THE CASE OF People's Duty In Living Under A Scandalous Minister, STATED and RESOLVED.  
LONDON, Printed for Sam. Tidmarsh, at the Kings-Head in Cornhill, near the Royal Exchange. 1684.   

THE CASE OF People's Duty In Living Under A Scandalous Minister.  
Honoured Sir,  
I Must needs acknowledge that Yours is indeed a most sweet and pleasant Seat, but there is this inward allay (as you say) to that outward Felicity, that your lot is cast under a Scandalous Minister, your Light is Darkness, your Salt hath lost its Savour, and your Tree of Life is guarded (as you complain) by an evil Angel. And now what course is to be taken? What must you do for your Soul's health? This makes your dwelling Meshec and your otherwise most delightful Habitation, as among the Tents of Kedar.  
I could hearty wish you had asked my Opinion in a more pleasing Subject, and that you had commanded me to speak in a Cause wherein I might have more hopes of being heard, instead of this which is surrounded with almost invincible prejudices. However, to comply with your importunity, I shall make bold to offer some few things in Answer to the Question propounded by you.  
1. If his Life be Notorious, make it yet more so by complaint; let his Diocesan know it, and see to it that the Church Censures pass upon him. The Laws are not so weak; nor yet their Administration so remiss, but they will ease you and themselves of such a rotten Member; they will withdraw the fuel to his exorbitances, by suspending the Profits, and disable him from all public taking God's Word into his mouth, who hateth to be reformed by suspension from his Office: Nor need you be afraid of so doing, for all good Men will approve and applaud this your most Pious Zeal; they will thank and not upbraid you for it, and will even concur with you in the doing of it. Whereas it is on the other hand a great failing, that all the Neighbourhood almost will agree to tell the story of such a Ministers miscarriages and sins to one another, and indeed in all Companies; but few or none have the courage or faithfulness to report it to such as may and would remedy it. What shall they become Informers? As if that were a worse name than Whisperers or Backbiters. Shall they peal upon their Ministers? Yes certainly, this would be the greater Charity; yea, this might prove a Charity indeed; for this might wound his Soul in order to his cure, while the other only wounds his good Name incurably; this may be a means to Reform him, whilst the other serves only to blast his Reputation, and perhaps hardens him in his sin; this Answers all the ends of Discipline, and rolls the guilt from yourselves and the Church, whilst the other doth but gratify some naughty vile affection in yourselves and ethers: In a word, this makes for the glory of God, the other only to your Minister's defamation and discredit. Provided your Proof be plain, and there appear no Design but what is good and honest at the bottom, I dare say, that such as preside in the Government, will both right and thank you.  
2. But if your Ministers failings be only now and then, a being merely over-taken with a fault, and comes under the head of sins of infirmity, methinks love might cover them, and a spirit of meekness might by degrees cure them; soft Words might melt his heart, and good Exhortations proceeding from sincere and unfeigned affection, joined with your own pregnant Example, might gain him to God, and make him your Convert instead of your becoming his. Are we commanded to exercise this point of Charity to every Brother, and not to our Minister? Or do we judge or conclude him less sensible of our affection and tenderness, than a rude and illiterate Neighbour? Or is he the only Man in all the Parish to be despaired of, whom no sweetness can oblige, and no warnings work upon? Sir, Give me leave to tell you, that till this like method be essayed, and that more than once or twice, to win him, you have not discharged your Duty to God or to him. Perhaps he is not so bad as he is painted, report may have wronged him, you know this Age is easy to believe any thing that makes against the Ministry in general; some study to find or to makes faults where indeed there are none, others lay Temptations in their way purposely to make them fall, thinking by becoming privy to their failings, to make them fear to have the greater awe upon them, or to render them more plaint to all their politic secular Ends and Designs; at