"Of this glorious church, every Christian soul is an epitome; for, as God dwells in the church at large, so he dwells in every believer in particular; each is a habitation of God through the Spirit. In vain are all pretensions among sects and parties to the privileges of the church of Christ, if they have not the doctrine and life of Christ. Traditions and legends are not apostolic doctrines, and showy ceremonies are not the life of God in the soul of man.

66 Religion has no need of human ornaments or trappings; it shines by its own light, and is refulgent with its own glory. Where it is not in life and power, men have endeavoured to produce a specious image, dressed and ornamented with their own hands. Into this God never breathed, therefore it can do no good to man, and only imposes on the ignorant and credulous, by a vain shew of lifeless pomp and splendour. This phantom, called true religion, and the church, by its votaries, is in heaven denominated vain superstition - the speechless symbol of departed piety.

"Under the dispensation of the Gospel, of which Christ Jesus is head and supreme, neither circumcision-nothing that the Jew can boast of, nothing that the gentile can call excellent-availeth anything, can in the least contribute to the salvation of the soul. 'BUT A NEW CREATURE:' but a

new creation, not a new creature merely, (for this might be restrained to any new power or faculty,) but a total renewal of the whole man-of all the powers and passions of the soul; and as creation could not be effected but by the power of the Almighty, so this change cannot be effected but by the same energy; no circumcision can do this; only the power that made the man at first, can new make him. Thus, as the thorough conversion of the soul is compared to a new creation, and creation is the proper work of an All-wise, Almighty Being; then, this total change of heart, soul, and life, which takes place under the preaching of the gospel, is effected by the power and grace of God: this is salvation; and salvation must ever be of the Lord, and therefore men should apply to Him, who alone can work this wondrous change."

SECOND WITNESS.

I, the SECOND WITNESS, think it "my highest ambition" to serve the plaintiffs. "A fervent desire to further their" cause "has put me upon redeeming the time for this work;" and, "as religion did always consist in an imitation of God, so we may imitate him now with much more ease and greater advantage, since his Son was manifest in the flesh and dwelt among us: for he was pleased to become man on purpose to shew us how we might become like unto God, by a daily imitation of his holiness. This consideration has induced me to set before" this court "the example of the Holy Jesus.-I must acknowledge I have constantly preached three times a week (besides occasionals), and visited as often a populous and a scattering parish from house to house: which has allowed me little, too little time to give such an evidence as this important case requires; "and I heartily wish this duty had fallen upon some that had more leisure and greater abilities.—I do not" " come before "you to deny the lawfulness of baptizing by immersion; but I cannot assert the absolute and indispensable necessity of it. I do not oppose the lawfulness of dipping in some cases, but the necessity of dipping in all cases.

66

The apostles and first planters of the gospel had a commission from Christ, to go among the pagan Gentiles, without limitation, to preach the gospel. The second branch of their commission was to baptize: where observe the encouraging promise made by Christ, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;' that is, he that receiveth and embraceth the gospel preached by you, and thereupon becomes a proselyte and disciple of Christ, and receives baptism, the seal of the new covenant, shall for all his former sins receive pardon, and, upon his perseverance,

obtain eternal life; but he that stands out obstinately and impenitently, shall certainly be damned. The two damning sins under the gospel are infidelity, and hypocrisy-not receiving Christ for their Lord and Saviour by some, or doing it feignedly by others. Happy are they in whom the preaching of the gospel produceth such a faith as is the parent and principle of obedience. He that so believeth and is baptized shall be saved. It is not said, He that is not baptized shall be damned; because it is not the want, but the contempt, of baptism that damns, otherwise infants might be damned for their parents' neglect.

"It is a vain thing to expect exemption from the judgments of God, because of outward privileges enjoyed by us. If we be not born again of the Spirit, it will avail us nothing to be born of Abraham's flesh; if Abraham's faith be not found in our hearts, it will be to no advantage to us that Abraham's blood is running in our veins.

