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man,

charity, peace,

What a blessed

and the preservation of truth, and godliness, is as clear as the sun. thing it would be for us, if all people could see this! What temptations, corruptions, tumults, and miseries, would it prevent amongst mankind! But alas! they are ever ingenious in defeating the purposes of God for their own good. They have ways and expedients, hot only of making themselves easy without the benefits of the Christian Church, but of actually casting them all off with a high hand, as needless, superstitious, dangerous, and even sinful, and antichristian; not helps to salvation, but hindrances. How this matter is, and with what reasonings they deceive themselves; we shall discover with very little inquiry.

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CHAPTER III.

THE ERRORS, WHICH TEMPT MEN TO LEAVE THE CHURCH, AND MAKE THEM EASY WHEN THEY ARE SEPARATED FROM IT.

THE means of grace, and the promises of God, being with his Church, they who would be partakers of them, must apply to the Church: and who would not? Who would not willingly flee from Sodom on fire to take refuge in Zoar? When the storm is abroad, the beasts have sense to fly to a place of shelter and as the wrath of God is denounced against this world, men must be enemies to themselves, if they refuse to be delivered in the way which God hath appointed. But we know nothing of this world, if we think all men are friends to their own spiritual interest. Many will rather have recourse to their own imaginations: and when pride hath got possession of them, they are above being directed.

The example of Naaman is very instructive on this part of our subject. When he was ordered to seek the cure of his leprosy, by washing seven times in Jordan, the proud Syrian refused to comply with the ceremony, because he could not see how it should have

any effect. Nevertheless, when he had thought better of it, that ceremony, unaccountable and useless as it. might seem to his carnal reason, cured him of his distemper. By the Church and its ordinances, every Christian is put to the same trial; whether he will submit to such things as reason cannot account for ? Whether he will look for an effect, to which the cause is not adequate, without the interposition of an invisi ble power? The children of God are still exercised by this trial. Some accept the terms proposed: they believe the promises of God, and are saved.-Of the rest some do not see how they can be saved in this manner: and others spend their lives in vanity, and never think whether they can or cannot. Men are influenced by two principles totally opposite, sight and faith: the Christian walks by faith and not by sight; the disputer of this world believes nothing but what he sees, and so is incapable of the benefits of Christianity. It does not appear to him how power can come from Heaven. and be delivered down in succession by the imposition of hands how water which washes the body, can wash away sins; how bread can be made the vehicle of spiritual life; sohe lives and dies the dupe of a dead philosophy, which admits of nothing spiritual in a religion whose benefits are all of a spiritual kind.

From the nature of the Church, we see how necessary it is, that men should be taken into it out of this wicked world. We see how the promises of God are confined to the ordinances of the Church; and that there can be no assurance of salvation without them. If we reflect on these things, we cannot but consider it as an inestimable blessing, that God hath appointed such a plain and certain way of leading us through the means of grace to the hope of glory. We may perhaps wonder why men should endeavour to deprive them

selves of these benefits; and how Christian people, so called, can satisfy themselves under a causeless departure from the great law of peace and charity. I will therefore proceed to shew how they deceive themselves. There are three false principles, which, if admitted, would supersede the necessity of any Church.

The first of these is the doctrine of an absolute unconditional election to salvation. For if God, by a mere act of his sovereign will, and according to an irresistible decree, elects men to eternal salvation, without regard to conditions and circumstances; then no visible ordinances are necessary as means of grace; they are all superseded, and we are as safe without them as with them. This doctrine is so convenient to all the irregular classes of Christian people, who have cast off the Church and its authority, that it has been much insisted upon almost from the beginning of the Reformation; and has done infinite mischief. For he who is divided from his brethren, with this doctrine in his mind, is thereby confirmed and fortified in his errors. In' vain shall we recommend, the benefits of Church communion to him, who is saved in consequence of a decree, made before the Church or the world had a being. God hath elected him, without any regard to outward ordinances; and so the want of those ordinances can never render his election of no effect. And supposing his doctrine to be true, who can deny the consequence? But the doctrine is false. Thus much of it is true; that, according to the Scripture, man is chosen, or elected, out of the world, by the free grace of God, without any respect to his own works, (of which he can have none till he is called; being in the state of an unborn infant) and brought into God's Church, where he is in a state of salvation. But he may fall from this state, or be cast out of it by

the authority which brought him into it, and forfeit all the privileges of his election; therefore the Apostle gives us this warning; let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall and St. Peter bids us give diligence to make our calling and election sure. How can that be, if we are elected to salvation, by an irreversible decree? We need take no pains to make that sure, which in its nature is irreversible. Paul was a vessel chosen of God; and yet this same Paul supposes. it possible for him to fall from the grace of God, and become a castaway*. Election, therefore, as it is spo-. ken of in the Scripture, hath been grossly misunderstood; for there is no such thing there as any election of individuals to final salvation, independent of the ordi-: nances of the Church. Election is an inward and spiritual grace; but there is no such thing administered to man without some outward sign. A man might tell us that he is ordained to preach the Gospel: but we know this can never be without the laying on of hands. He may tell us he is one of God's elect; and if the reality of his election were to depend upon his own re-. port, how should we confute him, although he were guilty of all manner of wickedness? If we believe him on his own authority, we may be tempted to be as wicked as he is; and multitudes have, by this doctrine, corrupted one another, and fallen into what is called

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* Another proof of this argument may be found in 1 Cor. viii. “Through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Chrsst died?" The true notion of predestination is to be met with in Eph. i, 11, 12. where those are said to be predestinated to the praise of God's glory who trusted in Christ. Our attainment of eternal happiness is the consequence of our belief in' Christ, and the irreversible decree of God is, that those that kelieve in him should not perish, and this is probably the only sense' in which the doctrine of predestination and election can be main-' tained from Scripture.

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