least to justify their own sins by making them of the Company; or to silence the noise of their own guilty Consciences, and salve their crazed Reputations, by appearing zealous for God and Goodness, in crying as loud as they can against them. Besides Ministers tell the People of their faults, and it is a kind of pleasing revenge to some to find fault with them again. Nor must I forget their taking Tithe, which you know in this Sacrilegious Age is a most unpardonable crime, and a scandal sufficient, that a Minister is a Gentleman and Rich, that he behaves himself like a Man, and will not disfigure his face or effeminate his voice to humour a Party; who though they spoke a Minister never so holy, and never so powerful both in Life and Doctrine before, yet he forfeits all by keeping a Coach, or being made a Bishop; which by the way, is a strange confutation of that so much approved Doctrine of never falling from grace. These Sir, are some of your own Observations in Discourse betwixt you and I, and how often have I heard you say what Notice you have taken of some chief and leading Men in their Country, who have seemed never more delighted, at Market or such like public Meetings, then when they have fallen upon the Subject of reviling the Ministry? That Man being always the most welcome Companion, who could expose any of them most. Remember I beseech you with what regret you have bewailed this thing to me, as a most unchristian and unseemly Behaviour, as an infallible sign of a most ulcerated rotten heart, and the effects of direct direful Atheism, void of all regard to God whose Ministers they are, and void of common Civility or Christian Charity, which should teach them to hid, rather than with Solomon's Character of a Fool, to make a mock of sin. I am fuily confident God will one day judge these jolly Men in earnest, for all that pastime they make of their poor Ministers infirmities, which are indeed rather matters of Humiliation and Mourning to Men, who are any whit under the sense and power of sincere godliness. I had not called these Passages to your memory at this present, was it not that I am exceeding jealous for you, lest any Practices of yours should give any countenance or encouragement, to such as set themselves thus in the seat of the scornful.  
3. But let it be granted, that your Minister is indeed scandalous: Yet this in my Opinion will not warrant you, in your designed purpose of leaving his Ministry. For,  
1. Since you are so much offended and grieved with the Errors of his sinful life, there is the less danger of infection, or getting any harm to yourself, by what you observe and censure in him. Your Soul's health I am persuaded, will never be impaired by those sins, which your Soul abhorreth: Quibus mali placent in union, ipsi Communicant malis. Quibus vero mali displacent, & eos emendare non possunt, non factis eorum, sed Altari Christi Communicant. Augustin. Epist. 162.  
2. Since you say that your Minister is nevertheless a very excellent Preacher, which is not a thing impossible; I conceive your Wisdom and Duty is to distinguish betwixt the good and the bad, to put a difference betwixt his Doctrine and his Life; for Gifts and Grace you know Sir are two different things, and a Man may have Gifts for the edification of others, and yet want Grace for himself. St. Augustin I am sure makes a vast difference betwixt the visible Ministry of the Word and Sacraments, and the invisible Grace of God, in his Controversy with the Donatists in this very Argument, as you shall see anon. And on Matt. 23. Ideo audiuntur (saith he) utiliter, qui etiam utiliter non agunt. And St. Paul supposeth that a Man may be a Preacher unto others, and yet become a Castaway himself, 1 Cor. 9.27. We read in the Gospel of an unfaithful and unjust Steward set over the Household of God. It is further plain from Luk. 9 that Judas was sent forth and commissioned with the rest of Christ's Disciples. The holy Spirit chargeth the Bishops of several of the Churches of Asia, with sundry heinous failings and sins, and yet honoureth them with the glorious title of Angels of their respective Churches, Rev. 2. and 3. Chap. Yea our Saviour himself tells us Mat. 7.22, 23. that many will be disowned and condemned by him as workers of Iniquity, who yet have prophesied, cast out Devils, and done many wonderful Works in his Name. From which it is plain that a graceless Person may have extraordinary gifts for the Work