will overtake them, when they shall have an eternity to think upon, with gnashing teeth, what to all eternity they can never remedy: thefe difmal wages are decreed for them who fo far affront God, heaven and eternal felicity, as to neglect their falvation from fin here, and wrath to come, for the enjoyment of a few fading pleafures. For fuch to think, notwithstanding their lives of fenfe and pleasure, wherein their minds become flaves to their bodies, that they fhall be everlastingly happy, is an addition to their evils; fince it is a great abuse to the holy God, that men and women should believe Him an eternal companion of their carnal and fenfual minds: for, as the tree falls, fo it lies;' and as death leaves men, judgment finds them: and there is no repentance in the grave. Therefore I befeech you, to whom this comes, to retire: withdraw a while; let not the body fee all, tafte all, enjoy all; but let the foul fee too, taste and enjoy those heavenly comforts and refreshments, proper to that eternal world of which fhe is an inhabitant, and where she must ever abide in a ftate of peace or plagues, when this visible one shall be diffolved. CHA P. XX. §. 1. The doctrine of Chrift from Matt. v. about denial of self. §. 2. John Baptift's example. §. 3. The teftimonies of the apoftle Peter, &c. §. 4. Paul's godly exhortation against pride, covetousness, and luxury. §. 5. The primitive Chriftians nonconformity to the world. §. 6. Clemens Romanus against the vanity of the Gentiles. §. 7. Machiavel of the zeal of the Primitive Chriftians. §. 8. Tertullian, Chryfoftom, &c. on Matt. xii. 36. §. 9. Gregory Nazianzen. §. 10. Jerom. §. 11. Hilary. §. 12. Ambrofe. §. 13. Augustine. §. 14. Council of Carthage. §. 15. Cardan. §. 16. Gratian. §. 17. Petrus Bellonius. §. 18. Waldenfes. §. 19. What they understood by Daily Bread in the Lord's Prayer. §. 20. Their judgment concerning Taverns. §. 21. Dancing, Dancing, Mufick, &c. §. 22. An epiftle of Bartholomew Tertian to the Waldenfian churches, &c. §. 23. Their extreme fuffering and faithfulness. Their degeneracy reproved that call them their ancestors. §. 24. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, relieving flaves and prifoners. §. 25. Acacius, bishop of Amida, his charity to enemies. HAY AVING abundantly fhewn, how much the doctrine and converfation of the virtuous Gentiles condemn the pride, avarice, and luxury of the profeffed Chriftians of the times; I fhall, in the next place, to discharge my engagement, and farther fortify this difcourfe, prefent my reader with the judgment and practice of the most Christian times; as alfo of eminent writers both ancient and modern. I fhall begin with the Bleffed Author of that religion*. §. I. JESUS CHRIST, in whose mouth there was found no guile, (sent from God, with a teftimony of love to mankind, and who laid down his life for their salvation; whom God hath raised by his mighty power to be Lord of all) is of right to be firft heard in this matter; for never man spake like him,' to our point; short, clear, and clofe; and all oppofite to the way of this wicked world. Bleffed (fays he) are the poor in fpirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God:' he doth not fay, Bleffed are the proud, the rich, the highminded here is humility and the fear of the Lord bleft. Bleffed are they that mourn, for they shall be • comforted:' he doth not fay, Bleffed are the feafters, dancers, and revellers of the world, whose life is swallowed up of pleasure and jollitry: no, as he was a man of forrows, fo he bleffed the godly-forrowful. • Bleffed are the meek, for they fhall inherit the earth :' he doth not fay, Bleffed are the ambitious, the angry, and those that are puffed up: he makes not the earth a The doctrine and practice of the bleffed Lord Jefus and his apostles, the primitive Chriftians, and those of more modern times, in favour of this discourse. bleffing bleffing to them: and though they get it by conqueft and rapine, it will at last fall into the hands of the meek to inherit. Again, Bleffed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteoufnefs:' but no bleffing to the hunger and thirst of the luxurious man. • Bleffed are the merciful, for they fhall obtain mercy:' he draws men to tenderness and forgiveness, by reward. Haft thou one in thy power that hath wronged thee? be not rigorous, exact not the utmost farthing; be merciful, and pity the afflicted, for fuch are bleffed. Yet farther, Bleffed are the pure in heart, for they fhall fee 'God:' he doth not fay, Bleffed are the proud, the covetous, the unclean, the voluptuous, the malicious: no, such shall never fee God. Again, • Bleffed are the peace-makers, for they fhall be called the children of God:' he doth not fay, Bleffed are the contentious, back-biters, tale-bearers, brawlers, fighters, makers of war; neither fhall they be called the children of God, whatever they may call