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creature, he had by a partial and unwife election, of his mere arbitrary will and pleafure, chofen fome particular perfons to eternal life and bleffednefs; and also, without the leaft mercy or compaffion, had cruelly and unjustly, &c. reprobated all the reft of mankind to dishonour and wrath. Thefe opinions naturally tend to remove from the minds of men almoft every motive to the practice of virtue, and to expel from thence all reftraints from the fenfual gratification of their vitious lufts and paffions; to prompt and encourage them without remorfe or fear to the wilful commiffion of all ungodlinefs, and unrighteFor if these principles are true, no kind of wickedness can ever endanger the happiness of the elect; nor the ftrictest virtue prevent the divine wrath and vengeance from being poured out upon the reprobate, and configning them all to the unspeakable remediless miferies of hell. And as prefumption, or despair naturally refults from thofe falfe, I might have faid wicked, blafphemous, and foul deftroying principles, fo injurious to, and unbecoming the majefty of heaven, the tender, compaffionate Parent of the whole univerfe, who does good to all, and whofe tender mercies are over all his works; who has fworn that, he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; and in the most compaffionate manner intreats them to turn from fin, that they may efcape death, and inherit life, Ezek. xxxiii. 11: fo with refpect to the falfe principles fet forth by the affembly of divines, it is rather to be wondered at, that any perfons, who believe them, fhould be truly religious, and kept from the daring fin of prefumption, or of finking into the depths of despair, than that everlafting ruin fhould thereby be brought upon many, who might otherwife have efcaped the mifery, which it is greatly to be feared hath been the unhappy confequence of them to many fouls. And what Mr. Mole fays is very true, that, If... our education... has confifted in learning and blindly receiving the creeds, catechisms, or other compofitions of fallible men, and being taught to take the doctrines thereof for the truths of Chriftianity, upon no arguments, but the authority of thofe, who compiled, or authorifed, or acquainted us with those fyftems; fuch education confifts in folly and falfhood, and to cultivate all the effects of fuch eduC cation, would be to confirm ourfelves in the abfurd de'lufions

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2 Grounds, &c. p. 58.

lufions and mistakes, which others had led us into, and which God knows is the cafe of myriads.'

And moreover, the books of the laft and fome former ages, abounding fo much with those unworthy notions of God, together with the zeal with which these and other doctrines of the like kind were then taught, and contended for, by Chriftians in general, may juftly be looked upon as the fatal feeds of that infidelity, which hath now produced fo general a defection from Chriftianity in this age. For if men once come to be perfuaded, that principles fo contrary to the nature and perfections of God, are really contained in the bible; how can it be fuppofed they should ever believe fuch a revelation to come from him, or that the chriftian religion fhould ever be divine ? But in confequence of thofe falfe doctrines, and the fuppofed neceffity of infant-fprinkling, many minifters, as well as other Chriftians, have been ready enough, with the author of Christianity not founded on Argument, to denounce damnation, declaring, that fuch infants as die unbaptized, cannot be faved, that there are fuch in hell a fpan long. Shocking opinion indeed! And tho' Mr. Mole, and the reft of his brethren here in England, are generally come off from thofe corrupt principles; yet I queftion, whether any of them would care to fprinkle a child, which was not born of chriftian parents. But our established church is not fo partial, for fhe generously opens her arms to all infants, and is willing to confer the grace of baptism, and receive them into her bofom, whether they be the children of believers, or of unbelievers; and hath taken care to provide them two other fureties, befides one godfather, and the parent, who is always fuppofed to be under the highest obligation to inftruct them in the ways of piety, and train them up in the chriftian faith.

SECT.

SECT. IV.

Remarks on Mr. Mole's grounds of the chriftian faith rational.

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HE fuggeftion referred to page 32. is thus introduced by Mr. Mole. 3 But when it is added:" "And to diftinguish ftill further our established church "in particular, as the mode the most conformable to "that divine plan ;"this is what I would neither defire

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him to grant, nor grant him, if he fhould defire it,' [equally as foon, as I would to Mr. Mole, and the kirk of Scotland, and he has full as much reafon to do it too] without his first proving, that this is part of the tafk, which is required of us by God. This is [alfo] to introduce a difficulty into the cafe far greater, than all that was in it before amounted to; and which, I fhall readily concur with this author, in fuppofing, that our reason is altogether unequal to. The arguments, which abundantly evince the truth and authority of Chriftianity, are calculated to prove fomething else of our established church;' [ and the kirk of Scotland too] but by no means the truth of [their] doctrines, or authority of 6 [their] decifions, as fuch.' And to what this fame author has faid, p. 10. That we are to addrefs ourselves to heaven to inculcate the full complement of our belief, will help us to a juft and uniform account of its whole nature, whilft it points readily back to its fource of baptifm:' Mr. Mole replies after this manner, Such a faith indeed, as derives merely from baptifm, has, that for its fource, and nothing elfe, may poffibly be in this manner fupported; being of an irrational original, it < may be cultivated in a method conformable exactly to to that of its implanting: but for fuch fource, and fuch fupport of faith, we muft, I imagine, look fomewhere elfe than in the fcriptures.' If Mr. Mole means in our established church, or the church of Rome either; we may as well look to Scotland, and find the fame just caufe for reflection upon the Prefbyterian church there, and upon all the branches of it amongft his own party 4 Ibid. p. 65.

