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es, they are scandalously fallen below the life of heathens. Their high-mindedness, lasciviousness, uncleanness, drunkenness, swearing, lying, envy, backbiting, cruelty, treachery, covetousness, injustice, and oppression, are so common, and committed with such invention and excess, that they have stumbled and embittered infidels to a degree of scorning that holy religion, to which their good example should have won their affections.

Thus they walk on precipices, and flatter themselves, till the grave swallows them up, and the judgments of the great God break their lethargy, and undeceive their poor wretched souls with the anguish of the wicked, as the reward of their work.

It is sin that Christ is come to save man from, and death and wrath, as the wages of it; but those that are not saved, that is delivered, by the power of Christ in their souls, from the power that sin has had over them, can never be saved from the death and wrath, that are the assured wages of the sin they live in.

So that look how far people obtain victory over those evil dispositions and fleshly lusts, they have been addicted to, so far they are truly saved, and are witnesses of the redemption that comes by Jesus Christ. His name shows his work: "And thou shalt call his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sin." "Behold," said John, of Christ, "the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world." That is, behold him whom God hath given to enlighten people, and for salvation to as many as receive him, and his light and grace in their hearts, and take up their daily cross and follow him; such as rather deny themselves the pleasure of fulfilling their lusts than sin against the knowledge he has given them of his will, or do that they know they ought not to do.

Wherefore, O Christendom! believe, receive, and apply him rightly; this is of absolute necessity, that thy soul may live for ever with him. He told the Jews, "If you believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins; and whither I go ye cannot come." And because they believed him not, they did not receive him, nor any benefit by him. But they that believed him received him; and as many as received him, his own beloved disciple tells us, "to them gave he power to become the sons of God, which are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." That is, who are not children of God after the fashions, prescriptions, and traditions of men, that call themselves his church and people, which is not after the will of flesh and blood, and the invention of carnal man, unacquainted with the regeneration and power of the Holy Ghost, but of God; that is, according to his will and the working and sanctification of his Spirit and word of life in them. And such were ever well versed in the right application of Christ, for he was made to them indeed propitiation, reconciliation, salvation, righteousness, redemption, and justification.

So I say to thee, unless thou believest that he that stands at the door of thy heart and knocks, and sets thy sins in order before thee, and calls thee to repentance, be the Saviour of the world, thou wilt die in thy sins, and where he is gone thou wilt never come. For, if thou believest not in him, it is impossible that he should do thee good, or effect thy salvation: Christ works not against faith, but by it. It is said of old, "He did not many mighty works in some places, because the people believed not in him." So that, if thou truly believest in him, thine ear will be attentive to his voice in thee, and the door of thine heart open to his knocks. Thou wilt yield to the discoveries of his light, and the teachings of his grace will be very dear to thee.

This, Christendom, is that thou hast so much wanted, and the want of which has proved the only cause of thy miserable declension from pure Christianity. To consider which well, as it is thy duty, so it is of great use to thy restoration.

For as the knowledge of the cause of any distemper guides the physician to make a right and safe judgment in the application of his medicine, so it will much enlighten thee in the way of thy recovery, to know and weigh the first cause of this spiritual lapse and malady that has befallen thee. To do which, a general view of thy primitive estate, and consequently of their work that first laboured in the Christian vineyard, will be needful; and if therein something be repeated, the weight and dignity of the subject will bear it, without the need of an apology.

For the light, which Satan cannot endure, and with which Christ had enlightened them, discovered him in all his approaches and assaults upon the mind; and the power they received through their inward obedience to the manifestations of that blessed light, enabled them to resist and vanquish him in all his stratagems. And thus it was that, where once nothing was examined, nothing went unexamined; every thought must come to judgment, and the rise and tendency of it be also well approved, before they allowed it any room in their minds. There was no fear of entertaining enemies for friends, whilst this strict guard was kept upon the very wicket of the soul. Now the old heavens and earth, that is, the old earthly conversation, and old carnal, that is Jewish or shadowy worship, passed away apace, and every day all things became new. He was no more a Jew that was one outwardly, nor that circumcision that was in the flesh; but he was the Jew that was one inwardly, and that circumcision which was of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of man, but of God.

