perfede and take place of a divine inftitution; why may not the Church of England make what appointments fhe pleafes? A little reflection will convince us, that he whofe authority is competent to the fetting afide or altering of one divine inftitution, has a power equal to his wishes--may ordain times, and forms, and rites of worship; may model the houfe of God according to his own pleasure. But can such an authority belong to any befides the Great Supreme? No.; to fuch an ordaining, or difpenfing power, neither church nor fyngd, neither parliament nor conclave, neither king nor pope, has the leaft claim. For as the exertion of Omnipotence was equally neceffary to the creation of a worm, as an angel; of an atom, as a world; fo the interpofition of divine authority is no less neceffary to fet afide, or to alter, one branch of inftituted worship, than to add a thoufand religious rites, or effentially to alter the whole Chriftian system. Nor are those writers who have appeared in vindication of our National Establishment, ignorant of their advantage over fuch Protestant Diffenters as proceed on the principles here oppofed. For thus they argue; If, notwithstanding the evidence produced, that baptifm by immerfion is fuitable, both to the inftitution of our Lord and his apostles; and was by them ordained to reprefent our burial with Chrift, and fo our dying unto fin, and our conformity to his refurrection by newness of life; as the apofile doth clearly maintain the meaning of that rite: I fay, if notwithstanding this, all our [Pædobaptift] Diffenters do agree to Sprinkle the baptized infant; why may they not as well fubmit to the fignificant ceremonies impofed . by our church? For fince it is as lawful to add unto Chrift's inftitution a fignificant ceremony, as to diminish a fignificant ceremony which he or his apostles inftituted, and use another in its ftead, which they never did inftitute; what reafon can they have to do the latter, and yet refufe fubmiffion to the former? And why fhould not the peace and union of the church be as prevailing with them to perform the one, as in their mercy to the infant's body to neglect the other?'*-I leave the intelligent reader to apply this reasoning to the cafe before us, and shall only obferve; That if this learned writer had been addreffing those Diffenters who practise free communion, his argument would have had fuperior force. Because our Diffenting Pædobaptift brethren believe that infant fprinkling is real baptifm, and practise it as having the stamp of divine authority; whereas thofe Diffenters with whom I am now concerned, believe no fuch thing. They confider it as a human invention; and yet receive Pædobaptifts into their churches, as if they were rightly and truly baptized, according to the command of Christ. Now, as Mr. Thomas Bradbury obferves, There is a great difference between mistaking the divine rule, and totally laying it afide. The reafon,' adds he, why we do not act as fome other Chriftians [i. e. the Baptifts] do, is, because we think thefe demands [relating to a profeffion of faith and immerfion, as neceffary to baptifm] are not made in fcripture.'† * Dr. Whitby's Proteftant Reconciler, p. 289. Duty and Doctrine of Baptifm, p. 25, 26. As the fovereign authority and univerfal domin ion of God, over his rational creatures; as his abfolute right, not only to worship, but also to be worfhipped in his own way; are more strongly afferted and brightly displayed in his pofitive inftitutions, than in any other branches of his worthip; fo, it is manifeft, that we cannot difobey his revealed will concerning them, without impeaching his wisdom and oppofing his fovereignty. Because a fpecial interpofition of divine authority, and an exprefs revelation of the divine will, conftitute the bafis, the only bafis, on which such institutions rest, in regard to their mode and fubject, their order and connexion one with another. Surely, then, fuch of our brethren who admit, as a divine institution, what they verily believe is a human invention, cannot but act an unjustifiable part. For, on their own principles, infinite wisdom chofe and abfolute fovereignty ordained profeffing believers as the fubjects, and immerfion as the mode of baptifm: and it appears, by their frequently baptizing perfons who were sprinkled in their infancy, that they