Infant church membership

Front matter

[SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.]

CM t\

I UNITED STATES OF A'METIICA. \ ,

Preface

In sending this little volume abroad, custom requires that the reading public should be apprised of the circumstances that caused it to be written, and of the objects contemplated by the author in its publication, as well as of the character and contents of the book. And what is merely customary in other cases, seems very appropriate and highly important in this. The author is unknown to the literary world, and must, therefore, depend not upon an established and eminent character, but upon the intrinsic merits of his work, and the importance of the subject, to gain for it an extensive perusal. "Good wine needs no bush," said an eminent authoress, when asked for a preface, "and ba^l wine is made worse by apologies." We will, therefore, content ourselves with a plain and brief statement of facts. Soon after entering upon the work of the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, now more than twenty years past, our attention was specially directed to the subject of infant baptism, by

4 PREFACE.

finding in the Church many persons opposed to the baptism of children, and occasionally persons dissatisfied with their own baptism in infancy. And this diversity of opinion and practice among us is, and has been, in most cases, owing to a want of correct information on this particular subject. And this defect is not the fault of our people, for the means of gaining information suited to their particular wants has not been within their reach. A few tracts, sermons, and treatises, of very limited circulation, confined mostly to the abstract question of baptism, constituted our entire Church literature on this subject, except what was found in large and costly volumes, to which the majority of our people could not have access. True, they have their Bibles to read, containing all the doctrines of the Gospel. But it is also true that Christians, generally, instead of making up their minds independently, depend much upon the pulpit and the press for an exposition of the doctrines contained, and the practices enjoined in the sacred Scriptures. And it is also true, that anti-pedobaptists of every denomination are constantly engaged, with all the means within their reach, and with all the power and ingenuity of argument they possess, in bringing the practice of infant baptism into disrepute.

PREFACE. 5

And by Methodist ministers preaching, writing, and publishing but little in its favor, treating it as a subject of minor importance, the people are, in many instances, misled, greatly to their injury in this matter. And if the bare question, whether infants were to be baptized, was all that is at stake in this conflict, we might with less danger yield the ground to our opponents. But one error usually drags after it many others; and one duty neglected usually prepares the way for the neglect of many more. There are a great many important Scriptural truths and Christian duties connected with the subject of infant baptism, which either stand or fall with it, as the reader will see by reading the following pages. A correct and thorough delineation of all the duties which the Bible imposes upon Christian parents in particular, and the ministry and Church in general, in connection with the baptism of their infant children, is the great desideratum of the Church and of the world at the present day, and especially of the Methodist Episcopal Church. How far the present work approximates to the accomplishment of this demand, the intelligent reader must, after reading the work, determine. Such an object can not be attained by one, nor even many partial attempts. Effort after effort will be neces-

6 PREFACE.

sary, each gathering from the former all that had an important bearing in that direction, and gathering by patient investigation new and important facts and arguments till the work is made perfect. In this way we have been employed now more than twenty years. The first treatise we recollect to have read, was one published by Rev. C. Elliott, D. D., now editor of the Western Christian Advocate, to whose critical inspection this work has been submitted, and with whose approval it is now published. We soon after read another, by Rev. E. House, to which we would here acknowledge our indebtedness. All the writings of Dr. Clarke, and of Eev. R. Watson, touching this subject, have been carefully perused. But to none of these are we indebted more than to the Rev. F. G-. Hibbard,' whose truly-learned and able work on " Infant Baptism" has been several years before the public. It is impossible now to tell how much we have drawn from any of the above sources, as when we read them we sought to make their arguments our own, and to add to, and to improve upon them so far as it was within our power. Much, however, that will here appear as original matter, has been in this way obtained from others. Several years of our ministry have been spent in portions of our work where

PREFACE. 7

the peculiar doctrines of Mr. A. Campbell; an eminent anti-pedobaptist, were exerting a popular and controlling influence. And believing that the cause of truth demanded it, we commenced a course of reading and of investigation, embracing all the points of dispute between them and us, especially relating to infants. We became convinced that pedobaptists, as a general thing, did not place the argument upon its true basis. The baptism of infants grows out of the relation which, by Divine appointment, they are made to sustain to the Church of Jesus Christ through all time; which relation secures to them numerous other privileges and blessings closely connected with their baptism. Taking this broad and comprehensive view of the subject, we were enabled successfully to defend the right of infants to Christian baptism. For our own improvement, we commenced arranging in a systematic form the arguments and facts which had thus accumulated upon our hands, and reducing them to writing, till our manuscript had grown to its present form. This work has been performed at intervals extending through several years, amid the perplexities and labors of the itinerant ministry, and most of it without the least expectation that it would ever be seen by any but the author's own eye.