of the Ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ: Those holy persons, such as Zachary, and Simeon, Anna, Mary, and Joseph, continued all along in the Communion of the Church of the Jews, whose Rulers were so vile as to flay the Prophets, and to kill those that were sent unto them from God. Yea we find our Saviour and his Apostles frequently in the Temple, attending upon the Ministration of the High Priests on their Solemn Feasts, though generally in those days they came into their places by bribery, were very bad Men and not qualified as the Law of Moses required. We read likewise that it was the manner of our Saviour Christ, to enter into the Synagogue every Sabbath day, to hear the Scribes and Pharisees read and expound the Law, whose wicked lives he nevertheless most vehemently inveighs against upon all occasions. You shall furthermore find our Blessed Lord, besides his own Example and Practice, to give Directions to his Disciples and the Multitude, in the very Case which is before us, Mat. 23.1, 2, 3. saying, The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' his Seat; all therefore (mark that) whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their Works, for they say and do not. What, hear these whom thou hast denounced so many bitter woes against, even woe upon woe in this very Chapter? What the Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites, those blind Guides, whited Sepulchers; Graves that appear not? That bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born, and lay them upon other men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers; that shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men, that neither go in themselves, nor suffer them that are entering to go in; that devour Widows Houses, and for a pretence make long Prayers, etc. What, shall we that are thy Disciples, and can hear such a Heavenly Preacher as thou art, who speakest as never Man spoke, go to hear such wretches as these? Yes, saith Christ, They sit in Moses' Chair, have the stamp of public Warrant and Authority, therefore hear them: St. Augustin brings this Text of our Saviour, to prove the same Question I am about, and to the same purpose. Laicus enim qui vult●bene vivere, cum attenderit Clericum malum, quid dicit? Dominus dixit: Quae dicunt facite, quae faciunt facere nolite. Ambulabo viam Domini, non sequar istius mores; audiam ab illo, non verba ipsius sed Dei. Sequar Deum, sequatur ille cupiditatem suam. Augustin. in Johan. c. 10. Modo ea quae ad Cathedram pertinent recta praecipiant, saith St. Hierom. Vult autem Dominis hunc ordinem Divinitus esse constitutum, ac proinde audiendam esse veritatem, etiam ex ore mercenariorum & hypocritarum doctorum; so the Learned Mr. Beza upon the Text. Whereas the Priests were sometimes simple, and sometimes wicked Men, lest any should despise the Ordinance of God for their unworthiness, the promise is made by God, Numb. 6.27. And they shall put my Name upon the Children of Israel, and I will bless them, saith Mr. Amsworth. Expositors all (all that ever I saw at least) agree in this matter. I might also to strengthen this, add the Testimony of the Ancient and other Modern Churches, but I shall content myself with transcribing the 26th Article of the Church of England, saying, Although in the visible Church, the evil be ever mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil have chief Authority in the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments: Yet, for as much as they do not the same in their own Name, but in Christ's; and do Minister by his Commission and Authority, we use their Ministry both in hearing the Word of God, and in receiving the Sacraments: Neither is the effect of Christ's Ordinances taken away by their wickedness, nor the grace of God's gifts diminished, from such as by faith, and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministered unto them, which are effectual, because of Christ's institution and promise, although they be ministered by evil Men. To this Doctrine do all the best Reformed Churches agree, witness the Harmony of their Confessions: The contrary, unto which is the Doctrine of the Papists, and Anabaptists, and Brownists, and Family of Love, with some others only of the most extravagant of the Dissenting Parties, from the present establishment. Our Lord Christ acknowledgeth the power even of Pilate over himself, and saith, It was given him from above.  
