Satan to God Even the turning the bent of mens hearts and lives from sin and the creature to God by Jesus Christ and to the ways of Holinesse let them be of what opinion they will as to the several forms and modes amongst us Oh how many fewer Drunkards Swearers Whoremongers Oppressors and Cheaters might there have been amongst us had they had their liberty to have preached down these sins whose only study and businesse it was to decry and shame them and bring men from the love and practice of them How many more might there have been who as true mourners in our Zion would have been humbled for their own and the Nations sins and laboured by all means to have prevented Gods wrath had they in all places enjoyed those means for their Conversion which they sometimes did and might yet have done If then the multitudes of provoking sinners and the scarcity of humble holy praying Christians have been any ground of our sufferings can it be doubted whether that which hath been so much the cause of those hath done any thing to the procuring of these Oh for the Lords sake bethink your selves all you that are concerned Was it just and equal Dealing when the Prince of Darkness was advanc'd with all his might into the Field then to Disband and put out of Commission so many experienced Leaders that in their own Persons and by encouraging and guiding the several Companies would have done their best to resist him Did you herein consult the pleasure of the great Captain of our Salvation from whom you own your selves to have received your Offices only for the successful carrying on of his Designs and the fighting of his Battels Nay and all this you have done because they submitted not to some things which you your selves call Indifferent and which they believed were contrary to the former Instructions they had received from their Lord and Master Judge in your Consciences Do you think it is more acceptable to Christ that the Souls of men whom he thought worth his precious Hearts-blood should perish rather than some Ceremony or Injunction of yours be omitted Did he ever in his Actions or Doctrine manifest such a contempt of Souls and such an esteem for a Ceremony Consider his Life and Death and read his Discourses to the Pharisees and then judge Are Salvation and Damnation Indifferent things And shall they be less regarded than such Oh how will you compensate for the Disservice you have already done to the Gospel It is not all your Revenues can do it though your Repentance and Reformation of such miscarriages for the future may do much Be not offended with my freedom of speech for God is my Witness I speak not out of passion nor a desire to make you odious but out of a just zeal for the Cause of our dearest Lord and the Concern of mens Immortal souls What amends will you ever be able to make to the poor Creatures who may now be tormented in Hell for want of those means of prevention which you deprived them of Though they may have had those other advantages which may leave them inexcusable before God yet how will you excuse the denying them the best you might have afforded You may deride storm at on contemn these expoftulations of a poor Worm like your selves but consider I beseech you What answer you will make the great Judge of Heaven and Earth who will come shortly in Glory and Power to plead his own and his Peoples Cause when he will regard no man for the pompous Titles he hath had or great Offices he hath born in his Church for then well fare the Pope and his Clergy but they who have done and taught his Commands let them be of never such diminutive titles and esteem here shall be accounted Great in his Kingdom And That That 's our comfort by his Word we shall be judged at last if here we may not be tried by it Then we shall all stand on equal terms and the arbitrary determinations of frail men shall no more take place but there abide an Inquisition To that Bar we appeal by that judgment let us stand or fall thither we refer our selves and if we may not be heard here we will patiently and chearfully wait that final just decision of our Cause But now hear for your own sakes at least if neither our beseechings and tears nor the cry and blood of souls may be regarded Do you think this is a slight matter And that you can easily shift it off if they be required at your hands Did Christ die for souls shall they escape who murder them And do they do any less who hinder those that would run to help and save them If the silent Watchman be so damnably guilty what are they that silence the Watchmen To conclude Whether it had not been more acceptable to God more correspondent to your Commission more beseeming your Places and Profession more for the advancement of Religion and the eternal Welfare of Souls to have continued and encouraged faithful Labourers in the Vineyard of the Lord whose only delight was to be employed in his Service rather than to have offered them such terms which Christ never bid you and then exclude them for not accepting those terms I think your own Consciences may easily determine now be sure the Lord of the Vineyard will shortly 2. Another Effect of their removal from the Ministry is that many Places are left destitute and many are supplied with negligent insufficient scandalous men Had their rooms been fill'd with others as learned pious and industrious as they yet could they who cast them forth hardly evade the former charge except they could manifest that the Harvest was not great enough to have required all their utmost conjunct diligence But it is beyond all contradiction evident That in many Places since their removal there have been no Ministers at all in some as bad as none in others worse than none Let none maliciously interpret my Accusation largelier than I design it which is not at all of the innocent I censure no man as a Conformist but reverence and esteem all those who by their Lives and Doctrines have apparently endeavoured to advance Religion of which number I am confident there are many Conformable men And I abhor that uncharitable censorious Spirit which condemns all that are not just of their own Way But on the other side I think all are engag'd to be as far from palliating the notorious miscarriages of others Oh how many titular Ministers have we got that are far from deserving the name of Christians That should rather be turned out of the Church than admitted into the Pulpit This is so manifest That Sober men though of their own way acknowledge and lament it How many are there that more effectually preach for the Devil all the Week than for God upon his Day whose lives do more to set up Profaneness than their Sermons to
