nay, though Melchisedecken, king of Salem, was at once priest of the Most High God, and the most illustrious type of Messiah; though he received tythes of Abraham, blessed him, and, as Paul informs us, was greater than he; yet neither Melchisedeck nor any of the nume rous worshippers for whom he officiated in the quality of God's priest, did ever stand in the relation of elect worshippers in the scripture sense of the word elect. Abraham was the first elect man; and it remains for those who assert the contrary of this, to prove their proposition—a thing they never can do by scripture." own infirmities. On all these subjects we can | confront him; but when he brings truth from a quarter which no human eye ever explored, when he tells us the mind of the Deity, and brings before us the counsels of that invisible Being, whose arm is abroad upon all nations, and whose views reach to eternity, he is beyond the ken of eye or of telescope, and we must submit to him. We have no more right to sit in judgment over his information, than we have to sit in judgment over the information of any other visiter who lights upon our planet, from some distant and unknown part of the universe, and tells us what worlds roll in these remote tracts which are be- The elect institution reared upon the patriarch yond the limits of our astronomy, and how the Abraham, and which has been made the deposDivinity peoples them with his wonders. Any ite of covenants, laws, services, glory and promprevious conceptions of ours are of no more val- ises, is quite distinct from the general righteousue than the fooleries of an infant; and should we ness of the world, whether that righteousness offer to resist or to modify upon the strength of our may have been derived from revelations made to conceptions, we would be as unsound and as un- men before the commencement of the elect inphilosophical as ever schoolman was with his cat- stitutions, or afterwards from traditions, or from egories, or Cartesian with his whirlpools of ether." an apprehension of God's existence derived from "Let us go back to the first christians of the the face of nature, the currency of events, and Gentile world. They turned from dumb idols the nature of human society among Gentiles, anto serve the living and the true God. They made cient and modern. I say the election is a sui gena simple and entire transition from a state as eris institution, in which the worshiper does not, bad, if not worse, than that of entire ignorance, with the uncertainty of a Mahometan idolator, to the christianity of the New Testament- a Chinese or Japanese, ask the remission of sins; Their previous conceptions, instead of helping but in which this blessing is stable and certain, them, behoved to be utterly abandoned; nor secured to him by the promise and oath of God, was there that intermediate step which so many two immutable things, by which it was impossiof us think to be necessary, and which we dig-ble for God to lie, that the man might have strong nify with the name of the rational theology of nature. In these days, this rational theology was unheard of; nor have we the slightest reason to believe that they were ever initiated into its doctrines, before they were looked upon as fit to be taught the peculiarities of the gospel. They were translated at once from the absurdities of paganism to that christianity which has come down to us, in the records of evangelical history, and the epistles which their teachers addressed to them. They saw the miracles; they acquiesced in them, as satisfying credentials of an inspired teacher; they took the whole of their religion from his mouth; their faith came by hearing, and hearing by the words of a divine messenger. This was their process, and it ought to be ours. We do not see the miracles, but we see their reality through the medium of that clear and unsuspicious testimony which has been handed down to us. We should admit them as the credentials of an embassy from God. We should take the whole of our religion from the records of this embassy; and, renouncing the idolatry of our own self-formed conceptions, we should repair to that word, which was spoken to them that heard it, and transmitted to us by the instrumentality of written language. The question with them was, What hear you? The question with us is, What read you? They had their idols, and they turned away from them. We have our fancies, and we contend, that, in the face of an authoritative revelation from heaven, it is as glaring idolatry in us to adhere to these, as it would be were they spread upon canvass, or chiseled into material form by the hands of a statuary." Election.-No. II. THE election taught by the college men contemplates all the righteous, from Abel to the resurrection of the dead, as standing in the relation of elect persons to God; than which nothing can be more opposed to fact and scripture: for though Abel, Enoch, and Noah, were worshippers of the true God, they were not elect men; consolation, who has fled into this institution for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before him in the gospel; which is the second apartment of the elect building, as Judaism was the first,-" In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" -a promise made to no other institution. In our last essay we ascertained two of the six things suggested to us by the term election, viz. that the living God was the elector, and that Abraham was the first elect person; and now if we ask when it began and when it shall end, I answer, first, that election will close at the end of the world-all the gracious