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freely acknowledge that if the principle can be established that baptism is invariably essential to a christian profession, the cause we are pleading must be abandoned, being confident that a true profession of the christian religion is inseparable from church communion.

Previous to entering on this discussion, it will be necessary to premise that the words profession and confession, together with their correlates, are usually denoted by one and the same word in the original, and that they are evidently used by the authors of the received translation as synonymous.* Hence, whatever is affirmed in the New Testament respecting the confession of Christ, or of his sayings, may without hesitation be considered as predicated of a profession; since, whatever difference may subsist in the popular meaning of the words, whenever they occur in scripture, they are merely different renderings of the same term.+

The word in the original is ομολογία, derived from ὁμολογέω, a verb of the same import.

See Matt. x. 32. Luke xii. 8. Matt. vii. 23. John ix. 22. John xii. 42. Acts xxiii. 8. xxiv. 14. Rom. x. 9, 10. 1 John iv. 15. 2 John 7. Rev. iii. 5. 1 Tim. vi. 13. Tv Kaliv opoλoyíav, a good profession, English Translation.Heb. iii. 1. rns òμodoyías nμwv, of our profession, E. T.-Heb. iv. 14. rs oμodoyias nμwv, our profession, E. T.-Heb. x. 23. τὴν ὁμολογίαν τῆς ἐλπίδος ἀκλινῆ, the profession of our faith without wavering.-Matt. vii. 23. Tore opoλoynow avroig, then will I profess unto them. In each of the preceding passages the same word, under different inflections, is employed, and they contain all the passages which relate to the absolute necessity of a religious profession.

Now, that the profession of Christ is an indispensable term of salvation, is so undeniably evident from the New Testament, that to attempt to prove it, seems like an insult on the understanding of the reader. I must crave his indulgence, however, for recalling to his recollection a very few passages, which will set the matter beyond dispute. "Whoever," said our Lord, "shall confess (or profess) my name before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven and whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."Matt. x. 32. The same language occurs, with little variation, in the gospel of St. Luke, xii. 8. In these words we find an awful denunciation of the rejection of every one, without exception, who shall be found to have denied Christ; and as this denial is immediately opposed to confessing him, it must necessarily attach to all such as have not made a confession. If a medium could be supposed betwixt the denial and the open assertion of the doctrine of Christ, it is precluded by the following sentence :-"Whoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels."-Luke ix. 26. Thence we may with certainty conclude, that from whatever motives a profession of christianity is omitted or declined, eternal perdition is the consequence. Nor is this the doctrine of the evangelists only it is repeatedly asserted, and uniformly

implied, in the writings of the apostles. "If thou shalt confess (or profess) with thy mouth," saith St. Paul, "the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession (or profession) is made unto salvation." Rom. x. 9. We find the same writer on another occasion exhorting christians, to hold fast the profession of their faith without wavering, when the previous possession of that is necessarily supposed, a firm adherence to which is inculcated as essential to salvation. "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering."-Heb. x. 23. It is to the faithful, considered as such, without distinction of sects and parties, that St. Paul addresses the following exhortation: "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." Heb. iii. 1. In the Epistle to the Hebrews alone, the phrase our profession occurs three times, and in each instance in such a connexion as demonstrates it to be an attribute common to all christians.*

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It would be trifling with the reader's patience to multiply proofs of a position so evident from scripture, as the inseparable connexion betwixt a genuine profession of Christ, and future salvation. But if this be admitted, what becomes of the principal argument urged by Mr. Kinghorn for *Heb. iii. 1; iv. 14; x. 13.

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strict communion, which turns on the principle that "baptism is the term of christian profession?" Who can fail to perceive that if this proposition is true, the pædobaptists are, on our principles, cut off from the hope of eternal life, and salvation is confined to ourselves?. The language of our Saviour and his apostles is decisive respecting the necessity of a profession in order to eternal life: this writer affirms that baptism, as we practise it, is an essential term of profession. By comparing these propositions together, a child will perceive that the necessary inference is the restriction of the hope of future happiness to members of our own denomination. This, in truth, is the conclusion to which all his reasoning tends; it meets the intelligent reader at every turn; but when he expects the writer to advance forward and press the fearful consequence, he turns aside, and is afraid to push his argument to its proper issue. He travails in birth, but dares not bring forth; he shrinks from the sight of his own progeny. Sometimes he seems at the very point of disclosing the full tendency of his speculations, and more than once suggests hints in the form of questions which possess no meaning, but on the supposition of that dismal conclusion to which his hypothesis conducts him. Let the reader pause, and meditate on the following extraordinary passage:" If baptism," he says, "was once necessary to communion, either it was then essential to salvation, or that which was not essential to salvation, was necessary

to communion. If it was then essential to salvation, how can it be proved not to be essential now?”* Again, he asks, "What is the meaning of the term condition? In whatever sense the term can apply to the commission of our Lord, or to the declarations of the apostles respecting repentance, faith, and baptism; is not baptism a condition either of communion, or of salvation, or of both? Do the conditions either of salvation, or of communion, change by time? Are they annulled by being misunderstood?"†

Whatever of argument these passages may be supposed to contain, will be examined hereafter; the design of producing them at present is to shew the tendency of the principle; and the reader is requested to consider whether they are susceptible of any other sense, than that the terms of salvation and of communion are commensurate with each other; that whatever was once essential to salvation, is so still; and that baptism is as much a condition of salvation, as faith and repentance. But if these are his real sentiments, why not speak plainly, instead of "uttering parables?" and why mingle, in the same publication, representations totally repugnant, in which he speaks of such as dissent from him on the subject of baptism, as persons of the most distinguished character-persons whom God will undoubtedly bring to his The only solution this

kingdom and glory?

* Baptism a Term of Communion, p. 19.

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