or peace, or the edification of our fellow Chrif tians. The charity for which many profeffors plead, is of fo lax a nature, and fo far befide the rule, both in regard to doctrine and worship, as gives too much occafion to afk with Jofhua, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries ?"

Once more: Remarkably ftrong, and not foreign to my purpose, are the words of Mr. John Wefley, which are quoted with approbation by Mr. Rowland Hill. A catholic fpirit is not speculative latitudinarianifm. It is not an indifference to all opinions. This is the spawn of hell; not the offspring of heaven. This unfettledness of thought, this being driven to and fro, and toffed about with every wind of doctrine, is a great curse, not a bleffing; an irreconcilable enemy, not a true catholicifm-A man of a true catholic fpirit-does not halt between two opinions, nor vainly endeavours to blend them into one. Obferve this, you that know not what spirit you are of; who call yourselves of a catholic fpirit, only because you are of a muddy underftanding; because your mind is all in a mift; because you are of no fettled, confiftent principles, but are for jumbling all opinions together. Be convinced that you have quite miffed your way. You know not where you are. You think you are got into the very Spirit of Chrift; when, in truth, you are nearer the fpirit of Antichrift.'*

Our brethren with an air of fuperior confidence often demand, 'What have we to do with another's baptifm? This interrogatory I would anfwer by

In Mr. Rowland Hill's Full Answer to Mr. J. Welley's Remarks, 5, p. 40, 41.

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propofing another: What have I to do with another's faith, experience, or practice? In one view, nothing at all, if he do not injure my perfon, character, or property; for to his own mafter he ftands or falls. In another, much; that is, if he defire communion with me at the Lord's table. In fuch a cafe, I may lawfully address him in the following manner: What think you of Chrift? What know you of yourself? Of yourself, as a finner; of Christ, as a Saviour? Of Christ as King in Zion; of yourself, as a fubject of his benign government? Are you defirous to be found in his righteousness, and fincerely willing to obey his commands? Are you ready to bear his crofs, and to follow the Lamb whitherfoever he goes?-Receiving fatisfaction to these most important queries, we will fuppofe the converfation thus to proceed: What are the divine commands?' After believing, baptifm is the first, the very first that requires a public act of obedience. But I have been baptized.' Perhaps not. Make it appear, however, and I fhall fay no more on that fubject.-'I am really perfuaded of it in my own mind. Were it otherwife, I fhould think it my duty, I fhould not hesitate a moment to be immerfed on a profeffion of faith.' I commend your integrity: abide by the dictates of confcience. Yet care fhould be taken, that her language be an echo to the voice of divine revelation; elfe you may neglect your duty and flight your privileges, offend God and injure your foul, even while you obey her commands. But I am perfuaded Christ has accepted me, and that it is my duty to receive the holy fupper.' That Chrift has received you, I have a pleafing perfuafion; and fo I conclude, in a judgment of charity, con

cerning all whom I baptize: but that it is the immediate duty of any unbaptized believer to approach the Lord's table, may admit of a query: nay, the general practice of the Christian church in every age, has been quite in the negative. For a learned writer affures us, that among all the abfurdities that ever were held, none ever maintained that, that any perfon fhould partake of the communion before he was baptized.' Was it, think you, the duty of an ancient Ifraelite to worship at the fanctuary, or to partake of the pafchal feast, before he was circumcised? Or, was it the duty of the Jewish priests to burn incenfe in the holy place, before they offered the morning or the evening facrifice? The appointments of God must be administered in his own way, and in that order which he has fixed. For, to borrow an illustration from a well-known author, 'Suppose a master commands his fervant to fow his ground; doth this give a right to him to go immediately and caft in the feed, before that ever he break the ground with the plough, and make it fit for receiving the feed? Should he go thus to work, he were a difobedient fervant. Neither could it excufe, that he had his master's immediate command to fow his ground. Even fo in the present case.'*-Christ commands believers to remember him at his own table. But were thofe believers to whom he first gave the command unbaptized? Or, can we infer, because it is the duty of all baptized believers to celebrate the Lord's fupper, that it is the immediate duty of one that is not baptized, so to do ?—' Could you produce an instance from the records of the New

* Mr. Thomas Bofton's Works, page 386.

Teftament, of any believer being refused communion, merely because he fcrupled the propriety of being immersed on a profeffion of faith, it would warrant your prefent denial. But, whenever you fhall make it appear, that a truly converted per. fon, and one who was confidered as fuch, defired fellowship with a church of Christ in the apoftolic age, I will engage to prove that he was received, whatever might be his views relating to the mode and subject of baptism.' And when you fhall adduce an inftance of any real convert, in those primitive times, confcientiously fcrupling the ufe of the wine at the Lord's table, I will enter under the fame obligation to prove, that the facred fupper was administered to him in his own way.. 'Will you, then, dare to reject those whom Chrift accepts' Reject, from what? My efteem and affection? Far be it! Under a perfuafion that Christ has received you, I love and honour you as a Christian brother. His image appearing in your temper and conduct commands my regard.

With what confiftency, then, can you refufe me communion? If Chrift has accepted me, if Christ himself has communion with me, why may not you?' Communion with you in the knowledge and comfort of the truth I have; and this would be both my honour and happiness, were you a converted Jew. Communion with you I alfo have in affection; but fellowship at the Lord's table is a distinct act, a very different thing; and it is to be regulated entirely by the revealed will of him that appointed it. Communion at the holy fupper would never have been either the duty or privilege of any man, if Christ had not commanded it, any more than it is now my duty

to celebrate the ancient passover. But that eternal law which requires me "to love my neighbour as myself," would have obliged me to love you, both as a man and a Chriftian, if baptism and the Lord's fupper had never been ordained. After all, your profeffions of affection for me as a believer in Jefus Chrift, and your refufing to have communion with me at the holy table, carry the appearance of a ftrong inconfiftency.' Admitting they do, the inconfiftency is not peculiar to me, nor to thofe of my perfuafion; because I act on a principle received in common by the whole Chriftian church. There is no denomination of Chrif tians, except those who plead for free communion, that would admit you to the Lord's table, if they did not think you had been baptized. This, therefore, is the principle on which I refuse to have communion with you: I confider you as unbaptized. Suppofe a Jew, a Turk, or a Pagan, to be enlightened by divine grace, to have the truth as it is in Jefus, to love God and defire communion with his people before he is baptized; would you think it right, could your own conscience admit of it, as consistent with the revealed will of Chrift and the practice of his apostles, that fuch a request fhould be granted by any gofpel church? In a cafe of this kind, I prefume,-and there have been millions of Jews and Heathens converted, fince the Christian era commenced,--in fuch a cafe you would easily discern a confiftency, between loving him as a believer, and refusing to have communion with him till he was baptized. Nay, I cannot help thinking, but you would be ftartled at the report of any religious M