CONFIRMED CHRISTIAN. 551 . to the whole, or to the Christian cause. The very names of sects and parties are displeasing to him; and he could wish that there were no name but that of Christians among us, save only the ne- cessary names of the criminal, (such, as that of the Nicolaitans; Rev. ii. 6. 15.) by which those that are to be avoided by Chris- tians must be known. Christianity is confined to so narrow a com- pass in the world, that he is unwilling to contract it yet into a nar- rower. The greatest party of divided Christians, whether it be the Greeks or Papists, is too small a body for him to take for the catholic, or universal church. He admireth at the blindness and crueltyof faction, that can make men damn all the rest of the church for the interest of their proper sect; and.take all those as no Christians that are better Christians than themselves. Espe- cially the Papists, yvho unchurch all the church of Christ, except their sect, and make,it as necessary to salvation to be a subject of the pope, as to be a Christian. And when, by their great cor- ruption and abuses of Christianity, they have more need of char- itable censures themselves than almost any sort of Christians, yet, are they the boldest, condemners of all others. The confirmed Christian can difference between the strong and weak, the sound and unsound members of the church, without dismembering any, and without unwarrantable separation from any. He will worship God in the purest manner he can, and locally join with those as- semblies, where, all things considered, he may most*ionor God, and receive most edification; and will not sin, for communion with any. He will sufficiently difference between a holy, orderly as- sembly, and a corrupt, disordered one ; and between an able, faithful pastor, and an ignorant or worldly hireling. And he de- sireth that the pastors of the churchmay make that due separation, by the holy discipline of Christ, which may prevent' the people's disorderly separation. But for all this, he will not deny his pres- ence, upon just occasion, to any Christian congregation that wor- shipéth God in truth, though with manymodal imperfections, so be it they impose no sin upon him as necessary to his communion with him. Nor will he deny the spiritual communion of faith and love to those that he holdeth..not- local communion with. He knows that all our worship of God is sinfully imperfect, and that it is a dividing principle to hold, that we may join with none that worship God in a faulty manner; for then we must join with none on earth. He knoweth that his presence in the worship of God is no sign ofhis approbation of all the failings ofpastors or people, in their personal or modal imperfections, as long as he joineth not iliaworship so corrupt as to be itself unacceptable to God. While men, who are all imperfect and corrupt, are the worshipers, the mannerof their worship will he such as they, in some degree im-
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