A LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE REV. JOSEPH IRONS.

IN continuation of my humble address unto you in defence of the solemn ordinance of believers' baptism, I cannot refrain from quoting the words of Livingstone, (an eminent saint and servant of the living God,) who once said, "It might be proved that there never was a controversy since the beginning of the world, even touching the most momentous truths, that was not accounted a small thing, while it was an occasion of trial. Satan always so shapes a trial, and puts it to such a frame; he will draw the controversy, or the matter in dispute, to so small a point, that many shall think there is but little difference between that which is right and that which is wrong while the fact is, on the one side, there is a denying of Christ; and on the other side, a confessing of Christ." "What manifest truth, (says Robert Macdonald) is there in this statement; and how singularly suitable to the times in which we live." Ah, Sir, and how singularly suitable to the point of difference between you and thousands of God's dear children. Professors generally are so in love with you as a man of gospel truth, and as a man of many years' standing in the ministry, that the fact of your denying Christ in the ordinance of believers' baptism, is to them a matter of so small importance, that they will countenance and uphold you in what they know to be wrong; rather than honour Christ and his word, by boldly contending for what they thoroughly believe to be right. This is a most solemn fact, Sir; and I will not hesitate to declare this unto you, that there are men of sound sense, of otherwise consistent character, (as far as we know them,) who publicly confess that they hate and detest your opposition to that solemn ordinance, while they go on to strengthen your hands; thus practically saying, "Mr. Irons's ministry is of more importance to us than are the commands and the ordinances of Christ." And if this be not a bad state of things, Sir, I know not what is.

The conduct which has been manifest towards me by some professors, since I ventured publicly to address you, reminds me of what is declared in the Apocalypse concerning the slaying of the two witnesses. "I will give power," (saith the LORD JESUS CHRIST,) unto my two Witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth,

"Who are these witnesses ?"

* And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouths, and devoureth their enemies; and if any man will hurt them, he must, in this manner be killed." These poor witnesses are to be overcome and killed; and their enemies shall rejoice over them. (asks the noble Scotch divine before referred to;) "What is their office; and their outward condition?" They are the whole body of true believers; including pastors and people, who, from age to age, have faithfully testified for the truth: and who are said to be two; at once to denote the smallness of their number (a little flock), and yet the sufficiency of their testimony-(being led by the Spirit into all truth.) Indeed, Sir, I am, then, one of these witnesses for God and his truth, in these latter days; and so powerful has been the zeal of my soul against your determined denial of Christ in his holy

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ordinance, that I must go on to protest against you, let the consequences be

what they may.

What is the office of these witnesses? The office of God's living witnesses -the work of God's sent servants, as far as testifying is concerned, is said to be three-fold. "Sometimes the truth is forgotten-sometimes it is corrupted by being mingled with error—and sometimes it is openly opposed. The testimony the witnesses are to bear (says our author) must ever correspond with this three-fold danger. When truth is forgotten, they must revive and call it to mind: when it is corrupted, they must protest against the corruption; when it is openly opposed, they must fearlessly defend it, even

AT THE HAZARD OF THEIR LIVES.

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This, Sir, is the fire that is proceeding not only out of my mouth, but out of my very soul, because you have "hurt" me. (Revelations xi. 5.) Some people tell me, Sir, you are so hardened in this error, and so high in the good opinions of men, that it is altogether useless to take any notice of you: I tell them I have tried to quench the fire which your "Priscilla" has been instrumental in kindling, but stop its procedure I cannot. Other people take offence; frown at me; shake their heads, shew their teeth, lift up their hands, gather up their harness, and off they go: practically saying to me, we heard you very well before you touched Mr. Irons; rejoiced in your light; and ́received you as a servant of God. But now, we have done with you: and must leave you to yourself." Ah, to be sure, this is the sackcloth which we must wear, if we will be faithful for God's truth; this is the reproach that we must endure; this is the war that shall be made against us; yea, will overcome us; (as regards our natural feelings,) and will kill us; that is, it will blast our temporal prospects, and lay us low in the streets of professing Zion: so that great men; and hypocritical men ; and high-flying men, will rejoice over our downfall, and make merry. (Rev. xi. 10.)

