eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever; against the sacred Scriptures that they are not the word of God, are with not a few, things common and ordinary. Yea, these very things which Jews and Mahometans, and not a few in pagan nations do acknowledge, and which being denied, the condition of a man is made little better than that of a beast; such as the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the dead, heaven and hell, eternal rewards and eternal punishments, are by divers wantonly debated, and by some pertinaciously denied and oppugned. The time was, and that not many years ago, when Independency, Erastianism, Brownism, and Anabaptism in that land, were looked upon as threatening danger to the churches and work of reformation in these nations; yet, in comparison to the errors that now abound in England, these are but as mole-hills to mountains. The whole body of Arminianism, Antinomianism, Pelagianism, Socinianism, Familism, Quakerism, and almost what not that hath at any time been broached by the father of lies, and infested the Christian church, but hath some brokers and patrons there.

That these things are so, is but too sadly true; and these things being so, is not the Church of Scotland by reason of its vicinity unto, and intimate and daily correspondence and commerce with England, in imminent hazard to be tainted with infection thereby. The vicinity and near neighbourhood of nations and churches, especially when attended with intimate and ordinary fellowship, hath always had great influence upon the manners of one another, chiefly as to the depraving and corrupting of religion, to which all the sons of men, by reason of their inbred ignorance and instability, and the power of corrupt imaginations, are of themselves but too prone. The children of Israel, not only when they lived in the land of Egypt, were infected with many idolatrous and heathenish customs (Ezek. xxiii. 27), but even when separated and brought into Canaan, albeit railed in and fenced with the holy and perfect law of the Lord, to which was added the sanction of many great and precious

promises to such as did obey, and of many dreadful threatenings against the disobedient and rebellious, which were accordingly verified by God in eminent acts of his justice and goodness; the idolatrous opinions and practices of their neighbour nations had such influence upon them, that they could not be kept (scarce at any time for one generation together) from learning their works, and going a whoring after their corrupt customs, (Psal. vi.35-39). Yea, they sometimes came to be worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before them (2 Chron. xxxiii. 9), and to change his judgments into wickedness, more than the nations, and his statutes more than the countries that were round about them (Ezek. v. 6), especially after that religion came to be corrupted amongst the ten tribes by Jeroboam's erecting the calves at Dan and at Bethel. Judah and Jerusalem, though they had the temple, and the ark, and the oracle, and the altar, with all the other ordinances of God, and also many prophets arising up early, and speaking to them in the name of the Lord, did then become treacherous (Jer. iii. 11). Aholah saw what Aholibah had done; she became more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister, and her whoredoms

till the Lord saw that she was defiled, and that they took both one way, (Ezek. xxiii. 11, 13).

The histories of the English and Scots nations and churches, do testify, that they have for the most part run one lot, both as to their reforming and corrupting of religion: this consideration was the prime ground of these bonds and confederacies that were transacted, first, between Elizabeth Queen of England, and the Lords of the Congregation in Scotland, and afterwards between that Queen and King James VI. It was also this especially, that did induce these nations and churches to engage themselves in the Solemn League and Covenant, anno 1643, because (as it is expressed by the ministers of England in their letter to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, anno 1641), "they did know and acknowledge that these Churches of England and Scot

