Dean ALFORD.-"And thy house does not mean that his faith would save his household, but that the same way was open to them as to him: Believe and thou shalt be saved: and the same of thy household" (Gr. Tes., on Acts xvi, 31). On ver. 34 he says, "The full meaning is, 'rejoiced that he with all his house had been led to believe in God.'"

Dr. KITTO." All his household shared these glad tidings, having been assembled for that purpose either at his suggestion or at the request of the apostles. He himself and his household were washed with the waters of baptism, and admitted into the church of Christ."-Dai. Bi. Ill., Eve. Se., vol. iv, p. 395.

Dr. W. COOKE TAYLOR." He and his whole family were converted to the Lord." -His. of Christi., p. 145.

Dr. WARDLAW.-"The very expression-he rejoiced, believing'-manifestly implies his being at the time in a believing state of mind, and experiencing a happiness, unfelt before, from the truth he had received a happiness in which his believing family participated."-Inf. Bap., App. iv, p. 327.

Dr. DICK.-"Thou shalt be saved and all thy house.' These words cannot signify that through his faith all the persons, old and young, belonging to his family, should be entitled to salvation: but that such of them as believed in Jesus Christ should be saved as well as himself; and that his children" [say, believing children] "should be admitted into the covenant of God, in which He has promised to be a God to His people and to their seed after them."" "How happy was this family. The new convert rejoiced, and so did all his house."-Lec. on Acts; on Acts xvi, 19-40.

Prof. WILSON.-"Not to baptism, but to belief in Christ did the apostle, in the first instance, direct the anxious and alarmed inquirer. Nor did the ordinance immediately follow the first earnest exhortation to faith in the Saviour. The apostles proceeded (v. 32) to speak unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.' Concerned for his spiritual state, and that of his house, they opened up more fully the glad tidings of salvation. This was no unmeaning parade, no empty ceremony conducted by men who were prepared to baptize the jailer whether or not he professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That the gospel message was received by him with all readiness of mind, it appears to us, in view of all the circumstances, no easy matter to doubt; and besides, his baptism as a professed believer is the only hypothesis that can maintain a shadow of consistency between the apostles' faithful preaching of the gospel, and their administration of the ordinance. The jailer's reception of the word paved the way for his admission to the ordinance; and, as the happy result, he rejoiced, believing (exercising faith) in God, with all his house.' 'He is not said,' as Dr, Wardlaw well observes, to have believed afterwards, but to have rejoiced believing." It is the joy, not the faith that is recorded as subsequent' (Inf. Bap., pp. 367, 368).-Does not the latter part apply equally to the jailer and to all his house?

A. M'LEAN (Baptist) pertinently says, on Paul's speaking to all in the jailer's house, "Why to all that were in his house, if he could have believed in their stead?" "If the jailer had any infants, they are either excluded from the ALL that were baptized, or they must be included in the ALL that heard the word, believed, and rejoiced." Apostolic teaching, instead of being "that a believer's house would be saved upon his faith, without believing themselves," was, that through Christ's name, "WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH ON HIM shall receive remission of sins."-Works, vol. vii, pp. 133-136.

P. EDWARDS says: "I do not consider this historic account as having force enough in tself to evince the baptism of infants." "The very idea of baptizing a household does so naturally fall in with the views of Pædobaptists, that I am inclined to think it passes with the common people instead of a hundred arguments."-Cand. Rea, p. 58.

§ 8. BAPTISM OF CRISPUS AND OTHER CORINTHIANS.

We

Abp. WHATELY.-"Our safest and most humble pious course is, in any practical question, to endeavour to ascertain, in the first instance, what was the practice of the apostles. ought surely rather to put ourselves under their teaching, where it is to be had, than to adopt and act upon the inferences drawn from any theological theory of our own."-On Bap., p. 15.

