ed also the CIVIL part of the burgess oath, relating to allegiance or fidelity to the civil magistrate, under colour of reformation.

From this spring of division, many other methods of temple-destruction have issued, namely, the building of the Babel of a new constitution; which is,

(1.) A constitution subversive of the national consti-, tution of the church of Scotland, in all her reformation periods, by making the Revolution settlement of church and state to be Erastian; and that upon topics which evidently would prove, if they were true, that the church of Scotland was never lawfully constituted, but always upon an Erastian foundation, as is elsewhere demonstrated.*

(2.) It is now a constitution built upon a bloody foundation, as that of the murder of the sacred offices of their brethren, ministers, and elders; built upon a foundation that bath both shame and wo denounced against it in scripture. Shame, as in Obadiah, yer. 10. "For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee; and thou shalt be cut off for ever. Isa. Ixiv. 5. Your brethren that hated you, and cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed." And wo, Hab. ii. 12. "Wo to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity. Mat. xxiii. 13. Wo to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men." This is done remarkably, when power is assumed to rob their brethren of the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whereby they open the door of that kingdom unto men. And no wonder that such as have assumed and arrogated such unlawful power over their brethren, are left, some of them, to rob themselves of the keys of that kingdom, by making it a sin for their former hearers, that cannot jump with their new opinions, to come and hear them any more: Christ's commission to his servants is, To preach the gospel to every creature; but thus they rob

* The reader will find this affair clearly treated by our Author, by consulting Fancy still no Faith, subjoined to a pamphlet, intitled, Observations on the Conduct of the separating Brethren, p. 94,—107.

themselves of that power, and the people of that privilege. Such contradiction to the declared mind of Christ, shews strange delusion in such, to whom the Lord, in his wrathful permission, seems to be saying, "Destroy this temple."

Of this sort are these destructive methods used of reproach and calumny, casting iniquity upon brethren, that are honestly maintaining the testimony of the day; and by doing this in a way of casting the Testimony itself into another mould and shape, than ever it was understood by Seceders formerly: making it a Testimony renouncing the true religion; that is, the presently authorized doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the church of Scotland; and consequently, renouncing their former profession: and because their Brethren cannot jump with them into these new and strange principles, defaming them as approvers of contradictory oaths, turning their new opinions into articles of faith, and terms of communion; libelling, lashing, and loading with heavy charges, these who dare not make their new decrees any rule of faith or practice*. Such imposition our Lord discharges; and tells the imposers of them, that they made void the commandment of God by their commands and traditions, Matth. xv. 3. "Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men," verse 9. Compare this with Deut. xii 32. "What thing soever

* Scarce did ever a spirit of calumny and reproach more prevail than upon this occasson: if we consult their Acts and Proceedings, and other performances, we will find, that "Apostates and backslid"ers from the Lord's ways: fallen stars: departers from, betrayers "and buriers of the whole testimony of the day; opposers of the "cause of Christ; left their Bibles behind them; begun to go back "to Egypt;" with such light appellations, were the usual epithets given to their brethren at this time: and for no other reason, but because they affirmed the lawfulness of swearing the religious clause of the burgess oath, which binds to maintain that divine thing and precious treasure, the True Religion, presently professed and autliorised by the laws of the land; and which our standing laws term, "The true religion; God's true religion; Christ's true religion; God's "eternal truth, contained in the Word of GOD, expressed in such "and such Confessions of Faith, and sworn also to in our National "Covenant."

I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it." We must not deal with God's ordinances, as that tyrant Procustes did with men if they were too long for his bed, he would cut them shorter; if too short, he would pull their limbs out of joint to make them longer. Such tyranny likewise over the consciences of men, would these practice, who would bind people implicitly to their new doctrines, dictates, and decisions. Sure these are temple-destroying methods.

