For I take it to be past denial or doubt, that some of each denomina- tion have been, are, or may be guilty of seditious practices. Some hypocrites will lurk among those vast bodies of people, under the most strict and watchful government ; but God forbid their guilt should affect the whole body, under whose names they shelter themselves. God, reason, and conscience, do all command the hottest zeal, to make its pause and just distinction here. Let the guilty be brought to condign punishment, upon fair trial and conviction. This dis- course designs no favour for such. But let not those who abhor their wickedness, and are as pure from their crimes as yourselves, suffer with them or for them : For then your reason will tell you, yourselves are as hable to sufferings as they; and that your zeal is not kindled by love to justice, but the hatred of a party.
It is not in the body politic, as in the body natural : If the hand steal, the feet are justly laid in irons, and the neck put into an halter ; because all the members of the body natural are animated, and governed but by one soul. But in the body politic, every indi- vidual hath a distinct soul of his own ; and therefore that member only that offends ought to be punished, and all the rest to enjoy their full liberty and honour as before. Away therefore for ever with this church and state destroying sjmechdoche.
Expectation 3. Thirdly, If there be a change made upon the laws, and they shall at any time tolerate and protect that party and practice which once they made criminal ; then your reason, and every man's else, will expect from you (if your zeal for the laws and government be sincere and unfeigned) that your countenance and carriage to that people be changed and altered, according to the different aspect of the laws and government upon them : That your envy and hatred cease with the offence; and that you be as ready to assist and encour- age them, when they act according to law, as you formerly were to inflict and prosecute them, for acting contrary to law : Else, pretend
THE REASONABLENESS OF PERSONAL REFORMATION. 527
what you will, it is plain enough, that it was not zeal for the laws and government, but somewhat else, (which every body may guess at) that inflamed your rage against them.
For whensoever the wisdom of the government finds it necessary, by toleration, to take away the crime and offence, it must necessarily take away this very plea for hatred and persecution with it : Other- wise it would be all one, to act for law, and against law ; to punish them that are offenders, and them that offend no more than your- selves ; to turn the edge of your rage and fury, against those that un- dermine the government, and those that are as zealous as yourselves, to support and defend it, by their persons and purses.
Expectation 4. Fourthly, Your reason will justly expect it from you, that when, or wheresoever you shall see eminent piety meeting with punctual conformity in one man, that man shall be your very darling ; and that both these qualifications should recommend him to your dearest affection, the more strictly godly he is, the more con- formable he is to the laws of God ; as well as by his punctual com- pliance with enjoined rules and rites of worship, to the laws of men. If he be a man of catholic charity to all of every persuasion, whom he judges to fear God, and be truly conscientious ; if he boldly and impartially reproves sin, wherever he finds it, though it be in his own patron, or men of his own profession ; you will still love him the more for that. For if sincerity and conformity (as you pretend) be the very things which you make such a noise and bustle for in the world, here you have them both in conjunction. This is the man you seem to seek (by these pleas of yours) for a pattern and standard to reduce other men to.
And is it really so, gentlemen, with you ? Do you heartily affect and prize a strict and serious conformist, that fears not to expose the odious shamefulness and wickedness of profane swearing, cursing, drunkenness, and uncleanness, without respect of persons, both in his pulpit and private converses ? Do you love him the better, for his plain dealing with your consciences, in detecting the grand cheat of formality in religion ; for his close cutting convictions of the insuffi- ciency of mere civility to your salvation, and the indispensible necessi- ty of regeneration ? Do you heartily love and honour him, for thun- dering you out of ale-houses and taverns, unto your family and closet- duties ? " For telling you plainly, your love must not be confined to your own party, but extended to all that fear God, however they be externally distinguished among men ? Nay, for convincing you plainly, that religion lies not in external modes and rites, in standing, kneeling, or responses.? That the name and cry of the church, the church, will as little avail to your salvation, as the cry of the supersti- tious and profane Jews, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these ? That true religion is an inward, serious, spiritual thing, consisting in evidencing itself by the mortification of your sins, and real devotedness of your hearts to the Lord .^"
5^8 THE EEASONABLEXESS OF PERSONAL REFORMATIO^T.
If such a man as this will please, and delight your very hearts ? then my reason is bound to conclude, there may be reality in what you pretend. But if you shall hate and loath such a man as this equally with a professed dissenter ; you must excuse me, and all the rational world with me, if we shall conclude, that it is not true zeal for the laws, for the church, or for the sincerity and peaceable lives of its professors ; but an inward rooted enmity at religion itself, that sets you on work, under the feigned pretence of other things.
Expectation 5. Fifthhj^ Your reason will expect, and exact it from you, that whensoever you shall be convinced, that all these stirs and bustles that have been in the world, all this fining, imprisoning, and impoverishing your Protestant brethren and neighbours for their conscience sake, hath done the church no good, but given a great and real advantage to our common enemy, to ruin us together; that we may distinguish ourselves how we please in our folly, but they will never distinguish us in their fury ; for we are all known to them, by one common name of heretics.
In this case, your reason exacts it irom you, and so doth the com- mon reason of mankind, that a sense of common interest, and com- mon danger, now quiet those feuds, and extinguish those fires which our own lusts first kindled, and the devil and our common enemies have incensed, to the great damage and hazard of the whole Protes- tant cause.