Imatges de pàgina
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good and commendable in themselves, fo we need not doubt but God will accept and approve them. For tho' we may, thro' ignorance, petition for fuch things as God may not think fit to give us, yet if thofe petitions are qualified, as aforefaid, God will accept them, tho' he does not anfwer them; but tho' reafon affures us, that God will accept of fuch prayers, as are thus qualified, and tho' fuch performances (commonly called prayers) which are wholly deftitute of these qualifications, God will not accept; yet how far, or what degree of defect in thefe, or either of thefe, will hinder that acceptance, is a question which I will not prefume to answer. Thus, fuppofing a man fhould put up a petition to God, duly qualified in all refpects, fave this, viz. that the earnestness of the defire did not bear a proportion to the worth and value of the benefit pray'd for; tho' we can be affured that this prayer would be accepted, if it had this qualification; yet we can have no affurance that a defect, in this particular, will binder that acceptance. God perfectly knows all the temptations, weakneffes, and difadvantages which his creatures lie under for the performance of any duty; and as he will take all these into the account, fo where he sees men, in the main, fincere and honeft in their performances, his goodness may difpofe him to overlook many imperfections which may be in their duty, and fo he may approve the duty in general, tho' he does not approve of the defects of it.

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Secondly, What prayers will be answered? And here we muft obferve, that God anfwers men's petitions either in difpleasure; or in kindnefs. In difpleasure, when their fins provoke him to give them their petitions to their burt; X 4

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or in kindness, when their conduct disposes him to answer their petitions for their good. I fhall confider it only, with refpect to the latter, and accordingly, I fay, that as God appointed the duty of prayer, not for his own fake, but for the good and benefit of the petitioner; and as God fees through and to the end of all things, and confequently muft know what is moft for the good and benefit of his creatures at all times; fo when our petitions are fo qualified, as to render them acceptable in God's fight, and when God fees that the giving them to us will be more for our good, than the withholding them from us, I fay, fuch petitions God will anfwer at the moft proper time, and in the most proper measure, except our afterconduct fhall render us unworthy of them.

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Concerning the Unity, or Oneness of the Church, or body of Chrift.

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EFORE I enter upon this enquiry, I think it proper to obferve, that the queftion here is not, whether the christian church has any folid foundation, that is, whether Christ was really authorized by God, to constitute fuch a fociety, and to give laws for the regulation and government of it; but only upon a fuppofition that this is the truth of the cafe, then wherein the unity of this fociety does confifts: this enquiry being offered to the confideration, not of unbelievers, but only to chriftians, or those who acknowledge Christ's authority, as aforefaid.

By the term church, I understand any number of men, great or small, that are callected into a fociety upon a religious account, that is, upon the account of a particular way and method of approving and recommending themselves to the love and favour of God, which we commonly call religion. By the chriftian church, or the church of Christ, I mean all those men that are collected into a body or fociety, upon the account of their chufing and embracing that way and method of ferving and pleafing God, which Christ, or the christian revelation, hath propofed and recommended to the world, which we call the chriftian religion. As to the term unity, or one, when it is ufed fim ply, without being applied to any fubject, then

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its fenfe and meaning is moft plain and easy to be understood; one being the original and beginning of all numbers, all numbers being no other than an addition of feveral unities. But when unity is applied to any fubject, it must first be reduced to a standard, before we can know what one of that fubject is, which unity is applied to. Thus for example, when we fpeak of one pound weight, a pound must be reduced to a standard, juft fuch a degree of weight (neither more nor lefs) must be made the standard of it, before we can know what one pound weight is. The cafe is the fame with every other fubject that unity is applied to.. This being fo, I fay, that by the unity of the christian church, I do not mean the oneness of the parts every refpect, but only their oneness in those respects which Chrift, or the christian revelation, hath made the ftandard of chriftian unity. This unity may be confider'd in two refpects, firft, effential, that is, fuch an union as is neceffary to the church's being; and all fchifm or feperation in this respect, is a feparation from the body; fo that whoever departs from this effential unity of the body of Chrift, fuch an one ceases to be a part of that body. Secondly, Integral, that is, fuch an unity as is neceffary to the church's well-being, and all fchifm or feparation, in this refpect, is a feparati on, in the body; fo that whoever depart from this integral unity of the body of Chrift, that is, whoever are properly the cause of fuch divifion, fuch perfons are guilty of a crime, viz. the breaking of that unity which it is their duty to maintain. And,

First, Of effential unity. This may likewife be confider'd in two refpects, viz. unity of faith, and unity of fubjection. First, Unity of faith, that is, an unity of affent to the truth of the chriftian reli

gion, or an affenting to thofe truths which Ch: ift, or the chriftian revelation, hath made the ftandard of chriftian faith; or, to exprefs it more fully and particularly, it is a believing or being perfuaded, that the divine perfon, which the four Evangelifts have given us the hiftory of his birth, life, death, refurrection, and affenfion, that this heavenly perfon is the Meffiah, or Chrift, whom God hath appointed to be a Mediator between himself and his finful creatures, mankind; for the discovery and manifestation of the truth, to make known his will, and to propose terms of peace and reconciliation with finners; to affure them of pardon and acceptance, upon their complying with thofe terms, and of their certain condemnation, upon their non-compliance with them to affure them likewife of their refurrection from the dead, and a future judgment; of an everlasting state of happiness to thofe that comply with and an everlasting itate of mifery to those who reject or neglect the falvation offer'd.That this divine perfon, after he had proclaim'd and publish'd thefe good tidings of peace and falvation to the Jewish nation, and had confirm'd the truth of his miffion by a multitude of uncontroulable miracles he, out of tender love to, and for the fake of finners, humbly and meekly fubmitted to the painful and fhameful death of the cross, as an act of obedience to his Father's will, to feal the truth of his doctrine, and to be a peace-offering or Sacrifice of atonement and expetiation for fin: that God was fo well pleas'd with his Son's performance in this matter, that he rais'd him from the dead, and exalted him at his right hand, to be the Lord and head of his people, to rule them by his laws to guide, fupport, and comfort them by his fpirit, to be a prevailing interceffor with God for them; that God pardons the believing penitent for his

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