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Indeed it is the best and strongest Christians that have most of the hatred both of the unbelieving and the hypocritical world. And for my own part I must confess, that the very observation of the universal implacable enmity, which is undeniably seen throughout the world, between the woman's and the serpent's seed (being such as is not found among any other sorts of men on other occasions,) doth not a little confirm my belief of the holy Scriptures, and seemeth to be an argument not well to be answered by any enemy of the Christian cause. That it should begin between the two first brothers that ever were born in the world, and stop in nothing lower than shedding the righteous blood of Abel, for no other cause, but because the works of Cain were evil, and his brother's righteous; 1 John iii. 12, 13. and that it should go down to the prophets, and Christ, and the apostles, and primitive saints, and continue to this day throughout the earth; and that the profession of the same religion doth not alter it, but rather enrage the enmity of hypocrites against all that are serious and sincere in the religion which they themselves profess: These are things that no good account can be given of, save only from the predictions and verities of the word of God.

5. Also you may hence perceive how exceedingly injurious hypocrites and scandalous Christians are, to the name of Christ, and cause of Christianity and godliness in the world. The blind, malicious enemies of faith and godliness, instead of judging them by the sacred rule, do look only to the professors, and think of religion as they think of them. If they see the professors of Christianity to be covetous, proud, usurpers, time-servers, self-exalters, cruel, schismatical, rebellious, they presently charge all this upon their religion; and godliness must bear the blame, when all comes but for want of godliness and religion. And all the world hath not done so much against these and all other sins, as Christ hath done. What if Christ's disciples strive who shall be the greatest, is it long of him who girdeth himself to wash and wipe their feet? and telleth them, that "except they be converted, and become as little children, they shall not enter into the kingdom of God?" Matt. xviii. 3. and telleth them, that though "the kings of the Gentiles do exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority upon them are called

benefactors, yet ye shall not be so?" Luke xxii. 25, 26. Is it long of him that hath said to the elders, "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock? Who hath set the elders such a lesson as you find in Acts xx. 2 Tim. iv. 1-3. 1 Tim. v. 17. If any called Christians should be truly schismatical, factious, or turbulent, is it long of him that hath prayed the Father that they may all be one? John xvii. 21-23. and hath so vehemently entreated them "that they speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among them, and that they be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment;" 1 Cor. vii. 10. and hath charged them to "mark them that cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which they had learned, and to avoid them?" Rom. xvi. 16, 17. If any called Christians shall be seditious, or rebellious, or (as the Papists) believe, that the clergy are from under the jurisdiction of kings, and that the pope hath power to excommunicate princes, and absolve their subjects from their allegiance, and give their dominions to others, as it is decreed in the general council at the Lateran under Innocent the Third, Can. 3. is all this long of Christ, who hath paid tribute to Cæsar, and hath commanded that every soul be subject to the higher powers, and not resist, and this for conscience sake? Rom. xiii. 1—3. and hath bid his disciples rather to turn the other cheek, than to seek revenge? Luke vi. 29. and hath told them that they that use the sword (of rebellion, or revenge, or cruelty) shall perish by the sword? John xviii. 11. If any Christians will under pretence of religion, set up a cruel inquisition, or kill men to convert them, or become selflovers, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false-accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, &c. is this long of him that hath forbid all this? 2 Tim. iii. 2-5. If for their own domination, lust or covetousness, men called Christians, will be worse than heathens and wolves to one another, is this long of him that hath made it his sheep-mark, by which we must be known to all men to be his disciples, that "we love one

another?" John xiii. 35. and hath told them, that if they "bite and devour one another, they shall be devoured one of another?" (Gal. v. 15.) and hath blessed the merciful, as those that shall find mercy (Matt. v. 7.,) and hath told men that what they do to his little ones, shall be taken as if it were done to himself (Matt. xxv.), and hath commanded the "strong to bear with the infirmities of the weak, and not to please themselves" (Rom. xv. 1-3.), and "to receive one another as Christ received us" (ver. 7.), and hath told those that offend but "one of his little ones," that it "were good for that man that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depths of the sea" (Matt, xviii. 6.,) and hath told him that "smiteth his fellow servants, that his Lord will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth;" chap. xxiv. 48-51. I wonder what men would have Christ do, to free himself and the Christian religion from the imputation of the sins of the hypocrites, and the weak distempered Christians. Would they have him yet make stricter laws (when they hate these for being so strict already,) or would they have him condemn sinners to more grievous punishment, when they are already offended at the severity of his threatenings? O what an unrighteous generation are his enemies that blame the law, because men break it, and blame religion, because many are not religious enough. As if the sun must be hated, because that shadows and dungeons do want light; or life and health must be hated, because many are sick and pained by their diseases! But Christ will shortly stop all the mouths of these unreasonable men; and O how easily will he justify himself, his laws, and all his holy ways, when all iniquity shall be for ever silent. And though "it must needs be that offences come, yet wo to the world because of offences, and wo to the man by whom they come."

