us preach. They no more pretended to belong to the church of _England_,
than to the church of _Moscovy_. If therefore they went to _no church_
now, they would be no farther from the church than they were before.
2. Those who did _sometimes_ go to church before, go three times as
often now. These therefore _do not separate_ from the church. Nay, they
are united to it more closely than before.
3. Those who _never_ went to church at all before, do go now _at all
opportunities_. Will common sense allow any one to say, that these are
_separated from the church_?
4. The main question is, Are they turned from doing the works of the
devil, to do the works of God? Do they now live soberly, righteously,
and godly, in the present world? If they do, if they live according to
the _directions_ of the church, believe her _doctrines_, and join in
her _ordinances_: with what face can you say, that these men _separate_
from the church of _England_?
32. But in what state are they whom the clergy and gentry (and perhaps
_you_ for one) have successfully laboured to preserve from this
damnable sin of _schism_? Whom you have kept from hearing these men,
and _separating from the church_?
Is not the drunkard that was, a drunkard still? Enquire of his poor
wife and family. Is not the common swearer still horribly crying to
God for damnation upon his soul? Is not the sinner in every other kind,
exactly the same man still? Not better at least, if he be not worse,
than he was ten years ago.
Now consider, 1. Does the church of _England_ gain either honour, or
strength, or blessing, by such wretches as these calling themselves
her members? By ten thousand drunkards, or whoremongers, or common
swearers? Nay ought she not immediately to spew them out? To renounce
all fellowship with them? Would she not be far better without them than
with them? Let any man of reason judge.
2. Is the drunkard’s _calling_ himself of the church of _England_, of
any more use to him, than to the church? Will this save him from hell,
if he die in his sin? Will it not rather increase his damnation?
3. Is not a drunkard of any other church, just as good as a drunkard of
the church of _England_? Yea, is not a drunken _Papist_ as much in the
favour of God, as a drunken _Protestant_?
4. Is not a cursing, swearing _Turk_, (if there be such an one to be
found) full as acceptable to God, as a cursing, swearing _Christian_?
Nay, 5. If there be any advantage, does it not lie on the side of the
former? Is he not the less inexcusable of the two? As sinning against
less light?
O why will you sink these poor souls deeper into perdition, than they
are sunk already? Why will you prophesy unto them peace, peace; when
there is no peace? Why, if you do it not yourself, (whether you cannot,
or will not, God knoweth) should you hinder us from _guiding them into
the way of peace_?
33. Will you endeavour to _excuse_ yourself, by saying, “There are not
_many_ who are the better for your preaching: and these by and by will
be as bad as ever; as such and such an one is already?”
I would to God I could set this in a just light? But I cannot. All
language fails.
God begins a glorious work in our land. You set yourself against it
with all your might; to prevent its beginning where it does not yet
appear, and to destroy it wherever it does. In part you prevail. You
keep many from hearing the word that is able to save their souls.
Others who had heard it, you induce to turn back from God, and to list
under the devil’s banner again. Then you make the success of your own
wickedness an _excuse_ for not acknowledging the work of God! You urge
“That not _many_ sinners were reformed! And that some of those are now
as bad as ever!”
Whose fault is this? Is it ours? Or your own? Why have not thousands
more been reformed? Yea, for every one who is now turned to God, why
are there not ten thousand? Because you and your associates laboured
so heartily in the cause of hell; because you and they spared no pains,
either to prevent or to destroy the work of God! By using all the power
and wisdom you had, you hindered thousands from hearing the gospel,
which they might have found to be the power of God unto salvation.
Their blood is upon _your_ heads. By inventing, or countenancing, or
retailing lies, some refined, some gross and palpable, you hindered
others from profiting by what they did hear. _You_ are answerable to
God for these souls also. Many who began to taste the good word, and
run the way of God’s commandments, you, by various methods, prevailed
on to hear it no more. So they soon drew back to perdition. But know,
that for every one of these also, God will require an account of _you_
in the day of judgment.
