Section 1: The Causes of Uncharitableness

An Uncharitable Humour springs generally from some of these following Causes.

1. First, From a malicious Constitution of Nature, an acrimonious or a choleric Temper of Blood. There are some Animal Engines of human Flesh, that have their Juices all soured in their very Formation; and there is an ill Ferment raised in such Persons at the Perception of every Object, that is not just suited to their present Fancy and Inclination: And by the hard Laws of Union between Soul and Body in this our fallen State, the Spirit too often complies with the fretful Distempers of the Flesh. There are but few that attempt to suppress the Ferment, and to resist the angry Motions of the Animal; and of those few that attempt it, scarce one in ten is very successful: For it is a Work of Toil, and Difficulty, perpetual Watchfulness and unceasing Prayer.

This ill Humour mixes itself with Religion, as well as with Civil Affairs. It diffuses its Malignity through all the Studies and the Manners of the Man, and gives a visible Tincture to his Notions and his Practices. Furio can never converse about the calmest and most speculative Points of Divinity, but his Indignation kindles against every different Opinion, his fiery Temper breaks out and blazes, and he bestows on his own Deportment the honourable Names of shining Light and burning Zeal. His peevish and angry Passions are so blended with his Understanding, that hard Names are his best Arguments; most convincing to himself, though they are the just Scorn of the wise. He stabs his Brethren that differ from him to the Heart, with pointed Railing; and from an Aversion to an Opinion rises to an immortal Hatred of the Person. If our great Creator has untied any of our Souls to Bodies that are less infected with this vicious Juice, we have Reason to adore his Sovereign Goodness.

2. Self-Love and Pride, and a vain Conceit of our own Opinions, is another Spring of uncharitable Carriages. Did you ever see a weak and humble Soul sensible of its own Poverty and Ignorance, and ready to esteem others above himself, easily indulge this uncharitable Humour? Alas! poor foolish Mankind is very prone to esteem itself Wise and Knowing. Little Laudillus, who is almost always in the wrong, has much ado to persuade himself, that he was ever capable of mistaking. He secretly thinks all his Opinions to be divine Truths, and therefore he is very lavish in pronouncing Error and Heresy upon every Notion and Practice that differs from his own. He takes the Freedom to choose a Religion for himself, but he allows no Man besides the same Liberty. He is sure that he has Reason to dissent from others, but no Man has Reason to dissent from him. He sets up for Infallibility without a Triple Crown, and fixes a See of Ecclesiastical Sovereignty on this Side the Water. He awes some slavish Spirits into Submission, and they become treacherous to their own Souls and to the Rights of Human Nature, by delivering up their Faith and Consciences to his imperious Dictates: Then the Man grows haughty, surly and severe, especially if he be advanced to any degree of Honour and Authority in the Church: Then in his inflexible Justice he delivers up the humble and inquisitive Christian unto Satan, because he cannot assent and consent to all and every thing contained in his Scheme; and he teaches perhaps his elder Brethren the Doctrines and Discipline of the Gospel, as Gideon did the Elders of Succoth, with the Briars and Thorns of the Wilderness.

3. This hateful Vice may be derived from a third Original; and that is a constant and friendly Acquaintance with the Men and Books of our own Opinion, and an Avoidance of all the Writers and Persons that differ from us: This has a mighty Influence to beget and maintain uncharitable Notions; yet this is the constant Practice, not only of the unlearned, but of too many of the learned World. Hermes sits all the Year in his own Cell, and never looks abroad beyond the Clan of his own Fraternity: Hermes reads the Controversies as they are described only by one Party, and disputes them over only in the Books that are written on one Side. He finds a great Appearance of Argument and Scripture there, and then proclaims it impossible that the adverse Party should show equal Reason or Revelation: And thus he proceeds to censure them as Men of corrupt Minds, reprobate concerning the Faith, and twisting the Scriptures to their own Damnation. Cicero in his Treatise De natura Deorum, marks this Humour, and brands it, Vestra solum legitis, vestra amatis, caeteros causa incognita condemnatis.

But let you and I, my Friend, who delight in Charity, let us converse a little with Authors that differ from our present Opinions, and we shall see their Sentiments dressed up so plausibly, and set in so fair a Light, that might easily persuade Men of sincere Consciences to embrace them; and this will prevent us from censorious Thoughts concerning our candid Adversaries, and their Disciples. There is scarce any thing that enlarges the Mind more, and more disengages it from narrow and selfish Principles, than a free Converse with the Virtuous and Ingenious of all Parties.

