and a Wound to Chrift, through the Sides of his Embaffador. AT one Time, Predeftination is of high Confequence, and made an Article of Faith, and all Free-willers fhould be banished the Land, or locked up in Dungeons, like wild: Beafts; which was the Judgment of the Bifhops in King James the First's Days, concerning the Arminians. At a different Season, when Preferments run high on the other Side, as in King Charles the Firft's Reign, and ever fince; Arminianifm not only recovers Credit, but grows modifh, and confequently Orthodox; while Predeftination becomes an old-fashion'd Piece of Faith, and a fure Sign of Fanaticism: And yet it continues one of the XXXIX. Articles, and yet it must not be believed, and yet it must be signed and affented to with a fincere. Affent. IN all these Marches and Counter-marches,, the Paffions of too many of the People keep pace with those of the High Priests; and they are conftantly difpofed to be Slaves or Rebels, Free-willers, or No-willers, Believers of this, or Believers of that, juft as Almighty HighChurch commands them. - SUCH Men do not pretend to teach their People the Meeknefs of Chriftianity: No, their Zeal is to be Anger, and their Religion. Cruelty. That Fiercenefs, which is inconfiftent with the Spirit of a Chriftian, is to be the certain Criterion of one whom they call a true Churchman; and that Mercy, which is infeparable from the Gofpel, is inconfiftent with the Temper of High-Church. Their Votaries are not taught to be Chriftians, which would spoil the Project, but High-Churchmen; and instead of an Army of Martyrs, they are to be an Army of Martyr-makers. Nor is any Portion of Knowledge fit for them; for that might endanger the Loss of their Vaffalage; and the teaching them to know for themselves, might extinguish their Zeal, and intirely change their Belief and Behaviour. The poor People are, in fhort, by fuch Guides taught to be ignorant, and to let others know for them: They must give up common Sense to learn their Duty; and abandon Chriftianity, without which they cannot have the Grace of God, to embrace rigid Conformity, which is neither a Sign, nor a Caufe, of that Grace, but often a Bar and a Contradiction to it. This is fo true, that whoever can reconcile Human Authority to Chriftian Charity, may reconcile Water and Fire, or do any other Impoffibility. TENDERNESS and Moderation to those who devoutly differ from us, though they are evident evident Principles and Duties of Christianity, and even the Result of Reafon, Justice, and Humanity, yet are never mentioned by the Mouth of Orthodoxy, but as Terms of Contempt or Reproach: Infomuch that a pious Indulgence to Men of a different Communion, the most honeft, virtuous, inoffensive Men; and an Indulgence for the invincible, and perhaps rational Perfuafions of the Mind, is the common Topic of Satire, and either ridiculed or reviled; whilft Men of the fame Side may go what Lengths they will in Violence and Villainy, without Anger or Rebuke: And while one Man fhall have his House burned, his Brains beat out, and his Family ruined, for having a scrupulous Confcience, which is much more offensive than none at all; another Man fhall break all the Ten Commandments with Reputation. HATRED, and Bitterness of Spirit, are the first Leffons which the unhappy People are taught by fuch Men; and the Gospel must be laid afide, and Good-nature be extinguished, before modern Orthodoxy can be fwallowed, or modern Zeal infufed. Some of them may probably have learned to repeat the Catechifm by Rote, and even to have practifed profound Refpect and Submiffion to their Spiritual Superiors; but for the great and indifpenfable DuA 6 ties ties of Religion, how can it be expected, that they should mind them, while they daily fee their Teachers exprefs a much more warm Concern for their own Dignities and Revenues, than for the Honour and Interest of pure unmixed Religion, which was ever highest when Ecclefiaftical Power, and Ecclefiaftical Excife, were loweft? WHEN a. Congregation fees the Doctor much warmer against Diffenters, than against Sin, and not half fo zealous for the abfolute Neceffity of a virtuous and fober Life, as for the abfolute Neceffity of a rigid Conformity; what can they conclude, but either that he derides them, or that a ftupid Compliance with him, and a raging Refentment against Nonconformists, are the great Duties of Churchmen? Add to this, that if his Life..be vicious, fuch a Conclufion is ftill the more natural, to vulgar Understandings. When they fee ChurchPower fo violently contented for, and GospelHoliness fo little regarded, or so easily dispensed with; what can their ftupid Understandings infer, but that a blind Submiffion to the Ecclefiaftics is beyond all evangelical Grace, and every moral Virtue? They find by daily Experience, that they may commit Drunkenness or Whoredom with Impunity, or at fmall Expence; but if they do not give the Doctor what what he calls his Due, even to the last Sheaf of Corn, or the laft Pound of Wool, they are expofed in the Pulpit, haraffed in the Bishops-Court, and probably, at laft, furrendered to Satan and Damnation BESIDES, they oftener hear Texts quoted, in ⚫ fome Pulpits, to abuse Separatifts, than to recommend Godliness and Virtue; and fee the Mode of performing a Duty more vehemently urged, than the Duty itself: Thus Kneeling at the Lord's Supper is made by many of equal Importance with the Sacrament itself; and the Cross in Baptifm must no more be parted with, than the Ordinance of Baptism. IT is therefore no Wonder, that the Affections and Antipathies of the common People have neither proper Causes, nor proper Objects; and that they neither love the Gofpel as fuch, nor hate Sin as fuch; but form their Faith and Devotion upon the Word and Behaviour of their Priests, who have the keeping of their Religion, their Zeal, and their Paffions. And what hopeful Ufe they make of this terrible Dominion, we all know, For indeed the Chriftian Religion is not fo much as known to the High-Church Vulgar, nor fuffer'd to be known; and as little do they feel, or are suffered to feel, the tender Impulfes of Good-nature and Humanity; but poffefs an Implacableness of Spi |