The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction William Penn: His Life, His Times, and His Work
• Notes On Texts and Annotations
• Chronology of Penn’s Life and Times
• {part I}: Foundations the Ancient Constitution and English Liberties
• 1.: The People’s Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted, In the Trial of William Penn and William Mead, At the Sessions Held At the Old-baily In London, the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth of September, 1670, Against the Most Arbitrary Procedur
• 2.: England ’s Present Interest Considered, With Honour to the Prince, and Safety to the People (1675)
• {part Ii}: Penn’s Argument For Religious Liberty
• 3.: The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience Once More Briefly Debated and Defended, By the Authority of Reason, Scripture, and Antiquity: Which May Serve the Place of a General Reply to Such Late Discourses; As Have Oppos’d a Toleration (1670) the a
• 4.: One Project For the Good of England That Is, Our Civil Union Is Our Civil Safety Humbly Dedicated to the Great Council, the Parliament of England (1679)
• 5.: An Address to Protestants of All Perswasions More Especially the Magistracy and Clergy, For the Promotion of Virtue and Charity (1679) In Two Parts. By W. P. a Protestant.
• 6.: A Brief Examination and State of Liberty Spiritual, Both With Respect to Persons In Their Private Capacity, and In Their Church Society and Communion (1681)
• 7.: A Perswasive to Moderation to Church-dissenters, In Prudence and Conscience: Humbly Submitted to the King and His Great Council (1686)
• 8.: Good Advice to the Church of England, Roman-catholick, and Protestant Dissenter: In Which It Is Endeavoured to Be Made Appear, That It Is Their Duty, Principle, and Interest, to Abolish the Penal Laws and Tests (1687)
• {part Iii}: General Principles and Specific Events
• 9.: The Proposed Comprehension Soberly, and Not Unseasonably, Consider’d (1672)
• 10.: England’s Great Interest, In the Choice of This New Parliament Dedicated to All Her Free-holders and Electors (1679)
• 11.: A Letter From a Gentleman In the Country, to His Friends In London, Upon the Subject of the Penal Laws and Tests (1687)
• {part Iv}: an Expanding Vision For the Future
• 12.: An Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe By the Establishment of an European Dyet, Parliament, Or Estates (1693)

5.

AN Address to Protestants of All Perswasions More Especially the Magistracy and Clergy, for thePromotion ofVirtueandCharity (1679)

In Two Parts. By W. P. a Protestant.

2 Pet. 1. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Giving all Diligence, add to your Faith, Virtue; and to Virtue, Knowledge; and to Knowledge, Temperance; and to Temperance, Patience; and to Patience, Godliness; and to Godliness, Brotherly Kindness; and to Brotherly Kindness, Charity. For if these Things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these Things, is blind, and cannot see far off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old Sins.

the FIRST PART.

Sect. 8.

An Address to the Civil Magistrate for Redress.

HAVING thus ended my Reflections upon the Five Great Crying Sins of the Kingdom,1 and my Reproof of the Actors and Promoters of them; give me Leave to make my Humble and Christian Address to you that are in Authority. And in the First Place, I beseech you to remember, that tho’ ye are as Gods on Earth, yet ye shall dye like Men: That ye are encompass’d with like Passions, and are subject to Sin. Such therefore of you, as may be concerned in any of these Enormities (to what ever Degree of Guilt it be) I beg you in the Name of God to search your selves, and to be just to your own Souls. O! let the Mercies and Providences of God constrain you to Unfeigned Repentance! Turn to the Lord, Love Righteousness, Hate Oppression, and he will turn to you, and love you and bless you.

In the next Place, be pleased to consider your Commission, and examine the Extent of your Authority, you will find that God and the Government have impower’d you to punish these Impieties: And it is so far from being a Crime, that it is your Duty. This is not troubling Men for Faith, nor perplexing People for Tenderness of Conscience; for there can be no Pretence of Conscience to be Drunk, to Whore, to be Voluptuous, to Game, Swear, Curse, Blaspheme and Profane; no such Matter. These are Sins against Nature; and against Government, as well as against the Written Laws of God. They lay the Ax to the Root of Human Society, and are the Common Enemies of Mankind. ’Twas to prevent these Enormities, that Government was instituted; and shall Government indulge that which it is instituted to Correct? This were to render Magistracy Useless, and the Bearing of the Sword Vain: There would be then no such Thing in Government as A Terror to Evil-Doers;2 but every one would do that which he thought Right in his own Eyes. God Almighty defend us from this Sort of Anarchy.

There are three great Reasons, which enforce my Supplication. The First is, The Preservation of the Government, which by such Improvidence and Debauchery, is like to be greatly weakned, if not destroyed. The Industry, Wealth, Health and Authority of the Nation, are deeply concern’d in the Speedy and exemplary Punishment of these Extravagancies. This is the Voice of Interest, for the Common Good of the whole Society; Rulers and Ruled.

But there is an higher Voice, unto which Christian Men ought to have Regard, and that is the Voice of God, who requires us to fear him and obey his Righteous Commandments, at the Peril of making him our Enemy, whom we should make our common Friend and Protector: For upon his Goodness, depends our very Natural and Civil Comforts. So that it is our Interest to be good; and it is none of the least Arguments for Religion, that the Piety and Practice of it is the Peace and Prosperity of Government; and consequently, that Vice the Enemy of Religion, is, at the same Time, the Enemy of Humane Society. What then should be more concern’d for the Preservation of Virtue, than Government; that in it’s abstract and true Sense is not only founded upon Virtue, but without the Preservation of Virtue, it is impossible to maintain the best Constitution that can be made? And however some particular Men may prosper, that are Wicked, and several private good Men miscarry in the Things of this World, in which Sense Things may be said to happen alike to all, to the Righteous as to the Wicked, yet I dare boldly affirm, and challenge any Man to the Truth thereof, that in the many Volumes of the History of all the Ages and Kingdoms of the World, there is not one Instance to be found, where the Hand of God was against a Righteous Nation, or where the Hand of God was not against an Unrighteous Nation first or last? Nor where a just Government perish’t, or an unjust Government long prospered? Kingdoms are rarely as short lived as Men, yet they also have a Time to die: But as Temperance giveth Health to Men, so Virtue gives Time to Kingdoms; and as Vice brings Men betimes to their Grave, so Nations to their Ruin.

’Tis the Reason given by God himself, for the Destruction of the old World. We have that Example before our Eyes; that a whole World has perisht for it’s Sin, it’s Forgetfulness of God and their Duty to him; one Family only excepted. Gen. 6. That is the Reason which God renders for casting out the People of those Countries, that he gave into the Hands of the Children of Israel; they were full of Uncleanness, Adulteries, Fornication, and other Impieties. And though he is Soveraign Lord of the World, and may dispose of the Kingdoms therein, as pleaseth him (for he that gives can take away; and he that builds, can cast down; and Mankind is but a Tenant at Will, to receive or surrender at his Lord’s Good Pleasure) yet he useth not that Prerogative to justifie his Gift of those Countries to the Jews; but at the End of his Prohibition of Unlawful Marriages and Lusts, he charges them in these Words; defile not your selves in any of these Things: for in all these the Nations are defiled, which I cast out before you; And the Land is defiled: therefore do I visit the Iniquity thereof upon it; and the Land it self, vomiteth out her Inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my Statutes and Judgments, and shall not commit any of these Abominations, neither any of your own Nation, nor any Stranger, that sojourneth among you; that the Land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the Nations that were before you.3

So Saul’s Disobedience was his Destruction, and his Sin made Way for David’s Title. Saul died (saith the Sacred Story) for his Transgression: This made the Philistines Conquerors; his own Sin beat him and kill’d him.4Saul died for his Transgression; then if he had not sinned, he had lived; he had beaten his Enemies and kept the Kingdom? yes, the Place implies it. This then should deter Men, but Kings especially, who have so much to lose here, and so much to answer for hereafter. But what was Saul’s Sin? It was, First, Not keeping but disobeying the Word of the Lord, both as it came by the Mouth of Samuel, God’s Prophet, and as it spoke the Mind of God to him in his own Conscience (for Moses had said before that the Word of God was nigh, in the Heart, and in God’s Name commanded the Children of Israel to obey and do it.)5 In short, he refused the Counsel of God, and God for his Counsellor: For in the next Place, he betakes himself to one that had a Familiar Spirit for Advice, saith the Story: He enquired not of the Lord, therefore he slew him and turned the Kingdom unto David.6 There are too many People troubled with Familiar Spirits; it were well, if they were less Familiar with them: Had Saul trusted in God, he needed not to have been driven to that Strait. He that was made King by God’s Appointment, and endued with a Good Spirit, so basely to degenerate, as to run to a Witch for Counsel, could not but miscarry. To this Darkness and Extremity Iniquity will bring Men: And truly, a Wo follows all such Persons; answerable to that Expression of God by the Prophet; Wo unto them that take Counsel, and not of me.7 When Saul (saith the Place) was little in his own Eyes, God honour’d him; he made him Head and King of the Tribes of Israel:8 But when Saul grew Proud, God deserted him, and for his Disobedience destroyed him. And what befel the Family of Saul, in some After-Ages befell both Kings and People, and worse: For their Land was invaded, first by the AEgyptians, then by the Chaldeans and Babylonians: Their Temple was rifled, their Treasure taken, and their Kings, Princes, Nobles, Artificers, and Mighty Men of Valour, yea all, save the poorest of the People, were kill’d or carried away Captive, by the King of Babylon. The Reason rendred is this: Because the Kings did that which was Evil in the Sight of God, and stiffned their Necks, and hardned their Hearts from turning unto the Lord God of Israel; and because the Chief of the Priests and of the People transgressed very much after the Abominations of the Heathen.9 And when God sent his Messengers to reprove and warn them, and that out of his Great Compassion, they wickedly mocked his Messengers, despised his Words, and mis-used his Prophets, till his Wrath came upon them, and over-threw them.

