transgressors' cheeks, and there would have been no need of red letters in my calendar to render such a time observable with me. But, blessed be God!, by whose providence it was, that, being dedicated to the service of Christ in mine infancy, the piety of my parents took an early care that I should not be alienated from him through the allurements of the world, for want of a religious education; and from a child having been acquainted (as Timothy was) with the holy Scriptures, "which are able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus; herein I have exercised myself, through the assistance of his grace, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men."

NARROWGRACE. You speak as if regeneration came by nature and education.

TIL.-No, Sir; to say "regeneration comes by nature," were a contradiction.

TAKE-O'-TRUST.-Do you not remember what the Apostle saith?, "We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. iii, 23.) And, "We are dead in trespasses and sins, and are by nature children of wrath." (Ephes. ii, 1, 2.) Can there be so great a change wrought in a man, as is a change from death to life, and he have no apprehension or feeling when such a change is wrought in him?

TIL.-When I reflect upon the exuberance of the Divine grace under the gospel, I persuade myself, there is some difference betwixt Christians, born of faithful and godly parents, and from their childhood educated and instructed in the ways of faith and piety;-I say we must make a difference betwixt these, and those Jews and Gentiles of whom the Apostle speaks, before they were made Christians. I know you will not allow Heathens to stand in competition with the servants of Jesus, devoted to him from their very infancy: neither is the law and discipline of Moses an equal standard to measure the dispensations of the grace of Jesus Christ by; and yet, if you consider Zachary and Elizabeth, (who were trained up under the pedagogy of Moses,) and date their practice of piety from their youth,* (as you ought to do,-for why should we make an exception where God makes none?,) you will find, that "being righteous before God, and walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless," (Luke i, 6,) they were

* 1 Kings xviii, 12.

C

not capable of answering your question, When and where and how the work of grace was wrought in them. Now, if the minis◄ tration of Moses (which was, in comparison, "a ministration of death,") was thus glorious," how shall not "the ministration of Christ," which is the ministration of the Spirit, "be rather glorious?" (2 Cor. iii.) Under the gospel that covenant is fully accomplished, wherein God bound himself to Abraham by the sacred tie of an oath, to grant us a power "to serve him in holiness, and righteousness, all the days of our life." (Luke i, 74.) And the conveyances of this powerful grace being all put so freely into our hands, (this word and sacraments,) it is required of us as a duty, "to have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear :" (Heb. xii, 28.) And doubtless it is only our own inexcusable fault if we have not; for indeed (be it spoken with holy reverence!) the administration of our sacred baptism were no better than a piece of solemn pageantry, if grace were not conferred upon us in receiving that sacrament; for therein are begged, on our behalf, the blessings of Christ,-grace and pardon, with the renewing and assistance of the Holy Spirit. The church by prayer seeks for these, on our behalf, by virtue of that covenant wherein God hath promised and engaged himself to bestow them; "which promise he for his part will most assur◄ edly keep and perform." Then upon this, we engage our vow, "to forsake the devil and all his works, and to keep God's holy will and commandments." Can we think, either that God, in goodness or justice, would require such an engagement at our hands, (under peril of a greater condemnation,) or that the church of God in prudence could oblige us to undertake it, without good assurance of sufficient assistance and power from his Gracious Spirit to enable us to perform it according to the tenor of the gospel?

FRYBABE.-It seems you are for universal grace, and you hold, that all the children of the faithful, (dying in their infancy, and before they have the use of reason,) are saved by virtue of that covenant* (made with us in the blood of Christ,) into which they are consigned at their baptism; as if all such were invested with some privilege to exempt them from the absolute decree of reprobation!

* Isa. xlix, 8.-Heb. xiii, 20.

TIL. This, Sir, is the faith into which I have been baptized and catechised; for I am taught to profess, that, in my baptism, "I was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven."

KNOWLITTLE.-But you know, that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." (Heb. xii, 14.)

TIL. That I very well remember: but withal I consider, that, besides that federal holiness which removes all obstacles in the children of the faithful, and renders them recipients duly qualified for the sacrament, I am instructed in my creed to believe in God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth me," (that is, if I do not resist his work and quench his motions,) and am further directed to beg "by diligent prayer his special grace" to enable me to discharge my duty to God and my neighbour; of which grace (if I be not wanting to my duty,) I have reason to assure myself, upon the strength of our Saviour's promise, (Luke xi, 13.) The short is, baptism being styled "the laver of regeneration," (Tit. iii, 5, 6.) and the children of the faithful being in no capacity of putting a bar against the efficacy of it, the learned Davenant (one of the Divines of the Synod of Dort,) concludes, that therein they are truly justified, regenerated, and adopted; and, by this means, a state of salvation is conferred upon them suitable to the condition of their infancy; and, arriving to the use of reason, if they walk in the strength of Divine grace, under the command and conduct of the Holy Spirit, and fight under Christ's banner, as generous soldiers should do, who are engaged by solemn covenant and armed with assistance from above to that purpose,- —we are assured, that "sin shall not get the dominion over them;" (Rom. vi, 14.) "for he is greater that is (engaged) in them (for their assistance) than he that is in the world," (against them.) (1 John iv, 4.) Whereupon the same Apostle is confident to conclude, "We know that whosoever is born of God, sinneth not: but he that is begotten of God, keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." (v, 18.)

