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lous Goodness of God by which he reveal'd himself to him for his Converfion: He tells us not, that He who had been a Blafphemer, a Perfecutor, and injurious, found Mercy because he did what he did against the Name of Chrift confcientiously, but because he did it ignorantly, in Un- 1 Tim. 1. belief. And when St. Paul had at large endea-13. voured to rectify fome Disorders which had crept into the Church at Corinth,in their Divine Office's, he yet intimates his Doubts, whether all would acquiefce in his Determinations or not; and to prevent any fuch Refractorinefs, he adds, If any 1 Cor. 14. Man think himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual,let him 37, 38. acknowledge that the things which I write unto you are the Commandments of the Lord; And he fubjoins, But if any Man be ignorant let him be ignorant; which Expreffion being, without all Question, Minatory, it would found very oddly thould we read it, If any Man be confcientious, let him be confcientious. Now from all thefe Inftances it feems very evident, that what so many mifcall Confcience, is really nothing but notorious Ignorance; which, tho' it may deferve Pity, where it betrays Men into any Extravagancies, yet it can never wholly indemnify or excufe them. Every one who performs not his Mafter's Will, purely because he knows it not, fhall yet be beaten with Stripes. And then what may he expect to fuffer who is ignorant indeed of his Master's Will, but is ignorant, only becaufe he affects to be fo, and is refolute and wilful in his Ignorance? Can that be out of Confcience too, and fo pretend to Impunity?

I am fure we act upon no fuch Rules in Secular Matters: He who robs another of Money or Goods, is not therefore to be pardoned, becaufe he was firmly perfwaded, that it is no Sin to do G 2

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fo; or fhould think he had a fufficient Precedent for fo doing, in that Spoil which the Ifraelites, by God's own Direction, committed upon the Egyptians. He who fhould murder a Mass-Prieft at the Altar would scarce escape the Justice of the Law by pleading the Examples of Phinehas or Elijah. And if Men will but give themselves Leave to think of Matters feriously, they'll agree with me, that, Let the Pleas from pretended Confcience be never fo many,and never fo plaufible; yet those who can,without any Scruple break any plain or pofitive Law of God, can with no tolerable Countenance,pleadWeaknefs or Diffatisfaction of Confcience with refpe&t to fuch Rules as really are of an obfcure and ambiguous Interpretation. He who with a due Exactness obferves all clear and indifputable Laws, may with some Reason start a Doubt where he meets with any thing that appears contradictory to those Laws: But those must be egregious Hypocrites, who can ftumble at a Straw, and yet leap over a Camel. Now Unity in the Church of Chrift is by all conAb effe ad cluded to be a Bleffing; That it is a Bleffing in poffe valet its own Nature attainable even in this Life is confequen- evident enough; for there was once a Time in Acts 4.32. which the Multitude of those who believed, were all of one Heart and of one Soul. This Unity is a Bleffing of fuch a Nature as renders it defirable Pfal. 133. by all Men. O how happy and joyful a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in Unity! It is a Bleffing which our dear Redeemer pray'd for to his Heavenly Father,that fo,not only his then present John 17. Difciples, but All those who should afterwards believe 20, 21. thro' their Word, that they all may be one; says he, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they alfo may be one in us. Peace and Unity is the Legacy He bequeathed to all, who call themselves

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by his Name; Peace I leave with you, my Peace I give unto you. He redoubles his Command, that we fhould cultivate this Legacy, This is my Com- John 15. mandment, that ye love one another; that ye love one 12. 17. another, as I have loved you. It is the agreeable Injunction of the infpired Apoftles; I beseech you, fays St. Paul, by the Name of our Lord Jefus Chrift, 1 Cor. 1. that ye all speak the Jame Thing, and that there be no 10. Divifions among you, but that ye be perfectly join'd together in the fame Mind and in the fame Judgment. Again, Where Envying and Strife is, there is Confufion and every evil Work: But the Wisdom which is from above, (fays St. James) is first pure, then James 3. peaceable, gentle and eafy to be intreated, full of16, 17. Mercy and good Works. And what fignifies more toward preferving this Peace and Unity than all the reft, this Wifdom is, without Partiality and without Hypocrify