purposes of the institution will be accomplished at that time-false religion and bad government-the domination of political and trading influences-and every thing which opposes itself to the religion and authority of this institution-shall have been put down; and angels and men shall behold this truth, that the God of Abraham is the true God, and Jesus the Messiah his Son; and that Mahomet and Confucius, Zoroaster, and Brahama, were self-created apostles. As for the commencement of the election, if Abraham was the first elect person, as we see he was, it follows this must have been when God called that patriarch from his native country to be the head of the elect people: "Now the Lord had said to Abraham, Get you out of your country, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation; and I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless you, and curse them that curse you; and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Gen. xii. Here, then, is the commencement of that institution which is finally to triumph over imposition and falsehood. It only remains for us to speak of the great and illustrious purposes for which God has set up this institution in the earth, and finally of the principle on which a man of any nation may be admitted to the privileges of it, viz. the remission of sins, &c. &c. First, then, in regard to the ends of the election, I say, it is the blessing The Pedobaptist. of mankind-"In you shall all the families of Second. Whether a man can believe, i. e. imthe earth be blessed." This is God's declared bibe the electing principle, is never answered in purpose in regard to mankind by the institution the Holy Scriptures-for this substantial reason, called "the election;" consequently its purpose that, in it, it is never asked. This is an unlearnis not (like the election of Edwards, Calvin, and ed question of modern Divinity, (i. e. Devility, others,) to exclude, curse, and destroy; but to if such a word or thing there be,) and could be gather, to bless, and to save! "In you shall all agitated only by fools and philosophers; all the the nations of the earth be blessed""I will world knowing that we must believe what is make you a blessing." Abraham, Isaac, and proved. Whether we will always act according Jacob, then, were not chosen by God for the to our rational and scriptural belief, is another mean partial purpose of being dragged into hea-question which the reader may answer by makven, will or no will, on the principle of final per- ing an appeal to his own conscience. If we severance; but for the general and benevolent would, how many would immediately be baptizpurpose of saving mankind by an institution of ed into Jesus Christ! PHILIP. which they were made the root or foundation.While the pulpit of fatalism represents the God of heaven both partial and cruel, the scriptural election furnishes us with the fairest specimen of his peerless impartiality and philanthropy: the lineaments of the divine character is in nothing more effulgent than in the blessing of the nations on the principles of an election, because it represents the Most High as anticipating the alienations and apostacies of his self-willed and unhappy creatures, running into all the idolatries and consequent immoralities of Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, &c. &c. and then providing for their redemption from these things by this elect institution, in which he had deposited a correct theology and the principles of a pure morality to be preached to the world in the fulness of time, i. e. after the wisdom of this world, viz. philosophy, government, and idolatry had been sufficiently proved incompetent to the purification and elevation of the human family. THE "Pedobaptist," No. 1, has appeared; and, like every thing of the sort, will do good as well as evil. In its direct influence it is calculated to enslave the ignorant and unwary; in its indirect influence it will create suspicions in such as dare to presume to think, and in its efforts to lull the conscience of hereditary Paidobaptists, it will awaken doubts where there were none before. Whether as an earnest of its future harvest, I presume not to say; but so it came to pass, that one presbyterian, who I think had agreed to print the "Pedobaptist," was immersed just after the appearance of its first number. For on his going down into the water to be immersed, it was discovered that the first number of the "Pedobaptist" was in his hat. A dangerous place, indeed, to carry Paidobaptists. From this drop we might expect a shower. Indeed I would not be astonished if this work should make many Paidobaptists. I am sure our Heavenly Father in all this has It gives up the point in the very first number; shown the wisdom and prudence of one who that is, it pretends to adduce no direct positive hides a piece of leaven in three measures of precept_nor example for the sprinkling of an inmeal until the whole be leavened. He has treat- fant. It gives up the point in another way, ed the rebellious and refractory nation of the which I am astonished has so long escaped the Jews as a woman would a bowl of meal set down notice of the baptists. It does not even pretend by the fireside, with the leaven in it, and turned, to infer the rite from any one portion of scripture and warmed, and tended, until the leavening in either Testament. The "Pedobaptist" acts process has commenced, in order that the whole a sort of double sophist. He neither adduces mass may be more speedily and certainly trans-command, precedent, example, nor inference for formed; yet, after all, it would