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Are there not similar reasons for rjie continuance of this / practice , which existed for its first acjoption ? will it not , if applied to adults as a profession of their faith , suggest the like powerful motives
to reflection , and to the formation of gopd a ^ nd stable resolutions ? and is it not likely that assemblies , whose views of Christianity in general , and of this ordinance in particular , are rational and consistent , would experience the promotion ^ of the ? habits of
seriousness , order , unanimity and useful discipline , by the application of the solemn rile of baptism to serious believers alone , as the general mode of -receiving them into their body ? Would not its observance
constitute a suitable introduction to the other Christian ordinance ? and is not the regular use of these two ordinances , an important means Qf beeping up and promoting the profession of Christianity ? do they not furnish at once a proper foundation and stimulant to the
exercise of those branches of discipline , which relate more immediately . . to moral conduct , ? The circumstance of occasional or even of stated attendance at a place of worship , is of itself no proper evidence of the profession of
Christianity but if there be no mode of distinguishing between him who dots adopt £ hat sacred professsion , and him wjio does not , what foundation can there be for proceeding tq farther a £ ts of Christian discipline ? . ' . > ,
Is there npt reason to believe , that as the . baptism of . adults , in token of their Christian faith and ^ bfjdicnce , tends to the promotion af useful discipline , so the practice of infant , sprinkling , tq # Soften
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produces effects precisely the reverse , by introducing the indiscriminate use of the term Christian , without regard either to personal profession , or character ?
To the perpetuity of baptism , the declaration of the apostle Paul , that he Ci was not sent to baptize but to preach the gospel / ' has been urged as an objection ; but have we not equal reason to infer ^ from the exhortatiori of Christy Ci labour not for the meat which
perisheth , &c . " that we should entirely neglect to provide for our corporeal wants , and apply our minds solely to religious contem - plations ? Is there not reason to belieVfc ^ that the indiscriminate use of the
term baptism 7 with respect to the very different actions of immersion and sprinkling , and its indiscriminate application , to persons of all ages , in sickness as well as inhefeltlhj have gone hand in hand with each , other , and that both originated
in superstitious ideas relative to the saving influence of the rife * independently of its natural effects on the minds of the professdfs ? As immersion is allowed by the concession of many of the nfoore liberal ofthose , who have nevertheless
adopted the practice of sprinkling , to have been the original mode of baptism , and the m © fe apprtfjpriate signification of the term , * which is farmer confirtried by the uniform practice df the Greek churches ; and' as this hiode is unexceptionable , with respect to persons possessing Stealth and
vi-• Sec quotations to this effect fr « nt the works of TUJottsori , Burnet and WJfcUtby , in Foot's Practical Discourse On fiapt . p . 10— -12 , note e : as likewise Caiaict 3 Diction . Art . Bapt . Robinson ' s Hi $ 4 f ££ » pt « p . 499 » &c *
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Adull Baptism connected with Chutch Disci ' pline * $ 5
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VOL * VII * »
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1812, page 25, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1744/page/25/
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