Trade preferr'd before religion and Christ made to give place to Mammon represented in a sermon relating to the plantations : first preached at Westminster-Abbey and afterwards in divers churches in London / by Morgan Godwyn ... Godwyn, Morgan, fl. 1685. 1685 Approx. 176 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 27 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A42952 Wing G974 ESTC R15652 13593937 ocm 13593937 100722 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A42952) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 100722) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 788:26) Trade preferr'd before religion and Christ made to give place to Mammon represented in a sermon relating to the plantations : first preached at Westminster-Abbey and afterwards in divers churches in London / by Morgan Godwyn ... Godwyn, Morgan, fl. 1685. [6], 12, 34 p. Printed for B. Took ... and for Isaac Cleave ..., London : 1685. Reproduction of original in Duke University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- O.T. -- Jeremiah II, 34 -- Sermons. Slavery and the church -- Sermons. Slavery and the church -- Early works to 1800. Slavery -- Sermons. Slavery -- Early works to 1800. 2007-08 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-08 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-10 Pip Willcox Sampled and proofread 2007-10 Pip Willcox Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Trade preferr'd before Religion , AND Christ made to give place to Mammon : Represented in a SERMON Relating to the PLANTATIONS . First Preached at WESTMINSTER-ABBY , And afterwards in divers Churches in London . By MORGAN GODWYN , sometime Student of Christ-Church in Oxford . St. JOH . 4. 35. Say not ye , There are yet four Months , and then cometh Harvest ? Behold , I say unto you , Lift up your Eyes , and look on the Fields , for they are white already to Harvest . Equidem nescio utrum potius faciam , querarne nostrorum temporum calamitatem , & charitatem refrigescentem , fidemque raro in quoquam inventam juxta Domini Verbum , tot animarum millia ut Christo lucrifiant , non satis merces videri quae nostrorum animos excitent , auri argentique cupiditatem longè plus valere apud nos , ut ista si desint animarum salus pro nihilo fiat . Acosta de procur . Ind. Sal. l. 3. c. 18. London , Printed for B. Took at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard , and for Isaac Cleave at the Star in Chancery-Lane , 1685. Taken out of one of the Homilies for Whitsunday . Christ's Spirit it is , that engendereth a burning zeal towards God's Word , and giveth all Men a Tongue , yea a fiery Tongue , so that they may boldly and chearfully profess the Truth in the Face of the whole World. — The Mystery of the Tongues betokeneth the preaching of the Gospel , and the open Confession of the Christian Faith , in all those that are possessed with the Holy Ghost . So that if any Man be a dumb Christian , not professing his Faith openly , but cloaking and Colouring himself for fear of danger , he giveth Men occasion , justly and with good conscience to doubt , lest he have not the Grace of the Holy Ghost within him , because he is Tongue-tyed and doth not speak . To the King. May it please Your Majesty , THIS Discourse , which first came to life in Your Royal Brother's , his late Majesty's Reign , ( of most happy memory to these Nations ) being now of Age to appear abroad , doth humbly prostrate it self at Your Majesty's Feet ; not doubting Your most gracious Acceptance , if but for the End and Design it proposes and carries with it : Which is no other , than to stir up and provoke Your Majesty's Subjects Abroad , ( and even at Home also ) to use at least some endeavours for the propagation of Christianity among their domestick Slaves and Vassals ; ( together with the other numerous Heathen in Your Majesty's Colonies ) who for the general are most ambitious thereof , were their Desires seconded by suitable Inclinations in their Owners , so as to afford it to them . A Duty most certainly so indispensibly necessary , and absolutely incumbent upon all , but especially the most reformed and refined Christians , that it may justly seem a Matter of greatest admiration and astonishment , to but observe that it has hitherto been so much neglected ; yea , and not only neglected , but ( I cannot express it without shame and horror ! ) even scoffe at and opposed by them . An impiety , which tho before not wholly unknown to Your Majesty , ( as having been , by a very reverend and worthy Person , of near Relation to Your Majesty , some time since represented to Your Majesty ) is yet but newly arrived within Your Power to remedy . But for the which we have the greatest assurance , to wit , Your Majesty's Royal Word then passed upon that Your first notice thereof . Your Majesty being thereupon pleased , not only to testify Your highest resentment and abhorrence of so prophane an Abuse , but withal giving most manifest Indications of Your Desires for its reformation and redress . And like a most religious Assertor , and zealous Patron of the Faith once delivered to the Saints ; Your Majesty declaring it most reasonable , that all Men should be made to partake of the Grace of God , so freely in Christ tendred unto them ; and that none should be debarred of the common Salvation , especially such who do so much hunger and thirst after it . And at the same instant , no less admiring , that any pretence of Reason should by Christians ( and those too of the best sort ) be offered to the contrary ; much less so resolutely , and with so much pertinacy be defended and persisted in . And when in refutation of that no less impudent than most impious Assertion , of the Impracticableness thereof , at least in those Parts ; it was answered and urged , that it could not possibly be less practicable to us , than to other Nations ; particularly to the French , who in the Island of St. Christophers , ( half whereof is peopled by that Nation , but the rest possessed by your Majesty's Subjects ) without finding any either mischief or inconvenience consequent thereupon , are known to confer Baptism upon all that sort of People : Whilst the English upon the same Spot , do most sacrilegiously reject and give it up for impossible : Upon the hearing whereof , Your Majesty being fully convinced and satisfied , was pleased to allow the Argument for unanswerable ; and withal to add , That if ever it should happen to fall in Your way , Your Majesty would further it all you could . The due performance whereof , no one that understands Your Veracity and Zeal , will in the least suspect . As for this so absurd an Impiety , their pretence is , the advance of Trade and Commerce , which they are not ashamed to set up in opposition to Christ and Religion . But Your Majesty cannot but know how unworthy ( even at the best ) this Plea is of a Christian Nation : and withal , how incongruous and mean it is that for Trade ( even allowing the Pretence for good ) the Work of God should be destroyed ; and those Myriads of Souls be made to perish , for whom Christ died , no less than for the residue of Mankind . It would be also considered , as we doubt not but Your Majesty will , what returns , after so long possession , we have made , or rather , what despite to the Spirit of Grace we have done , in hindring those poor Heathens Salvation , which we ought with our utmost Zeal and Industry , to have promoted ; The very end , as must be piously supposed , for which it at first pleased Almighty God to discover to us , and to possess us of those many large and fruitful Countries : Whilst we prefer our Trade and our Mammon before it , as of the greater value . And when all other Religions , even to the very Turks and New-England-men , do compass Sea and Land to create Proselites ; we only do seem to fetch the same compass to continue them Heathens . An abomination which both threatens and calls aloud for Vengeance from Heaven upon the most wicked Authors : Unless Your Majesty's extraordinary Piety and Goodness shall suddenly interpose , and so at once put a stop to the Sin and to the Judgment . And who knows whether Your Majesty be not come to the Kingdom for such a Time as this ? I shall only be bold to detain Your Majesty with a short but pious Speech of a certain great Prince , one of the late Kings of Spain , uttered to Your Majesty's blessed Father , of most glorious memory , whilst residing in that Kingdom ; Who indiscourse , taking occasion to magnify that King 's spacious Dominions ; He , in answer thereto , was pleased to reply , That 't was true , God had entrusted him with divers Nations and Countries ; but that his Advantage thereby was , to have opportunity to propagate Christian Religion . It is to be presumed , that as Your Majesty's Dominions , in the Parts we speak of , are in extent not much short of , perhaps a great deal larger , than that Princes : So your Majesty's Piety will not suffer You to be wanting to Your Self and People , in reaping the like blessed and glorious Advantage thereby . So prayeth , The most unworthy and meanest of Your Majesty's Subjects , MORGAN GODWYN . The PREFACE . I Cannot but foresee , that I shall fall under no small danger of Censure , as well for my first preaching , as now publishing this Discourse . For besides the sinister Surmises of divers here at home , ( such , who like the Curr in the Manger , will neither eat Oats themselves , nor suffer those that would ) ; I must also look to undergo , as far as is possible , the utmost Effects of the Rage and Malice of those incensed MAMMONISTS from abroad ; who , I am to expect , will not fail , by their Agents and Partizans , to dispense to me the sharpest Revenge and Mischief , that such Enemies of Christianity can contrive against a Promoter of it . And , when they thus see me upon taking away their Gods , it will be but a very sensless and unreasonable Question to demand , What aileth them ? But as there was no temptation from the thing it self , as being likely to prove so invidious and costly an Undertaking , what I have but too much already felt ; and it being on the behalf of such who are never like to make me any amends , and I am sure that no body else will : So I hope that others better disposed , will in charity , which thinketh not the worst , rather believe , that what I have herein attempted , doth proceed from no worse Motive , than from a sense of my Duty ; as not knowing otherwise , what I yet knew was most necessary , how to reprove the * BARJESVITISM and base Mammonism so openly practised in our Plantations , and even at Home too ; of which I shall presently give some Instances . At least certainly I can deserve no blame for thus opening my Mouth for the Dumb , and becoming their Advocate , who are appointed to Eternal Destruction : For that I have , as it were , put my Life in my hand , to oppose those Elymas's , who do not cease to pervert the right Ways of the Lord , and to obstruct Christianity , when no body else either durst or would . And since the more Learned and Prudent , who never use to lay out themselves but to some purpose ( and this , 't is too well known known , is but a barren Theme ) , had hitherto been silent therein , that I thought it no disparagement to become a Fool for Christ's sake , and conceived that it might better be done by me , than not at all . These in truth were my Reasons in general for this Undertaking ; but there was withal a more particular . And that was , hereby , if possible , to put some stop to , and to abate the arrogant and proud vauntings of that new Sect of American Anti-Religionists , the Barjesuits and Elymases before mentioned , for their Victory over Christianity , by LVCYfer and his fellow Agents , here sometime since obtain'd ; which very triumphantly , like pure uncircumcised Pagans , * ( pardon the Expression , for in this Case , Difficile est Satyram non scribere , and not to be angry had been to sin ) they have not forborn to publish in the Houses of their Idols , if I may so speak ; and by insulting Letters , to set forth in their Assemblies ; therein proclaiming how they have worsted Christianity , and for ever quash'd all future hopes of advancing its Crest , and of further entrance into those Parts . A most glorious Victory doubtless it was ! and which none besides the Devil and themselves , but would have been ashamed to have boasted of . A Victory where there was no ▪ Adversary to contend with ; and of which , as the case stood , if they could but talk considently , and affirm lustily without blushing , they could not easily fail . Upon this I could no longer be silent , but as the Holy Psalmist expresseth himself , My heart grew hot within me , and the fire was kindled ; and at the last I spake with my Tongue ; declaring from the Pulpit , as oft as I had opportunity , what I have now delivered from the Press . I considered the thing as a Duty indispensible ; and having before put my hand to the Plow , I determined not to look back : Yet I must confess , I attended a while to see whether any abler Advocate would appear in the Cause , and happily have saved me both the trouble and the envy of it . But when I had thus waited , and could see no appearance of any , no not at the greatest distance , ( for they were all amazed , they answered no more , they left off speaking ; or rather , we may say , did never begin ) ; it was not in my power to refrain , but I resolved that I would answer for my part , I would speak on God's behalf , I would open my mouth and answer , let come on it what would . But he that ploweth , should plow in hope , as saith the Apostle . Now to what purpose is it to speak further hereof , since so slender Advances have been hitherto made therein , by what has been before spoken , will some be apt to demand ? And indeed it was the Advice of one , when I first adventured upon this Work , never to trouble my self about it ; for , said he , Tho your Design be never so Christian and good , yet the least grain of Interest lying in the way , shall quite ruin and overthrow it . And I wish his words had proved less true . But truly I am full of power , by the Spirit of the Lord , to tell Jacob of his Transgression , and Israel of his Sin , as saith the Prophet Micah . And Isaiah tells us , That the Watchmen upon the Walls of Jerusalem , were not to hold their peace , notwithstanding the greatest