PREFACE. THE fifth volume of a series conducted by the same editor, on the same principles, and in the same circumstances, scarcely requires a preface. Abundant opportunity has been afforded to judge how far the execution of the work corresponds with its design. In introducing his first volume, the editor avowed some opinions, the accuracy of which has been partially tested. "The practical importance," he said, "of that divine institution by our views of which we are distinguished from our brethren of other denominations, is becoming increasingly apparent. Passing events are unfolding to intelligent observers its intimate connexion with the purity of the churches, the personality of religion, and the overthrow of antichristian systems." This opinion he retains; and he believes there is among baptists a growing conviction of its truth. Meanwhile the seasons are advancing. That portion of our protestant countrymen who were farthest from us have receded still farther, and it is increasingly apparent that their tendency is towards Rome. Our numbers have been in the mean time augmenting; and, among evangelical dissenters, we strongly suspect that many are drawing nearer to us in opinion unconsciously. Operations passing in the mind are sometimes more discernible to another than to him by whom they are experienced ; and we cannot help thinking that the excitement which some of our pædobaptist contemporaries evince, when referring to the subject of baptism, is connected, more closely than they are themselves aware, with a perception of the force of our arguments, and the difficulty of proving the divine authority of infant sprinkling to the entire satisfaction of their connexions. Their mode of treating the subject evinces uneasiness. We may not live to see the consummation, but we believe that professed Christians are rapidly dividing into two classes-Roman Catholics and Baptists. The responsibility devolving upon the existing generation of baptists is therefore great; and we feel that it is important, while we remain firmly at our post, to take care that our weapons are all spiritual, and that there is nothing in our temper or conduct to alienate our brethren, or, especially, to displease Him in whose cause we are engaged. If our principles are, as we believe, more scriptural and beneficial than those of others, it becomes us to exhibit a corresponding superiority in our spirit and demeanour. We desire to maintain a vigilant care, in nothing to detract from the reputation of holy, upright, devoted men, who are serving Christ as conscientiously as ourselves, or from the credit due to their self-denying and effective labours. Publications proceeding from their pens, which are adapted to subserve the interests of truth, we hail with pleasure; and would scrupulously mete out to them the full measure of commendation which they deserve. If they are in error in some particulars, we cannot forget that that error was shared by men whose sufferings and labours in former ages were productive of unspeakable advantage to the universal church. When we reflect on the benefit we have derived from eminent theologians of former centuries, many of whom remained to their death in those views of baptism in which they had been brought up, though in other respects they had advanced beyond their contemporaries, we feel that we are under deep obligations to pædobaptists. Living pædobaptists also are bright examples of Christian excellence; we esteem and respect them; and we cannot say to them, "We have no need of you." Justice, candour, and fraternal love, are due to them at all times. For the error to which they cling we have however no affection, no tenderness; it is a plant that our heavenly Father hath not planted; a root of bitterness which we account it a duty and an honour to assist in plucking up. Without it, the initiatory service in every Christian's course would have been, like those that follow it, an act of voluntary obedience; without it, the Christian church would have been preserved from the paralyzing influence of thousands who would never have entered it of their own accord, but who, being brought in by the act of others, retain the form of godliness but repress its influence; without it, a national church would have been an impossibility. These are the principles on which the Baptist Magazine is at present conducted: let those who recognize their truth and importance give it their support. WILLIAM GROSER. London, Nov. 25, 1842. |