Chapter IV: Part II (3)

34. Are _you_ as watchful and zealous to gain souls, as those are to gain the gold that perisheth? Do you know by experience what that meaneth, _The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up_? Or are you one of those watchmen who do not watch at all? Who neither know nor care when the sword cometh? Of whom the prophet saith, _They are dumb dogs that cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber_.

* Can it be supposed, that such shepherds will _feed the flock_? Will _give to every one his portion of meat in due season_? Will these _warn every man, and exhort every man, that they may present every man perfect in_ Christ Jesus? Will they take care to “know all their flock by name, not forgetting ♦the men-servants and women-servants?” Will they enquire into the state of every soul committed to their charge? And watch over each with all tenderness and long-suffering, _as they that must give account_? Marking how they either fall or rise? How these wax _weary and faint in their mind_; and those _grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour_ Jesus Christ? Who can do this, unless his whole heart be in the work? Unless he desire nothing but to _spend and be spent for them_; and _count not his life dear unto himself_, so he may _present them blameless_ in the day of the Lord Jesus.

♦ “their” replaced with “the” per Errata

Can any shepherd do this (and if he do not, he will never _give any account with joy_) who imagines, he has little more to do, then _to preach_ once or twice a week? That this is the _main point_, the _chief part_ of the office, which he hath taken upon himself before God? What gross ignorance is this? What a total mistake of the truth? What a miserable blunder touching the _whole nature_ of his office? It is indeed a very great thing, to speak in the name of God; it might make him that is the stoutest of heart tremble, if he considered, that every time he speaks to others, his _own soul_ is at stake. But great, inexpressibly great as this is, it is perhaps the least part of our work. To _seek and save that which is lost_, to bring souls from Satan to God, to instruct the ignorant, to reclaim the wicked, to convince the gainsayer; to direct their feet into the way of peace, and then keep them therein; to follow them step by step, least they turn out of the way, and advise them in their doubts and temptations; to lift up them that fall, to refresh them that are faint, and to comfort the weak-hearted; to administer various helps, as the variety of occasions require, according to their several necessities: these are parts of our office; all this we have undertaken at the peril of our own soul. A sense of this made that holy man of old cry out, “I marvel if any ruler in the church shall be saved;” and a greater than him say, in the fulness of his heart, _who is sufficient for these things_?

34. But _who is_ not _sufficient_ for these things, _for_ the taking care of a parish, though it contain twenty thousand souls, if this implies no more than the taking care to preach there, once or twice-a-week; and to procure one to read prayers on the other days, and do what is called the _parish duty_? Is any trade in the nation so easy as this? Is not any man sufficient for it, without any more talents either of nature or grace, than a small degree of common understanding? But O! what manner of shepherds are those, who look no farther into the nature of their office, who sink no deeper into the importance of it than this! Were they not such as these concerning whom the _word of the Lord came unto_ Ezekiel, _saying, Woe be to the shepherds that feed themselves: should not the shepherds feed the flock? Ye eat the fat, and ye cloathe you with the wool; but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken; neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost――――And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became meat to all the beasts of the field. Yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them._

I conjure you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, who hath bought them and ♦us with his own blood, apply this each to his own soul. Let every man look unto God, and say, “Lord, _Is it I_? Am I one of these idle, careless, indolent shepherds, that feed myself, not the flock? Am I one that cannot bark, slothful, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber? One of those who have not strengthened that which was diseased, neither healed that which was sick! _Search me, O Lord, and prove me; try out my reins and my heart. Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting._”

♦ “as” replaced with “us” per Errata

35. “Have I not, at least, _healed the hurt of thy people slightly_? Have I not said, _Peace, peace, when there was no peace_?”――How many are they also that do this? Who do not study to speak what is _true_, especially to the rich and great, so much as what is _pleasing_? Who flatter _honourable_ sinners, instead of telling them plain, _How can ye escape the damnation of hell_? O what an account have _you_ to make, if there be a God that judgeth the earth? Will he not require at _your_ hands the blood of all these souls, of whom _ye are the betrayers and murderers_? Well spake the prophets of your fathers, in whose steps ye now tread. _They have seduced my people, and one built up a wall, and another daubed it with untempered mortar. They strengthen the hands of the evil-doers, that none doth return from his wickedness. They prophesy lies in my name saith the Lord. They say unto them that despise me, ye shall have peace, and unto them that walk after the imagination of their own heart, no evil shall come upon you._

How great will _your_ damnation be, who _destroy_ souls, instead of _saving_ them? Where will you appear, or how will you stand, _in that great and terrible day of the Lord_! How will ye lift up your head, when _the Lord descends from heaven, in flaming fire, to take vengeance on his adversaries_! More especially on those who have so betrayed his cause, and done Satan’s work under the banner of Christ! With what voice wilt _thou_ say, “Behold me, Lord, and the sheep whom thou hadst given me, whom I gave to the devil, and told them they were in the way to heaven, till they dropped into hell?”