discouragements , day nor night ; nor to give even the Almighty himself any rest , until he had established and made Jerusalem a praise in the whole Earth . Rather , the deafer Men are , the louder we are to cry . For , Truth however opprest , will have some Followers . The sturdy Youth in the Gospel , that at first did so peremptorily refuse to go and work in his Father's Vineyard , afterwards repented , and went. And even the unjust Judg , by much importunity , and for his own quiet , was , we read , at length wrought upon to hearken to the Widow's complaint , and to do her right . And tho these we speak of , have had this untoward Character , viz. of being such , who will do no right , nor take any wrong , fixed upon them ; yet who knows how far our Assiduity may in like manner prevail ? At least , 't is certain , we have no Dispensation for our silence . For truly , unto this most unchristian Silence , must in a great measure be ascribed the large spreading of this Leprosy of Barjesuitism and Irreligion , not only in America , ( where , as I have * elsewhere mentioned , a poor Slave was in effect whip'd to death for being baptized ) ; but of its crossing the Seas into Europe , and from thence passing to the Eastern Indies : As by a most dreadful Story ( related to me by one that had spent some time in those Parts ) of the behaviour of some of our Factors towards the Natives of a certain place there called Jackatrâ upon Java , will appear ; who desirous to be instructed in Christianity by the English , were most unchristianly denied the favour : they , forsooth , dreading lest their apt Scholars should thereby come to improve their Faculty in the Mystery of Buying and Selling , ( as if that also were a Mystery of the Gospel ) , which in time might lessen their Gain , and so spoil all . However , what these refused , certain * Mahumetans , ( see here how much their Zeal for their Superstition surpasseth ours for the Truth ) ; who soon after arrived at the same place , did more generously offer them ; and of their own accord , without any of our Mens Scruples upon the score of their Mammon , freely communicated to them their Religion ; which that People then embracing , are said to retain to this very day . But to leave these remote Parts , where Men may perhaps be supposed to act what they please , without controul , let us come nearer Home , to our own most Protestant Island , and even to England it self , and there see how much better the case is , to is in time like to prove amongst our selves ; where we shall find this superlative Wickedness to have spread amain , even from Sea to Sea ; infected both the East and West , and gotten possession of the very heart of this Kingdom . I have been told , that when this Sermon was first preached in London , the Parish Clark , after all was done , fell to wondring that I should thus trouble my self to preach against Negro's and Indians , for that he said , there were none of that Religion in this Nation . But how much this poor Clark was mistaken , I shall from some four or five Instances , out of a great many which I have heard , soon discover . Whereof the first that I shall mention , is of a Gentlewoman , who commending a certain Negro Wench that she had , for her towardliness and other good qualities , in the hearing of a Minister ; he demanded of her , why she made her not a Christian ? Whereat , casting her eyes strangely on him , and greatly wondring , she replied , That she had thought he would have given her better Counsel . The next shall be of a poor Wretch of the like sort , belonging to a certain Lady , at that time residing in a place some seventy miles distant from London : With this Negro , a certain religious Gentlewoman condescended to discourse , and to perswade to Christianity , unto which she found him very inclinable ; but was interrupted by the Lady , who overhearing the Discourse , thereupon ran in ; and , as in a most hideous affrightment , cryed out , O , for God's ( she might better have said the Devil's ) sake , say no more to him of that . And so the Discourse ended . The third Instance shall be of a Negro , whose Owner lived nearer London , viz. within some four or five miles distance of it . This Negro presented himself to the Minister , I think not of his own , but of a neighbouring Parish , desiring Baptism at his hands ; For which the Minister finding him not unqualified , did not absolutely refuse it , nor yet at present grant it him ; 't is possible , as being of another Parish . But however , the Master coming to the knowledg thereof , forthwith sends a peremptory Message to the Minister , charging him upon his peril not to proceed . The fourth is of a Negro , whose Owner resided somewhere near Bristol , ( the places name I have forgotten ) ; This Negro also addressed himself to the Minister , beseeching Baptism ; For the which the Minister finding him not incompetently fitted , did not deny it him ; only deferred it for the present . All which soon after arriving to the Master 's jealous ear , he , with the like terrible Menaces , dehorted the Minister ; adding withal , this insolent enquiry , Whether he would baptize his Horse ? But perceiving that the Minister little regarded his Menaces or Arguments , he goes home , and instantly chains the Negro under the Table among his Dogs , and there continues him in that double bondage for some time ; till finding him thereby to become unserviceable , which is all they regard ; he at length releaseth him of his Chain , but with this strict charge , not to go any more to the Minister . Which the Negro not observing , the Minister , like one that understood his Office , and that believed himself obliged to pay a greater respect to Christ's Commands , of baptizing all Nations , than to that Infidel American's forbidding it , publickly admits him into the Church by the Sacrament of Baptism ; After having purged him , by demanding of him , whether his Desires herein did proceed from any hopes of temporal advantage , as for the obtaining of liberty , or the like ? Which the Negro utterly renounced , declaring that he desired it only for the Salvation of his Soul. This again coming to his ▪ Masters knowledg , as it could not well be kept from him , the Negro upon his return , was welcomed with his former Chain , wherein he was soon after conveyed on Shipboard , and so to America : Where 't is to be presumed , that according to the general custom there , he shall never more hear of Christianity . Three of these Passages I had from the Ministers themselves , even as the other was told me by the Gentlewoman , an eminent Clergy-man's Wife in those Parts . I have heard also of a parcel of Negro's brought into England , concerning whom an especial charge was in the first place given to the Servants , not to mention any thing of Religion to them : Together with an intimation , ( which was no other , than to invite some lewd fellow to the Villany ) how acceptable a piece of service it would be , to have a certain young Negro Wench of the Company got with Child . It seems they take this ▪ Fornication to be no sin , no not so much as Venial . To these I may add , what I have heard , and do believe to be too true , viz. That the Grandees of one of these Colonies , were not long since so hardy , and withal so impious , as to produce ▪ Articles against their Governor Sir J. H. for his intended kindness to these People upon this account ; How far their Complaint was admitted , I cannot tell . It was certainly an Innovation , and for which he could produce no President in those ▪ Parts . So that Mr. * Herbert seemeth to have been directed by a fallible Spirit , when in certain prophetic Lines , foretelling the large and speedy progress of Religion in America , he thus sung , Religion stands a tiptoe in our Land , Ready to pass to the American Strand . And a little further ; Then shall Religion to America flee , They have their Gospel-times as well as we . The contrary being here most visible ; for instead of our carrying Christianity thither , they are upon bringing over the blackest Irreligion and Gentilism hither . Now if the cause of this their so great spite against Christianity , and cruelty to the Souls of Men , even of their own Slaves , who wear out their days in perpetual toil and labour for them , should be enquired into , it would not be easy to give a suddain Resolution . Some indeed here at home , have been ready to form Excuses for them , and to urge the danger of loosing their Slave by his admittance to Baptism . But this certainly cannot be the true Cause , at least as to those parts . I my self was accidentally present at the signing of an Act of Assembly by the Governor of Virginia , for the Security of this Interest . The like Laws I have been assured were enacted in the rest of the Plantations . And Sir Robert Southwell , upon some discourse about this very thing , some five Years since , was pleased to inform me , That he had heard the late Lord Chancellor Finch declare , that he did not know of any Law now in force in England , ( or words to that effect ) whereby a Slave was released from Servitude by Baptism . And certainly he , if any Man , must have known it . Others will tell us , that Christianity will make them more crafty and cunning , and withal , more tumultuous and rebellious . But this Argument equally fights against Christianity in all other places , and renders it intollerable to all Conditions and Degrees alike , as well to Freemen as Slaves , and at Home as well as Abroad ; and at this rate it must be banished out of the World. Others again are ready to suggest the Factors of Jackatra's Reason : But what have Slaves to do with buying and selling , who have nothing of their own to dispose of ? So that if the Reason were good , and of force against other freer Gentiles , ( not to mention that Christians ought not , upon any account whatsoever , to put themselves into a condition or course of Life , which carries with it an inevitable necessity of perpetual sinning against God ) ; yet it makes nothing against our ▪ Negro-Slaves admittance to Christianity . So that for my part I can deduce this cursed aversion in our Planters , from no other cause , than from their brutish and Atheistical * temper , which they are willing to shift off and to excuse with such Pretences , as knowing how easily they will be here swallowed . To this I might add that filthy Principle , which I think is almost universally received , and currant amongst them , That whatever conduceth to the getting of Mony , and carrying on of Trade , must certainly be lawful . As to instance in their trapanning and spiriting Men out of England , with sugar Promises of large kindness to be exhibited to them at their arrival in those Parts : whilst at the very instant they intend nothing else but to expose them to sale , and to make Slaves of them , at least for some term of Years . This , with other the like practices , I have heard justified and defended , and that by Persons who appeared very honest Men for those Places , and that withal would seem to have at least some little sense of Religion above their Neighbours , ( for a great deal would quite undo them ) ; who yet because they never hear them contradicted , may possibly be perswaded of their lawfulness . And by the same Principle I suspect it may be , that even those do permit Polygamy to their Slaves , and also put them upon a necessity of labouring upon Sundays , to prevent their starving all the Week after . Now all this , must in a very great measure be ascribed , to their want of being at first better instructed , and their not having the contrary Doctrines often inculcated to them , as well from the Pulpit as elsewhere . These Tares were sown whilst the Watchmen slept , or possibly when there were none at all ; Then they grew up and got strength , and took deep root , and now it is thought too late to weed them up . Which notwithstanding I must affirm to be beyond all peradventure their strickest Duty . And the total omission whereof , for I never heard it mentioned , will one day prove a sharper Thorn in their Sides , than that innocent Paper , which some have by Letters to England so fiercely complained of . Thereby , as it were , strengthening the hands of those wicked Men , as the Prophet speaks , and hardening them in their evil way . Who instead of encouraging , do talk of nothing but the difficulty * of the thing ; when not one has , as I could ever hear of , so much as tried or endeavoured it , no , not in their own Families . For this had been to invite a heavy Persecution , not of Fire and Faggot , but which is much worse , of being sleighted and neglected in their ordinary Treats and Invitations : To have been look'd upon askew by their Patrons and Grandees of the Vestries ; to have had some Affronts put upon them ; and to be a little wondered at by the World. All of them very worthy Pretences , for those should glory in such Sufferings , and rejoice that they were accounted worthy thereof ; that by their exemplary patience , under the greatest Pressures , should instil Resolution and Courage into others , and not only be contented to suffer , but to die for the Cause of Christ : Which this certainly is , if ever there were any such . It is indeed difficult , as some have made it ; but surely not so difficult as it was , when Christianity was every where spoken against , and the whole World was set to oppose it ; being not befriended by Authority , nor having so much as one single Person to countenance or stand by the Promoters of it . It is indeed more difficult than could be wished , at least to be gone thorow with at present : But yet methinks something might be endeavoured , if but for the good it has done , and to shew our good will towards it : And something also might as certainly be effected , were it but set about , and suitable means used for its carrying on . Nothing of which , besides the besprinkling of it with a few good Words , the precious holy Water of the Times , that I know of , was ever yet attempted or offered at . Some indeed have bespoke it as a very Apostolick Work , and a worthy Design ; Whom I should believe to have been serious and in earnest , could they but have kept their Countenances whilst they spoke . So that , to use the Prophet's Language , I may say , When I looked , there was none to help ; and I wondered that there was