothing whatever about water ; it formed 
 no part of his commission to his disciples, neither 
 can it be inferred from any other portion of the 
 chapter; the assumption is, therefore, quite gra- 
 tuitous and without foundation or evidence. 
 
 If the passage alluded to was more closely and 
 literally translated, according to several learned com- 
 mentators, it would run thus, and its import or 
 meaning be rendered more obvious : " Gro ye there- 
 fore, disciple, or proselyte, or convert all nations ; 
 baptizing or dipping them into the name [that is the 
 power] of the Father, Son, and Holy Grhost." They 
 were not commanded to baptize with water, but to 
 " Gro teach and baptize all nations." It is granted 
 that it does not appear they were then told after 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE OBIGIN, HISTOET, AND 
 
 what manner they were to teach and baptize all 
 nations, but it is evident they understood the mes- 
 sage, and accordingly they went forth in the power 
 which was given them, teaching and preaching the 
 G-ospel, and baptizing with the Holy Ghost : and in 
 this manner they fulfilled their Lord's commission, 
 " confirming the word preached by signs and mira- 
 cles." It may be said the apostles continued to use 
 water baptism after our Lord's ascension : this they 
 did by permission, but on their converts only, as a 
 Jewish custom and not by command, as these pages 
 elsewhere show more at large. 
 
 If further proof be needed that water baptism is 
 not the one saving baptism of Christ, we have it 
 in a very few words of Holy Scripture, [See 
 1 Peter iii. ; Titus iii.] — " The baptism that now 
 saveth is not the putting away the filth of the 
 flesh" by washing with water, " but the answer of 
 a good conscience towards God," which the Holy 
 Spirit can alone produce. Here again are the two 
 baptisms set forth in contrast, one with water and 
 the other without water ; clearly showing which is 
 Christ's baptism and which is not his. We cannot 
 be saved by any work of our own, but only " by the 
 washing of regeneration and the renewing of the 
 Holy Ghost ;" but water baptism is the work of man, 
 and may be performed in his own way and at his 
 own time. 
 
DOCTBIKE OP BAPTISMS. 21 
 
 Again, when Paul was at Ephesus, he found there 
 about twelve men who had been previously baptized 
 by the ministration of John [Acts xix.] It is 
 evident water baptism had done but little for these 
 poor men, for "they had not so much as heard 
 whether there be any Holy Ghost." Here observe, 
 the Apostle did not acknowledge John's baptism, 
 for these persons were afterwards baptized " in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus," the usual form which the 
 disciples adopted in baptizing their converts. 
 Neither did this form suffice to make them pure 
 Christians; but when Paul had laid his hands on 
 them, then the Holy Ghost came upon them, and 
 being thus baptized with the baptism of Christ, 
 their sins were washed away without the medium of 
 water in any form. 
 
 It is expressly said, that Christ himself never 
 baptized any with water, although his disciples did ; 
 and, although it may be open to conjecture, it does 
 not appear on record, that the apostles even after 
 the example of their Lord, submitted to John's 
 baptism themselves, or that they baptized each 
 other in any other form, or the children of believing 
 parents, but such only of their converts as came to 
 them and desired it. The apostles being Jews, 
 were accustomed to the divers washings and the 
 several forms of water baptism among their own 
 people, of which " the baptism of proselytes" was 
 
22 THE OEIGIN, HISTOEY, AND 
 
 one, and some of them having been the immediate 
 followers of John, had probably been baptized by 
 him in Jordan. All these circumstances considered, 
 will readily account for the Apostle's predilection 
 for water baptism ; and seeing their converts 
 eagerly sought it at their hands, our Lord suffered 
 it to be so then, as being an ancient custom in use 
 among the Jews ; but we do not read that he ever 
 commanded it, or commended it, much less did he 
 institute it as a standing ordinance of his church. 
 That Christ suffered his disciples to baptize their 
 converts with water after the practice of the Jews, 
 or that he submitted to John's baptism himself, 
 does not prove or imply that water baptism was 
 designed by him to be perpetuated in his church, 
 any more than, because Christ and his apostles, 
 being Jews, were circumcised according to the 
 custom of the Jews — observed the seventh-day 
 sabbath — kept the Jewish feasts — ate the Passover 
 together — and on one occasion he washed their 
 feet : that hereby we are instructed to adopt these 
 Jewish customs, and in other particulars besides. 
 
 " Except a man be born of water* and of the Spirit 
 he cannot enter the kingdom of God : that which is 
 born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is bom of 
 the Spirit, is Spirit " [John iii.] 
 
 * [Born of Water.] Not elemental water, but spiritual. See 
 John iv. 10 ; vii. 38, 39. 
 
DOCTEIKE OF BAPTISMS. 23 
 
 This conference of our Lord with Mcodemus is 
 quoted by many persons to support their views of 
 water baptism, but there does not seem to be any 
 analogy or coincidence, much less unity, between 
 being born of water and the Spirit, and being 
 baptised with outward water : the two acts are 
 quite unconnected and distinct from each other. 
 Sprinkling the face or dipping the body in water is 
 an outward act, and may be performed in the will and 
 wisdom of man, at any time of his own appointing ; 
 but to be born of the Spirit, to experience the new 
 birth, the birth unto righteousness, is an inward 
 work wrought in the heart, being made pure by 
 the washing of regeneration and the renewing of 
 the Holy Grhost, " sanctified and cleansed with the 
 washing of [living] water by the Word," which is 
 Christ. [Eph. v.] These twofold expressions of 
 our Lord appear to have one object, viz., to teach 
 this master in Israel the state and character of 
 the two births — the natural birth and the spiritual 
 birth ; that so sure as a man is born by nature prone 
 to evil, so must he be born again of the Spirit ; 
 so must he have the heart purified by the regene- 
 rating baptism of Christ, or he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of Heaven ; for nothing that is impure or 
 unholy can ever find a place there. If any man be 
 in Christ he is a new creature, a new-born babe 
 desiring the sincere milk of the word. But there 
 
24 THE OBIGIN, HISTOBY, A2CD 
 
 must be a death unto sin experienced before there 
 can be a new birth unto righteousness ; we must 
 cease to do evil before we can learn to do well ; the 
 old man with his deeds must be put off, before all 
 things become new and all things of Grod; but 
 water has no agency in this regenerative process, 
 however piously it may be applied. 
 
 We have the best authority for knowing that 
 " those things which defile a man proceed out of 
 the heart [Matt, xv.], which is deceitful above 
 all things and desperately wicked [Jer. xvii. ] ; 
 hence the necessity of its being cleansed by the puri- 
 fying operation of Christ's baptism, the baptism of 
 the Holy Ghost and of fire ;" and we are solemnly 
 assured by the Water Baptist himself, that the 
 baptism of Christ will " burn up the chaff (that 
 which in its nature is of a worthless and unholy 
 character) with unquenchable fire [Matt, iii.] 
 It is the operation of this power in the heart of 
 unregenerate man that can alone purify it from the 
 sinful lusts of the flesh, and make it a fit temple 
 for the Holy Spirit to dwell in, which is beyond 
 the power of water to perform, or to assist in 
 performing. 
 
 The Apostle John, the bosom friend of our Lord, 
 in the history of his master's life, nowhere infers 
 that water baptism was an ordinance of Christ's 
 appointing, but expressly tells us " Jesus baptized 
 
DO CT BIKE OF BAPTISMS. 25 
 
 not," although his disciples did ; and in his letters 
 of admonition and instruction to " the seven 
 churches," he neither advises them to the use of 
 water baptism, or reproves them for omitting it; 
 had it been a Christian ordinance, we surely should 
 have found some evidence of it in those instructive 
 letters, addressed as they were to the newly-gathered 
 churches of Asia. Again, when the Apostle Paul, 
 the great disciplinarian of the primitive believers, 
 addressed his two epistles to Timothy, he makes no 
 mention whatever of water baptism or the Lord's 
 Supper. Had these ordinances been really insti- 
 tuted by Christ to be observed in his church, this, 
 perhaps, is the very place of all others where we 
 should be induced to look for information re- 
 specting them. In two lengthy and discursory 
 epistles, written by an experienced Apostle to a 
 young minister of the Grospel, for the very pur- 
 pose of instructing him in the several duties of his 
 office in a distant church, one thinks would have 
 been the very best opportunity to have advised him 
 regarding the necessity and right administration of 
 these important ordinances, had such been insti- 
 tuted by Christ ; but not a word does the Apostle 
 say to his " dearly beloved son " on these subjects, 
 and the like silence he observes in his letter to 
 Titus ; to him, however, he does state what Christ's 
 baptism really is : viz. " The washing of regenera- 
 tion and the renewing of the Holy Grhost." 
 