Were they not just such shepherds of souls as you are concerning whom God spake by _Jeremiah_, _Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot; they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness_: By _Ezekiel_, _There is a conspiracy of her prophets, like a roaring lion, ravening the prey, they have devoured souls_: And by _Zechariah_, _Thus saith the Lord, feed the flock of the slaughter, whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, blessed be the Lord, for I am rich; and their own shepherds pity them not._

* 36. Is not this the _real ground_, the principal _reason_ of the present _contempt of the clergy_? And long since was it assigned as such, by him who cannot lie. The same men of old, who _made the Lord’s people to transgress_, thereby _made themselves vile_. They were _despised_ both as the natural effect, and the judicial punishment of their _wickedness_. And the same cause the prophet observes to have produced the same effect, many hundred years after this. _Ye are departed out of the way saith the_ Lord; _ye have caused many to stumble――therefore have I also made you_ contemptible, _and base before all the people_.

I have now, brethren, _delivered mine own soul_ and in so doing, I have (as I proposed at first) _used great plainness of speech_, as not studying _to please men, but the Lord_. The event I leave to him in whose name I have spoken, and who hath the hearts of all men in his hand.

I _have brought you heavy tidings this_ day, and yet I cannot but be persuaded, that some of you will not _count me your enemy, because I tell you the truth_. O that all of us may _taste_ the good word which we _declare_! May _receive_ that knowledge of salvation, which we are commanded to _preach_ unto every creature, thro’ the remission of sins! My heart’s desire is, that all of us to whom _is committed the ministry of reconciliation_, may ourselves be reconciled to God, thro’ the blood of the everlasting covenant: that he may be henceforth unto us a God, and we may be unto him a people: that we may all _know_ as well as _preach_, the Lord, _from the least unto the greatest_: even by that token, _I am merciful to thy unrighteousness: thy sins I remember no more_!

III. 1. I have hitherto spoken more immediately to those, who profess themselves members of the _church of_ England. But inasmuch as I am a debtor also to those who do not, my design is now, to apply to them also; and briefly to shew, wherein (I fear) they are severally inconsistent with _their own principles_.

I begin with those who are at the smallest distance from us, whether they are termed _Presbyterians_ or _Independents_. Of whom in general I cannot but have a widely different opinion, from that I entertained some years ago: as having since then conversed with many among them, _in whom the root of the matter is_ undeniably _found_; and who labour _to keep a conscience void of offence both toward God and toward man_. I cannot therefore doubt, but every serious man, of either one or the other denomination, does utterly condemn all that inward as well as outward unholiness, which has been above described.

But do you, as a people, avoid what you condemn? Are no whoremongers or adulterers found among you? No children disobedient to their parents? No servants that are slothful or careless? That _answer again_? That do not _honour their masters as is meet in the Lord_? Are there none among you that censure or _speak evil of the ruler of their people_? Are there no drunkards, no gluttons, no luxurious men, no regular _epicures_, none _whose belly is their God_, who, as their fortune permits, _fare sumptuously every day_? Have you no _dishonest dealers_, no _unfair traders_, no _usurers_, or _extortioners_? Have you no _liars_, either for gain, or for good manners, so called? Are you clear of _ceremony_ and _compliment_? Alas, you are sensible, in most if not all these respects, you have now small ♦pre-eminence over us.

♦ “preheminence” replaced with “pre-eminence”

How much more sensible must you be of this, if you do not rest on the surface, but enquire into the bottom of religion, the religion of the heart? For, what inward unholiness, what evil tempers are among us, which have not a place among you also? You likewise bewail that ignorance of God, that want of faith and of the love of God and man, that inward idolatry of various kinds, that pride, ambition and vanity, which rule in the hearts even of those who still have _the form of godliness_. You lament before God, the deep covetousness that _eats so many souls as doth a gangrene_; and perhaps are sometimes ready to cry out, _help, Lord, for there is_ scarce _one godly man left_. Lay to thine hand: _for the faithful are minished from the children of men_!

2. And yet you retain _the truth that is after godliness_, at least, as to the substance of it. You own what is laid down in scripture, both touching the _nature_ and _condition_ of _justification_ and _salvation_. And with regard to the _author of faith and salvation_, you have always avowed, even in the face of your enemies, that _it is God which worketh in us, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure_: that it is his Spirit alone who _teacheth us all things_, all we know of _the deep things of God_: that every true believer has _an unction from the Holy One_ to _lead him into all_ necessary _truth_: that _because we are sons, God sendeth forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father_; and that _this Spirit, beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God_.

How is it then, my brethren (so I can call you now, although I could not have done it heretofore;) how is it, that the generality of you also are fallen from your stedfastness? In the times of persecution ye stood as a rock, tho’ _all the waves and storms went over_ you. But who can bear ease and fulness of bread! How are you changed, since these came upon you! Do not many of you now (practically I mean) put something else, in the room of _faith that worketh by love_? Do not some of you suppose that gravity and composedness of behaviour, are the main parts of Christianity? Especially, provided you neither swear, nor take the name of God in vain. Do not others imagine, that to abstain from idle songs, and those fashionable diversions commonly used by persons of their fortune, is almost the whole of religion? To which if they add family prayer, and a strict observation of the sabbath, then doubtless all is well! Nay my brethren, this is well, so far as it goes: but how little a way does it go toward Christianity? All these things, you cannot but see, are merely _external_; whereas Christianity is an _inward_ thing; without which the most beautiful outward form is lighter than vanity.

