ed, upon a full conviction of the understanding, and making a public profeffion of the truth, however defpifed and loaded with reproach and ignominy. Such an ingenuous and open conduct has fomething fo great, fo praifeworthy and generous in it, that almoft all will find themfelves conftrained by nature, and the univerfal ingrafted fentiment of what is right and excellent, to approve, what but few have the piety and refolution to imitate.

The ordinance of baptifm is a duty entirely chriftian, and a matter of mere inftituted fervice, ordained indeed not wantonly, for the difplay of power, and the prerogatives of fovereign rule, but wifely calculated to fubferve the great purposes of virtue, and the ultimate end of all true religion. And as the obligation of it refults wholly from the will of God the fupreme lawgiver, the original plan of inftitution ought, in every circumftance, to be ftrictly obferved, and inflexibly adhered to. To annul, is to degrade and oppofe the authority of God: to alter, is, fo far as the alteration extends, the fame as to annul. Circumftances may poffibly happen here, as in the cafe of all other pofitive fervices, that will excufe, for a time at leaft, from the actual performance of this duty; but no fituation, no plea of inconvenience, can juftify our introducing and fubftituting a human ordinance in the place of a divine. But whenever fuch changes are attempted and complied with, the act immediately lofes the nature of piety, and is converted into grofs fuperftition. The piety is evacuated by departing from the command of God, which alone can conftitute a religious obligation; and the fuperftition plainly appears, in that it is a fervice contrived and dictated by the blind conceit, folly, and arrogance of man, which is the general effential nature, and the proper character of all fuperftition. Let Chriftians therefore proceed calmly, difcarding and utterly renouncing all prejudices, whether of education, cuftom, or intereft; let them with candour and fimplicity of mind, confider the account, which the new Teftament gives of the ordinance of baptifm, in which alone the primitive law, prefcribing the practice of it, is authoritatively recorded; and upon which our judgment concerning it, if we are reasonable Chriftians or confiftent Proteftants, must be abfolutely and wholly formed.

Had these fentiments always poffeffed the minds of Chriftians, thofe divifions and contentions, which have fo long difturbed, diftracted and rent the church

of Chrift, had been prevented. And it is by fuch a conduct, and by that alone, that an happy end must be put to them; for hereby we fhould foon become one flock, and one fold, under Chrift Jefus the great shepherd and biShop of our fouls, 1 Pet. ii. 25. This indeed is what the ignorant zealot, the mad and wild enthufiaft have had in. view: for the accomplishing of this, the most wicked and injurious proceedings have beenbegun and carried on by them, with the utmost rage and fury, against the most fincere, pious and confcientious Chriftians; for no other reafon in the world, but because they differed from them in the practice of fome religious duties, or could not affent to fuch perplexed propofitions, as they were pleased to impofe as the orthodox faith. Fire and faggot, with all manner of cruelty and bloodshed, have been the hellish means made ufe of by fome to convince men of what those tyrants and murderers were pleased to call the true chriftian faith; whilft fines and imprisonment, and all kinds of oppreffion, have been the tender mercies of others, and the method they perfued for informing the understanding, and establishing uniformity in faith and worship. "Many

and juft [fays the Cambridge Gentleman, tho' he pleads "for the magistrate's power in favour of truth] have been "the complaints against this method and manner of pro"ceeding. Meek, mild and merciful, was the behavi"our of the great author of our religion; and of the

fame nature, all his precepts and directions. But severe "and inhuman have many laws been, and they have been "executed with unrelenting rigour, as neceflary fupports

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to Chriftianity. Such have been the measures not only "against it's profeffed enemies, but againft Chriftians of "different diftinétions and denominations. Barbarities, "equally horrible with thofe which have raged among "the most barbarous nations, have by this means been "committed in the chriftian world." But how far fhort all fuch measures are ever likely to be of producing this defirable end, the event hath fufficiently and fully proved. For which reafon fome minifters in our time, who are for promoting the fame thing, tho' in a very different way, think that there may be, and accordingly recom mend, fuch a general union, that all Chriftians, under every denomination, may communicate together at the Lord's table, notwithstanding their various conceptions concerning the doctrines of Chriftianity, and the different

manner in which fome pretend to adminifter baptifm, as the ordinance of Chrift. Indeed, if our differences fubfifted only in the mind, then every one might poffefs his fpeculative truthentire, notwithstanding his brother's mistakes. For it is very common now in most assemblies, for Chriftians, who strictly believe in the divine unity, to communicate with thofe, who profefs the Athanafian doctrine, with the fame fincere piety in each, as if they were all of one mind in that controverfy. And even at the Lord's table, I might receive the divine memorials of my Saviour's paffion, with all the devotion and reverence, and with that juft and rational idea of mind, which the fcripture gives of it; whilft my brother and fellow Chriftian, who fat next me, might also receive it in remembrance of Chrift; and yet, from a notion form'd in his mind, upon the letter of the word, and the wild dictates of others, be led to adore it as his God, and verily believe in his heart, that the elements of bread and wine, after confecration, were really tranfubftantiated into the body and blood of our Redeemer; and this without difturbing, or in the leaft difcompofing each other in our devotions. Nor are there any points of doctrine, or articles of the chriftian faith, in which the conceptions and opinions of Chriftians can poffibly differ more widely from each other, than they do in these, and therefore the like forbearance or allowance ought to be made for the weakness of my erring brother, with respect to them alfo: whereby the rights of private judgment will be inviolably maintained, agreeable to what the apoftle faith; Haft thou faith? Have it to thyself before God, Rom. xiv. 22. And, Him that is weak in the faith receive you, but not to doubtful difputations, ver. 1.

