most High not prostitute to mens lusts devices While I say you are still such what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness what communion hath light withdarkness And what concord hath Christ with Belial Or what part hath he that keepeth Covenant with him that avowedly breaketh it If these be schismatical insinuations we are very willing to be accounted such and do heartily imbrace the reproach nay if I should tell you that such are the nature and circumstances of the present defection that it doth not only enjoyne a necessarie separation from your pretended and corrupt Ecclesiastick Courts for eviting the sin that attends a conjunction but also a witnessing withdrawing to testify against backsliders I might as easily evince it both from Scripture-precept and example But may be I am too prompt if the termes that you are about to offer be as fair as is promised that is as can be demanded by any rational person no doubt they will satisfie all our scruples And therefore wishing that the event may redargue this apparent anticipation I goe on to your following promise viz. to give your N. C. at next meeting a full prospect of the state of the ancient Church and you doubt not to convince him that their frame was better suted for promoting the ends of Religion then ever Prebyterie could be Sir your performance is expected and for your encouragement I am free to tell you that though the improbabilitie of the undertaking may possibly give the world a disappointment yet it will be no surprise It is not the first promise that you have failed in upon more unaccountable reasons Mean while you forbid us to abuse our Soveraign's royal goodnesse nor the tendernesse of these he sets over us But this in my opinion is a superfluous caution the Prelats have taken a surer course to prevent your fears for such hath been their care to secure this goodnesse and tendernesse from our abuse that hitherto they have thought fit to keep it without our reach I know this will appear a hard reflection to some of your party who would have even the common air estemed his Majesties and us to breath it by his indulgence But a flattering mouth worketh ruine and the Lord shall cut off all flattering lips We despise not his Majesties favour nay we desire and long for it that it may come down like raine upon the mowen grasse But while there is so great a short-coming in the things which are right in the eyes of the Lord and righteous toward his servants why should flatteries deceive And thus we are come to your Conclusion of Prayers for and exhortation to peace love and charity a very expedient one to so bad a cause so badly managed your rebellion against God your usurpation against our Lord Jesus Christ the wrongs done to his Church and People by which your Prelats have got into the chair and in compliance wherewith you your self do at least find ease If they cannot be mentioned by reason yet may in a manner be secured by peace And no doubt the love and charity which you crave would go a great length I will not say with Iehu what have you to do with peace But there is no peace to the wicked saith my God And that ought to be unto you of more moment then if Iehu with all his fury and forces were at your heels But you are of that number who would have peace though you walk in the imagination of your own hearts nay you seduce this people and heal their hurt slightly by saying peace where there is no peace But if you had stood in the counsel of the Lord and had caused his people to hear his words then you should have turned them from their evill way and from the evill of their doings am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God a far off Can any hide himselfe in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord. I have heard what the Prophets said who Prophesie lyes in my name and do cause my people to erre by their lightnesse yet I sent them not nor commanded them therefore they shall not profite this people at all saith the Lord. As for the love that you desire should we love them that hate the Lord you know whose profession it was do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee And am not I grieved with these that rise up against the I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies Neither are these the words of one only under the old dispensation which elswhere you are pleased to terme more carnal and fierie He who wished that they were even cut off who troubled the Church appeareth to be of the same Spirit Nay God who is love and perfect in goodnesse to all his creatures is neverthelesse a consuming fire unto his adversaries And our Lord Jesus who came in lowlinesse and meeknesse to seek sinners and dye for enemies enjoyning love as a badge and legating peace as his proper blessing to all his followers doth notwithstanding pronounce many a sad wo unto the hypocritical proud covetous in a word if as shamlessly irreligious Prelatick Pharisee Let us therefore above all things in the first place contend for the love of God and to be found and to abide therein This once purging our hearts from dividing and distracting lusts will only happily cement us by its own bond But if you continue your opposition against God perversion of his righteous wayes and persecution of his Saints you do in vain pretend to that peace which is the Saints their priviledge and without which outward peace is no better then one of these snares that the Lord raineth upon the wicked Your next wish is for charity and O! that it might be both your and our blessing in its full extent charity not rejoycing in iniquity but rejoycing in the truth would quickly produce a desireable Accommodation but this is not the charity which you study 't is like a charity thinking no evill of your evil doings beleeving all your imposings enduring all your usurpations and bearing all your rigours would please you well And at this rate the most violent irreligious persecutor would become your concurrent But we have not so learned Christ. It is a very easie and advantagious thing to men possest of their desires to wish for security in the peace love and charity even of their adversaries And yet we are not so short of rememberance as to believe that this was alwayes the language of your partie At first it was make a chaine the land is full of bloodie crimes and the city is full of violence and your cry was rase it rase it even to the foundation And when after much crueltie and blood your Prelats would scarce by the restraint of more safe counsel be taken off their eager pursuites how hardly are they prevailed upon even
