Spiritual Peace and Comfort. .243 their nature, ( and wo to them if they do not) and then let them tel me what it doth coif the(n.AlasSirs, how great a number ofProfeffors are bate, daubing, felf-feekingHypocrites, that cull out the fate, the cheap, the ease part ofduty, and leave all the reft.! And fo ordinarily is this done, that we have.niade us a newChriftianity by it ; and the Religion- of Chrifts own making, the felf-denying courfe prefcribed- by our Mafter, is almoft unknown ; and he that fhould prac`.tife it would be taken for a mad man, or,fome fell-conceited Cynick, or forne faucy,if not feditious fellow, It is not therefore becaufe Chriff ,bath not prefcribed us a more feltdenying, hazardáus, 'labo- rious way, that men fo commonly take up in the Cheapeft Religion : but it is through our .falfe- heartednefs to Chrift, and the ftrength of fenfual carnal Interefts inns, which .Make.us put falfe Inter- pretations on the plaineft precepts of Chrift which charge any unpleafing duty on us, andFaailifi cally turn them into Allegories, . or at xleaft we will not yield to obeyhim. And truly, I think that oúr (flitt- ingoffChrift in this unworthy manner, andeven al- tering that very frame and nature of Chriftian Reli- gion (by turning that into a ftefhpleafing Religón which is more againft the fiefh then all the Religions elfe in the world) and dealing fo refervedly , fuperfi- cially and unfaithfully in all his work, is a great caute why Chrift doth now appear no _ more openly for men, and pour out no larger a meafure ofhis Spirit in Gifts and Confolations. When men appeared ordinarily in the molt open manner for Chrift,-:in greateft dangeriand fufferings, then Chrift appeared more openly and eminently for them (yet is none T 2 more
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