scarcely work in us, so dead are we to heavenly things. Nevertheless the principles of this establishment, the church, must prevail-idolatry must be put down -the knowledge of God must cover the earth -the saints must obtain the government of the world-righteousness run down like a river, and peace like a flowing stream. Having ascertained, in a summary way, the elector, the person elected, the ends of the election, the time when it began and when it shall end, I shall speak of the principle on which it proceeds, and also on the sovereignty of God, and where it obtains in our religion, in some subsequent numbers. I only observe here, that Calvinistic election exhibits the divine sovereignty in a point in which it by no means obtains in christianity. It is not exhibited in a capricious choice of this, that, and the other person, and passing by others, as Calvinism would and does have it; but in the justification of sinners of all nations on the principle of faith, as will appear by and by, an act of God's sovereignty, which was very displeasing to the Jews. I shall close this paper with an observation or two for the reflection of the reader, until the appearance of the next number. First, then, it ought to be observed that scriptural election is managed entirely on the plan of political election, the ends thereof being the general welfare of the nations-"In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed." infant sprinkling from any one inspired writer. Infant sprinkling is but one rite, and as such, if proved by inference, it ought to be inferred from some one passage of scripture. But this has never been attempted, as far as I know by any Paidobaptist writer. Why, then, do they talk so much about inferring, and the validity of inference, you will ask, if they do not at least pretend to infer it? Because they despair of imposing it upon mankind in any other way than by inference; and few understand logic or the art of reasoning so well as to perceive that the whole must be in the premises. In this way I doubt not many honest Paidobaptists impose upon themselves. The sophism is this: Infant sprinkling is one rite, and ought to be all inferred from one passage of scripture. This they are conscious cannot be done, and therefore cut the rite into two; and then infer the infant from Moses, and the sprinkling from Paul; or they pretend to find an infant in Jesus' arms, and then find sprinkling in Isaiah; and by bringing the infant in Jesus' arms, and the "sprinkling many nations" in Isaiah, they put these two together, and having glued them fast, there stands infant sprinkling upon two legs! one resting upon the Old Testament and the other upon the New. Now, gentlemen, as you profess logic as well as divinity, I will try you here. It is conceded by you that you have neither command nor precedent for infant sprinkling: do, then, give me one passage of scripture in Old Testament or are not found. "1st. Infants of believers were found in the church before the coming of our Saviour. "2. Infants of believers are found in the Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and other Pedobaptist churches, since the coming of our Saviour. 3. Infants were found in the Saviour's arms when he was on earth. "4. Infants are in heaven. "Where Infants are not found. "1. They are not found in the land of Despair. "2. They are not found in the Baptist Church." I will ask, Where Infants were not found? 1. They were not found in the garden of Eden. 2. They were not found in Noah's ark, "a type of" something. 3. They were not found in the Patriarchal Church, from Noah to Abraham. 4. They were not found subjects of any rite for 2000 years. Where Infants were found. 1. They were found in the Jewish commonwealth. are to be found in Johnson's Historical Account of the several Translations of the Bible. These good and learned men entered on their work in the spring, 1607, and three years elapsed before the translation was finished. "From the mutability of language, the variation of customs, and the progress of knowledge, several passages in the bible require to be newly translated, or to be materially corrected. Hence, in the present age, when biblical literature has been assiduously cultivated, different parts of the sacred volume have been translated by able hands. The substituting a new translation of the bible in the room of the one now in common use, has been much debated. Dr. Knox, in his ingenious essays, together with others, argues against it; whilst Dr. Newcome, the late Lord Primate of Ireland, the late Dr. Geddes, of the Catholic persuasion, and the late Rev. Gilbert Wakefield, contended strenuously for it. The correction of several passages, however, would deprive Deists of many of their objections, prevent christians from being misled into some absurd opinions, and be the means of making the scriptures more intelligible, and consequently more beneficial to the world. "Dr. Alexander Geddes, at his decease, had got as far as the Psalms in the translation of the Old Testament. Dr. Newcome and Mr. Wakefield published entire translations of the New Testament. The Rev. Edmund Butcher, also, of Sidmouth, has laid before the public a Family Bible, in which many of the errors of the common translation are corrected, and notes added by way of illustration, whilst the text, broken down into daily lessons, is happily adapted to the purposes of family devotion." A Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things. Discipline of the Church.