26 THE OEIGItf, HISTORY, AND 
 
 The learned Dr. Macknight observes, that " the 
 epistles of St. Paul to Timothy and to Titus, taken 
 together, contain a full account of the qualifications 
 and duties of ministers of the Grospel, and may be 
 considered as a complete lody of divinely inspired 
 canons, to be observed by the Christian clergy of 
 all communions to the end of the world." If this 
 be so, then, as the "sacraments" are not included 
 in this " complete body of divinely inspired canons" 
 and " full account " of ministerial duties, it may be 
 concluded that this learned theologian admits they 
 do not belong to them. 
 
 When our Lord sent forth the twelve, as re- 
 corded by Matthew, he commanded them to preach 
 the Gospel, to heal the sick, to cleanse the lepers, 
 to raise the dead ; but not a word about baptizing 
 the people with water [Matt, x.] When again he 
 commissioned the seventy to go forth in his name, 
 he gave them particular instructions how to con- 
 duct their mission, but nothing about water bap- 
 tism [Luke x.] When a certain lawyer queried 
 with him, " What shall I do to be saved?" 
 and had enumerated several important principles 
 which he professed to hold, Jesus replied, " This 
 do and thou shalt live ;" but no mention of water 
 baptism. So of the young man who had great pos- 
 sessions, and who put a similar query to our Lord, 
 he said, " If thou wilt be perfect go sell that thou 
 hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have 
 
DOCTBIKE OF BAPTISMS. 27 
 
 treasure in heaven, and come and follow me;'* 
 but water baptism formed no part of the conditions 
 which were to make this rich man perfect [Matt. 
 xix.] Had water baptism been recommended as a 
 panacea to cleanse away sin, how gladly would he 
 have availed himself of it, and so have retained his 
 worldly possessions. 
 
 If water baptism had been of Christ's appointing, 
 would Paul have relinquished it as he did ? — would 
 he have thanked Grod he had baptized so few ? 
 Kather, would not he have continued the practice, 
 and rejoiced that so many had received the benefit 
 of it from his hands ? If Peter had regarded water 
 baptism as anything more than a Jewish ceremony, 
 would he have described it as merely a putting away 
 the filth of the flesh, or a cleansing of the outside ? 
 May we not, therefore, safely conclude, that water 
 is not Christ's baptism, but, as the same apostle 
 informs us, it is " the answer of a good conscience 
 towards Grod," which the baptism of the Holy Spirit 
 can alone produce. 
 
 When the apostles and elders, and the Church at 
 Jerusalem, sent unto the brethren at Antioch and 
 other places, on a question which had arisen on the 
 necessity of circumcising the Grentile converts, they 
 wrote letters saying, " It seemed good to the Holy 
 Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden 
 than these necessary things," [which are there enu- 
 
28 THE OEIGIN, HISTOET, AND 
 
 merated. See Acts xiv. 23 — 29,] " from which if ye 
 keep yourselves ye shall do well." Here we may 
 perceive that the two " sacraments " were not among 
 the necessary things to be observed by the primitive 
 churches. If not necessary then, what has made 
 them necessary now ? That which this honoured 
 synod chiefly insisted upon was a pure and holy 
 life, and not forms and ceremonies or carnal ordi- 
 nances, which have produced so abundant an harvest 
 of bitter fruit in the christian church, as these pages 
 do in measure set forth. 
 
 "We find in the New Testament, that our Divine 
 Saviour, both by example and precept, taught his 
 followers charity, patience, temperance, chastity, 
 justice, humility ; and in short, throughout his whole 
 life, his example and his doctrine embraced every 
 principle necessary to salvation; but nowhere do 
 we read that he said, " Ye must be baptized with 
 water." His gracious language to those suppliants 
 who came unto him was on this wise — " Thy faith 
 hath saved thee :" and the Apostle's doctrine is in 
 harmony therewith : " "We are justified by faith," — 
 " not by works of righteousness which we have done, 
 but by grace, through faith, we are saved." It is 
 not water from the well, or of the river, that can 
 cleanse away sin, whether it be applied after this 
 form or after that ; but " the blood of Jesus Christ 
 cleanseth from all sin," through faith in his atoning 
 
DOCTEINE OP BAPTISMS. 29 
 
 sacrifice. On this subject, a dignitary of the English 
 church has this interrogatory : — " When once Christ 
 hath said * Believe, and do such and such things, and 
 ye shall be saved,' who is he that shall say, ' Believe 
 and do more, or you shall not be saved ?' " 
 
 Lastly, — Nowhere do we learn who were to be the 
 authorized agents for administering water baptism. 
 The New Testament is quite silent on this point, and 
 for a very good reason, — being an outward cere- 
 monial ordinance of the Jews, it was designed to 
 decrease with all their other forms and ceremonies, 
 and eventually to die away. 
 
 Paul declared he was not sent to baptize, but to 
 preach ; but preachers of the present day assume to 
 themselves the exclusive qualification and authority 
 to administer water baptism, and thus they counte- 
 nance a practice which Christ never appointed as 
 any part of his service. 
 
30 THE ORIGIN, HISTOBY, AND 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 SOME ARGUMENTS IN DEFENCE OP BAPTIZING WITH WATER 
 QUESTIONED —NEITHER THE APOSTLES THEMSELVES, NOR THE 
 APOSTOLIC CHURCHES, EXAMPLES FOR US TO FOLLOW IN ALL 
 THINGS — CHRIST ALONE OUR PERFECT PATTERN. 
 
 Some advocates for water baptism advance as an 
 axiom, " What was not forbidden by Christ is com- 
 manded." Ergo, water baptism was not forbidden, 
 therefore it was commanded. But Paul makes a clear 
 distinction between things commanded and things 
 permitted [1 Cor. vii.] Between things lawful and 
 things not expedient [1 Cor. vi.] A learned author 
 recently pleading for " the perpetuity of the Sacra- 
 ments," takes the ground of Apostolic example ;"we 
 do only as they do," [did] is his maxim.* It is to be 
 regretted that the writer of this erudite and inte- 
 resting work, should have deemed it needful to 
 defend his own particular opinions with shafts of 
 ridicule and contempt, aimed at those who sincerely 
 but respectfully differ from him in judgment on 
 
 * See " An Inquiry into the nature of the Symbolic Insti- 
 tutions of the Christian Religion, usually called Sacraments, by 
 Robert Halley, D.D. ; being the Congregational Lecture, part 1." 
 
DOCTBItfE OF BAPTISMS. 31 
 
 these topics. However powerless these missiles may 
 fall, they will be regarded as an outward and visible 
 sign of a weak and dubious cause. 
 
 When the mist in which much learning too often 
 obscures a plain and simple doctrine is removed, 
 this elaborate defence of continuing a system of 
 ceremonial rituals in the Church of Christ, may be 
 comprised in the following short compendium, so far 
 as it concerns the present question, the obligation 
 of water baptism: — 
 
 1. " Christ appointed water baptism, and, in per- 
 mitting his disciples to practice it, he sanctioned 
 the rite in perpetuity in his church. Both baptism 
 and the Lord's supper were founded upon Jewish 
 practices," but, "Christians in all ages are under the 
 obligation of observing them." These assumptions 
 have already been questioned. 
 
