conceffions but my own, gave my thoughts as briefly and clearly as I could upon thofe common objections, only as they seemed to me to lie againft what had been by me advanced. And this 1 did in my remarks on The defence of national churches; wherein, though. I treated with ridicule fome things that are truly ridiculous in that defence, and in the paper intitled, The naked truth; yet I laid down fufficient grounds for anfwers unto all the objections againft my principles that I have yet feen: fo that I am convinced, if you bad ferioufly confidered what is there offered, a great part of your book might have been spared. But your book gave me occafion to speak more particularly and fully, what I had faid with more brevity before, and to fhow where the proof fails in arguings, that seemed to have any foundation in fcripture, and likewife how cross these arguings are to the fcriptures, and even to fome principles maintained by yourselves. When I published my Remarks on the defence of national churches, I, at the fame time, put to the press An explication of our Lord's teftimony concerning his kingdom before Pilate; wherein I endeavoured, as fhortly and plainly as I could, to give an account of the fpiritual and heavenly nature of the kingdom of Chrift, diftinct from the kingdoms of this world, and from the ancient kingdom of God in Ifrael, the earthly figure of this heavenly thing; and likewife of the dif ference betwixt the New Teftament and the Old, and of the reference of the one to the other, with refpect to the kingdom of Chrift. It was the view I had of the nature of Christ's kingdom, that fet me free from the prejudices I laboured under, with refpect to his inftitution of gospelchurches, and difpofed me to attend to the fcripture-evidence for the principles I now profefs and practife, as only agreeable to the Old-Teftament revelation, infallibly explained in the New, and to the nature of the kingdom of Jefus Chrift: I therefore publifhed that book, well knowing, that what I faid of a vifible church could not be attended unto without prejudice; or indeed well understood, without a decerning of the nature of the kingdom of Chrift; but a true decerning of that would make the other plain and easy.

None of you have yet attempted to give any answer to that book, though it cannot but appear to you; and I gave you a hint of it in the clofe of the obfervations, that if I be in a mistake, the foundation of it is laid forth in that book, as I clearly fee the foundation of all your oppofition unto the principles professed by me, touching the visible state of Christ's

kingdom

kingdom in this world, is laid in ignorance of, and inad vertency to the nature of his kingdom, as manifested in that book by the scriptures of the Old and New Teftament: till we be, therefore, at one about this matter, we can never come together upon the queftions now in debate betwixt you and me; and fo I once more recommend to your fe rious ftudy the scheme of principles declared in that book, which, if you overthrow, you will prepare me to receive conviction from what you alledge against the congregational way, and in behalf of national churches.,

When I ftood before the commiffion, ready to receive a fentence of depofition from the miniftry of the gofpel, for profess ing and practising congregational principles, after I had profeffed and practifed the national ones, I laid before my judges a short state of my difference from them in that matter, and a fum of the reasons of that difference, which if you, or any other, had but fairly impunged, the controverfy might have been brought to a clear and thort iffue; but it seems you had not occafion to peruse that speech before your book was gone to the prefs; and now, when you have perused it, you pass a general cenfure upon it, which is, no doubt, your judg. ment; but you have not brought forth the grounds of your judgment, that the appearance of reafon and revelation, which you must own had weight with me, might feem as little in my eye as in yours; yet this had been a greater fervice done to your fellow-creature, though more laborious than your cenfure. You have indeed excerpted a few things out of that speech, and treated them as you faw good, as I fhall notice in the clofe: but it has not been your design to attempt so much as a fhort answer to the appearance of revelation and reason, that is still to be found there.

Your review is upon the observations, and follows the order of them, and fo directs my courfe in obferving upon it: I fhall therefore follow upon them, taking notice chiefly where your eye fixes on any part of the scripture, which, I am still of the mind, muft only decide this controversy, and it is reasonable we should hear its decifion. I am obliged to fay in the entry, that my obfervations, at which you seem not a little offended, are very much ftrengthened and confirmed to me by your review; and whether they will be fo to the attentive reader, if any fuch there be, the event will declare.

OBSER

My first obfervation touched the manner of writers for claffical prefbytery against the Independents, and your con formity to them, which I blamed; and I gave feveral instan

ces.

«

The firft, viz. Flying to human authority in the pinch where fcripture-evidence is defired, you have verified abun dantly in your review, where you tell of Pifcator, Parcus, Calvin; great names, I own, but very ill ufed, where they ferve only to fill up a vacancy of proof. You make fome apology for using the authority of Dr Owen, when you fay, “That "in fo doing you take an argument from the mouth of an adverfary;" though yet you would have it believed, his judgment was ftronger in favour of Presbytery than Independ. As to which I fhall only fay, I know his judgment beft by his writings; and I wish I had fuch Prefbyterians to do with as the Doctor was, and fuch congregations as was his church, to which you may fee his letter in his fickness, printed in the folio edition of his fermons 1721. But if I were to ftudy conformity to you in this business about authors, and take what you call an argument from the mouth of adverfaries, I might tell you of the Scots confeffion of faith, that owns no other church but the mystical body, and a fingle congregation. I might direct you to Calvin on Acts ii. 46. and v. 12. 13. and xv. 4. 22. and xxi. 22. and 1 Cor. 4. I might point out to you, as to the defender of national churches, Boyd on the Ephefians, chap. iv. 11. p. 503. & 504. And Gillespie's Eng. Pop. Cerem. part 3. dig. 1. and 4. And I might alfo defire you to read and confider Altare Damafcenum, de epifcopi poteftate extenfiva, p. 206. 207. latest edition, &c. And thus I would not be behind with you, in taking the advantage of the conceffions of those you pretend to follow, as you do throughout your review, with the conceffions of the Independents. But it is a poor shift to take shelter under the authority of a friend or adver fary, where fcriptural defence fails, or to fill up the place of fcripture-proof by any human authority.

