Volume 7. Number 10. May 3, 1830, pp. 646-650.

• Essays on Man in His Primitive State, and under the Patriarchal, Jewish and Christian Dispensations.--No. XIV.: Jewish Age.--No. VI.: The Ministry of John by Alexander Campbell, pp. 646-649.
• Elder John Leland by Alexander Campbell, p. 649.
• For the Christian Baptist by Jason, pp. 649-650.
• Reply to Jason by Alexander Campbell, p. 650.

      THE ministry of John the Harbinger was in the conclusion of the Jewish age. He and the Messiah were born while the Temple was yet standing. Once in the end of the world, or in the end of the age, did the Messiah appear, says Paul, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. We are, then, to consider both John and Jesus as born, living and dying under the Jewish age.--Few regard this as a fact, though a fact of great importance it assuredly is. Malachi, the last of the Jewish prophets, taught the Jews to expect John or Elijah before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord upon the Jewish nation.

      During the ministry of John, neither he, nor the Saviour, nor his apostles, nor the seventy disciples, went to proclaim out of the commonwealth of Israel. The proselyting era did not commence while the Messiah lived, for the reasons assigned in my last. Jesus once visited Samaria, and was made known to some of the Samaritans as the Messiah; but it was not until after his resurrection that he ordered the glad tidings of his reign to be promulged through Samaria. Nay, indeed, he forbade it: "Enter not a Samaritan city," gave he in charge to his attendants and heralds.

      The reign of God was announced, and the glad tidings of the coming reign were proclaimed first and exclusively to the Jews, that among them a people might be prepared for the Lord. Hence the lost sheep of the house of Israel first and exclusively engrossed the attention and the labors of the original heralds of an eternal salvation.

      Not only was the character of the author of the christian institution revealed, but also the genius and character of his kingdom opened to many, taught in parables, and literally developed by Jesus in his own lifetime to the apostles, and to many in Judea who expected salvation to Israel. [646]

      The Jewish age terminated with the burial of Jesus. It began with the paschal lamb which the Jews killed in Egypt and eat the night before they marched. Fifty days after they ate that passover, their institution was proclaimed from Mount Sinai; that was, so to speak, the first Pentecost. Jesus ate the last passover of divine authority; he died at the time Israel crossed the Red Sea; he kept the last sabbath of the Jewish law in the grave; he arose the day the manna first fell on Israel; and on the day of Pentecost, the day on which the Lord spoke to Israel from Mount Sinai, the fiftieth from the passover, on the same day did the Holy Spirit, from Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem, first announce the New Institution.

      The Jewish age and Jesus died at the same moment. Their sabbath and he slept in the same tomb; and during the forty days from his resurrection to his ascension, and thence to Pentecost, there was a period, a full period between the Jewish and the Christian age. He suffered no one to speak to the unbelieving during this period. He would not let his apostles open their lips until he was crowned in heaven. "Tarry to Jerusalem," said he, "until you be endued with power from on high."

      These are the grand landmarks in the progress of God's revelations. These are the distinct chapters of the great volume of events which ought to be regarded as of primary importance in understanding God's book. "Jesus then was a minister of the circumcision to confirm the promises made by God to the fathers" of the Jewish nation; and John appeared in the conclusion of the Jewish age to prepare the way of the Lord.

      These facts in the sacred history, clearly and unequivocally taught, do throw much light upon the testimony of the Evangelists. Those who confound and jumble every thing to make a system of their own, can never understand these sacred writings. Some make Christianity as old as the creation, and teach that Moses was in reality as much a Christian as Paul or John.

      There is infancy, childhood, and manhood in religion, as well as in human life. There is starlight, moonlight, twilight, and sunlight in religion, in the moral, as in the natural world. And he that objects against this economy might as well object that we are infants before we are men, or that Spring must precede Summer, and seed time harvest.

      But to the conclusion of the Jewish age. John took the Jews as he found them. He argued with them on, and from, their own acknowledgements. He pretended to a mission from God, which was confirmed by the manner of his birth, and the peculiarities of his life, and by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus as soon as John immersed him. He averred that he was "The voice of one crying in the wilderness," as spoke Isaiah. He remonstrated against the defection of the Jews--taught and practiced a more strict righteousness and devotion than any of his cotemporaries of the Jews, and commanded an entire reformation of manners.

