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much, unless they were univerfal. Fair enemies will acknowledge what is good among their adversaries: but as that Church is the leaft apt of any fociety we know, to speak good of those who differ from her, fo fhe has not very much to boaft as to others faying much good of her. And if fignal providences have now and then happened, these are fuch things, and they are carried on with fuch a depth, that we must acquiefce in the obfervation of the wifeft men of all ages, that the race is not to the swift, nor Eccl. ix. 1 1 the battle to the firong: but that time and chance happeneth to all things.

And thus it appears, that these pretended notes, instead of giving us a clear thread to lead us up to infallibility and to end all controverfies, do start a great variety of questions, that engage us into a labyrinth, out of which it cannot be eafy for any to extricate themselves. But if we could fee an end of this, then a new fet of questions will come on, when we go to examine all Churches by them: whether the Church of Rome has them all? And if she alone has them fo, that no other Church has them equally with her or beyond her?

"If all these muft be difcuffed before we can settle this question, which is the true infallible Church? a man must ftay long ere he can come to a point in it.

Therefore there can be no other way taken here, but to examine firft, what makes a particular Church: and then, fince the Catholic Church is an united body of all particular Churches, when the true notion of a particular Church is fixed, it will be eafy from that to form a notion of the Catholic Church.

It would feem reasonable by the method of all Creeds, in particular of that called the Apostles' Creed, that we ought first to fettle our faith as to the great points of the Chriftian religion, and from thence go to fettle the notion of a true Church: and that we ought not to begin with the notion of a Church, and from thence go to the doctrine.

The doctrine of Chriftianity must be firft ftated, and from this we are to take our measures of all Churches; and that chiefly with refpect to that doctrine, which every Christian is bound to believe: here a diftinction is to be made between thofe capital and fundamental Articles, without which a man cannot be esteemed a true Chriftian, nor a Church a true Church; and other truths, which being delivered in Scripture, all men are indeed obliged to believe them, yet they are not of that nature that the ignorance of them, or an error in them, can exclude from falvation.

To

ART. To make this fenfible: it is a propofition of another XIX. fort, that Chrift died for finners, than this, that he died at the third or at the fixth hour. And yet if the fecond propofition is exprefsly revealed in Scripture, we are bound to believe it, fince God has faid it, though it is not of the fame nature with the other.

Here a controverfy does naturally arise that wise people are unwilling to meddle with, what Articles are fundamental, and what are not?

The defining of fundamental Articles feems, on the one hand, to deny falvation to fuch as do not receive them all, which men are not willing to do.

And on the other hand, it may feem a leaving men at liberty, as to all other particulars that are not reckoned up among the fundamentals.

But after all, the covenant of grace, the terms of falvation, and the grounds on which we expect it, feem to be things of another nature than all other truths, which, though revealed, are not of themfelves the means or conditions of falvation. Wherefoever true baptifm is, there it seems the effentials of this covenant are preserved: for if we look on baptifm as a fœderal admiffion into Christianity, there can be no baptifm where the effence of Christianity is not preserved. As far then as we believe that any fociety has preferved that, fo far we are bound to receive her baptifm, and no further. For unless we confider baptifm as a fort of a charm, that fuch words joined with a washing with water make one a Christian; which feems to be exprefsly contrary to what St. Peter Pet. iii. fays of it, that it is not the washing away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good confcience towards God that faves us; we muft conclude, that baptifin is a fœderal thing, in which after that the fponfions are made, the feal of regeneration is added.

From hence it will follow, that all who have a true bap tifm, that makes men believers and Chriftians, muft alfo have the true faith as to the effentials of Christianity; the fundamentals of Christianity feem to be all that is neceffary to make baptifm true and valid. And upon this a diftinction is to be made, that will difcover and destroy a fophifm that is often used on this occafion. A true Church is, in one fenfe, a fociety that preferves the effentials and fundamentals of Chriftianity: in another fenfe it ftands for a fociety, all whofe doctrines are true, that has corrupted no part of this religion, nor mixed any errors with it. A true man is one who has a foul and a body, that are the effential conftituents of a man: whereas,

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in another sense, a man of fincerity and candour is called a ART. true man. Truth in the one fenfe imports the effential conftitution, and in the other it imports only a quality that is accidental to it. So when we acknowledge that any fociety is a true Church, we ought to be supposed to mean no other, than that the covenant of grace in its effential constituent parts is preferved entire in that body; and not that it is true in all its doctrines and decifions.

The fecond thing to be confidered in a Church is, their affociation together in the use of the facraments. For thefe are given by Chrift to the fociety, as the rites and badges of that body. That which makes particular men believers, is their receiving the fundamentals of Christianity; fo that which conftitutes the body of the Church, is the profeffion of that faith, and the use of thofe facraments, which are the rites and diftinctions of those who profess it.

