M. And, O my friend, will you dissemble in this shocking manner, in order to get into the church, that you may come to the Lord's table, and be converted! Is this what you mean by moral sincerity? I tell you with that plainness that becomes my office, that to come thus, is not the way for a blessing, but for a curse. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, instead of being in the way of a blessing, exposes himself to the righteous judgment of God; agreeable to the apostle's words to the Corinthians.

P. Nay, sir, the Corinthians "turned the Lord's supper into a feast of Bacchus." And what is this to me? p. 14. M. Is not deliberate, designed dissimulation, in the most solemn, religious transaction on earth, even in covenanting with the great God, as bad as drunkenness ?

P. Nay, sir, but I am expressly commanded to come to the Lord's supper, by Christ himself. p. 15.

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M. This command was given to none but Christ's disciples. And in the apostolic age none ever pretended to attend the Lord's supper, but those who had made a profession, and were admitted into the Christian church. As yet you have not made a profession, to be sure, not such a profession as God ever required; nor is the profession you now propose to make, a profession of a compliance with God's covenant, even with the covenant of grace.

P. "I am able to demonstrate, as clearly as any theorem is démonstrated in Euclid, that if an unconverted man may not avouch the Lord for his God, nor resolve to obey him, he may not say, Our father which art in heaven; forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." p. 8. And it is damnable heresy to teach that the unconverted ought not to pray. p. 9. And if they sin in praying, yet it is less sin to pray than not to pray. p. 12.

M. It is a greater sin to lie than to do nothing. Lying is not a means of grace. Lying is not an appointed means of conversion. There are many things unconverted sinners may say to God, and speak true. To speak the truth to God is well: Jam. ii. 19. but to say that which they know is not true, is a thousand times worse than to say nothing. Mat. xxiii. 14. Acts v. 3. And for a man who is sensible that it

is not in his heart to forgive those who have trespassed against him, and that in fact he does not forgive them, to come into the presence of God, and pray, saying, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, is implicitly to ask God not to forgive him; but this is a greater sin than not to pray at all, as all will allow; and it will hold true, as true as any "theorem in Euclid," that lying is worse than nothing, in praying, in covenanting, and in every thing else.

P. Sir, on your plan three quarters of the Christian world will be shut out of the church. p. 14.

M. Were it not better, were it not more for the honour of Christ and Christianity, in the sight of Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans, and in the sight of the ungodly in Christian countries, and more for the good of their own souls, that nine tenths should be shut out of the church, if need so require, than to come in by wilful lying! But for a man to profess a compliance with the covenant of grace, when he knows he has no grace, is no better; and yet without such a profession no man can visibly enter into covenant with God. For God has no other covenant extant, of which baptism and the Lord's supper are seals; for there is but one covenant, as you allow; and to use the words of this covenant in such a sense as to make it a graceless half-covenant, gives no more right to sealing ordinances, than to repeat any chapter in the Apocrypha.

P. If your scheme "should prevail, it would bring back the country into the ancient state of heathenism "."

M. And pray, sir, who do you think will have the hottest hell, a heathen who dares not lie, or a Christian who allows himself to lie in the most solemn religious transactions? or which will be the likeliest to be converted by the preaching of the Gospel?

P. "When men of sense and consciente find themselves denied the enjoyment of ordinances for themselves and children in our churches," they will turn to the church of England".

M. No man of sense or conscience will desire to make a lying profession to get his children baptised; he would ra

Mr. Beckwith.

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ther they never should be baptised than do such a wicked deed. And we stand ready to baptise the children of all, who can, understandingly and honestly, make that profession which God requires.

P. "Christ's visible kingdom requires in its members qualifications like itself, viz. those that are visible and knowable." p. 16.

M. And we, in receiving them, act entirely on what is visible, viz. on their public profession, attended with an answerable conversation, just as they did in the apostolic age.

P. "Every baptised person is a member of Christ's visible church: but I was baptised in my infancy, therefore I have a right to all the exernal privileges of a church-member."

P. 16.

M. You remember the answer I gave to this at your second visit, viz. "Baptism alone, in the apostolic age, never made any adult person a church-member without a profession; profession was first made, and then they were baptised. Those therefore that are baptised in infancy, in order to be members in this sense, must make a profession when they become adult. The New-England churches, therefore, are right in demanding it."

