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&óó
CHRISTIAN MORALITY,
VIZ.
[SERM.
&XTB.
brought, but
will
carry
on
contention
and dispute,
let
him
remember
this
decisive
argument,
that
we
have no
such custom,
nor
the churches of God,"
we
the
preach-
ers
of
the
gospel,
and
the apostles
of
Christ, have
neither
found
nor approved
such
sort of
customs among
the christians
where
we
have
lived,
nor are
they
prac-
tised
in
any
of
the churches
of
God,
which we
have
heard
of.
I
will
readily
allow,.
that the
strict
professors
of
reli-
gion
in some
particular
ages.
of
the church, may
have
ge-
nerally indulged
either
some
unreasonable
scruples,
or
Some
unreasonable
liberties.
There
are
some
practices
of
evident and undoubted
lawfulness, which have
been
forbidden
in severe
and dreadful
language
by
some
or
other
of
our
religious
ancestors;
such
as
wearing bor-
rowed hair, or
suffering
our
own
to
reach the
shoulders;
using
any thine that
borders upon lot
or chance,
except
in matters
of
sacred or
solemn
concernment
:
wishing
a
friend's health
when
we
drink
;
practising
any
part of
our
civil
calling
after
sun
-set
on Saturdays, or even calling
the
months,
or
the days
of
the
week
by
names
borrowed
from the heathens,
such as
Monday
or Tuesday,
Janu-
ary
or
February
:
Yet
in
such cases as these, had
I
lived
amongst
them,
I
would have conformed to
their
customs,
and
have
given no
offence; but
I would have
taken every
proper
occasion to
shew
that
these were unnecessary
scru
pies.
This
was
the
conduct
of
St.
Paul,
in the
controversy
about
eating
meats
offered
to
idols
; 1'
Cor.
viii.
8.
Meat
commendeth
us
not
to
God;
for
neither
if.
we
eat,
are
we
the
better;
neither
if
we
eat
not,
are
we
the
worse.
There
he declares
how
needless these scruples were;
and
1
Cor.
x.
25. to shew
their christian
liberty, where
no
scrupulous person
was
present and
opposed
it,
he
bids
them,
eat
whatsoever
is
sold in
the
shambles, ask
-
ing
no
questions for conscience sake." But
in
both these
places he
cautions
then
against
offending the
weaker
brethren, and
shews
also how
afraid he
was
of
giving
offence,
or acting
in
their presence contrary to their
practices,
even
though they
were
built
on.
needless scru-
ples..
1
Cor.
viii.
13.
"I
will
eat
no
flesh
while
the
world
standeth,
if
it
maketh
my
brother
to
offend
;
that
is,
if
it
tempt
him to grow bold,
and venture
upon the same