saith the common-prayer-book, which was made by saints and martyrs, "It is evident unto all men, diligently reading holy scripture, and ancient authors, that from the apostle's time there have been these orders of ministers in Christ's church; bishops, priests, and deacons." Thus he proceeds triumphant where the civil government is on his side, and will yield to no man in argument or dispute.

Classicus arises in warm opposition to prelacy, and asserts it an indisputable truth, that no minister of Christ is superior to another: I read saith he, in my bible, no distinction between bishops and presbyters; they are the same officers in scripture; and the power of synods is so plainly instituted at the council at Jerusalem; Acts xv. that I am amazed this should be esteemed a matter of doubt or difficulty; and I am well assured of this, because Timothy had the hands of presbytery laid upon him; 1 Tim. iv. 14. there is no man above or below a presbyter has any thing to do in ordaining ministers since the apostles are dead.

Antipas grows impatient at these bold assertions, and asserts with as much boldness, that the power of ordaining all sorts of officers in the church belongs properly to the brethren of a single congregation, and none besides have any authority to meddle with it, since the race of inspired men are dead and gone: The brethren have all the power in their hands, and it is the church or congregation alone that has any manner of right to chuse and approve and establish its own pastors, elders, overseers and deacons: For is it not said; Acts vi. 3. Look you out among you seven men, &c. And if this be done at the choice of deacons, why not of elders too? The learned say, that the word in Greek, which is used for ordaining of elders, signifies the choice or "lifting up the hands of the brethren to vote for them* " Whatsoever particulars are disputed in church government, the power of the people must be ever acknowledged and received as a fundamental and immoveable truth.

Among all these combatants there is not one but is so positive in his own sentiments, that one would think they had received all their opinions by inspiration, or that Christ and his apostles had been precisely of their party, and had written their opinions down in express letters and syllables. And not only are they so assured of the truth of their tenets, but the vast importance of them too: And each of them grows angry that his own particular opinion should be reckoned among the less evident, or the less important points of religion: Their fury boils high, and their mistaken zeal and warm ferment of their passion swells every punctilio to a mountain, and makes every particle of their opinions fundamental: They do not observe how their swift career

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ON DIFFICULTIES IN SCRIPTURE.

and violence carries each of them besides or beyond their text, and thus they are sometimes hurried on beside the gaol of truth, and I am persuaded their assurance always runs too fast for their evidence, and reaches far beyond it.

They commend and practise vehemence as a virtue, and so far forget their bible as to believe all moderation to be a mere spirit of indifference and unworthy of a good christian. They maintain opposite notions, yet by their temper and conduct they all seem to approve each other's zeal for his own party, and with one consent they vote me a mere latitudinarian, a lukewarm professor, a citizen of Laodicea, who has not a spark of zeal for the gospel of Christ, the worship or the discipline of his church.

My dear zealous friends, be calm a little and let me speak before I am condemned, I do not deny many of these things which I call less important to be some way discovered in the New Testament, though not in so express and plain language as you suppose. The chief concerns of the christian church are so far prescribed by positive rules, by examples, or just inferences, that a serious reader, who is attentive and unbiassed, and who will exercise his reasoning powers, may find sufficient notices of all necessary truth and duty; according to my measure of light I humbly hope I have found it, and thereby regulate my practice. But still it must be granted, that things less necessary are not so plainly described as the bigger and more substantial parts of religion, nor graven in characters se large and obvious that every one must needs discern them. Christ Jesus hath been as faithful in his house as Moses was, and has delineated the form, pattern and order of it, so far as infinite wisdom thought necessary to carry on the grand designs of grace and the gospel: But some of the lesser pins in this spiritual tabernacle are not so graphically decyphered, as that every child may tell whether they must be round or square. There is nothing of so much weight depends upon them, and therefore there was no need for them to be so expressly described under the New Testament, wherein bodily exercises profit little; 1 Tim. iv. 8. but worship and religion consist more in what is spiritual and invisible*.

Upon the whole then, since there are different degrees of evidence and clearness, wherewith some of the doctrines of faith, and the rules of worship and order in the New Testament are expressed, there ought also to be found in us different degrees of assent or assurance, wherewith we should receive these doctrines, or these rules of duty: for it is a certain and eternal rule of logic or reason, that "our assent to any proposition ought to be firm or feeble, just in proportion to the different degrees of evidence,

* See the essay on the "Reasons why the Worship of Christian Churches is not so particularly Described as the Jewish." which you may find in the Treatise about the "Holiness of Times, Places and Persons."

whether they be brighter or more obscure." Here then is a plain and pretty general rule given us, whereby we may judge whether any particular opinion or practice be more or less important, and consequently whether our zeal for it should be warmer or cooler, viz. Is the evidence of this practice, or this truth in scripture more bright or cloudy? According to the light of evidence, such generally should our zeal be. Violence and fierce contention among christians, especially about matters of lesser moment, or of doubtful dispute, are infinitely scandalous to the christian name; and as they tend to ruin and destroy the churches of Christ, so in all ages they have greatly grieved the souls of those who love the interests of christianity, and wish well to Sion. SECT. IH.-Some Reason why these Differences are permitted to arise among Christians.

