Sacrilegious Desertion of the Holy Ministry Rebuked, Chapter 12
CHAP. XII.
An humble Petition to the Conformiſts.
Sect. 1. FAthers and Brethren, though I preſumed to counſel the Non-Conformiſts as my equals, I will preſume no higher with you, than to lay my ſelf at your Feet, and humbly a ſecond time to become your Petitioner for the ſouls of men, for the Goſpel, the Church, and the intereſt of Chriſt. It is your Office to be Petitioners to mankind for Chriſt, and to beſeech them in his ſtead to be reconciled to God. And a man might hope that one that ſhould become a Petitioner to you, that your ſelves would not deſtroy that Church, might find acceptance and prevail. But Satan hath got ſo great advantage, that the wiſeſt man living is uncapable of ſpeaking rightly to you without offence. He that can draw men into great diſgraceful ſin, hath thereby raiſed a Bulwark to defend his work. To be ſilent and comply, is to be cruel to the ſinner and himſelf, and who can do it that believeth Death and Judgement: To call men to repentance, is utterly to loſe them by implying that they have ſinned. O little did I once think that Repentance had bin ſo hard a work, when God offereth pardon of all other ſins, againſt the Law of innocency, on ſo low and reaſonable a condition.
Sect. 2. It is not in my thoughts to confound all Conformiſts, as if there were no difference among your ſelves. I know that there are many ſorts of you:
I. There are ſome Learned zealous high Conformiſts, who think they have done good ſervice to God, by all that they have done already; and no doubt, were wiſe enough to foreſee what they were bringing to paſs, and are not, by any ſober man, to be accuſed of doing either they knew not what, or what they did not ſuppoſe was good, and would countervail all that it ſhould coſt to procure it. Their work hath proſpered; And the hinder part of it is yet in their hands; But it is alſo in the hands of God. To theſe Reverend perſons, I have formerly ſpoken to their great offenſe.
Sect. 3. II. And I would there were no Miniſters ſo pittifully dark, and young, and raw, or ſo much out of love and reliſh, with things Spiritual, through the prevalency of a ſtronger appetite, as that their incapacity convinceth me, that I am not to expect much regard from them, as knowing with what ears they hear.
Sect. 4 III. There are alſo ſome called Latitudinarians, who love not Fopperyes or violence, but are men of Reaſon and ſober Converſations, though they are not ſo tender and ſcrupulous as the Non-conformiſts, but can break over greater rubs.
Sect. 5. IV. And there are other Godly ſober unwilling Conformiſts, who by the benefit of ſubſcribing in their own ſence, have ſtretcht themſelves to do what they have done; who conform on the terms of Mr. Sprint, ſubmitting to what would elſe be evil, onelyonly to obtein the liberty of Preaching; (Far be it from me to put in any ſelfiſh ends.) Who are unwillingly Conformiſts, as the Weſtminſter Aſſembly were, that after took down Prelacy.
Sect. 6. To all of them that yet have ears to hear, I humbly preſent theſe following Requeſts.
I. O be not too angry with thoſe that cenſure you as ſinners. I deteſt raſh cenſoriouſneſs: But you know men that differ in this world, about Speculatives, may differ about matters of Practice too: The Jeſuiſts, Fryars and Janſeniſts do ſo, in not a few or little things. And in ſuch a difference, one party muſt needs conſure the practiſers of the contrary, as ſinners. If you and I differed about Uſury, Stage playes, Gaming, &c. one party muſt needs think that the other ſide do live in ſin. And who liveth and ſinneth not? Either the cenſure is true or falſe: If true, ſhould you not be as thankful as to one that would ſave you from the Plague? Will ſin do you leſs hurt than cenſure? If it be falſe, Conſider
