the less necessary articles of our religion, viz. that they are somewhat obscurely expressed in scripture; the same may be applied also to the circumstantial topics, to the appendices, and the logical relations even of the greatest and most necessary points of christianity, as I hinted before. Though the practice of repen tance, and the promises of pardon; though justification by faith, and the death of Christ as a ransom for sinners, are so often and so plainly affirmed, yet it is not affirmed so often, nor so plain in scripture, what logical relation faith bears to our justification; whether it is a condition, as some make it; or a receiving instrument, as others suppose: Nor is it so indisputably and so evidently written in the word of God, whether Christ died as a conditional atonement for all sin, and a purchaser of salvation in general for all that are willing to accept it, or whether as a strict representative only of the elect, and to procure neither absolute nor conditional pardon for any sins but theirs.

It is evident beyond all doubt, that where the gospel comes he that believes shall be saved; Mark xvi. 15. But whether faith saves us as it is a mere dependence on divine grace, or on the priesthood of Christ, or whether it saves us rather as a hearty belief of the gospel and the grace of it, even such a belief as comes to be the spring of our repentance and our holiness, this is not so exceeding evident as to leave no room for controversy. It is abundantly revealed in holy scripture, that without repentance of our sins we can never be saved, nor shall any of our iniquities be forgiven without a sincere conversion to God; but to declare with the utmost exactness and full assurance what logical relation our repentance bears to our pardon, scripture hath not taught us quite so fully, nor so clearly described it.

It is sufficiently plain to every reader of the bible, that holiness of heart and life is of absolute necessity to our entrance into heaven, for without holiness no man can see God; Heb. xii. 14. But how far, and in what precise sense this holiness and obedience to the commands of God can give a right to enter into the gates of the city, is something harder to determine; Rev. xxii. 14. or what is that sort of right or title which our own sincere obedience gives us to the immediate possession of blessedness, though we are fully assured from several places in the word of God, it is very different from the right which we obtain by the obedience and sufferings of Christ.

In some places the sacred writer seems to mention one doctrine, while he is pursuing some one subject with warmth and zeal; in other places of scripture, the contrary seems to be signified or hinted; now both these in the literal sense, and without limitation, cannot be true: And which of these two texts must be reduced to the other, by certain distinctions and limitations in order to a reconciliation, is not so easy always to determine for in

some instances it may happen that the proposition which is but implied in one text, is nearer the truth than another proposition which seems to be expressed in another place; which can only be decided by a due survey of the context, and the different designs of the writer, and a comparison of other scriptures.

Therefore if we will dispute about these solemn subjects, let our warmest zeal and our sharpest weapons be engaged against those adversaries of the gospel, who attempt to ruin the foundations of it let us contend most earnestly for the defence of what God most obviously and incontestibly reveals; but our coolest debates, our candour and charity, rather than fierceness, should be employed about the points of more dubious discovery: At best we should maintain great moderation so long, till we find the lesser errors spreading like a secret gangrene, and drawing along with them dismal consequences, till they are observed to infect the more substantial parts of godliness, and endanger the vitals and very essence of christianity. If our reverend fathers and brethren have shewn a fiery zeal about these lesser errors, I would persuade myself their chief motive was a suspicion of danger and ruin to the gospel itself, in the liberty, in the purity, and in the glory of it, if they should have connived at these lesser mistakes, or treated them with a cold indifference: And it is possible that sometimes they might have reason for their suspicion and their zeal, though it may be confessed they were but men, and their fervor raight sometimes exceed due bounds.

But, in general, as to these meaner points, moderation is our duty: Whereto we have attained, let us walk by the same rule, and if any be otherwise minded, God in his most proper season will reveal it also to them; Phil. iii. 15, 16. It is as if the blessed apostle had said, that those who trust only in Christ and his righteousness, as the ground of their acceptance before God, shall be joyfully received to join their right-hand of fellowship with mine; and if they do but pursue holiness sincerely from the plainer motives of christianity, though they are not well acquainted with those most noble principles of it, viz. communion with a suffering, dying and rising Saviour as a representative, pledge and pattern of spiritual dying to sin, and resurrection into holiness, which are contained in verse 10. yet I will not disturb them about it, but hope God will discover it to them in his time.

Yet further, as the great doctrines of christianity and the necessary duties of it, are very much distinguished from the less necessary points, and the circumstantials of those duties, by their greater evidence and clearness of revelation; so the more substantial parts of the worship appointed in the gospel, may be distinguished from the less important modes and circumstances. Solemn prayer unto God, preaching of the word, administration

of the ordinances, baptism and the Lord's-supper, and a due attendance thereon, are plainly and certainly required of us that assume the name of christians in our sacred assemblies. But whether we may borrow assistance from composed forms in preaching, praying, and other administrations; or whether we must renounce all use of forms, books and notes to aid our invention, memory and expression in prayers and sermons, are mere aecidental matters, and not written in scripture with so express a pen: So whether the person baptized must be sprinkled or immersed, and whether the communicants at the Lord'stable must sit, or lean, stand, or kneel, are less essential considerations, and have been the subjects of dubious enquiry.

Again, in the constitution, order and government of a church, the same distinctions may be made also. That persons professing the name of Christ should agree to walk and worship together at stated seasons in the fellowship of the gospel, seems to be a demand of the law of nature, and sufficiently confirmed by many directions or examples in positive expressions of scripture too; that every such congregation of faithful people, or voluntary society of christians, is a church of Christ; that they ought to seclude or put away from their number, the grossly ignorant, the scandalous, and the profane, and to withdraw from those that walk disorderly; 2 Thess. iv. 6. that there should be persons appointed to minister to them in holy things, and that the society should honour and maintain them; all these seem to be plain aud undoubted duty.

