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tered by the disciples of Jesus at that time ; and , being previously practised both by the Jews and by John the Baptist , it could not be regarded as a new institution . The adoption of baptism at that time no more proves it to be a gospel ordinance , than the conformity of our kord ,. or of his disciples , to any other Jewish rite , —far instance , to the Jewish passover , —proves such Jewish rite ' to be a gospel ordinance .
* ' 4 . There 1 $ no proof that our Lord ^ after his resurrection from the dead , instituted baptism as an ordinance to be practised by his churchy after that church should be completely formed aud established . The direction which he gave to the apostles of the circumcision to continue to baptize the Proselyte *
they made , related to the plan they were to adopt h \ collecting converts to form into churches , u < it to what was to be done h * those churches when actually formed . The commission which includes baptism related to what was to be done in introducing the gospel dispensation , not to what was to be done after
it was fully introduced . ** 5 . It was Proselyte baptism only that was practised b y the apostles during their mipistry . All the persons or whose baptism we have any account in the New Testameut were Proselytes , from either Judaism or Heathenism , to Christianity , and chiefly the former . Not a single instance can be found of
the baptism of a person who had been brought up in the profession of Christianity , and lived in the previous enjoys ment of its privileges ; nor can a precept ov direction , any more than pre-r cedent , be round for the baptizing of such persons . ' * 6 " . It appears an undeniable fact , that Paul had no commission to baptize , and that the gospel of the uncir- *
cuincision committed to him , to preach to the Gentiles , did not include baptism ; though he received that gospel by revelation from Jesus Christ , Gal . i . 12 . Had baptism been properly an ordinance of the gospel , of universal and perpetual obligation aiuoug Christians , surely Paul would have been commissioned to bap * tige , baptism would have been included in the gospel as committed to him , aud he would not have thanked God that he had baptized s © fbvv persons , giving as
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the reason , that Jesus Christ sent him not to baptize , but to preach the gospel , separating the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles from the Jewish mode of receiving Proselytes by baptism" 7 . The writer of this Essay entered on the examination , an old Baptist , expecting to find that baptism wa 9 instituted by Jesus Christ , though some doubts had forced themselves upon him
as to its perpetuity , and he was anxious to have those doubts removed , either by ftuding proof of its designed perpetuity , or by being convinced that it was not intended to continue beyond the apostolic age ; he is not aware of any thing in the New Testament , which has a bearing upon the subject , that he has . not carefully examined ;; and he closes the examination with a full conviction
that baptism was never instituted by our revered aud honoured Lord and Master ; but merely adopted by him as a proper mode of receiving proselytes during his personal ministry , and that of the apostles of the circumcision , and that we have no authority from the New Testament to baptize those who have been brought up in the profession
of the gospel , nor any other persons in the present day . Thus by the force , of what appears to him to be clear and decisive Scripture proof , he is constrained to relinquish what he has for many years regarded as an ordinance of the gospel , and to avow a change of
opinion on a subject which he was ever ready to defend , on all proper occasions , so long as it appeared to hiai consistent with truth and duty to do it ; and he hopes never to be too old to subject all his views in religion to the test of Scripture , arid honestly to avow what he believes to be consistent with the New
Testament . "—Pp . 50—54 . Such of our readers as feel interested in this question will of course read this little Essay ; and we venture to say that whatever be their judgment upon the question at issue , they will be pleased
with Mr , Wright ' s frank ness and Christian integrity , and with the simplicity and kind-heartedness in which tins recantation is written , —so different from the manner of some other recantations , and also of some other writings upon the subject of baptism , which are fresji in our memory .
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Crtiicrti Notices , 687
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 687, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/55/
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