For if Pretence is taken from the least failure, or any sort of failure whatsoever, to break a Bargain made between Persons who are bound to one another forever thereby, at this rate, (taking every thing in tlie utmost strictness) we should r»pen the Door to all sorts of Breaches : All Marriages will 1)e dissolved, all Engagements between Parents and Children, and between Masters & Servants, would be annulled; and to contiiie my self to the subject which we are upon, there would not be. one Minister wiio could remain six Months peaceably in his Church. For either the Church might complain that the Minister had failed in his Duty, or the Minister might alledge, that the Church had not furnished him

1164 DIFFICULTIES IN THE

with necessaries, or liad failed either in Respect or Affection, or Obedience or Submission to liim, or had acted contrary to some Article of the Contract made between them, or to some point of Discipline which the Churcli was engaged to observe, as well as he, and so on, &c. (for I liave now touch'd upon the present Case) And hereupon each of the Parties might imagine themselves respectively to have a Right to annul their Bargain, and to provide themselves otherwise ; whence a Thousand ill Consequences would follow, easie to be imagined, and very prejudicial to tlie Quiet, Peace, Edification and Preservation of the Church.

Besides, we might by tliis means abolish the Exercise of Charity, of Christian Toleration, of mutual Forbearance, and of the Forgiveness of Injuries and Faults, &c. We might thus introduce the manner of Turks and Barbarians, and even worse, into all Christian Churches. I should think it would be much better to follow herein charitable Counsels, and to remember what the Apostle St. James tells us.