An Extract from Mr. Law’s SERIOUS ANSWER To Dr. Trapp’s Four Sermons, On the Sin, Folly, and Danger of being righteous over-much

1. * MIGHT I follow the bent of my own mind, I should be wholly employed in setting forth the infinite love of God to mankind in Christ Jesus, and endeavouring to draw all men to the belief and acknowledgment of it. This one great mercy of God, which makes the one happiness of all mankind, so justly deserves all our thoughts and meditations, so highly enlightens, and improves every mind that is attentive to it, so removes all the evils of this present world, so sweetens every state of life, so inflames the heart with the love of every divine and human virtue, that he is no small loser, whose mind is, either by writing or reading, detained from the view and contemplation of it.

2. When the mystery of divine love was first manifested to the world, it produced its proper effects. It put an end to all selfishness and division; for all that believed were of one heart and one spirit, and had all things common.¹
And indeed, under the real influence and full belief of this great mystery of divine love, there seems to be no room left for any thing else amongst Christians, but returns of love to God, and flowing out of love towards one another.

¹ Acts ii. 44.

3. * It is so difficult to enter into controversy without being, or at least seeming in some degree unkind to the person one opposes, that it is with great reluctance I have entered upon my present undertaking; having nothing more deeply riveted in my heart, than an universal love and kindness for all men, and more especially for those whom God has called to be my fellow-labourers, in promoting the salvation of mankind. But however unwilling, yet I find myself obliged to consider and lay open many grievous faults in the Doctor’s discourse; and to shew to all Christians, that the dearest interests of their souls are much endangered by it.

4. * And this I must do with great plainness and sincerity in the love of truth, and under the direction of charity, saying nothing in the spirit of an adversary, sparing nothing thro’ respect of persons, sacrificing nothing to the taste or temper of the world, but setting every thing in that naked light, in which the Spirit of God represents it to my own mind.

5. The Doctor undertakes to stir up, and alarm mankind with the sin, folly and danger of being righteous over-much. The text from which he has the title of his discourses is very unhappily chosen, and must be looked upon rather as a severe reproach, than any kind of justification of it. The text is indeed in the writings of Solomon, and as it stands there, has no hurt in it; because as the royal preacher sometimes introduces fools, and sometimes infidels making their speeches, so there is a necessity of supposing that to be the case in the Doctor’s text; not only from the context which plainly shews there are two persons introduced, the one for, the other against righteousness; but because the words, otherwise, cannot be taken in a sense that is tolerable, or consistent with the common notions of piety.

6. Is it not therefore strange, that the Doctor should think it right, to limit, explain, and model both the letter and spirit of the gospel by such a saying in the writings of Solomon as must be ascribed to the spirit and mouth of an infidel? Is it not stranger, that such a text, so offensive to piety, should have not only been so long dwelt upon in the Doctor’s three churches, but sent abroad into the world, as a proper key to all the practical sayings, parables, and doctrines of Jesus Christ?

7. Supported by this text, the Doctor endeavours to deter and fright Christians from the sin, folly and danger of being righteous over-much, and from what he calls the baneful plague of enthusiasm. But then it is matter of just complaint, that he does all this, without ever shewing in any part of his discourse, wherein true righteousness, or the right and sober spirit of piety consists. And if he supposed all his readers to be already well acquainted with the nature, and extent of Christian holiness, there would then have been little occasion for his present undertaking.

8. But the Doctor overlooks this important matter. He neither supposes them to have this knowledge, nor endeavours to help them to it; but in a flow of zeal, reflects at large upon all attempts towards a piety, that is not modern, common, and according to the present fashion of religion in the world. Thus, you every where find severe reflections cast upon pretenders to piety, pretended spiritualists; great accusations of excesses, extraordinaries and by-paths; but no where a word or a hint, in favour of those, who would only be so extraordinary, and so much out of the common paths, as the blessed saints and martyrs of the primitive church were. No where are such people told, that he wishes them God speed, that their zeal is much wanted both amongst clergy and laity, and that the gospel suffers because we know not where to find living examples of its purity and perfection. No where are they told, that he writes not against them, that he loves their spirit, and should be glad to add new fervours to it: nor what Christian perfection is, what a holiness of body, soul and spirit it requires; how powerfully all are called to it, how earnestly all ought to aspire after it, and how sadly mistaken, what enemies to themselves they are, who for the sake of any, or all the things in the world, die less purified and perfect, than they might have been.

9. If we had to do with one single person sincerely good, yet seeming to carry matters too high in some part of his duty, and intended privately to dissuade him from such heights; yet even this, thus privately done and to a person of piety, would be exceeding dangerous and unjustifiable; unless we took the utmost care at the same time, to keep up the pious zeal of his mind, to shew him wherein true perfection consisted, and to encourage his utmost endeavours after it.

But if this caution, instruction and encouragement, cannot be omitted without great hurt to religion, when we speak only to a person of piety, and in private, about any religious extremes, what must be said of the Doctor’s conduct? Who to the world dead in trespasses and sin, preaches up the sin, folly and danger of being righteous over-much? To the world eating and drinking and rising up to play, he harangues temperance, abstinence, mortification and severity of life! To the world asleep, insensible, and careless, not only of the purity and perfection, but of the first principles of the gospel, he boldly and rashly approaches all appearances of holiness, that are uncommon and extraordinary! To no part of the world does he represent or propose the perfection of the gospel, or recommend it as that, which deserves all that they can do, or suffer for the sake of it.

This, therefore, I am obliged to point out, as a fundamental defect in the Doctor’s discourse, and such as renders it an evil temptation, a dangerous snare, and fatal delusion to all those who do not read it with a full, and thorough dislike.

10. * Coldness, indifference, and a lifeless, outward compliance with the duties of religion: a slavery to ease, softness, and sensual pleasures: a criminal conformity to the spirit, fashions, and corruptions of the world; unmortified passions; conniving at favourite sin; deep roots of pride, partiality, and self-love: an unawakened conscience; an insensibility of their corrupt, unreformed, unregenerate state: a proneness to be content and satisfied with poor beginnings, names and appearances of virtue; is perhaps the state of more than two thirds of those that are looked upon to be the religious amongst us.

Now the Doctor’s discourse has a direct and natural fitness to lull all these people asleep, to
♦suppress all stirring and intentions of amendment, to keep up and nourish every disorder of their hearts, to increase their blindness, and awaken nothing in them, but a hurtful zeal to censure and condemn all those that are endeavouring to practise the uncommon piety of the gospel.

There is scarce a reader amongst this number of people, whether he be layman or clergyman, but will find this effect from the Doctor’s instructions; he will begin to take fresh comfort in his state, to think himself happy for having had no aspirings after high improvements in piety; he will not only be content with his corruptions, but be fixed and hardened against all inward and outward calls to a solid piety; he will approve of the deadness and insensibility of his own heart, and acquiesce in it, as his just security, from the sin and folly and danger of being righteous over-much.

11. Again, others there are, I make no doubt in all parts of the kingdom, both amongst clergy and laity, men and women, rich and poor, whose consciences are greatly awakened, who see the general apostacy from the religion of the gospel, whose souls are wanting and wishing nothing so much, as to know how all that they are, all that they have, and all that they do, may be one continual sacrifice, and service of love unto God; to know how, and in what manner, and to what extent, and by what means, they may and ought to be perfect, even as their Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Now, who can help looking with love and compassion upon those poor souls, longing for that which has been so long lost; asking after that, which scarce any one will tell them any thing of, and wanting to enter upon paths where there are few or no footsteps to be seen, nor any travellers in motion?

Had these awakened souls lived in the first ages of the church, nay, I may say in almost any till these very last ages of it, their zeal had not been in vain: they could have been at no loss to know how they were to proceed in their heavenly purpose; because they would have been immediately directed to some living examples of the perfect spirit of the gospel, who were publicly known and acknowledged by all to be such, who had the same undisputed right, to point out the Christian profession, as John the Baptist had to preach up mortification and self-denial. Every age, and every sex, priests and people of all conditions, had their known standards to resort to, where every one was sure to be guided, assisted, and encouraged to live up to that height of holiness.

12. But now how does the Doctor deal with this sort of people? What love, assistance, and encouragement does he reach out to them? Why, truly, he considers them as a deluded, weak, or hypocritical, or half-thinking people, that disturb the Christian church with their projects; who are to be set right by returning to the instructions of common sense. He ridicules every step they must take in their intended progress, by adding absurdities of his own invention to it. There is nothing for such people throughout his whole discourse, but reproaches, and discouragement.

Are they desirous of all that self-denial, all such mortification of bodily appetites and sensual passions, as may best fit them to be temples of the Holy Spirit? He ridicules them, as holding the sinfulness of smelling a rose.

Do they begin to discover the deep corruption of their nature, the superficialness and weakness of their virtues, and to fear they have as yet scarce come up to the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees? He tells them “The great enemy of souls adapts his temptations to all sorts of tempers and dispositions.” Those who are disposed to be good and virtuous, if he cannot prevail with them to be vicious, commonly so called, he labours to make them over virtuous, that is vicious, tho’ not commonly so called; and so involves them in dangers and mischiefs.

