meaning or spiritual design of it; and with this view, compared Rom. vi. 3, 4, with Col. ii. 12,-" Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing that our old man is crucified," &c. And in Colossians I found the same metaphor kept up-"Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." In forming a judgment of the design of the Holy Ghost in these passages, I thought it necessary to consider, first, The description or character of the persons baptized; and they are said, verse 11th, to be "circumcised with the circumcision made without hands;" which I knew not how to interpret so well of anything, as the renewing influences of the Holy Ghost; agreeably to which, they are further represented as the subjects of that faith which is of the operation of God; or, as it is elsewhere called, "precious faith," and "the faith of God's elect."-2 Pet. i. 1. Tit. i. 1. The metaphor came next under consideration. They were buried with Christ in baptism. This seemed much better to answer to immersion than sprinkling or pouring; and supposing that the faith mentioned might refer to their being buried as well as rising-this, I thought, might be the meaning of their being planted in the likeness of Christ's death: that as in the ordinance of the supper, there is a believing memorial of Christ's love in his sufferings and death; so in baptism, the saint, by an eye of faith, is called to attend to his condescension 'when imprisoned in the grave, and his glory as a conqueror in breaking the bands of death. And as the actions of breaking the bread and pouring out the wine are expressive of his agony and death; so the immersion and rising of the person baptized might refer to his burial and resurrection. I then proceeded to examine 1 Cor. vii. 14, a text I had often heard quoted as proving, if not in direct terms, yet by just consequence, the right of infants to baptism. The words are, "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean, but now are they holy." I began with the occasion of the words, aud could find nothing relating to baptism in the context. An affair evidently of another kind employed the mind of the apostle; to wit, the necessity or expediency of attending to the duties of the marriage relation, where one was a convert, and the other an infidel. This I thought was the point in view, And it is determined, that the wife is not to depart, nor the husband to put her away, unless some other circumstance should render it necessary and warrantable. And to enforce his determination of their continuing together, the apostle adds, "Else were your children unclean, but now are they holy." Here I considered, how children may be said to be unclean; and I thought, they are all so by nature, being shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin. The guilt and pollution of which, can only be removed by the blood of Christ, and the power of the Holy Ghost. As to this I could see no difference between the seed of the believers, and others; all are concluded under sin, and by nature children of wrath. I could, therefore, see no more uncleanness in one infant than in another. Upon the whole, I thought the affair settled by the apostle was wholly matrimonial; and referred to apparent legitimacy or illegitimacy. Nor could I see, on the supposition of an external sort of holiness derived to an infant from a believing parent, that we are to conclude its right to baptism without a special direction from the Lawgiver of the church.† * This led me to consider the apostle's account of Abraham, Rom. iv. 11, 12, 16. "The father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised;" and that the promise is "of faith that it might be by grace, to the end it might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all." And that "he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised." This I found insisted on to prove that Abraham's covenant was the covenant of grace, that a part of his seed were the believing Gentiles, and their offspring; and that as Abraham's children were circumcised, the children of believers should be baptized. To come at a certainty in this matter, I thought it might be proper, carefully to enquire what the covenant was which God made with Abraham : the duties required, and privileges to be enjoyed under it, the persons interested in it, and the manner of conveying and signifying that interest. The covenant I found at large in the 17th of Genesis, and it appeared to me to be of a peculiar kind; some things belonging to Abraham in his personal character, as that he should have a numerous posterity; that kings should descend from him; the making over the land of Canaan to him; and the particular honour of being the father of the Messiah according to the flesh. This part of the covenant I thought distinguishable from the covenant of grace: for I could not but see he might have all these without any special relation to God as a child, but when God promises to be his God, to bless him, and that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed; I look upon these to be promises expressive of privileges of another and more valuable kind than *The apostles did not interfere with the mode of marriage, in any of the nations they visited. They sanctioned marriage, and they never advised a breach of that contract even when one of the party became a believer. They would not do such an injustice to the offspring of the parties, and brand them as bastards. Had they done so, the profession of Christianity would have been attended by family discord; and public scorn and disgust would have been manifested towards a system so adverse to family peace and order. The whole argument of the apostle is to this effect:"Forsake not your husband; ye were married honourably, according to the custom of your country; your children are, therefore, your legitimate offspring: but if you separate from him, you bastardize them. Continue together. Pray for him." Here is nothing about Baptism; it is all about Marriage. ED. + If the baptism of infants may be justified from this passage, so may the baptism of the unbelieving husband and the unbelieving wife; for they are said to be sanctified or holy, as well as their children. any of the former. And as the covenant appeared thus to be of a mixed nature, and the blessings distinct, so I found his seed to be described very differently in scripture: sometimes intending all his natural children; sometimes the person of Christ only: and here and in other places, all his spiritual offspring, whether Jews or Gentiles. As to his children, who are only so after the flesh, they had their outward advantages: but not, as I could see, the blessings of the covenant of grace. As to Christ, it did not appear any blessing was derived from Abraham to him; but on the contrary, Abraham received the blessing in, and from the Messiah, his root as well as offspring. And as to his spiritual seed, they were all, whether Jews or Gentiles, partakers with him, of the same faith and salvation. Circumcision I thought to be a sign or badge of separation to the Jews in common, as distinguished from the Gentiles, and perhaps of regeneration to his spiritual seed: but conveyed, as I could see, no spiritual blessing to either. And I thought if the baptism