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Excerpt from Dissertation on the Scriptural Authority, Nature, and Uses, of Infant Baptism So long ago as the year 1807, I published Three Lectures on Romans iv. 9 - 2 5. Designed chiefly to illustrate the nature of the Abrahamic Covenant, and its connection with Infant Baptism; with an Appen dix, on the Mode of Baptism. - It was my first publi cation and, afterthe lapse of seventeen years, I have seen very little reason to alter or to modify the gene ral principles of that work - A Review of it appeared, in the end of the same year, from the pen of the late Mr. Archibald Maclean of Edinburgh, a man held in just estimation, not by his own party only, but by all who knew him, for natural acuteness of intellect, close application to the study of the scriptures, and general consistency of character. I was satisfied that my main positions were unshaken by the objections and counter-reasonings of the reviewer and the chief consideration that prevented me from then replying was, the time it would necessarily occupy, which, I thought, might, on the whole, be more profitably employed. I am not now sure, whether this was a correct judgment. A desire has repeatedly been expressed to me for the republication of these lectures. I could not, however, think of publishing them again in the same form. The great business of an expositor, I am fully aware, ought to be, to give a clear View of the scope, or main design, of the writer whom he expounds, and to show how his reasonings establish, and his illustrations elucidate, the point of which he treats. All matter that is not immediately relevant for this end, ought to be either omitted entirely, or very spar ingly introduced - if touched, not dwelt upon. The reason why this principle was departed from in the lectures, was one which I then thought, and still think, sufficient to justify the deviation. It is obvi ous, that the same principles, which a writer lays down, as the foundation of the conclusions which it is his object to establish, may often, with equal fair ness, be made the basis of other conclusions, besides those which are at the time in his View and princi ples settled by Divine authority it is, on this account, as well as for the sake of the inferences actually de duced from them, of the highest consequence to ascer tain. We then have at least determinate premises and have only to show how they bear us out in our deductions. Now, it may happen, that at the very time when a minister, in the regular course of ex position, arrives at a particular passage, the minds of fellow-christians, in his own religious connections, or more extensively, may be occupied and agitated by. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