Are they such as are desirous of reforming their own lives, by bringing all their actions to the standard of the gospel, and wholly intent upon their own advancement in merely practical piety?

To these he shews, that they are in the very paths that lead, and always did lead to fanatic madness.

Thus says he, “To what a height of fanatic madness in doctrines, as well as practice are some advanced, who set out at first with the appearance of more than ordinary sanctity in practice only?” And again, “I do say that in all ages enthusiasts have been righteous over-much; they began with the last mentioned, and ended with the other; and is it not so now?”

13. Further, are there others, who begin to feel the mystery of their redemption discovered in their own souls, so that they hunger and thirst after the manifestation of the divine life in them, desiring that Christ may be wholly formed and revealed in them, that they may put on Christ, be in him new creatures, led by his spirit, growing in him as branches in the vine, hearing the word of God written and spoken in their hearts, in his light seeing light, and tasting in the inward man the powers of the world to come?

* For such as these, the Doctor has this instruction: “That there is, says he, such a thing as the operation of the Holy Spirit upon our souls, tho’ we cannot distinguish it from the operations of our own minds, is not only granted, but insisted upon by all sincere and sober Christians. But what reason, what scripture, is there for this inward seeing, hearing, feeling?”

* According therefore to the Doctor’s divinity both reason and scripture require, that the true Christian be inwardly blind, inwardly deaf, and void of all inward feeling. For if neither scripture nor reason will allow of any inward senses, then they must both of them require an inward insensibility. But as scripture from Genesis to the Revelation, is full of proofs of these inward senses, I shall not now produce them: I shall here only observe that hardness of heart is a well known phrase of scripture, and every where signifies some degree of blindness, deafness, and loss of feeling. I suppose it will not be said that it signifies blindness, or loss of outward eyes and ears, or feeling: neither does it signify a want of human reason, or natural sagacity; for learned, polite, and ingenious men, are full as subject as others to this hardness of heart. Therefore the scripture is as open, as plain and express in declaring for inward senses, as it is in declaring against such a thing, as hardness of heart. Hardness of heart is that to the inward senses, which a deep, or as we call it, dead sleep, is to the outward. It keeps our inward eyes, and ears, and feeling all locked up.

14. A broken and a contrite heart unlocks our inward senses, and makes us see, and hear, and feel the things, which could no more be seen, heard or felt before, than a man in a deep sleep can hear, and see, and feel the things, that are said and done about him.

Water frozen into a rock of ice, is very different from the same water melted, warmed, and moving under the influence of the sun and the air.

Now this difference between water flowing, full of light and air, and the same water frozen into a dark, hard rock of ice, is but a small resemblance of the difference between a hardened heart, and the same heart become broken.

15. But I return to the Doctor. His further instruction to this sort of people stands thus. They are told by him, “that their high notions of spiritual improvements have this effect: on the one hand, they lead to presumption, on the other to desperation.” “He has been told, he says, that some have been actually thrown into despair. They have been made stark mad, and received into Bedlam as such. And then he cries out, Was the religion of Jesus Christ intended to make people mad? Is this for the honour of Christianity?”

* I shall not here question the Doctor’s information. I shall only observe, that when our Saviour was upon earth, there were two sorts of mad people about him; the one sort ran about in disorder, tore their cloaths and cut their own flesh; the other sort raved in malice, threw dust into the air, stopped their ears, and cried out crucify him, crucify him.

* It may be asked, which of these two sorts of state? Whose madness was the most shocking, that of the lunatics, or that of the High Priests, Scribes, and Pharisees? Those who only mangled their own bodies, or those that thirsted after the blood of Christ, and would have no rest till they saw his body nailed to the cross? To me the lunatics, seem to be in a less degree of disorder; and the reason is this, because I see that our Saviour could heal them, but not the Priests, Scribes, and Pharisees.

Now is it reasonable, on account of the madness of these Priests, Scribes and Doctors of the law, to say, “Is this for the honour of the Jewish law? Were the law and the prophets intended to make people mad?” If the Doctor knows how to excuse the law and the prophets, tho’ these great students of them were in such a desperate state of madness, then Christianity may be blameless; tho’ here and there a Christian (so called) may be fit for Bedlam.

16. Again, are there others, who desire to bring the whole form of their lives under rules of religion, to let the spirit of the gospel give laws to the most ordinary, indifferent, innocent and lawful things and enjoyments; so that, as the apostle speaks, whether they eat or drink, or whatever they do, they may do all to the glory of God?

These people are told by the Doctor, that “Wholly abstaining from things indifferent and innocent in themselves, as forbidden and unlawful, people were in the most disordered and distempered
is a signal instance of being righteous over-much; and so on the other hand, is making things indifferent to be necessary, and matters of duty.”

What is here said has some truth in it, and might be useful in its proper place, and under right limitations. But as it here stands, it is a grievous snare and deceit to the reader. For it is to signify to him, that wholly abstaining from things in themselves indifferent, cannot be made a matter of true religious advancement; but is a blameable instance of excess. If the Doctor had meant only to teach, that we should not abstain from things indifferent, as if they were in themselves unlawful, he should have told his readers that he meant no more. He should have told them, that such things might be abstained from justly, upon a better principle, and so become very expedient and edifying; and that he did not condemn the abstaining from such things, when it was done upon a motive of piety, or for the better fulfilling any duty; but only when it was done from superstitious notion, of the things being in themselves sin.

Had he done this, he had prevented the snare and deceit that is now in his assertion: but then he would at the same time have made it useless, and insignificant to the design of his discourse, and would have left a door open for such advances in piety, as he is now opposing.

17. It might easily be shewn, if this was the place for it, that no one can truly fulfil the two first and greatest of all laws, that of loving God with all our heart, and that of loving our neighbour as ourselves, unless he be willing and glad, in many instances, wholly to abstain from things in themselves indifferent and innocent.

St. Paul’s doctrine is this: All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. This sets the matter right on both sides. It leaves things in their own state of indifference, and yet carries us to a higher rule of acting. It directs us wholly to abstain from, some things innocent in themselves, and to do things because they are expedient; because by so doing, we shew a higher love of God, and a greater desire of doing every thing to his glory; because we thereby attain a greater conquest over all our inward and outward enemies, and in a greater degree help forward the edification of our neighbour.

18. Let us look at St. Paul’s doctrine and examples in the two following remarkable instances.

First where he declares it to be lawful for those that preach the gospel to live by the gospel, and yet makes it matter of the greatest comfort and joy to himself, that he wholly abstained from this lawful thing: and declares, it were better for him to die, than that this rejoicing should be taken from him. He appeals to his daily and nightly labouring with his own hands, that so he might preach the gospel freely, and not be chargeable to those that heard him. And this he said he did, not for want of authority to do otherwise, but that he might make himself an example unto them who followed him.

* What awakening instructions are here given to us of the clergy, in a matter of the greatest moment! How ought every one to be frighted at the thought of desiring or seeking a second living, or of rejoicing at great pay where there is but little duty, when the apostle’s rejoicing consisted in this, that he had passed thro’ all the fatigues and perils of preaching the gospel without any pay at all! How cautious, nay, how fearful ought we to be, of going so far as the secular laws permit us, when the apostle thought it more desirable to lose his life, than to go so far as the general laws of the gospel would have suffered him!

* It is looked upon as lawful, to get several preferments, and to make a gain of the gospel, by hiring others to do duty for us at a lower rate. — It is looked upon as lawful, to quit a cure of souls of a small income, for no other reason but because we can get another of a greater. — It is looked upon as lawful, for a clergyman to apply the revenue of a church, which he serves, to his own use, tho’ he has more than a sufficient competency of his own, and much more than the apostle could get by his labour. — It is looked upon as lawful, for the clergy to live in state and equipage, to buy purple and fine linen out of the revenue of the church. — It is looked upon as lawful, for clergymen to enrich their families, and bring up their children in the fashionable vanities of a worldly and expensive life, by money got by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

* But now supposing all these to be lawful, what comfort and joy might we treasure up for ourselves, what benefit and edification should we give to our neighbour, if we wholly abstained from all these things, not by working day and night with our hands, as the great apostle did, but by limiting our wants and desires according to the plain demands of nature, and a religious self-denial?

The other instance of the apostle’s I appeal to is that, where he says, it is good neither to eat “flesh, nor drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth and is offended. And again, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, that I may not offend my brother.” Hence it appears, that to abstain from things indifferent, as if they were in themselves sinful, is wrong; but to abstain from them upon other motives, may be matter of necessary duty and edification. But since the Doctor has not looked at this matter in the twofold view in which only it can be justly apprehended, he cannot well be excused from that half thinking, which he so much reproaches in others.

19. But I must further observe, that there is yet more of snare and deception, in what the Doctor has here said of this matter. For the reader may thereby be easily brought into a belief, that things in themselves indifferent, are not proper subjects of religion, or means of advancing in piety; and that he need not bring himself under any laws of religion, concerning such things.

