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lies concealed in the word church! This writer, in a multitude of places, makes no scruple of avowing his attachments to the members of other denominations; he even anxiously guards against the supposition of his indulging a thought to the prejudice of their piety; and the sentiments which he entertains himself he must be supposed to recommend to the adoption of his brethren. In his individual character, he feels no objection to recognise them to the full as Christians; nay, he expresses the sentiments of recognition in a studied variety of phrase; but the moment. he conceives himself in a church, his tone is altered, and he feels himself compelled to treat them as strangers and foreigners. Why this contradiction between the language of the individual and the language of the church? If they are Christians, why should the knowledge of the fact be suppressed there? We are taught by St. Paul to consider the church as the pillar and ground of the truth; where she is supposed to exhibit, as in a focus, the light and love which actuate her respective members; and instead of dissonance between her public principles and the private sentiments of her members, we naturally look for a perfect harmony, or rather, for a more illustrious exhibition of what every one thinks and feels apart-for a great and combined movement of charity, corresponding to her more silent and secret inspirations. But we are doomed to anticipate it in vain; for while the advocates of strict communion are shocked at the idea of suspecting the piety of their Pedobaptist brethren, they contend it would be criminal to recognise it in the church. What mysterious place is this, in which we are forbidden to acknowledge a truth proclaimed without scruple everywhere else; which possesses the property of darkening every object enclosed within its limits, and of rendering Christians invisible and impalpable to each other! In the broad daylight of the world, notwithstanding their minor differenees, they are recognised with facility; but the moment we enter the sombrous gloom of a Baptist church, we are lost from each other's view; and like those who visited the cave of Triphonius, return pale, dejected, and bewildered. Of such societies we might be almost tempted to exclaim— "My soul, come not thou into their seeret, and to their assembly be not thou united!" Shocked as we are at such illiberality, we suppress the emotions which naturally arise on the occasion, remembering (strange as it may seem) how often it is associated with talents the most respectable, and piety the most fervent.

CHAPTER III.

The supposed necessary Connexion between the two positive Institutes further discussed, wherein other Arguments are examined.

THE reader can scarcely be too often reminded that the present controversy turns entirely on the supposed necessary connexion between the two positive Christian institutes; the recollection of which will at once convince him of the total irrelevancy of much which it has been customary to urge on the subject. Our opponents frequently reason in such a manner as would lead the reader to suppose we were aiming to set aside adult baptism. Thus they insist on the clearness with which it is enjoined and exemplified in the sacred volume, contend for its perpetuity, and represent us as depreciating its value, and dispensing with its obligation; topics which might be introduced with propriety in a dispute with the people called Quakers, or with the followers of Mr. Emlyn, but are perfectly irrelevant to the present inquiry. It surely requires but little attention to perceive that it is one thing to tolerate, and another to sanction; that to affirm that each of the positive rites of religion ought to be attended to, and that they are so related that a mistake respecting one instantly disqualifies for another, are not the same propositions. An attention to that distinction would have incredibly shortened the present debate, and shown the futility of much unmeaning declamation, and even of much unanswerable argument. We wish, if possible, to put an end to this topaxia, this fighting with shadows and beating the air, and to confine the discussion to the real question, which is, whether the two positive ordinances of the New Testament are so related to each other, either in the nature of things or by express command, that he whom we deem not baptized is, ipso facto, or from that circumstance alone, disqualified for an attendance at the Lord's table. This, and this only, is the question in which we are concerned.

That there is not a necessary connexion, in the nature of things, between the two rites, appears from the slightest attention to their nature. It will not be pretended that the Lord's Supper is founded on baptism, or that it recognises a single circumstance belonging to it; nor will it be asserted to be a less reasonable service, or less capable of answering the design of its appointment, when attended to by a Pedobaptist, than by persons of our own persuasion. The event which it "shows forth" is one in which all denominations are equally interested; the sacrifice which it exhibits is an oblation of whose benefits they equally partake; and so little affinity does it bear to baptism, considered as a ceremony, that the most profound consideration of it will not suggest the idea of that rite. As far as reason is capable of investigating the matter, they appear separate ceremonies, no otherwise related than as they emanate from the same source, and are prescribed to the same description of persons. In a word, judging from the

reason of the case, we should not for a moment suspect that the obligation of commemorating the Saviour's death depended upon baptism: we should ascribe it at once to the injunction, "Do this in remembrance of me." Since positive duties arise (to human apprehension at least) from the mere will of the legislator, and not from immutable relations, their nature forbids the attempt to establish their inherent and essential connexion. In the present case, it is sufficient for us to know that whatever God has thought fit to enjoin must be matter of duty; and it little becomes weak and finite mortals to limit its sphere, or explain away its obligation, by refined and subtle distinctions.

It remains to be considered whether the necessary connexion we are seeking can be found in positive prescription. We again and again call upon our opponents to show us the passage of Scripture which asserts that dependence of the Lord's Supper on baptism which their theory supposes; and here, when we ask for bread, they give us a stone. They quote Christ's commission to his apostles, where there is not a word upon the subject, and which is so remote from establishing the essential connexion of the two ceremonies, that the mention of one of them only is included. They urge the conduct of the apostles, though it is not only sufficiently accounted for on our principles, but is such as those very principles would, in their circumstances, have absolutely compelled us to adopt; and surely that must be a very cogent proof that the apostles were of their sentiments which is derived from a matter of fact, which would undeniably have been just what it is on the contrary supposition. They baptized, because they were commanded to do so; they administered the Lord's Supper, because our Saviour enjoined it on his disciples; and both these duties were prescribed to the societies they formed, because the nature and obligation of each were equally and perfectly understood. What is there in this, we ask, which our hypothesis forbids us to imitate, or which, had we been in their place, our views would not have obliged us to adopt?