none to uphold . And whilst divers do , in plain down-right terms , determine it to be wholly needless ; or if at all needful , yet no way to concern us ; those Elimases in the mean time are not wanting , with their utmost industry , to oppose it as a most wicked Work. But it was St. Paul's case , at whose first Answer he complaineth , that no Man stood with him , but that all forsook him : for whom yet he prayeth God , that that Sin might not be laid to their charge . What Advantages our Adversaries do reap hereby , and how they make this Neglect , as a Shoeing-horn to draw on their Proselytes , is not , I suppose , unknown . And I have some cause to believe , that it has lately proved an Argument of no small validity , to draw one of our Church into their Toyles . The Party little less than acknowledging as much in my hearing , at least that it went a great way towards it . And even their Women have gotten it by the end , and can make use of it as dexterously as their ablest Men. It being not long since , that a very smart Dialogue happened between two of that Sex ; the one a strict Protestant , and the other a zealous Romanist : Who demanding of her , When any of her Church had attempted any thing for the conversion of Infidels , in Foreign Parts , or even in our own Plantations ; And the Protestant thereupon producing a small Treatise to that purpose , she replied , That , that truly was the first she had either seen or heard of of that kind among us : But withal further added , What hath been since done therein , or what encouragement given for others to tread in that Author's steps ? At which demand our poor Protestant Respondent was upon a sudden quite struck speechless . I confess I should be no good Christian , if I did not desire a better Subject to write upon , than the Reproaches of the Protestant Religion , such as all these foregoing Passages are : But , Si natura negat , sacit indignatio scriptum . And yet , if by turning away mine Eyes , I could better suppress the Irreligion , which this supine Carelesness and Neglect has occasion'd and introduc'd ; I should have wholly abstained from troubling the World with any thing of this Discourse . But the danger and miserable condition of those People ( if at least it be thought to be such ) calls for Action to all those who had not rather see Christianity lie wast , and so many Souls to perish irrecoverably ; than to hazzard their petty Interests , or disturb their Rest for the redress thereof . But to this some will object , that the Times are not seasonable : Neither have they ever yet been so , that I could hear of . Others again will demand , ' What have they to do with those Abroad ? let them look to their own at Home , where the state of Religion is so visibly declining ; Atheism , Ignorance , Error , Prophaneness , Popery , and Superstition , encreasing , and getting up so fast ▪ as may deserve our whole care to put a stop to , and will suffice for Conversions , without looking Abroad , &c. As I find it especially urged in opposition to this Work , by a N. C. as I suppose , in a certain Reply made to the Reverend Dean of St. Pauls . Now , doth not this too strongly favour of Cain's surly reply to God Almighty , demanding , Whether he were his Brothers Keeper ? Had it not been much more proper for them to have asked , What have we to do with their Land and Labour , or thus to captivate and oppress them ? And for our Home Conversions , methinks it looks like the Welch-man's putting off his Trial till the Day of Judgment ; for so long , it may be feared , it will be , before most of those will be converted . But did not the Apostles ( most of them at least ) leave ▪ Judea to preach to the Gentiles ; when in all probability not one tenth Person there could be converted ; leaving others to build upon that . Foundation which they had before laid ? And at this rate , the rest of the World must have remained Infidels till this day : There being no Place nor People ever yet so perfectly converted , but that abundance of Chaff did always remain amongst the Wheat , even after the finest winnowing . And then , why may not these Conversions also be carried on both together ? And whilst our Reverend Brethren are in their several stations here , perswading those home-different Parties , would it be all incongruous and impossible , that some few , out of our many supernumeraries , should be appointed to preach to the Gentiles abroad , both English and others , ( for neither the Blacks nor Tawnies only are the Heathens there ) at the same time . Certainly , if the one ought to be done , the other ought not to be left undone . Besides , we should employ our Talent to the greatest advantage for our Lord's Honour , and this unquestionably is amongst the unprejudiced Heathen . And therefore St. Paul refused to trifle away his time amongst his perverse and blasphemous Countrymen , when he saw no good could be wrought upon them , ( who had already judged themselves unworthy of Everlasting Life , ) but turned to the Gentiles , unto whom he tells them , That the Salvation of God was sent . There being , as Solomon saith , more hopes of Fools , than of those that are conceitedly wise . And saith Almighty God to Ezekiel , Thou art not sent to a People of a strange Speech , and of a hard Language ; For , surely had I sent thee unto them , they would have hrarkned unto thee . But the House of Israel will not hearken . And St. Paul likewise had the same assurance touching his Gentiles , viz. That they would hear him . I know nothing to oppose this , besides provision for their Maintenance , who shall be employed upon this Errand : Which , if the common way will not suffice , yet , God be blessed , we are not so utterly destitute and spoiled , but that of that little which remains , something might be allotted and bestowed as a grateful Acknowledgment upon the Service of that Faith by which we received it . I shall not mention from whence this is to arise , because it may possibly give offence . Tho certainly the choicest of our Stores cannot be too good to be laid out upon that which at first brought us whatsoever we have . And our chearful and ready compliance , will be an infallible Argument of our affection to it . But if we spend much time in resolving , ( as too much hath been already ! ) questioning and disliking this and that Proposal and Method , perchance the Season may be over , and it may never more come into our power to do any thing in it at all . Dum quid sis dubitat , iam potei esse nihil . And here I should judg , that our Charity in this Case , ought most properly to begin at home ; I mean , amongst the Subjects and Tributaries of our Plantations ; and not rather ( as some I have heard have projected ) in such * remoter Places where we are less related . Others again will suppose this Work not to be effected , but by the Countenance and Encouragement of a Parliament . But , God be thanked , the Laws in force , are all in favour of Christianity , nor is there any want of such Laws . So that the true Servant of Christ may , without hazard , either of Life or Liberty , preach pursuant to any Text in the whole Bible , without any need of new Laws for his justification . But if a Parliament be of such absolute necessity for the carrying on thereof , blessed be God we have one at hand ; who doubtless , upon a due Application , will not be wanting to contribute their utmost assistance to so religious and good a Work. However , at the worst , we are in no worse condition than the Apostles , and first preachers of Christianity were . And should it happen , which God forbid , that even the whole Civil Power should neglect , or even prohibit this preaching , yet I cannot believe that to be a sufficient Plea for our Silence . And I must no less declare my self of a different Judgment from those who hold the contrary , tho unfurnish'd with Miracles ; as presuming the Service of Christ , and Salvation of Souls , to be of much greater consequence than any worldly Concern can possibly be ; and being no less perswaded that neither Secular Interest , Reason of State , nor any prudential Consideration whatsoever , can in the least justify such a Neglect , or Silence . But there are no less than four potent Objections against this Work still remaining to be considered . As , First , That this kindness , especially to Slaves , will make them Hypocrites only , and not Christians . They will be apt , notwithstanding the Laws before-mentioned , to run to Baptism in hopes of Liberty , having hitherto flattered and hugged themselves with such thoughts . Secondly , It will displease the Merchants . Thirdly , This is only some petty Design , which I am hereby managing for my self . Fourthly , What I have both formerly and now said herein , is all Lyes ; The Planters , Men of extraordinary Credit , having so declared . A Man would judg that Christianity were grown extraordinary cheap , and of low esteem with those Objecters , when such groundless Slanders , and blind Shifts , shall be admitted to its prejudice ; and its Cause quite given up by them upon such empty Suggestions . But , to begin with the last . What ? is all but Lyes ? Is not that true , touching the Negro's not being admitted to Christianity ? Why then did those very Planters themselves , at least by their Agents , both own and defend it , some time since , before the Council ; And even then giving in their Reasons , such as they were , for the contrary ? Admit but this one piece of monstrous Absurdity , this so impudent Impiety , which is too evident to be denied , and the rest may , without any great difficulty , be supposed ; at least , it will not be for their credit to put me to prove even the worst of them . The next to it is of the like force and nature , wherein the Argument thus runs , That to defeat and spite me , Christianity is not to be promoted , nor the Souls of Men saved . Very Christianly both spoken and concluded ! See here of what different Tempers these Objectors are , from that of St. Paul ; Some , saith he , do indeed preach Christ for Envy and Strife ; and some also of good Will : What then ? notwithstanding every Way , whether in Pretence or Truth , Christ is preached ; and therein do I rejoice , yea , and I will rejoice . It seems , so that the Work were done , which he so passionately pursued and laboured for , he did not so much regard the undue Motives by which Men were induced and perswaded to it ; which these here do wholly seem to do . For the next ; I would fain know what kind of Merchants these are , who will be displeased upon this occasion ? Either we must please , or displease them . But St. Paul assures us , ( and I suppose in this very sense ) that if we please Men , we cannot be the Servants of Christ . At this rate , Elijah was not to have displeased Ahab ; nor St. John the Baptist , Herod ; In the Collect for whose day , we are yet taught-to pray , That after his Example we may constantly speak the Truth , boldly rebuke Vice , and patiently suffer for the Truth 's sake . So that it is evident , we must , as the case stands , either displease them or act contrary to our Prayers , and disobey Christ . We are not to please our Neighbour , but for his good to edification , saith St. Paul. Lastly , Why should these be any more Hypocrites than themselves ? since that God's Grace is free , and may be bestowed upon whom he pleaseth . He can raise out of those Stones , Children unto Abraham : And his Spirit bloweth where it listeth . Besides , a very short space would confute that foolish Opinion of their Freedom , when they had seen some of their Fellows continued in their former State , even after Baptism . One would think , that Men were ashamed and weary of their Religion , that can admit of such Flams against it . But now after that , all their pittiful Reasonings are vanquish'd , and their Arguments put to flight , yet nevertheless it cannot still be other with them , than impracticable ; nor are there wanting some that , to save trouble , from amongst our selves are inclined to believe as much . Good God! that Christianity , after its continuance in the World for near two thousand Years , should now at last be excluded for its impracticableness . A Position which every Man , endued but with common sence , may at once see as well the wickedness as the folly of it . The Disputer that denied Motion , and was not to be confuted but by practice , ( which these also must ) was not half so ridiculous . But perchance they will say , 't is only impracticable to Slaves . If so , why are the Native Indians upon the Continent , who are only Tributaries , and whose Habitations are many of them environ'd by the English , equally neglected , and their reduction to Christianity as much scofft at as the other ? And why were not those poor Barbarians of Jackatra ( before mentioned ) admitted thereto , when so earnestly importuned and besought by them ? But to answer the Objection . If Christianity be impracticable as to the condition of Slavery , why then did the Apostles both preach and write , to and concerning * Slaves , either for their Conversion , or Confirmation in Christianity ? For either they therein did well , or ill : If well , then ought we to imitate them therein : But that they did ill , was never , that we find , once suggested , no not by the Heathen Masters themselves . For those still remaining as much their Slaves as before , of what wrong could they complain , unless of their being made better and more faithful Servants by Christianity , than they were ? But if by Baptism they were set at liberty , ( which the Example of Onesimus , and the express words of their several Epistles , do prove that they were not ) then it is evident that the Apostles did not suppose the Master's Interest in his Slave to be of greater account than the Slave's Salvation : Nor that they ought to value his Displeasure or Profit , thus standing in competition with their Duty ; which is exactly our Case . Again , if those of other Religions do , with great Industry and Zeal , both endeavour and effect , ( as it is plain that they do , whilst ours do not only neglect , but forbid it ) ; then it is clear that therein those do act more agreeably to the Apostles and Scripture-Rule , than our selves ; whom yet we so frequently charge in other things of less moment , with deviating from it ; And so forgetting how we condemn our selves