Do not others of you rest in _conviction_? Or good _desires_? Alas, what do these avail? A man may be _convinced_ he is sick, yea deeply convinced, and yet never recover. He may _desire_ food, yea with earnest desire, and nevertheless perish with hunger. And thus I may be _convinced_ I am a sinner; but this will not justify me before God. And I may _desire_ salvation (perhaps by fits and starts, for many years) and yet be lost for ever. Come close then to the point, and keep to your principles. Have _you_ received the Holy Ghost; the Spirit which is of God, and is bestowed by him on all believers, _that we may know the things which are freely given to us of God_? The time is short. Do you experience now that _unction from the Holy One_? Without which you confess _outward_ religion, whether negative or positive is nothing. Nay, and inward _conviction_ of our wants is nothing, unless those wants are in fact supplied. Good _desires_ also are nothing, unless we actually attain what we are stirred up to desire. For still, _if any man_ have _not the Spirit of_ Christ, whatever he desires, _he is none of his_. O my brother, beware you stop not short! Beware you never account yourself a Christian, no not in the lowest degree, till God _hath sent forth the Spirit of_ Christ _into_ your _heart_, and that _Spirit bear witness with_ your _spirit, that you are a child of God_.

3. One step farther from us, are you who are called (though not by your own choice) _Anabaptists_. The smallness of your number, compared to that of either the _Presbyterians_, or those of the _church_, makes it easier for you to have an exact knowledge of the behaviour of all your members, and to put away from among you every one that _walketh not according to the doctrine you have received_.

But is this done? Do all your members adorn the gospel? Are they all _holy as he which hath called us is holy_? I fear not. I have known some instances to the contrary; and doubtless you know many more. There are unholy, outwardly unholy men, in _your_ congregations also: men that prophane either the name or the day of the Lord; that do not honour their natural or civil parents; that know not how to possess their bodies in sanctification and honour; that are intemperate, either in meat or drink, gluttonous, sensual, luxurious; that variously offend against justice, mercy or truth, in their intercourse with their neighbour, and do not walk by that _royal law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself_.

But how is this consistent with your leading principle, “That no man ought to be admitted to baptism, till he has that repentance whereby we forsake sin, and living faith in God, through Christ?”

For if no man ought to be admitted into a church or congregation, who has not actual faith and repentance, then neither ought any who has them not, to continue in any congregation. And consequently an open sinner cannot remain among you, unless you practically renounce your main principle.

4. I refer it to your own serious consideration, whether one reason, why unholy men are still suffered to remain among you, may not be this; that many of you have unawares put _opinion_ in the room of _faith_ and _repentance_? But how fatal a mistake is this? Supposing your opinion to be true, yet a _true opinion_ concerning _repentance_ is wholly different from the thing itself. And you may have a _true opinion_ concerning _faith_ all your life and yet die an unbeliever.

Supposing therefore the _opinion_ of _particular redemption_ true, yet how little does it avail toward salvation? Nay, were we to suppose, that _none can be saved_ who do not hold it, it does not follow, that _all will be saved_ who do. So that if the one proved a man to be in ever so _bad a state_, the other would not prove him to be _in a good one_. And consequently, whosoever leans on this opinion, _leans on the staff of a broken reed_.

Would to God that ye would mind this one thing, To _make your own calling and election sure_! That every one of you (leaving the rest of the world to him that made it) would himself _repent and believe the gospel_! Not repent alone (for then you know only the baptism of _John_) but believe and be _baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire_. Are you still a stranger to that inward baptism, wherewith all true believers are baptized? May the Lord constrain you to cry out, _How am I straitened till it be accomplished_! Even till the love of God inflame your heart, and consume all your vile affections. Be not content with any thing less than this! It is this loving faith alone which opens our way into _the general church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven_! Which giveth us to _enter within the veil, where_ Jesus _our fore-runner is gone before us_!

5. There is a still wider difference in _some_ points, between us and the people usually termed _Quakers_. But not in _these_ points. You, as well as we, condemn _all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men_; all those _works_ of the devil which were recited above, and all those _tempers_ from which they spring.

You ♦agree, That we are all to be _taught of_ God; and to be _led by his Spirit_: that the Spirit alone _reveals_ all truth, and _inspires_ all holiness: that by his inspiration men attain _perfect love_, the love which _purifies them as he is pure_: and that through this knowledge and love of God, they have power to _do always such things as please him_; to worship God, a Spirit, according to his own will, that is, _in spirit and in truth_.

♦ “argree” replaced with “agree” per Errata

Hence you infer, That _formal worship_ is not acceptable to God, but that alone that springs from God in the heart: you infer also, that they who are led by him, will use great _plainness of speech_, and great _plainness of dress_, seeking no _outward adorning_, but _only the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit_.