KNOWLITTLE. You speak as if a man might live without sin, and so be saved without Christ.

TIL.-Sir, I believe it is the duty of the children of God, and therefore possible, "to be blameless and harmless, without rebuke, shining as lights, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation," (Phil ii, 15.) "that at Christ's coming they may be

found of him in peace, without spot and blameless.” (2 Pet.iii,14.) But this is done, not without Christ, but through the power of his grace, rescuing them from the pollutions that are in the world through lust, and from all the carnal invitations that do so earnestly solicit them. Yet this is not, to live without sin; for there are sins of ignorance and inadvertency, which, many times, through the levity of the matter, insensibly steal from us; sins of infirmity, wherein we are surprised on a sudden; and sins wherein we are overtaken through the daily incursion and tiresome importunity of temptations: But these, upon a general humiliation and petition, being put upon the accounts of Christ's cross, and pardoned (as it were) of course to the regenerate, do not interrupt his estate, nor impeach his interest in God's favour: And hereupon such men are reckoned by our Saviour in the accounts of "just persons which need no repentance," (Luke xv, 7,) or [ need ] no more washing, save of their feet, †

* The reader is desired to advert to the introductory remarks, at the beginning of this pamphlet. But since the reasoning of the assumed Tilenus in this place may be mistaken by the unlearned, it seems requisite to state, that his application of the phrase," just persons which need no repentance," is sufficiently explained by the sentence immediately preceding, in which the same persons have all the marks of true penitents ascribed to them by the author. His words are, "But these [sins], upon a general humiliation and petition, being put upon the accounts of Christ's cross, and pardoned,"&c. Without some such necessary qualification as this, the phrase in its common acceptation can never be applicable to any man living, as long as the following passages, and others of like import, remain constituent parts of the revealed will of heaven :-" But row GOD commandeth all men every where to repent.-There is no difference: For, ALL have siuned and come short of the glory of God." (Acts xvii, 30.-Rom. iii, 23.)

No employment can be more inconsistent with the principles of the man who espouses the benevolent and scriptural doctrines of General Redemption, than that of endeavouring to narrow the evangelical obligation, which is binding alike on all men, to repentance, faith, and holiness. Yet there are individuals, who, while they would shudder to set bounds to the illimitable mercy of God, can deliberately fritter away by their carnal comments the essence and glory of the gospel, and reduce it from its Divine and powerful elevation to as low and inefficient a condition as that of a system merely ethical. Such a course of conduct is only another proof of the great obliquity of which the human intellect is occasionally seen to be capable. But Bishop Womack was too wisę a master-builder in Israel, to engage in such a desecrating occupation; and accordingly, in the very passage which has elicited these observations, he carefully guards against any popular misapprehension of his meaning, while he states the advantages of baptism and of a religious education in as strong and pointed a manner as the scope of his argument required.

John xiii, 10.

which is ordinarily performed in the daily use of their prayers and other holy offices.

TAKE-O'-TRUST.-But we see, by daily experience, that the dearest of God's children do frequently complain of their corruptions, and bitterly bewail them, and groan under the apprehension and burden of them: "O wretched man that I am!" &c.

TIL.-No doubt, it is fit a Christian should entertain such a holy jealousy over himself, as may make him humble, and keep him upon his guard, vigilant and industrious. "Blessed is the man that feareth always." (Prov. xxviii, 14.)

NARROWGRACE.-Yea, but we find also, that the most eminent of the saints of God have fallen foully.

TIL.-We must walk by precept, not by example; especially we should take heed we do not transcribe a foul copy, though written by the hand of the greatest saint in heaven, who, we know, had never been admitted thither, had not that hand been washed in the streams of repentance and the blood of Christ. But the truth is, such is the frailty of our human nature, and the lubricity, the flexible and wax-like temper of youth, so apt to receive the impressions of vice, and such the precipitancy of our passions,-that, if we be not bridled by the benefit of a more severe and holy institution, and taught to improve our talents of grace and nature for our own preservation, the deceitful paintry of pleasures, and the snare of occasions, and the witchcraft of ill company and examples, with the sundry stratagems of that politic enemy, (who manageth all the rest to his best advantage,) will surprise, and foil, and most miserably wound us. But as to deny the possibility of preventing this mischief, were a huge disparagement to the power of the Divine grace; so, having that grace so abundantly administered, (as it is under the dispensation of the gospel,) to prevent, and assist, and follow us, not to co-operate therewith, but to let loose the reins unto our lusts, and give way for sin to abound, that grace may much more abound to the working of a remarkable repentance, that, having such a signal experience of sin and misery, we may be able to give a punctual account of the time and manner of our conversion,-what were this but to grow desperate and tempt God!, a ridiculous folly joined with a most execrable impiety. Like a man that sets his house on fire, that he may make light for others to read his evidence by