SERMONLIIt. 137 union; for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righ» teousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; and he that in these things serveth Christ, is acceptable to God, and approved of men, and therefore he shouldnot be excluded fromchristian soci- eties ; Rom. xiv. 1, 2, 3 -17, 18. This I say is the general rule : But it mustbe confessed, that there are some christians whose sentiments are so directly contrary to others, in matters of worship or discipline, that it is hardly possible they should unite in public' worship ; as for instance, he that believes prescribed forms of prayer to be an unlawful thing, cannotjoin witha society, who never pray but by prescribed forms : He that thinks no man can. be a minister, unless he be ordained by the hand of a diocesan bishop, cannot unite in worship with a society whose ministers never had, nor desired such an ordination. But let each take heed how they embrace such limiting principles: Thereare others who differ so widely in some of the most important doctrines of christianity, that they cannot worship ,together with any tolerable edification or comfort, viz. Those who believe Christ died as a proper sacri- fice ofatonement for sin, and venture their whole hope of salvation upon it, and wait for sanctifying influences from the Holy Spirit, cannot comfortably unite with such 'sort of christiansas suppose Christ to be only a messenger and prophet sent to restore natural religion to men, and who deny any atoning virtue to his death, or any influences from the Spirit to changetheirhearts, and make them holy. 'These are articles which 1 take to be matters of so high importance in the religionof the gospel, that I cannot advise persons tounite in societies for worship, where theyare no better agreed in their principles : The humble and sincere believer of the gospel of Christ, would find his devotion and his edification continually interrupted by such jarring opinions and contests, and the whole work of preaching, prayer and praise would be very disgustful to one part, while it pleases the other. How is it pos- sible two should walk together, except they are better agreed? Amos iii. 3. They agree indeed in the name of christianity, but their real religion seems to be of a different kind. The general advice which I would give, as most conform- able to the sentiments of the great apostle, is this, "Let every person take heed that he doesnot too much enlarge, nor too much narrow the principles ofchristianity, that he does not make any article of faith or practice more or less necessary than scripture has made it, and that he does not raise needless scruples in his own breast, nor in the hearts ofothers, by too great a'separation from suchas our common Lordhas received." I proceednow toconsider " how great the number of per- sons should be, which may properly form such achristian society ;"
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