The Book of Religions Part 20

"And may the G.o.d of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in every good work to do his will; working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. AMEN."

(See Matt. 3:5, 6, 11, 13-16; 20:22, 23; 21:25; 28:19. Mark 1:4, 5, 8, 9, 10; 11:30; 16:15, 16. Luke 3:3, 7, 12, 16, 21; 7:29, 30; 12:50; 20:4. John 1:28, 31, 33; 3:22, 23; 4:1, 2. Acts 1:5,2 2; 2:38, 41; 8: 12, 13, 36-39; 9:18; 10:37, 47, 48; 13:24; 16:15, 33; 18:8, 25; 19:4, 5; 22:16. Rom. 6:3, 4. 1 Cor. 1: 13-17; 10:2; 12:13; 15:29. Gal. 3:27. Eph. 4:5. Col. 2:12. Heb. 6:2. 1 Pet.

3:31.)

"This denomination claims an immediate descent from the apostles, and a.s.serts that the const.i.tution of their churches is from the authority of Jesus Christ himself, and his immediate successors.

Many others, indeed, deduce their origin as a sect from much later times, and affirm that they first sprang up in Germany in the sixteenth century. This denomination of Christians is distinguished from others by their opinions respecting the mode and subjects of baptism. Instead of administering the ordinance by sprinkling or pouring water, they maintain that it ought to be administered only by immersion: such, they insist, is the meaning of the Greek word _baptizo_, to wash or dip, so that a command to baptize is a command to immerse. They also defend their practice from the phrase _buried with him in baptism_, from the first administrators' repairing to rivers, and the practice of the primitive church, after the apostles.

"With regard to the _subjects_ of baptism, this denomination alleges that it ought not to be administered to children or infants at all, nor to adults in general; but to those only who profess repentance for sin and faith in Christ. Our Savior's commission to his apostles, by which Christian baptism was inst.i.tuted, is to _go and teach all nations, baptizing them_, &c., that is, not to baptize all they meet with, but first to examine and instruct them, and whoever will receive instruction, to baptize in the _name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost_. This construction of the pa.s.sage is confirmed by another pa.s.sage-'_Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature; he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved._' To such persons, and to such only, this denomination says, baptism was administered by the apostles and the immediate disciples of Christ; for those who were baptized in primitive times are described as repenting of their sins, and believing in Christ. (See Acts 2:38, 8:37, and other pa.s.sages of Scripture.)

"They further insist that all positive inst.i.tutions depend entirely upon the will and declaration of the inst.i.tutor; and that, therefore, reasoning by a.n.a.logy from previous abrogated rites is to be rejected, and the express commands of Christ respecting the mode and subjects of baptism ought to be our only rule.

"They observe that the meaning of the word _baptizo_ signifies immersion or dipping only; that John baptized in Jordan; that he chose a place where there was _much_ water; that Jesus came up _out of_ the water; that Philip and the eunuch went down both _into_ the water; that the terms _washing_, _purifying_, _burying in baptism_, so often mentioned in Scripture, allude to this mode; that immersion _only_ was the practice of the apostles and the first Christians; and that it was only laid aside from the love of novelty, and the coldness of our climate. These positions, they think, are so clear from Scripture, and the history of the church, that they stand in need of but little argument to support them."

There are some interesting facts connected with the history of the Baptists in America. In 1631, the Rev. Roger Williams, who had been a clergyman of the church of England, but, disliking its formalities, seceded, and ranged himself with the Nonconformists, fled to America from the persecutions which then raged in England. The great principles of civil and religious liberty were not then understood in the western world, and, as Mr. Williams was a man of intrepid firmness in advocating those principles, we are not surprised at the excitement and opposition which his doctrines awakened. He settled first in Salem, New England, the magistracy of which condemned his opinions, and subsequently sentenced him to banishment. Under that cruel act of legislation, he was driven from his family, in the midst of winter, to seek for refuge among the wild Indians.

After great sufferings, having conciliated the Indians, he commenced the formation of a colony, to which he gave the name of _Providence_, situate in Rhode Island, a name which it still bears.

Thus he became the founder of a new order of things. Several of his friends afterwards joined him, and in that infant settlement he sustained the twofold character of minister and lawgiver. He formed a const.i.tution on the broad principle of civil and religious liberty, and thus became the first ruler that recognized equal rights. Nearly a century and a half after that, when the Americans achieved their independence, thirteen of the states united in forming a government for themselves, and adopted that principle; thus America became, what the little colony of Providence had been before, a refuge for the persecuted for conscience sake. It has been well observed that the millions in both hemispheres who are now rejoicing in the triumph of liberal principles, should unite in erecting a monument to perpetuate the memory of ROGER WILLIAMS, the first governor who held liberty of conscience, as well as of person, to be the birthright of man.

In the year 1639, Mr. Williams formed the _first_ Baptist church in America, at Providence. Throughout succeeding years, few changes, comparatively, were experienced in the movements of the Baptist denomination on this vast continent. Baptist churches multiplied exceedingly, until they a.s.sumed a leading att.i.tude among the religious communities of America. They have amply provided for an efficient and learned ministry, and the extraordinary revivals with which they have been frequently favored, invest them with a moral strength and glory which cannot be contemplated but with astonishment and admiration.

ANABAPTISTS.

Those who maintain that baptism ought always to be performed by immersion.

The word is compounded of _ana_ "new," and _baptistes_, "a Baptist,"

signifying that those who have been baptized in their infancy, ought to be baptized _anew_. It is a word which has been indiscriminately applied to Christians of very different principles and practices. The English and Dutch Baptists do not consider the word as at all applicable to their sect, because those persons whom they baptize they consider as never having been baptized before, although they have undergone what they term the ceremony of sprinkling in their infancy.

