and that these three are one. This I would avow as a truth, and humbly adore as a mystery.

V. I believe that this one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is a spirit, The king eternal, immor tal, invisible, from everlasting to everlasting, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodnes and truth, but who will take vengeance on his adversaries, and not at all acquit the wicked.

VI. I believe that he created all things, and for his pleasure they are, and were created; that his government reaches over the whole creation, that his providence extends to all creatures, and their actions, and that the foreknowledge of God over-rules the corruptions of men.

VII. I believe that God made a covenant with our first parents as the common root of all their posterity, and gave them them a righteous law, with this establishment, that he that does these things shall live by them; but in the day that he offended he should surely die.

VIII. I believe that by one man's disobedience our natures are not only guilty but impure, and that we lie dead in trespasses and sins.

IX. I believe that God resolved to glorify himself by redeeming some of the lost race; that he did, from all eternity, predestinate some to the adoption of children, whose names are written in heaven; that this election was free, and it will have a certain is sue; that the remnant are saved according to the election of grace, not for the works which they should afterwards do; but according to his own purpose and grace before the world began.

X. I believe that this design will be effectual to the happiness of all those.

XI. I believe that the only method of obtaining this happiness was by appointing one mediator between God and man; the man Christ Jesus; giving a certain number to him, and setting him forth to be a propitiation, thro' faith in his blood, for the remission of sins, that God might be just, and yet the elect be saved.

of all things; but more especially lord over them who are given to hiin.

XIII. I believe he went about doing good, delighting to do the will of him that sent him, by the which will we are sanctified: that he was made a curse for us, suffering in both the parts of his human nature: that he was the Messiah, who should be cut off to finish transgression, and make an end of sin: that there is no other name given under heaven whereby men can be saved.

XIV. I believe when he had by himself purged our sins, he was buried, and lay part of three days and three nights in the belly of the earth.

XV. I believe that God raised him to heaven, loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible he should be holden of it. I believe he ascended up on high, is seated on the right hand of God, as the advocate of his people and the judge of the world.

XVI. I believe that whom he predestinated, them he also called, and whom he has called, them he also justifies freely by his grace. The blessedness of this consists in God's imputing righteousness without works. I believe that we lay hold on his mercy by faith, and that not of ourselves, but of the gift of God: that the people of God receive the adoption of sons, and there is a change in the disposition of those who are heirs of the grace of life, owing to free love and to almighty power. I believe that the ransomed of the Lord grow in grace, and that he who has begun a good work in them, will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. No man shall be able to pluck them out of his hands.

XVII. I believe he is to be worshipped with reverence and godly fear. I believe that we are to own this Lord in societies, and that there is a communion with all that in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours, and that Jesus Christ will be with them to the end of the world.

are obliged to perform, one of which is baptism in water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, taught us all things whatsoever he has commanded, admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And by eating bread and drinking wine, in remembrance of him, we are to continue stedfast in doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayer.

XIX. I believe, that in all these parts of worship, one is our master, even Christ; no man having dominion over our faith and liberty.

XX. I believe that the Christian, at his death, enters upon two blessings, a complete purity and satisfying enjoyment, that the spirits of just men are made perfect, see Christ and know him as themselves are known; and that more perfect felicity which will follow the resurrection and universal judgment. For,

XXI. I believe there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust: that Christ hath authority to execute judgment, because he is the son of man: that the angels, who sinned, are delivered into the chains of darkness; both they and the wicked, who know not God, nor obeyed the gospel of his dear son, shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.

The other particulars relating to the regular Independents lead us within the veil, obscurity is enlightened, darkness to the human eye vanishes. away before our sight, and we can see them in their native colours.

Their congregations consist of a minister, two deacons, and in conjunction with them the whole of the congregation. These form a sort of congregational body, taking upon themselves the same power as a general council. The minister is elected by the people at large, with this reservation, that they can turn them away whenever they please. This is, perhaps, a very extraordinary way of proceeding, and yet we meet with something like it in ancient ecclesiastical history.

In their discipline, they profess to be like the primitive Christians; that is, they will never publish the faults of each other until they are excommunicated. This appears to be as strict a piece of hypocrisy as ever took place in the world, and we shall give a specimen of it afterwards.

At present, in their form of worship, they differ a little from the Presbyterians, but still, even in that difference, they are not uniform. In all their meetings they begin with a psalm, and then follows a prayer. In some, after the prayer is over, they begin the sermon, which generally lasts an hour; and the minister must take great care not to drop one single word that looks like an exhortation to duty. The whole sermon has some resemblance to a system of divinity, without the conclusion. In some of their churches they sing three times during divine service; but, in general, their sermons are the same, only with this difference, that some of their young ministers have boldly ventured to imitate their ancestors, such as Bates, Howe, and

others.

It is necessary to inform the reader concerning

this vast difference in the mode of preaching, between the present Independents and those who lived at the time of the revolution.

