A few words for Rev. SAMUEL Worcester, of Salem. THE HE author of the foregoing Letters does most fincerely regret, that any perfonal and public abuse and obloquy fhould be reforted to by Mr. Worcester, of Salem, in defence of the prefent very interefting and folemn controverfy. He alfo fincerely regrets, that the fame Mr. Worcefter fhould publish to the world feveral unfounded affertions, or great mifreprefentations, that he might in this way support his unstable cause. Truth wants no fuch auxiliaries, and error cannot be always supported by them. The following are considered to be unfounded affertions, or great mis representations. 1. Says Mr. Worcester,* "Even the author of Seven Sermons, on the mode and fubjects of baptifm, defires to thank God that he knows the Greck as well as any man.' 2. The fame Mr. Worcester informs the public,t that the "author of Letters to Mr. Anderson, has not only gratuitously coined, and contemptuously bestowed upon us a new name, but because he found that John, the harbinger of Chrift, is called a Baptist, very fhrewdly concludes those who were baptized by John were alfo Baptifts, &c.; but upon being asked, by the author of thefe difcourfes, whether the term Baptift was applied to John in the fame fenfe in which it is now applied to those who are called Baptists, he confeed the truth, and faid it was not." 3. The fame Mr. Worcester tells us, page 62, that “the same reasoning, if reafoning it must be called, by which it was fuppofed to be proved that the Waldenfes, Wickliffites, Huifites, and other witneffes for the truth in the dark ages, were Antipædobaptists, would equally prove that the Tabernacle church are Antipædobaptifts. This the writer of the Minia ture History has bimfelf been brought to acknowledge." Had thefe unfounded affertions, or great mifreprefentations, of Mr. Worcester's, affected merely the private character and feelings of him whom they implicate, he might have left them, after denying their correctnefs, to the future confideration of Mr. Worcester, and to the just cenfure of every candid writer and reader of theological disputation. But when a public teacher of religion fhall practife fuch kind of management, to prepoffefs and to prejudice the minds of his hearers and readers against the truth, he ought to expect some suitable correction. This the author of the Miniature History, and of the Letters to Mr. Anderson, expects to endeavour, as foon as he fhall have leifure. In the mean time, Mr. Worcester is called upon to make his assertions good, if he be able to: he is defired, however, to do it in fuch a manner, that the public may not. confider him to be contending with an enemy, nor with one whom he may with impunity treat with contempt. * See bis Difcourfes, page 69. + Difcourfes, page 66. The author of the Miniature History takes liberty juft to obferve, that he does not believe, alfo that he never did believe, and that he never acknowledged, that the fame reasoning by which the Waldenfes, &c. were proved to be Antipa dobaptifts, would prove the Tabernacle church in Salem to be fo: nor did he ever make any fimilar conceffion, but upon fuppofition that this propofition of Mr. Worcester's was correct—That the Tabernacle church held to the fame great and leading maxim with the Waldenfes, &c; which the author confidered, and ftill confiders, to be Mr. Worcester's mistake. This maxim of the Waldenfes, &c. is, "That the kingdom of Chrift, or the visible church, he had established upon earth, was an assembly of true and real faints, and ought, therefore, to be inacceffible to the wicked and unrighteous, and also exempt from all those inftitutions which human prudence fuggefts, to oppofe the progress of iniquity, or to correct and reform tranfgreffors." Let Mr. Worcester fhow, if he can, that the Tabernacle church adopt this maxim, not in part, but in whole, and that their practice does, in fact, correspond with it, and that thoroughly; then shall it be conceded to him, that, fo far as the argument depends on this great leading maxim, the fame reafoning which proves the Waldenfes, &c. to be Antipadobaptifts, will prove the Tabernacle church to be fo The author of Letters to Mr. Anderfon alfo takes liberty to obferve, that his fentiment of John's being called the Baptift is, that he was thus called because he baptized, and that every Baptift minifter is called a Baptift for the fame identical reafon for which John was thus called; and that the