4. Frightful consequences, affixed by one writer to the arguments of another, ought not to be urged as decisive reasoning constituting the law of a case.

In short, the right or wrong of this case is determinable only by the written revealed will of God, a test of truth, which all the parties will allow.

Having thus cleared the court of a bustling, noisy crowd, that do no good because they give no evidence, and do a deal of harm because they perplex the question by throwing in a quantity of foreign matter, let us proceed to investigate what is the law of Christ in this case.

We affirm, then, that it is JUST, and RIGHT, and agreeable to the revealed will of Christ, that Baptist churches should admit into their fellowship such persons as desire admission on profession of faith and repentance, although they refuse to be baptized by immersion, because they sincerely believe they have been rightly baptized by sprinkling in their infancy.

By way of explanation, I beg leave to distinguish what our divines call the esse, or the being of a church, from the melius esse, or best being of one; for, although I affirm such a mixt church to be a rightly constituted church, yet I do not say its constitution is so perfect as that of the primitive churches. A church that tolerates is a good church; but a church that has no errors to tolerate is a better. We do not, therefore, blame those churches, which

were never required to admit unbaptized believers, for maintaining strict communion; we only say, where the requisition is made, a compliance with it is just and right.

In support of this sentiment, we beg leave to offer two sorts of arguments, the first taken from those general principles of analogy, on which, the Scriptures declare, the christian church is founded; and the second from the express laws of Jesus Christ recorded in scripture for the 'regulation of our conduct.

God is an intelligent being. An intelligent being exercises his intelligence when he constructs any exterior work, and the work will resemble the intelligence of its maker. A wise and beneficent being

will naturally and necessarily form a work full of beneficence and wisdom. Should a perfect being create a world, it would be a world expressive of his invisible perfections; should he form a church in this world, it would be a church constituted on similar principles; and, if skill and compassion were excellencies of his nature, compassion and skill might be expected in the construction of his church. There would be an analogy, or resemblance, between the ties of nature and the social bonds of grace.

We find, on reading the New Testament, that God is the author of christianity, the creator of the christian church, that he hath displayed the eminence of his perfections in the construction of it, and that

he hath inviolably preserved an analogy between the natural and preternatural worlds. This is the true ground of all the parables, in which Christ taught his heavenly doctrine, and of all the discourses, by which he displayed the conduct of God to men under resemblances of a father and his sons, a shepherd and his flock, a husbandman and his lands, and so on. For the same reasons, we are expressly told of the aboundings, or abundance, of the wisdom and prudence, the power and pity, the forbearance and patience, love and compassion of God toward his church. He exercises the same attributes in the church as in the world, with this only difference, the display is brightest in the first. This is what we call analogy, and from this general source we derive many particular arguments from the nature and fitness of things in defence of our proposition.

First; It is just, and right, and agreeable to the nature and fitness of things, that we should diminish evils and difficulties, which we are not able wholly to remove. There are in nature a thousand obstacles in the way of every just pursuit. Agriculture, commerce, navigation, literature, government, civil and domestic, are all attended with difficulties, some of which threaten the subversion of the whole. It should seem better, at first sight, that no obstacles should exist to discourage such just and laudable pursuits; but they do exist, and we cannot help their existence, yea, perhaps their existence may be neces

sary to give being and exercise to some of the finest abilities and virtues of mankind.

Our skill, and our duty too, consist neither in wholly removing these evils, for that is not in our power, nor in remaining plaintive and inactive, doing nothing where much may be done, though not all we wish; but in diminishing these ills, and in making the most and best of such materials as providence hath actually put into our hands. Every projector of a great design exercises his penetration in foreseeing what obstacles may obstruct the execution of it, and much of his skill lies in providing against them.

We apply this to the case in hand. Christianity is highly fitted, and admirably adapted to the actual state and condition of men and things in this world. It was excellently said by Jesus Christ, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath, implying that positive religion was so contrived as to yield in certain cases to natural and necessary contingencies. The man, who uses all diligence to obtain evidence of believers' baptism, and cannot obtain it, and yet desires admission to the Lord's table, throws a difficulty in the way of the church, a difficulty too, which they cannot remove; but the question is, can they not diminish it? It hath pleased God to give this man faith in Christ and moral obedience; but it does not please him to give him light into adult baptism. He does not belong to the world, he does not desire to trouble the church, he only

wishes for a peaceable admission to fellowship; we cannot give him knowledge, we cannot baptize him without it; but we can admit him to the Lord's table, and so build God's house with the best materials we have. It is a case of insurmountable difficulty; it cannot be wholly removed; but it may be diminished. This argument is taken from that analogy which there evidently is between the economy of nature and that of christianity; and, if it be a less evil for an unbaptized believer to be incorporated in the church than to lie exposed in the world, the reasoning is valid.

Secondly; It is fit, and right, and agreeable to the nature of things, that there should be no disqualification where there is no crime. On this principle we argue against a sacramental test in the episcopal church. Christian churches are free states, and full fellowship is the new birthright of every regenerate man. The candidate for fellowship, who has examined believers' baptism by immersion, and cannot obtain evidence of the truth of it, is indeed in a state in which his knowledge is imperfect; but his imperfection is innocent, because he hath exercised all the ability and virtue he has, and his ignorance is involuntary, yea, perhaps he may have exercised ten times more industry and application, though without success, than many others, who have obtained evidence. To deny church fellowship to persons of genuine virtue, and of, it may be, superior virtue too, is to affix a disgrace and inflict a punishment both without