fy this paffionate and fierce, this vindictive and exterminating spirit.

For the Son of man is not come to deftroy mens lives, but 10 fave them. He fays indeed elsewhere, that he was not come to fend peace, but a fword; which we are not to underftand of the natural tendency of his religion, but of the accidental event and effect of it, through the malice and perverfenefs of men. But here he speaks of the proper intention and defign of his coming. He came not to kill and destroy, but for the healing of the nations; for the falvation and redemption of mankind, not only from the wrath to come, but from a great part of the evils and miferies of this life. He came to discountenance all fiercenefs, and rage, and cruelty, in men one towards another; to restrain and fubdue that furious and unpeaceable fpirit, which is fo troublesome to the world, and the cause of fo many mischiefs and disorders in it; and to introduce a religion which confults not only the eternal salvation of mens fouls, but their temporal peace and fecurity, their comfort and happiness in this world.

The words thus explained contain this obfervation, That a revengeful, and cruel, and deftructive fpirit, is directly contrary to the defign and temper of the gospel, and not to be excufed upon any pretence of zeal for God and religion.

In the profecution of this argument, I fhall confine my difcourfe to these three heads.

1. To fhew the oppofition of this fpirit to the true fpirit and defign of the Chriftian religion.

2. The unjuftifiablenefs of it upon any pretence of zeal for God and religion.

3. To apply this difcourfe to the occafion of this day. I. I fhall fhew the oppofition of this fpirit to the true. fpirit and defign of the Chriftian religion; that it is directly oppofite to the main and fundamental precepts of the gofpel, and to the great patterns and examples of our religion, our blessed Saviour, and the primitive Chriftians.

1. This fpirit, which our Saviour here reproves in his difciples, is directly oppofite to the main and fundamental precepts of the gofpel; which command us to love one another, and to love all men, even our very enemies;

and

and are fo far from permitting us to perfecute those who hate us, that they forbid us to hate thofe who perfecute us they require us to be merciful as our Father which is in heaven is merciful; to be kind and tenderhearted, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as God for Chrift's fake hath forgiven us; and to put on, as the elect of God, bowels of mercy, meeknefs, and long-fuffering; and to follow peace with all men, and to hew all meekness to all men. And particularly, the paftors and governors of the church are especially charged to be of this temper: The fervant of the Lord must not frive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, in meekness inftructing those that oppose themselves; if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth. To all which precepts, and many more that I might reckon up, nothing can be more plainly oppofite than inhuman cruelties and perfecutions, treacherous confpiracies and bloody maffacres, a barbarous inquifi. tion, and a holy league to extirpate all that differ from us; and, inftead of inftrudling in meekness thofe that oppofe themselves, to convert men with fire and faggot, and to teach them, as Gideon did the men of Succoth, with briars and thorns; and, instead of waiting for their repentance, and endeavouring to recover them out of the fnare of the devil, to put them quick into his hands, and to dispatch them to hell as faft as is poffible. If the precepts of Christianity can be contradicted, furely it cannot be done more grofsly and palpably than by' fuch practices.

2. This fpirit is likewife directly oppofite to the great patterns and examples of our religion, our bleffed Saviour, and the primitive Chriftians. It was prophefied of our Saviour, that he fhould be the prince of peace; and fhould make it one of his great bufineffes upon earth, to make peace in heaven and earth; to reconcile men to God, and to one another; to take up all thofe feuds, and to extinguish all thofe animofities that were in the world; to bring to an agreement, and a peaceable demeanor one towards another, thofe that were most di-ftant in their tempers and interefts; to make the lamb and the wolf lie down together, that there might be no more deftroying

deftroying nor devouring in all God's holy mountain; that is, that that cruel and destructive spirit which prevailed before in the world, fhould then be banished out of all Chriftian focieties.

And, in conformity to these predictions, when our Saviour was born into the world, the angels fang that heavenly anthem, Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and goodwill among men. And when he appeared in the world, his whole life and carriage was gentle and peaceable, full of meekness and charity. His great business was, to be beneficial to others; to feck and to fave that which was loft. He went about doing good, to the bodies and to the fouls of men: his miracles were not deftructive to mankind, but healing and charitable. He could, if he had pleased, by his miraculous power, have confounded his enemies, and have thundered out death and deftruction against the infidel world, as his pretended vicar hath fince done againft heretics. But, intending that his religion fhould be propagated in human ways, and that men fhould be drawn to the profeffion of it by the bands of love, and cords of a man, by the gentle and peaceable methods of reafon and perfuafion; he gave no example of a furious zeal and religious rage against those who defpifed his doctrine. It was propounded to men for their great advantage, and they rejected it at their utmost peril. It seemed good to the author of this inftitution, to compel no man to it by temporal punishments. When he went about making profelytes, he offered violence to no man; only faid, If any man will be my difci ple; If any man will come after me. And when his difciples were leaving him, he does not fet up an inquifition to torture and punish them for their defection from the faith; only fays, Will ye alfo go away?

