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DISCOURSE, &c.

HAPPY were those days when the professed followers of Christ were, of one heart and of one soul; when the church, though divided into several branches, and existing in various places, was nevertheless one. Then a common interest animated, the whole body. Of the members the world took knowledge, that they loved one another, that they had been with Christ, and that they truly belonged to a kingdom not of this world.

These days, pleasant as they really were, are now gone, and, in their stead have succeeded days of division and strife, in which the "seamless garment" of our Savior has been rent in various parts, and the members of his mystical body set in an hostile array against

each other.

The evils resulting from this state of things are almost immense. "It supplies infidels with their most plausible topics of invective; it hardens the conscien ces of the irreligious-weakens the hands of the good, impedes the efficacy of prayer, and is probably a principal obstruction to that ample effusion of the spirit which is essential to the renovation of the world."

These evils every sincere christian deeply deplores, and for support under them looks forward with gladness to that predicted and long desired day when the watchmen, placed on the walls of Zion shall lift. their voices together and see eye to eye.

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Among the controversies that have aided in bringing the visible church into a state so deplorable, that respecting the mode and subjects of Christian Baptism has had no inconsiderable share. Though later than most others in its origin, it has been behind but few in the danger or extent of its influence. While other controversies have respected the great and fundamental truths of religion, and, as a consequence, have seperated only those differing upon these points; this has had for its immediate object an outward ordinance, and as a consequence, has seperated into dissociate bodies, persons thinking and feeling alike upon almost every thing else appertaining to Christianity.

Unhappily for the cause of religion in this place, this controversy exists here, and with some excites an undue share of attention and concern. In instances it is to be feared, it has prevented a proper regard to what is infinitely more important. While it has excited an enquiry about Water, it has prevented, or extinguished, in more cases than one, all proper enquiry respecting sin, righteousness and a judgment to come,

In no discourse hitherto, either from this place, or in any part of the society, have I dwelt upon this controversy. While the theory and practice which I have adopted, have been strenuously opposed, I have been silent, administering the ordinance of baptism in that way which appears to me the most scriptural, without in the least bringing to view the sentiments or the practice of others-not however through indifference, but from the hope and confidence that the people of my. charge generally, were too well grounded in the truth to be shaken by any assaults that were, or might be, made, and also from the wish that their attention might be called to subjects which, certainly in respect to most of them, are of far greater present importance.

It has at length appeared to be my duty in a public manner to attend to this subject. And this, agreeably to notice given the last sabbath, will be my object in the discourses now to be delivered.

As persons adhering to different sentiments in this controversy from myself, have been repeatedly heard, I now claim as my privilege your candid and serious attention, to what I may advance 1st upon the mode, 2ndly, upon the subjects of Christian Baptism.

One point of difference between us, and our brethren of the Baptist denomination, respects the mode of Baptism,. they maintaining in opposition to ourselves that an immersion, or an intire plunging of the body in water in the act of baptism is essential to the validity of the ordinance and that those not thus immersed or plunged are unbaptised persons, and are without the pale of the visible church; while we on the other hand, not placing the validity of the ordinance in the mode of the plication of water, suppose that a person is baptized agreeably to the purport of the institution, when the appointed element has been applied to him by authorized hands in the name of the Trinity..

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In speaking on the mode of baptism, the particular passage to which I would call your attention may be found Acts 9, 18. And he received sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized.

The person here mentioned as arising and being baptised was Saul, afterwards St. Paul, the great Apos tle of the Gentiles. Having been three days without sight and refreshment at the house of one Judas in Damascus, he was visited by Ananias, who appears to have been the christian minister of the place, by the Javing on of whose hands he immediately received his right and was filled with the Holy Ghost.

And immediately, saith the inspired pennman, there fell from his eyes as it had been scales, and he received sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized.

It appears from what Paul related before his persecuters at Jerusalem, that Ananias commanded him to arise and to be baptized, and wash away his sins calling upon the name of the Lord. This is all that the scriptures relate respecting this case of baptism.

Here the question arises-In what manner was water in this instance applied? That it was applied in the name of the Trinity, there can be no doubt, because Christ had expressly appointed that it should be so applied in this christian rite. But was Paul immersed in water, or was water applied to him by affusion or sprinkling? If it be said he was immersed I ask where? In the house, or was he conducted weak as he must have been, through three days trouble and abstinence from refreshment, to some river or stream of water without? None will pretend that it was done in the house, because conveniencies for immersion cannot with any reason be supposed to have existed there.Was it then without? Very unlikely indeed. When Ananias addressed him in respect to Baptism, he commanded him to arise-not to go out or to follow him out. Having arisen, the ordinance was administered to him, standing no doubt in an erect posture. Thus as the text declares-he arose and was baptized.

From this, let us pass to each of the other instances of baptism recorded in the new testament, the circum→ stances of which are in any measure stated.

The apostle, whose baptism we have been considering speaks, 1 Cor. 10, 1. 2. of one administered to the Israelites as they passed through the Red Sea. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how

that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud, and in the sea.

If the Apostle, with respect to the mode of Baptism, was himself a Baptist, as our brethren very earnestly contend-if he called none baptized unless they had been immersed, then he meant to be understood that the Israelites were actually plunged in the cloud and in the sea-that their bodies were wholly immersed in them.

With these ideas in our minds, let us repair to the Mosaic account of this event. See Exodus 14. 21.And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them, on their right hand and on their left.

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Now let us in the spirit of candor inquire, how these Israelites could be baptized in the mode on which our brethren insist, consistently with the facts here related. They could not have been put into the water, nor under the water, nor taken out of the water. Their feet, if Moses relates the truth, continually stood on dry ground. The most that can be supposed is, that some sprays from the sea, and drops from the cloud that passed between them and the Egyptians, fell upon

them.

It is therefore a fact that persons are declared in scripture to have been baptized, not in the likeness of immersion, but to have been baptized as really so in respect to the mode singly, as were the disciples of John, of Christ, or the Apostles, at a time when they were not immersed, but when they were actually standing on dry ground.