The justice of God in the damnation of sinners. Illustrated in a sermon

PREFACE TO THE FAREWELL SERMON.

IT is not unlikely, that some of the readers of the following Sermon may be inquisitive concerning the circumstances of the difference between me and the people of Northampton, that issued in that separation between me and them which occasioned the preaching of this farewell sermon.—There is, by no means, room here for a full account of that matter: But yet it seems to be proper, and even necessary, here to correct some gross misrepresentations, which have been abundantly, and (it is to be feared) by some affectedly and industriously made, of that difference: Such as, that I insisted on persons being assured of their being in a state of salvation, in order to my admitting them into the church: that I required a particular relation of the method and order of a person's inward experience, and of the time and manner of his conversion, as the test of his […] for Christian communion; yea, that I have undertaken to set up a pure church, and to make an exact and certain distinction between saints and hypocrites, by a pretended infallible discerning the state of men's souls: that in these things I had fallen in with those wild people, […] have lately appeared in New England, […] and that I myself was become a grand Separatist; that ⟨p. 84⟩I arrogated all the power of judging of the qualifications of candidates for communion wholly to myself, and insisted on acting by my sole authority, in the admission of members into the church▪ &c.

IT is not unlikely, that some of the readers of the following Sermon may be inquisitive concerning the circumstances of the difference between me and the people of Northampton, that issued in that separation between me and them which occasioned the preaching of this farewell sermon.—There is, by no means, room here for a full account of that matter: But yet it seems to be proper, and even necessary, here to correct some gross misrepresentations, which have been abundantly, and (it is to be feared) by some affectedly and industriously made, of that difference: Such as, that I insisted on persons being assured of their being in a state of salvation, in order to my admitting them into the church: that I required a particular relation of the method and order of a person's inward experience, and of the time and manner of his conversion, as the test of his for Christian communion; yea, that I have undertaken to set up a pure church, and to make an exact and certain distinction between saints and hypocrites, by a pretended infalliable discerning the state of men's souls: that in these things I had fallen in with those wild people, have lately appeared in New England, and that I myself was become a grand Seperatist; that