      To his preaching of reformation, an immersion of reformers for the remission of sins committed under the law, was added. Multitudes flocked to him, confessed their sins against God under the economy of Moses, and were immersed, confessing their sins, and reforming from them. He proclaimed that the Messiah was soon to appear; nay, that he stood among them, though they knew him not, and that they should believe in him who was to come after him.

      His immersion differed from that instituted by Jesus in the four following respects:--

      1. He immersed in the name or by the authority of God, and not in the name or by the authority of the Lord. No act in religion, from the beginning of the world until Pentecost, was ever done by any other name or authority, than the simple name of God. By the authority of Jesus or the Messiah, no act had ever been performed until in his own person he appeared it Judea, and until he declared that authority was given he commanded no man to perform any act by his authority.

      2. He immersed into no name. That he did not immerse into the name of Jesus as the Messiah, as the Lord, is obvious from the following considerations:--

      It is manifest from the narrative, that John immersed some persons, if not many, before he immersed Jesus. Now, in whatever manner, and in whatever name John immersed, he uniformly immersed. His immersion was the same during his whole life. But it has been said that he immersed some persons before he immersed Jesus: now these he could not immerse into the name of Jesus because he did not know him when he first began to baptize. His words are, "As for me, I knew him not; but to the end that he may be discovered to Israel, I am come immersing in water. For my part, I should not have known him, had not HE who sent me to immerse in water told me, Upon whomsoever you shall see the Spirit descending and remaining, the same is he who immerses in the Holy Spirit. Having therefore seen, I testify that he is the Son of God." But the Spirit did not descend on Jesus till after his immersion; consequently John immersed others before he knew the Messiah.

      Again, he did not immerse into the name of the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit was not yet given; for Jesus was not yet glorified; and those who were immersed by John had not heard any thing of the Holy Spirit. [See Acts xix. 1-8.] The Son and the Holy Spirit not being yet revealed, he could not immerse into either the name of the Son or of the Holy Spirit.

      The Jews at this time had but the knowledge of God common to the nation, and it was therefore simply by the authority of the God of Abraham the Jews were immersed; and as they had always professed that name, there was neither need for, nor propriety in, their being immersed into that name.

      3. But in the third place he, did not immerse into the Christian faith. All the Jews believed that a Messiah would come; this was the common expectation of all the commonwealth of Israel. But it is one thing to believe that a Messiah was to come, and soon to come; and another thing to believe that any particular person and character was he.

      It is one thing to believe that some person killed A B, and another thing to believe that C D killed A B. The former faith would not now injure any person though a whole jury possessed it; but the latter faith imperils the life of C D. So belief that some person was to be the Saviour and Redeemer of Israel was one thing, and to believe that Jesus the Nazarene was that person, was another, and produced very different feelings and behavior.

      To believe that Jesus is the Lord of all, that he died as a sin offering, and that he arose from the dead, was impossible to any of John's cotemporaries. For Jesus was not made Lord, as Peter imparted on Pentecost, until he ascended [647] into heaven. He must first be a servant before he could be king. He must suffer before he could be made perfect as the Captain of Salvation. He must first be humbled, before he could be glorified. That he was to die for our sins, and to rise from the dead, neither John nor any of John's disciples knew or believed. For long after John had died, and after Jesus had taught his followers farther than John led them, when he talked of his resurrection they could not understand him: and after he rose from the dead and appeared to the women, this testimony appeared to the wisest of the Apostles as idle tales, and they believed them not. It is useless to reason farther to show that the disciples of John had not the faith which Christians after Pentecost had; consequently, could not be baptized into a faith which they did not possess.

      In the fourth place, John's immersion brought no man into the kingdom of heaven. The reason is obvious: no person could come into a kingdom which was not set up. I need not, to the readers of this work, at this late period, be at much pains to illustrate this point. All who have read the new translation must know that the Reign of Jesus is called the Reign of Heaven, and the institution which he has set up on earth is called the Kingdom of Heaven. This kingdom and reign was the burthen of John's proclamation, and of the Saviour's preaching and teaching. John and the Messiah, during their personal ministry, only said it was approaching, or near at hand, and soon to appear. It was impossible that the kingdom could be set up on earth until the King was placed upon his throne. This could not be until Jesus was exalted. It was after his humiliation unto death that his Father highly exalted him. Then he began his reign. Then he sent down the Holy Spirit; for the Spirit was not given until Jesus was glorified. John's preaching and baptism only prepared the people and brought them nigh to the kingdom. It introduced no man into it. John's disciples entered not in by virtue of John's immersion. Every man, Jew and Gentile, who came into the kingdom, must be born of water and of the Spirit.

