rj il 134 Of Cbriflian Liberty. S E R M. to the veftments and bodily pofture of the V. worfhipper, and even prefcribe all the pre- cite words which he (hall ufe ? and are chri- ftians only fuch novices, fo entirely unin- ftruded in the propriety of behaviour, that they muff have peremptory rules to guide them in every minute circumftance of their outward religious actions, though thefe dlr. cumfiances are of fo very little confideration to the purpofes of religion ? But if, under the pretence of decency, not only the na- tural circumftances of external actions are prefcribed (which is the cafe referred to in Cor. xiv. 4o.) but ufages wholly new for the fubftance of them be added, as the ju- daizing chriftians would have added dr- cumcifion and the Jewifh ceremonies to the chriftian fervice ; and as fome, at this day, add the entirely new act of figning with the crofs to the facrament of baptifm ; this is fäll a higher claim of power, and a more dangerous encroachment on liberty ; for then what St. Paul calleth the truth of the gof el, Gal. ii. 5. or the fufficiency of it to the ends of a religious inftitution, and for reli- gious affociations, is the point oppofed, and, after the example of the apostle, to be zea- loufly contended for.
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