we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof. OBSERVATIONS. Here, as already observed-here may be seen another example, shewing how a semblance of something may be manufactured out of nothing. Two transactions-the performance of the ceremony of Baptism, and the utterance of a few words, stated as having been uttered by Jesus on the occasion of a supper at which he was present -two transactions,-which, unless it be the identity of the person who bore the principal part in both, had nothing at all in common,-forced into conjunction; and a generic appellation-the sacrament-made, to serve as it were, for a box, for inclosing them, and keeping them together.Sacrament? by whom was this word invented and made ? By Jesus 2-no more than it was by Satan. When thus made, what is the meaning given to this Rome-sprung vocable? In the English, and other dialects of the Teutonic, it is rendered by holy: it is the holy thing. And a holy thing, what is it?-Holiness? the word holiness, what is meant by it? As a property belonging to the thing itself, be the thing what it may, just nothing. By a thing -by any thing whatsoever, of which, by the principle of association, the idea has happened to become connected with the idea of the Almighty Creator,-a connexion of which any one created thing is, and ever has been, just as capable as any other, by any thing-by every thing to which any such accident has happened, is this mysterious property thus acquired. Thus then-such has been the course taken by the manufacturing process-by the invention of this so much worse than useless generic term, a branch of false science -a portion of wayward school logic-has been manufactured. Being made to pass examination in this science, the unfledged parrot takes in the words that are forced into its mouth, and declares itself to understand, where there is nothing to be understood. Under the name of "a grace," a something—and that something "good"-given unto us-given to every body -given alike to every man, whatsoever be his conductgiven as a thing of course,-by the mere ceremony: a pretended something, which, when examined by an unsophisticated eye, turns out to be in itself exactly nothing,-and even by the name thus given to it, is but a sign,-yet, by the description at this same time given of it, it is an efficient cause! The Almighty laid hold of, and made to enter into a contract (under what penalty is not mentioned), pledging himself, binding himself, to give to this pretended efficient cause a pretendedly real effect! Thus it is that the sham science grows: thus it is that the wilderness is formed, in which the wits of those who are destined to travel in it, are destined to be lost. Question 13.-How many parts are there in a sacrament? Answer.-Two: the outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace. OBSERVATIONS. A compound made out of a real and visible ceremony, to which, by the force of imagination, is attached an invisible and unintelligible effect-such is the whole and now comes the unfledged parrot, and with his tongue is re quired to split it into two parts. Question 14.-What is the outward visible sign, or form in Baptism? Answer.-Water(1); wherein the person is baptized (2) in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (3). OBSERVATIONS. (1).-Water the sign? No:-of itself water is not the sign of the thing in question-i. e. the transaction here in question-or of any thing else. Of the transaction in question, viz. aggregation to the society in question, the sign was a physical operation: not water itself, but the application of that liquid to the body of the person aggre. gated. For preserving the memory of the transaction in question,-instead of a transient operation, such as was the application of water to the body in question, suppose the object employed to have been an entry in a Baptism book:-of the transaction in question what would have been the sign?-not the leaf of the book in its blank state, but the mark made-the words written-on that leaf. In itself nothing can be more trifling than such an inaccuracy: the real matter of regret is that in this body of pretended instruction, composed by a man who understood not what he wrote, a child should be forced to declare himself to understand, that which, neither to himself nor any one else, is any thing better than unintelligible. (2). "Wherein the person is baptized"-not wherewith, but wherein-Alas! alas! what a scene of horror presents itself to view! The baptism then must be by immersion-by a thorough dipping—or it is no baptism.--The whole ceremony-all null and void! Of the myriads in a . year, who, under the Church of England discipline, are said to be baptized, how many are the really baptized? -Not one! All, all of us heathens! all a prey to Satan!-all children of wrath! (so we shall see the next answer saying) -all "alive to sin!"-all "dead to righteousness!"-the best works we ever do, or can do, no better than so many sins!!! (3). [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.]-Here we have a short string of sounds -sounds that are in use to perform the office of namesand, by the texture thus given to a mouthful of air, note well the effects produced! a human being rescued or not rescued from a state of endless torment! And, to such an operation, in the character of a cause,-by whom-by what -have such effects been attached?-By the deluded or deluding imaginations of a set of presumptuous and domineering men.-Under the name of magic, or some such name, state the same conceit as issuing from a heathen brain,-execration or derision, instead of awe and veneration, are the sentiments it calls forth. Question 15.-What is the inward and spiritual grace? Answer. A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness; for being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace. OBSERVATIONS. Note well the sort of story that is here told.-The Almighty God,-maker of all things visible and "invisible" "of heaven and earth, and all that therein is"-makes, amongst other things, a child; and no sooner has he made it, than he is "wrath" with it for being made. He determines accordingly to consign it to a state of endless torture. Meantime comes somebody,—and, pronouncing certain words, applies the child to a quantity of water, or a quantity of water to the child. Moved by these words, the all-wise Being changes his design; and, though he is not so far appeased as to give the child its pardon, vouchsafes to it a chance-no one can say what chance-of ultimate escape. And this is what the child gets by being "made”—and we see in what way made-"a child of grace." Thereupon comes the sort of wit, ghostly and ghastly, which, on such occasions, has been so plentifully played off: there we have death, and here we have new birth: death unto sin, new birth unto righteousness. And in this wit we have a subject—not merely for admiration, but moreover for belief:-for belief, of the withholding of which, as if it were in the power of every man to believe or not believe what he pleased, the consequence is-what at every turn, and, upon every occasion, stares us in the face -a state of endless torture, -- Question 16.-What is required of persons to be baptized? Answer. Repentance, whereby they forsake sin; and faith, whereby they stedfastly believe the promises of God made to them in that sacra ment. OBSERVATIONS. Obvious indeed are the observations suggested by this |