little wedges make way unto greater or as little theeves being let in at a window will set open large doors for greater theeves to come in at Yea from very small evils not let at the beginning spring oftentimes great and mighty mischiefes as for example pilfering a few plums to please the pallat makes way for a lye a lye makes way for an oath and an oath having past both undiscovered and unpunished makes way for downright perjury And so in other cases asw ho would have thought that Davids wanton look should have begot murther which together with his adultery would have been prevented had he but with Job made a covenant with his eyes Whereas admit the serpents head his body will ask no leave Yea if the tempter but gets in his claw by our willing toleration and continuance of one lust it shall be hard but he will thereby procure room for greater evils to enter Neither can thy soul or mine be in safety without a resolute defiance of every sin for yeeld to one and ye invite many relieve one and all the rest will croud in for almes Neither is it any praise to be sparing of a vicious delight for the very last is deadly the least sinne serving in some measure to harden our hearts defile our consciences and blind our minds aswell as greater Sect. 41. Thirdly They scruple whatsoever is sinfull because no sin can be light or small in him whom God hath so much obliged honoured as of a bondslave to Satan and firebrand of hell to adopt him his son and assure him of an immortall kingdom for such know that sin is Gods mortall enemy whence he argues thus The great and holy God will not disgest that any shall make leagues of amity with the meanest of his enemies much lesse that his owne endeered child for whom he hath done so much should make the temple of the holy Ghost an habitation for that guest he hates so deadly And the holines of the person adds much to the unholinâ—s of the act Eminency of profession doubles both the offence and the judgement As how hainously did the Lord take that seeming small sin in Hezekiah when he did but shew the Babilonish Ambassadors all his treasures and what punishment did he threaten for the same which was accordingly accomplished 2 Kings 20. 15. 17. 18. What sin would a man think could be smaller then that of the Prophet when he but turned into the other Prophets house to eate bread being hungry and also presuming that he had a warrant from God so to do 1 Kings 13. yet he lost his life for it And we see how Vzza for onely putting his hand to the Arke to stay it when the oxen did shake it a small sin will a carnall heart say And yet the Lord for this small sinne in great wroth smore him that he dyed in the same place 2 Sam. 6. 7. The Philistims handled it far more rudely and irreverently and yet most of them escaped with far lesse punishment if any at all 1 Sam. 5. 1. 2 Yea read we not of more then fifty thousand Bethshemites stroke dead in the place For only looking into the Ark. 1 Sam. 6. 19. to teach us that no sin is light or small so long as it is forbidden The Church is to God as a House a Garden a Spouse And wee know that men who will abide durt in the streets will not endure it in their Houses they that will suffer weeds in the field will not permit them in their Gardens men that can beare with wanton carriages in a Strumpet will not endure an unchast looke in their Spouse No marvell then if God will not endure small sinnes in his beloved and deale more severely with them then with others Therefore it behoves all that have an interest in him to be carefull what they doe and not to offend him willfully by the least provocation But Sect. 42. Fourthly They make conscience of small sinnes because the wages of sinne be it small or great is death Rom 6. 23. Nor is any sin small but comparatively Luke 11. 42. That distinction which the Papists use of mortall and veniall sinnes never tooke its ground from Gods word Or admit the act bee small yet the Cercomstances may make it deadly And by how much easier the Law by so much sorer the punishment for breaking that Law Quo levius mandatum eo gravius delictum saith Austine In difficult precepts the obedience is more acceptable but in light commands the omission is more Damnable saith Barnard We may say of this or that sinne as Lot of Zoar is it not a little one Or as Ananias might have said of his sinne I did it but once but that one little sin be it what it will will everlastingly damn us if wee sue not out a pardon for it in the blood of Christ Besides how were the Angels in Heaven punished for one fault Adam for one Apple Moses for one unbeleefe Ely for his indulgence only Ananias sold a possession for the Churches releefe he only told a lye nimed a little he thought the Holy Ghost had no need of it or could not misse it but that lye that little cost him deare Alasse one flaw in a Diamond takes away the lustre and the price One peece of Ward Land makes the Heir lyable to the King And one sin will keepe possession for Sathan as well as twenty 2 What is a Mountain of Earth but an acumulation of many little dusts Or what is a Flood but a concurrence of many little drops One haire doth not hang a man many haires twisted together will even our lusts are able to serve us like Absalom and halter us at the next bough Many threds make a Cord many Cordes a Cable and Cables hold huge Vessels If actuall sinne be a sword every little lust is a sharp thorne And a little prick with a thorne neglected may fester to an agangreen A little Pinne especially being poysoned may prove mortall as well as a great weapon And what matters it whether a man receive his death from a Pistol or a great Ordnance Yea oftentimes a wind that comes in at a crany or â—revice or some narrow passage doth a man more hurt then an open storme Sect. 43. Fifthly It hath beene ever Gods wont by small precepts to proue mens dispositions as hee proved Adam in the prohibited fruit and the evill servant with one talent Yea had not the rest well improved their talents they had been taken away instead of being doubled But God first credits 〈◊〉 with lesse things as men prove vessels with water before they trust them with Wine And small precepts from God are both as strong bands and least things as great tryalls of a good conscience as the greatest Obedience is as well tyed and tryed and disobedience as well punished in a little as in much Many think they may ly a little for advantage or answer when told
buds and blossomes of grace and so go on to perfection yearly increasing in the fruits of obedience We get not at one jumpe into heavâ—n nor at one stroake kill wee the enemie Many are the vices and imperfections wherewith our soules even from our Cradles have been tapestred and strive we never so to be rid of them they will still be hankering about us for harbor and abode Well may we overcome those cursed Canamites so as they cannot rule and raine in us as in former times but we shall never utterly expell them from dwelling amongst us For doe what wee can yet still they will be as thornes in our sides to vex and grieve us The Regenerate man is not wholy spirit as the Carnall man is wholy flesh The flesh will be lusting against the Spirit as the spirit against the flesh the one will be tempting us unto sinne as the other is ever stirring us up to holy obedience The work of grace though it doth not suffer Christians to live as they list yet it does not inable them to live as they would It is not so broad as to allow of corruption nor so narrow but it will permit of corruption The best Christians in this their state of imperfection are like gold that is a little too light which neâ—ds some grains of allowance to make it passe We must grant the best their allowance and suply out of our love and mercy what wee see wanting in them You have heard of the patience of Iob saith St. Iames and we have