to Simplicianus, saying, Eamus in ecclesiam, Christianm volo fieri; 'Let us go to the church, I will now in earnest be a Christian.' And there, though a private profession of his faith might have been accepted, chose to do it openly, saying, That he had openly professed rhetoric, which was not a matter of salvation, and should he be afraid to own the word of God in the congregation of the faithful? God requires both the religion of the heart and mouth, Rom. X. 10; 'With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' Confession of the mouth, without faith in the heart, is gross hypocrisy ; to pretend faith without profession of the mouth, is both hj'pocrisy and cowardice.
Reas. I shall give but one reason of the point, and that is taken from the great trust which God puts in his saints, concerning his truth ; this is the great deposituni which God delivers to his saints, with a strict and solemn charge to keep against all that imdermine or oppose it. Some things we trust God with ; some things God trusts us with. The great thing which we ])\\i into God's hand to be kept for us, is our soul, 2 Tim. i. 12 : ' He is able to keep that which I have committed im to him against that day.' That which God trusts us chiefly with, is his truth. It is therefore said to be delivered to them, as a charge of money to a friend whom we confide in,Jude 3 : ' Contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.' ' To them,' saith the apostle, speaking of the Jews, 'were committed the oracles of God,' Rom. iii. 2. They were concredited with that heavenly treasure. So Paul exhorts Timothy, Eph. i. 1, to ' hold fast the form of sound words ; ' and this, ver. 14, he calls ' the good thing which was com- mitted to him.' If he that is intrusted with the keeping of a king's crown and jewels, ought to look carefully to his charge, that none be lost or stolen ; much more the Christian, that hath in his charge God's crown and treasure. Rob God of his truth, and what hath he left ? The word of truth is that testimony which the great God gives of himself to man. The saints are his chosen witnesses above others, whom he calls forth to vouch his truth, by a free and holy profes- sion thereof before men, called therefore the witnesses of God, Psa. xix. 7 ; Isa. viii. 20 ; Heb. xii. 1 ; Rev. xi. 3. He that maintains any error from the word, bears false witness against God. He that for fear of shame deserts the truth, or dissembles his profession, he denies God his testimony ; and who can express what a bloody sin this is, and to what a high contempt of God it amounts? It were a horrid crime though but in a man's case. As when one is falsely accused in a court, to speak something, that might clear the innocency of the man, and yet shoidd suffer him to be condemned, rather than hazard himself a little by speaking the truth in open court. O what then is his sin, that when God himself, in his truth, stands at sorry man's bar, dares not speak for God, when called in to declare himself; but lets truth suffer by an unjust sentence, that himself may not at man's hands for bearing. witness to it?
Object. But this may seem too heavy a burden to lay on the Christian's back. Must we lay all at stake, and hazard all that is dear to us, rather than deny, or dissemble our profession of the truth ? Sure Christ will have but few followers if he holds his servants to such hard terms.
Answ. Indeed it is hard to flesh and blood ; one of the highest stiles to be gone over in our way to heaven : a carnal heart cannot hear this, but he is offended presently, Matt. xiii. 21. Therefore such as are loth to lose heaven, and yet imwilling to venture thus much for it, have set their wits at work to find out an easier way thither. Hence those heretics of old, Priscillianists, and others, whose chief religion was to save their own skin, made little of outward profession. They thought they might say and vnisay, swear and forswear, (according to their wretched principle, Juro, perjuro, mentem injuratam gero,) so in their heart they did but cleave to the truth. O what fools were the pro- phets, apostles, and other holy martyrs, that have sealed the truth with their blood, if there might have been such a fair way of escaping the storm of perse- cution ! Bold men, that to save a little troulDle from man, for truth's sake, durst invent such detestable blasphemies against the truth ; yea, deface those characters which nature itself engraves upon the conscience. "The same window that let in the light of a Deity, would with it let in this also, that we should walk in the name of this God ; the very heathen know this. ' All people will walk, every one in the name of his god,' Micah iv. Socrates, to blood, held
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