Whereas nothing can be more contrary to truth, or more hurtful to piety than such a belief. “Eating, drinking, sleeping, dressing, resting, labour, conversation, trade, diversion, and money, are in themselves indifferent.”

But it is in the religious, or irreligious use of these that some people live up to the spirit of the gospel, and others wholly die to it. And it is from strict laws of religion, made concerning these indifferent things, that the spiritual life of every one is to be built up.

And it is for want of religious laws in the use of these things, that the spirit of the gospel cannot get possession of our hearts. For our souls may receive an infinite hurt, and be rendered incapable of all true virtue, merely by the use of innocent and lawful things.

* What is more innocent than rest and retirement? And yet what more dangerous than sloth and idleness? How lawful is the care of a family? And yet how are many people rendered incapable of all virtue, by a ♦worldly,
sollicitous temper? How lawful is it for us, to eat and drink in such quantity and quality, as may render the body
healthful, and useful to the soul? And yet what danger is there in eating and drinking if we are not under this strict law of religion, to seek only health; and not the pleasure of various tastes in our food? What sensuality of discourse shall we not every day fall into, unless it be a fixed law to us, to speak of no other joy in our food, but that which is expressed by our grace before, and after our meals?

How indifferent a thing, and innocent in itself, is dress? And yet what more hurtful and abounding with sin? It reaches and affects the heart and soul both of the wearer and beholder. Its evils are innumerable; it has destroyed, and does destroy like a pestilence.

Now how can all these evils, which arise from the use of these things indifferent and lawful in themselves be avoided, but by making every thing in our common and ordinary life to be matter of conscience, which is to have its rule and measure and end from the spirit of religion? And indeed what other end is there in religion, but to govern every motion, and desire of our hearts? To make all the actions of our common life pure and holy, by being done in strict conformity to the will of God, and under the light and guidance of his Holy Spirit? So that the very outward form of our lives, and the whole manner of our living in the world, whether in estate, shops, or farms, whether in eating, drinking, or dressing, may make it known to all the world, that we do every thing in the name of Jesus Christ, suitably to that high vocation wherewith we are called.

20. No folly of life whatever can be rightly removed but by being thus wholly cut up by the roots, by making every thing subject to the spirit of religion.

That which is to direct our prayers, and govern us at church, must with the same strictness direct our conversation, and govern our dealings in common life. We must dress with the same spirit that we give alms, or go to prayers; that is, we must no more dress to be seen and admired by others, than we must give alms, or make prayers for the same reasons.

And when religion has its seat in our hearts, and is the work of God’s spirit in us, this acting according to its direction in all things, will be so far from seeming to be a hard lesson, that it would be a pain to act otherwise. It is no hardship to a miser to do every thing suitably to the greedy desires of his heart. The ambitious man is not troubled with acting always agreeable to his ambition. If these persons are in trouble or distress, or under any dejection, you can only comfort the one with honour and power, and the other with filthy lucre and gain.

21. Yet the Doctor complains of the Treatise upon Christian Perfection, because Christians in sickness, distress, and dejection of spirit, are there directed to seek for comfort and refreshment in God alone! Our blessed Lord is very short and yet very full upon this article. He only says, Be of good comfort, I have overcome the world. And the Doctor might as well be angry at the gospel for having made no mention of worldly amusements proper for sick and distressed Christians, as at the treatise of Christian Perfection, for not having done the same.

If I should see a sick man smelling a rose, I should not reprove him. But if he wanted comfort in his state, I would no more direct him to any thing, but the great and solid comforts that are to be found in the love, and goodness of God, than I would direct him to another Saviour, than Jesus Christ.

* For to tell Christians that in some kinds of trouble, they might justly seek for relief in reading a play, or wanton Bucolic, instead of the gospel; would be the same absurdity, as to have told people in our Saviour’s time, that in some sorts of distress, they might justly have recourse to Simon Magus, instead of Jesus Christ.

22. But now to look back a little. I have considered the bulk of those Christians that are the most likely to be the Doctor’s readers, under two characters. The one as living some way or other in a partial, false, superficial, or half state of piety; the other as an awakened people, called by the Spirit of God to come out of the common corruption of the times. I have shewn that the Doctor’s discourse (where it is not disliked) must do great hurt, and have dreadful effects upon those two sorts of people; the one sort it seals up in a false security, sleeping in the chambers of death, without any oil in their vessels; the other it frightens, and discourages from their pious intentions of trimming their lamps with all diligence, and living upon the watch for the midnight call of the bridegroom’s voice.

That I may therefore do all the good I can to both these sorts of people, that I may awaken the one from their false security in their form of godliness, and encourage the other to proceed with all earnestness, after every degree of Christian holiness; I shall before I proceed any further, lay down a short account of the whole ground of the Christian religion, that every one may clearly see, why we want the Christian religion to save us, what it is to do for us; and how it is done.

23. Man was created a living image of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

“2. This whole visible world, as far as the stars, or any corporeal being reaches, takes up that extent of space, where Lucifer and his angels before their fall, had their glorious kingdom. So far as this visible frame of nature extends, so far was the extent of that kingdom.¹

¹ N. B. This, with several of the particulars that follow are probable, but not supported by scripture. This is the theory of Jacob Behme, ingenious, but quite incapable of proof.

“3. That the place or extent of this world, was the place or extent of their kingdom, is probable from the two following reasons: first, because the place of this world is now their habitation. For we must by no means suppose that God brought them from some other region into this world, only to tempt man. No: but they are here now, because they were created to dwell here. For fallen angels do not leave the place of their sin and fall: they live in the defilements and disorders of their spoiled kingdom; and in that place they find their hell and torments, where they extinguished their light and joy. Secondly, because the whole extent of the world, and every thing in it, sun, moon, stars, fire, air, water, and earth, stones, minerals, must all be dissolved, and pass thro’ a purifying fire. Therefore all these things are polluted, and have in them some disorder from the fall of the angels; and we may see how far the place of their kingdom extended, by the extent of those things that are to be dissolved and purified.

“4. When the angels had, by their rebellion, lost the divine life within themselves, and brought their whole outward kingdom into darkness and disorder, so that as Moses speaketh: ‘Darkness was upon the face of the deep;’ that is, the whole extent of the place of this world; then in the place where they were fallen, and out of the materials of their ruined, angelical kingdom, did God begin the creation of this present, material, temporary, visible world.

“5. ‘In the beginning, saith Moses, God created the heaven and the earth.’ Here, at this instant, ended the devil’s power, over the place or kingdom in which he was created. As soon as the whole of his outward, disordered kingdom was thus divided into a created heaven and earth, all was taken out of his hands, he was shut out of every thing, and he and all his host became poor prisoners in their lost kingdom, that could only wander about in chains of darkness, looking with impotent rage at the created heaven and earth, which was sprung up in their own place of habitation.

“6. Thus was this outward kingdom, of the whole extent of this world, taken out of the hands of Lucifer and his angels. All its darkness, disharmony, and disorder, was by the creation restored to a low resemblance of its first state, and put into that form of sun, stars, fire, air, light, water, and earth, in which we now see it.

“7. Into this world thus created out of the ruins of the kingdom of the fallen angels, was man introduced on the sixth day of the creation, to take his place as lord and prince of it; to have power over all outward things, to discover and manifest the wonders of this new created world, and to bring forth such an holy offspring, as might fill up the place of the fallen angels. And when certain periods of time had produced these great effects, then this whole frame was by the last purifying fire, to have been raised from its paradisaical state, into that first heavenly brightness and glory, in which it stood before the fall of Lucifer.

“8. But the first man, thus created to be a prince of a new, angelical kingdom, stood not out his trial.

“9. He came into this world in that same glorious body in which after the resurrection, he shall be like the angels in heaven. For no other body, but that which was at first created shall rise in Jesus Christ. He only restores that which was lost. The resurrection will only take away what sin and death, and earth, had added to the first created body.

“10. In this glorious body, did the first man stand in this world, incapable of receiving any hurt, or knowing evil from outward nature. The Holy Ghost was the light that illuminated all both within and without him.

“11. Had he fixed his will to be eternally what he was, had he desired only to eat of the tree of life, to live by the word of God, he had been established and confirmed an eternal angel, or divine man.

“12. But his imagination wandered after the secrets of this outward world, after the knowledge of such good and evil, as wrought an entire change in his nature.

“He turned from the tree of life to the forbidden fruit. And so he fell as deep into an earthly life, and the miseries of the earth, as the
devil fell into a hellish life, and the miseries of hell.

“13. And here we may see as in a glass, what it is that earthly desires now do to every son of Adam. They do all that which they did to the first man. They carry on, keep up, and continue that same death in us which he died in paradise.