But, Sir, I do solemnly feel the beauty, the glory, and the power of that sweet description given of God's living witnesses in Revelation xi. 3,4; "I will give power," (said Jehovah,) "unto my two witnesses; and they shall prophesy:" yes; yes; with the power of God in the soul; kindling a holy fire in the heart, out must come the testimony; though it be but in sackcloth; in mean apparel; in low esteem; and accounted by men as the very offscouring of the earth; yet, if like "olive trees," having the oil of God the Spirit in the heart, we are brought, as I hope and trust in this matter I am bronght, "to stand before God:" then I say to you; to your zealous friends; to my false ones, and to my foes, that should this humble testimony of mine, be the cause of all men forsaking me; yet do I fully believe the Lord will stand by me; and strengthen me; deliver me from every evil work; and preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Returning then to notice again the three-fold office of these Witnesses ; first, to revive truth when it is forgotten; secondly, to protest against error when mingled with truth; and, thirdly, fearlessly to defend truth when openly opposed: I say, as regards the first, I thank God, that I have some confidence in this, that at the Grove, truly, (in the doctrines of it) it is not

forgotten. Oh, no, a mightier champion for the doctrines of grace-(the election of the church in Christ; the eternal and vital union of the church to Christ, the all- glorious redemption of the church by Christ; and her ultimate happiness with him :) is scarcely to be found in our land in this day than is to be found in the successful ministry of Mr. Joseph Irons. In that ministry, I say, the great doctrines of truth are not forgotten; my sling and stones are not to be levelled at your knowledge of, or ministering in, the holy doctrines of the cross of Christ. Oh, no, Sir; go on, go on: unfurl the banner; lay open the mysteries of the cross; hold forth the word of life; and as you advance in years; as you approach the end of your earthly career; as you finish up that ministry which I would hope you have received of the Lord Jesus; may you be pre-eminently useful in winning souls unto Christ! As regards the fact of your mingling truth with error, Sir, I cannot now enter upon it; I have better work to do: nevertheless, the Lord helping, you shall hear again from, your's faithfully,

C. W. BANKS.

P. S.-I can only now give you two short letters-more to come.

"Dear brother in Christ, companion in tribulation, and fellow-labourer in the vineyard of the Lord,-After having received your communication and inclosure, proceed to drop you a line by which I thank you for your kind remembrance of me in forwarding a copy of your address to Mr. Irons; most assuredly his aspersions cast on the Baptists are bitter and unfounded, not cast after the manner in which Priscilla and Aquila, in olden time, proceeded to address the man of God, Apollos, as they expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. However, it is a remarkable fact, that matters of this kind, and declarations made after this manner, and in the spirit in which Mr. Irons has proceeded, has, according to my own personal knowledge, tended to the furtherance of the object which has thereby been bitterly opposed. Surely I have not a single stone to cast at (I would humbly hope) the good man, seeing it was mine for many years to have been eagaged after the same manner in which I verily believe he is still acting; yet would desire to bless and praise the dear Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ, that he has been pleased to give me to see and to know that it is clearly, fully, and positively revealed in the word of God that the ordinance of baptism is an ordinance instituted and established in the christian church for believers, to be administered on a profession of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and I would desire to bless and praise my God for that he did cause me to be found following the footsteps of our Lord and Master in that "gospel-preaching, Christ-exalting ordinance," although for many years I was so ready to declare that having been baptized with the Holy Ghost, (and thereby enabled by precious faith to rejoice in the blessed knowledge of my personal and eternal standing in the love of a triune Jehovah, by virtue of an eternal union to the person of the Son of God, as he is the Christ of God, the Head of his body, the church,) there was therefore no need or necessity that I should be found attending to water baptism at all; but verily this was not "after Christ;” this was not after the simplicity which is in Christ. May the Lord if it be his heavenly will and pleasure do by our brother Irons, as he was pleased to do by and with me, cause him to find the prejudice of his mind to give way as Dagon fell before the ark, and give him to see his error as he gave me to see the same from all parts of the word of God; and then, dear brother, with meekness of soul and humility of mind, he will consider himself unworthy of such a privilege as to be baptised even by the unworthiest of the Lord's ambassadors." *

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*

“I trust I have read your letter to Mr. Irons prayerfully, and with much soul

profit; and have glorified God in you, for that he has made your face like a flint, and your brow as brass, and has given you wisdom and discretion to handle the matter in the Spirit, and after the manner which I pray God the Holy Ghost will bless to the souls of his living family near and afar off; push it through the world, if yon ean, from east to west and from pole to pole.” "Your's in never ending ties, even the bonds of love for Christ's sake, "W. SKELTON, S. S."

"I beg to say, my esteemed and beloved brother, that I approve of your views on Baptism: so much so, that I do not think I shall be satisfied until I have myself been baptised."

"The dear and precious Lord will perhaps in his own time, open some "Your's in the dear Redeemer,

way."

"J. N."

An Answer to the Enquiry--"Is Baptism instead of Circumcision? and the Lord's Supper instead of the Passover ?”