We read respecting Paul at Corinth: "He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all

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his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed and were baptized" (Acts xviii, 4, 8). The accordance of this with believers' baptism, and the rebuke which such a record of apostolic practice administers to those who baptize infants and known unbelievers, need no enlargement, when the mind is open to conviction. The former verse records the fact of apostolic preaching. The former part of the latter speaks of a believing family. The latter part speaks of believers who were baptized. This accords with the commission of Christ, and with apostolic conduct everywhere pursued. In addition to these believers whom they baptized, we read not, "and their children," or "and their little ones." It may as necessarily be inferred that in the families of Crispus, the jailer, Stephanas, and Cornelius there were infants who feared God, believed and rejoiced in Christ, and promoted the welfare of the Church of Christ, as that there were infants who were baptized. Let our opponents, who teach that it is

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a purely gratuitous assumption" to suppose that there were no children of tender years in the baptized families mentioned in holy writ, prove that infants or known unbelievers were baptized in a single instance. It devolves on those who advocate the baptism of infants and those known to be unregenerate to adduce a Scriptural precept or precedent. If, as Dr. Stacey maintains, "children, whether old or young," attend their parent, no exclusion taking place "on the ground of age or religious disqualification," then an unconscious babe, and a worshipper of Jupiter, Juggernaut, or Christ, must be equally eligible to this ordinance of initiation into the church of Christ, which stands at the threshold to guard its purity.

Dr. Halley, who admits that the baptism of households is in itself no proof of infant baptism, says that "the manner in which the baptism of households is mentioned in the New Testament is in accordance with the views we have taken, in favour of the baptism of the children of every family brought under Christian instruction" (vol. xv, p. 131). I find nothing in the New Testament about "the baptism of the children of every family brought under Christian instruction," unless in opposition to Dr. H.'s design I construe his words so as to exclude from baptism not only infants but all of every age who did not professedly accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. Would that comments on Scripture wherein baptism is mentioned were more worthy of the teaching in Cassell's Popular Educator, that Biblical Criticism "exhibits what the sacred writers DID pen, and Hermeneutics explain and prove what they MEANT by what they penned."

R. BAXTER." Still we see households are converted and baptized together."— Par., on Acts xviii, 8. Dr. DODDRIDGE teaches that the Corinthian believers "were baptized, and thereby entered into the Christian church."-Com., on Acts xviii, 8. J. G. MANLY." In Corinth, baptism was administered to believers."-Eccl., p. 42.

§ 9. BAPTISM OF ABOUT TWELVE MEN AT EPHESUS.

Dr. EADIE.-"Do the will of God because it is the will of God."-Lec. on the Bible, p. 112.

We read next of the baptism of "about twelve" men at Ephesus, who are spoken of as disciples, on whom "the Holy Ghost came," "when Paul

had laid his hands upon them," and who "spake with tongues and prophesied" (Acts xix, 1-7). That infant or indiscriminate baptism is here encouraged, I cannot perceive, although Dr. Halley, on "the baptisms mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles," says that "there is not in one of them the slightest intimation of any pre-requisite. In no instance was there any qualification specified. In no instance was there any hesitation or delay" (p. 31). Whether it is that he disbelieves in the sudden conversions of apostolic times, and a sufficient evidence of the same, notwithstanding the testimony of inspiration, because he has not tested this in Manchester, as he disbelieves the testimony of inspiration respecting the immersion of the three thousand because it could not with decency take place in an afternoon in Manchester, I will not say. I dare not, however, bring down apostolic service to the level of a present ministry, nor "the effusion of the Pentecost" and the subsequent "plenitude of miraculous gifts," to a par with the Spirit's bestowment in our day and country. Nor will I assert that Dr. Halley would thus affirm, although he can see nothing opposed to infant and indiscriminate baptism where we read, "Repent and be baptized." "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized." "When they believed they were baptized, both men and women." The three thousand are supposed to have been baptized "without time for the slightest inquiry;" "Saul, previously to the remission of" his sins; Simon, "without a slight examination of his knowledge of the gospel ;" and "the families, whether infant or adult," "by the willingness of the heads to allow the administration of that ordinance !" "As to the jailer," says Dr. H., "all I know is that his baptism with his household is mentioned first, and his believing with his house is reported afterwards in the sacred narrative !" "The baptism of the twelve men of Ephesus," also, says he, "confirms our deductions from the preceding instances!" I have the pleasure of believing that some of his gratuitous assumptions, daring inferences, and what appear to me to be glaring perversions of Divine truth, are far from having the sanction of the entire Congregational Union.