FREE-WILL BAPTISTS.

The first church gathered, of this order, was in New Durham, N. H., in the year 1780, princ.i.p.ally by the instrumentality of Elder Benjamin Randall, who then resided in that town. Soon after, several branches were collected which united with this church; and several preachers, of different persuasions, were brought to see the beauties of a _free salvation_, and united as fellow-laborers with Elder Randall.

They believe that, by the death of Christ, salvation was provided for all men; that, through faith in Christ, and sanctification of the Spirit,-though by nature entirely sinners,-all men may, if they improve every means of grace in their power, become new creatures in this life, and, after death, enjoy eternal happiness; that all who, having actually sinned, die in an unrenewed state, will suffer eternal misery.

Respecting the divine attributes of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they in substance agree with other Orthodox Christians. They hold the holy Scriptures to be their only rule of religious faith and practice, to the exclusion of all written creeds, covenants, rules of discipline, or articles of organization. They consider that elders and deacons are the officers of the church designed in the Scriptures, and maintain that piety, and a call to the work, are the essential qualifications of a minister, without regard to literary attainments.

SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS, OR SABBATARIANS,

Are those who keep the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath. They are to be found princ.i.p.ally, if not wholly, among the Baptists. They object to the reasons which are generally alleged for keeping the first day, and a.s.sert that the change from the seventh to the first was effected by Constantine, on his conversion to Christianity, A. D. 321. The three following propositions contain a summary of their principles as to this article of the Sabbath, by which they stand distinguished:-

1. That G.o.d hath required the seventh or last day of every week to be observed by mankind, universally, for the weekly Sabbath.

2. That this command of G.o.d is perpetually binding on man till time shall be no more.

3. That this sacred rest of the seventh-day Sabbath is not by divine authority changed from the seventh and last to the first day of the week, and that the Scripture doth nowhere require the observation of any other day of the week for the weekly Sabbath, but the seventh day only. They hold, in common with other Christians, the distinguishing doctrines of Christianity.

SIX-PRINCIPLE BAPTISTS.

This appellation is given to those who hold the imposition of hands, subsequent to baptism, and generally on the admission of candidates into the church, as an indispensable prerequisite for church membership and communion. They support their peculiar principle chiefly from Heb. 6:1, 2-"Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and faith toward G.o.d, of the doctrine of baptism, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment," As these two verses contain six distinct propositions, one of which is the laying on of hands, these brethren have, from thence, acquired the name of _Six-Principle Baptists_, to distinguish them from others, whom they sometimes call _Five-Principle Baptists_. They have fourteen churches in Ma.s.sachusetts and Rhode Island.

QUAKER BAPTISTS, OR KEITHIANS.

A party from the society of Friends, in Pennsylvania, separated in the year 1691. It was headed by the famous GEORGE KEITH. They practised baptism, and received the Lord's supper, but retained the language, dress, and manners, of the Friends, or Quakers.

PEDOBAPTISTS.

Are those who practise the baptism of children, without regard to personal faith.

Pedobaptists, in common with all others, claim for their practice an apostolical origin; and, although they differ much in theological opinions, in forms of church government, and modes of worship, yet they all adopt substantially the same mode of reasoning in their defence of pedobaptism. They say that the church, under both the old and new dispensations, has ever been the same, although under a different form; that infants, as well as parents, were admitted into the church under the earlier dispensations, the rite of circ.u.mcision being the sign of their introduction, into it; and that the Christian dispensation (as the Savior came not to destroy, but to fulfil, the law and the prophets) did not annul or abridge any of the privileges of the church that were possessed under the dispensations of former times. But as the right of children, who are bound to their parents by the strongest natural tie, to be solemnly and visibly dedicated to G.o.d, and to come within the pale and under the watch of the church, is a blessing and a privilege, we are ent.i.tled to ask for the pa.s.sages in the New Testament which require its abandonment. We take it for granted, that children are to be publicly dedicated to G.o.d, now, as in former times, unless some positive directions can be shown to the contrary. It appearing, therefore, that children may be dedicated to G.o.d, by their parents, in some public and visible way, and there remaining no outward ceremony, under the Christian dispensation, suitable to that purpose, but baptism, we infer that baptism is designed to take the place of circ.u.mcision, and that children may be baptized. And these views are thought to be encouraged by the affectionate saying of Christ, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of G.o.d." (Mark 10:14.)

A second argument in favor of infant baptism is derived from the repeated accounts, in the Acts, of the baptism of whole families. The families referred to are those of Lydia, a seller of purple in the city of Thyatira, of the jailer, in the same city, and of Cornelius, the centurion, of Caesarea. Instances of this kind are not to be considered as conclusively proving the Scripture authority of infant baptism of themselves; but they form a presumptive argument, in its favor, of great weight.

And, further, it may be shown, from ecclesiastical history, that the baptism of infants was practised in the time of the primitive Christians.

This being the fact, the conclusion seems to follow irresistibly, that they received the practice from the apostles, and that it was, therefore, known and recognized by the Savior himself; and, if it were known and recognized by him, or even introduced, subsequently and solely, by those he commissioned, it must be received, in either case, as the will of Christ, and as a law of the Christian dispensation.

Again, they say that the particular mode of baptism can not be determined from the meaning of the word _baptizo_, which may mean either to immerse or to lave, according to the particular connection in which it is found.

(See Mark 7:4. Heb. 9:10.)