I will here end my Instances out of Sacred Story; and let us now briefly consider, what the Histories of other Places will tell us; that we may observe some Proportion of Agreement in the Providence of God throughout the World.

The first Empire had Nimrod’s Strength, and the Wisdom of the Chaldeans to establish it; and whilst their Prudence and Sobriety lasted, they prospered. No sooner came Voluptuousness, than the Empire decayed; and was at last by the base Effeminacies of Sardanapalus, in whom that Race ended, transfer’d to another Family.10 It was the Policy of an Assyrian King, in Order to subdue the Strength of Babylon, then under good Discipline, not to invade it with Force, but to debauch it. Wherefore he sent in Players, Musicians, Cooks, Harlots, &c. and by those Means introducing Corruption of Manners, there was little more to do, than to take it. Nebuchadnezzar by his Virtue and Industry, seen in the Siege of Tyre, and in many Enterprises, recover’d and enlarg’d the Empire; and it seems his Discipline (those Times considered) was so excellent, that it was praised in Scripture. But when he grew Proud and Foolish, forgetting that Providence that had shown it self so kind to him, he became a Beast, and grased amongst Beasts; till God, whom he had forgotten, had restored him the Heart of a Man and his Throne together.11

He, dying left Evil-Merodach Heir to his Crown, not his Conduct, nor the Heart to consider what God had done by him: In his Time Pride and Luxury encreased, but came not to it’s full Pitch, till the Reign of Belshazzar, who did not only as Nebuchadnezzar, live, but dye a Beast.12 In him we have the exact Example of a Dissolute and Miserable Prince: He thought to fence himself against Heaven and Earth; dissolved in Pleasures, he worshipped no other God; his Story may make us well conclude, that God and Man desert those, that desert themselves, and neglect the Means of their own Preservation. The City was taken before he knew it, and the Sword almost in his Bowels, before he believed it: His Sensuality had wrapt him in such a Desperate Security. But he fell not by the Hand of one like himself; for God who had determined the End, prepared the Means. Cyrus and his Persians were the Men: The People were poor, inhabiting a barren Country; but hardy and of Sober Manners. Cyrus God had endued with Excellent Natural Qualities, cultivated (as Story tells us) by the Care of four of the most temperate, just and Wise Persons of those Times. This was he, whom God honour’d with the Name of his Shepherd, and who was the Executioner of his Vengeance upon the Assyrians. While he reigned, all was well; but after he and his virtuous Companions deceased, their Children fell into the Vices of the Assyrians; and though they reigned from the Indus to the Hellespont, they soon became the Conquest of the Greeks.

Never was there a greater Instance given of the Weakness of Pomp and Luxury, than in the Resistance made at Thermopolae, where Three Hundred Virtuous Spartans encounter’d the Vast Army of Xerxes, consisting of no less than Seventeen Hundred Thousand Men. In short, the Defeats of Salamine and Platea, the Expeditions of Xenophon with Cyrus the Younger, almost into Babylon, and the Wars of Agesilaus into Asia, made it evident, that Greece wanted only Union and an Head, to make her self Mistress of that Vast Empire.13

At last comes Alexander of Macedon, with the best Disciplin’d People that was then known: The Dispute was short, where Steel was against Gold, Sobriety against Luxury, and Men against Men that were turn’d Women. Thus, the Persians prepar’d by their own Vices, God deliver’d into the Hands of the Greeks, who as much excelled them in their Virtue, as they were short of their Dominion and Wealth. But this lasted not long; for Alexander, who died young, surviv’d his Virtue and Reputation, by falling into those Vices of the Nations, God had given him Power to trample under Foot; insomuch that he, who was before Generous, became Barbarous and Tyrannical. Egypt, Asia, and Macedon, held up their Heads a while; but not resisting the Torrent of Lewdness, that came upon them, suffer’d themselves to be over-whelm’d with Misery and Confusion.

Nor has this Calamity been peculiar to Monarchies; for several Republicks have fallen by the same Mischief. That of Lacedaemon or Sparta, so Severe in her Constitution, and so Remarkable for the Virtue of her People, and that for many Ages, at last growing slack in the Execution of her Laws, and suffering Corruption insensibly to creep into her Manners, she became no more Considerable, but Weak and Contemptible.

The same may be said of Athens, the Great School of Learning, and of all the Republicks of Greece, most Famous for her Virtue and Philosophy, when that Word was understood not of Vain Disputing, but of Pious Living: She no sooner fell into Luxury, but Confusion and Revolutions made her as Inconsiderable, as she had been Great.

Rome, as she was the Greatest Common-Wealth, so the greatest Example of Gentiles in Virtue and Vice, in Happiness and in Misery: Her Virtue and Greatness are Commemorated by Austin the Father, and the latter made the Effect of the former. God (saith he) gave the Romans the Government of the World, as a Reward for their Virtue.14 Their Manners were so Good, and their Policy so Plain and Just, that nothing could stand before them. And truly, they seem’d to have been employ’d by God to punish the Impious, and to instruct the Barbarous Nations: And so very Jealous was she of the Education of her Youth, that she would not suffer them to converse with the Luxurious Greeks. But Carelessness, with Length of Time, over-coming the Remarkable Sobriety of her Manners, who before seemed invincible, she falls into equal, if not greater Miseries, than those that went before her, though she had not only Warning enough from their Example, but from Hannibal’s Army, and her great Enemy: For one Winter’s Quarter of Hannibal and his Army, in the Luxurious City of Capua, prov’d a greater Overthrow to them, than all the Roman Consuls and Armies had given them. They that had been Victors in so many Battles, turn’d Slaves at last to Dancers, Buffoons, Cooks and Harlots; so as from that Time they never did any Thing suitable to the Reputation gain’d by their former Actions; but fell without much Difficulty into the Roman Hands.15 Nay, not long before, Rome her self encountred one of the greatest Dangers, that ever had befallen her, by the Corruption of her own People, in the same Place, by the like Means: And though this Defection was recover’d by those that remain’d entire in their Manners, yet after the Overthrow of Antiochus, Mithridates, Tigranes, that the Riches and Vices of Asia came with a full Stream upon them, the very Heart of the City became infected; and the Lewd Asiaticks had this Revenge in their own Fall, that they ruin’d, by their Vices, those they were no Ways able to resist by their Force; like the Story of the Dying Centaur.16 Thus Pride, Avarice and Luxury having prepared Rome for Destruction, it soon followed. Virtue now grew intolerable in Rome, where Vice dared not for Ages to show it’s Face. The Worthiest Men were cut off by Proscriptions, Battels or Murders, as if she resolved Ipsam Virtutem exscindere:17 She destroyed her own Citizens, and sent for Strangers to protect her, which ruin’d her. Which proves, that the Kingdom or State, that, under God, doth not subsist by it’s own Strength, Prudence and Virtue, cannot stand: For the Goths, Hunns, and others, despised to serve those, whom they excelled in Power and Virtue, and instead of Guarding, took their Dominion from them. And truly, it might rather be called a Journey, than a Military Expedition, to go and pillage Rome; so weak had her Vices made her. Thus she that was feared by all Nations, became the Prey of all Nations about her. So ended that once Potent and Virtuous Common-Wealth.

The Vandals in Africk soon became Effeminate and Lewd, which brought upon themselves speedy Ruin. The Goths set up a Powerful Kingdom in Spain and Part of France, and by the Sobriety of their Manners, it flourished near Four Hundred Years; but it’s End was not unlike the rest. Two corrupt Princes, Vuitza, and Roderic, by their dissolute Example, debauch’d the People, insomuch that Men ran an Hazard to be Virtuous: This made their Destruction easie to those whom God sent against them; which were the Moors, occasion’d by the last of these Kings dishonouring Count Juliano’s Daughter. In the Time of his Calamity, in vain did he expect the Aid of those that had been the Flatterers, and the Companions of his Vices: His Security (the Effect of his Luxury) was his Ruin. For whilst he thought he had no Body to subdue, but his own People, by abusing them, he Cut off his own Arms, and made himself an easie Prey to his Real Enemies: And so he perisht with his Posterity, that had been the Cause of the Mischief, which befel that Great Kingdom. However, so it came to pass, that the Remainder of the Goths mixing with the Ancient Spaniards (to that Day distinct) recovered the Liberty and Reputation of the Kingdom by an Entire Reformation of Manners, and a Virtue in Conversation as Admirable, as the Vices, by which their Fathers had fallen, were Abominable. But the present impoverisht State of Spain can tell us, they have not continued that Virtuous Conduct of their Ancestors; the Increase of their Vices having decayed their Strength, and lessened their People and their Commerce.

