who proposed new laws should appear, bringing with them, in one hand, the law to be submitted, and, in the other hand, a rope; so I could much wish that a similar arrangement were ordained for the authors of new doctrines in religion in this age, more especially, when we are half-blinded with over-much light, and troubled almost to madness by the multitude of new opinions. Rather let us cultivate, to the extent of our means, that common and unquestionable truth of evangelical doctrine, with which God has favoured us, and which is abundantly sufficient for us in the pursuit of eternal life; and in that let us rest contented. What folly is it, when a path to heaven, well known and tried, lies open before our eyes, to be running hither and thither; seeking I know not how many bye-ways, and attempting paths which no footstep has ever trodden; with the prospect of crying out at last, "What will-o'-wisp has lured me, an unhappy wanderer, over miry marshes, into this pitfall?"

SECT. 19.

THE Corollaries which may be deduced from the opinion of an author by the acuteness of his opponent, it would be very unfair to urge against him as his own: inferences are treacherous things; and perhaps we may err considerably, not so much by a failure of divinity as of logic, or by an ignorance of natural philosophy. Take as an example that common fallacy of the schools. It is granted to be a quality peculiar to man, that he is a laughing creature. Now, should any one maintain that Christ was not a laughing creature, the question arises, whether he ought, or ought not, to be esteemed a heretic: some say that he ought, on "the ground that he destroys the human nature of Christ; and that to deny that he was a laughing creature, is to deny that he was a man:" others say that he ought not, and that more rightly; forasmuch as he professes, in honest terms, to hold, strictly and literally, the human nature of Christ, though he denies his propensity to laugh as a quality necessarily issuing from the constitution of man: in truth, though there may be an error of philosophy, there is no heresy in the case.

There are, indeed, some consequences so palpably necessary, that, at the very first glance, they stand forth with no less certainty, than the principles themselves, from which they are immediately deduced. Such are those which are derived, reciprocally and irrefragably, from positive and innate causes, to their own appropriate and unquestionable effects: as "There is a God; therefore there is an Almighty and Allwise."

But there are other deductions also, which, although they dis. 1. Canus et Valentia aiunt hunc esse hæreticum, non directè et immediatè, sed indirectè et reductive. Sanchez. 1. ii. c. 7. nu. 33.

tur vi certissimæ rationis illatæ sequelæ, alteri tamen non adeò indubiæ sunt, quin ut justâ aliquâ distinctione satis commodè eludi possint: ita, verò, ut qui consecutionem neget, suis tamen principiis immotus adhærescat. Quales illæ Gualterii Jesuitæ : "Negat Theodorus Beza posse fieri, ut pluribus simul in locis Christi corpus verè ac substantialiter præsens sit: ergo negat Beza Dei omnipotentiam :" "Adscribunt Protestantes Deo plus aliquid quàm meram permissionem mali: Deum ergo peccati authorem faciunt." Sed et è nostris non nemo: “Papista Christum fingit creaturam: ergo Arianus est:" "Ex farinâ Christum conficit; non ergo ex purâ Beatæ Virginis substantiâ: Apollinarista igitur." Ilicet hoc est, quod Reformatas Christi Ecclesias ita miserè distrahit; nimis audax ac pertinax consequentiarum plenè non certarum fiducia. "Humanitatem Christi omnipræsentem asseritis," unus ait: "ergo humanam Christi naturam prorsùs tollitis; siquidem hoc soli Deitati proprium." "Humanæ Christi naturæ ubiquitatem pernegatis vos," regerit alter: "ergo unionem hypostaticam omnino destruitis.' Atqui, verò, neque hoc neque illud. Fundamentum tenemus utrique: superstructuram abominamur.

SECT. 20.

IN secundariâ, sive credendorum sive agendorum, serie, non decet hominem Christianum illa morosa av@ádela; ut nihil primævæ succedaneæque Ecclesiæ, seu judicio seu praxi, tribuendum judicet. Illud potiùs animum inducat ut certò statuat, quicquid universalis Christi Ecclesia per omne ævum crediderit feceritve, huic contravenire insolentissimæ esse insaniæ.

SECT. 21.

LIBERUM, interea, fuerit regno cuique Christiano ac reipublicæ, pro variâ cujusque conditione, leges sibi ferre proprias quasique municipales; sive procurandæ sive conservandæ paci Ecclesiasticæ; pietati tamen, justitiæ, charitati, undequaque consentaneas: neque par est, interim, ita præjudicare aliis, ut quod huic satis commodum ac salubre comperimus, id alteri

1 Sapientis est mutare consilium. Vivald. de Depositione. Quod neque contra fidem nec bonos mores injungitur, indifferenter est habendum, et pro eorum inter quos vivitur societate utendum. Aug. Ep. ad Januar. 118. In his rebus, de quibus

may appear to us to have been drawn, not less necessarily, by the force of most evident reason, are yet, to another person, not so indisputable, but that they may be evaded, easily enough, by some fair and sound distinction; yet in such a manner, that he who denies the corollary may still adhere immoveably to his own principles. Such are the arguments of Gualter the Jesuit: "Theodore Beza denies the possibility, that the body of Christ can be truly and substantially present at the same time in more than one place: therefore Beza denies the omnipotence of God." "The Protestants ascribe to God something more than the mere permission of evil: therefore they make God the author of sin." And some even of our own writers have done the same thing: "the Papist makes Christ a creature : therefore he is an Arian:" "He forms Christ out of meal: accordingly not of the pure substance of the Blessed Virgin : therefore he is an Apollinarian." This, in short, it is, which so miserably distracts the Reformed Churches of Christ; to wit, an over bold and obstinate adherence to consequences, which "You assert," says one, are any thing but certain. 66 that the humanity of Christ is omnipresent: then you take away the human nature of Christ entirely; for omnipresence belongs to Deity alone." "As for you," retorts the other, "you deny the ubiquity of the human nature of Christ: therefore you destroy altogether the hypostatical union." But, in good truth, neither the one nor the other is ours. We both hold the foundation: we both disown the superstructure.

