the government and discipline of his Church which it justly deserves.
Although this subject should not be placed among the things essential to
the being of a Christian; yet if it be found among the things that
Christ has commanded, it is at our peril if we continue wilfully
ignorant of, or despise it. He has expressly declared, that he who
breaks one of the _least_ of his commandments, and teacheth men to do
so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. It is an opinion too
common, that if we believe the _essentials_ of religion, there is no
occasion for so much preciseness about the forms of church government,
which are only _circumstantials_, as there will be no inquiry made about
these at the tribunal of Christ. But whatever relative importance the
things of religion may have, when compared with one another, we ought to
reckon nothing which God hath appointed, nothing which Jesus hath
ratified with his blood, nothing which the Holy Spirit hath indited, so
_circumstantial_, as to be unworthy of our serious regard. It is at
least very rash, if not presumptuous, to say, that nothing about the
circumstantials of religion will be inquired into at the tribunal of
Christ. God has expressly said, that every work, good or evil, every
idle word, and every deed done in the body, shall be brought into
judgment; and false worshippers will, perhaps, find that their form of
worship consisted in something worse than idle words, or sinful words
either, even in sinful deeds, for which they will be accountable at the
judgment. As Christ laid down his life for his people, has instructed
them, and has set a hedge about all that they have, it would be most
ungrateful to requite him with pouring the highest contempt on his
kingly honor and authority; and when his worship is polluted, his truth
perverted, and the walls of his New Testament Zion broken down, to care
for none of those things. Government and discipline are the hedge of his
garden, the Church; and how will what men call the essentials of
religion remain in their glory, when this is broken down, the present