great Author of it and his intent and design in it hath this main and principal purpose to be carried on First The amendment and betterment of men in their Souls and Spirits that they may be regenerate inwardly and really changed from evil or a state and condition of evil unto good have the Divine Nature wrought in them which is diversly described and set forth in the Scriptures of the New Testament You may take it in Paul's Commission in which he gives account of what he was to do by vertue of it Acts 26. v. 18. i. e. To turn men from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgiveness of sins and Inheritance among them that are sanctified by the Faith of Christ Or we may take it in short as our Lord expresses it viz. To make the tree good i. e. The man the Christian man to have a Divine living principle of goodness in himself The next part of this blessed design follows upon the other i. e. the bringing forth good fruits that the goodness or soundness of the Tree or Christian man signified by it may be known to himself and others by his fruits Now the fruits by which alone we or others can rightly judge are not of that sort of duties that consist in outward profession and performance of outward Ordinances Praying Hearing Preaching or doing such kind of works but in the doing of others better than those and demonstrating our true Faith in Christ So Christ our great Prophet teaches Mat. 7. v. 21. Not every one that saith Lord Lord i. e. That calls on the Name of Christ and makes Profession of him yea that doth this with great zeal for that 's the meaning as appears in the doubling of his Title Lord Lord. All that do thus seem they or be they never so zealous in it shall not therefore enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But saith our Lord He that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven i. e. He that actually and really does it in the most substantial parts of it which is not done by only calling upon his Name but in other more excellent works and fruits beyond this of a Profession of and calling upon him And in the 22. v. To enforce this he tells us of a sort of men owning this way and Religion and doing many great and wonderful works upon the account of it who were confident in themselves of being right and accepted Yea it seems they lived and died and rose again in this confidence because they had Prayed Prophesied Preached in the Name of Christ were great doers in and frequenters of Religious exercises and moreover wrought great works cast out Devils in Christs Name c. Yet all this would not do In the 29. v. They must depart into everlasting fire Mat 25. Christ knows them not they were workers of Iniquity and it is not likely that they were open sinners openly prophane or like the Publicans c. For then they could not have had such confidence But thus it was they either had reserved to themselves some secret sin indulged themselves in some corruption or particular evil or else they had not done that good nor brought forth those fruits which they ought to have done for the glory of God and to answer those great obligations of holiness righteousness and Divine purity and rectitude which the Gospel and blessed Religion of Christ Jesus had laid upon them And now this matter being weighty and considerable and seeing men are like to deceive themselves by a zealous Profession without real goodness and good fruits to demonstrate it Therefore our Lord further presseth and enforceth this matter from v. 24. to the end by a Parable of two men that built Houses upon different foundations one upon the Rock and the other upon the Sand the one was wise the other foolish The application shews that let men pretend what they will nothing else but the doing of the real indisputable will of God will stand them in stead and make them able to stand and weather it out to the last Read the place and consider it well Now according to this blessed design of the holy Gospel of Christ Jesus which is we see to make men good And next to manifest this by good works and abounding in them in such good works and fruits that both good and bad men can judge of which they can't do by all your great professions and outward Religious performances According to this I say consider and judge of your selves First As to the temper of your Spirits to see if the Tree be good You seperate from common sins and corrupt worship then ye ought in all things else to be uniform in your Lives and Spirits First Are ye more patient meek humble than others Secondly Are ye more mortified to this present World or do ye make it evident that ye are more moderate in the things of it than others and doth your moderation in this appear unto all men c. Thirdly Have you mortified your corruptions and inordinate affections such as anger wrath pride hatred malice evil-speaking Fourthly Are ye more courteous condescentious kind affable gentle c. Read that of the Apostle Gal. 5. ver 22. what the true fruits of the Spirit are you shall find them there specified viz. Long-suffering goodness gentleness faith meekness temperance And if you mind the place you shall find the fruits called the fruits of the Spirit here mentioned to be such that are shewed towards and made manifest to others And for the good and benefit of others E. G. the Love there spoken of is not love to our selves but to others or the loving of others So Joy there mentioned is joy or rejoycing in the good of others for it is no great vertue to joy in our selves or to rejoyce because of our own happiness c. So Peace another fruit is to be peaceable with all men long-suffering i. e. suffering long or bearing with other men though never so great enemies to us or long-suffering in bearing all the injuries men can heap upon us And also long-suffering in bearing with and waiting long upon men with much patience for their good and to do them good and to take them off from their evil ways To this is added Gentlenenss and to all Goodness i. e. Beneficialness or a being beneficial and profitable to men The Apostle Rom. 5. will give us a full account of a good man what he is and how distinguished from a righteous or a just man by which we may know what goodness is here and what he means there Another fruit is Faith i. e. Fidelity or faithfulness for so sometimes the word is used and must be here so taken We are to be true and trusty in all things faithful to our words and promises and in things committed to our charge c. Then follows meekness temperance and vertues of that kind against which
in fear lest a cold flat indisposed Spirit grow upon them so that at last they may come to be hardened and deceived that in seeing they may think they see but not indeed perceive In hearing they may think they hear but not understand and that their eyes may come to be closed that they cannot see And is not this a most dangerous and dreadful state which men come unto by neglect and by not being diligent earnest constant and servent in stirring up themselves in and to all holy Ways and Services And it matters not as to the danger and dreadful effects coming thereby whether these come by minding other things and by their being ingaged in this present World or whether they come through a vain Phanatick Enthusiastick perswasion that they are not to act in religious Duties except extraordinarily moved to it for still a neglect there is from what cause soever it comes the danger and ill effects are the same That this ill and insensible Spirit is the effect of such Enthusiastick Notions or Apprehensions is most manifest in our days and to that pass by these means some come that they neither pray by themselves nor pray or worship God in their Families they neither pray with them nor for them nor for any except some extraordinary motion puts them upon it and so at last they Worship not God at all neither in publick nor as far as any can understand in private and in fine do hardly profess or give any account of their belief in Christ Jesus nor whether they be of the Christian Religion or of any Religion or whether they be only Civil Pagans you shall seldom hear them mention the Name of Christ Jesus with any reverence or expressions of any tolerable Love and Affections to him Fourthly Because these kind of men before they come to be so bad do seem to rest much upon the motions of the Spirit of God as they pretend For indeed to speak the truth there are extreams on both sides for as these will do nothing without such motions and impulses others on the other hand rest too much in their forms of Devotions or in their natural Parts and Abilities and so do not look for nor seriously attend unto nor pray for the Divine Illumination and Communication of the holy Spirit who certainly to humble sincere minds waiting on him and asking his help will never be wanting But I say seeing such extreams and mistakes there are let us see what the Scriptures teach us and what we may reasonably expect of Grace and Assistance in this kind to help us in all holy Christian Works and Services and we find the Holy Ghost is often spoken of in the Scripture especially in the New Testament as an helper and assistant to us in the things of God and of Christ Jesus as E. G. for the understanding of them and our Illumination in them for the remembrance and bringing of them and all fit things unto our minds for the helping of us in the