heard likewise of his fits of impatiency too but it pleased God mercifully to over look that whom we might doe well to imitate And indeed we may aswell expect that a Physitian should never be sick especially of a mortall disease as that the holiest and greatest professor of Divinity should live without falling into sin yea the greatest sinne if God in mercy hinder not Neither does God expect other obedience from his then evangelicall Indeed as the Angels are pure spirits so also God requires puer worship and spiritual service of them But in his Children he doth not so much behold what we do as accept of what wee would doe For like a loving Father to his tender Child he accepts affecting for efecting willing for working desires for deeds purposes for performances pence for pounds True the unbeleever is under the strict rigor of the law and bound to keepe it both actually and spiritually but the beleever hath Christ to free him both from that rigor and penalty of it in whom his failings are pardoned his affections purposes desires and indeavours accepted as if hee had performed totall obedience The Lord Christ that worketh in us both the will and the worke will accept the will for the worke and that which is wanting in us he will supply with his owne righteousnes An honest purpóse bears out many errors in the eye of mercy King Asa had divers no small faults yet with one breath doth God report both these The high places were not removed And neverthelesse Aâ—as heart was perfect How pleasing a thing is sincerity of heart that in favour thereof our just God digests many an error Hee will not see weakenesses where he sees truth There is no condâ—mnation saith St. Paul to them that walke not after the flâ—sh Rom. 8 1. Hee doth not say that have no flesh in them but which walke not after the flesh It is the main course of our life that must either aâ—â—ow or condemne us not some suddain and particular eruptions And pitty it were that the best man should bee judged by â—very of his actions and not by all But how unlike unto God are these men for let a professor of religion but once slip in all his life As a horse may stumble that has four feet even for this single slip all his graces and good parts bee they never so eminent and many and he never so deserving shall bee imputed to hypocrisy and himselfe made the object of all their malice When perhaps themselves not onely commit the same sinnes or farre greater but live in them without feare or remorse or the least desire of amendment being much like but farre worse then Judah who condemned his daughter in law Tamar to be burnt for being with child but never considered his owne greater crime first in detaining her from mâ—rriage secondly in seducing her with bribes to plâ—y the whore and lastly in acting that foule sinne with her Genesis 38. 24. to 27. Or the Scribes and Pharisees who used to lay heavy burdens upon other mens shoulders when themselves would not move them with one of their fingers Matth. 23. 4 Nor doe they rest here for Sect. 25. 2. Secondly they will judge one an hypocrite for the least fayling or infirmity they can espy in him although the tenore and maine course of his life besides be a constant current of holinesse and censure the smallest offence which a Godly man but once commits more deepely then the grossest crimes themselves repeate every day Other mens Gnats with them are harder to swallow then their owne Camels It s worth the observing how quick-sighted these rash spirits are in other mens faults and how blinde to their owne If a moate bee in their brothers eye their eye is still upon that moate and so much of every act shall bee taken as will serve for lime-twigs to take us the rest which cannot but bee well construed shall ly uselesse and unnoted Yea even the least over-sight or indiscretion in a professor prevailes more with them to make them speake evill of him then much good can do to make them speak well of him Because naturall men are more apt to dispraise faults in others then to commend things well done and in themselves to think more of one good deed then of a hundred bad ones And whereas the sincere and upright will pardon many things in others which they will not tollerate in themselves these on the contrary will make the same things punishable in us which they hold alowable in themselves as if they would compell us to goe to heaven while themselves are content to take the other way Now these men who can sooner and more clearly discerne a moate in anothers Eye then a beame in their owne are just like the Pharisees Who could see more unlawfulnesse in the disciples plucking a few eares of Corne and the Palsy mans â—arrying his bed upon the Sabath day then in their owne devouring of widdows houses and could better afford themselves to be the greatest of sinners then our saviour to be in company with sinners Yea to murther Christ then others to beleeve in him Ioh. 7. 48. Indeede they seeme to be transcendantly Charitable even loviâ—g and careing for their neighbours more then themselves resembling some husbands who care more for their wives honesty then their owne But the true genuine reason is these ridged censurers as they can see another
been provided he is now a convert For they well know and consider that the sinnes which went before our conversion can nothing prejudice us having repented For true repentance and faith in Christ wipes and washes away all the staine and guilt of them even out of the sight of God much more should it doe so out of the sight of men True they are the greatest of â—inners in their own â—pprehension or of sinners the chiefe as St. Paul stiles himselfe but others ought not so to judge of them For as holy Barnard expresseth it a sinner upon his repentance is a sinner and no sinner A sinner in his owne apprehension none in Gods account For which see a booke case or two Luke 15. 24. 32. 1 Tim. 1. 13. Acts 26. 10. 11. 12. Where we heare the Prodigals father speaking as sparingly and genâ—â—y and lovingly to him as is possible but not a word of his grosse demeanors while the repenting sinner himselfe thinkes he cannot have tearmes odious enough wherewithall to aggravate his offences And the selfe same difference of expression you have between what the Holy Ghost useth of St. Paul and what St. Paul useth of himselfe And surely those sinnes are not ours whereof wee have truely repented The skin that is once washed is as cleane from soyle as if it had never beene foule And indeed if the man be new why should the old names of his sinnes remaine and be cast in his teeth In a mans conversion Old things are passed away and all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. A new life and a new course should not be disgraced nor discouraged with the odious rehearsals of a mans old sinnes Neither does the mercy of our God measure us by what we were but by what he hath new made us Otherwise it would be wide with the best for should the eye of God looke bâ—cke to our former estates he should see Abraham an Idolater Paul a Persecutor Manasses a Nigromancer Mary Magdalen a Curtizan and the best vile enough to be ashamed of himselfe Now if God have remitted why should we retaine why should not we pardon where he doth And yet how common is it with our malicious enemies when they can find nothing else to lay to our charge to cast in our teeth our former failin gs resembling the Prodigalls elder brother Luke 15. 28. 