And, while this integrity dwelt with Christians, mighty was the presence, and invincible that power that attended them; it quenched fire, daunted lions, turned the edge of the sword, outfaced instruments of cruelty, convicted judges, and converted executioners. In fine, the way their enemies took to destroy, increased them; and, by the deep wisdom of God, they who in all their designs endeavoured to extinguish the truth were made great promoters of it. Now, not a vain thought, not an idle word, not an unseemly action was permitted; no, not an immodest look, no courtly dress, gay apparel, complimental respects, or personal honours: much less those lewd immoralities and scandalous vices, now in vogue with Christians, could find either example or connivance among them. Their care was not how to sport away their precious time, but how to redeem it, that they might have enough to work out their great salvation, which they carefully did, with fear and trembling: not with balls and masks, with playhouses, dancing, feasting, and gaming; no, no; to make sure of their heavenly calling and election was much dearer to them than the poor and trifling joys of mortality. For they having, with Moses, seen him that is invisible, and found that his loving-kindness was better than life, the peace of his Spirit than the favour of princes,--as they feared not Caesar's wrath,--so they chose rather to sustain the afflictions of Christ's true pilgrims than enjoy the pleasures of sin that were but for a season; esteeming his reproaches of more value than the perishing treasures of the earth. And if the tribulations of Christianity were more eligible than the comforts of the world, and the reproaches of one than all the honour of the other, there was then surely no temptations in it that could shake the integrity of Christendom.

I lay this down as the undoubted reason of this degeneracy, to wit, the inward disregard of thy mind to the light of Christ shining in thee, that first showed thee thy sins and reproved them, and that taught and enabled thee to deny and resist them. For as thy fear towards God, and holy abstinence from unrighteousness, was, at first, not taught by the precepts of men, but by that light and grace which revealed the most secret thoughts and purposes of thine heart, and searched the most inward parts, setting thy sins in order before thee, and reproving thee for them, not suffering one unfruitful thought, word, or work of darkness to go unjudged; so when thou didst begin to disregard that light and grace, to be careless of that holy watch that was once set up in thine heart, and didst not keep sentinel there, as formerly, for God's glory and thy own peace, the restless enemy of man's good quickly took advantage of this slackness, and often surprised thee with temptations, whose suitableness to thy inclinations made his conquest over thee not difficult.

In short, thou didst omit to take up Christ's holy yoke, to bear thy daily cross; thou wast careless of thy affections, and kept no journal or check upon thy actions; but didst decline to audit accounts in thy own conscience, with Christ thy light, the great Bishop of thy soul and Judge of thy works, whereby the holy fear decayed and love waxed cold, vanity abounded, and duty became burdensome. Then up came formality, instead of the power of godliness; superstition, in place of Christ's institution: and whereas Christ's business was to draw on the minds of his disciples from an outward temple, and carnal rites and services, to the inward and spiritual worship of God, suitable to the nature of divinity, a worldly, human, pompous worship is brought in again, and a worldly priesthood, temple, and altar, are re-established. Now it was that the sons of God once more saw the daughters of men were fair, that is, the pure eye grew dim, which repentance had opened, that saw no comeliness out of Christ, and the eye of lust became unclosed again by the god of the world; and those worldly pleasures that make such as love them forget God, though once despised for the sake of Christ, began now to recover their old beauty and interest in thy affections, and from liking them, to be the study, care, and pleasure of thy life.

True, there still remained the exterior forms of worship and a nominal and oral reverence to God and Christ, but that was all; for the offence of the holy cross ceased, the power of godliness was denied, self-denial lost, and, though fruitful in the invention of ceremonious ornaments, yet barren in the blessed fruits of the Spirit. And a thousand shells cannot make one kernel, or many dead corpses one living man.

But thy heart growing carnal, thy religion did so too; and, not liking it as it was, thou fashionedst it to thy liking: forgetting what the holy prophet said, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord," and what St. James saith, "Ye ask, and receive not." Why? "Because ye ask amiss;" that is, with a heart that is not right, but insincere, unmortified, not in the faith that purifies the soul, and therefore can never receive what is asked: so that a man may say with truth, thy condition is worse by thy religion, because thou art tempted to think thyself better for it, and art not.

