The New Directory For Baptist Churches PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XV. CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. BAPTISMAL PROPOSITIONS. THE subject of baptism constitutes one of the primary and fundamental discussions between Baptists and other Christian denominations, and has reference to the form and uses of that ordinance. The following propositions set forth the nature and extent of the controversy, the proof of which propositions will amply justify the Baptist position on that subject. PROP. I.--That the baptism which John administered, which Jesus received and enjoined, and which the Apostles practised, was an immersion, a dipping, an entire submergence of the person baptized, in water, on a profession of repentance and faith in Christ. PROP. II.--That this same baptism of immersion was used by the Apostles and disciples of our Lord, and by the primitive churches, without any known exception, for more than two hundred years after Christ. Prop. III.--That the first recorded departure from the practice of immersion in baptism was, about A. D. 250, in the case of Novatian, affused on his sickbed, being, as was supposed, incapable of baptism. No earlier instance is known to history. PROP. IV.--That from this time pouring, or sprinkling, for baptism, was occasionally resorted to as substitutes, in cases of sick persons, called clinics; hence clinic baptism came into use in emergencies. PROP. V.--That for more than thirteen hundred years immersion was the prevailing practice of Christian churches throughout the world in the administration of baptism. Prop. VI.--That the Greek and other Oriental churches have never abandoned the primitive mode, but still practise dipping, whether in the case of adults or of infants, in all climates, and at all seasons of the year. PROP. VII.--That the substitution of aspersion for...