34. * And yet, in spite of all the malice, and wisdom, and strength,
not only of men, but of _principalities and powers_, of _the rulers of
the darkness of this world_, of the _wicked spirits in high places_;
there are thousands found, who are turned from _dumb idols, to serve
the living and true God_. What a harvest then might we have seen before
now, if all who say, they are _on the Lord’s side_, had come, as in all
reason they ought, _to the help of the Lord against the mighty_? Yea,
had they only _not opposed_ the work of God, had they only _refrained
from_ his messengers; might not the trumpet of God have been heard long
since in every corner of our land? And thousands of sinners in every
county been brought to _fear God and honour the king_?
Judge of what immense service we might have been, even in this single
point, both to our king and country. All who hear and regard the word
we preach, _honour the king_ for God’s sake. They _render unto Cæsar
the things that are Cæsar’s_, as well as _unto God the things that
are God’s_.――――They have no conception of _piety_ without _loyalty_;
knowing _the powers that be, are ordained of God_. I pray God to
strengthen all that are of this mind, how many soever they be. But
might there not have been at this day, an hundred thousand in _England_,
thus minded more than are now? Yea verily; even by _our_ ministry had
not they who should have strengthened us, weakened our hands.
35. Surely, you are not wise! What advantages do you throw away! What
opportunities do you lose? Such as another day you may earnestly seek,
and nevertheless may not find them. For if it please God to remove
_us_, whom will you find to supply our place? We are in all things
_your servants for Jesus sake_; tho’ the more we love _you_, the less
we are loved. Let _us_ be employed not in the highest, but in the
meanest; and not in the easiest, but the hottest service. Ease and
plenty we leave to those that want them. Let us go on in toil, in
weariness, in painfulness, in cold or hunger, so we may but testify the
gospel of the grace of God. The rich, the honourable, the great, we are
thoroughly willing (if it be the will of our Lord) to leave to _you_.
Only let us alone with the poor, the vulgar, the base, the outcasts of
men.――Take also to yourselves _the saints of the world_: but suffer us
_to call sinners to repentance_; even the most vile, the most ignorant,
the most abandoned, the most fierce and savage of whom we can hear.
To these we will go forth in the name of our Lord, desiring nothing,
receiving nothing of any man (save the bread we eat, while we are under
his roof) and let it be seen whether God has sent us. Only let not
_your_ hands, who fear the Lord, be upon us. Why should we be stricken
of _you_ any more?
IV. 1. Surely ye are _without excuse_, all who do not yet know the
day of your visitation! The day, wherein the great God, who hath been
forgotten among us, days without number, is arising at once to be
avenged of his adversaries, and to visit and redeem his people. Are
not his judgments and mercies both abroad? And still, will ye not learn
righteousness? Is not _the_ Lord _passing by_? Doth not _a great and
strong wind_ already begin _to rend the mountains_, and to _break in
pieces the rocks before the Lord_? Is not the _earthquake_ also felt
already? And _a fire_ hath begun to burn in his anger. Who knoweth what
will be the end thereof? But at the same time, he is speaking to many
in _a still, small voice_. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,
lest he be suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy!
2. What _excuse_ can possibly be made for those, who are _regardless_
of such a season as this? Who are at such a crisis, stupid, senseless,
unapprehensive; caring for none of these things? Who do not give
themselves the _pains_ to _think_ about them, but are still _easy_
and _unconcerned_? What! can there ever be a point, on which it
more behoves you to _think_? And that with the coolest and deepest
_attention_? As long as the heaven and the earth remain, can there be
any thing of so vast importance, as God’s last call to a guilty land,
just perishing in its iniquity!
You, with those round about you, deserved long ago to have _drank
the dregs of the cup of trembling_: yea, to have been _punished with
everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the
glory of his power_. But he hath not dealt with you according to your
sins, neither rewarded you after your iniquities. And once more he is
mixing mercy with judgment. Once more he is crying aloud, _Turn ye,
turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of_ Israel;
and will you not deign to give him the hearing? If you are not careful
to answer him in this matter. Do you still shut your eyes, and stop
your ears, and harden your stubborn heart?――――Oh beware, lest God laugh
at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh!
