SECTION 11. 13 You who attend upon the worship of God in separate assemblies, and sit under the ministrations of those, who have no commis- sion from the spiritual guides of the nation and rulers of the church ; you who in this respect are placed under such a sort of providence as to be imitators of the disciples of Christ when he maintained separate assemblies, and preached to the people with- out receiving any public authority, or so much as countenance and approbation from the rulers of the national church in his day. Surely this is a question óf very awful importance, and very necessary, while we continue our separation, what higher degrees of piety or virtue do we practise ? What sublimer ad- vances in religion are we arrived at? Wherein are we better by all our nonconformity than those who constantly conform to the church of England as by law established ? What do all our pre- tences to separation mean, if we ascend to no superior degrees of godliness ? But before I enter into so nice a subject as a comparison between the advantages and obligations to strict religion, which are found amongst the dissenters, or amongst the church of England, and their different improvements under them, I desire to lay down this one caution, viz. That nothing which I ant going to speak should be construed to relate to any of those holy souls who are of the first rank in the school of Christ, who are the most pious and the most strictly religious, either among the members of the church of England, or among protestant dissen- ters; for I am not going to speak to or of these persons, or would I make comparison between them : I would set them all before me as examples for my humble imitation and yours, and not for the subjects of my comparison. I am verily persuaded there, are many persons of both communities who are dear to God, whose names have an honourable place in the book of life, who walk humbly and closely with God in all the known duties of the christian state, whose sobriety in what relates to them- selves, whose justice and charity in what relates to their neigh- bours, and whose devotion in what belongs to God, is glorious and exemplary indeed ; who are taught and led by the same spirit of holiness, and are largely interested in the favour of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. To those holy souls on both sides I would only ask leave to say, Go on in your illus- trious course of christianity ; rival each other in the swiftness of your race, in your pious and divine progress toward heaven; and may each of you run so Jar, as to obtain one of the larger and fairer crowns of righteousness that shall never fade away. Yet I can hardly withhold myself from pronouncing this one word of justice, That if any of the members .of the established church in this most pious rank of men, are superior to those of our dissenting churches, I think they ought to have the honour
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