With reference to the peculiarities of the different religious sects mentioned in your letter, I am not ingnorant.    
   The Methodists are arminians in doctrine, but in their prayers & much of their christian experience, they seem to be evangelical & approaching to calvinism. Their error concerning doctrines arises from their notion of moral freedom. They contend that it consists in possessing a self-determining power to originate their own actions (a power that none but Deity possesses); while Clavinists hold that it consists in doing as we please in a state of dependence on God, who worketh in us both to will & to do. This notion of self-determining power inclines them to reject the doctrines of election & perseverance. So far as their error is of the head & not of the heart, they may be sincere christians notwithstanding: & it is charitably hoped the bulk of them are. But their system seems to impel them to walk more by sensible feeling, than by faith in the promises.

   With respect to the Baptists, the difference is not essential so far as relates merely to the ordinance, it being equally valid, whether administered by immersion or sprinkling.* Our Saviour's baptism, whatever it was, & however administered, we think could not be christian baptism, or a model for our imitation. He had no sins to confess or wash away, & he could not be baptized in his own name. It was probably his public consecration to office, as Aaron was washed at the door of the tabernacle before he was clothed with the pontifical garments. He was a minister of the circumcision & christian baptism was not instituted till after his resurrection. The mode