it, and deform it with many a blot; at the next sitting I will stab it through rudely with an iron pen; and when I put the last hand to complete the likeness, it shall be smeared over with blood.

APPENDIX TO THE FIRST EDITION.

IF the scandal and cruelty of an uncharitable temper have not been described in cha

racters sufficiently frightful, it must be imputed to a want of skill in the hand that attempted it, for there is no want of formidable features in the vice itself. Perhaps a little and unknown pen hath not force enough to wage successful war against this mighty iniquity; and the printer, in two or three vacant pages, permits me to call in the aid of some great and well-known names: Names who fought against it in their lives, who being dead, yet speak, and plead heartily that it may be destroyed. They espoused the cause of charity with a warm zeal, being persuaded that it made a considerable part of our religion, and that the contrary humour was destructive to all that is called christian. Since this infection is not confined to one party of men, but hath spread itself wide through all christian societies among us, I have taken the liberty in the foregoing leaves to strike at it wheresoever I found it; and those who hide this venom in their heart still, to whatsoever tribe they belong, let them hear the words of their dead fathers: Let them blush at their own folly, and no longer refuse to be healed.

Archbishop Tillotson, in his Works in Folio, page 217, acquaints us that "other sects were distinguished by little opinions, or by some external rites and observances in religion; but our Saviour pitches upon that which is the most substantial, the most large and extensive, the most useful and beneficial, the most human, and the most divine quality of which we are capable, and that is love." And page 126. He declares that "uncharitableness is as bad an evidence, either of a true christian or a true church, as a man would wish. Damning of men is a very hard thing, and therefore whenever we do it, the case must be wonderfully plain. And page 364. We should rather be contented to err a little on the favourable and charitable part, than to be mistaken on the censorious and damning side. Our blessed Saviour frames his parables with a remarkable bias to the charitable side, to reprove the uncharitableness of the Jews, who positively excluded all the rest of mankind, besides themselves, from all hopes of salvation. An odious temper, which to the infinite scandal of the christian name and profession, hath prevailed upon some christians to a notorious degree."

Dr. Owen, in his Discourse of the Person of Christ, page 222, saith, "One christian who is meek, humble, kind, patient and useful unto all, that condescends to the ignorance, weaknesses, and infirmities of others, that passes by provocations, injuries, and contempt with patience and with silence, unless where the glory and truth of God call for a just vindication, that pitieth all sorts of men in their failings and miscarriages, who is free from jealousies and evil surmises, that loveth what is good in all men, and all men, even wherein they are not good, nor do good, doth more express the virtues and excellencies of Christ, than thousands can do with the most magnificent works of

piety or charity, that is liberality where this frame is wanting in them. For men to pretend to follow the example of Christ, and in the mean time to be proud, wrathful, envious, bitterly zealous, calling for fire from heaven to destroy men, or fetching it themselves from hell, is to cry, Hail unto him,' and to crucify him afresh unto their power.'

Mr. Baxter, in his Christian Directory, Part I. page 40. writes thus: " Surely if the very life of godliness lay not much in unity and love, we should never have had such words spoken of it as you find in scripture. Love is to the soul as our natural heat is to the body; whatever destroys it, destroys life; and therefore cannot be for our good. Be certain, that opinion, course, or motion, tends to death that tends to abate your love to your brethren, much more, which under pretence of zeal, provoketh you to hate and hurt them. And a little after, to limit all the church to your party, and deny all or any of the rest to be christians and parts of the universal church, is schism by a dangerous breach of charity. And page 41. he asserts it as a most dangerous thing to a young convert to be ensnared in a sect: It will, before you are aware, possess you with a feverish sinful zeal for the opinions and interest of that sect. It will make you bold in bitter invectives and censures against those that differ from them. It will corrupt your church communion, and fill your very prayers with partiality and human passions. It will secretly bring malice under the name of zeal into your minds and words; in a word, it is a secret but deadly enemy to christian love and peace. Let them that are wiser and more orthodox and godly than others, shew it as the Holy Ghost directs them; James iii. 13—17.