 2. " There may be infirmities so inherent in 
 human nature, or so generally prevalent, as to render 
 a few simple forms desirable, if not absolutely 
 necessary." This argument might serve also as an 
 apology for those who bow to the simple form of a 
 crucifix, or who invoke the picture of a patron saint, 
 — the reasoning is equal in both cases. But the 
 Apostle Paul informs us, that the handwriting of 
 ordinances [types and ceremonies] has been blotted 
 out, for they were against us who are under the 
 Gospel dispensation, and are nailed to the cross of 
 Christ [Col. ii.] The same Apostle says, " When 
 
32 THE OBIGIN, HISTOBY, AND 
 
 I was a child, I understood as a child, I thought 
 as a child ; but when I became a man, I put away 
 childish things." [1 Cor. xiii] 
 
 Notwithstanding, as the Doctor truly says, " in- 
 firmities are so inherent in our human nature," yet 
 how contrary to Christ's own teaching would it 
 have been when he abolished or blotted out even 
 those simple forms of the Jews, had he instituted 
 other forms to be continued in his church, " founded 
 upon Jewish practices," and so closely imitative of 
 them as the " Sacraments" are. Archbp. Whateley 
 is of the judgment, that, " the religion of the gospel 
 is a religion without priest, altar, sacrifice, or tem- 
 ple," and that the sacred writers did not leave it to 
 the churches to determine, but " distinctly excluded 
 them." This is true, and it may be said of many 
 other things now in use beside. 
 
 3. The learned Doctor positively denies that the 
 Apostles conceded anything to Jewish prejudices. 
 " We maintain," says he, " that the notion of a 
 concession to Jewish prejudices is wholly gratuitous, 
 or rather absolutely false /" Strong language this, 
 in the face of us who have long held such a notion, 
 and occasionally avowed it too. We shall presently 
 see which position is supported by scripture facts, 
 and which is contradicted. We do not feel alarmed 
 at the Doctor's solemn interrogatory, "Are we to 
 suppose that the Apostles authorized such incon- 
 sistencies, and imposed them for a time upon the 
 
DOCTEIKE OE BAPTISMS. 33 
 
 church?" "The reply that they acted in con- 
 descension to the infirmities of the Jews, is of no 
 avail." Perhaps not, but it may be quite true for 
 all that. Scripture evidence is about to be adduced, 
 proving that they did so act, remarkably and fre- 
 quently. 
 
 4. The Doctor gives it as his opinion, and more 
 than an opinion, that the Apostolic churches were 
 designed as models in practice for the imitation of 
 all future churches, and that what the apostles 
 adopted is our duty to follow. " We do only as 
 they do " [did] is his authority. These conclusions 
 will presently be shown to be unsupported by scrip- 
 ture evidence. Indeed, the author's own practice 
 is against his argument. The Apostles, for instance, 
 did not sprinkle infants in baptism as he does, but 
 their mode of operation, and their subjects too, were 
 opposed to such a practice. 
 
 5. "Whilst admitting that water baptism and the 
 Supper were founded upon Jewish practices, and 
 that the law of types was abolished by the coming 
 of Christ in the flesh, the Doctor affirms that bap- 
 tism and the Lord's Supper did not belong to that 
 law of types, and further he says, — "Neither baptism 
 nor the Lord's Supper is an act of worship, but 
 symbols of doctrine, representations of important 
 truth. They" [the Apostles] " have left these carnal 
 ceremonies unimpaired to their successors, who have 
 
 D 
 
34 THE OBIGIF, HISTOBY, AND 
 
 retained them as the emblems and memorials of the 
 truth." It is not easy for us, unlearned as we be in 
 the schools of divinity, to discover by what law of 
 types, then, these carnal ceremonies are retained. 
 Do not christian professors in general regard water 
 baptism as an emblem — a type or representation 
 significant of something either expressed or under- 
 stood ? — OtwJiat, all are not agreed, but yet a type. 
 
 Do not those who communicate in the bread and 
 wine regard them as memorials of the outward fact 
 of our Lord's death, or as a type or representation 
 of his last supper. If not, why call it a partaking 
 of the Lord's Supper ? Some advance so far in the 
 pursuit of the shadow as to believe that the bread 
 and wine represent the flesh and blood of the Saviour, 
 whilst others go over the dangerous precipice head- 
 long into the gulf of transubstantiation. These 
 last, it must be admitted, consistently with their 
 profession, do not regard the consecrated elements 
 as a type or figure, but a palpable reality to be seen 
 and handled ; yet it is hard to perceive how the 
 professed memorialist can escape the imputation, to 
 say nothing of consubstantiation. 
 
 Calvin, in his Institutes, calls water baptism a 
 sign, a figure ; and many of the fathers, as Ter- 
 tullian, Origen, Ambrose, and others, denominate 
 the sacraments, — figures, shadows, similitudes, &c. 
 ]Now, as every figure, shadow, and similitude, has 
 its respective original, when this is received those 
 
DOCTRINE OF BAPTISMS. 35 
 
 are no longer needed, as, says the Apostle, " When 
 that which is perfect is come, then that which is 
 in part shall be done away " [1 Cor. xiii.] As 
 many as have been brought nnto Jesus, these live 
 no longer under the ceremonial law, but under "the 
 gospel of Christ, which is the power of Grod unto 
 salvation to every one that believeth " [Eom. i.] 
 We believe in Christ and him crucified, but we do 
 not require, as some men would persuade us, the sign 
 of the cross to remind us of his sacrifice, and we may 
 very well dispense with the similitude of a Jewish 
 ordinance as a memorial of him, and those who sin- 
 cerely desire to experience the inward washing of 
 regeneration need not the outward application of 
 water, which is not promoted or perfected, much 
 less conferred thereby. These outward ordinances 
 Jesus came to fulfil and take out of the way. 
 
 " Rev. Henry Hammond," chaplain to King 
 Charles I., in his Annotations on the New Testa- 
 ment,* says — " Water is the only original that John 
 used after the Jewish manner j but Christ was to 
 send down the Holy Spirit from heaven." He 
 adds, — " And is not Christ the end of ceremonies, 
 types, figures, and shadows ? John's water baptism, 
 as all the shadows of Moses, were to endure but 
 for a time, for as all the prophets were unto John, 
 
 * Acknowledged by biblical scholars to be a work " of uncom- 
 mon merit." 
 
 3)2 
 
36 THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, AKD 
 
 so Jolm was until Christ; and Christ, by Ms internal 
 washing — the laver of regeneration — not only ful- 
 filled and ended Moses' laver, but John's Jordan- 
 washing, by fulfilling inwardly that which they 
 represented outwardly." This is quite true, but the 
 sectarian and opposing creeds of men's invention are 
 the bane of religious liberty. 
 
 That there are those who feel this yoke of sub- 
 scription to confessions of faith too heavy to be 
 borne, is frequently manifested ; one instance may 
 be here mentioned of a sermon recently delivered 
 at Oxford by the Dean of Christchurch, quite at 
 variance with much of the doctrine which is pro- 
 mulgated from that ancient seat of learning. The 
 enlightened and learned preacher boldly affirmed 
 that "rites and ceremonies, instituted for those 
 special purposes which no longer exist, are all 
 abolished, but moral obligations are perpetuated ; 
 and that the external symbols of Christianity itself 
 might, in like manner, be done away, but goodness, 
 righteousness, mercy, and love to Grod and man 
 remain." In conclusion the preacher observed, that 
 " John baptized with water (a dull inactive ele- 
 ment), but Jesus Christ baptized his followers with 
 the Holy Ghost and with fire." 
 
 To return to the work before us. The Doctor's 
 assertion that the Apostolic churches were to be 
 models for churches in all future ages, or what the 
 Apostles did are examples for us to follow, must 
 
D0CTEI1N-E OF BAPTISMS. 37 
 
 be taken with large limitations. If the ancient 
 churches had been perfect, would the Apostle Paul 
 so frequently and so severely have reprimanded 
 them, particularly the church of Corinth, while 
 that of Gralatia he represents as being "bewitched." 
 According to the Apostle John there were few of 
 the seven churches of Asia so perfect as to be 
 safely regarded as models for others. One had 
 left her first love — another had those who held 
 false doctrine, or were wretched and miserable and 
 poor and blind. 
 
