THIS maxim has been assented to in all countries, and in all ages; but the grand question has been, WHAT IS TRUTH? Pilate asked it, but waited not for the answer. So far from it, that the fear of man moved him to give sentence against the eternal SON OF GOD, who came into our world on purpose to bear witness unto THE TRUTH. Jews and Gentiles were confederates in this hellish act, and all nations and denominations ever since have been more agreed in opposing the truth, than in any other point: Yet truth prevails still.

That there is one supreme BEING, whose kingdom ruleth over all, is the first and capital article of truth, which no nation upon earth were ever able to erase entirely out of their minds; for no government could ever be establish­ed among themselves, without appeals to HIM for the truth of what was asserted, and to avenge injustice, and the violation of contracts and engagements.

That it is the indispensable duty of every man to love his creator and preserver with all his faculties and powers, and to love his neighbour as himself, is a truth inseparably connected with the other: For while JE­HOVAH remains infinitely and unchangeably good, and we remain his offspring, our obligation to love him can never be disannulled or abated; and his command, to love our neighbours as ourselves, is as immutable as his perfections are.

That all mankind, in their natural condition, are in a state of revolt from this heavenly ruler, is a truth as evident as the other; what need else could there be for [Page 4]these appeals and restraints? The attempts that have often been made against this truth, have always con­firmed it, and have demonstrated the corruption of the authors of those attempts. Nothing can discover a more mean and dishonest disposition, than for a person to steal the property of another, and then to labour to adorn and exalt himself therewith, while he tries hard to sink the credit of the true owner, so as to set self above him: Yet this is the very practice of all those who set up their reason above divine revelation. The writings of the greatest men in Pagan countries are full of the intrigues, adulteries, thefts and murders, of their imaginary deities; which, by God's righteous judgment, and from their natural tendency, have pro­duced like abominations in their worshippers; because they changed the truth of God into a lie. Rom. i. 18—32. And those who were favoured with the oracles of God, and yet did the same thing, thereby brought upon themselves a much greater condemnation than the others did. Rom. ii. 1—24. If so, then what advantage can it be to have those oracles? Answer, much every way: For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? The thought is to be rejected with the utmost abhorrence. Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is writ­ten, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. Rom. iii. 1—4. This is the exact state of the controversy. Men have assum­ed the judgment seat, and have arraigned the sayings of God to their bar. This practice began near the forbid­den tree, Gen. iii. 1—6; and from that day to this men have been ever learning, and yet, of themselves, were never able to come to the knowledge of the truth; and that because the judge is the criminal, who cannot live in that way any longer than he is kept in darkness; [Page 5]for whenever the authority of truth takes place in his conscience, sin revives, and he dies; and his only way of relief is by faith in the perfect obedience and atoning sacrifice of our great surety, who offered himself without spot to God. Rom. vii. 1—12, Heb. ix 14, and x. 1—14. Unassisted reason could never go any farther in this respect, than to move men to imbrue their hands in the blood of their own children, by offering the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul: Yet many are now guilty of stealing a finer dress for human nature, from the oracles of God, and then of improving the same against the authority of the book they took it from; so that instead of saying, let God be true, but every man a liar; their argument is, that every man is not a liar, therefore in several points God does not speak the truth! And it is a common thing for these reasoners, to claim a power for themselves which they deny to JEHOVAH; and daily to practise that, under his name, which, with reverence be it spoken, was never within HIS POWER to do! Num. xxiii. 19, John x. 35, 2d Tim. ii. 13, Heb. vi. 18.

They often insist upon it, that men cannot deserve praise for doing right, nor blame for doing wrong, un­less they have power within themselves to act with mo­tive or against motive, as they please. If their volunta­ry actions are not determined by what is within them, they say they are not free. Yet the same men are posi­tive, that God's choice of some to salvation, while he leaves the rest to peris;h in their sins, must be determined by what he sees in them, and not in himself; or else, say they, he would be a respecter of persons. Thus self-determination is claimed for man, but is denied to God; directly in the face of Christ, and the inspired apostle. Matt. xi. 26, Rom. xi. 33—36. The evi­dent cause of this horrid impiety, is a secret conceit, [Page 6]that there is a good to be obtained which is better than truth, and for which truth may be dispensed with, and contradicted; therefore, though it is impossible for God to lie, or to deny himself, yet men often do it, in hopes of obtaining that imaginary good. Indeed Christ calls us to deny ourselves, and to take-up our cross dai­ly; but it is only that corrupt and delusive self, which is set up against the revealed will of God. He requires us daily to cross our lusts, and self-righteous conceits; while Satan tempts us to cross the truth, and the light of our own consciences; and can any rational soul hesi­tate a minute upon which of them is to be regarded!

That all men have a power within them to act in every case as then seems best to them, is a truth as fully given into by the advocates for divine sovereignty, as by any free-willer on earth. Perhaps Dr. Owen opened and defended the great doctrines of sovereign grace, as well as any man did in the last century; and he says, ‘to suppose that in all things of spiritual and eternal concernment, men are not determined and acted eve­ry one by his own judgment, is an imagination of men who think but little of what they are, or do, or say, or write. Even those who shut their eyes against the light, and follow in the herd,, resolving not to en­quire into any of these things, do it because they judge it best for them so to do ^*.’ And the greatest writer against a self-determining power in man, that our age has seen, says, ‘liberty is the power, opportunity or advantage, that any one has to do as he pleases, or to conduct in any respect according to his pleasure.’ And says he, ‘it is demonstrable, and I think has been demonstrated, that no necessity of men's volitions that I maintain is inconsistent with this liberty. ^‖.’ [Page 7]With which I fully concur; for we can as easily put an end to our existence, as we can keep from choosing what went present view or imagine to be best. Pharaoh did so in all his attempts to hold Israel in bondage; and so he and his people did, when they were glad to let Is­rael depart, with rich treasures: And the Lord's design therein was, that they might observe HIS statutes, and keep HIS laws. Psalm cv. 37—45. Yet how unwilling are many, even in this land of gospel light, to yield their souls to this authority? Being called by our churches to act as their agent in this great affair, I have had cause to know more of the aversion of many thereto, than most others have; of which take the following plain account.