performance of them and because our weakness ignorance and indisposedness is great and our infirmities many still accompanying us in all Religious Services and especially in the Work and Duty of Prayer which is that we gave for an instance for all the rest I say it is plain and manifest enough that the Holy Spirit of God is promised to us and doth concern himself in us about these things but we are no where taught that ordinarily his Motions are of such a hot and strong Nature that we cannot resist them but on the contrary that men do resist him and that his Operations may be resisted and as to the Effect frustrated he may be grieved and depart from us not being entertained by us as he ought And that his Motions are ordinarily soft and still not coming in a Storm not in Thunder or with a Torrent but such that by men careless earthly lovers of and busie in this present World or otherwise indisposed or ill-disposed may not be felt or understood because not attended unto c. Fifthly That his Motions and Workings in us are and always must be in and by our Reasons and Understandings as we are men because by the faculties we as men are indued with and according to them we must judge whether such Motions are good or not whether the things and works we are put upon and moved to are good fit seasonable and presently useful orderly and comely whether for edification to our selves or profit to others we are to know consider and judge of the quality of those Motions and to understand our selves lest we follow an ill Spirit as well as the good and holy Spirit of God Finally consider we serve the infinitely Wise God that takes no pleasure in Fools nor in inconsiderate Works Ways and Worships unless we know what we do and why A meer Motion therefore or Impulse or strong Inflation and Work upon the mind is not to be followed without further Tryal and Judgment pass upon it Sixthly And in particular when we speak of the help and quickning of the Spirit of God especially in our Prayers it is not needful nor have we any good Reason to expect that he should dictate to us the very words and expressions we are to use in them but the things and matters we are to pray for with necessary and fit Arguments by which our Prayers are pressed and inforced c. So when we come to consider our state and condition and what things we have to pray for it is then proper for the holy Spirit to bring those fit and apt things to our minds especially to do this upon great and weighty occasions and in times of great necessity and troubles which that place Rom. 8. seems to have a special respect unto And again we have great need of this Divine help to raise and to bear up our hearts and to maintain a Spirit in us both constant and fervent and to keep us from deadness and formality and to mind us what we have prayed for and what we have in design that we may pursue it to the utmost till we have obtained what we desire and further by his blessed Motions and Assistance to help us against the flatness and dulness of our hearts and to stir us up to a continuance and incessantness in it with many other needful helps as occasion is and requires both in this of prayer and in all other things respecting the perseverance and safe conduct of a Christian Life in order to Eternal Life Seventhly It is not to be denyed but that at some times there may be occasion but very rarely to work upon to move and act some men at a more than ordinary rate as the Prophets and Apostles were at some times when they had some extraordinary Work to do but this I say if it be at all must needs be rare extraordinary and seldom done Considering First That there needs now no new Revelation of the
mind and will of God what he would have us to do and to believe seeing that all this is fully made known by Christ Jesus in his Gospel who was sent on purpose to make known the most perfect will of God and did at the first in a most plentiful manner send down his Gifts and Endowments upon men to fitthem for the same Work which himself had laid the Foundation of So that there can be no frequent need and occasion for extraordinary Revelations and Motions If there be any thing yet remaining of an extraordinary Nature there may be expected extraordinary Assistance but for our ordinary Duties belonging to a Christian Life and to the keeping of the Commands of God to the glorifying of God our Heavenly Father and for the walking worthy of such a Calling as we are called unto we are to learn from the Scripture and to give our selves to the study of them with understanding and judgment learning and drawing our duty from them together with the Spiritual Nature Excellency and Dignity of the things we are to understand the things of God and of Eternal happiness and herein we have the Promise and may expect to receive the help of the Divine Spirit in and by the means of our Study and Enquiry only it is necessary we be sincere sober and considerate about such matters Lastly Supposing that which is not viz. that such strong motions and impulses should be vouchsafed and allowed for the stirring of us up to our ordinary daily Works and Duties such as Prayer Meditation Devotion c. Suppose I say that we needed not go about them till such motions were strong upon us though this were true as it is not yet this were not the best nor the most excellent way of Obedience nor of the performance of any Duties or good Works but a kind of weak low and childish Obedience in them that would not could not stir until they were forcibly led and that could not upon the appearance of the reason necessity and occasion of the Duty set themselves about it or know when to do it Out of doubt it must be judged the most free most generous and excellent kind of Obedience to do and set about our Duty that we know to be so though we feel no such powerful motions nor strong inclinations to it as long as our Reasons and Consciences are convinced of it that it is to be done Knowing our Duty in the general we should according to that common light and wisdom and the ordinary vouchsafement of God unto us be willing sometimes to stir up and to compel our selves to our Duty or any good work we have to do and what in our knowledge and Conscience we ought to do though we should find our selves unwilling or as we say going against the hair i. e. the present disposition inclination and temper of our spirits But if we must still wait for extraordinary Motions and not many times go against our Minds when they are contrarily bent and indisposed as too often they are what mean besides our own experience all those great Charges and Injunctions-prest upon us to stir up our selves to gird up the loins of our Minds to shake off sloth or not to be slothful but vigorous Followers of them and of that which is good to be intent and earnest in it though we have aversation and indisposition to it c. Now may not all see that this is the most free the most excellent generous reasonable and consequently the most acceptable and well-pleasing way of obedience in which not following our natural or ill dispositions or indispositions we pursue what according to the Divine Law and our Duty we are bound to do whether it go with us or against us And the more we deny our selves and go against our selves the more we shew of Reason and of Resolution and of entire Devotion Resignation of our selves unto God and to his service Is not this I say the most excellent and therefore the most acceptable way of obedience and performance of all Religious and Holy Services I might add to what hath been said something about the spirit of Phanaticism as to Opinions and Tenets in Religion and matters of Faith and Doctrine Some sometimes take up new and strange Doctrines meerly upon the account of some present strong motion and perswasion that is upon their minds They think they are Divinely inspired because a thing is set home upon their hearts and this conceit as wild as it is hath produced many strange Notions and Opinions that have been born and brought forth into the world by it The Heat of the Brain and the Strength of Fancy have been the Parents and though upon no better a foundation many Disciples have been made and the Authors have had many followers Such was the beginning of many Sects among us such was the first rise and beginning of several of the Orders of the Romish Church for the same Spirit works both in them and sometimes in those that would seem most opposite to them and whosoever will be at the pains to read Histories both Civil and Ecclesiastical may find not a few of this kind and if you will but be at the labour to read some pieces written purposely on this Subject as Dr. Merrick Causabon of Enthusiasm and Dr. Stillingfleet of the Phanaticism of the Church of Rome and others of this Nature you may have enough c. This wild Spirit hath seemed to shew it self most at the beginning or soon after the Reformation or some change in Religion as it was when Men began in great Numbers to fall off from the Church of Rome and Popery and at some other time since amongst Protestants c. When Men are newly come out of Darkness and Ignorance and begin to see the Light which not having been used unto they seem to be for a while in a maze not well knowing where they are nor how to six themselves and so run out into extravagancies of Opinions and Fancies without Reason without End or else when they new come out of their former Bondage and Slavery wherein they have been tyed as to Religion and their Consciences and begin to taste Liberty and the sweet of it they often grow wild and extravagant so that no sober bounds of Reason and Religion can hold them And feeling the Reins now upon their Necks with which they have been pinched and too straitly held in they now run on while they are quite out of breath They devise new Opinions and spawn new Sects at no Aim Which thing considered might be a good Caution and Admonition to them who have or pretend to have the Reins of Ecclesiastick Power in their hands and such who take upon them to guide and rule others in matters of Religion and Conscience This I say might be an Admonition to them while they are in Power to deal gently with those under them to draw them and drive them as they
