injures those who are the objects of it, as well as bears an unfavourable afpect on the interefts of christianity more at large. Such are the effects of the wisdom of this world, when it is put in the place of fincerity, and a regard to the plain truth of the gospel of Jefus Chrift!

Profeffing the purity of the chriftian faith, let us be careful, my brethren, to adorn it by a blameless and exemplary life. More efpecially let us beware that we do not wear the form of godliness, when our hearts are deftitute of the power of it; and that we indulge no fecret hope, that by any peculiar ftrictnefs and aufterity of life, by frequent or long prayers, or by attending on much preaching, and ufing other means of religion, we shall atone for a neglect of the weightier matters of the law, righteoufness, mercy, and truth. Let the integrity of our hearts appear in the chearfulness of our countenances ; and let us fhew that we love God whom we have not feen, by loving our brethren whom we do fee, and by being always ready to do them every kind office in our power.

To judge of our love to God, or of our love to Chrift, directly, by what we feel when we think of them, especially when we are excluded from the world, as is the custom with many, is to expose ourselves to the groffeft and most dangerous delufions. We find in the fcriptures a much plainer, and safer method of judging in both these cases.

This, fays the apostle John, is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. If ye love me, fays our Lord, keep my commandments. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatfcever I command you; and this is my commandment, that ye love one another. By this fhall all men know that ye are my difciples, if ye have love one for another.

Remember that true christian charity is humble, modeft, and diffident; and that he is pronounced to be happy, who feareth always, fo as to be circumfpect in thought, word, and deed; and that, for this purpose, we are to put on the whole armour of God, that we may withstand the temptations of the world.

Rather than indulge a pharifaical pride, in recounting your experiences, boafting how vile you have once been, or thought yourselves to be, in order to make others believe how holy and fanctified you are now, content yourselves with the language and practice of the humble publican, who, fpeaking to God and his own heart only, cried, God be merciful to me a finner.

Rejoice in all the real good you fee done by others, whatever may be their ill-will, or oppofition to you; and be especially upon your guard, left your just averfion to what is corrupt in the principles or practices of others lead you to diflike what is good in them. Let not the pharifaical rigour of fome throw you into the oppofite extreme of levity; and let not their laying an undue stress

upon praying, preaching, and other means of religion, make you neglect them, as we are too apt to do with respect to any thing that has been much abufed.

Having enough to do with our own hearts, let us be particularly upon our guard against that spirit of cenforiousness, which many profeffing chriftians indulge with too little reftraint. Let us remember that the true chriftian beareth all things, and hopeth all things; and let us never forget the awful warning of our Lord, Judge not that ye be not judged: for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

Be not moved, my brethren, by the rash cenfures and reproaches of others. Perfecution, of fome kind, is what all who live godlily in Christ Jesus must expect to fuffer in this world. To their wrath, anger, clamour, evil-speaking, and malice, answer with the wisdom that is from above; which is pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated; full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrify. Let us even rejoice that we are counted worthy to fuffer shame, and infult, for thè fake of Chrift, though our fufferings come not from the profeffed enemies of Chrift, but from falfe brethren; and let us not be concerned at being counted deceivers, if we be confcious to ourselves that we truly love the gofpel, and that we labour to promote and adorn it,

You

You will be called arminians and focinians by your adverfarics, or fomething else that shall exprefs more of their hatred and diflike. But let not this offend you. If there be any proper meaning in thofe epithets, it can only be that you hold certain opinions which they deem to be falfe, but which you cherish as the only genuine doctrines of the gofpel. If nothing more is meant by thofe terms, befides mere reproach and abuse, think your felves happy, as being reproached for t'e name of Chrift. 1 Peter iv. 14.. With many the appellation of Lutheran or Calvinift is reproachful, and with many alfo that of Chriftian is much more fo. Befides, both Arminius and Socinus were men who loved the gofpel, and who fuffered more for their adherence to it, than most others of the reformers, efpecially Socinus.

If we be chriftians indeed, we shall confider Durfelves as not of this world, but as citizens of heaven. The friendship of this world, therefore, together with popularity, and fuccefs in it, ought not to be confidered as any object for us. If we abide in Chrift, and walk even as he alfo walked, not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds, we are heirs of a far nobler inheritance, an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, referved in heaven for us; and when Chrift, who is our life, and for whom we fuffer reproach, fhall appear, we also shall appear with him in glory.

I fhall conclude this addrefs with a word of advice and exhortation to all unitarians, whether they be members of the eftablished church, or of any fociety of diffenters in this country.

Of fuch great importance is the doctrine of the divine unity, that nothing will more fully justify a feparation from any chriftian church that does not openly profess it, and much more from those that avow the contrary doctrine, directing prayers, and paying fupreme worship, to any other than the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift.

It was for the prefervation of this great and fundamental doctrine, that Abraham, and his family by Ifaac and Jacob, were separated from the rest of the world, and made a diftinct people, as it were, to be the depofitaries of the true religion, which confifts principally in the fole worship of the one true and living God, the maker and preferver of all things. The fame important doctrine was uniformly taught by Chrift and the apoftles; though chriftians in after-times, like the Ifraelites after the time of Joshua, relapsed into that idolatry which has generally prevailed to this day.

If it was a fufficient juftification of the first reformers, that they confidered the church from which they separated as worshiping faints and angels; will it not justify your feparation from their partial reformations, that you confider them as praying to and worshiping one whom you con