When a new plan of government was formed for the Massachusetts State, which took in their old taxing laws for religious teachers, I was called to meet our com­mittee at Boston upon it, in February, 1778. And find­ing that said plan was to be established or set aside by our next General Court, we drew up a petition, directed to them, that it might be fixed, ‘as a fundamental principle of our constitution, that religious ministers shall be supported only by Christ's authority, and not at all by assessment and secular force.’ This was signed by many, in various parts of the State, which alarmed the ministers who were supported by tax and compulsion; and one of them, who was called to deli­ver the election sermon to that Assembly, said therein, ‘the fear and reverence of God, and the terrors or eternity, are the most powerful restraints upon the minds of men.—Let the restraints of religion once be broken down, as they infallibly would be by leav­ing the subject of public worship to the humours of the multitude, and we might well defy all human wisdom and power to support and preserve order and [Page 8]government in the State ^*.’ And a gentleman who had been one of our legislators, hearing that some of his townsmen were going to be baptized, on the 26th of June following, went at the head of a large mob, and violently interrupted their worship upon their own lands; for which breach of the public peace he was so far from receiving any punishment, that he was one of the Con­vention that formed our present plan of government, and is a member of the first legislature which has acted thereon. In September, 1778, a minister of the first church in Boston, hearing of the defeat of our army on Rhode-Island, delivered a lecture before many of our rulers, from the seventh of Joshua, wherein he tried hard to persuade them, that one of the accursed things which caused that defeat, was because a new law had not been made and enforced, to help ministers about their salaries. This sermon being printed, a writer ap­peared in Mr. Gill's paper of October 8, with a high commendation of it, and declaring that the representa­tion made therein, of the case of ministers, ‘was with that noble plainness and fidelity which are among the distinguishing characteristics of that gentleman. But (says he) although the General Assembly has now been sitting for some time, no motion (as I can learn) has as yet been made, or is likely to be made, for this purpose—Are the ^† clergy then to submit to this treatment? Are they to remain subjected to injustice and fraud!’ Now observe how God takes the wise in their own craftiness. Ten years before, the same minister saw such danger of having his party all taxed to bishops, that he said, ‘we are in principle against [Page 9]all civil establishments in religion. It does not appear to us, that God has entrusted the State with a right to make religious establishments.—Hath the State of England been distinguished by heaven by any pecu­liar grant, beyond the State in other countries? If it has, let the grant be produced. If it has not, all States have, in common, the same authority, in esta­blishments conformable to their own sentiments in re­ligion; what can the consequence be, but infinite da­mage to the cause of God and true religion! and such in fact has been the consequence of these establish­ments in all ages, and in all places ^‡.’ These, and other words of his, I, as agent for our churches, pub­lished in Mr. Willis's paper, the very day that the above complaint against our legislature was published by Mr-Gill, in the same street, in Boston; though at that time I knew nothing of the publication of said sermon. A few days after I published the unanimous vote of our churches, wherein they say, ‘we solemnly declare for ourselves, and believe we safely may for the whole, 120 Baptist churches in New-England, that we want nothing more in this respect, than to have what the before-named Dr. Chauncy says is their principle, concerning religious liberty, established in fact, and reduced to practice.’ And there has never been the least degree of proof advanced since, to discover any want, either of consistency, or of sincerity, in this declaration, though the united craft and rage of learned teachers and lawyers have been vented against us there­for, to an amazing degree. Crafty and bitter pieces, in ten different news-papers, have since been published against me by name, by writers who have kept their own [Page 10]names concealed Boston Gazette of Nov. 2, and Dec. 28, 1778, Jan. 18, Feb. 1, and March 8, 1779. Chronicle of Feb. 10, and Ledger of May 22, 1780. Providence Gazette, April 15, 1780. Boston Gazette. Feb. 5, and March 5, 1781.. Whether this is most like to the heathen savages, or to the bloody court of INQUISITION, let the public judge.

At length a minister of Rowley has come out, and pub­lished an address, directed to the learned pastor of the first Baptist church in Boston ^‡, and ‘to the other regular Bap­tist ministers in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations;’ wherein he says of our churches in general, "do you, gen­tlemen, know this people in their several dispersions thro' the country, what manner of men they are? I am so ac­quainted with some of them, and am so well informed of many more, that I can tell you, there are only a few, a very few of them, that appear to be serious Christians. The most of them are first Separatists from the churches in which they were educated, and that uncharitably and ir­religiously, and not as Baptists, and then turn out Baptists, to save themselves from paying any thing to the support of the gospel where they live. They forsake our churches and parishes in such a manner, as to shew they pay no regard to church-covenants, or the most solemn contracts for the support of a pastor that has been set over them, by their own consent and choice.—As for their religion, I have long thought, from much observa­tion, that the most serious part of it is that religion which Mr. Edwards, in his treatise on religious affections, describes as religion that is not connected with salva­tion. And what ministers have most of them, to shew unto them the way of salvation? No pastors to take the [Page 11]oversight of them, but young, illiterate and bold itinerat­ing preachers; such as make a great noise, and often rail stoutly against churches, and their ministers.—These disciples of yours have no church discipline; any body is received as a brother or sister, that turns Baptist, and cries up your party. Besides all this, there are many round the country, that are not Baptists, who yet join these your little churches. That is, they run to hear their preachers; they are advocates for the party, and all the religion they have, they expend with these peo­ple. These, most of them, are among the worst men and women in our towns and plantations: The greatest haters of ministers and churches; such as usually spend the sabbath at home, neglecting the ordinary instituted means of grace.—Alas! the consequence of the preva­lence of this sect! They cause divisions every where. In the State of New-Hampshire, where there are many new towns, infant settlements, if this sect get footing among them, they hinder, and are like to hinder, their settling and supporting learned, pious and orthodox mini­sters. And so the poor inhabitants of those towns must live, who knows how long, without the ministry of the gospel, and of gospel ordinances? You do or you may know all these things. And they being so, let me ask you a serious question or two. 1. Whose cause are you serving, while you seek to promote this sect and party, in opposition to the churches in the land?—2. If you encourage, if you countenance and connive at such preachers as some among your people are, are you in no danger of being partakers of other men's sins, and guilty of the blood of souls?