For, look, at what door thou wentest out, at that door thou must come in; and, as letting fall and forbearing the daily cross lost thee, so taking up and enduring the daily cross must recover thee. It is the same way by which the sinners and apostates become the disciples of Jesus. "Whosoever," says Christ, "will come after me and be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his daily cross and follow me." Nothing short of this will do; mark that! for, as it is sufficient, so it is indispensable; no crown but by the cross, no life eternal but through death; and it is but just that those evil and barbarous affections that crucified Christ afresh, should, by his holy cross, be crucified.

The daily cross being then, and still, O Christendom! the way to glory, that the succeeding matter, which wholly relates to the doctrine of it, may come with most evidence and advantage upon thy conscience it is most seriously to be considered by thee,--

First, What the cross of Christ is?

Secondly, Where the cross of Christ is to be taken up?

Thirdly, How, and after what manner it is to be borne?

Fourthly, What is the great work and business of the cross? In which, the sins it crucifies, with the mischiefs that attend them, will be at large expressed.

Fifthly and lastly, I shall add many testimonies from living and dying persons of great reputation, either for their quality, learning, or piety, as a general confirmation of the whole tract.

To the first, What is the cross of Christ?

I answer, within: that is, in the heart and soul; for where the sin is, the cross must be. Now all evil comes from within: this Christ taught: "From within," saith Christ, "out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evils come from within, and defile the man."

The heart of man is the seat of sin, and where he is defiled he must be sanctified; and where sin lives, there it must die: it must be crucified. Custom in evil hath made it natural to men to do evil; and as the soul rules the body, so the corrupt nature sways the whole man: but still, it is all from within.

In all this, the heart of evil man is the devil's mint, his work-house, the place of his residence, where he exercises his power and art. And therefore the redemption of the soul is aptly called the destruction of the works of the devil, and bringing in of everlasting righteousness. When the Jews would have defamed Christ's miracle of casting out devils, by a blasphemous imputation of it to the power of Beelzebub, he says that "no man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, till he first bind the strong man." Which, as it shows the contrariety that was between Beelzebub and the power by which he dispossessed him, so it teaches us to know that the souls of the wicked are the devil's house, and that his goods, his evil works, can never be destroyed till first he that wrought them, and keeps the house, be bound. All which makes it easy to know where the cross must be taken up, by which alone the strong man must be bound, his goods spoiled, and his temptations resisted, that is, within, in the heart of man.

The way, like the cross, is spiritual: that is an inward submission of the soul to the will of God, as it is manifested by the light of Christ in the consciences of men, though it be contrary to their own inclinations. For example: when evil presents, that which shows the evil does also tell them they should not yield to it; and if they close with its counsel, it gives them power to escape it. But they that look and gaze upon the temptation, at last fall in with it, and are overcome by it; the consequence of which is guilt and judgment. Therefore, as the cross of Christ is that spirit and power in men, though not of men, but of God, which crosseth and reproveth their fleshly lusts and affections; so the way of taking up the cross is an entire resignation of soul to the discoveries and requirings of it: not to consult their worldly pleasure, or carnal ease, or interest, for such are captivated in a moment, but continually to watch against the very appearances of evil, and by the obedience of faith, that is, of true love to, and confidence in God, cheerfully to offer up to the death of the cross, that evil part, that Judas in themselves, which, not enduring the heat of the siege, and being impatient in the hour of temptation, would, by its near relation to the tempter, more easily betray their souls into his hands.

But fourthly, What is the great work and business of the cross respecting man?

It is this most perfect pattern of self-denial we must follow, if ever we will come to glory; to do which let us consider self-denial in its true distinction and extent.

To the voice of this Almightiness he bows, builds an altar, binds his only son upon it, kindles the fire, and stretches forth his hand to take the knife: but the angel stopped the stroke: Hold, Abraham, thy integrity is proved. What followed? a ram served, and Isaac was his again. This shows how little serves, where all is resigned, and how mean a sacrifice contents the Almighty, where the heart is approved. So that it is not the sacrifice that recommends the heart, but the heart that gives the sacrifice acceptance.

