of the Lord, I perfuade thee to be ferious, diligent, and fervent about thy falvation! aye, and as one knowing the comfort, peace, joy and pleasure of the ways of righteoufnefs too, I exhort and invite thee, to embrace the reproofs and convictions of Chrift's light and fpirit in thine own confcience, and bear the judgment, who haft wrought the fin. The fire burns but the stubble; the wind blows but the chaff: yield up thy body, foul and fpirit, to him that maketh all things new; new heavens and new earth, new love, new joy, new peace, new works, a new life and converfation. Men are grown corrupt and droffy by fin, and they must be faved through fire, which purgeth it away; therefore the word of God is compared to a fire, and the day of falvation to an oven; and Chrift himself to a refiner of gold, and purifier of filver.

Come, Reader, hearken to me a while; I feek thy falvation; that is my plot; thou wilt forgive me. A refiner is come near thee, his grace hath appeared to thee it fhews thee the world's lufts, and teacheth thee to deny them. Receive his leaven, and it will change thee; his medicine, and it will cure thee: he is as infallible as free; without money, and with certainty. A touch of his garment did it of old; it will do it still: his virtue is the fame, it cannot be exhausted; for in him the fulnefs dwells: bleffed be God for his fufficiency. He laid help upon him, that he might be mighty to fave all that come to God through him: do thou fo, and he will change thee: aye, thy vile body like unto his glorious body. He is the great philofopher indeed, the wisdom of God, that turns lead into gold, vile things into things precious: for he maketh faints out of finners, and almoft gods of men. What refts to us then, that we must do, to be thus witneffes of his power and love? This is the Crown: but where is the Crofs? Where is the bitter cup and bloody baptifm? Come, Reader, be like him; for this tranfcendent joy, lift up thy head above the world; then thy falvation will draw nigh indeed.

Christ's

Christ's Cross, is Chrift's way to Chrift's Crown. This is the fubject of the following difcourfe; first writ during my confinement in the Tower of London, in the year 1668, now reprinted with great enlargements of matter and teftimonies, that thou, Reader, mayeft be won to Chrift; and if won already, brought nearer to him. It is a path, God in his everlasting kindness guided my feet into, in the flower of my youth, when about two and twenty years of age: then he took me by the hand, and led me out of the pleafures, vanities, and hopes of the world. I have tafted of Chrift's judgments, and of his mercies, and of the world's frowns and reproaches: I rejoice in my experience, and dedicate it to thy fervice in Chrift. It is a debt I have long owed, and has been long expected: I have now paid it, and delivered my foul. To my country, and to the world of chriftians I leave it: may God, if he please, make it effectual to them all, and turn their hearts from that envy, hatred and bitterness, they have one against another, about worldly things; (facrificing humanity and charity to ambition and covetousness, for which they fill the earth with trouble and oppreffion) that receiving the spirit of Chrift into their hearts, (the fruits of which are love, peace, joy, temperance and patience, brotherly kindnefs and charity) they may in body, foul and fpirit, make a triple league against the world, the flesh and the devil, the only common enemies of mankind; and having conquered them through a life of felf-denial, by the power of the Cross of Jefus, they may at laft attain to the eternal rest and kingdom of God.

So defireth, fo prayeth,

friendly Reader,

thy fervent christian friend,

WILLIAM PENN.

A 3

PART I.

CHAP. I.

§. 1. Of the neceffity of the crofs of Chrift in general; yet the little regard chriftians have to it. §. 2. The degeneracy of Christendom from purity to luft, and moderation to excess. §. 3. That worldly lufts and pleasures are become the care and study of chriftians, so that they have advanced upon the impiety of infidels. §. 4. This defection a second part to the Jewish tragedy, and worse than the first: the fcorn chriftians have caft on their Saviour. §. 5. Sin is of one nature all the world over; finners are of the fame church, the devil's children: profeffion of religion in wicked men, makes them but the worfe. §. 6. A wolf is not a lamb, a finner cannot be (whilft fuch) a faint. §. 7. The wicked will perfecute the good; this false chriftians have done to the true, for non-compliance with their fuperftitions: the strange carnal measures false christians have taken of chriftianity; the danger of that felf-feduction. §. 8. The fenfe of that has obliged me to this difcourfe, for a diffuafive against the world's lufts, and an invitation to take up the daily crofs of Chrift, as the way left us by him to bleffednefs. §. 9. Of the self-condemnation of the wicked; that religion and worship are comprised in doing the will of God. The advantage good men have upon bad men in the laft judgment. §. 10. A fupplication for Chriftendom, that the may not be rejected in that great affize of the world. She is exhorted to confider, what relation fhe bears to Chrift; if her Saviour, how faved, and for what: what her experience is of that great work. That Chrift came to fave from fin, and wrath by confequence; not fave men in fin, but from it, and fo the wages of it.

5. I. TH

HOUGH the knowledge and obedience of the doctrine of the crofs of Chrift, be of infinite moment to the fouls of men; for that is the only

door to true chriftianity, and that path the ancients ever trod to bleffedness: yet, with extreme affliction, let me fay, it is fo little understood, fo much neglected, and what is worse, fo bitterly contradicted, by the vanity, fuperftition, and intemperance of profeffed chriftians, that we must either renounce to believe what the Lord Jefus hath told us, Luke xiv. 27. That whofoever doth not bear his crofs, and come after him, cannot be his difciple:' or, admitting that for truth, conclude, that the generality of Chriftendom do miferably deceive and disappoint themfelves in the great bufinefs of christianity, and their own falvation.

§. II. For, let us be never fo tender and charitable in the survey of thofe nations, that intitle themselves to any intereft in the holy name of Chrift, if we will but be just too, we muft needs acknowledge, that after all the gracious advantages of light, and obligations to fidelity, which thefe latter ages of the world have received, by the coming, life, doctrine, miracles, death, refurrection, and afcenfion of Chrift, with the gifts of his Holy Spirit; to which add, the writings, labours, and martyrdom of his dear followers in all times, there seems very little left of chriftianity but the name: which being now ufurped by the old heathen nature and life, makes the profeffors of it but true heathens in difguife. For though they worship not the fame idols, they worship Chrift with the fame heart: and they can never do otherwise, whilft they live in the fame lufts. So that the unmortified chriftian and the heathen are of the fame religion. For though they have different objects, to which they do direct their prayers, that adoration in both is but forced and ceremonious, and the deity they truly worship, is the god of the world, the great lord of lufts: to him they bow with the whole powers of foul and fenfe. What fhall we eat? What Thall we drink? What fhall we wear? And how fhall we pass away our time? Which way may we gather wealth, increase our power, enlarge our territories, and dignify and perpetuate our names and families in the earth? Which bafe fenfuality is most pathetically ex

preffed