ded, he cannot stand but hath an end. "* If divisions in the kingdom of satan would overthrow it, what will they do in the kingdom of Christ? Have the advocates of a divided Church, carefully considered this startling language of the Son of God? Have they had a full view of its import. A house,-a city,hell itself, rising up against itself, cannot stand.

"Divisions, says one preacher, are an evil, but God over-rules them to his glory, and our good." That God exercises a special over-ruling providence in the affairs of his people, it would be weakness in us to dispute. But that we should "do evil that good may come, we utterly deny. God is merciful, is not a reason why we should be presumptuous. Grace abounds, is not an argument in favor of going on to sin. "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid." And God forbid that his

people should go on to strengthen themselves in an evil work. Brethren, known as Baptists in the religious world, you perceive the position we occupy. What shall we say in conclusion? 1. The text requires that we should strive together for the faith of the Gospel.

may

We have "made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after Him, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes." By the profession we have made, we have declared ourselves on the Lord's side. Shall we continue in sin that grace abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted TOGETHER in the LIKENESS of his death, we shall be also in the LIKENESS of his resurrection." By the sacrament of the Supper, we are taught the doctrine of Christ's death, his body broken and his blood shed for the remission of sin. By the sacrament of Baptism, we are taught the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the supper, we show Christ's death; in Baptism, his burial and resurrection. Jesus Christ has designed that these two sacraments, so strikingly impressive, should be preserved in his Church through all ages. In a recent poem, we have the design of baptism beautifully set forth. Speaking of it the author says,

'Tis not salvation, but salvation's sign;
'Tis not a conscience sprinkled from its guilt,
But the profession of a conscience pure
And tranquilized. This is the sacred badge
Of our discipleship, one loud farewell to sin,
The world and every idol lust; our oath
Of duty to the Lord embracing him
As ours forever, and his people ours,
His cause, his cross, and his eternal crown-
It is the blessed gospel symbolized.

Its mighty themes in color, shape and act,
That its evangelizing power may strike
The gazing eye with heavenly argument,
And thence invade and conquer the proud heart.-
Strike down this write, and truth bemoans in tears
A witness slain, a mighty champion fallen.

Destroy it, and a land-mark of the church is gone-
Confused her borders, broken, undefined.

Destroy it, and an avenue of grace,

Instruction, comfort and reproof to men

Is shut, and heaven's bright perfect system marred.
Change it—diminish—circumscribe—its force,
Its import fades; its thrilling eloquence,

So sweet and moving to the pious heart,

So terrible to guilt, to jargon breaks,

Or in dull empty silence dies away."— Index vol. ii: p. 533.

Brethren of this Association.-In common with all who are born of God, you desire the prosperity of the cause of Christ, and regret that state of things which, in these modern days, divides God's people. You have the witness too, that it is painful to be separated from some of them. You have the consolation, however, to know that, by the grace of God, you have been able to hold out to the world this changeless apostolic motto, ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM. But for you, and a long line of predecessors like you, this motto would long since have been destroyed.

2. You have never believed nor said that Baptism is a soulsaving ordinance.

While you have labored together to preserve the positive insti

tutions of Christ's Church in their primitive beauty and simplicity, you have carefully avoided this error. Nor have you said that Baptism is a means of grace by the observance of which the tottering soul is propped and its standing made more secure for the eternal world. The Episcopalian instructs his child to say, "In baptism I was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheriter of the kingdom of heaven.” And the child is taught to believe that there are two sacraments essential to salvation; "that is to say Baptism and the Supper of the Lord."* Mr. Wesley, the father of Methodism, says, in reference to the views of his Church, "It is certain our Church supposes that all who are baptized in their infancy are at the same time born again, and it is allowed that the whole office for the baptism of infants proceeds upon this supposition." You, brethren, have not so learned Christ. You have not been made "inheriters" of the kingdom of heaven by baptism; but "by the holy spirit of God ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Baptism and the Lord's supper are not "sealing ordinances," as some vainly imagine. Nothing but the Spirit of God can seal us heirs of heaven. Buck in his Theological Dictionary admits, (what all Pedo-baptist writers of distinction admit) that "there are no express examples in the New Testament of Christ, or his Apostles baptizing infants." "That infants are to be admitted is also inferred," he adds: So infant baptism is supported by inference and Apostolic tradition, and not by any express instructions in the New Testament. Mr. Wesley, supports it, upon the same foundations, and upon what, "it is certain his Church supposes.' The work of serving God is not regulated by inference, tradition nor supposition.

It does not follow, however, that we should treat as infidels those who have embraced this error: by no means. But we should pray as Christ prayed, and labor as he did, that all his people might be one. He who prays for CHRISTIAN UNION, and at the same time labors to perpetuate division, performs an act of solemn mockery. The uncharitable may endeavor to impress the public mind with the belief that we esteem ourselves holier than others, but every well-informed person will certainly view such representation as unfounded, unkind and unjust. The truth is, we deem their Baptism and church polity entirely unsupported by the Scriptures. Consequently their CHRISTIAN UNION, or Church organization, is not that of the Bible. Their piety is not debated. We love them as Christians; and we should love them, and labor to remove all that hinders Church union.