whilst we blame them . However since these do it , where is then the impracticableness thereof ? or how comes it to be less practicuble to us , than to them ? If they do it less perfectly , as is suggested , yet still they do it . * If amiss , let us do it better : Only let us not under that pretence be said never to do it at all . If any Man have not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his , saith the Apostle : Now Christ's Spirit was to promote the Salvation of Mankind . But of what Spirit must those then be that do neglect and hinder it ? And if any Man love not the Lord Jesus Christ , let him be Anathema ; that is , utterly accursed from him : But what love can there be in endeavouring to rob him of that which he so dearly purchased with his Blood ? All Knowledg , all understanding of Mysteries , and all Faith , without this Charity is nothing ; Yea , the bestowing of all our Goods to the relieving of the Poor , and even the giving our Bodies to be burnt , withoat it , will profit us nothing . This is a thing which all Sects and Parties do most generally agree in : No Scruples to tender Consciences will from hence arise ; it being impossible that any should oppose it , but such only who have lost all Conscience . And certainly , if Christianity and the Souls of Men be worth our care , it cannot be but that something in order thereto will speedily be endeavoured ; the thing in its self being most easy , and there wanting nothing , but some resolute and wise Agent to push it forward . As for the impotent railing of those Barjesuses and Elymases , ( for God be thanked that is the worst they can do ) it is to be pitied and contemned , rather than dreaded or regarded by us . Or at the worst , a vigorous pursuit would in a short time both disarm and silence them . There being no Strumpet so impudent and void of shame , as to assert and practice her lewdness in the presence of more vertuous People . Nor has it been heard that any Thief has been so confident , as to defend his Rapines and Slaughters before an upright Judg. And it being a thing so utterly incongruous and contradictory in it self , for Men to call themselves Christians , yea , and of the most refined sort too , and yet at the same time to oppose Christianity , that it is impossible but at the first manful onset , they must needs be baffled and shamed out of it . For , Wickedness , as the wise Man saith , condemned by her own Witness , is very timerous , and being pressed with Conscience , always forecasteth grievous things . So that there seemeth nothing more to be needful , but the Watch-word from our vigilant and prudent Leaders , to the faithful Souldiers of Christ , boldly to fall on , and to attaque them : The Victory cannot but be easy over those that fight against God. And pitty , yea infinite pitty it would be , that so Holy and Righteous a Cause , should be so slightly lost ; and that a Matter of such Eternal Consequence , so much tending to our Redeemer's Honour , and to the good of those many Myriads of Souls , viz. of our Negro's and Indians , Slaves and Tributaries , all of them the Subjects of this Kingdom ( and should be also of our care ) should be suffered to miscarry , only through the want of a few words speaking , a little endeavour , and of so much courage , as but to look the Enemies of Christ in the face ; and where the Act it self doth carry its Recompence , and makes us full Amends . For , whilst we become Eyes to the Blind , as holy Job speaks , and Feet to the Lame ; delivering the Poor that crieth , and those that have none to help them : Whilst we put on Righteousness , and it cloaths us ; and Judgment as a Robe and a Diadem : Whilst we break the Jaws of the Wicked , and do search out the Cause that we know not : Whilst we become valiant for the Truth , and do rebuke these Blasphemers to the face : Then the Ear that hears us , shall bless us ; and the Eye that sees us , shall give witness to us ; our Glory shall be fresh in us , and our Root shall spread out by the Waters : The blessing of those that are ready to perish shall fall upon us , neither shall we be afraid of destruction when it cometh : For we shall be in league with the Stones of the Field ; and the very Beasts of the Field shall be at peace with us . In Famine we shall be redeemed from Death , and in this REBELLION from the Power of the Sword. All which will be consummated and made up in that Repute , Honour , and Stability to our Church and Nation , which will hereby be undoubtedly procured . Amen . 1 St. John 3. 18. Let us not love in Word , neither in Tongue , but in Deed and in Truth . ERRATA . IN the Title Page , line 4. read reprehended . P. 3. l. 7. for assert , r. set off . l. 8. r. Arguments . P. 9. l. 17. f. Disciples , r. Apostles . l. 37. r. in ▪ bef . snob . P. 27. l. 20. r. extant . P. 29. l. 11. f. it s , r. his . P. 31. l. 2. dele be , l. 9. dele the. P. 32. l. 15. r. Industry . P. 33. l. 19. r. Hypocrisy . Add , P. 28. ad finem , Wickedness burneth as the Fire ; it shall devour the Briars and Thorns , &c. Isa . 9. 18. Errata in the Margent . P. 4. insert Acts 18. 6. bef . Acts 20. Likewise the same again p. 6. P. 16. r. Cupiunt . P. 24. after Miracles , add c. 6. n. 1. P. 25. f. answer , r. refute ; also insert , p. 573. disc . 3. c. 19. P. 26. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Likewise add this of E. W's , Protestants that never did , nor shall hereafter do good , to either Christian or Heathen . Trade preferr'd before Religion , AND Christ made to give place to Mammon : Represented in a SERMON , relating to the PLANTATIONS . JER . Chap. 2. Part of the 34th Verse . Also in thy Skirts is found the Blood of Souls ; &c. The whole Verse runs thus ; Also in thy Skirts is found the Blood of the Souls of the poor Innocents ; I have not found it by secret search , but upon all these . THis Particle [ Also ] standing at our first entrance into the Text , requires us to raise our Eye to the foregoing Words , both of this , and of the former Chapter . In the first of which we find our Prophet , as it were opening his Commission , asserting his Authority as derived to him from God himself . Before I formed thee in the Belly , I knew thee ; and before thou camest forth out of the Womb , I sanctified thee , and ordained thee a Prophet unto the Nations : Therefore thou shalt go unto all that I shall send thee , and whatsoever I command thee , thou shalt speak . And the better to qualify and enable him for this great Work , it is added , Behold , I have put my words into thy Mouth . And then to create a Resolution and Courage in him suitable thereto , and that he might go on with a steady boldness and assurance in this so hazardous and thankless an Imployment , it is promised that he should be an Iron Pillar , and a brazen Wall , yea , a defenced City against them ; And that therefore he was not to be afraid or dismayed at their Looks , ( that being the worst they should be able to do against him , ) for that God himself would most certainly be with him , to preserve and deliver him . In confidence whereof , we find him in the next Chapter betaking himself to his Function ; and in charity to his own ungodly Nation , beginning with them first , unto whom indeed he was especially sent : Where after a brief rehearsal of the many benefits conferred upon them by God himself , as that he had broken their Yoke , and burst their Bonds , had brought them into a plentiful Countrey , which he had designed for them , to eat the fruits thereof , and the goodness thereof . That he had there planted them a noble Vine , wholly a right Seed , instructed them in the best and purest Religion ; with abundance of the like Privileges and Immunities , which by his especial Favour and Munificence , they enjoyed above all other People ; I say , after this , the Prophet at last bespeaks the Almighty as falling thus to expostulate with them : What Iniquity have your Fathers found in Me , that they are gone away far from me ? And , Hath a Nation changed their Gods , which are yet no Gods ? but my People have changed their glory , for that which doth not profit : Charging them that they had turned their Backs to him , had spoken and done evil things with their utmost might , and as far as they could ▪ Adding , that they were become cruel , and unthankful , and ( which was worst of all ) incorrigible ; and in a word , worse than the very Heathen . That by their customary and long Practice in that cursed Trade of Sinning , they had attained a notable aptness and dexterity therein , even beyond the proficiency of the most wicked , whom , it seems , they were able to teach . In fine , they are told that they were wholly turned into a degenerate Plant of a strange Vine ; had defiled the Land which he had brought them into , and made God's Heritage an Abomination . And now after this so large and foul a Catalogue of their Impieties , one would have thought that the Prophet must have been at a stand , and could have proceeded no further ; when to compleat the charge , and to render them for ever both inexcusable and infamous , he adds to it a certain new , and before unheard-of Villany , viz. of exercising those their Hellish Cruelties , not only upon the Bodies , but extending them to the very Souls , and that of poor Innocent Men : Which , as bad as it is , is yet exceedingly aggravated by their Impudence in the perpetration , shewing that it was grown into a Fashion , and become costomary amongst them ; not committed in private , or in the dark , as if ashamed of it ; nor yet detected by any laborious Search , or Scrutiny , but acted openly , and in the Face of the Sun , like Absalom upon the House top ; and even owned and justified by them to the whole World : They did , as the Prophet speaks , TRIMM , that is , by false reasonings and Sophistry , and probably sometimes by the loudest Lies defend and assert their Impiety ; nor could by any Argument be persuaded to acknowledg it to be so : But on the contrary , boasted themselves Innocent , proclaimed that they were not polluted , and that they had not sinned , notwithstanding that their way in the Valley , as the Prophet speaks , was so notorious . They might perchance have an Eye unto their MAMMON , and belike , deemed that the necessity and benefit arising to them from their Trade and Commerce with Forreign Nations , would not barely excuse , but even consecrate the Villany . This then , in short , was their case ; God had most mercifully and wonderfully delivered them out of Egypt , and not only so , but had likewise brought them into a Land , which , as the Prophet Ezekiel expresseth it , he had espied for them , and which was indeed the Glory of all Lands ; the entire and full possession whereof was given them upon this sole Consideration , and these only Terms , viz. That they should cast away all their Abominations , and become Trumpets of God's Praise , and declare his Glory among the Heathen , Psal . 69. no doubt for the Salvation of their precious Souls . But instead thereof , even from the very time of their first entrance into that Land , they practised all their former Abominations , and that with both Hands earnestly ; and instead of declaring , they stifled and concealed his Eternal Counsel , forbidding the preaching of it to the Heathen , that they might [ not ] be saved ; and so they pleased not God , and became the murtherers of Souls . Which very thing in this Charge doth seem to have been their singular and grand Crime , viz. Their acting in and connivance at the most open and prophane effusion of the Blood of Men's Souls , and that too in that very Land which God had given them to a contrary end and purpose : And the not decrying nor discountenancing of which Wickedness , by such other of them who possibly might be less active in the perpetration , bringing them also in as Associates and Partizans with the rest , and rendring them thereof equally guilty . But here methinks I perceive my self ready to be interrupted , and told , that this is a forced Interpretation , and cannot be the proper meaning of the Text , which , say they , was intended only to reprove those bloody Immolations of Children , offered without the Gates in the Valley of Hinnom ( and so as it were in the Skirts or Suburbs of Jerusalem ) unto Moloch ; the Words , Innocents , and Poor , manifestly implying no less . Further adding that there can be no such Sin as shedding the Blood of Souls , properly so taken ; They being , as the Poet speaks , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , destitute of Blood , and Immortal . Unto the first of which , I answer , That the Words in the Hebrew here rendred by Poor , and Innocents , do not necessarily import the same signification with the English , where Time and Custom have made Innocents , and Infants ( or little Children ) to be almost synonimous and convertible ; and the Adjunct , Poor , to represent one afflicted in Mind or Body , as well as Estate or Fortune ; one that groans under Oppression or Sickness , or some other such like Calamity , and not under bare Poverty only , which is the most natural import of that Adjunct , and under which Children or Infants cannot so well be said to fall ; who , as they are not capable either to gather or use Riches , so neither can they properly be said to be either rich or poor . These Sufferers therefore were not Children , but Men ; possibly , as poor in Fortune , as miserable in Condition . They were Pauperes & Egentes , as the Vulgar Latin and Tremelius do render the Word , which is wholly omitted in the Greek ; where they are only called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( without any mention of their other condition ; ) signifying insontes , Indemnes , damni expertes , plagis intactas , as well as Innocentes . All which can hardly be understood of little Children : And therefore I cannot so readily assent that our Prophet here intended these . And then to the second part of the Objection , I likewise answer , That this expression of Blood , with relation to the Soul , is divers times used in Holy Scripture ; particularly by Solomon , Prov. 28. 