themselves. Lastly, Bleffed are you, when men fhall revile you, ⚫ and perfecute you, and fay all manner of evil against you falfly, for my fake; rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven' he bleffeth the troubles of his people, and tranflates earthly fufferings into heavenly rewards. He doth not say, Bleffed are you when the world fpeaks well of you, and fawns upon you: fo that his bleffings cross the world's; for the World bleffeth those as happy, that have the world's favour: He bleffeth thofe as happy, that have the world's frowns. This folveth the great objection, "Why are you fo foolish to expose yourfelves to the law, to incur the difpleasure of magiftrates, and fuffer the lofs of your eftates and liberties? Cannot a man serve God in his heart, and do as others do? Are you wiser than your fore-fathers? call to mind your ancestors. Will you question their falvation by your novelties, and forget the future good of your wife and children, as well as facrifice the prefent comforts of • your your life, to hold up the credit of a party?" a language I have more than once heard: I fay, this doctrine of Christ is an answer and antidote against the power of this objection. He teaches us to embrace truth under all thofe fcandals. The Jews had more to fay of this kind than any, whofe way had a more extraordinary inftitution; but Chrift minds not either inftitution or fucceffion. He was a New Man, and came to confecrate a New Way, and that in the will of God; and the power that accompanied his miniftry, and that of his followers, abundantly proved the divine authority of his miffion, who thereby warns his to expect and to bear contradiction, reviling, and perfecution: for if they did it to the Green tree, much more were they to expect that they would do it to the Dry: if to the Lord, then to the fervant. Why then should Chriftians fear that reproach and tribulation, that are the companions of his religion, fince they work to his fincere followers a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory? But indeed they have great cause to fear and be ashamed, who are the authors of fuch reproach and fuffering, fo contrary to the meek and merciful spirit of Chrift: for if they are bleffed who are reviled and perfecuted for his fake; the revilers and perfecutors must be curfed. But this is not all: he bade his difciples follow him, learn of him, for he was meek and lowly:' he taught them to bear injuries, and not finite again; to exceed in kindness; to go two miles, when asked to go one; to part with cloak and coat too; to give to them that ask, and to lend to them that borrow; to forgive, aye, and love enemies too; commanding them, faying, Bless ⚫ them that curfe you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them which defpitefully ufe you, and perfecute you':' urging them with a moft fenfible demonstration, That,' faith he, you may be the children of your Father, which is in heaven; ⚫ for he maketh the fun to rife upon the good and the • Matt. v. • evil, evil, and his rain to defcend upon the juft and the unjuft.' He also taught his difciples to believe and rely upon God's Providence, from the care that he had over the least of his creatures: Therefore,' faith he, I fay unto you, take no thought for your life, what you fhall eat, and what you fhall drink, nor yet for your body, what you fhall put on: is not the life more than meat, and the body, than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they fow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them; are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his ftature? And why take you ⚫ thought for raiment? Confider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I fay unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God fo clotheth the grafs of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is caft into the oven, shall he not • much more clothe you? O ye of little faith? There⚫fore take no thought, faying, What fhall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal fhall we be clothed? (for after all those things do the Gentiles feek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that you ⚫ have need of all these things. But feek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteoufnefs, and all these things fhall be added unto you. Take there⚫fore no thought for to-morrow, for to-morrow shall take thought for the things of itself; fufficient is the day for the evil thereof." Oh! how plain, how fweet, how full, yet how brief, are his bleffed fentences! they thereby fhew from whence they came, and that Divinity itself spoke them. What are laboured, what are forced and fcattered in the best of other writers, and not all neither, are here comprized after a natural, eafy, and confpicuous manner. He fets nature above art, and truft above care. This is he that himfelf came poor into the world, and fo lived in it: he VOL. II. • Matt. vi. Ꭲ . lay |