29 30. whose evill eye envyous tongus churlish and malicious â—arriage paints them out to the life Though no great matter for if the world condemâ—e us and God doe acquit us sinne may grieve and trouble us but the Divell himselfe shall never hur t us Sect. 24. And so you have the reputed Puritans practice in point of judging and sensoriousnesse with the rules they observe therein and the same proved to be just and warrantable from the word Now see how rash and partiall their malicious enemies and accusers are in judging of them and how diametrially opposite they are to the wise judgement of Christians As bring them to the tryall who censure the religious to be the only censurers It will plainly appeare that they observe not any one of these rules from Gods word for 1. First in stead of judging men according to to their constant and common practice If they but heare of a professor of religion for otherwise they havâ— no quarrell against him that through humane frailty or some strong temptation does overshoot himselfe or is overcomâ— in a fault at unawares they are so far from restoring such an one in the spirit of meeknesse or considering it may â—rove their owne or any other mans case which is the Apostles caveat Gal. 6. 1. That for this one bare single act they will most unjustly and uncharitably judge him to bee an Hypocrite and a Dissembler Yea damn him to the very pit of Hell An assertion that deserves the rod for to things impossible the law compelleth no man Saâ—es my Lord Cooke in his reports But surely they expect we should cease to be men so â—oone as we become â—eligious And that if Christ have once chosen us to be his servants and given us his spirit and grace we should thenceforth bee of a pure and unmixt natuâ—e For were they of a right judgement they would at least know that this Hagar or in mate sinne though shee have many a How will not be â—uâ—ned quite out of dores And that it is so bred in the bone that it will never out of the flesh till our bones be ready with Josephs bones to be carried hence For in many things wee sinne all saith St. James James 3. 2. Yea in all things we all let fall many sinnes as our owne hearts out of minutely experience can tell us For though I dare not say that this or that action is sinne Yet I dare say there is sinne in the action bee it what it will For though wee are perfectly justified by the righteousnes of Christ and haâ—e all graces in their measure wrought in us in the very act of our owne conversion yet our understandings are but in part inlightned our wills and affections but in part sanctified by the spirit Neither is it for us to expect a full stature iâ— the Cradle of our conversion For as nature so grace rises by many degrees to perfection I grant there is a perfection of parts and a perfecâ—â—on of degrees and that the grace that is infused into us at the first is perfect in regard of the parts As a Child is a perfect man in all the parts of a man but not perfect in regard of degrees or in the quantity of every part for we grow up in grace as a Child does in stature untill wee attaine to glory which is grace perfected God deales in spirituall proceedings as in naturall ad extreama per medium to extreames by the meane Non nascimur senes we are not borne old men but first Infants then striplings after that men Yea the Infant in the Mothers wombe first liveth as Aristotle will have it the life of a Plant then of a sensitive creature and then last of all of a man And did not hee who was God from eternity and might have beene perfect man in an instant by many degrees rise to perfection both of his manhood and the execution of his mediatorship to â—each us the necessity of leasure in spiâ—ituall proceedings Grace in its growth is like the change of a mans haire from black to gray or the growth of a Tree which is not wrought in a moneth or a yeare but in many yeares we not perceiving how It is not with the Trees of righteousnesse as it was with the Trees of Paradice which were created all perfect and full of fruitâ— the first day But as in nature there is first a seede then a Plant then a Tree then fruit as a mighty Oake riseth of a small Akorne so in grace Wee are conceived of immortall seede borne of the spirit bring forth the
reioycing in it boasting of it yea pleading for it and applauding our selves for our wickednesse Between sin prevailing as a Tyrant and sinne raining as a lawfull Soveraigne Against the intention and with full resolution Between being hunted by sinne and Satan untill we be overborne by the violence and strength of his temptations and our owne corruptions and so led captive against our wils and besides our purpose and contrary to our resolution and yeelding full consent yea hunting after sinne and the occasions thereof Yea drawing sinne unto us as with cart-ropes and committing it even with greedinesse Between being better and more carefull afterward as Peter after his deniall and being hardned through the custome of sinne growing worse and worse because iudgement is deferred and thou hast hitherto scaped punishment Between yeelding to one sinne and entertaining all that offer themselves So adding sinne unto sin and heaping up wrath against the day of wrath Between being surprised on the suddaine when Satan hath us at some extraordinary advantage of time place company c. and committing it upon deliberation advisedly and of set purpose Yea studdying plotting and devising how to make others joyne with us in the same sin Between rising up againe by true and unfained repentance being sensible of our owne weaknesse bewailing the same carefully looking to our feet striving to â—unâ—â— more swiftly in the way of righteousnesse flying â—â—to God by fervent prayer desiring the assistance of his spirit whereby we may be able to mortefie our flesh and the corruptions thereof never resting untill we have throughly washed our poluted soules with the blood of Christ applyed unto us by a lively faith and willfull impenitencie joyned with hardnes of heart Even blessing thy selfe in thine owne heart saying J shall have peace although J walke according to the stubbornenesse of mine owne heart Yea the difference is such that the Holy Ghost in favour of the sinceere and upright will not vouchsafe to the one the name of sin As see 1 John 3. 9. Who so is borne of God sinneth not that is with full consent of will and what saith the Law it selfe If violence be offered to a virgin if she cry â—ut shee shall not dye but if she cry not out she shall be punished with death Deut 22. 25. 26. 27. Sect. 29. Which being so may make thee of another mind that is to thinke much better of them whom thou condemnest and far worse of thy selfe 1. Better of them for no mortall creature can be so vigilant or Argus eyed but sometimes he may be surprised by an enemie Sometimes grace is asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts while they are miscaried by their passions to their cost To be alwaies and unchangeably good is proper only to the glorified spirits in Heaven For in the Church militant here below a man may be a good Archer though he doe not alwayes hit the marke Yea it hath ever been held that a few times hitting countervailes often times missing 2. Worse of thy selfe For have they committed such and such sinnes and so broken their promise and vow made unto God in baptisme It was full sore against their wils but thou never hadst the least desire to performe thine Yea it hath ever been thy whole delight to breake the same And certainly he is an honester man that owing a great sum of money and promising payment thereof payes what he is able though he fall never so short of it then he who owing the like sum making the like promise is so far from paying what he should that he squanders away what he hath and never intends to pay a farthing Are their sins in them great sinnes as great in them as in thee what then There is sinne in the regenerate there is nothing but sinne in the unregenerate Even the Spouse in the Caticles justly complaines of her blacknesse yet she is faire among other women Cant. 5. Though the Publican was not simply and sufficienrly justified yet he was rather justified then the Pharisee Our good actions cannot iustifie us because in them the flesh lusteth against the spirit Nor yet can our ill actions condemne us because in them the spirit lusteth against the flesh Wee are all bound to keep the Law and might have kept it perfectly had it not been our own fault But since the Fall we cannot keep one tittle of it so sinne we muâ—t of necessity and the wages of every sin is death by that law yet no necessity of dying the death except we love death more then life For God in his infinite wisedome and goodnesse hath not only found out a way to satisfie his justice and the law but given his only begotten sonne to dye for us and to redeeme us that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Iohn 3. 