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by baptism, and cannot be by Scripture reputed and esteemed so without it; which farther appears from Rom. vi. 5, where men by baptism are said to be "planted" into the likeness of his death; and Col. ii. 12, we are said to be "buried with him" by baptism. All which, together with the consent of all Christians (some few in these later times excepted,) do prove that baptism is necessary to the initiating persons into the Church of Christ.

(3.) Holiness of life is essential to church-communion, because it seems to be the reason why Christ founded a church in the world, viz. that men might thereby be watched over, and kept from falling; and that if any be overtaken with a fault, he that is spiritual might restore him, that by this means men and women might be preserved without blame to the coming of Christ; and the grace of God teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly and uprightly in this present evil world, Tit. ii. 11, 12. "And let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity," 2 Tim. ii. 19.1 And James tells us (speaking of the Christian religion,) that "pure religion and undefiled before God, is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world," James i. 27. From all which (together with many more texts that might be produced) it appears that an unholy and profane life is inconsistent with Christian religion and society; and that holiness is essential to salvation and church-communion. So that these three things, faith, baptism, and a holy life, as I said before, all churches must agree and unite in, as those things, which, when wanting, will destroy their being. And let not any think, that when I say, believing the Son of God died for the sins of men is essential to salvation and churchcommunion, that I hereby would exclude all other articles of the Christian creed as not necessary; as the belief of the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment, &c., which, for want of time, Lomit to speak particularly to, and the rather, because I understand this great article of believing the Son of God died for the sins of men is comprehensive of all others, and is

that from whence all other articles may easily be inferred.

And here I would not be mistaken, as though I held there was nothing else for Christians to practise, when I say this is all that is requisite to churchcommunion; for I very well know, that Christ requires many other things of us, after we are members of his body, which, if we knowingly or maliciously refuse, may be the cause, not only of excommunication, but dammation. But yet these are such things as relate to the well-being and not to the being of churches; as laying on of hands in the primitive times upon believers, by which they did receive the gifts of the Spirit. This, I say, was for the increase and edifying of the body, and not that thereby they might become of the body of Christ, for that they were before. And do not think that I believe laying on of hands was no apostolical institution, because I say men are not thereby made members of Christ's body, or because I say that it is not essential to church-communion. Why should I be thought to be against a fire in the chimney, because I say it must not be in the thatch of the house? Consider, then, how pernicious a thing it is to make every doctrine (though true) the bond of communion; that is that which destroys unity, and by this rule all men must be perfect before they can be in peace for do we not see daily, that as soon as men come to a clearer understanding of the mind of God (to say the best of what they hold), that presently all men are excommunicable, if not damnable, that do not agree with them. Do not some believe and see that to be pride and convetousness, which others do not, because (it may be) they have more narrowly and diligently searched into their duty of these things than others have? What then? Must all men that have not so large acquaintance of their duty herein be excommunicated? Indeed it were to be wished that more moderation in apparel and secular concernments were found among churches: but God forbid, that if they should come short herein, that we should say, as one lately said, that he could not communicate with such a people, because they were proud and superfluous in their apparel.

Let me appeal to such, and demand

of them, if there was not a time, since they believed and were baptized, wherein they did not believe laying on of hands a duty? And did they not then believe, and do they not still believe, they were members of the body of Christ? And was not there a time when you did not so well understand the nature and extent of pride and covetousness as now you do? And did you not then believe, and do you not still believe, that you were true members of Christ, though less perfect? Why then should you not judge of those that differ from you herein, as you judged of yourselves when you were as they now are? How needful then is it for Christians to distinguish (if ever they would be at peace and unity) between those truths which are essential to church-communion, and those that are not ?

