Wherein is clearly proved the lawfulness and usefulness of Believer's Baptism; And also the Sinfulness and Vanity of Infant's Baptism. With Many useful Instructions Concerning the Same Matter.

Grounded upon Ephesians 4:5

The Commission to Preach is Also the Commission to Baptize

Objection: Baptism Only to be Administered by the Apostles

Answer

First, Disciples did baptize before there were Apostles

Second, After Apostles were chosen Disciples did baptize

Thirdly, Commission was given to the Apostles as Disciples

Fourthly, Chief or Special Business of an Apostle is to Preach

Fifthly, the Apostles committed these things to faithful men

Objection: The Succession of Baptism has been Lost

Answer

Has Preaching of the Word also been lost

Actions In Josiah's Reign Can be an Example

John the Baptist was an unbaptized administrator

Editor's Note: This presents their Liberty under certain
conditions, not their actual practice

Objection: The Church is Still in the Wilderness

Editor's Note: This was only a Theory, not a Fact

The Church and Ordinance did not Cease but Continued

Revelation 12

In the Wilderness She is neither lost or hidden

God appointed her wilderness condition to preserve her

God has provided that the Church be fed and nourished
during this wilderness condition

During her wilderness condition, she has many faithful
children and stout warriors

The Woman and the remnant of her seed meet with much
warfare and many oppositions because they keep the
commandments of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ

The Scriptures do Not Teach the Cessation of the Church and
Her Ordinances

There is no mention of the not appearing of the Church,
nor the loss of her ordinances

Because the Church and Her Ordinances Have Not been
Lost We Can Know and Do the Things of Christ

Cessation of the Church and Ordinances is a Policy of Satan

Editor's Note: They spoke of their liberty to restore
Believer's baptism if it had been lost rather than their
actual practice

In Conclusion

Finish

You who are seeking a closer fellowship with Jesus Christ will be very interested in these following pages. You will not be disappointed. Garner's work will be as new and sweet wine poured into your spiritual wounds. Because the Holy Sprit has quickened you unto spiritual life, and because you are in eternal and vital union with Jesus Christ, you also have a desire to become one with Him in a manifested and orderly union. You long to know more about who you are and unto Whom you belong. You, too, long to be manifested to the Israel of God even as Christ was in His baptism. Garner will help you realize even more where Jesus Christ has already taken you and help explain, in a very simple and plain way, some of the manifest evidences Christ has for you. These will show you and others like you where you already are with Him, that is, if you are indeed one of the pure and chaste virgins who are without fault before the Throne of God. When Jesus, the Man-Child, was caught up to the Throne of God, so were His people because of their Union with Him.

To Those in Union with Natural Christianity

If you are a natural religionist, then Garner will be of little or no benefit to you. It has too much mystical nonsense for you. Because the standard of your faith is Pedobaptist Nationalism, or Imperialistic Christianity (the various creeds and doctrinal statements issued by the priests, bishops, prelates, ministers and eunuchs summoned by the various Civil powers), either that of pre-Papal Rome, Papal Rome or one of her harlot daughters, the various forms of Protestantism, then this work is not for you. Perhaps you have renounced Infant baptism, yet you are still a natural religionist and don't even realize it. Still, this work will offer you little. You will find it to be a mixture of mysticism, rigidism and sacerdotalism. Of course, it is not. You don't know that, 1 Corinthians 2:14, John 3:26-27. It would be better for you not to read it. You will not understand it because you have no part nor lot in this matter. You are better served with the Imperialistic Creeds and Confessions of the Nationalists, either Protestant or Papal. That is, because they, like you, are merely natural. Being natural, you and they are in union with the earthly system and its carnal ordinances, churches and creeds. You may have renounced magic in baptism and in the Lord's Supper, but your fig leaf is your natural mental ability and this work is beyond your power to comprehend, I Cor. 2:13, 14.. This is one of our pearls. We have no desire for you to turn on us or Garner and rend us after you have read it. It would be better for you to stop here and go no further. You should return to your natural environment, Matthew 7:6; 2 Peter 2:21, 22.