"Should you ask me what evidence I have of your zeal to promote this sect or party, and of countenancing these unqualified preachers? I answer, beside other things (some of which we have had in print) you have [Page 12]had two grand Conventions (the second of them upon adjournment) within a few months past, at a town in the State of New-Hampshire, to serve and promote this cause. At which Conventions, these illiterate and un­skilful preachers, and delegates from your little church­es around, were members. And one thing I heard of as a part of your business at said Conventions was, to consult what measures you should take to make void in part our new constitution of government; that part of it which respects the public worship of God. And I heard that some of your people then and there declar­ed, that if they could not obtain it, they would help no more in the war.—3. Don't you think, that if it should please God to revive pure religion in this land, answerable to the prayer and hope of some of his ser­vants, this would confound your party-cause, as the clouds are driven before the wind? I am your's, where­in ye are Christ's, JAMES CHANDLER ^§."

Rowley, December 23, 1780.

This paper I received in Boston on February 13; and the same day received a little pamphlet, wherein I and my brethren, in our exercise of discipline, are accused of advancing fast in a way that will soon bring us, if a stop is not put thereto, ‘to outking all kings, outbishop all bishops, and outpope all popes;’ signed by two Baptist brethren ^*. And whether these two parties of accusers do not fulfil the words of the inspired apostle (Acts xx. 29, 30) may be considered. It is a known fact, that a minister of the first church in Boston has, for many years, acted at the head of the [Page 13]teachers who are supported by tax and compulsion, and has written the most to uphold that cause in New-Eng­land, of any man upon earth. And I am greatly mistaken if both he, and these Baptist accusers, have not openly pleaded for the worst error that ever was known in this world; namely, that perfect obedience to the moral law is not the indispensable duty of all the human race. I meddle not with their internal state, any fur­ther than their fruits discover the same; and shall be­gin with said minister in Boston.

After Robert Sandeman, with his satyrical pen, had, in a convincing manner, exposed the corruption of those who imagine, that reconciliation to God can take its rise from any thing good in man, Dr. Chauncy publish­ed a volume of sermons, in which he says, ‘it is said by most Christian writers, that the first man was so placed, under the natural or moral law of God, as that he must work his way to life by perfectly doing all things commanded by it; insomuch that he could not have obtained it, but by persevering obe­dience in every point of duty, without the least failure. But this is said entirely without book. The scripture nowhere insinuates, that he was under such a covenant of works. It suggests, on the contrary, that God, in favour to him, did not put him upon so severe a trial for life. His trial, if we may believe the sacred record of it, was in a single instance, and this not of doing, but of forbearing to do. Gen. ii. 16, 17.—It would be the exact truth, should I say, that the parents of men, while innocent, in common with their posterity since the lapse, could have ob­tained life in no way but that of grace through faith ^§.’ I will do this writer the honor to say, that he has here stated their sentiments with as much fairness and preci­sion [Page 14]as any that I ever saw upon that side of the que­stion. And the difference betwixt his ideas and mine about this matter is chiefly upon the following points.

• 1. He supposes that Adam was to work his way to life, after he was created; but I believe that the image of God, in which he was created, was his life.
• 2. I know that faith in God was as necessary then for the continuance of life, as it is now in Christ for the recovery thereof; but grace, in the gospel sense of the word, means relief to the guilty and miserable, in distinction from works, which innocent man was to have lived by, if he had continued in that state. Debt means the reward that is promised, which becomes due when the condition of it is performed; and that reward may then be claimed by law, whatever difference there is in value betwixt the work and the reward. The angels of light will ever ac­knowledge an infinite difference between their works and the reward they receive therefor; which at the same time is as distinct from free grace to sinners, as heaven is from earth. It destroys the nature, both of grace and works, to confound them together. Rom. xi. 6. God never fails to pay all his debts; and sooner or later he will make all to know his right to give grace and glory to whom he pleaseth, while he justly inflicts endless punishment upon impenitent sinners. How solemn and convincing is that demand, is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good! Matt. xx. 15. He is the fountain of all good; and the root of all error is a conceit that good can be had in some other way, better than in obedience to his revealed will. James i. 13—25.
• 3. This author sup­poses that perfect and persevering obedience, in every point of duty required by the moral law, would have been too severe a trial for life to innocent Adam; which in my view is so contrary to truth, that a turning there­from [Page 15]was his death. The forbidden tree was the test, to try whether or not he would regard God's sovereignty over all, and his property in all the creatures he had made; and by taking and eating of that fruit man rebelled against HEAVEN, and seized upon the earth as his own. And when our Saviour came, the Jews, from the same principle, said, this is the heir, come let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. Matt. xxi. 38. Every wise ruler will lay his plans so as to need as little altera­tion hereafter as may be, and never to be defeated or disappointed in his designs, if he can help it; yet those who firmly hold, and boldly assert, that JEHOVAH'S plan is absolutely perfect in all these respects, so that nothing can be put to it, not any thing taken from it, are often looked upon and treated as the worst of men; and that because men are not willing to fear before HIM. Eccl. iii. 14. Our Saviour was so far from removing or abating this fear, that he greatly enforced it; and when Peter would fondly have prevented his dying for us, he rejected the attempt, with the same detestation as he would have shewn to the devil himself; and also assures us, that the only time for having our debts paid by him, is before we are cast into prison. Matt. v. 17—26, and xvi. 23. Nor can the conceit of those, who deny the endless punishment of such as die in an impenitent state, be true, till rebellion against HEAVEN shall become a finite evil, so that finite doings and sufferings, either in this or another world, can purge it away. Nor, in­deed, till JEHOVAH shall become a servant to perishing worms, so as to go and come at their bidding or call. Job xxi. 14, 15, Isa. xxvii. 11, and xliii. 24, Jer. ii. 27, Acts iv. 12, Dan. xii. 2.

