Edward T. Hiscox

“ Their view compels them to think that we are not baptized, and shuts them up to close communion. Close communion is, in our judgment, a more defensible position than open communion, which is justified on the ground that baptism is not a prerequisite to the Lord’s Supper. To charge Baptists with bigotry because they abide by the logical consequences of their system is absurd. ”

“ CHAPTER III church ordinances
Christian ordinances, in the largest sense, are any institutions, or regulations of Divine appointment, established as means of grace for the good of men, or as acts of worship for the honor of God. In that sense, not only are baptism and the Lord’s Supper ordinances, but preaching, prayer, hearing the Word, fasting, and thanksgiving are also ordinances, since all are of Divine appointment. But, in a narrower sense, it is common to say that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the only ordinances appointed by Christ to be observed by His churches. ”

“ How many, and what are the Scriptural officers of a Christian church? For a church, being a society, must have not only laws, but officers to execute them. How many orders are there in the ministry? These are questions which have at times greatly divided the Christian world.
Baptists assert that the officers of a church are two,—and of right, can be no more,—pastor and deacons. In this opinion agree some other denominations, while the various Episcopal sects insist that there should be three sets—deacons, priests, and bishops, to which the Church of England adds archbishops. ”

“ Having been, as we trust, brought by Divine grace to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, and to give ourselves wholly to Him, we do now solemnly and joyfully covenant with each other to walk together in Him, with brotherly love, to His glory, as our common Lord. ”

“ Baptists hold to a unity of the ordinance, as well as to a oneness of the faith; insisting that as there is but one Lord, and one faith, so there is but one baptism. And the dipping in water of a professed disciple of Christ is that one baptism. Neither sprinkling a person with water, nor pouring water upon him can by any possibility be Christian baptism. That this position is the true one, we appeal to the New Testament, and the best extant historical and philological authorities to establish. ”

“ Mosheim says of the first century: “In those primitive times, each Christian Church was composed of the people, the presiding officers, and the assistants, or deacons. These must be the component parts of every society. The principal voice was that of the people, or of the whole body of Christians.” “The assembled people, therefore, elected their own rulers and teachers.” Of the second century, he adds: “One president, or bishop, presides over each church. He was created by the common suffrages of the people.” ”

“ The business meetings of a church should be conducted as much as possible in the spirit of devotion, and under a sense of the propriety and sanctity which attaches to all the interests of the kingdom of Christ. Meetings for business should not be needlessly multiplied, nor should they be unwisely neglected. It may not be wise to insist too rigidly on the observance of parliamentary rules, yet it is still worse to drift into a loose unbusinesslike way, which wastes time, accomplishes little, and does wrongly much that is done. ”

“ But in some respects Pedobaptists practice a “close communion,” restrictive in its conditions, far beyond anything known to Baptists whose illiberality they are accustomed to magnify. They exclude a large class of their own members from the Lord’s Table—namely, baptized children! Baptists do not deny the Lord’s Supper to their own members in good standing. If children are suitable subjects for baptism, it seems most unreasonable and unjust to deny them the Supper. If they can be benefited by one ordinance, can they not be equally benefited by the other? ”

“ Public offenses are not against any one person more than another, but are such as are supposed to be a dishonor to the church of which the offender is a member, and a reproach to the Christian profession. ”

“ A Christian church should be the uncompromising friend of all virtue, and the determined enemy of all vice. Public morality and social purity should find in it an open and earnest advocate and defender. Churches should bear in mind that Christian morality, which constitutes their rule of life, claims a much higher standard than the morality of worldly society about them. ”

“ It is not bigotry to adhere to one’s convictions, provided the spirit of Christian love prevails.”
The Episcopal Recorder said: “The close communion of the Baptist churches is but the necessary sequence of the fundamental idea out of which their existence has grown. No Christian Church would willingly receive to its communion even the humblest and truest believer in Christ who had not been baptized. With Baptists, immersion only is baptism, and they therefore of necessity exclude from the Lord’s Table all who have not been immersed. ”

“ As independent congregations, or small communities, with no other bond of union than a common faith, fellowship, and sympathy, often obscure and unobtrusive, taking the Word of God as their guide, they sought to realize the idea, not of a temporal, but a spiritual kingdom in the Gospel dispensation. ”

“ Baptists hold that each separate, local church is an independent body, governing itself according to the laws of Christ, as found in the New Testament; that each [p. 142] such church is independent of all other churches, and of all other persons, so far as administration is concerned, owing comity and fellowship to all, but allegiance and submission to none. The government is administered by the body of the members, where no one possesses a preeminence of authority, but each enjoys an equality of rights, and in which, in matters of opinion, the majority decides. ”

“ All evangelical churches profess to take the Holy Scriptures as their only and sufficient guide in matters of religious faith and practice. Baptists, especially, claim to have no authoritative creed except the New Testament. It is common, however, for the churches to have formulated statements of what are understood to be the leading Christian doctrines, printed and circulated among their members. These are not uniform among the churches, but are in substantial agreement as to the doctrines taught. Indeed, each church is at liberty to prepare its own confession, or have none at all ”

“ The bread is broken, distributed, and eaten; the wine is poured, distributed, and drunk by the members of the assembled church, to show the sacrifice of Christ, His body broken, and His blood shed for their redemption; and that by His death they have life. Being begotten of God through the operation of the Spirit, their new life is sustained and nourished by mystically feeding on Him who is the Bread of God, which came down from heaven to give life to the world. ”

