Wesley Collected Works Vol 10
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | treatise |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-wesley-collected-works-vol-10-222 |
| Words | 384 |
1. But did our Saviour design this should remain
always in his Church 2 This is the Third thing we are to
consider. And this may be dispatched in a few words, since
there can be no reasonable doubt, but it was intended to last
as long as the Church into which it is the appointed means
of entering. In the ordinary way, there is no other means
of entering into the Church or into heaven. 2. In all ages, the outward baptism is a means of the
inward; as outward circumcision was of the circumcision of
the heart. Nor would it have availed a Jew to say, “I have
the inward circumcision, and therefore do not need the out
ward too: ” That soni was to be cut off from his people. He had despised, he had broken, God’s everlasting covenant,
by despising the seal of it. (Gen. xvii. 14.) Now, the seal of
circumcision was to last among the Jews as long as the law
lasted, to which it obliged them. By plain parity of reason,
baptism, which came in its room, must last among Christians
as long as the gospel covenant into which it admits, and
whereunto it obliges, all nations. 3. This appears also from the original commission which
our Lord gave to his Apostles: “Go, disciple all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost; teaching them. And lo # I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world.” Now, as long as this
commission lasted, as long as Christ promised to be with them
in the execution of it, so long doubtless were they to execute it,
and to baptize as well as to teach. But Christ hath promised
to be with them, that is, by his Spirit, in their successors, to
the end of the world. So long, therefore, without dispute, it
was his design that baptism should remain in his Church. IV. 1. But the grand question is, Who are the proper
subjects of baptism? grown persons only, or infants also ? In order to answer this fully, I shall, First, lay down the
grounds of infant baptism, taken from Scripture, reason, and
primitive, universal practice; and, Secondly, answer the
objections against it. 2.