there is that truth in them that though David's wished for wings may better suit your desire of rest yet Ieremiah's waterie head and weeping eyes with his retirement to a wildernesse would be the more agreeable wish to our condition But our relieff is that the Lord seeth and who knowes but he is displeased that there is no intercessor and that therefore his arme may bring salvation when he shall put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and an helmet of salvation upon his head when he shall put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and cloath himself with zeal even that zeal which you go about to maligne as with a clock However this is most certaine that the Redeemer is come to Zion and unto them that turne from transgression in Jacob saith the Lord. But your N. C. recals me and tells us that the further he seeth in the great businesse of Religion he is the the more coovinced of a serene and placide temper which so qalisies the soul for Divine converse And these words do ravish and unite your heart to him in such a manner that for a conclusion to these your roving Dialogues you do very agreeably evanish in a fancied transport And really Sir I do as little question that the further a man seeth and is seriously exercised in the great businesse of Religion he will certainly be therby rendered of a more serene and placide temper The statutes of the Lord are indeed right rejoyceing the heart the commandement of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes the divine light doth certainly give pure joy and pure joy no doubt doth elevat above all carnall perturbations and drossie pleasures there is a vertue in Religion that powerfully rebuking not only the windes of our tempestuous passions and the tossings of our vaine desires but the dreadful tempest of Gods anger doth make a great calme which bringeth unto Jesus Christ for refuge unto God for our rest and blesseth us with his peace that passeth understanding and filleth us with all joy in believing But your insinuation as if a serene and placid temper not flowing from but previously disposing unto Religion and fellowship with God were of special influence as to divine converse is at best but a continuation of your delusion I shall not say deceit suited to your great designe of preferring peace to truth and fraiming Religion to your own accommodation And truly in order to that end the advantages of a serene indifferencie and placide compliance resolving all difficulties by the conveniencie of ease and not striving in any case against the Authority and commands of such on whom our outward peace depends can not be denyed But seing it is the great work of Religion first to open the eyes and to turne from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God that we may receive forgivenesse of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith and in these excellent graces true peace and full joy let him who would have a minde truly serene and not only a placide temper but a tranquill and joyful conscience studie and walk in this light discovering and abhorring every evill way and by purity and faithfulnesse even in that which is least make sure his peace and so shall he not only be qualified for but certainly attaine unto divine converse Serenity and tranquillity of minde when flowing from that wisdome from above which is first pure then peaceable and is the product of pure Religion and undefiled is no doubt no other then that light wherein God dwells and that calmness and weakness of Spirit wherein he delights But as for your serene and placid Temper whith you exhibite to us rather as preparatory then subsequent to Religion I must again tell you my feares that I find it so little agreeable to Religion's genuine methode and so very suitable to your carnal designes that I greatly apprehend that instead of advancing you to true divine converse it only seduce you into a fools paradise of your own dreams and imaginations Whether your ensuing raptures do thence proceed I leave it to others to judge But sure I am were you as earnest to pray Deliver my soul O Lord from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue as you would appear serious in the following regrete of having too long dwelt among them that hate peace You had rather choosed to suffer affliction with the people of God esteeming the reproach of Christ even treason and sedition great riches and respecting and looking for the recompense of the reward the eternal love and peace of God then to have taken the compendious way of a sinful compliance for obtaining this worlds ease and quiet Which I am confidentâ— that holy man whose words you usurpe would have abhorred at the rate As for the thick fogs and mists of contention which you complaine of if this life were indeed to you a valley of tears as you give it out while all light and purity is almost destroyed by the lust and ignorance of your prelatick party it would have been to these infernal vapors and clouds of smok by which our Sun and air are darkned and not to the just and necessary opposition of a small faithful remnant against your apostacy that you had ascribed the noisomness which you mention But behold the nimblenesse aswell as the delusion of the mans fancy he hath for outward ease cast away a good conscience and preferred all along peace unto truth All the disturbance he meeâ—eth with is the dissent of a few faithfull unto God and stedfast in his Covenant whom he and his party do therefore persecute This small innocent non-complyance he complaineth of as if he were the most refined