reasonably be affirm'd of more than one most perfect Essence But understandings depressed by sense and depraved by Worldly Lust first sought God in a Symbol and chain'd him to a place for the better resort to him on all emergencies And when they had framed in their imaginations a local God their Fancy multiplied Deities as their Superstition did Shrines and 't was a pleasure to think they had so many Patrons of their persons and affairs Gods to address themselves unto or to go before them upon all occasions This gross but pleasing delusion could not be sufficiently detected but by a light from Heaven God from thence revealing and asserting the perfection and unity of his Essence letting the World know assuredly that there is none beside him nor any other Image or Symbol of his Divinity but the Eternal Son who is the brightness of his Glory and never to be conceiv'd of without the Father nor any other Minister of his Providence worthy of divine honour but that the Holy Ghost the Author of all divine gifts is so being the Eternal Spirit of the Father and the Son. Upon this Basis he hath fixed the wandring minds of Men determined and directed their worship condemning the conceit of many Gods and many Lords or Mediators as false and wicked for that there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. This one God that made the World and all things therein is Lord of Heaven and Earth and dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is worshipped with Mens hands as though he needed any thing but he it is that giveth unto all Life and Breath and all things Acts 17.24 Fourthly To restore true Religion 't was necessary to redeem Men from their vain conversation received by tradition from their Fathers by setting them a perfect pattern of Life both to demonstrate what is the service agreeable to God and that such holy living is practicable by Man. False Religion was not only wrong in the object but also in the matter and instances of worship it lost the true God amongst the croud of lesser Deities and his true worship amongst the heap of childish and unprofitable Ceremonies Its Votaries were very busy and its service full of noisy labour of pomp and pageantry but the Rites some of them were unreasonable and foolish much below not only the Majesty of God but the dignity of Man others lewd or cruel magical and unnatural contrary to humanity a reproach and provocation to the Author of our Beings but singular symptoms of reprobate minds and badges of slavery to wicked Spirits And whilst their Gods were represented as Patrons of Vice and their most sacred mysteries were shameful works of darkness their Religion ingaged them in lewdness and inhumanity what could be expected in common conversation but such a deluge of wickedness as is described Rom. 1.29 filled with all unrighteousness fornication covetousness maliciousness envy murder deceit malignity void of Piety Charity Mercy Faith yea even of natural Affection This vain conversation was received by Tradition and confirmed by custom and better Examples were very rare and those extreamly defective and the Discourses of Philosophers whom the vulgar regarded as a few singular and odd men and suspected of Atheism were of little force against the torrent of custom in which themselves too were not a little involved Tradition Law and Custom had made Religion to consist in performing the wonted Rites but solid vertue as no part thereof but a needless and impracticable theory was abandoned to the speculation of the Learned Jesus therefore came to restore Religion not only by the light of Heavenly Doctrine but by the Lustre of a great Example His Life demonstrated wherein the Kingdom of God consists the Works that are acceptable and the Persons that are dear to him His Example exhibits an invincible conviction of the necessity the beauty and the practicableness of a holy Conversation of a Life wise and good and useful of a Spirit unbiass'd by the interests of the Flesh and the World deaf to their solicitations and unshaken by all their terrours He demonstrated to the World that the Servants of God must not be slothful or idle but busy Ministers of his Providence and Grace and be shewed too that their business did not consist in operose Ceremonies Bodily exercises In operosis Ceremoniis ritibus ad digitos tantum pertinentibus Lactant. or trivial Rites but in doing good and distributing the gifts of Heaven in watching over our selves and others in a persevering practice of Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety in charitable and humble ministrations unto men and a professed service and constant imitation of the true God. By his own Example and that of his immediate Followers as so many concurring Lights making a path to shine after them he described the way to Heaven and the enjoyment of God demonstrated beyond exception the necessity of holiness to the Vision of God and the possibility of that purity which qualifies for the enjoyment of him Lastly To the restauration of Religion and of Man 't was necessary to quicken those who were dead in trespasses and sins not only by a great Example but with a divine Principle and supernatural strength Instruction and Example were proper to awaken the understanding and to excite the Conscience but the Law in the Members is not so easily subjected to the Law in the Mind Inclination and Passion is too strong for the efforts of naked Reason beloved Lust and enslaving custom will not give place to wiser emulation so that this struggle between the Flesh and Spirit doth but demonstrate the power of corrupt inclination and the