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    ADVICE TO PARENTS WHO DECLINE FOR THEIK CHiLDREN BAPTISM BY WATER . To the Editor of the Monthly Repository . SlRj , Though it be allowed , that the word baptism originally signified immersion , yet it cannot perhaps certainly be proved ,

    that in apostolical times children were not sometimes objects of baptism by water . For as mention is made of whole houses being baptized , so it has plausibly been urged , that probably these occasionally included children . If therf children were ever baptized with water , the ceremony without question was intended to supersede the Jewish one of circumcision , and to

    teach Christian parents that thebaptism of their offspring is apart of their own profession of Christianity . Continued in one form or another for nearly 2000 years , like the Lord ' s Supper , it bears evidence to the truth of the gospel . Hence , perhaps , whatever form they prefer , the advocates for Christian faith should not ^ for trifling reasons ^ neglect the

    service of baptism . Though Jesus Christ might not prescribe its perpetuity ; though without doubt he preferred the baptism of the holy spirit ; though he might mean the baptism of persecution , when he assured James and John that they would be baptized as he had been j and though the apostle Paul referred to the sufferings of the disciples , when he asked them , why they were baptized for the dead , why they submitted to evil , if they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead ; yet , unless some mode of bap * tism be used , there may be danger , lest parents should decline to solicit from their minister or friend a religious

    service , which , if well conducted , is undoubtedly fitted to do their minds good after the birth of a child . As dedication or instruction only may be sufficient , so it may be a very becoming and agreeable occasion , when parents themselves conduct at least the devotional part of the service .

    But for the sakfc of doing more good , perhaps it ought to be only so far private as may still preserve it domestic , and render it a part of family religion . If parents require instruction and advice , there certainly is a propriety in making application to those , who , having been in the habit of conducting such services , may for * that reason be best fitted to make useful and good

    impressions upon the rpind at a time when it is peculiarly susceptible of them , —when both parents and children have

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    VOL . II . 2 R

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1807, page 297, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2381/page/9/