I will look no farther now, than simply to ♦enquire, Whether you are consistent with these principles?

♦ “equire” replaced with “enquire” per Errata

To begin with the latter: “He that is led by the Spirit will use great plainness of speech.”

* _You_ would have said, “will use the plain language.” But that term leads you into a grand mistake. That term, “_the_ plain language,” naturally leads you to think of _one particular_ way of speaking; as if _plainness of speech_ implied no more, than the use of that _particular form_.

* Alas! my brethren! Know ye not, that your ancestors designed this, only as a _specimen_ of _plain language_? And is it possible that you should mistake the sample for the whole bale of cloth?

Consult the light God has given you, and you must see that _plainness of speech_ does not lie in _a single point_, but implies an open, undisguised sincerity, a child-like simplicity _in all we speak_.

* I do not desire you to refrain from saying _thou_ or _thee_. I would not spend ten words about it. But I desire you whenever you speak at all, to speak the truth, and nothing but the truth. I desire your words may always be the picture of your heart. This is truly _plain language_.

* Either do not pretend to _plain speech_ at all, or be _uniformly plain_. Are you so? I pray, consider. Do you never _compliment_? I do not suppose you say, “Sir, your very humble servant.” But do you say no _civil things_? Do you never _flatter_? Do you not _commend_ any man or woman to their face? Perhaps farther than you do behind their back. Is this _plainness of speech_? Do you never _dissemble_? Do you speak to all persons, high or low, rich or poor, just what you think, neither more nor less, and in the shortest and clearest manner you can? If not, what a mere jest is your _plain language_? You carry your condemnation in your own breast.

6. You hold also, That “he which is led by the Spirit, will use great _plainness of dress_, seeking no _outward adorning_, but only the _ornament of a meek and quiet spirit_.”

And that, in particular, “he will leave _gold and costly apparel_, to those who know not God.”

* Now I appeal to every serious, reasonable man among you, Do your people act consistently with this principle? Do not many of your women wear _gold_ upon their very feet? And many of your men use _ornaments of gold_? Are you a stranger to these things? Have you not seen with your eyes (such ♦trifles as will scarce bear the naming) their _canes_ and _snuff-boxes_ glitter, even in your solemn assembly, while ye were waiting together upon God? Surely, they are not yet so lost to modesty, as to pretend, that they do not use them by way of _ornament_. If they do not, if it be only out of necessity, a _plain oaken stick_ will supply the place of the one, and a piece of _horn_ or _tin_ will unexceptionably answer all the reasonable ends of the other.

♦ “triflings” replaced with “trifles” per Errata

* To speak freely (and do not count me your enemy for this) you cannot but observe upon cool reflection, that you retain just so much of your _antient_ practice, as leaves your _present_ without excuse; as makes the inconsistency between the one and the other, glaring and undeniable. For instance: this woman is too strict a _Quaker_, to lay out a _shilling_ in a _necklace_. Very well; but she is not too strict to lay out _fourscore guineas_ in a repeating _watch_. Another would not for the world wear any _lace_, no, not an _edging_ round her cap. But she will wear _point_; and sees no harm in it at all, though it should be of twelve times the price. In one kind of _apron_ or _handkerchief_ she dares not lay out twenty shillings; but in another sort, lays out twenty pounds. And what multitudes of you are very jealous, as to the _colour_ and _form_ of your apparel, (the least important of all the circumstances that relate to it) while in the most important, the expence, they are without any concern at all? They will not put on a _scarlet_ or _crimson_ stuff, but the richest _velvet_, so it be black or grave. They will not touch a coloured _ribband_; but will cover themselves with a _stiff silk_ from head to foot. They cannot bear _purple_: but make no scruple at all of being cloathed in _fine linen_: yea, to such a degree, that the _linen of the Quakers_ is grown almost into a proverb.

Surely you cannot be ignorant, that the sinfulness of _fine apparel_, lies chiefly in the _expensiveness_. In that it is robbing God and the poor: it is defrauding the fatherless and widow; it is wasting the food of the hungry, and with-holding his raiment from the naked, to consume it on our own lusts.

7. Let it not be said, that this affects only _a few_ among you, and those, of the _younger_ and _lighter_ sort. Yes it does; your whole body: for why do you, who are _elder_ and _graver_, suffer such things? Why do ye not vehemently reprove them? And if thy repent not, in spite of all worldly considerations, expel them out of your society? In conniving at their sin, you make it your own; _you_, especially who are _preachers_. Do you say, “They cannot bear it; they will not hear:” Alas, into what state then are ye fallen! But whether they will bear it or not, what is that to thee? Thou art to _speak, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear_. To say the very truth, I am afraid, you rather strengthen their hands in their wickedness. For you not only ¹do not testify against it in the congregation, but even sit at their table and reprove them not. Why then, thou also art one of _the dumb dogs that cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber_.

