church of Jerufalem about it, they held a meeting for the purpose of deciding it. Now that Paul and Barnabas were not members of the court that came together to decide this question, and that they were not of that company which ordained the decrees, is to me very clear from these words: y 22. "Then it plea "fed the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to fend "chosen men of their own company to Antioch, with Paul "and Barnabas, Judas firnamed Barfabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren, and wrote letters by them." And the whole ftrain of the epiftle diftinguishes Paul and Barnabas evidently from the company by which the dogmas were judged. And though, it behoved Paul and Barnabas, and those with them, to be prefent, and propofe their que ftion, and give information, which they did; yet I can find no mention of their giving any judgment or fuffrage. I fee Peter giving his judgment, and James his, and the apostles and the elders agreeing, and the whole church concurring with them; but as Paul and Barnabas are not of that com. pany, fo I find them doing nothing there but informing and narrating matters of fact, without giving any judgment. The use they were for in that meeting is intimated in the epistle, wherein they at Jerufalem fignify to them at Antioch, that they had been duly informed by their meffengers, and that they had depended on and gone upon their information; and whereas their authority had been attacked by the falle teachers, they testify their regard to them, and approbation of them; and, to remove all ground of fufpicion, they fend men of their own company along with them to Antioch. From all which there is not the least ground to imagine, that Paul and Barnabas fat members of that court, and judges in that queftion there, but the cleareft ground to think that they did not. And till you prove they gave their fuffrage in what was determined, as a part of that ecclefiaftic body, may I not inquire, where is the fynod in Acts xv. that has been fo much talked of both by Papifts and national Proteftants? Well, fpeak of a fynod who will, I refolve to fpeak only of the prefbytery in Jerufalem, where were the apostles, in whofe ftead we have now the New Teftament, till once you prove, that Paul and Barnabas were members of that court, and joined with the elders in Jerufalem in exercising jurifdic. tion over the churches in Jerufalem and Antioch. The prefbytery of Jerufalem then came together, the apoAles and they, for to confider of this matter; and how did they 66 they come together? or where? the particular place is not mentioned; but Acts xv. makes it evident, they affembled in the church, which is the true place that the Lord hath chofen for a New-Teftament prefbytery, to gather together in his name, to make decifions, and pafs fentences in whatever place of the earth it happen to be; and here they have the promife of his prefence, "who walks in the midft of the "golden candlesticks, and holds the ftars in his right hand." There needs no confequence be drawn to prove, that the whole church was prefent with their prefbytery at the making of this decifion; and what is the plaineft nearest confe. quence from this, but that the whole church in Jerufalem. was but one congregation, and that the prefbytery in Jerufalem was but the prefbytery of a congregation? Further,' How did this prefbytery make this great decifion? by plura lity of voices, or by agreement? with the confent of the church, or without it? Let the text anfwer, y 22. “Then pleafed it the apoftles and elders, with the whole church." This was the way the apoftles proceeded from the beginning, in all their actings in the church at Jerufalem; they determined all things with the confent of the people, and did not disdain to fatisfy them as to all their conduct, Acts i. Acts vi. Acts xi. 1.-4. So that what was done by them is faid to be done by the church, according to Matth. xviii. Acts xi. 22. This was fo laid in the original conftitution of the Chriftian church, that, however the mystery of iniquity wrought in the churches before the days of Cyprian, it was not then wrought out of their conftitution: for he fays, Epift. 6. Ad clerum de cura pauperum et confefforum,-Ad id vero quod fcripferunt mihi com-prefbyteri noftri, Donatus et Fortunatus, Novatus et Gordius, folus refcribere nihil potui; quando a primordio epifcopatus mei ftatuerim, nihil fine confilio veftro, et fine confenfu plebis meæ, privata fententia gerere. Sed cum ad vos per Dei gratiam venero, tunc de iis quæe vel gefta funt, vel gerenda, ficut honor mutuus pofeit, in commune tractabimus. He had a very plain pattern for this laid before him by the apoftles in the church at Jerufalem and while men have been diligently inquiring into Acts xv. to find a pattern for a thing for which there is no pattern there, I wonder much, that, from Acts xv. 22. compared with Acts xvi. 4. they have not perceived, that the judgment, or determination, or fentence of a Christian prefbytery is, "What pleases them, with the whole church of which they are overfeers." VOL. I. : PP This This was the greatest decifion we read of in the New Teftament, the greateft fentence or determination that was in any Christian affembly where the apoftles were; and this was the first part of the New Teftament that was committed unto writing, and delivered unto the churches to keep; and in this writing the