1. You are fallible; and the notice of a poſſible pernicious danger, ſhould be received with ſelf-ſuſpicion and thanks.
2. And you ſhould love them the better for their averſneſs to ſin, though they ſhould miſtake the matter of it. A proud heart ſaith ſwellingly, Am I to be accounted herein a ſinner? A humble perſon will ſay: Alas, I am too likely to miſtake and ſin: but if I do not, I will love, even a miſtaken enemy of ſin. And to deal faithfully with you, Had thoſe honeſt Conformiſts of my acquaintance, but come firſt to the ableſt diſſenters, and impartially heard and weighed all that they had to ſay, and not ſecretly ſlipt into Conformity, as if they had bin afraid of hearing all, I ſhould have bin the more offended with their Cenſurers. But God hateth ſin, and ſo muſt all that truely love him. And they are our beſt friends that do moſt to preſerve us from it. And they are our greateſt enemies, that would flatter us into it. To Preach againſt ſin, is your Miniſterial Office: And if any man thinks that you make a ſolemn Covenant to ſin, that you may have leave to preach againſt ſin; Yea, that you deliberately commit a great one, that you may have leave to preach againſt a leſs in other men, this man deſerveth to be heard though he miſtake. At Death and Judgment, nothing in the world but ſin will be your danger: Unjuſt cenſures will be none. If we ſay nothing to you yet its eaſie to gather by the coſtly terms on which we avoid it, that we take conformity for a ſin.
And if any of the people carry it cenſoriouſly or contemptuouſly towards you (which we abhor) remember that you take them for weak and pieviſh perſons: And honour or contempt is valuable according to the quality of the honourer or contemner: You take your followers to be the wiſer as they are the more: And we bear their cenſures of us, and much more: And cannot you bear the cenſures of a few that you judge weaker? You will proclaim the Non-Conformiſts to be the ſtronger Chriſtians, if they can bear poverty and reſtraints, with the cenſure of the moſt, when you cannot bear the cenſure of the feweſt, with liberty and Miniſterial maintenance and honour.
II. For your ſouls ſake and for the Churches ſake, Take heed of ſelfiſhneſs and Pride, leſt it fill you with envy againſt your Brethren that ſerve the ſame Lord, when you think they any way diminiſh your reputation and honour. I would have others keep up your Reputation to the utmoſt; which in the name of God, I charge upon them; Yea, and in honour to prefer you: But if you think they do not, remember that you are the Servants of a Crucified Chriſt, who made himſelf of no reputation, but took upon him the form of a Servant, and yet this way got a name above every name. As ſure as you live, contending for honour, is one of the readieſt ways to looſe it, and giving it to others, and contemning it your ſelves, is one of the ſureſt ways to get it, It is its motto, Quod ſequitur fugio; quod fugit ipſe ſequor.
Self-eſteem, and Pride is odious in all: but in a Miniſter of Chriſt more odious, than in any man: but never ſo odious as when it riſeth to ſuch malignity, as to envy or hinder the work of God, becauſe another more eſteemed doth it. It is a ſin that I am readyer to tremble to think of, than further to reprove.
And remember what work it hath made in the Churches of Chriſt already. Read but what Euſebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Evagrius, Nicephorus, &c. ſay of the fewds of the old Biſhops: Read but the Acts of the Councils at Epheſ. 1, & 2. of Chalcedon, at Ariminum, at Sirmium, at Nice, 2d. &c. and if horrour and ſhame do not overwhelm you, to think what Chriſtian Biſhops did, and that ſo early in the face of the Heathens, you are not men. Read but how Nazianzene was uſed at Conſtantinople, by a Synod of Orthodox Biſhops, when he had overcome the Arrians: Read the Controverſies between Baſil and Anthymius, and others: Read the doleful ſtory of Theophilus Alexandrinus, and the Egyptian Monks, and of the ſame Theophilus his manner of dealing againſt the Origeniſts, and of his double Letters and Preſent which he ſent by Ifidore a Prieſt, to the Emperour and Maximus, to be given to him that got the better: Read the odious ſtory of the ſaid Theophilus and Epiphanius his proceedings againſt Chryſoſtome, and his ejection by a Councel of Biſhops: Read the proceedings of Ithacius and Idacius and their Synods in Sulp. Severus: There is no end of inſtances: Read but the deſtruction of the many hundred Brittiſh Monks at Bangor, and the great ſuſpicions that Auguſtine cauſed it. Look but on the face of the Greek and Latine Churches to this day, from the begining and cauſe of their diviſions: And ſee what the Lutherans have done oft times againſt the Calviniſts in Saxony, and other parts of Germany, (as in Gaſp. Peucers ſufferings for one:) And ſee what the Roman Papacy and Clergy have done in the world by Lordly Pride and ſelfiſhneſs: And laſtly, See what hath bin done by it in this Land; and at laſt learn by experience, and judge of Church-mens Pride by the effects.