To Those In Union with Rigid High Church Legalism

This work will offer little or no help for you because you will read it only to prove your point against all others who differ from you. That is not the purpose of this rare and fine pearl. There is no voting on baptisms or no voting churches into existence anywhere in this work. Therefore, I will forewarn you, you will turn aside from this work proclaiming that "there is not much to it." Or, "if you have read one work on baptism, you have read them all." Or, you might say "Garner was not sound on the church or church ordinances." Why would these be your conclusions? Because you have not yet cleanly escaped from Babylon. I know how you think, I have been there! The old Baptists were strict and orderly in the New Covenant way. That does not mean they were rigid high church legalists. There are many other works you can read to find out what the church and its succession is all about. You will need to study other works to understand who and what an administrator of baptism is and how he can be known. This work is a very simple and basic work. It is not designed to answer all those questions in depth. Garner's pearl is simply a basic introduction to the old Baptist faith and order. It opens the door to much greater and more advanced studies, if you have a desire to forsake all else and cleave only to Christ and Him alone. If you are among those who, like the Eunuch, are crying out for help, then Garner will help you. If you turn on Garner and try to rend him, then you too are a naturalist, a rigid high church legalistic naturalist. Therefore this work will be of no value to you.

If you feel and know your burdens, this work will help you because it speaks of Jesus Christ. Garner on Baptism is all about Christ and what He has done for you. It will help you become aware of what baptism is and what it is all about. I suggest you first turn to and read very carefully Romans chapters 6 through 8. Then read Colossians chapter 2. If you doubt that baptism is a part of the gospel system of Christ then read from Mark chapter one, the first few verses. If you doubt that baptism is a spiritual work of the New and Everlasting Covenant, then turn and read Ezekiel 36. Please note very well verses 23-38. If you desire to see that there is a New Covenant, in a New Land, with a New Sanctuary, with New Ordinances, a New and Better High Priest and Priesthood with a Better Sacrifice, than anything else ever before, then read from Hebrews 3-10.

To Those, Like Myself, Who Have A Reason To Hope They Are in the Land and Want to Know More About Where They Already Are and Unto Whom They Belong

I remember trying to read Robert Garner's Treatise on Baptism for the first time everal years ago. I was just as astonished at its contents as I had been with most of the other material I read from the pre-Calvinized or pre-Protestantized Particular Baptists of England. They became Calvinized during the mid and late 1600s and Protestantized during the 1800s. I had already traveled enough among some of the Baptists of the 1700s to realize that they had very different views of the church and the ordinances than anything I knew about. I read some writers who spoke of baptism as a "witnessing" and "confirming" ordinance of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. I had no knowledge of what that meant. I read from one or two old Baptist apologists. They defended baptism by dipping in different ways. One defence was that the Holy Spirit bore witness to gospel dipping as a gospel testimony. He converted sinners, in many cases, who simply came to watch the baptism of others. The old Baptists pointed out that sinners never were converted at an infant's sprinkling or pouring. I wondered at such wonderful accounts. My spirit leaped within me and my heart burned as my inner man searched for more than the modern Baptist idea that baptism was simply a symbol or figure, or, all Baptist dippings were valid if a church voted on them. Of course, modern Baptists claimed that the voting church must be able to show its succession by a mother church voting it into existence or it did not have proper authority. This was supposed to be the deep teaching about baptism which the modern Baptists laid on me. I wanted more than modern Baptists were able to give me. I longed for the higher life found among those who were indeed called up hither and enabled to see the things afterward which would come to them and others who like them were in the higher and heavenly way of Jesus Christ. I longed for John 14:21 to become a real and vital experience in my Christian life. I longed for the Kisses from His mouth which would renew and comfort me as often as I could have them, Song of Solomon 1:2-4. I longed for that "land" were in I would find plenty and be satisfied, Ezek. 36. I was still looking for my "Sabbath" so I could cease from my own labors, Hebrews 4. I had not yet found that "City" whose Builder and Maker is God, Hebrews 11 and 12. Those who have Him, but who are seeking where He dwells that they may be with Him there, those who have walked in a dry and barren land, seeking His heavenly City, His Spouse, the Lamb's Wife, will understand what I was going through. Those who are seeking to find where their Beloved One often abides and feeds His flock, even its kids, will understand my inner quest, thirst and hunger. I read and then re-read Garner on Baptism. I even outlined it. The Lord blessed it to start the opening of my eyes to a much different concept of baptism than anything I had ever heard of or read about before.

