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THE RATIONAL FOUNDATION OF A CHRISTIAN
CHURCH."

THE principles on which christian churches are built, are so plain, so natural

and easy, and so much the same with those which give rise to all the wellformed societies in the world, that one would think there should not be such matter of debate and controversy among christians, upon these subjects, as we have unhappily found.

For besides the reasonableness of the things that are required for this purpose, our blessed Saviour himself has given us so many promises in his word to favour this practice of holy fellowship, and to encourage our hope, as give abundant reason to our expectations of divine success. Has he not told us, that where two or three are met together in his name, there he is, or will be in the midst of them? Mat. xviii. 20. And when St. Peter made a glorious confession of his faith in Jesus the Son of God, the promised Saviour; upon this rock, said he, will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

So that if there is found but such faithfulness, such christian virtues of meekness, patience and forbearance, as may be justly expected among christians, I would hope such settlements as these might continue without interruption. And I trust I have here represented these things so faithfully, so plainly and clearly, that no single person, in any part of his practice, will find his conscience imposed upon by any article or canon here mentioned; nor will any society find itself obliged to do any thing in receiving, containing or excluding any persons from their church, but what lies natural and easy before the minds of persons, who do but exercise the common reason by which they conduct themselves in the affairs of human life.

Nor is there any thing here asserted, which confines christians to so exact an uniformity in their principles and practices, but by the exercise of their reason, with a small degree of charity, they may make and allow such alterations, as will assist and promote the general peace and edification of the churches, under the care and patronage of Jesus the great Shepherd.

And upon these foundations, if the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his Spirit, which is promised to assist the christian church, does but continue among his ordinances, from time to time, we may hope to find a comfortable succession and increase of members added to the church, and built up in faith, love and holiness, till our Lord Jesus Christ himself shall return to this world, and finish the great and important work of judgment.

I would only add further, with regard more especially to the questions relating to christian communion, that if any thing contained in them may be effectual through the divine blessing, to set the terms of christian-fellowship in a juster light, to secure the great and necessary principles of christianity. to remove any causes of offence from among the churches, and to lead the several parties of christians, to more moderate and charitable sentiments concerning each other, I shall have abundant reason to rejoice in my attempt, and give glory to the God of truth and peace.

Stoke-Newington,
March 25, 1747.

THE RATIONAL FOUNDATION,

FORM AND ORDER OF

A CHRISTIAN CHURCH,

Confirmed and improved: by the Directions and Examples of

the New Testament.

SECTION I.-Reason and Revelation agree to require Social Religion.

I. MAN is an intellectual and sociable being, and he owes honour and worship to God his Creator, in his social as well as his single capacity: He owes also assistance to his fellow-creatures, in the affairs of religion, as well as in those of the natural and civil life. Social religion is therefore the duty of every man, where he can meet with such fellow-worshippers, as to lay a foundation for amicable union in the same acts of worship, and for mutual help in religious concerns: And these three following reasons, among others, oblige him to it:

1. As he is bound to express to God in secret, and alone, what sense he has of the divine being, attributes, and government, so he is obliged to join with others, and publicly to declare to the world, what an awful and honourable apprehension he has of the same things: And this, that he may do honour to God amongst men, or glorify his name amongst his fellow-creatures; which secret religion cannot do. This is the chief end with regard to God, for which man's very nature is made sociable, and for which he is constituted by providence in human society. This is the first spring, and the perpetual foundation, of all social and public religion: For this end, social honours paid to God shall be everlasting. This is practised in the society of holy angels, those "sons of God, who sang together, and shouted for joy, when the foundations of the earth were laid; and who met together at certain seasons, to present themselves before God;" Job xxxviii. 7. and i. 6. and ii. 1. This is required in our world of sinful men; so it will be, doubtless, in the world of separate spirits,. who are described as a church or religious assembly; Heb. xii. 13. And so in the world of the resurrection, when the high praises of God and the Lamb shall be for ever on their tongues.

2. Man, in his single capacity, is obliged to perform acts of secret religion to God, because, in that capacity, he wants many favours from God; such as health, safety, food, raiment, &c. He is always receiving some of these favours, and always

waiting for more. And so also every man, in his social capacity, for the same reason, is under obligation to perform acts of public or social religion; viz. prayer for public mercies wanted, such as good governors, peace, plenty, civil and religious liberty, &c. praise for public mercies received, and a profession of his hope of public blessings, which he expects at the hands of God. If there were no other reasons for social religion to be found, yet I think the obligation of it would stand firm upon these two pillars. But I add,

3. It is a necessary and most effectual means of maintaining religion in this our world. Several persons, with united zeal, counsel, and strength, can do much toward the encouragement and assistance of each other: The elder, and more knowing, may instruct the ignorant; and all may strengthen each other's hands in the things of God and godliness. They may defend each other against injuries, reproaches, and the shame of singularity, and join in all proper practices to keep a sense of divine things lively and warm at their own hearts, and to excite others to the same practices of piety and goodness. Thus social religion appears with evidence to be the duty of mankind.