3. You have taken the Bible as the only rule of your faith and practice.

If divisions are inconsistent with pious feeling, with Christ's + Eph. iv: 5, 6.

* See Episcopal Cat. + Sermon Vol. i: Ser. 45, p. 405.

prayer, with Apostolic precept,-and with the Church's happiness and prosperity, ought we not to abandon every course and lay aside every notion, which is unsupported by the sacred oracles? We do not accuse you, brethren, of holding any sentiment unauthorized by the Word of God, nor do we assert that your conversation is not as it becometh the gospel of Christ. But we exhort you to a careful examination of the Bible, that you may be able to determine what is truth and what is error, in the professed service of God. The religion of the Bible is the only acceptable religion in the sight of God. There is no middle-ground between truth and error. The sectarian may tell you he desires union, and that he will meet you "half way." But truth has no compromise, no half way point. It is a unit which cannot be fractionized. Like the diamond, it contains but one element.

4. Guard against all erroneous views of Baptism. We have seen among our brethren a kind of rejoicing when Pedo-baptists immerse persons who unite with them. Now earnest advocates as we are of Baptism, we cannot approve these instances of Baptism; for it is obvious they do not tend to lessen the evil of which the Apostle speaks in the text. Do they bring the people of the Lord nearer together? Not at all. They only widen the already too widely divided state of Christian feeling and sentiment. These Baptisms create sects among sects. Our Methodist and Presbyterian friends always preach against it, and often ridicule it. They never persuade their members to this course. They only immerse as an alternative. Now all rejoicing among you, brethren, on occasions of this sort, seems to indicatethat you attach some virtue to Baptism,-some soul-purifying efficacy to the ordinance; than which no sentiment can be more erroneous. In those cases where individuals, uniting with Pedobaptists, feel that they must be immersed, it seems obvious that they attach some undue importance to the ordinance, from the fact that they do it over all the objections of their ministry, and of their brethren in the same communion. Our Lord designed that his Church should be one, STRIVING TOGETHER, walking by the same rule and speaking the same thing; that there should be "no schism in the body.' Hence he gave them, ONE BAPTISM: -simply one. Baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh. It is not therefore the soul-cleansing power of immersion, we contend for; but it is the complete union of the Redeemer's flock; that the great truth which baptism is intended symbolically to teach, may be impressed upon the consciences and lives of others until the wORLD shall believe that Jesus is the Christ.

5. Baptists should be the last to be divided among themselves. Their Baptism, their Church government, their views of doctrine and of religious liberty, have, with but little exception, been the same through all ages. The opposition they have endured

from others, should dispose them to unite and sympathize with each other. Bound together by no "Book of Discipline," but the Bible; acknowledging no standard,-nor "Confession of Faith," but the Holy Scriptures;-untrammeled with human formulas and creeds; let us "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free," and labor "TOGETHER FOR THE

FAITH OF THE GOSPEL.

"Christians rejoice! each party name,

Each different sect shall cease
Your error, sin, and grief and shame,
Shall yield to truth and peace." AMEN

NOTE.

That the triumph of Christianity, over irreligion and all systems of false religion, is to be universal, scarcely admits of a doubt. This, seems to be as plainly revealed, as any doctrine in the Bible. But it is taught, as inseparable from the unity of the Church, and is made to depend upon it. "I pray that they all may be one, that the world may believe," was the prayer of Messiah himself. To suppose that he intended his subjects to be divided into parties is perfectly absurd. To ascribe the fact that they are so, to any obscurity in the scriptures, is equally absurp. The fault must be in ourselves.

one.

In every dispensation of revealed religion, the Church has been In the wilderness, there was one tabernacle, one pillar of cloud by day, and of fire, by night. In Canaan, there was one temple-one altar,-one shechinah, one holy, and one most holy place. The people and service were one. That system of religion, confined to one nation, looked forward to the inclusion of all nations,--the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles was to be broken down,-but it was that there might be " one fold and one shepherd." Jno. x: 16.

The entire ministerial conduct of the Apostles, co-incided with this principle. The Church could not be divided. In all matters of mere personal preference, they might divide;-in choosing fields of labor, or in separation to them, as in the case of Paul and Barnabas, they might divide, the one taking with him, Silas, the other Mark; but the body of Christ, they might not divide. When that perplexing question, concerning the incorporation of the Jewish ritual with Christianity, came up, (Acts xv: and Gal. ii.) what was more natural, than that Paul should form a Gentile branch of the Christian Church, leaving the Jewish, to John, Peter and James? But they durst not. All who could safely. be admitted, into the body of Christ, were one. The Church on 7-Vol. 3.