strength of vitious habit They who with the mind served i. e. approved and consented to the Law of God were still by reason of the Flesh subjected to the Law of Sin. Though the Conscience was awaken'd the Will was enslaved and whatever feeble desires and imperfect choice Rom. 7. an inlightened understanding might produce yet they that were accustomed to do evil could not find how to perform that which is good the good they would they did not but the evil they would not that they did Their judgment condemned their practice but though an awaken'd Conscience set the Man against himself yet inclination and custom mastered the judgment and carried all before them and held them in Captivity to Sin and thereby to the powers of darkness Under this wretched Slavery the generality of Mankind was insensible and harden'd but those that felt their yoke were nevertheless subjected to it and whilst they disputed about the origine of Sin submitted to the dominion of it They could not tell whether Man in his present state were the ruins of somewhat that had been great or whether his nature had only the Rudiments and Foundation of some greater excellencies
to be built upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Isid Osir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simpl. in Epictet c. 34. whether there were two first Principles the one of good the other of evil which was the most ancient and universal opinion as Plutarch tells us or whence else those lapses and errours of the humane Soul should proceed whence it was that the brutish part had enslaved the rational and the sensitive appetite broke loose from the governing power They knew not the head of this over-flowing Nile but found themselves involved in the Inundation whilst their understandings reasoned tolerably well of Vertue their inclinations engaged them powerfully in Vice So that either despairing of liberty they tamely yielded to the torrent of inclination and custom or else with great perplexity but little success strove against the mighty stream and in so great a streight as was natural look'd up to God Plutar. de superstit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is the hope of Vertue but not the Patron of Sloth and Cowardize Although they sometimes magnified humane nature yet experience of their own infirmity at other times extorted this confession from them that a divine impulse was necessary to make a Man truly great and good Nunquam vir magnus sine divino afflatu Cicero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag Aur. Carm. and that there is something divine in holy men that informs and guides them Which differs but little from that of St. John 1 Ep. c. 2.20 Ye have an unction from the holy one and know all things But the knowledge of their remedy was not equal to the sense and pressure of their Disease they could cry out with St. Paul Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me but could not answer with him I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the Redeemer of the World who by a divine strength hath relieved the weakness of Man and by the law of the spirit of life Rom. 8.2 made them free from the law of sin and death The Sun of Righteousness just before his rising upon the benighted World had emitted some twilight Rayes into the darkness of it by raising up some eminent Philosophers Preachers of Righteousness to check the superstition and madness of the Priests and to scatter some rayes of knowledge among the people thereby to prepare the way to the Eternal Word who was to bring with him the treasures of divine Knowledge and Wisdom But when this glorious Sun was risen he not only shed a divine light but quickening heat and influence upon the benummed and frozen World. He revived the dead restored the languishing redeem'd the Captive and enabled Slaves to break off their Fetters Joh. 8.36 and those whom the Eternal Truth set at liberty were free indeed He plentifully poured out that Spirit that rested on himself even the Spirit of wisdom and understanding Isa 11.2 of counsel and might of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. By the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost he awaken'd the stupid World and called them into his Church an unconquerable never-failing Principle of Eternal Righteousness By the abounding of this grace he hath provided Rom. 5.21 that as sin hath reigned unto death so righteousness may now reign unto Eternal Life The Gospel preached in the demonstration of the Spirit made a speedy and wonderful reformation in the understandings tempers and lives of Men and yielded a most powerful conviction that God was both able and willing to restore his lost Image in them And all the treasures of this divine Spirit are promised to those that humbly ask and are willing to receive them The Conscience therefore awakened by the light of Truth is no longer amazed or distracted but confiding in the divine aids and strengthened with his Heavenly Grace pursues its conflict with the Flesh to a compleat Victory Every good motion is from the same Spirit of Truth and Grace which hath made such admirable Conquests over Ignorance and Lust and he that hath the same Principle in himself can't but have a good hope of the same blessed Fruits The Soul that feels a divine strength cannot but expect from the same Fountain a constant supply and thus united to God in the same design of restoring his Image and animated with the holy Spirit can't fail to master all opposition for greater is he that is in us than he that is in the World. This therefore is the Foundation on which Christs