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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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and of the person * , and succession of persons , Who are to administer it . * Upon this solid ground stands the memorial of the patsover . The time when it was to be taken , how lon £ it was to continue , by whom it was to be observed , the particular manner
of its observance , and its perpetuity , are all clearly and indisputably laid down by God himself . Here then is no subject for dispute or even for doubt , and when infant Baptism , or any other Baptism , or the ceremony of the Lord ' s Supper , can be made to appear to rest upon the same foundations , then , but not till then , I think ,
will they be obligatory upoii the disciples of Jesus . As to infant or adult baptism , let me ask , where is to be found the positive command to practise it ? Who is specifically appointed to administer it ? In what manner is it to be performed , by dipping or by sprinkling ? And at what age or period of life ?
It signifies nothing to say , that " Infant Baptism was the uniform , universal practice of the Church fronathe apostolic age down to the fifth century /• Because , in the first place , there must always be some doubt
respecting the accuracy of this kind of knowledge , even in the minds of the most learned men ; and , in the second place , the practice of the church is no authority for the conduct of Christians . Nothing less than a positive command from God , with all the
particulars of time and persons , can be sufficient to create an authority which ought to be binding upon the followers of our divine Master . The practice of the church can be no just rule for me ; it may be an unauthorized practice , an early corruption , a practice which would have been roore
honoured in the breach than in the observance . ' ¦ ¦ ' ¦ Respecting the authority of the apostles to baptize , ( excepting Paul , ) they were directly commanded by Jesus himself . But observe how delicate
vfHB the mind of the apostle Paul on this subject : " 1 thank God that I baptized : none of you but Crispus and Gaius and the houbehold of Stephanus , For Chi 1 st sent me not to baptize , but to preach the go * ipeL" Here we see this noble servant of Gfcd thanking his Maker tha ^ t he . had not proceeded any farther in this business * because he
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• * discovered upon reflation that he had not received any positive ; dil-ect cbtnmnnd to baptize at all '; aad happy would it be for the purity of Christianity , if some modern teachers of religion would imbibe a little of the
same species of delicacy which influenced that truly excellent preacher pf the gospel . I £ then , Paul had no authority to baptize , who can he so presumptuous as to claim any , in our times , unless he can produce a positive command directed to him for that
express purpose ? I shall rely upon your impartiality for the insertion of the above remarks in your Repository . G . F .
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Oii Infant Baptism . S 70
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Sir , May 28 , 1818 . APPREHEND there are no dis-I tinct declarations in the New Testament from which we can decide , whether it was the practice of the apostles to baptize the children of
believers that were born after they had professed the Christian faith . All the arguments of the Baptists and the Paedobaptists are taken from the history of the church in the succeeding ages ; and I confess I have not y ^ t met with any which carried us xtb
near enough-to the original source ^ to afford satisfaction to my mind upon this subject of , indeed , secondary importance . In this want of direct evidence , we can only have recourse to inference ; and not unfrequently this kind of evidence is of a character little
short of direct . I should be pleased to have the opinion of those who are advocates for Infant Baptism , and , indeed , of those who are advocates for any Baptism at all , upon the passage
of Paul in l Cor . vii . 14 : " For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife , and the unbelieving wife by the husband , else were your children nnclearij but now are they holy" Wheb a man or his wife had been converted
to the Christian faith , there appears to have been a doubt at Corinth , whether it was the duty of this convert to forsake his or her unbelieving partner ; and , to decide the question , they applied to their acknowledged oracle . His answer is contained in the tenth
and following verses . To be unclean and to be Holy are terms of Jewish law , referring to the custom of the Israelites , to sanctify their persons and their vessels for a sacred use ; which
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1818, page 379, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2477/page/35/
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