really conduceth to the salvation of their souls and so far as they are capable thereof may and ought to be shewed towards them III. That therefore the good in all ought to be commended encouraged and loved and no true Good either denyed rejected or despised because of any Errors peculiar to respective Sects IV. That the Evil either in Opinion or practice ought neither to be spared encouraged nor fomented under any pretence of Love whatsoever These I shall not enlarge nor yet offer to prove studying to avoyd prolixity because I presume they will be readily granted and assented to by all That then which principally comes under consideration is to consider and examine which of all the several sorts of Christians at this day do most truly observe these rules and shew forth most of the true Love and Zeal of God in their way and principles avoyding that which is contrary thereunto wherein that I may proceed clearly there are some things previous to be warily and seriously weighed as First when I speak of the Charity of the several sorts of Christians I speak of such as are settled in their in respective Principles as perswading themselves certainly in the truths and soundness of them so that their Love and Charity is really to such as they judge and believe are wrong seeming to have Charity to all and be affraid to judge them from an unsettledness in ones self as not knowing which is right or which is wrong is a Vertue of necessity and not of choyce and proceedeth no ways from the Love of God neither has any resemblance thereunto for God loveth and Compassionates Sinners and such as are out of the way not as being ignorant or doubting whether they be such but as really knowing them It were indeed the height of madness and folly for these unsettled uncertain and stragling souls to take the liberty to judge others for being wrong while they profess they know not yet who is right and who is wrong being only sure of this that themselves are not come to rights for they could not in so doing but be Self-condemned not but I believe that the condition of such if they be truly forbearing and ready to embrace the good when seen by them is both more tollerable to others and safe for themselves than those that are hardily confident in a wrong belief from thence forwardly judging others But this I mention for the sake of certain men of loose and uncertain principles who being really Conscious to themselves of their own unsettledness finding themselves at a loss as concerning many of the controverted Principles of the Christian Religion which is right and which wrong and not finding a ready way to come to any certain determination therein and being perhaps unwilling to undergoe the trouble and difficulty of such a serious search and enquiry as well as desirous to avoyd these troublesome circumstances or other inconveniences which may seem to them necessarily to accompany their imbodying themselves with any particular People or Fellowship and therefore find it more easie to satisfie and please themselves with some general notions of practical Truths commonly acknowledged by all and therefore cover themselves by condemning that heat asperity and severe censuring that is among the several sorts of Christians one towards another as not consistent with nor suitable to that Love which ought to be in all Christians whereas poor Men they mind not how much they fall in this Crime and that in a degree far more reprovable than those they thus accuse For First Are not they found guilty of the want of this Christian Love and Charity that do judge and condemn all these several sorts of Christians as defective in this so principal and necessary a Christian Vertue whereby they do indirectly shut them out from being Christians or Disciples of Jesus for if they judged it an Error inconsistent with Christian Love and Charity to condemn or accuse one another for difference in Opinion why are they found themselves so guilty of it for since in this censuring and condemning of one another among the several sorts of Christians is practised by them as their duty and a necessary consequence of their Doctrine why should these judge them for it if they say they condemn them for it Because they believe it to be a wrong Principle shall not others be allowed the like liberty to condemn Principles they likewise believe to be wrong one of two then must of necessity hold either that wrong Doctrines or Opinions may be justly reproved confuted and condemned without breach of Christian Love and Charity and therefore the so doing amongst the several sorts of Christians upon their own respective Principles in it self simply considered not evil or reproveable and therefore these men wrong in judging it so or it is an evil and inconsistent with Christian Love and Charity to condemn any sort of Christians for their Doctrines and Opinions and if so these men fall fouly in this Crime that do accuse all others for this judging of Principles and yet themselves judge them for their Principles herein And Secondly Their envy in this is of an higher degree by their own Sentence then those others thus judged by them because the others proceed upon a certain belief and firm perswasion that they are in the right and those they condemn wrong and so proceed rationally consequential to their own Principles but these Men Albeit they be Conscious to themselves that they are not come to a determination of what is right and what wrong and remain yet in doubt for want of a clear Understanding what to approve and what to condemn do never the-less most irrationally and inconsequentially to their own affirmations reprove censure and condemn all others as destitute of or at least defective in a vertue and quality so necessary and essential to all Christian Societies to whom therefore may be fitly applyed the saying of the Patriarch Jacob to his First-born Ruben Unstable as water thou shalt not excel Gen. 49. 