“14. Thus it was, that Adam lost the light of the Son of God, and the breath of the Holy Spirit. And this was the immediate death that he died in paradise, a death much more grievous than that which is to bring us all to our graves. It was a death that extinguished all that was divine and holy in human nature, just as the sin of angels turned them into devils. Now in looking at this death, we have the clearest view, of what our regeneration by the second Adam means. For what can it be, but the restoration of that divine life which was lost in Adam the first? For will any one say, that Christ is not in as high a degree, the restorer of our nature, as Adam was the destroyer of it? Now tho’ this great truth, seated in the very heart of the Christian religion, speaks at once the whole nature of regeneration; yet many learned men either not seeing or not loving, or being afraid to own it, have been forced, not only to mistake, but wholly to sink the most glorious article of the Christian faith? And instead of telling us the height and depth of the blessing of having the nature and life of Christ derived into us, they can only teach us, what kind of word regeneration is — that it is a figurative expression — and that our Saviour may be justified, for having made use of it. What learned pains do people take, to root up the belief of our having a new life in Christ? They run from book to book, from language to language; they consult all ♦critics, search all lexicons, to shew us, that according to the rules of true criticism, regeneration need signify no more than the federal rite of baptism. Nay, what is still worse, they appeal to the poor notions of the blind, infatuated Jews! They produce the opinions which they had of a regeneration talked of, and a baptism used amongst them, when they rejected and crucified our Saviour, to teach us, what we are to understand by our divine birth in Christ Jesus! But if this be the use of learning among ourselves, we need not look at Rome, or the ancient Rabbies of the Jewish Sanhedrim, to see what miserable work learning can make with the holy scriptures. For it is sure the true Messiah is not rightly owned, nor the Christian religion truly known, till the soul is all love, and faith, and hunger, and thirst after this new life, and real formation of Jesus Christ in it: till without fear of enthusiasm it seeks, and expects all its redemption from it. But to return.

“15. Man, thus dead to the divine life, thus destitute of the Son, and Holy Spirit, thus fallen into an earthly nature, under the dominion
of an earthly world, which would afford him for a while a miserable life, and then leave him to a more miserable death; could do no more to replace himself in paradise, or to regain his first nature, than the devil could do to restore himself to his lost glory.

“16. But in this state the infinite mercy of God met him. That love which at first breathed, a holy and divine soul into him, now again breathed a spark, or ray of divine light into him in the declaration of a serpent bruiser: which spark of life should in time do all that which Adam should have done; that is, should bring forth a generation of men, that should become Sons of God, and take possession of that kingdom from which the angels had fallen.

“17. Here began the merciful mystery of man’s redemption; for this seed of divine life, was the Holy Jesus, who from that time, stood in the place of the first man.

And from that time it may be said in a true sense that the incarnation of the Son of God began; because he was from that time entered again into the human nature, as a seed of its salvation, tho’ not made manifest, till he was born in the Holy Virgin Mary. And in this sense St. John
says of him, that he was the true light, which lighteth every man, that cometh into the world. Because every man has from him this light, which if it is duly attended to, is our certain guide to
Christ, born in the fulness of time, and sacrificed for us upon the cross.

“18. What we want from Christ, as our Redeemer, is manifest by that which he gives to us, namely a redemption from the hell that is in our souls, and from the death and corruption that is in our bodies.

“19. We are no more created to be in the sorrows, and anguish of an earthly life, than the angels were created to be in the darkness of hell. It is as contrary to the will of God towards us, that we are out of paradise, as it is contrary to the design of God towards the angels, that some of them are out of heaven, prisoners of darkness.

“The sickness, pain and corruption of our bodies, is brought upon us by ourselves, in the same manner as the dark, hideous forms of the devils are brought upon them. * How absurd, and even blasphemous would it be, to say, with the scripture and the church, that we are by nature, children of wrath, and born in sin, if we had that nature which God at first gave us? What a reproach upon God to say, that this world is a valley of misery, a shadow of death, an habitation of disorders, snares, evils, and temptations, if this was an original creation, or that state of things in which God created us? Is it not as consistent with the goodness of God, to speak of the misery and disorder that holy angels find above, and of the vanity, emptiness and sorrow of the heavenly state, as to speak of the misery of men, and the sorrows of this world, if man and the world were in that order, in which God at first had placed them?

“20. But by the mercy of God in Christ, this prison of an earthly life, is turned into a state of purification. It is made a time and place of putting off our filthy garments, and of staying and sacrificing that man of sin that is hid under them. And God suffers the sun to shine upon us, and the elements to afford us nourishment, for no other end, but that we may all have time and opportunity to hear the call of the Son of God, to be born again, to be renewed by the Holy Spirit, and be made capable of that kingdom, from which Lucifer and his angels fell.”

24. Look at our Saviour’s sermon on the mount, and indeed at all his instructions, and you will find them pointing at nothing else on our side, but a denial of ourselves, and a renunciation of the world. And indeed how could it be otherwise! For if we want a Redeemer, only because we have wandered out of paradise, and could not get back to it ourselves; if we are overcome by this world, only because our first father sought after it, what wonder is it that he who is to replace us in paradise, should call us to a renunciation of the world?

25. * Vain man, taken with the sound of heavenly things, and prospects of future glory, yet at the same time a fast friend to the interests of flesh and blood, would fain compound matters between God and mammon. He is very willing to acknowledge a Saviour, that died on the cross to save him. He is ready to receive outward ordinances and forms of worship, and to contend with zeal for the observance of them. He likes heaven, and future glory on these conditions. He is also ready to put on outward morality, to let religion polish his manners, that he may have the credit and ornament of a prudential piety, and a decency of life. This does no hurt. But to lay the axe to the whole root of our disease, to cut all those silken cords asunder, which tie us to the world, and the world to us, to deny every temper and passion that cannot be made holy, wise and heavenly; to die to every gratification which keeps up, and strengthens the folly, vanity, pride, and blindness of our fallen nature; to leave no little morsels of sensuality, avarice and ambition for the old man to feed upon, however well-covered under his mantle; this, tho’ it be the very essence of religion, is what he flies from with as much aversion as from heresy and schism. Here he makes learned appeals to reason and common sense to judge betwixt him, and the gospel; which is just as wise, as to ask the learned Greek, and the worldly Jew, whether the cross of Christ be not foolishness, and a just rock of offence: or to appeal to flesh and blood about the narrow way to that kingdom of heaven, into which itself cannot possibly have an entrance.

26. * To seek for any thing in religion, but a new nature fitted for a new world, is knowing neither it, nor ourselves. To be born again, is to be fit for Paradise in whatever part of the universe we live. Not to be born again, is continuing where the sin and death of Adam left us, whatever church, or sect of religion we have fellowship with. All ways and opinions, all forms and modes of worship, stand on the outside of religion. They certainly are helps to the kingdom of God, when we consider them only as the gate to that inward life, which we want. But this is unquestionably true, that our salvation consists wholly in our inward renewal by the Holy Ghost. When this begins, our salvation begins; as this goes on, our salvation goes on; when this is finished, our salvation is finished. This alone saves the soul, because this alone restores the first paradisaical, divine nature, which is the true image of God, and which alone can enter into the kingdom of heaven.

27. If we had only a notional knowledge that our first father had sinned, and knew no more of his sinful condition than history tells us of it; if we had only instituted types and figures to keep up the remembrance of it in our minds, we should be never the worse for his sins. We should have no hurt by owning ourselves to be children of a sinful father, if his nature, life and spirit were not propagated in us. So, if we have only a notional belief that Jesus is become the second Adam, to redeem, and regenerate the fallen nature; if we know this only in the notion and history kept up in our minds by outward figures and ordinances: tho’ we contend ever so much for this belief of a Saviour, and write volumes in defence of it; yet he is not our Saviour, till his nature, life and spirit, be in us. If there be any man in the world, in whom the nature of Adam is not, he has no sin from Adam. If there be any man in whom the life of Jesus is not, he has no righteousness from him. We must have life and righteousness in the same truth and reality in us from the second Adam, as we have sin and death in us from the first.

28. The whole matter is this: Christ, by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, became in the Virgin Mary, of the same nature with that first man, which was created in Paradise; who according to the purpose of God, was to have been the father of an holy race of men. But seeing the first Adam failed in this design of God, the wisdom of God provided a second Adam, who was born in the same degree of perfection, in which the first man was created. To this holy paradisaical human nature the Son of God was personally united. And thus Christ the second Adam, took the place of the first, and stands as the second father of all the sons of Adam. Now as we are earthly, corrupt, and worldly men, by having the nature and life of the first Adam propagated in us, so we must become holy and heavenly men, by having the life and nature of the second Adam derived into us; or as the scripture speaks, by being born again. Jesus Christ therefore helps us by a second birth, to such an holy, and undefiled nature, as he himself received in the blessed Virgin, and which we should have received in Paradise from our first father.

Thus by faith in Christ we put on Christ, he is formed in us; we eat his flesh and drink his blood, and have his nature and life in us.

Thus we are real members, living branches, and new born children of God.

29. * Look now at yourselves, at the world, at religion, in this true light, and surely you must see the desirable nature of every virtue, and every degree of it, which the gospel sets before you. Surely you must awake into a strong abhorrence of every thing that the fall has brought upon you; whether it be in your souls, your bodies, or the state of the world into which you are fallen. To renounce the poor interests of a worldly life, to be content with a pilgrim’s fare in it, to live looking and longing after that which you have lost; to have no more of covetousness, of pride, of vanity and ambition, than John the Baptist had; to live unto God in your shops, your employments and estates, with such thoughts and desires of going to your heavenly Father, as the lost son had when he saw his poor condition, eating husks among swine, is only a proof that you are, like him, come to yourselves, that you begin to see what, and how, and where you are. Surely you can need no exhortations to run to your Redeemer, to beseech him to do every thing in you and for you that your corrupted heart, and polluted body are in need of. He now stands as near you, as full of love to you, as he did to Lazarus when he raised him from the dead. He is no farther from your call than he was from the call of blind Bartimæus.