Vox Clamantis OR A CRY TO Protestant Dissenters Calling them from some unwarrantable Ways with which they are vulgarly and perhaps too truly charged viz. From all unnecessary medling in matters of State From too deep engagement of themselves in this present World and too great Conformity to it From thinking too highly of themselves for their Separation-sake only From Fanaticism properly so called in their Prayers Sermons Books c. And seriously exhorting them to the minding of the great concerns of Heaven To Fruitfulness in Well-doing To Sobriety and the use of Reason in all Religious matters By N. N. A Protestant and declared Dissenter from the Church of England as far as that Church dissents from Christian Liberty Holiness and Charity and no further Rom. 12.2 Be not conformed to this World Rom. 18. If it be possible live in peace with all men 1 Thess 4.11 Study to be quiet and to mind your Business London Printed for W. H. and are to be Sold by Richard Janaway Anno Dom. 1683. VOX CLAMANTIS OR A Cry to the Professors and Dissenters of this Age in England London c. SECT I. Christian Friends and Brethren I Have heard and you can't but know that many serious minded Christians much lament the great decay of Godliness and serious Piety among the Professors of this Age and those that are called Dissenters herein England and in this City in special And enquiring into the Causes of it they seem to be divers besides that common and general one of a careless Spirit which all are too apt to fall into even in the most weighty things and the things of God and of their everlasting concern which being matters invisible and future though most real we consider not but are taken up too much with the present things of sense and outward appearance because nearest to us and so most affecting of us I say besides this in the general there are some present special causes reasons and occasions that are bad and at best scandalous which it is the intent of this present call and advice to remind you of and to admonish you that they are detrimental and hinder your progress and perseverance in well-doing in order to your eternal well-being And if we do but look into the state of this Age and the Land we live in as to the profession practice of Religion and the Christian Religion it is sad and to be lamented by all who have any sense of the maine concerns of Christianity or of mankind The world of professing Christians in this Nation to look no further are found to be of two general sorts The First Are the ungodly openly prophane who notwithstanding they have been born and educated in this most Holy Religion of Christ Jesus yet carry nothing but the name of it and who because they have not had the hap to now another must needs be called Christians yet live in all manner of open sin committing all sin with greediness viz. Whoredom Drunkenness Swearing Lying Acts of Violence Oppression and all manner of Debauchery and these things not only in secret but openly yea and that which I think few Ages have seen since Christianity openly owning and avowing the vilest abominations fleshly carnal lusts and wickedness and that sometimes in the most publick manner This is and hath too much been the guise and practice of evil men of great men in place and power and such evil examples propagate wonderfully and beget in their own nature and likeness dayly even to admiration These seem as if they would or had a mind industriously to propagate sin and wickedness and to declare themselves to be the open and sworn servants of sin and the Devil If it were in their power and they should accordingly make Laws to promote and advance the most wicked abominations and filthy lusts they could not that way do half so much towards it as now by giving such publick and open examples It is the most effectual way to promote Vice and that with the greatest advantage as to the debauching and eternally ruining of others when persons great in power and place give such examples As our Lord teaches us that the most effectual way to glorify God is not so much to Preach and Profess or tell the vertues of our Heavenly Father as to imitate and follow them and that the light of our good and excellent works shining before men will tend infinitely more to the glory of God and is a better proof of the truth of our Christianity and of our good Conscience Godward than any assent or subscription whatsoever to the best System of Divinity Articles of Faith or Modells of Worship which the evil and hypocrite may do as well as the best and most sincere To be holy upright just sober and to mortify and subdue the lusts and pollutions of the flesh that fight against the Soul and Spirit this is the hard work that few ingage in though it be all in all as to the life and salvation of a Christian man But we are now speaking of a generation of men into whose hearts such things do not enter or once come into their thoughts or if they do they soon shake them out and get rid of them being resolved rudely and madly to put all to a desperate adventure and never to try nor make enquiry into things of this nature into the truth of Christianity till they feel it in their own damnation But enough of these Secondly There are another sort professing Christianity that are better than those at least not so apparently bad that seem to have escaped the gross pollutions of the World through lusts and cannot be charged with such open abominations but in general are Sober Religious and in many things Zealous great hearers of Sermons frequenters of Churches and Meetings Yet it is too apparent that they sometimes pride themselves exceedingly in those things and are highly conceited of themselves because they are not so bad as the worst and will confidently speak against and reprove those that are openly wicked and glory that they are not like other men and so comparing themselves with the worst think themselves wondrous good but in this they take wrong measures the right way is to look up to the best to see how they come short of them i. e. of the most commended and approved Servants of God and Christ Jesus the holy Apostles the Prophets and the life and example of Jesus himself and not to mind how much better they are than the worst or the most Notwithstanding this that yet such the Professors and Dissenters of this Age are much wanting and in many things out of the way is too plain to be hid and all take some notice of it their enemies do it to their reproach thereby to represent them both false and hypocritical and also ridiculous That they do well that do so I am far from thinking but that you should not mind and take warning by
there is no Law nor exception but they are approved commended by all both good and bad These fruits thus expressed are the most proper fruits of the Spirit and are of the true Spirit and temper of our Lord Jesus who shewed himself thus towards all men These will make us most like our Heavenly Father and are most evidently demonstrative of the truth and reality of our faith in Christ by these we glorify God such a temper of Spirit as this we must design and must be growing in it for we are not like to be compleat at first And so it is v. 24. They that are Christ's have crucified or mortified the Deeds of the flesh with the affections lusts or passions of it i. e. They have done it or at least must be in a way of doing it growing in it and getting the victory over those lusts This is to be so done and proceeded in that the power of Christs death may be seen in the death of our sins and carnal affections And the power and force of his resurrection in our rising daily to newness of life and works suitable And ver 25. If we live i. e. If we profess and pretend to live in the Spirit or according to the power of the Divine life Then let us also walk in or according to the Spirit as it is here described in the fruits of it And let us judge our selves and let others judge of us no otherwise but according as they see us thus walk c. But on the contrary are ye not often charged and do ye not give too much occasion for it with divers things contrary to this E. G. with anger and wrath with being subject too much to humour and fancy rather then led by the sober principles of Reason and Religion c. according to the most excellent calm and meek Spirit of Christ Jesus Secondly With being too much guilty of Covetousness Earthly-mindedness and of too much following of this present World and so not shewing forth such freeness such a liberal Spirit as the Christian Gospel