|
 “Some
look upon it as little more than the ceremony of giving a
name to their child. Many consider it a christening, or making
them Christian… lest they should die Pagans. Others, who
pretend to more knowledge, view it as a sign whereby their
infants are initiated into the visible church though they are
neither agreed as to what that church is, nor admit them into
the full communion of any visible church. They also look upon it
as the seal of some covenant which, they say, is made with a
believer and his natural seed; yet they are not agreed as to the
nature of that imaginary covenant, or whether it entails
salvation, or only a right to some outward privileges. Many view
it as the parent’s dedication of his child to God, accompanied
with a vow or engagement to bring it up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord; while others, disclaiming dedications,
vows, and engagements, make it to be a sign to the parent that
Christ is able to save his child as himself, and that he must
enter the kingdom of God as destitute of any good qualification
as his infant is.
Thus,
every one annexes a signification to baptism agreeable to his
own favorite hypothesis, whilst all of them have been
accommodated to the baptism of infants. But as the scripture
contains no such institution, so neither does it give us any of
the above views as the design of baptism. If we consult the word
of God, we shall find that this divine ordinance is intended:
1.
To be a sign of regeneration, or that the person baptized is
born of the Spirit. Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Except a man be
born
|
|
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:5). Water here undoubtedly
means the water of baptism, for it is distinguished from the
Spirit; so that to be born of water is to be baptized, even as
to be born of the Spirit is to be regenerated.... This is
further evident from Tit. 3:5: “According to his mercy he
saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the
Holy Ghost.” Two things are here pointed at: one is baptism,
called the washing, or rather (loutron), layer of regeneration,
because it is the sign of it. The other is regeneration itself,
or the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which is the thing signified
in baptism.
Our
Lord makes this ordinance necessary to our entering into the
kingdom of God; which imports, at least, that as none can really
enter that kingdom without being born of the Spirit, so none can
visibly enter it without being born of water, nor, indeed, have
they grounds to think that they shall enter it in any sense, if
they willfully despise this ordinance, and throw contempt upon
the authority of its institutor, which is expressly declared to
be no less than “rejecting the counsel of God against
themselves” (Lu. 7:30).”
Guess
who wrote the above! Some “Cambellite” no doubt?? Guess
again!! It was a Scotch Baptist preacher, Archibald McLean;
published in 1786. This is the fourth in a series from his “Christ’s
Commission to His Apostles.” The series was preceded (V.12,
No. 1) by biographical note on McLean.
[Previous
Article] [Next
Article]
|
