which we appear to differ. If I know myself, I can with truth fay with HOOKER, that " I have no joy in striving, I have not been nuzzled or trained up in it. I would to GOD that the purport of CHRIST's prayer for his difciples-that they might remain undivided-might be realifed throughout Chriften, dom." With this fentiment ftrongly impreffed on my mind, I feel a fatisfaction, after having travelled over many pages in which we appear to differ, to find one page (140) in which I perfectly concur with "that this is a critical juncture, in which the clergy should do every thing in their power to stop that foaming torrent of irreligion, profaneness, and contempt of all order, good government, and fubordination, which has for fome time been coming in upon us like a flood; and I am certain they cannot do this more effectually than by diligently exerting themselves in the restoration of those pure principles, by which the Reformation was happily effected among us."

you;

You will give me leave only, as one of the clergy, to remind you, Sir, of what, it is prefumed, has been proved in a former letter, that the doctrine of abfolute unconditional election and juftification of certain individuals, independent of the conduct of the party, VOL. II

S

was not the doctrine of the Reformation; and at the fame time to fuggest to your serious confideration, whether fuch a doctrine, with the confequences which have more or less been drawn at all times from it, is fo well calculated to produce the defired effect, as that which the church of England teaches; when she gives her members to understand, that repentance, faith, and obedience, through Divine grace, are the terms or conditions upon which they may look for falvation unto CHRIST; who "being made perfect became (the Apostle tells us) the author of eternal falvation unto all them that obey him." Heb. v. 9.

of

Having, I perfuade myself, replied to every part your letter which relates to the general fubject before me, what applies perfonally to myself in it may be paffed over unnoticed, as not affecting the main argument, with which alone the reader is concerned. Taking leave therefore to remind you, that " He that judgeth me is the LORD,"

I have the honour to be,

&c. &c.

LETTER VI.

SIR,

I Never enter upon a fresh letter, without lamenting

none.

the disagreeable neceffity of undertaking the defence of a book, which, if read in the fame spirit with which it was written, would, I flatter myself, require When a man's conduct is viewed through a wrong medium, it rarely happens that the judgment formed of him is correct. A prejudiced judgment, like a jaundiced eye, gives a falfe colour to the object before it, at the fame time, perhaps, that the judging party is himself perfectly infenfible of the effect.

An author, more especially fhould he be a minifter of CHRIST, and writing in thefe days of licentious opinion upon church matters, ought not however to be disappointed, fhould not every reader give him that credit, to which, from the fincerity of his intention, he is entitled.

I have been led into the foregoing train of thought by the observation of the heavy sentence which you have made me pass upon those Christians who separate from the church. Still it affords me no inconfiderable fatisfaction to think, that the book which you fuppofe to contain that fentence has been read by many men of understanding and judgment, with whofe opinion any author might be flattered, to whom fuch an idea has never presented itself. Unless, therefore, the uncharitable idea can be fairly drawn from my words, taken in a plain and unperverted sense, I have a right to plead that rule of candour under which you shelter yourself, according to which all conclufions drawn for an author which he does not acknowledge, are not to be answered for by him, but by the party who draws them.

Had you been difpofed to give the author of "The Guide to the Church" credit for that charity towards his brethren who differ from him in religious matters which he feels, more paffages are to be found in his book to justify fuch a conclufion in his favour, than are to be found to fupport the one you have thought proper to draw from him. Give me leave, Sir, to point out a few fuch paffages, which, in an apparent

hafty zeal for the caufe you efpouse, seem to have escaped your observation.

In page 421 you find me fpeaking thus ftrongly, and I prefume you will allow charitably, upon the fubject of Separation from the Church. "The minister of the church, however, who conftantly prays against schism, should in confequence think it his duty to prevent Christians, as far as may be, from falling into fo dangerous a fin; and whilst he remembers of what fpirit a Christian ought to be, the means made ufe of by him for the purpose will be no other than what a Christian ought to employ. Without pronouncing fentence therefore upon or disturbing those who are without the church, his object will be to preserve those that ftill remain in it," &c. In page 46 you find me fpeaking the fame charitable language. "Cuftom has indeed fo far reconciled us to the divifions that have taken place among Christians, that they are no longer feen in the light in which they were seen in the primitive days of the church; whilft charity, forbidding us to speak harfhly of the spiritual condition of our brethren, has in a manner tended to efface the fin of fchifm from our minds. But though we prefume to judge no man, leaving all judgment to that Being who is alone qualified to make allowance