institutions. Other customs and forms have obtained in other nations; but we regard simply the meaning of the thing, and have no symbol. A. B. In this I feel but little interested. I wish to become a citizen of these United States; especially as I am informed I can have no inheritance among you, nor a voice in the nation, nor any immunity, unless I am born again. Col. You must, then, submit to the institution; and I know, that so soon as you are politically born again, you will feel more of the importance and utility of this institution than you now can; and you will be just as anxious as I am, to see others submit to this wise, wholesome, and benevolent institution. A. B. As my faith brought me to your shores; and as I approve your constitution and government, I will not (now that I understand your institutions) suffer an opportunity to pass. I will direct my course to the place where I can be born again. I ought here to offer an apology for a phrase occurring frequently in this Essay, and in this dialogue. When we represent the subject of immersion as active, either in so many words, or impliedly, we so far depart from that style. which comports with the figure of" being born." For all persons are passive in being born. So, in immersion, the subject buries not himself, raises not himself; but is buried and raised by another. So that, in the act, the subject is always passive. And it is of the act alone of which we thus speak. From all that has been said on regeneration and from the illustration just now adduced, the following conclusions must, we think, be apparent to all : First. Begetting and quickening necessarily precede being born. Second. Being born, imparts no new life; but is simply a change of state, and introduces into a new mode of living. Third. Regeneration or immersion-the former referring to the import of the act; and the latter term to the act itself-denote only the act of being born. Fourth. God, or the Spirit of God, being the author of the whole institution, imparting to it its life and efficiency, is the begetter, in the fullest sense of that term. Yet, in a subordinate sense, every one skilful in the word of God who converts another, may be said to have begotten him whom he enlightens. So Paul says. "I have begotten Onesimus in my bonds;" and, "I have begotten you, Corinthians, through the gospel." Fifth. The gospel is declared to be the seed; the power and strength of the Holy Spirit to impart life. Sixth. And the great argument pertinent to our object in this long examination of conversion and regeneration, is that which we conceive to be the most apparent of all other conclusions, viz.: that remission of sins, or coming into a state of acceptance, being one of the present immunities of the kingdom of heaven, cannot be enjoyed by any person before immersion. As soon can a person be a citizen before he is born, or have the immunities of an American citizen while an alien, as one enjoy the privileges of a son of God before he is born again. For Jesus expressly declares that he has not given the privilege of sons to any but to those born of God.* If, then, the present forgiveness of sins be privilege and a right of those under the new constitution in the kingdom of Jesus; and, if being born again, or being born of water and of the Spirit, is necessary to admission; and, if being born of water means immersion, as clearly proved by all witnesses; then, remission of sins cannot in this life be received or enjoyed previous to immersion. If there be any proposition regarding any item of the Christian institution which admits of clearer proof or fuller illustration than this one, I have yet to learn where it may be found. But before we dismiss the sixth evidence, which embraces so many items, I beg leave to make a remark or two on the propriety of considering the term "immersion," as equivalent to the term "conversion." "Conversion" is, on all sides, understood to be a turning to God. Not a thinking favourably of God, nor a repenting for former misdeeds; but an actual turning to God, in word and in deed. It is true that no person can be said to turn to God, whose mind is not enlightened, and whose heart is not well disposed towards God. All human actions, not resulting from previous thought or determination, are rather the actions of a machine, than the actions of a rational being. "He that comes to God," or turns to him, "must believe that God exists, and that he is a rewarder of every one who diligently seeks him." Then he will seek and find the Lord. An "external conversion" is no conversion at all. A turning to God with the lips, while the heart is far * John i. 12. from him, is mere pretence and mockery. But though I never thought any thing else since I thought upon religion, I understand " turning to God," taught in the new institution, to be a coming to the Lord Jesus-not a thinking about doing it, nor repenting that we have not done it;— but an actual coming to him. The question then is, Where shall we find him? Where shall we meet him? Nowhere on earth but in his institutions. "Where he records his name," there only can he be found; for there only has he promised to be found. I affirm, then, that the first institution in which we can meet with God, is the institution for remission. And here it is worthy of notice, that the Apos tles, in all their speeches, and replies to interrogatories, never commanded an enquirer to pray, read, or sing, as preliminary to coming; but always commanded and proclaimed immersion as the first duty, or the first thing to be done, after the belief of the testimony. Hence, neither praying, singing, reading, repenting, sorrowing, resolving, nor waiting to be better, was the converting act. Immersion alone was that act of turning to God. Hence, in the commission to convert the nations, the only institution mentioned after proclaiming the gospel, was the immersion of the believers, as the divinely authorized way of carrying out and completing the work. And from the day of Pentecost to the final Amen in the revelation of Jesus Christ, no person