Brethren, what harm will it do to you, if a Non-Conformiſt preach by you? if many follow him? If ſome prefer him before you? Do not others prefer you before him? What if his followers think Conformity to be ſin? Do not you and yours think ſo of our Non-Conformity? It is not your ſelves that you preach for, but the peoples Souls: And why may not Chriſts Goſpel profit them from another as well as from you? Nature teacheth men to reliſh their own food, and partly to feel what doth them good? Clemens Alexand. Strom. 1. giveth it as the reaſon why the Church (then, not now) left it to every Communicant at the Sacrament, to Take their own part, Becauſe man having free will, ſhall be the chooſer, or refuſer of his own good. If they chooſe a worſe Teacher than you, it is not you but they that are the looſers: If they chooſe a better, you have your end, if you are Chriſtians; If you preach not ſo well as another, you are not fit to be Miniſters of Chriſt, if you be not glad that another doth better, and is a bleſſing to the Flock. If you preach better, its two to one but goodneſs will have an inſuparable attraction: Or if miſtake make them more capable of good from another than from you, ſhould you not deſire that they might have it? Will you ſay, It is their partial humour? I have heard many Miniſters ſay ſo, that had reaſon to have ſaid, It is my unskilfulneſs or dulneſs: But ſuppoſe it be ſo; A Phyſician will let his patient take his Medicine from one mans hand, if he refuſe it from another. The Father will not let the Infant famiſh if he will take no meat from him, but from the Mother. If the people had no faults or weakneſſes, what need were there of you or other Miniſters.
I am as apt to ſpeak ſharply againſt the humours and weakneſs of Religious people, as moſt that are not envious and malignant. But I muſt give them this Teſtimony, that though many of them cannot well judge of judiciouſneſs in their Teachers, yet moſt of them love a ſerious Preacher and a Godly Liver; And few of them diſtaſt either Prelates or Conformists, if they preach ſeriouſly, and live Holily. But when in all the Countreys they ſee ſuch Preachers and Livers choſen out for ſilencing, all the world cannot keep them from diſliking ſuch Biſhops as ſhall do thus. I am moſt confident for thoſe of my old acquaintance, that if they had ſeen Biſhops (after their long diſacquaintance with them) to have Preached and Prayed in a ſound and ſerious Holy manner, and ſet themſelves to promote the labours of Godly Preachers, and to encourage piety in the people and repreſs iniquity, they would generally have loved and honoured them, without reſpect to Presbytery or Independency: It is Godlineſs that Godly people care for. But ſince I and abundance about us were ejected, and ſince many of themſelves have bin laid in Goals, it is no more in my power to make them love ſuch Biſhops, than to make them love the Goal it ſelf.
Yea further, Brethren, what if the Non-Conformable Miniſter do give the Sacrament to ſome, as you do to others? What if they think their way beſt, as you think yours? What if they call themſelves a Church and exerciſe Diſcipline, (which without need I would not have them do,) What harm will this do to you or others? If it do them harm, let them thank themſelves: But to you it can do none, unleſs the unchriſtian ſin of pride and envy cauſe it: or unleſs by reproaches and contentiouſneſs they hinder the ſucceſs of your labours; which is another thing. I confeſs I have ever bin jealous of ſuch Arbitrary Churches, where there is room for all in one Church, leſt they ſhould turn Anti-Churches and Theatres of emulation and contention; (which I charge all conſcionable perſons to abhor:) But all this may be avoided at cheaper rates, than ſilencing ſo many laborious Miniſters, or excommunicating all the people that are Non-conformiſts.
III. Joyn lovingly with your Brethren, as Servants of one Lord, to promote one work. Look not ſtrange at them, if they deſire your friendſhip; Yea, if any of them prove cenſorious and pieviſh, if you are the more patient, condeſcending, and forward to love and unity, and to further the peoples good, I ſhall take you for better men than them; And ſo will all that judge by the fruits of the Spirit. Try this way inſtead of wrath, and I dare undertake that it ſhall more maintain your honour, with your peace of Conſcience.
