teousness is which is required in the Gofpel; and they'll never give us much Trouble in thefe inferior or lefs weighty Matters. The dying Converts can have no Leisure for fuch Debates; and the recovering fick Man, if he was fincere in his Pretences to Repentance, will readily fubmit himself to the Spiritual Conduct of that Perfon whom God made ufe of as an Inftrument to open his Eyes to a Senfe of his Danger, and to put him into a proper Method by which he might turn to God and live.

Wife and understanding Men easily see thro all that empty Zeal which puts Men upon fuch impertinent Ways of converfing with those who are under extreme Want of Spiritual Counfel and Direction. They foon grow fenfible of the Piety and Integrity of their more prudent and compaffionate Inftructors, by the real Weight of thofe Things they pro pound to them; and eafily diftinguish between thofe who endeavour their Salvation in earnest, and thofe who endeavour to make Advantage of that Confufion in which they leave the ignorant and undifcerning. If Impudence can face down good and thinking Men, or Intereft can incline them to Credulity; it is then pof fible that these antichriftian and feducing Teachers will not be wanting on their Parts: to bring them over: But when Noife and Confidence and unfeafonable Impertinence fail; they apply themselves to thofe of meaner and more perplexed Intellectuals, and make no Doubt of a large Harveft among those who have never duly examin'd the Principles of that Religion which they pretend to. There

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is a natural dióαpovíα, or dreadful Appre henfion of fome fuperior Being in moft Men and Nature finds in it felf at firft fome Reluctance againft the moft fcandalous Immoralities: And therefore when they observe of their crafty Seducers, that they are more cautious and wary than easily to expofe their own perfonał Crimes to common View ; when they hear them in every ordinary Difcourfe, tho' never fo far from the Purpofe, croud in a great deal about God, and Heaven, and Hell, and hear them pretend to extraordinary Riours and Mortifications and unufual Influences of God's Sacred Spirit; and yet find that they take an extraordinary Liberty of indulging themselves in fenfual Pleafures left behind for their own Comfort, and that the Religion which they preach, confifts more in Words than Actions; the Eafinefs of fuch Methods of acquiring Happiness makes those who are inconfiderate, or perfectly indifferent as to Matters of Religion, ready to run after them into all their Exceffes. it has been always obferv'd, and fhould be a Caution to weak Chriftians; that there never was any Impofture fo grofs, nor Error, nor Herefy fo foul, fo antifcriptural or irrational, (that of Hair-brain'd Afgil only excepted;) but they have had great Numbers of Profelytes from among them, which they knowing by unhap py Experience, thofe Seducers attempt fuch in the firft Place from whofe unguarded Ignorance they may prefume of Victory.

And

2. Thefe Antichriftian Seducers from whom our Apoftle gives us a Prefervative, express an Extraordinary, and I had almoft faid an unparallel'd, Industry in thofe Courfes in which they are engaged. As the Children of this • World

World are wifer, fo they are more bufy and active, in their Generations than the Children of Light. The Apoftle St. Peter tells us of the Devil, that He walks about continually like a róring Lion, feeking whom he may devour. He omits no Opportunities of doing Mifchief; and he teaches the fame Induftry to his Agents, who after all their fair Pretences, aim at nothing but Spoils and Ruin. It was a juft Charge laid by our Saviour against the Scribes and Mat. 23, Pharifees, that they compaffed Sea and Land to 15. make one Profelyte, and when he was gain'd, they made him twofold more the Child of Hell than they were themfelves. May not the fame be as truly and juftly charged upon the Millionaries of Rome, who with an adventurous Zeal, ran into all the diftant Quarters of the World, ran thro' the moft extreme Dangers, incurr'd the utmoft Barbarities of Pagans and Muhammedans ; and yet when they had done all this, they expos'd, and many of them loft their Lives, not that they might make their Converts Chriftians, but Papifts; not that they might reconcile them to that Son of God who took upon him the Form of a Servant, and laid down his Life for the Salvation of Mankind, but that they might reconcile them to his Suppofititious Vicar, the Bishop of Rome. I doubt not but that it is an excellently charitable Defign to carry on the Light of the Gofpel to them who fit in Darkness, and in the Shadow of Death, and to endeavour to guide their Feet too into the Way of Peace. But that Man who undertakes the Work had need to be fitted for it with more Apoftolical Qualities, than that one of Travelling to and fro in the World, or an Earneftness to bring Men to an AcknowledgY 3

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ment of the fame Principles which they themfelves profefs right or wrong.

He who embraces erroneous Opinions himfelf, tho' he may mean well, and know no better, yet fills the Perfons he deals with, with Prejudices against their own Good, and makes them but fo much the more obftinate against real faving Truth. Befides which,it is as unhappy an Aggravation of Mens futurePunishment to have been inftrumental to draw others into Error; as it is an Enhancement of their Glory to have made any true Converts to the Gofpel of Jefus Chrift. We cannot charge any of this kind of Industry upon our unfent, feparating and Schifmatical Teachers, with refpect to Heathens, Muhammedans or Papifts. They are very apt to complain of Perfecution; but they have always taken a prudent Care, not to meddle with fuch Employments as in which they'd be perfecuted in good Farneft. They would not with the zealous Jefuits and Friars, make a Tour to Habeftinia or Japan,where they and all their Converts might in a few Days be Sainted by inexorable Strangers: Ours have always thought it Prudence to fleep in a whole Skin, to lurk at home, unless now and then they happen to dip into fome treasonable Plot, or fome hopeful Rebellion, and fo come to be brought upon the publick Theatre of Action. But here they take to themselves the Property of an Ordeal Fire to diftinguish between thofe who are firm and faithful to their Profeffion, and thofe who may be eafily remov'd from their religious Stedfaftnefs: And fuch a Diftinction they do make indeed, as it has been the common Lot of all violent and feducing Spirits,

Spirits, tho' very much against their own Intentions, fince the rational World know well enough that none but fuch whofe Religion is very flight and fuperficial will be decoy'd by their little Treacherous Artifices; while Men of found Principles, fuch as have seriously fubmitted to the Doctrine of the Gofpel, who have embraced, understood and digefted it well, remain as Rocks not to be fapp'd by all their Mines, nor fhaken by all their moft furious Batteries.

One would think it must have look'd oddly if any fhould have adventured to refine upon the Apoftles themselves, who were guided in all their Work by an infallible Spirit: And yet there were fome fuch odd Sights even in those Days, when fome bigotted fews durft contro vert both their Doctrine and their Practice, and endeavour to impofe the Yoke of Circumcifion, and that of the whole Mofaick Law, upon the Necks of the believing Gentiles, a Yoke which yet neither the Jews themfelves, nor their Fathers were able to bear. And tho' the immediate Succeffors of the Apostles infifted carefully in the fame Steps with their wife Predeceffors, yet there were Hereticks and Schifmaticks in thofe early Days, who could find Fault with what the Apostles had fettled, and either attempt an Alteration in what holy Men and glorious Martyrs had em braced before, or vent fome new Doctrines, as perfecting Additionals to what had been taught before. And all this was no more than what had been predicted by St. Paul himself, viz. There must be Herefies among Chriftians, that thofe 1 Cor. 11. who are approv'd, might be made manifeft among 19.

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