_Well, I do not like it, and I hope we shall not long be
troubled with it. A Commission of the Synod will sit in a short
Time, and try this Sort of Preaching.
_S._ I am glad to hear that the Synod are to take it into
Consideration. There are Men of unquestionable Good Sense as well as
Piety among them, and I doubt not but they will, by their Decision,
deliver our Profession from the satyrical Reflection, which a few
uneasy People of our Congregation have of late given Occasion for,
_to wit_, That the _Presbyterians_ are going to persecute, silence
and condemn a good Preacher, for exhorting them to be honest and
charitable to one another and the rest of Mankind.
T. _If Mr._ H. _is a Presbyterian Teacher, he ought to preach
as Presbyterians use to preach; or else he may justly be condemn'd
and silenc'd by our Church Authority. We ought to abide by the_
Westminster _Confession of Faith; and he that does not, ought not to
preach in our Meetings._
_S._ The Apostacy of the Church from the primitive Simplicity
of the Gospel, came on by Degrees; and do you think that the
Reformation was of a sudden perfect, and that the first Reformers
knew at once all that was right or wrong in Religion? Did not
_Luther_ at first preach only against selling of Pardons, allowing
all the other Practices of the _Romish_ Church for good. He
afterwards went further, and _Calvin_, some think, yet further.
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