COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENDANTS.

It now becomes my duty to address your Lordship and the Gentlemen of the Jury on behalf of the defendants: and I think myself happy that I have to answer this day the accusations brought against them; more especially because I know you to be expert in all questions which have been, or may be, brought before you, relative to this great cause. 66 Wherefore I beseech you to hear me patiently."

I shall have to trespass very much upon your time, owing to the great length of the evidence given by the witnesses for the plaintiffs, to a great part of which I must of necessity reply. I am exceedingly sorry that you have been so long detained listening to arguments and statements in support of a claim, which will appear in the sequel to be without foundation, and the invalidity of which it is my duty to expose. I entertain no personal hostility towards any of the plaintiffs; but still I have too much regard for the honour of my King to permit his laws to be impugned without doing my utmost to silence those who contemn them.

There is not, Gentlemen, a cause on record in any way similar, or worthy to stand in comparison with the one before you; we have, therefore, no precedents for our guide, but those which we deduce from the Will. Nevertheless, the precepts and examples therein contained are sufficient to enable me to establish our claim; and I shall regard all which the learned counsel and his witnesses have advanced to the contrary, drawn from other sources, as of no authority. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."*

* Isaiah viii. 20.

As regards the pretended insufficiency of the Scriptures, I shall have to show elsewhere that the statement is without foundation. Every thing which is necessary for us to believe and to practise is to be found therein, no matter in what part of the globe we may be situated. My learned opponent boasts of being a member of the Church of England. Hear, then, Gentlemen, the testimony which that church gives of their all-sufficiency, and contrast it with what he has advanced. "Holy Scripture containeth ALL THINGS necessary to salvation, so that WHATEVER IS NOT READ therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man. Voluntary works besides, OVER and ABOVE God's commandments—cannot be taught without ARROGANCY and IMPIETY. Things ordained by general councils as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority, unless it be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture."*

I feel my inability to do justice to THE GREAT CAUSE; but I pray, "with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, 1 that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel," + and thus convince you, by indubitable evidence, that our claim is valid, and that its foundation "standeth sure."

Evidence, Gentlemen, from profane history, let it be ever so well authenticated, cannot be admitted; much less then that which is collected from MUTILATED books, the SCATTERED FRAGMENTS of which only remain. My learned opponent says, that "if by these fragments we be able to trace the practice of infant sprinkling, through all preceding ages, to that of the apostles, it must be allowed a strong presumptive argument in favour of its having originated with the apostles themselves." But this avails him nothing; for even if it could be proved to be coeval with the apostolic age, yet it would be no argument at all in its favour, without undoubted apostolic authority; for in less than forty days after Moses had gone up to Mount Sinai, the Jews turned idolaters yet the idolatry did not originate with Moses. And if he could trace the practice of infant sprinkling even + Eph. vi. 18, 19.

* See the 6th, 14th, and 21st Articles.

up to the apostolic age (which he cannot do), it would not only prove that the antichristian practice prevailed at that time, but it would confirm the truth of the prediction of the Apostle Paul, who said, "I know this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your ownselves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw disciples after them."*

We have instances, Gentlemen, under the old dispensation, which prove, that after God had given to his people institutions, they disregarded them, and substituted something else in their stead. These are examples to us which clearly show that no length of time can weaken or vary the laws of God, and that for whatever period of time they may have been neglected, disregarded, and despised by the world, they will none the less be regarded by all who shall inherit the promises.

For nearly a thousand years, the Jews had neglected to keep the feast of tabernacles acccording to the command: but when they returned from the Babylonish captivity, "all the people gathered themselves together as one man- and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel; and Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding. And they found written in the law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths, in the feast of the seventh month: and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth into the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. So the people went forth and brought them, and made themselves booths. -And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths; for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun, unto that day, had not the children of Israel done so. And there was a very great gladness."+

Again, "Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded-Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according to all that which is written concerning us.”* 'And the king—made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all their heart, and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.-And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away. And the king commanded all the people saying, Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is WRITTEN in the BOOK OF THIS COVENANT. Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel,"† i. e. about eight hundred years.

And again; Hezekiah, "in the first year of his reign, opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together-and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers; and carry forth the FILTHINESS out of the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their +2 Kings xxiii. 3, 5, 19-22.

* 2 Kings xxii. 10—13.

faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense, nor offered burntofferings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the wrath of the Lord is upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes."*"So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they

HAD NOT DONE IT OF A LONG TIME IN SUCH SORT AS IT WAS

WRITTEN."+

Here are three remarkable instances of the Jews, as a nation, neglecting, for hundreds of years, to keep the feasts, according to the command of God, and afterwards returning to their true observance. Add to which the signal punishment inflicted upon them for neglecting this precept, "the land shall keep a Sabbath unto the Lord." They were sent into captivity for seventy years, because, contrary to the command, they had without intermission, for the space of four hundred and ninety years, sown their fields, pruned their vineyards, and gathered in the fruit thereof; a seventh part of which time they had deprived the land of its rest. They were therefore driven from it, "until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years." §

These examples shew us the folly and wickedness of disregarding the commission of the Testator, and that, though it may have been set at nought for nearly seventeen hundred years, that circumstance can neither weaken its force, nor be any excuse for prostituting the sacred ordinance. The Jews, as you all know, were, and still are, delivered "to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing," because they departed from the true worship of God. They are living witnesses of this truth; and their example ought to be a warning to the plaintiffs not to sin after their manner. The book of the law was then neglected, as the gospel is now; * 2 Chron. xxix. 3-8. + 2 Chron. xxx. 5. Levit. xxv. 2. § 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21.