than wrath, and tears more than flames, towards those deceived multitudes, that we may pray for them, rather than rail at them.

But my chief aim is to persuade all who love their souls, to consider the danger of continuing in the communion of a church, that hath not only fallen from her first love and purity, but hath in so many great and essential points corrupted our most holy faith, and adulterated the pure sincerity of our worship.

I shall not here search into the depths of the mercies of God, how far they may reach any of that communion, nor examine how far they hold the foundation Christ, notwithstanding of all the base superstructures they have reared upon it; nor shall I consider how far invincible ignorance may excuse the guilt of an error, nor how applicable this may be to them; nor shall I discuss how far the private differing from these errors may in many things secure some of the individuals of that communion from the general guilt that lies over them: upon all particulars many things may be said, and none alive is more willing to stretch his invention for finding out grounds to fix his charity on than myself. But all I can devise falls short of a full and satisfying excuse for those, who, being educated in the knowledge of the truth and sincerity of the gospel, do fall away into the errors and superstitions of that church; nor can I imagine what their temptations should be to it, except one of two: the first is, that they desire a sensible religion, and therefore loathe the simplicity and spirituality of the gospel, and love to have some glorious objects in worship to strike on, and affect their senses; but however this may make impressions on the grosser rabble, yet certainly any that considers that the perfection of man lies in his reason, and not in his outward senses, and that the exaltation of reason is religion; he must confess, that the less it dwells in the senses, and the more inward it becomes on the reason, it is the more suitable both to the nature of God, of religion, and of the rational faculties. But the other consideration that may draw many to that religion is yet worse, which is, because in it a great allowance is given to all manner of sin, by the treacherous conduct of some confessors, who persuade men of heaven, on terms very easy and pleasing to flesh and blood. And hence it is

that we see very few who have expressed any affection to a devout life, abandoning us to go over to the Roman communion, most of those who do so (except it be one of a thousand) being as void of virtue, as ignorant of the nature of true religion; that we may say, 1 John ii. 19, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they had not gone out from us.

These being the only visible temptations to entice any from our communion to theirs, it is hard to preserve any great degrees of charity for them: for a third temptation being that only which can work on a devout mind, takes with so few among us, that I need scarce name it; which is, the solitary and retired houses among them for leading a devout and strict life, and the excellent books of devotion that have been published by many of that communion. This I know wrought mightily on one, and made him many times wish that he could, with a good conscience, throw himself into one of these religious houses; but the consideration of these great corruptions lay so in his way, that without the doing the greatest force on his conscience imaginable, and thereby securing to himself damnation by complying with things he judged so damnable, he durst not do it. Yet, for his further satisfaction, he went among them, to see if their worship appeared more amiable in practice than it did in writings; but I have heard him often declare, that though his mind was as free of prepossessions as perhaps ever man's was, yet all he conceived of them, even from the writings of their adversaries, was nothing compared to the impressions which the sight of their worship left upon him, it appearing so histrionical in all its circumstances, and so idolatrous in its substance, especially as he saw the vulgar practise it. And for their religious houses, he was among a great many of all orders, but was far from meeting with that spirit of devotion he had hoped to find among them; for they always magnified their order, and the little external austerities and devotions of it; but for genuine humility, a delight in God and Christ, abstraction from the world, (for all their frocks and retirements,) sincere heavenly-mindedness, and fervent charity to the brethren, he regretted he had met with little of it among them: and that he found the several orders full of emulation and envy at other orders, and of heats among

themselves, which made him see, that he who meant to lead a devout life, must choose another sanctuary than any of these he saw in that communion.

I deny not that it is the greatest defect of the reformation, that there are not in it such encouragements to a devout life; though the entanglements of vows to things without our power, is a manifest invasion of the Christian liberty; and to languish out one's life in a tract of lazy devotion, without studying to serve God in our generation, seems contrary to the intendment of religion, a great many of its precepts being about those duties we owe our neighbours: yet for all this, it is not to be denied to be a great defect, that we want recluse houses, for a stricter training up of those who design to lead a spiritual life, and to serve in the gospel, that their minds being rightly formed before their first setting out, they may be well qualified and furnished for their work. Such houses might also be retreating places for old persons, after they had served their generation, and were no more able to undergo toil and fatigue: they might be also sanctuaries for devout persons, in times of their greater afflictions or devotions. But for all this want, it fixeth no imputation on our church, her doctrine or worship, that she is so poor as not to be able to maintain such seminaries. But by the way, it is no great character of the piety of their church, that she abounds so with great and rich donations, when we consider the arts they have used for acquiring them, by making people believe themselves secure of heaven by such donations: indeed, had we got our people befooled into such persuasions, the cheat might have prospered as well in our hands; but we are not of those who handle the word of God deceitfully; nor will we draw the people even to do good with a crafty guile, or lie for God.