look upon fuch a fubject and fuch a mode of administration, as effential to the ordinance. By their conduct, in many inftances, it alfo appears they are no less perfuaded that unerring wisdom and fupreme authority united in appointing baptifm to be administered prior to the Lord's fupper: for, where the views and the inclinations of the candidates for fellowship with them do not interfere, they always baptize, before they admit to the holy table. Thus then ftands the cafe with our brethren, in regard to the pofitive appointments of Heaven. They are verily perfuaded that the wifdom and fovereignty of God united in ordaining, that im erfion fhould be the mode of baptifm, yet they connive at Sprinkling; that profeffing believers thould be the fubjects, yet they admit of infants; that baptism should be administered to a believer, before he receive the Lord's fupper, and yet they permit unbaptized perfons to have communion with them in that facred ordinance. A paradoxical conduct this, which nothing, in my opinion, short of a plenary difpenfing power can poffibly vindicate.* Again as the fovereign will of God is more concerned and manifefted in pofitive ordinances than in any other branches of holy worship; so it is evident, from the history of the Jewish church, which is the history of Providence for near two thousand years, that the divine jealoufy was never * Some of my readers will be pleased, I doubt not, with the following thoughts of Orobius, a learned Jew, on the fubject of pofitive inftitutions. Lex ritualis ex Legislatoris arbitrio duntaxat pendet, aliquando, vel in plurimum nullo fundamento in naturali ratione invento: fed non ob id inferiorem perfectionis gradum obtinet fuppofita Legislatoris infinita Sapientia et Bonitate: altioris potius, et fublimioris ordinis cenferi debet : fiquidem fuppofito, quod fumme bonus, et fapiens Deus vanas et incptas Leges homini præfcribere nequit; quantum nobis earum ratio magis abdita, tantum ad divinæ Sapientiæ fecretum magis pertinere, oportet creda mus: quod nobis nec curiofe, nec philofophice ferutari licet, fed obedienter ejus imperio fubjici, quo noftrum amorem, et debitam reverentiam fummo Creatori præilemus: omnia quæ nobis obfervanda proponit, fua infinita fapientia digna, valde bona, et perfectiffima, toto corde credentes: five ca poffit, fi vellet, difpenfare, five pro aliqua occafione intermittere et infignioris eft obedientiæ ea obfervare quam quæ a Deo etiam imperata in ratione noftra fundata invenimus: ifta fiquidem, etiamfi Deus non juffit, homines fcirent, et obfervare poffent, ut plurimi ex gentibus nullo ad Deum habito refpectu fecerunt.' Apud Stapferum, Inftitut. Theolog. lelem. Tom II. Chap. XI. § 238. fooner inflamed, nor ever more awfully expreffed, than when God's ancient people failed in their obedience to fuch commands, or deviated from the prescribed rule of fuch inftitutions. The deftruction of Nadab and Abihu, by fire from heaven; the breach that was made upon Uzzah; the ftigma fixed and the curfes denounced on Jeroboam; together with the fall and ruin of all mankind, by our first father's difobedience to a pofitive command, are among the many authentic proofs of this affertion.-Nor need we wonder at the divine procedure, in feverely punishing fuch offenders. For knowingly to difobey the pofitive laws of Jehovah, is to impeach his wifdom or his goodness, in fuch inftitutions; and impioufly to deny his legiflative authority and abfolute dominion over his creatures. And though the methods of Providence, under the gofpel economy, are apparently much more mild and gentle, in regard to offenders in fimilar cafes; yet our obligation to a confcientious and punctual obedience are not in the leaft relaxed. For that divine declaration, occafioned by the dreadful cataftrophe of Aaron's disobedient fons, is an eternal truth, and binding on all generations; "I will be fan&ified in them that come nigh me.' ""* When God fpeaks, we fhould be all attention; and when he commands, we should be all fubmiffion. The clearer light which God has afforded, and the richer grace which Chrift has manifefted, under the prefent difpenfation; are fo far from lefening, that they evidently increase our obligations to perform every divine command relating to Christian worfhip. For, certainly, it must be allowed, that *See Levit. x. 1, 2, 3 |