protestants go a round-about way through blasphemy into popery.

Upon the Christian plan then, however bad carnal wickedness may be, spiritual wickedness is worse: for the mind is better than the body in itself, and consequently, according to an established proverb, worse in its corruption. Therefore no obedience can be acceptable to God without that which is the best of all, the obedience of the understanding; no courage is comparable to that which contends earnestly for the faith delivered to the saints; no temperance is like that which refrains from high thoughts and presumptuous imaginations. Let us then be no longer stunned with the affected good lives of such as fail in this sort of obedience, and whose minds are at variance with the revealed wisdom of God: for there is wickedness blacker than that of common immorality; and moral virtues are something, or nothing, or worse than nothing, according to the principles from which they proceed. If a man who has made a practice of being drunk every day of his life, should keep himself sober for one day, only that he may have an opportunity of picking his neighbour's pocket, or over-reaching him in a bargain; of what va

lue

lue is such sobriety? Is it not worse than his drunkenness? for his drunkenness is beastly, and that is the worst you can say of it, but his sobriety is diabolical. You may apply this to other cases: and let me tell you, that if spiritual wickedness were but rightly understood, as it subsists in the devil the original of it all, men could never be cheated as they now are with the plausible speeches of those who lie in wait to deceive them and I verily believe one good discourse upon the character of Satan, stripping that wolf of his philosopher's coat, and his sheep's cloathing, would have more effect toward keeping many people steady to the truth, than an hundred treatises upon particular points of doctrine, And this leads me naturally to shew you what arts are practised to propagate heresy and infidelity.

CHAP.

CHAP. II.

Of the Method of those who spread false
Doctrine.

AS there were false prophets against the law of

Moses, so we are told there shall be false) propliets against the Gospel: and as the dignity and value of our law is above that of the Jews, we are bound to look more sharply after those who would corrupt it. The church never was, nor ever will be without them; and the apostle informs us, that as the church grows older they shall war worse and worse. Our Blessed Master has given us one rule for detecting them, which will seldom fail us: Beware (says he) of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing. Here their outward appearance is described: they make their approach to you, not as wolves, but as sheep; not as infidels, but as Christians; not as false prophets, but as the orly true prophets you ever met with. Indeed, my brethren, it is very weak and childish to imagine that nothing is sin but that which calls itself so. Does not every bad thing give itself a good name? The pirate says he goes upon the ac

count;

count; the smuggler calls himself a fair trader; the harlot gets her living in an honest way ; the quaker calls his quakerism the true Christian divinity; Chubb calls his Christianity without its credenda, the true Gospel of Jesus Christ; and the Jesuit does little hurt in England, till he calls himself a true protestant. When a seducer makes an attempt upon your faith, you must not expect that he will give you notice of his intention at the market"Now,

cross, like a common cryer, and say,

good people, look to yourselves, for I am "about to deny all the doctrines of the Gos"pel, and am persuaded I can make a better "religion than that of the Bible." If he should make such a gross mistake as this, his master would either discard him as a traitor, or give him up as an instrument unfit for all the purposes of seduction. Satan himself, when engaged in the sublimest of his undertakings, never works in the odious character of Satan, but begins with transforming himself into an Angel of Light: and his assistants, instead of avowing their wickedness, are generally more pompous and plausible in their professions than other men. Conscience, Reason, Charity, Piety, Purity, and a Love of Truth, are all their own, and others are no better

better than pretenders. Therefore when a false teacher makes an attempt upon your faith, you may expect him to accost you in words to this Effect "" My Christian Brethren, I am a sincere Lover of the Gos"pel, and having the deepest concern for its "honour, I would guard you against those "who decry human Reason, and forbid you

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to make use of it, that they may obtrude "such doctrines as are agreeable neither to "Reason nor the Word of God. Religion is "the most valuable inheritance of the human

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race; and if by God's Blessing I can bring "you to entertain the same views of it with myself, we shall rejoice together. Though

Popery is reformed, yet many errors still remain, which by the use of Reason may "be driven out. Reason is the Gift of God, "and so is the Scripture, and they cannot be

contrary to one another. There is a spirit of censoriousness which many professing "Christians indulge with too little restraint ; "but the true Christian beareth all things.

My Brethren, be not moved with the rash "censures and reproaches of men; if you "will live godly in Christ Jesus, you must "suffer persecution." These expressions are taken from a small canting Socinian Tract,

sold