19. Dr. Grosvenor.*"The diminutive things that have been said by some, of the positive appointments in religion, and the extravagant things that have been said by others, are two extremes which true reasoning leads nobody into, on either hand. It is as contrary to the nature of things to make nothing of them, as to make them the whole of religion. To know exactly the regard that is due to them, is to find out the rank and order they are placed in by Him who has appointed them....I shall lay together what I have to say on this subject, under the following propositions.

"Proposition I. Some things are absolutely necessary to salvation, and in their own nature. We call those things absolutely necessary, without which there can be no salvation at all. Thus, a mind suited to the happiness intended by the word salvation, is absolutely necessary; or holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.' All the titles in the world to heaven, can never give the pleasure of heaven, without a suitableness to its enjoyments. Fitness here is as the eye to the delights of colours and prospects; the ear, to the pleasures of harmony; and as the palate, to those of taste and relish; that is, a capacity of enjoyment. As there must be an animal nature for animal pleasures, and a rational nature for rational ones; so there must be the divine and heavenly nature, for those that are divine and heavenly. No man would care to live even with a God whom he did not love.

"Prop. II. No merely positive appointments are necessary in this sense, i. e., absolutely and in their own nature. If there never had been a sacrament in the world, I might have been happy without it: you cannot say so of love to God and likeness to him........

"Prop. III. A disposition to obey divine orders, wherever they are discerned, either positive or moral, is

* Anonymous, indeed, but supposed to be Dr. Benj. Grosvenor.

part of that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.' I I may be saved without a sacrament; but I cannot be saved without a disposition to obey God's authority wherever I see it. A sacrament is a positive rite, and not to be compared with moral virtue but is not a disposition to obey God's order, moral virtue and Christian grace? Or can there be any moral virtue, or Christian grace, without a disposition to obey the authority of Christ, wherever I discern it? Surely, obedience to God's command is a moral excellence, though the instances of that obedience may lie in positive rites. The command to Abraham, to sacrifice his son, was a positive order, and a very strange one too; seemingly opposite to some moral orders given out before and yet his disposition to obey, when he was sure of a divine warrant in the case, has set him as the head of all the believing world; as the hero of faith, the father of the faithful, and the friend of God. The command of sprinkling the blood of the passover upon the doorposts of the Israelites, was an external positive rite: if there had not been a disposition to obey that order, it would have cost some lives; as it had like to have done to Moses, the neglect of circumcising his child, as good a man as he was in other respects. Was not the forbidden fruit a positive instance? an external thing? Setting aside the divine prohibition, there was nothing immoral in eating of that, any more than of any other tree; but disobedience is an immorality, let the instance be what it will.

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Prop. IV. The sincerity and truth of such a disposition, is best known by its being uniform and universal. (Psalm cxix. 6; Col. iv. 3.) The Author of our religion has told us, and added his example to his word, that thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness,' and so ordered himself to be baptized. Baptism was a positive rite, an external thing; and yet he calls it righteousness. Such righteousness as became Him who

was the Holy One of God; became Him who had intrinsically no need of any outward ceremony; whose inward purity was perfectly divine: and if it became Him to fulfil such a sort of righteousness, it can hardly become any who pretend to be his followers to neglect it.

Prop. V. As a competent evidence is supposed needful, for any external rite being of divine appointment; so again, a wilful ignorance of that evidence, or not discerning it, through criminal causes, will not excuse from guilt. The criminal causes of not seeing the evidence for such appointments, are, in this case, as in many other cases, non-enquiry, laziness, prejudice, lust, pride, and passion. That an ignorance owing to these causes, cannot be pleaded for a neglect of any of God's appointments, is so much the general sense of all casuists, that I shall only add here, THAT IT IS AT EVERY MAN'S PERIL, HOW HE COMES NOT TO KNOW THE WILL OF GOD, AS WELL AS NOT TO DO IT. We must look to it, how we came not to see the appointment, and must answer that to God and our own conscience. It is not enough to say, Lord, I did not know it was appointed; when the answer may justly be, You never enquired into the matter: you never allowed yourself to think of it: or if you did, you resolved in your mind that you would not be convinced. You made the most of every cavil, but never minded the solution to any of your objections.

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Prop. VI. The duty and necessity of any external rites, and particularly of sacraments, have their measures and degrees. And here I apprehend, the measures of the duty and necessity of sacraments to be,-The authority enjoining. When we see the broad seal of heaven, where there is the divine warrant, 'Thus saith the Lord;' it is worse than trifling, to cavil and say, It is but an external rite.—The degree of evidence of their being so appointed. Where the evidence is not so clear, the obligation is

weakened in proportion; but where the terms are plainly binding, and strongly commanding, there the obligation is not to be evaded. When positive appointments and moral duties cannot be both performed; when the one or the other must be omitted, the preference is given to the moral and spiritual duty.-The stress God lays upon them for the time they are to continue. Sprinkling the blood of the passover upon the posts of the doors, was not at all necessary in itself to preservation from the destroying angel; but God laid that stress upon it. The oracle, or the mercy-seat, was a mere positive appointment. God could have met Moses any where else; but God laying that stress upon it, measures the degree of the necessity of observing that order: There will I meet thee, and commune with thee,' Exod. xxv. 22. Moses might have reasoned with himself, God is every where, and can meet me any where, if he pleases, and if he does not please, he will not do it here; and so have missed the honour of communion with his Maker; broke the divine order; lost the benefit of the oracle; and offended God, by the neglect.-The reason and end of them. If there should be any reasons of these injunctions that we do not know, it is sufficient that they are known to God. Our obedience is always a reasonable service whether we know God's reasons for the injunction or not. His command is always reason enough for us....

"Prop. VII. He that commands the outward positive rite, commands the inward and moral temper at the same time. He does not say, Do this, without concerning himself how it is done; whether in a manner suitable to an end appointed or not. . . . There is no such command of his, as enjoins the outward act without the inward temper and disposition.

Prop. VIII. Positive appointments for such

uses and ends as these, are of a quite different nature from arbitrary impositions, with which they are too

often confounded. The idea of arbitrary I think, implies a weakness incompatible to the divine nature; whose perfection it is, to do nothing but for some wise reason, and for some good end. ...

"Prop. IX. Though no positive appointments are absolutely necessary, yet the contempt of them, and of the divine authority discerned in them, cannot consist with holiness. This contempt may be shown-by contemptuous language....a careless attendance....a total neglect....and by prostituting them to persons that do contemn them, and to purposes that are unworthy....

"To conclude: External rites are nothing without the inward temper and virtue of mind; the inward temper is but pretended to, in many cases, without the external rites, and is acquired, promoted, and evidenced by the use of them. If I give all my goods to the poor, and have not charity; there is the external act, without the inward moral temper, and so it is all nothing. If, on the other hand, I say, I have the inward temper of charity, and give nothing to the poor, but say to my brother, Be thou warmed; be thou clothed' how dwelleth the love of God in that man ? Therefore what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. Whatever comparative excellence there may be in the two different instances of obedience, they are both instances of obedience; and the direction of our regard is summed up in that text, (Matt. xxiii. 23,) 'These ought ye to have done, and not to have left the other undone."" Moral Obligation to the Positive Appointments in Religion, passim. Lond. 1732.

20. Bp. Hoadly.—“I. The partaking of the Lord's supper is not a duty of itself, or a duty apparent to us from the nature of things; but a duty made such to Christians, by the positive institution of Jesus Christ.

"II. All positive duties, or duties made such by institution alone, depend entirely upon the will and declaration of the person who institutes or ordains them,