A PLAIN WORK ON BAPTISM; EMBRACING A SERIES OF CHAPTERS. LATELY PUBLISHED IN THE NASHVILLE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, AND AN ENLIGHTENED PUBLIC. BY REV. JAMES L. CHAPMAN, A MINISTER OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH,--MEXI DIS NASHVILLE: PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF THE NASHVILLE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. JOHN LELLYETT, PRINTER. 1850. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1850, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Middle District of Tennessee. 241 C466pl ΤΟ MRS. MARY T. DAVIS, WIFE OF GEN. REUBEN DAVIS, ABERDEEN, MISS., A MEMBER OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH., THE HUMBLE, ENLIGHTENED, LIBERAL CHRISTIAN, TO WHOM THE CHURCH 18 MUCH INDEBTED, FOR HER LABOR OF LOVE AND EXTENSIVE USEFULNESS, AND PARTICULARLY THE MINISTER, FOR HER ABIDING KINDNESS, THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED, BY HER FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. On the appearance of a new work, no matter how small, some reasons are generally given for its birth in the literary world. Our task, in this particular, can easily be accomplished. The chapters that compose this work were nearly all published in the Nashville Christian Advocate, this year, and dedicated to "Hinda," the personage to whom it is now inscribed, who was once under the bonds of exclusive immersion, from the influence of habit and education, but who is now a strict believer in the Scriptural doctrine of affusion in baptism. When these chapters were being written, during stolen moments from a laborious itinerant life, the writer had no idea that he would be called on to give them in book form to the world. This unexpected call, however, has been made, and a compliance therewith is the only direct reason we have to give for the publication of the work. As we are now out in a Pre ace, we remark here, that our design, when writing these chapters, was to embrace all the great principles contained in lexicons, in the Scriptures, in the writings of the fathers, and in church history, bearing on the question of baptism and its subject; and to present them in a condensed, simple form, easily to be read and comprehended by all. Whether we have succeeded, the reader must decide. The work, as it now stands, is free from two extre es-neither having too much Greek, nor too much English in its texture. This we lay great stress on; for the thinking mind must feel with us, that a work wholly immersed in English, or too much sprinkled with Greek, cannot meet the demands of the age. In this capacity, it can reach every day wants, and at the same time represent the learned productions, of which, in many respects, it is but a reflection. Should our language at any point appear severe, and too pointed, the reader will please consider that we are contending against stubborn errors, in print, and chronic diseases of an intellectual nature, that cannot be checked by either soft words or Christian forbearance, the history of the past and of the present testifying. The old man of the fables had to exchange grass for rocks. The moral is ours in practice. Causes must be adequate to accomplish the intended ends. This is our position, and our plea for every line of the work. |