land, seem to be embarked in the same bottom, to sink and swim together, and are nigh conjoined by so many strong ties, not only as fellow-members under the same head, Christ, and fellow-subjects under the same king, but also by such neighbourhood and vicinity of place, that if any evil should infest the one, the other cannot be altogether free; or if, for the present it should, yet, in process of time, it would sensibly suffer also," which is homologated by the Assembly in their answer to that letter: "We have learned (say they) by long experience, ever since the time of reformation, and especially after the two kingdoms have been by the great goodness of God to both, united under one head and monarch, but most of all, of late, which is not unknown to you, what danger and contagion in matters of kirk government, of divine worship, and of doctrine, may come from the one kirk to the other; which, besides all other reasons, may make us pray to God, and to desire you and all that love the honour of Christ, and the peace of these kirks and kingdoms, heartily to endeavour that there might be in both kirks one confession of faith, one directory for public worship, one catechism, and one form of kirk government." And the commissioners of the Parliament of England, in the propositions given by them to a Committee, to be presented to the General Assembly of this Church, anno 1643, for persuading of them to further and expedite the aid and assistance then demanded by both Houses from the kingdom of Scotland, after they have given them to understand that by reason of the prevailing of papists, the prelatical sanction, and other malignant enemies to those who desired reformation, the hopeful beginnings thereof were likely not only to be rendered ineffectual, but all the former evils, superstitions, and corruptions to be introduced by strong hand;-they do in the next place tell them, "That if once these should again take root in the Church and kingdom of England, they would quickly spread their venom and infection into the Church and kingdom of Scotland;" the truth of which being well known, both to our

Church and State, did prevail upon them to concur with England in counsels and forces, for suppressing and preventing of these things, as may be seen in their answers to the declarations of the honourable Houses of the Parliament of England, concerning that purpose. Upon the same ground, the Church of Scotland did frequently by her commissioners at London, and by her letters to the Parliament of England, and to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and by her exhortations to her brethren of England, often warn of the dangers of errors and heresies, when they were but yet in their first buddings, and far from the height that now they are at in England. The words of the Assembly in their declaration and brotherly exhortation to their brethren of England, anno 1647, are worth the repeating in this case. They say, while in the neighbour kingdom, "The staves of beauty and bands, covenant and brotherhood, are broken by many, the horn of malignants and sectaries exalted, the best affected borne down, reformation ebbing, heresy and schism flowing, it can hardly be marvelled at by any person of prudence and discretion, if we be full of such fears and apprehensions as use to be in those who dwell near to a house set on fire, or a family infected, especially being taught by the sad experience of the prelatical times, how easily a gangrene in the one-half of this island may spread through the whole; knowing also the inveterate and insatiable malice of the enemies of this cause and covenant against this church and kingdom, which we cannot be ignorant of, unless we would shut our eyes, and stop our ears.”

I might cite many things to this purpose out of the public records of both churches and nations, but these few, I hope, do sufficiently witness what were the thoughts and apprehensions of men of judgment and understanding in both, but a very few years ago, as to the danger of religion in Scotland, in the case of England's being infected with errors and heresies. And if there was reason then so to judge, how much more now, when besides the vicinity and contiguity of these two, and the daily commerce and correspondence

that is between the people thereof, Scotland is incorporated into one civil body and government with England, and hath also the bar of civil laws for keeping out, and curbing of many errors and heresies taken away, and toleration and protection allowed thereunto, by which it cometh to pass, that the danger which was formerly nigh unto us is now also in our bowels. And to this I shall speak in the next place.

CONSIDERATION SECOND.-From the infection of errors and heresies already begun, and the footing that they have already got in this church and nation.

THOUGH the plague when near unto us is dangerous, and fire in our neighbour's house can hardly be kept from taking hold of our own, yet infection in our own body is more dangerous, and much harder than it is to keep our house from burning when the fire hath already seized upon it, and the flames are flashing about our ears. And this is the case that the church of Scotland, and religion therein, do stand in at this day. Not only have we amongst us many strangers who vent their errors at will, and without controlment, but sundry also of our own church and nation are come to be infected therewith. The ministry of the land, though differing in that unhappy question about the public resolutions, yet are by the singular mercy and goodness of God, for any thing that doth yet appear, kept sound and unanimous in their judgments against the errors of the times; and so also is the body of the people according to the measure of their knowledge, in their several ranks and degrees; neither have sectaries so much cause to boast of their number and growth in Scotland as commonly they do give out. They are (blessed be the God of truth and of mercy for it) as yet but very few, and inconsiderable in comparison to the body of this church, scarce one to a thousand; yet is the infection such as ought not to be dispised or neglected, as threatening no danger to religion and