There is a memorable Story to this Purpose, concerning two Neighbours in an unsociable Town, who were always quarrelling about the private Meeting and the Parish-Church: Both Places of Worship in that Town were well supplied with Preachers of good Sense and serious Religion; but each of them was the Subject of unmerciful Reproach between these two Neighbours, whensoever they met, and their different Methods of Worship were mutually reviled; the one as formal and spiritless, the other as enthusiastical and indecent: At last Pacifico their common Friend persuaded them to hear each others Minister, and accompanied them both one Day to their different Assemblies; and they were both surprised to hear the Gospel preached with due Degree of Decency and Fervour, both at Meeting and at Church: And though they continued still to adhere to their own Party, as judging it, in some Respects, suited best to their Edification; yet they maintained hearty Friendship with each other, and delightful Society in religious Conference: Thus the quarrelsome Mistake was rectified by better Acquaintance: They lived many Years together in Peace; they composed the Animosities of different Parties, that dwelt in the Town; they died in perfect Charity, and left a sweet Influence behind them, and an honourable Example.

4. A Fourth Spring of Uncharitableness is, our reading the Word of God with a whole Set of Notions established beforehand: And yet how common a Method, and how constant is this? Diaecion has long ago determined, that Bishops must be superior to Presbyters; he has received Ordination from Episcopal Hands; and hopes one Day himself to be capable of ordaining others. Thus while he is growing up towards the Mitre, he reads the Scriptures only to confirm his own determined Opinions. He stretches and torments many an unwilling Text, to make it speak the Language of his own Thoughts. He neglects the Passages that favour all other Forms of Government and Methods of Ministration; or else he constrains them to mean Episcopacy too: Every Word that he reads, hath a Diocesan Aspect; and the first Verse of Genesis can prove Prelacy (for ought I know) as it has been able heretofore to demonstrate Papacy, when In principio creavit Deus caelum and terram, decided the Controversy, and set the Pope above the Emperor: For God made all things from one Beginning, and not from two.

Synodias reads the Bible with a Presbyterian Glass, and Fratrio with a Congregational Optic: They can find nothing there but their own Opinions, and both of them wonder that Diaecion should not see them too. Fratrio turns over the Scriptures with great Diligence and Meditation, and as often as he finds the Word Church there, he thinks of nothing but a Congregation of faithful Men; as the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch are so many single Congregations. When Synodias meets the same Word in his Bible, he is often in the midst of an Assembly of Divines; and especially when any Power is attributed to the Church, he is sure it must intend a Classis of Presbyters, or Consistory of Elders. When the same Word falls under the Eye of Diaecion in his Course of reading the New Testament, he cannot imagine any thing is meant short of a Diocese: All his Churches are or should be as big as Counties or Shires. And I might add, that when poor Parochianus the Mason finds Leisure to read a Chapter, and lights upon the mention of a Church in it, he thinks immediately of a tall Stone-Building with a Steeple upon it, a Bell or two, and a Weather-cock.

I might give the like Instances of many other Terms and Expressions in Scripture, to which Men have unalterably fixed their several different Ideas, and raised Consequences from them, and interpret the Word of God by them, without enquiring whether their Ideas are conformable to the Sense in which the Scripture uses those Expressions: and then it is no Wonder that their Schemes of Ecclesiastical Government are so different: And yet each of these prepossessed Opiniators think their own Exposition of the Text so evident, that they chide the Perverseness of all other Men, as though they were resolved to wink against the Light. It is like a Person of a fretful Constitution, whose Eyes are also tinged with the Jaundice, he quarrels with every Man that he meets, because he will not consent to call all things yellow. Thus by the false Light of Affection in which they behold some beloved Texts, and their Negligence of all others, or at least by the Colours of Prejudice that they throw upon them, each triumphs in his own Sentiments, and pronounces the Apostles and Prophets of his Side. Then he lets fly many a sharp Invective against all the Men that presume to oppose him; for in his Sense they oppose the Apostles themselves, and fight against the Authority of God.

