The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being…

But perhaps you'll say, They despise me, and injure me, and follow others and admire them, who deserve not so well of them as I do.

But perhaps you'l say, They despise me, and injure me, and follow others and admire them, who deserve not so well of them as I do.

Answ. First, we are most of us too partial to be competent Judges of our own deserts. Selfishness too often maketh us think better of our selves, our preaching and our lives, than there is cause: And it too often filleth men with envy against those, whose greater worth and better labours cause them to be preferred by the hearers: And envy usually breeds detraction. I know that many giddy persons heap up Teachers to them selves and follow seducers, & contemn the faithfullest servants of the Lord. But I know withal, that there is usually a convincing power in the preaching of able experienced Ministers, which is not to be found in the cold & formal discourses of an hypocrite. And that there is a suitable principle in true spiritual experienced Christians, which causeth them to relish this spiritual experimental ⟨p. 370⟩preaching much more than the more-adorned carcasses of formality: And seriousness is still acceptable to serious Christians: Yea even to common natural men, unless the malicious possess them by slanders with prejudice against it. Now if this should be the cause that others are preferred before you, O how heinous were your sin? As if it were not enough for you to neglect your duty, and to do the work of God deceitfully, and injure the souls of men in a cause of such importance, but you must also impenitently justify such a crime, and also malign those that have more of the grace and gifts of God than you, and that do more to help to save mens souls!

Answ. First, we are most of us too partial to be competent Judges of our own deserts. Selfishness too often maketh us think better of our selves, our preaching and our lives, than there is cause: And it too often filleth men with envy against those, whose greater worth and better labours cause them to be preferred by the hearers: And envy usually breeds detraction. I know that many giddy persons heap up Teachers to them selves and follow seducers, & coutemn the faithfullest servants of the Lord. But I know withall, that there is usually a convincing power in the preaching of able experienced Ministers, which is not to be found in the cold & formal discourses of an hypocrite. And that there is a suitable principle in true spiritual experienced Christians, which causeth them to relish this spiritual experimental