The Standard Manual for Baptist ChurchesHiscox, Edward T. (Edward Thurston)
Religion
The Standard Manual for Baptist Churches
Hiscox, Edward T. (Edward Thurston)
Baptists -- Doctrines; Baptists -- Government
In further proof that the position of Baptists as to the Lord's Supper
is correct and Scriptural; that the difficulty lies with baptism, and
not with the Supper; and that they must still continue to restrict the
ordinance to baptized believers, or else admit that sprinkling is
baptism, we cite the concessions of distinguished Pedobaptist scholars
and Divines in evidence on our side.
JUSTIN MARTYR, one of the early Christian Fathers, says of the Supper:
"This food is called by us the Eucharist, of which it is not lawful for
any one to partake but such as believe the things taught by us to be
true, and have been baptized." _Apol. I, C. 65. 66. See Schaff's Church
Hist., Ch. 2. p. 516._
MOSHEIM, in his Church History, says: "Neither those doing penance, nor
those not yet baptized, were allowed to be present at the celebration
of this ordinance." _Eccl. Hist., Cent. 3, Part 2, Ch. 4, Sec. 3._
NEANDER, the great church historian, says: "At this celebration, as may
be easily concluded, no one could be present who was not a member of
the Christian Church, and incorporated into it by the rite of baptism."
_Ch. Hist., Vol. 1., 327. Boston, 1849._
CAVE, one of the ablest writers on Christian antiquities, says the
participants in the primitive church were those "that had embraced the
doctrine of the Gospel, and had been baptized into the faith of Christ.
For, looking upon the Lord's Supper as the highest and most solemn act
of religion, they thought they could never take care enough in the
dispensing of it." _Prim. Christ., Part I., Ch. 11, p. 333._
BINGHAM, in his able work on the Antiquities of the Christian Church,
says of the early Christians: "As soon as a man was baptized he was
communicated"--that is, admitted to the communion. Baptism, therefore,
essentially preceded the Supper.--_Christ. Antiq., B. 12, Ch. 4, Sec.
9, B. 15, Ch. 3._
DOCTOR WALL, who searched the records of antiquity for facts
illustrating the history of the ordinances, says: "No church ever gave
the communion to any persons before they were baptized. Among all the
absurdities that were ever held, none ever maintained that any person
should partake of the communion before he was baptized." _Hist. Inf.
Bap., Part II., Ch. 9._
DOCTOR COLEMAN says of the early churches: "None indeed but believers
in full communion with the church were permitted to be present." "But
agreeably to all the laws and customs of the church, baptism
constituted membership with the church. All baptized persons were
legitimately numbered among the communicants as members of the church."
_Anc. Christ. Exemp., Ch. 21, Sec. 8._
DOCTOR SCHAFF says: "The communion was a regular part, and, in fact,
the most important and solemn part of the Sunday worship, . . . in
which none but full members of the church could engage." _Ch. Hist.,
Vol. I., p. 392. New Work, 1871._
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