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 ye lift up your head, when _the Lord descends from heaven, in flaming fire, to take vengeance on his 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 pleasant portion a desolate wilderness_: By _Ezekiel_, _There is a conspiracy of her 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._
* 36. 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 hundred 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_.
I have now, brethren, _delivered mine 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 cannot 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, thro’ 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, thro’ 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 then 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 toward God and toward man_. I cannot therefore doubt, but 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 fortune 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_ and _compliment_? Alas, you are sensible, in most if not all these respects, you have now small ♦pre-eminence over us.
♦ “preheminence” replaced with “pre-eminence”