f UESTION III. OS a majority of votes, or universal consent of a particular church, it equally serves the purpose of my argument in most of the following questions upon this subject. I put this note only to secure my readers against any prejudice or hasty judgment against the following parts of the book, though they should hap- pen to differ from me in the present question. QUEST. III.--What are theParticular Terms ofChristian Com- munion ? Or, what things are necessary to make the Pro- fessionof Christianity credible ? SECT. L Having enquired who are the persons that must judge of the credibility of our profession in order to christian communion, we proceed next to enquire, " What thingsgo to make up a credible profession ?" and we must take great care in this matter not to make new terms and conditions orour own, which Christ the Lord and king of his church has not made ; nor to insist upon any thing as necessary to rendera profession credible, which may not be fairly deduced from the rules and examples recorded in the New Testament, and the application of them to our present . age, accordingto the different circum- stances of times, places, and persons. It must be granted that there are several parts of necessary conduct in christian churches and ordinances, that arise from the very nature and reason of things, from the very being of societies, and from the circum- stances of all human affairs ; and we must not expect that all these should be dictated by divine revelation, and written down with all their minute particulars in express words of scripture. It would be endless for the sacred writers to have attempted it, and most unreasonable for us to expect it : For the light of na- ture and reason is given us by God himself for our direction, as well as the light of revelation ; and whatsoever rules may be drawn by plain reasoning, and by easy and necessary inference from the'comparison of scripture-times with our own, may and ought to be esteemed a part of our direction in these affairs, as well as the express words of scripture ; for scripture itself often gives us but very short and imperfect hints of the whole process of civil or ecclesiastical transactions. This shall be more fully made appear, when I come to answer an objection raised from primitive practice. After a diligent search into the holy scripture, and careful observation of christian' churches and their affairs, these three things appear to me to be necessary, at least in Our times, to make a profession of christianity sufficiently credible for christian communion.
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