But whether this society may receive and exclude members without or against the consent of their pastor; whether there must be any elders in a church distinct from and inferior to the pastor or bishop; whether the minister needs the imposition of the hands of several presbyters, or the superior episcopal consecration; or whether he be sufficiently ordained by the choice of the society, his solemn acceptance, and his own, and their devoting him to God in that office by fasting and prayer; these things are not quite so evident in the writings of the New Tes.. tament. And while we are required to have no fellowship with the openly wicked, though they are pretended professors of religion, yet we are commanded to receive the weak in the faith, and to hold communion with them in common christianity, though we may all differ in doubtful disputations.

SECT. II.-An Insurrection of contending Christians.

I am easily aware that the men of heat and party, will lift up their hands in wonder, when they read this catalogue and distinotion of the affairs of christianity. I see them already kindling into rage against me; they encompass my tent, and proclaim war. And upon a review of their numbers, their insurrection and their zeal, I cannot find an advocate wanting for any

one sect or party, among the common professors of the religion of Christ in England. I see there "Merges and his neighbour Aspergio; I find Sedentius and Genicola both there; Piscopion, Classicus and Antipas are come thither also. Each of them a prince of their tribe, and either a head or a very forward member of the family of their fathers. Just so the children of Israel began to denounce war against their brethren Gad and Reuben, when they built an altar of witness to maintain their communion with the rest of their tribes, while they were dissenters only in point of habitation, and dwelt beyond Jordan: These party-men are full of faith and certainty in every opinion; they embrace none as.brethren in Christ who do not wear their garb and livery, and talk not exactly in their language and phrases, nor will they hold communion with those that dissent from them in the least punctilios of the form or worship of christians." If men depart from the truth, say they, they are in the way of error; and it is all one whether they depart little or much, since they have forsaken the truth, we ought to forsake them."

These warm zealots are not used to admit of any doubt in the smallest circumstantials of religion, and because they have learned of their teachers to affirm all their tenets with equal confidence, they believe that the scripture reveals them all with equal evidence. A metaphor smiling upon their practice, is an express command. They can read their indispensible duty in a single and dubious example. A remote conclusion of their own drawing, at the end of a long chain of consequences, gives them resistless conviction, and appears in their eye as bright, though distant, as the morning-star. A circumstance or two of matter of fact determines their judgment unchangeably, for or against an opinion, which at most is but feebly favoured by those very circumstances: a little criticism on a single Greek word in some single text of scripture, becomes a firm foundation for their faith: They force some text or other to prove every thing which they say, and when they have imposed their sense on the words of the holy writers, they are sure the evangelists and the apostles are of their mind. Each of them have picked up some scraps of the arguments of their party, and they fancy themselves well equipped and furnished for the defence of the truth.

Merges, a very honest man in the main, is newly come out of the water, and glows all over with zeal and assurance, that there can be no baptism without plunging: He makes a mere jest of baby-sprinkling, and declares that if we are not covered with water, we are not buried with Christ: No honest man, says he, could ever doubt that John's disciples were immersed at Enon, for the scriptures say, there was much water there; Joha iii, 23. Aspergio, a bold talker, is as confident that sprinkling,

or pouring water on the head, is a true method of baptism, and is ready to say severe things against the practice of immersion, as if it were not only needless, but as they are ready to call it, foolish and sinful.

It is plain, saith he, in the word of God, that the apostles were baptised with the Spirit, which can never mean that they were dipped or plunged into the Spirit, but only that the Spirit was poured out upon them: And when the Israelites were baptized into Moses, it is plain they were only sprinkled with the cloud and the sea; Mat. iii. 11. compared with Acts ii. 3, 17. and 1 Cor. x. 2. and therefore, says he, I wonder that any man should be so weak as to give himself the trouble of dipping when he has such texts as these to prove sprinkling.

Sedentius, a weak and warm dissenter, is just come from St. Paul's cathedral. Being urged by great curiosity, with much ado he obtained leave of his conscience to go thither and see men receive the Lord's-supper kneeling: As he returns he is almost ready to pronounce damnation against the organs and singing-men, for they are all, saith he, the limbs of Antichrist He whispers damnation against these idolaters that bow before a piece of bread; for they look as though they worshipped the host, and belonged to Rome. He is very positive that sitting is a posture of absolute necessity in that ordinance, for Jesus and his disciples did sit and eat; Mark xiv. 8. 1 Cor. xi. 20. and since it is called the supper of the Lord, we must sit down while we partake of it, for every child knows that men are never wont to kneel at supper.

On the other hand, Genicola hates the presbyterians for their scandalous irreverence at the sacrament: "What, saith he, dare any man use so clownish and so rude a gesture as sitting, when he receives the seal of the pardon of his sins, and the emblems of the body and blood of Christ?" And he forbids all such worshippers from his communion with this sentence, "Procul, O procul este, profani," that is, " hence ye profane creatures," though he can hardly pretend to bring one text of scripture for his own practice: He is sure also that the surplice, is a sign or token of purity, and as our reformers teach, ought to be worn at prayer, for we must lift up hands of purity and innocence when we come before God; and he finds the long white garment in these words, Let all things be done decently and in order; 1 Cor. xiv. 40.

To me, saith Piscopion, it is as clear as the light, that no man, can be a minister of Christ, unless the hands of a superior man, even a diocesan bishop, have been upon his head; and all the preachings and ministerings of such a presumptuous wretch, who was not thus ordained, are but vain babblings, empty trifles, and impudent usurpations in the name of the Lord: For thus