and tender Saint grieving for the wicked and rageful persecution of the ungodly from which imaginary and feigned distresse with the same artifice and facility he pretendeth that his relieff is in divine contemplation whither as to the mountaine of God he flieth forsooth for Sanctuary that he may take rest But this triumphing of your presumption shall be but short the joy of the hyhocrite is but for a moment though his excellency reach up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung they which have seen him shall say where is he he shall fly away as a dream and be chased away as a vision of the night for who Lord shall dwell in thy holy hill and who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousnesse and speaketh the truth in his heart he that backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evill to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift vp his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousnesse from the God of his Salvation If therefore your pretensions be such as you professe you must not overlooke the way that God himselfe hath designed but walk in it with fear Your vain phantastick soarings will not carry you either over or by it Nay in the end they will prove a lie and tumble you into destruction For what is the hope of the Hypocrite when he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Think not that these things are from ill nature and spoken in bitterness Nay Sir I may very seriously protest that when I reflect on your laxe and unsound principles not only in the matters of Government and Worship but even in the head of justification and several other parts that you have given me occasion to touch with your enmity and reproaches against the work of God and the Kingdome Ministry and Ordinances of our Lord Iesus Christ and how on the other hand you endeavour to shreud your self under the high pretenses of peace love charity and devotion wholly heavenly I can scarce refrain from trembling in the thoughts of such deep and abusive hypocrisie And therefore though you should scorn my compassion yet will I not forbear to give you my best advice You seem to have the forme of knowledge and of the truth in the word Nay thou makest thy boast of God and divine contemplation the secret of Gods presence and the refreshfull shades of the Almighty where joy unspeakable and the most pure solaces flow appear to be your familiar retreat But as it is too too evident that neither your principles nor practice are very suitable to this profession nay that there is no noise heard of this profession while you are bussied in serving mens designs and your own fancies And that it is only after you have striven to the outmost in perswading or contradicting that you seek to evade or delude by these pretensions So my earnest request is that in place of fancie that evaporats all your knowledge into imagination faith and love may suck down the truth into your heart to convert you indeed unto God and reveal in you with power his Son Iesus Christ that you may love the Lord with all your soul and strength and trust in him alwayes have respect unto all his Commandements and observe all his Ordinances then should you walk in the way safely and the Lord should be your confidence And though you should be exercised with the same perverse disputings of men of corrupt mindes the same strife of tongues and persecution of adversaries whereof we have so large an experiment yet amidst all these boisterous windes and tossing waves God would be your Rock light joy strength and salvation for ever Sir this is our faith and also our victory for which when you shall as seriously contend as you do vainly pretend to outward peace and mans favour then shall true peace even that peace which the World neither gives nor can take abound unto you to establish you unto the end Let us therefore fight the good fight keep the faith and lay hold on eternal life that we may finish our course with joy so shall we receive that Crown of Righteousnesse which the righteous Iudge shall give unto us at that day and not unto us only but unto all them also that love his appearing Even so come Lord JESUS FINIS
done to these most dearly affecting concernes of God's Glory and his Churches welfare ought not to be more tenderly afflicting and poweâ—fully exciting to duties of prayer and all righteous indeavours then the Lords high and holy Soveraignity is both most strengthening to these duties and comfortably excâ—usive of all sinful anxiety and dejection the heavâ—nly return made to our Lord I have both glorified my Name and will gloriâ—y it again doth abundantly hold out this consistency and is so far from being contrary to a holy touching grief upon that account that on the other hand you may find the necessary cercainty of God's Glory the ground both of the earnest and assurance of our Loâ—â—'s supplication and of the comforting answere made to his troubled soul whence it did proceed But that which I would enquire is how you come to make such an answere to your N. C. challenge which being very rational and sound complaining only of a stupid misregard and profane indifferency without the least â—â—exure to the other extreame of sinful anxiety had in my thought been better and more ingenuosly answered by a simple denial then by your unnecessary cautions To oppose one truth to another can have no innocent design Nay iâ— I may use your own maxime that all things have two sides I fear this your discourse prove also double faced and that under the colouâ— of excessive anxiety dejâ—cting melancholy you do indeed condemn that mean of a concerning solicitude for Gods Glory and his Churches wellfare which you seem to allow and by iâ—sinuating joy to be the end and fruit of Religâ—on resolve all its seriousness into the indifferency objected But lest you judge this challenge which is only an anticipation to be want of charity I proceed to what ensues which is first your N. C's reply to wit That all this your preceeding discourse is still contrary to the holy men of God the Psalms Prophets Lamentations