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• h&v& ' yet made out 'for the non-perpetuity of Baptism . " As an opponent of baptism , I take the liberty to require this ; and I do this because , * with perfect decency , I conceive tliat I may set at nought baptism as unnecessary while I profess reverence for the Lord ' s Supper . " This Mr .
G . seems to think impossible . He says , * Both these institutions stand or fall together , both rest on the same foundation , they have both the sanction of the same authority . " Notwithstanding this assertion of the positive Lecturer , I come to the conclusion at which I have arrived ,
simply because I do not find in Scripture a single instance of baptism being enjoined on any but converts ; while I observe that the Apostle Paul enjoined the observance of the Lord ' s Supper on the members of the Corinthian church , as a part of their regular religious worship .
Now this conclusion I conae to , as Mr . Gilchrist will have the goodness to observe , from reading simply the New Testament . And I mention this more particularly , because ., p . 165 , Mr . G . asks , " What would be your own conclusion respecting the rite in question , if you had nothing to judge by or reason from but the New
Testament ? Did you ever doubt , did you ever suspect or suppose that the perpetuity of baptism could be brought into doubt by a believer in divine revelation , before you found it was actually doubted or denied by
persons around you ? " In answer to this question , I say , Yes , I did . I did come to the opinion that baptism w a rite only binding on converts , from the perusal of the New
Testaroent , in opposition to parental authority and bias ; nor have I been at all staggered in this my sentiment by any thing I have seen written by baptists or Paedobaptists , neither of
whom appear to me to have a single passage of Scripture in their favour , Ito the whole extent of their respective creeds , ) and who gather all their weapons for their contests from the
acts and monuments of the Fathers . It is a curious fact also that Mr . Gilchrist , who seems to think that no ? ne , with simply the New Testament ln las hands , could doubt the perpetuity of baptism , lias him self not
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brought forward one single passage therefrom in favour of its perpetuity . He has treated with some degree of irony or contempt , £ mlyn , Wakefield , Frend , Dyer and others ; but with all his confidence ,
he does not appeal to Scripture . He has indeed taken a passage from Matthew as a text to his discourse , but that text appears to be rather more against the perpetuity of baptism than for it . Our Lord in
connexion with this injunction , says , "Lo I am with you ( my apostles ) to the end of the world . " Now the word translated " world /* ^ Mr . G . well knows , ought rather , in the opinion of many able commentators , to be
rendered " age . " Mr . Chapman and his Baptist brethren contend strenuously that immersion is the leading sense of baptizo , and that hence immersion is the mode by which the rite should be administered . By the same rule , then , should the end of the age be substituted for the end
of the world ; and if . from this phraseology we are to imagine that our Lord had in view a period short of the end of our mundane system , to that period , whatever it may be , the continuance of baptism seems to be con * fined .
From the words of Mark , that " certain signs should follow those who believe / ' some imagine that baptism was confined to the apostolic age . Mr . Gilchrist says , that , if there be any thing in this remark , we should rather say that faith was
not to be perpetual . But is not this trifling with the subject for want of argument ? The perpetuity of faith rests upon the force with which certain positions strike the mind in every age ; but whether or not an act is to be performed in every age , is a
question determinable by very different reasoning . Mr . G . further says , p . 161 , " The command of Jesus is , ' Go ye and teach all nations , baptizing them . * And what is thus express in the imperative , is equally
express in the declarative form , for the words of our Lord are , ' He that believeth and is baptized / Teaching and baptizing are conjunct in the authoritative command , and believing and being baptized are conjunct in the authoritative declaration of the
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Perpetuity of Baptism , unsupported by Seripture . 609
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 609, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/37/
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