The case of the Baptist accusers, before mentioned, is as follows. On Sept. 8, 1767, a number of our elders and brethren met at Warren, and agreed upon an annual [Page 16]meeting, under the name of the Warren Association; the design whereof they since published in these words, viz. "we are not insensible of the attempts that have been made by ministers, in various ways, to assume a classical power and jurisdiction over the churches; nei­ther are we unaware of the evil and pernicious effects of their obtaining such a power; which therefore we desire we may always watch against. Yet, as it is cer­tain that the churches in the apostolic age did, by mes­sengers and letters, hold a friendly correspondence with each other, for mutual advice, help and comfort, and sometimes by the meeting of many of them together for that purpose; and as we are commanded to follow af­ter the things that make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another, we have been convinced, that it is both warrantable and expedient for our churches, that are so much scattered through this land, and who have here­tofore been so much unacquainted with each other, thus, to associate together for prayer, preaching of the word, mutual advice and endeavours to promote union and gos­pel order among them, and to guard against the contrary; as well as to afford what assistance we can to flocks that are destitute, weak or oppressed." This was published in Sept. 1771; and this plan has been so fully observed, that no appeals of any personal case of discipline in any church, nor complaints against any other community of Christians, have ever been admitted by the Association; and it stands on record in our church book, that the do­ing of any such thing would break the conditions that we joined them upon. They have been so far from it, that when a breach of communion once happened betwixt two churches in the Association, which affected others, and an attempt from thence was made to bring the case before this body, it was positively refused; and the contending parties were prevailed with, to agree in [Page 17]calling a few judicious men, to hear and labour with them upon it; and such a blessing was granted upon these means, as entirely to remove the difficulty. Yet one Baptist teacher has discovered some dislike to our Association for ten years past, which might partly be caused by information, that by this means was spread, of his presuming to break bread to a minor part of a Baptist church, whom the majority had censured; this information being an impediment in the way of his preaching elsewhere. His mind has also been somewhat intangled with Sandeman's notion, of exalting the atone­ment in such a manner as to pay little or no regard to a divine work within us, of conviction by the law, and relief by the gospel. And, in preaching at Chelmsford last spring, he delivered such questions about the law, as greatly burdened the church who heard it; though one or two members were pleased therewith, they having privately propagated such questions there for some years. When said teacher came there again in the fall, the church refused to admit him to preach therein again, till he should give them satisfaction. Upon this two brethren got five or six sisters to join with them in openly withdrawing from the church, and setting up a separate meeting near by, to hear that teacher, without stating the principles they differed upon. A council was soon after called by the church, whereof I was scribe; and when we had gone through with hearing other cases, the church was desirous of laying this also before us. Said teacher and brethren were pre­sent; and though they were not active in calling the council, and were unwilling to submit any cause there­to, as such, yet they consented to discourse with us upon these affairs. This was done for about two hours; and then we said in our result, "it appears plainly, that they hold, that God the Father has given the govern­ment [Page 18]of the world into the hands of his Son, in such a manner, that none of the human race are now under the curse of the law that was given to Adam; and that Christ's ministers are so far from being called to preach that law, and to tell any men that they are under the curse of it, that they questioned with earnestness, whe­ther so to preach is not to preach a lie! Which opinion we fully believe to be contrary to the holy scriptures of truth, and of a very dangerous and pernicious tendency to the souls of men; and therefore we earnestly call up­on these brethren to retract it, and warn all against it." Great relief was hereby given to the church, and two valuable men were baptized, and added thereto the next Lord's day. I gave no copies of our result to any but the churches immediately concerned; yet those two brethren, who signed this publication against us, say, "every Christian man's character is too sacred to be tost about at the pleasure of every one.—For a select number from several churches to undertake to judge such cases, may well alarm us to look about us, and see where our privileges are going; for we think it is not hard to see what such assuming councils are aiming at. This council have excommunicated two brethren—this solemn warning is like hanging them in gibbets.—But may indulgent heaven interpose for us, seeing vain is the help of man ^*."

How far their passions have carried them beyond the truth, is left to consideration. They had assumed the power to make a schism in that church, and to write an account of it, by said teacher, to the pastor of ano­ther church, whom they hoped to have drawn to their party, before we met there in council; and we did no more to them than I have related, let them call it by what name they will. They own that they asked the [Page 19]question we have mentioned, and also the following, viz. "if any of the human race are under the law, in the same sense, and upon the same conditions, as it was delivered to Adam, what will ever bring them from under it, seeing Christ dieth no more?" And they now say, "we hold, that mankind are not without law to God, but under law to Christ: Now the law of Christ, which mankind are now under, is for substance the same which was given to Adam, namely, to love God and our neighbour; but it is not given to men, nor are men holden under it upon the same terms and condi­tions as it was given to Adam. ^§."

