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I am reminded again , " that it might be advisable just to take the pains to understand a question , before I publish my remarks upon it . " To this I have already replied ; and I can only add , that I believe no one has read the Plea
with so much attention as I have done , or is likely hereafter to do it . Our friend now deluges us with a quantity of perhaps ' s . Perhaps I think
this , and perhaps I think that , all of which are intended to convey insinuations against my creed . This may do very well in a polemical diviney it is a ruse de guerre with these gentry , with which I have no concern s but
when he takes upon himself to assert , that infant circumcision and the Lord ' s supper stand upon no better foundation than his babe-sprinkliwg , he must give me leave to demur . 1 shall observe only on the first , that the command for the rite is upon record , and that it has been observed from the time orf
Abraham to the present moment . He has no command to shew for his babesprinkling ; and that it was the uaiform , universal , undisputed practice of the primitive church , from the apostolic age , is a mere assertion without proof . Indeed , the sprinkling , instead of baptizing , is of a . date far posterior to the age of the apostles .
I come now to our friend ' s tirade against the Unitarians , who do not agree with him in his exclusive system ; " the mixed multitude , " as he delights in calling them , " 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 apples swim ! " Whence he gained this delicate allusion , I will not
stay to inquire : but for my own part , 1 should have thought it a cause of triumph , that such swarms gathered around the Unitarian standard . I joined it long ago , when our friend , I believe ^ was still in the chains of Calvinistic
theology ; and the prospect of a multitude being under the same banners would have been very cheering . I tejoice that the Unitarian cause is now in a very different situation from what it then was . I trust that more and
more will be daily added to that assembly , which worships the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , though they may differ as much as I « i » from the theological system of Mr .
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Belsham . From what I see of them they will not permit , and I hope they never will permit , any domineering Rabbi to prescribe rules for their feitk With this sentiment of mine , which I cherish in common with the mixed multitude of my Unitarian brethren I
trust that the readers of your Repository cannot , from any writingof mine be led to believe that I should have a wish to " wield the theological hatchet with a more ruthless mind than the savage throws his tomahawk . " I hope aad trust , that I have learned better
ear Saviour ' s precept , judge not and ye shall not be judged , 1 have no where said , nor ever intimated , that bc . be-sprinklers should be excluded from eternal salvation . Much greater
errors than this may be entertained by those that stand at the last day before the righteous Judge , who , in his prophetical description of it , points out -to us things of far greater importance .
Bait I am not only charged with being an advocate for an exclusive system , which I abhor , but to excite a greater horror against me , I am coupled with ** the aoted John of Leyden . " Our friend probably takes me for a baptist , and through me he advances this tirade against that
respectable body of Christians , with whom , if I ana not united in the necessity of retaining the rite among Christians , yet I respect their observance of it , as they follow thie precept in its real sense , reall y baptising their disciples , and not admitting them , till they arc capable of becoming disciples . .
I am amused With the introduction of Messrs . Jerome and Augustine Pel&gius and Celestius , in this con * troversy , who , with the most eminent men of the fifth century , are to decide it . They might as well be authorities for all the absurdities that then prevailed in the Christian world . It is
not their assertion on this or any other point , that has weight with me . Infant baptism had crept in among Christians before their time , but their testimony is of oo validity in this
question . The doctrine of tradition ha * been well discussed by Popish and Protestant writer *** but I have in vain looked for satisfactory information on this subject m the Plea for Into * Baptism . . . A # to the desire stated |> y our fcia *
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050 Reply to Mr . Behham by Ignotus .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1817, page 656, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2470/page/16/
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