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46 writers; for, in matters of faith and points of doctrine, those at least who lived in the ages nearest to the times of the Apostles undoubtedly deserve to be consulted. The oral doctrines and occasional explications of the Apostles would not be immediately forgotten, in the Churches to which they had preached, and which had attended to them with the diligence and reverence which their mission and character demanded. Their solution of difficulties, and determinations of doubtful questions, must have been treasured up in the memory of their audiences, and transmitted for some time from father to son. Every thing, at least, that was declared by the inspired teachers to be necessary to salvation, must have been carefully recorded; and, therefore, what we find no traces of in Scripture, or the early Fathers, as most of the peculiar tenets of the Romish Church, must certainly be concluded to be not necessary. Thus, by consulting first the Holy Scriptures, and next the writers of the Primitive Church, we shall make ourselves acquainted with the will of ; thus shall we discover the good way, and find that rest for our souls, which will amply recompense our studies and inquiries.

The Constitution and use of the Church of is another subject, on which our principles, for some years past, have been very unsettled, and our knowledge precarious and superficial. Ignorance is dangerous here, because there are so many whose interest it is to flatter us in it, and take advantage of it. The definition of the Church, contained in our Articles, was purposely less definitive than it might have been, to avoid giving further offence to those whom we rather wished to reconcile; but it does not appear, that the Church hath gained any thing by its moderation; it hath rather lost; because in virtue of that moderation, it hath been pleaded against us, that Ecclesiastical Unity may be dispensed with, and that all our differences in this matter are only problematical and immaterial.

But salvation is a gift of grace; that is, it is a free gift, to which we have no natural claim. It is not to be conceived within our-