But on the other hand, where our differences confift not merely in fpeculation, or the bare affent of our minds to any scripture truth; but also in matters of practice, or the manner, in which religious duties are to be performed, as the ordinances of God, and as the appointments of Chrift himself, there our different and contrary pro-ceedings muft neceffarily create confufion and diforder. Befides, it would be moft unreasonable to expect, that any man fhould openly countenance, and give public fanction to the performance of any act in the name of the Lord; which his confcience affures him is no other than a mere human appointment, or fuperftitious inftitution, whereby that of Chrift is entirely fubverted, and made

of

of no effect. In this cafe therefore every confcientious Chriftian must be fo far from openly countenancing, or giving public fanction to fuch actions, or proceedings, that, on the contrary, his duty to God, and his allegiance to Chrift, oblige him to bear a faithful teftimony against all fuch corruptions, in order to maintain and uphold the authority of Chrift, the honour and dignity of his laws, the restoration and establishment of the purity and truth of his inftitutions; and, as far as in him lies, the reformation of his brother from the error of his ways. And we are the more obliged to this, with refpect to baptifm, in that our Pædobaptift brethren cannot but justify us in our adminiftration of that facred ordinance, by acknowledging it was the primitive practice, the way by which believers were initiated in the apoftles days; and as they cannot produce any divine authority for the alterations by them introduced, their own practice is at best no other than a church, I had like to have faid Popish,tradition. And therefore, as I have fhewn at large in my fupplement, it is not we, but they themselves, who make the fepararation. They force us from them, and it is at their door only, that the fin of fchifm muft lie; becaufe two things Chrift himself has made effential to the conftitution of, and gathering of members into his, church. One is a firm belief of this great foundation article of the chriftian faith, that he is Chrift the Son of the living God; for upon this rock, fays he, I will build my church: and the gates of hell fhall not prevail against it, Matt. xvi. 16. On which fee my fupplement, p. 12. The other is, that fuch believers be born of water and of the fpirit, without which, he affures us, no man can fee, or enter into, the kingdom of God; on which fee my first letter, and alfo Dr. Whitby and Mr. Benfon, as quoted in my preface.

These therefore ought to be strictly obferved, and punctually complied with by every Chriftian; and muft alfo be inflexibly adhered to, and inviolably maintained by the christian church: which therefore the ought not to difpenfe with, fo far as to admit perfons to the rights and privileges thereof, who do not profefs to believe the one, and have not manifefted that faith in Chrift, with their refolution of obedience to him, by fubmitting to the other; becaufe all fuch perfons are hereby ftrictly excepted or prohibited by Chrift himself. For a fociety of Chriftians therefore to receive unbaptized perfons into their communion, would be to countenance their unbelief and disobedience,

dience, and with refpect to themselves, may be esteemed a defpifing the authority of Chrift, a betraying, or giving up his inftitution, and a casting off their allegiance to him. And in the event, it would be fo far from preventing reflections, and hindering deifts from attacking christianity, that by our thus fapping one or two of the foundation principles of the doctrine of Chrift, Heb. vi. 1, 2. and of our ownfelves taking away the fences, and deftroying the very boundary which Chrift himself has made, which I apprehend would be the confequence of fuch an unnatural or unjuftifiable union, we fhould thereby give infidels a much greater advantage against us, and our holy religion, than they can poffibly have from the continuance of our diftinct and feparate communions.

For when deifts obferve, that Chriftians themselves make fo very little account of Chrift's most folemn inftitutions, or of the right administration of them, they may thence infer, and be led to think themselves fully juftified in rejecting, or fhewing as light an efteem for his doctrines; fince if he was divinely inspired, and really came from God, all that he delivered, muft be equally observed by his profeffed difciples and followers, who, as fuch, can never be abfolved from a moft ftrict and careful regard, and obedience to the whole of his inftitutions. Nor is it their duty to have this regard to Chrift's inftitutions themfelves only, but alfo to promote the fame in others so far as they are able; which thofe Chriftians are very far from doing, who pretend that profeffors of all denominations, nay, that perfons unbaptized, may all communicate, or eat bread, and drink wine together at the Lord's table in remembrance of Chrift: which opinion, big with many evils, is neither founded on the word of God, nor the practice of the church in any age; nor yet upon the reafon and nature of things, but only upon mere complaifance, under the falfe notion of manifefting their charity to other Chrif

But furely our love and regard are due to Chrift, to his inftitutions and laws, more than to any man, or body of men whatsoever; and therefore it must be very unjustifiable in us, to give up the former, for the fake of the latter, becaufe, he that loveth father, or mother, wife, or children, brethren, or fifters, or any thing, even his own life, more than Chrift and his ways, is not worthy of him. Math. x. 32-39. Luke xiv. 25-31. For as Mr. BenJon obferves,

Mr.