God often touches our best comforts, and calls for that which we most love, and are least willing to part with. Not that he always takes it utterly away, but to prove the soul's integrity, to caution us from excesses, and that we may remember God, the author of those blessings we possess, and live loose to them. I speak my experience; the way to keep our enjoyments is to resign them; and though that be hard, it is sweet to see them returned, as Isaac was to his father Abraham, with more love and blessing than before. O stupid world! O worldly Christians; not only strangers, but enemies to this excellent faith! and whilst so, the rewards of it you can never know.

Thus the fear of the Almighty taking deep hold of his heart, he nobly refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and chose rather a life of affliction, with the most despised and oppressed Israelites, and to be the companion of their tribulations and jeopardies, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproaches of Christ, which he suffered for making that unworldly choice, greater riches than all the treasures of that kingdom.

Dorotheus in his Lives of the Prophets.

Dorotheus in his Lives of the Prophets.

Thus was self-denial the practice and glory of the ancients, that were predecessors to the coming of Christ in the flesh: and shall we hope to go to heaven without it now, when our Saviour himself is become the most excellent example of it? and that not as some would fain have it, viz. for us, that we need not; but for us, that we might deny ourselves, and so be the true followers of his blessed example.

But deliberating is ever worst; for the soul loses in parley: the manifestation brings power with it. Never did God convince people, but, upon submission, he empowered them. He requires nothing without giving ability to perform it: that were mocking, not saving men. It is enough for thee to do thy duty, that God shows thee thy duty; provided thou closest with that light and spirit by which he gives thee that knowledge. They that want power, are such as do not receive Christ in his convictions upon the soul, and such will always want it; but such as do, they receive power, like those of old, to become the children of God, through the pure obedience of faith.

Even in this world the righteous have the better of it, for they use the world without rebuke, because they do not abuse it. They see and bless the hand that feeds, and clothes, and preserves them. And as by beholding him in all his works, they do not adore them, but him; so the sweetness of his blessings that gives them, is an advantage such have upon those that see him not. Besides, in their increase, they are not lifted up, nor in their adversities are they cast down: and why? Because they are moderated in the one, and comforted in the other, by his divine presence.

In short, heaven is the throne, and the earth but the footstool of that man that hath self under foot. And those that know that station will not easily be moved; such learn to number their days, that they may not be surprised with their dissolution; and to redeem their time, because their days are evil; remembering they are stewards, and must deliver up their accounts to an impartial judge. Therefore not to self but to him they live, and in him die, and are blessed with them that die in the Lord. And thus I conclude my discourse on the right use of lawful self.

But the prophet Isaiah carries it a little further than is cited by Stephen. For after having declared what is not God's house, the place where his honour dwells, immediately follow these words: "But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." Behold, O carnal and superstitious man, the true worshipper, and the place of God's rest! This is the house and temple of Him whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain; a house self cannot build, nor the art or power of man prepare or consecrate.

But for all this, Christians have meeting-places, yet not in Jewish or Heathen state, but plain, void of pomp or ceremony, suiting the simplicity of their blessed life and doctrine. For God's presence is not with the house, but with them that are in it, who are the gospel church, and not the house. O! that such as call themselves Christians, knew but a real sanctity in themselves, by the washing of God's regenerating grace, instead of that imaginary sanctity ascribed to places; they would then know what the church is, and where, in these evangelical days, is the place of God's appearance. This made the prophet David say, "The king's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold." What is the glory that is within the true church, and that gold that makes up that inward glory? Tell me, O superstitious man! is it thy stately temples, altars, tables, carpets, tapestries; thy vestments, organs, voices, candles, lamps, censers, plate, and jewels, with the like furniture of thy worldly temples? No such matter; they bear no proportion with the divine adornment of the King of Heaven's daughter, the blessed and redeemed church of Christ. Miserable apostacy that it is! and a wretched supplement in the loss and absence of the apostolic life, the spiritual glory of the primitive church.

So true is that notable passage of the Psalmist, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul: I cried to him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But verily God hath heard me: he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me."