teaches and gives example of This being in the nature of it most opposite to a narrow contracted stingy mind and spirit this teaches to be free liberal bountiful all which much grace Religion and the profession of it Consider how greatly this excellent spirit and bountiful temper in all ways of Charitable dealing and Hospitality credits all Religion even a false one And it is so natural to the Spirit and Principles of the Christian Religion that if the practice of it were more it would infinitely promote and propogate it Thirdly You are suspected and charged with being too much conformed to this World and some of you as much as any viz. In pride vanity gallantry in your Selves Clothes Habits and in the Education and bringing up of your Children in scandalous ways and breeding according to the Pride Pomps and Vanities of this World Some that have looked into your Ways and Garbs yea into your Meetings Congregations have seen as much of this as any where else And if they have a mind to see more they may go from thence to the Dancing Schools to the most pompous and vicious parts of them your Balls Masques c. By occasion of all which some scoff others take offence others are grieved and some take occasion to go into the contrary extreams seeing so much pride and vanity in and among Professors Fourthly That you are often found Oppressors Hard if not sometimes Cruel will take the utmost advantage you can will not relieve when need and equity requires but will like other men or the worst of men tye up all to their Bargains Contracts though there be never so great reason to consider them You as well as others have been cryed out upon on this account one instance was in the Letting of Houses and Leases at and since the late Dreadful Fire and Rebuilding of the City Some have wrought upon mens Necessities taken advantage of their weakness want of skill and cunning to look well to themselves and when any have found it and complained of it not the least help and relief in it This dealing hath been charged upon some great Professors and pretenders to Religion and seemingly devout You would do well to mind and consider how far you may have been guilty of this and take the judgment of others and of indifferent persons in the Case Some are complained of as being of an Oppressive Spirit in Trading Dealings Bargains Payments especially by the poor Tradesmen and the Labourers that Work and Sell to you and perhaps dare not complain to you nor contradict you for fear of offending you you never learned this of Christianity nor of Christ Jesus the Author of it Fifthly That when you are Injured and Angered you can't freely forgive nor bear much but are too apt to envy hate take the rigour of the Law these and such like matters are objected against you or divers of you and none can deny but many have given too much occasion for it The truth is that an excellent Bountiful Charitable Religion together with the great work of Self denyal and of Patience Humility and the Mortifying of the lusts passions and evil affections of the flesh is a Religion quite out of fashion and by many disgraced and disparaged as only a piece of dull morality Christian men make no work nor design to excel in these Vertues though it be the only excellent way to glorify God our Heavenly Father as our Lord teaches Let your Light saith he i. e. your good works so shine before men that they may see them and thereby glorify God your Heavenly Father No other way without this no other way but this will do it Nothing but the doing and abounding in such works and in such an excellent temper of Spirit as we learn from Christ Jesus and a principle in our selves from which such works flow Such fruits and works by which we can glorify God are those and of that kind which the most Loose Carnal Atheistical men can judge of as well as others they can tell as well as any who is most Meek Humble Patient Innocent Harmless who is most Charitable Bountiful Beneficial who most Courteous Affable Gentle Condescentious who is most Faithful Careful Diligent useful in the Places Callings Relations God hath set them in They can tell who most abounds in Pity Mercy Compassion and Clemency and who are most free from Pride and Passion who are Ill-natur'd Ill-humour'd who most Sweet and Obliging In word who it is that carryes on a design of Religion and Godliness These things they are at least to some good degree capable to discern distinguish and judge of But for mens Opinions Sects and Parties differences in Religion and things of that kind these they understand not neither do they value nor esteem them nor think any great matter of the zeal of men of different Parties about such things They understand
them not and think that all is but Humour Fancy Superstition or Hypocrisy and that as all men will have their way and humour in some things or other so in Religion too But they can tell who doth the most good and who can and will bear the most and the greatest evil with patience without seeking Revenge or returning like for like It is this and these unquestionable undisputable works of righteousness and goodness that will draw men to the love of God and Religion and the ways of God when they shall see men shew forth the vertues of God These works will put to silence the ignorance of foolish men these alone will if any thing will work upon men for to bring them to the love and obedience of the Gospel of Christ The Scriptures of the New Teflament and that lately cited Mat. the 5th and others do teach us that this way of well doing is the last and the most powerful Argument and of greatest force to win men over to Christ Jesus So that a great trust is left and committed to all the owners and professors of Christianity that they see to the propogating of the Gospel and the compleating of the will and purpose of God in it by well doing The design and purpose of this holy Religion is the salvation of a sinful World the Word of God is indeed open and plain before the evil World they may look into it their conscience can't but sometimes smite them for the neglect of their duty But this they search not into it is not so open and plain to them does not make such impressions upon them as when a draught of Religion is drawn in the holy Lives and ways of Christian men and so presented unto them 'Till this be done no great matter will be done in the World c. Let the 5th of Matt. especially from verse the 38. to the end be heedfully and carefully read and considered to this purpose And add to this the 6th of Luke from the 7th to the 36 verse SECT V. THere are some other things taken notice of in you though not so much as in some others yet too much and too much cause there is for it one instance and the main one is in a matter which it is confess'd many others are guilty of besides you And that is that you many of you make the condition of your Christian and Church-Communion so narrow that none can be admitted into it but just your selves and those of your own Party or particular Opinion who in every thing are just of your mind to a tittle so that if other Christians differ never so little from you either in Doctrine or way of Worship nay perhaps sometimes but in a Ceremony though otherwise good Christians and Holy men giving good proof shewing forth good fruits of the truth of their Faith in Christ Jesus yet are notwithstanding for the want of or defect in some small matter ipso facto rejected as much as the veriest Heathens and Publicans ye will have no fellowship or communion with them First To instance in a thing that concerns some of you the subject of Baptism which though of all things least deserving hath made more noise and trouble in the Christian World than a thousand more weighty matters There are also many other things of like nature or not much differing that are made as much a bar and partition Wall as the Jewish Ceremonies were of old what they were between Jews and Heathens these are made to be between Christians and Christians which is a matter most sad and deplorable Secondly I confess you have had examples and presidents without number for this uncharitable practice but it hath been from such ye have no cause to boast of that they were your teachers and exemplars in that you have rejected and seperated from them upon this account I mean the Romish Church to go no further They indeed in all Ages since they began to be triumphant in the World have not only excluded all other Christians in the World from their Communion because of some differences and dissentings from them but as much as lay in their power used them worse than Pagans accusing them for Hereticks and denying the possibility of Salvation unto them And those that through imposition and cruel usage they had thrust out of their Communion and forced to separate because enjoyn'd to believe and practise as the condition of their Communion things which were plainly against their Light and Conscience and which they judged most contrary to the Word of God they then followed with all manner of uncharitableness and cruelty and persecutions as the vilest and worst of men branding them as Hereticks and Schismaticks which if indeed they had been yet they had no warrant or a justifiable cause to prosecute and persecute them as they did seeing neither they nor any else have more power right or authority over others to compel them to their way