providence of God, remained among them, notwithstanding the captivity, and all the corruptions that had prevailed among them, and after they no more enjoyed many of the glorious things that attended the first giving out of that old Testament revelation. The Lord encourages them under their wants, with this, that they had his word and his spirit remaining among them; and they diligently read that word, and what they found written there, they forthwith practised, though some of these practices had not been in use from the days of Joshua the son of Nun. Though we cannot now pretend to many things that accompanied the giving out of the New Testament revelation, and behoved to cease when it was completed, as the Apostle expressly declares they should cease, (1 Cor. xiii.); yet, by the wonderful providence of God, we have the writings of the Prophets and the Apostles of Christ preserved, and brought into our own language, so as all have access to know them; and, in this case, is not the practice of the returning reforming Jews written for our learning, that we may take them as our example in this thing? Let us therefore, as they did, give attendance to the reading of the Scriptures, to exhortation, and to doctrine, that we may be by them furnished unto every good work; and hold fast the things written there, so as not to let them go, or add anything to them, in confession or practice, for any hope, or for any fear wherewith we can be moved.

2. Let the description that the New Testament gives of a Christian, as well as of a minister, be carefully observed; so as all they, and none else, may be acknowledged as Christians, who are in some measure conformable to that description. Our obedience to Jesus Christ depends, at least, as much on the knowledge of this, as on our acquaintance with the Scripture character of a minister;* and as great evils have followed upon a departure from the rule of the New Testament on this head, as on the other. It is impossible to for us to search men's hearts, and to know who is a true Christian in the sight of God, so as to distinguish him from one that is a hypocrite only in his sight. But there are such peculiar duties required of us towards the children of God, and the brethren of Jesus Christ, on account of their relation to him, with such promises and threatenings annexed, that we had been in the greatest difficulty about our obedience to Jesus Christ, if his law had not also described to us the persons to whom it obliged us to do these duties. Shall we think that the Christian law hath made our peculiar esteem and regard to a people whom we cannot know, to be the grand evidence of our love to Christ himself, and of our hope in him? Or, are we to stand or fall at the judgment seat of Christ, and is it to fare with us eternally according to our beheaviour to a peculiar people, whom we cannot by any rule distinguish from other people ?-The New Testament leaves us not at this uncertainty; but gives such a description of those whom we are to look on as the brethren of Christ, as will serve to convince Christ's enemies at his appearing, of their neglect and hatred of him, by their neglect and hatred of the least of these his brethren, whom they saw in this world, and as will serve, on the other hand, to manifest his people's love to himself, by their deeds of love to one another, while they lived together in the world. The description given in the New Testament of these to whom we are to behave as the children of God, and brethren of Christ, is so clear, as to leave us at as little uncertainty as the Jews and the nations their neighbours

• Which the writer had been before treating of.

could be in, as to them that were of the seed of the Jews. We may take these few texts for instances on this subject, which is one way or other touched on throughout the New Testament:-Matt. xi. 28, 29, 30; 1 John iii. 23; Matt. vii. 21, 22, 23; Heb. vi. 9, 10; Matt. xviii. 3, 5, 6; and x. 36, 37, 38; Luke xiv. 27; John xiii. 34, 35; Rev. xii. 17; 1 Thess. i.

The extraordinary signs that appeared about Christ's disciples at the erection of his kingdom, and whereby the Lord bare witness to the first fruits of the Gentiles, when he visited the nations, to take out of them a people for his name, are now ceased, because there is no more use for them; but that work of faith, that labour of love, and that patience of hope in our LORD JESUS CHRIST, that was the product of the gospel in the first Christians, must remain as long as Christianity remains in the world. And as the distinguishing character of a Christian was made up of these three from the beginning, so it must be still to the end of the world. For, says the Apostle, whether prophecies, they shall fail, whether tongues, they shall cease, whether knowledge, it shall vanish away. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity (1 Cor. xiii.) And therefore, where the work of faith appears not, nor the patience of hope, but especially where there is no appearance of charity, in that labour of love shewed towards his name, in ministering to the saints, as he requires in his word, there, let men think what they will, there is no appearance of Christianity.

