A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ...…

But if it be the substantial duties of godliness that you resist, while you own but the Name of godliness in the general, I must tell you that it is not Names and Generals that will save you; nor prove that you have your selves one spark of Grace. Nothing more easy and common then for the most ungodly to say, they are all for a godly life; and God forbid that any should be against it; when yet they hate and reject it indeed, when it comes to the practice of those particular duties in which it doth consist. It is not godliness that they hate and reproach, but it is fervent prayer, holy conference, meditation, self-denial, mortification of the desires of the flesh, heavenly mindedness, &c. In general, they will say that Gods Law must be obeyed, and his Will preferred before their own: But when it comes to the particulars, they Love him not above all, they take his name in vain, they keep not holy his day, they disobey superiors that would reform them, they are envious, malicious, covetous, lustful, and break all the Commandments in particular, which in general they profess to keep. As if your servant should promise to do your work; and when you set him to it, one thing is too hard, and another he is not used to, and so he hath his exceptions against the greatest part which he undertook. As if one should wound one of you in the head, and stab you to the heart, and cut off an arm or a leg, and say, I wish the man no harm; It is not the man that I hate or hurt, but only the head, the heart, the arm, &c. Even so, it is not holiness that these men hate, and speak against; but it is so much praying, and meditating, and reading the Scriptures, and making such astir about Religion, when less ado way serve the turn.

But if it be the substantial duties of godliness that you resist, while you own but the Name of godliness in the general, I must tell you that it is not Names and Generals that will save you; nor prove that you have your selves one spark of Grace. Nothing more eafie and common then for the most ungodly to say, they are all for a godly life; and God forbid that any should be against it; when yet they hate and reject it indeed, when it comes to the practice of those particular duties in which it doth consist. It is not godliness that they hate and reproach, but it is fervent prayer, holy conference, meditation, self-denyal, mortification of the desires of the flesh, heavenly mindedness, &c. In general, they will say that Gods Law must be obeyed, and his Will preferred before their own: But when it comes to the particulars, they Love him not above all, they take his name in vain, they keep not holy his day, they disobey superiours that would reform them, they are envious, malicious, covetous, lustful, and break all the Commandements in particular, which in general they profess to keep. As if your servant should promise to do your work; and when you set him to it, one thing is too hard, and another he is not used to, and so he hath his exceptions against the greatest part which he undertook. As if one should wound one of you in the head, and stab you to the heart, and cut off an arm or a leg, and say, I wish the man no harm; It is not the man that I hate or hurt, but only the head, the heart, the arm, &c. Even so, it is not holiness that these men hate, and speak against; but it is so much praying, and meditating, and reading the Scriptures, and making such astir about Religion, when less ado way serve the turn.