The Three-fold Experience in the One Gospel Baptism.

I agreed with Garner that by Baptism in Ephesians 4:5, the saints are to understand the Baptism of Water. But what was new to me was that this one baptism in water always brought with it the baptism into the Holy Spirit and also the baptism into Sufferings or into Fire. Modern Baptists warned me, that there are no additional experiences and empowerments from the Holy Spirit for us now except in the new birth and its antecedents. The modern Charismatics have driven the modern Baptists away from the true ordinance and its spiritual blessings. Later Daniel King's Way to Sion would help me to understand what this all meant. King showed me that the baptism into the Spirit is into the teaching, empowerment and language of the Spirit or the New Covenant Gospel System of Jesus Christ which is made alive and maintained by the Holy Spirit. This would enable Christ's saints to speak in the new gospel language of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, but not in some fake nonsense as the modern charismatics do and some did even in King's days, nor in the false gospel language of the Arminians. I also had not yet experienced the baptism of sufferings which all must live under who have the one true heavenly baptism in water. I had experienced some sufferings because of other doctrines, but nothing like what would follow. This one baptism has a Trinitarian experience.

We follow Jesus Christ into the water, this places us under the very same Holy Spirit He came under at His baptism. He received the Holy Spirit without measure. We have Him by measure. We begin our heavenly walk with Him in the new and living way following our baptism even as He did His. In this new and heavenly way the Holy Spirit brings us into the very same works which Christ saw His Father do in eternity past, and into the very same Gospel which Christ heard His Father proclaim in eternity past. Christ brings us into the very same commandants which His Father gave to Him, and He, our Lord Jesus Christ, gave unto us. We have the very same commission, for as the Father sent Christ even so Christ sends us.

In addition, I began to realize that the Holy Spirit empowered Christ at His baptism (in His human nature), so He could preach and teach the words and commandments given to Him in eternity past by His Father, and walk in the works and ordinances which He had seen and learned from His Father. Christ taught His disciples that His Father was His role model and teacher (this was a part of His voluntary humility), and that He was our role model and our teacher by the power and ability of the Holy Spirit. Garner helped me, to experience the Christian's joy of being brought into the succession of the Gospel order which Christ had seen and heard from His Father, which succession and order He entered into and walked in, and into which He was now taking me, and would enable me to walk in by His Holy Spirit Who proceeded forth to me from the Father on Christ's behalf as His witness to me that I was already in union with Him. I was seated with Him at His Father's Throne. I knew these truths in my mind, but they had not yet become an experience to me.

Gospel Comprehension

I started to realize that as my mind became renewed by the Holy Spirit bringing me into a GOSPEL COMPREHENSION, that my thoughts and intents would become transformed up above this world. Christ had already carried me away from my union with this present evil world and all its earthly things, Romans 12:1-3. I longed for a greater renewing of my mind so that I would not be conformed to this world or in union with earthly systems, commandments and ordinances. I wanted what the old Particular Baptists experienced and spoke about as a real and vital part of my Christian experience.

No Power or Magic in the Elements or in the Act

This does not mean there is any magic in water or in the Lord's Supper, or even in the act of baptism. What this does mean is, in baptism, as in all other gospel acts and works, Christ meets with and manifests Himself to His people in a wonderful way of comfort and love as a witness and seal to them, within and without. This shows that they are a part of His purchased possession even though they are only earthen vessels. This shows them that they are with Him where He is. The elements used in the New Covenant ordinances are powerless. So is the physical act. Without faith and without the empowering of faith by the Holy Spirit in these gospel ordinances and actions, they are nothing. They are only natural actions. The Holy Spirit increases the sense of life and comforts us in these actions when Christ meets with us as one in the act. This is the beginning of what the abundant life is all about, not just eternal life, but life more abundant.

