the danger of his opinions, and forbid their attendance. Truly, replies Momion, he insisted so much on the grace of God, that he left but one quarter of his hour-glass for the duties of the gospel; I fear he is a supralapsarian, my spirit rises against him, and I must warn my acquaintance of his doctrine." A third person in the company begins to surmise that his morals are not good; "I have heard an ill story of a preacher not long since, saith he, and surely this must be the man?" And then he proceeds in a direct opposition to the grace of charity, as it is described by St. Paul; 1 Cor. xiii. 5. Tit. iii. 2. I easily believe all that is evil of him: I am provoked at him; I hope no good from him; I cannot bear his principles; I cannot endure his person; and I should rejoice in the seasonable death of such an antinomian as this is. Thus does the root of bitterness spring up into wide branches, it bears poisonous fruit, and many souls are troubled. Blessed be God who of late years begins to purge out this sour leaven from amongst us.

II. The next pernicious effect I take notice of, is, that an uncharitable carriage brings a disgrace and blemish upon christianity, beyond the guilt and scandal of heathenism; It is the character of the Gentiles indeed, that they were hateful and hating one another, but not for different principles of philosophy, which they professed, nor different methods of worship, which they paid to their gods. There were no civil wars proclaimed, nor courts of inquisition erected amongst them upon this account, though their controversies about divine things were not trivial, and they differed widely in the very foundations of religion; and as an ingenious author expresses himself on this subject, Though poets have made the gods enter into factions and quarrels for commonwealths, yet commonwealths never did the same for their gods." But if the heathens had been never so much enraged, and quarrelled never so fiercely for the sake of opinions, and formalities; still they were almost infinitely more excusable than christians can pretend to be: For the very doctrines of most of their sects permit revenge; and they have many a bloody principle amongst them. But christianity is the most mild, the most gentle, and the most peaceable religion : Never a doctrine was taught amongst mankind, that hath so much of love and sweetness in it: Never a system, or rule of duties, wherein meekness and candour, charity and compassion are so prescribed and enforced.

Never was there a religion instituted by God, or invented by men, with so much goodness in the heart and soul of it, or so many charms aud amiablenesses in the face. It is built upon the foundation of God's eternal and unchangeable love. It was love that assumed human nature, and became the great prophet and teacher of it, and the spirit of love in our hearts is its vital

spring within us: It is divine love dwelling in flesh, banging upon a cross, bleeding and dying for enemies and rebels that hath purchased all the promised blessings of our religion; and it is the same love arising from the grave, and reigning in glory, that distributes these blessings to men: And in all the melting language of compassion and tenderness invitesus to receive them: It was this love dwelling personally amongst men, calls himself our brother, and charges us to love all the professors of the same faith as brethren: He requires that we should be ready to lay down our lives for one another, as he did for us all: And orders it to be the distinguishing character of all his followers, Hereby shall all men know, that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another; John xiii. 34, 35. God himself is infinite and unseen love, Christ is love incarnate and visible: And a christian is or should be an effigy of that love graven to the life, by the finger of the divine Spirit. Now, for the professors of such a doctrine to quarrel about trifles, and grow malicious upon every punctilio of different sentiments, how grossly do they abuse the christian name? They rob their own religion of its due honour amongst men, and bring infinite shame and discredit upon christianity in the face of infidel nations. It is for the sake of this madness which is found amongst the pretended followers of our blessed Lord, his name is blasphemed among the heathens; and the conversion of the kingdoms of this world to the faith of Christ, rendered almost rationally impossible.

III. Thirdly, This uncharitable temper rages even to wars and blood; hath laid the churches of Christ desolate, and dispeopled many countries in christendom. It doth not spend itself in secret like a sullen humour, or a vapour of melancholy, but breaks out into public violence and disorder, and all that is near it feels the indignation. It sits brooding over the eggs of a cockatrice, and daily sends forth a fiery flying serpent, instruments of cruelty are in its habitation, and all its children are sons of blood and rapine. O my soul, come thou not into their council; unto their assembly, my honour, be not thou united; for in their anger they have slain millions of men, and in their self-will they have digged up the foundations of a thousand churches. Cursed be their anger for it is fierce, and their wrath for it is cruel; Gen xlix. 6, 7. These men of division at the last judgment-day, may justly expect to be divided from Jacob, and scattered far away from the Israel of God. For God will render to every one according to their works; Rom. ii. 16. And surely these bloody persecutions are such works as demand like revenges from a God of justice; if such as practice them die without repentance.

If you ask me the method whereby this uncharitable temper has advanced to such a degree of rage and barbarity, it is very

obvious and easy to be explained. At first these men assume to themselves the name of the church, and lodge in themselves a sort of infallibility, or at least pretend to a divine authority to determine finally all doubtful, cases of religion, and to rule over the consciences of men. They set up the wretched trade of creed-making, and demand the belief of mankind: Then they give out decrees, such as Christ and his apostles never gave, and pronounce damnation against all that doubt or disbelieve them; though their fables are not cunningly devised, because they are made too big for belief. Some of them contradict the most substantial principles of sense, reason and christianity.