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Dr. Stacey rejoices that apostolic "practice strikingly corroborates" his conclusions; that of apostolic baptisms "recorded in the New Testament three were of whole families." The baptism of these whole families is with him wonderfully prolific in facts and proofs. He sees in this, without any "repeal of the law" to circumcise male children and servants, that " Divine enactment is translated from a Jewish into a Christian observance;" that as "circumcision went by households baptism is made to follow the same rule." It might be inquired whether the apostles baptized only male children and servants, or whether the Jews circumcised females. But "nothing is said of the exclusion from the rite of any member of the baptized families on the ground of age or religious disqualification," as if when Baptists baptize a family they for some reason exclude a part and state the reason! If baptism should be administered to whole families on the ground of its being requested by the head and administered to him, it must necessarily be administered to children and adults, be administered irrespective of age and moral qualification, yea, irrespective of willingness,

to the profligate or the pious, the idolater or the atheist, although it be protested against with oaths and curses. And this is the ordinance of initiation into the church of Christ to guard its purity! And as to the "known experience" of "proselyte baptism" by the Jews, it is a fact that no man knows that this rabbinically invented ceremony had then an existence.

Though this is the last baptism recorded in Acts, except the second record of Paul's baptism, yet as we read in the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians of the baptism of the household of Stephanas, some remarks will be reserved till we come to that baptism.

Dr. W. SMITH's Bib. Dic. says of the twelve Ephesians in Acts xix: "They were evidently numbered among Christians, or they would not have been called mathetai." -Art. Bap.

Prof. WILSON, in replying to Dr. Halley's advocacy of precipitate and indiscriminate baptism from this record says: "The author does not inform us that the sacred narrative styles these men disciples, and that Paul addressed them as persons who had believed. 'When they heard' the apostle-heard doubtless of the crucified and exalted Messiah, and of salvation through Him-the theme which Paul never kept in the back ground-they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.' The hearing predicated of these men, in connection with what follows, clearly implies assent to the doctrine promulgated, and professed belief in Jesus Christ, whom Paul preached.' The consequent effusion of the Holy Spirit in His supernatural influences we are constrained to regard as a crowning testimony to that faith in the profession and exercise of which these disciples made a baptismal dedication of themselves to the Lord Jesus."-Inf. Bap., pp. 368, 369.

Dr. BLOOMFIELD says: "Eis ti ebaptisth.? A brief mode of expression, yet unconnected with ellipsis, denoting, as appears from the preceding context, 'Unto what profession of faith were ye baptized ?"-Gr. Tes., on Acts xix, 3.

Dr. J. BENNETT.-"And they, having heard, were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Baptism is spoken of here, as well as in the commission to the apostles, not as we read' baptize in,' but into, or unto the name; as if to show that baptism is dedication to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit." Concerning the baptized he says, "They who were [baptized], are called disciples, because they assembled with the Christians to learn; and when Paul says, Since ye believed,' as one just arrived, he speaks of things as they appeared."-Lec, on Acts, pp. 301, 302.

J. G. MANLY, after referring to the baptisms in Acts as baptisms of professed believers, says, "Thus did the apostles, with their fellow-labourers, fulfil the commission of Christ to teach and baptize."-Eccl., p. 42.

Bp. MANN.-" Baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." "Into the faith and obedience of the Christian religion, and in the form appointed by the Lord Jesus."Four Gos., &c., on Acts xix, 5.