¹ You say, “You _do testify against it_ in the congregation.”
Against what? “Against gay and gaudy apparel.” I grant it.
But this is not the thing I speak of. You quite mistake
my mark. Do you testify against the _costliness_ of their
apparel, however plain and grave it may be? Against the
_price_ of the velvet, the linen, the silk, or raiment of
whatever kind? If you do this frequently and explicitly,
you are clear. If not, own and amend the fault.

It is easy to discern how your people fell into this
snare of the devil. You were at first a poor, despised,
afflicted people. Then, what some of you had to spare,
was little enough to relieve the needy members of your own
society. In a few years you increased in goods, and were
able to relieve more than your _own_ poor. But you did not
bestow all that you had to spare from them, on the poor
belonging to other societies. It remained either to lay it
up, or to expend it in superfluities. Some chose one way,
and some the other.

* Lay this deeply to heart, ye who are now a poor, despised,
afflicted people. Hitherto ye are not able to relieve
your own poor. But if ever _your_ substance increase,
see that ye be not straitened in your own bowels, that ye
fall not ♦into the same snare of the devil. Before any of
you either lay up treasures on earth, or indulge needless
expence of any kind, I pray the Lord God to scatter you
to the corners of the earth, and blot out your name from
under heaven!

♦ “in” replaced with “into” per Errata

I fix this charge upon every _preacher_, in particular, who saw a young woman, daughter to one of the _Quakers_ in _London_, going to be married in apparel suitable to her diamond buckle, which cost a hundred guineas. Could you see this, and not call heaven and earth to witness against it? Then I witness against thee, in the name of the Lord, thou art a _blind leader of the blind_: thou _strainest a gnat and swallowest a camel_!

Verily the sin both of teachers and hearers, is herein exceeding great. And the little attempts toward plainness of apparel, which are still observable among you (I mean, in the _colour_ and _form_ of your cloaths, and the _manner of_ putting them on) only testify against you, that you were once what you know in your hearts you are not now.

8. I come now to your main principle, “We are all to be _taught of_ God, to be _inspired_ and _led by his Spirit_. And then we shall _worship_ him, not with dead _form_, but _in spirit and in truth_.”

These are deep and weighty words. But many hold fast the words, and are utterly ignorant of their meaning. Is not this an exceeding common case? Are not you conscious, abundance of your friends have done so? With whom the being _taught of God_ and _led by his Spirit_, are mere words of course, that mean just nothing. And their crude and indigested accounts, of the things they did not understand, have raised that deep prejudice against these great truths, which we find in the generality of men.

Do some of you ask, “But dost thou acknowledge _the inward principle_?” I do, my friends: and I would to God every one of you acknowledged it as much. I say, all religion is either _empty shew_, or _perfection by inspiration_; in other words, The obedient love of God, by the supernatural knowledge of God: yea, all that which _is not of faith is sin_; all which does not spring from this loving knowledge of God; which knowledge cannot begin, or subsist one moment, without _immediate inspiration_: not only all public worship, and all private prayer, but every thought, in common life, and word and work. What think you of this? Do you not stagger? Dare you carry _the inward principle_ so far? Do you acknowledge it to be the very truth? But alas! what is the acknowledging it? Dost thou experience this principle in thyself: What saith thy heart? Does God dwell therein? And doth it now eccho to the voice of God? Hast thou the _continual inspiration_ of his Spirit, filling thy heart with his love, as with a well of water, springing up into everlasting life?

* 9. Art thou acquainted with the _leading of his Spirit_, not by notion only, but by living experience? I fear very many of you talk of this, who do not so much as know what it means. How does the Spirit of God _lead_ his children, to this, or that particular action? Do you imagine, it is by _blind impulse_ only? By _moving_ you to do it, you know not why? Not so. He leads us by our _eye_, at least as much as by the _hand_; and by _light_ as well as by _heat_. He _shews_ us the way wherein we should go, as well as _incites_ us to walk therein. For example. Here is a man ready to perish with hunger. How am _I led by the Spirit_ to relieve him? First, by his _convincing_ me, it is the will of God I should, and secondly by his filling my heart with _love_ toward him. Both this _light_ and this _heat_ are the gift of God; are wrought in me by the same Spirit: who _leads_ me, by this _conviction_ as well as _love_, to go and feed that man. This is the plain, rational account of the _ordinary_ leading of the Spirit. But how far from that which some have given!

* Art _thou_ thus led by the Spirit to every good word and work? Till God ♦hath thereby made thy faith perfect? Dost thou know what _faith_ is? It is a loving, obedient sight of a present and reconciled God. Now where this is, there is no _dead form_; neither can be, so long as it continues. But all that is said or done is full of God, full of Spirit and life and power.

♦ “had” replaced with “hath” per Errata

10. But perhaps, as much as you talk of them, you do not know the difference between _form_ and _Spirit_; or between worshipping God in a _formal_ way, and worshipping him _in spirit and in truth_.

