TO ALL GOD'S FAITHFUL PEOPLE EVERY WHERE, GRACE AND PEACE. NOT out of any light affectation, or out of a cross humour of cainly striving against the stream (my witness is in heaven;) but, out of a care to approve my faithfulness to God's Church, have I undertaken this subject. Mine eyes tell me too plainly, that an Apostolical Institution is palpably neglected: and my heart tells me, both how infinitely advantageous and beneficial the practice of it, if duly revived, might be to the Church of Christ; and how extreme losers God's people are, by the want of it. I durst not, therefore, but impart these thoughts to the world, before I leave it: humbly recommending them to the serious consideration of all well-affected Christians; who shall soon find, upon these poor suggestions, how happy it were, if, in this case, we should walk with an even foot, in the mid-way, betwixt Romish Superstition and profane neglect. The God of Heaven make us wise to salvation, and guide our feet into the way of peace! Amen. IMPOSITION OF HANDS. SECT. 1. It is no small wonder to me, that, amongst all those great wits di the latter times, that have so curiously pryed into all the corners of Apostolical Institutions and practices, I could meet with no one, that hath so much as taken notice of this, of the Imposition of Hands: which yet, all the while, lay so broad open before them, that the doctrine thereof is, by the Apostle, reckoned amongst the first principles of Christian Religion. Is it, for that men are unwilling to know some truths, whose unpleasing consequences they would be loth to own? or, is it, that they are carried away with so high a prejudice against this practice, by reason of the extreme abuse of it, as that they are afraid to entertain any thoughts concerning it? However it be, certainly the Spirit of God hath not doubted to place this, amidst the rank of the clearest and most concerning ve rities; and amongst such, as are essentially fundamental to our Christian profession: joining it together with those main principles of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Resurrection, and Judgment *. What shall we say then? Dare any Christian presume to say, that the Apostle, the great and wise master-builder of the Church 1, mistook the foundation whereon he built? Or, dare any presumptuous soul single this one article from the rest, as merely temporary, when all the rest are granted to be of eternal use? Čan there be any time, wherein faith, and repentance from dead works, shall not be necessary, both for knowledge and practice? Can it be, that baptism should be ever out of date? Can the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead, and of the last judgment, be ever unseasona ble and superannuated? How, or why then should that of Imposi tion of Hands, which is indivisibly marshalled with all these, by the blessed Apostle, be shuffled out from the rest, as arbitrary and altogether unnecessary SECT. 2. TAKING it then for granted, that the Apostle accounts the doctrine and practice of the Imposition of Hands, to be both of excellent * Heb. vi. 2. + 1 Cor. iii. 10. |