CAMPBELL ON BAPTISM

I have from the first day in which I preached baptism for remission of sins, taught that, without previous faith and repentance, baptism availed nothing --- that a man was virtually, or in heart, in the new covenant, and entitled to its blessings, when he believed and repented; but not formally nor in fact justified or forgiven till he put on Christ in baptism; that if by any insuperable or involuntary difficulty he could not be baptized, and were in the mean time to die, he would be in heart right with God, and would be accepted through the Beloved, although on earth he had not the testimony of God nor the testimony of man that he was forgiven and accepted through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. . . That some of my brethren, with too much ardor, have given to baptism an undue eminence, a sort of pardon-procuring, rather than a pardon-certifying and enjoying efficacy, I frankly admit; but such has never been my reasonings nor my course. - Mill. Harb., 1840, 544f.