And, in imitation of this bleffed pattern, the Chriftian church continued to fpeak and act for several ages. And this was the language of the holy fathers: Lex nova non fe vindicat ultore gladio: "The Chriftian law doth not avenge itfelf by the fword." This was then the style of councils: Nemini ad credendum vim inferre: "offer violence to no man to compel him to the faith." I proceed, in the

"To

II. Second place, to fhew the unjustifiableness of this VOL. I.

E e

fpirit,

fpirit, upon any pretence whatfoever of zeal for God and religion. No cafe can be put with circumftances of greater advantage, and more likely to juftify this fpirit and temper, than the cafe here in the text. Thofe against whom the difciples would have called for fire from heaven, were heretics, and fchifmatics from the true church. They had affronted our Saviour himself in his own perfon; the honour of God, and of that religion which he had fet up in the world, and of Jerufalem, which he had appointed for the place of his worship, were all concerned in this cafe; fo that if ever it were warrantable to put on this fierce and furious zeal, here was a cafe that feem. ed to require it: but, even in these circumftances, our Saviour thinks fit to rebuke and discountenance this fpirit: Te know not what manner of Spirit ye are of. And he gives fuch a reafon as ought, in all differences of religion, how wide foever they be, to deter men from this temper: For the Son of man is not come to deftroy mens lives, but to fave them; that is, this fpirit is utterly inconfiftent with the great defign of Chriftian religion, and the end of our Saviour's coming into the world.

And now, what hath the church of Rome to plead for her cruelty to men for the cause of religion, which the difciples might not much better have pleaded for themfelves in their cafe? What hath fhe to fay against those who are the objects of her cruelty and perfecution, which would not have held against the Samaritans ? Does the practife thefe feverities cut of a zeal for truth, and for the honour of God, and Christ, and the true religion? Why, upon thefe very accounts it was, that the difciples would have called for fire from heaven to have destroyed the Samaritans. Is the church of Rome perfuaded, that thofe whom the perfecutes are heretics and fchifmatics, and that no punishment can be too great for fuch offenders? So the difciples were perfuaded of the Samaritans; and upon much better grounds: only the difciples had fome excufe in their cafe, which the church of Rome hath not; and that was ignorance. And this apology our Saviour makes for them: Te know not what manner. of firit ye are of. They had been bred up in the Jewish religion, which gave fome indulgence to this kind of temper, and they were able to cite a great example for them

felves; befides, they were then but learners, and not thoroughly inftructed in the Christian doctrine. But in the church of Rome, whatever the cafe of particular per fons may be, as to the whole church, and the governing part of it, this ignorance is wilful and affected; and therefore inexcufable. For the Chriftian religion, which they profefs to embrace, does as plainly teach the contrary, as it does any other matter whatfoever: and it is not more evident in the New Teftament that Chrift died for finners, than that Chriftians fhould not kill one another for the misbelief of any article of revealed religion; much lefs for the disbelief of fuch articles as are invented by men, and impofed as the doctrines of Chrift.

You have heard what kind of spirit it is which our Sa viour here reproves in his difciples. It was a furious and destructive spirit, contrary to Chriftian charity and goodnefs. But yet this may be faid in mitigation of their fault, that they themfelves offered no violence to their enemies they left it to God, and no doubt would have been very glad that he would have manifefted his feverity upon them, by fending down fire from heaven to have confumed them.

But there is a much worfe fpirit than this in the world, which is not only contrary to Chriftianity, but to the common principles of natural religion, and even to humanity itfelf; which, by falfehood and perfidioufhefs, by fecret plots and confpiracies, or by open fedition and rebellion, by an inquifition or malfacre, by depofing or killing kings, by fire and fword, by the ruin of their country, and betraying it into the hands of foreigners; and, in a word, by diffolving all the bonds of human fociety, and fubverting the peace and order of the world, that is, by all the wicked ways imaginable, doth incite men to promote and advance their religion: as if all the world were made for them, and there were not only no other Chriftians, but no other men befides themfelves;: as Babylon of old proudly vaunted, I am, and there is none befides me and as if the God whom the Christians worship, were not the God of order, but of confusion; as if he whom we call the Father of mercies, were delighted with cruelty, and could not have a more pleafig facrifice offered to him than a mafficre; nor put a E e 2 greater.