30. * Surely it should be as needless to exhort you to look earnestly after every means of recovering your first glorious state, as to exhort the blind to receive their sight, the sick to accept of health, or the captive to suffer his chains to be taken off. For when you see your misery and your redemption, both of them so exceeding great, you see something that must needs penetrate the depth of your soul, that leaves you no room to doubt about the nature of any virtue; no liberty to indulge one vain passion, or to think it any hardship that the gospel calls you to be perfect. For in this light every virtue of the gospel stands recommended to us, as health, purity and sight stand recommended to a sick, noisome, blind leper, who was shut up in a place that continually increased all his evils.

* It strips us of nothing, but the uncleanness of leprosies, the miseries of sores, pains and blindness. It takes nothing from the world which is
about us, but its poison and power of infecting us.

* So that to be called to the height of all virtue, however excessive it may seem to the reasonings of flesh and blood, is only being called away from every misery and evil that can be avoided by us.

31. * No virtue therefore has any blameable extreme in it, till it contradicts this general end of religion, till it hinders the restoration of the divine image in us, or makes us less fit to appear amongst the inhabitants of heaven. Abstinence, temperance, mortification of the senses and passions, can have no excess, till they hinder the purification of the soul, or make the body less subservient to it. Charity can have no excess, till it contracts that love which we are to have in heaven, till it is more than that which would lay down its life even for an enemy, till it exceeds that which the first Christians practised, when they had all things common; till it exceeds that of St. John, who requires him that has two coats, to give to him that has none; till it is loving our poor brethren more than Christ has loved us; till it goes beyond the command of loving our neighbour as we love ourselves.

32. See now how the Doctor instructs his readers on those two great articles, Christian temperance, and charity. To remove restraints of the first kind he says, Our Saviour came eating and drinking, was present at weddings, and other entertainments. The Doctor may go on, and prove these indulgences to be good and pious, because what our Saviour worked a miracle to promote must needs be so. And so the adding another bottle, when friends are rejoicing, may be made a Christian duty.

But I must vindicate the life and example of our blessed Lord from the indignity done to it by the Doctor. Our blessed Lord came indeed, as he says of himself eating and drinking. But in what manner? In what sense, did he say this of himself? Why it was in distinction from John the Baptist, who came eating only one sort of food. And it was to shew the Jews their great guilt in this respect, that nothing could do them any good. For the mortification of the Baptist they condemned, as coming from the devil, and the condescension of the holy Jesus in coming to their tables, they accused as gluttony and wine-bibbing. Now the Doctor is plainly doing what our Lord accused the Jews of; he with them condemns the mortification of the Baptist, as coming from the devil. But he differs from the Jews in this that he does not condemn, but approves of our Lord, as a friend to feasts, and merry meetings.

33. Our Saviour, suitable to his gracious love, in coming into the world, sought the conversation of sinners and publicans, because he came to save that which was lost, and because he knew that some amongst such sinners were more moveable, than the proud sanctity of the learned Pharisees. But may we thence conclude, that the lives of such sinners were not blameable in his sight? Is not this as well, as to imagine he favoured the indulgence of feasting, and good fellowship, because he was found there? The holy Jesus conversed more freely, spoke of himself and of the kingdom of God more divinely to a wicked woman of Samaria than he appears to have done to his disciples. May we thence conclude, that he approved of a woman of that character, or thereby set his seal to the goodness, and lawfulness of her way of living? Is not this as well, as to make his presence at a wedding an approbation of the usual indulgences of such feasts?

34. O holy Jesus, thou didst nothing of thyself: thou soughtest only the glory of thy Father, from the beginning to the end of thy life. Thou spentest whole nights in prayer in mountains and desert places; thou hadst not where to lay thy head. Thy common poor fare with thy disciples was barley bread and dryed fish. Thy miraculous power never helped thee to any dainties or refreshment, tho’ ever so much fatigued. But yet because this holy Jesus came into the world to save all sorts of sinners, and to shew that every kind and degree of sin could be taken away by him, therefore he came into all places, and entered into all sorts of companies. He did not as the Baptist, tie himself to one sort of food. But he came eating and drinking. But why did he so? It was that he might reprove, and convert sinners at their own tables. He came not to indulge himself, or to find such gratifications as the Baptist abstained from; but to work miracles, to awaken sinners in the midst of their indulgences.

It is said, that wherever the King is, there is the court. But with much more reason may it be said, that wherever our Saviour came, there was the temple or the church. He came to feasts and entertainments with the same spirit, for the same end, and in the same divine power, as he went to raise a dead corpse, namely to shew forth the glory of God. Wherever he came, it was in the spirit and power of the Redeemer of mankind; every thing he did was only to destroy the works of the devil, to deliver man from his power, raise the dead, and give sight to the blind, and ears to the deaf. It made no difference to him, whether he did this in the temple, or in the streets, at a feast, or at a funeral. As he was every where God, so every place became holy to him. Lastly, if our Saviour, was present, at chearful entertainments, to shew his approbation of such indulgences, how came John the Baptist, that severe master of mortification to be a fit preparer of the way to the kingdom of heaven? Surely his voice must cry wrong, if such mortification was not right.

And if our Saviour disapproved of the severity
of his life and manners, how came he to point him out as a burning and shining light? Thus much may serve to vindicate our Saviour’s example from the shocking misapplication the Doctor has made of it.

35. Let us now see how he treats, and instructs the charitable Christian in these words.

“What, says the half-thinker, is not charity to the poor, a most excellent thing? And can I be too charitable? Can I therefore bestow too much upon the poor? I answer, tho’ you cannot be too charitable, yet you may bestow too much upon the poor, to the ruin of your wife and children, which is not charity, but madness, and a great and most grievous sin. Did you never hear that charity begins at home? Did you never read that of St. Paul? If any provide not for his own, and especially those of his own house: he hath deny’d the faith, and is worse than an infidel?”

The Doctor’s proverb I shall leave to himself; but the text of St. Paul,
which he has as grosly misapplied, as he did our Saviour’s miracle, I must take out of his hands. St. Paul’s
words are quoted to prove, that it is madness, a great and grievous sin, for any one thro’ charity to the poor to render himself unable to provide for his wife and children. Now the apostle in this place speaks no more about this sin, than he speaks against the sin of watching and prayer. Nay, what is more, there is not in all his writings, or in the whole New Testament, the least supposition or hint that such a sin ever was, or would be committed.
The apostle was singly speaking of such women, as were to be taken into the order of widows for the service of the church, and to be maintained by it. Verse 4. he says, that such widows as had children or nephews that could support them, were not to be maintained by the church. And to such sons and nephews who have mothers and aunts that thus want their assistance, he says, If any one provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, i. e.
If any sons or nephews have mothers or aunts become desolate widows, and take not care to assist them, especially if they live with them, such have renounced the piety of the gospel, and have not so much humanity as infidels.

36. This alone is the plain doctrine of the apostle, which the Doctor has grosly perverted, to the condemning of that which he never thought of. On the contrary, the scripture abounds with passages which might persuade us, that no family could ever be ruined by the alms and charity of its father; I have been young, and now am old, saith the psalmist, Yet never saw I the righteous forsaken or his seed begging their bread.

The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered again. They that cannot believe this, want the faith of Christians. Had any one in the apostle’s time reduced his wife and children to want, by his great charity to the poor, the apostle would have been so far from rebuking him, as a half-thinking fool, or exposing him to others, as guilty of madness, and grievous sin, that he would have told them, that he had consecrated himself and family to the church, that he and they were thereby become the dear objects of the church’s care and love, since their present distress was brought upon them by a boundless love and compassion for the poor.

I will now put the following case in as high terms as the Doctor can well desire. Let it be supposed that some good bishop, possessed of as rich a bishoprick as that of Winchester, should through his extensive charity for the poor throughout the whole diocese, be forced to use the utmost frugality in family expences, and to bring up his children in employments of labour, to help themselves to food and raiment; one a carpenter, in which business our Saviour is said to have laboured in his youth; another a maker of tents, the trade of the great apostle: and the rest in the like manner. Let it be supposed, that when he died, he left only twenty pounds a year amongst them, not to be possessed by any one of them, but only to be used by every one as sickness or age made them stand in need of it, with this injunction, that it should be given to other sick and helpless people, when there was no such amongst themselves: Let it be supposed that by his life and conversation, he had filled his wife and children with the true and perfect spirit of the gospel, that they loved and rejoiced in his memory for all the good he had done to them, desiring nothing, but to go through the world, in the same humility, piety, charity, love of God, and renunciation of the world, as he had done. Will the Doctor say that this bishop had ruined his wife and children; that half thinking had betrayed him into a most grievous sin, that he had by this life deny’d the faith, and become worse than an infidel? I will venture to say, that if such a bishop should ever appear in this kingdom, he would bid fair to put an end to infidelity through all his diocese, though it were the largest in the nation. Now if the Doctor does not know of any one either among the laity or clergy, who is ruining his wife and children by a greater and more blameable charity than that of this bishop, it must be said, that he has been in too much haste, that his zeal has not proceeded from knowledge; and that he has been throwing cold water upon charity, before there was any flame in it.

