(4.) I say, that these profane, malignant petitioners had neither a hand in choosing of me, nor yet hearts to make any trial of my ministry, so far as I can understand. And therefore they may well have a black brand put upon them, as men void of common honesty and ingenuity,1 in abusing the honourable committee, and petitioning against me ; whenas they were neither the major part* of the parish by far, nor yet was the order of the committee granted to them ; nor did the order of the committee give any power or liberty to these profane, malignant petitioners to choose some other to officiate, as they pre- tend. What greater dishonour and contempt can they cast upon the committee, than to declare to the world that they have given to them, that are so notoriously known for their profaneness and malignancy, an order to choose one to officiate amongst them !
In their petition they further say, ' That they have had trial of me ever since your honours' order/ This is as far from truth as the peti- tioners are from being real friends to the present authority of the nation ; for it is notoriously known, that they use not to hear me but others, whose malignant principles and practices are most suitable to their oAvn.
Further, they say, ' They cannot find that comfort to their souls they hoped/ Here give me leave to query : [1.] How they could have any comfort from my ministry that did not attend it ? [2.] But grant they did, I query, Whether their want of comfort did not spring rather from their want of faith to close with the word, and to feed upon the word, and to apply the word to their own souls, than from any defect in my preaching ? ' The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it/ Heb. iv. 2. * Faith and the word meeting make a happy mixture, a precious confection. When faith and the word is mingled together, then the word will be a word of power and life ; then it will be a healing word, a quickening word, a comforting word, a saving word. Faith makes the soul fruitful ;
1 Ingenuousness. — G.
APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. xliii
faith hath Rachel's eye and Leah's womb. Where faith is wanting, men's souls will be like the cypress ; the more it is watered, the more it is withered. However, that tree that is not for fruit, is for the fire, Heb. vi. 8. Some say of king Midas — not true, but fabulous — that he had obtained of the gods, that whatsoever he touched should be turned into gold. I may truly say, in a spiritual sense, whatever faith touches it turns it into gold, into our good. A bee can suck honey out of a flower ; so cannot a fly do. Faith will extract abun- dance of comfort out of the word, and gather one contrary out of another; honey out of the rock, Deut. xxxii. SG.1*-^.] I query whether their not finding comfort by my ministry did not rather spring from a judicial act of God rather than from anything in my ministry. God many times punishes men's neglect of the means, and their despising the means, and their barrenness under the means, &c, by giving them up to a spirit of slumber, by shutting their eyes, and closing up their hearts, as you may see in that Isa. vi. 9, 10, 1 And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.' A fat heart is a fearful plague. A fat heart is a most brutish and blockish heart, a heart fitted and prepared for wrath, Ps. cxix. 70. These four keys, say the Rabbins, God keeps under his own girdle : (1 .) the key of the womb, (2.) the key* of the grave, (3.) the key of the rain, (4.) the key of the heart. ' He openeth, and no man shutteth; and he shutteth, and no man openeth.'2 [4.] I query whether their not finding of comfort did not spring from the wickedness and baseness of their own hearts, Isa. xxix. 13, 14 • Ezek. xxxiii. 80-33 ; Mat. xv. 4-10. When men bring pride, and pre- judice, and resolvedness to walk after the ways of their own hearts, let the minister say what he will (as they in Jer. xliv. 15, et seq., which I desire you will turn to and read), it is no wonder that they can find no comfort in the word.3 This is just as if the patient should cry out of the physician, Oh, he can find no comfort in anything he prescribes him, when he is resolved beforehand that he will rather die than follow his prescriptions. May not every one of these men's hearts say to him, as the heart of Apollodorus in the kettle, syw soi rovruv dma) it is I have been the cause of this ? I judge they may ; and if they will not now acknowledge it to their humiliation, they will at last be forced to acknowledge it to their confusion and destruction in that day wherein the great Searcher of hearts shall judge the souls of men. [5.] I query whether all the godly conscientious ministers of one judgment or another in all England would not be outed and routed if this plea of
1 As Luther saith of prayer, so I may say of faith : it hath a kind of omnipotency in it; it is able to do all things. Est qucedam omnipotentia precum. T avium possumut quantum credimus.
2 When she in Seneca was stricken with sudden blindness, she cried out of the light. So when God strikes profane men with spiritual blindness, then they cry out of°the minister.
3 The patient in Plutarch complained to his physician of his finger, when his liver was rotten. iSo mauy complain of the minister when their hearts are rotten. They complain they can find no comfurt, when the fault lies in the baseness of their hearts.
■* Jf e/- l»*t 9g4i/. JJ./J. ?
xliv APPENDIX TO MEMOIR.