We are not to take the description of the children of God from our own fancy; for, through our self-liking, we are ready to fancy, that likest to God, that is likest ourselves; nor are we to take the description of a child of God from the esteem and approbation of the world, as if these who are highly esteemed among men for holiness, were so likewise in the sight of God; for by that rule, the Pharisees, who were an abomination in the sight of God, would have been his children, and his Son a Samaritan, having a devil; but let us take the description of a Christian, with whom we are to behave as with the brother of Jesus Christ, only from his own word in the New Testament. Let all our notions of a Christian's character be examined and corrected by that infallible rule. Let the greatest names of men that could speak with the tongues of men and angels, if yet they be not conformable to that description, fall in our esteem before that rule. And let the least of Christ's brethren be acknowledged by us, according to that rule, though the base, weak, and foolish things of the world, and though they should be hungry and thirsty, naked, strangers, and in prison, or whatever their circumstances be in this world, and however they be despised among men.

There is the more need for cleaving strictly to the Scripture description of a confessor of the name of Christ, that the New Testament foretells a false profession of Christianity coming in place of the true one, and setting it aside; for Paul, forewarning Timothy of the perilous times to come in the last days, points out the danger of these times, in describing the people that should then have a form of godliness, denying the power of it; and, as a guard to us against the peril of these times, he gives this charge,-From such turn away. (2 Tim. iii) How shall we then turn away from them that have a form of godliness, denying the power of it, as the Apostle charges us, but by turning to the Christianity described in the New Testament, and there exemplified to us in the way of the first Christians, to which the Lord bare witness by such signs as no other Christianity in after ages could ever pretend to.

If we would indeed be so much as scriptural professors of Christianity, let us every one seek to be conformed to the Scripture description of a Christian, without cutting or carving upon it, or seeking to bring it down to us, but to have ourselves brought up to it, without adding to it or taking from it. And let as many as are thus minded, separate themselves to the law of God, from these that shew no such purpose of heart, but are willing to rest in the form of godliness, denying the power of it, or denying the ancient work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope, which is the power of godliness. And herein also we may study the example of the typical Israel, in their reformation, when they returned from typical Babylon. They not only refused the Samaritans, offering to incorporate with them and build the temple, though that refusal brought no small trouble upon them, but long after that they found, in reading the law of God, that the seed of Israel should not be mingled with strangers; and particularly, they found it written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever; and when they had heard the law, they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude, They trembled at the words of God, and were not afraid to depart from the practice of their fathers, that had departed from the law of God on that head, though they themselves had been before following them in that departure; for they separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. If Christians had trembled as much at the word of God, on this head, as they did at separation when the form of godliness, without the power of it, was taking place, Christianity had never been so much corrupted in the profession of it, as it has manifestly been. And there has not been one true step of reformation from that corruption taken at any time, but by them that were more afraid of the word of God, and shunned a departure from it, more than separation or departure from their former courses, and the courses of their fathers, or from the fellowship of any sort of men in the world. Let them, therefore, that seek to be conformed to the Scripture description of a Christian, be separated to the law of their Lord, confessing their sin, and the iniquity of their fathers, in having fellowship in that form of godliness with them that denied the power of it. And whereas they and their fathers in this nation have been zealous contenders for such a form, and have sworn to it; and, for the sake of that, expressly abjured Christ's own institution, under an odious name, let them confess the iniquity of that also; and so study reformation according to the New Testament in Christ's blood, which can both direct and enable them to all the reformation that God requires of them, and is the only everlasting covenant that shall never be forgotten.

Let them assemble themselves together, in the confession of the faith that is in Christ the Son of God, the Mediator of that covenant, and, in obedience to his law in that covenant, to observe all the institutions of his worship, continuing steadfast in the doctrine, and in the fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers, praising God; and to obey his new commandment, in all the branches of it; and to observe all things whatsoever he commands, as they find them written in his law. And while they are thus separated to the law of God, let them be in the diligent use of every mean there prescribed, for keeping up the study of conformity to the Scripture character of a Christian among them, (as these mentioned, Matt. xviii. and 1 Cor. v. Heb. iii. 12, 13. and x. 23, 24, 25. and xii. 15.) lest they again swerve from the work of faith, and labour of

love, and patience of hope, and return to a form of godliness, denying the power of it.-And, when the Christian people thus separate themselves to the law of God, let none be acknowledged as ministers of the word, or elders, but according to their conformity to the Scripture description of a minister; even as, among the captives returned from typical Babylon, these were put from the priesthood as profane, whose descent from Aaron did not appear.