“ We believe the Scriptures teach that in order to be saved, men must be regenerated, or born again; [1] that regeneration consists in giving a holy disposition to the mind; [2] that it is effected in a manner above our comprehension by the Holy Spirit, in connection with Divine truth, [3] so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the Gospel; [4] and that its proper evidence appears in the [p. 64] holy fruits of repentance, faith, and newness of life. [5]
[1] John 3:3. Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ”

“ For though one may be truly regenerate, and properly baptized, yet if he be a disorderly walker, violating his covenant obligations, living in sin, and bringing reproach on the Christian profession, he has no right to sit at the Lord’s Table.
The ordinances are a sacred trust which Christ has committed to the churches as custodians, and which they are to watch and guard from all profane intrusion, and improper use, with the most sedulous fidelity. Baptists believe that in order to maintain the purity and spirituality of the churches, it is necessary to maintain the ordinances pure ”

“ In some States the laws do not recognize the church, that being a spiritual body, but incorporate a society, as it is called, consisting of all persons of full age who attend and support the worship. This society has charge of the financial affairs of the church, holds and keeps in repair its property, and conducts its secular concerns. It elects a specified number of trustees, as provided for by law, who are the legal representatives of the corporation. The members of the society, and the trustees elected, may or may not be members of the church. ”

“ A Christian Church, therefore, according to the New Testament idea, is a company of persons Divinely called and separated from the world, baptized on a profession of their faith in Christ, united in covenant for worship and Christian service, under the supreme authority of Christ, whose Word is their only law and rule of life in all matters of religious faith and practice. ”

“ Congregationalists have uniformly, until here and there an exception has arisen of late years, required baptism and church-membership as the prerequisite of a seat at the table of the Lord. It is a part of the false ‘liberality’ which now prevails in certain quarters, to welcome everybody ‘who thinks he loves Christ’ to commune in His body and blood. Such a course is the first step in breaking down that distinction between the church and the world, which our Saviour emphasized ”

“ Some Christian denominations include all their congregations in one comprehensive society, or ecclesiastical system, under some central authority, which legislates for and controls the whole. This comprehensive society they call the church. Thus we speak of the Roman Catholic Church, the [p. 11] Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church—where the word “church” stands for the aggregate of all their local societies. With Baptists it is different. They speak of Baptist churches, but not of the Baptist Church, when the entire denomination is meant. ”

“ Note 2.—But when a body ceases to acknowledge and submit to Christ as its Supreme Ruler, and to receive His Word as its supreme law, then it ceases to be a true church, and is simply a religious society, though it may still accept some of His doctrines and practice some of His precepts.
Note 3.—A church is not a legislative, but an executive body. It cannot make laws, but only obey and administer those which Christ has given in the New Testament. He is the only Lawmaker in Zion. ”

“ And since a church, as a body, is what its individual members are in their religious life and influence, therefore each member should strive to become in holy living what He desires the church to be.
Note 1.—A body of Christian disciples may fail to meet some of the requirements of the Gospel, and still be a true church of Christ, providing it fulfills the fundamental conditions of a Scriptural faith and practice. ”

“ Note 19.—It is neither a Christian nor an honorable course for a church to grant an unworthy member a valid letter, and send him to another church as one in good and regular standing, in order to be rid of a disturber of the peace, or to avoid the trouble of a course of discipline.
Note 20.—No church is obliged to receive a person to membership, simply because he brings a valid letter from another church. Each church is to be sole judge of the qualifications of persons to be received to its fellowship. ”

“ They are commissioned to preach the Gospel to men, and to live the Gospel before men, that Christ may be honored and sinners saved. They should, therefore, be constantly striving to realize the grand purpose of their existence and fulfill the mission of their high calling. That church which does the most to honor Christ and save man will be the most honored by Him, and the most influential and prosperous in all that pertains to the true functions of a church. ”

“ But as Divinely appointed means of grace, their importance must not be undervalued. They cannot be neglected without suffering serious harm and incurring the gravest responsibility.
Note 8.—Baptism is not essential to salvation, for our churches utterly repudiate the dogma of “baptismal [p. 21] regeneration”; but it is essential to obedience, since Christ has commanded it. It is also essential to a public confession of Christ before the world, and to membership in the church which is His body. And no true lover of his Lord will refuse these acts of obedience and tokens of affection. ”

“ The Christian Advocate, of New York, the leading journal of American Methodists, said: “The regular Baptist churches in the [p. 127] United States may be considered today as particularly a unit on three points—the non-use of infant baptism, the immersion of believers only upon a profession of faith, and the administration of the holy communion to such only as have been immersed by ministers holding these views. In our opinion the Baptist Church owes its amazing prosperity largely to its adherence to these views. ”

“ Concise and accurate in statement of facts, transparent in arrangement of matters, convenient in form, and cheap in cost, pastors will find it to their own advantage, as well as to that of their members, to see that their churches are liberally supplied with copies. The pastor of one of our very largest and most prosperous churches, for whose use its preparation was undertaken, shows his estimate of its value, and sets other pastors a wise and worthy example, by ordering in advance of publication, one thousand copies for his church. ”

“ Note 8.—A church excluding a member has no just cause of complaint against another church for receiving such an excluded member, since the one church is just as independent to receive one whom it judges worthy of fellowship, as the other is to exclude one whom it judged unworthy of fellowship. ”