But when a Man takes a Bible into his Hand without a preconceived Scheme in his Head, and though he may make use of Systems to secure himself from Inconsistencies, yet he puts them not in the Place of the Holy Scriptures, but resolves to form his Body of Divinity by the New Testament, and derive all his Opinions and Practices thence; he will then find so many Expressions that seem to favour the several contending Parties of Christians, that in some Points he will perhaps be tempted to doubt of all Opinions, and sometimes have much ado to secure himself from the Danger of Eternal Scepticism: When in any doubtful Point his Judgment is led to a Determination, it is always with great Caution, and by slow Degrees: He is not carried by Violence to any Dogmatical Conclusion; he is modest in his Assertions, and gentle towards all whose Judgment and Conscience have determined them another Way, because he met with so many probable Arguments on their Side, in the Time of his Dubitation and Inquiry, that had almost fixed his Opinion the same Way too.

If I may be permitted to speak of myself, I might acquaint the World with my own Experience. After some Years spent in the Perusal of Controversial Authors, and finding them insufficient to settle my Judgment and Conscience in some great Points of Religion, I resolved to seek a Determination of my Thoughts from the Epistles of Saint Paul, and especially in that weighty Doctrine of Justification: I perused his Letter to the Romans in the Original, with the most fixed Meditation, laborious Study, and importunate Requests to God, for several Months together: First without consulting any Commentator, and afterwards called in the Assistance of the best Critics and Interpreters. I very narrowly observed the daily Motions of my own Mind: I found it very hard to root out old Prejudices, and to escape the Danger of new ones: I met with some Expressions of the Apostle that swayed me towards one Opinion, and others that inclined the Balance of my Thoughts another way; and it was no easy Matter to maintain my Judgment in an equal Poise, until some just and weighty Argument gave the Determination; so many crossing Notions, perplexing Difficulties and seeming Repugnances lay in my Way, that I most heartily bless the divine Goodness that enabled me at last to surmount them all, and established my Judgment and Conscience in that glorious and forsaken Doctrine of the Justification of a Sinner in the Sight of God, by the Imputation of a perfect Righteousness which is not originally his own.

From my own Experiment I can easily guess what confounding Intricacies of Thought others pass through in their honest Searches after Truth. These Conflicts did exceedingly enlarge my Soul, and stretched my Charity to a vast Extent. I see, I feel, and am assured that several Men may be very sincere, and yet entertain Notions in Divinity, all widely different. I confess now and then some Opinions, or some unhappy Occurrences are ready to narrow and confine my Affections again, if I am not watchful over myself; but I pray God to preserve upon my Heart a strong and lasting Remembrance of those Days and those Studies, whereby he laid within me the Foundation of so broad a Charity.

5. Fifthly. Another Cause of Uncharitableness is a Want of Reflection on the Grounds of our own Opinions. We should be more just to ourselves, and more gentle to others, if we did but impartially review the Reasons why we first embraced our several Principles and Practices.

Perhaps it was Education determined most of them, then let us chide ourselves severely for building upon so careless and slight a Bottom: Or let us be civil to the greatest part of Mankind, who came by all their Principles the same Way. Perhaps we were led into particular Notions by the Authority of Persons whom we reverence or love; then we should not upbraid our Neighbours that have been influenced into different Sentiments by the same Springs. Perhaps we have felt Interest sometimes ready to bias our Thoughts, and give us a secret Inclination or Aversion to a Party; let us then pity the Frailty of Human Nature, and have Compassion upon Men whose Judgments are exposed to so mean a Bribery, and sometimes have been warped aside from the Truth. Or finally, perhaps it was deep Meditation, a daily Search into Scripture, and fervent Prayer were the Methods by which we pursued Knowledge, and established our Principles upon solid Reason. Let us then be so charitable to those whom we contend with, as to suppose they sought after Truth the same Way, and then our Contentions will have less Fire and Spleen in them, less of Clamour and Indignation against those that differ from us.

The true Reason why we kindle our Anger against our Christian Brethren that are not entirely of our Party is, because we not only have the Vanity to fancy ourselves always in the Right, and them in the Wrong; but we judge their Consciences and their Sincerity too, that they did not come honestly and fairly by their Principles, while we never consider how we ourselves came by our own.

