There is no half-way fellowship to which we can receive persons,
and allow them all the privileges we enjoy, and they not in full
fellowship. It is not a question about _our_ receiving a person, but
the Lord receiving the person. The very _act_ in which the penitent
sinner comes and is received by the Lord is baptism. When he comes in
_full assurance of faith and penitence_, and is immersed into Christ,
the Lord receives him. All we do in the matter is to execute the law of
Christ. The entire matter of inquiry is about _how the Lord receives
persons_. This is all we inquire about.
When we turn aside from the way the Lord receives persons, and receive
them in some other way, it is no difference what that other way is. It
may be styled more _liberal_ than the way in which the Lord receives
persons, but the Lord does not propose to present something more
liberal than men; but he is a Law-giver, and lays down the law on which
he will receive men, and if men desire him to receive them, they must
come in the way laid down in _his law_. But if we only desire to be
received by men, we can consult them and learn the terms on which they
will receive us; but when we act thus we must not deceive ourselves,
and think we are becoming servants of the Lord in so doing. We are
simply becoming servants of men.