If he be indeed your lawful Minister, sent by them in Authority, and so settled by the Laws of the Land (as I know he is) this is interpretatively the Will of God, and your Duty seems to me to be plainly chalked out by the Holy Apostle; Heb. 13.17. Obey them that have the Rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your Souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you. So also 1 Thess. 5.12, 13. And we beseech you, Brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly for their work sake. Again, 1 Tim. 5.17. Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double Honour, especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine: But if ill, honour them nevertheless as Rulers, not only in point of Maintenance, but Esteem, for so I conceive we may infer from the Text. Honour them for God's sake, as set over you in the Lord; for their Work sake, as Watching for your Souls; for their Character sake, as Elders and Rulers; for their Doom sake, that they may be able to make their Account with joy, and not with grief, and for your own sake, lest the contrary Practice be unprofitable for you. For the Ordinances are Gods, their Efficacy is from God, and your Service herein is done to God, on purpose to confound all glorying in Man. St. Paul speaks of some that preached Christ out of envy, with purpose to add Affliction to his bonds; Phil. 1.15, 16, 17, etc. (who therefore must certainly be very bad men) yet since Christ was preached, he therein did rejoice, yea, and would rejoice. You do not think that the Morning and Evening Sacrifices under the Law were to be neglected, because of the sinfulness of Elies' Sons, or that their wickedness gave warrant to the people to abhor the Offerings of the Lord. St. Paul taxeth the Corinthians, for manifold Enormities and Sins in the receiving of the Lords Supper. And it is not unlikely, but the Ministers might share too much with the People in those failings which were so prevailing and general; yet all his Arguments tend to the better qualifying themselves to become more worthy Receivers: but by no means in the least to the exempting them from that most necessary and most indispensible Duty. I know you will say, you plead not to be excused from the Ordinances, but only for a liberty to hear some body else. But then, Sir, what becomes of that mutual Relation betwixt a Pastor and his People, and of that mutual Obligation of Duty of each towards other? How shall they hear without a Preacher? saith St. Paul. And how shall they preach without Hearers? say I.  
But you will again say, That some body will hear him if you do not; to which I reply, If your Principle be good and true, they ought not; and if the rest follow your Example, who are a leading Man in the Parish, they will not.  
Whence it follows, that the People are at liberty to go to whom and where they list, while the same Man, as you and I have known, shall leave the Church of England to go to the Presbyterians, from thence to the Independants, thence to the Anabaptists, next to the Quakers, and at last cast off all regard to the Worship of God. So true is that saying, That Toleration in one Age is Atheism in the next, if not in the very same; or that, That the first step to Apostasy is the forsaking of Public Assemblies.  
Considering all which, I am confident, all the worst of Inconveniences from a Minister that is a bad Liver and yet teacheth well, are not worthy to be put in the Balance with those sad and dismal ones , to which more might be added.  
But, Sir, I am further to beseech you to weigh seriously and without prejudice these following Considerations, with respect to the public as well as to yourself.  
1. That upon this very same Principle, that you think of leaving your Pastor upon and his Communion, viz. Because he is a wicked sinful Liver; did Donatus found that lamentable and woeful Schism, which did create so much disturbance and misery to the Church of Christ in St. Augustine's time, and a long time after, I had almost said ever since. And as it began in a sad Schism, and was accompanied with manifold grievous Heresies in the Church; so it went on with Commotions and Rebellions in the State: Donatus and his Faction, as they grew in power, denying Obedience and Conformity to the Public Laws, upon the account that they were made and administered by wicked Men.  
I would undertake for the truth of this sad Example in each particular, if I thought that you either knew it not, or were so hardy as to deny it. But we need not look back so far, for it was this very Principle, which first set on foot, and after brought to pass those Barbarities, Outrages, and bloody Executions in Germany of later days. And in truth, that Doctrine which blew the Trumpet to our lamentable and unhappy Commotions here in England, both in Church and State. For First, they began (as you well know) to traduce the Bishops and whole Clergy as most sinful and wicked Men, calling them Idol, Idle Shepherds; dumb Dogs; swearing, drunken, unclean Priests; Incaruate Devils, Cogging, Cozening Knaves; Desperate, formal Atheists; Robbers, Wolves, etc. for the sad Truth of all which with a great deal more, I need only to turn you to their public Sermons, Libels, and Centuries which are now in Print, and some of which, even the most invective, have been lately reprinted.  
