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Mr. Ewing's interpretations of the word baptism by the Greeks." This is another specimen of our Reviewer's logical accuracy. I have shown that the Greek fathers, who understood their own language, use terms interchangeably with baptism, which incontestibly signify to immerse; therefore I have confirmed Mr. Ewing's statement that baptism does not signify immersion. The Reviewer speaks, on one occasion, of my having given my understanding a holiday;" I am afraid he so frequently treats his logical powers in a similar manner, that they grow wild and unruly amidst the inebriating festivity.

The statement respecting Philip and the Eunuch is so ridiculous, that I cannot persuade myself that any sensible man will repeat it; if he do, and comes in my way, I may perhaps bestow a few lines to show its futility.

My demand for the production of a single case in which it is shown that sprinkling is the radical idea of Barr, and of a single instance of sprinkling in the New Testament, or of a single command, inculcating the practice, accompanied by the assurance of concession in such a case, and concluded by the question, "Will Mr. Ewing or any of his brethren venture to give me a similar pledge ?"—is met by the declaration, "Yes, we will." Reluctant, however, to try the metal of his sword, the dextrous combatant immediately retreats, exclaiming, as he flies, "Let Mr. Cox produce one single instance of such baptism as he practises, the adult descendants of believers, either from Scripture or any ecclesiastical history, or a single case in the New Testament of immersion baptism, and we concede him the victory." I answer, the baptism I practise is the baptism of adults, irrespectively of the question whether they are or are not the de

scendants of believers; and to this baptism I am directed by every precept and precedent of the New Testament. Not only, again, is “immersion baptism" mentioned in a single case; there is no other described in the New Testament, as I have largely shown from the word itself; the places where baptism was practised, the nature of the proceeding, and all the direct and incidental allusions. But "from Scripture or ecclesiastical history I cannot produce an example of the baptism of the adult descendants of believers, or if I do the victory shall be conceded!" Take then the following:-Ambrose was born of Christian parents, was instructed in Christian principles, and not baptized till he was chosen Bishop of Milan. Jerome, born of Christian parents, was thirty years of age when he was baptized. gustine was of full age when he was baptized. Gregory Nazianzen, who was born of Christian parents in 318, and his father a bishop, was not baptized till about thirty years old. Chrysostom, born of Christian parents in 347, had attained nearly twenty-one years of age when he was baptized. Your Reviewer I take to be a man of veracity; will he then fulfil his pledge, his solemn pledge, and "concede to me the VICTORY?” This may be taken as a brief hint to anonymous opponents; if Mr.Ewing, or Dr. Wardlaw, or any man with a name, choose to accept my proposal, I shall know how to proceed more in detail.

Au

As there is no reasoning in the next paragraph about the final burial, I shall, at present, hold my attempted confutation of Mr. Ewing to be unrefuted.

Here I feel thoroughly disposed to close my examination of the review; having omitted to notice two or three passages, because of their irrelevancy, and one or two others, because of their insulting violence

of attack upon the denomination I represent. In humble imitation, however, of the Reviewer's tactics, in leaping from the first page to the last of my book, I shall, for a moment, leap back from the last to the first of his review, just to notice, in conclusion, a most extraordinary paragraph. "We heard of a popular Baptist minister, who lately made the very same assertion from the pulpit-the argument ours-the popular feeling theirs. Whether he borrowed it from Mr. C.'s newly published volume we cannot say, but when, after the service, this allthe-argument-man was called upon by a Pædobaptist minister, who was present, for a vindiction of his brag, he was constrained to feel that he had much less than he imagined, to confess that he had not been aware how much argument there was on the other side, and to promise a closer attention to the subject in future." These are pretty tales for the amusement of children, and I am sorry that your Reviewer should have thought so meanly of his Pædobaptist friends to suppose they

a story which carries suspicion on the very face of it. We heard ;and so you will calumniate an individual or a body on report-some gossip's misrepresentation! A popular Baptist minister constrained to feel, and to confess, and to promise, and so forth-at the first onset! What-strike at once on the first summons! Is it credible? Is it possible? "Weak" as some of us may be, I think our popular Baptist ministers are not weak enough for this! I know not how to believe it; and have no right to do so without some tangible evidence. An anonymous statement of an anonymous occurrence may serve the purpose of slander, but will never carry with it the force of truth." This," it is however added, " is not a solitary case within our own knowledge." I am certainly surprised—I dare not severely retort, but unless names and places are produced, I am a sceptic still.

I am, Gentlemen,
Yours very truly,

F. A. Cox.

would be amused by such a story— Hackney, November 8, 1824.

Miscellanea.