are full of sad complaints and certainly a greater measure of zeal becomes the more clear manifestation of the love of God under the Gospel And to that return which you give to it running out upon the difference of the old and new dispensation shewing forsooth that outward desolations and losses which under the former were curses and grievous under the later are pronounced blessings and matter of joy and so forth What strange dealing and doctrine is this Your N. C. tells you of the complainings and mournings of the holy Men of God in old times for the desolation of Gods house departing of his Glory and the blasphemie of his Adversaries Which I am certain every serious soul will take to be no other then the same careful regard to the Glory of God and the good of his Church which just now we heard you approve and is no doubt inseparable from the true Love and Zeal of God in all ages But you in your present Answere would have these regretes to be only suteable to a carnal dispensation and nothing agreeing to that of the Gospel Now if this be not a palpable discovery of your sinistrous design let all men judge Or if you think that I do wrest your words do you or any man els make them pertinent in any other sense I am content to bear the blame But neither is this your doctrine in it selfe more sound You say That outward desolations and afflictions were of old signes of Gods displeasure curses but now they are pronounced and made blessings Pray Sir make you no distinction betwixt a sign of Gods displeasure and a curse Or do you think that sufferings and afflictions may not be both signs of displeasure against sin and yet profitable corrections yea matter of joyous consolation in the event Certainly if you had consulted Scripture in this matter you would have found that as the sufferings of Gods People under the New Testament are accounted chastisements and consequently signs of the Lords displeasure against sin which thereto provokes so under the Old they were no less to be by them regarded as the chastenings of a loving father and the rebukes of love But it seems you have forgotten the exhortation which under both dispensations speaketh unto the Lords People as unto children My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth the chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Nay blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest out of thy law being so plainly said of oldâ— I wonder how you could lapse into thir mistakes I grant that the Jewish dispensation is much countenanced by temporal promises and that even the manner of divine service thereby appointed did much depend upon their performance Whereas that better Covenant being established upon better promises is in effect so ordered that afflictions and persecutions did and do tend rather to its advancement But if thence you conclude either that the People of God in old times were to regard their sufferings as they respected themselves differently from what is commanded to and commended in Christians or that their complaints for the corrupted or suppressed Worship of God and the departed Glory by reason of prevailing backsliding or outward desolation may not now under the Gospel in the like calamities be lawfully and laudably resumed over and above your evil design mentioned you bewray palpable ignorance I might here further adde that you may not only observe the same patience and fruit of chastisements under the old that is found under the new dispensation but also read the grace and glory of their confessions and martyrdomes in almost the same termes wherein you go about to represente the sufferings under the Gospel as new and singular Others were tortured not accepting deliverance they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were sâ—ain with the sword they wandered about in sheep-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy Pray Sir who were they or wherein is this account short of that which you exhibite of Christians their rejoicing in sufferings except in the vain excess of your superstitious festivals viz. the dayes of the death of Martyrs observed by the Church under the name of Natalitiae Martâ—rum But I have already sufficiently demonstrate both the folly and falshood of this your impertinent distinction And the mixture of the cup of Gods Children being clearly confirmed by the experience of all ages your taxing of our mourning because of a broken Covenant a profaned Sanctuary and abounding wickedness and violence as sinful repining because of personal sufferings notwithstanding that the joy and strength of the Lord hath been very conspicuous in our dying Witnesses and our other Sufferers doth plainly adde malice to your ignorance But in our complainings you reprehend both injustice and excess and for injustice you tell us That the reason thereof is only the alteration of the Law 's and the Magistrat's denying
Redemption of sinners through Jesus Christ and proclaiming that whosoever beleeveth on him shal not perish but have everlasting life to reconcile us enemies and bring us aliens nigh unto God and then being thus accepted that in the same Lord Jesus we may be filled with all grace by the Spirit of grace to the knowledge and acknowledgement of God his wonderful bountie his unmeasurable love his glorious holiness his eternal truth and faithfulness and unto the exciting in usâ— of that ravishing and constraining love that filial and perswasive fear and that comforting and joyous hope which graces more and more moulding us into a lively conformity unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own bloud and is become our life our light and our all and thereby causing us to bring forth the fruite of holiness meekness patience brotherly love and of all virtues to the praise of God are the sweetness excellency and delight of Grace here untill it shall be perfected by and swallowed up of Glory hereafter This this is the work and purpose of the Gospel And seing it shall availl us nothing to gain the whole world and lose our own souls it ought indeed to be the great designe of our