The Baptists, in their Appendix to their Confession of Faith, 1677, say, "The discharge of our own consciences, in point of baptism, doth not any ways disoblige or alienate our affections or conversation from any others that fear the Lord; but that we may and do, as we have opportunity, participate of the labours of those whom God. hath endued with abilities above ourselves, and qualified and called to the ministry of the word; earnestly desiring to approve ourselves to be such as follow after peace with holiness; and therefore we always keep that blessed" Irenicum" or healing word of the apostle before our eyes; Philip iii. 15, 16. And at the end of the appendix they declare, that in as much as these things, viz. modes of baptism, &c. are not of the essence of christianity, but that we agree in the fundamental doctrines thereof, we do apprehend there is sufficient ground to lay aside all bitterness and prejudice, and in the spirit of love and meekness to embrace and own each other therein; leaving each other at liberty to perform such other services, wherein we cannot concur, apart unto God, according to the best of our understanding."

ESSAY VIII.

OF THE DIFFICULTIES IN SCRIPTURE, AND THE DIFFERENT OPINIONS OF CHRISTIANS IN THINGS LESS NECESSARY.

CONCERNING the doctrines and duties which peculiarly belong to the New Testament, I have generally concluded this to be a good rule of judgment, that according to the degree of their importance or necessity to salvation, such is commonly the degree of their evidence; and the frequency of their repetition is, for the most part, proportionable to their usefulness. Those great truths of our religion, and those practices of christianity, without which we cannot be saved, are described in the word of God, in large and fair characters, so that "he who runs may read them." The visions and revelations of the mind and will of God our sovereign, are written and made plain upon the tables of the evangelists, or of the apostles; Hab. ii. 2. they are not mentioned once and briefly, but many pages explain and repeat them; they stand in a divine and convincing light, and may easily be understood by those who, with a humble and teachable spirit, enquire what they must believe and do, in order to please God. This remark is much confirmed by that promise which assures us that it should be so in gospel-times. The high way to heaven is so plain, that the way-faring men, or strangers, though they be fools in understanding, shall not err therein; Isaiah xxxv. 8. A man that labours in his daily calling, in the city or the field, or a servant in the lowest rank of life, may, with due application in their vacant moments, be acquainted with the necessary truths and duties of our religion; besides that the Spirit of God is promised to sincere and diligent seekers, to faithful and humble enquirers, and shall be bestowed sufficiently to inform them of the sure way to eternal life; Prov. ii. 1. 6. If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. Luke xi. 13. Your heavenly Father shall give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. And the Spirit is sent to guide the faithful into all truth; John xvi. 13.

The wisdom, the equity and the goodness of God seem all to concur in fixing matters of necessary belief and practice in this situation, that is, that they should be often and plainly expressed. If there be any particular doctrine or duty which I find written but in one single text of scripture, or expressed but darkly, I should reasonably conclude the great God never designed that doctrine, or that duty to be of very great importance in the christian life: For a dark expression is much more easily mistaken, as to the true

sense of it; and a single text is more liable to be miscopied, or dropped by a transcriber, or be misconstrued by a translator, or overseen and neglected by a common reader or hearer; and the great God would not put matters of high importance on so doubtful and dangerous a foot, and leave things necessary at such uncertainties, lest honest and humble enquirers should, after all their pains, mistake their way to heaven. A sudden thought of the form and order of baptism, prescribed to us, Matt. xxviii. 18. made me at first suspect, that there must be one exception made to this rule, about the frequent repetition of any doctrine or duty necessary to salvation; but upon a further consideration and review of things, it appears evident to me now, that though this appointment of the form of baptism was prescribed to be done in the name of the Holy Spirit, as well as of the Father and the Son, yet it was by no means necessary to the salvation of any man, and therefore there was no necessity of having it often repeated. Let us consider,

I. That the appointment of it is but once expressed, and that by one holy writer, and there is never an actual example or instance of this complete form of baptism practised in any place of scripture. Observe that remarkable text, Acts xix. 2. where St. Paul enquired of the young converts that were baptized at Ephesus, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? and they said unto him, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. He then enquired, unto what were ye baptized? and they said unto John's baptism; and Paul had told them that John taught them, that they should believe on him that should come after him, that is, in Christ Jesus: When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Whether they were baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, or no, is not actually expressed; which is something strange when that was the chief point of enquiry concerning their baptism into the Holy Ghost, Here also it may be observed, that those who were here baptized, Acts xix. 5, 6. immediately received the Holy Ghost; whence it may be very probably inferred, that some person were baptized with the Holy Ghost itself, who were not actually baptized into the name of the Holy Ghost. Consider,