Brethren, our great account is near: The Judge is at the door: It will be then comfortable to give a true account of Miniſterial fidelity, and hear, Well done good and faithful ſervant; rather than to hear, We have beaten our fellow Servants, or unfaithfully kept the Key of knowledge. The ſouls of your charge are many and precious: It is a hard and great work to cure one: to make one Ignorant perſon underſtand, one proud perſon humble, one infidel to believe, one worldling to become Heavenly, or one ſenſualiſt to be a mortified Saint: What help then do you need; what labour is requiſite, to bring a Pariſh of many hundred or thouſand perſons to this change! As our weakneſs muſt make us all cry out, Who is ſufficient for theſe things, ſo when one man hath ten mens work to do, he may well ſay, He is inſufficient: In the firſt three Centuries, when one Congregation had a Biſhop with a Colledge or Company of fellow Presbyters, they were not too many, though one onelyonly could preach at once. I ſpeak not uncertainties: We have tryed the Paſtoral work; and know by experience that a Pariſh of a thouſand (much more of many thouſand) families, hath work enough for many the moſt able and diligent Miniſters in the Land: Yea, a Pariſh of an hundred Families, needeth more help than any one Miniſter is able to afford them: Try them all by perſonal conference houſe by houſe as we have done, and judge. Would you then have the people taught, reformed and ſaved, or not? If yea, Would you not have neceſſary help to do it? I cannot believe that man to know truely what it is to be a Miniſter or a Chriſtian, that perceiveth not a neceſſity of help if he can have it: And if you had converted all now living, thoſe that are born next will have need of as much labour as their Parents: For ignorance, ſenſuality and pride will be born with them.
Thank God therefore that you may have help, and take it, whether you meet in one or two Aſſemblies: Help your tolerated Brethren in their work, as thoſe that more deſire the good of the peoples ſouls than they. Conſult together for the removing of impediments, and for the ſtrengthening of each other. And if any factious, or froward Non-conformiſt ſhould happen to be your Neighbour, go to him, and by love and familiarity ſeek to win and cure him; and you will win the hearts of all good people. And if he be really turbulent, and do more harm in the place than good, I am perſwaded the reſt of the Non-conformiſts will rebuke him, and diſown him. I add,
IV. If any difference between you cannot be compoſed, inſtead of troubling the people about it, quietly refer it to ſome indifferent Arbitrators. Is there not a wiſe man among you? Muſt Abrahams and Lots Servants, ſeparate them for a Well? Muſt Paul and Barnabas part for different cenſures of another mans omiſſion? Shall Chriſtians, Proteſtants, Miniſters, the Teachers of Love, and Concord and Patience, be ſo weak, ſo ſelfiſh, ſo bad, ſuch contradicters of their daily Doctrine, as not to be able to carry on Chriſts work in peace; nor to make an amicable compoſure of their differences? If you are Chriſtians indeed, the difference is not who ſhall have the moſt followers, applauſe or honour, but who ſerveth God and ſaveth ſouls, in the right and true effectual way? And may not prayer and conſultation reconcile ſuch a controverſie? For my own part I am conſcious of pride and ſelfiſhneſs; Yet I can confidently ſay, that when I had a Paſtoral charge, where I needed many Aſſiſtants, if I had known where that man lived whom the people would have loved, honoured and profited by, more than my ſelf, I would have rid night and day to get him to be the man: And when I have heard my Neighbour Miniſters that were younger men (I can ſcarce forbear naming them) preach much more affectionately and profitably than my ſelf, I have ſate under them with tears of joy. But alas, What hath ten years ſilence of ſuch men, deprived the ſouls of the poor people of! I never … it meet with Saint Francis and the Fry…s, to abaſe my ſelf by going naked, or by taking on me to be an Awfe, or by filthineſs, or ridiculous behaviour; As if Heaven and a Swineſty were moſt like: (See Foulis his Hiſtory of Popery.) But I have thought it my duty to caſt away deliberately and knowingly much of my Reputation, even with Religious people, by the diſcharge of ſuch duty as I knew would do it; Believing that Reputation is one thing to be reſolutely denyed for Chriſt, and that he that ſaveth his honour ſhall loſe it, and he that loſeth it for Chriſt ſhall have everlaſting honour.
Brethren, there is no great matters to be done in the Church of Chriſt in the midſt of ſo many corruptions and temptations, without confirmed Reſolution: Reſolve t… be wholly the ſervants of Chriſt, and to ſeek mens Salvation, and to take no thought for your carnal intereſt and honour; And then the God whom you ſerve will take care of it. Think not that other mens ſelfiſhneſs or frowardneſs is an excuſe to yours: Who knoweth man; and knoweth not that pride and ſelfiſhneſs is as common as ſin, that is, Is the laſt-dying heart of all our corruption? Will you expect none of it in others, when you know (if you know your ſelves) that you have much of it in your ſelves?