In 1708, one Mr. Hussey, a minister at Cambridge, published a heavy tedious volume, to shew that no minister had a right to make any offers grace or salvation to sinners. This is not origina. Calvinism, but it is an inference, or consequence deduceable from it; at least from that part of it called absolute predestination. For if God has elected one part of mankind, and reprobated the other, what occasion is there for exhortation, seeing man has no power to comply. This is a popular objection of the Arminians, which has already been in a measure refuted. It is not hereby meant to charge the Independents alone with this consequence, as many other sectarists, and even some in our established church, adopt the same opinion. If we might be allowed to give our advice on so important a subject, we should rather think the express command of our Lord should be more attended to than any of these traditions of men; and if in Ezekiel's days, the dead bones were commanded to live, why should not the same method be taken under the superior brightness and vivifying nature of the gospel dispensation.

There is an apparent inconsistency in establishing the above consequence from a belief in absolute predestination, among a people who in general, profess to have been converted from the ways of sin, under the Methodists; for this is the case with the modern Independents. It is pretty generally known that exhortation is their fort, and that they had rather forego systematic divinity than lose an opportunity of earnest exhortation.

When a man or woman desires to be admitted a member, the minister and deacons confer with him, enquire into his character with a strictness and precision which does honour to them. If it is found such as will bring an honour to religion as well as an ornament to their congregation, he or she is then told to write out an account of his Christian experience and of the manner of his con

version.

This account is given to the minister, who having perused it, desires the candidate to be at the meeting on the next Lord's day. When service is over in the afternoon, the minister with the deacons. and the principal members of the congregation, meet together in a large pew before the clerk's desk, called the table pew, because it is there they administer the Lord's supper.

The candidate is then called upon, and the minister,

such influenees as these, the judgment should sometimes be misled and the practice be consequently erroneous. It is not our business to enquire by what motives they are actuated, we shall leave that to him, before whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; whose prerogative it is to try the reins and search the hearts of the children of men. But this much is certain, that they have a great number of followers, and yet they have neither system nor discipline. Strange that a religion should exist without these, and yet it is true. Their terms of communion are rather uncertain, any person of good character, and what they in their separate congregations call orthodox principles, may be admitted. Men of business sometimes join them, and it is often proved that they benefit themselves considerably, as it is a general maxim with them to encou rage those of their own communities; this is very natural, and we will not blame them for it: self love prevails amongst mankind in so eminent a degree, that when we encourage others of the same opinion, we are only gratifying this predominant principle.

With respect to their manner of preaching, it would require a more able pen to defend it in every particular; this is a very essential branch of a minister's essential branch of a minister's office, and where it is not properly conducted, the effects will be lamentable. Religion itself, in such congregations, will be disesteemed at least, if not totally neglected. It cannot be expected that a minister without learning should convey much knowledge to the people under his care. These irregular Independents persue the same method as the regulars, by taking a text, and from thence preaching a discourse, though some people will have it, that they take leave of their text, immediately, and that their discourse is as suitable to any other. The discourse is generally unconnected, and not well calculated to impress the minds of the auditory with a becoming reverence and devotion. If they have little or no education, we may be sure that rhetoric has not been studied by them, much less proper gestures or cadences. They do wisely, circumstanced as they are, to ridicule the art of preaching, and explode all manner of attention to propriety of action, or sound and judicious reasoning in the pulpit. We are afraid that the sum total of their harangues amount in general to this, Vox et preterea nihil.

We are willing to hope and believe, that notwithstanding these evident marks of impropriety and indecorum, that they have some real merit, in being frequently the means of reclaiming the vicious, No. 30..

especially among the vulgar; for though they are thus detected by people who have their eyes open, yet the majority of mankind, who judge of things at first sight, and take every thing for gospel they hear, are fascinated by their preaching, which operates by different ways, in some people, by raising their minds to an exalted pitch of enthusiasm, and by sinking others into desperation. Upon the whole, it is believed that some good is done by them, and that they are a mean used by the hand of providence whose works are altogether marvellous, and who frequently brings good out of apparent evil.

We would recommend it to the ministers who rank themselves under this denomination, to act in a compassionate manner to their hearers, to consider the poor as greater objects of compassion than the rich, to make the truths of the gospel appear in a more amiable light than they do, to cease from declaiming against other parties and professions, evidently better qualified in every point of view, and to make their public dissertations more a matter of study. They would then make a proper improvement of the trust committed to their care, and acquire as much honour as would make amends for all their deficiences. They would do well to follow the advice and example of the blessed Saviour of men. He knew well the false hopes and fallacious reasonings of the heart of man; how prone men were to form themselves into parties and distinguish themselves by trifling inventions, In the business of religion and the great concern of souls, all that is short of obedience to God's commands, and a life of devotedness to his service, is nothing. but trick and evasion, froth and folly. Consequently if any man build on such deceitful grounds, and with such slight materials, he must and can expect no other, than that his house should fall: upon his head, and he perish in the ruins.

The irregular Independents have, in general, no proper notions of ecclesiastical discipline, nor any idea of systems of divinity. They have no regular plan, every congregation assuming some particularity. They are truly independent in the strictest sense of the word.. In the form of their worship they are nearly the same with the regular Independents, only with this difference, they frequently use the Lord's prayer in public, which the others do not. What can be the reason of the latter disusing it we will not pretend to assert, unless it is that their objection to all forms is so great, that they will not accept of one, even from the mouth of. truth itself.. After

8 T