 Neither was the scripture biography of the 
 Apostles written altogether for our imitation, but 
 for our instruction and our warning too. In the 
 history of these good men, we find that Paul and 
 Barnabas, when travelling in the work of the 
 ministry, disagreed at Autioch on the choice of 
 a companion, and so sharp was the contention 
 between them that they could no longer walk 
 together [Acts xv.] Two others of the Apostles 
 were sharply reproved for wishing to call down fire 
 from heaven to destroy those who had refused to 
 receive their Lord [Luke ix.] Again, when the 
 Apostle Peter, from natural affection for his master, 
 was moved by Satan to desire unwittingly to frus- 
 trate the scheme of man's redemption, our Lord 
 rebuked him, for in this thing he was an offence to 
 
38 THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND 
 
 him, " not savouring the things which are of Grod, 
 but those which be of men " [Matt, xvi.] 
 
 And again, when the same Apostle drew his 
 sword to defend his master against his enemies, he 
 commanded him, with tokens of displeasure, to put 
 it up [Matt, xxvi.] More than this, we may read 
 in the history of the Apostles, that one of them 
 sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver; another 
 denied his master three several times, declaring 
 with an oath that he knew no such person; and 
 when Christ was betrayed into the hands of his 
 enemies, his disciples all forsook him and fled. 
 Besides these remarkable instances in the conduct 
 of the Apostles, which are clearly not examples for 
 us to follow but to avoid, we find many things on 
 sacred record which go to prove that there was 
 much of Judaism mixed with the doctrines of the 
 new and better covenant, in their practice not to 
 be imitated by us. So anxious were the Apostles 
 to convince the Jews, and to obtain from them a 
 public confession that Jesus was the promised 
 Messiah, that beyond this, for fear of giving of" 
 fence, they insisted on but very few immediate 
 changes from their ancient customs, to which a 
 great number of that people most pertinaciously 
 and fondly adhered ; for instance, when Paul was 
 at Lystra he took Timothy and circumcised him, 
 because of the Jews who were in those parts [Acts 
 
DOCTBIKE OF BAPTISMS. 39 
 
 xvi.] ; and when he came to Jerusalem, the Apostle 
 James (who was accounted as a pillar in the 
 church), with the elders there assembled, advised 
 Paul to perform certain Jewish ceremonies publicly 
 in the Temple because of the Jews, of whom there 
 were many thousands in that city who were be- 
 lievers, but all of them zealous for the law of 
 Moses [Acts xxi.] The Apostle Peter, when at 
 Antioch, withdrew himself from the Grentile con- 
 verts because of the Jews, who had lately come 
 down from Jerusalem, for which dissimulation Paul 
 " withstood him to his face" [Gral. ii.] ; and there 
 is but little doubt, that for the same reason 
 the Apostles baptised their converts with water 
 because of the Jews, who had long been accustomed 
 to the ceremony of baptising their Proselytes. So 
 zealous was Paul in converting the Jews to the foun- 
 dation of the Christian religion, that when he wrote 
 to the Corinthians, he determined to know nothing 
 among them, save Jesus Christ and him crucified ; 
 but with regard to their ancient customs, he con- 
 fessed that unto the Jews he became as a Jew that 
 he might gain the Jews, to them that are under the 
 law, as under the law himself, that he might gain 
 them that are under the law. To the weak he 
 became as weak himself, that he might gain the 
 weak. He was made all things to all men, that 
 he might by all means save some [1 Cor. ix.] ; and 
 
40 THE OEIGZN", HISTORY, A2TD 
 
 when he was at Rome some years after his conver- 
 sion, he assured the Jews of that city he had com- 
 mitted nothing against the customs of their fathers 
 [Acts xxviii.] Here surely is sufficient evidence 
 to prove that " the notion of a concession of the 
 Apostles to Jewish prejudice," is not, as the Doctor 
 affirms, " wholly gratuitous," much less is it 
 " absolutely false." 
 
 Eightly to appreciate the conduct and practice of 
 the Apostles, we should not forget that, although 
 heralds of a new and better covenant than that of 
 Moses, yet they were all Jews by birth and educa- 
 tion, habits and inclination, and they were men. 
 
 It is quite evident from these and other circum- 
 stances, that the Apostles regarded the abrogation 
 of the old covenant and the introduction of the new, 
 as a progressive work not in the nature of things to 
 be immediately adopted in all its parts, but as the 
 people were able to receive it. " If," said our 
 blessed Lord, " If I be lifted up from the earth, I 
 will draw all men unto me" [John xii.] Not 
 immediately, or in one age of the world, but when 
 the time shall have been fulfilled in the counsels of 
 the Most High. 
 
 These instances which have been adduced in the 
 lives of the Apostles are sufficient to prove that they 
 were by nature subject to the like infirmities of 
 others, and not always examples for our imitation. 
 
DOCTBnTE OE BAPTISMS. 41 
 
 This view of their conduct does not, however, 
 invalidate their testimonies and doctrines, for when 
 they spake and wrote, being moved thereto by the 
 Holy Grhost, then they were no longer fallible, but 
 unerring teachers of the pure principles of the new 
 covenant dispensation, "When divested of this holy 
 unction, they became weak as other men. Christ 
 alone is our safe leader and perfect pattern. He 
 still teaches, by his own Holy Spirit, as man never 
 taught. 
 
 In dismissing this passing notice of a learned and 
 elaborate work in defence of the sacraments, we are 
 glad to unite with the author in the conclusion at 
 which he has arrived, anything to the contrary he may 
 have expressed notwithstanding, — viz : " In every 
 place, and not exclusively in one or two hallowed 
 spots, and without any ceremonial observance, every 
 worshipper who presents the offering of a true and 
 sincere heart is acceptable to G-od." 
 
 To this Grospel doctrine we sincerely respond, but 
 we are not able to reconcile it with the necessity of 
 a perpetual observance of the outward ordinances 
 called Sacraments, which it is the author's purpose 
 to support and defend. 
 
42 THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 MODE OF BAPTISM IN THE EAKLY CHURCHES GENERALLY BY IM- 
 MERSION, NOT BY SPRINKLING — THOSE ONLY BAPTIZED WHO 
 WERE CAPABLE OP GIVING A REASON FOR THEIR FAITH ; CON- 
 SEQUENTLY NOT INFANTS — VARIOUS ABSURD PRACTICES AND 
 OPINIONS REGARDING WATER BAPTISM VERY EARLY TROUBLED 
 THE PRIMITIVE CHURCHES. 
 
 There is no doubt that, at an early period of the 
 church, in the Apostles' days, and for some years 
 afterwards, baptism, as its name implies, was gene- 
 rally administered by immersion or dipping, and by 
 John and his disciples altogether so ; yet there is 
 ground for the opinion, that affusion, or some other 
 speedy ablution, was sometimes resorted to by the 
 disciples of Jesus, probably according to circum- 
 stances of convenience ; besides which, there is 
 reason for believing that the disciples had regard to 
 the Jewish form, baptizing their proselytes by 
 pouring or washing, and not always after the man- 
 ner of the Baptist, by immersion or by dipping. 
 
 John's baptizing stations were selected " because 
 there was much water there." Not so the disciples ; 
 when itinerating through the country, they must 
 have been frequently at a distance from such accom- 
 
DOCTRINE OF BAPTISMS. 43 
 
 modations. The vast number of their converts, time 
 and place, and the want of sufficient water in many- 
 localities where they travelled, must have rendered 
 it impracticable always to submerse every individual. 
 The following instances from Scripture history 
 favours this conjecture : 
 
 Although John baptized a great multitude, even 
 from Jerusalem and all Judea, and people from the 
 region round about Jordan, yet the disciples of Jesus 
 baptized more than John [John iv.] Again, they 
 that received the word at the mouth of Peter were 
 baptized, and the same day were added to the church 
 about three thousand souls [Acts ii.] And again, 
 when Paul was a prisoner at Philippi, the jailer 
 and all his house were straightway baptized, and 
 this ablution appears to have been performed in 
 the night [Acts xvi.] Surely here is evidence 
 for doubting that these persons were all immersed. 
 