3. Will you plead, that you have other concerns to mind? That other
business engages your thoughts? It does so indeed; but this is
your foolishness; this is the very thing that leaves you without
excuse.――For what business can be of equal moment? The mariner may have
many concerns to mind, and many businesses to engage his thoughts: but
not when the ship is sinking. In such a circumstance (it is your own)
you have but one thing to think of. Save the ship and your own life
together! And the higher post you are in, the more deeply intent should
you be on this one point. Is this a time for diversion? For eating and
drinking, and rising up to play? Keep the ship above water. Let all
else go and mind _this one thing_!
4. Perhaps you will say, “So I do. I do mind this one thing, how to
save the sinking nation. And therefore now I must think of _arms_
and _provisions_. I have no time now to think of _religion_.” This is
exactly as if the mariner should say, “Now I must think of my _guns_
and _stores_. I have no time now to think of the _hold_.” Why man, you
must think of this, or perish. It is _there_ the leak is sprung. Stop
that, or you and all your _stores_ will go together to the bottom of
the sea.
Is not this your very case? Then, whatever you do, _stop the leak_:
else you go to the bottom! I do not speak against your _stores_. They
are good in their kind; and it may be well they are laid in.――――But all
your _stores_ will not save the sinking ship, unless you can stop the
_leak_. Unless you can some way keep out these _floods of ungodliness_,
that are still continually pouring in, you must soon be swallowed up
in the great deep, in the abyss of God’s judgments. This, this is the
destruction of the _English_ nation. It is _vice_, bursting in on every
side, that is just ready to sink us into slavery first, and then into
the nethermost hell.――――_Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge
among you?_ Let him think of this. Think of this, all that love your
country, or that care for your own souls. If now especially you do not
think of _this one thing_, you have no _excuse_ before God or man.
5. Little more _excuse_ have you, who are still in _doubt_ concerning
_this_ day of your visitation. For you have all the proof that you can
reasonably expect or desire, all that the nature of the thing requires.
That in many places, abundance of notorious sinners are totally
reformed, is declared by a thousand eye and ear-witnesses, both of
their present and past behaviour. And you are sensible, the proof of
such a point as this must, in the nature of things rest upon testimony.
And that God alone is able to work such a reformation, you know all
the scriptures testify. What would you have more? What pretence can you
have, for _doubting_ any longer? You have not the least room to expect
or desire any other, or any stronger evidence.
I trust, you are not of those who _fortify_ themselves against
conviction; who are “_resolved_ they will never believe this.” They
ask, “who are these men?” We tell them plainly: but they credit us not.
Another and another of their own friends is convinced, and tells them
the same thing. But their answer is ready, “Are _you_ turned methodist
too?” So _their_ testimony likewise goes for nothing. Now how is it
possible these should ever be convinced? For they will believe none but
those who speak on _one_ side.
6. Do you delay fixing your judgment, till you see a work of God,
without any stumbling-block attending it? That neither is yet nor ever
will. _It must needs be, that offences will come._ And scarce ever was
there such a work of God before, with so few as have attended _this_.
When the _reformation_ began, what mountainous offences lay in the way,
of even the sincere members of the church of _Rome_? They saw _such_
failings in those great men, _Luther_ and _Calvin_! Their vehement
_tenaciousness_ of their own opinions; their _bitterness_ toward all
who differed from them; their _impatience_ of contradiction and utter
want of _forbearance_, even with their own brethren.
But the grand stumbling-block of all, was, their open _avowed
separation_ from the church; their rejecting so many of the _doctrines_
and _practices_, which the others accounted the most sacred; and their
continual _invectives_ against the church they separated from, so much
sharper than _Michael_’s reproof of _Satan_.
Where there fewer stumbling-blocks attending the _reformation_ in
_England_? Surely no, for what was _Henry_ the Eighth? Consider, either
his _character_, his _motives_ to the work, or his _manner_ of pursuing
it! And even king _Edward’s ministry_ we cannot clear, of _persecuting_
in their turns, yea and _burning hereticks_. The main stumbling-block
also still remained, _viz._ open _separation_ from the church.
