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    fant daughter of the Duchess of Berri , ) when even in our own body is found a writer to set up the strange notion of the propriety of infant sprinkling as a Christian rite , derived from the apostles . The true Christian will not , however , be led away by such strange

    fancies : he will consider what baptism really was , and that it could not be introduced till the parties were prepared to be disciples . Marke disciples was the precept ; the initiatory rite was the consequence : and how a disciple is to be made of a babe who cannot

    assent to any proposition , it is in vain for any learned Rabbmism to attempt to explain . We must not set the plain terms of a law aside to bring it within the pale of tradition . For , had the tradition been well-grounded , and we believe that there is no foundation

    for it , this would no more justify the practice than it would justify Peter ' s error which was by Paul so justly condemned . "

    Upon this precious morceau of theological lore , which , in the estimation of the writer and perhaps of the 01 rtoWoi with whom confidence of assertion and a contemptuous sneer supply the place of proof , is regarded as a decisive answer to a late Plea

    fqr Infant Baptism , I beg leave to offer the following animadversions . In the first place , this political Christian , or Christian Politician , professes to soften the severity of his censure upon the Romish error of baptismal salvation out of courtesy to the author of the Plea , who has asserted

    the obligation of infant baptism upon totally different grounds . The author is not insensible to the intended kindness , and in return he would whisper to his gentle monitor , that another time it might be advisable just to take the pains to understand a question before he publishes his remarks upon it .

    But the Christian Politioan regards infant baptism as a strange fancy . —• Perhaps he considers infant circumcision as also a strange fancy : and yet there are many true Christians who seriously believe that circumcision

    was a divine institution . — Perhaps the Christian Politician may go a little further still : he may think public worship ft strange fancy : he may call the Lord ' s Supper a strange fancy : he may regard the appointment of the Lord ' s-day as * a religious and joyful

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    commemoration of the resurrection of Christ as a strange fancy ; for these external rites , however reasonable and useful in themselves , yet as Christian , institutions , they stand upon no other foundation , nor can a better be

    desired , than infant baptism , viz . ( he uniform , universal , undisputed practice of the primitive Church from the apostolic age . This the Christian Politician , by a misnomer , calls tradition , whereas it is in truth the very strongest

    species of historic evidence . It is by far the surest method of tracing an institution to its original authority , infinitely better than any positive testimony from single texts which are liable to be altered and mutilated in a

    thousand ways . And , in fact , it is the self-same evidence by which the records of the Christian religion are authenticated awd their genuineness is established . For how is it known

    that the Gospel of Matthew was written by Matthew , and the Gospel of John by John , but from the uniform undisputed testimony of Christian antiquity : and why do the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Book of

    Revelation stand upon a lower scale of credibility or rather of authenticity than the Gospels and Paul ' s Epistles : but that they are in the number of the ctviiksyc ^ svoc , books whose genuineness was not universally admitted by the earliest Christians ?

    But though the rite of infant baptism stands upon this very strong ground of primitive antiquity , yet it appears that those who practise it are not true Christians in the estimation of our Christian Politician . «* The true

    Christian will not , " says he , " be fed away by such strange fancies . " This , methinks , is somewhat of a sweeping censure . I have myself been pretty severely schooled for not extending — — " — - ~ - — — _ - — - ^ " ^ , -. * J 1 *_^ J& M A V ft

    ^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ K indiscriminately the appellation of Unitarian to the mixed multitude , who , for one reason or another , claim the title , and who gather in such swarms around the Unitarian .

    standard , that they almost remind one of the old saying , " how we app / es swim T * But never did I dream of excluding from the great community of Christians any who professed to believe in Christ , and whose lives

    were correspondent to their profession , for any difference of opinion or practice relating either to Christian

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    Mr . Belsham , on his " JRlea for Infant Baptism . 607

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1817, page 607, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2469/page/35/