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have been a terrible shock to me, and that I must have had a great concern upon my mind, when I found myself at a loss about a doctrine of which I had been all along fond, to a great degree of uncharitableness.
However, this caused me to read the
Bible with more care, and make it more my prayer to God that I might be led into the truth.
I was soon convinced the common opinion could not reasonably be esteemed a fundamental article of the
Christian faith, as I had been too apt before to take it to be; and on serious consideration, the subject appeared to me so abstruse and difficult, that I could not imagine God had made men's salvation to depend on their maintaining exactly the same notion concerning it; especially seeing the scripture never insists on the absolute necessity of one uniform belief about it; and I was much confirmed in this apprehension, by considering how widely good men had differed from one another on the subject.
‘While I continued in suspense, being still upon the search, I considered how I ought to order my practice: and here I thought it most safe for me to keep close to the scripture, which is much clearer in delivering rules and examples for our practice than in furnishing us with nice and intricate speculations.
As to the Christian virtues, I thought them not much concerned in the controversy; and in conversation I had always avoided such intricate points, and might easily do so still.
But my chief concern was about my preaching and praying.
Concerning the former, I resolved to keep more close to the scripture expression than ever, and venture to say very little in my own words of a matter about which I was in so much doubt ’