To the Editors of the Baptist Magazine. professing Christians, agreeing with us

DEAR SIRS,

Many of your readers are aware that the Rev. W.H. Angus has visited various parts of the Continent, partly with a view to advance the interests of the Baptist Missionary Society, of the Committee of which he is a member, and partly to exert himself for the spiritual benefit of seamen, among whom many of his earlier years were spent. In his various and extensive journies, he discovered large bodios of VOL. XVII.'

proper

as to ADULTS only being the subjects of baptism;-and when last in England, he kindly consented to furnish a compendious account of his travels, in a series of letters, for insertion in the Baptist Magazine. Persuaded that they will prove highly interesting, I have much pleasure in handing you the first of these communications, which has just reached me from Brussels. J. D.

Fen-court, Jan. 1, 1825.

No. I.
Bruxelles, Dec. 20, 1824.

MY DEAR BROther,

I sit down to redeem my pledge, to furnish, for the Magazine, a series of detail of a journey through Holland, &c. in connexion with the Mission. I must, however, begin by stating, that my first residence on the Continent, was solely with a view to prosecute the study of the French and Dutch languages, in order, some future day, to advance the spiritual welfare of seamen. A stay of some months in Rotterdam, brought me into a most pleasing acquaintance with Mr.Meschaert, pastor of the Menonite Baptist Church in that place. Previous to this, I had thought the denomination was confined entirely to England and America. From Mr. M. however, I learned, that there were not only thirty thousand Baptists in Holland, but that their churches were scattered over different parts of the European Continent, in goodly number. It was scarcely possible that a piece of intelligence, to me at once so new and valuable, could fail of soon giving birth to the project of one day bringing this interesting class of Christians into connexion with their English brethren, and so, if possible, to engage them in the good work of faith, and labour of love, among the heathen.

Shortly after my return to England, having been absent for nearly three years, I thought it somewhat extraordinary that I should hear, by letter, from Brother Anderson, of Edinburgh, of Mr. Ward, and his intention to visit the Continent, for the objects of the Mission, provided I would accompany him. It easily occurred how greatly the end of such a journey would be promoted by the appearance in person of one of the Mission's brightest ornaments. On a little further reflection, I concluded, that now was the right time to carry into execution my long formed project. (I think these circumstances worthy of being related, as they mark in a peculiar manner, the leadings of a mysterious Providence in the case.) In a post or two, therefore, every thing was decided upon relative to the journey intended.

Accordingly we both embarked, August 10, 1820, with a fine promising breeze, and were at the mouth of the

Thames, at anchor, the same evening; but the wind flying round in the night to the eastward, and bringing in with it so high a sea, obliged us to run from our anchorage to Sheerness harbour. Here we rode in shelter four days. The day we put to sea again, our vessel struck, in her course down the North Channel, upon the hook of the Gunfleet Sand; but, there being fortunately a smooth sea, and a flood tide, we came off nearly as we went on. In two days more, the Dutch coast was in sight; but the captain mistook Scheveling for the Brill, and overshot his port. This error was discovered by one of the passengers, a Dutch fisherman, whose knowledge of the coast the captain doubted at first, until the other exclaimed, in bad English, and in a tone of self-confidence and dipleasure: 66 Vat, I not know mine own town? I knows it so as myn right hand." To recover the ground lost by this oversight, it took a day and a night's contending against a high wind, and a higher sea, before we arrived at Rotterdam, the tenth day. The distance has been performed in two. In the unusual length of the passage, the smallness of the vessel, her crowded state, both as to passengers and goods, our close and scanty accommodations, in all this there was sufficient to unhinge any one in a much more perfect state of health than our dear, and now, departed brother Ward; but his deportment the whole way through was altogether so lovely, that I shall never look back upon these ten days spent on the waters, without associating therewith sentiments of the most delightful kind.

For lack of leisure, let this suffice for the present; whilst, in the hope of following up the above details,

I remain, yours most truly,

W. H. ANGUS. N. B. I make no apology for having here used the term Baptist, in refer rence to the Menonites, since, in the different parts of Europe, (except in France, where they are very numerous,) in the title-pages of all their religious books I have ever seen, as well as from their account of themselves, it is sufficiently evident that they are known as much by the one of these names as by the other. In France they are called, or rather miscalled, Anabaptists.

Familiar Illustrations of the sacred then rashed into my arms and burst

Writings.

No. I.

DEUT. xxxiii. 19. " They shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand."

"Aflictions teach us the worth of our Bibles. The Bible is [comparatively] but an insipid book before afflictions bring us to feel the want of it, and then how many comfortable passages do we find, which lay neglected and unknown before! I recollect an instance in the history of some who fled from this country to that, then wild desert, America. Among many other hardships, they were sometimes in such straits for bread, that the very crusts of their former tables in England would have been a dainty to them. Necessity drove the women and children to the sea. side, to look for a ship, expected to bring them provision: but no ship, for many weeks, appeared;-however, they saw in the sand vast quantities of shell-fish, since called clams, a kind of muscle. Hunger compelled them to taste, and at length they almost fed wholly on them, and to their own astonishment were as cheerful, fat, and lusty, as they had been in England, with their fill of the best provisions. A worthy man, one day, after they had all dined on clams without bread, returned thanks to God for causing them to "suck of the abundance of the seas, And of treasures hid in the sand;"passage of scripture till then unobserved by the company, but which ever after endeared the writings of Moses

to them."

