PREPARATORY INSTRUCTIONS. 21 
him by baptism, and to seek instruction in all his 
will. We found that, had we been so disposed, 
we could no longer defer the rite, with regard at 
least to some who applied. 
Anxious that it should be on their part a reason¬ 
able act, and that, before being received, it should 
be understood, we proposed to meet one afternoon 
every week, with those who desired to be baptized. 
At this meeting we endeavoured to instruct them 
in the origin, nature, design, and subjects of the 
ordinance, together with the duties of those who 
should receive it. There was no wish on our parts 
to baptize by stratagem, as some of the popish 
Missionaries have done, but we sought to make the 
people well acquainted with the matter in all its 
bearings.—At the first weekly assemblies, between 
twenty and thirty of the most promising of the 
converts attended, afterwards the numbers ex¬ 
ceeded four or five hundred. 
In the instructions given, the scriptures, and 
the scriptures only, were our guide; and we en¬ 
deavoured to inculcate the doctrine as we found 
it there, and as if it had never been controverted. 
Our warrant for its administration we derived from 
our Lord’s commission to the first Missionaries, 
which was also our own. In its nature, we in¬ 
structed them not to consider baptism as possessing 
any saving efficacy, or conferring any spiritual 
benefit, but being on our parts a duty connected 
with our office, and on theirs a public declaration 
of discipleship or proselytism to the Christian faith; 
designed to teach unto all, their moral defilement 
in the sight of God, and their need of that wash¬ 
ing of regeneration, and spiritual purification, 
which it figuratively signified. 
The duties of those who desired it were also 
