Bertha and Her Baptism, page 49 by Nehemiah Adams
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mmand,--not precedent, example, usage, but where is the enactment,--making the first day of the week the Christian Sabbath?
Mr. K. So long as we may keep the thing, observing one day in seven, it makes no difference which day we keep, if we can all agree on one and the same day. We do not all agree to retain circumcision in any way.
Mr. M. So long as we may retain the thing signified by circumcision, it makes but little difference what form is used to express it.
Mr. K. The apostles, who changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day, knew the mind of Christ.
Mr. M. And so the men, who first practised infant baptism, knew the minds of the inspired apostles, and they knew the mind of Christ. But to go a step further back, the only ground for inferring that the Sabbath is rightly changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, is the incidental mention of Christ's meeting his assembled disciples a few times after his resurrection on the first day. On that slight ground we are all content to rest our present observance of the Sabbath. Now, I say that the mention of the baptism of households eight times, in one form and another, is as good a warrant for infant baptism, as those two or three Sabbath-evening meetings were for the institution of the Lord's-day Sabbath.
Mr. K. I cannot agree with you, Mr. M., in putting circumcision on the same level with the Sabbath.
Mr. M. I myself see a resemblance in the changes made in the two cases. I have no wish to proselyte you to my views. I have only answered your polite inquiries.
Mr. K. O, I know that; we shall be good friends still; but I see no grounds for baptizing children on the faith of their parents.
Mr. M. We look at the thing from different points of view. I see it as clearly as I see that the church of God is essentially the same in all ages, with its variety of forms. This matter of children's baptism is with me a sp