God, and all ignorance of them vanish and disappear; and then the ordinance of baptifm will appear in its former luftre and purity, and be embraced and fubmitted to in it; and every corruption of it be rejected, of which Infantbaptifm is one.

Ninthly, Whereas the ordinances of the gospel, baptifm and the Lord's-fupper, are to continue until the fecond coming of Chrift, or the end of the world, Matt. xxviii. 19, 20. 1 Cor. xi. 26. and whereas there have been corruptions introduced into them, as they are generally adminiftered, unless among some few; it is not reasonable to think, that thofe corruptions will be continued to the fecond coming of Chrift, but that they will be removed before, even at his fpiritual coming, or in his fpiritual reign and as with refpect to baptism particularly, there must be a mistake on one side or the other, both with respect to fubject and mode; and as this mistake I firmly believe is on the fide of the Pædobaptifts; fo, I as firmly believe for the reafon given, that it will be removed, and Infant-fprinkling for the future no more used.

Tentbly, The Philadelphian church-ftate, which answers to and includes the fpiritual reign of Chrift in his churches, is what I refer unto in the preface, as the time when the practice of Infant-baptifm will ceafe; in which I am confirmed, by the characters given of that church and the members of it; as, that it kept the word of Chrift; that is, not only the doctrines of the gospel, which will be then purely preached and openly profeffed, but the ordinances. of it, baptifm and the Lord's-fupper; which have been (particularly baptifm) fadly corrupted in almost all the periods of the churches hitherto, excepting the apoftolic one; but will in this period be restored to their priftine purity and glory; hence it is promifed to this church, and that it reprefents, that because it kept the word of Chrift's patience truly and faithfully, it fhould be kept from the hour of temptation that should come on all the earth; and is exhorted to bold faft what he had, both the doctrines and ordinances, as they were delivered by Chrift and his apoftles, and as fhe now held them in the truth and purity of them. These are the reafons why I believe with a firm and unfhaken faith, that the time is coming, and I hope will not be long, when Infant-baptifm will be no more practifed in the world.

Since, now at this time, we are greatly and justly alarmed with the increase of Popery; in order to put a stop to it, let us begin at home, and endeavour to remove all remains of it among ourselves; fo fhall we with the better grace, and it may be hoped, with greater fuccefs, oppofe and hinder the spread

of it.

VOL. II.

3 Y

POST

POST SCRIPT.

THE writer who lately appeared in a news-paper, under the name of Candi. dus, having been obliged to quit his mountebank-stage, on which he held forth to the public for a few days; has, in his great humility, condescended to deal out his packets, in a lefs popular way; under the title of, "The true Scrip"ture-Doctrine of the Mode and Subjects of Christian Baptifm, &c. in fix letters." It is quite unreafonable that we should be put, by every impertinent fcribbler, to the drudgery of anfwering, what has been anfwered over and over again in this controverfy. However I fhall make short work with this writer, and therefore I have only put him to, and fhall only give him a little gentle correction at the cart's tail; to use the phrafe of a late learned Profeffor in one of our univerfities, with respect to the difcipline of a certain Bishop.

The first and fecond letters of Candidus, in the news-paper, are answered in marginal notes on my Sermon upon Baptifm, and published along with it. His third letter is a mean piece of buffoonery and fcurrility; it begins with a trite, vulgar proverb, in low language, fit only for the mouth of an Hoftler or a Carman; and his friends feem to have spoiled one or other of these, by making him a Parfon. He goes on throughout the whole of the letter, as one that is in great hafte, running after his wits, to feek for them, having loft them, if ever he had any; and it concludes with a poor, pitiful, foolish burlesk, mixed with flander and falfhood, on an innocent gentleman; quite a ftranger to him, and could never have offended him, but by a confcientious regard to what he believed was his duty. However, by this bafe and inhuman treatment, it appears that his moral character is unimpeachable, or otherwise it would have been nibbled at. His fourth letter begins with reprefenting the fermon published, as fo mangled, changed, altered, and added to, that it has fcarce any remains of its original; in which he must be condemned by all that heard it: and he has moft unluckily charged one claufe as an addition, which, there cannot be one in ten but will remember it; it is this, "If any man can find any others in his (the jailor's) house, befides all that were in it, he must be reckoned a very "fagacions perfon ;" and he himself, in his first letter, published before the fermon was, has an oblique glance at it; calling me, in a fneering way, "the • fagacious doctor." What he fays in the following part of the letter, concerning the fubjects of baptifm, and what he intended to fay concerning the mode in another letter, which was prevented, I fuppofe are contained in a set of letters now publifhed; and which are addreffed, not to Mr Printer, who caft him off, but to a candid Antipedobaptift; and indeed the epithet of candid better agrees

