10. Are the children of Antipædobaptists, if brought up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord, less likely to become living members of
Christ than the children of Pædobaptists; and is there any spiritual
benefit conferred on these by the rite, of which those to whom it is not
administered are deprived?
11. Whenever a pious Jew might have been asked the question, What
benefits are secured to the children and nation of Israel by the rite of
circumcision? he could at once, by a reference to the appointment, and
to the promises and threatenings connected with it, have given a clear
and satisfactory answer to the question; but when a similar question is
proposed to Pædobaptists respecting their practice, are they able to
give to it a like satisfactory answer? Is there any agreement on the
subject? Is not every thing here vague, mystical, and incongruous? And
wherefore is this? Is it not simply because that, unlike the Jew, they
canot refer to "the law and to the testimony?"
12. Is not the distinction existing in Pædobaptist churches, between
persons who are entitled to one only of the sacraments of the gospel,
and those who are entitled to both; between unconsciously initiated
members, and professed voluntary members, entirely without countenance
from the New Testament?
13. Was not baptism in the apostles' days a special means of grace in
the church; and was it not always designed to be so? But if it is not a
means of grace to infants, does not the baptizing them plainly tend to
nullify a gospel ordinance, depriving both them and the church of its
benefits?
14. Has not the practice of infant baptism, in all ages of the church,
been a pernicious source of delusion? And is there any way of avoiding
its injurious influence on the world, and regaining the benefit of the
ordinance to the church, but by following up the principles of the New
Testament, and abandoning the practice of infant baptism?
Let these inquiries be seriously, impartially, and prayerfully
considered, by all who are concerned for the purity and efficiency of
the church, the unity of its members, and the glory of its Author.
=Antipædobaptist.=
ON A MISSIONARY SPIRIT.
_To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine._
No period of the rolling year, perhaps, is received with more cordial
feelings of joy than the one on which we have now entered. To the
admirer of the works of nature--its smiling face--its verdant
mantle--the exchange of the chilly blast of winter for etherial mildness
and softer gales, cannot but afford pleasure and delight; for "lo,
winter is past; the rain is over and gone; and the time of the singing
of birds is come."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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