and provide for both; and that if they should prove careless or negligent in either, that by no other earthly means religion could grow and flourish. Nor did he leave the supreme magistrates without cautions and instructions how to behave themselves; one of the first of which was, "Foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strife," 2 Tim. ii. 23. "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations;" let him not trouble himself, nor do you trouble him with purgatory, transubstantiation, nor with enquiry who is Antichrist: "Foolish and unlearned questions avoid." Our Saviour himself was the first that discerned and observed that tares were sown in the field that he had planted; that false glosses, and erroneous interpretations, were already made upon his actions and his doctrine, yet would not suffer those, though they were his own disciples who offered, to gather them up: "Nay, lest whilst you gather up the tares you root up the wheat also with them; let them both grow together," Mark i. 15. And because the time was very long during which he would permit them to grow, and to comfort them against too tender a sense of errors and mistakes, he tells them, that the foundation which he hath laid, being ob. served and built upon, ("other foundation can no man lay," &c. 1 Cor. iii. 11,) the danger would

not be great, not so great as to make a public and general disturbance in Christian practice.

Nor could the petulancy of that age which presently appeared, in raising doubts and disputes upon our Saviour's own words, and upon what his apostles delivered as his, dispose them to write commentaries thereupon: which might put an end to all disputes and controversies which might arise, and which they could not but foresee, and in which so much time hath been since spent, and so much uncharitableness infused into the hearts of men; so that instead of learning more of what Christ would have us know, we have almost unlearned all that he would have us do: yet St Paul, as if he foresaw that the original corruption, and itch of knowledge, would be propagated by the curiosity of mankind, began his preaching in his master's method; that they might not be terrified with any imagination of the difficulty of his doctrine, he declared, that "that which may be known of God was manifest to them, for God shewed it to them." There are no doubt many things fit to be known, and which we should be the better for knowing, which are not so manifest; but it is not so neces

sary if it be not manifest. And it is very observable, that when he tells them what became of those under the law, and the sin of the Gentiles, who did not like to retain God in their knowledge, he

mentions not what false opinions grew up amongst them, by reason of their not retention of him in their knowledge; but that "God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which were not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents," Rom. i. 29, 30. He doth not so much as mention their idolatry in that place, because it was matter of opinion, which was the greatest contradiction of the majesty of God; but those vices which he had proved destructive to all human society and relation. And the same apostle finding still that the infant Christians perplexed themselves with many difficulties between the law and the gospel, took the pains, as Moses had done, to abridge the obligation of the law, as was mentioned before, to abridge the religion of the gospel: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved," Rom. x. 9. He that cordially believes the history of our Saviour; that he was the only begotten Son of God; that he suffered death for the sins of mankind; and that after he was put to death and buried, he rose the third day; the birth, and death, and

resurrection of Christ; hath faith sufficient to salvation, and all that is absolutely necessary to be be lieved lies within that narrow compass. Notwithstanding the clearness of which definition and authority of the apostle, the wit of men, and even the zeal for religion, produced many differences of opinion, and much faction amongst the believers; many men thinking that this excellent foundation would very well support this manner of building; and others, that it would as well and better bear another sort of building; rather this deduction, than that, would result from the same proposition: St Paul, still adhering fast to the foundation without much examining the superstructures, tells them, "other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ;" if they would keep themselves steady to that foundation, "let their superstructures be of gold or silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or stubble," 1 Cor. iii. 11, 12, let their conceptions or deductions be of the finest allay, the more probable and rational, or the more gross and irrational, there will at last be such examination of every one of them, that the truth shall appear and be made manifest; but for their comfort, to abate the superciliousness of him who hath the most reason to think himself in the right, and to raise the spirits of them who may be terrified with the consequence of being in the wrong, he

tells them, that they who have done their work best, raised such doctrines upon and from the foun. dation, as will bear the trial, that doctrine shall stand, and that they shall receive a reward; and that they who have built less skilfully, raised imaginations too large, or contracted opinions too narrow, to be supported upon that foundation, their doctrine shall not subsist, their opinions shall be disallowed and condemned; yet because they departed not from the foundation, let their mistakes and errors in judgment be what they will, they themselves shall be saved: nor did he think the determination of those buildings, how different soever, and vile the materials might seem to be, were proper for the judgment of any but the masterbuilder, the architect who had directed the foun. dation, who could only judge whether there were malice or hypocrisy in preparing such superstructures to rest upon that foundation.

"Therefore judge nothing before the time till the Lord come," 1 Cor. iv. 5. Whosoever takes upon him to be a judge before, presumes to judge before the cause is ripe for judgment; which is not only beside the office of an upright judge, but against the rules of justice. And it was very good husbandry, as well as wisdom, in the master in the parable; who, though he saw the tares not grown up by chance, out of the rankness of the soil, but