Q 9 Who are proper subjects of admission into

the church?

A All those persons, in every nation, together with their children, who make profession of the holy religion of Christ, and of submission to his laws. Rev. v. 9. Tho' it is the duty of all men to be real and sincere members of the church, yet no persons ought to apply for admission into the church but those who are acquainted with the leading doctrines of the gospel and who are regenerate and believing disciples since, if they do, their profession must be false and hypocritical.

Q10 To whom is the power of admission into the church committed?

A To those who have committed to them the keys of the kingdom-a regularly constituted church session. Q11 What is the sign and seal of admission into the visible church?

A 66 Baptism, which is a sacrament of the New Test. wherein Christ hath ordained the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Mat. xxviii. 19, to be a sign and seal of ingrafting into himself, Gal. iii. 27, of remission of sins. by his blood, Acts xxii. 16, Mark i. 4, Rev. i. 5, and regeneration by his Spirit, John iii. 5, Tit. iii. 5; of adoption, Gal. iii. 26, 27, and resurrection unto everlasting life, 1 Cor. xv. 29, and whereby the parties baptised are solemnly admitted into the visible church, 1 Cor. xii. 13, and enter into an open and professed engagement to be wholly and only the Lord's, Rom. vi. 4.

Q12 When is baptism rightly administered?

A 1 When administered by a regular minister of the gospel; but not when by one who denies the Deity of Christ. (Min. Gen. Ass. 1814.) 2. when administered with water-3 in the name of the Lord Jesus or the sacred Trinity-but the particular mode is not material dipping, pouring or sprinkling being each lawful.

Q 13 How do you prove that the mode of baptism is not essential to the validity of the ordinance?

A 1 From the meaning of the word used to ex press it (bapto or baptizo) which by being used in such

places as 1 Saml. xiv. 27, Mark vii. 3, Luke xi. 39, shows that it may signify either. 2 If Christ and his apostles had designed to have made either mode essential they might have selected a word exclusively expressing it. 3. It signifies washing in the blood of Christ but this is also called the blood of sprinkling, 1 Pet. i. 2 Is. lii. 15, in allusion to Exod. xii. 7. 4. To make any precise mode of baptism essential to its validity is opposed to the simplicity and spirituality of the gospel, and leads to dangerous consequences. 5 It is opposed to our ideas of divine goodness in suiting our convenience; as infants cannot be immersed in winter,nor persons in extreme sickness, who wish to join the church before their dissolution. Baptism is emblematical of purification by the blood of Christ, and this can be signified equally well by either mode. If the mode were to be an em❤ blem expressive of the washing of regeneration, or the descent of the Holy Spirit, then pouring ought to be practised, Mat. iii. 11, Mark i. 8, 10, Luke iii. 16, John i. 33, Acts i. 5, ii. 38, 39, viii. 15 17, xi. 15, 16. 7 There is no certain evidence, that either John or the apostles baptized at all, much less uniformly, by immersion.

The words translated into and out of the water are variously translated in the New Testament; and that they do not express any essential mode of baptism is evident, from the fact that they are applied as much to the administrator as the baptised person, Acts viii. 38, 39. 3000 persons were baptized in the city of Jerusalem, where water, for common use, was extremely scarce, and when they had come together without any expectation of such an event; and Cornelius and the jailor seem to have been baptized in their own houses. Had the mode been essential, and had that mode been by immersion, it would have been easy for the Holy Spirit, in these cases, to have given us definite intelligence. We therefore conclude that it is not.

Q 14 It has been stated that those who profess faith in Christ and their children are the only subjects of baptism, or admisssion into the church, is it then to be un

derstood that none but such as are really regenerate are to be admitted?

A "The church is a holy society, and unsanctified persons are very unfit members of it; nevertheless, in determining who shall be admitted to its privileges, the visible church must judge solely upon the evidencewhich the outward profession and conduct afford."

Q 15 "Can it, in any case, be justifiable to receive an unregenerate man into church fellowship?

