THE VOICE OF TRUTH: OR, Strict Baptists' Magazine. "SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE." IN ESSENTIALS, UNITY; IN NON-ESSENTIALS, LIBERTY; IN ALL THINGS, CHARITY. FEBRUARY, 1863. Original Essays. BAPTIST CHURCHES. Civil courts have not only shown their incompetency for protecting the corporate property of Baptist churches from this amalgamation-for mixed communion is the germ and foundation of it--but the public have been so perplexed by what has passed in these courts respecting organization, nature, identity, and similar things, as to render some observations on the nature and constitution of a Baptist church highly desirable, if not absolutely necessary. WHAT are Baptist churches? Does | prayed, and wept, and waited for this anybody know? What does the descrip- inglorious issue? God forbid. tive term imply? 'Baptist churches." -The name is clearly distinctive, and it is said there is much in a name. But how much is there in this? How much will there be, if the wind continue to blow in the direction in which it has been blowing?—if the stream keep flowing in its present course? Let the rumoured union be once effected, and what will there be in the name then? Nay, where will the name itself be? The Baptist and Pædobaptist churches are going to be united- -so the tale goes,-and this is the name by which they will be called66 Congregational Churches." Where the union will be celebrated, and by what rites —whether by special license or published banns, in the new way or the old, matters but little, and is scarcely worth a conjecture. Should it be realized, the forms of its consummation will be of no consequence. Baptist churches will have ceased, and their memorial will soon perish. Brethren, shall this extinction be permitted? Will it, can it be permitted? Have you no convictions, no affections, no exertions to put forth? "Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain?" Have you toiled, and fought, and endured, and sighed, and VOL. II.,-NO. XIV., NEW SERIES. What do we mean by the nature, or constitution, of a person or thing? Sometimes the essential attributes, properties, or qualities which constitute or make a thing what it is. Sort, species, kind, or things of a particular character, are things having the same nature. An economy, a system, or constitution makes what is called nature. A number of united parts, in their relations to one another and to the whole, constitute a thing: the manner in which the parts are united, and the respect they have to one another, as well as to the end designed by their presence, fitness, and union, are called the constitution or nature of it. So that were all these parts, or only one part, different from what it is, or differently related to с the whole, the nature of the thing would be different also. To constitute a watch, all the parts must be united in a fitness of relationship, or you would not have the nature of a watch. The appetites, affections, passions, and other properties of the mind, in their connection and influence, give us an idea of man's moral nature. Life and organization appear in different natures or constitutions. Add any new matter to a thing-a new constituent say--and you change its nature or constitution. It is no longer the same thing. It is changed; and it requires a new name. With nature also we find design. The constitution of any work of nature or art shows design. Whether it be physical, moral, individual, or social, we observe design. The human body is used by Paul to illustrate a spiritual economy in its harmony, obligations, designs and benefits. But change the constitution of this body, by admitting the parts of an irrational creature, and you change the body. It has not the same nature, the same obligation, the same tendency, the same adaptation, or the same design. It is another body, another nature, another thing. Thus much we have spoken as to the nature or constitution of things: let us see if what has been said will help us to the true idea of a Baptist church. The nature or constitution of a thing, bear in mind, consists in the union and fitness of all the parts, as they relate to one another and to the whole. And the nature or constitution of a Baptist church consists in the union and fitness of all the parts to one another, and to the design of the whole. Now to constitute a Baptist church, all the parts or members must be Baptists-not the majority, but all of them. The positive idea includes the negative. There must be no exception. Receive one unbaptized person into the church, and you destroy the constitution which made it what it was-a Baptist church. It was constituted not a Strict nor Open Baptist church, for neither of these terms is consistent. A Baptist church is a Baptist church, and can be nothing else, more or less, without being different from what it is. But for a thing to be different from what it is, it must be what it is without being what it is,-and what it is not without being what it is not, and that at the same time; which is an absurdity. For, be it observed, the question is not whether this church is a Christian church, but whether it is a Baptist church, i. e., a church of baptized Christians. Were it a Christian church only, Christians without baptism might compose it; but if it be a baptized Christian church, then baptism is an indispensable qualification. Suppose you contemplate à Christian church. What is a Christian church but a Christian church? You would not say a strict Christian church-an open Christian church-nora mixed Christian church; but a Christian church. Nor would you consider that church uncharitable because it admitted to its fellowship--either as members or communicants, and the one implies the other-none but Christians. You would acknowledge that, being a Christian church, it must have a Christian constitution; and that the admission of any but Christians to its fellowship would violate its constitution. Why, then, should you complain of the Baptists, or consider them uncharitable, because they receive into their communion none but baptized believers? Again: let us suppose a church to be composed of believers, and we call it a Solifidian church. The constitution or nature