6. But there are still more Ways to arrive at this Uncharitable Temper: I must proceed to Sixthly; which is a common Method, and thus to be performed. If we will but trace the Principles of those that dissent from us through all the Length of remote and feeble Consequences, and be sure to find some terrible Absurdity at the End of them, we shall not easily maintain our Charity. O how often do we put their Opinions upon the Rack! We torture every Joint and Article of them, till we have forced them to confess some formidable Errors which their Authors never knew or dreamed of: Thus the Original Notions appear with a frightful Aspect, and the Sectators of them grow to be the Object of our Abhorrence, and have forfeited their Right to every Grain of our Charity.

Evangillo believes that Christ Jesus has completely answered the Demands of the Law in order to our Justification, and that in the room and stead of all Believers. Nomineus hears this Doctrine, and thus begins his Chain of severe and false Deductions; then (saith he) the Law has no Power to demand Obedience of us; then we are not to be charged with Sin, though we break the Law hourly and profanely; then we may contemn all the Commands, sport with the Threatenings, and defy God the Lawgiver and the Avenger. He proceeds then to pronounce Evangillo a wicked Antinomian, and in the Name of the Lord delivers him up to Satan, that he may learn not to blaspheme. Evangillo, on the other Hand, (who has been well instructed in the Way of Salvation, and has learned the Duties of Faith and Hope, but is not yet so well improved in the Charity of the Gospel) hears Nomineus preaching up Repentance and sincere Obedience, as the Conditions of our Justification and Acceptance with God to Eternal Life: He smites his Breast with his Hand, and cries, Surely this Man knows no Use of Christ in our Religion, he makes void his Righteousness and his Death, he is a mere Legalist, a Papist, a rank Socinian, he preaches another Gospel, and though he were an Angel from Heaven let him be accursed. Thus when Men dress up their Neighbours in all the strained Consequences of their Opinions, with a malicious Pleasure they pursue this Thread of Argument, they impose horrid Conclusions which can never be drawn from their Doctrines, and never leave the Pursuit till they have pushed each other to Blasphemy and Damnation.

Whereas if the Doctrines and the Persons now mentioned were put into the Balances of Truth and Charity, perhaps the Principles of Evangillo would be found to have most Weight of Scripture on their Side, and Nomineus more of the fair Shows of Reasoning; But neither the one would be found to throw Christ out of his Religion, nor the other to make void the Law: And both of their Lives would appear shining in Holiness, but that they want the bright Garments of Charity.

7. Let me name a Seventh Spring of this uncharitable Humour; and that is, when we magnify circumstantial Differences into substantial ones, and make every Punctilio of our own Scheme a fundamental Point, as though all the Law and the Prophets hung upon it, as though it were the Ground and Pillar of all the Truth in the Gospel. Crucius will not allow his dissenting Neighbour to be a Member of the Christian Church, because he separates from the Modes of Worship in the Church of England; he cannot believe him to be a Friend to Christ crucified, because he refuses to have his Child baptized with the airy Sign of the Cross. Again the dissenting Neighbour pronounces Crucius to be a mere Formalist, and to have nothing of the Spirit of God in him, because he seeks not much to obtain the Gifts of the Spirit, and scarce ever addresses himself to God in Prayer without the Assistance of a Form.

Sabbaptes that lives within two Doors of them, will not believe either of his Neighbours to be a Christian, because they have never been plunged under Water, (that is) in his Sense they were never baptized: And both of them in Requital agree to call Sabbaptes a Jew, because he worships only on a Saturday. Whereas the All-knowing God looks down into all their Hearts, beholds the Graces that his Spirit hath wrought there, owns them all for his Children and the Disciples of his Son, though they are not yet perfect in Love. They have all one common God and Father, one Lord Jesus, one Faith, one Spirit of Prayer, one Baptism, though they quarrel so bitterly about Times, and Modes, and Forms.

It is a very uncharitable Practice to think that a Man can never journey safely to Heaven unless his Hat and Shoes be of the same Colour with ours, unless he tread the very Track of our Feet, and his Footsteps too be of the same Size. It is a censorious and perverse Fancy to pronounce a Man no Christian because every Thought of his Soul, and all the Atoms of his Brain are not just ranged in the same Posture with mine. How ridiculously unreasonable is it for a Man of brown Hair to shut his Brother out from the Rank and Species of Men, and call him an Ox or a Lion because his Locks are black or yellow. I am persuaded there is a Breadth in the narrow Road to Heaven, and Persons may travel more than seven a Breast in it: And though they do not trace precisely the same Track, yet all look to the same Saviour Jesus, and all arrive at the same common Salvation: And though their Names may be crossed out of the Records of a particular Church on Earth, where Charity fails, yet they will be found written in the Lamb's Book of Life, which is a Record of Eternal Love, and shall for ever be joined to the Fellowship of the Catholic Church in Heaven.

