that Christ did more peremptorily require of you, than to renounce the world and deny yourselves, if you would be his disciples? And yet will you come without the wedding garment, and bring your base and earthly minds among his servants, and cause his truth, and his house and followers, to bear the reproach of your worldly baseness? I tell you, it is like to cost you dear, that you have cast this dishonour on the name of God, and caused the damnation of the impious reproachers. The wrong you have done to God and men, you shall certainly pay for in everlasting misery, unless a thorough repentance do prevent it. (And I fear it is but a few of these worldly hypocrites that ever truly do repent.) "But woe to them by whom offence cometh. It were good for that man that he had never been born."

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2. And as for you that truly fear God, I beseech you let the slanders of wicked men awake you to a holy jealousy of yourselves. You see what their eye is upon. Take heed then how you walk; you hear what it is that offendeth them. As far as is possible avoid all occasions of such offence. Take heed in your bagaining, buying, or selling, how you carry yourselves towards them, and what you say. If all the actions of your lives were right save one, they will reproach you for that one. If you speak but one rash or unhandsome word, they will forget all the rest, and remember that one, and traduce you, as if all were like that one. therefore that you walk and speak by line and rule. And remember, that it is not an ordinary measure of charity and good works that is expected from you, (according to your abilities) by God and man. "If you love those that love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans so?" "But (saith Christ) I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you; and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good; and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust;" Matt. v. 44-47. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven;" chap. vi. 15. Your actions and words are observed and scanned more than any other men's. For

malice is quick-sighted, and of a strong memory. And you "are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid;" chap. v. 14. Take heed therefore that you be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. This will not only stop the mouth of the enemies, but it will also rejoice your teachers in the day of Christ, that they have not run or laboured in vain. Yea, if they were offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, they would rejoice with you all; Phil. ii. 15-17. And for yourselves also it is necessary that you excel others in good works. "For except your righteousness exceed the righteousness even of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven;" Matt. v. 20. Remember that you live among the blind. And if you stumble and fall, you know not how many will fall upon you; and if you break your shins, they that fall upon you may break their necks; and if you rise again you are not sure that they will rise. 66 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims in this world, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the gentiles (the unbelievers and profane), that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works, which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation; 1 Pet. ii. 11, 12. For so is the will of God, that with welldoing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; 1 Pet. ii. 15. Finally brethren, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another; love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing, knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing;" chap. iii. 8,9. And so walk, that if any obey not the word, they may yet be won by your exemplary conversation; ver. 1. As you hear more than others, so do more than others, that it may appear you build upon a rock; Matt. vii. 24, 25. And as the book of God is much in your hands and mouth, so remember that" whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. For pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their

affliction, and to keep yourselves unspotted from the world;" James i. 25. 17.

2. Having said this much to the godly by way of caution; I shall now make answer to the objectors themselves. You that say, There are none so cruel and so covetous as these that profess themselves so religious; if you have any moderation left, will you soberly answer me these questions following?

Quest. 1. Is it the hearts or the outward actions of these professors that you perceive this covetousness by?' If it be the heart, you are slanderers, and self-idolizers.

For the heart is open to none but God; and will you make yourselves gods, and that when you are playing the part of the devil? This hath been the trick of satan's instruments in all ages. When they are not able to say of the godly, that they are swearers, or drunkards, or adulterers, or stealers, or liars, or slanderers, as they themselves are, they presently go to their hearts, which are out of sight, and say, They are covetous, and proud, and the like. For there they know that none but God is able to justify them. But common reason might also have taught them, that none but God is there able to accuse them. For how know you men's hearts but by their professions, or by their lives?

But if you say it is the life you judge by, I demand what is it in the lives of such men that proves their covetousness? If it be oppressing, deceiving, injustice, or unmercifulness, I would demand of you in the second place?

