14. Thou scornest men for not being hypocrites; because they will be that in good earnest which thou hypocritically callest thyself, and wouldst be thought. Thou callest thyself a christian; and what is it but for being serious christians that thou deridest them? Thou takest on thee to believe in God; and what is it but for obeying and serving God that thou deridest them? Thou takest on thee to believe the Scripture to be the word of God; and what is it but for following the holy Scriptures that thou deridest them? Thou sayest thou believest the communion of saints; and deridest them that hold the communion of saints in practice. Thou sayest thou believest that Christ shall judge the world; and yet scornest them that are serious in preparing for his judgment. Thou prayest that God's name may be hallowed, and his kingdom come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven; and yet thou deridest them that hallow his name, and are subjects of his kingdom, and endeavour to do his will. O wretched hypocrite! And yet that tongue of thine pretendeth that it is their hypocrisy for which thou hatest and deridest them, when thou dost it because they be not such blind and senseless hypocrites as thyself! Can there be grosser hypocrisy in the world, than to hate and scorn the serious practice of thy own profession? and the diligent living according to that which thy own tongue professeth to believe? If thou say that it is for doing too much, and being too strict, I answer thee, if it be not the will of God that they do, though I would not deride them, I would seek to change them as well as thou! But if it be the will of God, then tell me, dost thou think they do more than those that are in heaven do? or do they live more strictly than those in heaven? If they do, then oppose them and spare not. If not, why prayest thou that God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven?
15. Thou deridest men for doing that which they were made for, and that which they have their reason, and will, and all their faculties for; take them off this, and they are good for nothing: a beast is good to serve man, and the plants to feed him; but what is man good for, or what was he made for, but to serve his Maker? And dost thou scorn him for that which he came into the world for? Thou mayst as well hate a knife because it can cut, or a scythe for mowing, or a clock for telling the hour of the day, when it was made for nothing else.
16. Thou deridest men for being saved by Christ, and for imitating his example. What came Christ for into the world but to "destroy the works of the devil," 1 John iii. 8; and to "save his people from their sins," Matt. i. 21; and to "redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works?" Tit. ii. 42. And hath Christ, to the astonishment of men and angels, come down into flesh, and lived among men, and given them his holy doctrine and example, and suffered death for them, and all this but to bring men to zealous purity, and darest thou make a scorn of it after this? What is this but to scorn thy Saviour, and scorn all the work of redemption, and tread under foot the Son of God, and despise his blood, his life, and precepts?
17. Thou scornest men for being renewed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost. What is the work of the Holy Ghost on us, but to sanctify us? and what is it to sanctify us, but to cleanse us from sin, and cause us entirely to devote our souls and lives to God? Dost thou believe in the Holy Ghost, or not? If thou do, what is that but to believe in him as the sanctifier of God's elect? And what didst thou take sanctification to be, but this purity and holiness of heart and life? and yet darest thou deride it?
18. Thou deridest men for imitating those ancient saints, whose names thou seemest thyself to honour, and in honour of whom thou keepest holidays. Thou takest on thee to honour the names of Peter, and Paul, and Stephen, and John; of Augustine, Hierom, Chrysostom, and other such saints of God; and yet wilt thou make a scorn of those that strive to imitate them? Search and see; if any of these men did, after their conversion, live in luxury, carding, dicing, profaneness, and if any of them were against a holy life, against much praying, hearing, reading the Scriptures, meditating, exact obedience to God; then let not the shame be thine, but mine. He that is most unlike them, let him have the scorn.
19. Thou deridest men for repenting of their former sin, and for accepting that mercy which Christ hath purchased, and God hath offered them, and sent his messengers to entreat them to accept. Can they repent of their former ungodliness, and not turn from it and amend? If thou knewest what they know, thou wouldst repent thyself, and not deride men for repenting: if thou knewest the gift of God, thou wouldst beg it, and gladly accept of it thyself, and not deride them that accept it.