3. Let the connexion betwixt Christianity and the cross, of which Paul speaks to Timothy, when forewarning him of the perilous times, be carefully observed. When the Apostle sets his doctrine and manner of life, in opposition to them that have a form of godliness, denying the power of it, he insists on his patience, and sets forth his sufferings; and, lest any should imagine this was peculiar to him, or the time wherein he lived, he says, Yea, and all that will live godly in CHRIST JESUS shall suffer persecution. Men may have the form of godliness, of which he speaks, without persecution; yea, it was the native fruit of an endeavour to separate Christianity from the cross; but live godly in Christ Jesus without the cross, they cannot. This living godly in Christ, is not a manner of life utterly hid from the world's view, as they that are gainers by the form of godliness without the power of it, would have its power to lie unobserved, lest, being as light set on a candlestick, or as a city on a hill, it should create them disturbance; and so they tell the deluded people pretty tales of this sort, that it is the best way of going to heaven, to go with the sound of their feet unheard. But the godly living that the Apostle speaks of, is a manner of life that provokes the hatred of the ungodly, and brings on persecution f.om the world.

It is true, the first Christians had sometimes rest from public persecution, as Acts ix. 31; and Paul himself was not always in the hands of the magistrate: yea, our Lord, the great pattern of suffering, did not suffer publicly from the powers of the earth till the end; but he has foretold, that a man's foes shall be they of his own house; and private persecution from friends and neighbours, and all sorts of men that we live among in the world, for the sake of Christ and his word, is no such light thing as they that look on it at a distance may be ready to imagine; yea, the trial of cruel mockings for his sake cannot be made easy, but by that same grace that acted in Christ when he patiently endured the cross, despising the shame. The Psalmist, in his name, complains of hypocritical mockers, in feasts, gnashing upon him with their teeth, and of his becoming a stranger unto his brethren, and an alien to his mother's children, and of the men that sit in the gate speaking against him, and his being the song of the drunkards, &c. Different parties of worldly men, contending for pre-eminence in this world, will be ridiculing and reproaching one another; but it is another thing, and requires more self-denial, to be suffering from all sorts of men for the word of God, than to be enduring for the sake of man's self, in pursuing and hoping to attain the honour, gain, or ease, of a present world. The clergy have endured much to raise themselves in the world, and to maintain what they have gained; but the sufferings of the first Christians were not attended with any worldly hope, and they were supported under them with no hope but that which is proposed in the gospel. Paul declares his disposition in this matter, and his expectation of the concurrence of every confirmed Christian when he says,- Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might

attain unto the resurrection from the dead. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. (Phil. iii.)

As he there states an opposition betwixt his way and that of the Judaisers who minded earthly things, so here he states an opposition between living godly in Christ with suffering, and the way of the men contending for the form of godliness without the power of it; for he says,-But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. He tells the Galatians how much men were shunning the cross by corrupting the gospel, reconciling it some way to its enemies, especially in points whereat they were most enraged. And, in after ages, the desire of conformity to the world, and of friendship with it, worked in that same way, and produced the form of godliness with a denial of the power of it; and so men went farther and farther from the old purpose of conformity to a humbled Christ, and from the Christian patience of hope, till they began to think not only of escaping persecution themselves, but even of persecuting others; so that at length the form of godliness became an engine of persecution against the power of godliness, as well as a proper mean of strife and bloodshed among themselves, differing about the several parts of that form as their interests led them. And all this was carried on with the fairest pretences of zeal for the honour of Christ and Christian prudence; yea, it became a principle of Christianity to persecute; and the ancient doctrine of love to enemies, and patient bearing of wrongs, and the like, came to be as an old almanack, calculated only for the time of Christ and his Apostles. Therefore, says the Apostle,All that will live godly in CHRIST JESUS shall suffer persecution; but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Let such as want to see gospel reformation look on every occasion of separating the cross and Christianity, by abating a very little of its rigour, as a strong temptation, and so guard against it. Let them treat every oppor- . tunity of rising in this world, and being avenged on their enemies, as our Lord treated the applause of the multitude, and their purposes of making him a king. And, while they give the strictest obedience, and pay the greatest deference to magistrates, as the New Testament commands, and reject all them that are not afraid to speak evil of dignities, let them beware of all the tricks the clergy have been playing with the magistrate from the days of Constantine. But let them reckon themselves, as every first church of the saints did, complete in Christ, the head of all principality and power, -head over all the heavenly host, powers of heaven, powers of hell, and powers of the earth,-unto the church which is his body; unto whom, therefore, every member of that body has a readier and more immediate access than to any of his vassals, on whom they must not depend, but hold that head under whom they are all working together for the good of his body the church; and whatever way they behave under the conduct of his providence, they are working together to bring the nations of them that are saved into the New Jerusalem, who have their dependence on none but their head; and all the powers in the creation, good or bad, are serving them, while they hold that head.