I realized long ago that Baptism in water is an Ordinance of the Lord Jesus Christ. This part was not new to me. But, what was new to me was Garner's usage of I Corinthians 12:13 to refer to water baptism. I had never accepted the modern universal, invisible church ideas about I Cor. 12:13, but I was not able to come to the fullness of its meaning before Garner started me toward its application and meaning among the old Baptists. Since studying Garner I have studied almost, without exception, all the other old Baptists of that era on baptism. They all, without exception, understand I Cor. 12:13 to refer to water baptism. (The open membership people like Jessey, Tombes and Bunyan held to the invisible church ideas and were not among the old Particular Baptists.) This baptism in water is administered by the Holy Spirit. He does this through one of Christ's gifts, an able minister of the New Covenant. Garner led me into Samuel Richardson's Divine Consolations. Richardson helped me understand I Corinthians 12:13 even more than Garner did. I was able to conclude that not only is there a Trinitarian experience in gospel baptism, but the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, all have a part in the administration of gospel baptism. The Father administered gospel baptism by John the Baptist. The Word, or Jesus Christ, in the days of His flesh, administered gospel baptism by means of His disciples. The Holy Spirit administers gospel baptism by means of the able ministers of the New Covenant, who are also the messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. You can well imagine the great blessings which came to me as the Holy Spirit empowered my mind to comprehend these grand and illustrious gospel mysteries. They are so very plain and simple, but yet so heavenly and comforting. They gave me a reason to hope that I knew where I was, that is, with Him were He is, John 14:1-6! I could not be satisfied with a little comfort and assurance, I wanted more and more and more. As most of my friends and preaching brethren from the past forsook me and fled, I needed a reason to hope that I was with Him in His New and Living Way. My reason came from the Holy Spirit's witness. He gave me great comfort and assurance. This all reassured me then and still does now.

Baptism Belongs Only to Believers

I realized long ago that baptism belonged only to believers. Before Garner and his brethren helped me, I thought I knew why. I had not even touched the hem of the baptismal garment. As the Holy Spirit led me closer to Christ and His baptism, I was enabled to reach out further and touch the hem of His baptismal garment. My issue of blood was cured. I became delivered from the magicians and merchants of Babylon. I started to realize that INFANTS WERE NOT THE PROPER SUBJECTS OF BAPTISM, not simply because of their age, THEIR AGE WAS NOT THE QUESTION.

The Covenant Engagements of Christ to His People Sealed Up in Baptism

Infants are not the proper subjects for baptism not only because of their age, but also because there are Covenant engagements which Christ undertakes to accomplish in and for His people in connection with their baptism and following it. What a new awakening this was to me! Baptism is the engagement sign to a believer that Christ would perform all His Covenant promises to that believer on His behalf! It would be an understatement to say that this blew my mind away. I had read enough of John Bunyan's railings against the Particular Baptists during his days to know that they called baptism the wedding bed and the engagement sign between the believer and His Savior, but I had no idea why. Garner started me on my way of understanding why the old Baptists so spoke. This was their simple way of explaining Romans 6-8. Garner pointed me toward a better understanding of Hansard Knolly's Commentary on the Song of Solomon. In the New Covenant, Christ engages to perform certain works in and for His people. Infants are incapable of these works. Therefore, they have no part in the sign of this engagement which is water baptism. If infants are capable of working out and making orderly and manifest Christ's performances within, they are capable of baptism. Until then, they are not. At issue is not their salvation, nor if they are believers or not, but the performance of Christ to bring them into a manifested and visible gospel order. Christ must bring His so that they may be one Fold and one Shepherd. Garner helps to clear this all up in a very simple way.

Not only are infants incapable of the ordinary and usual outward order and works which Christ engages to perform in and for His people in bringing them into His manifested new and living way, but the subjects of baptism also engage, by spiritual power, to perform certain gospel works in return. In a simple statement, believers agree to cleave only unto Christ as their all and all and to forsake all others. This is the part which believers engage to perform unto Christ, by the Holy Spirit's power. Infants are incapable of this promise, its engagement and all its performances. Garner opened up a new door which showed me what this is all about. Infants simply do not work out or manifest their salvation as the believer does. Infant salvation is not the question, but the things which accompany salvation, that is the question, Hebrews 6. These are impossible from an infant.

