Some Quotes from J.L. Dagg Contra Open Communion

In a previous post, I ended by recommending J.L. Dagg's writings in favor of close communion/membership [the practice of inviting only baptized believers to the Lord's Table and/or church membership] in his Manual of Church Order [found HERE under Chapter V, Section IV]. While I would encourage readers to study the whole section in order to follow his biblical argumentation, I wanted to point out some specific quotes that persuasively summarize key points of his chapter on this.


"Local churches, if organized according to the Scriptures, contain none but baptized persons."

"[In the Great Commission], the separation of baptism from all the other things which Christ had commanded, gives it a peculiar relation to the other things enjoined in the commission; and the order in which it is introduced cannot but signify the proper order for our obedience."

"The church which excludes a Pedobaptist from the Lord’s table, does not design to inflict a punishment on him, but merely to do its own duty, as a body to which the Lord has intrusted one of his ordinances. The simple aim is, to regulate the observance according to the will of the Lord."

"When a church receives an unbaptized person, something more is done than merely to tolerate his error. There are two parties concerned. The acts of entering the church and partaking of its communion are his, and for them he is responsible. The church also acts when it admits him to membership, and authorizes his participation of the communion. The church, as an organized body, with power to receive and exclude members according to rules which Christ has laid down, is responsible for the exercise of this power."