throws the stoical doctrine, which makes happiness to consist in wisdom and virtue; and such a one cannot be admitted to any communion with them in their festivals, constant or occasional.

But if any person shall mingle much of platonism, or pythagorean philosophy with the stoic, and expound Zeno, in some part of his doctrine, in the sense of Plato, or Pythagoras, perhaps he may be invited and admitted as a guest at the stoical feast, and so hold occasional communion with them; because he is truly a stoic, though a favourer of other sects. His notions are not ruinous and destructive to the most valuable principles of stoical philosophy; though he differs so much, that it would endanger that particular stoical society, if this person were received as a stated member to all the powers and privileges thereof. But as to others who hold the stoicai doctrine, though one expounds it according to Epictetus, another believes it in the exposition of Antoninas, another in the exposition of Seneca, who were all stoics, these may all be admitted to constant communion, and as members of the same society; for the great ends and designs of their society are herchy promoted and secured; their several differences are but small, and very consistent with the cultivation of stoicism, and the benefits of the society.

In short, those who hold so little of Zeno's precepts, in the sense of the society, as neither to be consistent with its being, nor well-being, must be excluded from all communion with it; such are Epicurus and Democritus, even though they should subscribe all the words of Zeno. Those who hold no more of Zeno's precepts in the sense of the society, than is just consistent with the being of the society, but may naturally prove fatal and ruinous to the well-being of it, should be admitted only to occasional communion; such are those who admire Plato and Pythagoras, and mix their directions with the doctrine of stoicism. Those who hold so much of Zeno's precepts in the sense of the stoical society, as to be consistent with the being, well being, and edification of the society, may be admitted as fixed members thereof, and be entitled to all its powers and privileges; such are the followers of Epictetus, Seneca, &c.

I hope such sort of parallel instance may give some light and direction in these affairs of communion among christians : Yet these things being not exactly delivered in the word of God, nor particular rules about them determined clearly in scripture, it is evident that our Lord Jesus Christ intended that the light of nature and reason, the common principles and rules of order and society, and the most prevailing prospect of holiness, truth and love, should determine our actions in such cases;

still keeping close to every thing that he has revealed, so far as we can find his will in scripture; and in all other things making the best use of our christian prudence and charity, for the glory of God, and the good of men; 1 Cor. xiv. 30, 33. Let all things be done decently, and in order, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. 1 Cor. x. 31, 32, 33. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

Since it is impossible in this imperfect state, that any thing in civil or religious affairs should be free from imperfections, those methods must at all times be esteemed the best, that aim at the best ends, and are attended with the fewest inconveniences. 1 Cor. x. 23. All things that are lawful, are not expedient: all things that are lawful, edify not. Rom. xiv. 17, 18. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace,, and joy in the Holy Ghost. He that in these things serveth Christ with a humble sincerity of heart and design, is acceptable to God, and approved of men, even though he should not always hit upon the most prudent incans. But let peace and edification be ever in our eye, as our chief ends in church-affairs, according to that great canon of the apostle; Rom. xiv. 19. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. Amen.

DISCOURSE I.

A Pattern for a Dissenting Preacher.

Jous vii. 46.-The officers answered, never man spake like this man. THE Jewish church was grown very corrupt when our Lord Jesus Christ was sent into the world, as the reformer of his people, and the Saviour of mankind. The rulers of the church hated reformation, and would not suffer any thing to be altered in their establishment. Therefore their rage against our Saviour rose high, and the pharisees and chief priests sent their officers to seize him, as you find in verse 32. to seize Jesus, the best preacher that ever spoke in the name of God to men: They sent men to silence him in the midst of his sermon, to summon and constrain him to appear before them. The chief priests were the highest ecclesiastical governors, and the pharisees were a set of men that applied themselves to the study of the law, and their worship, and separated themselves from the rest of the people, under a pretence of greater holiness. These Jewish clergy, and Jewish devotees, joined to send their servants upon this wicked errand to lay hold on Christ the Lord. The persons that were sent, are called officers in my text: Probably they might be some coclesiastical officers that belonged to their courts, because we find that the priests had power over them, and they gave them commission for their work, though we are not acquainted with their particular title.

But when they came and heard the gracious words that proceeded from his mouth, his sublime doctrines of truth and mercy, and his kind invitations to thirsty sinners to receive living water, as you found in a few words before my text, they were astonished and struck silent, they were inwardly restrained from executing their impious commission; they returned to their masters without having done their work: And when they asked them the reason why they had not brought the preacher with them, they boldly replied, that their consciences withheld their hand from him, for never man spake like this man. To improve these words to our present advantage, we shall consider,

I. What difference there was between our Lord's ministry, and the preaching of other men in that day.-II. What different effects it had on those that heard him.-III. Draw some inferences for our instruction, and some for our practice.