was said to be converted, or to turn to God, until he was buried: in, and raised up out of the water! If it were not to treat this subject as one of doubtful disputation, I would say, that, had there not been some act, such as immersion, agreed on all hands to be the medium of remission, and the act of conversion and regeneration, the Apostles could not, with any regard to truth or consistency, have addressed the disciples as pardoned, justified, sanctified, reconciled, adopted, and saved persons. If all this had depended on some mental change, as faith, they could never have addressed their congregations in any other way than as the moderns do; and that is always in the language of doubt and uncertainty-hoping a little, and fearing much. This mode of address, and the modern, compared, is proof positive that they viewed the immersed through one medium, and we through another. They taught all the disciples to consider not only themselves as saved persons; but all whom they saw or knew to be immersed into the Lord Jesus. They saluted every one, on his coming out of the water, as saved, and recorded him as such. Luke writes, "The Lord added the saved daily to the congregation.* Whenever a child is born into a family, it is a brother or a sister to all the other children of the family; and its being born of the same parents, is the act causative and declarative of its fraternity. All is mental and invisible before coming out of the water; and as immersion is the first act commanded, and the first constitutional act; so it was in the commission, the act by which the Apostles were commanded to turn or convert those to God, who believed their testimony. In this sense, then, it is the converting act. No man can scripturally be said to be converted to God until he is immersed. How ecclesiastics interpret their own language is no concern of ours. We contend for the pure speech, and for the apostolic ideas attached to it. To resume the direct testimonies declarative of the remission of sins by immersion, we turn to the gentiles. Peter was sent to the house of Cornelius to tell him and his family "words by which they might be saved." He tells those words. He was interrupted by the miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit. But it is to be noticed, that the testimony to which the Holy Spirit there affixed its seal, was the following words;-To him gave all the prophets witness, that every one who believes on him shall receive remission of sins by his name." While speaking these words concerning remission of sins, by, or through, his name, the Holy Spirit in its marvellous gifts of tongues fell upon them. Many seeing so much stress laid upon faith or belief, suppose that all blessings flow from it immediately. This is a great mistake. Faith, indeed, is the principle, and the distinguished principle, of this economy; but it is only the principle of action. Hence we find the name or person of Christ, always interposed between faith and the cure, mental or corporeal. The woman, who touched the tuft of the mantle of Jesus, had as much faith before as after; but though her faith was the cause of her putting forth her hand, and accompanied it, she was not cured until the touch. That great type of Christ, the brazen serpent, cured no Israelite simply by faith, The Israelites, as soon as they were bitten, believed it would cure them. But yet they were not cured as soon as bitten; nor until they looked to the serpent. It was one thing to believe that looking at the serpent would cure them; and another to look at it. It * Acts ii, was the faith remotely; but immediately, the look, which cured them. It was not faith in the waters of Jordan that healed the leprosy of Naaman the Syrian; it was immersing himself in it, according to the commandment. It was not faith in the pool of Siloam that cured the blind man, whose eyes Jesus anointed with clay; it was his washing his eyes in Siloam's water. Hence, the imposition of hands, or a word, or a touch, or a shadow, or something from the persons of those anointed with the Holy Spirit, was the immediate cause of all the cures recorded in the New Testament. It is true, also, that without faith it is impossible to be healed; for in some places Jesus could not work many miracles because of their unbelief. It is so in all the moral remedies and cures. It is impossible to receive the remission of sins without faith. In this world of means, (however it may be in a world where there are no means) it is impossible to receive any blessing through faith without the appointed means. Both are indispensable. Hence, the name of the Lord Jesus is interposed between faith and forgiveness, justification and sanctification, even where immersion into that name is not detailed. It would have been unprecedented in the annals of the world for the historian always to have recorded all the circumstances of the same institution on every allusion to it; and it would have been equally so for the Apostles to have mentioned it always in the same words. Thus, in the passage before us, the name of the Lord is only mentioned. So, in the first letter to the Corinthians, the disciples are represented as saved, as washed, as justified, sanctified by the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. The frequent interposition of the name of the Lord between faith and forgiveness, justification, sanctification, &c., is explained in a remark in James' speech in Jerusalem.* It is the application of an ancient prophecy concerning the conversion of the gentiles. The gentiles are spoken of as turning to or seeking the Lord. But who of them are thus converted ? "Even all the gentiles upon whom my name is called." It is, then, to those upon whom the name of the Lord is called, that the name of the Lord communicates remission, justification, &c. Some captious spirits need to be reminded, that as they sometimes find forgiveness, justification, sanctification, &c. ascribed to grace, the blood of Christ, and to the name of the Lord, without an allusion to faith; so we sometimes find * Acts xv. 17. |