37. I now proceed to shew in a more general way the blameable nature of the Doctor’s discourse. The whole Christian world from the time of our Saviour to this day, has been praying, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Sacraments, divine worship, and the order of the clergy, are appointed as ministerial helps for this end, to raise, set up, and establish this kingdom of God on earth. The fall of a man brought forth the kingdom of this world; sin in all shapes is nothing else but the will of man, following the workings of a nature broken off from its dependency upon, and union with the divine will. All the evil and misery in the creation arises solely from this one cause. There is not the smallest degree of pain or punishment either within us, or without us, but is owing to this, viz. that man stands out of his place, is not in, and under, and united to God as he should be, as the nature of things requires. God created every thing to partake of his own nature, to have some share of his own life, and happiness. Nothing can be good or evil, happy or unhappy, but as it does or does not stand in the same divine life in which it was created, receiving in God, and from God, all that good that it is capable of, and so co-operating with, and under him, according to the nature of its powers and perfections. As soon as it turns to itself, and would as it were have a sound of its own, it breaks off from the divine harmony, and falls into the misery of its own discord; and all its workings then are only so many sorts of torments. The redemption of mankind can then only be effected, the harmony of the creation can only then be restored when the will of God is the will of every creature. For this reason our blessed Lord having taken upon him a created nature, so continually declares against the doing any thing of himself, and always appeals to the will of God, as the only motive and end of every thing he did, saying, that it was his meat and drink, to do the will of him that had sent him.

38. * What now can be so desirable to a sensible man, as to have the vain, disorderly passions of his heart removed from him, to be filled with such unity, love, and concord, as flow from God, to stand united to, and co-operating with the divine goodness, willing nothing, but what God wills, loving nothing, but what God loves, and doing all the good he can to every creature, from the principle of love and conformity to God. Then the kingdom of God is come and his will is done in that soul, as it is done in heaven. Then heaven itself is in the soul, and the life and conversation of the soul is in heaven. From such a man the curse of the world is removed; he walks upon consecrated ground, and every thing he meets, every thing that happens to him, helps forward his union and communion with God. For when we receive every thing from God, and do every thing for God, every thing does us the same good, and helps us to the same degree of happiness. Sickness, and health, prosperity and adversity, bless and purify such a soul; as it turns every thing toward God, so every thing becomes divine to it. For he that seeks God in every thing, is sure to find God in every thing. When we thus live wholly unto God, God is wholly ours, and we are then happy in all the happiness of God. This is the purity and perfection, that we pray for in the Lord’s prayer, that God’s kingdom may come, and his will be done in us, as it is in heaven.

39. And this we may be sure is not only necessary, but attainable by us, or our Saviour would not have made it a part of our daily prayer. It may then justly be asked, have we yet obtained that, which we have been so long, and so universally praying for? Can we look upon the church of this nation, as drawing near, or even tending to this state of perfection? Can we be carried to any one parish, either in town or country where it can with truth be said of any one pastor and his flock, that there the kingdom of God is coming and his will begins to be done on earth, as it is done in heaven? Can we therefore find any one parish, where the pastor has not great reason to reject the Doctor’s discourse, and to pray both for himself and his flock, that they may enter much farther into the spirit and practice of Christianity, than they have yet entered, that the gospel may have much greater power over them, than it hath yet had; and that they may all see what it is that has made so divine, and powerful a religion, so without its proper effect upon them? For if the case be thus, if we stand at this amazing distance from that state of perfection to which Christ has called us, do not heaven and earth seem to call upon every minister of the gospel, to take some share to himself of this miserable state of things, and to endeavour to convince both himself, and his flock, that they have not yet been Christians in true earnest, that they have professed Christ with the tempers of Jews and Heathens, that they have not yet enough renounced the world, not enough denied themselves, not enough emptied their hearts of passions hurtful to piety, not enough offered and devoted themselves to God, not enough made the spirit of religion the spirit of their lives, not enough sought for strength and deliverance from sin, by a firm and living faith in Jesus Christ; not enough prayed and desired that they might be born again of God, so that Christ may be truly formed in them; not enough prayed and desired to be every where, and on all occasions under the perpetual influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, that they may think and say, and do every thing by his holy inspiration; not enough looked to that first and great commandment, of loving God with our whole heart and strength: not enough endeavoured to keep the next, that of loving our neighbour, as ourselves; not enough renounced such fashions, customs, and conformities to the world, as corrupt the heart, and grieve and separate the Holy Spirit from it.

40. Now which way soever we consider the lamentable state of religion amongst us, no remedy can be procured by us of the clergy, but in this one way, that every individual of the order, from the highest to the lowest, begin in right earnest with himself, open the book of his own heart and life, and consider seriously, in the presence of God, whether, according to his degree in the ecclesiastical function, the world has its due share of salt and light from him; whether all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life have been so openly, so constantly discouraged, and renounced by him, that the whole form of his life has been one kind, continual call to all orders of Christians, to set their affections on things above, to mind only the one thing needful, to have nothing at heart, but to be in Christ new creatures, seeking, intending, desiring nothing, thro’ the pilgrimage of this life, but to live unspotted from the world, and to obtain every height of holiness, and heavenly affections, which becomes those who are to be called sons, and heirs of God with Christ Jesus.

41. If religion was at this time in a most flourishing state amongst us, abounding with such congregations as made up the primitive church, it would be great injustice to suppose that the clergy had not, under God, been the chief instruments of building it up to such a state of perfection. Seeing then an universal corruption of manners is on all hands confessed, to have overspread this Christian nation, and the true spirit of religion is hardly any where to be seen, nothing can be more reasonable than for every clergyman, wherever his lot is fallen, to suspect himself to have, in some degree, contributed to this common calamity, and to try to discover his own state, by such questions as these, laid home to his conscience. If Christianity has not done that to my flock which is the only end of it, is there nothing of this failure chargeable upon my conduct over it? Can my righteous Judge lay nothing to my charge on that account? Can my own heart bear me witness that I was not driven by human passions, but stayed and waited till the Holy Spirit called me to this office? Have I not undertaken the care of other souls, before I had any true and real care of my own? Have I not presumed to convert and strengthen others, before I was converted myself? To preach by hearsay of the grace, and mercy, and salvation of the gospel, whilst I myself was an obedient slave to sin? Have I not taken upon me to lay open the mysteries of God’s love in Christ Jesus, before they had their proper entrance into my own soul? Have my own repentance, compunction, deep sense of the burden of sin, and want of a Saviour taught me how to make the terrors of the Lord known in the deep of every man’s heart, and to awaken and pierce the consciences of sinners? Has, my own true and living faith in Christ my Saviour, my own experience of the atoning, cleansing, sanctifying powers of his precious blood, enabled me with great boldness to tell all sinners, that to the faith which worketh by love, Christ always and infallibly saith, what he said in the gospel, Thy sins are forgiven; thy faith has saved thee; go in peace.

42. * Can my own heart, and God who is greater than our hearts, bear me witness that in my sacred office I have not sought myself, or my own things, but the things of Jesus Christ? If I have changed one flock or station for another, or added one cure to another, have I done it in singleness of heart, as unto the Lord and not for myself? Has all that I have sought or done of this kind, been only from this motive, that I might be more faithful to him that hath called me, and be more and more spent and sacrificed for the salvation of souls? Have I neglected no means of fitting and preparing myself for the illumination of God’s Holy Spirit, which alone can enable me in any measure to speak to and work upon the hearts and consciences of men? Have I earnestly longed, and laboured after every kind and degree of inward and outward holiness, and purity of body, soul, and spirit, that my standing at the altar may be acceptable to God, and my prayers and intercessions for my flock avail much before him? Has my own self-denial, renunciation of the world, and love of the cross of Christ, enabled me to preach up those duties in their full extent? Has my own strictly pious use of the things of this world, my own readiness to assist every creature to the utmost of my ability fitted me to call others to these things with power and authority? Have all ages and conditions of people under my care had their proper instruction and warning from me, so that I have spared no folly, vanity, indulgence, or conformity to the world, that hurt mens souls, and hinder their progress in piety? Have I done all that by my prayers and preaching, life and example, which Christ expects from those whom he has enjoined to feed his sheep? Can my flock by looking at me see what virtues they want? Can they by following me, be led to every kind and degree of Christian perfection! Lastly, has the will of God been the beginning and end, the reason and motive, the rule and measure, of my liking or disliking, doing or not doing ♦every thing among those people with whom I have lived as their minister?

