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hand, when Chrift requires his difciples to love one another, as he has loved them, and calls you to love the brethren whom you have feen, you are ready to anfwer as thofe, Matth. xxv. "When faw we thee," &c. How should one of those whom Chrift has loved unto the death be feen? How fhall I know my brother for whom Chrift died? For it can only be faid of the invisible church, that it is redeemed with Chrift's blood; and that church is no way visible to me, in the members of the visible church that make the right pro feffion neceffary unto church-membership. And as for the profeffion that the Independents look after, it manifeftly tends to open a door for hypocrites, and fhut it against many of those who may be the elect of God. And when I am forbidden to judge my brother, or fet at nought my weak brother, it is unlawful for me to discern betwixt one whom the law of Chrift bids me love as a brother "for whom Christ "died," though weak, and one who is not, according to that law, to be looked upon by me as a brother, or to form a judgment of charity about any man, that he is a brother "for whom Chrift died."

Thus, Sir, you are for joining with them as church-mem. bers that are known to be rebellious against God, and for thinking evil of them that make the faireft and most credible profeffion of Christianity, and for judging them; and pervert the word of God, to harden yourself, in making void the Lord's command of brotherly love, and rendering it of none effect to you, and to as many as your book can influence to think as you do. But though you alledge that the words, in the judgment of charity, are of no confideration, Acts xx. 28. and fay the text affords no foundation for them; will you alfo banish the judgment of charity from that text and context, from whence you go about to prove, that we ought not to form a judgment upon that head, whether a man be to us a brother or not? And how will you explain the 15th verfe of that 14th chapter of the Romans, "Destroy not him "with thy meat for whom Chrift died," without the judg ment of charity, unless you be for univerfal redemption? And if this defignation was not due to church-members, cre dibly profeffing the faith, by the law of brotherly love, while they continued in that profeffion; what will you make of them that "deny the Lord that bought them?" 2 Pet. ii. 1. And if these words, the judgment of charity, can be of no confideration, Acts xx. 28. then you may let me understand the force of the Apoftle's argument there, to move the eld

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ers of the Ephefian church " to take heed to, and feed all "that flock of which they were overfeers." He fays, "Take heed to all the flock, to feed the church of God " which he hath purchased with his own blood." And might not the elders, according to you, have answered him, The flock of which we are overfeers is not "the church of God " purchased with his blood." For that is only the invisible church, which cannot appear to us in the flock which we overfee. If we could fee that redeemed flock, we should take heed to it, and do it all the fervice we can; but that is not the object of fenfe, and fo we cannot overfee it, nor take care of it?

I conceive, Sir, it was your business to answer my argu ment upon this text, in the explication of the propofition, which proved, that the judgment of charity must be of fome confideration in it; and not to talk befide the purpose, about univerfal redemption, and the controverfy with the Armi nians, when it could not but be evident to any confidering man, that the sense of that text which I go upon, ferves to overthrow any argument that can be brought from these words for univerfal redemption. And when I confider as impartially as I can the 29th and 30th verfes, I have still ground to believe, that it might bé faid, agreeably to scripture-style, that all the flock at Ephefus was "God's flock purchased with "his blood." For that way of fpeaking is the very fame with what you have Rom. xiv. 15. 1 Cor. viii. 11. 2 Pet. ii. 1.; and is every way agreeable to the ftyle of our Lord's new commandment of brotherly love, a particular branch of which the Apostle is recommending to the elders of the Ephefian church. Compare John xxi. 15. 16. 17.

The profeffion of Chriftianity you contend for, under the fpecious name of a credible profeffion, and blameless converfation, feems to me to be a thing altogether of another kind, than that confeffion of the faith, and of the name of Jefus, fo much infifted on in the fcriptures; even that which makes the confeffors or profeffors hated of all nations, and a man's foes those of his own houfe; and which endears the profeffors to one another, as brethren, and members one of another, and which has fo many great and precious promifes annexed to it, and fo many grievous threatenings directed against apoftafy from it. As I take it, the profeffion you are contending for, is fo far from being of the fame kind with this, that it is fet up unto the banishing of it out of the world; and is no other but that form of godliness that was fhifted

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fhifted in by Antichrift into the room of the ancient pro feffion, that was expreffive of the power of godliness, and had a near relation to it. And that is a form of godliness not owing to the power of the gospel, but to the power of man; not fhewing forth faith and holiness, nor making these any way visible in them upon whom it is: but it is upon them that are known to be rébellious against God; not manifefting redeeming love, nor the grace of the Holy Ghoft, but rendering these utterly invisible, and banishing brotherly love, and the judgment of charity, from the profeffion of the name of Je fus; not expofing men to perfecution from the world of the ungodly, but making the church and the world one, and extinguishing the old open ftrife for the faith once delivered to the faints. There were ungodly men that crept in unawares into the first churches, under the profeffion of the name of Jefus but this form of godlinefs ferved unto the open entrance of the ungodly world, known to be rebellious against God, into the outer court of the temple, to defile it; and thus it was trodden under foot of the Gentiles, the clergy ruling among them as the lords of the Gentiles.