"John admitted persons into the church by washing them with water-he baptized into the name of Christ who was to come; the apostles baptized into the name of Christ already come. The preaching of the doctrine of repentance is absolutely necessary, and the indispensable duty of every gospel minister. The baptism of repentance, says the learned Lightfoot, belongs to children, though they know not what repentance means, because it engages them to repentance when they come to years to understand that engagement; for thus it was with children circumcised, they became debtors to observe the whole law, though they knew not what the law meant, yet circumcision bound them to it, when they came to years of discretion.

"The publicans were baptized of John, and justified God, that is, they looked upon John as a prophet sent of God; they owned his ministry, received his message, and submitted to his baptism. Those who believe the message that God sendeth, and obey it, justify God; they who do not believe and obey, accuse and condemn God. But of the pharisees and lawyers it is said, 'they rejected the counsel of God against themselves.' And this rejection of Christ at

the great day, will render our condition worse than the condition of heathens that never heard of a Saviour; than the condition of Jews, which crucified their Saviour; yea, than the condition of devils, for whom a Saviour never was intended! The publicans and common people, being conscious to themselves of their sin and guilt, did approve of this counsel which God sent them by his messenger, and submitted to this baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, to which God by the Baptist now called them.*

"When Paul found certain disciples at Ephesus that were only baptized unto John's baptism, but had not so much as 'heard whether there be an Holy Ghost,' they were not ignorant of the essence or person of the Holy Ghost, but had not heard of the effusion of the extraordinary and miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost; for it was a received opinion among the Jews, that, after the death of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the Holy Ghost, or the spirit of prophecy, departed from Israel; and they never heard that he was returned, or of his being given anew with his miraculous gifts. Here Paul tells them that John's baptism and Christ's were the same for substance, and had both the same end, though they differed in some circumstances. The disciples of John believed in Christ to come, the disciples of Jesus believed in Christ as already come, and were baptized in that faith, and the ordinance sealed unto both the remission of sins; yet it being essential to Christian baptism, to baptize in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, thereby professing ourselves to be buried and risen with Christ, and John's baptism having not this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus; that is, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is the essence of Christian baptism.

"In the Epistle to the Colossians, ii. 12, the apostle compares baptism with the Jewish circumcision, and shews that the signification and spiritual intention of both was one and the same, obliging all persons who took the outward sign upon them, to put off the old man, and put on the new; to

* Luke vii. 29.

die unto sin, and live unto God. Accordingly, the ancients made use of divers ceremonies in baptizing adult and grown persons, thereby to represent the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Immersion, or putting the person three times under water, either as our Saviour was under the earth three days, or in allusion to the three persons of the Trinity, in whose name we are baptized; and likewise emersion, then coming up out of the water, resembling our Lord's arising out of the grave. Baptism under the new Testament succeeds circumcision under the Old, and is a rite of initiation to Christians, as circumcision was to the Jews; for the apostle here proves, that by virtue of our spiritual circumcision in baptism, we have no need of the outward circumcision in the flesh. Baptism is undoubtedly Christ's ordinance for infants of believing Christians, as circumcision was of old for the infants of believing Jews. For if, under the gospel, infants be not received by some federal rite into covenant with God, they are in a worse condition than children under the law; and the apostle could not truly have said, we are complete in Christ, that is, as complete without circumcision, as ever the Jewish church was with it, if we had not an ordinance, to wit, baptism, as good as their abrogated ordinance of circumcision. And the Jews would certainly have objected it to the reproach of christianity, had not the Christians had a rite of initiation for their children, as they had of circumcision, which sealed the covenant to themselves and their little ones, and was the door by which all persons entered into the Jewish church.

"In John iii. 22, 23, the ordinance of baptism is administered by the disciples, even in the presence of Christ himself; for 'Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples: ' this is called the baptism of repentance, of which children, as well as others, were capable subjects, because baptism doth not require children's repentance at present, but engages them to repentance for the time to come; as children that were circumcised were obliged to observe the whole law, but could not perform it till they came to understand it.

"Baptism is a solemn ordinance and sacred institution of