Sect. 16. It tendeth to exalt the mind of man to the most high and heavenly elevation that it is capable of in this life.

For it teacheth men, as is aforesaid, to live in the spirit, upon things above, in the continual love of God, and desires and endeavours for everlasting glory, than which man's mind hath nothing more high and honourable and excellent, to be employed about.

Sect. 17. It leadeth men to the most joyful life that human nature is capable of on earth.

For it leadeth us to the assurance of the love of God, and of the pardon of all our sins, and of endless glory when we die; it assureth us, that we shall live for ever, in the sight of the glory of God, with Jesus Christ, and be like the angels, and be perfected in holiness and happiness, and be employed in the love and praises of God for evermore it commandeth us to live in the foresight of these everlasting pleasures, and to keep the taste of them always upon our minds; and, in daily meditation on the love of God, to live in the daily returns of love, and to make this our continual feast and pleasure. And can the mind of man on earth have higher and greater delights than these? b

Sect. 18. The christian religion forbiddeth men no bodily pleasure, but that which hindereth their greater pleasure, and tendeth to their pain or sorrow; nor doth it deny them any earthly thing which is truly for their good.

Indeed, it taketh the brutish appetite and flesh to be an unfit judge of what is truly good and desirable for us; and it forbiddeth much which the flesh doth crave, because either it tendeth to the wrong of others, or the breach of order in the world; or to the corrupting of man's mind, and diverting it from things sublime and spiritual, or putting it out of relish with that which is our true felicity, or the way thereto. It is only on such accounts, and in such cases as these, that Christ forbiddeth us the pleasures of the flesh; and so will parents restrain the appetites of their children, and physicians of their patients, and every wise man will restrain his own, when present sensual pleasure tendeth to greater future pain. The satisfying

b Illud est verum ac summum gaudium, quod non de creatura, sed de creatore concipitur; quod cum acceperis, nemo tollet à te; cui aliunde comparata omnis jucunditas mæror est; omnis suavitas dolor est; omne dulce amarum est; omne quod delectare potest, molestum est.-Bernard.

delights of man can be nowhere but in the love of God, and in a heavenly life, and in the foresight of endless joys, and in the knowledge and means which lead to these; and the unwholesome, luscious pleasures of the flesh, do greatly tend to draw down the mind, and corrupt the affections, and dull our desires and endeavours towards these higher things: and, therefore, our Saviour doth here more strictly diet us, than is pleasing to diseased souls. But he loveth not our sorrows or pains, nor envieth us any desirable pleasure; he came not to torment us, but to save us from torment; if he forbid us any delight, it is because he would have us have better and more, which that would keep us from. If he teach us to deny our honour with men, it is but that we may have honour with God and angels. If he call us from our present wealth and profit, it is but to secure our everlasting riches, and prevent our loss. All his precepts are wholly fitted to our own good, though our good be not the highest, ultimate end, but the glory and pleasure of our Maker.c

Sect. 19. There cannot possibly be any higher motives to sincere piety and honesty given to the world, than the christian religion sets before them; even the joys of heaven, and the pains of hell, and all the pleasures and privileges of a holy life; and therefore it must needs be the powerful means to all that is truly good and happy.

Sect. 20. It most strongly fortifieth the mind of man against the power of all temptations.

For, as it enervateth the temptation, by teaching us to mortify the lusts of the flesh, and to contemn the world, so it always counterpoiseth it with the authority of God, the joys of heaven, and the punishment of hell; which are, in the balance, against all the pleasures of sin, as a mountain is against a feather.

Nihil prodigæ satis est voluptati semper famem patitur sui quæ alimentis perpetuis nescit impleri.-Ambros. in Luk. 6. Delectatio cædit et præteriit, vulneravit et transiit, miserum fecit et abiit, infelicem reddidit, et reliquit.-Amb. Qui pro modica delectatione dat illud, pro quo Christus se tradidit, stultum Christum reputat mercatorem.-Aug. Centum decies centum annos demus deliciis? Quænam erit ex his ad æternitatem compensatio?-Chrys. de repar. laps. Ipse est Christianus, qui et in domo sua peregrinum se esse cognoscit. Patria nostra sursum est; ibi hospites non erimus.-August, in Psal. 32. Delicatus es miles, si putas sine pugna te posse vincere: fortiter dimica, atrociter in prælio concerta, considera pactum .conditionem quam accessisti, militiam cui nomen dedisti. Ita enim quos miraris omnes pugnaverunt, vicerunt, triumpharunt.-Chrysost.

Sect. 21. It affordeth us the most powerful supports and comforts in every suffering, that we may bear it patiently and with joy.

For it assureth us of the love of God, and of the pardon of our greater sufferings; it showeth us how to be gainers by all, and showeth us the glory and joy which will be the end of all. Sect. 22. It affordeth us the greatest cordials against the fears of death.

For it assureth us of endless happiness after death; and if a Socrates, or Cicero, or Seneca, could fetch any comfort from a doubtful conjecture of another life, what may a Christian do, that hath an undoubted assurance of it, and also of the nature and greatness of the felicity which we there expect! And why should he fear dying, who looks to pass into endless pleasure? And, therefore, Christianity conduceth not to pusillanimity, but to the greatest fortitude and nobleness of mind; for what should daunt him who is above the fears of sufferings and death. d

Sect. 23. It containeth nothing which any man can rationally fear, or can any way be a hinderance to his salvation.

This will be more cleared, when I have answered the objections against it.

Sect. 24. It containeth nothing that hath the least contrariety to any natural verity or law; but contrarily comprehendeth all the law of nature, as its first and principal part, and that in the most clear and legible character, superadding much more which naturalists know not.