7. Full as many were the offences that lay in the way of even the
sincere members of the church of _England_, when the people called
_Quakers_ first professed, that they were sent of God to reform the
land. Whether they were or no, is beside our question: it suffices
for the present purpose to observe, that over and above their open,
avowed, total _separation_ from the church, and their vehement
_invectives_ against many of her _doctrines_, and the whole frame of
her _discipline_: they spent their main strength in disputing about
_opinions_ and _externals_, rather than in preaching faith, mercy, and
the love of God.
In these respects, the case was nearly the same when the _Baptists_
first appeared in _England_. They immediately commenced a warm dispute,
not concerning the _vitals_ of Christianity, but concerning the
_manner_ and _time_ of administering one of the _external ordinances_
of it. And as their _opinion_ hereof totally differed from that of
all the other members of the church of _England_, so they soon openly
declared their separation from it, not without sharp _censures_ of
those that continued therein.
8. The same occasion of offence was, in a smaller degree, given by the
_Presbyterians_ and _Independents_: for they also spent great part of
their time and strength, in opposing the commonly received _opinions_,
concerning some of the _circumstantials_ of religion; and for the sake
of these, _separated_ from the church.
* But I do not include that venerable man, Mr. _Philip Henry_, nor
any that were of his Spirit, in this number. I know they abhorred
contending about _externals_. Neither did they _separate themselves_
from the church. They continued therein, till they were driven out,
whether they would or no. I cannot but tenderly sympathize with these;
and the more, because this is, in part, our own case. Warm men spare no
pains, at this very day, to drive us out of the church. They cry out to
the people, wherever one of us comes, “A mad dog, a mad dog!” If haply
we might fly for our lives, as many have done before us. And sure it is,
we should have complied with their desire, we should merely for peace
and quietness have left the church long before now, but that we could
not in conscience do it. And it is on this single motive, it is for
conscience sake, that we still continue therein; and shall continue,
(God being our helper) unless they by violence thrust us out.
9. * But to return. What are the stumbling-blocks in the present case,
compared to those in any of the preceding?
We do not dispute concerning any of the _externals_ or _circumstantials_
of religion. There is no room; for we _agree_ with you therein. We
approve of, and adhere to them all; all that we learned together when
we were children, in our _catechism_ or _common prayer-book_. We were
born and bred up in your _own church_, and desire to die therein. We
always were, and are now, _zealous for the church_; only not with a
blind, angry zeal. We hold, and ever have done, the same _opinions_,
which you and we received from our forefathers. But we do not lay the
main stress of our religion on any _opinions_, right or wrong: neither
do we ever begin, or willingly join in any _dispute_ concerning
them. The weight of all religion, we ♦apprehend, rests on holiness
of _heart_ and _life_. And consequently, wherever we come, we press
this with all our might. How wide then is the difference between
our case and the case of any of those that are above-mentioned? They
_avowedly separated_ from the church: we utterly disavow any such
design. They severely, and almost continually, inveighed against
the _doctrines_ and _discipline_ of the church they left. We approve
both the _doctrines_ and _discipline_ of our church, and inveigh
only against _ungodliness_ and _unrighteousness_. They spent great
part of their time and strength in contending about _externals_ and
_circumstantials_. We agree with you in both; so that having no room
to spend any time in such vain _contention_, we have our desire of
spending and being spent, in promoting plain _practical religion_. How
many stumbling-blocks are removed out of _your way_? Why do not you
acknowledge the work of God?
♦ “apperehend” replaced with “apprehend”
10. If you say, “Because you hold _opinions_ which I cannot believe
are true:” I answer, Believe them true or false; I will not quarrel
with you about any _opinion_. Only see that your heart be right toward
God, that you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ; that you love your
neighbour, and walk as your master walked, and I desire no more. I am
sick of _opinions_: I am weary to bear them. My soul loaths this frothy
food. Give me solid and substantial religion. Give me an humble, gentle
lover of God and man; a man full of mercy and good fruits, without
partiality, and without hypocrisy: a man laying himself out in the work
of faith, the patience of hope, the labour of love. Let my soul be with
_these_ Christians, wheresoever they are, and whatsoever _opinion_ they
are of. _Whosoever_ thus _doth the will of my Father which is in heaven,
the same is my brother, and sister, and mother_.
