not think we 〈◊〉 vary Scripture Expressions securely with retaining the true meaning except we likewise had as real an understanding of the sense it self as the Inspired Persons had over whom God did to far super-intend in copying forth his Truth as not to suffer them to swerve from his meaning The greater progress we make in Love by which I understand not a single Passion but a System and Constellation wherein are conspicuous the most eminent Vertues the further proficiency we make in the Doctrine of the Gospel whose very Air and Complexion is little else but Love the nearer approaches also we make to that great Pattern and Example of our Saviour whose Stâ—ps we are obliged to tread in and to walk in those Paths of Love he trod in before us whose will also it is that we transcribe and copy it out in our Conversation this is that Peculiar Character by which Chriâ—â—s Disciples are to be discriminate from the followers of any other Master and by which his Church may be known from all other Churches 'T is observable that though among all the signs of the true Church Bellarâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 this of Love yet that all Faith is not a more certain sign of the True Church than want of Love is a sign of the false and the same is applicable to the particular Member Wâ—ere-ever I find a body of Men let them Christen themselves with as glorious a Nâ—mâ— as they please though they monopolize Salvation to themselves and exclude out of Heaven as many as are out of their Communion If I perceive among them bloody and destructive Principles savage and violent Actions boisterous and ungovernable Passions poysonous and virulent Humours hellish Designs and Contrivances to involve the Peaceable and Innocent in blood and destruction or if they do not boyl up to this height of overt cruelty in Actions of a Sanguine Complexion yet if there be found among them a more Spiritual and Subtl Malignity a more slie and ingenious Artifice to spread an Infection upon the Credit and Reputation of their Neighbours that are not squar'd exactly by the Rules from which they take their measures of Truth and Error by Calumnies and Reproaches by sowr Censoriousness by malicious Detractions by false or railing Accusations c. I must take leave of both these kinds in the language of Jacob concerning his Two cruel Sons Simoon and Levi O my soul come thou not into their secret unto their Assembly my Honour be not thou united No profession though never so plausible no Opiniions be they never so right can in his judgment who knows what is the difference between true Religion and a Pharisaick Rightcousness be valued any further then they subserve to the Honour and Glory of God on High in promoting Justice and Temperance an Heavenly Frame of Mind a Benign and Charitable Disposition and Inclinations to Peace and Good-will towards all Men. 'T is to be suspected they have made but a superficial search and studied onely the Arguments of one side and often neither in most of our present Controversies that are most dogmatical and consident and though it be granted that they are sometime on the side of truth yet their Orthodox Notions are not truly the rown nor Vertuous and Praise worthy because they are not the result of a diligent and impartial Enquiry and an assent unto Truth upon satisfactory Evidence offer'd to their judgment after an Examination of such Arguments as are propos'd by the contrary party which always ought to be thrown into the Scale and carefully weighed before we come to a pisitive determination in matters which we would impose upon others Judgment and Practice but even their right opinions are to be attributed rather to such external occasions which leave them short of Rational Truths and unbecoming intellectual Agents indued with faculties to search after Truth as their fortunate Nativity where the right belief was professed or Prepossession from the Principles instill'd in their Education or incompetency of parts to make a through scrutiny or readiness to comply with Persons they esteem care to preserve heir worldly Interest or an indifferency whether Religion be true or false and other accidental mouves in conjunction with these which would have made even these sort of men had the contrary Tenets been offer'd to them at first on the same advantage been as valiant Champions in the defence of Error 's now they chance to be of Truth it being not their integrity and ingenuity and unbiassâ—â— prosecution of Gods will which gives them Preeminence above others for in these they often fall short of their mistaken Brethren whose modest Enquiries into the truth of some received Opinions may sometime minister matter for suspension of belief and dissatisfaction in those Notions which these weak and in onsiderate men do more readily assent to and positively assert because they have not acquainted themselves with those Rational Exceptions and real difficulties which others find they are hable to and intangled withal which have made a more narrow Search and more diligent Scrutiny into them That we may the better maintain peace and an amicable correspondence with those which dissent from us we should remember that in this state all men are abnoxious both to Error and to Sin and imperfect both in knowledge and vertue that we ought to put on all mens actions the most favourable construction their circumstances will admit that we our selves have at some turns fail'd as well as our Neighbour that to take the Chair