16. A mercy offered and a way found out that may astonish all the sons of men on earth and Angels in Heaven But are we beleevers or unbeleevers this is the maine of all for First God esteemes of faith above all other graces deeds or acts of ours John 6. 28. 29. Secondly If we are beleevers we have Chriâ—t for our sur ety and he hath redeemed and delivered us from the rigor and curse of the Law Gal. 3. 13. and 5. 1. Rom. 7. 6. and 10. 4. Neither are we any longer under the law but under grace Rom 6. 14. and shall be iudged by the perfect law of liberty Gal. 5 1. James â— 25. Because Christ hath sufficiently satisfied his fathers justice for all the sinnes of the faithfull and paid our debt even to the utmost farthing Isay 53. 4. 5. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Heb. 9. 26. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Rom. 3. 25. 26 1 John 1. 7 9. Yea if we lay hold on him by a lively faith our sins are his sinnes and his righteousuesse our righteousnesse Jer. 23. 6. Psal 4. 1. Not that we may sinne the more freely for even to beleevers the Law is given that grace may be required and grace is given that the law may be fulfilled by us evangelically for us by Christ whose righteousnesse is ours perfectly The Law is a glasse to shew us our spots the Gospel a fountaine to wash them away Wee looke upon the Law to keepe us from presumption and upon the Gospel to keep us from dispaire True every sinne a beleever commits deserves damnation but no sinne shall condemne but the lying and continuing in it Secondly so our failings be not willfull though they be manyand great yet they cannot hinder our interest in the promises of God For God that worketh in us both the will and the worke Will accept the will for the worke and that which is wanting in us Christ will supply with his owne righteousnesse He respecteth not what weâ— can doe so much as what we would doâ— and that which we would performe and cannot he esteemeeth as though it were performed Sect. 30. Heare this
trust God with their soules then men with their estates the answer of one marchant that was wiser then my selfe by many thousand pounds I deny not but many of them are very punctuall in keeping their words yea have but their bare promise you may as much build upon it as upon my Lord Majors Band much more are their oaths to be taken And yet they make no more conscience of sinne as it is sinne then Herod did of breaking his promise touching Iohn Baptists head Sect. 38. Secondly how common is it with them to straine and â—â—umble at small sins and passe over great ones like Saul who made great conscience of eating the flesh of Shâ—â—p and Oxen with the blood but none at all of sucking and shedding the blood of fourescore and five of the Lords Priests Or Herod who much scrupled the breaking of an unlawfull oath but never stood upon cutting a holy Prophets throat Or lastly those hypocrites the Scribes and Pharisees who were very punctuall in tything of mint and annis and cummin but neglected the weightier matters of the Law as judgement and mercy and fidelity without any trouble to their consciences As for instance They will plead much for order and decency when none live more disorderly pretended lovers of peace they are but profest haters of truth not to be uncovered at the Name of Iesus they hold worse then to sweare by the Name of God They are more severe against the breach of a holy day especially Christmas day then of the Sabbath They make great conscience of keepeing holy dayes but none of keeping those dayes holy Yea they will commit more uncleannesse and be drunk oftner upon such dayes then any in the Calender except the Lords day You cannot hyre them to eat flesh upon a Good Fryday nor to abstain from Adultery upon another day The precept for keeping of Lent they more strictly observe then any in the Decalogue But how They fast from flesh but feed upon more delicious and provoking meats Or if they abstaine from all meat thereby to merit they fast not from one sinne the more Yea your Gallants who esteem the truth of religion a disparagement to their greatnesse and are almost ashamed to say grace to their meat so affect a forme of Religion that going all the yeare besides in Scarlet yet will for the holy time of Lent put on a black out side though their soules remain crimson In all which they resemble the Papists who forbear allowed Matrimony and admit forbidden Adultery Yea while they vow contenency they resolve to deflower Verginity Neither should it be better here then it is at Rome where the Iewes enemies to the Name of Christ doe live in peace but the faithfull Christians are burned And where in time of Lent the Shambles are shut and the Stues are open might these formall hypocrites have their wills And therefore these are the men that straine at a Gnat and swallow a Camel Matth. 23 24. And not the religious who both in small and great matters walke according to rule And have great and weighty reasons for their making scruple of the lightâ—est and smalest sinnes As Sect. 39. First Be the sinne never so small yet God hath forbidden it and Christ suffered for it as well as the greatest An evil thought or a vain word can no more be justified then a wicked action The Law is spirituall and binds the heart from affecting no lesse then the hand from acting Yea it injoines us to shun the very occasions or least appearances or first motions of sinne aswell as actuall sinne it selfe Besides the committing of the least single sinne is the breach of the whole Law Ja 2. 10. and an offence to that God who is almighty in power and infinite in love which is ground sufficient to any that truly fear God who doe not so much scan the weight of the thing as the authority and goodnesse of the commander And certainly if the smallest curse of God be too great to suffer the smallest sinne against God is too great to doe Neither can it stand with repentance to favour our selves in any one sinne though never so small for sound repentance turnes the back upon all sinnes And saith unto God as once Ruth to Naomi Ruth 3. All that thou biddest me I will do be it great or small in the worlds account Now God commands us and I pray mark it to be pure 1 Tim 5. keep thy self pure saith St. Paul to Timothy vers 22. And blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matth. 5. 8. which implies No purity no blessednes And likewise to be holy yea shall be a holy people unto me saith God Exod. 22. 31. and without holines no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12 14. Yea we are commanded to be holy in all manner of conversation even as Christ was holy 1 Pet. 15. And Paul writing to the converted Corinths useth these words The Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are 1 Cor. 3. 17 And again Seeing we have these premises dearely beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit and grow up unto full holines in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. Thirdly We are commanded to bee perfect and that as God is perfect yee shall be perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect saith our saviour Matth. 5. 