The academy of true wisdom:, or, The school of vertue. Wherein, one is your master even Christ ... : A work lately compil'd, and brought to its ultimate perfection, / by J.W.

A Check to the Christian MAN.

ANd thou, O Christian Man! hast more dishonour'd me, then even the very Pagans, and Infidels. I told the Jews a while before my Passion, that had I not come my self, and spoke to them, their Sins would not have been altogether so grevious. How much more reason have I to say the same to thee, ungrateful, and disobedient Christian? I have my self instructed thee, (or to speak more properly) the Primitive Church in it's very Infancy, and left my Apostles also, to teach and confirm them in my Precepts, and Evangelical Counsels, which they firmly be∣liev'd, and faithfully observ'd for several years, but especially during the time of their greatest troubles, and grevious persecutions, wherein Millions of thousands of 'em have suffer'd death couragiously rather then deny their Faith, and have wrought so many, and such stupendious Miracles that many more Souls were converted by them, then had been by all the Preachings & Instructions of either th'Apostles, or their Disciples; so that in a very short time all the Potentates, Sublimi∣tys, and Dignitys of the World, all the Sub∣tilitys of Philosophers, all the magick Arts, and illusions of Wizards and Witches, all

the power of mankind, and their Earthly Kingdoms, were wholly subdu'd and brought under my obedience. But alas! soon after I had confer'd the Blessing of a profound Peace upon my Church, and had utterly destroy'd all her Enemys, and heap'd upon her Honours, Riches, Dignitys, and all prosperity imagi∣nable, and that her glory shin'd through all the World, her devotion began to diminish, her Charity to grow cold, and she made of those very Ornaments, which were given her by me to set forth the lustre of her glory and the greatness of my renown, the subject of her Pride and Vanity: and her Clergy too, have chang'd that which ought to be spi∣ritual, and only for the maintenance of the poor, into their own temporal Emoluments, and have spent it to entertain their carnal Friends and Relations, and to increase their own Ambition and Lust; so that the won∣derful beauty of her grace, the splendor of her exquisit virtues, the glory of her heavenly wisdom, the excellent gifts of the Holy Ghost, the luster of the eight Beatitudes, of the twelve Fruits, and the rest of the manifold graces and favours which I confer'd upon her, in order to make her an accomplish'd Spouse to my self, is in a manner totally de∣cay'd in her, and is her self so much alter'd from what she was in her Primitive time,

that of a powerful Queen which had for∣merly the whole Universe at her command, without any Adversarys to disturb her, she is become a poor handmaid disrob'd by her Enemys, and by them confin'd to live in one small corner of the Earth; neither is she there free from persecutions and troubles, but la∣ments both day and night the sinful and rui∣nous state of her incorrigible and rebellious Children. * 1.1 Have I not great reason then to be∣wail her condition, and say, Alas! how is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold chang'd! the stones of the Sanctuary are cast out into the streets. The precious Sons of Zion comparable to fine gold, how are they esteem'd as earthen pitchers. They that did feed delicately, are now even hunger-starv'd, and they that were brought up in Scarlet do imbrace the dunghils. Her Nazarites were purer then snow, they were whiter then milk, and even more glorious than the most glistering Rubys, for their Souls were adorn'd with grace, which gave them a far greater lustre then the most polish'd Saphires: But alas! now their visage is blacker then a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaves to their bones: nay 'tis wither'd, and become as dry, and as black as a rotten stick. Thou O Christian People! hast with thy iniquitys; brought all these distasters &

horrid confusions upon my Church; thou art the fatal cause of all her deformity; thou art the unfortunate instrument of all her dejecti∣ons, oppressions and slaveries, thou art like∣wise the sole promoter, and Actor of thine own temporal, and eternal calamitys; and therefore the punishment of thy iniquity shall be far greater then that which I have inflicted upon Sodom and Gomorrah; for all their abo∣minations and crimes, (tho' extraordinary great) were nothing so heinous in my sight as are thy Sins; neither are the unbelieving Nations so wicked and viciously given as are many thousands of Christians in this wicked Age; So that, the Infidels who were so much enamour'd with the Christians of the Pri∣mitive Church (by reason of their unspotted life, godly behaviour, and pious conversati∣on,) that thousands of them forsook their I∣dolatrys to embrace my Faith; had they known, and seen their sordid, their wicked, their Scandalous life and conversation,) in these latter corrupt centurys (tho' they were ne're so much inclin'd to be of the same be∣lief) they would neither be of their profes∣sion, nor would they so much as converse with so Scandalous a generation, for they live, as if they were under no Law, and do Sin even against the Law of Nature; where∣as the Heathens have a veneration for mode∣sty

and honesty, and for all other moral vir∣tues, which are now adays totally neglect∣ed by Christians, nay, they are so much avers'd from them, that the description which my Prophet Ezechiel gives of the Sinagogues, a∣bominations and villanys, may be very well appli'd to their enormous crimes & offences.

