devil for little differences, and has exposed them to tedious and sharp sufferings for refusing to submit to particular gestures in worship, and airy signs, for wearing a short garment in prayer in the place of a long one, or black instead of white; and some of her sons have delighted to execute these censures, when they have found much gain arising from such severe godliness. I could wish she had always exercised the same charity to weak consciences that she does to slender purses; for she allows a christian liberty to "poor beneficed men and curates, not being able to provide themselves long gowns, that they may go in short ones."

IX. A ninth spring of this uncharitable practice is fixing upon some necessary and special point in christianity, and setting it up in opposition to the rest, or at best in opposition to some one of the rest. "I have long observed, says an ingenious writer, that christians of different parties have been eagerly laying hold on particular parts of the system of divine truths, and have been contending about them as if each had been all; or as if the separation of the members from each other, and from the head, were the preservation of the body instead of its destruction. They have been zealous to espouse the defence, and to maintain the honour and usefulness of each apart; whereas their honour as well as usefulness, seems to me to lie much in their connexion : And suspicions have often arisen betwixt the respective defenders of each, which have appeared so unreasonabe and absurd, as if all the preparations for securing one part of a ship in a storm were to be censured as a contrivance to sink the rest." Thus far Dr. Doddridge in a late preface.

And I think we may as well borrow the similitude éxpressly from the scripture itself; 1 Cor. xii. 14-21. The body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And how ridiculous would it be if we should suppose "the ear should say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? And if they were all one member, where were the body? The eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee; nor again, the head to the feet I have no need of you. Ver. 27. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

In the same manner, repentance, faith, and love are three necessary graces or virtues that go to make up a christian; and I might cite several texts of scripture, where each of these three are made necessary to christianity. Is it not therefore a most unreasonable thing to set up either repentance, faith or love so bigh, as though the whole of christianity was contained in it, when it is evident that nothing else can make a christian, but

such a faith as brings with it repentance and good works, or ho liness of life, or such a love as produces obedience and good' works, which must be the effect of this faith? In christianity nothing avails but such a faith as works by love, unto all holiness; Gal. v. 6. Repent and believe the gospel, was the first preaching of Christ and his apostles; Mark i. 15. And in other places, faith is indispensably coupled with repentance; Acts iii. 19. xx. 21. Without repentance our sins will not be forgiven us, without faith in Jesus Christ we have no interest in his salvation. True faith must be such as purifies the heart; Acts xv. 9. And produces good works as the necessary evidences to prove our faith true; James ii. 17, 18. What a strange sort of monstrous christian would this be, who pretended to much faith, but had no love nor repentance? And as monstrous would that pretender be, who had love or repentance without faith. As God hath set the members in the body, every one of them as it hath pleased him; 1 Cor. xii. 18. so has he appointed faith, repentance and love to fulfil their several offices in the christian life. What a piece of madness therefore is it, and high inconsistency to separate those things which God hath joined in his gospel? Or to preach and paraphrase very long, and talk very much upon ever a one of these, so as to hinder that due respect that is to be paid to the other two? No man is or can be a true believer in Christ, if he has not repentance and love, producing good works, as well as that faith which is necessary to make a christian.. Let us take heed therefore lest we give occasion by any of our discourses to exalt one of these virtues or graces to the prejudice of the rest, for the utter loss of either of them will destroy all our pretences to christianity.

When Solfido has formed one of his christians exaetly agreeable to the shape and humour of his own imagination, and dressed him up in all the feathers of strict orthodoxy that he can find in the severest writers, and by a motto written upon his forehead has called him the man of faith, I am at a loss to know what christian church would receive him into their communion, when he neither professes repentance, nor holiness, nor true love to God or man. It has indeed some of the appearances of a christian statue, but it is a man without feet or hands for walking or moving, a man without life or activity to run the christian race, or to do any thing for God in the world.. What glory can our Lord Jesus Christ receive from such a useless figure? What honour can such an imperfect image possibly bring to the gospel Or what service can he be of in the world, or in the church?

X. The most common cause of uncharitableness, and the last I shall mention, is, that a great part of the professors of our holy religion, make their heads the chief seat of it, and scarce ever

Saffer it to descend and warm their hearts. Jesus the Saviour has been discovered to them in a good degree of outward light, but has never been revealed in them with power, nor their souls changed by divine grace into the image of the gospel, While they boast of their orthodox faith they forget their chris tian love.

Stellino has stuck his brain all over with notions, and fancies his higher sphere sufficiently illuminated for the conduct of mankind that is round about him, and beneath him; But this set of notions is like a winter-night overhung with stars; bright and shining, but very cold. Natural affections have no room in his soul, it is too much spiritualized with opinions and doctrines. His divinity lies all in his understanding, and the common duties of humanity scarce ever employ his tongue or his hands.

If a man does but profess every tittle of his creed, and believe just as Stellino believes, he is declared fit for holy com munion; and if he will but dispute warmly for the hard words that distinguish his scheme, and can pronounce Shibbolethi well, he shall not be adjudged to death or damnation, but joined heartily to the fellowship of the saints, though his flaming immoralities proclaim him a son of Satan: Satan himself has perhaps a more accurate and nice skill of the controversies of divi nity, than the best of our professors and doctors have arrived at'; but his pride and malice are chains of darkness, and make a devil of him in spite of all his knowledge: Yet Stellino affects too near a resemblance to Lucifer, that fallen son of the morning.

