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Caution to avoid Popish errours, has, perhaps, in some instances, particularly among puritans, been carried to an extreme. Thus, that men might not fall into the Papistical practice of praying for the dead, neither prayers nor any religious exersise was customary at funerals. Our ancestors brought this caution, may I not say prejudice, with them into our country; and for more than a century after their settlement here, prayers were not made at funerals. The first prayer made, and the first sermon preached at the obsequies of a deceased person in Boston, were at the funeral of the Rev. Dr. Mayhew, in the year 1766.

Objections have been often made to the congregational worship. It is thought to be too simple. In publick worship, we are told that there should be more ornament, more ceremonies to fix the attention, and to excite suitable emotions. But if we are at the opposite extreme of that of the Papists, experience, I think, shows that our extreme is the safest. Splendour of ornament, and redundance of ceremony have a tendency to engross the mind, and lead people to suppose that religious worship consists in mere external observances. When the form of worship is simple, the service may be the more intellectual and edifying, and the worship more spiritual and acceptable.

The reformation, as it respects Christian doctrines, will be the subject of our attention on a future occasion.

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SERMON XII.

THE REFORMATION, AS IT RESPECTS DOCTRINES, WAS

PARTIAL.

1 TIMOTHY vi. 4, 5.

If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings.

THE history of the Christian world furnishes the clearest illustration of our text. Whenever men, leaving the simplicity of the gospel, have attempted to embody the truths of revelation in human formularies, disputes, divisions and censoriousness have followed.

The nature and extent of the reformation, in the sixteenth century, have already been reviewed.— The particular branch of this subject, that I shall at this time discuss, is, the doctrines which were established by the reformers, as the fundamental truths of revelation.

Luther, and other reformers, made less changes in the doctrines, than in the rites and ceremonies of the Papal Church. Indeed, the degree in which they removed the corruptions that had been introduced, was very limited. Most of the articles of the Lutheran and Calvinistick systems had long been established by the authority of the holy mother Church.

The following may be taken as a summary of Luther's faith :-He denied the doctrine of free will, and asserted that in all men do, they act from necessity. He held that all the actions of men, in a state of nature, are sinful; and that their virtues are crimes. He was a most strenuous advocate for the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the eucharist. On this subject, a long and bit ter controversy existed between Luther and Zuinglius, of Switzerland—a controversy which occasioned a breach among the followers of these great men that was never healed. As it respects doctrinal points, there was not a material difference between the Lutheran and Calvinistick systems. I mention this now, because I shall presently show that all the leading doctrines of these systems were the established doctrines of the Papal Church. Melancthon was unquestionably more mild and liberal, and more reformed than Luther; but he become not the head of any particular sect. Zuinglius was pre-eminently distinguished among the reformers of the sixteenth century. He, more than any other reformer, divested himself from the prejudice of a Popish education, carried into the study of the scriptures more sound principles of criticism, pos

sessed more of the spirit of his Master, and in his intercourse with his fellow Christians, displayed more of the charity of the gospel. Admiring his general character, I cannot restrain the inclination to present to your view an extract from his biography.

"In the character of Zuinglius," says his impartial biographer, "there appears to have been united all that makes a man amiable in private society, with the firmness, ardour, and intrepidity that are indispensable in executing the great task of reformation. By nature mild, his earnestness was the result of the importance of the cause he engaged in to the best interests of mankind, not of a dogmatical or dictatorial spirit. His views were large and generous, and his opinions rose above the narrow scale of sect or party. It was no small proof of the liberality in that age, that he ventured to assert his belief of the final happiness of virtuous heathens, and of all good men who act up to the laws engraven on their own consciences. His temper was cheerful and social, somewhat hasty, but incapable of harbouring resentment, or indulging envy or jealousy. As a reformer, he was original; for he had proceeded far in emancipating himself from the superstitions of Rome, by the strength of his own judgment, and had began to communicate the light to others, whilst Luther still retained almost the whole of the Romish system, and long before Calvin was known in the world. He was more learned and more moderate than the first of these divines, and more humane and kind-hearted than the

last. He wrote many works of utility in their day; and the reform, of which he was the author, still exists unchanged among a people distinguished by their morals and mental cultivation.

To this biographical sketch I will add, that when the Roman Catholick cantons of Switzerland, in arms invaded the territory of their reformed brethren, to force them to return within the pale of the Papal Church, Zuinglius went out with his countrymen in defence of Christian liberty, and perished on the field of battle. Desperately wounded, he was left senseless on the ground. A Roman Catholick soldier, who found him so far recovered as to cross his arms on his breast, and raise his eyes to heaven, offered to bring a confessor, and exhorted him to recommend his soul to the virgin Mary. Zuinglius declined the proposal, and the soldier furiously exclaimed, "Die, then, obstinate heretick," and pierced him through with his sword. A priest who had once been his colleague at Zurich, but who was his opponent as a reformer, intensely gazing on the corpse, proclaimed, "Whatever may have been thy faith, I am sure thou wert always sincere, and that thou lovedst thy country. May God take thy soul to his mercy."

A high claim in favour of the system of Calvinism is made in our country, on the declaration that this contains the doctrines of the reformation. The doctrine of the trinity, and the whole class of articles of faith, which with us are proudly denominated the orthodox creed, it is confidently affirmed, were the peculiar doctrines of the reformers; and I doubt not that many are led to believe

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