know of are capable of Gods grace and mercy and redemption by Jesus Christ but only Rational Creatures not the brute Beasts that are below our way of understanding nor Angels that are above it And therefore certainly that which does in some sense put mankind only into a possibility of being saved cannot be wholly excluded in the great work of salvation certainly it is not the natural weakness of little children but their native candor not their want of knowledge but their docility that is here proposed to our imitation Nor secondly does this receiving the Kingdom of God as a child suppose any implicit obedience or blind resignation of our understandings to all the Commands and Impositions of any one present Church or pretended Head of it as the only infallible Judg of all matters of Faith Obedience is indeed a virtue most acceptable to God most beneficial to men Unity is one of his greatest blessings Communion is the most beautiful ornament of the Christian Church And thanks be to God there may be as much Union and Communion amongst Christians as is necessary for the being and convenient for the well-being of Christianity without any such tyranny in the Governours of the Church or servitude in its Members without inslaving of private Conscience which is Antichristian and only by a moderate governing and restraining of private Conscience which is most Christian as well as most essential to the preservation of human society The Church has a sacred and venerable Authority as long as it teaches such Doctrines and requires such Duties as are agreable to our Saviours Whilst it does so much reverence is due to it much to the persons more to the Doctrines to the persons for their Doctrines sake to the Doctrines for our Saviours sake But if the name and title of the Holy Church of Christ shall be so abus'd as to impose on our practice superstitious Precepts as is the Worship of Saints and some others or on our understandings incredible impossible Doctrines as is Transubstantiation and the like in such cases you are free by the Laws of God and Man Your spiritual obligations do not bind you to believe such Doctrines and your natural liberty as well as your Christian sets you free from obeying such Precepts Our blessed Saviour here expects that we should receive his Laws as children but not as slaves Those Laws may be sometimes severe nay they are imperial and absolute as they come from God for he is our Lord but even in respect to him they are paternal too for he is also our Father They are deliver'd to us with a Royal Power and sweetned by a fatherly tenderness and they should be received by us with the duty of subjects with the affection of children As children we should behave our selves to him as children also to his Ministers because they are to us in his stead but still as children not as mean vassals The true Church of God is the Vice-gerent of Gods spiritual paternal Authority which the Sectaries unjustly deny it but it is not the Vice-gerent of Gods uncontroulable omnipotent temporal Power which the Church of Rome as unjustly usurps This being premised we may now the better go on to examine wherein the true sincere Christian simplicity consists as to that part of it which concerns the receiving of heavenly Truth If we consider the original example which we are here commanded to imitate it seems that this blessed Temper is chiefly compos'd of three excellent virtues of all which there is some weak resemblance in little children As the minds of children are generally clear spotless white untainted unprejudiced as they are usually tender gentle pliable capable of the best impressions as children commonly receive their food not with nicety or with intent to quarrel at it but willingly and earnestly for their increase and growth so in conformity to that innocent pattern all the true followers of Christ should endeavour to obtain First a plainess and purity of understanding such as is free from artifices free from prejudices Secondly a submissive and guidable spirit a disposition easie to all especially tractable to those that have either a civil or spiritual Authority over them Thirdly an exact care so to learn the truths of Religion that they may be employed for their true end and best advantage which is practice and growth in the duties of a pious and devout life First towards our right instruction in the Doctrines of the Gospel we should all labour to bring our minds clear unprejudiced clean uncorrupt For the being void of errors is the first great step to the greatest knowledge and that understanding in which though little is written yet nothing is blotted that which is not disfigured by ill impressions is a subject most capable of the best There nothing is required but plain teaching whereas the mind that is either perverted by false knowledge or made crooked by deceitful prejudices must not only be taught but first untaught that ill it had learn'd and to unteach is a much more difficult work than to teach Such a pure simple undefil'd disposition of mind by nature we cannot pretend to bycause of the original corruption of our nature but by the Grace of God in the Gospel we may attain it and it is the chief design of the Gospel to direct us in the way to it That teaches us to cleanse and repair by repentance and amendment our natural decays and pollutions to be constantly watchful in keeping our souls free from carnal moral nay spiritual prejudices against Religion to endeavour sincerely that our minds be not often overthrown by violent passions nor too much disordered by worldly affections not seduced by secular ends that secretly undermine the soul not corrupted by bodily lusts that openly war against the soul especially that they be not infected by false Enthusiastical conceptions concerning God and Religion which are wont most dangerously to insinuate themselves into the soul as seeming to come from Heaven and coming under the shadow of Religion it self The second part of this child-like simplicity is to be teachable and that in a right method to be desirous of learning precepts as well as truths of truths to learn the plainest and most useful before the deepest and most subtle of precepts to apply our selves to those that concern our selves more than others This teachable humility is not only consistent with the greatest spiritual knowledg but inseparable from it 'T is the property of all true knowledg especially spiritual to enlarge the soul by filling it to enlarge it without swelling it to make it more capable and more earnest to know the more it knows Even in natural things whoever pretends to have learn'd so much that he has no need nor will to learn more he has never learn'd any thing aright And if this be so in natural things in which the instruments and helps of our knowledg are weak and the objects of it finite