66

with that fort of people than with himself, of which he feems confcious, if he has any conscience at all; for it looks as if he had not, or he could never have fet out with such a moft notorious untruth, and impudent falfhood; affirming that I said in my fermon, that "the ten commandments, ftiled the moral law, "were not binding on Chrift's difciples;" a greater untruth could not well have been told my writings in general teftify the contrary, and particularly two fermons I have published, one called, "The Law established by the Gospel," and the other, "The Law in the Hand of Chrift;" which are fufficient to justify me from fuch a wicked calumny; and the paragraph with which my fermon begins, attacked by him, and which I declare, are the words I delivered in the pulpit, that "the ten commandments, are the commands of God, and to be obferved "by chriftians under the prefent difpenfation;" for which I quoted 1 Cor. ix. 21. this I fay, muft ftare him in the face, and awaken his guilty confcience, if not feared as with a red-hot iron; which I fear is his cafe. As for his flings at eternal juftification, which he has lugged into this controverfy, and his grand concluding and common argument against it, that it is eternal nonfenfe, I despise; he has not a head for that controverfy: and I would only put him in mind of what Dr Owen faid to Baxter, who charged him with holding it, "What would "the man have me fay? I have told him, I am not of that opinion; would he "have me fwear to it, that I am not? but though I am not, I know better and wifer men than myself that do hold it."

Some body in the news-paper, obferving that this man was froward and perverfe, and fearing he should do hurt to religion in general, in order to divert him from it, and guide him another way; complimented him with being a man. of wit, and of abilities; and the vain young man fancies he really is one and being a witty youth, and of abilities, he has been able to produce an instance of Infant-baptifm, about 1500 years before christian baptifm was instituted; though he must not have the fole credit of it, because it has been observed before him the inftance is of the paffage of the Ifraelites through the fea, at which time, he fays, their children were baptized, as well as they come then, fays he, in very polite language, this is one fcripture-inftance; but if he had had his wits about him, he might have improved this inftance, and strengthened his argument a little more; by obferving that there was a mixed multitude, that came with the Ifraelites out of Egypt, and with them paffed through the fea, with their children also. And fince he makes mention of Nebuchadnezzar's baptifm, it is much he did not try to make out, that his children were baptized also, then or at fome other time. This is the true fcripture doctrine, of the fubjects of christian baptifm, according to his title.