Next, for the good King and his Government in the State; His Sacred Majesty King Charles the First was so sensible of the like hard Speeches and Prints, as he himself saith, The worst Effects of open Hostility came short of those designs: for I can more willingly lose my Crown than my Credit, nor are my Kingdoms so dear to me, as my Reputation and Honour. Again, These soul and false Aspersions, were secret Engines at first employed against my people's love of me, that undermining their Opininion and Value of me, my Enemies and theirs too, might at once blow up their Affections, and batter their Loyalty.  
Thus this Principle hatched up the Covenant for Reformation and more pure Religion, as was pretended, and that fed and maintained that long and bloody Civil War, which ended in the Ruin of King and Laws, Religion and Church, for a time. I had not revived the memory of these said Truths, had it not been necessary to show you what bad use designing Men make of this bad Principle; how under the appearance of Zeal against Sin and Jealousy for God and his Glory, it carries them to all violation of Sacred Duty, and exposeth all Persons and Things that are Sacred, to all sorts of most ungodly Outrages and Villainies; so easy a thing is it to find faults, and make Offenders, when partiality and prejudice come to sit upon the Bench, God help the Innocent.  
Donatus and his Party, after his Example, refused Communion with Caecilianus then Bishop of Carthage, because he was as they said a Traditor (i. e. had in times of Persecution delivered up the Bible to be burnt) denying therefore to hear him preach, or to receive the Sacraments at his hands. But when after a full hearing before Constantine the Great, together with a great number of Bishops for that purpose assembled, he was purged from the Slander, and declared guiltless; then Donatus and his Faction said, he had been ordained by Felix who was a Traditor; therefore his Ordination was null and void, and this is made guilt enough to justify their defection.  
Pope Hildebrand Decreed and Commanded, That no man should hear Mass from the mouth of a Priest that had a Wife.  
The Rhemists further say, That the Sermons of Heretics (and so they term all Protestants) must not be heard though they preach the Truth; their Prayers and Sacraments are not acceptable to God, but are the howl of Wolves.  
And our Modern Dissenters will teach you, That if a Minister conform to the Laws of the Church, and read the Common Prayer, he is also not to be heard, or the Sacraments received from him.  
At this rate, Sir, who is Innocent? Whither will you go? Who shall be your Pastor? Or will you have none? At this rate you may separate and separate from all the Churches, and from all the Men in the World, till you come to abhor your own dear self; for what Man is there that lives and is not a great Sinner? And sure I am, you would be loath that your Wife, and Children, and Servants should rebound this Argument upon you, and plead Exemption from their known respective Duties, upon the pretence that you are a sinful Man: for if you rightly consider it, the dint of the Argument will hold good against Parents and Masters of Families, as well as against Magistrates and Ministers, and then farewell all Order and Government in the World.  
No, Sir, Government is a Sacred thing, and an Ordinance of God, and so are Governors as such, whatsoever they are in their private, personal capacity. And was I to give account in short, of that shameful disobedience and stubborness in Children; that perverseness, self-will, and unfaithfulness in Servants, generally complained of by Parents and Masters of Families at this day, I should ascribe it to the want of that reverence and regard, which God expects from us, towards them that Rule over us both in Church and State. Men may read their Sin in their Punishment, while their Consciences will tell them, that they are but paid in their own kind, measure for measure; and that they have furnished their Children and Servants with Proofs and Examples against themselves.  
2. Next to the public Security, I must offer to you the Consideration of your private peace, which is in danger to be lost by such rash defiance to your Minister.  
For the Laws are on his side, as long as he performs his Duty according as they have Enacted; and if he be either a man of Stomach, or shall think himself bound to put the Laws in force against you, this will make your life uneasy to you, will sour your temper otherwise never so sweet; will ruffle your Spirit, stir up all your passions, and at last provoke you most insensibly, to some Indecencies against him both in Word and Deed.  