O PREFACE.

These facts are liere stated; first; as an apology for defects in the style and literary character of the work ; which will meet the eye of the critical reader; second; as an excuse for any failures that may be detected in giving due credit to those authors to whom we confess ourselves much indebted for the general matter contained in the work. We will here only add; that after submitting our manuscript to the inspection of several of the most competent judges; who have unanimously recommended its publication; we have finally determined to send it forth with earnest prayer to the "God of the patriarchs/' and the "Kedeemer of the world/' to make it a lasting blessing to all who may favor it with an attentive perusal. And if any person better qualified for the task will take up this subject; and bring out a better argument; and clearer delineation of Scriptural facts and Christian duties; he will not only be welcome to any assistance he may derive from this work; but shall also be entitled to the thanks and patronage of the Church.

SAMUEL GREGG.

Contents

I art jFtzst.'

Section I

Different opinions concerning the Abrahamic Covenant — its incipient developments and its unity considered page 13

SECTION n.

The Covenant as finally developed with Abraham, and explained by

St. Paul 30

section m.

The permanent character of the Abrahamic Covenant considered.. 46

SECTION IV.

The difference between the Abrahamic Covenant and the Ceremonial

Law of Moses 57

SECTION Y.

The Church of Jesus Christ was organized in the family of Abraham, AND FOUNDED UPON THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT — HAS BEEN PERPETU- ATED, AND WILL BE FOREVER, CONSTITUTING THE TRUE SEED OF ABRA- HAM 69

SECTION VI.

THE PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH ORGANIZED IN THE FAMILY OF ABRAHAM AS FORETOLD BY THE HOLY PROPHETS 79

SECTION VII.

What Christ, at his coming, was to do to the Church of the Patriarchs and Prophets which himself had organized in the family of

Abraham 93

SECTION VIII.

The unity of the Church of Christ under the Jewish and Christian Dispensations 1° 3

10 CONTENTS.

SECTION IX.

Inconsistencies of those that dent the identity of the Church under

the Jewish and Christian Dispensations Page 122

)axi £je.cjou&.

SECTION I.

Mr. Campbell's views of Circumcision corrected, and it proven to be the rite of initiation into the church of god 131

SECTION I. The Moral Character of Little Children considered 193

section n.

The Infant Children of Believing Parents have the right permanently SECURED TO THEM OF MEMBERSHIP IN THE CHURCH OF GOD BY THE RECEPTION OF ITS INDUCTING ORDINANCE 204

CONTENTS. 11

SECTION m.

The Savior of the world did not disfranchise Children of their Membership in his Church, but established it Page 214

SECTION IV.

The Commission given by Christ to his Apostles did not prohibit but provided for the Membership and Baptism of Infants 226

SECTION V.

How St. Peter understood and practiced the Apostles' commission on

THE DAT OF PENTECOST 251

SECTION VI.

St. Paul baptized Believers and their Households 263

SECTION vn.

The Apostles recognized Children as sustaining to God and the Church a relation which implies Membership and Baptism 2S2

section vin.

Testimony of the immediate Successors of the Apostles 301

SECTION IX.

Historical argument continued 328

SECTION X.

Objections to Infant Baptism and Membership considered 345

SECTION XL Address to Christian Parents in behalf of their Children 360

INFANT CHURCH MEMBERSHIP.

Hart fiui;

THE COVENANT MADE WITH ABRAHAM WAS CHIEFLY SPIR- ITUAL AND PERMANENT, CONTAINING THE TRUE CONSTITU- TION OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, AND EMBRACING ALL EVAN- GELICAL BELIEVERS, AND THEIR INFANT OFFSPRING AS THE "SEED OF ABRAHAM."

SECTION I.

DIFFERENT OPINIONS CONCERNING THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT — ITS INCIPIENT DEVELOPMENTS AND ITS UNITY CONSIDERED.

The relation which the venerable patriarch Abraham sustained to the entire Church of God is a subject of the highest interest to all who claim to be in any wise connected with that Church, down to the end of the world. Abraham stands pre-eminent among all the holy men whose history stands recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures; and, save Jesus Christ, he has no superior in the New Testament. Dignified as a man, " strong in faith "■ as a Christian, and ardent in his devotion to the true God, he was selected by infinite and unerring Wisdom as a fit model of Christian character, and placed at the head of his Church, and constituted the "father of the faithful."

