can visibly enter into covenant with God. For God has no other covenant extant, of which baptism and the Lord's supper are seals; for there is but one covenant, as you allow; and to use the words of this covenant in such a sense as to make it a graceless half covenant, gives no more right to sealing ordinances, than to repeat any chapter in the Apocrypha.

P. If your scheme "should prevail, it would bring back the country into the ancient state of heathenism."*

M. And pray, sir, who do you think will have the hottest hell, a heathen who dares not lie, or a Christian who allows himself to lie in the most solemn religious transactions? Or which will be the likeliest to be converted by the preaching of the gospel?

P. "When men of sense and conscience find themselves denied the enjoyment of ordinances for themselves and children in our churches," they will turn to the church of England.*

M. No man of sense or conscience will desire to make a lying profession, to get his children baptized; he would rather they never should be baptized than do such a wicked deed; and we stand ready to baptize the children of all, who can, understandingly and honestly, make that profession which God requires. P. Christ's visible kingdom requires in its members qualifications like itself, namely, those that are visible and knowable."

M. And we, in receiving them, act entirely on what is visible, namely, on their public profession, attended with an answerable conversation, just as they did in the apostolic age.

P. "Every baptized person is a member of Christ's visible church; but I was baptized in my infancy, therefore I have a right to all the external privileges of a church member."

M. You remember the answer I gave to this at your second visit, namely, "Baptism alone, in the apostolic age, never made any adult person a church member without a profession; profession was first made, and then they were baptized. Those therefore that are baptized in infancy, in order to be members in this sense, must make a profession when they become adult. The New England churches, therefore, are right in demanding it."

P. You must then have a half covenant for these half members.

M. No, by no means. They are bound by their parents' act and deed to comply with the covenant of grace itself, as soon as they become adult. With this covenant, and with this alone, do we urge them to comply. Whenever they appear to

Mr. Beckwith.

do it, we receive them to full communion; but if they openly renounce the God of their fathers, and obstinately persist in it, they must be considered and treated as persons who have visibly renounced their baptism, in which their parents devoted them to God through Jesus Christ, to be forever his.

P. "It is certain that the gospel contains no rule whereby to determine with any certainty that a man is gracious;" and therefore your scheme cannot be acted upon.

M. It is equally certain the gospel contains no rule to determine with certainty that men are orthodox, or sound in the faith. They may make an orthodox profession, but we cannot be certain that they mean as they say. To be sure, if they allow themselves to use orthodox words in a heterodox sense, as you do in the business of covenanting; and the truth is, let the qualifications be what you please, it is not necessary the church should have a certainty that the candidates for admission to sealing ordinances, have them really and in the sight of God. It is sufficient, on every scheme, that they appear to have them, to a judgment of charity, regulated by the word of God.

P. Such inconsistency may by no means be charged on the Deity, as to institute an ordinance with a design that never can be carried into execution; as is the case, if Christ has not given some infallible criterion, or mark, whereby to know who may be admitted.

M. Very well, sir, be pleased to take the inconsistence to yourself, until you can be infallibly certain that the candidate for admission is really orthodox and morally sincere in the sight of God, as searcher of hearts. And in order to this, you will need the aid of that enthusiastical sort of people of whom your minister speaks; for it cannot be known, without an immediate revelation. You must get their spirit to come and tell you, whether men are as orthodox and morally sincere in the sight of God, as they profess to be before men; for there is no infallible mark whereby you can certainly know it. An immediate revelation is absolutely necessary for this, "as I am able to demonstrate as clearly as any theorem is demonstrated in Euclid."

P. Be this as it may; whether the church must be certain or not; yet we ourselves must be certain, that we have the necessary qualifications, or we must not come.

M. We are naturally as conscious of volitions as of speculations, of love as of belief, whenever we look into our own hearts, as all will allow. A man whose mind is wavering between Arminianism and Calvinism, inclining sometimes to one side from the corrupt bias of his heart, and sometimes to the other by the force of evidence, may not be able to say

which he believes. So a man whose mind is wavering between God and Mammon, inclining sometimes to one master with a view to his future interest, and sometimes to the other from an attachment to his present, may not be able to say, which master upon the whole he chooses; for the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. But Christ does not desire men to make a profession of being his disciples till they have sat down and counted the cost, and are come to a settled determination; as is plain from Luke xiv. 25-33. And when men are come to that settled determination, which our Savior there describes, they may say that they have come to it. And this is all the profession which we desire.

