dren a very religious education; but upon their principles it is, and must be, in Antichristian lies. Let me ask you, my dear sir, what think you of the religious training of unbelieving adults, which goes on so flourishingly under the popular preachers and ministers of the day? that religious training, by which those false teachers attempt progressively to form into Christians persons, whom they do not consider as Christians already, and to engage them in Christian exercises and Christian acts. From the sentiments you have expressed upon the TRUTH, I should expect that you would view all this as I view it, as a training of them in a system opposed to the truth. And what difference does it make, whether the person under this religious training be an adult or a child?

It is indeed well worthy your serious consideration, whether any believing parent can possibly BRING UP his child" in the instruction of the Lord," and not view that child as a disciple of the Lord? But that is only half of the command; and most consistently followed by the injunction, that the Christian parent should BRING UP his children" in the admonition of the Lord." You perhaps can say, whether an unbeliever be a subject for that admonition. But no-the Baptist, or any religious professor acting on the Baptist principles, while engaged in the religious education of his children, views them commonly neither as believers of the Gospel nor as unbelievers but just in that middle kind of character, in which the religious teachers view a great part of their flock,-as not yet converted, but in some stage of hopeful progress towards it. I shall be glad to know your mind distinctly upon that idea.

That the children of these religious professors,-even of those who speak the fairest language about the truth,-generally exhibit very little of the character of real disciples, and often manifest their ignorance and unbelief of the truth,-I am ready to admit. And it would be very marvellous, were it otherwise; considering that they are not brought up as the word of the Lord commands. But this I boldly affirm; that whereever the child-during the period of proper childhood in which it is under the parental care- does manifest decisive characters opposite to that of a disciple, and therefore inconsistent with its being treated as a disciple;-the evil may be traced to the parent's disobedience and neglect. Those who maintain the contrary, must charge the word of God with folly.

I shall not swell this letter beyond bounds, by enlarging further on this momentous topic. Whenever I receive your reply, I shall see what points and bearings of the subject may call for any additional remarks.

Meanwhile I remain, &c.

P. S. Just as I had concluded this letter, I received your note by ***. I rejoice to find, that we are likely so soon to have an opportunity of personal communication. However, I dispatch this, that you may weigh what I have offered, against we meet; and that our conversation may take a more definite shape, from your being more fully in possession of my sentiments.

The brief account you give me of your friend A

is pleasing;

that is, the present appearances seem hopeful. As to your very serious friend Mr. F, who has left indeed your late body, but gone to the other meeting-house, what does it exemplify, but the lightness with which professors choose a religious connexion,—just as they would choose a suit of clothes. Antichrist finds it expedient to have a great variety and assortment of churches in his ware-room, to suit the fancies of all customers: and if the reasons were examined, which determine the various choices of different individuals-all alike eminent in the religious world,—they would indeed form a very curious catalogue. If you be ever connected with a Christian Church, you will find that it cannot enter into any competition of attractiveness with "the synagogues of Satan."

But I cannot close this letter, without again suggesting to you a caution upon the earnestness of argument, with which you seem to be pressing upon others the subjects, on which conviction has lately been brought to your own mind. Remember, my dear friend, that you cannot carry conviction of any scriptural principle to the mind of another; no more indeed than you could either produce or maintain it in your own. And guard against the continuance of controversy with any, who continue to gainsay and oppose, after you have fully presented the subject to their attention, and have once plainly answered their objections. To continue it longer, would be but a gladiatorial exercise of disputation,-most unprofitable to them, and most injurious to yourself. You will meet with many religious characters, towards whom the wisest rule you can follow is LET THEM ALONE."

Dublin, March 31, 1819.

A SUFFICIENT REPLY

ΤΟ

MR. HALDANE'S LATE STRICTURES

UPON THE

AUTHOR'S LETTERS

ON

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

As we be slanderously reported, and as some afirm that we say.—Rom. iii. 8. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake.-Luke vi. 22, 23.

I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD.-Zeph. iii. 12.

[First Published 1821.]

ADVERTISEMENT.

SOME time elapsed after I read Mr. Haldane's Strictures, before I could decide whether I should make any reply. When I, at length, determined on taking up my pen, I rapidly committed to paper the thoughts which suggested themselves, as I turned over the pages of his pamphlet, with little or no attention to order or connexion. What I then wrote I designed but as the rude materials, which should be afterwards digested and methodized: but I confess that, ultimately, I have done little more than transcribe them for the press.

