REMARKS ON Mr. Prefident CLAP's HISTORY and VINDICATION OF THE DOCTRINES,&c. OF THE New-England Churches. GAL. II. 11. I withstood him to the Face, because he was to be blamed: S A L'M CXXXviii. 2. 4. Thou haft magnified thy Word above all PSALM CXIX. 9. 97, 98. Quid juventam, ne labafcat, fervat æquè ac lex tua ? BUCHANAN. New-Haven, Advertisement. Mtory and Vindication, &c. When it fir R. Clap's Pamphlet, entituled a brief Hif སཔྟ appeared from the Prefs, was thought by Many, fo beneath the Prefident, fo unworthy his Station and Character, that out of Regard to him, and his Ufefulness, They omitted to make any public Remarks upon it, in Hopes that his Credit would have been in fome good Meafure faved by a general Silence about, and Difregard to his Miftakes, and difingenuous Mifreprefentations: Accordingly the following Remarks (which were chiefly wrote at a leifure Hour, without any Defign for the Press) would probably never have been made public, had not the Prefident's Piece been very induftriously difperfed, and much Strefs laid upon it by the Prefident himfelf, and fome of his Friends; to the promoting among People, a Spirit of Sufpicion, Difaffection and Cenforioufness.---For this Reafon many Friends to Truth and Chriftian Liberty, are of Opinion, that, tho' the Piece has been fome Months abroad, yet it is expedient that it be answered, or animadverted upon; at the Defire therefore of a Number of Such, the following Remarks, are now made public, and recommended to the Notice of All, who are in Heart concern'd for the Interest of Truth and Peace. OTHE By the AUTHOR. BIBL X SOME REMARKS On Mr. Prefident CLAP's Hiftory, and Vindication, of the Doctrines of the New-Eng land Churches, &c. A S the Scriptures, teach us just and adequate Conceptions of the Deity, as they give us the Knowledge of Ourfelves, and of our Relation to God, as they give us the Knowledge of the invifible World, and fhew us that Heaven is defigned, as a Reward for Virtue; as they teach us the Redemption purchafed by Christ, and the Qualifications that we must really and perfonally become poffeffed of, in order to final and everlafting Happiness; they are of the greatest Moment, and laft Concern to Men: 'Tis therefore great Pity that any Thing fhould be wrote or faid, that has a natural Tendeney, to take off the Minds of Mankind from them as a Rule of Faith and Manners; or that they fhould be proftitúted to ferve any Defigns unworthy their Calculation. The pious Founders of the New England Churches, profeffed to receive the Bible as the only fure Rule and Teft in Matters of Religion. This unfpeakable Gift of Heaven to the Churches, they held faft; and declared that they formed not their religious Sentiments by human Schemes and Syftems of Divinity, nor received for Doctrines the Commandments and Inftitutions of Men. They could not bear to be in Bondage to the Opinions and Compofitions of fallible Men. They would not fuffer any of their Fellow-Men to have Dominion over their Faith, who were liable to err as well as themfelves. They were utterly against fubmit A fubmitting to any Standards and Rules of Faith and Practice, but the Word of GOD. They could not bear to hear of any Church or Council, Sect or Party's being fet up as decifive Judges and Mafters in Matters of Faith. And they chofe rather to leave their Habitations, and their dear native Country, and all their pleafant Accommodations there, and remove into this then a howling Wildernefs, a Land of Darknefs and of the Shadow of Death, and prepare themfelves Habitations here, where they might freely fearch the Scriptures, and believe and practife according to what they fhould find therein; than continue in their antient pleafant Seats, under the Encumbrance of being Subject to the Authority of mortal and uninfpired Men in Matters of Faith. And amidst all the Hardships and Trials they had to conflict with in this Land, they rejoiced, they gloried in their religious Liberty. They folaced themfelves with fearching the Scriptures. And if there were any different Sentiments among them, their Enquiry was not fo much what was the Opinion of Luther and Calvin, of this or the other Man, as what faith the Scripture. They were willing to confult the Writings of good and great Men; to learn and be inftructed, and to improve them as Helpers to affist them in fearching the Scriptures, but not as Lords of their Faith. They indeed gave their Affent to fome Confeffions of Faith, as being in their Opinion agreeable to the Word of GOD: But at the fame Time were careful to let it be known, that they received these Doctrines, not upon the Authority of thefe Confeffions or the Compilers of them, but of the Word of GOD; and referved Liberty to diffent from any Propofition in thefe Compofures, if upon any more diligent Search of the Scriptures, they fhould find the fame not according to the Doctrine of the Bible: And recommended it to All to try the Doctrines of thefe Con feffions, feffions, by that only Rule of Faith: Thus the EL ders and Meffengers of the Connecticut Churches af fembled by Delegation at Say-Brook, when they coni fented to the Savoyo Confeffion of Faith, declared, that they did not affume to themfelves, that any Thing be taken upon Traft from them, but com1 "mended to their People, that they be immoveably and unchangeably agreed in the ONLY SUFFICIENT and invariable Rule of Religion, which is the Holy Scripture, the fixed Canon incapable of Addition or Diminution. You ought (fay they) to account nothing antient, that will not ftand by this "Rule, nor any Thing new that will." They further recommended to their People, to be deter "mined by this Rule [the holy Scripture] in the "whole of Religion; That your Faith (fay they) be " right and "Foundation of it, and the Authority of the Word "the Reafon of it*. This was fo important a Point with them, that in Order to engage the Attention of People, thereunto they took Care to have the following Article of that Confeffion printed with a different Type. Viz." The Supreme Judge by which all Contro"verfies of Religion are to be determined, and all De Foundation Vine, the Word of God must be the crees of Councils, Opinions of antient Writers, Doc"trines of Men and private Spirits, are to be examined, and in whofe Sentence we are to reft, can be no other but the holy Scripture delivered by the Spirit; into which Scripture fo delivered, our Faith is finally re" Solved+". AND doubtless it would have been grievous to thofe good and excellent Men, if even their own Doctrines and Opinións fhould have been defended in a Manner inconfiftent with their Profeffion, and that free Enquiry, and full Subjection to the holy Scriptures they recommended. They never intended to fet themselves up as Mafters of Faith, and to A 2 have Preface to the Confeffion, &c. p. 6. Chap. 1. Sect. x. |