difpofed Minds, is a strange Doctrine, and abhor

rent from the common Senfe of Mankind.

Suppofing Faith to be a Principle of holy Obedience, fuch a Perfuafion as forms the Soul to a fincere Compliance with the Terms of the divine Covenant; and this it may be, and be at the fame time a rational Perfuafion; it is highly becoming God to encourage and to reward it. And fuch is the Faith which the Gofpel requires, and on which it lays fo great a ftrefs. Again, fuppofing Unbelief brings with it a Difobedience to the divine Laws, and difqualifies a Man for the Practice of those Duties which are of great importance in Religion, and without which we cannot, according to the divine Covenant, be entitled to the promised Benefits; and that this Unbelief is alfo owing to faulty Caufes, to bad Difpofitions of Mind, and to the Influence of corrupt Paffions or Interefts, which pervert the Judgment, and hinder the Mind from a fair examining the Evidence; I think it cannot be denied, that fuch an Unbelief would be very criminal. Now it is certain, that the Unbelief condemned in the Gospel, is always fuppofed to be of this kind. It is represented as owing to bad Dif pofitions, as the Source and Principle of it, and as attended with Difobedience to the Laws of the Gospel as the Fruit and Effect of it. And if God faw that this would be the general Cafe of thofe that should disbelieve the Gofpel, this would be fufficient to juftify the general Threatnings and Declarations there made against Unbelievers. And if in any particular Inftance Unbelief fhould happen to'

;

be owing to any invincible Impediment or Incapa city, the Supreme Lawgiver will know how to make proper Allowances; for he will always deal justly and equitably with all Men. But as the other is the common Cafe of Unbelievers, fo it is proper the Declarations on that Head fhould be general, and go upon that general Suppofition. And if Unbelief be criminal, as upon fuch a Suppofition it would certainly be, it would deferve Punishment and if it deferves Punishment, it is right to threaten it with the Punishment it deferves. Nor would it be unbecoming a wife and juft God to take this way to warn his reasonable Creatures against it, and lay before them the evil Confequences of fuch a Conduct. This might be really a Kindness to them, as it would awaken their Attention to Truths and Duties of the highest confequence to their Happiness, and on which the Cause and Interefts of Virtue do very much depend. And if this be an Influence upon their Minds, it is fuch an Influence as God the Supreme Lawgiver has a right to exert over the human Mind, and which, Reafon obliges us to own, would be highly proper in fuch a Cafe.

The next thing this Gentleman offers to fhew, that the Christian Faith cannot be a rational thing, is, that we are ordered to be baptized into it. This he represents as the known Original of Faith, the great Root whence all our religious Impreffions notoriously spring; and that by the Baptifmal Ceremony Men commence true Believers at once: And this, even whilft they have not the leaft Share or Symptom

of

of Understanding *. He feems to lay a great ftrefs upon this, and returns to it in feveral Parts of his Pamphlet +. And he obferves, that the Infant's Belief anfwers as effectually all the Demands of the Gospel, as that of the firft Proficient, and highest Graduate in Divinity .

The Strength of his Argument here depends upon the fneering Account he gives of the Nature of Baptifm. But there needs no more to show the Weakness and Fallacy of it, than to state the Case of Baptifm according to the Gofpel-Notion of it; in which alone Chriftianity is concerned. At the first founding of the Chriftian Church, the first Work was to bring Perfons over to the Faith of the Gofpel, by fetting before them the Evidence whereby it was confirmed; and then when they were once converted to the Faith, they were, according to the divine Appointment, to be baptized, which was a folemn taking upon them a Profeffion of the Christian Religion, and a bringing themselves under the most facred Obligations to obey its Laws. And there is nothing in this but what is perfectly confiftent with Faith's being founded upon good and rational Evidence; nor can fo much as a Shadow of an Argument be brought from it to prove, that because Persons were ordered to be baptized after they believed, therefore they did not, or could not use their Reason or intellectual Faculty to lead them into that Belief. Our Author is fenfible of this, and therefore he lays the ftrefs of his Argument upon the Baptism of Infants, which he reprefents in

his own way. Let us therefore argue with him upon the Suppofition, that it was the Will of God that not only adult Perfons, who themselves embraced the Christian Faith, but that their Children too should be baptized. And I cannot fee how it' follows from this, that therefore Faith is not a rational thing. For as to adult Perfons, their being commanded to be baptized upon their believing does not in the least prove that they did not embrace the Chriftian Faith upon a rational Conviction. And as to Infants, they have no Faith at all; nor does their being baptized fuppofe they have any. All that it fuppofes, is not that they do themselves believe, but that they are the Children of Believers; and are by that facred Rite entered into the visible Society of Chriftians, folemnly dedicated to God, and commended to his Grace and Bleffing by fuch as do themselves believe; and who folemnly undertake to fee that they be carefully instructed in the Principles of the Christian Faith, when they come to Years capable of it, and that they be trained up to a holy and a virtuous

Practice.

So among the Jews, no adult Perfon was allowed to be circumcifed, without profeffing his Belief and Adherence to the Law of Mofes; and his being circumcifed, was to be regarded as an open Declaration of it. This was no proof at all, that he did not embrace that Law upon a rational Conviction, but rather fuppofed that he did fo. But when he was himself circumcifed and openly profeffed that Law, his Children, if he had any, were to be circumcised too; which was not under

ftood

ftood as a Declaration that they also believed, of which they were not yet capable; but that they were dedicated to God as the Children of his profeffed People, and to be trained as they grew up in the Belief and Acknowledgment of the living and true God, and the Practice of his Law.

And fuppofing it was the Will of God, that in like manner in the Chriftian Church not only adult Perfons who themselves believed, but the Children of fuch should be baptized, all that could be juftly concluded from it would be, not that the Chriftian Faith is not a reasonable thing, but that the God of Truth and Purity well knew the Doctrines of Chriftianity to be highly important, and agreeable to Truth and Reafon; and therefore would have Children betimes inftructed in thofe Doctrines; and that he knew the Duties there prescribed to be .of great confequence to our Happiness, and therefore would have Children early trained up to the Knowledge and Practice of those Duties. And this does not hinder, but rather obliges the Perfon who was thus early baptized, to confider thofe facred Truths when he grows up; and then he is not to believe them because he was taught them in his Childhood, but because he himself confiders the Evidence brought for them, and finds it reasonable and convincing; and in like manner, it does not hinder him from examining into the Nature and Importance of the Duties required of him, but rather obliges him to do fo, that he may perform - thofe Duties from a full Conviction of their Reafonableness and Excellency.

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