17. if we consult the Original ; In several places also of * Ezekiel ; and in the † Acts by St. Paul , which I shall have further occasion to mention . And for the Translation of this Text , it exactly agrees with the Letter of the Hebrew ; and that , I doubt not in its most primitive signification ; both the ‖ Septuagint and * Latin Versions ( as in the former ) answering thereunto . And therefore should our Prophet's intention herein happen to be other , ( which there is no convincing Argument or reason to prove ) yet I shall not in the least scruple to follow the Letter both of the Original , and the rest of the Translations , especially our own . But from the Words , as I here find them , shall conclude , that there may be and is , at least in some sense or other , such a Sin as this reprehended in the Text , viz. of shedding the Blood , and murthering of Souls . And upon this Foundation it is that I intend to raise my ensuing Discourse ; and therein shall observe this Method , and shew , I. What this Sin is , and wherein it consists . II. The several ways by which it is committed . III. What are the common Inducements thereto . IV. The most horrid Nature thereof , and how infinitely displeasing to Almighty God. V. The Place and Persons here especially charged . VI. I shall enquire what Relation this Text may have unto us , and how far this Church and Nation may be chargeable with this Sin. VII . Which being dispatch'd , and having discovered some , and those no small spots and stains of this Blood upon our own , no less than upon Jerusalems Skirts and Garments , viz. by our neglecting the Souls of the poor Heathen in our Plantations , ( and even here at home . ) I shall from the hainousness of the Sin , and from the Prophet's severe reprehension of it in Jerusalem , in the seventh and last place , infer the most indispensible and absolute necessity of our speedy redressing this abuse and neglect of our duty to God , and to our own , no less than to our Peoples Souls . I. FOR the first of these . I have before shewed , that in Scripture Language , there is a Blood of Souls ; but then what that Blood is , and wherein the Crime of shedding it doth consist , will need some further Explication . As for the Phrase , it must be supposed to be an Hebrew Idiotism , or a Metaphor taken from the Function and Imployment which the Blood sustains and exerciseth in the Body , which Moses saith , is the Life thereof . So that to shed the Blood , the Crime here charged , is to take away the Life , whether of Soul or Body . Now God Almighty being the sole Life of Man's Soul , the very Fountain of living Waters , and in whose light only she can see Light ; the miserable deprivation of his Favour can be no less than the shedding of her Blood , and the taking away the Life thereof . It is to subject her to God's Eternal Wrath and Curse , the true second Death , spoken of by St. John in the Revelations ; the same also which St. Paul terms to be accursed from Christ , and even to be blotted out of God's Book , which Moses , Exod. 32. in that mighty Zeal for his Nation , sued for . In short , it is the sum total of whatsoever is deplorable and wretched , and to be deprecated and avoided by all Mankind . Which loss of God's Favour , with the dismal Consequences thereof , is solely occasioned by an ungodly course of Life , and by Infidelity : Piety and Vertue , being the same to the Soul , which good Blood is to the Body ; and what the mischievous effusion thereof is to the latter , the same must the profusion of evil manners be to the former : So that this shedding of the Soul's Blood , is nothing else but a spiteful captivation and detaining of Men under God's Wrath and Displeasure , a permitting or forcibly compelling them to persist in Infidelity , and a wicked Life , the most natural effect thereof , and which is therefore the first Root or Spring of Misery and Death to the Soul of Man. From whence it is that when Almighty God in the 3d , 18th , and 33d Chapters of Ezekiel , threatens to require the witless Offender's Blood at the Watchman's Hand , 't is plain that thereby was meant , such Sins and Enormities , which he , through the want of timely notice from the Watchman , had run into . And when Job ( Chap. 16. ) forbad the Earth to cover , or conceal his Blood ; 't is understood that he then made his Purgation , as to the foul suggestions of his Enemies ; wishing therein that his most secret and concealed Sins , there stiled his Blood , might be laid open to the view of the whole World : so plainly would his innocence then appear , at least as to the Crimes , by his back-Friends , so unjustly charged upon him . So also St. Paul's attestation of himself , as to his being pure from the Blood of all Men , is to be understood of his being no way chargeable with their Ignorance and Infidelity , nor with the Consequences thereof , viz. their other grosser Impieties ; as having even day and night with Tears warned them thereof , at no time shunning to declare unto them the whole Counsel of God , nor keeping back any thing that was profitable for them . And so much for the Nature of this Sin , and wherein it consists . I proceed unto the next Particular ; II. WHICH is to shew the several ways by which this Sin is committed ; and this I intend for a Light or Sea-Mark , by the help whereof Men may avoid the danger of running upon it : And they are especially two . Whereof The first is by publishing of false Doctrine , which by debauching of Mens Minds and Judgments with evil Principles , doth necessarily lead them into Immorality , and a wicked Life , which , as I have shewed , is the most certain ruine of the Soul. For if , as our blessed Saviour testifies , the Truth doth make Men free , then must Falshood be the occasion of their Bondage ; and if right Principles be the only sure Guides and Conducters to Happiness , the contrary must needs lead us to Misery and Ruin. For he that believes amiss , will consequently act so ; it being most natural for Men to act according as they are inwardly persuaded . False Doctrine then must be confessed to be the Bane and Poyson of the Soul. The Publishers and Promoters whereof , can therefore be no other than its most perfect Betrayers and Murtherers . For which reason doubtless it was , that our Lord Christ in his Gospel commands us to take heed , both how , and what we hear : confirming Solomon's advice , thus warning us , Cease , my Son , to hear the Iustruction that causeth to err from the words of Knowledg , as being so destructive to the Soul. And no less , in the second place , may this guilt be contracted by prohibiting and concealing the Truth ; this being a sacrilegious robbing the Soul of her necessary Sustenance , and is not so much a stabbing or a poysoning , as a starving of her ; The knowledg and practice of the Truth being that alone which can reconcile her unto God , and entitle her to his Favour , which is the Life thereof . For , as Syracides saith , The Bread of the Needy ( as well the Spiritual as the Temporal ) is their Life , and he that defraudeth him of it , is a Man of Blood : And he that taketh away his Neighbours Living , slayeth him ; and he that defraudeth him of his Hire , is a Blood-shedder : So likewise , That the Soul should be without Knowledg , it is not good , saith the wise Solomon . Indeed it is no other but to murther her . And therefore he saith again , That the Lips of the Wise disperse Knowledg , the most proper and necessary Food for Men's Souls . This was it which Almighty God complained of by his Prophet Hosea , That his People were destroyed for lack of Knowledg ; Instruction , the means thereof , being withholden from them : And likewise in Isaiah , where it is lamented , That they were gone into Captivity , and their honourable Men were famished , and their Multitude dried up with Thirst , because they had no Knowledg . This also was the sad condition of the poor Flock in Zechariah ; They fell into distress , because there was no Shepherd , or such only as did not regard nor pity them ; no not when they were sold and slain . For those that were cut off , they did not visit , they neither sought out the young , nor healed the broken , nor fed that which was still ; But that that dieth , let it die , was all they cared , so they might but eat the flesh of the fat ; retain the Oppressors Favour , and so thrive and grow rich . Wherefore , to obviate this sore evil for the future , Almighty God in the Chapter ensuing the Text , promiseth to give them Pastours after his own Heart , which should feed them with Knowledg and Vnderstanding , the only sure Preservatives of the Soul. Nor let any one here think to shift off this Guilt , by lessening this Sin into an Omission only ( even where it so happens , which is seldom ; ) It being our very great Crime to but omit what is our strictest duty to perform ; as most certainly it is to persuade others to both believe and practise whatsoever we hold our selves obliged to . The forbearance whereof was , in Moses's Esteem , no less than a hating of our Brother , who therefore thus directs us ; Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour , and not suffer Sin [ to rest ] upon him ; or ( as 't is in the Margent ) that thou bear not Sin for him ; intimating therein the danger of that Omission . That all connivance at Wickedness , is an encouragement to it , especially in such who both can , and ought to prevent it , was the opinion of a virtuous Heathen . Agreeable to that of St. James , To him that knoweth to do good , and doth it not , to him it in Sin. Solomon did not hold him excused who had [ only ] forborn to deliver those that were drawn unto Death , and that were ready to be slain ; no not tho he pleaded Ignorance , and should say , that he knew it not : For , as it follows , Doth not be that pondereth the Heart , consider it , and he that keepeth the Soul , doth not he know it ? And shall not he render to every Man according to his works ? The Piety of the great Artaxcrxes , would not allow that any should remain ignorant of the Laws of the God of Heaven : And therefore in his Commission to Ezra , he gives an especial charge for the careful instruction of those who knew them not . It was not enough in our blessed Saviour's esteem , for St. Peter to be converted himself , but that being accomplished , he was to employ the like charitable endeavours for his Brethren also . And upon that so prevalent motive of Charity , our Blessed Lord urgeth to all in general a seasonable Reproof and Admonition of our Brother ; For , if he hear thee , thou hast gained thy Brother , and thereby saved his Soul. This is that perfect love of God and of our Brother ( or Neighbour ) which cannot be separated ; and which whosoever wanteth , is at once an Enemy both to God and to his Brother : For , he is a Lyar and a Murtherer , saith St. John ; He walketh in Darkness and not in Light ; He abides in Death , and can have no hopes of Eternal Life ; withal adding , that such a Person is not of God , and cannot love him , that hates ( or doth not love ) his Brother ; confirming his Assertion with a most substantial Reason , demanding , How he can love God whom he hath not seen , who hateth his Brother whom he hath seen ? For whom he ought to lay down his Life , but much more to extend his Charity , and to open his bowels of Compassion to him , being in need , whether of Spiritual or Temporal Assistance . So that this Omission , as they term it , which , of a charitable pious Christian , renders a Man a Lyar , a Murtherer , and an Apostate , &c. is but a bad Plea , and very far from an extenuation of our Crime . But then if this love of our Brother by admonishing and reproving him be thus every Man's duty , much more must it be of such , who are peculiarly ordained and appointed to that work ; as we read the Watchman in Ezekiel was , against whom it was determined , That he should surely die , if he did not speak to warn the wicked from his way . Wherein it is observable , that nothing of any Crime actually committed by the Watchman is therein mentioned , but only an Omission of his Duty ; nor was this Penalty to be inflicted for any treacherous correspondence with the Enemy , or for betraying his Cause or Party , but only for holding his peace in a time of danger . From hence alone could St. Paul acquit his Innocence , as to the Blood of all Men , because he had not omitted to declare to the Souls under his charge the whole counsel of God , nor any thing that was profitable unto them ; Of which yet his partiality or silence must have impleaded him deeply Guilty : For it had been a concealing of the Truth , and therefore confessedly a shedding of their Blood , and a murthering of them . This was that Fruit which our Lord Christ acquaints his Disciples , that they were to go and bring forth , and that their Fruit might remain ; and which alone could qualify them for that honourable Title of his Friends , viz. by an industrious and active conformity to all his Commands ; of which , this we are speaking of , was none of the least . And how far those shifts and excuses , which upon this occasion are usually produced , will avail us at the last day , the sad doom both of the slothful Servant , and of the sleepy Virgins may serve to inform us . And so much for my second Observable . I proceed now unto III. THE Third , which is to represent the most usual and common Inducements to this Sin ; And they are four : Whereof The first is that root of Bitterness , or spirit of Unbelief , attended with a most violent Spite or Enmity to Religion inwardly lodg'd in the Heart ; such as is generally observable in Atheists and Anti-Religionists , especially where Religion doth happen to sute less with their Secular Interests and Designs . Or else , such as was visible in Amaziah , the Idolatrous High-Priest of Bethel , or in Elymas the Sorcerer , in Jannes and Jambers , and divers others ; who possibly might resist the true , only for the sake of their false Religions . Or , lastly , such as are possessed with a Spirit of Gallionism and Indifferency which or what Religion shall prevail ; whether Jesus or Mammon , Barabbas or Christ , so that they may be at ease , it is the same with them . But against whom our blessed Lord hath positively declared , saying , He that is not with me , is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me , scattereth . Now the foundation and root of this , is nothing else but Infidelity ; They act against , or neglect Religion , because they believe it not . For , as the Prophet Micah observes , All people will walk every man in the name of his God , and of that Religion which they are perswaded of . As for instance ; a Jew will make his boast of the Temple of the Lord , and stand up for his antiquated Ceremonies ; A Turk will assert his Alcoran , and rather than fail will buy over Proselytes to his Superstition . And some Christians there are too , who ( to the shame of others who do oppose or neglect it ) will do the same for theirs . The Ephesian Craftsmen would adventure upon an Uproar , rather than suffer their Diana to be blasphemed . Yea , the silly Worshippers of Baal could cry aloud from morning till noon , not sparing their flesh from Knives and Launcers for the honour of their paultry Deity ; Nor would the Gentiles change their Gods , of whose Divinity they were before perswaded , as our Prophet observes . But these , as saith the same Prophet Micah , know not the ways of the Lord , nor understand his Counsels : Yea , they vilify and cast Dirt upon that Religion , they would be thought to profess . A most evident sign that they believe it not . Secondly ; Pride and Ambition are too frequently the occasions of this Sin. As when in the Church , some fanciful Humourists , or stiff-necked Enthusiasts shall turn Reformers ; and , upon their own Heads endeavour to make Alterations in things setled and agreed upon by the best Authority , and after the maturest Deliberation . Or when some little Dwarfs or Pygmies in worth and abilities , shall set up for themselves , and by dispersing Heterodox Opinions in Religion , shall aspire after fame and greatness amongst their Party and Followers . Or in the State , when any dissatisfied Achitophel shall plot revenge against it : And to that vile end shall side with , and encourage the idle Dreams and Dotages of those empty Votaries , as hoping to compass that by the new Religion , which he could never effect by the old . 