Vices that are odious to human nature, and wild licentiousnesses of a bitter tongue which destroy all civil society, are very little faults in his opinion, when put into the balance with orthodoxy and zeal. If my conversation among men be blameless and honourable; if my practice consist of virtue and piety; if I profess a solemn faith in Christ the eternal word, the only begotten Son of God, who came into the flesh, who died to make a true atonement for the sins of men, and testify my unfeigned subjection to him, and declare the grounds of my hope? yet I must not be admitted to the special part of worship where Stellino presides, because I am not arrived at his degree of light, and differ from his expressions a little, when I explain the words justification and the covenant of grace. His lips are ever full of declamation and controversy, and he harangues copiously upon the most affecting points of our religion; he talks much of the amazing condescensions of divine mercy, and of the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man; but it has not yet taught him love to his fellow-creatures, nor kindness towards his brethren.

Such another christian is Misander; he reserves the duties

of christianity which St. Paul describes, he speaks evil of all men but his own party, he is a brawler and ungentle, shewing meekness unto none; and while he pretends that the grace of God which brings salvation has appeared unto him, he lives still in malice and envy, and wears the visible characters of the men of heathenism, hateful and hating one another; Tit. ii. 11, 12. chapter iii. 2-1. He flourishes and enlarges upon the gracious qualities of our Redeemer, our great High-priest, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities; Heb. iv. 15. yet himself has not learned from so glorious an example to have compassion on them that are ignorant and out of the way; chapter v. 2. but rather being exalted in his own knowledge, he condemns his weak brother to perish, for whom Christ died; 1 Cor. viii. 11. Take thy bible, O'vain man, and read a few lines in the eighth chapter of St. Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, verses 1, 2, 3. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth: and if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know; but if any man love God, the same is known of him. And St. John will assure thee, that he that loveth not his brother, knoweth not God, and if a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; 1 John iv. 8, 20.

Yet let not any think that I advance charity so high, as to place it in the room of knowledge and faith, or to make it a self-sufficient ground for our admittance into heaven at last: Nor can I suppose it alone to be a sufficient plea for a reception into any visible church of Christ on earth. A confession of the name of Jesus, with the most important and most necessary articles of his blessed religion, a declaration of my personal faith or trust in him, together with a solemn dedication of myself unto the Lord, may be justly required of me by that christian society into which I desire admittance. In default of these the biggest instances of charity will never constitute me a christian: Except ye believe that I am he, saith our Saviour, ye shall die in your sins; John viii. 24. If a man strive for a prize, yet is he not crowned, unless he strive lawfully; that is, according to the methods prescribed in the gospel, the knowledge and the faith of the Son of God; 2 Tim. ii. 5. and the sentence of our Lord is dreadful and peremptory. He that believeth not shall be damned; Mark xvi. 16. With the heart man believes unto rightousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; Rom. x. 10. But without charity my faith can never be true, for it must be such a faith as worketh by love, and discovers itself by all the fruits of the spirit, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance; tal. v. 6, 22.

Thus far have we traced the vice of uncharitableness in many of the properties that belong to it, and the causes of it, and many instances in which it discovers itself in the world, and in

the church; and it appears a very shameful vice, and opposite to the religion of the blessed Jesus.

SECT. II.-An Occasional Vindication of the Apostles from the Charge of Uncharitableness.

But what shall we say to those who take the venerable names of the sacred writers, and charge them with the same scandalous practice? There is one Momus, who is well known. in the world for a person that is ready to find fault with the best of men, and the best of things, if he can suspect any thing which he imagines worthy of blame in them. This man rather than not vindicate himself from the charge of uncharitableness, he will bring even the apostles themselves into the accusation, particularly St. Paul and St. John. Paul, says he, must be a very uncharitable man, for Heb. x. 25, 26. He tells us, that if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. Thus it is plain, he will not suffer a man to be guilty of any wilful sin, after his profession of christianity, but he damns him for it without hope.

Answer. But I would have Momus consider that these are the very words of scripture and inspiration, and not merely St. Paul's opinion. Nor is the sense true which he puts upon these words: It is by no means every wilful sin after we have received and professed christianity, that will bring us under such an irreversible condemnation; but this wilful sin, as it stands in the context, plainly refers to our entire quitting the profession of our christian faith, verse 23. and forsaking all christian assemblies, without repentance or returning to them, as verse 25. And it is no wonder if a man who roundly renounces christianity wilfully, and without persecution, or any compulsion, should be laid under this dreadful sentence.

Let it be also particularly remarked, that as these verses come in just after the apostle had been speaking of the atoning sacrifice for sin, which Christ himself offered, as a fulfilling of all typical sacrifices and atonements of the Jewish law, chapter ix. 10. he expresses this condemning sentence in this language, there is no more sacrifice for sin, chapter x. 26, 27. that is, if a man renounces the sacrifice of atonement which Christ has made for sin, there remains no more sacrifice for him to trust in, or to hope for, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. Thus it appears, that this wilful sinner is condemned for renouncing the only method of atonement provided for the pardon of sins, which it was one of the chief glories of the christian religion to reveal and establish.

St. Paul also is charged with high uncharitableness by this Momus for what he says; Gal. i. 8, 9. If any man preach any