Sacrilegious desertion of the holy ministry rebuked, and tolerated preaching of the gospel vindicated,…Sacrilegious desertion of the holy ministery rebuked, and tolerated preaching of the gospel vindicated,…

I. O be not too angry with those that censure you as sinners. I detest rash censoriousness: But you know men that differ in this world, about Speculatives, may differ about matters of Practice too: The Jesuists, Friars and Jansenists do so, in not a few or little things. And in such a difference, one party must needs censure the practisers of the contrary, as sinners. If you and I differed about Usury, Stage plays, Gaming, &c. one party must needs think that the other side do live in sin. And who liveth and sinneth not? Either the censure is true or false: If true, should you not be as thankful as to one that would save you from the Plague? Will sin do you less hurt than censure? If it be false, Consider

I. O be not too angry with those that censure you as sinners. I detest rash censoriousness: But you know men that differ in this world, about Speculatives, may differ about matters of Practice too: The Jesuists, Fryars and Jansenists do so, in not a few or little things. And in such a difference, one party must needs consure the practisers of the contrary, as sinners. If you and I differed about Usury, Stage playes, Gaming, &c. one party must needs think that the other side do live in sin. And who liveth and sinneth not? Either the censure is true or false: If true, should you not be as thankful as to one that would save you from the Plague? Will sin do you less hurt than censure? If it be false, Consider

1. You are fallible; and the notice of a possible pernicious danger, should be received with self-suspicion and thanks.

2. And you should love them the better for their averseness to sin, though they should mistake the matter of it. A proud heart saith swellingly, Am I to be accounted herein a sinner? A humble person will say: Alas, I am too likely to mistake and sin: but if I do not, I will love, even a mistaken enemy of sin. And to deal faithfully with you, Had those honest Conformists of my acquaintance, but come first to the ablest dissenters, and impartially heard and weighed all that they had to say, and not secretly slipped into Conformity, as if they had bin afraid of hearing all, I should have bin the more offended with their Censurers. But God hateth sin, and so must all that truly love him. And they are our best friends that do most to preserve us from it. And they are our greatest enemies, that would flatter us into it. To Preach against sin, is your Ministerial Office: And if any man thinks that you make a solemn Covenant to sin, that you may have leave to preach against sin; Yea, that you deliberately commit a great one, that you may have leave to preach against a less in other men, this man deserveth to be heard though he mistake. At Death and Judgment, nothing in the world but sin will be your danger: Unjust censures will be none. If we