The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural…

2. And that all this is justly to be imputed to Christ himself, I shall now prove. 1. He gave them a perfect pattern for his holy, obedient, heavenly Life, in his own person and his conversation here on Earth. 2. His Doctrine and Law requireth all this holiness which I described to you: You find the Prescript in his Word, of which the holy Souls and Lives of men are but a transcript. 3. All his Institutions and Ordinances are but means and helps to this. 4. He hath made it the condition of mans Salvation to be thus holy, in sincerity, and to desire and seek after perfection in it: He taketh no other for true Christians indeed, nor will save any other at the last. 5. All his comforting Promises of mercy and defence are made only to such. 6. He hath made it the Office of his Ministers through the World, to persuade and draw men to this Holiness: And if you hear the Sermons, and read the Books which any faithful Minister of Christ doth preach or write, you will soon see that this is the business of them all: And you may soon perceive, that these Ministers have another kind of preaching and writing than the Philosophers had; more clear, more congruous, more spiritual, more powerful, and likely to win men to Holiness and Heavenliness: When our Divines and their Philosophers are compared, as to their promoting of true Holiness, verily, the latter seem to be but as Glow-worms, and the former to be the Candles for the Family of God: And yet I truly value the wisdom and virtue which I find in a Plato, a Seneca, a Cicero, an ⟨p. 291⟩Antonine, or any of them. If you say, our advantage is because coming after all, we have the helps of all, even of those Philosophers. I answer, mark in our Books and Sermons whether it be any thing but Christianity which we preach? It is from Christ and Scripture, that we fetch our Doctrine, and not from the Philosophers: we use their helps in Logic, Physics, &c. But that's nothing to our Doctrine! He that taught me to speak English, did not teach me the Doctrine which I preach in English: And he that teacheth me to use the Instruments of Logic, doth not teach me the doctrine about which I use them. And why did not those Philosophers by all their art, attain to that skill in this Sacred work, as the Ministers of Christ do, when they had as much or more of the Arts than we? I read indeed of many good Orations then used;

2. And that all this is justly to be imputed to Christ himself, I shall now prove. 1. He gave them a perfect pattern for his holy, obedient, heavenly Life, in his own person and his conversation here on Earth. 2. His Doctrine and Law requireth all this holiness which I described to you: You finde the Prescript in his Word, of which the holy Souls and Lives of men are but a transcript. 3. All his Institutions and Ordinances are but means and helps to this. 4. He hath made it the condition of mans Salvation to be thus holy, in sincerity, and to desire and seek after perfection in it: He taketh no other for true Christians indeed, nor will save any other at the last. 5. All his comforting Promises of mercy and defence are made only to such. 6. He hath made it the Office of his Ministers through the World, to perswade and draw men to this Holiness: And if you hear the Sermons, and read the Books which any faithfull Minister of Christ doth preach or write, you will soon see that this is the business of them all: And you may soon perceive, that these Ministers have another kinde of preaching and writing than the Philosophers had; more clear, more congruous, more spiritual, more powerfull, and likely to win men to Holiness and Heavenliness: When our Divines and their Philosophers are compared, as to their promoting of true Holiness, verily, the latter seem to be but as Glow-worms, and the former to be the Candles for the Family of God: And yet I truly value the wisdom and virtue which I finde in a Plato, a Seneca, a Cicero, an