I Thought here to have ended this First Part of my Discourse; but yet compassion calls me back: I fear lest with the most I have not yet prevailed; and lest I shall leave them behind me in the bonds of their iniquity. I daily hear the voice of men possessed by a spirit of uncleanness, speaking against this Necessity of a holy life, which Christ himself so peremptorily asserteth. I hear that voice which foretelleth a more dreadful voice, if in time they be not prevailed with to prevent it. One saith, What need all this ado? This strictness is more ado then needs. Another saith, You would make men mad, by poring so much on matters that are ⟨p. 70⟩above them. Another saith, Cannot you keep your Religion to your self; and be Godly with moderation, as your neighbours be? Another saith, I hope God is more merciful then to damn […] that •• not so precise. Another saith, I shall never endure so strict a life▪ and therefore I will venture as well as others. The sum of all is, They are so far in love with the world and sin, and so much against a holy life, that they will not be persuaded to it; and therefore to quiet their consciences in their misery, they make themselves believe that they may be saved without it, and that it is a thing of no Necessity, but their coming to Church and living like good neighbours may serve the turn without it, for their salvation. And thus doth the malicious Serpent, in the hearts of those that he possesseth, rise up against the words of Christ. Christ saith that this is The One thing needful: And the Serpent saith, It is more ado then needs: and What needs all this ado? Though I have fully answered this ungodly objection already in my Treatise of Conversion, sect. 36. pag. 284. &c. and more fully in my Treatise of Rest, Part 3. Chap. 6. yet I shall once more fall upon it. For death is coming, while poor deluded souls are loitering: and if Satan by such senseless reasonings as these, can keep them unready in their sin, till the •atal stroke hath cut them down, and cast them into endless easeless fire; alas, how great will be their fall? and how unspeakably dreadful will be their misery? Whoever thou be, whether high or low, learned or unlearned, that hast disliked, opposed or reproached serious godly Christians, as Puritans, and too precise;
I Thought here to have ended this First Part of my Discourse; but yet compassion calls me back: I fear lest with the most I have not yet prevailed; and lest I shall leave them behind me in the bonds of their iniquity. I daily hear the voice of men possessed by a spirit of uncleanness, speaking against this Necessity of a holy life, which Christ himself so peremptorly asserteth. I hear that voice which foretelleth a more dreadful voice, if in time they be not prevailed with to prevent it. One saith, What need all this ado? This strictness is more ado then needs. Another saith, You would make men mad, by poring so much on matters that are ⟨p. 70⟩above them. Another saith, Cannot you keep your Religion to your selfe; and be Godly with moderation, as your neighbours be? Another saith, I hope God is more merciful then to damn 〈…〉 that •• not so precise. Another saith, I shall never endure so strict a life▪ and therefore I will venture as well as others. The summe of allis, They are so far in love with the world and sin, and so much against a holy life, that they will not be perswaded to it; and therefore to quiet their consciences in their misery, they make themselves believe that they may be saved without it, and that it is a thing of no Necessity, but their coming to Church and living like good neighbours may serve the turn without it, for their salvation. And thus doth the malicious Serpent, in the hearts of those that he possesseth, rise up against the words of Christ. Christ saith that this is The One thing needful: And the Serpent saith, It is more ado then needs: and What needs all this ado? Though I have fully answered this ungodly objection already in my Treatise of Conversion, sect. 36. pag. 284. &c. and more fully in my Treatise of Rest, Part 3. Chap. 6. yet I shall once more fall upon it. For death is coming, while poor deluded souls are loytering: and if Satan by such sensless reasonings as these, can keep them unready in their sin, till the •atal stroak hath cut them down, and cast them into endless easeless fire; alas, how great will be their fall? and how unspeakably dreadful will be their misery? Whoever thou be, whether h•gh or low, learned or unlearned, that hast disliked, opposed or reproached serious godly Christians, as Puritanes, and too precise;