3. Unity and peace consists in all as with one shoulder practising and putting în execution the things we do know; Phil. iii. 16. "Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, and mind the same thing.' How sad is it to see our zeal consume us and our precious time in things doubtful and disputable, while we are not concerned nor affected with the practice of those indisputable things we all agree in! We all know charity to be the great command, and yet how few agree to practise it? We all know they that labour in the word and doctrine are worthy of double honour; and that God hath ordained, that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. These duties, however others have cavilled at them, I know you agree in them, and are persuaded of your duty therein: but where is your zeal to practise? O how well would it be with churches, if they were but half as zealous for the great, and plain, and indisputable things, and the more chargeable and costly things of religion, as they are for things doubtful or less necessary, or for things that are no charge to them, and cost them nothing but the breath of contention, though that may be too great a price for the small things they may purchase with it!

But further, do we not all agree, that men that preach the gospel should do it like workmen that need not be ashamed? and yet how little is this considered by many preachers, who

never consider before they speak of what they say, or whereof they affirm! How few give themselves to study that they may be approved! How few meditate and give themselves to these things, that their profiting may appear to all!

For the Lord's sake, let us unite to practise those things we know; and if we would have more talents, let us all agree to improve those we have.

See the spirit that was among the primitive professors, that knowing and believing how much it concerned them in the propagating of Christianity, to show forth love to one another (that so all might know them to be Christ's disciples,) rather than there should be any complainings among them, they sold all they had. O how zealous were these to practise, and as with one shoulder to do that that was upon their hearts for God! I might further add, how often have we agreed in our judgment? and hath it not been upon our hearts, that this and the other thing is good to be done, to enlighten the dark world, and to repair the breaches of churches, and to raise up those churches that now lie gasping, and among whom the soul of religion is expiring? But what do we more than talk of them? Do not most decline these things, when they either call for their purses or their persons to help in this and such-like works as these? Let us then, in what we know, unite, that we may put it in practice, remembering, that if we know these things, we shall be happy if we do them.

4. This unity and peace consists in our joining and agreeing to pray for, and to press after, those truths we do not know. The disciples in the primitive times were conscious of their imperfections, and therefore they with one accord continued in prayer and supplications. If we were more in the sense of our ignorance and imperfections, we should carry it better towards those that differ from us: then we should abound more in the spirit of meekness and forbearance, that thereby we might bring others (or be brought by others) to the knowledge of the truth: this would make us go to God, and say with Elihu, Job xxxiv. 32, "That which we know not, teach thou us." Brethren, did we but all agree that we erring in many things, we should soon Q

were

agree to go to God, and pray for more wisdom and revelation of his mind and will concerning us.

But here is our misery, that we no sooner receive anything for truth, but we presently ascend the chair of infallibility with it, as though in this we could not err: hence it is we are impatient of contradiction, and become uncharitable to those that are not of the same mind; but now a consciousness that we may mistake, or that if my brother err in one thing, I may err in another; this will unite us in affection, and engage us to press after perfection, according to that of the apostle, Phil. iii. 13-15, 66 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." O then that we could but unite and agree to go to God for one another, in confidence that he will teach us; and that if any one of us want wisdom (as who of us does not,) we might agree to ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth no man! Let us, like those people spoken of in the 2nd of Isaiah, say one to another, "Come, let us go to the Lord, for he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths."

5. This unity and peace mainly consists in unity of love and affection: this is the great and indispensable duty of all Christians; by this they are declared Christ's disciples. And hence it is, that love is called "the great commandment," "the old commandment," and "the new commandment ;" that which was commanded in the beginning, and will remain to the end, yea, and after the end. 1 Cor. xiii. 8, Charity never faileth; but whether there be tongues, they shall cease; or whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." And ver. 13, "And now abideth faith, hope, charity; but the greatest of these is charity." And Col. iii. 14, "Above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness;" because charity is the end of the commandment, 1 Tim. i. 5. Charity is therefore called "the royal

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law;" as though it had a superintendency over other laws, and doubtless is a law to which other laws must give place, when they come in competition with it; "above all things, therefore, have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity shall cover the multitude of sins; 1 Pet. iv. 8. Let us therefore live in unity and peace, and the God of love and peace will be with us.

That you may do so, let me remind you (in the words of a learned man,) that the unity of the church is a unity of love and affection, and not a bare uniformity of practice and opinion. (To be continued.)

TRY AGAIN.