I. We shall consider "what difference there was between

our Lord's ministry, and the preaching of other men in that day." It is very likely these officers had been wont to hear the sermons of the scribes, and the doctrines of the Jews in their synagogues, where Moses and the prophets were read every sabbath, and generally expounded to the people; but there was something in the matter of these discourses of our Lord, something in the manner of speaking, but much more in the peculiar power attending the words, which have made these officers conclude, they had never heard such a preacher in all their lives.

1. First then, there is something in the matter of his preaching different from what those ecclesiastical officers had been used to hear. Though both Christ, and the scribes and pharisees, all pretended to take the bible for their text, yet there was a great variety in the subjects which they enlarged upon, and the substance of their discourses. They expounded the same moral law which our Saviour did, but it was in so poor and trifling a sense, in so strange and unreasonable a manner, so far from the spiritual design and divine meaning of it, that our Lord found, when he came into the world, he had need to go over it all again with a better comment, lest the blind should lead the blind, and both fall into the ditch.

They set forth their sense of it in so gross and carnal an exposition, as though all the commands forbid nothing else but external actions of sin, and required nothing else but the outward performance of duty; whereas our Lord Jesus Christ makes it appear to them by convincing reasons; Mat. v. that he that breaks one of the commands of God but in thought, he is counted a breaker of the law in the sight of God, the infinite Spirit, before whom our thoughts and intentions of mind, and all the motions of our hearts, are esteemed as our actual performances. They expounded away the law of God indeed, and they lost the beauty, the power, and the perfection of it by their comments. Our blessed Jesus came to restore it again. They made holiness to be a very little thing, and an easy matter; whereas our Lord shews, it is exceeding hard to enter in at the strait gate, and there needs labour and pains to travel onwards in the narrow path that leads to heaven.

Again, they dwelt much upon the ceremonial part of their religion, with too great a neglect of the moral part of it; but Christ insisted much upon the more substantial and weighty matters of the law, righteousness and truth, piety and love. The pharisees, who were devotees of their church, were careful to pay tithes of mint, anise and cummin, and doubtless their priests were not backward to preach it; but our Lord Jesus Christ makes it his more constant care, and his perpetual business, to

establish them in the spirituality and perfection of the moral law of God, and touches very little upon ceremonies, for he thought the scribes and pharisees did that sufficiently of themselves.

Again, they insisted upon the traditions of the fathers, and councils, and inventions of men; Christ, upon the commandments and words of God. And when any point of doctrine, and especially when any point of practice was in dispute, their recourse was to the fathers; what do the traditions say, what say the ancients? But our Lord Jesus Christ refers them still to some part of his Father's word, and quotes a text, either to prove a doctrine, or a duty.

Thus the teachers of the established church, in that day, instructed the people to build their hopes of heaven upon their natural birth, upon their relation to Abraham, and upon their passage through that original ceremony of circumcision, whereby they were initiated into the Jewish church, and thought they were made sufficient members of it for eternal happiness. Our Lord Jesus taught them to build ther hopes, rather upon regene ration, upon faith and repentance, upon the inward and mighty change of their souls, upon an alteration of their whole nature, and a turn of their hearts toward God, upon a humble confession of sins, and a dependence on the forgiving grace of God. In Mat. iii. we have a particular account what it was the pharisees taught them to build their hopes of heaven upon, viz. their being children of Abraham; and John the baptist, who was the fore-runner of our Lord, cuts off that hold; he nullifies that foundation, and makes it vanish. Think not to say within yourselves, we are children of Abraham, but bring forth fruits of repentance, verses 8, 9. And Christ, in John iii. 3, 5. shews, that if a man be not born again, let him pretend never so much to a birth of the family of Abraham, and to his pas sage through the initial rite of circumcision, the ordinance of that day, it was in vain for him to hope to enter into the kingdom of God.

They preached up the doctrine of justification by their own works, for the pharisees trusted in themselves that they were righteous; Luke viii. 9. and in their opinion, whoever would follow the rules of the pharisees, must be righteous, as well as they, in the sight of God, and thus go to heaven upon the foundation of their own duties. But our Lord Jesus Christ continually shews men the imperfection of their own righteousness, and their utter insufficiency to perform any obedience, for which they might be accepted of God to eternal life. He preached the gospel of salvation by the mercy and forgiveness of God his Father, and gave hints of his own atonement for sin, and his mediation with God, as far as was proper in that day and

time.