The Lord is that Spirit. The seeing and feeling and loving him is spiritual _life_. And whatever is said or done in the sight or love of God, that is full of _spirit and life_. All beside this is _form_, mere dead _form_; whether it be in our public addresses to God, or in our private; or in our worldly business, or in our daily conversation.

* But if so, how poor and mean and narrow have your views and conceptions been! You was afraid of _formality_ in _public worship_. And reason good. But was you afraid of it no where else? Did not you consider, that _formality_ in _common life_, is also an abomination to the Lord? And that it can have no place in any thing we say or do, but so far as we forget God? O watch against it in every place, every moment, that you may every moment see and love God: and consequently, at all times and in all places, worship him _in Spirit and in truth_.

My brethren, permit me to add a few words, in tender love to your souls. Do not you _lean_ too much on the spirit and power which you believe rested upon your _forefathers_? Suppose it did! Will that avail _you_, if you do not drink into the same spirit? And how evident is this! That whatever you once were, ye are now _shorn of your strength_. Ye are weak and become like other men. The Lord is well nigh departed from you. Where is now the spirit, the life, the power? Be not offended with my plain dealing, when I beseech _you_ who are able to weigh things calmly, to open your eyes and see multitudes even in the church, pursuing, yea and attaining the _substance_ of spiritual life, and leaving unto you the _shadow_. Nay a still greater evil is before you: for if ye find not some effectual means to prevent it, your rising generation will utterly cast off the _shadow_ as well as the _substance_.

11. There is an abundantly greater difference still, according to your own account, between us who profess ourselves members of the church of _England_, and you who are members of the church of _Rome_. But notwithstanding this, do you not agree with us in condemning the vices above recited? Prophaneness, drunkenness, whoredom, adultery, theft, disobedience to parents, and such like? And how unhappily do you agree with us in _practising_ the very vices which you _condemn_?

And yet you acknowledge (nay and frequently contend for this with a peculiar earnestness) that every Christian is called to be _zealous of good works_, as well as to _deny himself and take up his cross daily_. How then do you depart from your own principles, when you are gluttons, drunkards or epicures? When you live at your ease, in all the elegance and voluptuousness of a plentiful fortune! How will you reconcile the being adorned with gold, arrayed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day, with the _denying yourself and taking up your cross daily_? Surely while you indulge the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life, the excellent rules of self-denial that abound in your own writers, leave you of all men most inexcusable.

12. Neither can this self-indulgence be reconciled, with the being _zealous of good works_. For by this needless and continual expence, you disable yourself from doing good. You bind your own hands. You make it impossible for you to do that good which otherwise you might. So that you injure the poor in the same proportion as you poison your own soul. You might have cloathed the naked; but what was due to them, was thrown away on your costly apparel. You might have fed the hungry, entertained the stranger, relieved them that were sick or in prison. But the superfluities of your own table swallowed up that whereby they should have been profited. And so this wasting of thy Lord’s goods, is an instance of complicated wickedness; since hereby thy poor brother perisheth, for whom Christ died.

I will not recommend to you either the writings or examples of those whom you account _hereticks_, (although some of these, if you could view them with impartial eyes, might _provoke you to jealousy_.) But O! that God would write in your hearts the rules of self-denial and love, laid down by _Thomas a Kempis_! Or that you would follow both in this and in good works, that burning and shining light of your own church, the Marquis _de Renty_! Then would all who know and loved the Lord rejoice to acknowledge you as the _church of the living God_: when ye were zealous of every good word and work; and abstained from all appearance of evil: when it was hereby shewn that you were filled with the Holy Ghost, and delivered from all unholy tempers: when ye were all _unblameable and unrebukable, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, shewing forth_ to all Jews, infidels and hereticks, by your active, patient, spotless love of God and man, _the praises of him, who had called you out of darkness into his marvellous light_.

13. Men and brethren, _Children of the seed of Abraham_, suffer me to speak a few words to you also; you who do not allow, that Messiah _the Prince is_ already come and _cut off_. However you so far hear _Moses_ and the prophets, as to allow, 1. That _it is the inspiration of the Holy One, which giveth man understanding_, and that all the true children of God _are taught of God_. 2. That the substance both of the law and the prophets, is contained in that one word, _Thou shalt love the_ Lord _thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbour as thyself_. ♦3. That the sure fruit of love is obedience, _ceasing from evil, and doing good_.

♦ insert “3.” per Errata

And do _you_ walk by this rule? Have _you yourselves_ that _inspiration of the Holy One_? Are _you_ taught of God? Hath he opened your understanding? Have you the inward knowledge of the most High? I fear not. Perhaps you know little more, even of the meaning of the words than a _Mahometan_.

Let us go a little farther. Do you _love the_ Lord _your_ God _with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength? Can you say, Whom have I in heaven but thee; and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee?_ Do you desire God at all? Do you desire to have any thing to do with him, till you can keep the world no longer? Are you not content, so you enjoy the good things of earth, to let God stand afar off? Only calling upon him now and then, when you cannot well do without him. Why then you do not _love_ God at all, tho’ you will sometimes condescend to _use_ him. You _love_ the world. This possesses your _heart_. This therefore is your God. You renounce the God of your fathers, the God of _Israel_; you are still _uncircumcised in heart_. Your own conscience bears witness, you in this no more hear _Moses_ and the prophets, than you do Jesus of _Nazareth_.

