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prevail ; and as they afe fdttnded an the authority of Paul , of Chirist , and his eyaagelists * they will prove the cur / tew of baptism , tolling the knell of its departure for ever . On my paraphrase on the command of Jesus as stated in my fourth argument , Mr . Gilchrist has these words : ' ¦ ' It was not my intention , when I sat down and took up my peri , to
meddle with such a sublime passage , and now that I have yielded to the temptation of quoting It , I had better perhaps acknowledge my dulness by confessing frankl y that I know not what to make of it . If the organ of imaginativeness be not remarkably
prominent ia the author , the organ of perceptiveness must be remarkably defective in me ; for I was never more puzzled with any abstrusity of Emmanuel Swedenborg ot Jacob Behmen than on the present occasion :
as to the anti-baptist doctrine of Robert Barclay , albeit somewhat conjectural , ifiystical ancl remote from vulgar apprehension , it is light heading—perception tnade easy when compared to that of Dr . J . Jones . "
The taunts which Mr . Gilchrist here so unsparingly heaps upon me , fall upon our Cord , though I am far from thinking that he would advertently speak with disparagement and disrespectful sneers of our
divine Master . For the subject of dispute is not a question to be mooted , but a matter of fhct to be ascertained by inspection . Does Jesus then command his apostles to plunge the persons converted by them in water ? H « does not Does he command to
plunge them in any thing else f Yes lie commands the apostles to plunge their converts into the name of the Father , his Son , and his Holy Spirit . Then he considered the name or knowledge of the Father , &c , as a metaphorical element , bearing some analogy to the literal element of
water , to which he alludes in the use of the word fiovxTttyvTeq : and his meaning can be no other than this : " Go , make disciples of all nations , plunging them , not , like John , in the gross element of water , but in a far more efficacious and diviner element , the principles of the gospel . "
Here Mr . Gilchrist is the dupe of his own early prejudices : he had ever associated baptism with water , and
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ttnenever he sees that tvorfi applied , he infers that it must raeari iteaS itfater ! Yet he might helve read in the New-Testament passaged which cannot fail to rectify his mistake : for there we read of baptizing with wind , of baptizing with fire , of baptising witb the Holtf Spirit , and with dmth * The word , indeed , is so often c&tachrestieally used , that its literal , appropriate sense rs lost in its various metaphorical sig \ . nifications . Some of these figures , it must be confessed , are bold and hardly analogical ; but that of being baptized or plunged in the knowledge of the gospel , Is so simple , so natural and obvious , that no man . who is not
Mind to his own reputation , would call the propriety of it in question , much less brand it with the sarcastical terms which Mr . Gilchrist uses on this occasion . From this passage we discover that Mr . Gilchrist has
yet to learn , that when a writer applies extravagant and contemptuous epithets to his adversary , they rebotmd , if not justly applied , with double force upon himself-His attempt to frustrate ray
communication by representing me as a lover of poraaotf , as imaginative and mystical beyond even Swedenborg' and Behmen , neither surprises nor offends me . The artifice is not newt from the commencement of my literary career till now I have felt its effects .
A spirit of opposition , if not founded in malignity , envy and jealousy , at least not consistent with candour , has ever been industrious , in private and In public , behind my back and to my
factfj as representing me as fanciful , and as a man of airy speculation without the ballast of solid judgment . This representation is one of the causes which rendered my vy orks , though long before the public , as
hardly known to any except to aa ungenerous few , who used them not to make them better known , not to cjuote or recommend them , but only to pilfer them , and , like the j ackdaw in the fable , to plume themselves ,
whenever it answered their purpose , with what belongs to another . Neglect , disparagement and sneers at the want of solid parts , under the courteous epithets of imaginative or ingenious , are but a poor recompeiice tor honest industry , for zeal to pursue truth , without the sanction of gW
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606 Dr . f fines in Befitg to Mr . Gifehtut dn Perpetuity of Baptism *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 606, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/34/
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