      But the fact that Jesus was not exalted until he rose from the dead; that he did not commence to reign until he was prepared by sufferings; that his kingdom was not begun until he was crowned Lord of all, is sufficient to establish the truth of the proposition that John's immersion brought no man into the kingdom of heaven; for that kingdom had not, in John's time, come. Christian immersion, then, differs from John's in four great and important particulars.--First, in the name, or by the authority, by which it is done. Second, into the name, into which it is done. Third, the faith upon which it is done; and fourth, the kingdom or institution into which it introduces us.

      John's immersion was by the authority of the God of Abraham, or the God of the Jews as he once chose to be called. It was, as Christians would say, performed by the command and authority of the Father, in his own name: whereas, after Jesus had received all authority in heaven and earth, he instituted an immersion to be performed by his authority as Lord, and as Christ.

      John immersed into no name, but only that they should believe on him that was to come after him. But Jesus commanded his disciples to be immersed into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

      The faith and reformation upon which John immersed, would not entitle any person to christian immersion. No man, by the authority of Jesus Christ, would be authorized to immerse any man professing to believe that the Messiah would soon appear, or that the reign of heaven was soon to commence. Nor would such fruits of reformation as John required, which was an exact conformity to the institution of Moses, be required now. A righteousness, and a reformation, and fruits of reformation, proceeding from loftier principles, and from more extensive relations, and issuing in a purer and more heavenly morality, is required now. For this purpose we require a disciple to believe and confess that Jesus is the Messiah, has died as a sin-offering, has risen from the dead, and is now exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give reformation to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

      The state in which John's immersion left his disciples, was a state of preparation for the kingdom of heaven, which at first must be gradually developed and progressively exhibited to the world. But the state in which Christian immersion leaves the disciples of Jesus, is the kingdom of heaven--a state of righteousness, peace, joy, and possessed of the holy spirit of adoption into the family of God. They are pardoned, justified, glorified, with the title, rank, and spirit of sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty.

      Such are the prominent points of dissimilarity between the immersion of John and that of the New Institution. Hence we never read of any person being exempted from Christian immersion because of his having been immersed by John. But though all Judea and Jerusalem turned out, and were immersed in the Jordan confessing their sins, and receiving absolution from John; yet when the reign of heaven was commenced on pentecost, of all the myriads immersed into John's immersion, not one refused, or was exempted from Christian immersion. We read, however, of the immersion of some of John's disciples into Jesus Christ, who had been immersed. See Acts xix. I know to what tortures the passage has been subjected by such cold, cloudy, and sickening commentators as John Gill. But no man can, with any regard to the grammar of language, or the import of the most definite words, make Luke say that when these twelve men heard Paul declare the design of John's immersion, they were not baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

      Nothing but the bewildering influence of some phantasy, of some blind adoration, of some favorite speculation, could so far becloud any man's mind, as to make him suppose for a moment that these twelve persons were not at that time immersed into the name of the Lord Jesus. Luke says, literally, "Hearing this, or upon hearing this they were immersed into the name of the Lord Jesus." Then, after they were immersed into the name of the Lord Jesus, Paul laid his hands upon them, and the Holy Spirit fell upon them. Nothing can more fully exhibit the pernicious influence of favorite dogmas, than to see how many of the Baptists have been Gillized or Fullerized into the notion that these twelve men were not baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus when they heard Paul expound to them the design and meaning of John's immersion.

      But for the present we dismiss this subject. Having thus briefly glanced at a few of the prominent items of the Jewish age, the distinguishing features of that dispensation in its origin, progress, and termination, we shall in the present work proceed to glance at the prominent [648] characteristics of the christian age, in doing which, by way of contrast, still additional light will be thrown upon the Jewish institution.

EDITOR.      