how much more is it so in Divine things in which the instruments the helps the objects the benefits of our knowledg are infinite In Divine things to be always teachable to be always learning is not only the most certain way to Divine Wisdom but even a good degree of Divine Wisdom it self The third part of such a true simplicity of understanding is a sincere desire and unwearied endeavour to use and improve our divine knowledg in a right manner and to a right end And what is the great substantial saving use and end of all spiritual knowledg Is it not to use it as children do their meat to desire the sincere milk of the word as new born babes that we may grow thereby That we may grow thereby And they who receive their spiritual food in such a manner what they may want in a delicate appetite they have in a wholesom if they come short of others in the curiosity of their tast they as much exceed them in the strength of their digestion which in a spiritual life as well as a natural is a greater sign of a healthful constitution whilst all other knowledg in Religion only serves to make a shew and flashes away in discourse this endures and is solidly beneficial for sanctification here for salvation hereafter Such is that simplicity of understanding which is necessary for the right reception increasing and improving of our knowledg in the truths of the Gospel I am next to consider that simplicity of manners which should always accompany the sincere entertainment and practice of the precepts of the Gospel This indeed has a very near connexion with the former The head truly enlightned will presently have a wonderful influence in purifying the heart and the heart really affected with goodness will much conduce to the directing of the head The beginning of this blessed work is most commonly in the head the perfection in the heart but neither of them can be perfected without the other And what now is meant by the true unfeigned Christian simplicity of life and manners and conversation we ought to be exceeding cautious on what kind of men we fix this character for we live in an age wherein of all others hypocrisie has put on the best counterfeited vizors the most holy disguises First then as I did before in the simplicity of understanding so I must now do in this simplicity of heart I must try to vindicate and separate it from the mistakes and extremes of it And therefore I affirm that it does not consist in any sullen separation or affected purity or demure contempt and omission of the common customs and usages and fashions of this world For most certainly with such common things a Christian may comply without danger with true innocence and piety and he may abstain from them out of the greatest spiritual pride Is not a morosity and singularity in such things often made a veil and cover of licentiousness in greater things have we not known it frequently us'd as an opportunity of the greatest moral dishonesty Must a Christian by the obligations of his holy profession differ from and abhor all the customary forms of civil life how then could St. Paul become all things to all men would he have conform'd universally to all sorts of men if all manner of civil or spiritually conformity had utterly been unlawful Must I with unmannerly freedom affront Authority despise the public Formalities of Government live in a different way put on another face and garb than the rest of my Country-men and alledg the Christian simplicity to justifie this my rudeness what then will become of the Christian liberty which in other cases these men so much magnifie If this be Christian simplicity was not the Mosaical severity a much lighter yoke Did not our Blessed Saviour himself abolish all such Judaical reservedness and separation at the very first founding of the Catholic Church which it is probable had never been Catholic so soon if he had distinguished his Disciples from all the rest of mankind as the Jews were in every little circumstance or custom of humane life For whilst the true Religion it self was straitned by the Jewish severe spirit the Church of God was narrow in compass confin'd almost to one Country despis'd by all the world besides It was the honest freedom and universal charity of the Christian spirit that first rent the veil and enlarg'd its bounds and spread its authority to the utmost ends of the earth so that next to the Almighty Power of God one of the chief occasions of the prodigious swiftness of the Churches first progress was that the Primitive Christians asserted the just liberties of humane nature and set men free from the Jewish unreasonable sowerness and harsh impositions 'T is true we are commanded not to be conform'd to this world But in the very next words we have the true interpretation of that command For it follows Be ye transform'd by the renewing of your mind It is a new mind and the transforming of the heart not new looks or habits or gestures that Christianity requires To the indifferent things of this world we may be to the decent things of it we should be conformable only to the wickedness and corruptions of it we should not No Christian is forbidden the honest skill and practice and prudence of this world rather some are commanded it all are allow'd it only none must be perverted by it all must use it for higher and more spiritual ends So far is the true Religion from obliging all its professors either to withdraw wholly out of the world or in conscience to avoid all the usual observances and manners or even the innocent delights of it whilst they are in the world that perhaps none are more capable as of bringing more benefit to mankind so of doing more service to God or exercising more Evangelical Graces than those men that are of the most practical lives and engag'd in most secular business Greater will be their victory over the world if they shall converse in it without being defiled by it If they shall labour to perform well all their natural moral political and Religious Duties in it most instructive will be the example of that Piety most diffusive that Charity which is set on a hill so eminent and plac'd in so good a light Were a Christian to be the Disciple of Iohn the Baptist he might then indeed think himself bound to follow the solitary rigid life of his Master in the Wilderness But seeing he is to be a Christian he may be a Citizen of this world as well as of the New Ierusalem He ought certainly to imitate a greater example than of Iohn the Baptist that of our blessed Saviour himself who though he too had his time of retirement in the Wilderness yet liv'd not there but was frequently in the Temple convers'd generally in the City with all sorts of people went about every