The wrong that Christ receiveth from hypocrites and scandalous Christians (of all ranks and places) is not to be estimated. These are the causes that Christianity and godliness are so contemptible in the eyes of the world! that Jews, and heathens, and Mahometans, are still unconverted and deriders of the faith; because they see

such scandalous tyranny and worship among the Papists, and such scandalous lives among the greatest part of professed Christians in the world; whereas, if the papal tyranny were turned into the Christian ministry (Luke xxii. 25-27. 1 Tim. v. 17.), and their irrational fopperies, and historical, hypocritical worship were changed into a reverent, rational, and spiritual worship; and the cruel, carnal, worldly lives of men called Christians, were changed into self-denial, love, and holiness; in a word, if Christians were Christians indeed, and such as I have here described from their rule, what a powerful means would it be of the conversion of all the unbelieving world? Christianity would then be in the eye of the world, as the sun in its brightness, and the glory of it would dazzle the eyes of the beholders, and draw in millions to inquire after Christ, who are now driven from him by the sins of hypocrites and scandalous believers.

And this doth not contradict what I said before of the enmity of the world to holiness, and that the best are most abused by the ungodly For even this enmity must be rationally cured, as by the error of reason it is fed. God useth by the power of intellectual light, to bring all those out of darkness whom he saveth, and so bringeth them from the power of Satan to himself; Acts xxvi. 18. Men hate not holiness as good, but as misconceived to be evil. Evil, I say, to them, because it is opposite to their sensual pleasures, which they take to be their chiefest good. And the way of curing their enmity, is by shewing them their error; and that is, by shewing them the excellency and necessity of that which they unreasonably distate; Acts xxvi. 9-11. 14. 19. Luke xv. 13-16. Acts ii. 36, 37.

6. Lastly; in these characters you have some help in the work of self-examination, for the trial both of the truth and strength of grace. I suppose it will be objected, that in other treatises, I have reduced all the infallible marks of grace to a smaller number. To which I answer, I still say, that the predominancy or prevalency of the interest of God as our God, and Christ as our Savior, and the Sprit as our Sanctifier, in the estimation of the understanding, the resolved choice of the will, and the government of the life, against all the worldly interest of the flesh, is the only infallible sign of a justified,

regenerate soul. But this whole hath many parts, and it is abundance of particulars materially in which this sincerity is to be found. Even all the sixty characters which I have here named, are animated by that one, and contained in it. And I think to the most the full description of a Christian in his essential and integral parts (yet shewing which are indeed essential) is the best way to acquaint them with the nature of Christianity, and to help them in the trial of themselves. And as it were an abuse of human nature, for a painter to draw the picture of a man without arms, or legs, or nose or eyes, because he may be a man without them; so would it have been in me to draw only a maimed picture of a Christian, because a maimed Christian is a Christian. Yet, because there are so many maimed Christians in the world, I have also shewed you their lamentable defects: not in a manner which tendeth to encourage them in their sins and wants under pretence of comforting them, but in that manner which may best excite them to their duty, in order to their recovery, without destroying their necessary supporting comforts.

O happy church, and state, and family, which are composed of such confirmed Christians! where the predominant temperature is such as I have here described! Yea, happy is the place where magistrates and ministers are such; who are the vital parts of state and church, and the instruments appointed to communicate these perfections to the rest. But how much more happy is the New Jerusalem, the city of the living God, where the perfected spirits of the just, in perfect life, and light, and love, are perfectly beholding, and admiring, and praising, and pleasing the eternal God, their Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier forever! where the least and meanest is greater and more perfect than the confirmed Christian here described; and where hypocrisy is utterly excluded, and imperfection ceaseth, with scandal, censures, uncharitableness, divisions, and all its other sad effects; and where the souls that thirsted after righteousness shall be fully satisfied, and love God more than they can now desire, and never grieve themselves or others with their wants or weaknesses, or misdoings any more. And, O blessed day, when our blessed Head shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, and shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all

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