But now, as a conclusion to this discourse, I must consider if all things among us be so sound and well-grounded, that with a quiet mind and good conscience every one may hold communion with our church, and hope for salvation in it; I shall therefore briefly run over the nature and characters of the Christian faith, to see if any contradiction to them, or any part of them, be found among us. And first of all, we worship God in spirit, as a spiritual being, with suitable adorations, which we direct to no image nor symbol of the Divine pre

sence, but teach, that we ought not to figure God to any corporeal being, no not in our thoughts; neither do we worship any beside God the Father, Son, and Spirit: we also worship Christ, but as he is God, and hath the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily: angels indeed we honour; but knowing them to be our fellow-servants, we cannot pray to them, or fall down before them: we count the holy Virgin blessed among women, but dare give her no share of the glory due to her Son all the saints we reverence and love; but knowing God to be a jealous God, we cannot divide that honour among them which is only due to him, and therefore do neither worship them, their images, nor their relics. We desire also to offer up to God such sacrifices as we know are well pleasing to him, prayers, praises, broken and contrite hearts, and our souls and bodies; but reject all charms and enchantments from our worship, as contrary to the reasonable service which is acceptable to God, and to retain the genuine simplicity of the gospel worship, in a plain and intelligible style and form, without any mixtures drawn from Judaism and Gentilism. And thus there is nothing among us contrary to the first design of religion.

And as little will be found against the second, which is the honour due to Christ in all his offices. We teach our people to study the scriptures, and to examine all we say by them, and exhort them to depend on God, who by his Spirit will teach them as well as us; neither do we pretend to an authority over their consciences, but acknowledge ourselves men of like infirmities with the people, who are all called to be a royal priesthood; and thus we honour Christ's prophetical office, by founding our faith only on the Divine authority of the scriptures. We also believe, there is no name given under heaven by which we can be saved, but the name of Christ, who laid down his life a ransom for our souls, that by his cross we might be reconciled to God; and it is to that one sacrifice that we teach all to fly for obtaining remission of sins, and the favour of God, trusting only to it, and to nothing we have done or can do; knowing that when we have done all we can do, we are but unprofitable servants; much less do we hope for any thing from any of our fellow creatures. We apply our souls to no intercessor but Christ, and trust to no satisfaction but his; and

we acknowledge him the only King of his church, whose laws must bind it to the end of the world. Neither do we acknowledge any other authority but his over our consciences. It is true, in things indifferent he hath left a power with his church to determine in those matters which may tend to advance order, edification, peace, and decency; but as the church cannot add to our faith, so neither can it institute new pieces of worship, which shall commend us to God, or bind any load upon our souls. We own a ministerial authority in all the pastors of the church, which they derive from Jesus Christ, and not from any visible head on earth, and therefore they are only subject to Christ. We also hold, that the civil powers are of Christ, whose gospel binds the duty of obedience to them more closely on us; and therefore if they do wrong, we leave them to Christ's tribunal, who set them up, but pretend to no power from his gospel to coerce or resist them; and thus we honour Christ in all his offices, and so are conform to the second branch of the design of our faith.

We also receive the third with the same fidelity; and whatever the practices of too many among us be, yet there is no ground to quarrel our doctrine. We preach repentance to all, and study to convince them of their misery and lost estate, that they may mourn for their sins, and turn to God by a new course of life: we preach faith through Christ in God, as that which unites our souls to him, by which we are in Christ, and Christ is in us. We stir up our people to love the Lord their God with all their heart, strength, soul, and mind, and to wait for his Son Christ Jesus, who is the hope of glory, and shall change our vile bodies into the likeness of his glorious body. And from this great motive do we press our people to the study of holiness, without which they shall never see God. We send them to the Ten Commandments for the rule of their lives, whose exposition we chiefly take from Christ's sermon on the mount; neither can we be charged for having taught the people to break one of the least of these Commandments. We exhort all our hearers to make the life of Christ the pattern of theirs, and to learn of him, who was meek and lowly in heart. Neither can our church be accused of having taught any carnal doctrines, for gratifying the base interest of the flesh, or for engrossing the power or treasure of the world, the subsist

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