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petition , which he is verily persuaded is sinful . I cannot endure a trick any where , much less in religion * The archbishop ( adds Mr . Lindsey ) mav be held by some to be too severe a casuist . But if it was his opinion , that a man who after the Revolution
continued attached to the late King James , could not consistently or honestly frequent a communion of Christians where their Majesties King William and Queen Mary were prayed for ; what would he have replied , thought I often with myself , in the case of one who was not barely present , but was
the mouth of the congregation in offering up prayers to God , which were believed to be derogatory , and injurious to his peerless majesty and incommunicable perfections , and , in the mind of the offerer , a false and unworthy representation of him to others ? This seemed a trick in
religion , which the honest mind of that prelate would have still less endured " The Three Denominations of Protestant Dissenters are very accurately described : the Baptists are divided into Particular and General , and a
deserved tribute is paid to the latter , as * ' an inquisitive and enlightened body of Christians . " Here Mr . Belsham says , " Another party has lately appeared in the Christian world which has hitherto
been embraced by comparatively a very small number , and is not likely ever to make many proselytes ; because it contravenes the uniform practice of the Christian Church from the age of the apostles ; I mean the party of those who deny the permanency of the institution of baptism , and who conceive of it as a rite which was
limited to proselytes from another religion . The advocates of this doctrine , though few in number , have commonly been persons of considerable respectability , and some of them of great learning Their error , for such I conceive it to be , arises from the unfounded assumption that Christanity is
of a nature too spiritual and refined to admit of positive institutions , and from neglecting to inquire into , or duly to appreciate , the historical evidence of what Christ and his apostles actually thought fit . to practise and to enjoin . —Pp . 17 , 18 .
This description is not agreeable to Mr . Belsham ' s usual correctness . Such as deny the perpetuity of baptism can scarcely be denominated a 4 t party : " they do not form a sect or division of the Christian world ; their negation of one of the two Protestant
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sacraments is not a ground of associtf , tion amongst themselves , or of separation from others ; and they are found in almost all . denominations- We suspect that Mr . BeMinm underrates their number . As a * part > " at least thev are only known ; us Quakers , and
if this body be reckoned ias they , no doubt , must ) amongst the Anti- baptisis , the number of these lutter will be not less considerable than that of the Unitarians They are not generally proselvtists ; they ma \ , perhaps , be charged with a lack of zeal : that thev exist , however , in no mean
number , notwithstanding their indifference to theirown increase , is far from being a sign that they will not hereafter " make proselytes . " They cannot , we further remark , be said to have " lately appeared in the Christian world , " for , passing by the Quakers ,
who are not a modern sect , Mr . Emlyn , who is the first English writer that advanced their opinion , must be now regarded as a man of other times , and when he wrote , a century ago , the opinion had been a century in print , Faustus ^ ocinus ' s treatise against
baptism , which was published in l 6 lS > was written in 1580 ; and he appears not to have been single in his profession : tjie first edition of the Racovian Catechism represents the Lord ' s Supper as the only positive institution of the Christian Church .
It is worthy of remark , that though Mr . Belsham charges the deniers of baptism with neglect of inquiry into the historical evidence relating to the point , Socinus in his preface to his tract puts in his claim to credit on the ground of his diligent investigation . * It is true that he refers here
to the writings of the evangelists and apostles , but he proves afterwards that he was not unprepared for the argument from tradition and usage * He maintains that this argument is a begging of the questioii , t and also
* Nam omnia Evangelists * rum et Aposrtolorum scripta diligentissime perquirens , nusquam nee apertis verbis baptismum aquae externum omnibus in perpetumn , qni Christian ! esse velint , peraeque pieceptnm esse invenio , nee illiquid dictum ex quo earn sententiam eliei oinnino debere , ant posse , apparent , De JBapt . Aquas Disp . 8 vo . Racov . p . 4 . -f Objicitur enim nob is per pet mis nb Apostolcrum temporibus Ecclesias usus *
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764 Review . —JBelsham ' s Sermon on Religious Partws *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1818, page 764, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2483/page/36/
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