You will see this plainly exemplified in a few instances I shall give of their decrees and canons. As "Whosoever shall affirm that that there are more or less than seven sacraments, let him be anathemized, excommunicated, or accursed: Whosoever shall affirm that the substance of bread and wine remains in the eucharist, together with the body and blood of Christ, or shall deny the wonderful change of the whole substance of bread into the body, and wine into blood, which the catholic church calls transubstantiation, let him be excommunicated: Whosoever shall say, that extreme unction doth not confer grace, nor remit sin, nor ease the sick, let him be excommunicated*." Thus oftentimes the same anathema and eternal death is denounced against such as disobey their decrees about matters of trifling importance; matters which they themselves can never pretend to be, in their own nature, necessary to salvation. "He that shall say a common minister can confirm as well as a bishop, let him be excommunicated: He that shall say, the ceremonies, the vestments, &c. in the celebration of the mass, are incentives to sin, rather than duties of piety, let him be excommunicated: He that shall say, a priest may become a layman again, let him be excommunicated: and whosoever shall say, that the hierarchy of bishops, presbyters, and ministers or deacons is not of divine ordination, let him be excommunicated." When this church has thus excommunicated and cursed christians better than herself, and cast them out of her arms, she gives them up to the secular powert, with an awful and deceitful charge, that the obstinate heretic shall not be hurt in life or limb; but with a full design that they should be tortured and destroyed. Having solemnly delivered them to the devil in their spiritual courts, the temporal executioner sends them out of the world; not their souls may be saved in the day of the Lord, but that they may be plunged immediately into utter darkness where Satan dwells.

It is the command of Christ to the Roman church, by Paul

* Canons of the church of Rome in the council of Trent.

See the History of the Inquisition.

the great apostle; Rom. xiv. 1. That such as were weak in faith should be received to their fellowship, and not troubled with doubtful disputations, such as the observance of meats and days, and things of like moment: But the Romans have now so far rebelled against this rule, as to admit persons into their communion upon no other terms than a blind submission to all the doubtful disputables which that church imposes. They had an order from St. Paul; Rom. xv. 7. to receive all such as Christ had received; and consequently to reject no others but those whom Christ rejects; but they forgot this charitable canon of our Lord, while they receive thousands to their communion which have no visible marks of the image of Christ, and reject thousands, and curse them to hell, whom the Lord Christ will acknowledge for his, and pronounce them blessed of his Father at the last day.

When they first begin to assume this sovereignty over faith and conscience, they use a shew of argument, and pretend to instruct and enlighten the weak and the ignorant. They admonish them to hearken to the church; but if the ignorant are still weak in belief, and cannot be convinced of the lawfulness of their ceremonies; then they send the sheriff and the jailor to carry on the dispute; a prison and the gibbet are the next arguments; and when reason and scripture will not assist them, they employ fire and sword, to contend earnestly for the fables that were never delivered to the saints; Jude, verse 3.

To draw up an account of the horrible effects of uncharitableness would be to transcribe the ecclesiastical history of many ages: Whole churches and quarters of the world, the eastern and western, have damned one another plentifully upon the account of imposed days, and trifles which the gospel leaves indifferent, or rather forbids. How many of the canons of ancient councils have been influenced in their formation by this assuming spirit, and as terribly enforced in their execution to the reproach and devastation of christendom? But it moves my grief and wonder, that a modern church that pretends not to infallibility should assume a strange dominion over our faith and practice. It asserts its own, "power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith; when in the very preceding words it confesses that the churches of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred, so also the church of Rome has erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith." It demands my admiration, that such a church should canonically denounce her excommunications in abundance, against those that dissent from her in some disputable things, while they retain all her professed doctrines of the christian faith.

And it is a pain and a shame to our eyes to look backward

upon other times, and to behold pamphlets written against toleration by such as are ministers of the gospel of peace, that perfect law of liberty. It was their opinion then, and they told the world so in print, that sectaries ought to be silenced by the civil power: Now sectary is a name of broad dimensions, and has a terrible 'stretch with it: the long scourge would in time reach all those who differ from the hand that manages that wea pon of chastisement: None must be authorized to preach in any form, but by the solemnity of imposing hands, by a company of authorized men. Because some subjected themselves to the determination of a synod, they would make it the duty of all their neighbours to wear the same yoke; and thought others were bound to become slaves to the same dictates. But I forbear this charge, and almost wish it cancelled: For as the magistrate did not put in practice the uncharitable pamphlets, so those reverend and honourable writers have been taught to acknowledge the mistake of their zeal, when their own verbal rods were turned against them, and became real scorpions with stings and scourges a thousand-fold. The fathers have been dearly instructed in the value of toleration and liberty by most abundant retaliations. The children have learned to preach this part of the gospel well, and I am persuaded they will never forget it again.

If we turn over more ancient annals, the Marian days give us horrible examples of fiery zeal in the clergy, and the glorious reign of the succeeding virgin-princess is hardly to be purged from the stain of blood. Blessed be God who has put into the heart of our civil governors to restrain the fury of all spiritual administrators. The long and dreadful train of capiases and goalers, prisons and plunderings, ruin and banishment, silencings and violent suppressions are no longer the attendants of the anathemas of any church among us. And I hope no church mourns the loss of them; though there are some anathemas that abide still as terrors to those that are weak in faith, and not very honourable monuments of that church's charity. In these late years the scene of Great Britain was a little shadow of Spain and France, where dragoons and the inquisition manage ecclesiastical discipline. We were brought to the very gates of "Aceldama." The agents of Rome were ready with their instruments of death. Adored be the divine Spirit that awakened the rulers of the church to behold the common danger, and raised in them generous resolutions and promises to exercise charity and temper towards their brethren. Glory to that God whose kind providence sent us a deliverer, and forbid England to become a field of blood and martyrdom: And new songs of praise are still due unto divine mercy, for establishing the person and heart of our Queen in the throne and