4. And that of the Apostle Paul to the Romans Rom. 2. 11. As also that other saying of the same Apostle to the Galatians For if I Build again the things that I destroyed I make my self a Transgressor Gal. 2. 18. 2dly To make a judgment of the several sorts of Christians we must fetch it not from the practices of particular Persons but from their respective principles by enquiring how far they naturally lead to or draw from this Universal Love because that it cannot be denyed but that among all and every sort of the several Sects of Christians there are men of divers and sundry humours and complexions some more hot violent and froward who prosecute what they judge right with great Zeal hast and fury others of more calme meek and loving dispositions who though they be not less desirous to advance their way yet do it in a more complacent affable and deliberate manner Some there are that
of this kind alledge the super-abundance thereof to proceed a fervido Scotorum Ingenio i. e. from the violent Complexion of our Country men I had scarce got out of my Child-hood when I was by the permission of Divine Providence cast among the Company of Papists and my tender years and immature Capacity not being able to withstand and resist the Insinuations that were used to Proselite me to that way I became quickly defiled with the Pollutions thereof and continued therein for a time until it pleased God through his rich Love and Mercy to deliver me out of those Snares and to give me a clear understanding of the evil of that way In both these Sects the Reader may easily conceive that I had abundant occasion to receive Impressions contrary to this principle of Love herein treated of seeing the straitness of several of their Doctrines as well as their practice of Persecution do abundantly declare how opposite they are to Universal Love as shall hereafter more at large be shown and Albeit the time it pleased God to deliver me out of these Snares I was so young that it may be presumed my Observations could be but weak and consequently my Experience inconsiderable yet for as much as from my very Child-hood I was very ambitious of Knowledge and by a certain felicity of Understanding I think I may say without Vanity successful beyond many of my Equals in Age though my Observations at that time were but weak yet since I have with more leisure and circumspection gathered thence so much experience as I am confident will serve for a sufficient foundation to any Superstructure I shall build upon it in this Treatise The time that intervened betwixt my forsaking of the Church of Rome and joyning with those with whom I stand now ingaged I kept my self free from joyning with any sort of People though I took liberty to hear several and my Converse was most with those that inveigh much against judging and such kind of severity seeming to complain greatly for want of this Christian Charity among all Sects which Latitude may perhaps be esteemed the other extream opposite to the preciseness of these other Sects whereby I also received an opportunity to know what usually is pretented on that side likewise and thence can say somewhat experimentally on that part also As for those I am now joyned to and whom I justly esteem to be the true followers and Servants of Jesus Christ the World speaks diversly of them as to this matter some highly accusing them of the want of Charity and quarrelling with them as such who peremptorily condemn all but themselves Others have a contrary conceit of them each according as they are prejudicated and informed What may be truly said in the case shall after appear I my self have been diversly censured in this matter being ingaged in Controversie which as they can be scarcely handled without something of sharpness so are seldom mannaged by any so successfully as not to bear the Censure of some or other in this respect Having then upon the whole matter observed that this want of Charity is that for the want of which each Sect accuses the other and yet are most averse to see this defect in themselves and that some do accuse all Sects as guilty of this Crime I have judged it meet to commit my sence hereof to writing according to the purpose signified in the Title afore-mentioned SECT II. The Nature of Christian Love and Charity demonstrated the Consistancy of true Zeal therewith it 's distinction from false Zeal THe Nature of Christian Love and Charity is fully and abundantly described in the Holy Scriptures where it is preferred before all other Virtues and properties whatsoever as that which comprehendeth in it all other perfections and is the root and spring of them for there can be no true Virtue but that which proceedeth from Love hence God himself is called Love I Jo. 4. 