This relation was fixed irrevocably in an everlasting covenant, which we propose examining, in all its various provisions, in the following pages, for the purpose of ascertaining what privileges are there permanently secured to the infant offspring of believers in Christ.

Looking at this ancient document from different points of the compass, with different shades of denominational prejudice, has led good men to take very dissimilar views of its permanency of character, and of the spiritual bearing of its contents; but these differences all converge into two general classes, called pedobaptists and anti-pedobaptists. This division, however, is not exactly marked by denominational lines, there being many persons, both in pedo and in anti-pedobaptist Churches, who do not perfectly harmonize with their respective denominational views on this particular subject.

As we intend most sincerely, and to the best of our ability, to advocate the pedohaptist side of this general question, it may here be proper to give the opinions of the opposite party as made public by their most prominent writers. The following are the views of the Rev. Alexander Campbell, founder of the sect called Disciples, or Campbellites :

" Allow me, then, to give a brief sketch of the whole scheme of the Abrahamic institution. When God called Abraham, he gave him two promises of an essentially-different import and character. The first was personal and familiar; the second spiritual and universal. In other words, the first had respect to Abraham and his natural descendants according to the flesh ; the latter had respect to the Messiah and all his people. Two covenants, sometimes called two Testaments, Old and New, and two schemes of Divine government and special providence are founded on these two promises

The first is developed in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis. It is a covenant concerning the inheritance of Canaan. Some time after these two promises, given to Abraham while yet in Chaldea, when he was in the land of Canaan, at Moreh, the Lord appeared to him and promised him that land. Some years after, on a certain occasion, Abraham asked the Lord, Whereby shall I know [be assured] that I shall inherit this land? The Lord commanded him to prepare a splendid sacrifice of all clean birds and quadrupeds; and at even the Lord met with him at the altar, and while a burning lamp passed between the severed animals, the Lord revealed the fortunes of his family for the next four hundred years, and made a covenant with him, securing to him and his fleshly seed the whole land from the borders of the Nile to the Euphrates. . . . But the time drawing nigh when the promised son by Sarah, the free woman and wife proper of Abraham, should be born, in order that this issue by Sarah might be contradistinguished from that by Hagar, God was pleased to command Abraham to prepare for another covenant. This next covenant, growing out of the first promise, is made especially for the sake of ascertaining, by a fleshly mark, the natural offspring of Abraham, and guaranteeing to them the parental blessings conveyed to Abraham by the covenant concerning the inheritance, and also as to the time of its institution, one year before the birth of Isaac. It occasioned a remarkable difference between Ishmael and Isaac, though sons of the same parent — the former being the son of his uncircumcision, the latter of his circumcision, though both circumcised themselves, Ishmael in his thirteenth year, and Isaac on the eighth day. . .

The second promise concerning the Messiah is no further developed during the whole Jewish dispensation. It is, indeed, repeated to Isaac and to Jacob, and confirmed by an oath at the virtual sacrifice of Isaac, and is called by Paul c the covenant confirmed oy God [stj] concerning the Christ, made four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the law/ ... To sum up the whole, the two promises tendered to Abraham at the time of his being called, while he was yet in Ur, of Chaldea, and depending on which he consented to leave his own country and become a voluntary pilgrim for life, constitute the basis of two great institutions. The first promise is developed in the covenant concerning the inheritance, some ten or twelve years after he had become a pilgrim. The covenant of circumcision was instituted twenty-four years after, and the Sinai covenant, or great national development, embracing all these other developments, was sealed four hundred and thirty years after the time of these two promises. The second promise, contaming the spiritual blessing of the Gentiles of all nations in Christ, is denominated by Paul — Gal. iii — 'The covenant confirmed by God concerning Christ four hundred and thirty years before the law/" (Debate between Campbell and Rice, pp. 289-292.)

Rev. Mr. Frey, a Baptist minister, says, " A visible Church was not known in Israel;" and then adds, "The blessings promised to Abraham and his natural seed, throughout ail their generations, were all of a temporal nature, and that without any regard to their personal character, conduct, or faith/' Again he says, "Pentecost was the time of the commencement of the Church of Christ." (Pp. 66-69.)