and Judge in Cases where we are parties and concern'd is the highest injustice that no man ought to be charged with maintaining the ill Consequences of his Opinions when he doth deny and disclaim them that Moral Integrity recommends a mistaken man to God that though he hath provided no Infallible preservatives from Errors yet sincere care to avoid them is an effectual Antidore against their Poyson and that 't is unreasonable for us to treat men as Enemies for such Opinions by which they do not forfeit Gods love and favour That in sine What God principally values and requires is that Men sacrifice their Hearts and Affections to him and yield to him formal and vertual Faith and Obedience when they fail through want of sufficient Information of Material and that if these be the terms whereupon God will graciously accept his weak and impotent Creatures then we ought not to Reprobate and Anathematize them whom God receives though they subscribe not to all those Articles we have annexed to our Creed and made fundamental to Salvation He which neglects not the means appointed by Heaven to inform him of Truth but being divested of all worldly respects and secret inclinations that one proposition should be true rather than the other that stands ready to believe and resolv'd to obey the Will of God assoon as it appears to him to be his and as an upright Judge with Caution and Impartiality examines what ever can be
alledged to give in Evidence to the Matter he is in quest of and as an Honest Christian to his Care and Diligence superadds his Humble and Hearty Prayers to the Father of Lights for the Divine Influences and Concurrence of the Spirit Of Truth for his Guidance and Direction What ever Error such a Man may hold what ever Truth he may be unacquainted with upon such a fair Enquiry his mistake and ignorance is invincible and his case compassionable and how he shall be dealt with at the Universal Audit it cannot be hard for them to judge who partake most of the Clemency Benignity and Love of the Father of Mercies who remembers our Frame and knows that we are but dust who will make all favourable Allowances and will not upon the forfeiture of our Eternal Happiness exact degrees of knowledge from us above the Line of the Revelation he hath made and the strength of the Faculties we are indued with and he that is conscious he hath made the best use of his Understanding he is able in this Intellectual Employment may as well rejoyce in the Testimony of his Conscience though in some things he is mistaken that he hath sought the Truth impartially as he that hath had his Conversation in Simplicity and Godly Sincerity may notwithstanding some Infirmities and Inadtertencies he hath been subject to in his life Though we cannot but own that the Reformation both at home and abroad hath some defects and blemishes and is not in all parts compleat and perfect yet the progress that hath been made towards it is a blessing ought to be highly valued and thankfully acknowledged and of all persons they ought not to sleight and vilifie it and violently contest about indifferent things whose lives are not Reformed and scruple not at such things as are undoubtedly sinful and on the other hand the Patronage and defence of it is managed to very little purpose when undertook by such who take liberty to vary from the Rule of Right and live not according to the exact difference of Good and Evil and conform not to that Religion established by the Law of our Saviour and founded in the Eternal Principles of Righteousness Goodness and Truth Nothing being more absur'd and preposterous childish and ridiculous than to be curiously busie about the Publick Reformation before the same work be done at home nor a truer Character of an Hypocrite than a forward Zeal to Correct and Amend the Faith and Religion of others and yet allow himself in irregular and dishonest Fractices to tithe the Mint Anise and Cummin with great exactness and scrupulosity and in the interim to neglect Mercy Judgment Faithfulness and the weightier Matters of the Law These would be happy Signs of the Christian Churches recovery to a state of steady Peace and be a spring of true joy to all that are Friends to real Religion to see the common Interest and Design of Christianity prosecuted with as much diligence and industry as that of particular parties to see our private Picques discarded and every good and vertuous Man of whatsoever denomination in our New Stile accounted our Neighbour and treated accordingly to see all our Controversies about Superstition wound upon this bottom that none place more or less Religion in any thing then the nature of the thing will bear to see our feaverish heats about minute and petty Circumstances in Worship to abate and grow coller to see us so far as we have already attained to walk by the same rule and mind the same thing and wherein we are otherwise minded not furiously attack and condemn one another but humbly wait on him that hath promis'd that these things also wherein we differ he will reveal to us We are too prone to believe that the Ark of God will fall unless we support it with Vnhallowed hands that Christs Church and Faith will be prevail'd on by the Gates of Hell except we call for fire from Heaven to consume its Enemies that Heresies or Superstitions will over-spread the Face of the Church if we run not to an Arm of Flesh and take Vnchristian and Vnwarrantable Methods to suppress and prevent them but let us contrive as many