'T is Pride , saith an ancient Greek Proverb , that is the Parent of Superstition ; the very same with that of St. Paul , If any Man teach otherwise , and consents not to wholsom words , he is proud , knowing nothing . The third Inducement is Avarice , and a never satisfied Thirst after filthy Lucre : When wicked Mammonists , ( such who do account their Life here to be but a Market for gain , and that resolve they must be getting , tho it be with the ruine of their own , and their Peoples Souls ) shall begrutch the time and expences laid out upon the Service of God , and the Work of Religion . Who finding their Trade and Religion to be inconsistent , and having purposed in despite thereof to carry on their ungodly Interests , will not scruple to turn their Backs to the one , for the advantage of the other , and so as much as in them lieth shall make their God to truckle under Mammon . Or when Cheats and Impostors to furnish themselves of a livelyhood , and finding Preaching to be the only Trade they can set up for , without serving an Apprenticeship , shall subvert Order , draw Disciples after them , and preach a Nation into Desolation . Such , as St. Peter describing , warns us against , who through Covetousness , with fained words , should make Merchandise of us : And whom S. Paul bids us to mark and avoid ; for that they did not serve our Lord Jesus Christ , as they falsly pretended , but their own Belly ; and by good Words and fair Speeches did deceive the Hearts of the simple : But for which , ( as St. Peter in the forementioned place , to their small comfort , assures them ) their Judgment did not linger , nor their Damnation slumber . This is that Covetousness which St. Paul terms Idolatry . For whatsoever a Man magnifies and admires most , that certainly must be his God ; And in Christianity , wheresoever practised , 't is no doubt a renouncing of it : It being no less true , than Truth it self , That no Servant can serve two Masters , for either he will hate the one , and love the other , or else he will hold to the one , and despise the other . Now to despise and hate , what is it but inwardly to renounce ? And therefore , a little to invert our Saviour's Words , I must in this case declare , That we cannot serve Christ and Trade . The last Inducement I shall mention is Sloth , and a supine carelesness and neglect of Religion , and of the Souls of Men : When to avoid Clamour and Obloquie , or being willing to shift off Business , or to flatter a few Atheistical Apostates ; ( Such I fear , to make a fair shew in the Flesh , would , with St. Paul's prudent and moderate Galatians , scarce stick at Circumcision , if thereby they might escape suffering persecution for the Cross of Christ ; ) Or because it is a barren Theme , and nothing is to be got by the preaching or promoting of it , but may rather prove some impediment to their Profit : Or lastly , because there is some labour or trouble in it ; I say , when for these doughty reasons , Men shall suffer Religion to lye waste , and poor Innocent Souls to perish , without any pity or regard ; and then to excuse this their Sloth , or whatever worse Name it deserves , shall declare it a needless Service : And so strike Hands with the Adversary , to the great discouragement and weakning of those who are more hearty therein ; whom they ought in Duty to both strengthen and assist . And so I proceed to IV. THE Fourth Observable , which is to shew the horrid and almost most unpardonable Nature of this Sin , and how infinitely displeasing to Almighty God. Which will be made appear from these five following Circumstances , whereof , The first is its evil and lewd Society , and that foul herd of Sins , which it is mustered and mated with , in this and the foregoing Chapter . For even Words and Sins , as well as Men , may be judged of by the company they go in . Secondly , It will appear from the Site and Order in which it is placed , as being made to close up this grand Charge , brought in in the last place , which in such cases is usually the Principal , as being apt more thorowly to affect the Judgment , and infuse a Sense and Tincture of the like hainousness into the whole Accusation . Thirdly , By considering the Vehemency here used by our Prophet , or rather by the Holy Ghost , both in and preparatory to this grand Charge ; Whereas at the 12th Verse , he breaks forth into this mighty Exclamation ; Be astonished , O Heavens , and be horribly afraid , yea , be very desolate , as it were at the consideration of this new and strange Impiety : And at the 22d Verse it is resolved , that tho they should wash themselves with Nitre , and take to them much Soap , yet that it should not avail them , as to any expiation ; For that their Iniquity was marked before the Lord. The Conjunctive , Also , carrying with it a fearful Aggravation . Fourthly , from the clamorous and revengeful nature of Blood above all other things , and from the high detestation wherewith the Holy-Spirit of God in Scripture hath declared against that Sin , when committed simply against the Body alone , without any respect or relation to the Soul. As when in the Levitical Law we read of an especial Service and Sacrifice appointed for the expiation of but an uncertain murther : And of Abel's Blood crying from the Earth for vengeance against Cain ; and so of the Souls under the Altar crying aloud unto God to judg and avenge their Blood upon those that dwelt upon the Earth . And of the Gibeonites , and Naboth's Blood , pursuing Saul's and Ahab's Families , when themselves were extinguish'd , even to the utter extermination of the latter . And , lastly , of God's determining to avenge even that Blood , viz. The Blood of Jezreel , upon the House of Jehu , tho commanded to do it . From all which Instances we may easily conclude the horridness of this Sin ; Of which nevertheless I shall yet say something more in another place . But , The fifth Circumstance will yet more abundantly make appear the horridness of this Sin above all other , from the consideration of the nature and excellency of the Soul of Man , which as much exceeds his Body , as a living Creature is preferrable to so much inanimate Clay . The vast distance between which , Solomon , the ablest Judg , will best inform us , when he pronounceth , A living Dog to be better than a dead Lion. And surely then a living and immortal Soul , capable of Eternal things , and destined to the highest Happiness , must be allowed a proportionable share of preeminence , above a perishing and dying Carcase . Hence it is that our Blessed Saviour doth so much postpone the danger of the Body to that of the Soul , preferring this last above the World. Now Offences do usually receive much of their aggravation from the worth and quality of the parties injured ; as our Laws for Treason , and defaming of Noble-Men do manifestly prove . I conclude therefore , that all Injuries and Wrongs done against the Soul must from the supereminent and transcendent excellency of her Nature , take their truest estimate and value , as to the Actors both Guilt and Punishment for the same , whether inflicted in this , or in the Life to come . And as upon a just ballancing of the merits of each , such Offences will be found infinitely to outweigh all other , so they do seem to require an equal proportion of Evil for them . And , to speak in the Scripture Language , if the one deserves to be avenged seven-fold truly the other not so little as seventy and seven fold . V. NOW for the Place and Persons here charged , which is the fifth particular to be considered ; the Place is Jerusalem , and the Persons her Elders and Rulers , or else together with them the Body of her People also . These by their Ignorance and grosser Stupidity , or by wicked Principles instilled into them ; and the other by their Connivance and Example , or by their Precepts to the contrary ; such as we read were afterward decreed by Antiochus and other Heathen Princes . But be the fault where it will , whether in Jerusalem's Rulers and Elders , or in her People , or in both ; 't is certain from our Prophet's Charge , that this at this time was most eminently the Sin of Jerusalem . A place where Knowledg did so abound , that was so thorowly acquainted with the Will of God , at least in this particular ; that had had so many Prophets to instruct her , and for a long time had lived under so much excellent Preaching ; had had Precept upon Precept , and Line upon Line ; were God's peculiar People , and did glory so much in her alone profession of the Truth , and her being ( which was but true ) the best Reformed Church in the whole World : And lastly , that had been gratified and obliged by so many Blessings , such a Train of Deliverances , and no less admonish'd by as many severe Judgments from Heaven : That she should become guilty of the stifling and suppression of Religion , at least by her connivance and permission , and thereby of the murthering of Souls ; and that with that daring Impudence , till her Sins , this especially , became so conspicuous , that there was no need of search ; and yet at the same time , with such a stiff Forehead , could so boldly affirm that she was Innocent , and had not sinned : These , I say , were Sins of such a Sanguine Complexion , and such a Scarlet Dye , that the Almighty begins to look upon himself as concerned to vindicate his Honour by a severe castigation of her , lest otherwise the very Heathen should assume the boldness to demand , Where was now their God , and the Reformation they so much boasted of ? And hereupon he resolves to be unto them as a Lion , and to observe them as a Leopard in the Way : To meet them as a Bear bereaved , and to rent the very Caul of their Heart , and to devour them . And he purposeth to destroy the sinful Kingdom , and to deliver up the City , and to cause wailing to be in every Street ; and they shall go into Captivity with the first that go Captive ; and he determines to lay waste the Sanctuaries of Israel , and to make desolate the high places of Isaac . To smite the greater Houses with Breaches , and the little with Clefts , so that if ten Men should remain in them , they should die . This was the Place , and these the Persons upon whom this Blood was charged ; and these the Plagues allotted for it , as to their cost they afterwards felt . VI. BUT here in the sixth place , methinks , I espy some one ready to stand up and to demand of me , To what purpose is all this stirr , this fierce declaiming against the Murtherers of Souls ? Where are the guilty Parties amongst us ? If the Jews in Jeremiah's time or since , have defiled their Skirts with this precious Blood , what is that to us , who never were concerned with them therein ? Let them look to it , we for our Parts are clear . But , Nos utinam vani ! would to God my complaint were groundless , and that this Guilt had for ever stuck to those first Skirts only of the Jewish Church and Nation ! For whether we take these [ Skirts ] as a Metonymie of a part for the whole ( which some do seem to favour , ) and so to imply them all-over , and even throughout polluted : Or if with the Septuagint , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we refer them to the Hands , which amounts to almost the same with the former : Or if , in the third place , we take them in a more restrained Sense , and thereby shall understand the out-borders only , and Confines of their Government , ( the Skirts being the utmost and extreamest parts of a Garment : ) In all these Sences the Text will be applicable , and the Crime chargeable upon us also , no less than upon Jerusalem . For to understand the Word in the first Sense , it were easy to expatiate into too many Instances , which will make good that Sense against us . As in the many large Parishes , and the slender ( or no ) provision found in the greatest part ; The small care that is taken for the instructing of Youth , and the more ignorant both at home and abroad : The grand License allowed to the dispersers of whatsoever false doctrines the Enemy of Goodness shall inspire his Apostles and Disciples with . And lastly , in the open venting and defending of Blasphemy and Atheism , without any hazard to the Blasphemer's Person or Reputation : All which , as they are in some sort near universal , so they have a most direct and immediate tendency to the murthering of Souls . And yet not so much to insist upon these , I shall instance in another , more suitable to my purpose , and to the Subject in hand ; and which , the wholly unknown to the former Ages of Christianity , is now become frequent in this City and Kingdom : And that is , the compelling of Persons imported out of Africa , and other remoter Heathen Regions , but residing in our Families , and Vassals to us , to remain in their native Gentilism ; without any regard to the honour of our Religion and Nation , any more than to the good of their , or our own Souls . An Impiety that even here some fifty or sixty years since ( and at this day in other Countries ) would render the Authors obnoxious , not only to the publick Censure , but to the Peoples Fury . But with us , even amidst this mighty Zeal , and stirr for Religion ( an evident sign that we indeed have none ) is suffered to pass on without contradiction . No one once daring to open his Mouth against it , or so much as to look the Impiety in the Face : They are not so valiant for the truth . Whilst its Enemies have the confidence and courage openly to bid desiance to it , by this their hindring and opposing of it . But I rather choose to take the Word in the more contracted Sense , and so to understand by these Skirts , the remoter parts only , some out-Provinces of the Hebrew Government . And then this Text will seem not only an History or Narrative of this Jewish Impiety , but also a Prophecy of our times , too plainly and eminently by our People acted and fulfilled in our Plantations . Where you shall see this Blood of poor Innocent Souls wasted and poured out like so much Water spilt upon the Ground ; and that Sin , which at home seems to be as it were lock'd up under the darkest Cyphers , and here attains only the notice of a few , is there legible in Capital Letters , made evident to the most incurious Observer , and entred into their very Laws and Records . Thereby striving to out-do the Jewish Impudence , I have not found it by secret search , as being so publick and notorious to the whole World. They are not ashamed at the committing these Abominations ; nay , they are not ashamed , neither can they blush . Again , there you shall see Myriads of poor hungry Souls imploring the Bread of Life , but no compassionate Christian affording it to them ; Whole Multitudes of St. Paul's Macedonians calling for our help , but finding none : Not so much as that Hypocritical Charity of , Be ye warmed and filled , being once extended to their distressed and starved Souls . It falls not within the compass of their thoughts or wishes , the very naming of it being grievous to their cruel Ears . And thus whilst like the Man in the Gospel , fallen amongst Thieves , they there lie weltering in their Blood , they meet with no tender-hearted Samaritan to bind up their Wounds , and to relieve them : No compassionate Angel inviting them to live ; No Messenger nor Interpreter , not even one of a thousand ( yea , I may say , not of ten thousands , ) as Elihu in Job speaks , to shew unto them his uprightness , nor to direct them in the way , to deliver their Souls from going down into the Pit , nor to make known unto them , that God hath accepted a ransom for them ; and this , even whilst they are drawing nigh unto Hell , and their Life unto the Destroyers . For , as our Prophet laments of hi● People , They are all grievous Revolters ( Apostates ) and Corrupters : From the least of them to the greatest of them , every one is given to Covetousness : They overpass the deeds of the most wicked , of other Sects and Religions : They judg not the cause of the Fatherless , and the right of these needy Souls do they not judg . Yet they are become great , and waxen rich ; they are waxen fat , they shine and prosper : And , O , where is the God of Judgment ! Nor is this the case of the remoter Natives of those places , such as with whom they have little intercourse ; nor yet of their Borderers and Tributaries only , ( both which might justly claim a share in our Spirituals , whilst we enjoy so much of their Temporals , ) but of their very Domesticks and Vassals , those poor captive Slaves , out of whose Labours they live , and do thrive into vast Estates . Nor may this be said to be occasioned through any want of Language , at least in some thousands of them ; nor any Stupidity , greater than is found amongst our own People : Nor any irreconcileable aversion to Christianity , as is most falsly alledged ( the contrary thereof being most true ; ) but through their Owners enmity and disaffection thereto . Thereby testifying themselves as wretched Christians , as they are unconscionable and unjust Masters . And tho our Blessed Lord has positively declared , that No man cometh to the Father , but by himself ; and his Apostle also hath renounced all other ways or means of Salvation , but by Christ only ; yet as if in Contempt and Defiance thereof , they purposely conceal from them this so absolutely necessary Knowledg of Christ , and , for the general , do even forbid the mention thereof amongst them , that so they might [ not ] be saved . And thus in one and the same Act , they contrive their own , and their Slaves Damnation . Who , so that their Portion may be fat , and their Meat plenteous , and that Trading may flourish , ( the advancement whereof doth , it seems , justify the grossest Villanies ) , they are not ashamed to debase Men , made in the Image of God ( no less than themselves , ) and whose Flesh is as their own ; even to the Fishes of the Sea , and to the creeping things which have no Ruler over them . Being frequently heard to confess and to glory , that they came not thither to promote Religion , nor to save Souls , but to get Money and Estates ; That is , like to the Beasts of the Field , only to devour ; and , as the Prophet speaks , Looking every Man for his gain from his quarter . And yet , whilst like Sodom , they stick not to declare their Sin , nor do dread to triumph and boast of their so detestible Abominations ; shall neverthelss presume themselves Innocent , and not doubt to affirm that therein they have not sinned ; nor will be persuaded that they are at all ( therefore ) to be reputed the worse Christians . And here , to omit all enquiry into the Equity and Right of the first purchase , where Parents do sell their Children , Husbands their Wives , Brothers their Sisters , and so on the contrary : ( A most blessed Trade for the best Reformed Christians to be conversant and imployed in ! ) and in a Word , where every Man's strength is the Law of Justice : I say , to omit all this , they hold all their other Cruelties and Oppressions , for nothing ; unless to the enslaving of their Bodies , and wasting them with unmerciful Labour and wretched Vsage , they bring into final Destruction and Bondage their very Souls also . And here , before I can proceed a step further , I must be so bold as to demand of whomsever shall please to resolve me , whether the Jews offering up a few Children to Moloch ( which some will have this Text to reprove ) the Papists Superstitions , ( against which so many Volumns have been wrote ; ) the old Gentiles Idolatry , or even the Turks worshipping Mahomet ( all Circumstances considered ; ) be comparable to this Sin , among us , viz. of continually sacrificing so many Bodies to Mammon , and Souls to the Devil ; against which no one hath hardly ever yet opened his Mouth . And thus I think it doth but too plainly appear , that these Skirts are not so much spotted or stained only , as thorowly wrenched and dyed in this precious Blood of Souls . And those our out-Provinces are most evidently chargeable with this most foul and horrid Guilt ; far , I dare affirm , beyond whatever hath by Fame been storied to have been practised , or but permitted by any , besides ( yea hardly by ) the most openly avowed Enemies of Christianity . And , which is yet more astonishing , All this and much more , we find to be tolerated and acted under Magistrates , and by persons outwardly professors of it , and that in the most refined and purest way . So strange a mockery and abuse , as by no Hypocrisy to be parallel'd , but by the Jews crying , Hail King unto Christ , when they were going to crucify him ; or by those who murthered their Sovereign to make him more glorious and renowned ! They might doubtless more innocently , give license and freedom for the erecting publick Stews , and Brothel Houses , or make Proclamation against Justice and common Honesty , than thus to encourage , or but permit , such Sacriledg and Prophaneness to pass without Controul . And whilst those abroad are thus acting and carrying on their Butcheries upon the Souls of Men there , how quietly and unconcernedly in the mean time do we sit down here , and take our ease , not once in our thoughts reflecting upon this Calamity ; Perinde quasi , cum membra nostra putrescant , nihil grave acciderat as a certain Father speaks : As tho , like Cain , we esteemed all regard of our Brethren to be needless ; or like the vile Oppressors in Nathan's Parable , we had no Bowels nor Compassion ; or that we believed the rotting and perishing of our Fellow-Members , to be a most desirable and pleasant Object . Yea , we act as tho the Prophet had mistook , and talked impertinently , when he demanded , Have we not all one father , and did not one God create us ? And also Job , when he asked , Did not he that made me in the Womb make them , and did not one fashion us both in the Womb ? And even Solomon too , as wise as he was , ( or whoever was the Author of that Book , ) declaring that no King had other beginning of Birth , than what these have , all Men having but one entrance into Life , and the like going out . And lastly , as if St. Paul had uttered an untruth , when he bespeaks us all , as Members one of another . And tho in the Captives of Algier's case , as in the late Brief it is represented , this cruelty to the Souls of Men , is * termed Tyranny and accursed , and made to exceed all other the most Turkish Barbarities , and is therein declared a Calamity never sufficiently to be bewailed ; yet the very same , or worse , is allowed in our own People ; that is , by Protestants and English-men : Our profound Silence being no better than a constructive approbation ; and our Connivance a consenting thereunto . As if such Tyranny over the Souls of Men were Accursed and never sufficiently to be bewailed , only in Turks and professed Infidels ; or that the same Action were Vertue in us , but accursed Tyranny in the other . Notwithstanding that those do therein act most agreeable to their Belief , and for the promoting of their Faith ; which if true , as they suppose it is , is a pious deed , and but what they were bound to do . And they are therefore beyond all peradventure more justifiable before God , than such , who whilst owning ( I dare not say believing ) the Truth , do yet upon pretence of Interest ( which those do therein renounce ) not only conceal , but most industriously decry and oppose the advancement of it : Yea , and than such other too , who , tho they do not oppose it , yet have never entered their Protests against those that do . And of both which I cannot so much as doubt , notwithstanding our accursing the other , but that these shall receive the greater Damnation . And certainly , ( all being impartially weighed ) these Mahumetans , as bad as they are , for any thing we can find , do ( herein at least ) appear more vertuous than our selves , and must in the last day rise in judgment and condemn us ; and that from no other than our own Mouths . For , if they be accursed for promoting what they think is the Truth , what must those be that do oppose , ( or at best neglect , ) what most undoubtedly is so , as themselves confess ? For tho they live in an unpardonable Errour , yet because they do it Ignorantly thro unbelief , not knowing it to be either Sin or Errour , but perswaded of the contrary , they are certainly the more excusable . And it were an unreasonable incongruity to imagine that the God of Mercy and Justice , should be more ready to punish Errours of Understanding , than wilful Impieties : But that , if those that have sinned without Law , shall also perish without Law ; much more those that have sinned in the Law , ( that is , against their Profession , ) shall be judged by it ; as St. Paul argues . And as the Wiseman speaks , that the most mighty Sinners should be mightily tormented ; whilst Mercy may sooner acquit the other . For , ( as St. Paul go's on , ) When the Gentiles which have not the Law , do by Nature the things contained in the Law ; These having not the Law , are a Law unto themselves , which shew the works of the Law written in their Hearts ; their Conscience also bearing witness , and their Thoughts between themselves , accusing or excusing one another . And now this being considered , what right can we have thus fiercely to declaim against these Mahometans ? concerning whom , were St. Paul alive to determine the matter ; ( if but for their Zeal for their Religion , even false as it is , ) in respect of our selves , he , no doubt would pronounce them Saints . So that to bring down this Text to Christianity and our own times , we are the Jerusalem therein charged , and in our Skirts also is this Blood most eminently discernable . And when God shall arise to make Inquisition for it , as most certainly he will , at our Hands it must be required . For we are the Watchmen , which should have warned those wicked Men from their evil ways ; the Sword came , and we have not blown the Trumpet , nor warned the People , and therefore their Blood must be upon our Heads . And then it must needs go hard with us , and that chiefly upon the score of that abundant Light and Knowledg , and that Purity of Religion we so much boast in . For , Atrocius sub sanctinomine peccamus , saith one ; and that Servant which knew his Masters will , but did it not , shall be beaten with many Stripes , saith our Blessed Lord. And , you only have I known of all the Families of the Earth : therefore will I punish you for all your Iniquities , saith God by his Prophet . And who knoweth , but that our prophane Silence , and unchristian connivance thus long together , at those Spiritual Murthers and Soul-depredations , are the very accursed thing , which hath caused us hitherto not to prosper ? And that for this our supine and shameful neglect of Religion , and that when those Elymas's abroad , and their wicked Agents here ; Those Enemies , I say , of Righteousness , that do not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ; those Soul-Merchants , that in the very