3 Ibid.

p. 102.

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here in England, notwithstanding the faith which it is pretended infants derive from their parents, or that Chrif tianity and federal holiness they imagine them to have before, intitling them to baptifm: or that pureness and perfection with which they fancy infants are clad, when they confer, what is ftiled the grace of baptifm, upon them. For, as I before quoted from the fame writer, It is impoffible, furely, when we confider to whom we must afcribe them, that any such abfurd schemes can any. longer be fuppofed, that we can ever imagine, that the great author and finisher of our faith fhould have contrived us an irrational one, to be afterwards fuperfeded, or even confirmed by a rational one.'

And as Mr. Mole very juftly observes from the fame author, If any fhould be fo unhappy, as to be trained up in this method,' " and upon notice from his fureties

of the condition, they had ingaged him in, should "think of appealing, or making any further fearch for "the certainty of that knowledge, in which he had been "inftructed, and pofitively refufe to ftand to what they "had done in his name, till they had laid the grounds "and reafons of their proceedings before him to his fatif"faction," or he had inquired into them for that purpofe; he would be fo far from deferving the odious character of a perverse apoftate, that he must truly be looked upon, as in great measure a stranger to Chriftianity till he had done fo: his fo doing would be a neceflary ftep to his becoming a real or rational Chriftian; and it is not thofe, who do this, but those who do not, who are in danger of deferving the character of aliens from the faith of Chrift; tho' not perhaps of receiving it from fome certain quarters.'

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I readily agree with this fentiment of Mr. Mole's, and think the pallage very applicable to the members of his own church, as well as to thofe of other Pædobaptifts, to whom he has not only given the greatest encouragement for their reformation, by taking upon them a rational profeffion of Chriftianity with the baptized churches, upon the true fcripture plan, free from all human mixtures: but hath alfo enforced the fame with the strongest motives, to prevent any hefitation about forfaking thofe refpective congregations, into which their parents had them rantized or fprinkled; and has furnished them with very cogent reafons,

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5 Chriflianity not founded, &c. p. 1o. & Grounds, &'c. p. 70.

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reafons, why they should abfolutely renounce fuch education principles, fuch an human, unfcriptural and unchriftian method of gathering churches, or making Chriftians, as a necessary step to their becoming real or rational Chriftians. And hereby they will be fo far from deferving the odious character of perverse apoftates, that according to him they must truly be looked upon, as in great measure, firangers to Christianity, till they have done fo, and are in danger of deferving the character of aliens from the faith of Chrift. But notwithstanding all this, I find fuch a thorough reformation is never to be hoped for, nor in the leaft expected to proceed from himself and his brethren, or from any fuch minifters, because he affures us, 7 They, who profefs even a true religion, originally built upon rational grounds, and have themselves established it on a ⚫ different foundation, and have led the people into a belief of it on that falfe bottom, are likely to be for keeping the rational grounds of it out of their fight; left coming to the knowledge of them they fhould fee the abfurdity and hurtful confequences, of having religion ftand upon any foot but its own.' [Whether Mr. Mole Speaks this of his own knowledge and experience, I shall not pretend to fay: but as he further obferves] The truly rational and fcriptural method of propagating faith is very different from this, it cannot be interested in, or justly answerable for the abfurdities, it is chargeable with. Training up children, as God fays Abraham would his, to do justice and judgment; or as Solomon speaks, in the way they fhould go; or as St. Paul exhorts, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; is a quite different thing from training them up in the belief of doctrines, which are commanded to be affented to, or the practice of rites, ⚫ which are commanded to be obferved by any civil or • church law whatsoever.' [either in England, Scotland, or Rome.]

And the reafons, why we muft not expect fo much good, nor hope for fuch a reformation from their minifters, feem to be affigned in p. 76; where he honeftly confefles, that fince Chriftianity has been established under human forms, with the fanction and authority of civil laws, and a clergy has been fettled as a principle part of fuch religious establishments; the plan of religion has been ⚫ greatly altered, and the work of its minifters greatly enlarged. By this means defending the rights of thofe,

7 Ibid. p. 71:

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