And truly, David had great encouragement so to do; the goodness of God invited him to it and strengthened him in it. For says he, "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock." That is, the Lord appeared inwardly to console David's soul, that waited for his help, and to deliver it from the temptations and afflictions that were ready to overwhelm it, and gave him security and peace. Therefore, he says, "The Lord hath established my goings;" that is, fixed his mind in righteousness. Before, every step he took bemired him, and he was scarcely able to go without falling: temptation on all hands; but he waited patiently upon God: his mind retired, watchful, and intent to his law and Spirit; and he felt the Lord to incline to him. His needy and sensible cry entered heaven, and prevailed; then came deliverance and rescue to David, in God's time, not David's strength to go through his exercises, and surmount all his troubles. For which he tells us, a new song was put into his mouth, even praises to his God. But it was of God's making and putting, and not his own.

Another time, we have him crying thus: "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" This goes beyond formality, and can be tied to no lesson. But we may by this see, that true worship is an inward work; that the soul must be touched and raised in its heavenly desires by the heavenly Spirit, and that the true worship is in God's presence. When shall I come and appear? Not in the temple, nor with outward sacrifices, but before God in his presence. So that souls of true worshippers see God, make their appearance before him; and this they wait, they pant, they thirst for. O how is the greater part of Christendom degenerated from David's example! No wonder therefore that this good man tells us, "Truly my soul waiteth upon God;" and that he gives it in charge to his soul so to do; "O my soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him." As if he had said, None else can prepare my heart, or supply my wants; so that my expectation is not from my own voluntary performance, or the bodily worship I can give him; they are of no value; they can neither help me, nor please him. But I wait upon him for strength and power to present myself so before him, as may be most pleasing to him; for he that prepares the sacrifice will certainly accept it. Wherefore in two verses he repeats it thrice; "I wait for the Lord--My soul doth wait--My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning." Yea, so intently, and with that unweariedness of soul, that he says in one place, "Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God." He was not contented with so many prayers, such a set worship, or limited repetition: no; he leaves not till he finds the Lord, that is, the comforts of his presence: which brings the answer of love and peace to his soul. Nor was this his practice only, as a man more than ordinarily inspired; for he speaks of it as the way of worship, then amongst the true people of God, the spiritual Israel, and circumcision in heart, of that day: "Behold," says he, "as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy on us." In another place, "Our soul waiteth for the Lord; he is our help and our shield." "I will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy saints." It was in request with the truly godly in that day, and the way they came to enjoy God, and worship him acceptably. And from his own experience of the benefit of waiting upon God, and the saints' practice of those times, he recommends it to others: "Wait upon the Lord: be of good courage, and he will strengthen thy heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." That is, wait in faith and patience, and he will come to save thee. Again, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently upon him." That is, cast thyself upon him; be contented, and wait for him to help thee in thy wants; thou canst not think how near he is to help those that wait upon him: O try and have faith. Yet again, he bids us, "Wait upon the Lord, and keep his way." Behold the reason why so few profit! they are out of his way; and such can never wait rightly upon him. Great reason had David for what he said, who had with so much comfort and advantage met the Lord in his blessed way.

The vile world knows nothing but carnally, after a fleshly manner and interpretation; and too many that would be thought enlightened are apt to call providences by wrong names, for instance, afflictions they style judgments, and trials, more precious than the beloved gold, they call miseries. On the other hand, they call the preferments of the world by the name of honour, and its wealth happiness; when for once that they are so, it is much to be feared they are sent of God a hundred times for judgments, at least trials, upon their possessors. Therefore, what to keep, what to reject, what to want, is a difficulty God only can resolve the soul. And since God knows better than we what we need, he can better tell us what to ask than we can him: which made Christ exhort his disciples to avoid long and repetitious prayers; telling them that their heavenly Father knew what they needed before they asked: and therefore gave them a pattern to pray by; not as some fancy, to be a text for human liturgies, which of all services are most justly noted and taxed for length and repetition; but expressly to reprove and avoid them. But if those wants that are the subject of prayer were once agreed upon, though that might be a weighty point, yet how to pray is of still greater moment than to pray; it is not the request, but the frame of the petitioner's spirit. The what may be proper, but the how defective. As I said, God needs not to be told of our wants by us, who must tell them to us; yet he will be told them from us, that both we may seek him, and he may come down to us. But when this is done, "To this man will I look, saith the Lord, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word:" to the sick heart, the wounded soul, the hungry and thirsty, the weary and heavy laden ones: such sincerely want a helper.