of that church arises out of the fact that the members or parts are all Solifidians, i. e., persons who believe that faith without works is sufficient to justification. Incorporate an acknowledged Pelagian, and it is no longer a Solifidian church. Let a church of believers agree to receive into their communion a professed unbeliever, and it is no longer a church of believers. Its constitution is altered, its nature, relations, obligations, tendencies, and design are all changed. You have a new creature, a new nature, a new economy, a new tendency and a new end. A good deal has been said about essence. But essence is simply that which makes a thing what it is that without which it could not exist. And is not baptism that which makes a Christian church a Baptist church? Without baptism it could not be a Baptist church. It might be a Christian church, but not a Baptist church; for Christian baptism is the essence of a Christian Baptist church. A number of baptized believers hold an opinion that baptism is a scriptural requirement for church organization; and, with these convictions, they enter into church fellowship. Believers' baptism, which they hold to be by immersion, is the essence of this compact that upon which the organization is built, and without which it could not exist. It is that which gives a specific object, end, tendency, obligation and benefit. Let this church reverse its original opinion, which was the basis of its constitution, by agreeing to receive into its communion unbaptized persons, and its essence as a Baptist church is destroyed. For what was that essence? Was it not the indispensable nature of the baptismal qualification? That qualification made the church what it was a Baptist church. It was its essence-the basis of its constitution-that without which it could not have been what it was. Dispense with that which made it what it was, and it ceases to be what it was. Its essence is gone. It is no longer a Baptist church. The question concerning identity is not to be illustrated, in this instance, by some textile article, as of a silk glove darned with cotton till nothing but cotton remains; it must be illustrated by some thing that has life and organization, as a tree, a bird, or a man. Philosophically speaking, no plant, no animal, no man, no being or mode of being, can be the same with that with which it has nothing the same, as in the particles of a tree, or the members of a society; but in a practical sense, identity or sameness consists in a continuation of the same life communicated to the same organization, whether it be vegetable or animal. There may be a succession of parts, but so long as the same life and the same constitution remain, there is the same thing. The cedar which has stood a hundred years, though it has not a particle of the same matter it had, is still a cedar, just because it has the same life and organization it ever had; but could you change it into an oak, an ash, or any other tree, it would no longer be the same tree. It would have another life and organization-another natureanother essence-another identity. by a Baptist church. Its identity consists in its life and organization. It has an organic being. Destroy its organization, and you destroy its identity-its being-its essence-its existence. So The Pulpit. No. II. THE CHRISTIAN'S DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION. The Outline of a Sermon preached by MR. R. E. SEARS, Pastor of the Baptist Church, Laxfield, Suffolk. "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."Rom. vi. 3, 4. I HAVE not to speak this morning of death in a literal sense, but in a figurative, or spiritual sense. I have not to speak of the Christian's burial literally, but of his burial in the liquid tomb with Christ Jesus his Lord. I have not to speak of the great resurrection-the general resurrection of the dead, when the blast of the archangel's trumpet shall be heard to wake the sleepers under ground. As the death is spiritual, so the life is spiritual. There are some things to which the Christian is dead, but it is equally true that there are some things to which he is blessedly alive: "Even so we also should walk in newness of life." We shall make a few remarks upon the Christian's death, the Christian's burial, and the Christian's resurrection. I. THE CHRISTIAN'S DEATH. I wish to be very clear and explicit. God forbid that we should mystify the truths of the gospel. I know that it is truth when we say a Christian man is a living man. Men by nature are dead-" dead in trespasses and sins-spiritually dead. The Holy Ghost is the mighty Quickener, for he breathes into man the breath of life, so that he becomes a living soul. This work is called "regeneration," "being born again," "passing from death unto life." Have we experienced this Divine and holy change? It is one thing to know it doctrinally, and another thing to know it experimentally. If we are the subjects of this wonderful transformation this supernatural change, we can say, Old things have passed away, and, behold, all things have become new.' We know, and are sure that a Christian man is a living man, "For he that hath the Son hath life," and the wrath of God shall not abide on him;" but it is equally true that a Christian man is a dead man. I admit that this is a paradox, but I will never admit that it is a contradiction. God's word never can contradict itself; it is one harmonious whole. Man in his ignorance may contradict himself, when trying to explain two parallel truths; but truths themselves never contradict each other. gone to the end of the law for righteousness; because Christ has put away sin, and conquered the world. We are quickened to know our death and condemnation, and to know our life and justification, through the merits of the bleeding Lamb. THE CHRISTIAN'S BURIAL. "Buried with him by baptism into death." Only the dead should be buried. Literally we do not administer the rites of sepulture to the living, but to the dead. Death is a necessary qualification for burial. We should break the laws of our country, and sin against God,by burying the living; even so that man sins, most fearfully sins, that knowingly baptizes unbelievers. There are several things which are prerequisites to baptism. 