Timour was a great Tartar conqueror. In early life he was forced to take shelter from his enemies in a ruined building, where he sat alone for many hours. Wishing to divert his mind from so wretched a condition, he fixed his eyes on an ant that was carrying a grain of corn larger than itself up a high wall. Sixty-nine times did the grain fall to the ground, but the insect perservered, and the seventieth time it succeeded! - This sight gave Timour courage at the moment, and he never forgot the lesson.

BUNYAN'S DYING SAYINGS.

THE LOVE OF THE WORLD.

Nothing more hinders a soul from coming to Christ than a vain love of the world; and till a soul is freed from it, it can never have a true love for God.

What are the honours and riches of this world, when compared to the glories of a crown of life?

Love not the world, for it is a moth in a Christian's life.

To despise the world is the way to enjoy heaven; and blessed are they who delight to converse with God by prayer.

What folly can be greater than to labour for the meat that perisheth, and neglect the food of eternal life?

God or the world must be neglected at parting time, for then is the time of trial.

To seek yourself in this life is to be lost; and to be humble is to be exalted.

The epicure that delighteth in the dainties of this world, little thinketh that those very creatures will one day witness against him.

THE BROKEN HEART.

There is no state or quality of the human mind, in this world, so desirable as what the Scripture calls the broken heart. David the greatest of Israel's kings, had the ability to offer the most costly sacrifices. But he had the power to offer none else so acceptable as this. He says-Thou desirest not sacrifices, else would I give it; the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.

It is important then, that we form the true idea of a broken heart. And one essential part of it is, that of a heart stripped of its self-flatteries and false excuses for sin. That which causes the heart to break, first takes away the coverings and the screens, and makes it bare to the power of the word of God, which, as the fire and the hammer, breaks the rock in pieces. Some are deluding themselves in the thought, that there is no world to come, and no meeting with God in judgment; or that there is no God, or that death is far off, or that they have righteousness enough to balance their sins, or that their orthodoxy will save them. Now these, and whatever other delusions serve to stop the mouth of conscience, must be removed before the heart can be broken in a sense of sin.

The breaking of the heart also implies, the breaking up of the dream of selfrighteousness. We may conceive that David, in the decline of his piety, fell back upon a sense of his importance, as a favorite of heaven, his services rendered, and his trials endured. But Nathan, a messenger of God, arraigned him in the light of the eternal law. The imposing fabric of his self-righteousness dissolved, and left him naked, without a screen, under the rolling thunders of a broken law. Now, like a lost sinner he pleads for mercy only, and confesses the justice of his condemnation.

In like

manner must every sinner part with all conceits of his own righteousness; must see the justice and goodness of the law that condemns him to eternal burnings; must see his guilt so great; his sins of heart and life so exceedingly sinful, so without excuse, so hateful and ruinous, that the very goodness of God binds him to attach to them such a fearful condemnation. This brings him where the publican stood, smiting upon his

breast and saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

A broken heart has furthermore surrended its delusive hopes of salvation. The whole treatment of inquiries for salvation consists in following them up, and taking away one after another their false hopes, till they come utterly to despair of themselves, and fall over upon the mere mercy of God, as their only ground of hope. The unrepenting heart feels strong in the hope, that its own righteousness will avail, as an offset for its sins; that the fervency of its prayers, the earnestness of its strivings, will some way fasten upon itself the renewing power; or in the hope that a more convenient season will come, or that some remarkable providences will bear him into the kingdom of God without effort or care. But the broken heart has been driven from all such grounds of false strength, and has ceased to rely upon anything but the mercy of God in Christ.

It is further a heart broken of its pride Pride, the beginning of all sin, binds and confirms the hardness of heart. Submission to God is opposed by pride. Every truth of the gospel comes athwart our pride. That we shall receive salvation as a mere gift, confess our guilt to be great enough to demand such suffering of Christ, on our behalf, that we shall take the place of a beggar before God, acknowledge that we deserve the worst at his hands, that we are impure and odius in the sight of all holy ones are too degrading terms for the proud unsanctified nature of man. When one comes to admit all the humiliating facts in his case, his fabric of pride is dissolved; his heart is broken; he submits. In the place of his own will, before supreme, the will of God guides his purposes. He has ceased to be himself the sovereign, and taken Christ for his master; he has come under a yoke. And what was a cross before, is now a pleasant duty. He has got such views of the excellent greatness and glory of God, and of the littleness and baseness of himself, that he is desirous as it were to shrink into nothing before the Eternal All.