than others have to compel them if they had power in their hands c. Thirdly Now those are the men this is the Church that you have seperated from for those kind of practices as you and a great many imitate and follow too much Some of you were you in a condition and had power would destroy all those that differ from you for if you exclude and shut out all from your Communion because of some difference in judgment or opinion and some practices c. it is no great uncharitableness to think you would do more if you had more power in your hands and we not only suspect it but many of the more rigid sort do not deny it c. But not to charge you too deep nor all for some I do believe that many and great numbers of you mean no such thing as to hurt any dissenting or differing Christian farther than to exclude and deny him your Church Communion and so to let him shift as he can But First What warrant have you to reject any that professeth Faith in Jesus Christ and lives at least as good and sober a Life as those that are actually of your Communion his differing or dissenting in some matters only excepted Either he must be rejected by you for every difference or any dissent whatsoever which I think none will say except Papists And they though they say it yet do not cannot practise it 't is well known that they do tolerate great differences among themselves and that considerable Parties and potent Orders of men among them are at variance one with another in the same Church E. G. about Predestination the Immaculate Conception and other things nay they are not well agreed about stating of their great Fundamental of the Churches Infallibility The union that is among them is rather politick than real so that I may presume some difference will be some must be allowed in the same Church Secondly Therefore when Communion will not be allowed upon the account of
different apprehensions in opinion and practices it must be for some opinions and practices in special such as some men will call great and fundamental Errors or as others call them intolerable for it seems they will make a difference between tolerable and intolerable but it is manifest every Party of men be there never so many will have something they call fundamental proper to themselves and to their Party and any that hold any thing in opposition to them therein must be accounted intolerable not to be born and suffered in the Church though otherwise never so good and useful E. G. The Papists will account the Churches Infallibility and some peculiar Doctrines as Transubstantiation c. Fundamentals And so again among the Protestants some called Lutherans will it's probable account their Consubstantiation a Fundamental And those called Calvinists will account the decree of absolute Election and Reprobation a Fundamental And on the contrary part some Remonstrants or Arminians of the more rigid perswasion may make their Opinion so fundamental that they will not have Communion nor such Charity to those differing from them as Christian men should have one to another though erring and perhaps sometimes greatly but yet as is to be hoped meaning well The rigid Northern Presbyters will reckon their Model of Classical Church Government by Presbytery as good as a Fundamental and all that will not submit to it are by them accounted persons intolerable nay perhaps they will for some such like thing has been rise in Arms kill and destroy for the sake and maintenance of their Model of Government presuming it of Divine right and therefore not suffering any other Form or Model to stand with it or by it Once more Those called Anabaptists have not much come short of making the Baptism they practise a Fundamental For First They have asserted and maintained it as of necessity to Church Communion and to be sure whoever were not Baptized according to their way and mode were not accounted capable of Christian and Church Communion and so by a near-hand inference not of salvation which some of the more rigid sort have not been afraid to assert All those and a thousand more may thuspretend to make fundamentals and the errors contrary to them intolerable And surely many of them have absolutely denyed Christian Communion to all that could not come up to their way But thanks be to God many of those are commendably enlarged as to this matter and will now allow a Latitude that before they would not I pray God to enlarge them and all good Christians besides still more and more But you see here are many fundamentals and none knows how many more men may make according to the humour ignorance or Interest of their Party and what one sort calls fundamental Verities another will be as forward to call fundamental Errors Heresies and Wickednesses What course can we now take but to love and receive all Christians as such as Christians that believe in and love Christ Jesus and do not contradict this by any wicked works or ill living contrary to it But you will say What is there nothing fundamental in the Christian Religion no rule to proceed by in judging who is fit for Christian and Church Communion and who not must any one that calls himself a Christian be allowed to be so and admitted to all Christian Communion and Church Priviledges c. I answer First There is no Sect or Party of Christians can assign a rule to judge by as they are such a Sect and Party nor can tell us of any Fundamental which another Party or Sect will not contradict and assign some other perhaps contrary to it and hold that for fundamental or a matter of necessity according to which only they will take and receive men into their Communion So in the first place we must not look to any one Sect or Party for a Fundamental or fundamental rule to judge of the capacity of persons for Christian and Church Communion Secondly There is a Fundamental proper to Christianity as such that all Christians do acknowledge And what is this but the owning and professing of this one thing which is both a fundamental and first principle in Christianity that Jesus is the Christ or the Christ of God take it in the words of the Apostle Rom. 10. where he faith The word is nigh thee verse the 8th what word even this That Jesus is the Christ owned of God approved by him and that in special manner testified by the Resurrection from the Dead whom God would never have raised if he had not been the Lord Christ the place runs thus The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart i. e. The word which we preach which is If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved In short the confession and open owning of Christ Jesus is a Fundamental and necessary to salvation and whoever doth this shall be saved and therefore should be received and accepted as a Disciple of Christ being thereby made capable of Church Communion and Priviledges of that kind This is the Fundamental no other foundation can any man lay or make but this 1 Cor. 3.11 ver And as it is a great fundamental verity that whosoever believes shall be saved so that he that confesses or professes this ought to be by all accepted and received as a Christian and treated accordingly is so plainly laid down in the Scriptures that it is a wonder that either Ignorance Interest Partiality or Uncharitableness should ever have the confidence to rise up against it Thirdly The Scriptures are many and so plain and perspicuous that they are every where to be found so many that it is a tedious labour to cite them all see but a few First When Christ himself and his Apostles first Preached there was no more required to make a Disciple than this Faith when the Apostles Preached after his resurrection it was the same and no more was required but to believe and profess or confess that Jesus was the Christ and then in those first times as a present sign that this was their Faith and to oblige themselves to this Jesus and his Doctrine and Laws they were Baptized and so admitted into the nearest and closest fellowship Acts 2.38 and verse 41 42. Then they that gladly received his word were Baptized And the same day there were added about three thousand souls And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayers Nothing more was required of them to instate them into all the Christian Rights and Priviledges and being admitted into the Church they were to be further educated and instructed by the converse and society they had there that they might grow up to perfect men in Christ Jesus and be made fit for every good work Secondly