expedients as Humane VVit and Power can execute to preserve the Church and Religion from Rents and Divisions Ruine and Destruction all our Attempts and Remedies are likely to prove Ineffectual and Succesless which are not founded in rational Conviction and Satisfaction and recommended from a Spirit of Love Sweetness and Clemency Blessed Jesus When thou comest wilt thou find Love in the Earth Did ever any Prosestors of a Religion tread so Antipodes to the Example and walk more contrary to the Precepts of their Master It was not because thou wantedst Power but Will that thou didst not revenge the Affronts and Injuries that were offer'd to thy Person and Doctrine Couldst thou not have girded thy Sword upon thy Thigh O thou most mighty and rode on prosperously in the Ruin of thy Enemies and triumphed over them in the greatness of thy Power Hadst thou taught thy Disciples to fight as Mahomet did his Disciples and in lieu of that Meekness Live Gentleness Patience Forgiveness c. which thou requirest as our Principal Tribute injoyned us to be revenged on Enemies to retaliate injuries to make way for thy Gospel by Rapine and Violence by seizing the Properties by Invading the Dominions of those we are able to prey upon Hadst thou allowed us to violate our Faith to quit our Allegiance to Persecute Torment Massacre our Brethren to advance thy Kingdom and Power and Glory then we might have beheld the Desolations those that profess thy Name have made in the World without astonishment and owned they had not forfeited the Title they Assume of being of the Society of Jesus by incouraging and propagating these and such barbarous Outrages which have made good natured Heathen afraid they should meet with them again in the other World In the Prophetick Vision the Four great Monarchies of this World were represented by Beasts full of Savageness and Cruelty as opposite to the Kingdom of the Messiah the Glory and Establishment of which was to consist in Love and Peace in Righteousness and Joy which although at present it obtain not to any great degree among Men yet there are the Seeds of this blessed and happy Estate scatter'd up and down in the Breasts of True Believers and the Love of God and of his Off-spring is shed abroad in their hearts by his Spirit to which the Administration of this Kingdom is committed which like the stone cut out without hands will increase by little and little till it become a great Mountain and fill the whole Earth as now it doth the Heavens with its Glory What Peace can we hope for so long as the several contending Parties with a kind of Hellish Sensuality caress and treat themselves with one anothers Wickedness and Immoral ties and are abundantly gratified that the
of all those obliging Arguments the Gospel presents them with to live in the practice of these Divine and Inoffensive Vertues be guilty of as horrid Cruelty and Butchery Envy and Malice Revenge and Uncharitableness towards one another and that under the pretence of Zeal for this Peaceable and Holy Institution as the Pagan World can be charged with in their open Wars and Hostilities Strange and Preposterous Zeal to play the Devil as they say for Gods-sake and out of love to Religion draw out its Vital Spirits to raise and subvert these indispensable and fundamental fluties of Benignity Clemency and universal Good-will abstract from which Religion would be no more to us then an empty name and fruitless Speculation and signifie nothing either to the Honour of God or Happiness of Man Unhappy Christendom how art thou degenerated from thy Primitive Purity Love and Humility where are the Characters and Impressions by which onely it can appear we belong to Christ Doth not the Image and Superscription we generally bear Argue we do indeed and in truth call another Lord and King Would we divest our selves of our Passions and Prejudices against those Persons or Parties whose Opinions and Sentiments we are in opposition to and not engage our private Humours and Interests in our Contentions nor permit our personal and particular designs to bias and influence our Motions the controverting and debating the most material points depending in dispute among us would be a pleasant and advantageous Theme and contribute greatly to the improvement of our judgment and understanding without any diminution of mutual Good-will and Charity In this present condition of Weakness and Ignorance wherein none can plead Exemption from mistakes and every man that doth not fit in the Infallible Chair must own he is out and at a loss some where being subject to the same Passions and liable to the like Misprissions as others what is more decorous and becoming those that are under the same Circumstances of a frad and wandring State than to compassionate each others Lapses and Misapprehensions than modestly to distrust their own Sentiments than diligently to inquire for further Information than to attempt others recovery by rational Conviction and not too morosely to censure not jocously to sport themselves with the Ignorances and Infirmities of Humanity Those whom we have reason to believe from the constant Tenour of their Actions principally design God and Goodness although their doubtful Notions concerning some revealed and yet abstruse Truths hinder them from assenting add consenting to a Form of Words as rigidly true which by some Ecclesiastical Determinations and Civil Sanctions are made the Shibboleth to try the Orthodox by yet if they have so much Faith in God