In this section you will walk in the New Land. Don't be terrified because you feel there are too many giants in the land. You may not be able to stand against them now, but you shall later because you are already an overcomer. You just don't realize it yet. This is not a section which gives any support or comfort to the baptismal regenerationists nor the charismatics. If you feel this is land which is not well mapped out, have no fear. It has been mapped out very well by the travels of King Jesus and many of His followers. You will find the footsteps of the Flock in this land. They will lead you to the place where He pitches His tents and feeds His flock and its kids. Therein you will walk with Christ in His new and heavenly way. This is the gospel land. Many of these concepts will appear new and strange to you at first because you have been warned away from them. Approach them with an open mind and study the Scriptures and He, Who is the great untaught Teacher Himself, shall be your Prophet and Teacher. He will teach you about these great gospel mysteries and why we call them the signs and seals of the Covenant.

The entire concept in this section deals with the wonderful truths that the ordinances are more than symbols and figures. They are acts in which the Believer receives a greater witness and testimony of Christ's love and grace. They are not conditions nor causes of anything. When Christ meets with His people, they have their union with Him refreshed in a wonderful way as they use His ordinances, if the Holy Spirit is pleased to work this wonderful effect upon them and within them. In addition, you will see that baptism is the beginning of the orderly and manifest conversion from the old man and his ways of life and religion. Note well the terms I used, I said the BEGINNING OF THE ORDERLY AND MANIFEST CONVERSION. Baptism is the beginning of the heavenly walk in newness of life in the new and living way in opposition to the old and dead way. The old and dead way has empty signs and figures which are mere religious duties performed in a cold spirit of legalism.

In the New Land the ordinances become an experience of witnessing and comforting testimony to the saint as the Holy Spirit works an increase of faith and enlarges and quickens the saint's senses as he becomes more aware of His oneness with Christ in the ordinances. (Note Psalms 119 and David's often cry for the Lord to quicken him. This is following the New Birth.) The increase of our sense of Christ's presence is a great testimony. This gives us much assurance which in turn is our reason for a good hope that we are with Him where He is, in His new and living way. This is not a natural or human result. It is only spiritual. Remember, the sense of our well being with Christ is not the cause of our well being with Christ. The lack of this sense and awareness does not effect the fact of our well being with Christ. However, there are many times when the saint longs for a greater sense of his well being with Christ. Is this what David called the "joys of thy salvation?" The Holy Spirit is the only One Who can cause our senses to be so exercised that we can discern both good and evil, Hebrews 5:14. Therefore, when we are in this New Land, with its New and Living Way, we can discern both the good way and the evil way because we have eaten of the Fruit of the Tree of Life. This fruit heals us of our Babylonianism, Revelation 22:1-2.

The Duty of Believers In and After Baptism

This section also introduced me to a better understanding of Romans 6-8. Like most of us, I was taught that the newness of life would occur in the post resurrection state, called the eternal state. I had never heard of, much less studied about the newness of life being the post-baptismal state. Garner led me into a more careful and more rewarding study of what Paul meant in Romans 6. I started to see the various epics of the life of Christ and how they paralleled my life. First, He was raised up in a modest and obscure way in the home of Joseph and Mary. He obeyed their wills and worked only briefly doing the will of His Father. There is little recorded about this life under the Law of Moses. Note that, there is little mention of Christ's life as He lived in subjection to His earthly parents and the Law of Moses. The recording of the events in Christ's life actually began as He was in the process, during a 3 year ministry, more or less, of leaving the Law of Moses and His subjection to it and all earthly systems, including, but not limited to His human parents and the Roman government. Then He came to John's baptism. As He came up out of the water the HEAVENS WERE OPENED UNTO HIM, and HE RECEIVED THE HOLY SPIRIT WITHOUT MEASURE TO ASSIST HIM, LEAD HIM, EMPOWER HIM AND COMFORT HIM DURING HIS ENTIRE EARTHLY MINISTRY. I began to realize that this event was more than a mere dipping into the water. Jesus came up out of the water and ascended into the heavenlies then, in a spiritual way. From that time on, there was the conflict between law and grace as Christ walked both with the Law of Moses and with His disciples, introducing them to the New Covenant and all it contained. Of course, they did not understand that until after His resurrection out from among the dead, Luke 24. This is what He promised them in John 14-16.