A There is no excuse for those who receive into the ehurch, or continue in it, any one who is known to live without practical godliness: it is not, however, the province of man to judge the heart; and the purest church may have in its communion unregenerate men."

Q 16 How is it apparent that the infant children of professing believers are entitled to baptism, and by it to admission into the church?

A It is obvious from several considerations: 1 The covenant into which the infant children of the Jewish ehurch were by circumcision introduced, and which was made with Abraham and renewed with the children of Israel, has never been disannulled-and of course by that seal or some other, the infant children of all Abraham's spiritual seed are now to be inftiated into the church. If circumcision is done away, and infant baptism does not come in its stead, then there is no seal of admission; for as there is no new covenant, so there can be no new church, but the same under a different dispensation.

Q 17 In what respects do circumcision and baptism agree?

A They are both an initiatory rite, by which the persons are numbered as members of the church of God. 2. Both are the seals of the righteousness of faith, Rom iv. 11, compared with Acts ii. 38. 3. Both signify regeneration and sanctification, Deut. xxx. 6, compared with Rom. iv. 4 to 11, and 1 Peter iii. 21. We may infer from this that they were both seals of the same covenant, and that the proper subjects are the same under both dispensations, and that infants of believers are entitled to baptism-though both might be, and no doubt

have, been affixed to persons who have not the righ teousness of which they are emblematical.

Q 18 By what other considerations may this right be established?

A From the above statement we are to infer that in fants are under the new dispensation to be initiated into the church unless we are explicitly told differently; but there is in the gospel no such prohibition. 2 There is evidence that the apostles baptized the children of believers, as in the scriptures the term household, has reference always to them 1 Cor. i. 16, Actsxvi. 15-33. 3, That infants are to be admitted is moreover to be inferred from Gen. xvii. Isa. xliv. 3, Mat. xix. 13, Luke ix. 47, 48, Acts ü. 38, 39, Rom. xi. 17, 21, 1 Cor. vii. 1, 4 There is the clearest evidence that it was practised generally in the primitive church for 300 years, and the fathers state that it was received from the Apostles; to which we may add that if this were not the case, and the infant children of believers were not brought into union with the church more than those of unbelievers. and heathen, then it would be impossible to understand some scripture declarations, 1 Cor. vii. 14, also Rom. xi. 23, 24, on the subject of the standing of children and the sameness of the church under both dispensations.

SECTION II.

GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH

Q1 Is any particular form of government essen tial to constitute any community a part of the true church of Christ?

A It is not, though it is extremely desirable and im portant that it should be such a government as is authorised in the New Testament, and corresponds with the asages of the church in primitive times we suppose the presbyterian to be such an one,

Q 2 Does it appear, from the New Testament, that there is a government actually established in the Christian church?

A Yes. "The church is represented, in the New Testament, as consisting of two distinct orders-rulers and ruled-the province of each is defined, and the duty of each described and illustrated by appropriate examples."

Q3 What are the two first principles of our church government?

A That Jesus Christ is the only head of the church, ond that his word is the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

Q 4 How does it appear that Jesus Christ has not appointed one supreme visible head, whose power is universal and whose decisions are infallible?

A Such an office is not mentioned in any of the evangelical histories; nor is there any evidence that Peter was ever made the head of the church and prince of the apostles; but there is that he exercised only equal and co-ordinate powers with the rest of the apostles. Our Saviour himself opposed the idea, Mat. xviii. 1, &c.— The conduct of Paul towards Peter; the history of his life and labours; and the commission of our Saviour to the apostles, John xx. 23, Mark xvi. 15-all prove that no such power was given him; and it is inconsistent with the nature and design of the gospel dispensation.No individual or body of Christians have ever discovered infallibility-it is an attribute of God alone-while human depravity-the history of the world, and the discordancy of those who have pretended to it, all show that no such power exists in the church-nor is it needed, since the scripturss are full and infallible.

૨ 5 What are the two next principles of that ernment?

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That there are three and only three grades or kinds of officers in the christian church; that but one of these is ministerial, and that all ministers, presbyters, bishops, or pastors are equal in official dignity and power.