through his Son as to be unto them a Principle of Divine Love and Obedience their peaceable Dissent and inoffensive Conversation should incline us rather to treat them Benignly and Humanely than their mistaken Opinions move us to choller and uncharitable usage If once we establish this as a Principle that Religion may be forced there will be no measure non end of violence and cruelty for then in whose hands soever the Sovereign Power resides the Parasites of it will be insinuating that it is as Orthodox as 't is supream and under the notion of extirpating Heresie preserving Decency promoting Unity securing the Power of Holy Church being secure against its Usurpations or some plausible Pretensions or others as are most suitable to advance their Ambitious Projects the Liberties the Properties the Lives of Innocent and Moral Men shall be sacrificed upon the fore-mentioned Principle and the refusal perhaps of Subscription to the most unreasonable Propositions be adjudged a Capital Offence and nothing less than life it self allowed to be an Expiation for it Is it not sad enough for a man fatally to mistake in the things of his everlasting Peace and to err at his own Eternal Peril but must we endeavour to hurry him to the place of torment before his time and precipitate him before his natural life expire with all his mistakes and errors about him into the Infernal Pit If his case be compassionable which slays a man by chance and he find favour from the Law shall we no much more commiserate his condition that through want of skill and judgment mistakes the way to his own happiness and falls into what is call'd Heresie or Fundamental Error when he is very careful and industrious to decline it It ill becomes Christians to propagate Religion by the Artifices and Methods of Mahumetaxs in argues they know not what manner of spirit their Saviour was of that went about doing good and always Acted in a Spirit of Meekness and Humility and recommended the same temper and disposition to his Disciples that attempt the Dissemination of his Doctrine by means so contrary to those by which it was first planted in the World our Lord hath promised to be always with his faithful Servants in the discharge of their Duty and that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church but this is not accomplished by humane might and power but by his Spirit whereby is given them a Mouth and Wisdome which none of the Adversaries of Truth shall be able to resist Confiscations Exiles Interdicts Inquisitions c. were strange things in the primitive times of Christianity He that died for us gave us no commission to make way for our Religion by force of Arms the commandment which we had from the beginning was not so This is the Evangelical Doctrine in Meekness to Instruct Exhort Perswade Rebuke and Beseech And if these means did fail of their Convincing and Converting Men to the Faith and they did persist in their Errors Maugre all the Arguments were offer'd to their minds to procure their belief of the Gospel against their Perversness and Obstinacy to entertain Divine Truth Christ that would have all his Souldiers Volunteers provided not any Violent and External Remedies they that refused did it with the hazzard of their Souls and the Messengers had nothing further in Commission when their Doctrine was slighted and despised then to shake off the dust from their feet as a Testimony against those which rejected the Counsel of God against themselves What kindness can Men have for that Religion whose Laws are writ with the point of a Sword and whose Addresses to them are in blood and cruelty which quits the proper Media by which rational Creatures are prevail'd with viz. Reasons and Arguments and in lieu of satisfying the judgment and understanding of the truth of its Propositions by conclusive demonstrations exacts an implicit belief of them and a blind obecience to them under the severest Penalties Tyranny can contrive Whoever pretends to an Authority over the Religion and Consciences of Men and in subserviency to their Salvation to invade and destroy the Civil Rights and Properties of those of the same common Family of God with themselves ought to show
contain in them whatsoever is necessary to Christian Faith and Manners That it is a Duty incumbent upon All to read to search and endeavour to find out the sense and meaning of them and to behave themselves answerably That whosoever firmly believes the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and in the gross all the Truths are comprized in them though he should mistake in some particular Truths his Errors will not whilst he is invincibly and not wilfully ignorant prove damnable to him all that God requires of us in order to our Salvation being a sincere and serious endeavour to know and do his will and not that we be impeccable or infallible in this mortal state That they onely err to their eternal ruin which oppose such Truths they know God hath testified That God hath made nothing absolutely necessary to Salvation which is not plainly revealed That no Church of any particular denomination is Infallible and that general Councils Synods Convocations mâ—y and have erred That the imposing a Profession of known Errors and practising known Corruptions is a sufficient cause of Separation That publick approbation makes it but probable that the things they allow and command are good That the opposing my Reason and Authority of Scripture against the Publick is not the opposing my