suppress it Are there not many openly guilty of that Drunkenness Wantonness Swearing and such like Loosness which they are appointed to turn others from And are these wickednesses provoking in the People and not in their Teachers who can never be guilty alone Are any men capable of offering such an affront to God and doing so much hurt to mens Souls by their wickedness as they from whose Lives should be learn't what is acceptable to God and necessary for us 'T is I remember the phrase of an excellent Divine A Profane Minister is the Devil in his Pontificalibus I list not here to blaze abroad all the disorders of our Clergy I shall not insist upon the ignorance and insufficiency of any though in point of Honour they were concerned to have provided against such who did lately with so much earnestness declaim against making Priests of the lowest of the people I will not meddle with that Tribe that lives by the Cathedrals I will not tell of mens oblique Preaching against that Holiness which they pretend to Preach up I shall not speak of the Pride and Covetousness the Laziness and Negligence of Pluralists Non-residents and of all those who too apparently seek their own Honour and Profit from the places they enter upon rather then the Salvation of Souls These things I shall not dilate upon because I would not too much swell my Paper and lest I should be thought to Rail Only let me beg the Guilty to charge these Crimes home on their own Consciences as men that value their everlasting happiness for doubtless God is much displeased with the sins of those whose Callings hath so near a relation to him and especially with the most heinous sin of making Religion only as a stirrup by it to get up into Dignities and Preferments which they who could see and censure in others should be careful themselves to avoid But those I mainly intend are the grosly vicious and debauch't who are most unworthy to take Gods Name into thier mouths to declare his Covenants or Statutes who themselves hate to be Reformed Good Lord That ever it should come to this in a Christian Church Reformed from the Corruptions that had overspread Christendom that infamously loose and dissolute men should be Ordained into and continued in the Ministry when godly sober men are excluded and kept out Oh how might the Romanist insult for such an acknowledgment if the Pope and his Cardinals with the rest of their Hierarchy were not known all the world over But with us such doings are capable of far greater aggravations than with them Oh that I could speak so sharply as might displease our Church-governours into a Reformation of this Corruption What are Wolves fittest to be Shepherds of the flocks Can the Devils Vassals destroy his Kingdom Must stark mad men be made Physitians and sent to recover other men to their wits Must they that have the Plague-sores running upon them be sent amongst others to prevent their Infection Is not a Pest-house a fitter place for such a man than a Pulpit Are Traytors and Incendiaries the fittest men to reclaim others from their Rebellion Are they likely to honour God and the Gospel and save mens Souls who do as it were by their actions say Come Parishioners follow me whatever I jest to you in the Church about God and Christ Heaven and Hell these are but idle Dreams or such matters as you need not much regard God is an hard Master his Laws are too strict it 's best to take our Pleasures and satisfie our Lusts come on it what will you entered into too strict a Covenant in Baptism you had better serve the Devil than this Jesus Christ who layes such hard things on his Followers what need you regard his blood he shed it that you might have leave to live wickedly or however 't is of no great worth for you had better be in an Ale-house or Whore-house than the Heaven he hath purchas 't Are not these think you sweet Preachers of the Gospel And let them consider then how well they have discharged their trust who set them up and maintain them whil'st they shut forth those who would make it their whole business to carry on the very same design which Christ came into the world for If any should here object and say But these profane men are peaceable whil'st your Godly ones are turbulent and disobedient I shall wish him to stay till I come presently to speak a word or two to that only here let me answer It seems strange to me that those men must pass for peaceable and obedient who are known Rebels against the Laws of Christ when they must be accounted disobedient who had rather lose their lives than wilfully break one of the least of these his Commands only because they submit not to Humane Impositions which yet they would do did they not think themselves pre-obliged by the Laws of Christ to the contrary Is this fair dealing I put it to thy own Conscience Reader be thou who thou wilt and as partial as thou wilt And if I went no farther I suppose I have spoke enough to manifest that there have been such sad consequences of the ejection of all who Conformed not that doubtless God hath hereby been dishonoured and displeased and for this hath a controversie with our Land 3. I might moreover add the feuds and animosities which have hereby been fomented and heightned and are like to be still perpetuated whereas had there been such an abatement of things required as might well have been granted in order to the retaining them in their places this might have been an happy mean for the composure of our greatest differences and people could not have taken notice of such divisions amongst us nor could Papists have had so much reason to hit us in the teeth with them nor could they whose spirits were too much exasperated or judgments corrupted have had so much occasion to make Factions and Parties and so much sin had been prevented 4. Nor yet think it nothing that so many innocent men and their Families are exposed to such great necessities that some of them have scarce had bread and water to keep them alive and some have been glad to betake themselves to hard Labour to procure them a Livelihood Certainly the very cryes of their Children for bread sounding in the ears of a most just and merciful God are not disregarded And whether they who have reduc't them to these exigencies have observed the great Rule not only of Christianity but even Nature it self To do as they would be done to I would wish them well to consider If any should Retort That they themselves were once so dealt with I answer I think they were used nothing near so harshly But grant they were the greater was their Injustice which was the cause and the more inexcusable they who inflict on others the hard measure which they themselves lately groaned under
