thing in my own just Defence which may in the least savor either of Pride Vanity or Boasting Do thou give me leave to praise and adore and magnifie thy restraining Grace which hath enabled me to make this Challenge to all my Enemies Give me the Man throughout the World that shall convince me of any Publick Immoral Actions that ever I have been guilty of from my Childhood to this Day and I will freely undergo the Punishment that is due to all those scandalous Reports that my Enemies have maliciously invented and industriously spread about concerning me to the great hindrance of thy Truth and the Salvation of thy People But not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be all the Praise for thy loving Mercy and for thy Truth 's sake 'T was thy Mercy thy Mercy alone and not any good in me that with-held thy Servant from all those Sins that other Men fall into and to which I my self am by Nature most subject Give me leave once more to praise and adore and magnifie thy restraining Grace which hath enabled me to make the same Challenge to all my Enemies of this Parish in Particular Give me the Man that can alledge any other Reason why he is my Enemy save only because I have told him the Truth and Christ hath lived a Life in me that is a reproach to his and I have refused to submit my self to his Imperious Conduct and Judgment in the Work of my Ministry And I will freely undergo any Penalty And here now methinks I see a whole Shoal full of Accusations thrown in all at once against me For First of all Some say we are not thy Enemies because thou tellest us the Truth But because thou dost Point at us in Church To which I answer First I neither knew thee nor thy Sin and consequently I neither pointed at nor so much as thought of thee at that time only the Word of the Lord hath found thee out and thine own guilty Conscience is witness against thee For if thou art not guilty why art thou concern'd If thou art guilty why dost not thou amend thine own Fault in stead of finding Fault with me And my Second Answer is this Those that I have seen asleep I have spoken to and awaked lest the Lord should strike them dead upon the place as he did Euâ—ychus for sleeping at St. Paul's Sermon And those that have been laughing and impudently affronting God and the Congregation I have openly rebuked that others might fear according to St. Paul's Command 1 Tim. 5. 20. Publick Faults are not to be privately but publickly reproved And if the Officers of this Parish had done their Duty they should have presented such Men as Disturbers of Divine Service by the 111th Canon of our Church Secondly Others say We are not thy Enemies because thou tellest us the Truth But because thou keepest such a Bawling and hast so many Actions As for my Bawling as you call it I answer There are Sons of Thunder as well as such as speak with the still small Voice The greatest Sense that ever was delivered to wit the Moral Law was delivered in Thunder and Ligtning Lightning is necessary to discover your Sins to you and Thunder to strike you with the Terrors of the Lord and to make you sorry for them What is told us in the Ear we are to proclaim upon the House tops And God himself is express Isa 58. 1. Cry aloud spare not list up thy voice like a Trumpet and shew my People their Transgressions and the House of Jacob their Sins And 't is recorded John 7. 37. That Christ himself stood up at the last Day of the Feast and criod or bawled out aloud And the Prophet Esay does as it were supply the place of a Crier For says he Ho! every one that thirsteth and so on Isa 55. 1. And if we had not these Commands from God does not even Reason tell us 't is in vain to preach if no Man can hear what we say He had need have the loudest Voice that woud awaken you who are deep in Trespasses and Sins And as for my Actions I answer God hath given me liberty to use many more than ever I have yet used He has given me Liberty to stamp with my Feet and to beat the Pulpit and to smite with my Hands if need be which I have never done For says the Lord Ezek. 6. 11. Smite with thine Hand and stamp with thy Foot and say alas for all the evil abominations of the House of Israel Assure your selves he that finds sault with my earnestness does not know what it is to be in earnest And he does not know what that meaneth Cursed be he that doeth the Work of the Lord negligently Jer. 48. 10. Can any Man forbear crying out in good earnest when he sees so many poor Souls dispers'd abroad without a Shepherd Can any Man forbear crying out in good earnest when he sees so many poor Souls ready to sink down into Hell alive Did not dumb Atys cry out when he saw his Father in danger of being kill'd And how much more would he have cried out if he had seen him in as great a danger of being damned Thirdly Others say We are not thy Enemies because thou tellest us the Truth But because thou art so long and so tedious To which I answer Is the Service of God a Burden and a Weariness unto thee and dost thou really snuff at it as the Prophet speaketh Mal. 1. 