A Christian Directory

§. 37. Direct. 15. Impute not the faults of men to Christ, and blame not Religion for the faults of ¹them that sin against it. This is the malignant trick of Satan, and his blinded instruments: If an Hypocrite miscarry, or if a man that in all things else hath walked uprightly be overthrown by a temptation in some odious sin, they presently cry out, These are your Professors! your Religious people! that are so precise, and pure, and strict! Try them and they'll appear as bad as others! If a Noah be once drunk, or a Lot be overthrown thereby, or a David commit adultery and murder, or a Peter deny his Master, or a Judas betray him, they presently cry out, They are all alike! and turn it to the scorn of Godliness it self: Unworthy beasts! As if Christs Laws were therefore to be scorned, because men break them? and Obedience to God were bad, because some are disobedient! Hath Christ forbidden the sins which you blame, or hath he not? If he have not, blame them not, for they are no sins: If he have, commend the justness and holiness of his Laws! Either the offenders you blame did well or ill! If they did well, why do you blame them? If they did ill, why do you not commend Religion and the Scripture which condemneth them? Either it is best for all men to live in such sins as those which these lapsed persons or hypocrites committed, or it is not: If it be, why are you offended with them for that which you allow? If it be not, why do you sooth up the wicked in their sins, and excuse an ungodly life, because of the falls of such as seem Religious. There is no common ingenuity in this, but malicious spite against God and holiness; (of which more in the next Chapter).

§. 37. Direct. 15. Impute not the faults of men to Christ, and blame not Religion for the faults of ¹them that sin against it. This is the malignant trick of Satan, and his blinded instruments: If an Hypocrite miscarry, or if a man that in all things else hath walked uprightly be overthrown by a temptation in some odious sin, they presently cry out, These are your Professours! your Religious people! that are so precise, and pure, and strict! Try them and they'll appear as bad as others! If a Noah be once drunk, or a Lot be overthrown thereby, or a David commit adultery and murder, or a Peter deny his Master, or a Iudas betray him, they presently cry out, They are all alike! and turn it to the scorn of Godliness it self: Unworthy beasts! As if Christs Laws were therefore to be scorned, because men break them? and Obedience to God were bad, because some are disobedient! Hath Christ forbidden the sins which you blame, or hath he not? If he have not, blame them not, for they are no sins: If he have, commend the justness and holiness of his Laws! Either the offenders you blame did well or ill! If they did well, why do you blame them? If they did ill, why do you not commend Religion and the Scripture which condemneth them? Either it is best for all men to live in such sins as those which these lapsed persons or hypocrites committed, or it is not: If it be, why are you offended with them for that which you allow? If it be not, why do you sooth up the wicked in their sins, and excuse an ungodly life, because of the falls of such as seem Religious. There is no common ingenuity in this, but malicious spite against God and holiness; (of which more in the next Chapter).