shall we our selves make partition Walls between Christians and Christians to keep them asunder and make them too of Rites and Ordinances which Christ pulled down took out of the way Do we not see that according to the design and intent of God this blessed Gospel is so constituted that it might accommodate all let them differ never so much at least in those kind of things yea and greater than those c. Our business then is to unite in Love in Good-will in Charity in common Edification and growth in Grace and every Divine Vertue and to take the joynt help and assistance of all to carry on the great Gospel work in the World For want of this these excellent purposes are spoiled and we are in bad case and the insisting too much upon these little things for so they are even the best of them in comparison will naturally create a narrow contracted Spirit and cause us to love and like none but our selves and our own Party not to take the help or benefit of any but of our own Way and Opinion and so every Party will stand for and by themselves and mind only their own particular Sect or Church not the common good of the whole or the Church Catholick O! Our God amend this and bring us all back from that Spirit which is the Spirit of Anti-Christ and most opposite unto the Spirit and Way of Jesus Christ To conclude 1. Consider That the Gospel is so conditioned as to take in all without the exclusion of any upon any account except that of denying the Christian Name either in words or manifestly in works as hath been said And this the Apostle speaks Col. 3. v. 10 11. Gal. 3.26 27 28. For ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus for as many of you as have been baptized have put on Christ There is neither Jew nor Greek neither Bond nor Free there is neither Male not Female for you are all one in Christ Jesus c. The Gospel takes in all states and conditions into equal Priviledg which the Law did not and according to its Constitution could not do And touching differences in Judgment and Opinion and some Practices when all the Apostles Elders and Brethren were gathered together in the 15th of Acts. Did they force or compel any No not so much as perswade one side to come over to the other but only at present to agree leaving every one to their way till time and growth in Knowledg should draw them nearer And in the mean time they were to keep peace and charity and not be troublesome one to another c. And 't is worth the while to see the ground and reason upon which they built that Union none were to be compelled or imposed upon though or notwithstanding they did differ but all be taken and received into the bond of Charity and Communion as Christians on this account v. 8. That they had the Holy-ghost i. e. many of them had as well as the Apostles and the elder Christians at Jerusalem v. 9. v. 8. And God which knoweth the Hearts bare them Witness meaning that they were accepted of him and that he had testified it by giving the Holy ghost unto them even as he did unto the Apostles and other Christians And v. 9. That is given for the principle Reason upon which they were to be received and nothing to be imposed upon them viz. because God had done the same for them as he had for the rest which was had purified their Hearts by Faith and so no difference was to be put between the one and the other This pleased all reconciled all nothing else would do it but this and this will always do it when Testimony may be had that any are Christians in good earnest imbracing the Name of Christ walking according to the Law of Christ in all the undisputable ways of Holiness and Righteousness against which there is no Law and about which there can be no Dispute whether they be good works yea or no. To conclude The sum and substance of that Epistle sent by the Apostles and Elders and the Brethren set down v. 29. that they i. e. the new converted Gentiles should abstain from some things there mentioned was not imposed or forced upon them but those things were recommended to them and were things not necessary to be sure not all of them in themselves but for the present occasion and finally if against all reason it should be supposed that the Apostles Elders and Brethren did here impose or command those things yet can no other now or since upon any reasonable account claim any such Power as is supposed they made use of and to be sure all the former Scriptures lately argued are plain and preguant against any such claim c. SECT VI. THere are some other things that I will but lightly touch though others of contrary sentiment to you will lay on load One is at which I am not a little abash'd as being unable to defend or so much as to excuse it notwithstanding I have heard what is commonly pleaded that though you according to your declared Principles and ordinary Practice are Non-conformists and Dissenters yet upon occasion and to get into Place and Office of Honour or Profit you will and can Swear Renounce take all or any manner of Oaths and Tests that have of late been injoyned and imposed also that you can on such occasions take the Sacrament according to the form and way of the Church of England though you never did before nor perhaps will ever do the same again except on the like occasion and although the making and first forming of these Oaths and Tests and the taking of the Sacrament were intended and done on purpose to keep you and such as you out of Office and Place whch how well done and how according to Christian Charity I will not now dispute yet by these ways they have not been able to exclude you and they think and sometimes some of them will not forbear to swear that they believe nothing though never so contrary unto you and to your Principles can be devised and made to keep you out and consequently cannot hold you in but that you will break all Bounds leap over all Hedges so that they are at a loss what to do with you c. 2. But O! The horrible scandal that comes from hence upon Religion in general and to the Party you would seem to own and especially to your selves This opens the Mouths fills many Books and Pulpits with matter against you they stick not flatly to say that you are as bad and make use of the same Artifices as the Jesuits do in such cases and though it may vex them to see you thus too hard for them yet it again relieves them by administring to them and occasion of venting their anger and disgusts against you and withal sometimes it makes them merry and pleasant to see
proportion with them in the reason evidence proof and demonstration of them To conclude when I speak so much because there is so much need of the use and exercise of mens judgments and understandings in matters of God and of Religion as well as in other things I hope none will think that I suppose men Infallible or that they may not either willingly or ignorantly err and do amiss and use them otherwise than they ought c. But only thus 1. That an honest exercise and use of them is the way wherein we are most certain to find and may expect a blessing from God in our enquiry and study and good success in the matter and things enquired after and this though it be not infallible is the nearest to Infallibility and we may be sure of the greatest certainty whereby to come to a right understanding and be surely led in the things of God and of our everlasting concerns 2. That men may be dishonest and suffer their hearts and minds to be byassed and wrong influenced and darkned they may not love the Truth for Truths sake they may have their Interest and their Lust to gratify and so they may err and do ill and the Spirit of God may be grieved and kept at a distance and not help them nor ioyn with them But if they are of honest sincere minds which all may and must have even the weakest as well as the strongest they will find they may be surely led and no other but such have the promise for it and so far they are kept out of the way of the evil Spirit as well as from the perversion of their own Spirits and from the subtilty and deceiving of Evil and Interessed men 2. Some of you are charged with Phanaticism sometimes in your Prayers and Sermons i. e. with divers odd and too course blunt and over-familiar and unbecoming words and Phraises Comparisons and Similitudes which seem nauseous to some Ridiculous to others and however passable among the People out of their respects to you yet offensive and grating to the Ears of the more Judicious and give occasion more than you think for but ought to consider to others to scoff deride and thereby countenance and confirm themselves in what they are willing enough to believe viz. That you are as they call you Phanatical and men of absurd Speeches and sometimes of Behaviours in your Religious Exercises And though this may as well be charged upon others and some of your Accusers as well as any yet they having the advantage of you in State-Favour and being otherwise more in the Fashion than you are they can make that use of it against you which you cannot against them neither ought if you could and this should make you the more careful with the greater Piety and Prudence to manage all things of a Religious nature with such a comeliness and decorum that you may disparage neither Religion nor your selves And though such kind of runnings out may not displease but sometimes rather please delight some of the more Raw and Ignorant sort of People yet to the Judicious even among your selves they are offensive troublesome and make them somewhat abashed Certainly men may speak so as to avoid all affectation quaintness pedantique Jingling on the one hand and also all absurd unhandsome uncomely utterance and expressions on the other and what is spoken on such occasions may be sober serious rational and manly But of this I shall take no further notice having done it before Only I cannot choose but wonder that you having heard and seen so much of this nature objected against you both in Speeches Discourse and in Printed Books which will inform and word it to you better than I can should not now be more careful in it c. 3. Something of this nature is noted of you in and about the performance of Religious Duties and about the taking up some private Opinions Notions and Practices in Religion upon the account of a new pretended