word (Mark xvi. 20). And Iræneus, who was born before the decease of the apostle John, testifies to it; for, when speaking of the Scripture testimonies concerning the baptism with the Spirit, he refers expressly to our Lord's command to His disciples, recorded in this very Scripture in these words: "Potestatem regenerationis in Deum demandans dicebat eis," &c., quoting that very command. And he says in another place, "Omnes enim venit per semet ipsum salvare: omnes inquam qui per eum renascuntur (baptisantur) in Deum." He came to save all persons by His own self: I mean all who by him are regenerated (baptised) into God. That man must be hardened by prejudice, who, after a prayerful consideration of our Lord's command, and of His promise to be with His disciples for baptising with His Spirit, ventures nevertheless to assert, that our Lord did not baptise with His Spirit, or intended to cause the baptism with the Spirit to cease, and that He instituted in its place water-baptism; whereas the Voice from heaven declared Christ would baptise not with water but with the Spirit. And our Lord virtually declared John's water-baptism at an end, for He said, " John truly baptised (his disciples) with water; but ye (my disciples) shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost (Acts i. 5). A prayerful consideration of these truths compels the conviction that water-baptism was superseded by the baptism with the Spirit; or, to repeat John's testimony, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John iii. 30).

Before proceeding with the history of water-baptism it must be premised, that those who advocate infant baptism, and those who contend against it, are opposed to

each other as regards the customs of the Church, &c.; for the advocates in favour of infant baptism generally refer to the customs of the Church, and to the writings of "the fathers," commonly so called; and they contend that as infants were received into the Church under the Old Testament dispensation, they are also to be received under the New Testament; and they believe the apostle Peter testified to that effect on the day of Pentecost when he said, “the promise is to you and to your children" (Acts ii. 39). While the anti-pædobaptists say, "The writings of the fathers, the traditions of men and the customs of the Church, are no authority on the subject of infant baptism." Dr. Gale, Dr. Gill, Dr. Stennet, and Mr. Robinson, all use very strong language with regard to the unsoundness of the writings of the primitive fathers. It is certainly true that for some time the apostolic age was not free from Antichrist, which denies that Christ is come in the flesh, by the observance of legal rites, or shadows (1 John iv. 3), nor from error in doctrine and practice (Acts xv. 1-29; xxi. 17-26; 1 Cor. xi. 19; 2 Cor. xi. 13-15; Gal. iii. 1). And it is also true, that in the ages succeeding the days of the apostles, numerous corruptions and gross superstitions crept into the Church; therefore, instead of relying upon the writings of the fathers, we ought to follow the example of Christ as the Bereans did. For Christ received not testimony from man, unless it were from God, which example the Bereans followed; for which, they are declared to be more noble than those in Thessalonica, "in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, AND SEARCHED THE

J

SCRIPTURES DAILY, WHETHER THOSE THINGS which they heard WERE TRUE;" not taking for granted the teaching of Paul and Silas until they had tested it by the "law and the testimony" (Acts xvii. 10, 11).

The conduct of the noble Bereans is universally approved by Protestant divines. Mr. Dore saith, "What is not commanded by Christ is virtually forbidden as willworship;" so that, according to him, water-baptism is "willworship," for it is more than "virtually forbidden;" the apostle expressly and plainly declares he had no command or authority from Christ to baptise in or with water, for Christ sent him not to baptise with water, but to preach the gospel; and as Peter says, "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven" (1 Peter i. 12), for it is the ministration of the Spirit (2 Cor. iii. 8).

If the "called with an holy calling" follow the example of the Bereans, they will find the apostles were not justified in observing the diverse baptisms, and legal ceremonies, for the washing away of the filth of the flesh, of which the Judaizing teachers were so zealous. For through their administration of water-baptism, the custom of baptising with water, for the washing away of sin, prevailed in the Church for many years.

The custom of the Church, previous to the third century, as appears from the writing of " the fathers," was to baptise infants: it was not until the close of the second century that Tertullian made an objection to infant baptism, which he expressed in the following words, "What need their innocent age make such haste to the forgiveness of SINS." "Quid festinat innocens ætas eorum remissionem peccatorum,"

which is very similar to the heresy propounded in these days, that infants having no transgressions to wash away, are, vi ætatis, regenerated in water-baptism. The Tertullianists, so called, being followers of Tertullian, believed, that sins committed after they were baptised in or with water were not washed away, which induced many persons to defer baptism until they were dying; and many persons were, consequently, baptised in their beds: which custom prevailed until the third council of Carthage, for it is there mentioned as a thing ignorant Christians were fond of. Gregory Nazianzon also takes notice of it, and Chrysostom says, it was practised among the Marcionites. The primitive fathers, so called, considered water-baptism literally to possess Divine properties, that of regeneration, and the washing away of sins, &c., but they never appear to have entertained such Infidel notions of Christ's baptismal sufferings, or of the baptism with the Spirit, as to say, they are not essential, real, or true baptisms-nor did they treat them with so much apparent contempt as to say, they are figuratively called baptisms. And no one who follows the example of the noble Bereans, will so pervert the Scripture testimony; for there is not a truth more clearly revealed in the Holy Scriptures than this, that water-baptisms were appointed by God as a shadow or figure of the cleansing virtue of the blood of Christ, &c., and of the baptism of the Spirit! Therefore the man who observes the shadow of water-baptism, by such an act denies, it may be unconsciously, that Christ is come, and that the Spirit is given! It may be inferred, that the gross error of making waterbaptism a substantive ordinance in the New Testament

Church, making it regeneration or the putting on of Christ, and of being then baptised into His death, &c., led to the Papal doctrine of transubstantiation!

As one error is frequently followed by another, we find Origen, who imbibed the notion of the pre-existence, and the transmigration of human souls, in his Eighth Homily on Leviticus xii., says, "The baptism of the Church is given for the forgiveness of sins." And in his comment on the Epistle to the Romans, he adverts to the circumstance that, under the law, a sacrifice was offered for every child that was born, and concludes his observations with saying, "For this reason the Church had from the apostles a tradition to give baptism even to infants."

In the sixth century, water-baptism was considered to be the "circumcision made without hands," for sixty-six bishops sat in council with Cyprian, and unanimously determined, that infants might be baptised before the eighth day, for the spiritual circumcision, as they called water-baptism, was not to be restrained by the circumcision which was according to the flesh.

Paulinus, bishop of Nola, a contemporary with Augustin, speaking of John the Baptist, says, "He washed away the sins of believers by water poured on them," &c.; an evident proof that water-baptism was administered as a purification, as Ananias did, Acts xxii. 16, and not in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And Josephus, the Jewish historian, who was born four years. after the death of Christ, and who was well acquainted. with the Jewish rites and ceremonies, calls John's baptism washing and purification, which will account for the dispute