commanded?" We are not insensible, that THIS SECT, like the ancient christians, is every where spoken against. But what is the friendship of the world, which is declared to be enmity with God, compared to the approbation of Heaven? We love and esteem our friends, especially such as are pious; but ought we not to love Christ better? Indeed, if we do not, he has declared that we are not worthy of him. It has been said, with a view no doubt to dissuade persons from being "re-baptized," (as it is called,) that we thereby "renounce that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost whom they adore." This, if true, would be a very solemn consideration! But can it be admitted as truth? Is it renouncing the sacred Trinity, to be voluntarily baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? A most extraordinary conclusion! No, we publicly and solemnly own those sacred names, and before angels and men avow our submission to Christ, as the only Lawgiver and Head of his church. That you, my dear Friend, and all others who are desirous of keeping the ordinances as they were first delivered to the churches, may be led in the right way, and be made fruitful in every good work, shall be the fervent prayer of Yours, in the gospel of a precious Saviour.. FINIS. In the following treatife, the reader will find N an impartial examination of the MODE of baptifm. The impropriety of introducing, into the text, words from the learned languages, is freely acknowledged. But the fubject, here treated on, would not admit the entire exclufion of all foreign words from the body of the work, and fuffer them to be placed in the marginal notes. But, any common man, the plain, English reader, who is defirous of being rightly informed, refpectingthe mode of baptifm, will, inftantly, perceive the neceffity of recurring to thofe languages, in which the holy fcriptures were firft written; in which Mofes and the prophets delivered the immediate command's of God; in which Jefus Chrift and the Apoftles taught the doctrines of grace and falvation. The words from the Greek language, which import baptifm, have, generally, fuch a fimilarity of found to the English verb, to baptize, that no one will be very likely to mistake their meaning. The reader will here find the words, which import baptifm in the original Scriptures, have been traced in feveral of the Oriental languages, with a view of difcovering whether thofe perfons, who tranflated the Bible, or parts of it, into the Chaldaic, Syriac, Ethi opic, Arabic, and Perfic languages, confidered those words as neceffarily implying, in the original, the act of immerfion, in the adminiftration of the ordinance of baptifm. The refult of the investigation may be feen toward the conclufion of the work. Many heated disputes there have been, concerning the mode of iniating profelytes into the household of faith. But, in the prefent enlightened period of the world, and while we live under the full-orbed fplendours of the Gofpel, fuch difputes ill become us, confidered as men, and are both difgraceful and injurious among the profeffed followers of the peaceful Jesus. To excite and fpread doubts, refpecting the effica cy of the Divine ordinances, and raife fcruples, con cerning the proper mode of adminiftering the Chrif tian ordinances, is a common engine, with which the adverfaries of Heaven attack the citadel of virtue and religion. Such mistaken wretches, however, we most fincerely pity, especially when we look forward and behold, through the perfpectives of faith, the approaches of a folemn period, when all the ungodly, the malicious oppofers of the Redeemer's caufe and kingdom, shall be caft down, and doomed to the uncealing torments of confcious guilt, that "worm which never dies and that fire which is never quenched. At the prefent day, while fome treat all pretences. to religion with pointed contempt; while others manifeft an unpardonable coldness toward divine things; while others. again,, who are defirous of being thehumble followers of Chrift, have real. fcruples of con fcience, feem to be feeling after the path of duty amid religious darkness, and are vibrating between the validity of fprinkling and the propriety of plung-. ing, it highly becomes thofe, who "are fet for the defence of the Gofpel," to paint Chriftianity in its true colours of glory and beauty. It becomes them. to use their endeavors, to remove all feeming difficulties, in respect to the Chriftian ordinances, and espec ially to investigate that of baptifm, and place it, be fore an obferving multitude, on its true foundation. Chriftians fhould "love more and contend lefs," about religious rites and forms. A careful perufal of this treatise may ferve the purpofes of doing away the dif tinction of party names, and of convincing the candid inquirer after the path of duty.in the mode of baptifm. I If one chooses immersion, let him be immersed. will receive him, for all that, as a brother in Christ, and cordially welcome him to my fellowship and communion. If another choofes fprinkling, let him be fprinkled. Him I acknowledge, to have received the outward ordinance in an evangelical fenfe. In the reception of this ordinance, the application of water, whether little or much, I moft devoutly conceive, is efficacious to the fubject, as an exernal fign and acceptable in the fight of our Divine Lord and Redeemer. N. H. FLETCHER, |