In my view, this is so far from rightly dividing the word of truth, that it is really a confounding of law and grace together. They have taken words which are peculiar to the regenerate, 1 Cor. ix. 21, and have ap­plied them to all the human race, which, alas! is too common through the world! Our Saviour plainly ap­plies the moral law to mankind in general, and says, This do, and thou shalt live. Matt. xxii. 40, compar­ed with Luke x. 28. And no one can be actually and personally in the new covenant, so as to be under law to Christ, till the holy spirit puts that law into his mind, and writes it in his heart. Jer. xxxi. 33, Heb. viii. 10. And says Dr. Owen thereon, ‘let this way stand, and the way of man's wisdom and self-righteousness perish for ever ^†.’ Every soul is wedded to the law of do and live, and is bound thereby as much as any wife is to her husband, till by the work of the spirit in the soul she is made dead to that law, and it to her; and it is adultery to pretend to be married to the living Saviour in any other way. Rom. vii. 1—12. Many years after the death of Christ, the inspired apostle said, as many [Page 20]as are of the works of the law, ARE under the curse; from which the only way of deliverance was, and is, by receiving the promise of the spirit through faith. Gal. iii. 10—14. Till then the elect are shut up under the law, and are slaves to sin and guilty fears, even as others. Gal. iii. 23 and 4. 1 Eph. ii. 3. This was as really the case before the death of Christ, as since; only then it was taught more obscurely, now more plainly. The bloody token of circumcision, was a type of his being cut off for us, and also of our being cut off from any confidence in the flesh; which great change is now openly to be declared by being buried with him in baptism. Rom. ii. 29, and vi. 1—4 Phil. iii. 3. Col. ii. 11, 12. Upon which scriptures Mr. Edwards says, ‘that baptism, by which the primitive converts were admit­ted into the church, was used as an exhibition and to­ken of their being visibly regenerated, dead to sin, and alive to God.—The saintship, godliness and holiness, of which, according to scripture, professing Christians and visible saints do make a profession, and have a visibility, is not any religion and virtue that is the result of common grace, or moral sincerity (as it is called) but SAVING GRACE ^‡.’ But for his embrac­ing and holding this point, in opposition to the con­ceit of the Lord's supper being a converting ordinance, other ministers separated him from his dear flock in Northampton, in June, 1750. Just fourteen months after I was buried in baptism, in which way I am greatly confirmed since.

The mercy-seat was just as long and broad as the ark, in which the moral law was kept whole, and into the side of which the ceremonial law was put. Exod. xxv. 16—22. Deut. xxxi. 26. Which was an eminent type of Jesus Christ, in whom mercy and truth have met [Page 21]together. Psal. xl. 6—8, and lxxxv. 10, 11. Heb. x. 1—10. Here is our only place to meet and commune with God, which instead of abating, greatly increases our obligation to keep all his commandments; only before, the duty was required in order to obtain the blessing; but here the blessing is given, to enable us to perform the duty. The oldness of the letter makes every defect a bar against coming; the newness of the spirit makes the greatness of our evils and distempers a reason why we should come without delay. Psal. xxv. 11—14. The ark was to be carried upon the priest's shoulders, according to God's special direction. Numb. ix. 17—23. And when two priests refused to be content with the support that his influence procured, and presumed to take what they pleased from the people by force, the ark was so far from being any defence to them, that they were both slain in one day, and the ark was taken by the Philistines. But it proved so terrible, both to them and to their idols, that they put it into a new cart, and left it to the divine influence to carry it back to Israel again. 1 Sam. ii. 16, and vi. 7—12. Yet David paid so little regard to the right way, that he set men to drive the care as they judged best, till an awful stroke from heaven, and divine teaching upon it, brought him into the due order. 1 Chron. xiii. 7—10, and xv. 13. And may the many strokes we have had teach us as much! Gos­pel order is not to eat any man's bread for naught. 2 Thess. iii. 5—10. Which rule is of equal authority upon rulers, ministers and people. And the officer who invades the rights of any, and the people or person that refuses to receive the gospel, or to treat those well that preach it, according to their ability and opportu­nity, are daily exposed to punishments, infinitely worse than man can inflict; and so are they who give counte­nance to men that pervert the gospel. Luke x. 3—12. [Page 22]1 Cor. ix. 1—14. Gal. i. 8, 9, and vi. 6, 7. 2 John x. 11. Therefore men can have no more RIGHT to judge for others in these affairs, than they have POWER to answer for them at the bar of God.

The gospel knows of no priests in the Christian church, but Jesus Christ, and the souls which are built by faith upon him, by hearing his sayings and doing them. This is the church which is the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the pillar and ground of the truth. Matt. v. 13, 14, and vii. 24—27. 1 Tim. iii. 15. 1 Pet. ii. 5. Officers therein are never called priests, in distinction from other saints. And a great historian says, ‘baptism was administered, in the first century, without the public assemblies, in places appointed and prepared for the purpose, and was performed by immer­sion of the whole body in the baptismal font.’ And of church government he says, ‘the people were un­doubtedly the first in authority; for the apostles shew­ed by their example, that nothing of moment was to be carried on and determined, without the consent of the assembly. Acts i. 15, vi. 3, xv. 4, xxi. 22.— A bishop, during the first and second century, was a person who had the care of one Christian assembly, which at that time was, generally speaking, small enough to be contained in a private house. In this assembly he acted not so much with the authority of a master, as with the zeal and diligence of a faith­ful servant ^§’ But he informs us, that in the second century certain teachers affirmed, ‘that Christ had established a double rule of sanctity and virtue, for dif­ferent orders of Christians. Of these rules the one was ordinary, the other extraordinary; the one of a lower dignity, the other more sublime.’ And soon [Page 23]after some adopted, from the heathen philosophers, a maxim, ‘that it was not only lawful, but even praise­worthy, to deceive, and even to use the expedient of a lie, in order to advance the cause of truth and piety.’ In the mean time, about the middle of the second centu­ry, a notion was industriously propagated, that Christian ministers succeeded to the character, rights and privi­leges of the Jewish priesthood; upon which bishops con­sidered themselves as invested with a rank and character similar to those of the Jewish high-priest, while the pres­byters represented the priests, and the deacons the le­vites. ‘The errors to which it gave rise were many, and one of its immediate consequences was the esta­blishing a greater difference between the Christian pas­tors and their flocks, than the genius of the gospel seems to admit ^*.’ It is as evident that Abraham, as he was father of the members of the Jewish church, was a type of Christ, as that Aaron, the head of the priesthood, was so. Eph. ii. 19—22. Rom. iv. 11, 12. There­fore in the beginning of the third century a controversy appeared about bringing infants to baptism. Tertul­lian, who first mentions it, opposed it; but soon after Origen said, ‘what is the reason, that whereas the bap­tism of the church is given for the forgiveness of sins, infants also are, by the usage of the church, baptized, when, if there were nothing in infants that wanted for­giveness and mercy, the grace of baptism would be needless to them?—It is for that reason, because by the sacrament of baptism, the pollution of our birth is taken away, that infants are baptized ^§.’ And Cyprian said, ‘it is manifest where, and by whom, the remission of sins, which is CONFERRED IN BAPTISM, is admini­stered. [Page 24]—They who are presented by the rulers of the church, OBTAIN BY our prayers, and imposition of hands, the HOLY GHOST.’ These things were said in the third century, and in the fourth, Constantine the Great appeared to prosess the Christian religion, and acted as head of the church for 24 years, without pay­ing so much regard to the authority of Christ as ever to be baptized, till a few days before his death. Yet un­der his influence it was adopted as a maxim, ‘that errors in religion, when maintained and adhered to after proper admonition, were punishable with civil penalties and corporal tortures ^†’ Thus nature and grace, law and gospel, church and state, were confounded together, which is the very essence of mystery Ba­bylon; who has made merchandize of slaves and souls of men, and by whose sorceries all nations have been deceived. Rev. xviii. 13, 23.