But why should we overlook our own Country? that, whether we consider the Invasion of the Romans, Saxons, or Normans, it is certain the Neglect of Virtue and Good Discipline, and the present Inhabitants giving themselves up to Ease and Pleasure, was the Cause (if Gildas the Brittain, and Andrew Horn may be credited) of their Overthrow: For as the first bitterly inveighed against the Looseness of the Brittains, threatning them with all those Miseries that afterwards followed; so the last tells us, that the Brittains having forgotten God, and being overwhelm’d with Luxury and Vice, it pleased God to give the Land to a poor People of the Northern Parts of Germany, called Saxons, that were of plain and honest Manners.18 God is unchangeable in the Course of his Providence, as to these Things: The like Causes produce the like Effects, as every Tree doth naturally produce it’s own Fruits. ’Tis true, God is not careless of the World; He feeds the young Ravens, clothes the Lillies, takes Care of Sparrows, and of us, so as not an Hair of our Heads falls to the Ground without his Providence;19 but if Men despise his Law, hate to be Reformed, spend their Time and Estate in Luxury, and persist to work Wickedness, he will visit them in his Wrath, and consume them in his sore Displeasure. To conclude, Wars, Bloodshed, Fires, Plunders, Wastings, Ravishments, Slavery, and the like, are the Miseries that follow Immoralities, the Common Mischiefs of Irreligion, the Neglect of Good Discipline and Government.

Nothing weakens Kingdoms like Vice; it does not only displease Heaven, but disable them. All we have said, proves it: But, above all, the Iniquity and Voluptuousness of the Jews, God’s chosen, who from being the most Prudent, Pious and Victorious People, made themselves a Prey to all their Neighbours. Their Vice had prepared them to be the Conquest of the First Pretender; and thus from Freemen they became Slaves. Is God asleep, or does he change? Shall not the same Sins have the like Punishment? At least, shall they not be punisht? Can we believe there is a God, and not believe, that he is the Rewarder, as of the Deeds of Private Men, so of the Works of Government? Ought we to think him Careful of the Lesser, and Careless of the Greater? This were to suppose he minded Sparrows more than Men, and that he took more Notice of private Persons than of States. But let not our Superiors deceive themselves, neither put the Evil Day afar off; they are greatly accountable to God for these Kingdoms. If every poor Soul must account for the Employment of the small Talent he has received from God, can we think, that those High Stewards of God, the Great Governors of the World, that so often account with all others, must never come to a Reckoning themselves? Yes, there is a Final Sessions, a General Assize, and a Great Term once for all, where he will Judge among the Judges, who is Righteous in all his Ways. There Private Men will answer only for themselves, but Rulers for the People, as well as for themselves. The Disparity that is here, will be observed there, and the Greatness of such Persons, as shall be then found Tardy, will be so far from extenuating their Guilt, that it will fling Weight in the Scale against them. Therefore give me Leave, I do beseech you, to be earnest in my humble Address to you; Why should ye not, when none are so much concern’d in the Good Intention of it? Thus much for the First Reason of my Supplication.

the SECOND PART.

Sect. 1.

Five Capital Evils that relate to the Ecclesiastical State of these Kingdoms.

HAVING finish’d the First Part of my Address relating to the Immoralities of the Times, and left it with the Civil Magistrate, as, in Conscience, I found my self oblig’d to do, whose peculiar Charge it is, and, I earnestly and humbly desire and pray, that it may be his great Care effectually to rebuke them, I shall betake my self to the Second Part of this Address, that more immediately concerns us as Profess’d Christians and Protestants. But before I begin, I desire to premise, and do with much Sincerity declare, that I intend not the Reproach of any Person or Party: I am weary with seeing so much of it in the World: It gains nothing, that is worth keeping; but often hardens, what ’tis our Duty to endeavour to soften and win. But if, without Offence, I may speak the Truth, that which, to the best of my Understanding, tends to the present Settlement and future Felicity of my poor Country, I shall, by God’s Help, deliver my self with the Modesty, Plainness and Integrity, that becomes a Christian, a Protestant, and an Englishman.

Those Capital Sins and Errors that relate to the Ecclesiastical State or Church-Capacity of these Kingdoms, and which are so inconsistent with Christian Religion and Purest Protestancy, and that, above all, displease Almighty God, are,

First, Making Opinions Articles of Faith, at least giving them the Reputation of Faith, and making them the Bond of Christian Society.

Secondly, Mistaking the Nature of True Faith, and taking that for Faith which is not Gospel-Faith.

Thirdly, Debasing the true Value of Morality under Pretence of Higher Things, mistaking much of the End of Christ’s Coming.

Fourthly, Preferring Human Authority above Reason and Truth.

Fifthly, Propagating Faith by Force, and Imposing Religion by Worldly Compulsion.

These I take to be the Church-Evils, that have too much and too long prevail’d even in these Parts of the Reformed World: And though the Roman Church hath chiefly transcended other Societies in these Errors, and may, in a Sense, be said to be the Mother of them, She, from whom they took Birth, by whom they were brought forth and have been propagated in Christendom, yet there hath not been that Integrity to the Nature of Christianity, and First Reason of Reformation from the Papacy in our own Country, as had been and is our Duty to conserve.

Sect. 2.

Of Opinions passing for Faith.

FIRST, That Opinions pass for Faith, and are made Articles of Faith, and are enjoyn’d to be embrac’d as the Bond of Communion.

That this is so, let us take the most impartial View we can, and we shall find it to be true, both of the National and many other Select Societies. That I may be understood in the Signification of the Word Opinions, I explain it thus: “Opinions are all those Propositions or Conclusions made by Men Doctrines of Faith and Articles of Communion, which either are not Expresly laid down in Scripture, or not so evidently Deduceable from Scripture, as to leave no Occasion of Doubt of the Truth of them in their Minds who sincerely and reverently believe the Text: Or, lastly, such as have no new or Credible Revelation to vouch them.”

That this is our Case, let the several Confessions of Faith published by almost every Party in England be perused, and you will find such Propositions translated into Doctrines of Faith and Articles of Communion, as are, first, not only not express’d in Scripture, but, perhaps not well deduceable from Scripture: And if one Party may be but believ’d against another, we can want no Evidence to prove what we say. And, in the next Place, such as are, though not express’d, yet it may be, deduceable as to the Matter of them, are either carried so high, spun so fine, or so disguised by barbarous School-Terms, that they are rather a Bone of Contention, than a Bond of Concord to Religious Societies. Yet this has been the Unhappiness even of this Kingdom after all the Light of Reformation, which God hath graciously sent amongst us, Men are to be received or rejected for denying or owning of such Propositions. Wilt thou be a Presbyterian? Embrace and keep the Covenant, subscribe the Westminster-Confession and Directory: And so on to the End of every Society, that grounds Communion upon Conformity to such Propositions and Articles of Faith.

What a Stir have we had in England about the Word Ἐπίσκοπος He that says it signifies an Higher Office than Πρεσβύτερος shall have no Part or Fellowship with us: On t’other Hand, they that will debase Episcopos to Presbuteros,20 and turn Levellers or Degraders of Episcopal Dignity, shall be excommunicated, silenc’d, punish’t. Is not this plain Fact? can any deny it, that love Truth more than a Party? The Fire kindled by this Contention, hath warm’d the Hands of Violence: It had been well, if Men had entertained Equal Zeal against Impiety, and been but half as much Enemies to Sin, as they have been against one another on such Accounts.

If we look a little back, we shall find, that the Debate of Free-Will and unconditional Reprobation filled this Kingdom with Uncharitableness and Division. In the Arch-Episcopacy of Abbot (reputed in himself a good Man) whosoever held, that Christ so died for all Men, that all Men might be saved, (if they would accept the Means) and that none were absolutely decreed to Eternal Reprobation, was reputed an Heretick, and Excommunicated as an Enemy to the Free-Grace of God, which, it seems, at that Time of Day, lay in being narrow.

In the Reign of Arch-Bishop Laud the Tide turned: And those that held an absolute Election, and Reprobation, without Regard had to the Good or Evil Actions of Men, and asserted, that Christ only died for the Elect, and not for all, must be discountenanced, displaced and pointed at as Men out of Fashion, though at the same Time Conscientious, Sober and (at worst) mistaken; and to be pitied rather than persecuted; and informed, not destroyed.

This Controversie begat the Synod of Dort: He that reads the Epistles of that Judicious Man J. Hales of Eaton Colledge, upon the Matter and Conduct of that Assembly, will find Cause of being sad at Heart; too many of them talking of Religion without the Spirit of it.21Men, perhaps, learned in Books, but few of the Sticklers gave any great Testimony of their Proficiency in that Science, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easie to be entreated.22 This Flame kindled between Arminius and Episcopius, &c. for the Remonstrants, and Gomarus, Sibrandus, &c. for the Predestinarians, distracted Holland not a little, and had an ill Influence upon the Affairs of England, at least so far, as concerned the Church. But the mournfullest Part of that History is the ill Usage, Martinius Crocius, the Bishop of Landaff, and others had; who, though they were acknowledg’d to be sound in the Faith of those Things, which generally followed the Judgment of Calvin, as to the main Points controverted, yet if at any Time they appeared moderate in their Behaviour, gentle in their Words, and for Accomodation in some particulars, with the Remonstrants or Free-Willers; Gomarus and his Followers, not observing the Gravity due to the Assembly, the Rules of Debate, and least of all the Meekness of Christian Communion, fell foul of their Brethren, reproached their Tenderness, and began to fix Treachery upon their sober Endeavours of Accommodation; as if they intended to execute as well as maintain their Reprobation, and blow up their Friends rather than not destroy their Adversaries.