So that, if there be any good in other religions, (as there is some in all,) it is all contained in the christian religion, with the addition of much more. There is no truth or goodness in the religion of the philosophers, the Platonists, the stoics, the Pythagorean Bannians in India, the bonzii in Japan, or those in Siam, China, Persia, or any other parts, or among the Mahometans or Jews, which is not contained in the doctrine and religion of the Christians.

& Beati, qui habitant ibi, laudabunt Deum in secula seculorum, Amen. Regnum Dei conceditur in prædestinatione, promittitur in vocatione, ostenditur in justificatione, percipitur in glorificatione.—Bernard.

e Illæ honesta esse voluptates putandæ sunt, quæ non sunt implicatæ dolori, nec pœnitendi causam afferunt, nec alio ullo detrimento afficiunt eos qui perfruuntur, nec ultra modum progrediuntur; nec nos multum à gravioribus negotiis abstrahunt, aut sibi servire cogunt. Propriè voluptates sunt quæ insunt, aut annexæ sunt cognitioni divini numinis, et scientiis, et virtutibus.Nemesius de Nat. Hom. cap. 18. de Volupt.

Sect. 25. Accordingly, it hath all the real evidence which the true parts of any other religion hath, with the addition of much more supernatural evidence.

For all that is justly called the law of nature, which is the first part of the christian religion, is evidenced by the light of nature and this Christians have as well as others. And all that is of true, supernatural revelation, they have above others by its proper evidence.

Sect. 26. The style of the sacred Scripture is plain, and therefore fit for all; and yet majestical and spiritual, suited to its high and noble ends.

Were it expressed in those terms of art, which the masters of each sect have devised to transmit their opinions to posterity by, they would be fit for none but those few, who by acquaintance with such terms, esteem themselves, or are esteemed learned men and yet the men of another sect might little understand them. For most new sect-masters in philosophy devised new terms, as well as new principles or opinions: though at Athens, where the principal sects were near together, the diversity was not so great as among them at a further distance, yet was there enough to trouble their disciples. He that understandeth Zoroaster and Trismegistus, may not understand Pythagoras; and he that understandeth this, may not understand his follower, Plato; and he that understandeth him, may not understand Aristotle. And so of Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Aristippus, Antisthenes, Zeno, Chrysippus, Heraclitus, Democritus, Pyrrho, Epicurus, with all the rest. And among Christians themselves, the degenerated heretics and sectaries, that make their own opinions, do make also their own terms of art; so that, if you compare the Valentinians, Basilidians, Apollinarians, &c., and our late Wigelians, Paracelsians, Rosicrucians, Behmenists, Familists, Libertines, Quakers, &c., you shall find that he that seemeth to understand one sect, must learn, as it were, a new language before he can understand the rest. So that, if the Scripture must have been phrased according to phi-: losophers' terms of art, who knoweth to which sect it must have been suited! and every day there riseth up a Campanella, a Thomas White, &c., who is reforming the old terms and arts, and making both new; so that nothing which is of universal use, as religion is, can be fitted to any such uncertain measure. Christ hath, therefore, dealt much better with the world, and spoken plainly the things which the simple and all must know,

and yet spoken sublimely of things mysterious, heavenly, and sublime.

This is the true nature and character of Christianity.

CHAP. V.

Of the Congruities in the Christian Religion, which make it the more easily credible, and are great Preparatives to Faith.

BECAUSE truth is never contrary to itself, nor agreeable with error, it is a way that reason teacheth all men, in the trying of any questioned point, to reduce it to those that are unquestionable, and see whether or no they accord with those; and to mark the unquestionable ends of religion, and try how it suiteth its means thereunto: and, therefore, men of all sober professions have their determinate principles and ends, by which they try such particular opinions as Christians do by their analogy of faith. And in this trial of Christianity, I shall tell you what I find it.

g

Sect. 1. I find in general that there is an admirable concord between natural verity and the Gospel of Christ; and that grace is medicinal to nature; and that where natural light endeth, supernatural beginneth; and that the superstructure which Christ hath built upon nature is wonderfully adapted to its foundation.

This is made manifest in all the first part of this treatise. Reason, which is our nature, is not destroyed, but repaired, illuminated, elevated, and improved by the christian faith. Freewill, which is our nature, is made more excellently free by Christianity. Self-love, which is our nature, is not destroyed, but improved by right conduct and help to our attainment of its

f How excellently doth Seneca speak against a vain curiosity of speech, in divers of his epistles; and with what contempt and vehement indignation. This is also to be applied to the spirituality and plainuess of the christian way of worship. In exordio nascentis ecclesiæ, non eo quo nunc modo vel ordiae sacra celebrabantur missarum solemnia; teste Gregorio, &c. Et fortasse primis temporibus, solius Pauli Epistolæ legebantur, postmodum intermixtæ aliæ lectiones sunt, &c.-Berno Ab. Augiens, de quibus.ad Missam pertin. c. 1. p. 698. Bib. Pat. Orationes autem quas collectas dicimus, à diversis auctoribus compositæ creduntur, à Gelasio præsule Romano, et beato Gregorio Papa.-Id. ibid. lege et Microlog. Eccles. observat. c. 12, et 13, et Hugo à S. Victore de Offic. in Romana Ecclesia. 1. 2. c. 16. Una tantum dicitur collecta, nisi, &c.

* Deus est principium Effectivum in creatione, Refectivum in redemptione, Perfectivum in sanctificatione.—Joh. à Combis Comp. Theolog. 1, 4. c. 1.