he must have a good stock of Impudence who shall deny that many of those who have been of late Unserviceable were so accomplish't then I shall easily evidence that hereby God hath been much dishonoured and provoked whosoever the fault hath been which is that I shall briefly inquire into and discover and then give in full evidence of my assertion I know it may so happen that what I write may displease one and another but for that I am indifferent as having resolved to give no allowance to my passion or prejudice but to use the same impartiality and faithfulfulnesse to the utmost of my power that I should do if so soon as ever I had finished my work I was to receive my summons to appear before the just Judge of Heaven and Earth Nor would I willingly speak any thing but what the undoubted Interest of Christ and his Gospel engage me to and will warrant me in And whilst I have the Lord engaged in the whole cause which I undertake and plead I value not a straw at my foot what the most enraged potent malice can do Nay I dare then bespeak all in the words of the King of Egypt to Josiah a little varied 2 Chron. 35. 21. What have I to do with thee Oh man whoever thou art I come not against thee this day but against Sin wherewith I have war for God commanded me to this work Forbear from medling with God who is with me that he Destroy thee not And I think a man may with as much comfort be a Martyr for the Unity and Peace of the Church and advancement of Holinesse as ever any of our Protestants were for the defence of the Reformed Religion and indeed this was more their Cause than Christianity it self if we consider it right yea though he have a sheet of paper pinn'd to his back that shall call him Schismatical and Seditious and as such he be punished as they we know were burnt for Hereticks But to the businesse in hand As to the matter of Fact it s well enough known what Conditions were required of all that would continue in the Ministery and still are exacted of all that will enter upon it which Multitudes not submitting to were Suspended and Silenced and others who both by their Parents and themselves were designed for that Employment and accordingly Educated were prevented of their intentions The ill effects hereof I shall speak something to anon Now that I may deal fairly and plainly this I must needs say That if there have been any of these Dissenters who were convinced in their Consciences that the things commanded were such as all circumstances considered they might lawfully have submitted to but yet out of faction humour obstinacy a desire to gratifie or promote a party or any such carnal principle did refuse such submission they cannot be excused from the guilt of deserting their charges and of the many ill consequences of that desertion What can any man in reason desire more For it is as such they suffer and not meerly as misinformed much lesse sure as invincibly ignorant or as men that would not sin and if they have indeed been guilty of the Crimes for which their Punishments are proportioned I readily joyn with their most forward accusers but oh that the Punishment had stayed till the Crime had been proved and laid on those only that were found guilty But on the other hand if there were any who did use all probable means for their satisfaction being earnestly desirous to have continued in the work of the Lord and after all remained perswaded that they could not comply with what was enjoyned them without wilful sinning against God then they who by their Impositions did necessitate them to forsake their Ministry are liable to the former charge viz. are guilty of their Ejection and of the Effects thereof except they had sufficient reason for so doing Would they have any thing spoke more candidly and gently Now whether there be any of the former sort or not I cannot nor dare expresly affirm and I think till they shall acknowledge or some other way discover it more than I for my part have known them yet do it can be known only to him from whom no secret thoughts are hid but I desire them to deal faithfully with their own hearts and if they are conscious to themselves of any such ill Principles and grounds of their not Conforming to their Rulers Laws to be humbled for and expel them That there are many such ejected and prevented from the Ministery as I described in my latter Supposition I cannot but believe as having for my self the Testimony of my own Conscience in the sight of God and for others such Professions from men that have done nothing that I know to forfeit their credit and such Reasons to make those Professions appear credible that I am little less confident of it then I am that there is such a place as Rome or Paris which I know only by hear-say I say little less confident of this that there are many who yield not a Conformity to what was imposed not out of Hypocrisie or Humour but out of a fear of displeasing God and hurting their own Souls If this then be acknowledged I think those who have cast and kept such out have very great cause to be humbled for their severity toward them according to the measure they were Instrumental herein Except I added they had sufficient reason for their so doing And that I shall grant they had if they manifest either of these two things which are all the grounds I can imagine 1. That there are as good effects of this their Ejection as I can produce ill ones 2. Or that the nature of thethings imposed on them was such that it had been of as dreadful consequence to have dispenst with conformity to them as thus to deal with them for not rendring such a Conformity But till either of these be proved or some other satisfactory reason assigned giving leave soberly to debatethe case I shall for the conviction and humiliation of the guilty mention a very few of the many sad effects of this their exclusion 1. The first is the unreformednesse and wickednesse of multitudes that through Gods blessing upon their endeavours might have been converted and reformed And that this might have been in all probability accomplished we may very reasonably argue from that eminent successe which God gave to many of their publick labours and by some fruits since then of their private endeavours Let none here willfully mistake and say that by Converting men I mean nothing else but to turn them to a party or an opinion for I professe I intend no such thing but the very same that Christ doth when he tells us that except we be Converted we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that the Apostle doth when he speaks of our being turned from darknesse to light and from the power of