We abhor perfecutión in every fhape in which it hath appeared, and are never for compelling others to fubfcribe our Confeffions, or fubmit to our institutions; being fenfible, that every man hath an equal right with us to follow the light of his understanding, and the dictates of his confcience; and that the terrors of blood and torture are arguments entirely foreign to the defign and the fpirit of Chriftianity, can never tend to advance it interefts, nor be poffibly reconciled with two great fundamental maxims of it. meeknefs and charity; and that banishment, confifcations, or imprisonments, are methods of perfuafion by which no man, or body of men, have a title to recommend their doctrines to others. We are convinced, that thefe are not the arms whereby truth and righteoufnefs fpread their victories over the minds of men; and that they are only the tools of error and ignorance, calculated to root out all religion, opprefs virtue, and extinguifh light. We have as great a horror as the moft violent enemies of Confeffions at that Antichriftian church which uses thefe means of conviction, and have as frightful ideas of that mon. fter of tyranny and cruelty, and will ever look upon it as a very bad fign of a caufe when it leans upon fuch fupports: fo that we do not deny to others the fame liberty which we take to ourfelves. And it is hoped it will afterwards appear, that any temporal loffes which an ecclefiaftical officer with us may be expofed to, when convicted of departing from our eftablifhed Confeffion, can in no fenfe be called perfecution, and are of a nature entirely different from it.

Wherefore, however ftrong and perfuafive the reafonings of our adverfaries be against the tyrannical pretenfions of the church of Rome, or the claims of any other which grafps at an authority

over the faith of the people; with whatever hatred and contempt all thofe human compofures fhould be treated which invade the place due to the holy fcriptures in the determination of religious controverfies, and would fetter the confciences of mankind by their fallible decifions; and how juft and commendable foever the warmest zeal and most vigorous oppofition against all projects of this nature are in every man and Christian; we hope it is evident, that the practice of the church of Scotland, and the ufefulnefs and allowablenefs of Confeffions as a ftandard of orthodoxy, in the fense wherein we have explained it, are not in the leaft expofed or injured thereby; fince they are bottomed upon quite different principles, and tend to very contrary purposes.

And we doubt not our readers will, by an eafy application, perceive how little all thefe ftrong and vehement reafonings, which we have formerly mentioned, against an ufurped power over the understandings of mankind, and in favour of the noble Proteftant principle of private judgement, affect our caufe; and that all that can be faid of the excellency of the holy fcriptures, and their peculiar prerogative as the only judge of controverfies, and ftandard of truth and error, are perfectly reconcileable with it; and that thofe frightful images of tyranny, perfecution, and flavery, whereby our adverfaries endeavour to imprefs the minds of men with fo horrible notions of Confeffions in general, are eafily diffipated; and how justly fover they may heighten our terrors at Popery, and all Popish pretenfions, that, if applied to us, they are the creatures of fancy, and owe their being to mistaken apprehenfions or wilful partiality, and give us ground to complain, that the writers of the other fide have not treated us, or our opinions, with that charity, modera

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tion, and impartial inquiry, which they fo much glory in.

So little reafon have thefe gentlemen to load our Confeffion with thefe calumnies, or charge us with departing from the principles of the Reformation, and raising the authority of our public standard on the fame bottom which fupports the Roman pontiff, that, on the contrary, there feems to be place enough in the prefent queftion for applying the common maxim, "That fuper"ftition and Atheism, or abfolute infidelity and "implicit belief, are frequently near one another, "and maintain an intimate alliance." Nor will it perhaps appear an ill-grounded obfervation, that the noife made by the inveterate enemies of Confeffions, tends to clamour the churches of Christ out of the natural and unalienable rights of mankind, to overturn private judgement, and opprefs our confciences; and, confequently, that this extreme of imaginary liberty, and thefe high pretenfions to freedom and impartiality, are very apt to meet with the other extreme of arbitrary power, and an haughty impofing fpirit.

In order to the clearing whereof, we shall but juft mention a few confequences that naturally follow from the reafonings and the fchemes of that party; namely, That a fociety hath not power to make rules for its government, that may not be overturned and tranfgreffed by every man who diflikes them; That though a church be convinced in her confcience, that fuch doc'trines only are agreeable to divine revelation, and ought to be preached to the people, and therefore fhe inclines to make choice of fuch only for her paftors who believe thefe truths themfelves, and will inculcate them upon others; yet she must be denied that liberty; a perfon of principles directly oppofite must have accefs to her pulpits; por muft he be abandoned or turned out of his

office because of differences in opinion: That is, fuch a church must be impofed upon, forced to hear doctrines fhe thinks inconfiftent with her edification and improvement in Chriftianity; that is, perfons who defire to attend public ordinances, that they may make progrefs in the truths of religion, and be animated in its practice, must yet fubmit to fchemes, whereby, inftead of gaining this end, they may be entertained from the pulpit with notions very contrary to these purposes, and which, according to their opinion, tend rather to retard than advance them in the ways of holiness, and be obliged to spend the Sabbath in a manner very difagreeable to thofe defigns for which it was fanctified.

According to thefe noble principles of liberty that are fo much boasted of, fome men, the greatest pleasure of whofe life and fatisfaction to their confciences it perhaps would be, to be joined to a fociety of Chriftians who maintained the unity of faith, and to have accefs to pure ordinances, and uncorrupted doctrine, difpenfed by those who were qualified for that office, and had kept themselves free from the poifon of error, muft yet be denied that privilege, obliged to pollute themselves, by mixing with the impurities of a corrupted miniftry, and to have their ears grated by doctrines which they deteft as pernicious, or defpife as ufelefs or uncertain; and fo they must be robbed of their greatest joy and comfort, or, which is the fame thing, they must be hindered from ufing what appears to them the neceffary means of attaining thefe benefits, and arriving at a fecurity concerning the faith and qualifications of their teachers.

That becaufe fuch free-thinkers, entertaining little thoughts of the doctrines of Christianity, are for allowing an unbounded latitude in matters of faith; and looking upon a perfon as neither a

worfe

worfe man or minifter for his fentiments in what they are pleased to call, matters of Speculation, would not think of feparating from him on that occafion, or requiring a fatisfying account of his belief as a neceffary qualification for an ecclefiaftical office; therefore we who think quite otherwife, and believe that the doctrines of Christianity are of the highest importance, and a denial or contradicting them of the worst consequence to the fouls of men, and that the knowledge and faith of them are glorious privileges of the gospelftate, and diftinguished characters of a Chriftian, must act in contradiction to our own understandings, in order to gratify their inclinations, must be as coldly indifferent as to the interefts of truth, and as little concerned about what our paftors and rulers teach and believe.

That because they are fully fatisfied as to the orthodoxy of one to whofe miniftry they would fubmit, if he own the fcriptures, and exprefs his fentiments in the precife words and phrases to be found there, though he decline giving any other evidence of his foundness, and refuse his affent to articles of faith in any other terms; therefore we who are perfuaded from the fulleft experience, that cunning heretics wreft the fcriptures to their own perdition, and rack them, that they may come up to their notions; that they understand the fe phrafes in a quite contrary manner to what others think the plain fenfe of them, and conceal under that fair varnish the most unfcriptural fchemes, and deteftable errors, and confequently that their ufing these phrafes is no proof what kind of doctrine they embrace, muft, notwithstanding thereof, be contented with the fame falfe and deceitful teft of orthodoxy; and if we act the fame cautious part that every man will do for the smallest fum of money he gives in loan, by fecking fome plainer and lefs doubtful fecurity for a matter of incomparably