7. as being that under which all his innumerable and inutterable perfections are included By this Love we are Redeemed from the Corruption of our Nature and have received the benefit of a Mediator Joh. 16. This is the Banner wherewith God covereth his Children Cant. 2. 4. This is that which Constrained our Lord Jesus Christ to lay down his Life for us Joh. 15. 13. The exercise of this is given by Christ as the principal Token of his Disciples Joh. 13. 35. It is numbered as the first fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. It is called the fulfilling of the Law as that wherein all consisteth Rom. 13. 10. For to Love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves is the sum not only of the Law but of the Gospel also 1 Cor. 13. 13. Therefore the Apostle Paul giveth to this Love or Charity the Precedency before either Faith or Hope in which Chapter he doth briefly but very emphatically describe it for having first shewn that the speaking with Tongues of Men and Angels that the gifts of Prophesying Understanding and Knowledge that the Faith that even could remove Mountains and the giving of all to the Poor yea and the Body to be burnt is nothing without it He proceeds to the description of it thus Charity suffers long is kind Charity envieth not Vaunteth not it self is not puffed up does not behave it self unseemly seeking not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in Iniquity but rejoyceth in the Truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things never faileth Albeit other gifts have 1 Cor. 13. from the first Verse As by this the excellency of Love is shown so the necessity of pressing after it and living in it will be readily acknowledged by all but seeing the sum of this Love as well as the perfection thereof consists in loving God above all so whatever diverteth in any thing there-from is not to be accounted Love though the same word be used to express it and that in the Scripture it self such as the Love of Self the Love of the World the Love of any Creature Hence for the attaining of the true and excellent Love the Love of all these other things is not only to be laid aside and the Love of God preferred to them but they are to be hated as Christ himself Phraseth it He that hateth his life Jo. 12. 25. Yea he useth it so as to speaking of hating Father and Mother Luk. 14. 26. though when the Love to such is truly subordinate to the other it is both commended and commanded The Testimony which is required of our really being in the Love of God Christ himself signifieth to us If you Love me keep my Commandements And as the Beloved Disciple John said in the case of Knowledge shewing us the falshood of such as pretend to know God and yet do not so saying He that says he knows God and keeps not his Commandements is a Lyar and the Truth is not
in him 1 Jo. 2. 4. So may be also said He that saith he loves God and keeps not his Commandment is a Lyar and the Truth is not in him according as the same Apostle saith I Jo. 5. 3. For this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandements Hence it is apparent that Love without Purity is but a false pretence and that whatsoever hinders from the practice of this Love of God or with draws from the obedience of the least of his Commands is to be denyed and no ways to be entertained as being either the love of the Devil the love of the World or the love of Self and not the love of the Father and as from the true love of God having taken place both upon the Understanding and Will there ariseth a great fervency and desire of Mind that it may be wholly united with the Lord and made conformable unto his Will in all things So from hence ariseth also a certain Aversion from Indignation of and even Hatred to whatsoever is contrary thereunto or has a tendency to lead from it which is commonly called Zeal which Zeal having a right bottom and foundation and proceeding purely from the Love of God is a great Virtue greatly to be commended and pressed after and the defect thereof is justly reproveable in a Christian That Zeal then thus considered is a thing excellent pure and holy of it self appears in that it is ascribed to God himself 2 King 19. 13. Isa. 9. 7. Where the performance of the Blessed Evangelical promises is to be performed by the Zeal of the Lord Isa. 19. 17. He is said to be Cloathed with Zeal as with a Cloak and 63. 15. His Zeal is numbred with his Bowels and Mercies next David recommends himself to God for that the Zeal of his House had eaten him up Psal. 69. 9. and 119. 139. And Paul commends the Corinthians for their Zeal 2 Cor. 7. 11. 1 Cor. 14. 12. and for this end has the Grace of God appeared unto all that there might be a People gathered Zealous of good Works Tit 2. 14. And as this is commended and recommended on the one hand so is the contrary thereof to wit Indifferency and Lukewarmness reproved and rebuked as a thing displeasing to the Lord of many instances whereof that might be given that unto the Church of Laodicea may serve at present Rev. 13. 15. 