they were us'd to; or rather, they were us'd ( to call themselves by fome Names, and in'lift themselves under fome Faction; which they adher'd to, because People love to gra

tifie their Humour of oppofing others. 'There's fomething pleafing in it to Carnal Minds. Thus, O Almighty Lord God, Thou punishest each Sin with a Viper bred out of its own Bowels. O that Men may 'fear Thee, and learn to be Wife at last! But how few find the way of this Light! To how few does this flender and bright Beam dart it felf! Inftead of breaking open our Church Doors this day, with the firft dawn of it, to praise thy ftupendous ' and amazing Mercy to us, we ran together into Herds, we met in Crouds to Arm our 6 felves, as if there were no way but this to 'keep the Enemy from returning back upon us; when it was Thou alone, O Lord, who, without any Arms of ours, hadft driven • them from us.

'Ah Lord! lay not this Sin to our charge; 'After having fo long cry'd unto Thee, Thou haft graciously delivered us; After having loft our Churches thou haft now 'allow'd us the free use of them. Thou haft ' driven away our Enemies, as it were with a ftrong Wind, and the rumour only of a purfuing Army laft Night, tho' none drew nigh: That thou mightest make us fee, that our Deliverance is from Thee our God, on 'whom we have waited. What a Dream did this Night feem to us? We found our ⚫ felves

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felves all in quiet, we cou'd hardly believe 'that we were deliver'd. We rose up early to fee if it cou'd be true, that our Delive6 rance was real. Oh! Pardon us that we have not firft vifited our Churches, the Monuments of Thy Mercy, which Thou haft fo graciously continu'd to us during all thefe Troubles, and been fo gracious to us in them; and having taken them away fo little a while, doft now fo fpeedily restore < them to us. Oh! Pardon us that we can pafs by fo great a Mercy! That we can meet in Councils and in Courts, and fill the Streets with our Crowds, and leave these • Monuments of thy goodness neglected, as if 'fome Inchanted Force kept their doors against us. Oh! Pardon us, good Lord, and let not this Sin redound upon all of us, whom thou haft deliver'd. For is not this to fly on the Spoil, and eat the Flesh with the Blood? (1 Sam. 14. 32.) When without fanctifying our Vi&tory, without paying onr Homage to thee for it, before Thy Altars, we run fo greedily upon enjoying the Fruits of it; and that in a tumultuous and Injurious manner, to ⚫ thofe whom Thou haft put in our Power.

Soon after this I find him lamenting the decay of Piety, and prevalency of Vice; Thefe were always matter of grief and indignation to his Mind; But chiefly after our great Deliverance, when the vileit Ingratitude was a new Aggravation of every Sin. His fenfe of these things the following Meditation will fhew; written August 17, 1690.

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'How do I fear that the Standard of Piety ' is loft in the World, and of that Holiness without which no Man fhall fee the Lord? I 'know Chrift will uphold his Church, and 'the Holy Spirit will be with it in every Age to the end. And therefore even in this Age, he has his faithful Servants. But 'I fear they are fo few, and the number of others fo great; that either they are not ta'ken notice of in the Croud; or that People are fo hardned and blinded, that feeing they do not fee, and hearing they will not understand; but choose rather to look upon these as Men of unneceffary Severities, C than fuch as keep up the Model of the Gofpel. By this means we in this Generation may well be all Pygmies in Grace- and hardly any of us come up to the measure of the Stature of Jefus Chrift; but measuring our felves by one another, may think our felves proper Chriftians. Where do we see Piety practic'd in all its parts, Private, Domestick, ' and Publick? Some few that are much con' verfant in good Books, and Primitive Ac'counts of things, may have an Idea of Christianity, beyond what this Age cou'd give them: But then how eafie is it for the cor6 ruption of the Age we live in, to make this ⚫ be forgotten,or hinder it from being brought

down to Practice? Piety is rarely learn'd ⚫ wholly by Books, we need continual Examples, and the converfation of good People, to bring thefe Notions into Practice. The reafon of this feems to be, that Piety always F 2 always

always decays in the Peace of the Church. A good Man that lives in the continual profpect or apprehenfion of Death, is quite another thing from the fame good Man that ' lives out of this profpect. When the whole • Church therefore lives continually in this apprehenfion, (as was the ftate of the Pri• mitive Church, for the firft Three Hundred Years after Chrift) no wonder if it be quite different in the measure and exercife of Piety, from the Church at other times. 'Tis true they were not always under actual Perfecution, but then it must be confidered, that for fome time after God frees Men from this hard ftate, the fenfe of their former • Troubles leaves a deep Impreffion upon their Minds. They had contracted firm habits of ftrict and pious Living; and the ⚫ firft freedom that God gave them from their Fears, did not make them relax any thing of their strictness; but only encreas'd their thankfulness, and more cheerful ferving him in their former road, till God thought fit to bring again their former ftraits upon them, by a renewed Perfecution. And fo it was, for a while after God put a final end to their • Perfecutions, by the Emperor Conftantine's becoming a Chriftian. With what Zeal did the Chriftians flock to the publick Churches, • Confecrated from Heathen Fanes, to Temples of the Living God, and cover the Pavements with their Proftrate Bodies? But by degrees this Fervour decay'd; Lukewarm

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nefs and Worldlinefs crept into the Church, and has been ever fince ftriking its Roots. deep into it to this very day; the whole 'Chriftian Church having never fince fuffered any general Perfecution. It has pleas d God "fometimes to Afflict particular Churches, and C rouze them up; but this has been fo little. general, that we may well fear that the Spi'rit of Religion is almost decay'd in the 'World: And as nothing but a great Per<fecution in Humane appearance can awaken it, fo in the mean time we know not where

to look for it; but have reason to fear, that "if we think it enough for us to be as good as our Neighbours, we fhall come short at laft ' of the Kingdom of Heaven. Alas! it is the easiest thing that can be, to go to Heaven according to the Notion of the Men of the • World now. At their rate, Who will be damn'd? But furely there must be Two "Heavens at great distance the one from the other: One for the Superficial Christians of this Age, and Another for the Pious and Painful, the mortified and religiously strict • Christians of Old; or elfe thefe Superficial Christians can go to no Heaven at all.

To both these I fhall add a Prayer of his upon his Birth-day, November 14 1690, and tho' only part of it falls in with what went before, yet no doubt the Pious Reader will be fufficiently pleas'd with the whole.

Omoft High and Glorious Lord God! Who haft made me and given me fuch great Ca!pacities, even to be able to love Thee: I F 3

was