brethren among the Baptifts are thus called, not because they aje baptizers, but because they are baptized. The author of the Seven Sermons, Miniature Hiftory, &c. never uttered or published the expreffion in the first great mifrepresentation of Mr. Worcester,* nor made conceffions or acknowledgments to him, but in agreement with the above statement. Mr. Worcester will account to himself, to his people, and to the public, for his affertions, in the best manner he can. One acknowledgment I most frankly make to Mr. Worcester it is this-That I am really pained that he hath compelled me thus publickly to contradict his public ftatements. The fault is his, and the damage he will fuftain. Sedgwick, December 25, 1805. THE AUTHOR.. * I may, when urged by blind gainfayers, have faid fomething to the following purport-That I underflood the Greek words which relate to the ordinance of baptifm, as well as do the oppofers; but never did I fay, or intentionally fo much as intimate, what Mr. Worcester most ungenerously and manifeftly charges to my account. No. 2, Cornhill, Bofton, THE Second Edition of SEVEN SERMONS on the Mode and Subjects of BAPTISM. BY DANIEL MERRILL, A. M. [Price 37 cents. Alfo, by the fame Author, OPEN COMMUNION with all who keep the Ordinances as CHRIST delivered them to the Saints.-Eight Letters to RUFUS ANDERSON, A. M. Alfo, [Price 25 cents. A VINDICATION of the DISTINGUISHING SENTIMENTS of the BAPTISTS, against the Writings of Meffrs. CowLES, MILLER, and EDWARDS. By ELISHA ANDREWS, a. m. Alfo, [Price 50 cents. BUNYAN'S PILGRIM's PROGRESS, with Original Notes, Preface, Life of the Author, and copious Index to the whole, by THOMAS SCOTT, Chaplain to the Lock Hofpital, and Author of Original Notes and Practical Obfervations on the Scriptures. (With four copperplates.) "It would not, perhaps, be difficult to prove, that the Pilgrim's Progrefs is as really an original production of vigorous native genius, as any of those works, in profe or verfe, which have excited the admiration of mankind, through fucceffive ages and in different nations; and it will probably be read with delight and advantage till the confummation of all things." "Twere well with most if books, that could engage The Notes add greatly to the value of this edition, and are exceedingly intéresting to the intelligent reader; affording a happy guide to the meaning of the author in his allegory. The Rev. Mr. Scorr is a man of known piety, and of critical knowledge in theological literature. The work contains nearly 400 pages, the Notes occupy about one-third. [Price x doll. 25 cents. THE SECOND EXPOSITION OFF Some of the falfe Arguments,, Mistakes, and Errors OF THE REV. SAMUEL AUSTIN. PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC. BY DANIEL MERRILL, PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN SEDGWICK. And in the days of these kings fhall the God of heaven fet up a king dom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and confume all these kingdoms, and it fhall ftand forever. Daniel. Another parable spake he unto them, The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.. Buy the truth, and fell it not. Jefus Chrift. Solomon. BOSTON: Printed and fold by MANNING & LORING, No. 2, Cornhill. DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit: BEIT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-fixth day of June, in the thirty-first year of the independence of the United States of Amer ica, MANNING & LORING, of the faid district, have deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the words following, to wit:-"The Second Expofition of fome of the falfe Arguments, Mistakes, and Errors of the Rev. Samuel Austin. Published for the Benefit of the Public. By DANIEL MERRILL, Paftor of the Church of Christ in Sedgwick.” In conformity to the Act of the Congrefs of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by fecuring the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the Authors and Proprietors of fuch copies, during the times therein mentioned:" and alfo to an A&, entitled, "An Act fupplementary to an A&, entitled, An Act for the encouragement of learning, by fecuring the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the Authors and Proprietors of fuch copies, during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of defigning, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.” WILLIAM S. SHAW, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts, |