churches had a copy caft unto them, in the first church, for their method of procedure in all their affairs and manner of judging. Now, if the greateft decifion we read of in the New Testament, and wherein all the churches were con cerned, was made by a congregational presbytery, or by a congregational church; what is the confequence of this, but that there is no ecclefiaftic court on earth above fuch a church, and fuch a prefbytery? As to the reasons why this queftion was fent to this church, and determined there, you may fee my fpeech before the commiffion; which, if you confider, you will fee, that no confequence can be drawn from Acts xv. for the jurisdiction of one church over another. Upon the whole, may I not appeal to the confcience of any unprejudiced perfon, (though indeed there are few fuch in this matter), whether the pattern Acts xv. establishes fynods and the fubordination of judicatures, or overthrows them, and establishes the congregational way of doing? I fhall trouble you no further at this time with obfervations upon your performance; only that your prejudice against congregational principles feems to me to be this, that, ac cording to them, the Chriftian religion cannot be national, and laid in the conftitution of the kingdoms of this world, and a Chriftian national uniformity cannot be established unto the cutting off of herefy and fchifm with heretics and schil matics, by the power of thofe kingdoms. But, on this very account, these principles appear to me to be true Christian principles; and, as to this, I defire you may take the trouble to read and confider what I have written on John xviii. 36. 37. if And now, Sir, when you have impartially confidered what is above faid, together with what you find in my former papers, you ftill find me miftaken, pity me, pray for me, and inform me better from the word of God, and I will be obliged to you; and if you conceive, that you have received any perfonal injury from me, convince me of it, and I fhall endeavour to confefs my fault, and ask your forgiveness, as I defire to forgive all you have done or faid at any time, or in your book, against me. But if you receive any convic tion from what I have faid, do not ftifle your convictions, do not refift the truth, nor detain it in unrighteousness. Your honour, honour, and the honour of your book, which you may conceive to be by me attacked, and which I am fure cannot be much hurt by one in my circumftances, is but a poor thing in comparison with that honour that cometh from God only. If I have been doing nothing else but making such an attack as I am capable to make upon your credit as an author, I own I have been very idle, and very ill employed; but if I have been obliged to undertake this talk, and give you this trouble, only for the fake of the truth, and as a debt I owe to the truth, oppofed by you, then I defire it may overcome you, as it has done me, that we may be fellow-helpers to the truth; and I am confident your yielding to it will be your honour in the day of the Lord. "That your eye may be "fingle, and your whole body full of light, and that you may not be conformed to this world, but transformed by "the renewing of your mind, to prove what is that good, " and acceptable, and perfect will of God; and that his "word may be a light to your feet, and a lamp to your "paths, making you wifer than your teachers, and affording "you liberty in keeping his precepts," is the prayer of, 300 A Second Letter to Mr AYTONE. Containing, Remarks upon his Review of the Obfervations on the Original Confiitution of the Church. [First published in the year 1731.] Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wifdom is in them? Jer. viii. 9. SIR, Have feen your letter to me fince it has been printed; and though I am not of the mind that it deferves an anfwer, which it alfo feems to forbid, and though I have little hope that any thing coming from my pen can have influence upon your underftanding; yet, not knowing but fome good end may be reached, even upon you, by the reply I am now making, I have therefore undertaken this tafk; and, in the performance of it, though I cannot promife upon myself, yet I wish I may be preferved from every thing that may unjustly provoke you, and fo mar the end I have in view. My principles touching Chrift's inftitution of a visible church, and the plan laid down to us in the New Testament, were fairly stated, and their foundation in the New Testament from which they were taken, was plainly pointed out in The explication of the propofition. The fcheme of principles there laid down, though it contains the main fubftance, and the best of that for which thofe called Independents con tended of old, against them that are called Prefbyterians; yet is not liable to all the objections that were framed by the Prefbyterians against the Independents; nor is it capable of all the confequences that were drawn formerly from the man. ner of maintaining the congregational fcheme, or from the conceffions made by the Independent writers. Yet the author of The defence of national churches, and you after him, have taken that Independent scheme as it was the thefis formerly impugned by your writers, as anfwering beft unto the common arguments. But I, not finding myself concerned to maintain any other fcheme of principles but my own, nor to anfwer for confequences drawn from any other positions or conceffions |