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unerring teachers, to be baptized without delay. For thus we read; "Repent and be baptized every one of you-When they believed Philip, preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jefus Chrift, they were baptized, both men and women-And Philip faid, If thou believeft with all thy heart, thou mayeft. And he anfwered and faid, I believe that Jefus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to ftand till: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him-And was baptized, he and all his ftraightway-Many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and were baptized-And now, why tarrieft thou? Arife and be baptized--Can any man forbid water, that thefe fhould not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghoft, as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord."*-Hence it is abundantly evident, that baptifm, in thofe days, was far from being esteemed. an indifferent thing; and equally far from being deferred, till the Chriftian converts had enjoyed communion at the Lord's table for months and years. Yes, it appears with the brightest evidence, that a fubmiffion to baptifm was the firfl, the very firft public act of obedience, to which both Jews and Gentiles were called, after they believed in Jefus Christ. And it is equally clear, from the last of those paffages here tranfcribed, that the highest evidence of a perfon's acceptance with God, though attended with the baptifm of the Holy Spirit in the beftowal of miraculous gifts, was fo far, in the account of Peter, from fuperfeding the neceffity of a

* A&s ii, 38. viii. 12, 37. xvi. 33. xviii. 8. xxii, 16.

fubmiffion to the ordinance of baptism; that he urged the confideration of those very facts, as a reafon why they who were fo bleffed and honoured fhould fubmit to it immediately. Confequently, while our brethren revere the authority by which the apostles acted, and while they believe that infant fprinkling is not baptifm; they are obliged, in vir tue of these ancient precedents, and by all that is amiable in a confiftent conduct, to admit none to communion at the Lord's table, whom they do not confider as really baptized according to the command of Chrift-Nor have we the leaft reafon to believe that the apoftles were invested with a difcretional power, to alter our Lord's inftitutions as they might think proper; either as to mode, or fubject, or their order and connexion one with another. No; they never pretend to any fuch power; they utterly difclaim it. Let us hear the declaration of one, as the language of all, and that in regard to the facred fupper. "I have re ceived of the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you." And again, relating to his doctrine in general, when writing to the fame people, and in the fame epiftle, he fays; "I delivered unto you that which I also received."* The apoftles being only fervants in the house of God, had no more authority to alter or dispense with an ordinance of Jefus Chrift, than any other minister of the word. Their apoftolic gifts and powers did not at all invest them with a right of legislation in the kingdom of their divine Lord. They were still but fewards; as fuch they claimed regard from the churches, in which they laboured and to which they wrote; at the fame time freely acknowledging, that it was

* 1 Cor. xi. 23. xv. 3.

their indifpenfable duty to "be found faithful" in the whole extent of their office; they being accountable to the great Head of the church. They acted, therefore, in the whole compass of their duty, under the command, and by the direction of the afcended Jefus. Nay, the more they were honoured and bleffed by him, the more were they bound to obey the least intimation of his will.

Once more: If we regard the different fignification of the two institutions it will appear, that baptifm ought to precede. In fubmitting to baptifm, we have an emblem of our union and communion with Jefus Chrift, as our great reprefentative, in his death, burial and refurrection; at the fame time declaring, that we "reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto fin, but alive to God;" and that it is our defire, as well as our duty, to live devoted to him. And as, in baptism, we profess to have received fpiritual life; fo in communicating at the Lord's table, we have the emblems of that heavenly food by which we live, by which we grow, and in virtue of which we hope to live for ever. And as we are born of God but once, fo we are baptized but once: but as our spiritual life is maintained by the continued agency of divine grace, and the comfort of it enjoyed by the habitual exercise of faith on the dying Redeemer, fo it is our duty and privilege frequently to receive the holy fupper. Hence theological writers have often called baptifm, the facrament of regeneration, or of initiation and the Lord's fupper, the facrament of nutrition.—Whether, therefore, we confider the order of time, in which thefe two inftitutions were appointed; or the order of words, in the great commiffion given by our Lord to his miniftering fervants; or the or

der of adminiftration in the apoflolic practice; or the different fignification of the two folemn appointments, a fubmiffion to baptifm ought ever to precede a reception of the Lord's fupper. Or, fhould any one question the validity of this inference, I would only afk; Whether, in regard to the facred fupper, he might not as well deny the neceffity of always bleffing the bread, before it be broken; or of breaking the bread, before it be received; or of receiving the bread, before the wine? Or, by what better arguments, he would prove the oppofite conduct, either unlawful or improper? Nay, if these declarations, and facts, and precedents, be not fufficient to determine the point in our favour; it will be exceedingly hard, if not impoffible, to conclude with certainty, in what order any two inftitutions that God ever appointed, were to be adminiftered. For, furely, that order of proceeding which agrees with the time in which two inftitutions were appointed ; with the words in which the obfervation of them was enjoined; with the first adminiftration of them by unerring teachers; and with their different fignification, must be the order of truth, the order of propriety, and the order of duty, because it is the order of God. And our brethren will do well to remember, that when Paul commends the Corinthians for "keeping the ordinances as they were delivered to them;" it is plainly and ftrongly implied, that divine ordinances are given us to keep; that they who keep them as they were inflituted, are to be commended; and that they who do not keep them at all, or observe them in a different order or manner from that at first appointed, are worthy of cenfure.

Nor is the order in which the two pofitive inftitutions of Jefus Chrift fhould be adminiftered,

lefs clearly expreffed in the New Testament, than the mode and fubject of baptism. This, however, is a notorious fact, that while the latter have been much and warmly disputed, the former does not appear to have been ever called in queftion by the real difciples of Chrift; except in the conduct of thofe few that plead for free communion. They, indeed, practically deny that which appears clear as the fun, to all other Chriftians, by frequently admitting perfons to the Lord's table, and baptizing them afterwards: for they do not refufe to baptize their Pædobaptift members, if they defire it, though they may have been in fellowship with them for ten, or twenty, or fifty years. But have not-I appeal to the understanding and the confcience of my brethren themfelves have not the Pædobaptifts as good a warrant for their practice, as you have for inverting the plain, the established, the divinely ap pointed order, in which the two pofitive inftitutions ought to be administered? They baptize and then teach; you administer the facred fupper and then baptize. They baptize thousands whom they never admit to the Lord's table; you receive to that facred ordinance numbers who, on your own principles, never were, nor ever will be baptized. Do they argue in defence of their practice and endeavour to prove their point, not by express commands, or plain facts, recorded in the New Teftament; but by inferences, and that, fometimes, from fuch paffages of holy writ, as have not, in our opinion, any relation at all to the fubject? fo do you. For it is not pretended, that there is any exprefs command to receive unbaptized believers into communion; and as to a

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