the same eternal life simple in the means that conduce to that end which are but two and those always the same Faith and Obedience And so simple should be the practice of all that would use those means in a right manner and expect thereby the benefit of that end Nothing shews a nearer resemblance to the Divine Nature than a mind that is pure unmix'd and undefil'd nothing manifests a greater conformity to the Divine Laws than a life of plain innocence nothing more expresses that free and generous disdain which all true Christians have or should have of these earthly transitory things nothing declares a more magnanimous confidence in the Divine Providence nothing a more submissive resignation to the Divine will nothing a more stedfast and assured hope of future happiness nothing can keep us safer from dangerous mistakes in all matters of eternal concernment The plain fair even candid mind of which a right measure may soonest be taken is best prepar'd to take a right measure of spiritual things That mild and innocent disposition which least of all deceives others is least of all capable of being dangerously deceived it self in the ways of everlasting salvation Have not more bold venturous artificial wits fallen into errors than they who have been content with the steddy constant firm motion of meek and humble Christians Whilst those presume all on themselves they trust to the most fallible guide whilst these wholly suspect themselves and implore most the grace of God they never fail of a certain assistance and direction And what has been generally the success of both the humble teachable temper of the one has produc'd many real Saints the proud presumptuous subtle spirit of the other has prov'd a fruitful soil for the production of Heretics or Atheists Give me leave therefore most humbly to advise and beseech you all as you would be esteem'd the true Disciples of Christ to labour for this blessed temper which is most proper for Disciples this humble and sincere practice of what you do know this humble willingness to be taught what you do not know and submission to those that do I do not by this in the least plead for the gross blindness and implicit Faith of the Laity which is one of the chief Artifices of the Church of Rome No we that are Ministers of the Church of England may be content nay we may really wish that all our Laity had as much true solid understanding in Religion as our Clergy We can get no advantage by your want of knowledge no more than you can do by ours We have no spiritual cheat with which to delude you for the representing of which we should stand in need either of darkness or of a false light We have nothing in our public profession which the wisest men the most pious Christians may not outwardly practice nothing in our Faith which they ought not inwardly to believe We know and are well assur'd that the only reason why our Church is not more generally embrac'd and admir'd is bycause the purity of its Doctrine the sobriety of its Devotion the moderation of its Discipline the largeness of its Charity are not more impartially and calmly examin'd more generally understood Our Church in its Spiritual State as you are Christians is most conformable to the Rules of Christ to the Apostolical practice to the Primitive Institutions In its Rational state as you are men its Doctrines are very agreable to the reason of mankind its Precepts most becoming the purest and the strictest laws of Nature and Virtue and Morality In its Political state as ye are Englishmen its Interest is inseparable from the Interest of our Nation and Government We are therefore so far from being jealous of your most curious and exact search into the Practices and Principles of our Church that we desire it nay we most earnestly beseech it We are in no danger from mens most subtle inquiry into it we may be from their utter carelesness and indifference towards it We are not against any mans seeing Spiritual Truth only we would not have the blind presume to teach others to see we would not have men think they see when they do not which is the most certain way for them never to see at all We would have you know as much as you can only we would have you believe that both you and we may know much more than we do We intreat you to strive to know all in a right way by sober degrees for right purposes and uses and ends Most seasonable is this advice and I wish it could be most effectually recommended For to speak plain truth a meek humble teachable Spirit and by consequence a devout peaceable and obedient Spirit are almost quite gone out of the world whereas all things in Religion should be plain scarce any thing will now please that is so Whilst so many strive to be Teachers and place most of their Religion in that how many censurers have we of others how many Reformers of the public how few learners how much fewer practisers themselves Alas is it not apparent that ever since so many of the Laity have so much invaded so many have so much despised the Office of the Clergy Pride has evidently prevailed over Humility Faction over Unity ill Nature over Charity Though I am not willing to make a Satyr on any Religious Party nor do I think that the best way to reclaim them our Consciences should convince their Consciences our Lives should confute their Lives else 't is not enough only to employ our tongues and our fancies against their Consciences yet for Truths sake this I must say that of all the Sects amongst us who contemn the Authority of the Church who separate themselves from the great things of our Religion on a dislike of some small things and amongst whom all think themselves gifted Brethren alike Whatever other virtues or shadows of virtues they may seem to have whatever sobriety of Life or strictness of Conversation or freedom from some scandalous sins they may pretend to For which yet I cannot but say that if they are really such as they pretend I wish they were ours yet may they not generally be observ'd to be exceedingly defective in the two principal Fundamental Graces of Christianity which are Humility and Charity Humility of looks or habit they may have but have they as much of heart or life Charity of Good Works do they not too much despise as a low legal way to Heaven Charity of Opinions have they any at all It cannot be denied but in this last Age in most of our memories our Nation has manifestly degenerated from the practice of former times in many Moral Virtues and Spiritual Graces which should teach us to render to God the things that are Gods and to Caesar the things that are Caesars Where is that integrity of Manners that truth of Conversation that dutiful observance of Order that modestly of