(1)
Very dear and Revd. Sir.
As your Labours among my People have [been?]
very acceptable; and it is a Time, when Preachers warmly en-
gaged for the Conversion of sinners, are much needed in these
Parts; And as I want such to Assist in the Reformation of
Church-Order and Discipline, with whom I may enjoy Chris-
tian Fellowship and Communion in Gospel-Ordinances, I
am extreamly sorry, that you are about to set down in
these Parts, upon such Principles as will not allow us to b[e?]
a visible Christian-Church, nor to enjoy Communion w[ith?]
you at the Lord's Table: I allow you have the same Right
to judge for yourself as I have to judge for myself; and that
if our Judgments differ, mine is just as wrong to you as
yours is to me: Q. But what is our great Difference of
Judgment, which prevents your communing with us at
the Lord's Table? It is not on your Part, because you
don't think we are Believers in Christ, and hence blesse[d?]
with faithful Abraham as being Heirs with him of the pr[o]
missed Blessings and Privileges of the Covenant of Grace[.]
Nor is it on our side, because we deny the Mode of Plung[-]
ing to be sacramental Baptism, or that adult Persons
must be Believers in Christ in the Church's Judgment
of Charity before they are admitted to Baptism. But it lies
here, we say, the Mode of sprinkling is sacramental Bap-
tism, you say, it is not; we say, Infants of professing
and covenanting Parents are to be baptized: you say, they
are not, and hence, that such societies of Christians as
have solemnly covenanted together to walk in all the Ordi-
nances and Commandments of the Lord, are no visible
Churches of Christ; nor have any Right to set with you
at his Table, because they were baptized in Infancy and tha[t?]
too by sprinkling: -- By this Rule, you would have debarred
from your Communion at the Lord's Table the Cloud of
Martyrs, who suffered for the Testimony of Jesus since the Re-
formation, as not being Members of Christ's visible Church,
As also all the Assemblies of Christians, which settled first in
Church-Order in New-England among which Christ as evid[ent-]
=ly