8. This Iniquity of Uncharitableness has more Springs than there are Streams or Branches belonging to the great River of Egypt; and it is as fruitful of Serpents and Monsters too: Itself is a Hydra of many Heads; I have drawn seven of them out at Length into open Light, that they may be cut off for ever: But there are others still remain as full of Fire and Infection. Shall I mention an Eighth here, The Applause of a Party, and the Advance of Self-Interest? Have we never observed what a mighty Prevalence this has over the Hearts and Tongues of Men, and inflames them with Malice against their Neighbours? They assault every different Opinion with Rage and Clamour: They rail at the Persons of all other Parties to ingratiate themselves with their own; and when they find their Account in it, their Tongues are sharpened as drawn Swords; they fight for Honour like young Volunteers, or like the Swiss for Pay. When they tear away Men from their Habitations, cast them into noisome Prisons, and put to Death the Ministers of the Gospel, they boast, like Jehu when he slew the Priests of Baal, Come and see my Zeal for the Lord: And as he designed hereby to establish the Kingdom in his own Hands, so they to maintain the Preferments and Possessions, as well as the Reputation they had acquired among their own Sect. But ah! How little do they think of the Wounds that Jesus the Lord receives by every bitter Reproach they cast on his Followers! Nor will it be found a sufficient Reason for the Persecution of them one Day, that they did not conform to human Inventions.

The Jansenists in France have made some Reformation in the Doctrines of Popery, and they have been sometimes traduced for approaching the Tents of Calvin: They have been in Danger of being degraded and losing their spiritual Dignities, and they are pushed on by this Fear and Ambition, to write at every Turn some severe Invectives against the Calvinists, to show that themselves are true Sons of that uncharitable Church of Rome.

Sicco has lately departed from a Baptist Society, and he hardly thinks himself sufficiently come out of the Water, till he is kindled into a Flame against all those that baptize by Immersion; he rails at his former Brethren, to make the Presbyterian and Independent Churches believe that he is a true Convert: How are you mistaken, poor Sicco, to attempt this Method of caressing your new Acquaintance? For they had rather receive a Baptist into their Fellowship, whose Faith and Holiness are conspicuous in his Life, than open their Doors to an uncharitable Wretch that proves his Conversion only by the Change of an Opinion, and placing his Religion in Railing.

Acerbion has left the Communion of his Father, and is become an Ecclesiastic of high Note in a more powerful and splendid Church: He seldom puts a Volume into the Press without Sourness and hard Words in it, against the Society which he has forsaken: His Pen is dipped in Gall daily, and he grows old in Malice and Censure: It is Pity he should so far expose the Church to which he now belongs, as to think that she will esteem him a more dutiful Son, by how much the less Charity he has for his dissenting Brethren.

And I am sorry also, that there should be a Church in Great Britain which has devoted Christians to the Devil for little Differences, and has exposed them to tedious and sharp Sufferings for refusing to submit to particular Gestures in Worship and airy Signs, for wearing a short Garment in Prayer in the Place of a long one, or black instead of white; and some of her Sons have delighted to execute these Censures, when they have found much Gain arising from this severe Godliness. I could wish she had always exercised the same Charity to weak Consciences that she does to slender Purses; for she allows a Christian Liberty to poor Beneficed Men and Curates, not being able to provide themselves long Gowns, that they may go in short ones.

9. A Ninth Spring of this Uncharitable Practice is fixing upon some necessary and special Point in Christianity, and setting it up in Opposition to the rest, or at best in Opposition to some one of the rest.

I have long observed, says an ingenious Writer, that Christians of different Parties have been eagerly laying hold on particular Parts of the System of Divine Truths, and have been contending about them as if each had been all; or as if the Separation of the Members from each other, and from the Head, were the Preservation of the Body, instead of its Destruction. They have been zealous to espouse the Defense, and to maintain the Honour and Usefulness of each apart; whereas their Honour as well as Usefulness, seems to me to lie much in their Connection: And Suspicions have often arisen between the respective Defenders of each, which have appeared as unreasonable and absurd, as if all the Preparations for securing one part of a Ship in a Storm were to be censured as a Contrivance to sink the rest. Thus far Doctor Doddridge in a late Preface.