Famous are the exploits of this divine gift; time would fail to recount them: all sacred story is filled with them. But let it suffice, that by it the holy ancients endured all trials, overcame all enemies, prevailed with God, renowned his truth, finished their testimony, and obtained the reward of the faithful, a crown of righteousness, which is the eternal blessedness of the just.

The care and love of all mankind are either directed to God or themselves. Those that love God above all, are ever humbling self to his commands, and only love self in subserviency to him that is Lord of all. But those who are declined from that love to God, are lovers of themselves more than God: for supreme love must centre in one of these two. To that inordinate self-love, the apostle rightly joins proud and high-minded. For no sooner had the angels declined their love, duty and reverence to God, than they inordinately loved and valued themselves; which made them exceed their station, and aspire above the order of their creation. This was their pride, and this sad defection their dismal fall; who are reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day of God.

O the miserable state of these pretended Christians! that instead of Christ's and his apostles' doctrine, of loving enemies, and blessing them that curse them, they should teach the people, under the notion of Christian zeal, most inhumanly to butcher one another; and instead of suffering their own blood to be shed for the testimony of Jesus, they should shed the blood of the witnesses of Jesus for heretics. Thus that subtle serpent, or crafty evil spirit, that tempted Adam out of innocency, and the Jews from the law of God, has beguiled the Christians, by lying vanities, to depart from the Christian law of holiness, and so they are become slaves to him; for he rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience.

I shall conclude this head with this assertion, that it is too undeniable a truth, where the clergy have been most in power and authority, and have had the greatest influence upon princes and states, there have been most confusions, wrangles, bloodshed, sequestrations, imprisonments, and exiles: to the justifying of which I call the testimony of the records of all times. How it is in our age I leave to the experience of the living; yet there is one demonstration that can hardly fail us; the people are not converted, but debauched, to a degree that time will not allow us an example. The worship of Christendom is visible, ceremonious, and gaudy; the clergy, ambitious of worldly preferments, under the pretence of spiritual promotion; making the earthly revenues of churchmen much the reason of their function; being almost ever sure to leave the present smaller livings, to solicit and obtain benefices of larger title and income. So that with their pride and avarice, which good old Peter foresaw would be their snares, they have drawn after them ignorance, misery, and irreligion upon Christendom.

Solon made Athens free by his excellent constitution of laws; but the ambition of Pisistratus began the ruin of it before his eyes. Alexander, not contented with his own kingdom, invaded others, and filled with spoil and slaughter those countries he subdued: and it was not ill said by the man, who, when Alexander accused him of piracy, told him to his face that Alexander was the greatest pirate in the world. It was the same ambition that made Caesar turn traitor to his masters, and with their own army, put into his hand for their service, subdue them to his yoke, and usurp the government; which ended in the expulsion of freedom and virtue together in that commonwealth; for goodness quickly grew to be faction in Rome; and that sobriety and wisdom which ever rendered her senators venerable, became dangerous to their safety: insomuch that his successors hardly left one they did not kill or banish; unless such as turned to be flatterers of their unjust acquisition, and the imitators of their debauched manners.

And yet they are to be outdone by apostate Christians; whose practice is therefore more condemnable, because they have been better taught: they have had a master of another doctrine and example. It is true, they call him Lord still, but they let their ambition reign: they love power more than one another; and to get it kill one another; though charged by him not to strike, but to love and serve one another. And, which adds to the tragedy, all natural affection is sacrificed to the fury of this lust: and therefore are stories so often stained with the murder of parents, children, uncles, nephews, masters, &c.

Pride, therefore loves power, that she might have homage, and that every one may give her honour, and such as are wanting in that, expose themselves to her anger and revenge. And as pride, so this evil effect is more or less diffused through corrupt mankind; and has been the occasion of great animosity, and mischief in the world.

Which was before I professed the communion I am now of.

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