-No. VIII. Answer. We are not aware of the importance of the question, unless we form a correct view of the nature of the christian institution.Amongst some sects, and in some churches, they have agreed to meet once a fortnight, or once a month, and only require their members thus pe 2. They were found in the Ishmaelitish tribes. 3. They are found in the Mahometan church. 5. They are found in the Presbyterian church. 6. They were found in Sodom and Gomorrah. Besides these places, they are found in a hundred other places, too tedious to mention. And what does this prove! It proves that because the infants of believers and unbelievers were found in the Jewish congregation, so they ought to be found in the christian church. Because they were found in Sodom and Gomorrah, therefore they ought to be found in Christian syna-riodically to assemble. They censure those who gogues. Admirable logic!! We seriously request the Paidobaptist editor to insert Dr. Straith's critique found in this number, and to inform their readers that he is an impartial witness of their own party. New Translations. depart from the covenant of the church, or those who do not assemble twelve or twenty-four times a year. But the Head and Founder of the christian religion disclaims both the covenant and practice of such assemblies. The covenant and the practice are in direct contravention of his authority and design. If, then, the whole church meets once a month, faithfully and fully accord EVANS, in his Sketch of the Christian Sects, page 145, makes the following remarks on trans-ing to the covenant, they are in a sort of mutiny lations of the Scriptures: "Our English translation of the bible was made in the time and by the appointment of James the First. According to Fuller, the list of the translators amounted to forty-seven. This number was arranged under six divisions, and several parcels of the bible assigned them. Every one of the company was to translate the whole parcel; then they were to compare these together, and when any company had finished their part they were to communicate it to the other companies, so that nothing should pass without general consent. The names of the persons and places where they met together, with the portions of scripture assigned each company, against the Captain, or in a state of rebellion against the King. For they have neither his promises, blessing, nor presence, when they wittingly and cordially agree to neglect the weekly assembling of themselves together. They might as scripturally expect his countenance, blessing, and presence, should they agree to one annual or semi-annual meeting during their lives. The platform, as well as the practice, is antiscriptural. And I do not see why a church who agrees to meet once a month, should censure any member who will only visit them once a year. The same license for transgressing, which they claim for themselves, will equally tolerate him. But, I think, this matter is clearly proved in the pre ceding volumes of this work, if any thing is proved in it, viz. That the whole system of monthly meetings for business and to hear a text explained, is as foreign from the christian institutes as transubstantiation, consubstantiation, Christmas or Easter carnivals. Viewing, as I do, the custom of assembling monthly for business and preaching, to be a branch from the same root from which spring Lent, Easter, Christmas, Whitsunday, and Good Friday, I could not blame the delinquent more than the observer of this tradition of the fathers. But where an assembly, constituted upon the traditions of the apostles, agrees to meet every Lord's day, the person who willingly, for weeks, forsakes the assembling of the saints, is on the high road to apostacy. This Paul avows by his connecting with exhortation to perseverance, and dehortations against apostacy, his remonstrance against forsaking the assembling of themselves together. No person who detaches himself from a christian assembly for his ease or any worldly concern, can deserve the confidence of his brethren, any more than a wife who deserts the bed and board of her husband, or a child who, in his minority, deserts the table and fireside of his father and mother, can deserve the confidence and affection of those relatives they have forsaken. Nor can a church consistently regard and treat as brethren those who do not frequent their stated solemnities. Such absentees are to be dealt with as other offenders; and if reformation be not the result, they are as worthy of exclusion as other transgressors. Demas was as much of an apostate as Hymeneus and Philetus. ranks, and they wear the same visage in their order, except with this small difference, that the Baptists build their meeting houses near ponds or rivers, while the Presbyterians build theirs on the tops of the hills. But were christians to get into the spirit of the institution of the Great Philanthropist, they would have as much relish for the weekly meeting in honor of the resurrection of their chief, and in anticipation of their own, as the stranger has for the sweet word home. But so long as like the Jews they meet in memory of the reason assigned in the fourth commandment, or by an act of congress, they will have nothing to fire their zeal, kindle their love, animate their strains, or enlarge their hopes. And as demure and silent as Quakers, except when the parson, who has a plenary inspiration, is present, they will sit or stand, as the case may be, until they hear the sermon, and all the appurtenances thereto belonging. Now if such persons were to be translated into an old fashioned christian assembly, they would be as much astonished with the natural simplicity, affection, and piety of the