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jfete iaghfcsom md ® & the name of his £ ao * - « aid ^ tlifitecBiBte power communicated to rtbeu&po&fcles Jn attestation of hks ccsuTEeyG ^ io ^ aai asuen&io n to heaven under . / the name o £ > the Holy Spirit . < Christ fcoraBranded- his apostles
to proclaim fcfae gospel under these three heads 4 o the nations , and win them to the belief of it . He delineates ^ he -divine ' doctrine which he had taught them under the figure of three sacred streams 5 and he enjoiu 3 upon them to go and bring the nations
of . the world to their brink , and there / not administer cups full to their ears or to their lips , but to take and plunge them in , and there detain them till every sense should be filled , till every sin should be washed away , till their minds imbibed new ideas , new
hopes , new dispositions , and till their character assumed all the brightness that human imperfecti 6 n can admit . In the ceremony thus to be administered , there was literal water , and the baptism meant was very different from that for which Mr , Gilchrist
contends . Jesus used a figure equally bold when he told them , " Follow me , and I will make you fishers of men . " Here their literal occupation as fishermen is virtually laid aside , and they are called upon to engage in a new pursuit bearing some analogy to it . As the office of real fishermen
is superseded in the one expression , so is the rite of baptism by water superseded in the other . But Mr . Gilclirist will say , Surely this is not true , because the apostles did go , made converts of the nations , and actually baptized them in water . This fact
appears not only from ecclesiastical history in the first century and afterwards , bnt even from the apostolical records , the book of the Acts written by Luke , who was in the number of
those who attended on Jesus , and who heard the command given to the apostles ajid saw it executed . All this is granted , and yet the conclu-8 l 0 n ^ nftfriAl tr th * a nai > nithiifir r \ f Knr »_ won namel the perpetuity of
bap-, y , twm as a Christian ordinance sanctioned by Chris * , is altogether , baseless * or the practice owed its temporary continuance to two circumstances peculiar
to the times , which rendered it expedient , and not to the authority of ^ etua making it a part of . his gospel . ** hs remains to be shewn , and baptl 8 * i in water , as a branch of the
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Christian dispensation , is " ¦ blown on the wJhcL The Christian name © t first was in the highest degree patter of reproach ,- which it required the greatest resolution to encounter , and from which thousands , though deeply
convinced of the truth of Christianity * were disposed to shrink . Nothing was better adapted to overcome this reluctance than baptism , as every convert by submitting to it was called upon to make a public avowal of his faith in the face of the church and of
the world . Hence baptism was continued by the apostles as the test of sincerity , as prompting to that manly resolution which , when founded in reason , bids defiance to ignominy , to danger and to death , on the part of the believers . The last lecturer was
aware of this , and he thus touches upon it : " Converts were to enter the church by baptism openly and in the face of the world , and to witness a good confession before men . Cheerful submission to this ordinance was
at once the test of their sincerity and obedience . For , be it remembered , that to be baptized and openly to profess the Christian name was attended in those days with no Inconsiderable risk and danger / ' P . 176 . It was this risk and danger that rendered baptism expedient as means
well calculated to guard against dissimulation and pusillanimity ; but when the temptation to these ceased , the expediency of baptism , as far as it was adapted to answer the above end , ceased with it . This discourse is very creditable to the author . Strong natural powers have supplied in Mr . Eaton the want of academical
education : and in vigour of thought , in information , in ease and correctness of composition , he hardly stands behind his respectable brethren . Prone as the « Jews in the early age 8 of their history were to idolatry , there
were many who zealously maintained the worship of the only true God . Those who resembled one another by their peculiar attachment to the religion of their fathers , would naturally unite in times of general degeneracy , and form themselves into a distinct
body or community , studying the law and the prophets , and displaying the happy influence of their faith io their lives and conversation . The Israelites , having sojourned in the wilder-
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Dr . J « Jones on the Perpetuity of Baptism * 387
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v . xxi . 3 f
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1826, page 397, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2550/page/17/
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