national Church of England, yet I had no aversion to any class professing the Christian name, but occasionally heard several sorts; and yet did not fully approve any sect in all things, as I came to consider them closely.

At one time I was at Friends' meeting on a week-day, at Broughton, in the county of Cumberland, where I applied my mind with as much diligence as I could, to examine what I could discern in their way: but though I observed they were very grave, serious, and solid, in the time of their worship, I could gather but little at that time, either from their manner or doctrine; only I took them to be an honest, innocent, well meaning sect.

Towards the latter end of the year 1687, we came out of the country, and had chambers in the city of Carlisle. I continued in the national way of worship, though by the Divine Grace, my understanding was still more and more cleared; and I was frequently concerned to inquire after the truth of religion. The manner of our worship in the cathedral often put me in mind of the Popish religion and ceremonies, and made me conclude, that the way we were in retained abundance of the old relicks our prayers, postures, songs, organs, cringing, and shows, appearing to be little else than an abridgment of the Popish mass, and the pomp and

show attending it. And then I began to be very uneasy with it; and though I went there a little longer, yet I could not comply with several of the ceremonies; which being taken notice of, in a familiar conference with an acquaintance of the same way, I asked a little pleasantly: "What is that we worship towards the east? and why towards the altar more than any other place, at the saying of the creed?" The person replied: "Sure you are not so ignorant as you would make yourself seem. The Scripture saith: At the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth.' And again : 'As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."

To the first I returned, that our Pagan ancestors were worshipers of the sun and all the host of heaven; and this looked very like a remain of that; and could not be certainly grounded on that Scripture, which I cannot understand to signify any other, than the gradual manifestation of the power and glory of Christ unto the world but if He should literally come from the east, in an outward sense; which, considering the state of the earth, its revolutions and relation to the sun and other planets, cannot be in the nature of things, that being west to one

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place which is east to another; yet that coming would not excuse our superstition, if not idolatry, in the mean time, before He so come : though I grant, if He should so come, and we see Him, then, and not till then, may we lawfully and reasonably worship towards the place, or imaginary place of his coming.

And as to bowing at the Name of Jesus, I understand it to be in the nature of a prediction, that in the fulness of time, all powers in heaven and earth shall be subjected and brought under the power of Christ, as the next verse imports, which is explanatory of the former, viz. "that every tongue shall confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father;" agreeing also with what the Lord Jesus Himself saith: "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." And therefore this bowing towards a cypher of the words Jesus the Saviour painted upon a wall, whilst the heart and spirit of a man are not subjected to the power of his Grace, is but a mocking of Christ, a relick of popery, and hath some show of idolatry in it, from which I thought all Protestants had been thoroughly reformed.

This a little surprized my acquaintance at first, coming from one in whom so little of the work of religion appeared outwardly; but as I remained in the diversions of fencing, dancing,

music, and other recreations of the like sort, little notice was further taken for a while.

*After this I happened to be at a christening, as we called it, of a relation's child; on which occasion I found my mind agitated in an unusual manner, and a secret aversion to that ceremony; which I perceived was not according to the Holy Scripture, for we have neither precept nor example there for that manner of prac tice.

And when the priest came to say the prayer which is a part of the service on that occasion, a great fear and surprize came over my mind, so that I could not pay that regard to it as formerly; for, by way of introduction and foundation to the work, the priest reads part of the tenth chapter of Mark's history of the Gospel, where it is related, "that the people brought young children to Christ, that He should touch them; that his disciples rebuked those that brought them; but when Jesus saw it He was much displeased, and said unto them: Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily, I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter therein. And He took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them." After this they prayed that God would give his Holy Spirit to that infant; * 1687. B 4

that she being born again, and made an heir of everlasting salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, might continue the servant of God, and attain his promise, &c. And, after some more ceremony, the priest said: "We receive this child into the congregation of Christ's flock, and do sign her with the sign of the cross," &c. Then the priest, pretending to the company that the infant is, by that, regenerated and grafted into the body of Christ's Church, exhorts them to prayer; the substance whereof was this; they thanked God that it had pleased Him to regenerate that infant by his Holy Spirit, to receive her for his own child by adoption, and to incorporate her into his holy Church, &c.

Upon this I note, that the Scripture there hath no relation at all to baptism; much less to sprinkling, which is no baptism: for the people brought their children to the Lord Christ, not to be baptized, but that He might touch them; and He answered the faith of the people accordingly He blessed them, and declared their innocence and aptitude for the kingdom of God, without such baptism, and did not baptize them; so that this Scripture is inapplicable, and all the consequences drawn from it, in this sense, are null and chimerical. But they, first praying that God, in their own invented way, would

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