But if we will rise higher in our Enquiry, and view the Mischiefs of earlier Times, flowing from this Practice, the Fourth and Fifth Centuries after Christ will furnish us with Instances enough. We cannot possibly forget the heavy Life some Men made about the Observation of Easter-Day, as if their Eternal Happiness had been in Jeopardy: For so far were they degenerated from the Love and Meekness of Christianity, that about keeping of a Day, which perhaps was no Part, but to be sure, no Essential Part of the Christian Religion, they fell to Pieces; reproach’t, revil’d, hated, and Persecuted one another. A Day was more to them than Christ, who was the Lord and End of Days; and Victory over Brethren, sweeter than the Peace and Concord of the Church, the great Command of Jesus, whom they called Lord.23

But the remarkable and tragical Story of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria and Arius his Priest, in their known Debate about the Nature and Existence of the Son of God, with the lamentable Consequence thereof, (as all Writers upon that Subject have related) witnesseth to the Truth of what I say. The Bishop’s Curiosity, and the Strictness of Arius; the Presumption of the one to expound beyond the Evidence and Simplicity of the Text, and the captious Humour of the other, that would not bate the Bishop any Thing for his Age, or Rank he held in the Church, but Logically exacted the utmost Farthing of the Reckoning from his old Pastor, first began the Fray: Which as it became the Perplexity of Church and State some Ages, so it raged to Blood; and those that had been persecuted like Sheep by the Heathen not long before, turned Wolves against each other, and made Sport for the Infidels, doing their Work to their own Destruction. Nay, so much more Christian was Themistius the Philosopher, that he in his Oration, called CONSUL, commended the Emperour Jovianus for his Moderation, and advised him to give that Liberty of Conscience, which profest Christians, refused to allow each other; who seemed to think, they never did God better Service, than in Sacrificing one another for Religion, even as soon as ever they had escaped the Heathen’s Shambles.24

Did we duly reflect upon the unnatural Heats, Divisions and Excommunications among them, the many Councils that were called, the strong and tedious Debates held, the Translations of Sees, the Anathemas, the Banishments, Wars, Sackings, Fires and Blood-shed that followed this unnatural Division, that sprang from so nice a Controversie, one would verily believe no less, than that Religion it self had been in utmost Hazard; that Judaism or Paganism were over-running Christianity; and not, that all this Stir had been made about an Iota. For the whole Question was, whether Homousia, or Homoiousia should be received for Faith? In which the Difference is but the single Letter, I: Certainly, we must do Violence to our Understanding, if we can think that these Men were Followers of that Jesus that loved his Enemies and gave his Blood for the World, who hated their Brethren and shed one another’s Blood for Opinions: The Heathen Philosophers, never were so barbarous to one another, but maintained a better Understanding and Behaviour in their Differences.

But how easily might all these Confusions have been prevented; if their Faith about Christ had been delivered in the Words of Scripture; since all Sides pretend to believe the Text? And why should any Man presume to be wiser, or plainer in Matters of Faith, than the Holy Ghost? ’Tis strange, that God and Christ should be wanting to express or discover their own Mind; or that the Words used by the Holy Ghost, should have that Shortness, Ambiguity or Obliquity in them, that our frail Capacities should be needed to make them more easie, proper and intelligible. But that we should scarcely deliver any one Article of Faith in Scripture-Terms, and yet make such Acts the Rule and Bond of Christian Communion, is, in my Judgment, an Offence hainous against God and Holy Scripture, and very injurious to Christian Charity and Fellowship. Who can express any Man’s Mind so fully, as himself? And shall we allow that Liberty to our selves, and refuse it to God? The Scriptures came not in old Time (said the Apostle Peter) by the Will of Man; but holy Men of God spake, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.25 Who can speak better, or express the Mind of the Holy Ghost plainer, than the Holy Ghost? The Scripture is the great Record of Truth, That which all these Parties in Controversie agree to be the declared Mind and Will of God, and they unanimously say, it ought to be believed, and profest as such. If this be true, in what Language can we so safely and properly declare our Belief of those Truths, as in the very Language of the Scripture?

And I cannot see how those Persons can be excused in the Day of Gods Judgment, who make Men Heterodox or Heretical, for refusing to subscribe their Articles of Faith that are not in Scripture-Terms, who in the same Time offer to declare their Belief of God, Christ, Spirit, Man’s Lapse or Fall, Repentance, Sanctification, Justification, Salvation, Resurrection, and Eternal Recompence in the Language of Holy Scripture? I must say, it is preposterous and a Contradiction, that those who desire to deliver their Faith of Truth, in the Language of Truth, shall not be reputed true Believers, nor their Faith admitted. This were to say, that therefore their Faith is not to be received, because it is declared in the Language of that very Truth, which is the Object of that Faith, for which it ought to be received, and which is, on all Hands, concluded to be our Duty to believe. It seems then we must not express our Belief of God in his Words, but our own; nor is the Scripture a Creed plain or proper enough to declare a true Believer, or an Orthodox Christian, without our Glosses.

Are not Things come to a sad pass, that to refuse any other Terms than those the Holy Ghost has given us, and which are confest to be the Rule or Form of sound Words, is to expose a Man to the Censure of being unsound in the Faith and unfit for Christian-Communion? Will nothing do but Man’s Comment instead of God’s Text? His Consequences and Conclusions in the Room of Sacred Revelation? I cannot see how any Man can be obliged to receive, or believe revealed Truths in any other Language, than that of the Revelation it self; especially if those that vary the Expression, have not the same Spirit to lead them in doing so, or that it appears not to me that they have the Guidance of that Holy Spirit. If the Holy Ghost had left Doubts in Scripture, which is yet irreverent to believe, I see not how Men can resolve them; it is the Work of that Spirit. And since Men are so apt to err, Doubts are better left in Scripture, than made or left by us. But it is to cross that Order of Prudence and Wisdom among Men, who chuse to conform their Expressions to the Thing they believe. If an honest Man hath related a Story to me, of something he hath seen, and I am to declare my Faith about it, if I believe the Fact, I will chuse to deliver it in the Terms of the Relator, as being nearest to the Truth.

Suppose a Father dying, makes his Last Will and Testament, and, as he thinks, so plain, that there can be no Mistake made by the Executors, but what is wilful: If they, instead of proving this Will, and acting according to the Plainness of it, turn Commentators, make more Difficulties than they find, and perplex the whole Matter, to the Children and Legatees, and send them to the Law for Right; will we not esteem such Executors ill Men, and justifie those Persons concern’d in their Refusal of their Paraphrase? God hath at sundry Times and in diverse Manners, by his Prophets, his Beloved Son and his Apostles, delivered to the World a Declaration of his blessed Will;26 but some have claim’d and taken to themselves the Keeping, Explanation and Use of it, so as those that chuse to be concluded by the Letter and Text of Christ’s Testament in it’s most important Points, expose themselves to great Prejudice for so doing; for they are Excommunicated from all other Share in it, than the Punishment of the Breakers of it, which is part of their Anathema, who, of all others, are most guilty of adding or diminishing, by undertaking to determine, for others as well as themselves, the Mind and Intention of the holy Ghost in it.

But if it be True, as True it is, that few have writ of the Divine Authority of Scripture, who do not affirm that the very Penmen of it were not only inspired by the Holy Ghost, but so extraordinarily acted by him, as that they were wholly asleep to their own Will, Desires or Affections, like People taken out of themselves, and purely Passive, as Clay in the Hand of the Potter, to the Revelation, Will, and Motion of the Spirit;27 and for this End, that nothing deliver’d by them, might have the least Possibility of Mistake, Error, or Imperfection, but be a Compleat Declaration of the Will of God to Men; I cannot see which Way such Men can excuse themselves from Great Presumption, that will, notwithstanding, have the Wording of Creeds of Communion, and reject that Declaration of Faith as insufficient, which is deliver’d in the very Terms of the Holy Ghost; and deny those Persons to be Members of Christ’s Church, that in Conscience refuse to subscribe any other Draught than that the Lord has given them.

Two Things oppose themselves to this Practice: The Glory of God, and the Honour of the Scripture; in that it naturally draws People from the Regard due to God and the Scripture, and begets too much Respect for Men and their Tradition. This was the Difficulty Christ met with, and complained of in his Time; they had set up so many Rabbies to learn them Religion, that the Lord of the True Religion could hardly find Place amongst them. And what did they do? They taught for Doctrines the Traditions of Men:28 They gave their own and their Predecessors Apprehensions, Constructions, and Paraphrases upon Scripture, for the Mind and Will of God, the Rule of the People’s Faith. They were near at this Pass in the Church of Corinth, when they cryed out, I am for Paul, I am for Apollos, and I am for Cephas, though they had not the same Temptation.29

And that which followed then, ever will follow in the like Case, and that is Distraction; which is the contrary to the Second Thing that opposeth it self to this Practice, and that is the Concord of Christians. For the Sake of Peace consider it: Lo here and Lo there always followed; one of this Mind, and another of that: As many Sects as Great Men to make and Head them. This was the Case of the Jews; and yet I do not hear, that they devoured one another about their Opinions and Commentaries upon Scripture; but the Christians have done both; Divided and Persecuted too. First, they have divided, and that mostly upon the Score of Opinions about Religion. They have not been contented with the Expressions of the Holy Ghost; they liked their own better. And when they were set up in the Room of Scripture, and in the Name of Scripture, Submission was required upon Pain of Worldly Punishments. This dissatisfied Curiosity, this Unwarrantable, what shall I say? This Wanton Search has cost Christendom dear, and poor England dearest of any Part of it.

