III. That the nature and design of baptism is suited to believers only.

IV. That the promises connected with baptism are addressed to believers only.

V. That the actions of the baptized at the time, and immediately subsequent to their baptism, mentioned in all the New Testament, are such as infants could not perform. These topics of argument we deem sufficient to prove the above proposition. And you will have the goodness to bear in mind that not one of them has been formally impugned by mr. M. We consider them then, as far as respects him, unanswerable.

Mr. M. read as follows:-I am now to show that the Jewish and Christian societies are called by the same inspired names.

The Jewish society are called a bride, or married wife, Jer. iii. 14. "Turn O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you; and I will take you one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion; I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." We plainly see who is here recognized as a bride. And in Revelation xxi. 9. The church of Jesus Christ is called by the same spirit of Revelation "the bride, the Lamb's wife," one espoused to Christ as a chaste virgin. Says Solomon, "my love, my undefiled is one," speaking of the church, as all agree.

They are both called a house. Heb. iii. 2-6. "The high priest of our profession Christ Jesus was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much, as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house; for every house is builded by some man ; but he that built all things is God. And Moses, verily, was faithful in all his house, as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the

hope firm unto the end." Here the Jewish society are called a house over which Moses was faithful, and we Christians are called a house over which Christ is faithful. Jesus Christ is here said to have builded, and to have been proprietor of that house, in which Moses was merely a servant.

The visible church under both dispensations is also exhibited as the flock of Christ, Psalm. Ixxx. 1. "Give ear O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph as a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims shine forth. This same person whom David calls the Lord his Shepherd; the shepherd of the flock of Israel, is called by Paul, Heb. xiii. 20 the Great Shepherd of the sheep and these sheep are Christ's flock.

The Jewish and Christian societies are called a barn and the same threshing floor.-Matt. xiii. 30. "gather the wheat into my barn." John the Baptist saith, he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into his garner. Now this was the Jewish floor that he was to cleanse-and the wheat was to be put into his barn or garner.

They are both called a nation and kingdom. Ex. xix. 5, 6. "If ye obey my voice, and keep my cove nant then ye shall be unto me a peculiar treasure above all people. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation." Thus he spake to the Jews. Now hear him address the Christians 1. Pet. ii. 9. Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people."

The Jews and Christians are called the people of God. "I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people." He says of the Christians too, "I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people." Lev. xxvi. 12. 2 Cor, vi. 16. here they are both called by the same inspired names.

The visible church under both dispensations is also called an "olive tree." Jeremiah addressing the Old Festament church, says, (xi. 16.) "the Lord called

thy name a green olive tree, fair and of goodly fruit." Hosea the prophet uses the same language, (xiv. 6.) "His branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree." This olive tree which the Apostle makes so much use of, represents the visible church of God. It must mean the Jewish church exclusively, or the Christian church exclusively, the invisible church, or no church at all. It cannot mean the Christian church commencing on the day of Pentecost, for the Jews never belonged unto it. It could not mean no church, for from what were the branches broken off: the branches could not mean infidels! Nor could it mean the invisible church, for from this there is no exclusion, nor cutting off. If it does not mean no church, nor the Christian church, nor the invisible church, then it must mean the Jewish visible church. From this the unbelieving Jews were broken off, Rom. xi. Into this, the Gentiles, or the branches of the wild olive were grafted in. That this is the meaning, the paragraph when read will show. "For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if, the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith.. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, good

ness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?" Rom. xi. 13.-24 In reading this, for the good olive tree substitute the Jewish church, for the natural branches substitute the Jews, for those broken off, the unbelieving Jews, and for the wild olive, the Gentiles, and for partaking of the root and fatness, substitute participating with the Jews in church privileges, and there is no difficulty in the pas

sage.

They are both called the kingdom of heaven. 'Many," said the Saviour," shall come from the east and from the west and sit down with" Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." By the words" kingdom of heaven," we cannot here understand the kingdom of glory, the mansions of future bliss, for none of the members of that kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. Those coming from the east and west," must mean the Gentiles; "Sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob", must mean, entering into the Jewish church, becoming one with it.The children of the kingdom must mean, the then members of the Jewish church, to whom belonged first of all the blessings of membership, in that kingdom: their being "cast out" is equivalent to their being" cut off" from the good olive tree; and the Gentiles sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is precisely equivalent to the branches of the wild olive, being graffed in among the natural branches.

How remarkably coincident are those portions oi the oracles of God in expressing one grand fact, one im portant truth, of deep interest to all the church to know, else it would not have been to often repeated, and ins

culcated with so great variety of illustration; with such marked emphasis, and with so much perspicuity! The church of Israel being called the good olive tree, and the kingdom of heaven; the breaking off of the natural branches, and the casting out of the children of the kingdom; the engrafting of the branches of the wild olive, and the people of the east and west sitting down with the heads of the Jewish church, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; not only applies the same inspired names to both societies, but shows that both societies make but one and the same church, or kingdon of hea

ven.

I then rejoined:-As this discussion is likely to be long protracted, I will now address you, my respected friends, on the word religion. As mr. M. has spent much of this day in asserting the identity of the Jewish and Christian religion, I may be allowed to make some remarks on a topic that engrosses so much of his attention. You are not, however, to consider me as formally attacking his argument. Yet my remarks will have some bearing upon it. A complete refutation of it we promise you when it is closed.

Religion is a word of very common occurrence, yet Like many others in common usage, it is not on that account the better understood. Some people are said "to have got religion," and others are exhorted "to get at "This religion is something that is supposed to dwell in the heart, and is sometimes called "heart religion."We have never seen any person who had not some kind of religion. Indeed, religion has been supposed to be so common an endowment that some logicians have made it the differential quality, or attribute of man. Hence said they," man is a retigious animal." Religion considered in this light, is simply respect for a Supreme Being" and, as the poet sings, it makes little matter what he is called. His infidel verse thus reads,

"Father of all, in every age,

In every clime ador'd

By saint, by savage, and by sage,

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord."

This illustrates that religion of which we now speak.-