Kingdom of Righteousness and Grace is built viz. Faith establishing the heart by a full and certain perswasion of these Fundamental Points viz. That God is Reconciled and Pardon and gracious acceptance sure to returning Sinners That a future Judgment and Eternal Life and consequently the difference of moral good and evil are indisputably certain and unquestionable realities That there is but one God the Creator of all things and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the only object of worship and Fountain of Blessing whom we must glorify in and worship through as he blesseth us by the Eternal Word and Spirit That the true service of God consists in the imitation of him of which the Life of Jesus is our Pattern that such Holiness is indispensibly necessary certainly practicable and can never fail of the divine acceptance That the corruption of nature and the power of inclination and custom are infallibly conquerable by the grace of God and God most ready to prevent and follow us with his grace and that he will never fail to assist and prosper our endeavours till they are crowned with Everlasting Success This is the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these fundamentals of religious Belief must the Superstructure of Holiness and Happiness be raised and built Now Christians even of the meanest Capacities believing Jesus to be the Son of God and receiving that account the Evangelists give of him have thereby most evident demonstration lively perswasion and certain knowledge of these fundamental truths such as the most learned Philosophers could not attain unto and the generality of the World were extreamly far from This Foundation being laid sure God having made Faith of these truths to all men in a most easy and certain way and most powerfully and solemnly attested them by the miraculous effusion and demonstration of the Spirit that which remains for restoring Religion and Man for perfecting the Kingdom of Christ is to build upon this holy Faith the true Image of God and Spirit of Holiness to pluck up those prejudices that debauched Mens minds the Sources and Tap-roots of false Religion and to inculcate those truths which contain the true Spirit and Genius of pure and undefil'd Religion With this design the Doctrine and Life of Jesus travail viz. to introduce amongst his Followers that excellency of Spirit that was in himself which is the true Image of God the glory and the perfection of Man. And as this spirit
for spiritual ends and purposes for the help of Faith Devotion and Resolution and the more effectual uniting the heart unto God in fervent love in thankful and dutiful affection Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for he that in these things serveth Christ is accepted of God and approved of men But he that has a mighty opinion of bodily labour that values a Ceremony before a Vertue his opinion about a Rite before Charity or Peace that acts his fancy more than his understanding is more nice and curious about the bodily than the spiritual part of worship such an one is departed from the genuine spirit of Christianity entred in at the gate of Superstition in danger of all the extravagance and dotage thereof and thereby of Apostatizing into the Kingdom of darkness Thirdly 2 Tim. 1.7 A dark and servile dread of God is the temper and spirit of false Religion but the Spirit of Christianity is light and love and a sound mind When Men become alienated from God by wicked works and serve him chiefly with their vain imaginations then they lose the true and amiable notion of him they consider him only as terrible and dreadful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarc de superst who is the supream good and only happiness of his creatures They conceive of him altogether as arbitrary power who is Eternal mind and wisdom and the glory and perfection of whose nature it is that as he can do whatever he will so he can will nothing but what is wise and good The Dreams of such dark and timorous minds are very frightful wild and extravagant they worship the Idol of their own brains express their own ill nature and disturbed imaginations in that worship which should be a confession of the excellency and perfection of the Deity Hence Men came to place Religion in solemn darkness in cloud and mystery venerable because hidden or unintelligible Rites obscure Oracles sacred Paradoxes and Arks and Clefts full of divine and wonderful secrets of which the Priest and the Devil taking advantage made themselves absolute Masters of the belief and reverence of the people and by these of their Estates and Fortunes But this is the Message which we have heard of Christ 1 Joh. 1.5 that God is light and in him is no darkness at all That the Principles of his Service are Knowledge and Love and he regards not the Religion of those that worship they know not what nor why That we direct our Service and Obedience by what we clearly know of him and that the more we know the better we shall please him who will not be served with a blind submission nor with unintelligible mysteries but with our best understanding not with a servile Flattery and Court-like Address by many Intercessors with a ritual niceness or a pompous Pageantry or any such devices of ignorant and superstitious Minds but with purity of Heart and Life with a spirit of Love and of a sound Mind not with Terrour and Melancholy but with Hope and Alliance not with scruple and perplexity but generous Resolution not as an Arbitrary Tyrant but as a wise and loving Father Fourthly The Devil is the God of this World and the Spirit of errour is an