II. When the business of baptism is mentioned in several places in the epistles, it is generally declared that baptism was performed in the name of the Lord Jesus; Rom. vi. 3. so many of you as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death; Gal. iii. 27. As many of you as have been baptized into Christ; 1 Cor. xii. 13. By one Spirit we are baptized into one body, that is, Christ, as in the foregoing verse; but I can find no mention of the disciples being baptized into the Holy Ghost.

III. Though I am ready to believe, from many expressions in the primitive history of the church, that the baptizers did usually keep to this form of words, "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" yet it is evident from a long account which Grotius gives us upon this text, Matt. xxviii. 19. that they used divers forms, that is, they sometimes expressed the Father by a periphrasis, "The God of all, or the God of the whole, the God and Father of the whole, sometimes the Son was expressed by the Word, or the only begotten Son of God: Sometimes the Holy Ghost was expressed by the Spirit who inspired the prophets.

I might add, that upon their profession of the christian religion, sometimes it is called the profession of the remission of sins, or the catholic church, or everlasting life, but they never made a scruple of their being rightly baptized into salvation upon any of these accounts; and I am persuaded, that had the apostles themselves, or the primitive

christians, thought it necessary to salvation, the form of baptism would have been more express in the history of it, and been more particularly repeated. I think, therefore the rule may stand good still, that where a doctrine or a duty is mentioned but in one single place of the scripture, it cannot be of absolute necessity to salvation. I hope the reader will forgive this long digression, and then proceed.

On the other hand, where particular truths or duties are often repeated in scripture, and very plainly expressed in several places, it is hardly possible that they should be subject to these inconveniences. It is not to be supposed that the transcribers of the New Testament should make the same mistake in every place, where these propositions are mentioned; that they should drop them out of every chapter; that the translator should misconstrue them in every text; or that their misconstruction should always seem to make good sense in every context where they stand; or finally, that the hearer or reader should always overlook them when they are found in so many passages, and so often occur to his ear or eye: But it is very apparent, and all men must acknowledge that matters of less moment, and things not necessary, are not mentioned so often: And when they are mentioned, the scripture sometimes gives no determination or positive injunctions about them; nor do the apostles determine the smaller controversies with that plain, exact, and positive method of speech, which you find them use in the most substantial truths and duties. If we read the xiv. chapter to the Romans, it must convince us of this assertion. St. Paul does not there decide the little controversies about observations of meats and days, but seems to leave them to charity. Nor are the lesser points of christianity half so often mentioned, or urged with half so much vehemence, as the grand duties of faith and love, repentance and holiness. In matters of lower concernment among the formalities and modes of religion, or even in some higher articles, whose circumstances and logical relations are not necessary to salvation, the scripture has its duvonta et fere aλura, as divines call them, that is, almost insolvable difficulties, and things very hard to be understood by men in this state, at least by common readers.

Sometimes the matter is so sublime, so unlike all mortal affairs, and so divinely superior to every thing here below, that perhaps it was not possible to describe it fully and plainly in human words: And the more enlightened the writer or speaker was, the deeper and more inexpressible might the truths be which he reveals. Our Saviour has made some such discoveries at the latter end of his prayer in the xvii. of St. John's gospel. Such are the doctrines of the union or oneness of Christ with God his Father, and the oneness or union of the saints with God and Christ. Some things are constrained to be expressed in a human way less suitable to their own dignity, and yet even then they are not perfectly easy to be understood, for earthly metaphors will not convey to our thoughts a full idea of things divine and heavenly. When Christ had been teaching Nicodemus the doctrine of regeneration, John iii. 12. he adds, If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? The apostle Paul, the most enlightened of all mere men, saw and heard some things among his visions and revelations, that were unutterable: 2 Cor. xii. 4. And some things which he has published for the use of the church, according to the wisdom given to him, are hard to be understood, as St. Peter himself assures us; 2 Peter iii. 16. Again, I might take notice that in matters which are prophetical, both in the Old Testament