Mr. Campbell again says, "That the covenant of which it [circumcision] was a sign was not the covenant of the Christian Church, will appear most evident from a fact which I will just now state; namely, that some eight hundred years after its establishment, Jeremiah foretold that it should be abolished, and that God would make a new covenant, and instead of writing his new laws upon marble or upon parchment, he would write them upon the hearts of his people." (Debate between Campbell and Rice, p. 297.)

1. It will be seen that Mr. Campbell contends, throughout his remarks, for several covenants made at sundry times with Abraham, but furnishes no evidence of the fact, only that the Lord spoke with him at different times on different subjects. 2

2. He tries to identify the covenant with the law of Moses, an error into which anti-pedobaptists generally fall, supposing, also, that the covenant was abolished with the law at the commencement of the new dispensation,

3. He denies that the Abrahamic covenant was the covenant of the Christian Church. And the same ground is taken by Mr. Frey, and by anti-pedobaptists generally. And, indeed, they deny that the Church of Christ existed before the day of Pentecost.

4. He claims that all the blessings promised to Abraham and his seed were of a temporal character, except one promise relating to the Messiah, and that they only embraced his natural offspring.

We have thus presented pretty fully, and I trust fairly, the opinions of our opponents, for the purpose of showing their unscriptural bearing. As a pedobaptist we are free to admit that the Abrahamic covenant does contain important temporal blessings, both to Abraham and his natural descendants; but these were not confined exclusively to them. Nor do they destroy the spiritual character of the covenant; for Grod has promised great temporal blessings to his people in the New Testament; and in both the New and Old Testaments Gentiles who embrace the true faith, and worship the living God, with their children, are admitted to all the privileges of natural -born Jews. While the people of God are connected with this world they are dependent upon divine Providence for their subsistence as well as for the means by which Church institutions are supported; and, consequently, provisions for their temporal well-being properly constitute a part of the constitution of the Church through all time; just as we find it in the Abrahamic covenant, without, in the least, impairing the general spiritual character of that document. But the point which we propose here to raise for discussion, is the position taken by Mr. Campbell, that three or more covenants were made with the patriarch Abraham.

We will now introduce the reader to the incipient developments of the covenant made with Abraham, for the purpose of showing its general spiritual bearing, and at the same time to show the unity of its different parts; for before the Lord presented the covenant in detail, as we find it in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis, he prepared the mind of the patriarch by sundry partial developments, sufficient to excite and strengthen his faith and render him an intelligent party in the covenant.

I. We commence with Genesis xii, 1-3: "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee : and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing : and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee : and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. " This occurred when Abram was about seventy-five years of age, and while yet in "Ur of Chaldea." And here is wliere Mr. Campbell gets the u two promises v from which so many covenants and great institutions were subsequently developed.

1. We find here a brief but distinct allusion to the land of Canaan, which was to become his future residence — "a land I will shew thee." Mr. Campbell, however, finds his first allusion to this land in the "fifteenth chapter of Genesis," where he attempts to make a distinct " covenant concerning the inheritance."

2. A promise that Abram should be the father of "a great nation," a fact which his name indicates, referring primarily to the Jewish nation; which, in more respects than one, was "a great nation." Here is Mr. Campbell's first promise.

3. A promise that Abram' s name shall be great — referring to a change which afterward was made in the name of the patriarch, which shall be duly considered when we arrive at the final consideration of the covenant as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis ) showing, too, the identity of the promise there and here.

4. A promise that God would "bless" him, and make him a "blessing" to others. Abram, standing at the head of the entire Church of God, and acting in behalf of the Church, enters into a covenant with God — receiving the promise of Divine mercy, is blessed; and securing in covenant from the same promise of mercy to others, he is made to them a blessing.

5. A promise, "I will bless them that bless thee.

and curse him that curseth thee." This promise had a primary reference to Abram in his exposed pilgrimage through life, and a secondary reference to his natural posterity in their national relations to other people; but tdtimately to the vicissitudes and exposures of God's Church now represented in the person of Abram.

6. A promise that from Abram' s natural posterity Messiah should come, and by his death redeem all " nations" and " families" of the earth. Here is where Mr. Campbell gets his " second promise/' which, he says, "is not further developed during the whole Jewish dispensation," notwithstanding all the law and the prophets said concerning him. In Genesis xii, 1-3, we claim is the germ from which the different portions of the old Abrahamic covenant is ultimately developed. Nothing, to be sure, is here said of a covenant, nor are all the items ultimately denned as belonging to that covenant very fully set forth; but they are generally alluded to with sufficient definiteness to challenge the faith of the patriarch, and to prepare his mind for the grand result.