earthly and secular one but the Kingdom of Christ is Heavenly and such is the spirit and genius of his Religion The love of the World and an inordinate estimate of the goods thereof was ever a mighty source of Superstition and Pillar of Satan's Empire With such Worldly-minded Men Interest is always more ponderous than Truth and that Religion best that most effectually provides for their temporal concerns To such secular Spirits 't was a very agreeable conceit to imagine that every business of theirs was under the especial care of some Patron Deity whose Rites if they carefully performed their affairs should succeed according to their wish The multitude of such Tutelar Gods for Cities Families and particular affairs the superstitious regard to Oracles and Prodigies the observation of times and all the Arts of divination and augury which made up the Pagan Superstition plainly shew the spirit of its Votaries viz. that their hopes and fortunes were Embarqued in this World and that they regarded the good and evil thereof as the sole reward of their labour or punishment of their negligence in Religion This principle the Idolatrous Jews plainly avowed to the Prophets Head when he expostulated with them concerning their sorsaking of God Jer. 44.17 that they would burn Incense to and serve the Queen of Heaven as their Fathers had done to good purpose for then they had plenty and saw no evil whereas since they had left off their service all things had gone to ruin Nor was this a vulgar conceit but the best defence the greatest Men among the Pagans could make for the worship of those many Lords Caecilius in Minut. Felic Orig. c. Cels l. 8. Jul. Ep. 51. that by their singular care the good things of life are distributed to men so Caecilius Celsus and the Emperour Julian defend the Cause of Daemon-worship It is also a mighty temptation unto Men to imagine that God must needs love such Riches Magnificence and Glory in his Service as they find themselves to be extreamly delighted withal that the long flourishing of a Religion is a demonstration of the truth of it and the misfortune and calamity of Men an argument against their way of serving God. Thus they are apt to conclude who mind Earthly things and over-rate the concerns of this Life and judge every petit affair thereof worthy of a divine decision But Christianity teacheth us to consider our selves as Strangers and Pilgrims here whose estate and interest doth not lye in sublunary things but in spiritual Promises and Immortal Hopes We are Citizens of Heaven and only travelling through this World thither Upon this our Heavenly Relation and Interest only we may value our selves and ought to love our Religion because it secures these to us and designs the improvement of our Spirits for the eternal Vision and Enjoyment of God. We are instructed therefore to have our affections very moderate and cool towards Earthly things but warm and tender towards Heavenly Objects This is the finishing Lesson and most excellent effect of the Christian Religion which is a Heavenly Philosophy and to make it truckle to the affairs of this Life or turn it into Maxims of secular Policy is the greatest abuse and subversion thereof Lastly The spirit and genius of false Religion is selfish narrow and stingy but that of Christianity Charitable and generous and large as the Kingdom and goodness of God. Superstition converts Religion into a private Commerce imagining God to gain by the service done him and expecting the return of that service only in personal and private Blessings And no wonder if they who conceive God to seek himself
and silenced his Adversaries by questioning with them how Christ could be both the son and the Lord of David v. 45. So he silenced the Sadducees in their own way for if they from the relation between the Woman and her seven Husbands argued against a future state much more reasonable was it to prove a future state from the Relation that God owned between himself and good men even after their death viz. that he is the God of Abraham c. for that relation is real and effectual and therefore requires the existence of the Subjects that they live to God in a capacity of his love and favour For he is not the God of the dead but of the living Mat. 22.31 c. 'T were endless to observe all the instances of that wisdom and prudence wherewith Jesus refuted errours and vindicated truth not shewing himself afraid of his Adversaries and yet prudently avoiding them After which Example he hath willed us to be wise as Serpents though innocent as Doves Not to be ashamed of him and his words in an evil and adulterous generation and yet not to cast Pearl before Swine nor holy things to Dogs nor imprudently to provoke the untreatable and unreasonable Fourthly The Holy Jesus in all his Sect. 4 Discourse shewed such zeal and fervour as manifested that he was in great earnest and executing a trust that he had received of God. In him was fulfill'd that prophetical passage the zeal of thine house hath even eaten me up Joh. 2.17 he used diligence in teaching and sharpness in reproof when the case required it Ye Hypocrites Ye generation of Vipers How can ye escape the damnation of Hell So he rebukes the self-conceited wicked Pharisees Matth. 23.33 Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence to me for thou savourest not the things that be of God was the earnest reproof he gave to Peter who opposed his own fancies and prejudices to the wisdom and truth of God Matth. 