16. Because for a Remedy against this Evil she is Exhorted v. 19. to be Zealous and Repent But as there is a true Zeal so is there a false one and it is not more needful to have the one then iâ— is to avoid the other Now as the true Zeal proceedeth only from the pure Love of God and single Regard to his Honour and Glory so the false Zeal proceedeth from the Love of something else and the regard to other things And of this false Zeal there are several kinds as well as degrees all of which though they ought to be shunned yet some are far more hurtful and pernitious than others the worst and highest of these is when as Men through the height of Pride Lust Ambition or Envy shew themselves furious and Zealous to satisfie and fulfill their desires and affections this is the highest Zeal for self From this Zeal did Cain flay Abel Ishmael mocked Isaac and Esau hated Jacob Pharoah Persecuted the Children of Israel Saul David and Jezabel the true Prophets of the Lord. A second kind is when as Men that are not true and faithful even to those principles of Religion they profess themselves to acknowledge as true as being Conscious to themselves and also publickly known to be such as are Vitious and Profligate yet do violently persecute and oppress others that differs from them though they be not only equal to them but even by their own acknowledgment exceed them in Temperance and Virtue having nothing to charge them with but that they agree not with them in judgment and practice in matters of Religion This apparently is a false Zeal and not of God for if it proceeded from the true Love of God it would first operate in themselves to the removing of all those things which they acknowledge to be contrary to this Love of God before it exerted it self towards others seeing as the Proverb is Charity begins at home And like unto this was the Zeal of the Scribes and Pharisees who Persecuted Christ for a breaker of the Law which themselves did not fulfil As is also the Zeal both of the Papists and Protestants in their Persecutions at this day A third sort is of such who do indeed walk strictly and closely to their own Principles making Conscience of their way but yet being blinded in their understanding do Persecute Truth supposing it to be Error Of this number was Paul before his Conversion Being as to the Law blameless and Persecuting the Saints out of Zeal Act. 22. 3. Gal. 1. 14. And therefore in this Class he numbers his Country-men saying They have a Zeal for God but not according to knowledge Rom. 10. 2. And perhaps among these such may be numbred of whom Christ speaketh saying to his Disciples and when they kill you they shall think to do God good Service A fourth or last sort is when as Men being truly enlightned in their Understanding but their Will Heart and Affections not being throughly leavened with the Love of God do condemn things justly reproveable but not out of the pure drawings of Divine Love but even from a mixture of self in the forwardness of their own will as not suffering any to be contrary unto them This is the most innocent kind of wrong Zeal yet not so that it ought to be watched against and of those few that are guilty of it it were fit they waited to be Redeemed from it but the pure undefiled Zeal that is acceptable to God is that which proceeds not only from a pure and clear understanding but also from a renewed and sanctified Will which moves not of nor from Self but from and for the Lord. SECT III. The Controversie stated with respect to the different sort of Christians how it is to be fetched from the nature of their Principles and not from the practice of particular persons THe sun of what is said is that true Christian Love and Charity is the most excellent of Virtues most needful to be sought after and attained that it is never joyned but with purity which it naturally leads to and there-from doth consequentially arise an Indignation and Zeal against Unrighteousness which true Zeal is justly commendable and really distinguishable from all false and ignorant Zeal For the more clear stating of the Controversie in proceeding in this matter these following assertions relating thereto may be proposed and affirmed I. That whatsoever Love is consistent with the pure Love of God may be safely exercised towards all sorts as well of Men as Christians II. That whatsoever Love or Charity
are deficient Albeit some exceed others in a particular respect as shall be hereafter observed That wherein they are generally wanting is by affirming that there can be no Salvation without the explicit knowledge of Christ and benefit of the Scriptures This is held both by Lutherans Calvenists and Arminians I mean by these Churches whatever may be the private Sentiments of particular persons among them Now whereas all these do acknowledge that many thousands yea whole Nations have been and are excluded from the benefit of this knowledge they must necessarily conclude Salvation impossible to them and so they can have no Charity for them so as to suppose a possibility of Salvation to them And this goes directly against and destroys the nature of Universal Love which cannot be entertained towards any but upon the supposition that they are under a possibility of being saved or that those circumstances they are under not being in themselves simply considered sinful as being such as is not in them to help do not absolutely exclude them from it I confess that I cannot have Charity to a wicked Man that he can be saved so long as he continues wicked and if thence any should seek to infer that so likewise we cannot have Charity to those men that want the