13 When didst thou reckon a Merry-meeting too long When didst thou reckon the Play-house or the Tavern too tedious What wouldst thou do if I should dismiss thee sooner VVouldst thou go to the Exchange or the Coffee-house to hear News Or wouldst thou go home and instruct thy Family and Pray and sing Psalms with them and Catechise them and examin them in what they have heard in Church Sure I am they that use these and such like Godly Exercises in their own Houses do never think themselves too long in God's House A Day there is better to them than a thousand elsewhere VVhat an Age is this VVhen God condescends to speak to you for so long a time and you think it much to give him the hearing VVhen he vouchsafes to court you to be happy and you will not be courted by him Fourthly Others say We are not thy Enemies because thou tellest us the Truth But because thou dost over-do it To which I answer If I over-do it sure I am there are enough who under-do it And I can never be so over-strict in pressing your Duty as you are over-remiss in neglecting it You do not know what strictness Religion requires If you did you would say with the Prophet Jer. 23. 9. My Heart within me is broken because of the Prophets all my Bones shake I am like a drunken man and like a man whom Wine hath
tell him of and to rebuke him for that his Railery that he may learn not to Blaspheme Secondly What Men count Railery in me was never so esteemed by Christ the Prophets or Apostles They all used to speak plain blunt and home St. John Baptist said to the Pharisees and Sadducees O Generation of Vipers who hath warned you to flee from the Wrath to come St. Paul said to Elymas the Sorcerer O full of all Subtilty and Mischief thou Child of the Devil thou Enemy of all Righteousness Yea and even Christ himself who when he was Reviled Reviled not again was guilty of the very same thing that now a-days is cry'd out upon for insufferable Railing For did he not say to the Ruler of the Synagogue to his Face Thou Hypocrite Luk e 13. 15 And was not this a part of his Message to H erod Go ye and tell that Fox ver 32 And did he not so often joyn together the Scribes Pharisees Lawyers and Hypocrites that those Four VVords may be almost taken for one and the same thing And does not St. Epiphanius in his Epistle before his Book against Heresie both excuse and defend such a sharp way of Reproving Yea does not the Prophet foretel that this should be one of the Blessings of Christ's Kingdom Isa 32. 5. The Vile Person shall no more be called Liberal nor the Churl said to be Bountiful That is All things shall be called by their proper Names The Prodigal shall be called Prodigal and not Liberal And the Covetous shall be called Covetous and not a Good Husband But the truth on 't is now a-days Men are better bred than to tell their Hearers of their Faults in plain English They Preach of Sin in such neat soft and delicate Language that Men do almost take as much pleasure to hear it smoothly Preach'd against as they do in Committing it They give it such gentle Touches as if they would make Men believe they were afraid to hurt it and that 't were pity to use it harder They give it such easie Strokes of their Pen as if they were in love with it and were very loath to blot it out with all its Hand-writing Ninthly Others say we are not thy Enemies because thou tellest us the Truth But because thon art so insufferably Proud that thou scornest to keep Company but with such and such choice and select Persons To which I answer First 'T is a sign you have no outward ill Action to charge me with when you are forc'd to judge the very Thoughts and Intents of my Heart for want of better Accusation But let any Man judge Who is most Proud I for being thought so or you for thinking me so and so making your Selves Gods by pretending to know the Heart Secondly I acknowledge my felf very scrupulous of going into any Publick Houses according to the 75 th Canon of our Church And I am very cautious in keeping Company either with the Fornicator the Covetous the Idolater the Railer the Drunkard or the Extortioner or any such Man For St. Paul hath commanded me no not to Eat with such unless it be as our Saviour did with Publicans and Sinners in order to their Conversion I Cor. 5. 11. And for these and such like heinous Crimes I am represented by some as a Perfect Mad-man And I must needs own that e t er they are Mad for breaking these Apostolical and Ecc esiastical Canons or I am Mad for keeping them But I bless God I have no cause to take ought of this amiss For Christ himself went for a Mad-man Mark 3. 21 St. Paul went for a Mad-man and that for being too Learned that is for not being Mad at all Acts 26. 24. Nay and our whole Religion is called Foolishness 1 Cor. 1. 18. And Madness Wisd 5. 4. And blessed are ye when Men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of Evil against you falsely for my Names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Matth. 5. 11 12. Lastly Others say we are not thy Enemies because thou tellest us the Truth But in plain Terms because thou hast Preached False Doctrin For thou hast Preached That Fasting is necessary to Salvation And that Man and Wife ought to defraud one another of all Conjugal Pleasures upon their Fasting days And thou hast Preached also That he who keeps the whole Law and allows himself only in one beloved Sin is worse than he that keeps no part of the Law at all And thou hast Preached also That no Usurer ought to be admitted to the Sacrament until he be Reformed and that he can never be Reformed till he has made Restitution of all his Usury To which I answer First in general If I have Preached any False Doctrin I have been always ready to answer all Objections that have been sent me And if I had not been ready so to do yet the Law was open and my