In this likewise a distinction is to be made between what is effential to a facrament, and what is the exact obfervance of it according to the inftitution. Additions to the facraments do not annul them, though they corrupt them with that adulterate mixture. Therefore where the fponfions are made, and a washing with water is used with the words of Chrift, there we own that there is a true baptifm: though there may be a large addition of other rites, which we reject as fuperftitious, though we do not pretend that they null the baptifm. But if any part of the inftitution is cut off, there we do not own the facrament to be true: because it being an inftitution of Christ's, it can no more be esteemed a true facrament, than as it retains all that, which by the inftitution appears to be the main and effential part of the action.

Upon this account it is, that fince Chrift appointed bread and wine for his other facrament, and that he not only bleffed both, but diftributed both, with words appropriated to each kind, we do not efteem that to be a true facrament, in which either the one or the other of thefe kinds is withdrawn,

But in the next place, there may be many things neceffary in the way of precept and order, both with relation to the facraments, and to the other public acts of worship, in which though additions or defects are erroneous and faulty, yet they do not annul the facraments.

We think none ought to baptize but men dedicated to the fervice of God, and ordained according to that conftitution that was fettled in the Church by the Apostles; and yet baptifm by laics, or by women, fuch as is moft commonly practifed in the Roman Church, is not esteemed

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ART. null by us, nor is it repeated: because we make a difference between what is effential to a facrament, and what is requifite in the regular way of ufing it.

None can deny this among us, but those who will queftion the whole Chriftianity of the Roman Church, where the midwives do generally baptize: but if this invalidates the baptifm, then we muft queftion all that is done among them: perfons fo baptized, if their baptism is void, are neither truly ordained, nor capable of any other act of Church-communion. Therefore men's being in orders, or their being duly ordained, is not necessary to the effence of the facrament of baptifm, but only to the regularity of adminiftering it: and fo the want of it does not void it, but does only prove fuch men to be under fome defects and diforder in their conftitution.

. Thus I have laid down those diftinctions that will guide us in the right understanding of this Article. If we believe that any fociety retains the fundamentals of Christianity, we do from that conclude it to be a true Church, to have a true baptifm, and the members of it to be capable of falvation. But we are not upon that bound to affociate ourfelves to their communion: for if they have the addition of falfe doctrines, or any unlawful parts of worship among them, we are not bound to join in that which we are perfuaded is error, idolatry, or fuperftition.

If the facraments that Chrift has appointed are obferved and miniftered by any Church as to the main of them, according to his inftitution, we are to own thofe for valid actions: but we are not for that bound to join in communion with them, if they have adulterated these with many mixtures and additions.

Thus a plain difference is made between our owning that a Church may retain the fundamentals of Christianity, a true baptifm, and true orders, which are a confequent upon the former, and our joining with that Church in fuch acts as we think are fo far vitiated, that they become unlawful to us to do them. Pursuant to this, we do neither repeat the baptifm, nor the ordinations of the Church of Rome: we acknowledge that our forefathers were both baptized and ordained in that communion : and we derive our prefent Chriftianity or baptifm, and our orders from thence: yet we think that there were fo many unlawful actions, even in those rituals, befides the other corruptions of their worship, that we cannot join in fuch any more.

The being baptized in a Church does not tie a man to

every thing in that Church; it only ties him to the ART. covenant of Grace. The ftipulations which are made in XIX. baptifm, as well as in ordination, do only bind a man to the Chriftian faith, or to the faithful difpenfing of that Gofpel, and of thofe facraments, of which he is made a minifter: fo he who, being convinced of the errors and corruptions of a Church, departs from them, and goes on in the purity of the Chriftian religion, does purlue the true effect both of his baptifm, and of his ordination vows. For these are to be confidered as ties upon him only to God and Chrift, and not to adhere to the other dictates of that body, in which he had his birth, baptifm, and ordination.

The great objection against all this is, that it fets up a private judgment, it gives particular perfons a right of judging Churches: whereas the natural order is, that private perfons' ought to be fubject and obedient to the Church.

This muft needs feed pride and curiofity, it must break all order, and caft all things loofe, if every fingle man, according to his reading and presumption, will judge of Churches and Communions.

On this head it is very eafy to employ a great deal of popular eloquence, to decry private men's examining of Scriptures, and forming their judgments of things out of them, and not fubmitting all to the judgment of the Church. But how abfurd foever this may feem, all parties do acknowledge that it must be done.

Thofe of the Church of Rome do teach, that a man born in the Greek Church, or among us, is bound to lay down his error, and his communion too, and to come over to them; and yet they allow our baptifm, as well as they do the ordinations of the Greek Church.

Thus they allow private men to judge, and that in fo great a point, as what Church and what Communion ought to be chofen or forfaken. And it is certain, that to judge of Churches and Communions is a thing of that intricacy, that if private judgment is allowed here, there is no reason to deny it its full scope as to all other matters.

God has given us rational faculties to guide and direct us; and we must make the most of these that we can : we muft judge with our own reasons, as well as fee with our own eyes : neither can we, or ought we to resign up our understandings to any others, unlefs we are convinced that God has impofed this upon us, by his making them infallible, fo that we are fecured from error if we follow them.

All