Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

position they please, but from both it is impossible

to escape.

In order, as it should seem, to perplex the mind of the reader on this part of the subject, our opponents endeavour to confound that interposition of mercy, by which impenitent sinners are introduced into a state of salvation, with the gracious acceptance of believers.

*

With this view we are reminded that God receives such as are dead in sins. Whether it be safe to assert that God accepts the impenitent at all, while their impenitence continues, I shall not stay to inquire: it is certain they are not received in the same sense as genuine christians, nor in the sense the apostle intended when he enjoined forbearance towards the weak in faith. That Christ receives men in their sins, so as to adopt them into his family, and make them heirs of eternal life, is a doctrine offensive to pious ears, most

"Yet permit me to ask," says Mr. Booth, " is the divine conduct, is the favour of God, or the kindness of Christ in receiving sinners, the rule of our proceeding in the administration of positive institutions ? Whom does God, whom does Christ receive? None but those who believe and profess faith in the Lord Messiah? Our brethren will not affirm it. For if divine compassion did not extend to the dead in sin; if the kindness of Christ did not relieve the enemies of God, none of our fellow race would ever be saved. But does it hence follow that we must admit the unbelieving, or the unconverted, either to baptism or the holy supper? Our gracious Lord freely accepts all that desire it, and all that come, but are we bound to receive every one that solicits communion with us?"-Booth's Apology, p. 106.

remote from the language of scripture, and from all sober theology. But if they intend something essentially distinct from this, for what purpose it is introduced, except with a view to shelter themselves under the cover of an ambiguous term, I am at a loss to conjecture. In the mean time, it is obvious that the design of these contortions is to get rid, if possible, of a principle which originated not with us, but with St. Paul, that we ought to accept those whom we acknowledge Christ to have accepted. This is still more evident; when we find them adducing the excommunication of unworthy members, such as the incestuous man at Corinth, who it is asserted was all along an object of divine favour, as a proof that the rule which that inspired writer has laid down, may be safely neglected. In reply to which, it is sufficient to ask-In what light was the incestuous person regarded, when he declared his determination to deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Was it under the character of a member of Christ, or an enemy to the gospel? If we believe his own representation, he deemed it necessary for him to be expelled as an infectious leaven, the continuance of which would corrupt the whole mass; so that

66

"Besides, gospel churches," says Mr. Booth, are sometimes obliged to exclude from their communion those whom he has received, as appears from the case of the incestuous person in the church of Corinth. And have those churches which practise free communion never excluded any for scandalous backslidings, whom, notwithstanding, they could not but consider as received of Christ?"-Booth's Apology, p. 106.

whatever proofs of repentance he might afterwards exhibit, these could have no influence on the principle on which he was excluded. When the professors of christianity are guilty of deliberate violation of the laws of Christ, they are to be treated agreeably to the conduct they exhibit, as bad men, with a hope that the severity of discipline may reclaim and restore them to the paths of rectitude.

To justify the practice of exclusive communion, by placing pædobaptists, who form the great body of the faithful, on the same level with men of impure and vicious lives, is equally repugnant to reason, and offensive to charity; at the same time that it is manifest from this mode of reasoning, that the measure contended for is considered in the light of punishment. Whether our pædobaptist brethren are the proper objects of it, or whether it is adapted to promote the only legitimate ends of punishment, must be left to future inquiry.

SECTION III.

Pædobaptists a Part of the true Church, and their Exclusion, on that account, Unlawful.

Before we proceed to urge the argument announced in this section, it will be necessary to ascertain the precise import of the word church, as it is employed in the Holy Scriptures. If we examine the New Testament, we shall find that

the term church, as a religious appellation, occurs in two senses only; it either denotes the whole body of the faithful, or some one assembly of christians associated for the worship of God. In the former sense, it is styled in the Apostles' Creed, catholic, or universal; a belief in the existence of which, forms one of its principal articles. In this sense, Jesus Christ is affirmed to be "Head over all things to the church, which is his body." It is in this collective view of it, that we affirm its perpetuity. When the term is employed to denote a particular assembly of christians, it is invariably accompanied with a specification of the place where it was accustomed to convene, as for example, the church at Corinth, at Ephesus, or at Rome. Now it is manifest from scripture, that these two significations of the word differ from each other only as a part differs from a whole, so that when the whole body of believers is intended, it is used in its absolute form; when a particular society is meant, it is joined with a local specification. It is never used in the New Testament, as in modern times, to denote the aggregate of christian assemblies throughout a province, or a kingdom; nor do we ever read of the church of Achaia, Galatia, &c. but of the churches in the plural number; the word being constantly applied either to the whole number of the faithful, scattered throughout the world, or to some single congregation or society. It is equally obvious that whenever the word church occurs in its absolute

form, it comprehends all genuine christians without exception, and as that church is affirmed to be his body, it could not enter into the conception of the inspired writers that there were a class of persons strictly united to Christ, who yet were none of its competent parts.

In

By orthodox christians it is uniformly maintained that union to Christ is formed by faith, and as the baptists are distinguished by demanding a profession of it at baptism, they at least are precluded from asserting that rite to have any concern in effecting the spiritual alliance in question. their judgement at least, since faith precedes the application of water, the only means of union are possessed by the abettors of infant sprinkling equally with themselves; who are therefore equally of the "body of Christ, and members in particular.” But since the Holy Ghost identifies that body with the church, explaining the one by the other, (" for his body's sake, which is the church,") it seems impossible to deny that they are fully entitled to be considered, in the catholic sense of the term, as members of the christian church. And as the universal church is nothing more than the collective body of the faithful, and differs only from a particular assembly of christians, as the whole from a part, it is equally impossible to deny that a pædobaptist society is, in the more limited import of the word, a true church.

If we consider the matter in a light somewhat different, we shall be conducted to the same

« AnteriorContinuar »