And this disposition perfected, is one chief ingredient of the bliss of heavenwhich much consists in a confession, repeated every moment, that we are but

a bubble, raised from nothing, by the Creator's breath, and every moment reducible to nothing again, at his will. And this feeling ever generates a glow of delight in the humble soul, and grates upon the mind of the proud. A soul naturalized to humiliation and self-abasement, and brought to glory, out of a scene of self-denial, and through an habitual feeling of dependance, for every moment's breath, and every glimpse of light, and every reviving influence-how will it delight to vanish, before the Lord, and shrink to a point before the divine glory! Self gives place, and God takes the throne. And here is the perfection of that which begins in a broken heart.

A broken heart is further, the heart's rebellion crushed. The carnal mind is enmity against God-in itself rebellion, or a refusal of all obedience to the Divine law. It implies the whole heart, with all its affections, feelings, desires, and purposes, immovably set against what God requires. To such a requirement as that, the heart shall be given to God in obedience and love, and cease to make the gratification and advancement of self the great law and purpose of life, the unrenewed man is entirely opposed. His whole moral nature rebels. Here centers the whole conflict. The gospel enters a demand for the cessation of hostilities, and for the heart's surrender. All the elements of depraved affection resist, and all the powers of the mind join, the rebellion. The reason, perverted, pleads against submission. Conscience, misguided, hardens itself against it. The force of habit binds the active powers to a rebellious course. Thus the heart remains in it, till the stronger than the strong man armed forces the citadel by his gracious power, and displaces rebellion by joyful submission.

A broken heart is the opposite of a hard heart. That heart is hard that is insensible to the moving themes of the Gospel; such as its lost and ruined condition, its guilt and condemnationthe love and sacrifice of Christ the eternal judgment and eternal retributions before us. That heart is hard that resists the Holy Ghost, that in all is contact with the means of grace feels no movings of the Spirit; that can listen to the faithful preaching of the Gospel, with a conscience inactive, with no fears alarmed,

with no affections moved. broken heart cannot do.

This the

But there may be a kind of sensibility to Divine truth, a mind impressed of guilt and danger by causes acting temporarily upon the heart, without imparting to it any permanent character. A true broken heart, once pulverized, never again returns to the hardness of a stone. While the other, softened for a time by the fire and the hammer, becomes still more hard. The two are distinguished also by the things in view or which they are sensitive. The merely awakened sinner may take as powerful impression of those Gospel motives which appeal to self love, or animal passion, as the other, while he is wholly unmoved by inducements to holy action. Those motives which awaken holy affections in the contrite heart, have no power upon him.

Such is the contrite heart. Now no tice what a value is put upon it, above the most costly sacrifices which Israel's richest king could offer. Yea, God overlooks heaven and earth, in order to look with favour upon a broken heart. We are told that God has a heaven and earth of his own making, and temples of man's making, and yet passes them all, to dwell

in the contrite heart.

Thus uniting heaven and earth, the contrite heart is at once his footstool and his throne. His Spirit traversing the abodes of men, passes by the rich, the great, the powerful, the learnedpasses equally the door of the palace and the college, to fix his residence in the contrite heart. Thus the Lord of the highest heavens reigns in the lowest hearts.

ONLY ONCE.

Some parents esteem it to be the best policy to let their children go to a theatre or circus ONLY ONCE, to gratify their curiosity or to get rid of their importunity. Why so? If it is right to visit such places at all, why not let them go frequently but if wrong, why countenance them in sinning ONLY ONCE ? Why not, on the same policy permit them to gratify themselves once in other sins? Let them get drunk or visit a gambling-house ONLY ONCE, that they may have a personal experience in the matter. We have sometimes

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