48. And St. Peter Beloved be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse 2 Pet. 3. 14. with many the like And how can wee indeavour aâ—ter or indeed desire this holines purity and perfection in the least if we make not conscience of al sin and of every duty yet thou like a wicked and prophane wretch as thou art dost jeere and scoffe at those that make conscience of small sins and are scrupulous of doing what thou dost and wouldst have them to doe But little dost thou know or consider who sets thee on work and what this thy flouting at purity and holinesse will one day cost thee In the mean time know that such have no good consciences who dare gratifie Satan in committing the least sin or neglect God in the smallest precept I grant there is a first and a second a great and another commandement Matth 22. 38. 39. But that second or other is like unto it vers 39. Therefore sacrifice must not turne mercy out of doors as Sarah did Hagar Nor the flame of zeal consume the moisture of â—harity as the fire from heaven dranke up the water put to Eliahs sacrifice But our Saviours rule is both plaine and home to the point in hand these things ought ye to have done speaking of the greater matters of the law and not to have left the other undone viz. the smaller matters as tything of mint and annyse and cummyn Matth. 23. verse 23 But Sect. 40. Secondly Gods people make conscience of the least sinne because small sins like
preferment hee desired which was the Prelats plea when any Zealous Minister spake against Pluralities superstitious Ceremonies and other vices and abuses in the Clergie Yea though they lost their livings it was but to augment their maintainance by lying in a Prison Thirdly and lastly you cannot admonish them of their swearing drinking sabbath breaking c. without being called Puritane which in their language is an hypocrite or disembler yea worse as being of a larger extent as I shall after shew I grant most that use the Name know not what it signifies yea ask what themselves mean by it they are not able to tell you And no marvell they should take admonition the chief office of friendship so ill for poore soules they think we take too much upon us as Korah and his company twitted Moses Numb 16. 3. Neither know they how strictly God commands and requires it Levit. 19. 17. Heb. 3. 13. 2 Tim. 2. 25. Thes 3. 13. Ezek. 3. 18 to 22. 2 Pet. 2. 7. 8. Whence as the chief Priests answered Judas What is that to us so these prophane persons will blaspheme God tear Christ in peeces and more then betray even shed his innocent blood digging into his side with oaths and say when told of it what is that to us They might as well say what is Christ to us what is heaven to us or what is salvation to us For to us the one cannot be without the other we shall never inherit part of his glory in Heaven if wee doe not take his glories part upon Earth And with God it is much about one whether we be a doer of evill or no hinderer For if we must not see our Neighbours Ox nor his sheep go astray or fal into a pit but we must reduce him and help him out of it Deut. 22. 1 We are much more bound to keep our neighobur himself from droping into the bottomlesse pit of hell And what know we but we may win our Brother and so save his soul Mat. 18. 15. like Eugenia who being the naturall daughter of Philippus became spiritually the mother of her owne Father and begat him a new to the grace of Christ he being an Infidel before as Eusebius notes And no man but stands in need e of admonition for graces like good hearbs will not grow of themselves where as vices like weeds need no sowing Or in case wee prevaile nothing yet wee are discharged 1 Cor. 5. 2. and hee who requires it at our hands will returne the same into our owne bosomes Jsa 49. 4. 5. Pro. 11. 18. and 25. 22. And yet we are blamed for so doing and thought contentious They may as well tell me if it had been said to Adam before he eat the forbidden fruit to Iudas before hee betrayed his Master to Jezabel before she plotted Naboths death c. Take heed what you do that this had beene aâ— ill office and that in following such councell they should have had cause to repent themselves But Oh the many and foolish misprisions of carnall minds As how are they mistaken in their opinion of peace like Ahab who thought Eliah a turbulent troubler of all Israel because he did as God commanded him and would not flatter them in their sinnes to their utter destruction for true peace is to have peace with God War with their and ouâ— lusts Rom. 5. 1. and 7. 22. 23. Where as they would have us to be at peace and in league with their sins at war with God and our consciences Yea it no way deserves the name of peace except we be at enmity with the serpent and all his works of darknesse Peace must be followed with holines Hebrew 12. 14. Wherefore Zachariah joyneth Faith Peace and truth together Zach. 8. 16. And St. Paul peace and righteousnesse peace and edification peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. 19. c. Yea St. Pauls usuall stile in all his Epistles is Grace and peace as if onely where grace is there peace is as where the fire is there heat is Sect. 48. Againe how extreamly will they condemne that preaching which awakens mens consciences works upon their affections and saves their soules And applaud such Corinthian preachers as tickle the ear only and please the sence As let some Boanerges thunder out the judgements of God against sinners and threaten their destruction if they amend not their lives as Jonah when in three daies he converted that great City Nineve Or discover their most secret thoughts as Christ did to the Woman of Samaria Iohn 4. Or drive an application home to their consciences touching some one sinne of theirs as Iohn Baptist dealt with Herod Or as Peter with the Iewes when he converted 3000. at one sermon Acts 2. 41. and 5000. at another Acts 4. 4. Then not only the wit-foundred Drunkard cauterised blasphemer but the civil honest man will strangely censure him and most bitterly enveigh against him for preaching nothing but Law and damnation saying he is factious and Scismaticall a Busie body a fire flinger one that railed upon the Parish spake Daggers points and aimed at somebody Neither are such sermons to be heard for they only drive men to dispair Yea it s much if they do not conspire together to do him a mischiefe as more then fourty Iews did against Paul Acts 23. 12. 13. I deny not but a Minister may be bitter without discretion if he have not due regard to circumstances namely the manner how and the persons to whom he preacheth For to kill a flie on the forehead with a beetle and in stead of sweeping the house to pull it quite downe would become none but a mad man Hearbs cold or hot beyond a certaine degree are mortall Wherefore Both good and well must in our actions meet Wicked is not mnch worse then indiscreet Zeale without discretion is as an offering without an eye which was by God forbidden Levit. 22. 22. Discretion without zeale is as a sacrifice without fat which was likewise forbidden Levit. 7. 25. Zeale without knowledge is a sire without a Chimny Knowledge without obedience is an eye without a foot religion without conscience is a body with out a heart Conscience without zeal is a heart without spirits In fine the fire of the spirit the mother of all true zeale hath light in it as well as heat Wherefore a good Pastor will avoid both extreames not deliver Law without Gospel nor Gospel without Law but a sweet composition of severity and mercy wherein Law and Gospel shall meet as Moses and Christ met upon the Mount Neither know I whether mercy belongs more to the humble and broken hearted to refresh and comfort them or justice to the presumptious to humble and terrifie them Seeing some like Peter are called with a calme voice others like Paul with a thunder-clap And cold sides have no lesse need to be spurred up then â—ot mouths to be held in with bits â—s Plato