P. You must then have a half-covenant for these half-members.

M. No, by no means. They are bound by their parents' act and deed to comply with the covenant of grace itself, as soon as they become adult. With this covenant, and with this alone, do we urge them to comply. Whenever they appear to do it, we receive them to full communion. But if they openly renounce the God of their fathers, and obstinately persist in it, they must be considered and treated as persons who have visibly renounced their baptism, in which their parents devoted them to God through Jesus Christ, to be for ever his. P. "It is certain that the Gospel contains no rule whereby to determine with any certainty that a man is gracious." And therefore your scheme cannot be acted upon. p. 9, 10.

M. It is equally certain the Gospel contains no rule to determine with certainty that men are orthodox, or sound in the faith. They may make an orthodox profession, but we cannot be certain that they mean as they say. To be sure, if they

allow themselves to use orthodox words in a heterodox sense, as you do in the business of covenanting; and the truth is, let the qualifications be what you please, it is not necessary the church should have a certainty that the candidates for admission to sealing ordinances, have them really and in the sight of God. It is sufficient, on every scheme, that they appear to have them, to a judgment of charity, regulated by the word of God.

P. Such inconsistency may by no means be charged on the Deity, as to institute an ordinance with a design that never can be carried into execution; as is the case, if Christ has not given some infallible criterion, or mark, whereby to know who may be admitted. p. 9, 10.

M. Very well, sir, be pleased to take the inconsistence to yourself, until you can be infallibly certain, that the candidate for admission is really orthodox and morally sincere in the sight of God, as searcher of hearts. And in order to this, you will need the aid of that enthusiastical sort of people of whom your minister speaks; (p. 10.) for it cannot be known, without an immediate revelation. You must get their spirit to come and tell you, whether men are as orthodox and morally sincere in the sight of God, as they profess to be before men. For there is no infallible mark whereby you can certainly know it. An immediate revelation is absolutely necessary for this," as I am able to demonstrate as clearly as any theorem is demonstrated in Euclid."

P. Be this as it may; whether the church must be certain or not; yet we ourselves must be certain, that we have the necessary qualifications, or we must not come. p. 10.

M. We are naturally as conscious of volitions as of speculations, of love as of belief, whenever we look into our own hearts, as all will allow. A man whose mind is wavering between Arminianism and Calvinism, inclining sometimes to one side from the corrupt biasses of his heart, and sometimes to the other by the force of evidence, may not be able to say which he believes. So a man whose mind is wavering between God and Mammom, inclining sometimes to one master with a view to his future interest, and sometimes to the other from an attachment to his present, may not be able to

say which master upon the whole he chooses; for the double minded man is unstable in all his ways. But Christ does not desire men to make a profession of being his disciples till they have sat down and counted the cost, and are come to a settled determination; as is plain from Luke xiv. 25–33. And when men are come to that settled determination, which our Saviour there describes, they may say that they have come to it. And this is all the profession which we desire.

P. Thus far I have acted the part of a disputant, and I have now done. Suffer me therefore once more to reassume that honest character which I sustained in my first visit; for let others say what they will, I design to act an honest part. Now the truth of the case is this, I am not specially concerned to know by what rule the church must be governed in admitting members; neither am I concerned to know what they must do who are in doubt about themselves: the only question about which I am exercised, relates to my own particular case. I know I have no grace. I know I am uncon

verted. I told you so at first, and so I have told all the ministers with whom I have conversed; and how any man, that knows he has no grace, can profess a compliance with the covenant of grace, and speak true, I could not understand, years ago. It was this that induced me to own the covenant, as the phrase is, and not to join in full communion, that so I might have my children baptised. Not one of the ministers with whom I have conversed, appears to justify the principles upon which I acted; but all as one man, say, there is but one covenant, and this one covenant is the covenant of grace: indeed, they explain away the covenant of grace, till they bring it down into a graceless covenant, and then tell me I can comply with that, and ought to do so, and thus join in full communion. But you have fully convinced me of the inconsistence and absurdity of this; and yet I would beg leave to inquire, why might not the covenant of grace be voted out by the church, and a graceless covenant be substituted in its room? and then such as I am could consistently profess a compliance with such a covenant, and have baptism for their children.