 Soon after the Apostles had been removed from 
 their labours, there arose great discord in opinion, 
 and contrariety of practice, in regard to water bap- 
 tism. This may partly be accounted for by the 
 circumstance, that the several bishops of Asia and 
 Africa acted independently of each other in their 
 respective dioceses ; but after the pope's power 
 came to be acknowledged, he had a control over 
 their proceedings and their doctrine. 
 
 Justin Martyr, a christian philosopher (a.d. 166), 
 
44 THE OBKOT, HISTORY, AND 
 
 says it was a practice in his day to baptize adults, 
 but not until they had given a satisfactory confes- 
 sion of their faith. He also informs us there was at 
 first no limitation as to time or place of baptism, 
 but in any place where there was a sufficiency of 
 water, whether ponds, lakes, or rivers, the ceremony 
 was performed ; but some were not satisfied without 
 going to the Jordan itself to be baptized, which the 
 Emperor Constantine designed to do, but was dis- 
 appointed of the opportunity ; and Eusebius (280) 
 informs us, that at Bethabara, where John had bap- 
 tized, there was a place standing in his day where 
 people were accustomed to resort for baptism. 
 
 According to Tertullian (216), baptism was gene- 
 rally performed by the bishop, and sometimes, with 
 his permission, by priests or deacons, and in cases 
 of great urgency, by laymen. He adds, " But under 
 no pretence of necessity whatever was it deemed 
 lawful for a woman to administer it." It was, how- 
 ever practised in some churches by females, although 
 not generally deemed an orthodox baptism. Ter- 
 tullian, and others of his time, vehemently opposed 
 the baptizing of infants and the use of sprinkling ; 
 by which we infer it was then beginning to be prac- 
 tised, but persons who had only been sprinkled were 
 deemed ineligible for " holy orders." 
 
 In modern times, Bishop Taylor, Dr. Whitby, and 
 other " divines " of the English church, have pro- 
 tested against the custom of sprinkling infants for 
 
DOCTEINE OF BAPTISM. 45 
 
 baptism ; and a considerable class of Protestant 
 dissenters continue to this day tbe ancient form of 
 immersion, without, however, attributing sanctity to 
 the rite itself, but from a misapprehension, as we 
 believe, that Christ commanded it. 
 
 The sect called Dunkers, of North America, bap- 
 tize with three distinct immersions ; at the first 
 plunge, the minister pronounces " the name of the 
 Father ;" at the second, " the name of the Son;" 
 and at the third " the name of the Holy Ghost." 
 The Methodists of the United States, with much 
 liberality, baptize all who require it, be he of this 
 religion or of that, and the applicant is allowed to 
 choose his own form, whether by sprinkling, by affu- 
 sion, or by immersion ; but they do not appear to 
 attach any purpose to the rite, except as they erro- 
 neously believe it is commanded, and therefore they 
 adopt it; but the commands of Christ have their 
 respective designs, all have some Grospel purpose, 
 none are without an ulterior object — the glory of 
 G-od or the good of mankind. 
 
 " Hev. Joseph Mede," a man of extraordinary 
 research, a member of the University of Cam- 
 bridge, and a friend of Archbishop Usher, writes 
 thus : — " There was no such thing as sprinkling or 
 rantism* used in the Apostles' days, nor for 
 
 * Rantism, from the Greek Rantismos — Sprinkling. So, 
 Baptism from Baptismos— Dip-ping. 
 
46 THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, A1TD 
 
 many years after them ; * to sprinkle young or old 
 and call it baptism is incongruous.", 
 
 Calvin says expressly, that infant baptism is not 
 mentioned by any of the Evangelists, and in this 
 opinion Luther agrees. Baxter, although defending 
 the practice, is brought to the conclusion that in- 
 fant baptism is not plainly determined by scripture; 
 and Dr. Jeremy Taylor, in his out-spoken manner, 
 says, " It is against the perpetual analogy of 
 Christ's baptism to baptize infants;" "Christ," 
 he adds, " gave no such command, neither did he 
 or his Apostles baptize any of them." Bellar- 
 min, a learned Jesuit and Cardinal of Rome, 
 admits that there is neither command or example 
 in scripture for infants' baptism, but justifies the 
 practice from the imaginary catalogue of Aposto- 
 lical traditions. 
 
 Samuel Fisher, M.A., once a clergyman and the 
 incumbent of Lydd, in Kent, forsook the church 
 and its emoluments for conscience' sake, and wrote 
 largely and vehemently against what he calls 
 " Babeism," or " Eantism," and in defence of 
 Immersion (1654). This controversial work of 
 630 pages in folio, is perhaps the largest that 
 was ever written in defence of the doctrine of 
 the people called Baptists. Neither did he rest 
 
 r * This must be received as not without instances of exception 
 to a general practice. 
 
DOCTBINE OF BAPTISMS. 47 
 
 here, for lie soon found he had but escaped from 
 one form to plunge into another. 
 
 At an early period of the church, baptism was 
 administered to adults only, and not until they 
 were capable of giving some account of their faith, 
 " and I wish," adds Zuinglius, " this custom were 
 in use in our days." A few instances of adult 
 baptism in the times of the fathers, may be quoted 
 from Erasmus, Grrotius, and others. 
 
 Ambrose was not baptized until he was elected 
 Bishop of Milan. JNectorious was made Bishop of 
 Constantinople before he was baptized. Gregory 
 Nazianzen, Jerome, Chrysostome, and others are 
 stated to have received baptism after they had 
 attained to manhood. Augustine, in compliance 
 with his mother's desire, was not baptized until he 
 was about thirty years of age, but afterwards, when 
 he became Bishop of Hippo, he advocated infant 
 baptism to a fearful extent. Many persons in 
 those days postponed their baptism until sickness 
 or old age reminded them that they had not 
 long to live; they hoped by this precaution to 
 have all the sins of their past life washed away 
 at one time; had they received baptism at an 
 earlier period they might have failed to retain that 
 purity which they believed the water had power to 
 confer upon them. 
 
 At a very early period water baptism was taught 
 
48 THE OBI GIN, HISTOBY, AKT> 
 
 to be so necessary to salvation, that a form of bap- 
 tism was invented for the dead. When a person died 
 unbaptized, it was considered so fearful a state to 
 be left in, that it was usual for another to per- 
 sonate him. The substitute from under the bed 
 whereon the deceased lay, answered the questions 
 put by the priest; the dead man was then bap- 
 tized, and this was taught to be the means of 
 saving his soul in the day of resurrection. Eras- 
 mus, after relating this practice, quaintly remarks, 
 " These men's faith I allow, but their doings I 
 allow not." It is supposed by some writers, that 
 the Apostle Paul alludes to this custom, when, rea- 
 soning with the Corinthians on the doctrine of the 
 resurrection, he appeals to their own practice in 
 these words, " If the dead rise not at all, what 
 shall they do who are baptized for the dead ? 
 Why are they then baptized for the dead?" 
 [1 Cor. xv.] * 
 
 In the 49th Apostolical Canon, an ancient book 
 of discipline of the church, it was decreed, that if 
 any bishop or priest should baptize other than by 
 three immersions, as a symbol of the Trinity, he 
 should be condemned; but the council of Toledo 
 ordained that one immersion only should be used as 
 expressive of the unity of the Godhead. Another 
 
 * Dr. Doddridge and some other commentators, were of opinion 
 that this practice was not known so early, but all admit the fact. 
 
DOCTBINE OE BAPTISMS. 49 
 
 more early record imputes to baptism the following 
 effects in these words : " We go down into the water 
 full of sin and filth, but we come up with fruit and 
 benefit in our hearts." Dr. Wake makes Barnabas, 
 once the companion of the Apostle Paul, to be the 
 author of this ancient manuscript. If this be so, 
 then those two eminent ministers of the Gospel 
 must have differed in judgment on the subject of 
 water baptism, as they certainly did in their choice of 
 a travelling companion [Acts xv.] 
 