and caused the Lord to cast him off 1 Sam. 15. 23. 4. Above all he shall pleasure the godly party of the Kingdome for as a man rootes up the weeds in his garden that the good hearbs may grow the better Luke 13. 7. So the death of the Wolves is the safety of the sheepe and other tame beasts Their corruptions are our generations their desolations our consolations their impairings our repairings Iudgements upon them are creations recreations to us as the execution of Haman was the consolation of Israel Saul was afraid of Goliah strutting in his harnis but when he saw him dead at the feet of David his joy was now greater then before his feare It is the ruine of Enmity that is the resurrection of peace and unlesse severity be shewed to our adversaries security cannot dwell in our streets And therefore it is wisedome in governours to take sinne at the first bound and so to revenge it that their punishments may be preventions Neither can there be mercy in injustice So that a Delinquent at the galowes is none of the worst sights in a countrey I know it is a truth which cannot be beaten into their braines but there cannot be a more pleasing sacrifice to God then the blood of malefactors shed by the hands of authority as appeares in that case of Phineas in killing Zimry and Cozby Numb 25. 7. to 14. For the shedding of their blood was the acceptablest sacrifice that ever he offered For both all Israel is freed from the plague and all his posterity have the Priest hood intailed to them so long as the Iewes are a people And by that Exod. 32. where for making the Golden Calfe all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together and at the command of Moses went through the host and slew every man his son and brother and every man his neighbour untill they had slaine three thousand men which was a most acceptable service to God for the blood of these Idolatrous Jsraelites cleered that tribe from the blood of the innocent Sichamites Foolish men would be ready to say this was a cruell act but wise Christians that aske counsell of God know that the mild justice is no lesse perillous to the Common Wealth then the most cruell And that governours make themselves guilty of those sinnes they punish not Whence Moses he that was so good and loving that he would rather perish himselfe then Jsrael should not only pronounceth this sentence of death on so many thousands but rejoyceth thereat and blesseth the Executioners And what but his charity and mercy as well as his justice made him thus cruell for all Israel might have cursed him if some had not smarted by him But he was a good Physitian of the Common wealth and saw that Israel could not live unlesse it bled in the common veine he therefore le ts out this corrupt blood to save the whole body And what thinke we is the reason our land hath laine bleeding and languishing so long as it hath Notwithstanding our much fasting and humiliation this we may build upon when we yeeld to God touching his commandementâ— â—e will yeeld to uâ— touching our petitions Sect. 51. And so much of the kinds and severall cases how and wherin naturall men censure the religious I could give you many other instances but the sum of all is let the religious doe that which is good for substance and also well in respect of circumstances they are but exquisite in hiding their defects and shewing the best of themselves What they doe is only in hypocrisie and to be seen of men If they cannot wrest good into evill by misconstruing it they will remit the same unto dissimulation I come now to the reasons and causes why they thus censure them Question Have they any reason for their so doing Answer Not properly for as the Prophet very often complaines they are mine enemies without a cause And they hate me without a cause c. Psal 35. 7. and 69. 4 though they pretended many causes So in this case they have no just cause nor reason to censure us as they doe for no evill deed can have a good reason Yet they censure us not without many by reasons and selfe ends As 1. First their ignorance is a maine cause of it naturall men in heavenly things resemble shell-fish that have no smell or the Camelion that hath no tast at least they see no more then the barke or outside of spirituall performances 2 Sam. 6. 16. And the flesh Satans ready instrument will be ever suggesting to them strange surmises touching what the religious either say or doe As is evident by what is recorded of Michael 2 Sam. 6. 16. Of Nicodemus John 3. 4. Of Fâ—stus Acts 26. 24. And lastly of Paul before his conversion 1 Tim. 1. 13. Who was no sooner inlightned with the saving knowledge of the truth but he preacht that faith which before hee condemned and persecuted And for testimonies to confirme it these are pregnant John 15. 21. and 16 2. 3. Mat. 16. 23. and 22. 29. Luke 19. 42. 1 Cor. 2. 8. Psal 2. 2. Though experience may save that labour for how severely will these ignorant persons censure not only things indifferent but the most approved good duties While they will patiently passe by the most hainous crimes An infallible signe of a man not borne anew And still the more sottish the more censorious For where is least braine there is most tongue and lowdest And as ignorance gives disparagement a lowder tongue then knowledge does so alwayes they that know least will censure most and most deeply It is from the weakest judgements that the heaviest judgement comes Sect. 52. 2. Secondly Sometimes on the other side they will censure them in policie that while the standers by are taken up with jeering at our supposed simplicitie they may not mind their past and intended reall villanie Therein imitating a Thiefe who being pursued in a croud will be forwardest in crying stop thiefe that so he may neither be attached nor suspected The case of Athaliah 2 Kings 11 14. Sect. 53. 3. Thirdly another reason may be this Who so hath any thing fixed â—ither in their persons or conditions which causeth contempt As they are commonly very bold so they have a kind of spur in them and are most industriously stirred up to watch observe and censure the weakenesses of others that so they may have somewhat againe to repay See the case of Shemi touching David 2 Sam. 16. 7. of the High Priests Scribes and Phariseeâ— touching our Saviour Luke 5. 21. Mat. 9. 3. 34. 12. 1. 2. and 16. 17. and 21. 2. 14. 15. 16. 24. 45. 46. and 22. 15. 16. 17. and 27. 41. 42. And lastly of Iudas touching Mary John 12. 4. 5. Sect. 54. 4. Fourthly In such as are not regenerate nor were ever disciplin'd in the School of Christ The ignoblenes of their dispositions and breeding may be a sufficient ground