Now these Texts and many more recommen ding, exhorting, praying for, promifing, com manding Unity among all who call themfelves by the Name of Chrift, are fo plain, fo intelligible, in Order to inforce the Duty, that they can admit of no Evafion; nor can any ordinary Plea ftand against them. And farther yet, in Order to the fame Peace and Unity, the Apoftle commands all Chriftians, to obey thofe who are over Heb. 13. them in the Lord, and to fubmit themselves. He 17. commands the Bishops and Paftors of the Church

to preach the Word, and to be inftant in Seafon and 2 Tim. 4. out of Seafon, to reprove, rebuke and exhort with all2, 3, 4. Long-Suffering and Doctrine. He forewarns them of fome, fome among themselves who would not endure found Doctrine, but after their own Lufts would heap up to themselves Teachers, that they should turn away their Ears from the Truth and be turned to

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Fables. And yet, fince the meaneft Auditors in a Christian Congregation, are not to take Things upon Truft, or to believe them only becaufe fuch or fuch Perfons fay fo; our Saviour, in what He fays to the Jews, commands all those John 5.39.who would obtain eternal Life, to fearch the ScripAas 17. tures. The Bereans are commended because they Search'd the Scriptures daily, to fee whether the Things

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taught by the Apostles themselves were fo or not. And St. Paul, to encourage Men's Reading 2 Tim. 3. those Holy Books, tells Timothy, that All Scrip16. 17. ture is given by Inspiration from God, and is profita ble for Doctrine, for Correction, and Inftruction in Righteousness, that the Man of God, (whether Prieft or Layman) may by converfing with them, be throughly furnish'd to every good Work. From all which it follows, that we are in all Things to attend to the Doctrine of our Lawful Paftors; to try that Doctrine which we hear them preach, by the unerring Touchftone of the Written Word of God; that we are to explain the more dubious or obfcure Paffages in Scripture, fo as they may always be agreeable to the Doctrine laid down in the plaineft and leaft difputable Precepts and Inftructions and not glofs the plainer Texts by the bare Sound, and the first indigefted Conceptions we have of those which are lefs obvious, and harder to be understood; That whatsoever is not contrary to the Scriptures of God, or those clear and unambiguous Commands laid down there, or whatsoever hinders us not, but that we may serve that God, who is a Spirit,in Spirit and in Truth; All fuch Doctrines found and faithful Chriftians ought to fubmit to, when they are intelligibly laid down before them by their lawful Spiritual Paftors and Governors.

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And it follows from hence, in fhort, that the Inftru&tors and Governors of the Chriftian Church, having, (as the lawful Governors of all other Societies have) fuch a Power vefted in them, as is fufficient to purge and preserve that Body which they are fet over; the Inftru&tors and Governors of the Chriftian Church may in Order to preferve and fecure it, reprove, correct, and if there be Occafion, caft out of Church Communion all fuch Members of it, as walk diforderly, and will not fubmit to their Doctrine and Difcipline in things agreeing with, or not contrary to, the plain Rules of Scripture, without being guilty of Perfecution.

But now comes in one, with what he very abufively calls Confcience, and that a Confcience full of Doubts and Scruples, which really are Accidents incompatible with Confcience, how weak foever it may be fuppos'd: And he thinks he finds fomething injoin'd in the Communion of the Church of England, and as a Condition of that Communion, which he believes, or at leaft fufpects to be finful; as particularly kneeling in Participation of the Lord's Supper, ufing Set Forms of Prayer in the Publick Worship of God, Eating and Drinking at the Lord's Table in common with Men of known or fuppos'd vicious Lives and Conversations; the Ufe of the Crofs in the Office of Baptifm, and of the Ring in Marriage, &c. At thefe Things this Man of Scruple ftumbles wonderfully; and tho' it be impoffible to prove that thefe or any of thefe Things are finful in themfelves by any pertinent Argument, by any antient Authority, or by any clear Text of Scripture; and tho' nothing can be more irrational than to

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