The late excellent Mr. Fuller, whose memory commands profound veneration, attempts in his posthumous tract on this subject to establish the connexion between the two rites, by the joint allusion made to them in the epistles of St. Paul. From their being connected together in his mind, on those occasions, he infers an inherent and essential connexion. With this view, he adduces the tenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, which asserts that the ancient Israelites had a figurative baptism "in the cloud, and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ." "If the apostle," he remarks, "had not connected baptism and the Lord's Supper together in his mind, how came he so pointedly to allude to them both in this passage?" He brings forward also another text to the same purpose, where St. Paul affirms we are all " baptized into one body, and are all made to drink into the same spirit." It is freely admitted that these, and perhaps other texts which might be adduced, afford examples of an allusion to the two ordinances at the same time, whence we may be certain that they were present together in the mind

of the writer. But whoever considers the laws of association must be aware how trivial a circumstance is sufficient to unite together in the mind ideas of objects among which no essential relation subsists. The mere coincidence of time and place is abundantly sufficient for that purpose. In addressing a class of persons distinguished by the possession of peculiar privileges, what more natural than to combine them in a joint allusion, without intending to assert their relation or dependence; just as in addressing a British audience on a political occasion, the speaker may easily be supposed to remind them at the same time of their popular representation, of the liberty of the press, and the trial by jury, without meaning to affirm that they are incapable of being possessed apart. In fact, the warmest advocates of our practice would feel no sort of difficulty in adopting the same style, in an epistle to a church which consisted only of Baptists; consequently, nothing more can be inferred, than that the societies which St. Paul addressed were universally of that description; a fact we have already fully conceded. The only light in which it bears upon the subject is that which makes it perfectly coincide with the argument from primitive precedent, the futility of which has been sufficiently demonstrated.

The unities which the apostle enumerates as belonging to Christians, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, are also set in opposition to us. "There is," saith he, "one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." That this text is irrelevant to the present argument will appear from the following considerations: Since no mention is made of the Lord's Supper, it cannot be intended to confirm or illustrate the relation which baptism bears to that ordinance, which is the only point in dispute. Next, it is very uncertain whether the apostle refers to water baptism or to the baptism of the Spirit; but admitting that he intends the former, he asserts no more than we firmly believe, that there are not two or more valid baptisms under the Christian dispensation, but one only; a deviation from which, either with respect to the subject or the mode, reduces it to a nullity. Lastly, since his avowed object in insisting upon these unities, was to persuade his reader to maintain inviolate that unity of the spirit to which they were all subservient, it is extremely unreasonable to adduce this passage in defence of a practice which involves its subversion. "The same fountain," St. James tells us, "cannot send forth sweet waters and bitter :" but here we see an attempt to deduce discord from harmony; and to find an apology for dividing the mystical body of Christ, in the most pathetic persuasive to unity. The celebrated Whitby, a Pedobaptist and an Episcopalian, appears to have felt the full force of this admirable passage, when he deduces from it the three following propositions: "1st. That sincere Christians only are truly members of that church catholic of which Christ is the head. 2dly. That nothing can join any professor of Christianity to this one body, but the participation of the spirit of Christ. 3dly. That no error in judgment, or mistake in practice, which doth not tend to deprive a Christian of the spirit of Christ, can separate him from the church of

Christ." Thus it is that this learned commentator conceives himself to have discovered a demonstration of the principles we are abetting, in the very words our opponents urge for their overthrow.

Such is the substance of Mr. Fuller's argumentation on the subject; and on a basis so slight did he attempt to rear the edifice of strict communion. In how different a light will he be viewed by posterity, as the victorious impugner of socinian and deistical impiety! and who, on looking back on his achievements in that field, and comparing them with his feeble efforts in the present, but must exclaim with regret quantum mutatus ab illo! Whether he felt some distrust of the ground he was treading, which for several reasons I strongly suspect, or whether it is to be ascribed to the infelicity of the subject, it is not easy to say; but his posthumous pamphlet on communion will unquestionably be considered as the feeblest of all his productions. The worthy editor probably calculated on great effects to arise from the dying suffrage of a man so highly esteemed; but before he ventured on a step so injurious to his fame, he should have remembered, that we live in an age not remarkably disposed to implicit faith, even in the greatest names.

But it is time to return to Mr. Kinghorn, with whose management of the subject we are at present more immediately concerned. As bold a polemic as Mr. Fuller was generally considered, he was pusillanimity itself compared to my present antagonist; who, in the ardour of combat, has not scrupled to remove landmarks which he, I am well persuaded, would have considered as sacred. It cannot be denied that he has infused by these means some novelty into the discussion, and that many of his arguments bear an original stamp; but whether that novelty is combined with truth, or that originality is such as will ultimately secure many imitators or admirers, is another question.

Having already shown that no inherent connexion subsists between the two rites under discussion, it remains to be considered, as we have already remarked, whether they are connected by positive law. Is there a single word in the New Testament which, fairly interpreted, can be regarded as a prohibition of the admission of unbaptized persons to the Lord's Supper?

Let Mr. Kinghorn answer this question for us: "The New Testament," he tells us, "does not prohibit the unbaptized from receiving the Lord's Supper, because no circumstance arose which rendered such prohibition necessary." Whether a prohibition was necessary or not involves a distinct inquiry; we request the reader's attention to the important concession, that it does not exist. The reason he assigns, however, for its not being necessary is, that "it is acknowledged the law of baptism was clearly understood, and that the unbaptized could not be received into the church." "There was, therefore," he adds, "no reason why a prohibitory declaration should exist." We fully agree with him, that at the period of which he is speaking, the law of baptism was fully understood; and on that account, we say, such

*Whitby in loco.

† Baptism a Term of Communion, p. 32.

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