 There was a jealous fear in those days, lest the 
 efficacy of water baptism should be lost to the re- 
 cipient, from its not having been administered in 
 the proper manner, or by the hands of a duly autho- 
 rized agent ; and because many persons had been 
 baptized by bishops, or deacons, or presbyters, 
 who afterwards were proved to be unsound in the 
 faith, a famous controversy arose (253) between 
 Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, and Stephen, Bishop 
 of Rome, on the validity of such a baptism, and 
 the necessity, or otherwise, of its being repeated by 
 orthodox hands. So sharp was the contention be- 
 tween these prelates, that they bandied to and fro 
 epithets of no reverend a character. Whilst Stephen 
 called his opponent false Christ, false prophet, 
 deceitful worker, and other opprobrious names, 
 Cyprian retorted, charging Stephen with pride, im- 
 pertinence, self-contradiction, obstinacy, and other 
 
 E 
 
50 THE OEIGLN", HISTOEY, AND 
 
 reflections ill suited to the sacerdotal character. 
 This perplexing question was at length decided in 
 the affirmative, in a synod of eighty-seven bishops, 
 summoned to discuss the doubtful point at Carthage. 
 Another difficulty arose about this time, which was 
 referred to Cyprian by one of his deacons, whether 
 a man had been truly baptized, who, by reason of 
 weakness had not been immersed, washed or dipped, 
 but only sprinkled, or had water poured upon him. 
 
 The same bishop had previously allowed his clergy, 
 in the case of weakly infants and bed-ridden persons, 
 to use sprinkling, and this appears to have origi- 
 nated the practice of baptizing infants by sprinkling, 
 which, being a more convenient form, was sometimes 
 adopted in Cyprian's diocese, for it was not long 
 ere this good bishop had to decide a question which 
 had occasioned some perplexity to his people — 
 whether a child should be baptized on the eighth 
 day, as in circumcision, or at an earlier period, which 
 some had adopted. Although infant baptism had 
 been thus partially introduced, it did not become 
 general throughout the churches until some years 
 afterwards, for we find that, in 389, Pope Siricus 
 issued his decree that baptism should only be ad- 
 ministered twice in the year, at Easter and at Pen- 
 tecost ; this could hardly allude to infant baptism, 
 probably either form was occasionally adopted. 
 
 Pope Hyginus, formerly a philosopher of Athens, 
 
DOCTEINE OP BAPTISMS. 51 
 
 who lived in the second century, is said to have 
 established an office under the profane term of 
 " Godfather and Godmother," by which it would 
 appear that infant baptism, after some mode or 
 other, was allowed at that early period, although 
 not generally esteemed as a sound practice. 
 
 When men became dissatisfied with the simpli- 
 city of the institution of baptism, they began to 
 add divers rites, which they thought would more 
 significantly shadow forth the grace therein be- 
 stowed. Hence arose the ceremony of unction, of 
 signing with the cross, and imposition of hand3. 
 According to one of the early fathers, the flesh is 
 washed that the soul may be cleansed ; the flesh is 
 anointed that the soul may be consecrated; the 
 flesh is signed that the soul may be justified ; the 
 flesh is overshadowed with the imposition of hands, 
 that the soul may be enlightened by the Spirit. 
 
 Great diversity and confusion in practice, and 
 many absurd notions about baptism, began now to 
 overspread Christianity, some of which, but for 
 the priests who held the people in subjection, and 
 profited by the ceremony, must have brought the 
 rite itself into contempt with all reflecting people ; 
 as for instance : — About this time they gave milk 
 and honey (infant's food) to the newly baptized, to 
 signify that they were new-born babes. Some bap- 
 tized or sprinkled old people on their death-beds — i 
 
 e 2 
 
52 THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, AJSV 
 
 some baptized people in their more early age when 
 they were capable of being cateehized — some began 
 to sprinkle children — some baptized or sprinkled 
 people after they were dead — some baptized the 
 living for the dead — some baptized the unborn child 
 — some made a cross on the forehead with a burning 
 iron, and called it Christ's baptism with fire — some 
 were baptized every year — all assuming their prac- 
 tice to be Christ's ordinance. Zuinglius, in taking 
 notice of this confusion, adds, " I must ingenuously 
 confess, that almost all who have written on bap- 
 tism, even from the very times of the Apostles, have 
 erred from the truth." The ancients were wont to 
 put a white garment on the person baptized, to de- 
 note his having put off the lusts of the flesh, and, 
 cleansed from his former sins, had now obliged him- 
 self to maintain a life of innocency . They were accus- 
 tomed to wear these white garments for the space 
 of a week, and then lay them by in the church, that 
 they might be kept as a witness against them, 
 should they ever violate the baptismal covenant. 
 The Sunday after Easter, when they put off their 
 white garments, was called Whit-Sunday, as the day 
 of Pentecost, was likewise called Whit-Sunday, on 
 the like occasion. 
 
 Dr. Trapp, a learned clergyman, who died in 1747, 
 when commenting on Col. ii. 2, remarks : " It was 
 a custom, in the primitive church, for the person 
 
DOCTBimE OP BAPTISMS. 53 
 
 about to be baptized to clothe himself in old gar- 
 ments, which he then put off, and upon coming out 
 of the water he put on new clothes ; this signifying, 
 that having been baptized with water, he had put 
 off the filthy rags of unrighteousness, and clothed 
 himself in the garments of salvation. 
 
 One Gulielmus, a Eoman Catholic, taught, that 
 the form of baptism should be thus: " I baptize 
 thee in the name of the Father, of the Son, of the 
 Holy Ghost, and of the blessed Virgin Mary." 
 
 At a synod held at Paris, one of the bishops 
 present expressed himself in these words : — " Let 
 baptism be celebrated with reverence, and let the 
 priest be very cautious in the distinction and pro- 
 nunciation of words, in which all the virtue of the 
 sacrament and the salvation of children consists." 
 
 And when an illiterate priest had pronounced 
 false Latin over a child which he baptized, it occa- 
 sioned very serious apprehension, that through this 
 lapse, the salvation of the infant might be rendered 
 insecure. Bishop Bonafacius contended the baptism 
 was invalid, and that the child must be re-baptised ; 
 but at length it was decided by the Pope that this 
 was true baptism, notwithstanding the false Latin. 
 
 About the year 400, Augustine, then Bishop of 
 Hippo, in Africa, promulgated the horrid doctrine, 
 that the souls of infants dying unbaptized were lost 
 to all eternitv ; and it is imputed to him, the saying, 
 
54 THE OKI GIF, HISTOBY, AKD 
 
 that " in hell are multitudes of unbaptized infants 
 only a span long." In direct opposition this to 
 the words of Christ regarding little children, " Of 
 such are the kingdom of heaven ;" jet this frightful 
 dogma spread like wild-fire throughout the African 
 churches, for Augustine was regarded as a father of 
 the church, and in due course canonized as a saint 
 in the Eomish calendar. 
 
 So eager were people to have their children bap- 
 tized, and so willing were the priests to turn a 
 penny, that a form or ceremony, instead of the use 
 of water, was invented for the unborn babe. When 
 by reason of the mother's weakness she was not 
 likely to survive the pains of parturition, certain 
 words were pronounced over her by the priest, and 
 the child in her womb was declared baptized, and 
 consequently saved. 
 
 He that professes to confer regeneration by the 
 outward application of water, deceives the credu- 
 lous, robs Grod of his honour, and commits a sacri- 
 lege, like him who pretends to absolve his fellow- 
 men from their sins, past, present, and to come. 
 
 Jacob Behmen, a German writer of the mystic 
 school (1612), saith, " Water baptism is an oath 
 which man sweareth to Grod when he renounceth 
 the devil, and giveth himself up to God for his own 
 proper Temple. And though the child under- 
 standeth not this, yet the baptizer, as also the 
 
DOCTEINE OP BAPTISMS. 55 
 
 parents and witnesses, should understand it, and 
 introduce their faith into the child's will, and so, 
 together, plunge or sink down with this oath into 
 G-od's covenant." He adds, " it is a dangerous 
 thing to baptize children without the faith of the 
 parents, and the rest that are present at the work." 
 
 Much after the same manner writes Richard 
 Baxter, one of the Chaplains to King Charles II. 
 (1660), but acknowledged to be a Nonconformist 
 divine ; he says, and that without doubting, " Chil- 
 dren have faith in the hearts of their parents or 
 sponsors : they believe by the faith of their parents, 
 and therefore ought to be baptized." 
 
