BAPTISTS. 



money by way of gratification, he is dis- 

 charged with a little sprinkling of water, 

 otherwise he is heartily drenched with 

 streams of water, poured upon him ; and 

 the ship-boys are inclosed in a cage, and 

 ducked at discretion. The seamen, on 

 the baptising a ship, pretend to a right of 

 cutting off the break head, unless re- 

 deemed by the captain. 



BAPTISTS, or ANTIPJEDOBAPTISTS, 

 in church history, a considerable sect, 

 who are distinguished from other Chris- 

 tians by their opinions respecting bap- 

 tism, and who maintain that the ordinance 

 must be administered by the immersion 

 of adults, and not by the sprinkling of in- 

 fants. Such they say is the meaning of 

 the word fiewilitp : they call to their aid 

 a variety of passages of scripture, none of 

 which are however so decisive as to put 

 the controversy to rest. And though it 

 is certain that adults were baptised in the 

 earliest periods of the Christian system, 

 there is no proof that infants were not 

 admitted to the ordinance. It is not for 

 us to enter into this controversy, which 

 has been cut short by some other Chris- 

 tians, who maintain that baptism was in- 

 tended only for the converts to the Chris- 

 tian faith,and was not to be repeated upon 

 the children of believers. Hence, many 

 persons in the present day do not think 

 it necessary to baptise their children, nor 

 advise them to submit to it when they 

 have attained to years of maturity. As 

 the ordinance, when conducted with so- 

 lemnity and liberality, is truly impressive, 

 and as "it does not occur to every one to 

 witness such a scene during their lives, 

 we shall extract an account of one per- 

 formed in the neighbourhood of Cam- 

 bridge, and which has been well de- 

 scribed by the late excellent Mr. Robin- 

 son, whose name will live, when the dis- 

 tinction of sects and parties shall be ob- 

 literated from the Christian church, and 

 when the only profession of faith will be 

 that in the divine mission of the founder ; 

 happy day, when no man shall be exclu- 

 ded from the right hand of fellowship, 

 because he cannot believe in dogmas of 

 self-created censors, and who cannot join 

 in the ceremonies, for which there is no 

 direct sanction in the New Testament. 



" Not many years ago, at Whittlesford, 

 seven miles fromCambridge, forty-eight 

 persons were baptised in that ford of the 

 river from which the village takes its 

 name. At ten o'clock, of a very fine 

 morning in May, about 1500 people of 

 different ranks assembled together. At 

 half past ten in the forenoon, the late Dr, 



Andrew Gifford, Fellow of the Society of 

 Antiquaries, Sublibrarian of the British 

 Museum, and Teacher of aBaptir Con- 

 gregration in Eagle-steet, London, as- 

 cended a moveable pulpit, in a large open 

 court-yard, near the river, and adjoining 

 to the house of the lord of the manor. 

 Round him stood the congregation ; peo- 

 ple on horseback, in coaches and in carts, 

 formed the outside semicircle ; many 

 other persons sitting in the rooms of the 

 house, the sashes being open, all were 

 uncovered, and there was a profound si- 

 lence. The doctor first gave out a hymn, 

 which the congregation sung. Then he 

 prayed. Prayer ended, he took out a 

 New Testament, and read his text. " I 

 indeed baptise you with water unto re- 

 pentance." He observed, that the force 

 of the preposition had escaped the notice 

 of the translators, and that the true read- 

 ing was ' I indeed baptise or dip you in 

 water, at or upon repentance ;" which 

 sense he confirmed by the 41st verse of 

 the 12th of Matthew, and other passages. 

 Then he spoke, as most Baptists do on 

 these occasions, concerning the nature, 

 subject, mode, and end of this ordinance. 

 He closed, by contrasting the doctrine of 

 infant sprinkling with that of believers* 

 baptism, which being a part of Christian 

 obedience, was supported by divine pro- 

 mises, on the accomplishment of which 

 all good men might depend. After ser- 

 mon, he read another hymn, and prayed, 

 and then came down. Then the candi- 

 dates for baptism retired to prepare 

 themselves. About half an hour after, 

 the administrator, who that day was a ne- 

 phew of the doctor's, and admirably 

 qualified for the work, in a long black 

 gown of fine baize, without a hat, with a 

 small New Testament in his hand, came 

 down to the river side, accompanied by 

 several Baptist ministers and deacons of 

 their churches, and the persons to be 

 baptised. The men came first, two and 

 two, without hats, and dressed as usual, 

 except that instead of coats, each had on 

 a long white baize gown, tied round the 

 waist with a sash. Such as had no hair, 

 wore white cotton or linen caps. The 

 women followed the men, two and two, 

 all dressed neat, clean, and plain, and 

 their gowns white linen or dimity. It was 

 said that the garments had knobs of lead 

 at^the bottom to make them sink. Each had 

 a long light silk cloak hanging loosely 

 over Her shoulder, a broad ribbon tied 

 over her gown beneath^ the breast, and a 

 hat on her head. They all ranged them- 

 selves around the administrator at the 

 water .side. A great number of specta- 



