ADVERTISEMENT. THE ensuing treatise is intended, not so much to amuse as to instruct; by no means to excite an angry contentious spirit, but to promote a practical regard to a divine institution. If it should fall into the hands of any one who has hitherto approved only of adult Baptism by immersion, the Author makes it his request that he would here pause a moment, to ask himself seriously this question, "Am I desirous to know and to do the ❝ will of God in this matter?" If he is resolutely determined to persist in his opinion, in spite of all evidence, and to turn the Scripture-doctrine of Baptism into mere matter of vain jangling, let him proceed no farther. All here attempted is a plain, serious address to candid sober minds; and if any peruse it, who wish to be better informed on the subject, they are advised to read, deliberately, one chapter at a time, and to revise its thoughts in connection with the argument, which they are intended to illustrate and confirm, before they proceed to another. And when they have gone through the whole in this manner, let them compare the reasons offered for baptizing Infants by sprinkling or pouring of water with what has been urged against it, and embrace that opinion which appears to them, on mature thought and impartial inquiry, best supported hy sound reason, credible testimony, and the word of God. P. S. Besides what is urged in the following work, it may not be amiss in this place to mention a presumptive argument in favour of Infantbaptism; viz. That we seem to need such a rite as this; since the birth of a child is an event of great importance to a family, and it must appear a parent's duty,-it cannot but be a pious parent's inclination, early to devote his children to God, through Christ; expressing his fervent desires that they may partake, with himself, of the blessings of the Christian covenant. This argument appears to receive additional strength from the practice of our Baptist brethren, (many of them at least) who, feeling the need, propriety, and usefulness of some such rite as we suppose Infant-baptism to be, have invented one of their own, which nearly resembles it, excepting in the ceremonial part. CONTENTS. PART I. ON the Mode or Manner of administering Christian Baptism. CHAP. I. On the Nature and Perpetuity of Christian Baptism, and the Persons by whom it is to be administered. CHAP. II. On Names and Ceremonies in general, and the Rite of Immersion in particular. CHAP. III. On the Signification of the Greek Words, Baliw, Banliones, &c. as used in the sacred Scriptures; with remarks on the ancient Jewish Washings. CHAP. IV. Baptism recorded in the New Testament, which some have supposed to have been administered by Immersion. CHAP. V. Supposed allusions to Immersion examined. CHAP. VI. Other Baptisms recorded in the New Testament, that do not appear to have been administered by Immersion. CHAP. VII. Sprinkling or pouring Water, in Christian Baptism, proved to be most agreeable to scriptural Representations of the Ordinance and allusions to it. PART II. ON the proper subjects of Christian Baptism. CHAP. I. Many Considerations to prove, that the Children of professing Christians are included in the Covenant made by God with their Parents. CHAP. II. Reasons for administering Baptism, as a Seal of the Christian Covenant, to the Children of professing Christians, particularly the Command of God to Abraham to circumcise his Children.-- Our Lord's Commission to his Ministers, Mat.xxviii. 19.--and the Words of Peter, Acts. ii. 38, 39. CHAP. III. Objections to Infant Baptism considered. CHAP. IV. Various Testimonies to prove that Baptism is generally administered to Infants in the Christian Church now, and has been so in former Ages. The practice of the primitive Christian Fathers ascertained from their Writings; and that of the Apostles from the New Testament. CHAP. V. The Evil of neglecting to baptize the Children of Christian Parents, and the Advantages of a proper Administration of the ordinance. CONCLUSION. 1. Practical Exhortations to Parents whose Children have been baptized. 2. To young Persons who have been given up to the Lord in this Ordinance. PART I. ON THE MODE OR MANNER OF ADMINISTERING CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. CHAPTER 1. On the Nature and Perpetuity of Christian Baptism, and the Persons by whom it is to be administered. §. 1. OUR Lord Jesus Christ, in his commission to his first ministers, just before he ascended to heaven, commanded them * to go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. This ordinance they accordingly administered † and ret commended, not for the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God. The apostle Paul speaks of baptized Christians as having put on Christ,§ and as being all baptized into one body.¶ From these and other similar representations of Christian Baptism in the New Testament, it seems❝an ordinance intended to signify the se" paration of the disciples of Christ from an un"believing and sinful world, to be a peculiar * Mat. xxxviii. 19. + Acts ii. 3. + 1 Pet. iii. 21. 11 Cor. xii. 13. |