--A name intimately connected with the prosperity and success of Baptist principles and practice in the New-England states, and indeed throughout the Union. This old disciple, though tottering on the brink of the grave, has stepped forward and sounded the alarm. We are not informed as to the age of brother Leland--he states, that "it has been more than fifty-five years since I began to preach; in doing which I have travelled 80,000 miles, preached 10,000 times, and baptized 1458 persons, a good portion of whom professed to be seals of my ministry."--Baptist Recorder.

      Come, brother Clack, and you Baptists of the modern old stamp, come, near the testimony of this aged servant of the Lord. Nay, start not; they are "Baptist principles" proclaimed by Elder Leland in his "blow at the root," thirty years ago. Hear him!

      "I presume there are a thousand different creeds in the christian world; they cannot all be right, they may all be wrong. If we consider that all men are fallible, liable to error, it will not be illiberal to say, that some imperfection is to be found in all of them. I question whether there now is, or ever was, a body of men, or an individual, who should coolly compose a creed of faith, or in short a constitution of government or code of laws, but, upon examining the same once a year, would annually see cause to alter some parts thereof. Such is the school that men are in, such the theatre on which they act, so many the objects that pass before them, that he who says he never alters his mind, evidently declares that he is either very weak or stubborn. Shall human creeds, then, mixed at least with imperfection, be made a standard to measure the conscience by, which is God's vicegerent in the human breast?"--p. 9.

      "Those who call themselves christians have but a contemptible opinion of Christ, if they call in question the sufficiency of the New Testament, to govern the churches in all places, at all times, and in all cases. If he was infallible, infinitely wise, and universally good, his laws must be tantamount to the exigencies of his disciples in every circumstance; but if this is called in question, let his followers live up to all the rules which he has given, and see if there is any want. It is observable that those who live the most according to the New Testament make the least complaint of its deficiency. After all, if it still is maintained, that there is a deficiency in the New Testament, who is to supply that deficiency? Not ecclesiastical officers; for they are not to be lords over God's heritage. Not civil rulers; for in their official capacity they have nothing to do with religion. Let those who attempt it, remember one text: "if any man shall add to the words of this book, God shall add to him the plagues therein written."--p. 12.

      What becomes now, of your pitiful cry of "new fangled notions," "modern heresy," and "Campbellism," raised to excite the prejudices of our brethren against us, and to prevent investigation? O what a "heretic," "deceiver," "restorationist," and "Campbellite," this old brother Leland has been for fifty years! These old "Baptist principles" are "of the most pernicious tendency," says Spencer. Away with him!! such men are too contemptible "to be reasoned with," responds Silas.--EDITOR.

      DEAR BROTHER CAMPBELL--YOUR short visit among us, the discourses and conversations we had the pleasure of hearing from you, have produced a spirit of inquiry into the Christian religion, among several of those who heretofore thought little or nothing about it. Your readers generally were edified, some of your opponents have become more liberal, and some who will not see remain blind.

      A certain writer informs us that "prejudice is a rash and premature judgment, made up without evidence, has neither eyes nor ears;" and it follows of course, notwithstanding what they say, or whereof they affirm, there are a few of those characters among us, and but few. They give sufficient evidence to whom they belong, or whose descendants they are. They are ever and anon telling us of a spiritual religion, separate from that revealed to us in the New Testament. When I hear them relating this religion in their sermons, which is as certain as they take a text to preach to the people, I wish some kind messenger would whisper in their ears the first title of the old mother recorded in the 17th chapter of Revelations, in large capitals, MYSTERY. These true sons of MYSTERY often talk of shutting the doors of their meeting houses against all those that are of opinion that testimony alone produces faith, and that, upon our being immersed into this faith, remission of sins and the Holy Spirit are enjoyed, according to the promise made on the day of Pentecost. These men make great confession of sins in their prayers, (there is need for it,) and yet try to make the people believe they are infallible--that there are no errors among them. One of these sons of the bondwoman, I have been informed, publicly declared that the Baptist church was as pure in doctrine as in the days of the apostles, or ever would be; and therefore he did not want to hear what you had to say about the ancient gospel. Could you but once hear this man, you would pity the people that he feeds with his enigmatical sermons. He will neither read nor hear what you have to say, but condemns you without evidence. When I see men act so rigidly with their brethren, when they are themselves so far from the path of duty, my mind is forcibly drawn to what is called the Sermon of the Messiah on the Mount: "Judge not, that you be not judged; for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again." How awful will it be for some sectarians to appear before the bar of God! Little do they think the Holy Spirit has decreed their fate: "they that practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