II. The next instance in which this subject is introduced is Genesis xiii, 14-16: "And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward : for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of

22 INFANT CHUUCH MEMBERSHIP.

the earth. : so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." The different items promised in Genesis xii, 1-3, are here summed up in two generic promises — the Lord choosing, in this instance, not to particularize.

1. The land of Canaan is more fully described and secured by promise to Abram and his seed forever.

2. "Thy seed" embraces both Abram' s natural and spiritual offspring and the Messiah; for St. Paul applies the term "seed" to each of these. The object, in this instance, seems to be to keep the mind of the patriarch awake to this grand purpose of the Almighty, and to exercise his faith by presenting the promise in the above comprehensive form. Abram was now residing in the land of Canaan.

III. The third reference to this same subject is recorded in Genesis xv, 5-7 : "And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them : and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it."

1. Here the whole subject is again embraced in two general promises, precisely as in Genesis xiii, 14-16, except their order is reversed, and the figure changed from the "dust of the earth" to the "stars" that glitter in the "heavens."

2. If the reader lias a lingering doubt whether the promise concerning the "seed" of Abram embraced Christ, let him remember that in the next verse it says Abram " believed in the Lord/' as there promised, "and he counted it to him for righteousness." Certainly Abram was not " counted righteous " for simply believing that he should have a very numerous natural offspring.

3. If he is inclined to apply the term "seed" to the natural offspring of Abram, to the exclusion of the spiritual, let him turn to Romans, fourth chapter, where he will find a labored argument by the apostle to prove the contrary. Here, then, is all that was promised to Abram in the beginning, carried forward without any particular addition or alteration.

Rev. Mr. Hibbard truly says, "That it has ever been a prevalent custom among the Orientals to teach by metaphor and allegory, by making sensible objects the representatives of spiritual things. . . . By this means a twofold sense is attached to almost every part of this covenant, a literal and a spiritual sense. Secondly, it is chiefly by the light of other parts of Scripture, and particularly of the New Testament, that we are to interpret the true meaning of the words of the covenant. . . . The same inspiration that guided Paul's pen in portraying its exalted character, doubtless shed its illuminations upon the mind of the patriarch. . . . All admit that these and kindred expressions imply a numerous and powerful natural posterity. But it is the twofold sense of these expressions to which we call attention; and it is that second and higher sense that they are made to include a promise of Gospel blessings." (Hibbard on Baptism, pp. 16, 17.)

Notwithstanding Abrani fully believed the promise of God in its twofold sense, embracing a numerous natural offspring, from whom the Messiah should come to bless all nations, as well as an equallynumerous spiritual posterity, composed of believers in Christ and their children forever, and that they were to inherit the land of Canaan, yet he seems anxious to have these promises reduced to a more substantial form. Hence he says — Genesis xv, 8 — - "Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it ¥' In yielding to the request of Abram, as Dr. Macknight says, "God accommodated himself to the ideas of mankind, who consider what is promised in a covenant as more binding than the simple declaration of one's intentions."

IV. We now propose an examination of Genesis xv, 9-18 : "And he said unto him, Take me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another : but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In that same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates."

Thus, we see, the promises previously and repeatedly made were now reduced to a most solemn covenant. And we challenge the advocates of a plurality of Abrahamic covenants, to show an instance beside this in which the regular forms of a covenant, with the appropriate sacrifices, were made or entered into by the Lord and the patriarch. * Dr. A. Clarke says, " For whatever purpose a covenant was made, it was ever ratified by a sacrifice, offered to God; and the passing between the divided parts of the victim appears to have signified that each agreed, if they broke the engagement, to submit to the punishment of being cut asunder ; which we find — from Matt, xxiv, 51; Luke xii, 46 — was an ancient mode of punishment."

Rabbi Solomon Jarchi says, "It was a custom with those wlio entered into a covenant with each other ; to take a heifer and cut it in two, and then the contracting parties passed between the pieces/ 7 This being an extraordinary case, several animals were employed. St. Cyril, in his book against Julian, shows that passing between the divided parts of a victim, was used also among the Chaldeans, Abram 7 s countrymen. As the sacrifice was required to make an atonement to God, so the death of the animal was necessary to signify to the contracting parties the punishment to which they exposed themselves should they prove unfaithful. " See more on this subject in Clarke 7 s Commentary, on Genesis xv, 10.