Sacrilegious Desertion of the Holy Ministry Rebuked, Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII.
Of Inconvenience from the Nature of the Practice.
Sect. 1. IN all this Section, let the Reader conſider,
1. How few words there be, which a Papiſt Prieſt in Paris might not ſay againſt the Proteſtants.
2. Whether this be not the ſumme of all, [Preaching the Goſpel hath hazards, inconveniencies and likelihood of fruſtration; Therefore it is your folly and ſin to Preach it.]
3. Whether there be not much that would not almoſt as handſomly have ſerved Celſus, Julian, Porphyry, Eunapius, or Symmachus againſt Chriſtianity?
Sect. 2. Do not you excommunicate and drive from your ſeveral Pariſhes the Members of Chriſt, for not eating with your Spoon, and then repreach them that will take them in whom you caſt out?
Sect. 3. We ſtill hold that Members of the ſame particular Church, ſhould not live at a diſtance ſo great, as to make them uncapable of ordinary Perſonal Communion.
Sect. 4. We take your Warning: Independents, as you ſay, may over-reach us; Peoples inconſtancy and weakneſs may fruſtrate much of our Labours; Quakers and Papists may deceive ſome; We adde, And you and others may keep us after all in Poverty, and in Jayls, for ought we know. And what of all this? Therefore preach not. Next ſay, Therefore be no Chriſtians; Therefore damn your own ſouls, if your temptations be ſo great. No, Sir, But, therefore we will ſerve Chriſt the more reſolutely, and truſt him for our preſervation and reward. The God whom we ſerve is able to deliver us: But if he will not, be it known unto you, that we will not ceaſe to preach his Goſpel, while we can, and we fear not being loſers by him.
Sect. 5. But your Will ſeemeth to bear down your Experience, while you would tempt us, by the diſcouragements of Difficult Aſſembling, and the Peoples Poverty. Have thoſe kept us from doing what we could till now? Will our Poverty be greater than you Conformiſts have made it? Have we ſerved God about twelve years without one bit of the Levites portion? and cannot we do ſo till we die? There is an harmony in all your diſcourſe: To tell us of the diſcouragement of Poverty from others, that would help us, were they able, when your Party hath ſo long kept us without a bit of Bread, but what Alms, or ſome mens own Stocks afforded them, is juſt like the reſt. It ſufficeth us to tell you, that we preach not for Riches, and we will not ceaſe through Poverty. Talk at this rate to one another.
Sect. 6. When you ſay, that a Toleration may reduce the common ſort to an indifferency in Religion.
I anſwer, Get your friends together then that have brought it to that paſs, as that [It must be this or worſe] and bring them to weep over their ſins before God; That if a miſerable Nation may not be ſaved from the Fire that you have kindled, your Souls yet if poſſible may be ſaved.
Sect. 7. But, (pag. 29.) you too boldly make your ſelves the Stewards of God's Bleſſings; and as Magiſterially, without proof, pronounce that we are out of his way, and in oppoſition to his Church, and contrary to his Word.
Anſw. For my ſelf I have long been of an opinion, which one day you will pardon, that, Perjury, Perfidiouſneſs and Perſecution, proud contending who ſhall be greateſt, and covenanting never in certain points to obey Chriſt againſt the World and the Fleſh, is not the way of God: If you take me for ſingular, there is no remedy.
2. And what Word of God is it that we contradict? I reade in the Rubrick of ſomething about Infants, Certain by the Word of God; but I never heard in what Chapter or Verſe it was.
3. And which is Chriſt's Church which we oppoſe? What Chapter and Verſe ſaith, that only Subſcribers, Swearers, Declarers and Conformiſts are the Church of Chriſt; and thoſe that fear an Oath and Conformity are none of it?