can ask or think, but beyond what we would wish or chufe, and not fuffer us to acquire the Miferies we fo eagerly pursue.

THIS divine interpofition alone is it that can poffibly fecure us, and indeed the fuit amounts to no less, than that he will force upon us the Bleffing we refift, and do us good against our wills, which is fo bold a request, that they had need be more than ordinary Favourites that shall prefer it. Thofe hands must be very pure, that are lift up in fuch an interceffion: and therefore all that undertake it are obliged to qualifie themselves for it, by purging out not only the levain of Malice and Strife, but all other filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit: without This, we can never approve our felves to intercede in earneft; for what can be more ridiculous than to deprecate the ruine of Christianity by the contentions of other men; when our felves contrive it by some other vice of our own? This is not to defire it fhould live,but that none but we fhould kill it. "Twill therefore concern thofe who wish the Peace of the Church, to examine whether they do as much project for her Purity; otherwife 'tis a mockery to pretend fuch a jealous tenderneß for her. We have feen there are more waies than one, by which Christian practice may be evacuated, and it matters little from whence that Wind blows that fhip-wracks our Piety. Yet 'tis not to be denied that of all those tempeftuous blafts, this of our contentions is the roughest and most fatal. 'Tis indeed not a single gust,but an encounter and strug

gling of feveral contrary winds; and God knows no poetical defcription can out-doe the horror of the ftorms they have rais'd; yet for ought I difcern, there is nothing that is lefs vulgarly accufed, which I must account to the Reader, as the caufe why I have detain'd him fo long upon this Head; and given it a length fo unproportionable to the preceding parts of this Difcourfe.

CHAP.

1

432

W

CHAP. XX.

The Glofe.

E have now feen the unhappy riddle of the Unchriftiannefs of Chriftians unfolded, have obferv'd the Originals and Causes of That which is too notorious to all the world in its Effects. And though in this curfory view the Reader is not to think he has any Such compleat discovery, as should fuperfede his own farther inquifition, yet as it may ferve to awaken, fo fomewhat to affift his Industry, give him Some light and infight into the wiles of Satan: and by branding fome of the chief of thofe cheats which have robb'd us of our Piety, prepare for the detection of the whole Confederacy: in the interim this Specimen may ferve to stop his wonder at the ruinous eftate of Christianity, for though 'tis true that it was compacted of all the most incorruptible materials, had all the harmony of parts which the most exact Frame and Compofure could give it, and fo was qualified both for ftrength and beauty, to have defied all the injuries of Time; yet while fhe has fo many Underminers, 'tis not strange to fee her in the duft, there being no one of thefe, efpecially that Ilaft infifted on, which has not deftructive efficacy enough; first to deface, and then to ruine ber.

BUT

BUT it is but an unprofitable acqueft to know the Authors of our mischiefs if we stop there, this enquiry being matter not of meer Curiofity, but of the neareft and most preffing Interest: we search not after Malefactors for their acquaintance, but for their punishment, and our own fecurity; and all our difcoveries of this kind are vain, if we apply them not to that purpose. Let me therefore conclude with this earneft Petition to the Reader, That he will not to all the native Defects of this difcourfe, add this accidental one that it shall be perfectly impertinent; a meer waste of his Time and my own; which it will inevitably prove, if it engage him not in an earnest profecution of thofe Delinquents it bath appeacht; and in as earnest an endeavour to repair the Mifchiefs they have wrought.

IN fhort, let every man depofit what he has here read, not with his memory only but his confcience, let him there feriously ponder the Excellency of that holy vocation, as S. Paul terms it, Eph. 4. 1. to which he is call'd: and then as fériously confider, whether he have as the Apostle there exhorts, walked worthy of it; if he find he have not (as alas who is there that has?) let him Search out as the particulars, fo the causes of his Mifcarriages: diligently fift out thofe Fallacies of Satan, or his own heart; thofe fly Delufions which have made him act thus prepofterously against all the Convictions of common reafon, natural confcience, or Chriftian experience; and when he has difcovered, let him make no delay to refcue himself from their Treacheries, but manfully

break

Chap. 20. break thofe withs and cords (which are too weak to hold any that will but in earnest remember, he is a Nazarite, a Perfon confecrate to God) refolutely refift the infidious careffes of thofe Dalilah's, which will deliver not Himself only, but the Ark to the Philiftines. Nor is he to content himself with his own fingle escape, but to propagate the deliverance, to as many as he can; let him blazon and ftigmatize thofe Impofters (for 'tis a combining with them to conceal them) warn and caution others against thofe jugling Artifices, by which himself was entrapped, and make his own Ship-wracks a Sea-mark for the fecuring the courfe of other Paffengers. This is the Effect of Chrifts admonition to S. Peter, when thou art converted ftrengthen thy brethren; and a piece of that Fraternal charity we all owe to every particular Soul, to whom we have opportunity to difpence it.

BUT befides that private Obligation, it becomes a duty upon a higher, and more publick Account, it being the only way to take off that Scandal we have brought upon our Religion; which as it was not contracted by the irregularities of one or two perfons, but by affociated and common crimes; So neither will it be removed by a few fingle,and private Reformations; there must be combinations, and publick Confederacies in Vertue, to ballance and counterpoife thofe of Vice, or she will never recover that priftine honour which she acquired by the general Piety of her Profeffors. In thofe primitive days there was fuch an abhorrence of all that was Ill, that a vicious perfon was lookt on as a kind of

Monster