14. From _Moses_ and the prophets it has been shewn, that your forefathers were _a faithless and stubborn generation; a generation which set not their hearts aright, and whose spirit cleaved not stedfastly unto God_. And this you acknowledge yourselves. If you are asked, how is it that the promise is not fulfilled? Seeing _the scepter is_ long since _departed from Judah_, why is not _Shiloh_ come? Your usual answer is, “because of the sins of our fathers, God hath delayed his coming.” Have _you_ then reformed from the sins of your fathers? Are _you_ turned unto the Lord your God? Nay, do ye not tread in the same steps? Bating that single point of outward idolatry, what abomination did _they_ ever commit, which _you_ have not committed also? Which the generality of you do not commit still, according to your power? If therefore the coming of the Messiah was hindered by the sins of your forefathers, then by the same rule, your continuance therein will hinder his coming to the end of the world.

_Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God_ is, that he would _gather the outcasts of Israel_. And I doubt not, but when the fulness of the _Gentiles_ is come in, then _all Israel shall be saved_. But mean time, is there not great cause that ye should say with _Daniel_, _O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of face, as at this day, to the men of Judah, and unto all Israel. O Lord, we have sinned, we have rebelled against thee, neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. Yet O our God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes and behold our desolations; for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord hear! O Lord forgive! O Lord, hearken and do! Defer not, for thine own sake; for thy city and thy people that are called by thy name._

15. I cannot conclude without addressing myself to you also, who do not admit either the _Jewish_ or _Christian_ revelation. But still you desire to be happy. You own the essential difference between vice and virtue; and acknowledge, (as did all the wiser _Greeks_ and _Romans_) that vice cannot consist with happiness. You allow likewise that gratitude and benevolence, self-knowledge and modesty, mildness, temperance, patience and generosity, are justly numbered among virtues; and that ingratitude and malice, envy and ill-nature, pride, insolence and vanity, gluttony and luxury, covetousness and discontent, are vices of the highest kind.

Now let us calmly enquire, how far _your_ life is consistent with your principles.

* You seek happiness. But you find it not. You come no nearer it with all your labours. You are not happier than you was a year ago. Nay, I doubt you are more unhappy. Why is this, but because you look for happiness there, where you own it cannot be found? Indeed, what is there on earth which can long satisfy a man of understanding? His soul is too large for the world he lives in. He wants more room.

Æstuat infelix augusto limite Mundi,
Ut brevibus clausus Gyaris, parvaque seripho.

He has already travelled through all which is called pleasure; diversions and entertainments of every kind. But among these he can find no enjoyment of any depth; they are empty, shallow, superficial things: they pleased for a while, but the gloss is gone: and now they are dull and tasteless. And what has he next? Only the same things again; for this world affords nothing more. It can supply him with no change. Go, feed again: but it is upon one dish still. Thus

_Occidit miseros crambe repetita._

Yet what remedy under the sun!

* 16. The sounder judgment, the stronger understanding you have, the sooner are you sated with the world. And the more deeply convinced, all that cometh is vanity; foolish, insipid, nauseous. You see the foibles of men in so much clearer a light, and have the keener sense of the emptiness of life. Here you are, a poor, unsatisfied inhabitant of an unquiet world; turning your weary eyes on this side and on that side: seeking rest, but finding none. You seem to be _out of your place_: neither the persons nor things that surround you are _such as you want_. You have a confused idea of _something_ better than all this; but you know not where to find it. You are always gasping for _something_ which you cannot attain, no, not if you range to the uttermost parts of the earth.

But this is not all. You are not only _negatively_ unhappy, as finding nothing whereon to stay the weight of your soul; but _positively_ so, because you are unholy: you are miserable, because you are vicious. Are you not vicious? Are you then full of gratitude to him, who giveth you life and breath, and all things? Not so; you rather spurn his gifts, and murmur at him that gave them. How often has your heart said, God did not use you well? How often have you questioned either his wisdom or goodness? Was this well done? What kind of gratitude is this? It is the best you are master of. Then take knowledge of yourself. Black ingratitude is rooted in your inmost frame. You can no more love God, than you can see him; or than you can be happy without that love.

Neither (how much soever you may pique yourself upon it) are you a lover of mankind. Can love and malice consist? Benevolence and envy? O do not put out your own eyes. And are not these horrid tempers in _you_? Do not you envy one man, and bear malice or ill-will to another? I know you call these dispositions by softer names; but names change not the nature of things. You are pained that one should enjoy what you cannot enjoy yourself. Call this what you please, it is rank envy. You are grieved, that a second enjoys even what you have yourself; you rejoice in seeing a third unhappy. Do not flatter yourself: this is malice, venomous malice, and nothing else. And how could you ever think of being happy, with malice and envy in your heart? Just as well might you expect to be at ease, while you held burning coals in your bosom.