… dealing is not the Sign of enmity but love. … muſt tell you, that we cannot but think that you need Repentance, great Repentance, for ſinning more (and that by publick, deliberate, choſen, covenanted, Miniſterial ſin, proteſting againſt Repentance) in the day when Judgements called us all to renew our Repentance for our former ſins. But yet we ſuſpect our own underſtandings: We know what different apprehenſions of things good men may have: We know that we are great ſinners our ſelves: We take not all this to warrant our cenſorious ſeparations from you. But we beſeech you be not too angry with us, for differencing between good and evil, between him that ſweareth, and him that feareth an Oath. As long as we do it to the coſt and ſuffering of our own fleſh, which diſputeth in us more cunningly and ſtrongly for Conformity, then all the Durels, the Fullwoods, the Stilemans, &c. in England. We have naturally no more love to poverty, to ſcorn, to a priſon, than you have: And why may not thoſe that do nothing elſe almoſt ſay, that its like we ſtudy to know the truth, as hard as any of you all? And the love of beggery, ſcorn and impriſonment, is not likely much to byas us. And if you think that our honour with our party doth it, you muſt needs think that we (who ſo ſharply reprove them,) do think very highly of that poor deſpiſed party, when we prefer their opinions, not onelyonly before your Magnates & Plures, but alſo before our Livelihoods, Liberties and Lives. Woe to the Hypocrite that hath no better a reward!
And why ſhould we do it? Were we not as capable of the more Noble and General applauſe as you, if we could have taken your way?
As we are none of your Judges then, Be you none of ours, but let us with Reſolved unity (though not uniformity) ſerve that one God whom we are all devoted to. Remember that to Preach Love is your Miniſterial work; And to practice it is your Chriſtian work. Reſolve as much to maintain Chriſtian Love as inviolate, even to Martyrdom, as the Martyrs did to maintain the Chriſtian Faith. Remember Ridley and Hooper: You may come to Ridley's Confeſſions ere you die. We purpoſe not to Unminiſter you ſo much a… Gildas did his Brittains, nor to ſeparate from you ſo much as Martin did to the death, from all the Neighbour Synods and Biſhops, for a far leſſer cauſe than the ſilencing of eighteen hundred Miniſters. We take not you whom I now write to, to be conſenting to this work. (Though your ſilence and non-reſiſtance, hath bred ſuch thoughts of you in people, as we would fain have you cure by the contrary means.) We are for peace: Be not you againſt it: But we cannot buy it, by deſerting the Miniſtry, to which we were conſecrated and devoted, nor by neglecting ſo many thouſand miſerable ſouls. Bring things in England once to that paſs, that really our labour may be unneceſſary, in the judgement of thoſe that are not Infidels, Ignorants, or Malignant enemies of a holy life, and we will preſently gratifie all that deſire our ſilence, or our baniſhment, and will not trouble men with needleſs work.
Thus, Brethren, you ſee, I have preſumed no higher than to Petition you; And that not to your coſt or detriment; nor for our preferment, wealth or eaſe: We aske you not for food or rayment; We crave from you none of your Dignities, nor Eſtates: Though when I find this Author diſſwading us from our Miniſtry, becauſe the people are poor, I think that reaſon might almoſt as aptly have ſerved to perſwade us to live no longer, becauſe the world is too poor to keep us; We do but eat if we preach, and ſo we muſt if we do not: And I think it had ſavoured of no exceſs of Charity and Miniſterial ingenuity, if he had rather ſaid, Brethren, you muſt perform your undertaken Miniſtry, and we and the peoples ſouls have need of all your help; And the maintenance is given for the work, Therefore you that work with us, ſhall have part of the Church maintenance with us, at leaſt a fifth part, as was allowed to the ejected by the Parliament, becauſe the people cannot maintain you, and it is hard to ſerve God without anxiety, while your families are in want. This had better beſeemed our Brethren; but we crave and expect no ſuch thing from you; but only patiently to ſuffer us to live and labour by you, and let God provide for us as he pleaſe.
And if we had expected that heretofore you had Petitioned our Rulers, for the liberty of our Miniſtry, it had bin no unreaſonable expectation. All knew that our own Petitions had no hope: Miniſters ſhould of all men have bin moſt ſenſible of the Churches breaches, loſs and danger, and moſt compaſſionate of the peoples ſouls: If you had but humbly acquainted our Rulers, That all our labours conjoyned are too little; that you needed our help, and the ignorant our teaching; That your own judgement was, that our Miniſtry was more neceſſary than our perſonal Conformity,
1. You know not but you might have bin heard: For no doubt our Rulers thought they did that which the Reverend Church-men did adviſe or think beſt: I hope you do not think that our civil Rulers would have done all that they have done againſt us, if it had bin againſt the Biſhops and conformable Clergies judgment and adviſe: Civil Governours are never ſo cruel in matters of Religion, as the Ruling and exaſperated Clergy are, as the Hiſtories of all ages teſtifie.