worshippers, as a blind man would be on the recovery of his sight. To return to the point-Were a member of a family to be missing from table ten times a week, or twice a day, would we not at last inquire for his health or cause of his absence, and visit him accordingly? Most certainly we would. Why not then exhibit the same concern for a member of Christ's family? Absence from the table always exhibits a want of appetite, or some more pressing call. On either hypothesis, when a member is missing, it deserves inquiry-and when the true cause is ascertained, it demands a suitable treatment. But that stiffness and formality which are now the mode, and the want of due regard to the nature, design, and authority of every part of the christian institution, lead us into a practice alike repugnant to reason and Query 26. Should the majority govern in all cases, or should unanimity be considered indispensable in all matters which come before the church? Few christians seem to appreciate the wisdom and benevolence of the Great Founder of the christian institution exhibited most impressively in this instance, in laying the disciples under the blissful necessity and obligation of keeping up a spirited social intercourse. The grand design of the christian institution is to draw us to a common centre, in approaching which we ap-revelation. proximate towards each other in every step. Thus, with the great fountain of life and happiness in view, in soaring to it we are necessarily elevated together above earthly influences, and drawn together by ties and considerations which draw all hearts and hands to the throne of the Eternal. Now the christian institution is the most social thing under the heavens. But to substitute hearing the same sermon, subscribing the same covenant, and going to the same meeting place in lieu of the social institutions of the kingdom of heaven, is to substitute a spider's thread for a cable to retain a ship to her anchorage during a tempest. Nothing is more unlike the christian kingdom than the dry, cold formalities which appear in the inside of a Baptist or Presbyterian meeting house. The order within the walls is as near to the order of a country school, abating the ardor of youth, as it is to the order of that house over which the Son of God presides; "whose house are we, if we hold fast our begun confidence unshaken to the end." Men depart as far from nature as they do from christianity in conforming to the regulations of the Geneva school. The doctrine is as cold as moonshine, and the initiated in their arrangements and order are like so many icicles hanging to the eaves of a house in a winter's morning, clear, cold, formal, in rank and file; but they will break rather than bend towards each other. A tree frog is generally the color of the timber, rail, or fence on which it it is found. So are the Baptists. They are, in these regions, generally the offspring, or converts from the Presbyterian Answer.-Carrying matters by a numerical force, or by a majority of votes, is very natural under popular governments. And as the Baptists have very generally been republicans in politics, they are republicans in ecclesiastics. And, indeed, in all matters of a temporal nature, there seems to be no other way of deciding. Yet it does not well consort with the genius of christianity to carry a point by a majority. Where the law and testimony are either silent or not very explicit upon any question, reason says that we ought not to be either positive or dictatorial. There are but some hints and allusions to be found in the New Testament on this subject. Perhaps the reason is, that the churches set in order by the apostles had not much occasion for the resolution of such queries. There was not so much left to their decision, as, in our superior sagacity, we have found necessary. As the government was on the shoulders of the Great King, the church had not so much to do with it as we moderns imagine. Some things, it is true, are left to the brethren; such as the reception of members, the selection of persons to offices, and the arrangements which are purely secular. The former in their nature require unanimity-the latter may dispense with a majority. In receiving a member, he must be received by all, for all are to love and treat him as a brother. In selecting a person to an office, necessary in church government, but the New Testament alone. Shall he be frowned on as heretical and disorderly, by the whole community; or may he not with propriety be received into another congregation more liberal, or whose views of the gospel are more coincident with his own? This latter is the opinion maintained by me. The supposition that expulsions for such causes, are not to be apprehended, and could not produce the withdrawment of favor by other congregations, is contradicted by experience and facts, if report is true. Notwithstanding these remarks in the following sentences,--"Herodion feels the want of horns, and would have the creature furnished with at least one which he might occasionally use. My brother of the Herald would wish to feed the stag well, but would still be sawing off the horns: perhaps I may wrong him in so saying, for indeed he is very modest about it; but, for my part, I do not love even an image of the beast." I say, notwithstanding these remarks, I am persuaded that, in relation to this subject, your opinions and my own are exactly the same. If not, I should be pleased to know what are yours. such as the bishop's, deacon's, or that of a mes- | each week, or that no covenant or by-laws are senger, there is not the same necessity; yet