Sermons preached

(2.) Another Sort think such Discourses may be well spared among a Company of Believers; and they need not this Watchfulness and holy Care, especially against grievous Sins: that they have such good Command of themselves, that they can keep within Compass well enough. 'Tis well if you be come to this height of Christian Perfection, that Temptations make none, or no considerable Impression upon you. But we must warn you, and that of the most gross Sins. Christ thought fit to warn his Disciples; Luk. 21. 34. Take heed lest your Hearts be overcharged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness, and the Cares of this Life. And the Apostle every where warns Christians of Malice, of Hypocrisy, of Envy, of Lying, of Evil-speaking; 1 Thess. 4. 6. Take heed that you do not overreach and defraud one another, for God is the Avenger of all such. But these Men would be fed with refined Strains of Contemplative Divinity, and have no Sins reproved, but such kind of Sins as would seem a Credit rather than a Disgrace: like those Diseases that are incident only to the best Complexions and Constitutions. If you speak against something that may rather argue their Excellency, than shame them of their Sin, you shall be welcome. This over-spiritual Preaching ends in an aery Religion. Is Sin grown less dangerous, or Men more skilful to avoid it, than heretofore? Certainly, he that considers how many scandalous Professors there are, that would be accounted the People of God, hath no cause to think so. If Paul saw need of Mortification, 1 Cor. 9. 27. We are not more strong, but more fool-hardy.

(2.) Another Sort think such Discourses may be well spared among a Company of Believers; and they need not this Watchfulness and holy Care, especially against grievous Sins: that they have such good Command of themselves, that they can keep within Compass well enough. 'Tis well if you be come to this height of Christian Perfection, that Temptations make none, or no considerable Impression upon you. But we must warn you, and that of the most gross Sins. Christ thought fit to warn his Disciples; Luk. 21. 34. Take heed lest your Hearts be overcharged with Surfetting and Drunkenness, and the Cares of this Life. And the Apostle every where warns Christians of Malice, of Hypocrisy, of Envy, of Lying, of Evil-speaking;