lives to conforme unto it even to hearken unto the call of God and by beleeving in Christ Jesus that we may be delivered from the wrath to come to labour to be fouâ—d in him not having our own righteousness which is of the Law but the righteousness which is of God by faith that so we may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and still reaching forth unto these things which are before press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus The way then to purify and save our souls is not barely to affect a little virtue or morality nay nor yet from our selves without the Mediator to apply our mindes to God God not in Christ Jesus is a consuming fire the contemplations of his Glory and Holiness instead of deriving into our souls his excellent perfections would but fill them with amazement and horrour If the externall shew and figure only of this sight was so terrible even to Moses that he said I exceedingly fear and quake How do you think that poor sinners can approach We are therefore to apply onr minde unto God but only in and through Christ Jesus that by him obtaining peace and from him grace we may have access and by faith not by speculation only have our hearts purified Your precepts of stilness and abstraction of minde to become of a thinking temper and give up with passions c. and use much inward recollection As by you proposed for the way to spirituality without Jesus Christ who is the only true way are but stoical dreamesâ— and deluding vanities The awakened sinner whom sin affrights and wrath terrifies findeth no rest nor refuge but in Christ Jesus and the peace and favour of God in him and being in him accepted is by his grace purified and made to partake of that blessedness pronounced by the procurer of it Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God And thus with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord he is changed into the same image from glory to glory untill that hereafter he be brought to see him as he is and thereby be perfected these are the great means to attain to and continue in converse and fellowship with God If any man love me saith our Lord he will keep my words and the Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him And thence no doubt it is that not only all that sweetness of the meditation of God and his attributes the admiration of his mercie and love in Christ the adoration of his excellencies and these soul breathings and continual aspirings toward him which you here mention will flow in into the soul to its constant satisfaction in an entire submission and delightsome complacencie in all Gods wayes and actings but also the Beleever will be stirred up prompted and animat in the holy and pure zeal of God's Glory to fight out the good fight of faith acquit himself strenuously in that warfare with the World Sin and Sathan wherein now we stand ingaged and readily to embrace every occasion whereby he may approve himself unto him who hath so dearly loved us and walk worthy of God who hath called us unto his Kingdom and Glory but to suppose that a man may think himself into this frame or by the simple means of that Metaphorick assâ—â—ilation that is in meer thinking attain to this Divine likeness is no less groundless then the active militant state of Christians within time is ill defined by your imaginary stilness Now if any man would understand wherein the sweetness that is to be found in Divine converse doth consist The stilness wherewith the minde is overflowed the clearness of the judgement stedfastness of the will and calmeness of the passions wherein you place it are indeed qualities which do highly advance a man unto the perfection of his nature and the Divine touches that you mention whereby the soul is sometimes carried unto sublimities not utterable are also found in the records of Christian experience but the only proper answere which can be returned is O tast and see that the Lord is good The unsearcheable treasures of his goodness have no measure the excellencies of his glorious perfections have no parallel the poor narrow soul admitted unto these felicities by attributing unto God the very form essence and substance of all its pleasure and magnifying him as its alone love joy and delight hath by these as by the application of whatsomever else it doth conceive to be amiable and delectable endeavoured to adumbrat this Divine satisfaction But as the constant result of these refâ—ections hath been ever admiration and wonder so a forced silence in that transport of the Spouse her raptures yea he is altogether lovely is only its most significant period What part our affections and passions have in these enjoyments it is not needfull to mention certainly God who hath commanded that we love him with all the heart with all the soul with all the strength and with all the minde will both purify and satiat all these capacities As for your telling us that sensible passions may be very high in an impure minde and of a natural devotion specially in a person melancholick a woman or hysterical which may mount very high but doth not humble or purify the minde I judge it to be such an unsavorie and little pertinent mixture that I must expresse my fears that it doth denote a minde in your self little humbled and less purified But that which you add of Persons Divinely acted their deniedness unto all things their absolute resignation unto and intense delight in and desires