ROBERT ROBINSON.

Isaiah xxvii. 5. "Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with

me.

“I think I can convey the mcaning of this passage so that every one may understand it, by what took place in my own family within these few days. One of my little children had com>mitted a fault, for which I thought it my duty to chastise him. I called him to me, explained to him the evil of what he had done, and told him how grieved I was that I must punish him for it: he heard me in silence, and

into tears. I could sooner have cut off my arm than have then struck him for his fault: he had taken hold of my strength, and be had made peace with me." TOLLER.

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Remarks on the Argument for Padobaptism, from the Baptism of Households.

Ir is argued, that as all the males in a household were commanded to be circumcised, so, from the same mode of expression being used, are we not naturally to conclude, that all the chil dren of a Christian parent ought to be baptized? But are a man's children the only members of what is called his household;-does not this include his wife as well as his children? Now, circumcised, if this ordinance had not, when a man's household is said to be from its nature, been exclusively appli cable to males, can we suppose that the wife would not have been included in the household as well as the children? While, then, females are to be baptized, if the old law of applying the ordinance to a man's household is to be observed, must it not include the wife as well as the children? But how docs this comport with the apostle, speaking of a believing husband having an unbelieving wife? The apostle commands such a believer to remain with her. Here, then, is an unbeliever, one of his household, and she must either be baptized, though an uubeliever, or it must be admitted that the law of circumcision, which required that this rite be administered to all the members of a man's household, who were capable of receiving it, is a law which, in the case of Christian baptism, is not to be applied.

CONVERSION OF A FEMALE SAVAGE:

An Extract from Robinson Crusoe.*

On the return of CRUSOE to his Island, it is stated, that it was thought necessary the English sailors, who had taken the female savages to wife, should be married by a formal ceremony. The priest considered it desirable the women should be first baptized-but he felt the difficulty of performing that rite, because they had not been instructed in Christianity. At this intimation, William Atkins, the son of a clergyman, but who was a most dissolute abandoned fellow, went away to converse with his wife on the subject of religion: the following is part of the relation which he gave to Robinson Crusoe, and the priest, relating to it,

R. C. Priest. "But did you tell her what marriage was?

W. A. "Ay, ay; there began all our dialogue. I asked her, if she would be married to me our way. She asked me what way that was. I told her marriage was appointed by God: and here we had a strange talk together, indeed, as ever man and wife had, I believe.

["N. B. This dialogue between W. Atkins and his wife, as I took it down in writing, just after he told it me, was as follows:]

66

Wife. Appointed by your God! why, have you a God in your country? W. A. 66 Yes, my dear; God is in

every country.

Wife. "No you God in my country: my country have the great old Benamuckee god.

W. A. " Child, I am very unfit to show you who God is: God is in heaven, and made the heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.

Wife. "No makee de earth; no your God makee de earth: no makee my country.

["Will laughed a little at her expression of God not making her country.]

Wife. "No laugh: why laugh me? This no thing to laugh.

[He was justly reproved by his wife; for she was more serious than he at first.

W. A. "That's true, indeed: I will not laugh any more, my dear.

Wife. "Why you say, your God make all?

W. A.

Yes, child, our God made the whole world, and you, and me, and all things; for he is the only true God; there is no God but he. He lives for ever in heaven.

Wife. "Why you no tell me long ago?

W. A. "That's true, indeed; but I have been a wicked wretch, and have not only forgotten to acquaint thee with any thing, but have lived without God in the world myself.

66

Wife. What, have you de great God in your country, you no know him? No say O to him? No do good thing for him? That no possible.

W. A. "It is true enough for all that. We live as if there was no God in heaven, or that he had no power on earth.

Wife. "But why God let you do so? Why he no makee you good live?

W. A. "It is all our own fault. Wife. "But you say me, he is great, much great, have much great power; can makee kill when he will; why he no makee kill when you no seen him? No say O to him? No be good mans?

W. A. "That is true: he might strike me dead, and I ought to expect it; for I have been a wicked wretch, that is true; but God is merciful, and does not deal with us as we deserve.

Wife. "But, then, do not you tell God, Thankee for that God?

W. A. "No, indeed; I have not

* It is not generally known, that this popular fiction, in its original form, of the celebrated DANIEL DE-FOE, first published in 1719, contains sentiments the most evangelical, as well as moral maxims the most valuable for the different stations of human life. The above Extract is taken from Walker's Edition, printed 1808, containing 638 pages, 18mo.

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