 To recount all the inconsistencies and extrava- 
 gant views on the meaning and form of water bap- 
 tism which disgraced the early ages of Christianity, 
 and to repeat every modern contradiction on the 
 subject, would nil a volume. 
 
 Even in the Apostles' days there were many 
 Antichrists in the world [John i.] ; men who taught 
 doctrines opposed to Christ, and who sought to turn 
 aside the weak in faith from the simplicity of the 
 G-ospel, saying to the newly converted, " Te must 
 be circumcised," or, " Ye must be baptized," " and 
 observe the customs of the Jews." 
 
 Well might the Apostle Paul abandon water bap- 
 tism as he did, and thank Grod that he had not 
 introduced more than a very few persons into that 
 
56 THE OKI GIN, HISTORY, AND 
 
 dangerous delusion. No doubt he had a good reason 
 for expressing himself after that solemn manner, 
 as these pages do abundantly witness. 
 
 Here let us pause awhile and query with our- 
 selves. Can that be an institution of our Lord's 
 appointing which is liable to so many doubts, and 
 gross imaginations and opinions, and, be it remem- 
 bered, by men neither scoffers or infidels ; but it 
 may be presumed, many of them, although dark 
 and ignorant and misled, yet sincerely desirous o f 
 following Christ in the way of his requirings. 
 
 In the night of apostacy, when men slept, the 
 enemy scattered his tares. 
 
 Dr. Birch,* the learned biographer of Archbishop 
 Tillotson, has these sensible remarks in his preface 
 to that work : " Protestantism can be nothing less 
 than a renouncing the religion of man's contrivance . 
 and a returning to the religion which Grod has re- 
 vealed in the Bible, and when we have done so 
 we shall be qualified to take up the work of the 
 Reformers, and to complete it with a happier suc- 
 cess." Truly, the reformation has left much to be 
 reformed. 
 
 * " Rev. Thomas Birch, DD.," was horn in London in the year 
 1705, and had his education among the Society of Friends, of 
 which his parents were members. He wrote several works of 
 merit. After qualifying for clerical orders in 1730, he obtained 
 several preferments in the establishment. 
 
DOCTEIKE OF BAPTISMS. 57 
 
 CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE FATHERS— THE DOCTRINE OF BAPTISM, AS 
 HELD BY THE CHURCHES OF ROME AND OF ENGLAND BRIEFLY 
 
 STATED THE ONE ONLY TRUE BAPTISM, THE BAPTISM OF 
 
 CHRIST, ASSERTED — THE OPINION OF ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON AND 
 DR. CUMMING, ADAPTED TO THE PRESENT TIMES — CONCLUSION. 
 
 Ecclesiastical writers reckon upwards of thirty 
 fathers of the first four centuries after the Apostles' 
 days. They have been described as persons " exer- 
 cising themselves in the conscientious practice of 
 human, social, and divine virtues.* There is no 
 doubt many of them were men of great humility, 
 and not a few of them and their contemporaries 
 suffered grievous persecution, and made large sacri- 
 fices, even of life itself, in stedfastly maintaining 
 their faith in one only Grod, and Jesus Christ the 
 Saviour of men, as the true and only object of divine 
 worship, in opposition to pagan idolatry, with which 
 they were surrounded. 
 
 Many of the Eathers were men of liberal educa- 
 tion, and well versed in the pagan arts and sciences, 
 * Biographia Ecclesiastica. 
 
58 THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, &KD 
 
 of which rhetoric and persuasive eloquence formed 
 a principal feature. Some of them, before their 
 conversion, had been professors and teachers of the 
 several branches of philosophy (falsely so called) in 
 the academies and other seats of learning, both in 
 Asia and Africa, with great reputation and eclat, 
 and not a few were of high families and great in- 
 fluence. 
 
 Notwithstanding the general purity and piety of 
 the lives of the early Fathers, yet when they em- 
 braced Christianity, they brought with them a large 
 portion of those pagan fancies in which they had 
 been educated ; and being mixed with some impor- 
 tant truths of the Gospel, as well as ceremonies 
 borrowed from the rituals of the Jews, these ill- 
 assorted articles of belief spread with fearful rapidity 
 throughout those countries wherever Christianity 
 had a name. Even in the present day, it is not hard 
 to perceive among Christian professors many relics 
 of idolatry, superstition, and fanaticism, which the 
 reformers of the sixteenth century were unwilling, 
 or unable, entirely to remove out of the church. 
 
 The cloud which began to rise above the horizon 
 soon after the death of Christ, and to obscure the 
 simplicity of the Grospel as he left it, had spread 
 wider and darker, when the Emperor Constantine 
 first professed Christianity, and consented to forsake 
 Paganism, in which he had been educated [330]. 
 
DOCTBOTE OP BAPTISMS. 59 
 
 Then the idolatrous priests flocked in numbers 
 to the Koyal Standard of the Cross, and prayed to 
 be put into the priest's office in the new religion, 
 the religion of the state, " that they might eat a 
 piece of bread." 
 
 It is not hard to conceive how this state of things 
 inevitably brought on that midnight darkness of 
 apostacy which covered the people in the mid-ages 
 of Christianity, still professing the pure religion of 
 Jesus. 
 
 Hegesippus, a converted Jew (157), wrote some 
 account of the Christian church down to his own 
 time. Fragments of this history have been pre- 
 served by Eusebius, who quotes the following pas- 
 sage on the early and gradual corruption of the 
 church. "While the apostles lived," he says, " the 
 church continued a pure and undefiled virgin ; but 
 after the sacred company of the Apostles was by 
 various kinds of death become extinct, and the 
 generation of men who were accounted worthy to hear 
 with their own ears the Divine "Wisdom, was gone, 
 then the conspiracy of impious errors took its rise 
 from the deceit of false teachers. These, at length, 
 did attempt, with a bare face, to preach up know- 
 ledge (falsely so called) in opposition to the doctrine 
 of truth." This apostacy continued to spread wider 
 and deeper long after the time of Hegesippus, and 
 
60 THE OBI GIF, HISTORY, AtfD 
 
 we find Gregory Nazianzen (360), in one of his 
 orations, describing the fearful state of religious 
 frenzy in his day. He says — " Who can represent 
 the tragical affairs of the church ! Priests armed 
 against priests, and one part of the people furiously 
 assaulting another." This difference of opinion 
 and spirit of contention is far from being amicably 
 set at rest in the present day, and must continue 
 to be the case whilst men consent to take their faith 
 from the lips and the pens of fallible and contrary 
 teachers, instead of searching the scriptures for 
 themselves, under the influence of a measure of that 
 divine light in which they were given forth, and 
 which continues to enlighten every man that cometh 
 into the world [John i.] 
 
 Descending the scale of time, we find, as history 
 informs us, that the Pope and his bishops, who met 
 in council at the city of Trent in Germany, had 
 several sittings on church affairs [1545 — 1563], and 
 after much angry discussion on the subject of sacra- 
 ments, they decreed that seven was the proper num- 
 ber to be observed, which they enjoined on the 
 Christian church under certain pains and penalties. 
 Of this bequest the reformers of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury accepted two, water baptism and the supper 
 oi bread and wine. By this authority, and after 
 this manner, these two institutions, both of Jewish 
 
DOCTBINE OF BAPTISMS. 61 
 
 origin, came to be recognized by Protestants under 
 tbe name of sacraments.* 
 
 It is probable that, about this period, water bap- 
 tism began to be denominated a Christian ordinance. 
 This high-sounding appellation no doubt induced 
 many persons to embrace it, without further inquiry, 
 as an imperative obligation. There is, however, no 
 authority in the New Testament for denominating 
 water baptism an ordinance of the Christian church; 
 it can only be regarded as one of those Jewish 
 ordinances which Christ removed out of the way, 
 nailing them to his cross ; these being against us, 
 and contrary to us, in the Grospel dispensation, 
 and not to be resumed under the like or any other 
 form [Col. ii. 14]. 
 
