$$ A CHRISTIAN CHURCH. QUEST. VIII. In what Words and Expressionsmust our Faith be professed, in Order to Communion ? And in what Mali- ner must we profess it 2 SECT. I. Tisis has been a famous and notablequestion in all ages of the church. National churches, synods, 'assemblies orcouncils of bishops, presbyters, and learned men, have estab- lished certain sets of fundamental articles and express formsof confession ; and by these forms persons are to be tried, that de- sire admission to their communion. Others, who have thought this yoke and Wurden imposed upon the conscience too heavy and intolerable, have 'maintained, that no forms of confession are necessary, besides the very words of scripture ; and that he who agrees to these words, has a right tochristian communion, though perhaps he may understand or explain them in a sense never sò different from the church, whose communionhedesires. Now to speak my own sentiment with freedom here, I think these are two extremes ; and the best mediùm that I can find for all the purposes of peace and truth is, that every man should confess his faith in his own wòrds, which I shall endeavour to make evident by a particular review of each method. I grant that it seems a very natural and plausible argument, that since God has wiitten down all needful christian truths and duties in the holy scripture, we can chuse no better words to con'- fessthem in, than those which God himself has given us for our instruction in those truths and duties: Butifwe considertheaffairs of the christian world, the experience'of mankind, the practice of heretics and deceivers, as well as the reason of things, we shall find that though the words of scriptúre are sufficient to teach us all-the necessary parts of 'christianity, yet the mere repe- tition of them, or subscription to theim,, cannot give sufficient proof, that the person so professing, has any -understanding. of them ; or has any true christian knowledge. An ideot, or an idle boy, may learn twenty of the noblest and most comprehen- sive sentences of scripture withoutbook ; a very ignorant person, or a man of most erroneous and destructive principles may repeat any words of scripture, and profess to believe them, while the one has a quite contrary meaning under those words, and the others have no meaning at all. Now surely such sort of profes slops cannever be counted a sufficient evidence of christian know- ledge, andconsequently can never give him a right to the holy communion. But because this point is of great importance, I shall debate it at large as a distinct question byitself. SECT. II. It will be replied then immediately, ". If the words of scripture are not a sufficient test in this case, may not confessions of faith, drawn up by wise and good men, be made a test of christian knowledge ?" I answer; no, by no means ; and that for these threereasons: It will admit such as ought not to be
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