we discharge them from the duty; and the same may be said of all other church duties and benefits. Now, as we pretend to no authority to release from duty, how is it possible we should claim an authority to deprive of benefit?

Many of these duties are moral duties, of natural and immutable obligation; and such is the absolute necessity of obedience to them, that, when a man is so circumstanced as to be obliged either to omit a moral duty or a positive precept, the latter is in all cases to give way to the former. If obedience to positive precepts must subside to make room for obedience to moral precepts, how is it possible to conceive, that innocent ignorance of a positive precept should become a release from moral obligations; and such are many of the duties of church fellowship.

Waiving for the present a multitude of arguments fairly and honestly deducible from scripture source, such as the law of positive institutes, and others, the sum of what we have said from the oracles of God is this. God, a being possessed of all possible perfections, is the author of christianity, the founder and friend of the christian church. He displayed the magnificence of his perfections in framing the whole, and continues to display it in governing every part. The same attributes, that pervade and direct all his natural empire, constitute and guide his moral dominion in the church. His wisdom leaves difficulties and obstacles, to us as immoveable as the decrees of

fate; but he leaves them to excite and improve our mental abilities and moral excellencies, which he intends we should employ in diminishing them. His perfect justice never disqualifies without a crime. His benevolence produces the greatest social good. His love of holiness distinguishes the righteous from the wicked, and his patience and compassion bear with imperfections, both of knowledge and virtue; hence we have inferred, that the admitting of an unbaptized believer to church fellowship is, ON THE PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIANITY, a wise, a just, a benevolent, a holy, a humane action.

We have gone further; we have examined many EXPRESS LAWS, given in writing by Jesus Christ to his church for the more easy administration of justice in it. There are laws of exclusion; but unbaptized believers are not in the list. There are laws of toleration, which actually include their case. There is a law of baptism; but this does not repeal any other law, nor prohibit the observance of any other positive institute. There is a law for the exercise of gifts, in which the incorporation of some is included; and there is the law of constitution, which authorizes the incorporation of all good men. We have examined, finally, the law of release and deprivation, and we have thence inferred that the interests of morality, and the pleasures of christianity, if not diminished by excluding these persons, would, however, be greatly promoted by admitting them. We do not presume

to have exhausted the subject; there remain many more reasons for the practice, which we have been defending; but these are satisfactory to us, and, we think, they deserve consideration by our brethren ; however, the writer of this does not mean to lengthen out the controversy; and, he hopes, should any think proper to deny all he has affirmed, no offence will be taken at his future silence. He would not seem to slight the admonitions of any good man; but, on this article, his judgment is settled; he has only to add, Grace be with all them, that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity!

REFLECTIONS

ON

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY,

CIVIL ESTABLISHMENTS IN RELIGION,

AND

TOLERATION.

FROM THE PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME OF Saurin.

VERY early in life I was prepossessed in favour of the following positions.

Christianity is a religion of divine original.

A religion of divine original must needs be a perfect religion, and answer all the ends, for which it was revealed, without human additions.

The christian religion hath undergone considerable alterations since the times of Jesus Christ, and his Apostles; and yet, Jesus Christ was then accounted the finisher as well as the author of faith.

The doctrines of revelation, as they lie in the inspired writings, differ very much from the same doctrines, as they lie in creeds of human composition.

The moral precepts, the positive institutes, and the religious affections, which constitute the devotion of most modern christians, form a melancholy contrast

to those, which are described by the guides, whom they profess to follow.

The light of nature, and that of revelation; the operations of right reason, the spirit of the first, and the influence of the Holy Ghost, the soul of the last; both proceeding from the same uniform Supreme Being, cannot be supposed to be destructive of each other, or even in the least degree to clash together.

The finest idea, that can be formed of the Supreme Being, is that of an infinite intelligence always in harmony with itself; and, accordingly, the best way of proving the truth of revelation is that of showing the analogy of the plan of redemption to that of creation and providence. Simplicity and majesty characterize both nature and scripture; simplicity reduces those benefits, which are essential to the real happiness of man, to the size of all mankind; majesty makes a rich provision for the employment and superadded felicity of a few superior geniuses, who first improve themselves, and then felicitate their inferior brethren, by simplifying their own ideas, by refining and elevating those of their fellow creatures, by establishing a social intercourse, consolidating fraternal love, and along with it all the reciprocal ties, that unite mankind.

Men's ideas of objects essential to their happiness are neither so dissimilar, nor so numerous, as inattentive spectators are apt to suppose.