Her cruelties were such in all parts of Europe, as to move our pious fathers to fly therefrom into this American wilderness. Those who began the settlement here, in 1620, came crusting wholly upon DIVINE PRO­VIDENCE ^‡, without any royal grant from England to [Page 25] depend upon. But on March 4, 1629, the Massachusetts Company received an ample grant of a vast tract of land in America, from the head of the church of Eng­land, who took their power from the head of the church of Rome, who received his from the old dra­gon. Rev. xiii. 2. The company that received said grant of lands called the church of England "our dear mother," when they came from Europe, but contended, even unto blood, against having her worship introduced into America; for which she at last revoked that grant, and gave another, wherein she reserved an arbitrary power, to set over us what governors she pleased, and to demand as much of our property as she pleased for their support; and contentions about this point have now forced us to declare ourselves independent of her ^‖. In 1701 a large society was constituted in England, who have expended vast sums to propagate her worship in this land; and in a sermon before that society, on Feb. 20, 1767, it was said of the first adventurers here, "what reproach could be cast, heavier than they deserv­ed? who, with their native soil, abandoned their native manners and religion; and e'er long were found in ma­ny [Page 26]parts living without remembrance or knowledge of God, without any divine worship, in dissolute wicked­ness, and the most brutal profligacy of manners. In­stead of civilizing and converting barbarous infidels, as they undertook to do, they became themselves infidels and barbarians. And is it not some aggravation of their shame, that this their neglect of religion was contrary to the pretences and conditions, under which they obtained royal grants and public authority?—The want of bishops in our colonies, besides other disadvantages at­tending it, appears, in particular, to be the fundamental cause of the want of native ministers.—If these things are so, we may entertain hopes, that this benefit will flow to the church from our present most gracious Sove­reign.— This point obtained, the American church will soon go out of its infant state; be able to stand upon its own legs; and, without foreign help, support and spread itself. Then the business of this society will have been brought to the happy issue intended ^*." Thus the saying of our Lord is verified; if thine eye be evil, thy whole body is full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! This is the cafe of all who do not sincerely love their brethren as themselves, but hate them in their hearts, though they outwardly pretend the contrary. 1 John, ii. 3—11. And it is a most glaring fact, that all men who have been fond of supporting their worship by force, have never been willing to change places with dissenters therefrom. And when the Most High metes the same measures to them again, they loudly complain of the in­justice and tyranny of those measures.

[Page 27] The year after Boston was planted, a law was made there, to exclude all from a vote in government but communicants in congregational churches. In the year 1636 they appointed a committee, of five rulers and three ministers, to make a draught of laws, agreeable to the word of God, to be the ‘fundamentals of this Commonwealth;’ and in the mean time ordered their executive courts, ‘to hear and determine all causes, according to the laws now established, and where there is no law, then as near the laws of God as they can.’ Two years after they made the first law, to support reli­gious teachers and ordinances by assessment and distress, that ever was enacted in New-England. It was to ena­ble freemen to compel those who were not freemen to contribute proportionably with themselves, for the up­holding church ordinances, ‘whereof he doth or may receive benefit.’ Harvard-College was founded that year; and one of their first class of graduates gave it as his mind, that he who should deny such an exertion of power, ‘is rather to be taught by cudgel than argument, as a denier of first principles.’ The first Baptist church in America was constituted at Providence the year after said law was made ^*. And that cause has been support­ed by cudgel, and ours by argument, ever since. And the latter is so much the strongest, that the aged mini­ster who ventures to subscribe his name to accusations against our churches, says, ‘alas the consequence of the prevalence of this sect! they hinder, and are like to hinder, the settling and supporting learned, pious and orthodox ministers ^†.’ And the writer of the ninth and tenth learned accusations against me by name, clo­seth the last of them with saying, ‘I must petition to conceal my real name, till I am become such a [Page 28]salamander in the moral world, that I can live no long­er out of the fire.’—Is not this a surprizing event! that "illiterate, bold itinerating preachers," should prevail so far as to vanquish all the learned teachers and lawyers in New-England, where religion, according to their account, has long been established by law, in the best manner of any part of the world? That their skill and courage should now fail them so much, that one who ventures to own his name and place of abode, yet should be afraid to name any person or community of the accused; and he who is so bold as to name one of them, yet petitions to have his own name concealed, lest he should be burnt up by them! Will not some peo­ple be apt to think, that these illiterate, bold itinerating preachers, are successors of some who lived above seventeen hundred years ago, against whom like complaints were made? John vii. 47—51, Psalm ii. 1—4, Acts iv. 5—22, and v. 17—40.—By these accounts it appears, that one great difficulty which then laboured among the learned, was a want of agreement among themselves about those teachers; some of them thinking it was not lawful to condemn a man, before they had heard him, and knew what he did. Another was, that the accusers were conscious that much good was done by the accused, so that it was a very difficult thing to convince the com­mon people that they were bad men. A third thing was, that what these itinerant preachers said and did, laid great bands upon themselves; and when they enquired of their HEAD, by what authority he did it, and how he came by that authority, he quickly brought those learned men into such a dilemma upon that point, as they knew not how to get out of, but by pleading their own igno­rance, Matt. xxi. 23—27. This last writer against us is so much mistaken in thinking to keep out of the fire, by concealing his name, that both of his publications [Page 29]prove him to be now in it; and that compassion is called for, to pull him and his confederates out of the fire, if pos­sible, hating the garment spotted by the flesh; in which condition are all those who have men's persons in admira­tion, because of advantage. 1 Cor. iii. 11—15. Jude xvi. 22, 23. And that this is his character, is evident; for, speaking of acting upon sinister views in religious matters, he says, ‘in such instances, I know that conscience would bite like a serpent, and sting like an adder. And, as it is likely there are some such cha­racters among every denomination, for my part I wish the law might be altered to the form Mr. Buckus has exhibited, or that the Warren Association would pro­pose a form, agreeable to their minds and the third article in our Bill of Rights, which we cannot consent to have altered, or infringed upon, without violating our consciences; for we have consciences, as well as the Baptists, and hold these rights most sacredly.’ The form of mine, here referred to, was only to inform strangers in a distant town of a plain fact, viz. that such a man, by name, ‘is a baptized member of the first Bap­tist church in Middleborough.’ This is all that was certified by the pastor of the church, without any other name to it, or its being directed to any place or person, which is as different from any certificate ever required by law in this government, as Joseph's wearing his gar­ment in his master's house was from adultery. Yet the two last publications against me are built entirely upon a supposition of its being a legal certificate; and upon this supposition it is represented in the first of them, that either a new revelation or necessity had moved me ‘to dispense with my sacred promises and conscience;’ and the writer says, ‘I hope his laudable example will be punctually imitated by all others of the same pro­fession.’ And he still pleads for this, in his last pub­lication, [Page 30]as the only way laft for the securing their rights, claimed in the third article, which they hold ‘conscien­tiously and sacredly." And he says, "if the practice of giving certificates be really such an intolerable burthen, and unpardonable sin, why was it for so long a time punctually complied with!’