Quest. 2. Is it all or some of them that you thus accuse?' If you know some few to be such, what is that to the rest? But this hath been always the trick of the malignant. If they see one professor fall, or prove a hypocrite, they cry out, 'They are all alike. If you could but see their hearts, they are all such.' Chrysostom and others of the fathers tell us, that this was the use in their days, and no wonder if it be so still. What if there be one Cain in Adam's family? It follows not that Abel or Seth were like him. What if there were one Ham in Noah's ark? will it follow that they were all alike, or that his family was no better than the rest of the world which was drowned? What if there was an Absalom in David's family? What if there was one Judas among the disciples of Christ? Will you say therefore that all the rest were such, that

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Christ's disciples were as bad as others, or his family no better than the rest of the world? But I would further ask you:

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Quest. 3. Is it the course of their lives that you judge by? or is it some one particular action?' He that is not blind may see, that the course and drift of their lives is less earthly, and more heavenly than other men's. And God judgeth of a man by the scope of his life, and not by one single action; and so must we. The very bent and drift of come into your family, what

your lives is worldly. If a man shall he see but worldliness? If one fall into your company, what shall he hear from you but about this? If one observe what you do from year to year, he may see that you lay out yourselves for the world. You cannot refrain upon the Lord's own day, but you are minding it, and talking of it. You savour not any other discourse. The very talk, and labour that is laid out about another world is troublesome to you, and it is this that makes you dislike the godly. You cannot say so of the course of their lives. If once any of them have fallen by temptation into a miscarriage, will you judge of all their lives by that? Do they not lament and bewail it as long as they live after, and avoid it more carefully for the time to come? What if Noah were once drunk in his life, will you judge of his whole life by it, or say that he is as bad as the rest of the world? What if Lot e given over to a temptation? What if Abraham did once tell a lie, or equivocate, and Isaac do the like in a fear? What if Moses did once provoke God? What if David did once commit a heinous sin? Or Peter did deny his Master in his fear? Will you either judge of all other godly people by them? or will you judge of the course of their lives by one action, which they bewail and lament as long as they live? And can you see no difference between a worldly action and a worldly life?

Quest. 4. I would further know of you, 'Whether you have gone to them in love, and admonished them of their sin, when you judged them to be guilty, and heard them speak for themselves?' If not, either you are incompetent judges, or else you draw the guilt upon yourselves, and make the sin your own, as the express commands of God will tell you, in Lev. xix. 17. Matt. xviii. 15. If you have

admonished them and they repent not, why do you not tell the pastors of the church, that they may admonish them, and seek their reformation? This is Christ's order. But you will not, you dare not do this; lest for want of proof, you be proved slanderers, and the shame of your accusations fall upon yourselves. You think that you may whisper behind men's backs, or accuse them in general, without naming any particular fact, and not be proved liars. But this will not hold long.

Quest. 5. Moreover I would know of you, when you accuse men for not being more bountiful in your eyes,' Do you know of all their works of charity? Are you acquainted with their bestowings?' Sure you are not. For God hath commanded them, Matt. vi. 1-4, "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do, &c. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; that thy alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth thee in secret, himself shall reward thee openly." command they make conscience of; and how then can you be meet judges of their alms?

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Quest. 6. Also I would know, 'Are you certainly acquainted with their particular estates? and do you know how able they are to give?' If you do not, you are no competent judges. How oft have I known men reproached for unmercifulness, and for not being more liberal, when they were not able to maintain their families, or to pay every man his own? And yet they that knew not this, did backbite them as covetous.

Quest. 7. Furthermore I would know, 'Are you sure it is not satan within you that prompteth you to these accusations?' Hear my evidence and judge. He is called in Scripture "the accuser of the brethren," (Rev. xii. 10.); and he is described to be a lying, malicious spirit. If therefore it be a lying, malignant, malicious spirit, then certainly it is the spirit of satan.

And we have cause to believe that it is a lying spirit by these evidences following.

1. We find the word of God assuring us that the godly overcome the world, and are such as have laid up their trea