I design not to grate upon any, or to revive old Stories, or search old Wounds, or give the least Just Occasion of Displeasure to those that are in present Power; yet I must needs say, that Opinion on one Side or t’other, has been the Cause of much of that Discord, Animosity and Confusion that have troubled this Kingdom. And it seems to have been the great Stratagem of Satan, to prevent the spreading of the Glorious Gospel of Salvation in the World, by taking Men off from the Serious Pursuit of Piety and Charity, Humility, and Holy Living, Peace, and Concord: And, under Pretence of more raised Apprehensions, and sublime Knowledge of Religion, to put them upon introducing Curious and Doubtful Questions, that have given Occasion, first for Contention, and That, for Persecution. This was no more uncondemned, than unforeseen of the Apostle Paul, who exhorted his beloved Son Timothy, 1 Tim. 6. 3, 4, 5. To avoid those that doted about Questions, those Men that would be thought Skilful, Inquisitive Searchers after Truth, such as love to exercise their Faculties, and improve their Talents; but let us hear his Judgment, Of which (says he) cometh Strife, Railing, Surmises, perverse Disputings of Men of Corrupt Minds. And the Truth is, none else love such Disputings: They, who seek a Daily Victory over the World, the Flesh and the Devil, and press fervently after Fellowship with God, and that Consolation that ensues such an Employment of their Time, have very little to lose upon Contention about Words. I could wish I were able to say, that Vain Controversie were not our Case! But this is not all, the Apostle does expressly tell Timothy, That if any Man consent not to Wholsom Words, even the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Doctrine that is according to Godliness, he is Proud, knowing nothing, but doting about Questions, &c.30 They were such as used Philosophy, and Vain Deceit, as he writes to the Colossians, Col. ii. 8. Beware, says he, lest any Man spoil you through Philosophy and Vain Deceit, that is, drawn them away from the Simplicity of the Gospel, and the Wholsome Words of Christ, after the Traditions of Men, after the Rudiments of the World, and not after Christ. He used no Humane Wisdom, yet he spake Wisdom, but it was in a Mystery, tho’ to the humble Disciples of Jesus nothing was plainer; but it was a Mystery to the Wise Men of this World.31 And truly, they that are not unacquainted with the more degenerate Ages of the Greek Philosophers, how Philosophy, once taken for the Love of Virtue and Self-Denial, which they esteem’d Truest Wisdom, and was begun by Men of ordinary Rank, but great Example of Life, became little else, than an Art of Wrangling upon a Multitude of idle Questions, and so they entertain’d the Apostle Paul at Athens,32 may very well guess which Way Apostacy entred among Christians; especially, when we consider, that in the third and fourth Centuries, the Heathen-Philosophers had the Education of Christian Youth, and that no Man had any Reputation among the Christian Doctors, who were not well initiated in the Philosophy, Rhetorick, and Poetry of the Gentiles. Which made for Impurity of Language, and laid a Foundation for great Feuds in the Church: Christ and his Doctrine must be prov’d by Aristotle and his Philosophy. Yes, Aristotle must explain Scripture, and by Degrees methodize the loose Parts of it, and reduce them to Formal Propositions and Axioms; and by the Help of such Philosophers, the poor Fisher-Men were taught to speak Metaphysically, and grew Polite in the Sense of Athens, who, to say True, were neither Guilty of using nor understanding it. But as the first Rules of Philosophy were few and plain, and consisted in Virtuous Living, so the Christian Religion was deliver’d with much Brevity, yet much Plainness; suited to the Capacity of the Young, the Ignorant, and the Poor; to inform their Understandings, subdue their Affections, and convert their Souls to God, as well as Persons of more Age, Knowledge, and Ability.

And truly, when we consider the Smallness of the Writings of the Evangelists, the Shortness of Christ’s Sermons, the Fewness of the Epistles writ by the Apostles, and the many and great Volumes of Commentators and Criticks since, we may justly say, The Text is almost lost in the Comment, and Truth hid, rather than revealed in those Heaps of Fallible Apprehensions. Where by the Way, let me say, That the Voluminousness of the Books is no small Token of the Unclearness of the Writers; for the more evident and better digested any Matter is, the more easie and short it will be in expressing. But after the Christians had declin’d the Simplicity of their own Religion, and grew Curious and Wanton, loving God above All, their Neighbours as themselves, and keeping the Plain Commandments of Christ, that relate to Good Life, became but Ordinary and Homely Things: Their Easiness rendred them Contemptible: They gave but little Pleasure to Speculative Minds; they had nothing in them above Ordinary Capacities; and it seemed hard, that Men of Inquisitive and Rais’d Spirits, should sit down with the Lesson of Rusticks and Peasants: Philosophers did not do so; and they would be like other Nations. ’Twas not enough now to know There was a GOD, and that He was but One, Just and Good, the Observer of their Actions, and the Rewarder of their Deeds, and that therefore they should serve him; but they must be distinctly inform’d of his Nature, and all his Attributes, his Purposes and his Decrees, and the Suitableness of them all to the Line and Plummet of their Understanding: So that God was to be, what their Conclusions would allow him to be; that yet knew not themselves. Nor did it satisfie that there was a Christ, that this Christ was the Son of God, that God so loved Mankind, as beholding them in a Way of Destruction, he sent his Son to proclaim Pardon upon True Repentance, and offer’d a General Reconciliation to as many as received and embrac’d his Testimony; and that to that End He laid down his Life a Ransom, Rose and Ascended, and gave his Good Spirit to lead his Followers after his Example, in the Way of Truth and Holiness: But they must search into the Secret of this Relation, how, and after what Manner he is the Son of God? His Nature, Power and Person must be discuss’d: They will be satisfied in this, before they can find in their Hearts to believe in him. Next, Whether he be the Cause, or the Effect of God’s Love? What was that Price he paid, and Ransom he gave? And how he died for us? If Properly and Strictly, or Tropically and Elegantly, to satisfie the Justice of God? And whether God could, or could not have Saved Man another Way? If this Mercy were offer’d to all, or but some? And whether Acceptance and Repentance be with the Consent of the Creature, or by an irresistible Grace? What Body he Rose and Ascended with? And what Bodies we shall have in the Resurrection, in Nature, Stature, and Proportion? Lastly, What this Spirit is, that comes from Christ? If it comes from God also? Whether it be God, or an Inferior Minister? How it Exists? If a Person, in what Relation, Degree, or Dignity it stands to the Father and Son? With Abundance more of this Unreasonable Strain, flowing from the Curious, Ungovern’d, and Restless Minds of Men. No Man would be used by his Servant as they treat God. He must wait our Leisure, before we will believe, receive, and obey him: His Message is obscure, we don’t understand it; he must gratifie our Curiosity; we desire to be better satisfied with it before we believe or deliver it; it comes not presently up to Men’s Understandings; ’tis too obscurely exprest; we will explain it, and deliver it with more Caution, Clearness and Success, than it is delivered to us. Thus God’s Revelation hath been scan’d, and his Precepts examin’d, before Licens’d by his Creature: Man would be Wiser than God; more wary then the Holy Ghost. Our Lord, it should seem, understood not what Kind of Creature Man was; he wanted his Wisdom to admonish him of the Danger; or haply he thought not upon that Corruption, which should befall Mankind in these Latter Ages of the World, which might require the Abilities of Men to supply the Wants and Defects left by the Holy Ghost, in the Wording of the Scripture.—I wrong not this Practice; I render it not more Odious than it is: It is an inexcusable Piece of Presumption, that which debases the External Testimony of God, and draws Men off from that which is Eternal too. It introduces the Traditions of Men, in the Room of God’s Records, and setteth up their Judgment and Results for the Rule of Christian Faith, and Canons of Christ’s Church. This is one of those Things, that made Rome so hateful, and her Yoke intolerable to our Predecessors: Pretended Deductions from Scripture, put in the Room of Scripture, with a Superfedeas to all Dissent upon never so Just a Ground of Dissatisfaction.

I beseech you Protestants, by the Mercies of GOD, and Love of JESUS CHRIST, ratified to you in his Most Precious Blood, Flee Rome at Home; Look to the Enemies of your own House! Have a Care of this Presumption; carry it not too high; lay not Stress, where God has laid none, neither use His Royal Stamp to Authorize your Apprehensions in the Name of his Institutions.

I do not say, that Men are never to express their Minds upon any Place of Scripture to Edification: There is a Christian Liberty not to be denied; but never to lay down Articles of Faith, which ever ought to be in the Very Language of Holy Writ, to avoid Temptation and Strife. You see, how the contrary Method hath been the Great Make-Bate in all Ages, and the Imposition of such Opinion, the Privilege of Hypocrites, but the Snare of many Honest Minds; to be sure the sad Occasion of Feuds and miserable Divisions. It was plainly seen, that by the many Disputes that rose from hence, Men’s Wits were confounded with their Matters, Truth was lost, and Brotherhood was destroyed. Thus the Devil acted the Part both of Opponent and Defendant, and managed the Passions of both Parties to his End, which was Discord. And but too many were ready to perswade themselves, from the Miscarriages on both Sides, That nothing Certain could be concluded about Religion; for it so fell out, that whilst Men were perpetually wrangling and brawling about some one Opinion of Religion, the most important Points of Faith and Life were little regarded, Unity broken, Amity destroyed, and those Wounds made, that were never closed but with the Extinction of one Party: Not a Good Samaritan being to be found to heal and close them.33 Now it was that a Godly Man was distinguish’d from an Ungodly by this, let his Life have been almost what it would, that he seem’d to maintain the Opinions in Vogue, and to abhor the Doctrine, which, in some One or Two Points, might be reputed Heretical, or Schismatical.