43. These are a few of such questions as the present state of religion in this island calls every minister to try himself by. For as the order of the clergy is instituted for no other end, but for the preserving of true piety in the world; so when any age is more than ordinarily sunk in vice and impiety, the whole order of the clergy, and every member of it, have great reason not only to be deeply afflicted, but greatly affrighted at it, and to suspect their own conduct, since that which is their particular work, has had so little success. They have great reason to apprehend, that it is some degeneracy of spirit, some general negligence, some want of example, some failure in doctrine, some defect in zeal and care of their particular flocks, that too much contributes to so general a corruption of manners. This does not suppose, that it is in the power of our order to regulate the manners of people as we please; it only supposes, that of all human means it has the greatest effect, and that when any nation or people are very bad, it behoves the clergy, who have any right sense of the nature of our order, any true love for our brethren of it, to awaken and stir up one another to a faithful diligence in our callings; not such as may secure us from public scandal, and the laws of the land, but such diligence as the nature of our office, the spirit of the gospel, and the present decay of religion call for. Let us beseech one another, deeply to consider the great need that this poor nation hath of a zealous, pious, exemplary, disinterested and laborious clergy; to consider the dreadful judgments of God, that may justly be expected to fall first upon our own heads, if this only remedy is not procured by all of us, according to the utmost of our ability. It is now no time for ease, indulgence or worldly repose; all is to be renounced, all is to be sacrificed. Our religion is founded on this doctrine. — That we are to be born again of the Holy Spirit; — that there is no sanctification of the heart, no illumination of the mind, no knowledge of divine mysteries, no love of holy things possible to be had, but in and by the motion and life of this Holy Spirit in us; — that its life, motion and power in us, increase according to our faith, prayers and desires of it.

44. * Is it not now a flat denial of all this to say, as do some, that the establishment of the gospel in the world, together with the assistances of human learning, and languages, has been the occasion why the assistance of the Holy Ghost is abated? For if we consult either scripture or experience, must it not be said, that worldly peace and prosperity want as much to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit, as persecution and distress? That human learning and knowledge need as high degrees of divine grace, as human ignorance? Is not the blindness and corruption of men of letters, as notorious as that of unlearned men? Does an editor of Terence, Horace or Virgil, receive such illumination from plays and poetry? Do cardinals and pluralists receive so much unction from human establishments, as to need less to be governed by the Holy Spirit of God? Or will we say, that a critical study of divided languages, and a religion established in worldly ease and peace, are not only in themselves free from danger and corruption, but have so much of the nature of the Holy Spirit in them, that they can be to us in his stead, and make his sanctifying operations upon us needed in a less degree?

45. On the part of God, our redemption in Jesus Christ, and our sanctification by the Holy Ghost, stand always in the same degree of nearness and fulness to all of us. There is hardly a chapter in the New Testament that can be understood, but upon the supposition of this great truth. If Christ is less formed in us than he was in the first saints of the church, if we come not to the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, it is not because Christ is now become only our Redeemer in an ordinary way; but it is because we have not so counted all things but dung, that we might win Christ, as the first saints did. If the Holy Spirit does not now in such a degree renew, quicken, move, and sanctify our hearts, and fill us with such degrees of divine light and love, as was done in the first age of the church, it is not because this sanctifying spirit has committed some part of his work to human learning, and so is become only our sanctifier in a lesser and ordinary degree, but it is because we ourselves have forsaken this fountain of living waters, and hewed out broken cisterns for ourselves; it is because we have grieved this Holy Spirit, resisted his motions, and under an outward profession of Christ have kept up that old man, with his deeds, which cannot be the habitation of the Holy Spirit.

* If therefore we have any true sense of the nature and weight of our ecclesiastical calling, any desire to do the full work of the ministry, to satisfy the necessities of our flocks; if we have any fear of being condemned as useless labourers in Christ’s vineyard, it is high time to awake from this dream of an ordinary and extraordinary sanctification of the Holy Spirit. It serves only to keep us unsanctified, shut up in death, in our own corrupted nature, to keep us learnedly content with our state, as if we were rich and increased in goods, and had need of nothing: and hinders us from knowing that we are wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.

46. * Several of the clergy, whose lot is fallen in this corrupt age, may be supposed to have taken upon them the sacred office, and to have lived in it, not enough according to the nature and spirit of it, merely through the degeneracy of the times, and from a consideration that they are well enough, according to the religion that now passes in the world. And perhaps there are few, if any of the order, however eminent for good works, whose virtues have not receiv’d some abatement from the same cause — This therefore may be added as another reason why all the clergy of this land must in the spirit of martyrdom awaken the world into a faith and love of the gospel. Now is the time that we must give up all our worldly regards, forsake all that we have, that we must hate father and mother, wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yea and our own lives also, or we cannot be faithful ministers of Jesus Christ. The same spirit which first planted the gospel, is now required to recover and restore it amongst us. We must break off our chains of worldly prudence, and come forth in the spirit and power of the gospel: so live, and speak, and act, whether in the pulpit or out of it, that all who see and hear us may be forced to confess that God is in us of a truth. A ministry that have not this power, that have not full proof, both to themselves and others, that the Holy Spirit is thus with them, opening the kingdom of God in their own souls, and enabling them to preach it to others with spirit and power, are to answer to God for their want of it.

47. To ask whether the assistance of the holy Spirit is to be ordinary or extraordinary, is as needless a distinction, as to ask whether a minister of the gospel ought to be an ordinary or extraordinary man. The operation of the holy Spirit in us since the fall, is a supernatural power, and therefore in a just sense always extraordinary; because enabling us to be and do that, which the ordinary power of fallen nature is insufficient for. But it is more or less restored to us, as we are more or less fitted to receive it.

* The Christian religion has not had its proper effect, till it has so set up the kingdom of God among us, that his will is done on earth, as it is done in heaven.

* This is the perfection that every Christian is to aspire after. And if they who are to be taught, are to be thus emptied of all worldly passions,
thus dead to the workings of self-will, that the Spirit of God may be all in all in them, what manner of men ought they to be, who are to teach, promote, advance, and lead the way to this purity and perfection? At what a distance ought he to be from every appearance of pride, that is to draw others to live and practise the profound humility of the blessed Jesus? How ought he to humble his body, and be steady in all kinds of self-denial, who would convince his flock, that they who sow to the flesh reap destruction? How heavenly minded, how devoted to God, how attentive to the one thing needful, how unspotted from the world ought he to be, who is to persuade others that they cannot possibly serve God and mammon? How empty ought he to be of all worldly policy, all arts and methods of ambition, who is to fix it deep in the hearts of his hearers that unless they become as little children, they cannot enter into the kingdom of God? What open hands, and open heart ought he to have, what an extent of charity ought to be visible in him, who is to bring his flock to this faith, that it is more blessed to give than to receive? How remarkably, undeniably plain, open, sincere, undesigning, and faithful should he be, who is to plant, and establish sincerity, plainness, simplicity, truth and innocence amongst his flock? There is such a necessary fitness in these things, that the power of religion, must be much prevented, when its precepts
are recommended by such as excuse themselves from the plain and open practice of them.

48. * The office of the ministry is of the highest nature; it is a trust which no language can sufficiently express: and the unfaithful discharge of it is of all conditions in life the most dreadful. To be charged with the death and blood of souls, by that God who laid down his life to redeem them, is a condemnation that will carry more of guilt and punishment in it than any other. Would you know the office of a Christian pastor, you must look at the office of Christ. Would you know what manner of spirit he ought to be of, you must look at the Spirit of Christ. For the work of the ministry is only the work of Christ committed to other hands, who are to supply his absence, to be here in his stead, to be doing the same things, and with the same spirit that he did, till the end of the world.

* Nothing is so highly honourable as to bear a part in the priesthood of Christ, and be employed in the work of the ministry. But then it should be well considered, that it is only honourable in the same sense, as it is honourable to suffer as a martyr. It is an honour that is as different from all worldly figure and distinction, as the glory of Christ upon the cross is different from the triumph of an earthly prince. When therefore we think of the honour and dignity of the pastoral function, we should be careful to remember, that it is only the honour of dying a martyr, an honour of humbling, abasing, and sacrificing ourselves with Christ, and continuing the exercise of his suffering-priesthood for the salvation of the world. The holy function is often considered only as an authoritative commission to minister in holy things. But it is much more than this. It is a call and command to act with the Spirit of Christ, to represent his purity, to continue his holiness, to bear a part of his sacrifice, and devote themselves for the good of others, as he did. A priest that has only his ordination to distinguish him, wants as much to make him a true priest, as Judas wanted to make him a true apostle. For tho’ holiness alone gives no man a commission to exercise the pastoral office, yet all who are called to it, are as much ordained to a peculiar holiness, as to the administration of the sacraments.

49. For the sacred office is God’s appointment, to continue through all ages, the spirit and power of Christ for reconciling men to God in the same manner and by the same means of holiness, sacrifice and devotion, which Christ exercised when he was upon earth. We need no other proofs of this, than this one saying of our Lord: As my Father hath sent me, so send I you. That is, for all the ends for which I am come into the world, for all the same ends I send you into it; to be there in my stead, to supply my absence, to carry on the work that I have begun, to act with my spirit, to continue the exercise of my love, and labour, and suffering for the salvation of mankind. Now to be sent by our Lord for the same ends as he was sent into the world, is such an appointment of us to all kinds of holiness, as can never be rightly discharged, but by our devoting ourselves wholly and absolutely unto God.