Revelation or new impulse strong and extraordinary motions upon your Spirits For the first as to Religious Duties and Services This is charged on you and by some too much occasion is given for it That you will not pray to give that as an instance for the whole or go about any such Religious Service till you are first strongly and inwardly moved to it or as some speak have an impulse upon their minds or be moved by the Spirit and when such a forcible touch or strong motion is upon their minds right or wrong they account it a moving of the Spirit of God meerly because they are strongly moved and perswaded And if such a Motion be not they reckon and do account they are not obliged at all to the performance of any Duty in answer to this consider First I grant That Christians may at sometimes be stirred and moved in their Spirits to some religious Work and Service more than at another time and that he that is so doth well to take and not to omit such an Opportunity c. But That he should not set upon the performance of Prayer or any Christian Service till he is so stirred and inwardly and strongly moved this is a Doctrine and Perswasion than which nothing is more foolish and pernicious or Phanatick if you will have it so very dangerous to the Souls of men and nothing more contrary to sound Reason nor the holy Scriptures And this is so plain that it is a wonder any considering man should be perswaded to it or led by it For in how many places doth the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures call upon men to stir up themselves to their Duties to gird up the Loyns of their Minds to be sober to consider and to watch and pray c. yea to provoke themselves and to provoke one another unto good Works as they see Cause and Reason for it how often are we called upon to strive to run to wrestle and that against our selves how often and how vehemently are we called upon to pray to speak to that Duty particularly as an instance of all the rest abundance of Arguments are used to provoke and inforce men to be constant diligent in it c. What need all this and abundance more that 's said to engage us to bestir our selves if this need not be done till we are inwardly stirred and moved and must wait for some impulse and inflation of a mighty Spirit to raise our minds unto it nay further do not these earnest Charges and Exhortations plainly suppose and prove that men may by the serious thoughts of their Duties the Reasons and Necessity thereof stir and raise in themselves such a strong Motion to the Duty they speak of Again Thirdly Do not the Scriptures speak much and give men to understand and make them aware of their own dulness and backwardness to this and all good Works and Duties and doth it not admonish them and put them
are able and willing to go For though some through Fear and Force and sometimes for Interest will go on and swim with the stream and go in the Crowd yet secretly in their minds they hate and distaste if not detest it And though for their present either Ease or Interest they comply and submit to the yoke of their hard Masters yet this somewhat galling their Necks perhaps their Consciences as soon as ever they can get loose and be at liberty from under this Bondage remembring their late forced Compliance they commonly become the greatest Enemies to their old Masters and above all others are most fierce against them Yea those who never complied but were clear Dissenters from them commonly are not so great Haters fierce and implacable Opposers as these For they having not only stoopt against their Wills but against their Consciences too in some kind they now know not how sufficiently to revenge themselves against their Drivers The experience of our former Troubles besides the reason of the thing it self is a sufficient Proof of this But from what Cause soever it is this is certain when Men break loose from under the hands of tyrannous and superstitious Men few of them can keep in temperate Bounds for being rid of the common Enemy to them all every one of them are ready to set up for themselves some into one way some into another some devise new Opinions whereby to make a new Sect or Party c. And among the many Occasions and Temptations this way this is frequently found to be one they either are persuaded themselves or pretend to it and endeavor to make other Men believe that they have some new Revelation and what they do is by Divine Inspiration which thing for the supposed excellency honour and singularity of it invites and tempts great Numbers after them to which this doth not a little contribute in that they now see what little or no reason their old Masters had to claim such a Power and Authority as they used and exercised over them And they cannot also but easily and quickly see this that they have full as much Authority to guide and govern themselves to take their own course in chusing of their own Religion Sect or Opinion yea and more than their former Lords could justly pretend and lay claim unto for the Rule and direction of those they had under their Power Therefore certainly it would well become all that are in Place and Power either in Church or State when they intermeddle and concern themselves in Religion and go about to direct and guide Consciences in it that they would make this most evident to them that the Power they exercise and the Things they command and enjoin are most clear and evident upon the most undoubted Principles of Reason and Religion such as are either really or upon the matter self evident c. Finally This still seems to have been the Method and Policy of the Devil and evil Angels proceeding from that great malice and envy they have unto Men because of the great mercy of God shew'd unto them viz. That in the first place they endeavour to debauch the Souls and Consciences of Men and to turn them quite off from God and to draw them if possible through the vile Sinks and Channels of all Filthiness Pollution and Prophaneness unto all abominable Sin and Wickedness both of flesh and spirit c. But if this be not so feasible always but that some Men will be sober serious and perhaps Religiously inclined yea devout and zealous then they lay the train of their Temptations another way and in another vein more suitable to their Nature and Tempers and find out for them and fill them with some fine Notions and curious Speculations with strange Doctrines and some new devised or new revived Opinions and Heresies and make them believe that these matters newly revealed and brought to their minds set home upon their spirits are from and by the Spirit of God and that God hath in a special manner revealed and honoured them to be the Authors or Preachers of them and so they increase and propagate and being carried on with great heat and confidence and in the Name of God and being Novelties which the Vulgar are not acquainted with they are much affected therewith they take them up both eagerly and hastily and will by no means have the patience nor the prudence to have any thing seriously tryed by plain Scripture and Reason or however will not hearken with calmness and without prejudice what may be said to it and against it but run away with it being loth to lose the honour of a new-discovery and of being the first promoters of it c. POSTSCRIPT THus Christian Friends I have taken a liberty but no other than the common concern of every Christian will allow to mind you of some things wherein you may be blame-worthy or thought so to be I neither have nor dare take upon me so much Authority or Confidence to reprove judge or condemn you for the matters here taxed but only I take my observations from others and from not so much private as publick reproofs nay from the scorn and derision some make at those things they think reprovable in you publickly exposing you on those accounts Your Friends being in the mean time heartily sorry that you take no more notice thereof but because they are your reputed enemies and such you account loose and prophane though you cannot think they are all so that have publickly and in Print thus exposed you you have not endeavoured seriously to look into your ways and to consider whether something thus noted may not stick to you Remember that we all considered both as men and as particular Sects and Parties are better seen by others than by our selves and should not hastily and out of prejudice and ill opinion reject the reproofs and admonitions no not those that are done out of malice and hatred and perhaps with scorn contempt and revenge knowing that though such may overdo yet are like enough to light upon what is true as well as false because they will take all that is to be found or suspected But I assure you some of your Friends and such who agree with you in the same cause of Nonconformity have with grief and regret observed some of these faults and defects especially those about too much Formality amongst Professors and Dissenters thinking so well of themselves for if not glorifying in their Party and way of Dissent and Separation without those real Fruits holy Dispositions and such Christian temper of Spirit in all Peace Meekness Humility and Sanctity and such good works that should grace the Christian Profession and cannot be reproved but may be understood and approved of all even the worst of men And they are not a little troubled at the folly Fanaticism and Enthusiasm of some of you though others of all Parties may be guilty as well as