I own

That the Jews received their profelytes by baptifm, before the times of Chrift, he fays, I know; but if I do, he does not. I obferve, he is very ready to ascribe great knowledge of things to me, which he himself is ignorant of; I am much obliged to him: the great names he oppofes to me, do not frighten me; I have read their writings and teftimonies, and know what they were capable of producing, and to how little purpofe; though I must confefs, it is amazing to me, that any men of learning (hould give into fuch a notion, that chriftian baptifm is founded upon a tradition of the baptifm or dipping of profelytes with the Jews; of which tradition there is not the leaft hint, neither in the Old nor in the New Teftament; nor in the Apocryphal writings between both; nor in Jofephus; nor in Philo the Jew; nor in the Jewish Mifnah, or book of traditions; compiled in the fecond century, or at the beginning of the third, whether of the Jerufalem or Babylonian editions. I am content to risk that little reputation I have for Jewish learning, on this fingle point; if any paffage can be produced in the Mifnab, mentioning fuch a tradition of the Jews, admitting profelytes by baptifm or dipping, whether adult or children. it is mentioned in the Gemara, both Jerusalem and Babylonian, a work of later times, but not in the Mifnab; though Dr Gale has allowed it without examination. The only paffage in it which Dr Wall refers to from Selden, though not fully expreffed, is this," a female stranger, a captive, a maiden, which are "redeemed and become profelytes, and are made free; being under (the next "paragraph is above) three years and one day old, are allowed the matrimonial dowry;" that is, at marriage: but not a tittle is here, or any where else in the Mifnah, of receiving either minors or adult as profelytes by baptifm or dipping: and fuppofing fuch a Jewish tradition, five-hundred, or three-hundred, or two-hundred years after Chrift; or even fo many years before Chrift, of what avail would it be? He must be ftrangely bigoted to an hypothefis, to believe that our Lord, who fo feverely inveighed against the traditions of the Jews, and particularly those concerning their baptifms or dippings; should found his New Teftament-ordinance of baptifm, on a tradition of theirs, without excepting it from the other traditions, and without declaring his will it should be continued, which he has not done; and yet this, as Dr Hammond suggests, is the bafis of Infant-baptifm: to what wretched shifts must the Pædobaptifts be driven for a foundation to place Infant-baptism on, to place it on fuch a rotten one; a tradition of men, who at other times, are reckoned by them, themselves, the moft ftupid, fottish, and despicable of all men upon the face of the earth? For the farther confutation of this notion, fee Sir Norton Knatchbull

Mifnah, Cetubat, c. 1. f. 2-4.

Knatchbull on 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21. Stennett against Russen, p. 61. Gale's Reflections on Wall's Hiftory of Infant-baptifm, Letters 9 and 10. Rees on Infant-baptifm, P. 17-29.

I shall not pursue this writer any farther, by giving particular answers to his arguments, objections, and queries, fuch as they are; but fhall only refer the reader to the answers that have been already given to them: as to the threadbare argument, from Abraham's covenant, and from circumcifion, for Old Teftament times and cafes, are chiefly dealt in, to fettle a New Teftamentordinance; fee Ewer's Anfwer to Hitchin, Rees against Walker, and my Answers to Dickinson, Clarke, and Bostwick. Of the unreasonableness of requiring instances of the adult baptifm of children of christian parents, in the scriptures, fee my Strictures on Boftwick's Fair and Rational Vindication, &c. p. 106. Of the testimonies of the ancient christian writers in favour of Infant-baptism, fee Gale's Reflections, &c. Letters 11, 12, 13. Rees on Infant-baptifm, p. 150, &c. Some treatises of mine; The Divine Right of Infant-baptifm Examined, &c. p. 20-25. The Argument from Apoftolic Tradition, &c. Antipedobaptifm. Reply to Clarke, p. 18-23. Strictures on Bostwick, p. 100-103. 8vo. Edit.

I called upon this writer, in the notes on my Sermon, to name any lexicographer of note, that ever rendered the word ball, by perfundo or afpergo, to pour or sprinkle; and behold! Leigh's Critica Sacra, is the only book quoted! and he the only lexicographer mentioned, if he may be fo called! a book which every one of our illiterate lay preachers, as they are called, are capable of quoting, and of confronting this writer with it; by obferving that Leigh fays, that "the native and proper fignification of the word, is to dip into water, or to plunge "under water, John iii. 22, 23. Matt. iii. 16. Acts viii. 38." In proof of baptifm by immersion, and of the true fignification of the word, fee Gale's Reflections, &c. Letters 3 and 4. Rees on Infant-baptifm, p. 121, &c. my treatise of The Ancient Mode of Baptizing, and the Defence of it, with The Divine Right of Infant-baptifm Examined, &c. p. 90, &c.

I bid this writer adieu: God give him repentance for his fins, and the pardon of them; and this I am sure he cannot charge, neither with uncharitablenefs, nor with Antinomianifm.

When the Pædobaptifts write again, it may be expected they will employ a better hand; or fhould they choose to fix upon one of their younger fort again; let them take care, first to wring the milk well out of his nofe, before they put a pen in his hand.

A DISSER