17. I intreat you to reflect, whether there are not other inhabitants in your breast, which leave no room for happiness there. May you not discover, through a thousand disguises, pride? Too high an opinion of yourself? Vanity, thirst of praise, even (who would believe it?) of the applause of knaves and fools? Unevenness or sourness of temper? Proneness to anger or revenge? Peevishness, fretfulness, or pining discontent? Nay, perhaps even covetousness.――And did you ever think, happiness could dwell with these? Awake out of that senseless dream. Think not of reconciling things incompatible. All these tempers are essential misery. So long as any of these are harboured in your breast, you must be a stranger to inward peace. What avails it you, if there be no other hell? Whenever these fiends are let loose upon you, you will be constrained to own,

“Hell is where’er I am: myself am hell;”

And can the supreme Being love those tempers, which you yourself abhor in all but yourself? If not, they imply guilt as well as misery. Doubtless they do. Only enquire of your own heart. How often in the mid career of your vice have you felt a secret reproof, which you knew not how to bear, and therefore stifled as soon as possible?

18. And did not even _this_ point at an hereafter? A future state of existence? The more reasonable among you have no doubt of this; you do not imagine the whole man dies together: although you hardly suppose the soul, once disengaged, will dwell again in an house of clay. But how will your soul subsist without it? How are _you_ qualified for a separate state? Suppose this earthly covering, this vehicle of organized matter, whereby you hold commerce with the material world, were now to drop off! Now, what would you do in the regions of immortality? You cannot eat or drink there. You cannot indulge either the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life. You love only worldly things; and they are gone, fled as smoke, driven away for ever. Here is no possibility of sensual enjoyments; and you have a rellish for nothing else. O what a separation is this, from all that you hold dear! What a breach is made, never to be healed!

But beside this, you are unholy: full of evil tempers: for you did not put off these with the body. You did not leave pride, revenge, malice, envy, discontent behind you, when you left the world. And now you are no longer cheared by the light of the sun, nor diverted by the flux of various objects: but those dogs of hell are let loose to prey upon your soul, with their whole, unrebated strength. Nor is there any hope, that your spirit will now ever be restored to its original purity; not even that poor hope of a purging fire, so elegantly described by the _Heathen_ poet some ages before the notion was revived among the doctrines of the _Romish_ church

――Aliæ tenduntur inanes
Suspensæ ad ventos; aliis sub gurgite vasto
Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni――
Donec longa dies, exacto temporis orbe,
Concretam exemit labem, purumque reliquit
Æthereum sensum atque aurai simplicis ignem.

19. What a great gulph then is fixed between you and happiness, both in this world and that which is to come? Well may you shudder at the thought! More especially when you are about to enter on that untried state of existence. For what a prospect is this, when you stand on the verge of life, ready to launch out into eternity? What can you then think? You see nothing before you. All is dark and dreary. On the very best supposition, how well may you address your parting soul in the words of dying _Adrian_:

“Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing,
Must we no longer live together?
And dost thou prune thy trembling wing,
To take thy flight thou know’st not whither?

Thy pleasing vein, thy hum’rous folly
Is all neglected, all forgot;
And pensive, wavering, melancholy,
Thou hop’st, and fear’st thou know’st not what.”

“Thou know’st not what!” Here is the sting, suppose there were no other. To be _thou knowest not what_? * Not for a month, or year, but thro’ the countless ages of eternity! What a tormenting uncertainty must this be? What racking unwillingness must it occasion, to exchange even this known vale of tears, for the unknown valley of the shadow of death?

“And is there no cure for this?” Indeed there is an effectual cure; even the knowledge and love of God. There is a knowledge of God which _unveils_ eternity, and a love of God which _endears_ it. That knowledge makes the great abyss _visible_; and _uncertainty_ vanishes away. That love makes it _amiable_ to the soul, so that _fear_ has no more place! But the moment God says, by the welcome angel of death, “Come thou up hither!” She

“Claps the glad wing and towers away,
And mingles with the blaze of day.”

20. See ye not, what advantage every way, a _Christian_ has over _you_? Probably the reason you saw it not before was, because you knew none but _nominal_ Christians; men who professed to _believe_ more (in _their way_ of believing) but had no more of the knowledge or love of God than yourselves. So that with regard to real, _inward religion_, you stood upon even ground. And perhaps in many branches of _outward religion_, the advantage was on _your_ side.

May the Lord, the God of the Christians, either reform these wretches, or take them away from the earth! That lay this grand stumbling-block in the way of those who desire to know the will of God!

O ye who desire to know his will, regard them not! If it be possible, blot them out of your remembrance.

They neither _can_ nor _will_ do you any good. O suffer them not to do you harm. Be not prejudiced against Christianity by those who know nothing at all of it. Nay, they condemn it, all _real substantial_ Christianity; they speak evil of the thing they know not. They have a kind of _cant_ word for the whole religion of the heart. They call it _enthusiasm_.

I will briefly lay before you the ground of the matter, and appeal to you yourselves for the reasonableness of it.