P. Thus far I have acted the part of a disputant, and I have now done. Suffer me therefore once more to reassume that honest character which I sustained in my first visit; for let others say what they will, I design to act an honest part. Now the truth of the case is this: I am not specially concerned to know by what rule the church must be governed in admitting members, neither am I concerned to know what they must do who are in doubt about themselves; the only question about which I am exercised, relates to my own particular case. I know I have no grace. I know I am unconverted. I told you so at first, and so I have told all the ministers with whom I have conversed; and how any man, that knows he has no grace, can profess a compliance with the covenant of grace, and speak true, I could not understand, years ago. It was this that induced me to own the covenant, as the phrase is, and not to join in full communion, that so I might have my children baptized. Not one of the ministers with whom I have conversed, appears to justify the principles upon which I acted; but all as one man say, there is but one covenant, and this one covenant is the covenant of grace; indeed, they explain away the covenant of grace, till they bring it down into a graceless covenant, and then tell me I can comply with that, and ought to do so, and thus join in full communion. But you have fully convinced me of the inconsistence and absurdity of this; and yet I would beg leave to inquire, why might not the covenant of grace be voted out by the church, and a graceless covenant bet substituted in its room? and then such as I am could consistently profess a compliance with such a covenant, and have baptism for their children.

M. But if a church should vote out the covenant of grace, or, which is the same thing, in other words, should vote out Christianity, how could it any longer be considered as a visible church of Christ, or as having a visible right to the visible seals

of God's covenant? And besides, should you bind your child to one of your neighbors, to learn some mechanic art, why, in this case, might not the covenant be sealed, ratified, and confirmed by the administration of baptism, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?

P. The proposal shocks my mind. It would be a profanation of God's holy ordinance, to take God's seal, appropriated to God's covenant, and put it to man's covenant.

M. But this ungracious covenant is man's covenant, and not God's. And to take God's seal, appropriated to God's covenant, even to the covenant of grace, and apply it to a covenant which God never made, to a covenant made by men, is to profane the holy ordinance: and knowingly to profane God's holy ordinance, is not a duty, nor is this to put ourselves in the way of a blessing.

P. What need is there of any covenant at all?

M. It is not the manner of men to put a seal to a clean piece of paper. Nor did God ever appoint seals to be put to a blank. God's seals were appointed to be put to God's covenant; and we have no right to put them to a blank; and besides, it would be to give up the import of the actions, and to render sealing ordinances unmeaning, empty, useless ceremonies. P. What shall I do?

M. Repent and believe the gospel. Thus preached John the Baptist: thus preached Jesus Christ; and thus his apostles. And therefore, being emboldened by their examples, I say unto you, "Enter in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." P. I thank you, sir, for your kind and friendly instructions. I ask your prayers. I must go.

M. I will detain you but a minute longer. You remember your former minister, the author of the second Dialogue concerning the half-way covenant, said, "There is no half-way covenant. Doubtless it is the covenant of grace. No one disputes its being the covenant of grace; no one dare deny it." And your present patron says much the same. You remember, also, that in your second visit I told you that to say this, was implicitly to "yield up every point for which we contend;" and, in this view, I added, "nor do I doubt, if this controversy should go on, it will soon appear, that there is one who dares deny it; for otherwise all men of sense will see, that gentlemen on that side of the question are grossly inconsistent with themselves." And now it hath come to

pass, that one of the most discerning gentlemen on that side of the question, has published a labored piece, to prove that in order to enjoy sealing ordinances for ourselves and our children, we are not to profess a compliance with the covenant of grace, but only with a graceless covenant. This, therefore, is the only point that needs to be settled in order to settle the whole controversy; to this point, therefore, I advise you to give a most serious attention. For, if it can be proved that baptism and the Lord's supper are seals of the covenant of grace, and not of a graceless covenant, the axe will be laid to the root of the tree. Attend, therefore, to the subject with the utmost impartiality, that you may obtain, not only light in your head, but also reap saving advantage to your soul. I have known some Christless sinners, by the means of this controversy, awakened to a greater concern about their eternal salvation than ever they were before. And, be assured, sir, that the truths of the gospel, if they are not unto your own soul a savor of life unto life, will be a savor of death unto death. Eternity, an endless eternity lies before you. You have slept secure in sin long enough; it is high time you should awake. Every circumstance of your own soul, and every circumstance of your dear offspring, calls upon you without delay to awake, and turn to God through Jesus Christ, in sincerity and truth. O, what joy would it give me, ere long to admit you into full communion with the church, on a profession of a compliance with the covenant of grace, in which you should appear to act understandingly and honestly! That salvation may thus come to you and to your household, may God of his infinite mercy grant, through Jesus Christ.

My dear sir, farewell.

DIALOGUE IV.

A REPLY TO THE PARISHIONER'S LETTER, CONCERNING QUALIFICATIONS FOR CHRISTIAN COMMUNION, PRINTED AT NEW HAVEN.

Parishioner. Sir, three times I have been with you heretofore, to get my child baptized; and I am now come to make you a fourth visit, with the letter lately printed at New Haven in my hand.

Minister. I am willing, sir, and ever have been, to oblige you in all things wherein I lawfully may; and particularly, I