A Letter from Connecticut to Elder ELIAS LEE,Anabaptist Teacher in the Vicinity of Ballston, State of New-York.

Norwalk, November 16th, 1799. SIR,

A CONTROVERSYbetween you and Mr. Rogers theEpiscopal Minister of Ballston, having lately fallen into my hands, wherein youare pleased to treat the Episcopalians of these States in a very ungentlemanlymanner. I shall at present only advert to your assertions, that no man canascertain the precise day of the Nativity of our Lord, and of consequence thatEpiscopalians are superstitious and absurd in their observance of the 25th ofDecember, as the anniversary of Christmas. Hereafter, I shall do myself thepleasure of addressing you on the other observances and doctrines sacred toEpiscopalians, with which you have taken, in my judgment, very unwarrantablefreedoms.

To a man so conversant with the sacred Scripture, and so replenishedwith the plenitude of the Holy Spirit, as you profess to be, the circumstanceof St. Luke's beginning his Gospel with a chronological account of an eventimmediately connected with our Saviour's Incarnation, and a virtual repetitionof the same thing by the Holy Angel as the time of the Annunciation, can hardlybe supposed matters of indifference: And yet it is evident that you have eitheroverlooked or mistaken the meaning of both; for you say it is a matter ofindifference whether the day can be ascertained or not: The which I deny, andthink it a matter of great consequence to Christianity that the day of ourLord's Nativity should be chronologically ascertained. I will therefore,present you, and the candid public, a calculation of the precise day of theNativity founded upon two data, viz. the Old and New Testament.