This general dissolution, and sinful liber∣ty of Christians gave occasion to several vir∣tuous and zealous men to shed many bitter tears; and induc'd them to believe that the generality of Christians had conspir'd even with all the Devils of Hell to dishonour, and despise me, and that so publickly, and with so much impudence, that even the very Hea∣thens abhor their impietys, and are opinio∣nated that God has forsaken, and deliver'd them up into their power to chastise them for their abominations, and wickedness, even as the People of Israel were expos'd to the rage and fury of Nebuzardan cheif Commander of the King of Babylon's Army; He himself tells Jeremy, * 1.2 that he had his commission from me to destroy them. The Lord thy God says he, has pronounc'd this evil upon this place, and all it's Inhabitants, and now the Lord has brought it upon them, and has done ac∣cording as he has said: * 1.3 because they have sinn'd against the Lord, and have not obey'd his voice. The Prophet Royal is no less dread∣full

in his description of my Anger against the Wicked, thy hands says he, shall finde out thy enemies; thy right hand shall finde out those that hate thee, Thou shalt make them as a fiery open in the time of thine An∣ger: The Lord shall swallow them up in his Wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the Earth, and their Seed from among the Children of men; for they intended evil against thee; they ima∣gin'd a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform. * 1.4 Nay holy Job says, that the wicked in the fulness of their sufficiency shall be in straits; that every hand of the wicked shall come upon them; that when the wicked is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and it shall come upon him while he is eating. The Hea∣ven shall reveal his iniquity, and the Earth shall rise up against him: the increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow a∣way in the day of his Wrath: this is says he, the portion of a wicked man from God, and the Inheritance appointed unto him by God.

Thou wilt tell me perhaps, that Christians would not be so very prone to vice and wick∣edness, but that their Rulers and Superiours do spur them on by their ill examples; and that I am rather to be blam'd, because I had

committed my Flock to such mercenaries, & ravenous Wolves, who could not be ignorant of what might follow in so scandalous a go∣vernment, and chiefly for that I have said, according as the Judge is, so the people will be, and that such will be the Inhabitants of the City, as are the Magistrates; That the Pastors and Rulers, which I have set over my Flock have acted rather like Tygers then Pa∣stours to them: for the whole generality of Christians are so missed by them, that they fix their affections only upon such terene objects, as are most pleasing to their criminal inclina∣tions. But what is thy intention by making this objection? Wouldst thou indeed make me the Authour of thy Wickedness? That is not possible, for thou know'st that I am just in all my ways, & holy in all my Works. Thou canst not be ignorant, but that my choosing such scandalous Pastors is an evident sign of my anger against the People, nay, * 1.5 thou hast heard me say by one of my Prophets, I will give thee a King in my anger, and Rulers in my indignation; and by another, I will give Children to be their Princes, and Babes shall rule over them; And the People shall be oppress'd one by another, and every one by his Neighbour: The Child shall behave him∣self proudly against the Ancient, and the base against the honourable. Nay, * 1.6 I will make the Hypocrite to reign for the sins of

the People. By this thou maist infer, that if I withdraw the assistance of my grace from the wicked, the fault is their own, and not mine, for I am always ready to comply with Sinners, * 1.7 when they answer my expectation, and call; otherwise I will laugh at their ca∣lamity, and mock when their fear shall come. As for those Superiors and Rulers that do by their ill examples bring their Inferiours and Subjects to utter destruction and loss of their Souls, I will certainly require them at their hands, and they shall answer to me Soul for Soul; * 1.8 for tho' I make use of them in this life to chastise my Flock, yet after all, I shall condemn them to Hell, even as a compassi∣onate Father does cast the rod into the fire after he has whip'd his dearly belov'd Childe therewith.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Quomodo obscu∣ratum est aurum mutatus est color optimus &c. Lament. Jere. 4.1.
• * 1.2

  Jerem. 41.2.
• * 1.3

  Psal 21••8.
• * 1.4

  Job. 20, 22.
• * 1.5

  Dabo Re∣gem in fu∣rore meo & Princi∣pes in in∣dignatione mea. Ose. 13.11. Esa. 3.4.
• * 1.6

  Job. 34.30.
• * 1.7

  Prov. 1.26.
• * 1.8

  Ezec. 3.17.