ftrove very hard to have the church govern the world, till they loft their charter; fince which they have yielded to have the world govern the church, as we fhall proceed to shew.

SE

CTION

II.

A brief view of how civil and ecclefiaftical affairs are blended together among us, to the depriving of many of God's people of that liberty of confcience which he has given them.

We are not infenfible than an open appearance against any part of the conduct of men in power, is commonly attended with difficulty and danger; and could we have found any way wherein with clearnefs we could have avoided the prefent attempt, we would gladly have taken it. But our bleffed Lord & only Redeemer,has commanded us, to stand faft in the liberty wherewith be has made us free; and things appear fo to us at prefent that we cannot fee how we can fully obey this command, without refufing any active compliance with fome laws about religious affairs that are laid upon us, And as thofe who are interested against us, often accuse us of complaining unreasonably, we are brought under a neceffity of laying open particular facts which otherwise we would gladly have concealed and all must be fenfible that there is a vaft difference between expofing the faults, either of individuals or communities, when the cause of truth and equity would fuffer without it, and the doing of it without any fuch occafion. We view it to be our incumbent duty, to render un

to

to Cæfar the things that are his, but that it is of as much importance not to render unto him any thing that belongs only to God, who is to be obeyed rather than man. And as it is evident to us,that God always claimed it as his fole prerogative to determine by his own laws, what his worship fhall be, who fhall minister in it, and how they fhall be fupported; fo it is evident that their prerogative has been, and ftill is, encroached upon in our land.

For,

T. Our legislature claim a power to compel every town and parish within their jurifdiction, to fet up and maintain a pedobaptift worship among them; although it is well known, that infant baptifm is never exprefs'd in the Bible, only is upheld by men's reasonings, that are chiefly drawn from Abraham's covenant which the Holy Ghoft calls, The covenant of circumcifion, A&ts 7. 8. And as circumcifion was one of the handwriting of ordinances which Chrift has blotted out, where did any ftate ever get any right to compel their fubjects to fet up a worship upon that covenant?.

2. Our afcended Lord gives gifts unto men in a fovereign way as feems good unto him, and he requires Every man, as he has received the gift, even fo to minifter the fame; and he reproved his apoftles when they forbid one who was improving his gift, becaufe he followed not them. 1 Pet. 4. 10, 11. Luk. 9. 49. But the Maffachusetts legiflature, while they claim a power to compel each parifh to fettle a minifter, have alfo determined that he must be one, who

has either an accademical degree, or a teftimonial in his favour from a majority of the minifters in the county where the parish lies. So that let Chrift give a man ever fo great gifts,yet hereby these minifters derive a noble power from the ftate,to forbid the improvement of the fame, if he follows not their fchemes. And if the apoftles affumed too much in this respect to themselves, even when their Lord was with them,can it be any breach of charity to conclude that minifters are not out of danger of doing the like now? efpecially if we confider how intereft operates in the affair! For,

3. Though the Lord hath ordained that they which preach the gospel hall live of the gospel; or by the free communications to them, which his gospel will produce. 1 Cor. 9. 13, 14. Gal. 6. 6. 7. Yet the minifters of our land have chofen to live by the law; and as a reafon therefor, one of their most noted writers, instead of producing any truth of God, recites the tradition of a man, who faid, “Minifters of the gofpel would have "a poor time of it, if they must rely on a free "contribution of the people for their mainten"ance." And he fays, " The laws of the pro

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It has been the custom of minifter's who are fettled in this way, for thefe thirty years paft, to apply the gainfaying of Core to thofe who have diffented from them; as if they were as certainly in the right way, as Mofes and Aaron were. And 16 minifters in the county of Windham, in a public letter to their people in 1744, ftile theirs," The inftituted "churches ;" and those who had withdrawn from them, uninftituted worship" and then they go on to affert, that Deut. 13, prove that the people, May not go after it, any more than-after a falfe god." p. 42. 43.

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"vince having had the royal approbation to ra

tify them, they are the king's laws. By these "laws it is enacted, that there fhall be a public "worship of God in every plantation; that the "perfon elected by the majority of the inhabi"tants to be fo, fhall be looked upon as the minifter of the place; that the falary for him, "which they fhall agree upon, fhall be levied "by a rate upon all the inhabitants. In confequence of this, the minifter thus chosen by "the people, is (not only Chrift's but also) in reality, the king's minifter; and the falary raif"ed for him, is raised in the king's name, and is "the king's allowance unto him." .

Now who can hear Chrift declare, that his kingdom is, NOT OF THIS WORLD, and yet believe that this blending of church and state together can be pleasing to him? For though their laws call them "orthodox minifters," yet the grand teft of their orthodoxy, is the major vote of the people, be they faints or finners, believers or unbelievers. This appears plain in the foregoing quotation; and another of their learned writers lately fays, "It is the congregation in "it's parocal congregational capacity, that the law confiders; and this as fuch does not enough "partake of an ecclefiaftical nature to be fubject to ecclefiaftical jurisdiction. ‡

Hence their minifters and churches must become fubject to the court, and to the majority

of

Dr. Cotton Mather's Ratio Difcipline; or faithful account of the difcipline profeffed and practifed in the chur ches of New-England, 1726. p. 20.

Dr. Stiles on the christian union. p. 85.

of the parish in order to have their falary raised in the king's name: But how are either of them in the mean time fubject to the authority of Chrift in his church? How can any man reconcile fuch proceedings to the following commands of our Mafter which is in heaven? Mat. 23. 9, 10. What matter of grief and lamentation is it, that men otherwife fo knowing and justly ef teemed, should by the traditions of men be carried into fuch a crooked way as this is! for though there is a fhew of equity in allowing every 10ciety to choose it's own minifter; yet let them be ever fo unanimous for one who is of a different mode from the court, their choice is not allowed. Indeed as to doctrine minifters who preach differently, yea directly contrary to each other, about Chrift and his falvation, yet are fupported by thefe laws which at the fame time limit the people to one circumftantial mode.

It is true the learned author just now quoted fays, "If the most of the inhabitants in a plantation are epifcopalians, they will have a minifter "of their own perfuafion; and the diffenters, in "the place, if there be any, must pay their proportion of the tax for the fupport of this legal minifter." § But then his next words fhew that they

ἐσ

§ According to this rule, whoever gets the upper hand may tax the reft to their worship; but when will men learn the madnefs of fuch conduct!

Sir Henry Vane, who was governor of the Massachusetts in 1636, but whom governor Winthrop obliged the next year to leave the colony, he at a time when he had great influence in the British parliament wrote to governor Winthrop thus: "The exercife and troubles which God is

66 pleafed