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what is the meaning here of decency and or- SER M. der? One would think it can naturally be no other than that the actions referred to in the foregoing verfes, which were religious fervices in publick worshipping affemblies, fhould be performed in a grave becoming manner, suitable to the nature and defign of them. Some of the chriftians of Corinth, who were endowed with extraordinary fpiritual gifts, fuch as the gifts of tongues, of pfalmody, of interpretation, and prophecy, through an imprudent forwardness and oftentation, attempted to exercise them in fuch a manner as to render their affemblies confused, tumultuous, and unedifying; fome spoke a language which the generality of the audience did not understand; one offered a pfalm of his own compofing; an other was forward to prefent his interpreta tion of fome difficult point; and a third as ready to prevent them both with his prophecy; nay, to fuch a height their disorders rofe, that the voices of men and women interrupting one another, were blended together in confufion. Now, the apostle having reproved thefe irregularities, and applied the natural remedy to each particular cafe, having forbid them to fpeak in an unknown tongue, unless there was one prepared to interpret ;

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ER M. interpret; having required the prophets, as

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they were not like mere machines, but had their fpirits fubject to them, or a power of ufing their spiritual gifts with understanding and discretion, to speak on in course, one only at once; and that women should be wholly filent in the church; he concludeth with this general exhortation, let all things, the things above mentioned, and others like them, be done decently and in order. But where is the occafion for exercifing authority in all this? doth the apoftle make use of his own, or appeal to any other, requiring its interpofition? doth he call upon the governors of the church to make new regulations for curing the evils complained of, and preventing the like for the future? or if there were no governors in the Corinthian church at that time, which fome alledge, doth he make fuch regulations by his own authority, which was as fufficient for the purpose, as the authority of their governors if they had ever fo many? It would seem rather that, from his manner of writing, and the reason of the cafe, the appeal is to common prudence, as fufficient to direct in fuch points of mere decency and order.

The truth is, a fenfe of decency and indecency feemeth to be natural to mankind, when

when arrived at the capacity of attending SER M. to the proper objects of it, as the higher V. fenfe of moral good and evil is, and like it, prior to and independant of authority and laws. There is a certain decorum in actions,

and order in things, which a man observing findeth it agreeable to him, as the contrary is difagreeable; and he learneth it from nature, not from human determinations, which we examine by a ftandard already in our minds. These characters of decent and indecent we apply to the performances of men with the external circumftances and manner of them, either fingle, or as affociated together, so far as they come under our obfervation; but they are not regarded as of any great importance to the ends of life or of fociety, nor are the subject of laws. Civil communities leave the direction of public affairs, fo far as concerneth the points of mere decency and order, to the discretion of those who are entrusted with the execution of their appointments, without any regulation; far lefs would fuch trifling regulations be neceffary to the ends of religion, or become its gravity and importance. Can there be a neceffity of fuch circumftantial appointments by public authority in per◄ forming acts of devotion, as fhall defcend

SERM. to the vestments and bodily posture of the V. worshipper, and even prescribe all the pre

cife words which he shall use? and are chriftians only fuch novices, fo entirely uninftructed in the propriety of behaviour, that they must have peremptory rules to guide them in every minute circumftance of their outward religious actions, though these circumstances are of fo very little confideration to the purposes of religion? But if, under the pretence of decency, not only the natural circumftances of external actions are prescribed (which is the cafe referred to in 1 Cor. xiv. 40.) but ufages wholly new for the fubftance of them be added, as the judaizing christians would have added circumcifion and the Jewith ceremonies to the christian service; and as fome, at this day, add the entirely new act of figning with the cross to the facrament of baptifm; this is ftill a higher claim of power, and a more dangerous encroachment on liberty; for then what St. Paul calleth the truth of the gospel, Gal. ii, 5. or the fufficiency of it to the ends of a religious inftitution, and for religious affociations, is the point opposed, and, after the example of the apostle, to be zealoufly contended for.

The

The pretence of preferving peace and SERM. union amongst chriftians, ftill less than that V. of decency and order, juftifieth the encroachments of human authority upon their freedom. It is acknowledged that nothing is more suitable to the genius and defign of christianity, than peace amongst the profeffors of it; nothing is more largely insisted on, more earneftly preffed in its declarations; and if it do not fufficiently provide for peace, as far as an inftitution can provide, it must be owned it is defective, coming fhort of its profeffed ends. But what doth the gospel mean by peace? not a mere absence of contentions and jars, whatever the cause be; nor a mere agreement in religious profeffions, and joining together in public teftimonies of it; but, principally, it meáneth harmony of affections, and the immediate refult of mutual charity as a bond of perfectness. The New Teftament writers evidently fuppofe, what indeed it is most reasonable to fuppofe, that in this imper-. fect state there always will be, as there has hitherto been, a diverfity of fentiments amongst chriftians, and, if not reftrained, a diverfity of practice in the leffer points of religion. But how do they provide against the inconveniencies which may arise from K4

this