censure our fearing of God then their own blaspheming him and hold it a more haious crime for us to be sober then for themselves to be Drunk You may thinke it a bigg word for want of acquaintance with such But Drunkards and swearers know I speak truth And I the more confidently beleeve my own ears when I consider the Sodomites quarrell with Lot and many the like in scripture As how did the passion of Anger rob Haman of his reason when hee thought Mordicaies not bowing the knee to him a more hainous offence then his own murthering of thousands And Jezabels who thought it a greater sin in Eliah to kill Baals priests then in her selfe to slay all the Prophets of the Lord. But no wonder for as the Eye onely lookes to things without And as they that are vertiginus think all things turne round all err when the errour is only in their own brains so fares it with sensuall men transported by passion and given up to their lusts They put their own faults in that part of the Wallet which is behind them but ours in the other part or end which is before them Indeed self examination would make their judgements more charitable Sect. 63. 13. Thirteenthly The persons censuring and censured are as contrary in their natures as are Heaven and Hell Light and Darknesse God and the Divel the one being Satans seed and born after the Flesh the other being Christs members and born after the spirit John 3. 8. to 15. And this makes the one hate what the other loves A wicked man saith Salomon is abomination to the just and he that is upright in his way is abomination to the wicked Proverb 29. 27. even ouâ— wayes which God commands us to walk in as well as our persons are abomination to them Yea wee see by experience that there is a cursed Zeal in these men to maligne the Good Zeale of all men And that usually they are pleased best with that which angers God most No marvell then if they censure such as he loves best Sect. 64. 14. Fourteenthly They delight in censuring uâ— because Satan who is their God 2 Cor 4 4. and their Prince Iohn 14 30. and works in them his pleasure Ephes 2. 2. 2 Timo. 2. 26. is ever prompting them thereunto Acts 5 3. Rev. 12. 10. For it is Satan that speaks in and by them as once hee did by the Serpent It is his mind in their mouth his heart in their lips Matth. 16. 23. And they being his Sons Servants and Subjects thirst to do him what honour and service they can Nor can they pleasure him more it being the hopefullest way to discourage men in the way to Heaven quench the good motions of Gods spirit kill the buds and beginnings of grace draw them backe to the World and so by consequence damne their soules that can be to see that whatsoever they doe or speake base constructions are made thereof Whereas if they medled not with repentance nor troubled themselves about religion the world noâ— the divel would not meddle with them nor once trouble or molest them Besides their censures and false aspersions cause jealousies where there are none increaseth those that are mightily disables some from discerning the truth and much hinders others from beleeving it Sect. 65. 15. Fifteenthly Zoylus like they censure and speak evill of us because they cannot otherwise hurt us They dare not smite us on the mouth as the High priest served Paul therefore they smite us with the mouth as Zedekiah the false prophet served Michayah which is as bad or worse For deal they not with the godly as the daughters of Heth did by Rebecca Gen. 27. who made her weary of her life and forced her to cry out in the bitternesse of her soule What availeth it me to live verse 46. In which they imitate their Father the Divel who when his hands are bound vomits out a flood of reproches with his tongue Rev. 12. 15. I confesse they were wont Maximinus like to speake evil of us that so they might persecute us with the more shew of reason accuse us to the Prelats as the Jewes did Paul to Agrippa charging us w th many things but proving nothing neither could they well undo us if first they did not falsely accuse us as it fared with Jezabel touching Naboth and the wife of Potiphar touching Joseph Though a little information would serve for malice regards not how true any accusation is but how spitefull And these prelats were so farre from discerning or desiring to discern truth from slander that to the griefe of many good hearts no musick could be so sweet to their ears as to heare well of themselves ill of the religious And they were as ready to yeeld their aid as the other to ask it being men of the High priests humor who seeing none offer themselves set on work certain vile persons to accuse Christ of hainous evils that so thev might crucyfie him by a Law Yea our reverend Bishops and their bandogs dealt with a poor Minister or Christian just as the souldiers did by our Saviour First blind him then strike him and last ask him who was it that smote thee and hee might answer the best of the three It was thou O mine Enemy thou wast an Achittophel in the one a Doeg in the other a Belial in both Sect. 66. 16. Sixteenthly They censure and in censuring slander us that they may incite and stirre up others to do the like Resembling those ancient enemies of the Gospel who clad the Martyrs in the skins oâ— wild Beasts to animate the Dogges to teare them It is the nature of ignorant and ill bred people who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanesse whom St. Peter calls bruit beasts led with sensuality and made to be taken and destroyed to speak evil of the things which they understand not 2 Pet. 2. 12. And what one does is a Law to the rest As if one in their company but mentions the word Puritan or tells them how scrupulous and precise such an one is all the rest will strive who shall bee forwardest in spitting out his spleen against all the Godly As what a number of sharp and deadly Arrows will each of them shoote both at the good and goodnes Nor are they so satisfied but every one runs away with the cry and barks out the tearm against every honest man he meets whence it is that wee are censured and laught to scorne by the greatest number that we are made the common Butt of every ones malice and the subject of all their discourse Which yet is no disparagement to us for these are a generation of men that for matter of religion can scarcely discerne between their right hand and their left as it fared with those sixscore thousand Ninevites Jonah 4. 11 I might heap up instances to prove how strongly and strangely example prevailes to the committing of evill with
bid Go ye cursed into everlasting fire Which is the portion of all wicked men Matth. 25. 41. They above all other sinners shall have a double weight or portion of vengeance the lowest and deepest place in Hell As is plaine Matth. 23. Where our saviour not only pronounceth Woe to you hypocrites but repeats it eight times in one Chapter saying Woe Woe Woe to you hypocrites for you shall receive greater damnation vers 14. The hypocrite strives to loade Christ with manâ— sinnes therefore Christ loads him with many woes and curses Though the maine ground is from the nature of this sinne For nothing more greatens any sinne then simulation of holinesse Nor is any mischiefe so divelish as that which is cloaked with piety The better vice shews the worse it is and the worse it is the better it desires to shew Yea the better colour is put upon any vice the more odious it is both in the sight of God man For as every similitude adds to an evil so the best adds most evil The face of goodnesse without a body is the worst wickednesse Cloath an Ape in Tissue and both the beauty of the Robe and the resemblance which hee carrieth of a man does but add more scorne to the beast And without contradiction an ill man is the worst of all creatures save the Divel himselfe an ill Christian the worst of all men and an ill professor the worst of all Christians Professed Curtizans if they bee any way good it is because they are openly bad And it shall be easier for theeves and Adulterers at the day of judgement then for hypocrites Mat. 21. 31. Wherefore if thou beest unsound within soil not the glorious Robe of truth by putting it upon thy beastlines To bid thee repent and strive for Sincerity were to small purpose for which is strange in all the Scriptures wee never reade of an hypocrites repentance And a notable reason may be given Wickednesse doth most rankle the heart when it is kept in and dissembled And thus far our opinions jumpe Sect. 75. But touching the next query our judgements are as diametrially opposite as the two poles For who are these verball orrall occular professors Those who are called puritans or those that terme and repute them so this is the main question and it would be throughly examined We say they are the only men guilty of this crime they say the like of us but the tryall is all and how shall wee try it surely by bringing each side and every of their actions to the rule And first to bring them to the tryall who call all professors of Religion puritans and raile against them under pretence that they are not as they seeme If hee be an hypocrite who is much in profession and nothing or clean contrary in his practice then there are none greater hypocrites then Protestants at large viz. Prelaticall and Scandalous Ministers Civil and Morall Men. Prophane and Ignorant Persons Cunning Polititians who joyne all together in crying downe and barking against profession I know the assertion will seeme strange Yea the grossest hypocrite of them all will presume that hee can Herod like wash his hands of this sin And with David touching Nathans parable which made him passe sentence against himselfe think that this foule evil does no way concern him Or as Ahab thought of the Prophets parable when his own mouth condemn'd him for letting Benhadad go free 1 Kings 20. 