In reply to him, I ask, why the spirit of truth does not guide us into all truth at once? John xvi. 12, 13. When grace and truth could be promoted by circumci­sion, Paul complied with it. Acts xvi. 3. But when it came to be contended for, in a way which obstructed that great and good end, he refused to give place by sub­jection, even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might remain with the churches; and he had no mercy to shew to dissimulation, no not in Peter himself. Gal. ii. 4—14. And the word of truth shews, that the victo­ry of the church, over that evil in him who pretends to be Peter's successor, and his followers, will be gra­dual, viz. over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, which is the number of a MAN. Be it in units, tens or hundreds, it is no more than man set up in God's place. 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4, Rev. xiii. 18, and xv. 2. And that the pow­er now contended for is of that nature, is most evident. For in the Boston Evening-Post of May 17, 1773, mention was made of their law to tax all members of the church of England in each town, with others, which the church minister, if they had any, was to draw out of the town-treasury; and then it was said, ‘had the same prudent precaution been taken with respect to Anabaptists, when they were exempted from being tax­ed towards the maintenance of the ministers of the churches by law established, those avaricious and disso­lute persons, who get under water to wash away their ministers rates, without any expectation or desire of [Page 31]washing away their sins, would have little or no tempta­tion to declare themselves Anabaptists.’ This, with other means, brought the Warren Association, in the fall after, to publish these five reasons, why we could not in conscience obey their certificate laws any longer.

• 1. Because so to do would imply an acknowledgment, that civil rulers have a right to set one religious sect up above another, which they have not.
• 2. Because they are not our representatives in religious matters, there­fore so to tax us, is to tax us where we are not repre­sented.
• 3. Because this practice emboldens the upper­most sect to assume God's prerogative, and to judge the secrets of others hearts.
• 4. Because the church is presented as a chaste virgin to Christ, and to place her love and trust upon any others for temporal sup­port, is playing the harlot (Hos. ii. 5) and so is the way to destroy all religion.
• 5. Because this practice tends to envy, hypocrisy, confusion, and every evil work, and so to the ruin of human society ^§.

No answer has ever been returned to these reasons, better than railing, imprisonment, and spoiling of our goods. If said third article be compared with the amendments which the town of Boston voted to have made therein, all may see that it is the very scheme which was published in 1773, as I have related it. Neither have we any reason to think that the country would have adopted it, if Boston, with her deceitful arts, had not taken the public lead therein. Her chief teachers and lawyers have acted the part in this matter, which we have described in Matt. xxiii. 3, 4. The winter after the first taxing law for ministers was made, after their second charter was received, an addition thereto was passed, wherein it was said, ‘that nothing herein contained is intended, or shall be construed to [Page 32]extend, to abridge the inhabitants of Boston of their accustomed way and practice, as to the choice and maintenance of their ministers.’ And this partiali­ty has been established here by law for eighty-eight years; and our attempts to remove it has been the only cause of the outcry which that party have made against us for eight years past. And to their partiality in hu­man laws, a noted minister of theirs has now added as great an instance of partiality in the laws of God. In his plan of grace, promises and precepts, privileges and duties, are inseparably connected together; and to expect one without the other, is to tempt him, in­stead of trusting in him. Deut. vi. 16, 17. Matt. iv. 6, 7. And I fully concur, that the following words are very applicable to the present state of this country. Jer. xxx. 20, 21. ‘Their congregation shall be esta­blished before me, and I will punish all that oppress them. And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them, and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me; for who is this that engaged his heart to ap­proach unto me? saith the LORD.’ Yet this text was taken, with the omission of all the words here put in italics, and a very learned and polite election sermon was delivered from the other part of it, on Oct. 25, 1780, at the ‘commencement of the constitution, and inauguration of the new government, by SAMUEL COOPER, D. D.’ He is minister of a church in Bos­ton, that is the first we know of in this government, who in their first constitution expressed a dislike at our father's strictness, in requiring a credible profession of saving saith, of all persons that they received to commu­nion at the Lord's table ^*. It may be of service to com­pare [Page 33]this with the address to the people of the compilers of our new constitution, to move them to receive it, p. 17; say they, "your delegates did not conceive themselves to be vested with power to set up one denomination of Christians above another; for RELIGION must at all times be a mat­ter between God and individuals;" which is given as the reason why they refused to exclude out of our future legis­lature such Roman Catholics as shall "disclaim the prin­ciples which are subversive of a free government." Yet all the power contended for in their third article is put into the hands of communities, who have the exclusive right in its exercise. Therefore they knew that RELIGION was not the good they aimed at therein.

