there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

36. 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 plainly, "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 you now tread, "They have seduced my people, and one built upon 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 you lift up your heads, when "the Lord descends from heaven in flaming fire, to take vengeance on bis 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 portion a desolate wilderness:" by Ezekiel, "There is a conspiracy of her

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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."

37. 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 hundreds of 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."

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I have now, brethren, "delivered my 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 can. not 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, through 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, through 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 that 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 towards God and towards man." I cannot therefore doubt, hut 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 fortunę 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 or compliment? Alas, you are sensible, in most, if not in all these respects, you have now small pre-eminence over us. How much more sensible must you be of this, if you do not rest on the surface, but inquire 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 which "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 hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father;" and 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 steadfastness? In the times of persecution ye stood as a rock, though 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 the persons who possess them 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 so far as it goes: but how little a way does it go towards 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 either of 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 who 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,