t Reader will eafily perceive me to have done; and this I did, as well for that Respect and Care I owe to my own Reputation, as for that I one and pay to Truth. I am of Alexander's Mind; I would not fteal a Victory; and Truth need not s It is ftronger than all things. acknowledge, I have received a Let ter from him, fince my Laft ; but that Letter (as Others) fo little to the Purpose, unless Reflections and Extravagancies be fo, that I do not find my felf obliged to any other An fwer, than what in my Laft is ad ded and marked thus [*] and that's but little And an underfranding Reader will plainly fee, there was not much need of that: It is but one Paragraph, and two or three Words, by way of Illuftratis. Some ea. Some happily may admire, that in a Rich and Fruitful Subject, as this is, I am fo barren in Citations; but they may please to know, that Seeing a Doctrine is not true be caufe a Multitude avouch it, any more than a Custom good because a Multitude follow it) I do not value Authorities in the Search and Investigation of Truth, further than as they are Evidences to Matters of Fact Indeed, on this Account I might have Cited properly enough, many hundred Authors, as Witnesses, to confirm Baptifm to have been of old a Jewish Ceremony, ufed in Initiation of Profelytes, both Male and Female, Adult and Infant; but that was done abundantly before, by the Learned Dr. Hammond, (as I remember) in a fet Difcourfe of (b). Bap Baptifm, and incidentally by Mr. Ainsworth, in his Annotations on Genefis 17th; and by many others and Repetition is a dull thing. The Argument I go upon, as I do manage it, is not common; and hath little Authority to make it good, befide that of found Reafon, and good Senfe, and that better of the Harmony of the Holy Scripture; mto which, rightly underftood, it doth already open no fmall Lights, and may do more, if well improved. To the Question, How I came to hit upon it I fay, I was concerned to fee an Article of that Importance, which Infants Baptifm by most is taken to be of, and indeed is of, to hang on Wyres only, and (as fome phrafe it) by Geometry: It must, I thought, have fure and folid Foundations, and fuch I could not fee it to be Owner of, unless it were inlay'd (as I find it is) in the very Conftitution of an Inftituted Church, and in the Harmony of Scripture. Analogy of Scripture, is the fureft Balls of Truth, in matters of Revealed Religion; as Analogy of Nature is of Truth, in Points of Philofophy. This Argument I have fo much Spoken to in the following Letters, that I think there needs no more to make it perfect, and fully convincing, but to add thefe few following Confiderations. ISARJY Firft, That Baptifm or Washing was at first a Jewish Ceremony, and that Aaron, and his (b2) Sons ་ Sons were Baptized or Washed with Water at the Door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation: That the Baptizing of Profelytes, very probably was done in imitation of That, and the other Washings among the Jews; and to fignifie the Cleanfing of Them from the Defilement of Gentilifm: And that the Chris ftian Baptifm in the Inftitution of it, had Afpect to both Thefe, is alfo probable; we Gentiles being by Baptifm fanctified unto God, and made his Priefts; which feems very clearly to be implyed by the Apoftle, when he calls Baptifm, mergir, a Laver, (Wafhing our Tranflators render) of Regeneration, in Allufion certainly to the Las ver under the Law, which was fet between the Tent of the Congre d) gation, |