184 J THE JOURNEYMAN. 



to whom, in describing, Hume and Voltaire have done 

 justice, I was led to examine the ground upon which 

 they had founded their pretensions, and saw it to be a 

 forced mass, uncemented except with the blood of per- 

 secution or by the unsolid sophistry of the schools. But 

 though, by an inference seemingly reasonable, I see a 

 connection subsisting between the baptism of Mr M 

 and the apostolic form of Church government, I can also 

 see that upon this connection, discovered by this seem- 

 ingly reasonable inference from Scripture, not by Scrip- 

 ture itself, can Baptists alone build. This, when I con- 

 sider the fallacy of several Scripture inferences which 

 appear as reasonable, I think an unsolid foundation. I 

 could prove by an inference deduced from Scripture 

 data that the mental and bodily sufferings of one man 

 could not in justice be accepted as an atonement for the 

 crimes of another. Where would inferences seemingly 

 reasonable, deduced from the doctrine of predestina- 

 tion, lead us ? To impiety the most horrible. I need 

 not remind you of Carlile's inferences, or of some others 

 which you will find in the writings of Kaimes and 

 Hume. This may not be argument ; but where, suffer 

 me to ask, is a doctrine upon the knowledge of which 

 man's salvation depends, which is not fairly stated 

 in Scripture, repeated oftener than once, and viewed 

 in a variety of lights ? Then let me be shown where 

 He who spake as man never spake, or any of His 

 servants the apostles, has, or have said, " Baptize not 

 your children, but suffer themselves to come forward 

 when awakened by the Spirit to be baptized," show 

 me this, or a passage of like meaning, and I will become 

 a Baptist. During the course of our conversation I per- 

 ceived in some of Mr M 's remarks traces of that foul 

 spirit which can, like the harpies who settled upon the 



