Lord, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God;' and, to crown all-' Of one fubftance with the Father.' When these honours were going; the Holy Ghoft was not forgotten, but is ftiled- The Lord and giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; and who with the Father and the Son together, is worshipped and glorified. Then comes the Athanafian, or rather the Anti-Chriftian Creed, thus prefaced Whofoever will be faved: before

all things it is neceffary that he hold the Catholic faith. Which faith except every one do · keep whole and undefiled; without doubt he 'fhall perish everlastingly,' and thus concluded

This is the Catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be faved.' And what is this Catholic Faith, upon which our falvation depends? That there is a Father; a Son; and a Holy Ghoft: all Gods, co-eternal and co-equal and yet there is but one God. I do not find in myself any powers of reasoning to comprehend this.-A belief is not in my own power, nor can it be enforced by human authority; more especially where reafon does not fuggest the neceffity, or expediency of even a cool affent or fubmiffion to the dogma. Can it be fuppofed that the God of truth and knowledge is pleased, when the creature he hath forined with a limited understanding, pretends to believe he knows not what? Much lefs can it be fuppofed that he re

quires fuch profeffions. If he does not pity the weakness; he muft defpife the duplicity of thofe, who, in fo folemn a manner, make the fecond, third and fourth refponfes in the Litany; or the declaration and prayer contained in the Collect upon Trinity Sunday. And how is it, that to accompany the laft, two portions of Scripture are chofen, Revelations ch. iv, and John ch. iii, neither of which have the leaft affinity to the fubject? The firft fpeaks of twenty-four crowned elders; four strange beafts; and feven stranger lamp fpirits, &c. the laft records the ftory of Nicodemus, upon which I have already commented pages 216 and 218; and this, incourse, brings on the fubject of baptifm. Having invented original fin, (the abfurdity of which I have fhewn pages 244 and 245) they, upon this unfounded opinion, have founded the neceffity of baptifm. Being, they fay, born in fin, and the children of wrath we are hereby made the children of

grace.' The ceremony begins- Dearly beloved, for as much às all men are conceived and ⚫ born in fin, and that our Saviour Chrift faith, 'None can enter into the kingdom of God, ex

cept he be regenerate, and born a new of water and of the Holy Ghoft, &c.' Upon this introduction, I have two obfervations to make. If all men are conceived in fin, and we reafon by analogy; all men are begotten by the devil: Mary was conceived and born in fin; fhe, at a proper

6

proper age according to nature, was told by an angel, that the fhould conceive and bare a Son! and when she asked How fhall this be, feeing I know not a man?' She was anfwered- The

Holy Ghoft fhall come upon thee, and the

power of the Higheft fhall overfhadow thee: 'therefore also that holy thing which shall be

born of thee, fhall be called the Son of God.' Here we find the analogy doth not hold, and in course the axiom is defective. The fecond obfervation is; that all quotations of words fpoken by Jefus, ought to be literally exact; for if your premises are untrue; your deductions from those premises will be falfe in courfe. In the prefent cafe, Jefus ufes neither the words regeneration, or Holy Ghoft: neither doth it appear that baptifm was meant; had it been fo, the use of that word would have cleared part of the ambiguity, and Nicodemus would have comprehended fomething. As it ftands, (page 216) he appears to have been left in total ignorance of what Jefus meant by faying Except a man bé ⚫ born of water and of the fpirit, he cannot en

ter into the kingdom of God.' I apprehend the word born, mifled him; and that he could not diveft himself of the idea it first conveyed. Upon the whole; this baptifmal prop, if it is one, appears weak and infufficient: and how Noah and his family in the ark fwimming on the water; or the Ifraelites walking on dry land between the fea

walls,

walls, were figures of baptifm; I know not. The poor Egyptians, who were fo effectually drenched in endeavouring to recover what had been fraudently taken from them; were fomething nearer the matter. In the introduction aforefaid, the priest requests his audience to call upon God-That he will grant to this child that thing which by nature he cannot have, that he may be baptized with water and the Holy Ghost, and received into Chrift's holy church, and be made a lively member of the fame.' By this we might be led to fuppofe that the child was to be baptifed with water and the Holy Ghoft, or at least with water, by the priest: but to our furprife we find, in the following joint prayer, the priest and people requesting that God would

look upon this child, wash him, and fanctify him with the Holy Ghoft, that he being delivered from thy wrath, &c. modeftly concluding-that finally he may come to the land of

everlasting life, there to reign with thee, &c.' An unbeliever might exclaim-Holy, holy, holy impudence!

In the following prayer, we find thefe words 'We call upon thee (God) for this infant, that he coming to thy holy baptifm may receive remiffion of his fins by fpiritual regeneration.' This, if it means any thing, muft mean fins committed in a former ftate, agreeable to the doctrine of pre-existence. Original fin it cannot mean;

as

as in that cafe the fin was not bis and an infant, being incapable of committing fin, in courfe it could not be his, how then could he, but in a pres exiftent state, have incurred the wrath of God, from which, it feems, he is, in this ceremony, released by God himself. The two following prayers introduce and apply (not very happily) the story recorded by St. Mark relative to the young children who were brought to Jefus that he might touch them. His difciples, not feeing the utility of this; rebuked those who brought them; upon which their mafter faid- Suffer the little < children to come unto me, for of fuch is the kingdom of God, adding-Verily I fay unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of • God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.' By this it appears that thofe children were not born in fin, or under the wrath of God; for in that cafe, of fuch could not be the kingdom of God. It cannot be pretended that they coming to a holy baptifm, had received remiffion of their fins by fpiritual regeneration; as in that cafe the ceremony would have preceded the fpeech; but it followed it, thus- And he took the

his

1:

arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.'. Not a word of baptifm, Father, Son, or Holy Ghoft, is here mentioned; had the firft been intended, the others affuredly would have been introduced to establish a precedent of the form which, Matthew tells us, he afterwards com

manded;