226 et; OtrrIcuÏjrIEs Itt sCRIPTÚnt. and violence carries each of them besides or beyond their text, and thus they are sometimes hurried on beside the gaol of truth, and Í am persuaded their assurance always runs too fast for their evidence, and reaches far beyond it. They commend and practise vehemence as a virtue, and so far forget their bible as to believe all moderation to be a mere spirit of indifference and unworthy of a good christian. They maintain opposite notions, yet by their temper and conduct they all seem to approve each other's zeal for his own party, and with one consent they vote me a mere latitudinarian, a lukewarm professor, a citizen of Laodicea, who has not a spark of zeal for the gospel of Christ, the worship or the discipliné of his church. My dear zealous friends, be calm a little and let, me speak before I am condemned, I do not deny many of these things which I call less important to be some way discovered in the New Testament, though not in so.express and plain language as you suppose. The chief concerns of the christian church are so far prescribed by positive rules, by examples, orjust inferences, that a serious reader, who is attentive and unbiassed, andwho will exercise his reasoning powers, may find sufficient notices of all necessary truth and duty ; according to my measure of light I humbly hope I have found it, and thereby regulate my practice. But still it must be granted, that things less necessary are not so plainly described as the bigger and more substantial parts of reli- gion, nor graven in characters so large and obvious that every one must needs discern them. Christ Jesus bath been asfaith- fulin his house as Moses Teas, and has delineated the form, pat- tern andorder of it, so far as infinite wisdom thought necessary to carry on the grand designs of grace and the gospel : But some of the lesser pins in this spiritual tabernacle are not so graphi- cally decyphered, as that every child may tell whether they must he round or square. There is nothing of somuch weight depends upon them, and therefore there was no need for them to be so expressly described under the New Testament, wherein bodily exercises profit little; 1 Tim. iv. 8. but worshipand religioncon- sist more in what is spiritual and invisible. Upon the whole then, since there are different degrees of evidence and clearness, wherewith some ofthe doctrines of faith, .end the rules of worship and order in the New Testament are expressed, thereought also to be found inus different degrees of assent or assurance, wherewith we should receive thesedoctrines, or these rules of duty: for it is a certain and eternal rule of logic or reason, that " our assent to any proposition ought tobe firm or feeble, just in proportion to tho different degrees of evidence, See theessay on the " Reason why the Worship of Christian Churches is notso particularly Described as the Jewiyh." which you may find in theTrea- tireabout the " Holineae of Times, Places sad Pensa,."
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