II. There are but two ways whereby God teaches us religion; that is, by the light of nature, which he has planted in men, and the light of revelation, which, in various ways, and in different ages of the world, he has communicated to men. And accordingly, religion is distinguished into natural and revealed. By each of these methods of teaching, men may be instructed in social as well as personal godliness, and learn to perform the several parts and duties of it, according to their different extent of instruction. As revealed religion in general, acknowledges natural religion for its foundation, so all the parts of social as well as personal religion, whether doctrine or duty, worship or order, so far as they are revealed and prescribed in the word of God, are still founded on principles of natural light and reason. Whatsoever therefore revelation has added, is but some positive or supernatural structure upon that foundation, without the opposition or contrariety to any parts thereof; for it is God himself that teaches us by the light of nature and reason; and we can never suppose that, by revelation, he will give us instructions which are contrary to the very principles of reason, and to those fundamental lessons of religion which he has written in our natures. Human reason is the first ground and spring of all human religion. Man is obliged to religion because he is a reasonable creature. Reason directs and obliges us not only to search out and practise the will of God, as far as natural con science will lead us, but also to examine, receive, and obey, all the revelations which come from God, where we are placed

within the reach of their proper evidences. Whereinsoever revelation gives us plain and certain rules for our conduct, reason itself obliges us to submit and follow them. Where the rules of duty are more obscure, we are to use our reason to find them out, as far as we can, by comparing one part of revelation with another, and making just and reasonable inferences from the various circumstances and connections of things. In those parts or circumstances of religion where revelation is silent, there we are called to betake ourselves to reason again, as our best guide. and conductor. And let it be observed, that there are many instances also, wherein we are instructed to pay the same honours to God, and fulfil the same duties to men, in the practice of public as well as private religion, both by the light of reason and the light of revelation: For God, who knows the weakness of our intellectual powers, has been graciously pleased to give us a shorter, plainer, and easier discovery of many rational and moral truths and duties by revelation, which would have been very tedious and tiresome, as well as much more difficult, for the bulk of mankind, to have ever found out and ascertained by their own reasonings.

III. When we have received upon just evidence the New Testament, as a revelation sent us from heaven, then our own reason and conscience oblige us to search in these writings, what new doctrines God has there proposed to our faith, and what new duties to our practice. And here, in our search after the things that relate to our personal religion, we shall find several sublime and glorious truths to be believed concerning "the blessed trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit;' and almost all the economy of our salvation revealed to us, above and beyond what the light of reason can ever discover, or so much as surmise. We shall here find also the duties of faith, in the name, and blood, and righteousness of the Son of God, for the pardon of our sins, and the justification of our persons; hope in his resurrection; subjection to his government; offering up our addresses of prayer and thanksgiving to God the Father, in his name; seeking the influences of the blessed Spirit, to sanctify our souls; waiting for the return of Christ from heaven, and for our own resurrection to eternal life. All these, I say, we shall find revealed and prescribed, over and above the duties discovered by reason. And besides these, we have the institution of the two sacraments, to be ever celebrated by christians, as memorials and pledges of some of those duties and blessings.

And it is not at all to be wondered at, that the gospel should require of us the additional belief and practice of such doctrines and duties in our personal religion, as the light of nature knows nothing of; because the very design of the gospel was to restore

sinful man to the favour and likeness of God, which the light of nature, or the law of natural religion, could not do: The nations of the earth, and the men of the brightest reason among them, in long successions of ages, had made sufficient experiments of the practical insufficiency of human reason for that divine purpose. But when we come to enquire what rules Christ has laid down for our conduct in social religion, distinct from these evangelical doctrines and personal duties, here we shall find far the greatest numbers of the same things which are prescribed to us by the holy scripture, or at least represented as the practices of the apostles and primitive christians, to be also prescribed by the light of nature; we shall find them to be such practices, or rules of conduct, as upon the supposed revelation of the christian doctrine and sacraments, human reason and prudence would, for the most part, lead us to perform. And we may take notice by the way, that the chief peculiarities of the gospel in faith and practice, so far as relates to our personal religion, are much more plainly and expressly dictated to us in scripture, by way of direct and explicit revelation and command; whereas the affairs that relate only to social religion, excepting the sacraments are, for the most part, hinted to us in a way of narrative, and are to be drawn out by inferences; wherein much more is left to the exercises of our own reasoning powers, than in the matters of personal faith and practice.

IV. I would ask leave to observe here, that it is a fashionable and modish thing now-a-days, to represent the whole religion of Christ, whether personal or social, as little more than the mere religion of nature, revised and reformed from the corruptions of the sinful and degenerate nations, both Jewish and Gentile; which opinion I can never assent to, so far as it regards the peculiar evangelical and glorious truths and duties, which relate more immediately to our personal religion, to our salvation and eternal life in the world to come: Yet, in matters that relate to the constitution and government of christian churches, whose chief design is to hold forth and maintain our religion publicly and visibly in this world, I am not afraid to say, there is a most happy correspondency and similarity between the dictates of the light of nature, and the prescriptions of the New Testament almost all the way. In this affair revelation does not add a great deal of new duty beyond what reason would teach us, as very proper to maintain natural religion in the public profession of it. This will sufficiently appear in the following particulars.

SECT. II.-Instances of the Agreement of Reason and Revelation in Social Religion.

I. Wheresoever public and social religion is to be main