 In glancing at modern times, we find baptism very 
 generally administered by sprinkling of infants, when 
 the minister, addressing the babe, uses the following 
 form :f " I baptize thee in the name of the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Grhost ;" but when the apostles used 
 water baptism, as has been before noticed, they did 
 not adopt those words (but "the name of Jesus "), 
 
 * The word Sacrament (or its synonyme) is not found in Holy- 
 Scripture, but appears to have been adopted into the Christian 
 church from pagan Rome. According to Livy, Cicero, Horace, 
 and others, it was the term of a military oath formerly in use in 
 the Eoman legions. 
 
 + There is a comparatively small exception to this practice — 
 some professors immerse adults. 
 
62 THE OBI&IN, HISTOEY, AKT> 
 
 which they undoubtedly would have done had Christ 
 commanded it. Zuinglius, Piscator and others, ob- 
 serve, that " divines have hitherto falsely taught, 
 that Christ instituted those words to be used in 
 water baptism." How should he, seeing that he 
 never acknowledged the rite itself as an essential 
 part of his service ? 
 
 The command which our Lord gave to his dis- 
 ciples to wash each other's feet, is far more definite 
 and imperative than any injunction of his in the 
 New Testament relating to water baptism [John 
 xiii.] ; yet no one thinks of fulfilling it literally. 
 Even this simple symbol of our Lord, intended to 
 teach us humility and condescension to each other, 
 has been wrested to establish the appointment by 
 Christ of water baptism. A dignitary of the Church 
 of England has written a treatise to prove that this 
 was an example, as well as a command, to baptize 
 with water, although applied to the feet, and not to 
 the face ; and being given especially to the Apostles, 
 therefore, he says, their successors in the sacerdotal 
 line are the only authorized agents to perform it, — 
 that is, by sprinkling the face of infants.* 
 
 The Church of Rome taught, and still teaches, 
 that " by baptism we put on Christ, and are 
 thoroughly made new creatures." This is true, but 
 
 * See Dr c Pilkington, Prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral, on 
 Baptism. 
 
DOCTEINE OF BAPTISMS. bd 
 
 not of water baptism. And the Eeformed Church 
 of England holds that " in baptism a man is made a 
 member of Christ, and an inheritor of the kingdom 
 of Heaven." This also is true, but not of ivater 
 baptism. It is referred to the reader to make the 
 distinction between these articles of faith of the 
 two churches. 
 
 Notwithstanding the high and unsafe ground here 
 taken on the efficacy of water baptism, the Church 
 of England, with much liberality, admits in her 
 Book of Common Prayer, that " the particular forms 
 of divine worship, and the rites and ceremonies ap- 
 pointed to be used, are things in their own nature 
 indifferent, and may be altered." 
 
 Eut the saving baptism of the Holy Spirit never 
 changes ; it was appointed by Christ, and is the only 
 medium by which the soul of man can be purified and 
 made meet for the kingdom of Heaven. The aforesaid 
 church, when treating of ceremonies, very truly, 
 and much to the purpose acknowledges, that " The 
 gospel of Christ is not a ceremonial law as was that 
 of Moses, but it is a religion to serve God, not in 
 bondage of the figure or the shadow, but in the 
 freedom of the spirit." 
 
 John Wollebius, of Basle (1620), in his work, 
 De lege Ceremoniali, says, with much appearance of 
 truth, that the use of the ceremonial law was profit- 
 able before the death of Christ ; after his death, unto, 
 
64 THE ORIGIN, RTSTOBY, AND 
 
 the spreading abroad of the Gospel, it ^^indifferent; 
 but after the clear publishing of the Gospel, the 
 observation of ceremonies is not only unwholesome 
 and unprofitable, but deadly. Hence, Paul at the 
 beginning would have Timothy circumcised, because 
 of the weakness of the Jews ; but after the Gospel 
 was more fully preached, he would not yield to have 
 Titus circumcised. " If," said the Apostle, " ye be 
 circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing." Wol- 
 lebius further adds, — " The observance of Jewish 
 ceremonies would in this day be nothing less than a 
 denial of the coming and death of Christ ." 
 
 Archbishop Tillotson (a.d. 1670) was of the 
 judgment, that the less men's consciences were en- 
 tangled, and the less the communion of the church 
 was clogged with disputable opinions or practices, 
 the world would be the happier, conscience more 
 free, and the church the quieter. He judged that 
 the great design of Christianity was the reforming 
 of men's natures, and governing their actions, — the 
 restraining their appetites and passions, — the soften- 
 ing their tempers and sweetening their humours, — 
 and the raising their minds above the interests and 
 follies of this present world, to the hope and pur- 
 suit of endless blessedness; and he considered the 
 whole Christian doctrine as a system of principles 
 all tending to this end. This is a lesson for the times 
 we live in. Dr. Gumming, of the Scotch Church, 
 
DOCTEIKE OF BAPTISMS. 65 
 
 in his sermon preached before the Qneen, at Balmoral, 
 in 1850, delivered himself in these words : — " The 
 religion of man whose language is, ' look to me and 
 be saved ;' the religion of the priest whose language 
 is, ' look to me and be saved ;' and the religion of 
 Grod our Saviour, whose words are, ' look to me and 
 be saved.' In neither of the first two is there any 
 possibility of life. Each is a candidate for your ac- 
 ceptance, but only in the last is everlasting peace. 
 The natural man cannot save himself, and man 
 ecclesiastical is just as helpless. To bring man 
 directly to Grod, just as he is, is the grand character- 
 istic of true religion :- —to keep man from Grod, and 
 detain him with the priest, — the sacraments, — the 
 ceremony — is the grand effort of all false religions. 
 There is no regenerative virtue inherent in, or insep- 
 arable from baptism, for (outward) baptism is not 
 the Holy Spirit. There is no saving and expiatory 
 virtue in the Lord's supper, for the Lord's supper 
 (outwardly) is not the Lord Jesus Christ. "We may 
 not place baptism in the room of the Holy Spirit, 
 nor the Eucharist in the place of the Lord Jesus. 
 We must look far above and beyond them both." 
 " There's no lavation will effectual prove 
 The innate stains of nature to remove," 
 
 But,— 
 
 " The washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy- 
 Ghost." 
 
 Paul to Titus. 
 
6Q THE ORIGIN, HISTORY AND 
 
 Conclusion.] — We have now traced water bap- 
 tism to its source, and have shown that it had its 
 rise among the ancient Israelites ; that the Jews 
 baptized or washed their proselytes, but not those 
 born of Jewish parents, long before the coming of 
 Christ ; that the Apostles adopted the practice as 
 they found it in use among their countrymen — 
 they baptized their converts with water, but not the 
 
 offspring of believing parents. "We have shown 
 
 that Christ never baptized any with water himself, 
 nor commanded his followers so to do, although he 
 suffered it to be so then, as he did many other prac- 
 tices among the Jews besides, much less did he 
 institute water baptism as a perpetual ordinance in 
 his church. "We have shown the abuses and ab- 
 surdities which the doctrine of water baptism has 
 been liable to in the early ages of the church, and 
 also the divisions which exist on the subject in the 
 present day ; one crying, " Lo ! here is Christ in 
 this form ; others crying, " ]So ! — but he is there, in 
 that form." Can any language be more apposite 
 than the words of our Lord, " Go not after them, 
 nor follow them ?" [Luke xvii.] 
 
 John, the forerunner of Christ, having fulfilled his 
 mission, he and his water baptism have given place 
 to Christ and Ms baptism, which is the baptism of 
 the Holy Spirit on the souls of unregenerate men, 
 with which water has no connection. This, then, 
 
DOCTBINE OP BAPTISMS. 67 
 
 is the baptism which now saveth, and we believe 
 and are assured there is no divine authority for any 
 other in the Christian Church. 
 
 THE E^D. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 B1CHAED BAEEETT, PEINTER, MARK LANE. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 THE HISTORY AND MYSTERY 
 
 OP 
 
 THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 A SUMMARY OP THE 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND DOCTRINES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN RELIGION, 
 
 AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 
 
 A POPULAR MEMOIR OE 
 
 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. 
 
 ON SILENT WORSHIP.