toward God as the blessed effects of the souls union with him is that which I rather observe And here indeed it is and in your declaring self abhorrence and abnegation and humble applications of the soul unto Jesus Christ to be that strait passage and low gate which is by violence to be entered for attaining unto that heavenly state wherein spiritual solaces here and immediat Divine enjoyments hereafter do not only compense and swallow up all the preceeding anguish but surpass all possible apprehensions of that unconceived glory that I do most heartily embrace that saving truth if rightly understood of Faith and Repentance which hitherto I have desiderat O that in the possession of so great a joy and the hope of a greater blessedness expected we would all vigorously set about the duties of a Christian life not intangling our selves with the pollutions of this world nor with the affaires of this life how to serve our own lusts and ease and comply with every device and invention of men but enduring hardness contradiction reproach and all persecution that we may please him who hath chosen us to be Souldiers Certainly he whose heart is thus fixed on God in and through Christ Jesus his life and actions will quickly manifest that he hath not only the forme but the power of Godliness his rational and unconcerned contempt of this present world his hatred of base and debasing lusts his undervaluing of the things of sense his well squared and solid indifferencie for all conditions and occurrents and lastly his love of truth and study of innocencie and delight in goodness in all his words and works do evidently shew forth the love and fear of God to be as it were the vital springs of all his thoughts and motions while self-denyall emptieth and humility vaileth him as nothing and out of the world the native and genuine lustre of free grace in him is thereby rendered more conspicuous and his light doth the more shine unto the praise of God who hath called us unto Glory and virtue He peaceably and chearfully obeyeth the publick Father of his Countrey but only in the Lord he remembreth and honoureth such who watch for his soul who speak unto him the word of God of these he is a follower as they are of Christ following their faith and considering the end of their conversation he pursueth Charity as the Crown of perfection Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect hath not with him a more commanding Authority then an inviting and soulâ—aâ—ishing attraction Hence it is that as his bounty and beneficence toward men is prompt and unconfined so his obedience toward God is most punctual and circumspect having respect unto all Gods commandments and esteeming his precepts concerning all things to be right and hating every false way a latitude of love and good will toward all men he heartily acknowledgeth and rejoiceth in but a latitude of compliance with sinful courses and indifferency even in the smallest matters of God under whatsomever pretext he from his heart abhorreth These indeed are a few of the faire lines that compose the Christians Character by which as you may see in part wherein Christian Religion doth consist so it is too too apparent that many who in their vain vaunting of serene and still speculations and high abstractions do alledge the strickness of Conscientious practices to be but loud pretenses do themselves sadly and most dangerously recede from it O how much is it to be desired that not only such but all would in their secret retirements often review and examine their actions that discovering their errors and faâ—lings they may be humbled and brought unto the renewed and more serious exercise of repentance stirred up by a more lively and active faith to lay hold on Jesus Christ and from him and by the power of his grace quickened to new vigour and alacrity in the wayes of God! Then should the Divine love in Christ Jesus inflame and elevat the soul and captivate the whole powers thereof unto these pure and free resignations wherewith God is well pleased then should the power of the grace of our Lord mortify sin overcome temptations and advance in every thing acceptable unto God And lastly then should the offerings of our praises to God for all his mercies especially for the invaluable and unspeakeable Gift of Christ Jesus ascend with gladness and bring back the returnes of more grace and joy and our prayers and supplications in the name of Christ according to the will of God for all things that we may be careful in nothing and for all men especially for Kings and all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty should be set forth before him as incense and mount up as the evening Sacrifice And it is from these heavenly exercises and the communications of Grace which flow therein that the heart is firmly fixed and strenthened to order and do all to the glory of God and the minde continually bended by the strong applications of fear and love to direct all its wayes as in his sight And these truely are the frame and fruits of inward and secret devotion As for publick Worship he who considereth it as commanded by God for the avowed and more solemn acknowledgement of our dependence upon him and testifying our union with his Church and that therefore not only in reason but also by express precept it is to be seriously and sincerely performed with and from the heart and in that holy and pure manner which he himself hath prescribed without the contaminating mixtures of mens presumptuous and vain inventions will certainly go unto the congregation of the Lords people met together in his Name and sincerely professing thus to seek his face not out of custome or formality whereunto of all things the devising and imposing of humane forms and modes do most powerfully delude but that he may jointly with others cordially adore and praise his Maker and Redeemer and give not only an external concurrence according to the Rule and decency of the Worship but with his soul and all that is within him will blesse his holy Name and joine his Amen Thus you have my hearts assent to the truth that I find in your conclusion my desire to God is that both you and we were by a serious humble and holy practice and not by talking only experimenting the solid edification and pleasure that lyeth in these heads If this you had minded more you and your partie would have been farre from vexing the Lords Church and people in these Lands contrary to the Word of God solemn Oaths and Covenants established Laws sound Reason and Policy and the general inclinations of all with that grievous yoke of wicked and pervese Prelacie and these vain and burthensome corruptions wherewith in all Ages it hath been attended Which things as to your own recollected