1st. The reception of the Spirit: "Which have received the Holy Ghost." 2nd. Repentance: "Baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins." 3rd. Faith: "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." 4th. Discipleship: "Jesus made, and baptized more disciples than John." Now if we have received the Spirit, we are dead to the law: "For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." If we have true repentance, we are dead to sin. "Repentance is to leave The sins we loved before; And show that we in earnest grieve, If we have true faith in Christ, we are dead to creature doings; and if we are the disciples of Christ, we are dead to the world: They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." We cannot receive the Spirit and be under the law at the same time; we cannot repent of sin, and live in sin at the same time; we cannot believe in Christ and trust in works at the same time; neither can we love the pleasures of the world, and be Christ's disciples. I have proved from the Bible that a Christian man is a living man; now I shall prove that he is a dead man. "I was alive once without the law; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." "Likewise reckon also ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin." "Dead to the law by the body of Christ." If you look into the third chapter of Colossians, you will see these truths in juxtaposition-a dead, living Christian. "For ye are DEAD, and your LIFE is hid with Christ in God." There is, therefore, a sense in which a Christian is alive, and a sense in which he is dead. There is also a sense in which natural men are dead, and also a sense in which they are most fearful and dreadfully alive. Shew me what the natural man is alive to, and I will show you the Christian is dead to it. Show me what the natural man is dead to, and I will show you that the Christian is alive to it. I will show you what the Christian is dead to:--He is dead to the law; he is dead to sin; he is dead to the world; and dead to all hope of heaven I notice that all the dead shou'd be apart from Christ. Do you ask, "How buried. Baptism is a public profession the Christian dies?" He dies through of our faith in Christ, a public confession the quickening power of the Holy Ghost. of his name. Who is on the Lord's side? The Spirit quickens because Christ has | If you are Christ's, come forth and con If we are alive to the one, we shall be dead to the other; and if we are dead to the law, dead to sin, dead to creature righteousness, and dead to the pleasures of the world, we are a fit and proper persons for Christian burial, fit to be buried with Christ in baptism. fess him, by being buried in the liquid | are raised up with Christ: "For if we tomb. Say with the poet, "While this liquid tomb surveying, Jesus enter'd Jordan's wave !" Notice, beloved brethren, the signification of baptism. What is it intended to represent? And you know there must be a likeness between the thing represented and the representation; there must, therefore, be a likeness between baptism and what it represents. Baptism is a figure of Christ's sufferings, Christ's death, Christ's burial, and Christ's resurrection. Permit me to ask you if there is any resemblance-if there is the slightest resemblance between Christ's sufferings, death, burial, and resurrection, and infant sprinkling? You answer, "No!" Then infant sprinkling cannot be Christian baptism, and if it is not Christian baptism, then it is a delusion and a lie! Now I ask, Is there any resemblance between Christ's sufferings, death, burial, and resurrection, and immersion? "Yes," you say, “a very striking one." Then immersion in water must be Christian baptism. Our text would lose all its beauty, would lose all its force, if baptism were anything but immersion. Sweet thought! it is "with him!" "O what pleasure, Buried with my Lord to be!" III. THE CHRISTIAN'S RESURRECTION "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." We are buried with Christ in baptism to show our deadness to the law, our deadness to sin, and creature doings; and as we are buried with Christ, so we have been planted in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." We go into the water to show that we are dead to the curses of a broken law,-dead to its awful power,dead to its tremendous penalty. We come out of the water to show that we are alive to obey it holy precepts, that "we also should walk in newness of life." We go into the water to show that we are dead to sin, dead to its awful consequences. We come up out of the water to show that we are alive unto holiness, purity, righteousness, and truth. We go into the water to show that we are dead to creature doings-dead to self-righteousness. We come up out of the water to show that we are alive to every good word and work. "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."-" Walk in newness of life." We go into the water to show that we are dead to the world; dead to its delusions; dead to its vanities; dead to its lies; and dead to its final destiny. We come up out of the water to show that we are alive to the things of Christ's spiritual kingdom. We confess in baptism that we are not of the world, but of the church. We confess that this world is not our home, that we are not happy there, but that our heart is in the church of Christ; that there our best friends, our kindred dwell, and our desire is "to walk in newness of life;" to walk in new paths; to dwell in a new house; to associate with new companions; to be clothed with new raiment; to feed upon new provisions; to sing new songs: and we expect a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. May the Lord bless his own truth to your souls, for Christ's sake. Amen. Expositions and Essays. "DOUBTS AND FEARS." MANY are the afflictions of the righteous in this wilderness, among which doubts and fears are a source of much trouble and sorrow to the children of God. Many teach that to have con tinued doubts and fears is a mark of great humility, and have been so far enslaved in their minds as to think it an act of presumption to be long without them. Others teach an assurance of faith which |