as in you lieth, that it is the pure bond, and tie of confcience, which keeps you from compliance in all other things, and by your meeknefs in fuffering for fuch non-compliance, that you are not fuch turbulent, factious incendiaries, as the wicked world flanderously reports you to be. Convince the world, by your exact righteousness in all your civil dealings, and by the lip of truth in all your promises, and engagements, that you have the fear of God in your hearts, as well as the livery of Christianity upon your backs. In a word, fo live, that none may have just ground to believe the impudent flanders the devil raifes in the world against you. Let your light fo shine before men, that they may glorify your Father which is in heaven. Without your care, and circumfpection, the fhedding of a world of precious foul blood can never be prevented.

2. Let me advise, and beseech all men to be so just to o thers, and merciful to their own fouls, as not to cast them away for ever, by receiving prejudices against godliness, from the mifcarriages of fome, who make more than a common profeffion of it. To prevent this fatal effect of scandal, and prejudice at religion, I defire a few particulars may be impartially weighed.

Firft, Very many of thofe fcandals, bandied up and down the world against the profeffors of godlinefs, are devised, and forged in hell, as fo many traps, and fnares to catch, and deftroy men's fouls, to beget an irreconcileable averfion, and enmity in men to the ways of God. "They devife deceitful "matters (faith the Pfalmift) against them that are quiet in the "land," Pfal. xxxv. 20. So Jer. xviii 18. "Come, fay they, "let us devife devices against Jeremiah, and fmite him with "the tongue." And there is as little equity in the credulous receiver, as there is honefty in the wicked forger of these flanders: with one arrow of cenfure, you wound no less than three, viz. the honour of God, your innocent brother, and your own fouls: As to the two former wounds, they will, in due time, be healed; God will vindicate his own name fully, and the reputation of his innocent fervants fhall be cleared, and repaired abundantly; but, in the mean time, your fouls may perish, by the wounds, prejudices have given, so that you may never be reconciled to godlinefs, and its professors, whilst you live, but turn fcoffers, and perfecutors of them.

Secondly, Examine whether the matters that are charged upon them as their crimes, be not their duties. Sometimes it falls out to be fo, and if fo, you fight more immediately, and directly against God, than men. This was David's cafe, Pfal.

Ixix. 10. "When I wept, and chaftened my foul, that was "to my reproach;" my piety was turned to reproach. They calied his tears crocodile's tears, and his faftings hypocritical fhadows of devotion, and humility. Thus the very matter of his duty was turned into fcorn, and reproach. And fo it was with the primitive Christians, their very owning of themselves to be Chriftians, was crime enough to condemn them.

Thirdly, If profeffors of religion do in fome things act unbe coming their holy profeffion, yet every flip, and failing in their lives, is no fufficient warrant for you to cenfure their persons as hypocrites, much lefs to fall upon religion itself, and condemn it for the faults of them that profefs it. There's many an upright heart overtaken by temptation. You see their miscarriages, but you fee not their humiliations, and self-condemnations, before God for them. Foul, and fearful (faith a grave divine) was the fcandal of David; and what was the iffue? Préfently the enemies of God, and godlinefs, began to lift their heads, and fall foul upon David's religion, 2 Sam. xii. they blafphemed the name of God. O this is he that was fo grand a zealot, that the zeal of God's houfe did eat him up. This is the man, that, out of his tranfcendent zeal, danced before the ark; this is he that prayed thrice a day, at morning, noon, and night: This is he that was fo precife, and frict in his family, that a wicked perfon fhould not dwell in his house. This your great, precife zealot, hath defiled the wife, and 'murdered the husband. Now you fee what his religion is, now you fee what comes of this profeffion of fo much holiness, and godlinefs."

O that men would seriously confider their evil in fuch cenfures as thefe! what is all this to religion? Doth religion any way countenance, or patronize fuch practices? Nay, doth it not impartially and severely condemn them? It is the glory of the Chriftian religion, that it is pure, and undefiled, James i. 27. Thefe practices flow from no principle of religion, nor are chargeable upon it, for it teacheth men the very contrary, Tit. ii. 11, 12. If I fee a Papist fin boldly, or an Arminian flight grace, I justly condemn their principles, in, and with their practices, because Popery fets pardons to fale, and Arminianifm exalts nature into the place of grace: But doth the doctrine of the gospel lead to any immoralities? Charge it, if you can.

Fourthly, And as fenfelefs a thing it is, to condemn all, for the mifcarriages, and faults of fome; which, yet, is the com

*Jer. Dyke, of Scandal, p. 53,

mon practice of the world. Are all, that profefs godlinefs loofe, and carelefs? No, no: many are an ornament to their holy profeffion, and the glory of Christianity. And why mu the innocent be condemned for the guilty? What is your rea fon, and ground for that? Why might not the enemies of Chriflianity have condemned the eleven apoftles, upon the fall of Judas? Had they not as good a warrant for it, as you have for this?

To conclude, You little know what a foare of the devil is laid for your fouls, in all thofe prejudices, and offences, you take, at the ways, and profeffors of godlinefs; and what a wo you bring upon your own fouls by them. You speak evil of perfons, and things, you know not, and prejudice is like still to keep you in ignorance of them. "Wo to the world (faith Chrift) because of offences; and blessed is he that is not of"fended at me."

The eleventh way of ruining the precious foul, opened.

XI. The eleventh way, wherein abundance of precious fouls. perish, in the chriftianized, and profeffing world, is the way of formal hypocrify in religion, and zeal about the externals of worship. Such a generation of men have, in all ages, mingled themselves with the fincere worshippers of God; and the inducement to it is obvious, the form of godliness is an honour, but the power of it a burden. By the former, earthly interests are accommodated; by the latter, they are frequently expofed, and hazarded.