39. to 43. But I shall make it appear that there are no greater hypocrites nor Puritans under Heaven then they who rail and cry out so much against hypocrisie and Puritanisme It faring with them as it did with Sabillus the Sicilian who slew the tyrant Cleander and was after found to bee a worse Tyrant then he Or as it did with that Pharisee in the Gospel who brake his neighbours head when he should with the Publican have smote his owne breast Oh that men would observe what I shall say but asmuch as it concerns them that they would well consider how Satan gulls them and how grosly they gull themselves But this is the gift of God alone for to plant and water is nothing except it receive blessing from above I will therefore do my utmost and leave the rest to him that can doe what hee will and will doe what is best Sect. 76. 1. And first let me examine such of the Ministery who altogether in their sermons enveigh against puritans for being one in their profession and shew to the world and another yea cleane contrary in their life and practice their consciences shall give evidence against them if they be not cauterized with continuall handling of holy things without feeling That whereas they call themselves by the generall name of Christians by the speciall and particular name of Christs Ministers and Ambassadors pretending they represent his person spend their whole times in reading and preaching Gods word receiving and administring the Sacraments in praying and visiting the sick get their whole livings under a shew of service done to Christ Yea their very garments forsooth must pretend holinesse and purity then which there can be no greater profession yet these men these great pretenders are the least of any obedient to his lawes Yea none greater enemies to Christ and his kingdome then they for either in their preaching they doe what they can to draw from Christ to the world his mortall enemy by discouraging the good and incouraging the evil by turning the truth of God into â—ly as it is Rom. 1. 25. A thing more frequent with Prelaticall preachers then most men have wit to observe I wish their admirers would reade their severall Characters in a late abstract and be better informed or that such unpreaching ministers were marked in their foreheads that their people might the better know and take heed of them I confesse it is strange that these Gehazies who receive in so much truth at their eares should not have one word of truth in their mouths Yea to an ordinary capacity it sounds above beleefe that they who are Gods mouth to the people should bee so wicked and false as out of the mouth of God to give not the judgement of God but of their owne wicked hearts stifned with the serpents enmity But consider the reason and the case is plain The hypocrite is a secret Athiest saying in his heart there is no God Psal 14. 1 and without controversie Thou art an Athiest for if thou didst beleeve there is a God thou durst not bee so bold as to withstand him to his face and with his word to wound his own people Or secondly if they doe preach the truth yet by their lives they confute their owne doctrine as their Rhetorick may bee prittie and their Lodgick wittie when their practice is naughtie Yea are there not many hundreds in this land some whereof the Parliament have sound out and cast out like Balaam then whom never Prophet
is Satans mind in their mouth his heart in their lips 119. No possibility of beeing saved untill wee find our selves in a lost condition 32. Every Atheist upon occasion can seem a saint 146. Scandals are traps and ginns laid to destroy wicked men 75. while they scoffe at us God laughs at them 127. if they cannot seduce us they will traduce us 116. Signes of a wicked man 39. Sinne is so bred in the bone that it will never out of the flesh 52. the godly see sinne in all they speake think or do 8. but naturall men want eyes to see their sinnes 22. trouble for sin a good signe 78. the lesse sensible the more sick 33. naturall men will either deny their sins or justifie them or shift them off to some other 18. or by subtile distinctions make them no sinnes 18. petty sinnes no sinnes with them 19. they are never troubled for sinfull thoughts vain words c. 16. or for Sinnes of omission 16. the true Catholick hath a Catholick care of all sinne 92. a vast difference betweene the sinnes of the Godly and wicked in divers particulars 62. Sinne in the regenerate nothing but sinne in the unregenerate 65. the sinnes of the Godly and wicked so differ that in comparison the former are said not to sinne 63. where sinne now abounds grace may asmuch abound 48. to be the same alone and in publique a notable signe of sincâ—rity 96. They slander us to mitigate their own shame 117. If we scruple small matters they say wee stumble at strawes and leap over blocks 82. but it is themselves that strain at gnats and swallow Camels 82. Six reasons of making conscience of smal sins 85. 87. 88. 89. 93. to scruple smal sins the best evidence of sincerity 95 examples of severe punishment for small sinnes 89. 90. least things great tryalls of a good conscience 92. hee that is unjust in the least will rather in the greatest 92. 93. the wages of the least sin is death 90. one sin will keep possession for Satan as well astwenty 91. no sinne small but comparatively 90. They speak evil of us because they cannot doe evill to us 120 or that they may have some colour to persecute us 120. or that they may incite others to do the like 121. The spirit only â—onvinces of sinne 34 36. How to know whether we be spirituall or no 14. They forestall the simple with strange surmises against the godly 125. If we refuse to sweare or drink with them we are puritans 81 T. A good signe to know the true religion by 12 to know the truth wee must become spirituall 4. the truthes adversaâ—ies pretend as great love to it as heâ— best friends 154. nothing must bee yeelded to that may prejudice the truth 108. some as deeply in love with vice and error as others are with vertue and truth 2 V. Why God permits his people to vary 6. The better vice is the worse it is 135. The uprightnesse of Lewis the 12t 126. W. The Waldenses cleared 126. God will not see weaknesses where he sees truth 36. Wicked men flint unto good wax to what is ill 105 they cannot but tell others that they are wicked 43. they honour us by deriding us 175. God in his accepts of the will for the work 66. We can do nothing without a million of witnesses 96 we may judge of men by their workes 41. and by their words 42. 43. it is only in Christ that we or our works are accepted 32. Z A description of Zeale 104. naturall men preferre a quiet prophanes before a Zealous devotion 106. FJNJS Errata The Reader is desired to expunge two lines and a halfe in page 31 beginning at the 22. line which by an over-â—iâ—ht escaped and in page 137. line 5. for Herod-like read Pilate-like Other litterall mistakes and points misplaced there are which the reader may be pleased to beare withall