PREFACE. EVIL is not yet established by law in this country 5 but good and evil have been growing up together so long, that they will never more be separated, unless it shall be in some small remnant of Christians. By means of predestination falsely stated, the rights of God and his ministry are so far forgotten, that we are getting every day nearer to Babel, and further from Jerusalem. In the last century, this Calvinistic corruption swallowed up both Church and State, and it threatens to do so again, if it be not guarded against, more than I expect it will be. It will not work directly and with the same violence as before, but slowly and by way of sap, under the name, appearance and intention of good, as evil always does, when most mischief is intended. We cannot wonder, that it is so unmerciful now in consigning the souls of men to per dition, when we remember how cruelly it treated their bodies and estates formerly. God, who saved us be fore, cannot be expected to save us again, by any equally extraordinary interposition, where the error is the same as before; I have therefore drawn up these few hints to set wise men on thinking: if I had been in health, I would have carried them much farther: I pray God to turn them to good, to the end that old apostolical faith, that piety and peace, may still remain among us. SERMON THERE is not a more plain precept than this in the gospel; even a child that has been christened, and has learned the catechism of the church, is taught to be thankful to God, who by baptism has called it to a state of salvation; and to pray and to hope, that with the help of God's grace which he promises in that sacrament, it may continue in the same state unto its life's end. This, I say, is plain doctrine, and I am sure it is true: we may also safely say, it is the doctrine B 3 |