THE

PREFACE.

HE three great fubjects with which a Chriftian minister is concerned, are the word of God, the church of God, and the Chriftian life. Circumftances and occafions will fometimes direct his thoughts to one of these, and fometimes to another; but fo long as, any of the three are before him, he is within the circle of his duty.

I WAS led to the fubject of the following Effay, by an accident. I am a curate in a country parish; who make it my bufinefs, and have found it my pleasure,to teach the children of my people privately in my own houfe, and publicly in the church; and I am, for the prefent, the only Sunday Schoolmafter of the place. In the course of my inftructions, I had occafion to obferve, that the catechifm of the church of England, though a moft excellent fummary of the Christian doctrine, is deficient in one point, viz, the conftitution of the church of Chrift; the knowledge of which, in a certain degree, is neceffary to the prefervation of that charity which is the end of the, commandment; and, for the want of which, fo many are drawn away from the church, who would certainly have remained with it, if they had known what it is. Yet is our catechifm not fo deficient, but that it includes the grand diftinction betwixt the world and the church; which diftinction being explained, I found we were poffeffed of a leading idea, which gave fo much light to my young pupils, that I determined to go through the fubject.

As I have been perfuaded, ever fince I began to think on these things, of the great importance of uniformity in worship amongft Chriftians, fo have I been led to obferve, on the other hand, the many evil confequences of non-conformity, with the dangerous delufions of the mind, arifing from the harangues of preachers pretending to extraordinary gifts, while they are but half learned in the Gospel, which they undertake to publish, and are greatly mistaken in the fpirit of it. I fee how fome men are cheated with the appearance of being converted to godliness, when they are only converted from one fin to another; from loving the world, to hating their neighbours; from the coldnefs of church devotion, to an uncharitable heat against the church itself; from the moral philofophy of fome of our pulpits, to the Antinomian faith, which gives men a license to fin; from the drunkenness of the body, to the intoxication of the mind, with fpiritual pride and false doctrine.

I AM well affured that if this fubject of the church, now fo much neglected, and almost forgotten by those who are moft concerned to understand it, should come to be better confidered; there would be more true piety, and more peace, more of thofe virtues which will be required in Heaven, and which must therefore be firft learned upon earth.

SOME amongst us err, because they know not the Scriptures; and others, because they never confidered the nature of the church. Some think they can make their own religion, and fo they defpife the word of God, and fall into infidelity. Others think they can make their own church, or even be a church unto themselves; and fo they fall into the delufions of enthusiasm, or the uncharitableness of fchifm. But, as

there is nothing to enlighten the minds of men in the doctrines of falvation, but the word of God, fo is there nothing that can unite their hearts and affections, but the church of God. "Ye are one bread, and one "body," faith the Apoftle; one body by partaking of one bread; and that can only be in the fame communion.

In the weighing of these things, the prevailing spirit of the times, and the fanction which it may have given either to the profligate finner, or to the presumptuous faint, are of no account upon the fcale. In the fettling of principles, we are never to confider how the world hath practifed, but how God hath taught. The practice of the multitude, how great foever that multitude may be, hath no influence upon truth: yet it will stagger the minds of many, aud carry them away, as with an overbearing torrent. Happy are they who have a better rule to direct them. They know that man applauds, highly applauds, what God abominates: and the higher the applaufe, the more room there is for fufpicion. They know that the voice of the multitude was against Jefus Chrift, when but few were for him; and they had hid themselves, and dared not to speak their minds. When Noah followed the direction of God in building the ark, for the faving of his house, the world was against him. To them no ark was neceffary, because they had determined amongst themselves that there would be no flood; and confequently, that Noah was a bigot, whofe undertaking, while it expofed himfelf, was an invidious reflection upon the age. When the father of the faithful followed the calling of God, there were none to ftand by him. and encourage him; he was feparated from his nearest relations; and wherefoever he went, he was under fears

and dangers from people of a falfe perfuafion. When Jefus Chrift brought with him from Heaven, that light which was to be the glory of his people, one ruler of the Jews came to him by stealth in the night, to confult him as a teacher, come from God. So great was the authority of a blinded multitude, that a ruler of the people was afraid of being brought into difgrace, by converfing perfonally with the Saviour of

the world!

THE times, therefore, and the people who live in them, are never to be confidered by us, when we are feeking or following the truth, on the ground of its own proper evidence. evidence. When it was afked, with a defign to perplex the people, who, of the rulers, or of the pharifees, had believed? Our Saviour gave them a different rule: why do ye not of yourfelves, faid he, judge what is right; without going firft to confult those who are blinded by falfe learning, and, with an appearance of great fanctity, have impofed upon the people? "See," faith one, how faft our doctrine is increafing! all the learned are going after it; and you muft all fubmit to it in a very fhort time." And who are they that thus reafon with us? The very fame perfons who declaim fo loudly on the fallibility of all men; and yet hold themfelves to be little lefs than infallible in the choice of their own opinions. Let error rife as high as it can; and let truth fink as low as a wicked world can reduce it; the difference betwixt them is the fame as ever; and we fhall ftill find it wifer and better to follow the fetting fun, as Columbus did when he difcovered the Indies. The meteor of herefy, which blazes and dazzles us for a while with its appearance, will burn out, and leave not a fpark behind; while the fun fets to rife again. Such will be the fate of the

church, and of the doctrines of truth by which it is fupported.

THERE never was a time from the beginning of the world, when there was not a party against the church of God; and our Ifrael muft have its enemies, as that church had which came out of Egypt. In the firft age of the Gospel, the Apostle St. Jude spoke experimentally of those whom he then faw, or prophetically of those whom we fhould fee, that they go in the way of Cain, and run after the error of Balaam, and perith in the gainfaying of Corah. If our governors were as cruel as Pharaoh, fome would rejoice at it, and upbraid us with every disadvantage we might be under from hard ufage; as a fign that the church is a thing of no confequence, and that all thofe who belong to it are the vaffals of the ftate. If the church were as pure as Abel, the envy and jealoufy of Cain would hate its offerings and facrifices. If its order and œconomy were as perfect as in that church which covered the face of the earth in its paffage to Canaan, the selfinterested spirit of the mercenary Balaam would endeavour to bring a curfe upon it, and blaft its greatnefs. If its governors were as manifeftly fupported in their commiffion as Mofes and Aaron, the fpiritual pride of Corah would fet up the holiness of the congregation against its priesthood, and the power of the people against the civil magistrate, who gives it protection. But none of these things ought to ftagger or furprize a reader of the Scripture: they are all to be expected: these things were our examples; and the church would not be the church of God, if there were none to rife up against it.

WITH thefe confiderations in his mind, and not without them, a reader will be prepared to examine