Following Christ's physical resurrection, with all its grand and wonderful events, He further opened up His message and life which followed His baptismal resurrection, though in a greater way, (the new and living way) as we shall do also. Then, He went no more back to Moses's Law, the Old Covenant, in any way. He spent His post-resurrection ministry teaching only the things concerning the Kingdom of God, Acts 1. This teaching was limited only to His disciples as He walked only with His disciples who were in gospel order. He met only with them often. By the power of the Holy Spirit they became aware of the resurrection power of Christ as He totally revitalized their entire beings as they became one with Him in the power of His resurrection, Philippians 3. This caused them to be totally different. No longer did they hide behind locked doors because of their fear of the Jews. They started preaching a totally different message with a totally different boldness, assurance and power. They now had a gospel comprehension. This all happened following their union with Christ in His resurrection power. He had taken them up to His Father's throne with Him at His ascension. Slowly, they became aware that still, they were with Him where He was. Still they had a Divine Being Who walked along beside of them, to help them, as they walked in the New and Living Way. He was the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. They were now walking in newness of life. Everywhere they went, everybody knew it. They turned the world upside down. Not even death stopped them. Of course, as Hebrews, they went back and forth until God destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem by Titus in A. D. 70. The Gentiles were never taken captive by the Law of Moses following the resurrection of Christ. The Judizers were turned out of the churches. The disciples walked with Christ in His resurrection power and newness of life.

My escape from legalism, from Arminianism, from human inventions, conditionalism, earned righteousness, and all the different modern Baptist groups, was simply an escape from a mixture of Judaism and heathenism. I began to sense what this all meant. I now had a well founded hope because of the reason which the Holy Spirit was giving to me as He witnessed to me that I was indeed with Christ where He was. I realized that as I had borne the image of the earthly, now I would also bear the image of the heavenly. In this new life and walk in the new and living way, that image which I would bear included humility and isolation as I had never before experienced it. More times than not it has been like Christ's 40 days in the wilderness. But, too, the Lord has sent His gracious angels, the members and messengers of His churches, to minister to me. Of course, this image will not be fully realized until His Second Coming. Then, the difference will be, not only will we be in total and complete perfection in a glorified way, but the senses of our perception will be so enlarged that we will realize in a greater way where we have always been, where we are then, and where we shall always be. In a greater way, we shall be with Him where He is. What more could we ask for?

REGARDING DUTIES

That there are duties following baptism which believers are to perform, this I had not questioned. But, again, I only touched the hem of the garment. Garner helps open these duties up. He shows us that they are not only duties, but experiences as we become one with the truth. When both truth and duty become one with us, then it is an experience. It is a union experience with Jesus Christ. He has been there before us. Now, we are with Him in this duty and truth, where He was and now is. No wonder this duty and this truth in the New and Living Way became an experience with Jesus Christ. How could we come into any union with Christ and not have an experience with Him in that act? Where two or three are gathered together in His name there He is in the midst of them. Is this not a union experience? When John the Revelator saw Christ for the first time in His full Mediatorial glory as the King, Priest and Prophet of His saints and churches of saints, did he not fall before Him as a dead man? There is no wonder why this view so overtook John. For the first time John saw Jesus as He really is. This is the way He is now and shall always be. When we are brought to that type of comprehensive union, will there be no experience? I suggest that even the deadest of the dead will fall down and quake! John became as a dead man. Imagine the Roman soldiers and the Jewish security guards at the resurrection site, after He broke the sound bearer, caused another earthquake, rolled away the stone and then sat down on top of it. He simply looked them in the eyes and laughed at them as He made an open triumph over all principalities and powers. They were exceedingly afraid. This was an experience even the unbelievers had with Christ. It is only when He says to us, "peace, be not afraid, it is I, so come up here with Me," that we can approach Him and behold His glory, even the glory which He had with His Father before the world was, John 17. Behold, what glory He also gives us in a full, complete and undiminished way! We also have that now. As He is so are we in this world, I John 4:16, 17. Yet, now we cannot comprehend this fully because our senses are not yet fully developed. If we could, for a moment, see Him in His fullness now, we could not stand it. His radiant presence would be more than the sun shinning on us if we were only a foot away.