And I think we may as well borrow the Similitude expressly from the Scripture itself, 1 Corinthians 12:14 etc. The Body is not one Member, but many. If the Foot shall say, because I am not the Hand, is it therefore not of the Body? And how ridiculous would it be if we should suppose the Ear shall say, because I am not the Eye, I am not of the Body. If the whole Body were an Eye, where were the Hearing? If the whole were Hearing where were the Smelling? And if they were all one Member, where were the Body? The Eye cannot say unto the Hand, I have no need of you; nor again, the Head to the Feet, I have no need of you: Now ye are the Body of Christ, and Members in particular.

In the same manner, Repentance, Faith and Love are three necessary Graces or Virtues that go to make up a Christian; and I might cite several Texts of Scripture, where each of these three are made necessary to Christianity. Is it not therefore a most unreasonable thing to set up either Repentance, Faith or Love so high, as though the whole of Christianity was contained in it, when it is evident that nothing else can make a Christian but such a Faith as brings with it Repentance and Good Works, or Holiness of Life, or such a Love as produces Obedience and Good Works, which must be the Effect of this Faith?

In Christianity nothing avails but such a Faith as works by Love unto all Holiness, Galatians 5:6. Repent and believe the Gospel, was the first preaching of Christ and his Apostles, Mark 1:15. And in other Places, Faith is indispensably coupled with Repentance, Acts 3:19, 20:21. Without Repentance our Sins will not be forgiven us. Without Faith in Jesus Christ we have no Interest in his Salvation. True Faith must be such as purifies the Heart, Acts 15:9. And produces Good Works as the necessary Evidences to prove our Faith true, James 2:17, 18.

What a strange sort of monstrous Christian would this be, who pretended to much Faith, but had no Love nor Repentance? And as monstrous would that Pretender be, who had Love or Repentance without Faith. As God hath set the Members of the Body, every one of them as it hath pleased him, so has he appointed Faith, Repentance and Love to fulfil their several Offices in the Christian Life. What a Piece of Madness therefore is it, and high Inconsistency to separate those Things which God hath joined in his Gospel? or to preach or paraphrase very long and talk very much upon ever a one of these, so as to hinder that due Respect that is to be paid to the other two? There is no Man is or can be a true Believer in Christ, if he has not Repentance and Love, producing good Works, as well as that Faith which is necessary to make a Christian. Let us take heed therefore, lest we give Occasion by any of our Discourses to exalt one of these Virtues or Graces to the Prejudice of the rest, for the utter Loss of either of them will destroy all our Pretenses to Christianity.

When Solfido has formed one of his Christians exactly agreeable to the Shape and Humor of his own Imagination, and dressed him up in all the Feathers of strict Orthodoxy that he can find in the severest Writers, and by a Motto written upon his Forehead has called him the Man of Faith, I am at a Loss to know what Christian Church would receive him into their Communion, when he neither professes Repentance, nor Holiness, nor true Love to God or Man. It has indeed some of the Appearances of a Christian Statue, but it is a Man without Feet or Hands for walking or moving, a Man without Life or Activity to run the Christian Race, or to do anything for God in the World. What Glory can our Lord Jesus Christ receive from such a useless Figure? What Honour can such an imperfect Image possibly bring to the Gospel? Or what Service can he be of in the World or in the Church?

10. The most common Cause of Uncharitableness, and the last I shall mention, is, that a great Part of the Professors of our holy Religion, make their Heads the chief Seat of it, and scarcely ever suffer it to descend and warm their Hearts. Jesus the Savior has been discovered to them in a good degree of outward Light, but has never been revealed in them with Power, nor their Souls changed by Divine Grace into the Image of the Gospel. While they boast of their Orthodox Faith they forget their Christian Love.

Stellino has stuck his Brain all over with Notions, and fancies his higher Sphere sufficiently illuminated for the Conduct of Mankind, that's round about him, and beneath him: But this Set of Notions is like a Winter-night overhung with Stars; bright and shining, but very cold. Natural Affections have no room in his Soul, it is too much Spiritualized with Opinions and Doctrines. His Divinity lies all in his Understanding, and the common Duties of Humanity scarcely ever employ his Tongue or his Hands.