And let me tell you, Sir, you will certainly find it a most uncomfortable thing to live at variance with your Pastor, a vexation like to that which the Wise Man calls a Continual Dropping. Besides that, it will mightily prejudice you against all his Doctrines, though never so sound, and good, as often as you shall hear him. For it is necessary the Word be received with meekness, or else it will never profit you, since the wrath of Man cannot work the righteousness of God. It will prejudice you against his Person, prejudice you against his very Name and Mention; it will so every way prejudice the present healthful Constitution of your own Soul, as instead of Cure, you will unavoidably fall into those Diseases which you seek to prevent. Not to say any thing of what hazard your Estate may run in a Case which so nearly concerns your Soul: for in my most deliberate thoughts, I had rather you should quit your present Station, as pleasant as it is, and in the strength of Abraham's Faith, seek a Land of Promise and Blessing from God, than live where you do at variance with your Minister, which hath neither Promise nor Blessing belonging to it.  
3. It is also matter of discredit in the Eye of the World: for men are not yet so wholly devoid of all respect to God, but they will in heart bear some secret regard to their Minister for God's sake, and to his Office, for either love or fear of Laws and Government under which he serveth.  
These things have a great awe over the Minds and Consciences of Men, and carry such a strange unaccountable sway with them, as you must be a Man of extraordinary Credit and Influence, not to say Confidence, to think to over-bear them. Such hath been the constant Reverence, and so great, which the mere light of Nature hath taught the worst of Heathens to show and express towards the Ministers of their Idol gods; which is certainly much rather due to such as minister at the Altar of the only Great and True God. Fear the Lord with all thy Soul (saith the Son of Syrac, Ecclesiasticus 7.29.) and reverence his Priests. Fear the Lord, and Honour the Priest; ver. 30. It is also a Wise Rule which the same Author lays down Chap. 19 v. 8, 9 Saying, Whether it be to a friend or foe, talk not of other men's lives, and if thou canst without offence, reveal them not, for he heard and observed thee, and when time cometh, he will hate thee. When St. Paul had unadvisedly reviled Ananias that most corrupt and wicked High Priest, he corrects himself, saying, I witted not, Brethren, that he was the High Priest; for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people; Acts 23.4, 5.  
4. I might also press the consideration of that ill use which the more ignorant or more wicked in your Town and Neighbourhood would make of your Example, to wander at large like Sheep without a Shepherd; or to stay at home and go no where, or to keep the Sabbath at the Tavern or Alehouse, instead of Feasting together at the Table of the Lord: together with those sad consequences to your own Family, while you it may be go one way, and your Wife another, and your Children and Servants pretend to Worship each and all of them in a way by themselves; to the gradual ruin of all Peace and Piety in your Family, in the room of mutual Edification and Comfort. But I know a word to the Wise is sufficient, and I am minded to have done.  
Wherefore, Sir, were I worthy to be listened to, I would advise you should abide in the Station wherein God hath placed you, sitting down with quiet and thankfulness under the use of such means as his gracious Providence hath afforded you; doing your own Duty to God, in a constant diligent Attendance upon his public Ordinances, and to your lawful Minister for the sake of God. You may countenance him in his Office, and yet discourage him in his Sins. The worse he is, pray the more for him, and talk less against him, but take more pains with him to recover him; and if nothing will do, wait with patience till God put you under some milder and more comfortable Dispensation, by removing him one way or other from amongst you, and sending you a better in his place. Which thing I am confident God will do for you in his good time, if he see you thus to deny yourself, in mere obedience to him, by casting yourself and cause upon him, and wholly referring it to him; free from all indirect projects and practices of your own, which may argue your being dissatisfied with the present provision which he hath made.  
In the mean while, if you edify by your Minister in nothing else, this exercise of Faith, and Patience, and Meekness, and Love, and Unity, and Uniformity, will become far better Evidence of your real Edification and growth in Grace, than any you will be able to produce in the contrary course. For whoever they be that minister to your Losts or Passions, or merely to a Party, will never minister truly to your Edification. And indeed woe to this present World, that men's growth in Grace should be measured by their heats and contentions about indifferent things, by being ready to quarrel at the times, and to arraign the actions of Superiors, and Governors in Church and State, by being always complaining of the miscarriages of other Men, but especially Ministers; as if all the title Men had to virtue in themselves, consisted in a certain delight which they took, in repeating and proclaiming other men's vices; which is such a kind of Edifying as Infernal Spirits boast of, and which is indeed only proper to the Accuser of the Brethren, did Men rightly consider it. Where envy and strife is, saith the holy Apostle, Jam. 3.16. there is confusion and every evil work; as also that this sort of Wisdom is from beneath, even earthly, sensual, devilish, v. 15.  