In a simple way Garner opens up some of the believer's duties following baptism. We are to be as Christ was following His baptism. The Holy Spirit must also help us to be as He was and now is.

Who Are the Administrators of Baptism?

When I first secured Garner on Baptism, I wanted to prove the modern, high church concept of the vote on everything people and their practice of church authority only by voting, rather than by a gospel commission or appointment. Garner helped introduce me to another world. I cannot say I enjoyed what I read at first. He seemed to say that the church had gone out of existence and the ordinances were lost. Daniel King seemed to say the same thing in his Way to Sion. John Spilsbery seemed to say the same in his Treatise of Baptism and his God's Ordinances. Notice, I said SEEMED. As I read Garner, then the others, I noted that they seemed to say the church had ceased and that they could take up baptism anew from an unbaptized person, and then they defended the succession of the church and its administrators and ordinances. It took me years to realize that they were adopting the language of the Seekers and Nationalists, as King calls them in his second edition of his Way to Sion, 1656 Edinburgh, Scotland. Garner and the others were talking about their liberty to restore baptism if they needed to do so. This liberty came because of their union with Christ and His commission in the New Covenant. They were not talking about their actual practice, but their liberty. In addition, as I read Garner properly I realized he was talking about the Seeker's theory which was founded on mistaken passages in the Book of Revelation, and not on the actual fact that the church and ordinances had ceased. He let me know quickly and in no uncertain terms that the cessation of the church and ordinances was not founded on the Scriptures, but was a policy of Satan. In his Way to Sion, King explains that he spoke of the ordinances as being lost by way of concession only to the notionalists.

These men believed in a certain type of succession. This succession is by the Holy Spirit in the truth of Jesus Christ. He maintains this succession as a continued witness of the exaltation of Jesus Christ as the only and alone King, Priest and Prophet of His people. How then can we know we are in that succession? How can we know a true administrator of Baptism from a false administrator of antichristian baptism? The true administrators preach and practice the essentials of the true gospel with its faith, order, worship and works.

How the church chooses administrators and appoints them to preach is covered in the Bakewell-Spilsbery Debate of 1646. Hansard Knollys explains it briefly in The Shinning of a Flaming Fire in Sion, 1646. Daniel King expands on Knollys in The Way to Sion, Part 2. King enlarges on the succession of the Ordinances in Part 3 of his Way to Sion. Edward Drapes deals with this in Gospel Glory or the Invisible and Visible Worship of God, 1649.

These men did not teach me the FACT of church succession. They helped me understand the HOW of church succession. The New Covenant teaches church succession. It explains the how of church succession. Modern Baptists, in their legalism, had this so messed up and so distorted that I had no understanding of what succession was about.

Gospel Succession Maintained by the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit maintaines the succession of Jesus Christ's gospel system. He brings His people into that succession as it pleases Him, when He is pleased to do so. They know one another by the gospel they preach and the order they practice. This knowledge is only in part now and relates only to outward and visible order and manifestations. Certainly there are distortions even now because we are still in the area of conflict as Christ was in between His baptismal state and His resurrection state. However, these are not such distortions which destroy the gospel system. There is a difference between a minister and a church being disorderly and their being invalid. Disorder often will lead to an invalid ministry and church in due time. But still there is a difference. Look at the New Testament churches. Which of them was perfect? Which one was free from disorders? However, they were all founded or constituted upon the gospel principles of true gospel faith and its true gospel order.

Garner's Treatise on Baptism helped me to start understanding about the Old Baptists and their gospel faith and order. It is a brief survey upon these important subjects. They are covered in an in-depth way by other writers. We hope to complete the baptismal series in the next few months, if the Lord so wills. I hope Garner's Baptism will help you also.