A DOUBTER enquires by annonymus letter, to know if "Baptism (or sprinkling) is not instead of circumcision, and the Lord's supper instead of the passover?" If this person is really sincere in his enquiry, we desire to sympathise with him, and would say "search the Scriptures," and look up to the Lord in earnest prayer and not to so-called great men's opinions: depend on it, in due time, the Lord will set your mind at rest. Setting aside all common lies, the worst of lies are spoken in many pulpits, concerning religion, when the scriptures are brought forward as a witness by erroneous men to support their errors, and wrung and wrested by them to make them speak what is not meant.

"Sprinkling in lieu of circumcision," is an old hack-horse which the Independents (for want of a better) have rode for many years, until it is gone blind, and lame, and has carried them into the wilderness under the old covenant shadows of the ceremonial law: and now they are dragging and pulling at circumcision, which was but a shadow of better things to come, and saying that "sprinkling of infants is now instead of circumcision!" and so making shadows of shadows: shadow-work altogether. Why meddle with circumcision? We have nothing to do with that under the gospel! Neither has circumcision anything to do with faith, it being a ceremonial law rite. Abraham received precious faith in Christ before circumcision; "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything, but a new creature, and faith which worketh by love."

Circumcision never pointed us to sprinkling it pointed to two things under the law, to Christ Jesus, and a new creature in Christ Jesus. "În whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." (Col. ii. 11.) So you see that we have no hand in the true circumcision. In circumcising the male infants, the superfluous flesh, the flesh of the natural generative member, the instrument of sin, was cut off and thrown away. So "Christ being made sin for us," and our sins, in the body of his flesh, imputed to him; He was cut off, and numbered with the transgressors, and thrown into the tomb, and reckoned as a vile thing: and there the body of our sins was cut off, the body of sin destroyed by the circumcision of Christ. "Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed." Rom. vi. 6.

Again, circumcision under the law, pointed to the circumcision of the heart in the Spirit: for that is not circumcision which is outward in the

flesh; circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not of the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God." (Rom. ii. 29.) And the Lord saith "I will circumcise your hearts to fear my name." But what in the world has sprinkling of infants to do with circumcision? When the cir

cumcising knife of law and justice cuts through a sinner's heart, right deep into his spirit: it cuts off all legal, fleshly hopes of salvation, and the Spirit leaves the soul to hope only in the true circumcision, blood, righteousness, and resurrection of Christ. And he becomes one of the circumcision "which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Phil. iii. 3.

But where is the analogy between circumcision and sprinkling of infants ? And where is there a command in the scriptures to do it? Tell us. If you have no other foundation for sprinkling of infants, than that of circumcision, what is to become of all the little female_infants? For we are certain that no female infants were circumcised. Then according to your own figure, what business have you to sprinkle female infants? You are inconsistent with yourselves; while pleading on your own ground. But of those in Christ Jesus, by faith and love, who are circumcised in heart, and ears, and spirit, there is neither male nor female, (no sex in regenerate souls) "for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal. iii. 28.) We can but smile at the silly, lame, argument which poor brother Irons, and other Independents, use.

And now, says this doubting soul, "Is not the Lord's supper instead of the passover?" The passover was first instituted in Egypt, when the destroying angel passed over the houses of Israel, where the blood of the paschal lamb was sprinkled over the door posts. It was instituted before the law (by Moses) was given, to shew that believers were saved by faith in the blood of a coming Christ without the deeds of the law. The passover was slain at evening-time at sunset, to shew that when Christ, the evening sacrifice was slain, the passover was done away: and if we keep the pasover now, it would shew that Christ was coming again to be slain again often for us. Therefore mingling up the old covenant legal rites, into gospel ordinances, is bringing in the old leaven, which should be purged out: Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened," (from all old covenant ceremonies.) "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." (1 Cor. v. 7.) Therefore as a gospel ordinance, we receive the supper in remembrance of Christ's body that was slain for us, and his precious blood that takes away all our sin. But the Independents are going back into the moon-light age to bring light to the sun. While the true light now shineth on us in the face of Jesus Christ.

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What! sprinkling and the Lord's supper instead of circumcision and the passover? No, no; no such thing. Baptism by immersion figures forth to us, the sufferings, death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and the ordinance of the Lord's supper, (the body and blood of Christ;) and we attend to both in remembrance of him, "who loved us and gave himself for us.'

These are not legal rites; but gospel ordinances to be observed to the end of the world, by the true and faithful followers of Christ, who saith “go ye into all the world, teaching all nations and baptizing them in the name of Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you, and lo, I am with you, even unto the end of the world."

Leicester. Dec. 13, 1845.

A WATCHMAN ON THE WALLS.