If a Man does but profess every Tittle of his Creed, and believe just as Stellino believes, he is declared fit for Holy Communion; and if he will but dispute warmly for the hard Words that distinguish his Scheme, and can pronounce Shibboleth well, he shall not be adjudged to Death or Damnation, but joined heartily to the Fellowship of the Saints, though his flaming Immoralities proclaim him a Son of Satan. Satan himself has perhaps a more accurate and nice Skill of the Controversies of Divinity, than the best of our Professors and Doctors have arrived at; but his Pride and Malice are Chains of Darkness, and make a Devil of him in spite of all his Knowledge. Yet Stellino affects too near a Resemblance to Lucifer, that fallen Son of the Morning.

Vices that are odious to human Nature, and wild Licentiousnesses of a bitter Tongue which destroy all civil Society, are very little Faults in his Opinion, when put into the Balance with Orthodoxy and Zeal. If my Conversation among Men be blameless and honourable; if my Practice consist of Virtue and Piety; if I profess a solemn Faith in Christ the eternal Word, the only begotten Son of God, who came into the Flesh, who died to make a true Atonement for the Sins of Men, and testify my unfeigned Subjection to him, and declare the Grounds of my Hope; yet I must not be admitted to the special Parts of Worship where Stellino presides, because I am not arrived at his degree of Light, and differ from his Expressions a little, when I explain the Words Justification and the Covenant of Grace. His Lips are ever full of Declamation and Controversy, and he harangues copiously upon the most affecting Points of our Religion; he talks much of the amazing Condescensions of Divine Mercy, and of the Kindness and Love of God our Savior towards Man; but it has not yet taught him Love to his Fellow-Creatures, nor Kindness towards his Brethren.

Such another Christian is Misander; he reverses the Duties of Christianity which Saint Paul describes, he speaks Evil of all Men but his own Party, he is a Brawler and ungentle, showing Meekness unto none; and while he pretends that the Grace of God which brings Salvation has appeared unto him, he lives still in Malice and Envy, and wears the visible Characters of the Men of Heathenism, hateful and hating one another, Titus 2:11, 12. Titus 3:2, 3, 4. He flourishes and enlarges upon the gracious Qualities of our Redeemer, our great High-Priest, who is touched with the Feeling of our Infirmities; yet himself has not learned from too glorious an Example to have Compassion on them that are ignorant and out of the way; but rather being exalted in his own Knowledge, he condemns his weak Brother to perish, for whom Christ died. Take your Bible, O vain Man, and read a few Lines in the 8th Chapter of Saint Paul's first Epistle to Corinthians. Knowledge puffs up, but Charity edifies; and if any Man think that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know; but if any Man love God, the same is known of him. And Saint John will assure you, that he that loves not his Brother knows not God, and if a Man say, I love God, and hates his Brother, he is a Liar, 1 John 4:8, 20.

Yet let not any think that I advance Charity so high, as to place it in the room of Knowledge and Faith, or to make it a self-sufficient Ground for our Admittance into Heaven at last: Nor can I suppose it alone to be a sufficient Plea for a Reception into any visible Church of Christ on Earth. A Confession of the Name of Jesus, with the most important and most necessary Articles of his blessed Religion, a Declaration of my personal Faith or Trust in him, together with a solemn Dedication of myself unto the Lord, may be justly required of me by that Christian Society into which I desire Admittance. In default of these the biggest Instances of Charity will never constitute me a Christian: Except ye believe that I am he, says our Savior, ye shall die in your Sins, John 8:24. If a Man strive for a Prize, yet is he not crowned unless he strive lawfully; (that is) according to the Methods prescribed in the Gospel, the Knowledge and the Faith of the Son of God, 2 Timothy 2:5. and the Sentence of our Lord is dreadful and peremptory. He that believes not shall be damned, Mark 16:16. With the Heart Man believes unto Righteousness, and with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation, Romans 10:10. But without Charity my Faith can never be true, for it must be such a Faith as works by Love, and discovers itself by all the Fruits of the Spirit, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Meekness, Temperance, Galatians 5:6, 22.

Thus far have we traced the Vice of Uncharitableness in many of the Properties that belong to it, and the Causes of it, and many Instances in which it discovers itself in the World, and in the Church; and it appears a very shameful Vice, and opposite to the Religion of the Blessed Jesus.