AS, of late, I have not attended upon your ministry fo conftantly as heretofore; and as I have fome ground to think that you judge me to be guilty of a fault, in absenting myself, you will permit me to affign a reason in justification of F 3 my conduct. Του You are very fenfible, Sir, that you and I differ very much in our religious opinions; fo much, indeed, that I have heard you declare, that a person who thinks as I do, is, on that account, excluded from falvation. Such a declaration, however, affects me but little; knowing well, that the great and good God hath never fo declared; and therefore esteeming the fentence of frail and fallible man, as any a thing of little moment. Tho', by the way, it seems no trifling affair, with refpect to the perfon himself, who places himself in the feat of judgment, and pro nounces nounces condemnation on his brother for his opinions. This man had need look well to his authority. And how if, in the end, it should appear that the party fo condemned, is one whom God approves? But, to return :-The wide difference in our sentiments, of neceffity, prevents my gaining that profit from your ministry, which I would heartily wish to gain: and thus the principal defign of public worship is defeated. How fhould I be profited by what I ̧ am fhocked and grieved to hear? By that which the reverence which I owe to the ever blefied F 4 God God obliges me to regard with abhorrence? That at which I am really ashamed to be shocked and grieved no more; as, indeed, I fhould be, if I had fuch a fenfe of God upon my mind' as I ought to have. Yet altho' I think fo ill of your tenets, confidered in themselves, believing your fincerity unquestionable, I do, at the fame time, account you a good and a worthy man. Such is every man, who, according to his best judgment, practifes what is right and good. Sincerity, Sir, is the chief thing in religion. You would think it fo in a matter between you and and your friend. And why not in religion? Because, say you, the great God doth not judge as man judges. Now, as I apprehend this to be a capital mistake, I will examine it a little; and what I fhall fay of it will be no improper introduction to what follows. AND furely, if the great God did not judge of good and evil as we judge, he would never have made this appeal to the wicked Ifraelites. "O house of "Ifrael! are not my ways equal? "Are not your ways unequal ?" -It will be readily granted, that the |