O that we could but see how many, and how Great Defeats Satan hath given to the Work of God in the Hearts of Men! What Desolations he hath made by this one Evil, Controversie; begot of Opinion, and used for it; and how few have contended for the Faith, as it was once deliver’d to the Saints!34 He must be a Man of Brass, that could refrain from Weeping at these Calamities. And truly I must desire to take Leave sometimes to bewail this Broken Condition of Christendom, and to bestow my Tears in Secret upon these Common Ruins: And I beseech God Almighty, with a Soul sensibly touch’t with the Mischiefs that naturally flow from this Practice, to awaken you to a most speedy and serious Consideration of your present Standing, and Amendment of your Miscarriage in this and all other Points that may concern your Good, and his Glory. Put away Wrath! Away with Clamours! Away with Arrogance and Impatience! Let that Holy Spirit of God, which we in common profess to be the Christian’s Guide, have the ordering of our Understandings in Spiritual Things, lest Ignorance should mistake, Interest wrest, or Prejudice pervert the Sense of God’s Book. For as too many are Ignorant of the Divine Truth through their own Concupiscence, and Vile Affections, that carry them away to the Desire of other Things, and therefore easily mistake about Nice or Obscure Matters; so there are not a few, who come to search the Scriptures with Pre-possess’d Minds, that are sorry to meet with a Contradiction to their own Judgment, instead of being glad to find the Truth, and who use their Wits to rack out another Sense than that which is Genuine; which Sort of Men use the Scripture for it’s Authority, and not it’s Sense, or Truth.

All this While, the Head is set at Work, not the Heart, and that which Christ most insisted upon, is least concerned in this Sort of Faith and Christianity; and that is, Keeping His Commandments.35 For ’tis Opinion, not Obedience; Notion, and not Regeneration, that such Men pursue. This Kind of Religion leaveth them as bad as it finds them, and worse; for they have something more to be proud of. Here is a Creed indeed, but of what? The Conclusions of Men, and what to do? To prove they believe in Christ, who, it seems, never made them. It had been happy for the World, that there had been no other Creeds, than what He and His Apostles gave and left. And it is not the least Argument against their being needful to Christian Communion, that Christ and His Apostles did not think so, who were not wanting to declare the Whole Counsel of God to the Church.

To conclude: If you desire Peace, love Truth, seek Piety, and hate Hypocrisie, lay by all those Things called Articles of Faith, and Canons of the Church, that are not to be found in express Terms in Scripture, or so plainly Authorized by Scripture, as may, with Ease, be discerned by every Honest and Conscientious Person. And in the Room of those numerous and disputed Opinions, made the Bond of External Communion, let some Plain, General and Necessary Truths be laid down in Scripture Terms, and let them be few; which leads me to the next Point, and that is FAITH, which is generally mistaken in the very Nature of it.

Sect. 3.

OfFaith,and Mistakes about it.

THE Second Mischief that is amongst us, is the Misunderstanding of the Nature of FAITH; whence it comes to pass, that Men take that for Faith, which is not; and sit down in a Security pernicious to their Eternal Happiness. I shall briefly say something of what is not Faith, before I speak of that, which appears to me to be Truly and Scripturally such.

The Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only not believing Men’s Opinions and Determinations from the Sacred Text, of which I have so freely deliver’d my self, but it is not meerly the Belief even of the Things contain’d in Scripture, to be True: For this the Devils and Hypocrites do, and yet are very Bad Believers: They refuse not the Authority of Scripture: The Devil made Use of it to Christ himself; but he would have the explaining and applying of it:36 And since he could not hinder the Divine Inspiration, if he may but be allow’d the Exposition, he hopes to secure his Kingdom. Since then the Verity and Authority of both History and Doctrine may be believ’d by the Devil and Hypocrites, that are false to their own Faith and Knowledge, we cannot without great Injustice to the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the Faith of all His Followers, allow, That a meer Belief of the Verity and Authority of the History and Doctrine of Scripture, is that True and Precious Faith, which was the Saint’s Victory over the World.

Faith then, in the Sense of the Holy Ghost, is by the Holy Ghost thus defined: viz. The Evidence of Things not seen and the Substance of Things hoped for.37 This is General and runs through all Ages; being received of all Sorts of Christians as a true Definition of Faith: But with leave, I shall express it thus: True Faith in God is entirely believing and trusting in God, confiding in his Goodness, resigning up to his Will, obeying his Commands, and relying upon his Conduct and Mercies, respecting this Life and that which is to come. For a Man cannot be said to believe in God, that believes not what he says and requires: And no Man can be said to do that, who does not obey it, and conform to it; for that is believing in God, to do as he says. This is in Scripture called the Gift of God;38 and well it may, for it is Supernatural: It crosses the Pride, Confidence and Lust of Man: It grows out of the Seed of Love, sown by God in the Heart, at least it works by Love:39 And this distinguishes it from the Faith of Ill Men and Devils, that though they do believe, they don’t Love God above all, but something else instead of God, and are full of Pride, Anger, Cruelty and all Manner of Wickedness. But this Faith that works by Love, that Divine Love which God plants in the Heart, it draws and inclines Man, and gives him Power to forsake all that displeaseth God: And every such Believer becomes an Enoch, Translated, that is, Changed from the Fashion of this World, the Earthly Image, the Corrupt Nature; and is renewed in the Likeness of the Son of God, and walks with God.40The Just shall live by Faith:41 They have in all Ages liv’d by this Faith; that is, been sustain’d, supported, preserved: The Devil within nor the World without could never conquer them. They walked not by Sight, but by Faith, and had Regard to the Eternal Recompence: No Visible Things prevailed with them to depart from the Invisible God, to quench their Love, or slacken their Obedience to him; the great Testimony of their Faith in Him.

This Holy Faith excludes no Age of the World; the Just Men, the Cornelius’s in every Generation have had some Degree of it: It was more especially the Faith of the simpler Ages of the World, such as those in which the Patriarchs lived, who having not an outward Law, became a Law to themselves, and did the Things contained in the Law; for they believed in God, and, through Faith, obtained a good Report.42 But because that it hath pleased God, in order to Man’s Recovery from that grievous Lapse Disobedience hath cast him into, at sundry Times and in divers Manners to appear to the Sons of Men, first by his Prophets, and last of all by his Son;43 and that these several Manifestations have had something peculiar to them, and very remarkable in them, so that they claim a Place in our Creed; It will not be amiss, that we briefly consider them.

The first was that of the Prophets, in which Moses preceded, by whom the Law came to the Jews, but Grace and Truth to mankind by Jesus Christ.44 The first brought Condemnation, the last Salvation; the one Judgment, the other Mercy; which was glad Tidings indeed. The one did fore-run the other, as in Order of Time, so in Nature of Dispensation: The Law was the Gospel begun, the Gospel was the Law fulfilled or finisht: They cannot be parted.

The Decalogue or Ten Commandments were little more than what had been known and practised before; for it seem’d but an Epitome and Transcript of the Law writ in Man’s Heart by the Finger of God: This is confest on all Hands and in all Ages since, as the Writings of ancient Gentiles as well as Jews and Christians tell us. This therefore must needs be a Part of our Creed; for it relates to that Righteousness which is Indispensible and Immutable: The other Part of their Constitution that was peculiar to their Politick, Typical and Mutable State, the Gospel is either unconcerned in it, or else ended it by the bringing in of a better Hope and a more enduring Substance. But Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ:45Grace is opposed to the Condemnation of the Law, and Truth to Shadows. This is the most excellent Dispensation; it is ours, and it becomes us to weigh well our Interest in it. Take it in other Words of the Holy Ghost. God, who at sundry Times and in divers Manners spake in Times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last Days spoken to us by his Son. God so loved the World, that (after all the World’s Provocations by Omissions and Commissions) he gave his only begotten Son into the World, that the World through him might be saved.46

And here Two Things present themselves to our Consideration: First, the Person, who he was? What his Authority? Secondly, his Message, his Doctrine, what he taught? Which though never so reasonable in it self, depended very much, in it’s Entertainment among the People, upon the Truth of his Mission and Authority, that he was no Impostor, but came from God, and was the promised Messiah. This was done two Ways; by Revelation and by Miracles. By Revelation, to such as were as well prepared and inclined, as honest Peter, the Woman of Samaria, and those that were mov’d to believe him from the Authority in which he spake, so unlike that of the Formal Scribes.47 By Miracles, to those that being blinded by Ignorance or Prejudice, needed to have their Senses struck with such Supernatural Evidences, from many of whom this Witness came, that he was the Messiah, the Christ and Son of God.

In fine, all was done within the Compass of that People, among whom he daily conversed, that was needful to prove he was from God, and had God’s Message to declare to the World. In so much that when some of his Disciples were not so firm in their Belief of his Authority, as he deserved at their Hands, he calls his own Works to prove his Commission and convict them of Incredulity: If ye will not believe, that the Father is in me, that he doth these Works by me; believe me for the very Works sake, Thus he argueth with the Jews: Say ye of him the Father hath sanctified and sent into the World, thou Blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the Works of my Father, believe me not (this is reasonable; he that shall Judge the World, offers to be tryed himself; he goes on) But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the Works, that ye may know and believe, that the Father is in me.48 And he laid the Sin of the Jews upon this Foot, viz. That they rejected him, after he had made Proof of his Divine Mission by such extraordinary Works, As no Men among them all could do: which, to give them their Due, they do not deny, but shamefully pervert and foolishly abuse, by attributing them to the Power of the Devil. To which Malice and Slander he returned this inconfutable Answer; A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand: What! cast out Devils by the Prince of Devils? ’Tis a Contradiction, and very Madness it self.49

I have nothing to do now with Atheists, or those that call themselves Theists; but such as own themselves Christians; and shall therefore keep to my Task, namely; What of the Christian Dispensation is so Peculiar and Important, as to challenge of Right the Name of Creed or Faith? I say then, That the Belief of Jesus of Nazareth to be the Promised Messiah, the Son and Christ of God, come and sent from God to restore and save Mankind, is the first and was then the only requisite Article of Faith, without any large Confessions, or an Heap of Principles or Opinions resolv’d upon after Curious and Tedious Debates by Councils and Synods: And this may be proved both by Example and Doctrine.