In consequence of my absence from town, the printing of the following pages has been postponed for many months. They are now sent into public, with a full conviction that any offence excited by my Letters on Primitive Christianity will only be increased by the progressive developement of my sentiments;-except with the few individuals who may be convinced of their truth, in opposition to all the workings of their own minds.

Such need to be continually kept in mind, that the doctrine of CHRIST is the same odious thing at this day, in the eyes of all the world, as it was of old. There is a day approaching, when all who believe shall be partakers of his glory. Let them, in the interim, be content to be partakers of his sufferings and reproach.

I have entitled this little piece-not-A Reply to Mr. Haldane's Strictures-but-A Sufficient Reply: because the major part of his work is occupied with subjects, on which I must decline all controversy with him. Indeed, it has been my study in general, to keep out of view every thing but that one fundamental topic, upon which Mr. H. has at length discovered that he and I are at issue; and upon which I am persuaded that he is at issue with the word of God.

London, January 4th, 1821.

INTRODUCTORY LETTER

TO

J. A. HALDANE, ESQ.

DEAR SIR,

IN thus addressing you, I but express the friendly interest and concern which I feel for you, as one whom I have had the pleasure of knowing long, and from whom I have received kindness; but without designing to intimate the existence of the least unity of mind between us on the subject of DIVINE TRUTH. It is now several years since I have apprehended that some radical disagreement existed between us there. Your letters prove it to my conviction ; and I should suppose will sufficiently clear you from the opposite imputation in the view of others.

When I published my little piece on Primitive Christianity, I was aware that so far as it excited any attention-it would give much offence to all who did not believe the truths put forward in it. And contemplating with satisfaction the possibility that it might excite some public opponent, shall I own to you that I conceived the wish that you might be my antagonist? (Do not now confound this with a wish that you might be found opposing the gospel: for indeed it would have rejoiced my heart to find you taking a decided part with it.) I said to myself," Mr. J. Haldane is a man of sense, and candour, and temper: as well as a conscientious man; and well acquainted with the various systems of doctrine current as evangelical. If he come forward to oppose, he will oppose with manly ingenuousness and intelligence; so as to afford a fair and desirable opportunity for the discussion of scriptural truth. He will not write like another who has taken the field against me."

This, I assure you, was my imagination: but I have to confess my present conviction of its folly. It is very foolish in a disciple, to expect candour from any opponent of DIVINE TRUTH.

The task of answering your pamphlet, and scripturally exposing it throughout, would be in some views a very easy one; but, in others -most tryingly difficult: its very facility presents such temptations to my wicked heart to vindicate myself, to seek my own glory under the pretext of asserting the divine, to employ that wrath of man which worketh not the righteousness of God. In what mind I may reply to you, is to myself a matter of solemn consideration: but what judgment you or others may form of it, is indeed of very little consequence. If you continue of your present mind, I am sure you will think that I continue to write in a very bad spirit.

If all the readers of your pamphlet would give an attentive reading to what I have already published on the various subjects, I might be quite content to pass by your STRICTURES in absolute silence. That cannot be expected: and I therefore avail myself of your publication as an occasion for keeping up that great controversy, which shall be continued from generation to generation, in spite of all the efforts of earth and hell to suppress it: till at length it shall be decided by HIM, whose cause it is.

As to your grossly calumnious misrepresentations of my sentiments,-(I use the expression deliberately)—the new mind in me forgives you from the heart. So great is what you justly term the astonishing deceitfulness of our hearts, that I am persuaded that in the most calumnious of them-you verily thought you were doing God service.

Do you ask me to justify the severity of expression, by which I have characterized your misrepresentations? For a few exemplifications of them, turn to p. 113, in which you say "On his own avowal, his religion is purely hereditary :”—to p. 114. in which you speak of my leniency of language towards the most openly profligate characters, and my preferring them to others; prefacing this with the words," But let me not misrepresent our author:-to do him justice, he speaks very leniently," &c.-to p. 119, in which you plainly represent me as denyiny the necessity of a sinner's conversion to God:-to p. 111 and 120, in which you say, "Mr. W. teaches that the truth has so little influence on the mind, that," &c. and again according to his system it seems doubtful whether faith produces any effects."

66

It would be very easy to prove, not only that my publicly avowed sentiments are not such as you attribute to me, but that (when you were carried away to pen these passages) you certainly knew them to be utterly the reverse. Whether the public circulation of such calumnies against a disciple be among the evidences, by which you arrive at a confidence of your being a believer, is a matter for your own consideration.

But do I complain of your misrepresentations? This would ill become one that remembers HIM, who was indeed "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners;" yet was charged by the religious professors of that day with being "a gluttonous man and a