The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in…

QUESTION. VIII. IS Baptism in a private House where there is no Church Assembly allowable?

Answ. Papists, Episcopal Protestants, and some Lutherans plead for it. But the ⟨p. 63⟩^(a)Doctrine of the old Waldenses was, that Baptism ought to be Administered in a full Congregation, to the end that he that is received into the Church, should be reputed & held of all for a Christian Brother, & that all the Congregation might pray for him, that he may be a Christian in Heart, as he is outwardly esteemed a Christian. Most of our Writers (especially Presbyterians) disapprove of Private Baptism The Reformed in France, ^(b)& the Churches in ^(b)Holland also require Baptism to be publicly administered. Our English Presbyterians in the Directory, says that Baptism is not to be administered in private […], or privately, but in the place of public Worship, and in the face of the Congregation. The Geneva Divines (as is to be seen in Zanchy's Epistles) when this case was proposed to them, Whether Baptism might not be administered in private, Advised those that sent to them, not to Baptise any but where there was a public Assembly, for which they gave several Reasons. Calvin, although he does not judge private Baptism to be a mere nullity, nevertheless in his ^(c)Institutions, he disallows of it. And in his Epistles, he reasoneth after ⟨p. 64⟩this manner, ^(d)Baptism Seals our Introduction and Initiation into the Visible Church and Body of Christ, and our Adoption to the Heavenly Inheritance, therefore (says Calvin) Fas non est administrare Baptismum nisi in Caetu Publice, It is not lawful to administer Baptism except in a public Congregation. The Judicious and Learned Professors