qualified, by the renewing agency of the Divine Spirit, as we humbly conceived ourselves to be. Now, can it be fuppofed that this command extends to none but those among real converts, who feel its force on their own confciences? Or, may we fafely conclude, that a believer is no further obliged by any divine precept, or prohibition, than he fees and acknowledges the obligation, in regard to himself? If so, a believer who has been baptized, may live all his days in the neglect of communion at the Lord's table, and ftand acquitted of blame; and covetousness is no crime, in thousands who bow at the fhrine of Mammon; for there are comparatively few lovers of money, who acknowledge their guilt in that refpect. Nay, on this principle it will follow, that the more ignorant any believer is, and the less tender his confcience, he is under fo much the lefs obligation to obey the divine commands. But the reader will do well to remember, that the Great Supreme does not lie at our courtesy for his claim of obedience upon us, in any inftance that can be named. No; it is not our conviction of the propriety, the utility, or the neceffity of any command which he has given, that entitles him to the performance of it; but, in all things of a moral nature, our being rational creatures is the ground of his claim; and in those of a pofitive kind, our being qualified according to his direction, whether we be fo wife and fo fincere as to acknowledge the obligation, or no. Thus it appears that the epithet ftria, if taken in the fenfe already explained, is no difhonour to us.

But if, on the contrary, our brethren mean by the epithet, that we are bigotted, unneceffarily exa&,

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unfcripturally confined; their forwardness to give. us a name calls for our cenfure. In the former fenfe, I will venture to affirm, every Baptist ought to be a fria one, or else to renounce the name. In the latter use of the term, we reject the diftinguifhing epithet, and require our opponents to prove-I fay to prove, not to furmife, that it juftly belongs to us. And that they use the word in this obnoxious meaning appears to me, by the tenor of their arguing; by fuperadding that harsher epithet rigorous; and by that home charge, of greatly injuring the honour and intereft of true religion, and not a little contributing to the cause of infidelity?

6

But if we be Stria Baptifts, what are they? Our brethren will not be offended, if I again afk, What are they? and by what name fhall we call them! That they are not fria Baptifts, is out of all dif pute; because from fuch they expressly distinguish themselves, and have abundant reafon, if the charge just mentioned be true, to be ashamed of them. I am obliged, therefore, if it be lawful for me to imitate their officiousness, and to give them a name, (for as yet they are half anonymous) to fearch for fome fignificant and defcriptive adjective, that will fet them at a wide diftance from the ftrict Baptifts. But what must it be? Inaccurate, or loofe, or latitudinarian? I would not, defignedly, be guilty of a misnomer; but as all these terms are very different in their meaning from that obnoxious word fria, it can hardly be fuppofed that I am far from the truth. As they profefs themfelves Baptifts, there we agree; but as they hold the ordinance of baptifm with a loose hand, there we differ; and hence the neceffity of fuch oppo

fitely fignificant epithets, to mark our different conduct. For names, you know, are so much the more perfect, by how much the more they express the nature and properties of perfons and things. Yes, the practice of our opponents makes it evident to all the world, that the term Baptifts, when applied to them, is to be understood in fuch a lat itude of fignification, as will comport with receiv. ing perfons to communion, who, in their judg ment, are unbaptized. That is, they are Baptifts, when the ideas expreffed by that name fuit the difpofitions of their hearers; and they entirely omit the ordinance, from which they take their denomination, when candidates for communion with them do not approve of it. And, which makes their conduct, in this refpect, appear exceedingly ftrange, they do not, like his Holinefs of Rome, exprefsly claim a difpenfing power; nor, in the madness of enthusiasm, pretend to any new revelation; nor yet, with the difciples of George Fox, confider baptifm as a temporary inftitution. Our character, then, is fixed. Their own pens

have engroffed it. And, be it known to all men, we are Striat Baptifts. To this character, as bes fore explained, we fubfcribe with hand and heart, in the laft words of the celebrated Father Paul, Efto perpetua. Their's I have attempted to draw, in contraft with our's, and will now venture to call them, Latitudinarian Baptifts. Whether they will allow the name to be juit, and efteem it as we do our's, I am not certain. But of this I make no doubt, that the religious world in general, were they to fee and compare it with the opinion and practice of our brethren; would pronounce it defcriptive of the perfons to whom it is given. Stri

Baptifs they will permit our character to ftand firft, as it has confeffedly the right of primogeniture Stria Baptifts!Latitudinarian Baptifts! Thefe characters, in contraft, found very oddly, I must confefs; and they are but of a novel date. For they do not appear to have had an existence till about the middle of the last century. What a pity it is but something of a similar kind could have been found, in the ancient monuments of the Jewish church, relating to circumcifion, as a prerequifite for communion in it. Had it ap peared, in any authentic records, that the fons of Abraham, in times of yore, were divided in their judgment about that obfolete rite; and that some of them were called Stric Circumcisionists, and others Latitudinarian Circumcifionifts; it would have given, at least, an air of antiquity to our brethren's hy pothefis, practice, and character. But we mu take things as we find them.

I just now recollect, what many of my readers must know to be fact, that our Pædobaptift brethren, when they have a mind to fhew their wit and be a little merry at our expense, reprefent the Baptifts, without distinction, as exceedingly fond of water; as profeffors that cannot live in a church ftate, without a great deal of water. Nay, one of them has very politely called us watery Bigots" and then adds, 'Many ignorant fprinkled Chriftians are often, to their hurt, pulled by them into the water.'*

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* Dr. Mayo's True Scripture Doctrine of Baptifm, p. 33. Poor creatures! How much these sprinkled Christians' aré to be pitied, when treated so rudely by watery bigots! there no remedy against such an invasion of personal liberty, by appealing to Cæfar? If there be, a Doctor of Laws would not spend his time ill in pointing it out, for the benefit of

According to this Gentleman, then, we are watery bigots. Well, it does not greatly diftrefs me to be thus reprefented by a fneering antagonist; be caufe I really believe that much water is neceffary to baptifm, and am no lefs confident, that baptifm is neceffary to communion at the Lord's table. But fince I have maturely confidered the fingular character and peculiar fituation of our latitudinarian brethren, I can by no means think it either candid or equitable that they fhould be thus reprefented. Because it is evident, evident even to demonstration, that their profeffion and practice taken together will not admit of it. They, it muft be acknowledged, will fometimes declaim aloud on the neceffity of a profeffion of faith, and of immerfion in the name of the triune God, to constitute that baptifm which is from heaven. when they write on the fubject, and publifh their thoughts to the world at large, they affert thefe things with the greatest confidence. They will alfo, with the venerable John, go down into Jordan, and there adminifter the fignificant ordinance: fo that one would be tempted to think they were Ariat Baptifts, real Baptifts, and that Baptifm has no fafler friends upon earth. But when they plead for free communion, they talk a different language; they speak of it as an indifferent thing and a mere trifle, that is not worth contending about. And, when they admit communicants, they often as in a different way; for, in receiving a Pædobaptift, what they confider as real baptifm is entirely fet afide. They might, confe

So,

fach ignorant fprinkled Christians,' and to prevent any of then being burt, in future.