a near approach to unanimity is absolutely necessary, and if attainable, is much to be preferred. But in matters purely secular, such as belong to the place of meeting, and all the prerequisites, circumstances, and adjuncts, there is not the same necessity for a full unanimity. To require a unanimity in all questions which we moderns bring into our churches, is to require an impossibility. But in secular affairs, in the primitive church, what we call a committee, or arbitrators, were chosen, and some of the questions which we submit to the brotherhood were submitted to the rulers or bishops. Take out of the church's business what the ancients referred to a committee, and what belonged to the bishops, there is not so much left to quarrel about. The overseers or rulers were only in such matters executors of the law of the sovereign authority. When a man was proved to be a drunkard, or a reviler, or a fornicator, it was not to be submitted to the vote of the brotherhood whether he ought to be expelled. When a man came forward, and was born of water, or immersed into the faith in the presence of a church, it was not to be decided by a vote whether he should be received into the society. When a child is born into a family, it is not to be voted whether it shall be received into it. It is true that when a man is born into the kingdom of heaven, it may be necessary for him to apply, and to be received into some particular congregation, in which he is to be enrolled, and in fellowship with which he is to walk; and then he must be unanimously received. But it is worthy of remark that a large share of brotherly love, and the not laying an undue stress upon a perfect unanimity will be more productive of it than we are aware of; and the more it is sought after in a contrary spirit, the more difficult it will be to obtain. EDITOR. For the Christian Baptist, MR. EDITOR,-In your Essay No. VII. on the "Discipline of the Church," in the March number of the Christian Baptist, I discover that you have taken an improper view of the question which lately called forth a little discussion by "Herodion" and myself. He does, indeed, maintain the affirmative of the question, "Does the expulsion of a member from an individual church of the Baptist faith and order, exclude him from fellowship with the whole denomination?" and is, moreover, favorable to appeals, in some cases, to associations for the adjustment of differences: but, it was not from any thing said by me, that you received the impression that I approve of appeals to co-ordinate and sister churches. You probably received it from "Herodion" himself, who supposed that to be my alternative, if I rejected his opinion. RELIGIOUS HERALD. Richmond, March 14, 1829. Desultory Remarks. BETHANY, APRIL 6, 1829. TO-MORROW, Deo volente, I depart from home for Cincinnati, in the expectation of meeting there the Champion of Infidelity in two continents. I want something to complete the May number of this work, and finding my mind dissipated on a variety of concerns and topics, I cannot bring it to bear upon any one with any degree of energy. I this moment snatched my pen, determined to write something; and now that I have it in my fingers, I can find nothing to write. I have sometimes advised young public speakers when they began to excuse themselves for having nothing to say, to tell their audience how unprepared they were, and then to go into a detail of the reasons why they were destitute of any thing worthy of utterance or hearing. It occurs to me that the philosophy which authorises such a course in public speakers, on certain occasions, will equally apply to a writer for the public. And, perhaps, in going into such a detail a person may find something worthy of being heard or read. Now, to make an experiment, I have said that the reason why I cannot bring my mind to bear upon any topic, is, that the different excitements which a thousand little things unworthy of being told present, have exhausted all those energies of thought which lead into regular trains of reflection, and without which, no point can be carried which requires systematic ratiocination. But, like the needle touched with the magnet, which, though made to vibrate What I contend for is this, and if I am wrong, from point to point, settles to the pole; so my I am open to conviction, and shall be pleased to mind tends to the great question which enbe corrected by those who are more experienced grosses life and death, time and eternity. And and better taught. If one congregation of pro- although I have not for months written any fessing, immersed believers, should take it into thing upon the sceptical system, it has not for a their head to exclude a brother, for any opinion single hour during the day been absent from or practice of his, derived from the scriptures, my thoughts. I have put myself upon the scepsupported thereby, or not contradictory thereto,tical premises, and made myself, as far as I such expulsion ought not to bring upon him the discountenance of other congregations or individuals. Let us suppose him expelled, merely because he believes that the proper exposition of scripture is by paragraphs, and not by texts, that bread should be broken by disciples, not once a month or quarter, but on the first day of could, doubt with them. I have explored the different systems, ancient and modern, and have made their difficulties appear in my own eyes as large as life. Now I may tell my friends and the public, that, however I may manage this discussion, of one thing I am conscious, that I am much more radically and irrecoverably con |