other; elfe we destroy the 'right of private judg-. ment, and go about to establish a Popish infalli. bility against the liberty of the gospel. I have no business with any man's confcience but my own, unless in endeavouring, in a proper manner, better to instruct it, where it appears to be wrong. If my Pedobaptist brother is satisfied in his own mind that he is rightly baptized [or truly converted] he is fo to himself.'-What is there in a falfe perfuafion relating to baptism, that merits the regard of a church, any more than in a deception about faith and converfion, to deserve the connivance of a minifter? for the self-deception is fuppofed to be as real in the one cafe as in the other; though the state of the two candidates, and the danger attending their respective mistakes, are, undoubtedly very different. If, notwithstanding, our fovereign Lord has not virtually forbidden us to baptize any without a profeffion of faith, what right have we fo to limit the administration of that ordinance? And if our divine Lawgiver has tacitly prohibited unbaptized believers approaching his table, by what authority do we admit them? Now I appeal to the reader, I appeal to Chriftians in general, whether there be not as much evidence in the New Testament, that baptism was administered by the apoftles, to fuch whom they did not confider as believers in Jefus Christ; as there is to conclude, that they received any to communion, before they confidered them as baptized believers. It is not the measure of a believer's knowledge, nor the evidence of his integrity; nor is it the charitable opinion we form about his acceptance with God, that is the rule of his admiffion to the facred fupper; but the precepts

of Jefus Chrift, and the practice of the apoftolic churches. To depart from this only rule of our conduct, through ignorance, is a culpable error; and knowingly to deviate from it, is nothing fhort of rebellion against the fovereign majefty of Zion's King.

To difpenfe with the pofitive appointments of Jefus Chrift, or to reverse the order of their administration, in condefcenfion to weak believers, and with a view to the glory of God, cannot be right. For, as an eminent author obferves, "They must be evafions paft understanding, that can hold water against a divine order-God never gave power to any man, to change his ordinances, or to dispense with them. God is a jealous God, and careful of his fovereignty! 'Tis not for any inferior person to alter the stamp and inpreffion the prince commands. None can coin ordinances but Chrift; and, till he call them in, they ought to be current among us.'*-To which I may add the teftimony of another learned writer, who fays, when fpeaking of baptifm; 'As the falvation of men ought to be dear unto us; fo the glory of God, which confifteth in that bis orders be kept, ought to be much more dear.'+-Yet here, I humbly conceive, our brethren are faulty. For what is difpenfing with a pofitive appointment, but laying it afide, or conniving at a neglect of it, on fuch occafions in which it was commanded to be administered? Now, on their Antipædobaptift principles, they admit unbaptized perfons

* Charnock's Works, Vol. II. p. 763, 773, 774. Edit. 1. + Cartwright, in Wall's History of Infant Baptifm, Part 1. Chap. 15.

to the Lord's table; many of whom are never baptized. In regard to fuch, therefore, they lay entirely afide, they annul the ordinance. That they reverse the order of two pofitive institutions, is equally clear; numbers of those whom they admit to the Lord's table, having communion with them in that ordinance for many years, before they are baptized. And that this very fingular conduct proceeds from a regard to the edification of fincere, but lefs informed believers, and in hopes that God will be glorified by it; they often affert. Difpenfe with a divine institution, for the edification of weak believers! Invert the order of God's appointments and break his pofitive laws, with a view to his glory! Theological paradoxes thefe, which feem to border on that hateful Antinomian maxim, "Let us do evil that good may come." A pofition, which the pen of infpiration execrates; which every virtuous mind abhors, But that no pretence of doing honour to God, nor any plea of being useful to men, can poffibly deserve the least regard, if the measures which must be purfued to obtain the end interfere with the divine revealed will, we learn from various facts recorded in the Bible. Uzzah, for instance, when he put forth his hand to fupport the tottering ark, thought, no doubt, he was doing honour to him. who dwelt between the cherubims, over the mercy-feat; and, at the fame time, as that facred coffer was of the last importance in the ancient fanctuary, he fhewed an equal regard to the edi. fication of his fellow worshippers, by endeavouring to preserve it from injury. But, notwithstanding this fair pretext; nay, though the man after God's own heart faw little amifs in his conduct; (per

haps, thought he deferved praife) as the ark, with all that pertained to it, and its whole management, were of pofitive appointment; he, whofe name is JEALOUS, was greatly offended. The fincere, the well-meaning man, having no command, nor any example for what he did, fell under Jehovah's anger, and lost his life, as the reward of his offi cioufnefs. And as the Holy Ghoft has recorded the fact fo circumftantially, we have reafon to confider it as a warning to all, of the danger there is in tampering with pofitive ordinances; and as a ftanding evidence, that God will have his cause fupported and his appointments adminiftered, in his own way. The cafe of Saul, and the language of Samuel to that difobedient monarch, inculcate the fame truth. "The people," faid Saul to the venerable prophet, "took of the fpoil, theep and oxen-to facrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel faid, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and facrifices, as in obeying thevoice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than facrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the fin of witchcraft, and ftubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry."-Remarkable words! The king of Ifrael, we find, pleaded a regard to the worship and the honour of God. The cattle were fpared, that Jehovah's altar might be furnithed with plenty of the finest facrifices. But Samuel foon overruled this fair pretence. He quickly informed the infatuated prince, that obedience to divine appointments, especially in fuch duties as depend entirely on an exprefs command (as the utter deftruction of Amalek did, and as commu

*

2 Sam. vi. I-II.

† 1 Sam. xv. 21, 22, 23.

nion at the Lord's table now does) is better in the fight of God, than hecatombs of bleeding facrifices, or clouds of fmoking incenfe: and, confequently, better than a mifapplied tenderness to any of our fellow-creatures, or a misguided zeal to promote their peace and edification. At the fame time the prophet affures him, that when the Moft High commands, nothing can excuse a nonperformance; because difobedience to a plain, pofitive, known command, is juftly claffed with idolatry and witchcraft.

It

A very fenfible writer, in the conclufion of a difcourfe upon this paffage, obferves; That we may learn from this text, what are the true characteristics of acceptable obedience. It must be implicit; founded immediately on the authority of God. We must not take upon us to judge of the moment and importance of any part of his will, further than he hath made it known himself. is a very dangerous thing for us to make comparifons between one duty and another; especially with a view of difpenfing with any of them, or altering their order, and fubftituting one in another's place.'--Another character of true obedience is, that it be felf denied and impartial; that it be not directed or qualified by our prefent intereft.-It is too common, that our own intereft both points out the object, and affigns the meafure of our obedience; and in that cafe, it does not deferve the name of obedience to God at all. When the Chriftian is devoted to God, ready at his call, and equally dif pofed to any employment affigned him in providence, he then may be faid indeed to do his will,—— It must be univerfal, without any exception. Saul, and the children of Ifrael, had complied fo fr