It is evident from Example, as in the Case of Peter, who for having believed in his Heart and confess’d with his Mouth, That Jesus was the Christ and Son of God, obtained that Signal Blessing, Mat. 16. This made Nathaniel a Disciple; Rabbi, said he, Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. It was the like Confession, that made Amends for Thomas’s Incredulity, when he was sensibly assured of the Resurrection of Jesus, My Lord and my God! This was also the Substance of Martha’s Confession of Faith to Jesus, when he said to her, I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in me shall never die: believest thou this? She answer’d, Yea Lord, I believe, that thou art the Christ the Son of God, which should come into the World? She answered him not as to that Particular of the Resurrection, but in General, That he was the Christ, the Messiah, that was to come into the World, and that sufficed. ’Twas a Confession not unlike to this, that the Blind Man made, to whom Christ gave Sight, when Jesus said to him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Lord, said he, I do believe; and he worshipped him. What shall we say of the Centurion, preferred by Christ himself before any in Israel, though a Gentile? Or of the Faith of the Woman and Inhabitants of Samaria, that he was the Messiah? Or of that Importunate Woman that cry’d to Jesus, To cast a Devil out of her possest Daughter, and would not be put off, to whom Christ said, O Woman, great is thy Faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt? To which let me add the Faith of the People, that brought the Man sick of the Palsy to Christ, who uncover’d the Roof to let him down to be toucht; the Faith of Jairus the Ruler; and of that Good Woman, who pressed through the Crowd to touch the Hem of Christ’s Garment, to whom Jesus said, Be of good Comfort, Daughter, thy Faith has made thee whole: Also the Two Blind Men, that followed him out of the Ruler’s House, crying, Thou Son of David, have Mercy on us; who, when Jesus had said, Believe ye that I am able to do this? Answer’d, Yea, Lord; upon which he touch’d their Eyes and said, According to your Faith be it unto you: Also the Blind Man near Jericho; The Leprous Samaritan that Christ cleansed; and that notable Passage of the Woman that kissed his Feet and anointed his Head; to whom he pronounced this happy Sentence; Thy Faith hath saved thee, go in Peace.50

I will conclude this with that famous Instance of the Thief upon the Cross, who neither knew nor had Time to make a large Confession like the Creeds of these Days: but it seems he said enough; Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto thee, to Day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.51 By which it is easy to learn that t’was the Heart, not the Mouth; the Sincerity, not the Words, that made the Confession Valid.

Nor was this only, in the Days of Christ, the Effect of his Gracious Dispensation or peculiar Indulgence, for after-times afford us the like Instances. This was the main Bent of Peter’s Sermon; and when the Three Thousand believed that he whom the Jews had crucified, was both Lord and Christ, and repented of their Sins, and gladly received his Word, they are said to have been in a State of Salvation. Thus Cornelius and his Houshold and Kindred, so soon as Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah, and that they had believed, the Holy Ghost fell upon them; and they were received into the Christian Communion. But the Story of the Eunuch is very pat to our Purpose: As he rid in his Chariot, he was reading these Words out of the Prophet Isaiah, viz. That he was led as a Sheep to the Slaughter, and like a Lamb dumb before the Shearers, so opened he not his Mouth. In his Humiliation his Judgment was taken away; and who shall declare his Generation? for his Life is taken from the Earth. Philip join’d to him and ask’d him, If he understood what he read? He desir’d Philip to interpret the Mind of the Prophet, whether he spoke of himself or another? Philip upon the Place preached to him Jesus: The Eunuch was so well perswaded by the Apostle, that coming to a Water, he said, What doth hinder me to be Baptized? Philip answered him, If thou believest with all thine Heart, thou may’st: To this the Eunuch reply’d, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Upon which he was baptized; and ’tis said, He went away Rejoycing; which indeed he might well do, that felt the Comfort of his Faith, the Remission of his Sin and the Joys of the Holy Ghost, which always follow true Faith in Christ.52

I will conclude these Examples with a Passage in the Acts, of Paul at Thessalonica; ’tis this: Paul, as his Manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures; opening and alledging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the Dead; and that this Jesus (said he) whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great Multitude, and of the Chief Women not a few.53 Thus we may plainly see, that they were baptiz’d into the Faith of Jesus, and not into Numerous Opinions; and that this one Confession, from true Faith in the Heart, was the Ground and Principle of their Church-Fellowship. Then God’s Church was at Peace; she thrive; there were then no Snares of Words made to catch Men of Conscience with. Then not many Words, but much Integrity; now much Talk, and little Truth: Many Articles, but O ye of little Faith!

Nor was this only the Judgment and Practice of that Time out of Condescension to Weakness, and Charity to Ignorance; for both Christ Jesus himself and his Apostles (those blessed Messengers of Holy Truth) have doctrinally laid it down, as the Great Test to Christians; that which should distinguish them from Infidels, and justly intitle them to his Discipleship, and Christian Communion one with another. Let us read a little farther: Then said they to Jesus, what shall we do, that we might work the Works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the Work of God, that ye Believe on him, whom God hath sent. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, hath Everlasting Life. And upon another Occasion, to the Jews, he said, For if ye believe not, that I am he, ye shall die in your Sins. It must follow then, that if they did believe him to be the Messiah, the Anointed of God to Salvation, they should be saved. Most plain is that Answer of the Apostle to the Goaler, when he came trembling to them and said, Sirs, What must I do to be saved? Believe (said they) on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The Apostle Paul confirms this in his Epistle to the Romans, when he says, If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine Heart, that God hath raised him from the Dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the Heart Man believeth unto Righteousness, and with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation: For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him, shall not be ashamed. For there is no Difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all, that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord, shall be saved.54 This was the Word of Faith which they preached; and he testify’d, that it was nigh in the Heart, as Moses had done before him.55 And, saith the Apostle John, on this Occasion, Who is a Lyar, but he that denieth, that Jesus is the Christ?—Hereby know ye the Spirit of God; every Spirit that confesseth (or every one that in Heart or Spirit confesseth) that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh, is of God. Again, says he, Whosoever shall confess, that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God: Yet once more he affirms, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God.56 But this is more than an Historical Belief, a true Sound and hearty Perswasion: A Faith that influenceth the whole Man into a suitable Conformity to the Nature, Example and Doctrine of the object of that Faith.

I will conclude these Doctrinal Testimonies out of Scripture, with a conclusive Passage the Apostle John useth towards the End of his Evangelical History of Jesus Christ: And many other Signs truly did Jesus in the Presence of his Disciples, which are not written in this Book; but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have Life in his Name.57 In which Place two Things are remarkable; First, That whatever Things are written of Jesus, are written to this End, that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ. Secondly, That those that sincerely believe, shall through him obtain Eternal Life. Certainly then, if this be true, their Incharity and Presumption must be great who have taken other Measures, and set another Rule of Christianity, than Jesus and his Apostles gave. This sincere Confession contented Christ and his Apostles; but it will not satisfy those that yet pretend to believe them: It was enough then for a Miracle and Salvation too, but it goes for little or nothing now. A Man may sincerely believe this, and be stigmatiz’d for a Schismatick, an Heretick, an Excommunicate: but I may say, as Christ did to the Jews in another Case, From the Beginning it was not so.58

But here I expect to be assaulted with this Objection: If this be all that is necessary to be believ’d to Salvation, Of what Use is the rest of Scripture?

I Answer, Of Great Use, as the Apostle himself teaches us; All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God, and is profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, for Instruction in Righteousness, that the Man of God may be perfect, throughly furnish’d unto all good Works.59 It concerns the whole Life and Conversation of a Man; but every Passage in it is not therefore fit to be such an Article of Faith, as upon which Christian-Communion ought or ought not to be maintained. For though it be all equally true, it is not all equally important: There is a great Difference between the Truth and Weight of a Thing. For Example: It is as true that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, as that he suffered; and that he was pierced, as that he died; and that he did eat after his Resurrection, as that he rose from the Dead at all; but no Person of common Understanding will conclude an equal Weight or Concernment in these Things, because they are equally true: The Death of Christ was of much greater Value than the Manner of it; his Resurrection, than any Circumstance of his Appearance after he was risen. The Question is not whether all the Truths contain’d in Scripture are not to be believ’d; but whether those Truths are equally Important? And whether the Belief with the Heart and Confession with the Mouth that Jesus is the Christ and Son of God,60be not as sufficient now to entitle a Man to Communion here and Salvation hereafter, as in those Times? against which nothing can be, of Weight, objected.

If it be said, that this Contradicts the Judgment and Practice of many great and good Men.

I Answer, I can’t help that. If they have been tempted, out of their own Curiosity or the Corruption of Times, to depart from the Ancient Paths, the Foot-steps of purest Antiquity and best Examples, let their Pretences have been what they will, it was Presumption: And it was Just with God, that Error and Confusion should be the Consequence of those Adventures; nor has it ever fail’d to follow them.