      The foregoing subject is too unpleasant to dwell upon. I am happy to inform you there are not more than two such characters in any one congregation that I am acquainted with.--The greater portion of them are convinced there is great room for improvement; many are waiting to take up the line of march from Babylon to Jerusalem; their only rear is, that you are mistaken in the road that leads from the one to the other, or that you have gone past Jerusalem. This makes them examine all your communications carefully--more so than any other writings of this day. In your January number a note under the correspondence of "An Inquirer for Truth," is thought by some to admit too much. This writer says he "found that we need not look for the operation of any other spirit than that which he found to be nigh him, even in his [649] mouth and in his heart, that is, the word of faith which the apostles preach;" that is, they understand him that there is no need of any influence but the written word alone. Your being absent when this number was published, they doubt whether this is your opinion, and would be pleased to hear you more fully upon that point.

      Your discourse on Matthew xi. was so interesting, and some of your hearers rather dull of hearing, they are anxious for you to give them an essay or two upon the subject of conversion, including your views of what is called regeneration by Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul.

      Your Essay upon Sacred History is truly interesting. Some of your readers, who are no sectarians, and will not unite with any of them under the present order of things, have requested of me to state their difficulties to you, and request you to attend to them. They say, as they read of none others that were immersed from the time the children of Israel came up out of the sea, until the days of John the Baptist, what evidence have you now to immerse the descendants of those who were immersed by the apostles. As all the children of Israel were immersed in the cloud and in the sea, and none of their descendants afterwards, until the beginning of the gospel, so they think immersion ceased with life apostles. They earnestly beg you would examine this matter, and give them the evidence upon which your mind is made up. They are resolved to follow no man any farther than he follows Christ; nothing but matters of fact govern them in their religious views--and, I hope, in their conduct.

      We have heard some complaining that they would not baptize, as you do, upon a profession of Jesus Christ--no, not for the world. This led me to think of some of their baptizings upon it christian's experience, as they erroneously call it. In the year 1811 there were in this section of country great numbers added by immersion to two churches in our county. I have counted up the white male members that were received with all their sifting system. Out of fifty-eight men that were immersed, soon forty apostatized. Eighteen, including those that died members of the church, with those now living, are all I can find that stood to their profession; and if they were to put out of their churches all those sectarian spirits that the Holy Spirit has classed with murderers and drunkards, and says, "Such shall not inherit the kingdom of God," there would be very few except the friends of the ancient order of things. Such is the superiority of their system over that of Jesus Christ and his apostles. Should this statement be denied, I am prepared to give the evidence.

	Yours in hope of immortality,
	JASON.

      DEAR BROTHER,--There is one new topic in your letter, and but one which requires a remark from me at this time. And that is, why are the descendants of christian parents to be immersed now, seeing that the descendants of the Jews were not immersed? This question presumes that there is more than an analogy between the Jewish find Christian immersion--that the latter is, in fact, a continuation of the former. This is not taught in the sacred scriptures. But supposing the analogy the most exact in the introduction of the two institutions, it will not follow from any necessity that the two institutions are in other respects analogous. For instance, the Old Institution was national, and based upon family blood. But not so the Christian. It takes not the whole of any man's family from any necessity or provision in the Constitution. It is based, not upon flesh, but upon faith: and therefore, every citizen must be born again of water and spirit before admitted into the kingdom of Jesus. He is not a citizen until born of the water. If all the children of the flesh were counted for the seed now, as formerly under the old economy, then some plea more plausible might he urged for dispensing with the converting or proselyting institution. But as every one must be born again before admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven, and as every one must be justified and washed before adopted into the family of God, christian immersion must remain a unit in the Christian Institution until all are brought home. For as in the beginning, so shall there be to the end of the Christian Institution, one Lord, one faith, one immersion. As to the note to which you refer in the January number, additional light will be thrown upon that subject in an essay upon the voice of God in the third number of the Millennial Harbinger.

	In all affection yours,
	EDITOR.

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