Scriptures and the outward knowledge of Christ that they can be saved so long as they want that Therefore as the one is not contrary to Universal Love neither is the other I Answer The Comparison holds not at all because the ground of my not having Chaty to him is his continuing in a thing which himself knows to be displeasing to God by the Law of God which he has revealed to him and acknowledges to be good and therefore the ground of my hopes of him that he may be saved if he Repents is because he knows the means how to Repent and be Converted so my Universal Love reaches to him not only in that I believe 't is possible for God to bring him out of his Wickedness but in that I acknowledge that God in order thereto has actually made manifest to him the way how he may be Converted and so I exclude him not from the Universal Love of God which I suppose in that manifestation of his will to have already really touched and reached him But the other case has no parity with this for first that defect of the Scriptures and outward knowledge of Christ in an Indian or American c. is no wilful malitious act of them against any Law known to them but is the meer providence of God by them inevitable neither is it unto them any moral evil that they are born or brought up in these parts or come not to those places where they may learn and find that knowledge If I then judge that God's Love reaches not any such whom by this Providence he has permitted to be thus Born and Educated in order to save them my Universal Love can no ways reach to them so as to suppose Salvation possible to them not because they refuse or resist the means of Knowledge and Salvation appointed to them of God but because they want it by the will of God who thought not meet to give it to them I look not upon it as my work in this Treatise to refute this Doctrine and shew its Contrariety to Truth and Scripture having done that largely else-where as in my Apology Expl. of the 5th and 6th Proposition it is enough here that I shew that such as hold this Opinion cannot justly pretend to Universal Love as doth evidently appear by what is said and needs no further Question Perhaps the Socinians may step in here or others of more general Principles who will affirm they do not believe that the want of this explicit knowledge doth necessarily exclude Men from Salvation It is true there are some of that mind but it were hard to rank them under any particular denomination it being rather a Notion of these Men of whom I made mention before that are uncertain in their Principles and joyn with no people absolutely then acknowledged by a people or any publick Confession of any united or gathered Church and People The Socinians generally lay very great stress upon the outward knowledge of Christ do believe the outward knowledge of Christ or of the Resurrection at least to be absolutely needful holding the sufficiency of that alone upon Rom. 10. 9. But passing that and taking it for granted that the generality of Socinians and several others with them who being all taken in Cumulo may pass for as much as a whole body of people do believe and affirm Salvation even possible to such as are by an inevitable Fate excluded from the benefit of that external knowledge in that they say that such as will improve that light of Nature which all Men have given them of God and exercise that common Principle of Reason may from the works of Creation and Providence certainly conclude that there is a God forsake many evils and do much good and that such as do thus improve this natural and common light do obtain of God to send them miraculously either some Man or Angel to signifie to them the outward knowledge or Resurrection of Christ that they may believe it and be saved I Answer This doth not reach the full extent of Universal Love because it still limiteth it to this external knowledge and supposeth no means of Salvation without it And next because it supposeth somewhat Miraculous which as has been before observed is a limitation not to be admitted in this case But if any would affirm that the improving of this Natural Light proved to them a means of Salvation without supposing any necessity of having the outward knowledge of Christ at all Albeit it would seeâ— by the extent of their Charity that their Love were very universal yet they do not establish true Universal Love more than the other because nothing is true Universal Love but that which naturally proceedeth from the true Love of God and is founded upon good and sound Principles deduced there-from and which hath not its rise from the love of Self or from a selfish principle which though it may have a shew of Universal Love is not really such else he that would affirm he believed that all men as well the Wicked as the Godly the Unbelieving as the Believing should be saved and that no wickedness can hinder a Man from being saved might be said to be a truer Preacher of Universal Love than any and most Charitable of all Men and yet how would this be justly condemned by all Christians There can then be no true Universal Love but that which is built upon the love of God and is pure and of the nature of it So then those that affirm that men may be saved even without the outward knowledge of Christ and of the Scriptures if they improve the light of Nature whether it be that