Dean ÁLFORD.-" Unto what-unto (with a view to, as introductory to) what profession? They answer, unto (that indicated by) the baptism of John, viz.: repentance and the believing on Jesus, then to come, but now (see ch. xviii, 25, unto) the object of our faith."-Gr. Tes., on Acts xix, 4.

T. MORRISON, who on the Pentecost has said that "three thousand gladly received the word, and were baptized," and that "these first converts" "continued," &c., says here: John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, anticipatory of the kingdom of God to come; while Christian baptism was a baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus, as having come and made an end of sin by His death on the cross."-The Acts, &c., p. 120.

Dr. J. OWEN.-"Men may figuratively be said to be baptized into a doctrine, when their baptism is a pledge and token of their profession of it. So the disciples whom the apostle Paul met with at Ephesus (Acts xix, 3) are said to be baptized eis to Ioannou baptisma, into the baptism of John'-that is, the doctrine of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, whereof his baptism was a pledge."-Works, vol. iii, p. 74.

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Dr. WARDLAW.- These men had received John's baptism,'-that is, baptism into the faith of him who should come after him,'-into the faith that the expected coming one was at hand."-Appen., p. 232.

SECTION V.

EXPRESS SCRIPTURE REFERENCES TO BAPTISM.

§ 1. ON ROMANS VI, 2-4.

Dr. F. WAYLAND.-" All the allusions to the ordinance of baptism in the New Testament, refer to the baptized as regenerate persons."-Prine, and Prac, of the Bap., p. 70.

C. STOVEL. They could be "urged to sustain the character they had so openly and willingly, and solemnly assumed, and in which others were implicated with themselves" (Dis., p. 276). "The beginning of the new life is never, in the inspired writings, urged on baptized persons."-Bap. Rec., p. 162.

Dr. CHALMERS "We are given to understand that the initial step of this religion is renunciation, in desire and purpose at least, of all sin. The outward and ceremonial baptism, in fact, is the sign of this."-Insti., edited by Dr. Hanna, p. 492.

Prof. WILSON." Baptism into Christ implies the acknowledgment of our blessed Lord in His personal and mediatorial character, and of the faith which He founded."-Inf. Bap., p. 308.

Dr. J. STOCK." The New Testament invariably addresses the baptized as having contracted a personal obligation in their baptism, and exhorts them to make good their deliberate engagement to their Lord. No exception to this remark can be adduced, which clearly shews that in apostolical days there were not two baptisms, viz.: one of adults on a profession of faith, and another of babes without such a profession."-Handb., &c. p. 305.

Dr. HALLEY.-"Time, the great innovator, cannot change the sense of a record, however numerous may be the years which have gathered around it. Its language may become obsolete, but its meaning cannot vary; its truth may grow dim and obscure in the remote haze of antiquity, but a new interpretation-the creature of more recent times, cannot belong to it. The true senso of words when spoken is the sense, whether perceived or not, which is inherent and indestructible in them for ever."-Vol. x, pp. 186, 187.

Baptism is spoken of by the apostle Paul in his epistle "to all that be in Rome, called to be saints," in a manner utterly inconsistent with the idea that infants or unbelievers are its proper subjects; indeed, in a way that proves scriptural baptism to be believers' baptism. His language embraces all the baptized. "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ," &c.? Would it not be preposterous to maintain that in this baptism some might, at least professedly, and some might not be baptized into Jesus Christ? That there was no instance of insincerity, we do not maintain. All that is needed by us is evidence that Christian baptism was enjoined on believers, and that those who under the apostles received baptism are thus designated, either expressly or by words having an equivalent import. The apostle having here spoken of all the baptized as being "baptized into Jesus Christ," further speaks of them as being "baptized into His death," both phrases implying a condition or profession utterly inappropriate to nnconscious babes, or unbelieving adults. The import of being baptized into Christ has been noticed in remarks on the commission. To be baptized into Christ's death, implies, as I judge, not only a professed belief of the fact of Christ's death, but professed fellowship with Him in the design of that death. The apostle adds: "Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not

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