you and the lack of that manly wisdom in managing your Christian Profession and those rational both Principles and Practices that might adorn it the want whereof disgraces it altogether It hath been before noted that folly or Fanaticism is as disgraceful and in some respects worse to the Honour and Beauty of the Christian Profession as Prophaneness and Irreligion both of them and in the same point have the same ill effects upon the Prophane and Negligent part of mankind especially men that are Wittily wicked the Scriptures especially of the New Testament caution as well against the one as the other and against the Former of Folly and Fancy in all those places where we are cautioned not to be Fools but to be wise not weak nor Children in understanding so not in practice but to be wise and walk wisely to be knowing and understanding what that good most perfect most acceptable will of God is that we may do it and we are bid to have Salt in our selves and to be sober and serious wise and prudent with abundance of this kind and especially to take care of this in our publick Worship and Behaviour of a Religious nature You would do well to look setiously into your Principles and Opinions and the conceptions you have of God and of the things of Religion that there be not any error or mistake about them that may betray you into these ways of Fancy and Enthusiasm 2. I confess it is sometime since these Papers and the Address to you was first drawn up that there may have been some Alterations in some Matters and Affairs relating to you as every day will alter somewhat and that you may think some Severities have been used towards you since but I hope this shall not make you to lose any part of your Patience Prudence or Charity but by such exercise to improve in them and to let patience have her perfect work James 1. v. 4. that you may be entire wanting nothing and if any want either wisdom or patience let him ask of God who giveth liberally to all but be well and throughly resolved that what you ask you are resolved to follow and practice and not wavering nor unresolved whether you had best have it or not for then you shall receive nothing ver 6 7 8 c. Further 't is my desire that you would be more compassionate to them you think hurt and molest you then concerned for your selves not to be angry or offended with them but to learn what Spirit you are to be of towards your enemies and to learn of him who is the great pattern and exemplar in this and all Divine vertues even our dear and to be adored Lord and Saviour in his Precepts commanding us to love our enemies and to pray for them that despightfully use us and persecute us not to return evil for evil no not in words reviling for reviling with abundance more to this purpose And himself was the excellent example in this yea when he was upon the Cross in the midst of his Torments and surrounded with his Tormentors with scornful revilings cruel mockings and the highest provocations and I think under the most cruel hard circumstances all things considered that ever any was yet in the midst of all did not so much mind himself as them his Charity and Compassion was greater for them than himself and most heartily praying for forgiveness of them And that we may not think this only proper for him and that no other could do the like or imitate him in it consider that besides his Example that we are to follow his Command and surely he would not command it if we were not by his Grace in a capacity to do it We have also an instance of one of his Servants a man with like passions with our selves Stephen the first Martyr who when he was in the throng of his violent Executioners actually stoning of him yet then was most mindful of them and prayed heartily for them having well learned of his Lord and Master You have not yet suffered much 't is good for Christians and their duty to be prepared for the worst which the Christian spirit will most excellently fit them for And be sure in all your Prayers to God there be not the least tincture of hatred against your enemies or uncharitableness or ill will against any for this will spoil all and the good success of them Secondly Neither is it well done though too many are faulty in it to trouble your selves with fears and jealousies of what Evils will come what Alterations Changes and Revolutions may be in the World or amongst our selves the fears of Popery and the great Troubles that must needs follow thereupon Not to be ever careful in any of these things but in these and in all to commit your care and the care of all and the publick as well as your own private unto God by Prayer and Supplication and leave it with him trust him with it and the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Hinder not your selves in the enjoyment of your present peace nor by a diversion of your mind and troubling your selves about these supposed and feared Events Your present great work and care of working out your Salvation requires the greatest care and fear above all and in this as well as other things let your moderation be known unto all men and whatever may by the Providence of God or evil of men fall out that may displease and trouble you in matter of State-changes be you not disturbed nor provoked to any Displeasure Discontent much less Tumultuousness and Violent Motions but be as Christ Jesus whose Kingdom not being of this World was not would not be concerned in the Affairs of it much less to disturb the Publick and State Affairs in it so should his Servants they have other work to mind and enough to do to carry on the Affairs of his Spiritual Kingdom in their own hearts and to promote it in the World in all his ways of Goodness and Charity in Meekness and Piety in Perseverance in Well-doing and patient Forbearance and Suffering Finally what I have writ here and said I have done it in the Fear of God and in Love and Charity to all being desirous to do what I can to honour the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour and to my Power to warn you against the things that are dishonourable to it And I consider that the designe of God in the Gospel of Christ is that after the Revealing Preaching and Publishing of it it should be next carryed on by the holy Lives and worthy Walking of those that profess it and commended to the World that way and that the Light of your good Works and holy Living should shine before men that you should so manage your Christian Profession both in your private Capacities and as Members of the Christian Church and that by this means you may prevail and do more good than with all Professions Preaching or any other Services otherwise you can do yea so powerful is holy Living that they that will not be perswaded by the World may be won by the excellent Conversation of Christian Men and Women I might here cite abundance to this Purpose even the whole new Testament-writings but this is plain and well known Happy are we if we do it To conclude all should look more at godliness and worthy walking and for the promotion of Piety in the World than to any particular part of Religion Opinion or Party of their own but this is not yet well learnt nor taught as is too evident among the several Sects Parties and divisions of Christians among our selves and elsewhere for most are more intent upon their own way than upon the main desire of the Christian Religion and so are still looking about for such particular Passages and Texts of Scripture some particular Precept Command or Example that may favour their own Way Opinion or Party and hack and hew at these cutting them off from their main body and grand designe of Religion whereas being taken as they are and ought to be in Conjunction with it and interpreted according to the main principle Duties of Godliness Peace and Charity and the advancement of real Righteousness and Goodness the sence and meaning of all such particular Parts and Passages would become easie and be better understood and that aspect and influence they have upon the whole would be better perceived and the minding the great Intent and purpose of Religion would enlighten them and so Contentions about them would cease Love Charity and Goodness would be joyntly promoted and carryed on by all and the common good and Salvation of men furthered for the most part the contests in Religion are but about the lesser things viz. outward Ordinances and Rites some smaller and less considerable Opinions and Practices all which would be soon ended if Christians of all Sects and Divisions would but mind the main if their Passions Lusts and evil Affections were mortified and their Love and Charity to all were more warm and if they would still mind what is best to be done and wherein they may best approve themselves to God and to men herein also would they find the greatest Peace and Satisfaction in themselves and acceptation with God and the righteous Judge of all Jesus Christ our Lord at the last I end all with the excellent Rule laid down in General comprehensive Terms Phil. 4.8 Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest decent or seemly whatsoever things are just or Righteous whatsoever things are pare whatsoever things are lovely or Friendly whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think upon these things FINIS