BRIEF VIEW

OF THE

PROPER SUBJECTS AND TRUE MODE

OF

CHRISTIAN BAPTISM

BY THE

REV. JAMES WHAREY.

PHILADELPHIA :

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION.

CHRISTIAN BAPTISM.

HARDLY any subject has created more discussion in the Christian church since the Reformation than that of Baptism. It divides itself into two parts; the first relates to the proper subjects of Baptism, the second to the proper mode of its administration. I wish here to offer a plain and concise view of the subject, that may assist young persons in forming a correct opinion in regard to both these subjects of inquiry.

I. I shall first speak in regard to the proper subjects of Baptism. And here all are agreed that adult believers, making a profession of Christianity, if they have not been baptized in infancy, are entitled to this ordinance. We hold to believers' Baptism as much as any other. The question in dispute is, with regard to infants. We hold that the infants of believing parents are entitled to Baptism on the faith of their parents. This the Baptists deny. It is true that we have no direct scripture declaration, saying in so many words, that children should be baptized; (neither have we any such for female communion ;) yet we have what I conceive to be a full equivalent.

1. The covenant with Abraham was the same gospel covenant, under which we now live. This is evident from the whole nature and tenor of that covenant, embracing not merely the posterity of Abraham, but all nations. "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." (Gen. xii. 3.) "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen. xxii. 18.) The terms of that covenant were faith and obedience; the same as those of the gospel covenant. "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." (Gen. xv. 6.) "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." (Gen. xxii. 18.) Hence the apostle says, "Abraham, was justified by faith." It is true that the promised blessing was made more immediately to the posterity of Abraham, because it should be chiefly confined to them for many generations, and until the coming of the Messiah; but finally it should embrace all nations. It is therefore frequently called an everlasting covenant. But who are the children of Abraham? Not

merely his descendants by natural generation: but all believers, as the apostle tells us, are the children of Abraham, who is the Father of us all. (Rom. iv. 16. Gal. iii. 7.) The same apostle says, "And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham." (Gal. iii. 8, 9.) Hence the apostle says again, "And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect." (Gal. iii. 17.) Temporal blessings were promised under that covenant; but they were typical of spiritual blessings, which were also included. To sum up the particulars then :-The Abrahamic covenant was to include all nations -it was an everlasting covenant—the terms of it were faith and obedience—the promulgation of it was preaching the gospel to Abraham-it promised spiritual blessings, under the type and figure of temporal blessingsand this covenant with Abraham was confirmed of God in Christ, and was not disannulled by the giving of the law to the Israelites, four hundred and thirty years after, at Mount Sinai. Can any one doubt therefore that this is the same gospel covenant, under which we all live, i. e. all believers; and who are therefore the children of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise? It seems to me to be as plain as any thing can be, that the covenant with Abraham, was the covenant of grace-the same Gospel covenant confirmed of God in Christ, under which all believers are at this day. If this be not so, the apostle, to my mind, has reasoned very obscurely in the 3d of Galatians and 4th of Romans.

2. Of that covenant, circumcision was made the external sign and seal, and was to be administered to children at eight days old. Children, under that dispensation, were thereby recognized as comprehended under that covenant; i. e. as being members of the visible Church of God in the world. That Abraham and his descendants in the line of Isaac and Jacob, and their posterity, the Israelites, to whom the promises were made, did constitute the visible Church of God in the world, cannot be denied; unless it be denied that the Church existed in a visible form at all, until after the coming of Christ. But surely no one will deny

this. God did not leave himself without witness. The Jewish nation was the visible Church of God in the world, from Abraham down to the coming of Christ. The martyr Stephen speaks of the Church in the wilderness. (Acts. vii. 38.) the Jews are very often spoken of as God's chosen people-his heritage-his vineyard, &c. But circumcision was the peculiar badge of that people, by which they were distinguished from the rest of the world; by which were signified and sealed to them the blesssings promised in the covenant with Abraham; and by which proselytes were initiated into their communion. The idea that some have maintained, that circumcision was a merely national badge, contradicts the whole tenor of Scripture on the subject, which every where represents it as a solemn and significant religious rite. It was instituted in the family of Abraham long before the Israelites existed as a nation. It is evident therefore, that in the visible Church, as it was established in the family of Abraham, down to the coming of Christ, children were recognized as members, and received the external sign of membership, by divine appointment at eight days old.

3. The gospel church is the same Church, only rendered more spiritual, and with some change of external rites. This is evident from many passages of scripture; nay, I might say from the whole tenor of scripture on the subject. Christ came "not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil." The corner stone of the Church is laid in Sion; i. e. in the Jewish church. The privileges that had been confined to the Jews are represented under the gospel, as being extended to the Gentiles. Hence the apostle says, "Ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." (Eph. ii. 13, 19, 20.) The whole Epistle to the Hebrews is designed to show that the rites of the Jewish church are abrogated, and that those of the Christian church had taken their place. But the apostle Paul puts the matter beyond all question in the 11th chapter of Romans, in which he calls the Jewish church the good olive tree from which some of them had been broken off, as unfruitful branches, through unbelief, and the Gentiles grafted in, to partake