01 - Introduction

INTRODUCTION. THE history of this book and its author is somewhat remarkable. The author was born and raised in a Presbyterian home, graduated from a Presbyterian college, nurtured in a Presbyterian church, and was professor in a college under Presbyterian control. He received his faith concerning the ordinance of baptism, both as to action, or mode, and subjects, by tradition, and firmly held to the same for many years. He was ordained a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and as pastor he practiced the faith which he had been taught up to the crisis when he changed his faith on baptism he never had a conscious doubt or question as to the validity of, and Scriptural authority for, infant baptism, or sprinkling as the so-called mode. How he came to discard his inherited pedo-baptist faith and become a baptist is graphically narrated in a letter written a few days after his baptism, extracts of which are given following the Prefaces. His experience is a chapter of the same serious struggles through [3] which many others have passed into the clear conviction of the truth on this important subject. By a diligent, prayerful searching of the Scriptures he discovered that the facts did not sustain his faith, and he heroically accepted the facts and cast away his traditional faith. He found what all other students of the word have found, to-wit: That the sacred records show that believers only were baptized; that water is the element in baptism; that the candidates always went to the water, and down into it; that thus in the water they were baptized; that they were so baptized that it resembled and is called a burial and resurrection; that their bodies were washed in baptism, and that they were mature enough to have good consciences.

There are many believers in all the Churches who have come to the light in the same manner. In the earlier years of the churches of God large numbers who came out from other Churches were converted in a similar manner on the subject of baptism. And so clear and convincing and unanswerable is the testimony of the word that, notwithstanding the constant preaching and teaching of infant [4] baptism and sprinkling in pedo-baptist pulpits, a considerable percentage of their members believe that "John and Christ administered baptism by plunging the whole body beneath the water," John Calvin teaches in his Comment on John 3:23. Dr. Schaff, Reformed Church, points to the same facts we have given above to show that in New Testament times the "form of baptism was immersion," saying, this "is inferred from the analogy of John’s baptism in the Jordan; from the Apostles’ comparison of the sacred rite with the miraculous passage of the Red Sea; with the escape of the ark from the flood; with a cleansing and refreshing bath, and with burial and resurrection." Weiss, Lutheran, sees the same in John’s baptism, for he says, "They went down, man by man, into the waters of Jordan, in order to emerge new born." A remarkable confession of like character was made by President Buchanan to his Attorney-General, Judge Black, member of the Disciple Church. In the early part of President Buchanan’s administration, at the close of a Cabinet meeting, the President "took it into his head to catechize his [5] Secretaries about their religious faith." When it came Judge Black’s turn to answer he said: "Mr. President, I do not claim any one of the Churches these gentlemen have named as my religious home. All these denominations are altogether of too late an origin. The most venerable of them were not born more than four centuries ago, entirely too late to claim to be the original church of Christ. The church that I belong to was founded on the day of Pentecost, as you read in the second chapter of Acts, and has no human but a divine origin." At a small social gathering at the Soldiers’ Home, the delightful Summer retreat of the President, the subject was resumed, and an amicable and courteous discussion resulted on the Communion and baptism as practiced by the Disciples. Judge Black was thoroughly versed in religious topics, an intelligent and devout Christian and a disputant of surpassing power. The President listened with evident interest to Judge Black’s scriptural arguments, and at last he closed the discussion with these words: "Well, Judge, I appreciate fully all you have said, and the strength of your conviction, and [6] honor it. But for myself, I am satisfied with the religion of my fathers, who were all Presbyterians. Nevertheless, I have no doubt that in the primitive church penitent believers only were baptized, and that the ordinance was then performed by immersion. I think, however, that the church in the course of time was justified in baptizing its children, and that the quantity of water is not essential so long as the spiritual significance is retained." These words of the President excited Mrs. Black, and in a most amiable but also most earnest manner she said, "Mr. President, WE do not allow ourselves to reason in that way. We believe and teach that the only right and safe way in all these things is to accept and practice the ordinances of God just as they are given in the New Testament, without any attempt at change."

Mr. Jewett’s argument is clear and strong from this point of view. He is not exhaustive in other lines of argument, and the present Editor has taken occasion to add further proof from Lexicons, Cyclopedias and the works of learned theologians and writers, all of whom were members of pedo-baptist [7] Churches. The proposition, that the immersion of believers is the scriptural baptism, is capable of conclusive proof, "our enemies themselves being judges."

We have stated above that the history of this book is remarkable, and as well as that of the author. The book was first published in 1839, after the author had been a pastor of a Presbyterian church about three years. In a very short time three successive editions were sold. Thirty years from the initial publication the "twelfth thousand" was placed on the market. Few books of this character have been so long in demand. It has been published simultaneously in Boston, New York and Cincinnati. The first edition was immediately taken, and a second and third editions speedily followed.

Additions made to the text, in the way of quotations and references, by the Editor, are placed within brackets. They are mainly taken from more recent authors, showing that the testimony is quite uniform all down the history of Christianity to the present. Much more might be added to the book, but the aim is to make it strong in the briefest [8] compass, so as to place it into the hands of a larger number. The generosity of the present publisher is matter for commendation. And it is our fervent hope and prayer that his liberality may be greatly blessed in promoting an intelligent conviction of the truth on the question of scriptural baptism.

C. H. FORNEY. [9]

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