Imagine that you had lived with our blessed Lord upon earth, that you had learned the dignity and divinity of his person, that you had seen the love which he bore to mankind, that you had entered into the glorious designs of his kingdom, which was to convert the inhabitants of the earth, poor creatures of flesh and blood, into sons of God and heirs of eternal glory.

Imagine that you had seen him after his resurrection, when he had redeemed the world, conquered sin, death and hell, and was about to take possession of his throne; imagine that then, you had seen him commission some of his followers to be priests and intercessors with God on earth, as he had been, to feed and nourish, and watch over his flock, as he had done, to go before them in such exemplary holiness, such love of God, such compassion for sinners, such contempt of the world, such poverty of spirit, such obedience, and resignation, as they had him for an ensample. Had you been present at all this, how would you then have felt these words, “As my Father hath sent me, so send I you?”

50. * What sentiments of piety, what magnificence of spirit, what exalted holiness, would you have expected of those, who were called to succeed so great a master in so great a work? Could you think they could be fit for this office, unless they had renounced and sacrificed every thing for the sake of it? Could you think that any care but that of the church of God was proper for them? Would you not own that the conversion of sinners to God, ought to have been their only labour and pains? That they were to seek for no other happiness in this world, than such as their Lord and master had done, but consider themselves as called from the common affairs, ease and pleasures of life, to be in Christ’s stead towards the rest of mankind, to conduct them safely to eternal happiness? Now when we consider the apostles in this light, as being the first that were entrusted with the care of souls from Christ himself, we can see no degree of zeal, no height of piety, no compassion for sinners, no concern for the honour of God, no contempt of suffering, no disregard of worldly interest, no watchings or mortifications, no fervours of devotion, to which we of the clergy are not equally obliged. For the salvation of mankind is still the same glorious, and necessary work that it was in their days; is still to be carried on by the same means, and is now in the hands of the clergy as it was then in theirs. If it was their happiness and glory to be faithful to him that called them, to forget the little interests of flesh and blood, and have nothing at heart, but the advancement of God’s kingdom, we shall fail both of happiness and glory if we seek it any other way. If an apostle considering the weight of reconciling souls unto God, is forced to cry out, Who is sufficient for these things? Shall we think any care but that which is the greatest, will make us stand uncondemned before God?

51. * It is a fatal deception to imagine, that the life of a minister of God is ever to be a life of ease and worldly repose. For tho’ the temporal sword be not always drawn against them, nor they forced to flee from one city to another, yet the world, the flesh and the devil, are never so difficult to be resisted, as in temporal prosperity; nor have the ministers of Christ ever more occasion to put on all their armour, than when the world is given up to ease, and peace, and plenty. Swarms of vices steal in upon us in these seasons; the spirit and life of religion is in danger of being lost, and the salvation of souls is made more difficult, than in the most perilous times. And how is such a state of temptation to be resisted, such a torrent of vice to be suppressed, but by the clergy’s shewing themselves visible and notorious examples of all the contrary virtues? When mankind are wallowing in debauchery, wantoning in pleasures, and given up to vanity and luxury in all shapes, it is then the duty of the faithful minister, by his being crucified to the world, to proclaim himself a messenger of a crucified Saviour, and to make his own self-denying, mortified, and heavenly life, a plain, open, and constant reproof of all vain indulgences.

But to proceed, “To what a height of fanatic madness in doctrine as well as practice, says the Doctor, are some advanced, who set out at first with an appearance of more than ordinary sanctity only.” Is not this calling upon the clergy to beware, how they admit these beginnings of a more than ordinary sanctity of life, either in themselves, or those committed to their care? Is it not plainly telling them, that they must stick closely and steadily to such sanctity of practice, as may be called ordinary, or else they will be in fanatic madness? Nay, it is no force put upon his words, to suppose, a more than ordinary sanctity in practice only, is marked out as the genuine, natural cause of fanatic madness, and therefore the cause is equally condemned with the effect. Had he meant that his reader should not have the same dislike of the one, as of the other, would he not have put in a word in favour of a more than ordinary sanctity of life? Would he not have said, that he did not intend to blame that, or at least not so much as the other? But not a word of this. A more than ordinary sanctity in practice only, and fanatic madness are considered as cause and effect, and left in the same state of condemnation, to be equally guarded against, and avoided, by the reader.

52. I can’t help here addressing myself with great affection to all my younger brethren of the clergy. According to the course of nature, you are likely to have the care of the church wholly upon your hands in a short time; and therefore it is chiefly from you that the restoration of true piety is to be expected in this nation. I beseech you, therefore for your own sakes, for the gospel’s sake, for the sake of mankind, to devote yourselves wholly to the love and service of God. As you are yet but beginners in this great office, you have in your power to make your lives the greatest happiness, both to yourselves and the whole nation. You are entered into holy orders in degenerate times, where trade and traffic have seized upon all holy things; and it will be easy for you without fear to swim along with the corrupt stream, and to look upon him as an enemy or enthusiast, that would save you from being lost in it. But think my dear brethren, think in time what remorse you are treasuring up for yourselves, if you live to look back upon a loose, negligent, worldly life, spent among those whose blood will be required at your hands. Think on the other hand, how blessedly your employment will end, if by your voices, your lives, and labours, you put a stop to the overflowings of iniquity, restore the spirit of the primitive clergy, and make all your flock bless and praise God, for having sent you among them. * Lay this down as an infallible principle, that an entire, absolute renunciation of all worldly interest, is the only possible foundation of that virtue which your station requires. Without this all attempts after an exemplary piety are in vain. If you want any thing from the world by way of figure and exaltation, you shut the power of your Redeemer out of your own souls, and instead of converting, you corrupt the hearts of those that are about you. Detest therefore with the utmost abhorrence, all desires of making your fortunes, either by preferments or rich marriages, and let it be your only ambition to stand at the top of every virtue, as visible guides and patterns to all that aspire after the perfection of holiness. Consider yourselves merely as the messengers of God, that are solely sent into the world, to bring the world to God.

53. I don’t call you from a sober use of human learning, but I would fain persuade you to think nothing worthy of your notice in books and study, but that which applies to the amendment of the heart, which makes you more holy, more divine, more heavenly, than you would be without it. You want nothing, but to have the corruption of your natural birth removed, to have the nature, life, and spirit of Jesus Christ derived into you. As this is all you want, so let this be all that you seek from books, study, or men. This is the only certain way to become eminent divines, instructed to the kingdom of heaven. And above all, let me tell you that the book of all books is your own heart, in which are written and engraven the deepest lessons of divine instruction. Learn therefore to be deeply attentive to the presence of God in your heart, who is always speaking, always instructing, always illuminating that heart that is attentive to him: and be assured of this, that so much as you have of inward attention to God, of love and adherence to his holy light and Spirit, so much as you have of real, unaffected humility and meekness; so much as you are dead to your own will, so much as you have of purity of heart; so much and no more, nor any further, do you see and know the truths of God. These virtues are the only eyes, and ears and senses, by which you will understand every thing in scripture, in that manner in which God would have it understood, both for your own good, and the good of other people.

54. It was owing to this purity of heart, and attendance upon God, that an ancient widow named Anna, knew him to be the true Messiah, whom the rulers, chief priests, and doctors of the law, condemned as an impostor. Had they, instead of their adherence to critical knowledge and rabbinical learning, been devoted to God in such purity of heart as she was, they had known as much of the kingdom of God, as she did. Place therefore all your hope, all your learned help and skill, in the ardent love and practice of these virtues. And then, you will be able ministers, holy priests, and messengers of God; your cleansed hearts, like so many purified mirrors, will be always penetrated, always illuminated by the rays of divine light, and you will no more need the critics, to tell you what God speaks to you in the scriptures. But of all men in the world, the critical dealers in words and particles, know the least of them, and make the vainest attempts to understand them.Scripture considered as a doctrine of life, faith and salvation in Jesus Christ, is a sealed or unsealed, an open or shut up book to every heart, in the same proportion as it stands turned to the world, or turned to God. Nothing understands God, but the Spirit of God; nothing brings the Spirit of God into any mind but the renouncing all for it, the turning wholly unto it, and the depending wholly upon it. * Human learning is by no means to be rejected from religion, for it is of the same use, and affords the same assistance to religion, that the alphabet, writing and printing does. But if it is raised from this kind and degree of assistance, if it is considered as a key, or the key to the mysteries of our redemption, instead of opening to us the kingdom of God, it locks us up in our own darkness. God is an all speaking, all working, all illuminating essence, possessing the depth of every creature according to its nature; and when we turn from all impediments, this divine essence becomes as certainly the true light of our minds here, as it will be hereafter. This is not enthusiasm, but the words of truth and soberness; and it is the running away from this enthusiasm, that has made so many great scholars as useless to the church as tinkling cymbals, and Christendom a mere Babel of learned confusion.