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    But u wisdom is justified of her children . " And while we are on this subject , it may not be disagreeable to some of your readers to hear the opinions of some eminent men relative to primitive custom . Our poet Milton was a man of universal literature , and

    of an upright , independent turn of mind ; few were better acquainted with all matters of history and Christian antiquity , and his judgment concerning Baptism was , ** that the practice here alluded to of baptizing ardults by immersion , came nearest ,

    to the primitive practice } but in the latter part of his life he was not a professed member of any particular sect among Christians ; he frequented none of their assemblies , nor made use of their peculiar rites in his family . " These are Toland ' s words , in his Life

    of Milton . Of the same opinion too was Mr . Whiston , who succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge . His sentiment was so decided , that he at length regularly attended the ministry of the famous Dr . Foster , ( who was ? f this persuasion , ) of whom Pope

    writes , Let modest Foster , if he will , excel Ten metropolitans in preaching well . Hear what Whiston says of himself , and of other eminent men of his time , on this subject .

    44 In the same year , 1712 , 1 published a small pamphlet , entitled , * Primitive Infant Baptism Revived , ' or , An Account of the Doctrine and Practice of the two first Centuries concerning the Baptism of Infants , in the words of the sacred and primitive writers

    themselves . Now , the occasion of my discovery of this ancient error of the baptizing of uncatechized infants , was a question put to me by Mr . Kelswell , when 1 was preparing to baptize him and a sister of his , who were very good Christians , except that they had never been baptized before , whether

    I should not think it better that Baptism should be used after instruction , than before . My answer was this ; that I must honestly confess , that I should have thought so ; but that I was no legislator , and so submitted to what I then thought a law of Christ . Whereupon 1 set myself to examine what the New Testament and the most early Fathers meant by the words which they used , when they speak of

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    Baptism of Infants , or little childre n ¦ * I mean yipana , or ntcc&icc , and which they esteemed not incapable of that holy ordinance ; and I soon discovered , that they were only those capable of catechistic instruction , but not fit for understanding harder matters ; and that none but such , in the first and

    second centuries , were ever made partakers of Baptism . This most important discovery I soon made known to the world in this paper , which Bishop Hoadly and Dr . Clarke greatly approved y but went on in their ordinary

    practice notwithstanding . 1 sent also this paper , by an intimate friend , Mr . Haines , to Sir Isaac Newton , aud desired to know his opinion . The answer was this ; that they had both discovered the same long before . Nay , I afterwards found that Sir Isaac Newton

    was so hearty for the Baptists , as well as for the Eusebians or Arians , that he sometimes suspected these two were the two witnesses in the Revelation . "* The learned Mr . Gilbert Wakefield had pursued the same course of inquiry into primitive antiquity , and arrived at the same conclusion , as may be seen in his new translation of St .

    Matthew ' s Gospel , and in his Plain and Short Account of the Nature of Baptism , in which he shews , " 1 st , that Scripture Baptism was performed by immersion , 2 nd , that it was not performed on infants ; 3 rd , that it was not intended for the children of

    Christian parents . " Which reminds me , that the most eminent of those learned men who have rejected water Baptism , were yet decided in the opinion , that the primitive mode was by immersion , and that uninstructed infants were not the subjects of it . -f

    This concise investigation presented to the reader in these letters , it will be perceived , has not been made in the way of zealous controversy , but of calm inquiry , in reference to primitive

    antiquity , and not with an entire ignorance of the probabilities and difficulties on each side of the question ; and it was thought that it would not be disagreeable to some of your readers

    * Memoirs of the Life and Writing's of Mr . William Whiston . Written by himself . I . 204 . f See Soeinus * s Treatise de JBaptismo / Mr . Robert Barclay s Apology for the Quakers * Baptism ; and Mr . Eiulyn ' a Previous Question-

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    6 {) 2 On Mr . Bclsliams Censure of Mr . Robinson .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1818, page 692, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2482/page/28/