Lastly, if it be alledg’d, That this will take in all Parties, yea, that Schismaticks and Hereticks will creep in under this General Confession, since few of them will refuse to make it.

I do say, ’Twould be an Happy Day. What Man, loves God and Christ, seeks Peace and Concord, that would not rejoyce if all our Animosities and Vexations about Matters of Religion were buried in this one Confession of Jesus, the great Author and Lord of the Christian Religion, so often lost in pretending to contest for it? View the Parties on Foot in Christendom among those called Protestants, observe their Differences well, and how they are generally maintain’d, and you will tell me that they are rent and divided about their own Comments, Consequences and Conclusions: Not the Text, but the Meaning; and that too, which perhaps is not in it self essential to Salvation, as the Dispute betwixt the Lutherans and Calvinists, the Arminians and Predestinarians, and the like. Is it not lamentable to think that those who pretend to be Christians, and Reformed ones also, should divide with the Winds and fight, as pro Aris & Focis,61 for such Things, as either are not expresly to be found in Scripture, or if there, yet never appointed or intended by Christ or his Apostles for Articles of Communion. Should they then erect their Communion on another Bottom, or break it for deviating from any other Doctrines than what they in so many Words have deliver’d to us for Necessary?

If we consider the Matter well, I fear it will be found that the Occasion of Disturbance in the Church of Christ hath in most Ages been found to lie on the Side of those who have had the greatest Sway in it. Very pertinent to our present Purpose is that Passage of J. Hales of Eaton in his Tract concerning Schism:62

And as he hath told us one great Occasion of the Disease, so he offers what follows for the Cure:

He farther tells us in his Sermon of Dealing with Erring Christians, That it is the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace, and not the Identity (or Oneness) of Conceit, which the Holy Ghost requires at the Hands of Christians—

Thus much of this Great Man concerning Schism, the Cause and Cure of it? And for the Notion of Hereticks he will help us altogether as well: For though they are generally taken for such who err in Judgment about Doctrines and Articles of Faith, yet if this Man may have any Credit, and perhaps none of his Profession has deserv’d more, he tells us, that “Heresie is an Act of the Will, not of Reason, and is indeed a Lye, not a Mistake: else (says he) how could that known Speech of Austin go for true, Errare possum, Haereticus esse nolo: I may err, but I am unwilling to be an Heretick.” And indeed this is no other than what Holy Scripture teacheth; A Man that is an Heretick, after the first and second Admonition, reject; knowing, that he that is such, is subverted and sinneth; being Condemned of Himself.64 Which is as much as to say, that no Body is an Heretick, but he that gives the Lye to his own Conscience and is Self-condemned: Which is not the Case of Men meerly mistaken, or who only err in Judgment. And therefore the Term of Hereticks is as Untruly as Uncharitably flung upon those that conscientiously dissent, either in Point of Discipline or Doctrine, from any Society of Christians; and it is not hard to observe that those who have most merited that Character, have most liberally bestow’d it.

But to show you that neither true Schismatick, who is One that unnecessarily and unwarrantably separates from that Part of the Visible Church of which he was once a Member, nor true Heretick who is a Wilful Subverter of True or an Introducer of false Doctrines, a Self-condemned Person, can ever shelter himself under this Common Confession of Christianity, sincerely made: Let us consider, that who-ever so declares Jesus to be the Messiah and Anointed Saviour of God to Men, must be supposed to believe all that of him, with Respect to which he is so called. Now that for which he is so denominated, is that which God sent him to do: The Reason and End of his coming he could best tell, who hath told us thus; I am come, that ye may have Life, and that ye may have it more abundantly.65 The World was dead in Trespasses and Sins, the Guilt and Defilement of Transgression had kill’d the Soul as to Spiritual Life and Motion; and from under this powerful Death he came to redeem the Soul unto Life: In short, to restore Man from that fearful Degeneracy his Disobedience to God had reduced him unto.

The Way he took to accomplish this Blessed Work was First, To preach Repentance and the Approach of the Kingdom of God, which is his Rule and Authority in the Hearts of Men, and that brings to the Second Thing to be believed, namely.——

What he Taught?

First, His Doctrine led Men to Repentance: Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at Hand.66 No Man could receive the Kingdom of God, whilst he lived under the Kingdom and Power of Satan: so that to Repent is not only to bring their Deeds to the Light, which Christ exhorteth Men to; but to forsake that upon Examination, which appears to be Evil. Wherefore I conclude, that such as have not been acquainted with this Holy Repentance, do not sincerely believe, neither can rightly confess Jesus to be the Christ the Son of God, the Saviour of the World. Therefore saith the Apostle, Let him that nameth the Name of the Lord, depart from Iniquity;67 plainly implying that those do rather Prophane than Confess the Name of the Lord, who do not Depart from their Iniquities. And, saith the Apostle in another Place, No Man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,68 Which opens to us the Nature of the True Confession we ought to make, and which, being truly made in a Scripture Sense, makes us Christians in a right Christian Acception; to wit, That the True Confession of Jesus to be both Lord and Christ, is from such a Belief in the Heart as is accompany’d with the embracing and practising of his Holy Doctrine: such a Faith is the Work of the Holy Ghost, and those that do not so Confess him or call upon him, that is, by Virtue of the overshadowing of this Divine Spirit and Power, are not truly Christians, true Worshippers, or Believers and Disciples of our Lord Jesus.

Furthermore, they that receive Christ receive his Kingdom, his Power and Authority in their Souls; whereby the strong Man that kept the House becomes bound, and his Goods spoil’d by this stronger Man, the Lord’s Christ; who is come from Heaven to dwell in us and be the Hope of our Glory; for so he was preached to the Gentiles. This Kingdom, the Apostle tells us, stands in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost; and Christ tells us, where it is to be set up? The Kingdom of God is within you, saith the King himself; and where should the King be, but in his own Kingdom?69 They are blessed that feel him to Rule, and that live under the Swaying of his Righteous Scepter: for when this Righteous One Rules the Earth, the Sons of Men rejoyce.

So that no Man can truly Confess and rightly believe Jesus to be the Christ and Son of God, who does not receive him to be his King to rule his Heart and Affections. For can a Man be said to believe in one that he will not receive? but To as many as received Christ of old, gave he Power to become the Sons of God; which were born, not of Blood, nor of the Will of the Flesh, nor of the Will of Man, but of God.70 What is this Will of God? Paul answers the Question: The Will of God is your Sanctification;71 for this Christ came into the World. So that those that believe and receive Christ, he is made to them Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption;72 that is, he has saved them from their Sins, both Guilt and Defilement, and sanctified them from their Corruptions: They live now by the Grace of God, that teaches them to be of a Sober, Righteous, Godlike Life. Ye shall know them by their Fruits, saith Christ of the Pharisees;73 so shall Men know them, that sincerely believe and confess Christ, by their sanctified Manners and blameless Conversations. And Wo from the true and just God to them that make other Distinctions! for God has made no other; there will be but Goats and Sheep at the Last Day;74 Holy and Unholy; Just and Unjust. Therefore let that be our Distinction, which ever was and will be God’s Distinction; for all other Measures are the Effects of the Passions and Presumptions of Men. But because it may be expected, that I should fix upon some few General Heads of Christian Doctrine from the Mouth of Christ and his Apostles, as requisite to Christian Communion, I should proceed to mention what Christ eminently taught.

He that reads his Sermon upon the Mount will find in the Entrance, how many States and Conditions Christ Blessed; The Poor in Spirit, The Mourners, The Meek, They that hunger after Righteousness; The Merciful, The Pure in Heart, and the Peace-makers; which indeed comprehend the whole of Christianity.75

By Mourners we understand true Penitents, Men of Unfeigned Repentance; which leads them not only to confess but forsake their Sins. This Godly Sorrow Strips Men of all false Rests and Comforts, makes them Poor in Spirit, Empty of themselves, wanting the Comfort of the Light, Life and Power of Jesus to support and sustain them; yet as they stedfastly walk in that Measure they have, the Atonement of the Blood is felt, and it cleanseth them from all Unrighteousness, which makes them Pure in Heart. And in this Condition no Food will serve their Turn but Righteousness; after this they Hunger and Thirst more than for the Bread that perisheth. They are full of Meekness and Mercy, Making Peace and Promoting Concord where-ever they come: For being themselves reconciled to God, they endeavour to reconcile all Men unto God and one unto another: Submitting all Worldly Considerations to this incomparable Peace, that passeth all human Understanding.

In short, let us bring it Home to our Consciences, and deal faithfully with our selves. Do we know this Holy Mourning? This Godly Sorrow? Are we Poor in Spirit indeed? Not Self-conceited but Humble, Meek and Lowly in Heart, like him that bid us do so? Do we Hunger after the Kingdom of God and Righteousness of it? And are our Hearts purified by the Precious Faith of the Son of God that is a working, cleansing and conquering Faith? In fine, Are we Merciful? Tender Hearted? Lovers of Peace more than Lovers of our selves? Persecuted, rather than Persecutors? Such as receive Stripes for Christ’s Sake, and not those that beat our Fellow-Servants? No Man has True Faith in Christ Jesus, that is not acquainted with these Blessed Qualifications. This is Christ’s Doctrine; and to believe in him, is to obey it, and be like him.

The great Intention of this Sermon,76 is to press People to a more Excellent Righteousness than that of the Scribes and Pharisees. For, saith Jesus to the Mul