We find, in the Jewish church, abundance of fuch chaff intermixed with the wheat, which the doctrine of Chrift difcovered, and purged out of the flour, Mat. iii. 9, 12. fuch-were the Pharifees, who were exceeding zealous for traditions, and the external rites, and ceremonies of the law, but inwardly full of all filthiness, Mat. xv. 7, 8, 9. Men that honoured the dead, and perfecuted the living faints; that reverenced the material temple, and destroyed the living temples; that strained at gnats of ceremonies, and fwallowed down the groffeft immoralities.

And well had it been, if this generation had ended with that ftate, and time of the church; but we find a prophecy of the increase of these men in the latter days, 2 Tim. iii. 5. which is every where fadly verified. Religion runs into ftalk, and blade, into leaves, and fuckers, which should be concocted into pith and fruit: Yea, it is of fad confideration, that, amongst many high pretenders to reformation, their zeal, which should nourifh the vitals of religion, and maintain their daily work of mortification and communion with God, fpends itself in fome

by-opinion, whilst practical godlinefs vifibly languifheth in their converfations. How many are there that hate doctrinal errors, who yet perish by practical ones? who hate a falfo doctrine; but, in mean time perish by a falfe heart? 'Tis very difficult to reclaim this fort of men from the error of their way; and thereby fave their fouls from hell. However, let the means be used, and the fuccefs left with God.

The eleventh way to hell, by formality, barred up.

1. No fin entangles the fouls of men fafter, or damns them with more certainty, and aggravation, than the fin of formal hypocrify it holds the foul fastest on earth, and finks it deepeft into hell. There was no fort of men upon whom the doc trine of Chrift, and the apoftles, had fo little fuccefs, and effect, as the Scribes and Pharifees; they derided him, when publicans, and finners, trembled, and believed, Luke xvi. 14, 15. The form of Godliness wards off all convictions; their zeal for the externals of religion fecures them against the fears of damnation, whilft, in the mean time, their hypocrify plunges them deeper into hell, than others that never made fuch fhews of fanc. tity, and devotion: "He fhall appoint him his portion with hypocrites;" Mat. xxiv. 51. that is, he thall be punished in hell, as hypocrites are punished, viz. with the greatest, and forest punishment. Hypocrify is a double iniquity, and will be punished with double destruction: their ungrounded hopes of heaven ferve but to pully up their wretched fouls to a greater height of vain confidence, which gives them the more dreadful jerk in their lamentable, and eternal disappointment.

*

2. Blind, fuperftitious zeal, which fpends itself only about the externals of religion, ufually prepares, and engageth men in a more violent perfecution of thofe that are really godly, and confcientious. The Lord opened a great door of opportunity at Antioch, to Paul; the whole city came together to attend the difcoveries of Chrift in the first publication of the gospel, and the poor Gentiles began to taste the fweetness of the gofpel; but the devil perceiving his kingdom begin to totter, immediately flirred up his inftruments to perfecute the apostles, and drive them out of the country: and who more fit for that work, than the devout, and honourable women? Acts xiii. 15. Thefe ftirred up their husbands, and all they had influence upon, under a fair pretence of zeal for the law, to obftruct the progrefs of the gospel. No bird (faith one) like the living bird, to draw others into the net. Men of greatest names, and pretenfions to religion; if graceless, are the most dangerous inftru VOL. III.

ments the devil can employ to the ruin, and extirpation of true godliness. Such a zealot was Paul, in his unregenerate ftate.

3. Nothing is more common, than to find men hot, and zeaJous against falfe worship, whilft their hearts are as cold as a Hone, in the vitals, and effentials, of true religion. Many can dispute warmly against adorations of images, praying to angels; and faints departed, who all the while are like thofe dead images which others worship. Jehu was a zealot against idolatry; and yet the vital power of true godlinefs was a ftranger to his foul, 2 Kings x. 15, 16. The Pharifees fpared no pains to make a profelyte, and yet all the while were the children of the devil themselves, Mat. xxiii. 15.

This is a fad cafe, yet what more common? The Lord open the eyes of these men, and convince them, in feafon, that their zeal runs in the wrong channel, and fpends itself upon things which shall never profit them. O if they were but as much concerned to promote the love of God, and life of Godliness in themfelves, and others, as they are about fome external accidents, and appendages of religion, what bleffings would they be to the world, and what evidence would they have of their own fincerity?

The twelfth way to hell, opened.

XII. The twelfth way to hell, in which many fouls are carfied on fmoothly, and fecurely, to their own destruction, is, the way of mere civility, and moral honesty, wherein men rest as in a fafe ftate, never doubting but a civil life will produce an iffue into an happy death. Moral honefly is a lovely thing, and greatly tends to the peace, and order of the world; but it is not faving grace, nor gives, any man a good title to Chrift, and falvation. Indeed there can be no grace in that foul in which civility, and moral honefty are not found: but these may be found in thoufands that have no grace.

That which ruins fouls, is not the exercise of moral virtues, but their reliance upon them: they use their morality as a shield to fecure their confciences from the convictions of the word, which would fhew them their finful, and miferable state by nature. Thus the Pharifee, Luke xviii. 11, 12. “ God, I thank "thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, "adulterers, or even as this publican;" he bleffeth himself in the conceits of his own fafety, and happiness. Let debauched, and prophane perfons look to it, I am well enough; though,

† Satan afcends by the rib, as by a ladder to the heart. Gregor,