Before I close, let me say a few words about signs and seals. I was first introduced to the concept that the Everlasting Covenant included signs and seals by the First London Confession of Faith. Certain writers such as J. R. Graves, and others during the last century, argued against the ordinances as signs and seals of the New Covenant. I was very afraid of the Confession's meaning when it used these terms. I was equally afraid of Garner's meaning at first. Then, as I considered their meaning and the different expressions in the Scriptures, I became aware that they were using these terms properly. President Henry Lawrence has a large section on this in his grand work, Of Baptism, 1648. When the old Baptists spoke of the ordinances as signs and seals, they used the same terms as the Pedobaptists but with an entirely different meaning.

The terms signs and seals, are both Biblical terms. All administrators of baptism use them in some way or another. Here is what I mean.

A Gospel Sign

A gospel sign is a picture to ourselves and to others. The ordinances are signs or figures. But they are more than a mere picture or a sign. They are also gospel seals. This is not hard to follow when we have the map of the New Land in which we are walking.

Two Types of Circumcision in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament we find two different types of circumcision, one upon the inner man of the heart, performed by God Alone, Deut. 30:5,6. In addition, there is a visible circumcision of the male's foreskin, Genesis 17:9-12.

Two Types of Circumcision in the New Testament

But what about this two-fold circumcision in the New Testament? Is it there? Yes, it is. The inner man's circumcision is spoken about in Romans 2:28,29. But is that all? Is there no visible circumcision for the visible man under the New Covenant? Yes, there is. This is spoken about by Paul in Colossians 2:9-23. Paul speaks of this as the act of baptism. Baptism is here called the Circumcision of Christ. This is the visible act by which the old man and his deeds are cast off and the new man starts his orderly and manifest walk in the New Land in Gospel faith, order, worship and works. Of course, this is only so when the Holy Spirit works so as to cause it to be so by producing an increase of the faith of Christ through God's empowering or operation.

A Gospel Seal

But why call circumcision a seal? Note this from Romans 4:11-25. Paul called circumcision both a sign and a seal. The sign of circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of the faith which Abraham had when he was yet uncircumcised. Circumcision did not cause any thing. It was a sign and seal. It made visible the heirs and declared their entitlements to the blessings and benefits of their land and their inheritance. Circumcision did not make them sons, nor did it cause them to have faith. Neither does baptism. The gospel signs and seals are not causes or conditions. They are visible manifestations of the rights and entitlements of the saints to Christ's inheritance.

The Gospel Circumcism of Jesus Christ

The visible and orderly circumcision of Christ is gospel baptism. It is a sign and a seal of the righteousness which the elect have in their faith because of their UNION with Jesus Christ. This manifests our entitlements to the new land including all its blessings, benefits and privileges. See Hebrews 3 and 4. Our Rest is in this New Land or Country. This is a Heavenly Country. We have come to and found the Heavenly City, Heb. 11:10, 14-16; 12:22-29; Ephesians l:18-23 and 2:1-7; Gal. 4:23-26.

In Conclusion

The issue is not so much that we use the same words as others use, but what is it that we mean by these Biblical words? We do not believe the ordinances are causes or conditions. They exist to show us, and others like us, where we are and unto whom we belong. They can only do this as the Holy Spirit works an increase of faith in us and witnesses to us. The ordinances are for witnessing to us and others like us. They confirm to us where Christ has already taken us when they are administered by the Holy Spirit, by an able minister of the New Covenant, upon a believer in Jesus Christ. They are signs and seals to confirm to us where Christ has already conveyed us, that is, with Him in the heavenlies.

"Thus saith the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land."

Jeremiah 32:14, 15.

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

2 Corinthians 4:7.

"And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife."

Revelation 21:7.

Note, at the end, the Angel did not say to John "COME UP HERE, and I will show thee the Bride." John was already UP there. Being up there, he is able to see these things as an overcomer (up abover). He is in the heavenlies with Christ.

I Am a Debtor to Mercy

R. E. Pound II

Robert Garner.

A Treatise of Baptism

With many useful instructions concerning the same matter,

Grounded upon Ephesians 4:5,

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.

There Is A Baptism In Water

Believer's Baptism in Water Is An Ordinance of Jesus Christ

IV.

The End and Use of Baptism unto Believers

Trial

Privilege Two

Instruction