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

But you say, that for all this they are secretly as bad as others. Foolish malice! If it be secret, how do you know it? If you know it, how is it secret? and its marvel that you do not make it known! Is it not easy to say so by a Job, or a Samuel, or by Christ himself, if saying so may serve turn, and a wicked tongue may pass for proof? You may say that in secret I commit all the sins imaginable: and how can I disprove you, when I have no witness, but only by desiring you to prove it if you can? But O happy are the servants of the Lord, that are even in secret always in the presence of their Judge, who will bear witness for them, and justify them against malignant tongues!

But you say, that for all this they are secretly as bad as others. Foolish malice! If it be secret, how do you know it? If you know it, how is it secret? and its marvail that you do not make it known! Is it not easie to say so by a Job, or a Samuel, or by Christ himself, if saying so may serve turn, and a wicked tongue may pass for proof? You may say that in secret I commit all the sins imaginable: and how can I disprove you, when I have no witness, but only by desiring you to prove it if you can? But O happy are the servants of the Lord, that are even in secret alwayes in the presence of their Judge, who will bear witness for them, and justifie them against malignant tongues!

But you say, that they are as covetous as other men, though they are more Religious. But this is as shameful a falsehood as the former. Do we not see the contrary in the open fruits? Covetous men are the forwardest to call others Covetous, because they would have no body hinder or cross them in their Covetous desires or designs. And then they are saying, [O such a professor used me thus, and such a one did thus]; and usually they partially relate the case, as their own Covetous hearts incline them passionately to judge it. And perhaps they may meet with a worldly hypocrite that seemeth Religious; which is no more to the disgrace of Religion, then Ham was in the Family of Noah, or Absalom in the house of David, or Judas in the Family of Christ. Do not you call your selves Christians your selves? And yet Christianity is never the worse, because you are wicked that profess it. But sure I am that the servants of Christ are not comparable to you in Covetousness. For as I find God describing them in his Word, to be a people dead to the world, whose conversation is in heaven, so I see that they can spare time from worldly business, while they and their households serve the Lord; and so cannot you: They are seeking Heaven, when you are seeking earth; And we may know, what a man loveth, if we know what he seeketh. And again I, must bear witness from my own experience, that in this place where I live, I have reason to believe, that where other men of their ability give a penny to the poor for charitable uses, those that you call precise and think too Religious, do give six, if not twice six, and some of them much more then I will express. There are few weeks but we have occasion to try it by voluntary collections for some needy persons, or charitable uses; and therefore we have much opportunity to know: besides contributions at Sacraments, and other public occasions.