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    argument hi favour of Infant Baptism , front its being readily and generally adopted iu national churches . This argument , 1 see , is made use of by Mr . Belsham , in his pamphlet on Infant Baptism , and is taken , like most of his unfortunate criticisms ,

    from Mr . Wall , I hope it will make his pamphlet sell among the clergy of the Established Church , and therefore I most generously notice it . But I fear the argument will have little weight with his dissenting friends , notwithstanding his candour and his

    compliments . 1 should call this a strange objection and a strange argument , because they appear to me , on truly Christian principles , to defeat their own object . Ecclesiastical , like civil establishments , take their sanction from human law ; things indifferent in themselves derive all their

    consequence from the civil magistrate . His object is utility * not truth , as Bishop Warburton states . I shall take leave to add , that under his ( the civil magistrate ' s ) direction , religious rites lose their nature , and become

    civil ones * Religious establishments , under a weak though confident plea of the unity of the faith * assumed ( Whether rightly or not is of little consequence ) on the authority of primitive antiquity , cripples and

    disfranchises personal religion , disqualifies for the exercise of private judgment , and , in short , aims to erect one great chuwh monarchyf whose members are hot citizens but subjects ; whose consciences are not to be consulted , but

    controlled ; not to be liberalized , but restrained ; not to be tolerated in their own opinions , but to be bound , by a sure pledge , to the public faith . Such is the nature , such are the aims of all ecclesiastical establishments , such the primary end and secret springs of all alliances between church and

    state . And to their several purposes what could administer so efficaciously as Infant Baptisti ) ?* It has been the ¦ . . ; . > n » . f-i ) - ') . . . . . ¦ - . ' ' rj . ' i ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ? The ground of its adoption in the CJreek a « U Latin established churches , mig-ht be easily accomited for on

    min-^ i ples Yery tar f / rwn beuig \ i ^ as ^ ofrble and just ; thoughbeing- ^ p ^ 9 , ^ W ? ^^ Would of couf&e "become permanent . . Yet provision ¦ Svait ; ev 6 n t ^ eti inaoe For the ftnptfcih of ad tilts . At tlir R&jbrVti ^ foii it i « well kAblvh that most « f tht ProtestWiht churchy , as tbe tatin tthd fit cek churches

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    very ro ^ t as it w ere of this majestic tree . Thence was derived its great vigour atidi ample spread , which has occasioned the triumph of ecclesiastical dominion and despotic power . Christ , according to the account given of him in the four Gospels , does not appear ever to have been in a situation for exercising authority on the principles of the Jewish hierarchy , or of the Roman civil power . He was far removed from both . If from the

    former he was not wholly a seceder , we find him much at variance with the maxims and practices of its priests ; and if he did not directly oppose the Mter , we find him warning his

    followers against mixing their state polity with the morality and religion which he taught . Thtis we read that Christ called his disciples to him , and said , « Ye know that the princes of thfc Gentiles exercise dominion over

    them , and they that are great exercise authority upon them . But it shall not be so among you : but whosoever will be great among you , let him be your servant . Even as the Soft of Man came not to be ministered unto , but to minister , and to give his life

    a ransom for many . ' * Matt . xx . 25 . And though we find him making a dear distinction between the obligations of religion and the cl&iins of iivil government ^— " Render therefore unt 6 Ciaesar the things that are Caesar ' s *

    and unto God the things that are CJodV *—yet , when agreeably to some vague notion of his being accused of calling himself the King of the Jiws , Pilate piit the question , - " Art thou the King of the Jews , " wfe hear him

    appropriate it to himself in a very different , even in a spiritual sense : 44 Thou sayest : but my kingdom is not of this world . To this end wafc I born , and for this cause came I into

    had been before , were united together by harmonies and confessions qf faith . Sfee Quick * s Synodicon . But it will be' * ec 6 llected , that these confession * contained other doctrines , which ttitiiiy Christians db

    not therefore reckon reasonable or * cVipturrtl . In the 17 th Article of the Gfturck of England , the baptistn of inf ^ ts ap || eai ^ to Ve , « fte » i ^« 4 iW ^^^ v ^ « ^ " l'W » - .. il ^ Thp baptism ot yopny . c ^ iWr ^ n i \ faK an v wif ^ e to be retained in tbe church SepBishftp Burnel s Exposition of this Article . An ^ tliere' bail alWys bccii k , ti * rv \ ce ( or A «? baptism of thoa * of ri ^ er yikih .

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    On Mr . Belsham ^ <* Pletijbr Infant Baptism . " 35

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1819, page 35, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1768/page/35/