CONVERSATIONS ON THE MODE OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. BY ALEXANDER W. M'LEOD. LONDON PUBLISHED BY JOHN MASON, AT THE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE OFFICE, 14, CITY-ROAD; 1843. ADVERTISEMENT. The writer, in the following pages, lays no claim to originality; but it is thought, that the presenting of the matter in the way of Conversations, will render it interesting and profitable. Bedeque, Prince Edward's Island, June 16th, 1842. CONVERSATIONS ON THE MODE OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. SECTION I. Different opinions prevail as to the SCRIPTURAL MODE of administering Christian Baptism. Question. Is there a perfect agreement, between professing Christians, respecting the mode or manner in which Christian baptism should be administered? Answer. No. Q. Will you state in what the disagreement consists ? A. Some think immersion essential to baptism, so that the application of water in any other way is not baptism; whilst others, and these too the greater part of the professedly Christian world, believe, that the application of water, in the name of the sacred Trinity, to a proper subject, by sprinkling or pouring, is Christian baptism. Q. The precise question, then, on the mode of baptism, is, whether immersion is essential to the ordinance, or the only way of performing it? A. Yes. Q. In this case, what is required of the exclusive immersionists to prove? A. Either that the word baptism signifies immersion only; or that every instance of Christian baptism, recorded in the New Testament, was by immersion; and, in fact, that the inspired writers have evidently restricted baptism to immersion exclusively. Q. On the ground, that these points cannot be proved, what will be the consequence? A. The consequence will be, that the system of exclusive immersion falls to the ground, and, as being opposed to sprinkling and pouring, is decidedly unscriptural. |