The first founder of the town and colony of Providence Plantations had a plain sight of the deceitfulness of such claims, and contended earnestly for impartial liberty for the consciences of Papists with others, as to matters of worship, so far as might be consistent with the safety of govern­ment, and the rights of individuals; and that none but spiritual weapons should be employed against meer errors in judgment of any kind. But the fathers of the Massa­chusetts called this liberty "dangerous principles of se­paration ^*;" and vented all their skill and rage, in trying [Page 34]to divide, and conquer his little colony; and all the disor­ders, which by these and other means were caused therein, have been a prevailing argument for tyranny in the Mas­sachusetts; and their tyranny has been a strong argument for the continuance of those disorders in the other State ever since; and how far these two parties have now been confederates in trying to crush our attempts to remove that tyranny, and those disorders, I know not.

Some would have us look to Britain for help against these oppressors; but we have no idea of any such thing. For their king, in a speech to his new parliament, Nov. 2, 1780, exclaims aloud against others "boundless ambition;" and urges for such preparations and exertions, as, says he, "shall convince our enemies, that we will not submit to receive law from any powers whatsoever." And yet before this speech arrived among us, a declaration was received from his commissioners at New-York, which would fain persuade us, that the British parliament have received law from America, so as to give up more to us than we asked for before the war; and thereupon they earnestly invite us to return under their protection, while in the same declara­tion they exhort those whom they call the loyal, "to perse­vere in their integrity, for the preservation of their religion and liberties." Compare this with the bishop of Landast's sermon, and who can put any trust in such men? Such men as a century ago accused Dr. Owen and his friends of fa­vouring POPERY, because they refused to join in fellowship with the church of England, whose claims of arbitrary pow­er soon after brought the nation to the brink of ruin. In answer to that accusation, Dr. Owen observed, that all the reformation from popery which any had attained to, was [Page 35]built entirely upon these three principles.

• 1. That the ho­ly scriptures are our only rule in religious matters.
• 2. That each rational man has an equal right to judge of their meaning for himself.
• 3. That all church power, and office power therein, is derived from Christ, by his word and spi­rit, to each particular church. That the succession of mini­sterial power is secured, by his continuing, according to his promise, to call souls effectually by his grace, and to furnish men with spiritual gists, fit for such offices as he has insti­tuted, and making it the duty of the church to call them thereto and set them apart therein. And says he, "those who plead for a successive ministry without respect to these things, without resolving both the authority and office of it unto them, do but erect a dead image, or embrace a dead carcase, instead of the living and life-giving institutions of Christ ^*."

This was emphatically the case with New-England, when God was pleased remarkably to pour out his spirit, and glo­riously to revive religion therein, forty years ago. This Mr. Edwards, in his book of five parts, very plainly proved. But in answer thereto, the next year, Dr. Chauncy laboured hard to prove, that the itinerant preaching, which was the chief means of that work, was a thing of very bad and dan­gerous tendency, and that the first leader therein was guilty of very rash and uncharitable judging, for expressing his fears, that many, nay most of the teachers in the land, did not ex­perimentally know Jesus Christ; therefore he raked this country, and even ransacked the church of Rome, for filthy stories to cast upon the instruments and subjects of that work. And to prove that the ministers of New-England had not then lost their character, he produced Dr. Cotton Mather's testimony in their favour, who said, "no man becomes a minister in our churches, till he first be a communi­cant; and no man becomes a communicant, until he hath been severely examined about his regeneration, as well as con­versation." But when was it so? This testimony was pub­lished in 1696. But twelve years after, it was openly preach­ed [Page 36]up, that the Lord's supper was a converting ordinance; which doctrine had spread through the country before this revival began. And to guard against the increase of the Bap­tists in Boston in 1772, Dr. Chauncy said to the world, "the divinely appointed way, in which persons become members of the visible church of Christ, is utterly inconsistent with the supposition, that, in order to their being, so, they must be the subjects of saving faith, or judged to be so." According to which opinion, the fathers of New-England were the un­charitable men, for severely examining into that matter, as much as the Newlights were for reviving that practice, or the Baptists for persevering therein; and it was an imposition upon mankind to bring that testimony, to uphold a cause that was and is contrary thereto.

TRUTH and MERCY shine with equal lustre, in the glo­rious kingdom of the Redeemer; and to his works of this nature he appeals, as his greatest witnesses against the pow­ers of darkness. John v. 36, 37. Their united influence convey the golden oil into the church, to make her the light of the world. Zech. iv. 2—14. These witnesses have long prophesied in sackcloth; till of late it seems as if they had scarce any entrance into any administrations of civil govern­ment in the world, but rather to have fallen in the streets, so that he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. Isai. lix. 14, 15. But when the spirit of life from God shall enter into them, the kingdoms of this world will soon become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his anointed; and the ark of his testament will be seen again. Rev. xi. 3—19. Then the spi­rit that is upon him, and the words of his mouth, shall not de­part from his seed for ever. Isai. lix. 19—21. The magi­strate's strate's sword is to punish none but such as work ill to their neighbours. Rom. xiii. 1—10. And when the influence above described shall extend so far as to restrain those who would hurt and destroy, the sword will be entirely laid aside. Isai. ii. 2—5, and iv. 5, 6, and xi. 9, 10. Amen; even so, come Lord Jesus.