of fervice, which the performance actuates to greater ftrengths, and yet enflames to new defires, and more importunate purfuits, whileft God at once beftows and crowns his own donations; ftill giving unto him that has, till that at laft he gives himself; and grace is Swallowed up in glory. And to affure us of this aid, he has been pleafed to oblige himself: defcends to the folemnity of a Pact and Covenant; has indented with us, and constituted it a principle part of the new and everlasting Covenant made with mankind in the blood of the Son of God, to fend the comforter, his Holy Spirit, to be with us till the end of the world, and do all this. So that the Gofpel is at once the affigner of our tasks, and the Magazeen of our ftrength; fo much Spirit goes along with that Letter; fo much internal grace is annexed to its outward administration, as will to all, who do not refift it, infallibly render it the power of God to falvation. For 'tis not the fole priviledge of a S. Paul, but the common portion of all Chriftians, That Gods grace fhall be fufficient for them; which is fure a more Gospel-like promife, than that it fhould be too strong for them: fo violent and irrefistible as to commit a rape upon their Spirits; fuch a mighty wind as drives them headlong upon duty. Indeed this competency is of all other proportions the moft incentive to industry; we fee in Temporals, too little makes men defperate, and too much careless; and certainly 'twould be the fame in Spirituals: but now when we have stock enough to fet up with, and that too of fo impro

vable a nature, that is capable of infinite advancement, and yet on the other fide no lefs capable of total decay alfo, it being given with this exprefs condition, that upon neglect it shall be withdrawn: fo that our own floth so that our own floth may make us poor, but nothing else can keep us from being abundantly rich: what can be imagin'd more animating to diligence and endeavour? And this being the condition wherein our Christianity has placed us, added to the former confiderations, will beyond exception or fubterfuge, evince its perfect aptitude and fitness for the End to which it was aim'd, the Planting and nourishing all true Vertue among men, the introducing the tree of life into the world again, and fo forming us a Paradife even amidst the briers and thorns of our Exil'd ftate.

CHAP. II.

The Character of Chriftian-mens Practice, fhewing their multiplied failance both from the rule of that holy profeffion, and its genuine effect.

A

ND now who can fufpect that a caufe fo rightly difpos'd, fhould mifs of its effect? That this fo aufpicious Planet fhould be counter-influenc't by any malevolent Star? Or that what has fo many tenures in us, fhould be finally diffeis'd? For, admit we have not the Piety

C

to

to be prevail'd upon by the reverence of the Author; yet the excellency of its compofition does fo much recommend it to our reafon, that we must put off the best part of our Nature to evacuate the force of our Religion: nay, fuppofing us to have done that too, to have ftruck our felves out of the lift of Rationals, yet if we keep but the rank of Animals, if we have not extinguifht paffion and fenfe, it defcends even to them; addreffes to our hopes and fears with most importunate folicitations, and convincing motives: So that unless we have the abfurd ill luck to have much of the Stoick, and nothing of the Philofopher, 'twill be impoffible to refift its impreffions, and fure he that comtemplates this, will be apt with fome confidence to conclude Christendom to be the Goshen of the world, not only in refpect of its light, but of its immunity from all thofe Locufts and Gaterpillers, those swarms of mean and fordid Vices which both cover and devour the reft of the Earth.

BUT this must be the inference of a meer contemplative, a Reclufe that converses only with his own meditations: for let him be fo much fecuar, as once to look abroad, the most tranfient glance will ferve to unravel all this hopeful fpecuTation,&fhew him thatChristendom may be as much Heathen as America: whereas 'tis ufually faid, that ill Manners produce good Laws, we have reverft the Aphorifm, and our good Law has introduc'd the most corrupt manners. Our holy faith which like a foundation fhould Support good

works,

works, has like a gulf Swallowed them up.

And

fo univerfal a depravation is there among us, that we have fcarce any thing left to diftinguish us from the most barbarous people, but a better name and worfe vices.

AND here, what terms of wonder or of grief can be fignificant enough to exprefs or to bewail, fo ftrange and fo perverfe degeneration, that the light of the world fhould thus darken it: the falt of the Earth be the means of putrifying and corrupting it: that those who were by God drawn out from the Heathen world fhould fo outvie the Gentiles crimes, as if they had forfaken them, only because they were too innocent. This indeed is one of Satans fubtilleft ftratagems, to fill Christ's Camp thus with his Souldiers, by whofe inteftine treacheries, he has been more triumphant than by all his open affaults and avowed hoftilities. What a late States-man faid (Prophetically, if we may judge by the event) of England, that it was a vivacious animal that could never dye except it kill'd it felf, is no lefs true of the Church, which has always been invulnerable against all darts, but what have been taken out of its own quiver. Of this the Primitive times were pregnant teftimonies, where all the most witty cruelties, the moft bloody perfecutions, never made any breach in her: but the ftood firmer for all thofe batteries, and like an Arch'd Building, became more ftrong and compact, by that weight which was defign'd to crush her: but the Vice of Profeffors undermines her very foundaC 2

tion,

tion, and does as much exceed the deftructivenefs of the most hostile affaults, as inteftine treachery is more ruinous and fatal, than foreign violence.

AS long as the lives of Chriftians were the tranfcripts of their doctrine they render'd it venerable to all, and gave a prefumption there was fomething more than humane in it, that could work fuch fignal effects, that could fo transform men as to make the adulterer chaste, the drunkard temperate, the covetous liberal, the contentious peaceable. This, this was the way to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things,as the Apoftle speaks, Tit. 2. 10. And then the rule of contraries directs us to conclude very diftant effects from our now fo diftant practices, that our very religion fhould partake of the infamy of our lives, and be thought rather a mystery of iniquity than godliness.

THUS is Ghrift wounded in the house of his friends, and has more reproach caft on him by thofe that profefs his name, than by the loudest blafphemies of those that oppose it. For when thofe who have not opportunity to examine our faith, fee the enormousness of our works, what fhould hinder them from meafuring the Mafter, by the difciples? it being fcarce imaginable that any one Sect of men fhould fo univerfally run counter to all the rules of their profeffion: For let any fober Heathen look upon Christendom, as it is at this day weltring in the bloud,not of Martyrdom but War, and will it be poffible for him