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Such are these also, of libelling after sentence pronounced t;. and then prostituting the ordinance of God, to the reproach of the world, by casting out of communion with them all such as cannot fall down and worship the image they have set up, or comply with their new precepts; wherein they make themselves. judges of the law of God, as Manton upon James iv. 11. speaks: Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge." Whence he observes, "That to make "more sins than God hath made, is to judge the law, "as if it were not a perfect rule. Men, says he, will "be wise beyond God, and bind others in chains of "their own making. There is an obedience of faith,

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by which the understanding must be captivated to "God, but not to men; to the word, but not to every fancy. There is a double superstition, says he; posi❝tive and negative: one is, when men count that holy which God never made holy; another is, when "mei condemn that which God never condemned: "bot these are like faulty. We are not in the place

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It was already observed, that immediately on the back of the Brethrn's new constitution, they materially suspended and exauctorated al Ministers and Elders from their sacred offices; yet they afterwards put a Libel into their hands, consisting of seven articles, which was the foundation of all the unparalleled censures passed upon thm. The articles of this Libel, with Remarks thereupon, by Rev. Messrs E. Erskine and Fisher, may be seen in a Preface, prefixed;o our Author's tract, intitled, observations on the Conduct of the soarating Brethren.

"of God: it is not in our power to make sins our "duties."-" Touch not, taste not, handle not," was the "ordinance and precept of false teachers, Col. ii. 19. There "are three things, says he, excepted from men's judica"ture, God's counsels, the holy scriptures, and the hearts. " of men. We should not dogmatize and subject men "to ordinances of our own making, press our own au"thorities, and rigorous observances as duties. Justice "and wisdom is good; but to be just overmuch, and "wise overmuch, is stark naught, Eccl. vi. 15, 16. that is, to be just and wise beyond the rule. Man is a "proud creature, and would fain make his morosity a "law for others, and obtrude his own private sense for "doctrine. It is usual to condemn every thing that "does not please us, as if our magisterial dictates were "articles of faith. We must not come in our own name, "but judge as the world judges, otherwise we judge "the world. The Lord grant, he adds, we may con"sider it in this dogmatizing age, wherein every one "cries up his own private conceit for LAW, and men "make sins rather than find them." Thus far he speaks, as if he had been living and speaking in the midst of us just now, when men are, by this method among the rest, destroying the temple, and demolishing it.

I only add another method, used amidst these days of temptation and awful delusion, for destroying and demolishing the temple, and that is, the managing all under the highest pretence to piety, religion, and progress in reformation. And, indeed, Satan would never gain his design so much, if he did not transform himself into an angel of light, and busk up his black temptations with the fair colour of zeal for God and his glory. Thus Christ himself was arraigned and condemned, under colour of zeal for the Sabbath-day, which his enemies said he profaned; of zeal for the law, which they said he transgressed; "We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God." Thus the apostles were cast out of the synagogue, under pretence of doing service to God." "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you,shall think he doth God service," John xvi. 2. Thus it vas of

old, Isa.lxvi. 5."They that hated and cast out their brethren, said, Let the Lord be glorified." And thusitis, Mic.iii. 10, 11, 12. "They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. Yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? &c Therefore shall Zion, for your sakes, be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps."--Well, even by these, and the like methods, the Lord is saying to temple destroyers at this day, with reference to the Associate church, Destroy this temple, by giving men leave to break, divide, and demolish it. But,

[2] As to the second question here, What are the sinful causes amongst us, that have provoked God to order such a rent, rupture, and destruction of the temple?

None of us can justify ourselves before God, whether ministers or people of the Association; "Who gave Jacob to the spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Hath not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? Our own wickedness correcteth us, and our backslidings reprove us: therefore, let us not say we are innocent, and lay all the blame upon sinful instruments. Though we cannot justify them, yet let us not justify ourselves before God: though we may justify ourselves before men from many false charges they lay against us. Even in

these we may see and adore the righteousness of God in chastening us; in such crosses as these, while we look to the hand of God, we are chastised for our sin : but from the hand of men, we suffer for our honesty.

I shall lay before you some of the sinful causes of the rupture and breach, wherein the destruction of the temple is threatened.

1. Rashness at the beginning, in the way wherein many acceded to the Testimony of the day, without due consideration of the matter, as duty before God, but rather influenced thereto by the example of others. This may have provoked the Lord to say, Destroy this temple. In regard many are now giving evidence, that at first they were but followers of men, leading them one way; for now they are followers of men, leading them just another way: and even, perhaps, the same

VOL. IX.

K.