16.23 He loved to do the work of God and refus'd not to travail for the Conversion of a poor Woman and she a Samaritan neglecting his meat at a time when he was both hungry and weary for this was his meat to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work Joh. 4.34 Sect. 5 Yet in the last place This his zeal was tempered with a mighty pity and compassion to the infirmities needs and prejudices of men He was tender of their Souls and pitiful to their Weaknesses His Bowels were moved in him and he had compassion on the multitude when he saw that they were scattered abroad as Sheep having no Shepherd and fainted for lack of instruction Mat. 9.36 He did bear with the weakness and prejudices of his Disciples though he was grieved for and complain'd of the dullness of their understanding and hardness of their heart He repeated his Instructions expounded his Parables heard and Answered their Questions and endured their Infirmities He wept over the infidelity and obstinacy of the Jews with passionate wishes that they would have known the things of their peace in the day of their Visitation He foretold their destruction with sadness and all the expressions of pity and compassion From all which we learn not only to receive the Christian Doctrine with forwardness and readiness of Mind as that wherein the glory of God and the interests of our Souls are nearly concern'd but also to profess it steadily as those that are fully perswaded both of the truth and the high importance of it being very zealous and in earnest in teaching and defending it using all wisdom and prudence to gain or silence the Enemies thereof to defeat their designs and avoid their snares fearless of whatever may betide us in the regular and necessary confession of the truth and with meekness tenderness and long-suffering endeavouring to conquer the contrary errours and prejudices of Men. This is the instruction we reap from the preaching of Jesus we are thence admirably inlightened in the true Principles of pure and undefiled Religion and instructed how we ought to hold profess inculcate and defend them CHAP. III. The Life of Christ consider'd as our Pattern and Example THE Son of God came into the World to restore Religion and plant Holiness in it not only by the instruction of his Doctrine but by the lustre of a great Example He hath not only guided us with his Mouth but led us also by the hand as we must abide in his words so we must tread in his steps Therefore he dwelt among us that he might give the World what it never had before a perfect and unerring Example of Life and therefore his Life is upon record by the care of the Holy Ghost that we might have the instruction and the incouragement of it and be obliged and perswaded to make it the pattern of ours In order to which we shall first make an extract out of the holy Evangelists of the Life of Jesus as an admirable pattern of all Vertue and then consider the instruction and the obligation of it Sect. 1 In the Life of Christ we have a perfect and unerring Example of Vertue without any allay or mixture so fitted to all conditions of Men that in every case they may draw instruction and encouragement from thence More particularly First Christ hath left us in his Life an Example of Piety of a conversation led much with God testifying a right knowledge an affectionate sense a superlative love of God by all proper expressions and genuine fruits thereof His Life was visibly devoted to the service of God his fixed resolution and his profess'd business was to do his will. I came into the World saith the holy Jesus not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me Joh. 5.30 Most ready he was to fulfil all Righteousness and execute every command of his Heavenly Father Matth. 3.15 this he accounted fit and becoming 't was more necessary in his esteem and pleasant in his sense of it than his necessary food Joh. 4.32 34. I have meat to eat that ye know not of for my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work Nor did his resolution flag when tryed to the utmost for he refused not to drink the Cup which his Father gave him Matth. 26.39 he prays that God's will may be done with full consent and without any reluctance of his own and he bowed his head upon the Cross in humble submission to the Execution of the Divine Will. He left us an Example too of constant and fervent devotion testified by a reverence for and adherence to the holy Scriptures that contain'd the mind of God by a diligent frequenting the publick Assemblies for the worship of God both in the Temple and the Synagogues by having recourse to God upon every fit occasion and praising him and giving him thanks in all things by extraordinary Prayers and Fasting and
and by his Example hath taught us that in such an intire surrender of our selves to God we can only find our Interest and our Peace For Fourthly From the Life of Jesus we are assured of the wisdom of being holy that when we chose and act as he did we cannot be mistaken He who was the wisdom of the Father could not be deceived nor deceive us the Life that he led must therefore be wisest and fittest most agreeable to the nature of Man and most conducing to his Happiness He perfectly understood the nature of things and the needs of Men the real and appearing worth of all the enjoyments of Life and of what consideration all the afflictions of it are both in themselves and compared with that glory that shall be revealed He could have made the best of a prosperous state yet he neglected the pleasures of Life he chose the Cross and the Afflictions of Righteousness he preferred the pleasures of Innocence and a good Conscience and the enjoyment of God. The reason was because his understanding was exalted above all