Enemies might have had me before the Bishop and accused me as they endeavoured to put me in the Spiritual Court for Visiting the greatest Object of Charity that ever I have seen or indeed so much as heard of and Praying and Fasting for her Recovery which blessed be God for it has been now some considerable time effected to the Wonder and Admiration of all that knew her And the Lord of his infinite Mercy so preserve her for Christ his sake Secondly I answer in Particular First As to Fasting I do openly declare it necessary to Salvation For Christ hath commanded it in the 6th of Matth. And as an incouragement to the observation of it he has given the same promise to it as he has done to Alms and Prayers ver 18. Secondly I do declare that every Man of the Church of England is bound in Conscience to observe the Vigils and Fasts and Days of Abstinence commanded in the Rubrick Thirdly I do declare that every Man and Wife must defraud one another of all conjugal Pleasures upon their fasting-Fasting-Days For says St. Paul 1 Cor. 7. 5. Defraud one another by consent for a time that ye may give your selves to Fasting and Prayer And the Prophet is express Esa 58. 3. That one Reason why the Lord did not regard the Fasts of those times was because they found Pleasure in the Days of their Fasts And that you may not think me singular in the interpretation of these Texts of Scripture I have here brought you Bishop Taylor to confirm what I say His Words are these in his Holy Living Sect. 5. Chap. 4. He that Fasts for Repentance must during that Solemnity abstain from all bodily Delights and the Sensuality of all his Senses and his Appetites For a Man must not when he mourns in his Fast be merry in his Sport Weep at Dinner and laugh all Day after Have a Silence in his Kitchin and
thing God is Judge I did not I love a good Clergy-man too well for that I love the very ground he goes upon I know his great VVorth He is worthy of double Honour He is no precarious dependent Creature He is worthy of and deserves and may challenge a double Honour when Men are so base as to deny him an ordinary Respect Oh how beautiful upon the Mountains are the Feet of him that bringeth good Tidings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tidings of Good that publisheth Salvation that saith unto Zion Thy God reigneth Isa 52. 7. God is judge All my Design was First To do as God himself does to begin with God's own House For till that be first reformed no considerable Reformation can ever be made Till the Spring be sweetned the Streams will be bitter And it was Secondly That no Men might take it amiss when I told them of their Faults having told the Clergy of theirs in the first place Paul withstood Peter to the Face and told him of his Fault before all the People And it was Thirdly That I might gain my Doctrin the freer Passage into the Hearts of all my Hearers by shewing them openly that I did nothing by Prejudice or Partiality but that I taught the way of God in Truth without regarding any Man's Person God is Judge If all Men would but as diligently endeavour to live strict Lives to avoid all Publick Houses those Haunts of Idleness and Debauchery and to preach affectionately and by heart If all Men would but as diligently endeavour to do this and to observe the Rubrick the Canons the Articles the Homilies and the Liturgy of the Church of England If all Men I say would but as diligently endeavour to do all this as I my self have hitherto always done in my Station Then All its Professors would endeavour to be like its incomparable Constitutions the best in the whole World Amen Lord Jesus Amen Amen The Sum of the whole matter is this This is the Charge that God gave me when I first came to this Place Son of Man I have made thee a Watchman unto the House of Israel Therefore hear the Word from my mouth and give them warning from me When I say unto the wicked Thou shalt surely die and thou givest him not warning nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life the same wicked man shall die in his Iniquity but his Blood will I require at thine hand Ezek. 3. 17 18. And what I am to tell you from God at my going away from this place is this Into whatsoever City or Town ye shall enter enquire who in it is worthy and there abide till ye go thence And when ye come into an House salute it And if the House be worthy let your peace come upon it but if it be not worthy let your peace return to you And whoseever shall not receive you nor hear your words when ye depart out of that House or City shake off the dust of your Feet Verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for that City Matth. 10. 11 12 13 14 15. From which dreadful Judgment Good Lord deliver this Place for Christ's sake FINIS ADVERTISEMENT MOre Sermons of the same Author will be shortly Printed Prop. I. Prop. II. Quest Answ Prop. III. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Reason 4. Prop. IV. Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Prop. V. * The Words of a Parishioner's Letter sent to me April 30. 1691. Vnless you do in All respects behave your self as in My Judgment you ought to do I will forbear my farther Contribution and also perswade all others to do the like c. Obj. 1. Answ 1. Answ 2. Obj. 2. Answ 1. Answ 2. Obi. 3. Answ Obj. 4. Answ Obj. 5 Answ Obj. 6. Answ Obj. 7. Answ 1. Answ 2. Answ 3. Answ 4. Answ 5. Obj. 8. Answ 1. Answ 2. Obj. 9. Answ â— Answ 2. Obj. 10. Answ 1. Answ 2.