Because I foresee and know the Consequences of these things, both in reference to the public, and your private Peace, to the rending the Church and your own Soul asunder, I am therefore concerned to warn you against every thing that hath but a necessary appearance or tendency thereunto, as much as against all inclinations or tendencies to Drunkenness, or Adultery, or Stealing, or Forswearing yourself, and the like.  
For a Conclusion, Let me remind you of the Advice of the Blessed St. Paul to the Corinthians in the like Case, where one was for Paul, another for Apollo, and another for Cephas, and all were in that respect, and therefore carnal) saying, I have in a Figure transferred these things, to myself and to Apollo for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of Men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another: Therefore let no Man glory in Men: 1 Cor. 4.6.  
And here Sir, I had concluded your trouble in reading these Lines (having already transgressed the Lines of an Epistle) did I not fear you might fancy I had some Design in writing some of these at least, to make an Apology for the sinsulness of Ministers Lives, which God forbidden; and my comfort is, that you know me better. But lest any may hereafter become privy to these Papers, who may be inclined by Inrerest, Party, or Prejudice, to Judge so hardly; I think it therefore needful to add, that I abhor all Debauchery and Ungodliness in any Man, but most of all in a Minister, who hath so solemnly Consecrated, not only his mouth, but his whole Self, Soul and Body unto God; so that to desecrate or unhallow either, is an high point of Sacrilege against God, and a most grievous Scandal to the World; while all good Men are afflicted to see it, and all bad Men are hardened in their wicked Courses by it. While the poor wretch in all his Preach playeth but the Orator against himself, and each good Sermon which he makes, is but a fresh Indictment of his old wicked life. No, no, I wish from my heart, that every Minister in his respective place, was as St. Paul for his Conversation in Heaven, and an Apollo's for his Eloquence in the Pulpit; that he was furnished with both a Mouth and Wisdom, which Gain-sayers were not able to contradict: I mean in few words, that he was himself a living Word. This would be a means to heal our divisions, and make up those breaches amongst us, which the sins of both Preachers and Hearers keep open; and in God's good time help to make us of one heart and of one mind. Amen.  
Though my own sad Observation for the present, gives me to see that as yet this alone will not do it: For as much as it is too too manifest and plain, that in such places where the Ministers live every way exemplary and blameless, and are sound, laborious, and faithful in their Preaching; yet even in those places the Breaches are kept open, and the Separation continued. Whence I cannot but conclude there is something else at the bottom, besides the pretence to Religion and Reformation, which keeps men from their Duty, and at that distance one from the other: But the making Men of one mind in an House, as well as the working effectual grace in Man's heart, is a Dispensation beyond the reach and power of Man, and indeed is the only Prerogative of God, who seems to me to have reserved this so great a Blessing, and so much to be desired, for another World, or some other Age of this: In the mean time it is a great comfort that you and I have got thus far on our Journey, toward our longed for rest, in so much Prosperity and Peace, free and secure from all those amazing, staggering temptations of the Primitive Christians; under the good Providence of God, and gracious Protection and Sunshine of mild, and most merciful Governors, whom God of his goodness yet preserve, notwithstanding all our frowardness and unthankfulness; so as we may live to to see our children's Children, and Peace upon Israel.  
I have thus far gratified your pressing importunity upon a most unpleasing Subject, in compliance with my Duty to your Commands, and to exemplify how much and how far I am to be commanded by you, who indeed am  
SIR, Your most humble Servant Aug. 28. 1684.  
FINIS.