V.

When I was reading the Presbyterian writers, thirfting for proof of claffical Prefbytery; where I was expecting to find my doubts cleared by fcripture-evidence, there I was remitted to authors and commentators, which, when confulted, faid no more than had been already faid; but it was their au

thority

thority that was urged to fatisfy me; and therefore that was magnified. After fuch difappointments, I have fecurely heard the many mighty boaftings that are to this day among your people, of the abundant confutation of the congregational principles by Prefbyterian writers, and by thofe of the af fembly at Weftminster; as I now hear you boafting of the weight and folidity of their anfwers to their Independent brethren. But if there be any fcriptural defence in these an fwers, ferving to manifeft the infufficiency of what is advanced by me, that I have not feen or heard of, you will oblige me extremely, by fhewing it to me. Yet, as neither all the objections nor anfwers of the claffical Prefbyterians will be found calculated for the fate of the controverfy wherein you have been very brifkly engaging yourself, so you have infinu. ated a fufpicion, that I am not, even from thefe divines, to expect an answer to all that is by me advanced, when you ex. cept my diftinguishing fingularities. The divines of Weftminster did their best to answer unto what was advanced against them. And it lies upon you to answer to the diftinguifhing and fingular advances, which you fay have been made by me. Though I would put you hard to it, if I required you to fhew me the advance I have made, wherein I have not fome renowned author or commentator with me; yet their authority can avail me nothing without fcripture: And while I have the word of God, and the footsteps of the firft flocks that followed Chrift fet before me there, I need not take ill with the old reproach of fingularity. If you take that company from me, I fhall own myfelf fingular, though I had a million of your authors about me; but till you do this, which I am fatisfied you have not, please forbear the old Jewish and Popifh cant about fingularity, and preferring my own notions of things before all men, both of piety and learning.

The fecond inftance has alfo fome confirmation in what' you say of the confequences of the want of the due exercife of difcipline among the Diffenters at this day; to verify, as I take it, what was alledged by thefe vile writers, Edwards and Baftwic, against the Independents. But as this new charge of yours against the prefent Diffenters, falls no lefs on the Prefbyterian Diffenters than on thofe of other denominations, fo I reckon your national church has no great ground to glory over the English Presbyterians in that matter. I cannot well understand you in what you say on this head; but, as I take it, it favours to me of the old cant of the Popish party, and

of

of the high church faction in England, and feems to import a better liking to the tenth age, as of all other the most free of fects and infidelity, and shining in a peaceful uniformity among the reft of the ages, as the moon among the stars. You are diffatisfied with the laft age for want of uniformity, and because of fects; and you are no better pleased with this age on the fame account; and as little could the age of the apoftles yield you fatisfaction in this matter: and where to find any age to your mind in this thing I cannot tell, unless it be the tenth.

I am far from taking it for granted by you, but I am certain you have not been yet able to prove, that the principles maintained by me are any otherwife chargeable with the effects you afcribe to them, than the gofpel is to be charged with all the damnable herefies that fprung up with that good feed, when it was fown in the world; or than the true reformed doctrine and feparation from the church of Rome is chargeable with all the errors, herefies, and fects, and all the atheism and infidelity that appears among them called Proteftants; or then you will fay, that all the fects of the laft age flowed from the Prefbyterians their razing down the Epifcopal uniformity to fet up their own, and that all the infidelity and herefy of this age flows from the principles of the revolution, yea from the revolution itself. I agree with you, that premiffes from which abfurd inferences are plainly deducible, are not truth. But I have neither fuch a conceit of your understanding nor of mine, as to imagine that we can not draw inferences both plain and abfurd to us from fome truths of the gofpel, which is wholly unto our depraved minds and hearts as the light is unto darkness. I fhall tell you of an inference that is plain to me, and that I think J plainly deduce from all that I have had accefs to confider of the controverfy betwixt uniformity and liberty of conscience in the matters of religion; and it is this, That while the world is the world, we muft either fuffer the horrible ignorance, fpiritual flavery and fuperftition of the tenth century to take place in it, or the infidelity, herefy, and fects of this cen. tury, and of the laft; and that in this cafe, the only way wherein a man can walk suitably to the rules of the gospel, and his duty therein required toward the powers of the earth, fo as to keep himself unfpotted from the world, and promote the eternal welfare of his own foul, and the fouls of others, in a preparation for the world to come, is indeed the congre gational way. And the spirit that fhews itself in the various VOL. I.

ways