of infants under the gospel was to be argued from circumcision, the apostle would certainly have given some hint of it; whereas his discourse is confined to believers, without a word of their children. That circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith to Abraham, is indeed asserted; but that it was to his natural seed, I could not suppose; at least till they had faith by the same righteousness, by which Abraham their father was justified. And the apostle seemed to explain the whole matter, Rom. ix. 6, 7, 8, "They are not all Israel, which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children;""That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Now I concluded, if this was true of the natural seed of Abraham, a believer, certainly it could be no less so of the offspring of Gentile believers. As to the privileges of the 'Jews above the Gentiles, the apostle is express, that unto them pertained "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises,"-"aud of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever:" (Rom ix. 4, 5,) or agreeable to what he before had said, when putting the question, "What advantage then hath the Jew, or what profit is there of circumcision ?" He "Much every way; chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles of God." So that it evidently appeared the church of the Jews had its glory, but as the same apostle tell us, (2 Cor. iii. 10, 11,) this had "no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious." That is, as I understood it, all the carnal part of Jewish glory was swallowed up, and utterly set aside by the simplicity, spirituality, and liberty of the Gospel dispensation: and as it was formerly, all were not Israel which were of Israel; "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God." Rom. ii. 28, 29. answers, I then proceeded to consider the excision of the Jews, and the taking in of the Gentiles, recorded Rom. xi. 15, 16, 17, in which, though there is no express mention of baptism, or of the baptism of infants, yet I found often produced as declarative of a federal holiness, conveyed from parents to children, in consequence of which they might, yea ought, to be baptized. The words of the text are, "For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy and if the root be holy, so are the branches, and if some of the branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree," &c. That converted Gentiles stand on a level with believing Jews, I had already seen. That the peculiar form of the Jewish church was abolished at the death of Christ, I found generally acknowledged, it being the ministration which was to be done away, to make room for that which was to remain : so that I could not tell how to conceive of the Gospel church incorporated with the Jewish, they being always represented as distinct, or distinguishable the one from the other. By the root then I understood Abraham. By the branches his natural offspring. By the wild olive the Gentiles in a natural state; who upon receiving the grace of God became the spiritual branches of Abraham the father of the faithful; and were equally interested, with his believing natural branches, in all the special privileges of the covenant of grace. This I thought to be the most natural sense of the text; nor could I see how this could have any relation to baptism, whether of adults or infants. The next reference to baptism I found, I Cor. x. 1, 2. "I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses, in the cloud and in the sea.' To understand this, I thought it proper to enquire into the fact, as recorded by Moses, which I thought would give light to the allusion. And in Exodus xiv. 19, we are told "the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them, and it came between the camp of the Egyptians, and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these." "And the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land and the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them, on their right hand and on their left." Here I found that part of the cloud which was next to the Israelites was bright, clear, and comfortable; nor the least intimation of rain falling upon them. The sea was made dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them, on the right hand and on the left; so that I concluded, the term baptized must refer to their situation in the midst of the sea, encompassed by these walls, and attended with the cloud, rather than to any water coming out of the one, or sprinkling dashings from the other, which must have been very troublesome to such a body of people in their march; and as I thought inconsistent with the account of their standing in, and coming out of the sea on dry ground. This brought me to the last place of scripture which speaks directly of the nature and meaning of the ordinance of baptism, 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21: "The long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing: wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Here it appeared that there were some circumstances attending the ark, and the salvation of Noah and his family by water, which were figurative or typical of baptism; and when I examined the account as given by Moses, Gen vii., I found it stood thus:-the ark was God's contrivance and appointment, and it was a large hollow vessel, in which Noah and his family, and the creatures with him, were for a time as it were buried; and especially this was the case when the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and they in the midst of that deluge which destroyed all the rest of the world. This appeared to me to answer to immersion in baptism; and I could not think the Holy Ghost would refer us to the water of a flood, as a type of a little quantity of that element, made use of when poured or sprinkled on the face of an infant. And as Noah and his family were saved by water, the believer is saved by baptism, not efficaciously or meritoriously, but declaratively. În the profession of his faith, he declares his entrance into Christ as the ark of salvation; and his baptism is a lively representation of the burial and resurrection of him who died for his offences, and rose again for his justification. And as Noah built the ark, and entered into it in obedience to the command of God, the believer is baptized from a principle of conscience towards God; yea, a good, that is, as I thought, an enlightened, renewed conscience. Having thus gone through the scripture account of the ordinance of baptism, I found myself obliged to conclude the balance was greatly on the side of adult believers, as the only declared subjects ; and of plunging or immersion, as the only mode of that sacred institution. I well knew that many godly and learned persons thought otherwise; but not daring to call any man master on earth, and remembering the account I must shortly give to Him, who said, "thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness;" I determined to comply with my duty; and on the closest reflection, have seen no reason to repent of it. LEICESTER: BAPTIST DEPOSITORY FOR TRACTS AND SABBATH SCHOOL PUBLICATIONS. PRINTED AND SOLD BY J. F. WINKS, HIGH STREET. Catalogues Gratis, on Receipt of One Postage Stamp. |