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Against this form of godliness, that has no relation to the power of it, and taken on by the world openly rebellious a gainst God, and denying the power of godliness, and doing their best to make it invifible in the world, the Apostle bends his difcourfe, 2 Tim. 3d chapter throughout; while he is foretelling the antichriftian state of things, and forefhewing the antichriftian clergy, the true offspring of the old Judaifing teachers, who were Pharifaical in their doctrine of justifica tion, preffed after a conformity to the Jewish church, and fought after a worldly kingdom, and fet themfelves against such a profeffion of the truth of the gofpel as expofed men to perfecution; and alfo the offspring of them that turned the grace of God into lafciviousness. Whereas you would have the Apostle there speaking only of turning away from fuch men as the apostles and the first Christian teachers were themselves accounted to be, by the rulers of the Jewish fynagogues; and as thofe muft ever be accounted in the world, who adhere to the word of God as their only rule and will not turn afide to fables, and that turn away from them that have "the form "of godlinefs, denying the power of it," who must be the prevailing party for number, when the nations of the world pafs under the Chriftian name. For upon that of turning away, you fay, he had "a special eye to fchifmatical and falfe "teachers, who, by a fpecious form of godlinefs, endeá

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"vour to feduce perfons from their lawful paftors, (by the "law of the nation, as I take it), and carry them off from "the communion of the church (I understand, by law efta«blished, or the parish-church) unto private affemblies and "houfe-meetings. This is manifeft from the 6th and 7th "verfes. And it is remarkable, that the greatest part of "their conquests were to be filly women, who, by the form " and appearance of their godlinefs, and the fair fhew they "made of more than ordinary fanctity, they impofed upon "them, as being the weaker fex, and generally of lefs judg. ment, reason, and understanding."

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While you thus maliciously pervert the holy word of God, to fhew that men ought to turn away from the objects of your hatred, I think I hear a ruler of a Jewish fynagogue, or a Jewish priest, in his zeal for the temple, fpeaking against the apoftles and their followers; or a Popish priest speaking against Proteftant teachers and their followers, before they came to have a national establishment, or before they had drawn their form over a nation instead of the Popish form; or an Epifcopal clergyman fpeaking against the conventicles in Scotland in the last age. And they that pretend to be the true offspring of thofe that were in former times thus spoken againft, can abundantly discover the spirit that thus perfecuted, against those called Independents now.

Though you are for their being church-members, whom we are not to believe to be difciples; yet you are still for fome diftinction between the members of the vifible church and the reft of the world. And you make the enjoying of the word preached, the privilege of that vifible church, even as the partaking of the holy facrament. And thus you deprive the rest of the world of the enjoyment of the word preached; fo condemning your felf in the taking up of that poor old cant against the Independents, That a minifter, according to their scheme, cannot preach, as a minifter of the gospel, to any but the flock to which he is paftor.

If you had confidered the explication of the propofition, which you pretend to confute, you might have found, it is the judgment of fuch as contend for what you call Independency, That every paftor of a church is fet there for Spreading the gofpel in the world, as a light on a golden candleftick, and bears Chrift's commiffion to preach the gospel, as his minifter, to every creature; neither can you show any one pofition in that treatife, wherewith this is inconfiftent. But your argument on this head goes upon the fuppofition,

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that a pastor has not a commission from Chrift to preach to any as his minifter, but them to whom he is a paftor: and because you do not pretend to be pastors to more than that catholic visible body of which you speak, by the fame rule, you preach only as private perfons to the reft of the world, that are not of that visible church; and so you make the preaching of the word to be the privilege of that church to which men are admitted upon the grounds whereon you differ. ence your visible catholic body from the world. But I thought you would have been ashamed to bring this old ridiculous charge against them you have now to do with, till you had cleared yourself, as a pastor of the catholic church visible, of the fame charge against yourself, as to preaching to them that are not members of that church; yet, to do you justice, you have done fomething toward that, in making the enjoying of the preached word to be the privilege of the members of that church; and fo the controverfy betwixt you and me will come to this, Whether pastors be Chrift's ministers to the visible church only, by Chrift's commiffion, Matth. xxviii. or to the world? I own it is very agreeable to your scheme, that men fhould firft, by means foreign to the gospel, be turned in to the visible church, and fo be made objects of the gofpel meffage and call; and I fhall not call this altoge ther disagreeable to the conftitution of the church that had its beginnings in Conftantine's days; but nothing is more difagreeable to the original conftitution of the Chriftian church.

As to the infant-feed of believing parents, who are visible members of the body of Chrift with their parents, and by their credible profeffion, and fo have a right to baptism; they pals out of the state of the infant feed of believers, wherein they were to be judged of according to their parents profeffion, when they become the objects of the gospel-call; and cannot be the members of a visible church, but by their own credible profeffion brought about by the gofpel. You yourself require of them a ferious profeffion of fubjection to the ordinances of Chrift; though yet, in another place, you affirm, "That he who is baptized, according to the com"mand of Chrift, has thereby a fealed right to all the exter. "nal privileges belonging to that covenant of which baptifm "is the feal; and this continues till it be forfeited by fome deed or action of the perfon," p. 153. which, if you please, you may prove, and then reconcile with what you fay, p. 111. and p. 118.

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