2. Or at leaſt you might have had the greater peace of Conſcience, in all the confuſions that have followed, and ſaid, It is not long of us. And you would have acquitted your ſelves in the judgement of all your hearers, and they would have bin the leſs prejudiced againſt your Miniſtry.
Had you Petitioned and prevailed but for theſe two things, you had healed all our breaches,
Firſt, That the door of enterance might not have bin barred by any other ſubſcriptions, profeſſions or Oaths, than what were uſed in the Churches of Chriſt, till the exaltation of the Papacy (for 600 years,) beſides the Oaths of Allegeance and ſupremacy, and the ſubſcribing the Doctrine of the Church of England, in the 39. Articles, according to the 13th. of Queen Elizabeth.
Secondly, That thoſe (ſo ſubſcribing) who dare not uſe the Liturgy and Ceremonies, might have leave to preach in the Churches which uſe them, under Laws which ſhall reſtrain them from all unpeaceable oppoſition to what they dare not uſe, or to the Government of the Church. And having mentioned this, What if I added yet this clauſe to my preſent Petition to you?
V. That you will yet Petition for us, or rather for the Church of Chriſt, that upon the foreſaid terms we may be, if poſſible, taken in to the eſtabliſhed Miniſtry, If not, yet tolerated as Lecturers under you in ſuch Churches, where the Miniſters deſire us, not taking any of their maintenance from them, but truſting God for our daily bread.
By this means you ſhall have no need to fear our injuring of your wealth or reputation; Nor the ſtrengthening of the Papiſts by the weakening of Proteſtants through our-own diviſions; (OnelyOnly let not the people who ſcruple Conformity, be therefore denyed Church-Communion and Sacraments.)
And now as God will judge, ſo let the world judge, & let poſterity judge whether we are unworthy in compariſon of the preſent Miniſters of England, to be permitted to preach Chriſts Goſpel on theſe ſelf-denying and ſelf-abaſing terms; And whether they that cry out of the danger of Popery. Infidelity, Profaneneſs and Hereſies, and yet had rather let them in all, than give us leave to exerciſe that Miniſtry to which we were conſecrated, in poverty and ſubjection; and while they cry out of Diviſions, will not lay by the Dividing-engines; ſhould rather accuſe us or themſelves, if the evils overwhelm us, which they ſeem to fear?
It is not pleaſure, profit or worldly preferments, that we contend for: We would do no man hurt or wrong: If our lovers of Church-power do think us intolerable, becauſe we obey them not as fully as they deſire, we profeſs before God and Man, that it is not becauſe we would not be ſubject and obedient to any, as far as will ſtand with our obedience to God, but only becauſe we dare not, we will not do that which we believe that God forbideth us: And if we erre, it is not for want of ſtudying, perhaps as hard and impartially as they, to know the truth: And to him that thinketh he doth evil it is ſin. It is ſin, and no ſmall or tolerable ſin, which our conſciences fear, in our forbearing ſubſcriptions and Conformity: If they alſo take it to be a ſin to ſuffer us to preach the Goſpel, and a greater ſin, than to ſuffer the inundation of Infidelity, Popery and the reſt which they ſay is ready to break in upon us, And if they think our not Subſcribing, Swearing, &c. to be in us ſo great a ſin, that the puniſhment laid on Swearers, Drunkards, or Fornicators, will not ſerve turn to avenge it on our ſelves, nor any other of our perſonal ſufferings, unleſs the ſouls of many thouſands, and the Proteſtant Religion, and our Poſterity alſo ſuffer for it, the Judgments of God muſt be endured. But remember not Lord our offences, nor the offences of our Fore-fathers, neither take thou vengeance of our ſins: Spare us good Lord; Spare thy people whom thou haſt redeemed with thy moſt precious blood, and be not angry with us for ever. And haſten O Lord Jeſus thy more Righteous Judgement.
FINIS.
ERRATA.
P. 13. l. …. the thing, p. 19. l. …. del. …, p. 28. l. 21▪ r. you, p. 45. l. 15. del. 4▪ p. 65. l. 6. r. work. p. 67. l. …8. r. by not only, p. 70. l. 3. for [?] r. [:] p. 89. l. …. r. intolerable, p. 9…. l. …. r. make your, p. 108. l. 21. r. and renounce all.
End of the text · Richard Baxter, Sacrilegious Desertion of the Holy Ministry Rebuked (1672)