11. Inexcusably infatuated must you be, if you can even _doubt_ whether
the propagation of this religion be of God! Only more inexcusable are
those unhappy men, who _oppose_, _contradict_, and _blaspheme_ it.
How long will you stop your ears against him, that still crieth, _Why
persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks_;
for a man to _contend with his Maker_. How long will you despise the
well-known advice of a great and learned man, _Refrain from these men,
and let them alone. If this work be of man, it will come to nought.
But if it be of_ God, _ye cannot overthrow it_. And why should you _be
found even to fight against_ God? If a man fight with God, shall he
prevail? _Canst thou thunder with a voice like him?_ Make haste. Fall
down. Humble thyself before him. Lest he put forth his hand and thou
perish!
12. How long will you fight under the banner of the great enemy of
God and ♦man? You are now in his service: you are _taking part with
the devil_ against God. Even supposing there were no other proof,
this would undeniably appear, from the goodly company among whom you
are enlisted, and who war one and the same warfare. I have heard some
affirm, that the most bitter enemies to the present work of God, were
_Pharisees_. They meant, men who had the _form_ of godliness, but
denied the _power_ of it. But I cannot say so. The sharpest adversaries
thereof whom I have hitherto known (unless one might except a few
honourable men, whom I may be excused from naming) were the scum of
_Cornwall_, the rabble of _Bilston_ and _Darlaston_; the wild beasts
of _Walsal_, and the turnkeys of _Newgate_.
♦ “man: you” replaced with “man? You” per Errata
13. Might not the very sight of these _troops_, shew any reasonable man,
to what _general_ they belonged? As well as the _weapons_ they never
fail to use; the most horrid _oaths_ and _execrations_, and lawless
_violence_, carrying away as a flood whatsoever it is which stands
before it: having no eyes, nor ears, no regard to the loudest cries of
reason, justice or humanity. Can _you_ join heart or hands with these
any longer? With such an infamous, scandalous rabble-rout, roaring and
raging, as if they were just broke loose, with their captain _Apollyon_,
from the bottomless pit? Does it not rather concern you, and that in
the highest degree, as well as every friend to his king and country,
every lover of peace, justice and mercy, immediately to join and
stop any such godless crew, as they would join to stop a _fire_ just
beginning to spread, or an _inundation_ of the sea?
14. If, on the contrary, you join with that godless crew, and
strengthen their hands in their wickedness, must not you, in all
reason, be accounted, (like them) _a public enemy of mankind_? And
indeed such must every one appear, in the eye of unprejudiced reason,
who opposes directly or indirectly, the _reformation_ of mankind.
By _reformation_ I mean, the bringing them back (not to this or that
system of _opinions_, or to this or that sett of _rites_ and ceremonies,
how decent and significant soever: but) to the calm love of God and one
another, to an uniform practice of justice, mercy and truth. With what
colour can you lay any claim to humanity, to benevolence, to public
spirit, if you can once open your mouth, or stir one finger, against
such a _reformation_ as this?
* ’Tis a poor excuse to say, “O, but the people are brought into
several erroneous _opinions_.” It matters not a straw, whether they
are or no; (I speak of such opinions as do not touch the foundation)
it is scarce worth while to spend ten words about it. Whether they
embrace this _religious opinion_ or that, is no more concern to me,
than whether they embrace this or that system of _astronomy_. Are they
brought to holy _tempers_ and holy _lives_? This is mine, and should be
your enquiry: since on this, both social and personal happiness depend;
happiness, temporal and eternal. Are they brought to the love of God
and the love of their neighbour? Pure religion and undefiled is this.
How long then will you _darken counsel, by words without knowledge_?
The plain religion now propagated is LOVE. And can you oppose this,
without being _an enemy to mankind_?