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I WILL here add the concluding paffage of the chapter on faith, which is worthy the ferious confideration of all thofe, who talk fo vainly. and boast so confidently of their salvation. "Truthe it is, that in the facramentes instituted by Christ, we may conftantly beleve the workes of God in them to our prefente comforte, and application of his grace and favour, with affuraunce alfo, that he will not fayle us, if we falle not from hym. Wherefore fo contynuinge in the state of grace with hym, we may beleve undoubtedly to be faved. But for as moche as oure owne frayltie and noughtyneffe ought ever to be feared in us, it is therefore expediente for us to lyue in contynuall watche, and contynuall fyght with our ennemyes, the Dyuell, the fleshe, and the worlde, and not to prefume to moche of oure perfeveraunce & contynuance in the state of grace, whiche on our behalfe is uncertayne and unstable. For although Goddis promyfes made in Chrift be immutable, yet he maketh them not to us, but with condition, fo that his promyse standinge, we may yet fayle of the pro-. myfe, bycause we kepe not our promyfe. And. therefore yf we affuredly reckon upon the state, of our felicitie, as grounded upon Goddis promyfe, and do not therewith remembre, that no man fhal be crowned, onleffe he lawfully fyght, we shall triumphe before the vyctorye, and fo loke in vayne

See" a neceffary doctrine and erudition for any Chriften Man." Page 3.

for

for that, whiche is not otherwife promised, but under a condition. And this every chriften man muft affuredlye beleve." We must therefore a prove our own felves, and examine into our own lives and converfations, and if, on an impartial enquiry, our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God. You, fir, I fuppofe, are poffeffed, or imagine yourself poffeffed, of this affurance, and are confident that you are one of the elect people of God, one of his children, his sheep

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But this is not the bleating of fheep, which we hear. Let me afk you feriously, whether, to throw out perfonal abufe, to rip up private characters, to revive old ftories, many of them falfe, all of them mifrepresented, of fuppofed abuses and want of difcipline, thirty or forty years ago; to use bitter and opprobrious language, to call those who differ from you a peftilent, feditious fect, holding pride-foothing doctrines, doctrines of devils; f dangerous heretics, and fcifmatics, incendiaries in the Church; to caft general reflections on the most respectable members of the University, where there are many great dignified divines who are feen napping at the University Church most Sundays throughout the year, and cannot find time to leave the common room, and attend the evening prayers at chapel; and on the Clergy 1 many of whom spend their time in idleness and fenfual

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c P. 6. 19.

6.19.

g P. 71.

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indulgence, and carry on a folemn farce of fubfcribing to articles, which they no more believe than they do mother Goofe's tales. Let me ask you, whether fuch language as this is confiftent with that charity, and meeknefs which is the diftinguishing character of Chrift's difciples. You seem indeed fenfible that you have declared your sentiments too plainly and therefore would vindicate yourself by the example of our blessed Saviour, and Martin Luther. As to Luther, let me defire you to imitate his many good qualities, and not his failings. He has been cenfured as guilty of too great heat and acrimony in some of his expreffions; but when you honoured him with the title of the coURAGIOUS CHAMPION OF THE REFORMATION, you had furely forgotten that he comes under the fame condemnation with us, "of holding the doctrines of free-will, and univerfal redemption, the avowed doctrines of the Church of Rome, compared with which tranfubftantiation is an harmless error" How will you reconcile these inconsistences? But I am very forry you should shelter yourself under the authority of our Bleffed Saviour. When you can fhew that we are all of us "the bitterest enemies of true godliness," or that you have the fame authority, as our Saviour, and the fame knowledge of the heart, then we will give you leave, if you find reason, to call us fcribes, and Pharifees, hypocrites. As you can

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not do this, we must beseech you rather to learn from our bleffed faviour a meeknefs, and lowliness of heart; and to put away from you all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evilfpeaking with all malice.

WHEN you complained fo bitterly of perfecution, and compared the proceedings against these young men to those of the star-chamber, and high commiffion - court, you should have confidered how you could acquit yourself, and your friends, of the fame charge. Who perfecuted Barrett, and others, and would fain have impofed the Lambeth articles upon them? the calvinifts at Cambridge, whose cause you espouse and defend. Who framed the horrible decrees of the fynod of Dort, and deprived the remonftrants of all ECCLESIASTICAL FUNCTIONS, AND ALL OFFICES IN ANY UNIVERSITY: drove the learned Grotius into banishment, and made him fly for his life? Your friends the Calvinifts, whofe proceedings you 'mention with approbation. Who perfecuted, nay, horribly executed the Quakers? The good Calvinists of New England. And may we not add, that the fame spirit of perfecution ftill continues among them; fince they will not fuffer a Bishop of the Church of England to fet foot there, for the difcharge of an office purely fpiritual, and without any pretenfions to temporal jurifdiction? Your c P. 57.

b Eph. iv. 31.

a Matt. xi. 29. d See the first Letter to the Author of the Confeffional P.43.

friend Mr. Whitefield in his letter to the Vice-Chancellor seems willing to encourage this spirit of his Calvinian friends, and invidiously calls the Bishops destined for America, Lords Bishops. Nay a you yourfelf would impose your own sense of the articles on us, and would sentence all those who deny your doctrines to be rejected as heretics, excommunicated, and expelled the University, and you urge the execution of that sentence ipfo fatto in the true fpirit of your admired author Mr. Prynne, with an"Alafs! Quid leges fine moribus vanæ proficiunt?" though indeed you tremble for the confequences; and are afraid our colleges would be in danger of an utter desertion, and an almost general expulfion enfue. What right then have you to complain, were we even to do by you, as you would do by us? We have deprived these men of no preferment, or emolument. Nor fhould we have done thus much, or even enquired what their tenets were with regard to these points, if they had not been charged with other matters, for which they ought to have been removed from a fociety devoted to true religion, and learning; viz. frequenting, and holding conventicles, infufficiency, ignorance, mifbehaviour to their tutor &c.

Grove was

You affert indeed that though Mr. expelled for preaching in a barn, yet " he really never did it, and abfolutely denied it."

Do you

a P. 66.

b P. 17, 18.

mean,

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