THE

PREFACE.

I

Am fenfible the world is fo ftock'd with books of devotion, as well as with prophane; that, if the mode of writing continues, the catalogue of authors may vie with the number of readers.

Did men read good books merely for inftruction; first to learn, then to practise their duty; not to become more learned, but more virtuous ; new treatises on the fubject of religion might appear fuperfluous.

But alas! the fame books, which were ala-mode last year, are out of fashion this; and thofe, that once charmed the reader, in process of time, like almanacks out of date, lie buried in duft and oblivion. All human things are in a perpetual motion: like the fun they have their Rife, their Meridian, and their Weft.

A 4

Our

and are

Our judgments and appetites vary, feldom conftant in any thing but change. Nay, Men are now come to fuch an excess of delicacy, that they regale their very fouls with new ragoufts, as well as their palates: nothing spiritual will go down, unless novelty recommends it. The most folid piety is always attended with fome curiofity; and nothing conveys more effectually good inftructions, than variety.

I condefcend to your inclination, to conquer your paffions; and strike in with one disease, to cure another. I therefore offer to your perufal these Moral Reflections on Select Paffages of the New Teftament. The thoughts, I must own, are vulgar, as well as the expreffions; for I pretend not to be admired, but understood: you will meet with nothing extraordinary, but plainnefs: and I confefs, it is unfurnish'd of all advantage, but that the book is new.

However, I have laid open fo fully your duty, the advantages of an exact compliance, and the fevere punishments of tranfgreffors; that you may not plead ignorance of your obligation, or want motives to fulfil it. You will fee the law you must be try'd by at your deaths, as well as that you must live by; and how prodigiously your practice falls fort of your obligation: how earnestly it commands virtue, and how boldly you plunge into vice: what happiness attends a godly life; what torments a bad one: in fine, how little unfortunate man feems concern'd at Chrift's menaces, or moved with his promifes; as if those were only

intended

intended to fright, and these to please. And then certainly, if we will but take the pains to compare our prefent enjoyments with the expectation of the future, the vast recompence of a good life with the fevere chaftifements of a bad one; we may either be allured to the practice of virtue, or fear'd out of the love of vice: befides, the press spreads infection through the whole nation; and you take in the poifon with pleasure and transport.

to convince

you,

you

Some vent downright blafphemies, under the difguife of pretended demonftrations, against the Trinity: with Arius, they laugh at the mystery, because they cannot understand it. Others ftrike at the foul's immortality; and endeavour that die like beafts, to perfuade you to copy their lives. Nay, one has the confidence to prove mortality no punishment of fin, but of infidelity: as if a man could believe death out of the world, and protract his life in fæcula fæculorum, in spight of him who gave it.

Seeing therefore fuch a tide of bad books flows in upon us, good ones may take the fame liberty: and as numbers have debauch'd our manners, why may not numbers reform them? I fuppofe Chriftians are not yet jo deeply engaged in an alliance against Chrift's commands, as to refuse all articles of accommodation. They are not fo fond of damnation, as to fly in the face of a friend, who endea

* I fuppofe the author means Mr. Afgil, who pretended, that, if a man had faith, he would never die, but be tranflated alive to heaven.

vours

vours to avert it nor fo irreconcileably fallen out with religion and piety, as not to hear what can be pleaded in their favour. In the time of peftilence, no man complains of a friend, for propofing too many prefervatives. when the danger is evident, prudence requires a fuitable precaution. Now, there are fo many contagious books, that their titles infect the streets, and it is lefs dangerous to enter into a peft-house, than to come within fight of a bookfeller's shop, if curiofity accompany you. I have therefore thought fit to throw in a good title amongst fo many bad ones; that the antidote may be near the poifon; and the cure as ready at hand as the infection.

I

prefent you therefore thefe Moral Reflections on Select Paffages of the New Testament; that is, a moral comment on the Scripture. pretend not to publish a new morality, but to explain that of Jefus Chrift: and, as I dif claim a criminal indulgence on the one hand, fo I difapprove too morofe a feverity on the other. I am far from being inclined to damn all, nor yet of the opinion to fave all. Heaven's gate is ftrait, but not wall'd up: few enter, but all may; in fine, the conqueft of heaven is hard, but not impoffible. It may be formed, and the violent take it by force, Matth. xi. 12. but it cannot be taken by capitulation. So that we must neither defpair of fuccefs, nor temerarioufly prefume.

Some may perchance object, that I often repeat the fame things: but, first, if Atheists and Libertines gain ground upon religion, and

virtue,

virtue, by repeated attacks; if they weary people out of their duty by importunity, and force them to yield in their own defence; why may not I manage the intereft of virtue by the fame method, and foil its enemies at their own weapons? Men may be importuned into heaven, as well as into hell: at least, the importance of the concern deferves the experiment. But befides, we cannot bear too often thofe things, which we cannot too perfectly learn: our falvation depends on the practice, and this on the knowledge of our duty: jo that if the vastness of Christ's promifes ballance the difficulty of the practice, the profit of the knowledge will attone for the frequency of the repetition. In a word, we cannot bear bad things too feldom, nor good too often.

I therefore defire the Chriftian Reader, if he intends to profit by these reflections, to carry about him this capital point of his religion, that he was made for heaven, by God's goodness; but that his own malice may plunge him into hell: he walks between two extremes, both eternal, both different; the one of pleasure, the other of punishment: he may choose either; both he cannot one be muft; for there is no other ftate eternal for thofe, who once have used reafon: the choice must be made in this world: when our glass is run, and our laft breath has pass'd our lips, nothing remains but reward or punishment, and both everlafting: it will be in vain to fee our folly, when there is no poffibility of amendment,

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