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    Additional Miscellaneous Communications , which arrived too late to come into their proper place . Essex House , Sir , December 12 , 1817 .

    AT > the Christian Surveyor of Mthe Political World encountered the Plea for Infant Baptism with fair argument , instead of an insulting sneer , he would not have been visited with

    the severity of rebuke of which he now so grievously complains . He surely could not expect that an attack so wholly unprovoked , and so " very improper , whether the writer was considered in the character of a gentleman or a Christian , " would escape animadversion . But how far that

    animadversion may have exceeded the just limits of *• due Christian animosity , ' is a question which the reader will probably decide with more impartiality than either of the contending parties .

    1 do not mean to comment upon the ** verv bad taste'' of substituting an offensive nicknanie , instead of a grave reason . ** This sort of language is too common with such polemics as thks writer , and escapes tteeir pen

    almost as a thing of coarse . " The writer very welt knows that Infant Baptism is a very different thing from <* babesprinkling * , " though it suits fam purpose to confound them . The subject of the rite may be imperative , while tJae mode i » discretional . And I

    cannot suppose him so ignorant as to HiabitiMii tba't baptism- universally signifies total immersion . I willingly \ aekrmwledge that the charge of " wielding his theological Hatchet with a more ruthless mind

    than the savage throws hi& tomahawk , " is apparently very harshr But tshis charge was alleged upon the su'p * - pc » sition > that the writer really intended what his words express * viz . to exclude the Peedo- baptists from the commaeiity of ' tr «« Christians j" in wWeh ease the censure would have been

    perfectly just . Ii ^ e now denies that he *• ev 4 fcr ratitnated that habe-spt ^ mklers should be excluded from eternal sal * - to&oik And to p » ay the trtith , I never suspected him of such extreme fr > lfy . Yei a * he has not explained what he dfct mea * i < by his extraordinary language , all that I can now eta if * t& request , that when the explanation appears , the reatter will have the

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    goodness to dilute and modify th * charge in doe proportion . I am happy to learn , that this Friend of mine , for with this title he is plea sed to honour me , even to excess , in everyparagraph of his late reply , has taketk the trouble to read before he wrote *

    I have known some , who professed friendshi p * who railed unmercifull y before they bad read . I must , however , deeply regret that the style and language of this unfortunate Plea is so obscure and intricate , that this worthy Friend , after having read the work

    over and over , < c once and again , * with «« no small astonishment , " with " pen in hand , " and * a thought of making his observations public / ' and for this purpose having collected some voluminous " extracts , * ' and , in short ,

    after having read this mysterious volume , «« with more attention than any owe has ever done , or is freteafrer likely to do , " it is > I say , quite afflicting to think that * notwithstanding all these laudable exertions , this candid and industrious Friend should have

    completely misconceived , ant ! most grossly misstated the main argument of the Plea . ~ I a « i amused , satys he , with th > e introduction of Messrs . Jerome and

    Atrgxistine , Fetegrcs and CeTestins , ( such , I suppose , is the present fashionable way of referring to the celebrated writers of antiquity , by men of refined and approved taste , ) " in this contro * versy , who , with the most eminent

    men of the frnb century , are to . decide it . They might as well be authorities for all the absurdities that then prevailed in the Christian world . It fc not ftoeir assertron on thfc or any other

    point which hzrs weight with me . Infant Baptism had crept in among Christians before their time , bat their testimony is of no validity in thi * q « p es * ion . "

    Sir , I am sate it te inrpossibFe that thi » candid Friend should have read any thitig- in my btxok with half **<* astonishment with which I perused tfre shove- paragraph . Who wouM m > l coneFttde , from the wrrteVk

    Tanguege ^ tha € tft « Anthor of the Pfe * had Efppearfod to Messrs . Jerotfie , &c . » as 8 Ri * hoT » fiesr f © decfdte the comtro-? e ¥ sy , amd to est&btoh the ujniversal awd perpetna ^ oMgsrtH > it of Inftot Bftt >« fc » i ? HmJ this been , fodfeetf , the 4 M * P the argument and ltd author

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    730 Mr . Relsktvm on his " Plea for InfanJt Baptism .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1817, page 730, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2471/page/34/