the deceptions of Sin and Satan he saw through all the false Colours and disguises of the World and the Flesh and knew the real difference of things He knew that Holiness is Truth and Wisdom and Perfection but Sin the Errour Delusion Ignorance and Folly. Fifthly The Example of Jesus is recommended to our imitation from the consideration of his love for he that loved us to the death could have no other design in giving us an Example of Life but to oblige us to pursue our own good and to secure our greatest interests The love of Christ constrains us to confess the goodness of those paths he leads us in let the World say what they will these will have the safest Issue best secure our present and our Eternal Interests If Humility were not better than Pride Charity than Hatred Mercifulness than Revenge if indifferency to the World did not more consult our Peace and Happiness than the grandeur and the affluence of it he that loved us so intirely as to lay down his Life for us would not have led us in such a way and by his authority and love have obliged us to follow him in it Sixthly When we consider that Jesus was both God and Man we must consider the Life he led not only as wisest and best but as God-like and as near to Divinity as was possible So that it is both our Wisdom and our Interest and our highest Dignity the greatest Exaltation and perfection that we are capable of to put on Christ and to walk as he walked We are therein Followers of God we do what he did in our nature or would do if he could enter into the present circumstances of our state We do that which hath a tendency to exalt our Minds into the nearest resemblance approach and union with the Divinity it self Such is the Influence and Energy of the Example of Jesus that while we set it before us as we have an excellent pattern of the most noble and difficult Virtues so it represents the whole Circle of our duty as possible and natural an easy even and steady path and course of action as Amiable and Lovely as reasonable in all its difficulties which Jesus had conquer'd for us as the wisest and best measure of Life which the Wisdom of God and his tender love hath chalked out for us and as the highest dignity and advancement of our nature whereby we become like God resemble as much as may be the Heavenly Pattern and are partakers of the Divine Nature and Life CLOSE NOW the inference from all the Premises is this That we run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus Hebr. 12.2 That we suffer the Divine Light of his Doctrine and Life to shine into our Souls that we be affected with the true Spirit of his Religion and in love with his amiable Conversation That we study the holy Gospels for this end that we may thence receive the Light of Life that being fill'd with admiration and love of the fervent Godliness and insuperable unwearied Charity of Jesus his condescending Humility Peaceableness and Gentleness his unshaken Resolution unvanquish'd Fortitude and Patience and frequently comparing our selves with this admirable Pattern we may blush for our Nonconformity and endeavour to write more exactly after so fair a Copy Let this consideration have a place in all our self-reflections whether we have duly imitated and well represented our dearest Saviour or have not rather cast a scandal and reproach upon him In all our deliberations propound we him for our Example and let us form our designs and prosecute our business as we verily believe he would have done Let us always remember that to be a Christian is to be made like Christ that to know God as he hath declared him and to serve him as he did this is the summ of our profession and substance of our Religion This is the saving knowledge of Christ to have the true Idea of his Spirit and Life continually directing and influencing ours to acquaint our selves with God and with the true measures of Holiness and Righteousness to have our hearts affected with the Beauty and excellency thereof and to study to approve our selves unto God after the Pattern that he sent us from Heaven according to the Instruction and Example of his well-beloved Son. But what cause of reproof of self-judging and humiliation is this to the most that call themselves Christians and yet follow any Example sooner than that of Christ or else make heavy blots and blurs whilst writing after so fair and admirable a Copy What a scandal is it to see how Christians mistake and misrepresent their Master and his holy Religion and what a fatal delusion is it to think to reconcile contradictions that can never consist That he who calls himself a Disciple a Follower of Jesus should industriously conform himself to the guise and custom of this World should be led by the Examples of Impudent Vice afraid to abet forsaken truth and vertue that the Disciples of the Innocent and Spotless Jesus should wallow in carnal delights lead sensual vain and voluptuous Lives that the Friend and those that say they have interest in the Merciful Self-denying and devout Jesus should be heaping up Riches by rapin and oppression or by fraud and unjust gain utter strangers to bounty and works of mercy or else ungodly and profane or trifling cold and formal Devotionists These things can never consist if our tempers and our lives be not the transcript of the Mind and Life of Jesus we may call our selves what we please but Christ will not know us he will call us Children of the Devil if we bear his Image and do his Lusts and Pleasure and our judgment will be more severe for taking upon us the name of Christ to dishonour and profane it If we say that we have fellowship with