SECT. 20.

In the secondary class, whether of things to be believed, or of things to be done, this surly sort of arrogance misbecomes a Christian; in allowing no respect, either for judgment or for act, to the primitive Church, and to that which next succeeded. He should rather make up his mind to decide, that whatsoever the universal Church of Christ in every age has thought or done, it is a token of most presumptuous folly to gainsay.

SECT. 21.

MEANWHILE it should be always free to Christian kingdoms and states, according to their several circumstances, to provide enactments of a local, and, if I may so speak, a municipal kind, whether for the attainment or preservation of peace in the Church; provided they be every way consistent with piety, justice, and charity: nor should we so forestall the judgment of others, as to prescribe necessarily to all, what we have found to be convenient and beneficial for one: every Church

nihil certi statuit Scriptura Divina, mos populi Dei, vel instituta Majorum pro lege tenenda sunt. Aug. Epist. 86.

necessariò prescribamus: jure suo fruantur Ecclesiæ quæque, dummodo condecentia et suorum animis salutaria injunxerint.

SECT. 22.

ÆQUUM quidem est, ut Deum, in Scripturis suis loquentem, rerum suarum judicem statuamus omnes: ubi, verò, difficiliora occurrerint Scripturæ loca, absit ut privatus quisque singularia spiritûs sui interpretamenta sequenda sibi proponere ausit: quin potiùs communem Doctorum Ecclesiæ sensum suo semper præferendum modestè judicet.

SECT. 23.

De rebus quibusque mediis, sive agendis sive judicandis, stet nobis dare operam, ut, ubi capita parùm consentire possunt, corda interim unanimiter conspirent; neque se sinant abs se mutuò dissilire, insolubili Christiani amoris affectu usque cohæsura: idque demum à nobis impetremus, nos fratrum sive opiniones sive actiones adiaphoras miti quâdam tolerantiâ et æquanimitate semper excepturos, et in partem tutissimam interpretaturos.

Damnentur ad imum usque barathrum illa nominum opprobria, Lutheranorum, Calvinianorum, Arminianorum, Puritanorum, Prelaticorum, Presbyterianorum, Independentium; quæ fidei ejusdem professoribus vulgò objectari solent. Christiani et audiamus, et verè simus; non magis fidei unitate, quàm charitatis vinculo conjunctissimi. Amemus, adjuvemus, protegamus nos mutuò. Deum denique communem, nostrum Patrem, Redemptorem, Paracletum, in quo nos unum sumus, et non seculares hasce distractiuncularum querelas præ oculis habentes, illud unum ambiamus æmulemúrque, quis nostrûm fide firmior, charitate ferventior, piis officiis bonisque operibus cumulatior, Deo denique proximior evaserit.

SECT. 24.

HÆC sunt, Fratres Christiani, quæ vos modò volui: obnixè insuper per Christi viscera efflagitans, ut animos vestros ad sanctam pacem studiosè componere velitis, omnésque de rebus non necessariis disceptationes prorsùs inutiles, sed et haud parùm noxias, rejiciatis.

Graviter peccant, qui propter indifferentes ceremonias turbant Ecclesias, dam

should be left to enjoy its own regulations, so that it ordain nothing but what is meet and salutary to the minds of its own constituents.

SECT. 22.

It is right, indeed, that we all make God, as he speaks in his own Scriptures, the judge of his own affairs: where, however, passages of greater difficulty occur in Scripture, let no individual venture to propose the private interpretations of his own spirit as the guide he is to follow; but rather judge with modesty, that the common consent of the doctors of the Church should always be preferred to his own.

SECT. 23.

ON subjects which occupy a middle rank, whether for action or for judgment, let us resolve to strive, that where our heads cannot quite agree, our hearts may nevertheless beat in concord; instead of consenting to a mutual separation, let them cling closely together in the indissoluble embrace of Christian love; and let us go so far as to lay an obligation on ourselves, whatever be the opinions or conduct of our brethren in things indifferent, to receive them in all the meekness of submission and equanimity, and to interpret them in the most favourable direction.

As for the reproach conveyed in names, as of Lutherans, Calvinists, Arminians, Puritans, Prelatists, Presbyterians, Independents, which are wont to be applied to professors of the same faith, let them be condemned to the bottom of the pit. Let us be called, and let us really be, Christians; not more allied in the unity of the faith, than in the bond of charity. Let us mutually love, aid, and assist each other. Finally, setting our common God before our eyes, the Father, the Redeemer, the Comforter, in whom we are all one, and not the worldly host of complaints that betray our frivolous distractions, let us seek and strive after this one object, who of us all shall shew himself the firmest in faith, the warmest in charity, the richest in pious duties and good works, and, above all, the nearest in his walk with God.

SECT. 24.

THESE are the topics, Christian brethren, on which I wished to address you: earnestly beseeching you, moreover, by the bowels of Christ, to subdue your inclinations, gladly and studiously, to sacred peace, and to reject all disputations upon things unnecessary, as wholly useless, and extremely mis

chievous.

nant alios principes et magistratus. Haccine pietas, quam jactamus? hæccine charitas, quam debemus fratribus et Ecclesiis? Zanch. de Redemptione. i. p. 765.