If it would not offend my readers, I would here come to an ingenuous confession, that the different sentiments and dreadful quarrels of christians about some of the lesser things of religion, and the dark and dubious expressions in scripture, wherein some parts of our religion are revealed, have sometimes been a sore temptation and sorrow to my heart, so that I have wished these doubtful disputables had been more clearly determined there. I have been plunged into the briars of this perplexity, when I haveseen persons of devout soul, serious and humble, dissent so widely from each other, both in opinion and practice, and that in matters of some moment too, and even after long and honest inquiries into the meaning of God in his word. Under these difficulties I have said in my heart, "Why did not the God of wisdom and of love express every article of belief and duty in words of plainest revelation and precept, that we might have all read the same sense, and been all of one mind? Why did he leave the least point of our religion dubious or obscure, when, with a long foresight, he surveyed all the quarrels and rage, the infinite scandal, the cruelty and the blood, that in future ages would be the consequences of religious disputes?"

I have been pained at my soul, and felt an inward afflicting heaviness in such a meditation as this; nor could I ever satisfy myself with that profane answer which some witty men have given, viz. "That God, who might have made the rules of our duty plain and undisputed, chose to express them in words capable of several interpretations, that christians might be liable to be led into many different opinions, that hereby God might please himself with the variety of devotions that were paid him; and that how different soever their sentiments and practices might be, yet that his commands are equally obeyed by all the various kinds of worship and service, which the consciences of men sincerely conceive themselves bound to offer." This notion inclines to that wild opinion, which supposes that any forms or methods of wor

ship are all equally acceptable to God, that there are more true religions than one: This savours so much of the deist and the libertine, and the disciples of the leviathan, that I could never admit it into my assent.

Yet it must be granted that his wisdom had some very valuable ends to attain in the way of providence, by permitting so many differences among christians; and if we had been secretaries to the King of heaven when he formed his decrees, we might have known perhaps some of these awful" arcana" of his government; but who has been his counsellor, or to whom has he given an account of these matters? His paths are in the great deep, and his providences are trackless through the mighty waters; how unsearchable are his ways, and his judgments are past finding out! Rom. xi. 35. I dare not pretend to write a complete rationale" on all his infinite and impenetrable designs; yet my faith assures me that they have all the highest and divine reason in them. And I will take the freedom here to mention some of those considerations that have silenced my clamorous thoughts, pleased my inquiry, satisfied my conscience, and vanquished the dark temptation.

First, By these doubtful disputables among the accidental things of religion, God tries our sincerity, whether we will hold fast the substantials. The constancy and courage of a soul devoted to God is exercised and proved amidst the clamours and noisy contests of the men of party and angry zeal; and when it persevereth in a course of christianity, notwithstanding all these stumbling-blocks, it approves itself to God, its Judge and Rewarder. The differences of true christians in some parts of their faith and worship, have frighted and scandalized the hypocrite and the giddy professor; their heads have been turned round with every wind of doctrine, because their hearts have not been established in the way of holiness; they have cast off all the articles and practices of religion, because they find so many sects divided by their little particularities, and cannot precisely determine every circumstance of truth and duty. There were divisions and parties, schisms and sects in the Corinthian church, and they must be, saith the apostle, that they are approved may made manifest among you; 1 Cor. xi. 19. Our Lord Jesus forewarns his disciples, that offences will come, and it is not possible that it should be otherwise; there shall be variance and strife in a man's own household: But blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me; he that persevereth to the end, the same shall be saved; Luke xvii. 1. Mat. xi. 6. There are many things in the christian religion that become stones of stumbling, and rocks of offence; blessed are the upright that hold on their course and resolution for heaven, and whose feet stumble not upon these dark mountains, because of their neglect to search out the truth, or their wilful obstinacy in dangerous errors.

Secondly, Not only our sincerity towards God, but our charity towards our fellow-christians is hereby put to the trial, and charity is the very livery of the disciples of Christ. Hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another; John xiii. 35. The Lord hath commanded all his sheep to wear this mark of distinction from the world, how different soever their lesser opinions are among themselves. Where I behold the image of Christ my Lord stamped in legible characters upon my neighbour, can I love him with warm affection, though he never frequents the same place of worship with me, though he wears a garment of another shape and colour, prays in a set form of words which I cannot perfectly approve, and subscribes a creed of different expressions, though the same in sense and meaning? Can I receive this good man into my very soul, who eats nothing but herbs, and will not sit down at my table because flesh is eaten there? Can I love him at my heart that loves Jesus the Lord, though he will not religiously observe the festival of his birth or ascension? Or do these little words Christmas and Holy-Thursday set my heart at a distance from him, and make him forfeit all my charity? Such queries as these may be a touchstone of our graces, and the test of true love to Christ and his saints.

There seems to be something of this design in our Lord Jesus Christ, when he ordered his servant Paul to write the fourteenth chapter to the Romans, where the apostle, though he gives a hint of his own opinion and liberty in the gospel, with regard to meats and days, yet he doth not impose the same observations and abstinences on other christians; and though he was inspired, yet he leaves these things still indifferent, and calls them doubtful disputations. Now as the trial of our faith, through manifold temptations, is much more precious than that of gold that perishes, so the trial of our love passing through the smoky fires of contention and dispute, and not mingling therewith, is discovered to be a pure divine flame, and shall be found to praise, honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen we love; 1 Pet. i. 7, 8.

Thirdly, Perhaps our Lord might leave some lesser points of religion more obscurely expressed in his word, because he de signed to continue a ministry in his church to the end of the world, or till he came again. While other christians have their hours and thoughts engrossed by the cares of this life, and want leisure and skill and means to acquaint themselves with all the difficult and more abstruse parts of religion, it is the business of the men that are honoured and employed in the sacred office to give themselves to reading, to search into the hidden things of God, and explain the more doubtful paragraphs of his word

unto men.