Judgment against it but that of God to that of Man That every man ought to judge for himself which Religion is truest That the Bible is the Religion of Protestants and nothing but that and the plain consequences thereof can they with consistency to their own grounds either believe themselves or require of others That none ought to take up Truth upon the credit of any without asking the reason why That he that endeavours to believe Scripture in the true sense cannot be an Heretick and that it were well if no more then what is Evident in Scripture was required to the Churches Communion That the Rule to judge Controversies by is the Scripture and that no one Man or any company of Men are appointed to judge for the rest These and many other Positions of the same importance are to be had in the writings of our greatest and wisest Protestants which if we would diligently improve into practice would be of excellent use to sweeten our Tempers towards one another and abate those Annimosities Feuds and malicious Dissentions which are the shame and scandal and if Heaven prevent not may be the ruin and destruction of our Nation and Religion Love is a Vertue so Amiable that it is Vniversally spoken well of and those that are sparing of it to others desire it may be liberally expressed to themselves in the opposite Vices of Malice Envy Revenge c. consist not only the Essence of the punishment of the next World but the foundation of most of the Calamities of this Where this Divine Grace with its Concomitant Vertues have their Residence there the mind of a man is calm and serene at great ease in it self and no way injurious or offensive unto any but heartily desirous that the whole World might conspire in one common design of promoting each others good and wellfare and doth not stingily and penuriously limit and confine its desires and endeavours to provide for any particular Sect or Party of Men so great and plentiful a portion nay not his own if he be of any that the rest should fare the worse for it and did this Spirit of Universal love obtain more generally among men what a strange alteration should we behold in the World the Golden Age would spring up to an instant Tygers and VVolves would quit their Savaâ—eness and Cruelty the lost Paradice be restored and in the Prophetick Phrase Instead of the Thorn should câ—me up the Firr and instead of the Brier the Mirtle the VVolf would dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid and the Child play on the hole of the Aspe c. then those black and Hellish Passions which ferment and fret the Spirits of Men and render them as vexatious and uneasie to themselves as troublesome and unpleasant to those they are concerned with would be conjured down to that place of darkness from which they first sprung together with that train of mischiefs and plagues which they scatter and diffuse among men The great design of Gods sending his Son into the World was not to amuse our understanding with the proposing to them abstruse and mysterious Truths or to perswade us to yield an Assent to Doctrines knotty and incomprehensible to believe as some teach both against sense and reason to gaze upon and admire not the brightness and lustre but the darkness and obscurity of Divine Revelation these must needs be ends below so merciful and indulgent a Father and Inadequate to so great an undertaking as was that of the Redeemer whose Principal Intention upon the Propitiation made for the sin of the world by the Sacrifice of himself was to direct mankind to the Practice of the most Generous and Godlike Vertues and make them partakers of a Divine Nature to recover them from sensuality and in dignity and from all filthiness of Flâ—sh and Spirit to teach them to deny Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly to have their Conversations Honest and Orthodox and not to conform themselves to the guise and fashion of the degenerate World and to incourage them not so much to bâ—lâ—eve as do and suffer hard and difficult things by the expectation of a blessed Immortality at his glorious appearance and his Kingdome The Divisions of the Christian Churches will scarce ever be â—bâ—ted till the numerous Artâ—cles which are made necessary terms of Communion be lâ—ssâ—ned and the more subtil and nice ones be accounted as Ecclesiastical determinations ought to be probable and valuable but not indubitable and conclusive He whose Faith and Hope is in God through Jesus Christ and makes his Applications and Addresses unto the Father in the Name and through the Mediation and Intercession of the Son of God which are the Foundations of Christian Religion as it differs from the Mosaick and Natural and is ready to assent to all Articles of Christianity which in eâ—press words are delivered in the Divine Writings which are supâ—os'd to be the fittest because the Holy Spirit Dictated them who knew best in what Language those great Mysteries could be best communicated to our Understandstandings is a Christian in the Gospel sense 'T is certain that in matters of pure Revelation 't is somewhat daring to be wise about what is writ to deviate from that Form of found words is of Divine Inspiration and o make our Comments and Deductions equally Authentick with the Original for all Inferences from Scripture so far as they are but Humane are Fallible and therefore can no further demand our Assent than they satisfie our Judgment * Jo. Smith Thus a learned Author of our own in his discourse of Prophesie We must