commanded?" We are not insensible, that THIS SECT, like the ancient christians, is every where spoken against. But what is the friendship of the world, which is declared to be enmity with God, compared to the approbation of Heaven? Welove and esteem our friends, especially such as are pious; but ought we not to love Christ better? Indeed, if we do not, he has declared that we are not worthy of him. It has been said, with a view no doubt to dissuade persons from being "re-baptized," (as it is called,) that we thereby "renounce that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost whom they adore." This, if true, would be a very solemn consideration ! But can it be admitted as truth? Is it renouncing the sacred Trinity, to be voluntarily baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? A most extraordinary conclusion! No, we publicly and solemnly own those sacred names, and before angels and men avow our submission to Christ, as the only Lawgiver and Head of his church. That you, my dear Friend, and all others who are -desirous of keeping the ordinances as they were first delivered to the churches, may be led in the right way, and be made fruitful in every good work, shall be the fervent prayer of Yours, in the gospel of a precious Saviour. FINIS. A CRITICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE MODE OF BAPTISM AS PERFORMED IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCHES. Br MOSES SWEAT, A. М. PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY T SANFORD. PREPARED for the PRESS by NATHANIEL H. FLETCHER, A. M. PASTOR of the SECOND SOCIETY in ΚΕΝΝΕΒUNK, Printed for N. H. FLETCHER, by S. SEWALL, M,DCCC, V. In the following treatife, the reader will find an impartial examination of the MODE of baptism. The impropriety of introducing, into the text, words from the learned languages, is freely acknowl... edged. But the subject, here treated on, would not admit the entire exclusion of all foreign words from the body of the work, and suffer them to be placed in the marginal notes. But, any common man, the plain, English reader, who is defirous of being rightly informed, respecting the mode of baptism, will, instantly, perceive the neceffity of recurring to those languages, in which the holy scriptures were first written; in which Mofes ✓ and the prophets delivered the immediate commands. of God; in which Jesus Christ and the Apostles taught the doctrines of grace and salvation. The words from the Greek language, which import baptifm, have, generally, fuch a similarity of found to the English verb, to baptize, that no one will be very: likely to mistake their meaning. The reader will here find the words, which import t baptism in the original Scriptures, have been traced in several of the Oriental languages, with a view of discovering whether those perfons, who translated the.. Bible, or parts of it, into the Chaldaic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Perfic languages, confidered those words as necessarily implying, in the original, the act of immersion, in the administration of the ordinance of baptifm. The result of the investigation may be seen toward the conclusion of the work. Many heated disputes there have been, concerning the mode of iniating proselytes into the household of faith. But, in the present enlightened period of the world, and while we live under the full-orbed splendours of the Gospel, such disputes ill become us, confidered as men, and are both disgraceful and injurious among the professed followers of the peaceful Jesus. To excite and spread doubts, respecting the efficacy of the Divine ordinances, and raise scruples, con. cerning the proper mode of administering the Chrif tian ordinances, is a common engine, with which the adverfaries of Heaven attack the citadel of virtue and religion. Such mistaken wretches, however, we most fincerely pity, especially when we look forward and behold, through the perspectives of faith, the approaches of a folemn period, when all the ungodly, the malicious opposers of the Redeemer's cause and kingdom, shall be cast down, and doomed to the unceasing torments of conscious guilt, that "worm which never dies and that fire which is never quenched. At the present day, while some treat all pretences to religion with pointed contempt; while others manifest an unpardonable coldness toward divine things; while others. again, who are defirous of being the humble followers of Christ, have real. fcruples of conscience, seem to be feeling after the path of duty amid religious darkness, and are vibrating between the validity of sprinkling and the propriety of plunging, it highly becomes those, who "are fet for the defence of the Gospel," to paint Christianity in its true colours of glory and beauty. It becomes them to use their endeavors, to remove all feeming difficulties, in respect to the Christian ordinances, and especially to investigate that of baptifm, and place it, be. fore an observing multitude, on its true foundation. Christians should "love more and contend less," about religious rites and forms. A careful perusal of this treatise may serve the purposes of doing away the dif tinction of party names, and of convincing the candid inquirer after the path of duty in the mode of baptifm. If one chooses immersion, let him be immersed. I will receive him, for all that, as a brother in Chrift, and cordially welcome him to my fellowship and communion. If another chooses sprinkling, let him be sprinkted. Him I acknowledge, to have received the outward ordinance in an evangelical sense. In the reception of this ordinance, the application of water, whether little or much, I most devoutly conceive, is efficacious to the subject, as an exernal fign and acceptable in the fight of our Divine Lord and Redeemer. N. H. FLETCHER. |