Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

but of his coming to judgment they are willingly ignorant, 2 Pet. iii. 4, 5, because they do not choose to be brought to a final reckoning. As they never call upon God, they think God will never call upon them; therefore preaching the gospel is of no use in their ideas, but just to amuse an ignorant crowd, who know no better; and the Bible is nought but a cheat, religion only priestcraft, and a man is to die like a beast. It would be well for the Deist if he could end his days in annihilation, as a beast doth; but that cannot be, for God hath said that all must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; and I can believe what he says, because my judg ment is past already, and I have been justified by an act of sovereign grace.

it

Having thus followed Universal Charity, we find it operating at a wonderful rate on those that are pure in their own eyes, though never washed from their filthiness, I mean the pharisees, Prov. xxx. 12. This charity is also to be found in Papists, Pagans, and Deists, as well as in free-willers; and appears that devils, rebels, brutes, and insects, are more the objects of its pity than a sound orthodox Christian. The warmest contentions it enters into are against God and his word, in behalf of errors. Surely, if Mr. Universal Charity was of God, grace and truth would find some favour in the eyes of him.

However, agreeably to the King's command, we will call a court, and bring him to an impar

tial trial; being commanded to "try the Spirits, whether they are of God:" and, if we bind Universal Charity on earth, he shall be bound in heaven. As Mr. Zeal-for-God has taken him into custody, let him be bound and put into the stronghold, and deliver him to the care of Mr. Election, the gaoler; and I believe he will not escape his hands easily, for I know he is no friend to him; and, as you lead him to the hold, ask him to whom he appeals, and what court he would choose to be tried at, only to hear what he will say. For, as Milton observes, No falsehood can bear the touch of celestial temper.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

So Mr. Zeal-for-God asked him, saying, 'Well, Mr. Universal Charity, to whom do you appeal?' Answer. I appeal to Unbiassed Reason, and should like to be tried in the honourable court of Conscience.' So Mr. Zeal-for-God reported to Mr. Gospel-Experience, the magistrate, what Charity had said. "Oh,' said the magistrate, • his appeal shews his nativity; he is a child of the flesh, and 'tis to a fleshly court that he has appealed; had he been from above, he would have appealed to the saints, and to the law and testimony, for wisdom is justified of her children. If he cannot stand the trial of God's word, he is not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish,' James iii. 15.

As for his appeal to Unbiassed Reason, there is no such person; it is only a phantom, exalted by

knaves, and admired by fools. But this his appeal is only to postpone the trial; for we might drag him to all the courts in the world before we should find Unbiassed Reason on the bench: and, as for the court of Conscience, where he wants to be tried, it is the court of heathens, who, having not the law, are a law to themselves; their thoughts and conscience accuse, or excuse one another, Rom. ii. 14, 15. And where a company of carnal thoughts are the jury, and a seared conscience the judge, matters must be badly managed. I know Saul, was the caseen justified in this court, for persecuting the judge of quick and dead, and murdering the saints of God, Acts xxvi. 9, according to his own confession, thought," said he, "that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus, which I also did." And Christ says, "The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service and these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me."

This court seems but very little, if any, on God's side; it has been so confused ere now as to call evil good, and good evil; yea, they have put darkness for light, and light for darkness, Isaiah v. 20; and pray what is this, but putting God for Satan, and Satan for God? "God is light," 1 John i. 5, and Satan is darkness, Luke xxii. 53. Call Mr. Zeal-for-God, and tell him to come to me. 'Mr. Zeal-for-God, go down to the hold, and tell

Universal Charity, the prisoner, that his appeal to Unbiassed Reason, and the court of Carnal Conscience, is objected to; his crime being spiritual, cannot be tried in a carnal court. Paul was had to several of these, but they could not make a judgment of his cause; they owned he had done nothing worthy of death, or of bonds, and yet left him bound: others said, Much learning had made him mad, Acts xxvi. 24, when, at the same time, he spake forth the words of truth and soberness with such wisdom and power as to stop the mouth of an eloquent orator, and to make his judge tremble. This was sufficient, one would think, to have convinced all that he was the only one in the court who was in his right mind.

'You may ask him if he chooses to be tried before Mr. Discerning-of-Spirits, the deputy judge, who is empowered, and gifted by God himself for that work,' 1 Cor. xii. 10. So Mr. Zeal-for-God asked him the question, and also gave him the reason why Unbiassed Reason and the Court of Conscience were objected to. Upon this Mr. Universal Charity objected to the Spiritual Court, and said he had rather be tried at the Court of Judicature. He appealed to Moses; crying out, as others have done, I am Moses's disciple.' Then Mr. Zeal-for-God returned, and brought Charity's answer to old Mr. Gospel-Experience, the magistrate, who had before examined him; and, when the old gentleman had heard the prisoner's appeal

and confession, he burst out a laughing, saying, 'Does he call himself Moses's disciple, and does he appeal to Moses? Let him alone,' said the old gentleman, he will be judged out of his own mouth, and be cast by his own counsel. Before, he said God was his father, and that he was the real charity of the gospel; that he was of divine extraction, and shed abroad in the hearts of many by the Holy Ghost.

"for

'However, his being detained a prisoner proves he is not of divine fraternity; if he had, Death himself could not have held him prisoner, love is strong as death." These equivocations prove him to be a bastard, the offspring of a mystical harlot. Solomon tells us her ways are moveable, man cannot know them, Prov. v. 6; and Mr. Universal Charity well understands, it seems, the winding labyrinths of his debauched mother. However, he would find very little more favour at the hand of Moses than he would at the hand of Mr. Discerning-of-Spirits, for he has assumed Moses's chair, and bound grievous burdens on many, which he never put a finger forth to help them up with, Matt. xxiii. 4. Besides, Moses accuses every legalist that puts his trust in him. I am sure Moses never bequeathed his chair to Universal Charity; nor did he, by his example, teach any to contend with God for traitors. Moses never interceded with the Most High for Korah, Abiram, and Dathan, but justified God in their destruction, and

« ZurückWeiter »