Letter of the Text , do tread under Foot the Son of God , and ( as it were ) crucify him afresh , and put him to an open shame , and that account his Blood an unholy thing , and do each hour do dispite unto the Spirit of Grace . I say , when these , like Eli's lewd Sons , have made themselves vile , by the Blood of so many Innocent Souls , and we restrained them not , ( no not by Word or Writing , and ( so far at least ) to have vindicated God's Honour and Truth against them ; ) Who , I say , knows , but for this , Our God hath hitherto put us to Silence , and given us Water of Gaul to drink , and that when we looked for Peace , no good came ; and for a time of Health , and behold Trouble . And that he hath sent those Serpents and Cockatrices among us , which will not be charmed ; and that he hath hedged up our way with Thorns , and caused all our Mirth to cease : That he hath set us against each other , every one against his Brother , and against his Neighbour ; yea , City against City , and even these against themselves : And that our Spirit doth fail in the midst of us . That God hath destroyed our Counsels , and mingled a perverse Spirit in the midst of us , and hath caused us to err in every work , and that we are afraid even in our selves . And then , might it not to be demanded of us , as our Prophet here doth of Jerusalem , Hast thou not procured this unto thy self , in that thou hast forsaken the Lord , when he led thee by the way , and had done such great things for thee ? I shall not here stand to enquire how agreeable to Christianity , which commands us , First to seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness , and then afterwards to look after other less necessary things , ( a Precept very idle and ridiculous amongst this sort of Christians : ) Nor how suitable the pretence of Trade and Commerce is to that undergoing of the Cross and self-denial , and to that condition of forsaking all , by our Lord prescribed to all his Followers : but shall only observe , that if St. Peter was by the same meekest Lord termed a Devil , for his too carnal respecting , not his own , but the same blessed Masters outward Ease and Tranquility , to the prejudice of the World's Salvation ; he will certainly for ever disclaim those Mammonists , who prefer their Trade and their Merchandise before him , as unworthy of him . And if Job's Inference be good , that to make Gold our Hope , is to deny the God that is above ; doubtless their Christianity must be very desperate , who do the same by their Trade : Christ will one day deny all such denyers of him before his Father , and the Holy Angels . Wherefore , since God hath signed this eternal Precept of Blood for Blood , and hath as it were sworn , That he will require the Blood of our Lives , at the Hand of every Man's Brother ; yea , and of the very Beasts too ; and hath also in several places no less positively declared , That no satisfaction shall be accepted for the Life of a Murtherer ; and that a Land defiled with Blood , cannot be cleansed of it , but by the Blood of him that did shed it ; all which is to be referred only to the Body : What Punishment can we suppose answerable to this so much more horrid Crime of murthering of Souls ? If Blood for Blood , and Life for Life must go for the one , certainly then Soul for Soul here , is the least that can be required . How long Lord God , holy and true , dost thou not judg and avenge our Blood upon them that dwell upon the Earth , was the incessant cry of the Souls under the Altar . And Abel's Blood is said to have pursued Cain to his very Grave ; 't is certain it cryed for vengeance against him . And yet 't was but Abel's Body , not his Soul , that was murthered . Had Cain been guilty of this , Lamech's revengeful hand had made but a very defective and sorry expiation : The Brimstone-lake must then have been his Portion ; as undoubtedly it will be , of all impenitent Murtherers of Souls . And then , How will those Mammonists remain in the gaul of Bitterness , and in the bond of Iniquity ? And our Apostats and Hypocrites be confounded and tremble , when they shall most sensibly feel themselves perishing together with their impious Money , which was the price of Souls ? And then they shall be admirably convinc'd that they were but Fools indeed for thus determining their Hopes , and fixing their whole expectation upon the things of this Life , for the getting whereof , they sinned against their own , and murthered their Peoples Souls . And finally , they shall be pronounced Children of the Devil , because Enemies of Righteousness , that is , of the Gospel : And Christ himself , whom they thereby have so Impudently affronted and denied ( not ignorantly , and as the Jews , who knew not what they did ; ) shall speak them into an Hell as black as that dark Mist , which fell upon Elymas's Eyes , only for an infinite longer continuance . Where they shall know and see , to use our Prophet's Expression , That it was an evil thing and a bitter , that they forsook the Lord , and that his fear was not in them : And they shall too late come to understand that it is , A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God ; and that no condition is more insupportable , than To dwell in everlasting Burnings , with Hypocrites and Vnbelievers ; where there is no rest for them Night nor Day , and the smoak of their Torments ascendeth for ever and ever : And from whence they shall enviously behold many of those poor Lazars , those oppressed innocent Souls , who by God's especial Providence may have escaped their merciless and bloody Talons , resting and rejoycing in Abraham's Bosom ; and singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb for their wonderful Deliverance , whilst themselves are tormented in that Flame . It must needs be , said our Blessed Saviour , that Offences ( that is , whereby Men are made or induced to Sin ) do come ; but wo unto that Man by whom the Offence cometh ; It were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his Neck , and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea. And thus I have made good my first six Points , and here in this last have shewed , the Relation that this Text hath unto us , and how far our selves are chargeable with this Guilt of shedding the Blood of Souls : Whereby I am at liberty to proceed unto VII . THE seventh and last part of my Discourse , wherein I am to prove from our Prophet's severe Reprehension of Jerusalem , ( no less than from the reasonableness of the thing ) the absolute and most indispensible necessity of our speedy Reformation , and redressing of this Abuse ( this being the true end of all Reprehensions : ) and that especially upon these three following Considerations : First , In respect of the great Impiety thereof . Secondly , In respect of the Dishonour from thence redounding to this Church and Nation , and to the whole Reformation . Thirdly , In respect of God's Judgments , which most undoubtedly must be the inevitable Consequences of our longer persisting in this so prophane and scandalous practice , and permission of such an horrid Impiety , and open contempt of Christianity . I shall begin with The First , which is the Impiety thereof : It being an Injury against God himself , who is a lover of Souls , and that to that degree , that he above all things desires their Happiness and Salvation : But whos 's gracious design of bringing those Souls unto that state of Bliss and Happiness by Christ , we , as much as in us lieth , do hereby make void and frustrate , and do even defeat that his blessed purpose , for which , as must be piously supposed , he was pleased to discover unto us , and possess us of those many rich and fruitful Countries , viz. * The publishing and spreading abroad of the Gospel amongst the first Inhabitants and Natives there , with other like Gentiles , who might arrive thither from other parts . It is a most vile Affront to Christianity , as implying the no esteem we have for it , as if not worth the troubling the World therewith ; which disesteem must first arise from a Principle of Infidelity and Atheism first lodged in the Heart , as is before shewed . It was the Barbarians of Japan's Argument , in behalf of our trading Neighbours ( whose Zeal also to Religion doth not much out-strip ours ) that , according to their Word , they took them to be no Christians , because they perceived not in them any endeavours for the promoting of that Faith. An Indifferency , they observed , not usual with other sorts of Christians ; and it being no way probable , they thought , that Men should so much neglect and slight a Religion , which themselves believed . It makes Christianity inferiour to all other Sects , whose Zealots ( especially ) are known , even to compass Sea and Land to make Proselites to their Opinions . It makes it a Religion only for Trade and Commerce , and even Heaven and Salvation to be of less moment than the getting of Money : It makes it a Patroness of the grossest Immanities , for filthy Lucre ; and no less implies an Imposture in the first publishers of it , ( or at best some mistake of their Errand , ) if whilst they persuaded Men to forsake the World for the attaining of Heaven , they only designed the heaping up of Riches , as of the greater Importance . It also destroys Charity , which is the true mark of a Child of God , and the badge of a Christian , whose proper nature and quality is , tho to begin at home , yet to enlarge it self to others , even our very Enemies . And in a word , it is no other than an absolute deposing and rejecting of Christ , for the Exaltation of Mammon . Lastly , It is a reproach to Humanity it self , and a Sin of the blackest quality against our Neighbour ; whom we herein are so far from loving as our selves , that it rather seems the utmost effort of our Malice against him , and which no Revenge could satisfy , but such only as should terminate in the destruction of his Soul. And so much for the first . But then , Secondly , This ought to be reformed in respect of the Dishonour from thence redounding to our Church and Nation , and even to the whole Reformation . First , to the Church : For it occasions her Enenemies to blaspheme . Hence a certain Romanist demands of us , Where are the indefatigable Missioners , sent by you to the remotest parts of the World , for the conversion of Heathens ? A noble Function , wherein the Catholick ( that is their Roman ) Church only , and most justly glories ; whilst you like lazy Drones , sit at home not daring to wet a Foot , &c. And by another it is objected against both our selves , and our equally zealous Neighbours , That never any thing for the propagation of Christianity in foreign parts , hath by either Nation been at any time attempted . And from thence , a third Person very roundly infers the Nullity of our Church and Religion , viz. Because we have no Zeal , therefore no Faith , and therefore no Church nor Religion among us . Again , when the great Industry of our People in New-England shall be rehearsed , their converting of Nations , turning the whole Bible into the Indian Tongue ; their Colledg built and endowed , for the Education of Indian Youth : Their Missioners sent forth , and Lands purchased for their Maintenance ; and all this out of a barren Soil , some sixty years since no better than a rocky Wilderness ; whilst ours out of better Conveniencies , and more happy Opportunities ( such are our grateful returns ! ) have not produced the least Grain of Harvest to God's Glory in those Parts . But upon all occasions shifting it off with the unfitness of the Season , and pretending that the time is not come ; proclaiming it unpracticable and impossible , tho effected by others of smaller Abilities : Or , like Solomon's Sluggard , setting up Lions and Tigres in the way ; raising Obstructions and creating Difficulties ; when upon experience there are no such to be found . Now when these mighty Works shall be hereafter rehearsed , how will that glorious Name of the Church of England , stand as it were in disgrace , not only among those Primitive Worthies , who at first so chearfully entred upon this Work , and afterwards indured the heat of the Day ; but when compared even with these Moderns , whom we bespeak as Schismaticks and Idolaters ; yet do each of them give those Testimonies of their Zeal and Charity , which are equally requisite , and would be no less commendable in us also . But the want whereof doth furnish them with such Advantages and Arguments against us , as would become our Wisdom , no less than our Piety , to remove . Who whilst themselves do thus labour , and are at charge and trouble to advance [ their ] Christianity , beholding our COLDNESS and INDIFFERENCY ( not to say Aversion to the work , ) do publish their own Acts , but at the same time first at our ( too much ! ) secular Affections , as applying our care more to the promoting of Interest , than to the advancement of God's Glory , or the good of Souls : The Poverty of the Cause , that is , say they , the want of Dignities and Preferments ( tho it be the way to make them ) , occasioning it hitherto to lie fallow . And they are too apt often to throw out something like that of Acosta , in reproof of his alike rapacious and hungry Spaniards , thus speaking ; At si metalla curari desierint , — Actum est Indorum negotium , & respublica interiit . Neque alios fructus Hispani quaerunt , neque alia ex causa vel mercatores negotiantur , vel judices praesident , vel ipsi quoque plerunque SACERDOTES Evangelizant , &c. Which I shall not English . And this hath been publickly objected by those of the lowest from and order of Sectaries , as I have in * another Discourse upon this occasion , before remembred . And not only these extreams in Christianity , but the quite different behaviour and respect of the very Mahumetans to their Religion , may justly stirr up shame in us : Whose assaulting their Slaves , with tenders of Liberty , thereby to induce them to espouse their Superstition , is by us complained of ; perhaps for the example , and because the like Generosity and Zeal for Religion is not found among our selves ; nor are we capable of being provoked to the least Emulation . Thus even the Sea-Monsters draw out , ( that is , do willingly offer ) the Breast , and give suck to their young Ones , said Almighty God by our Prophet , But the Daughter of my People is become cruel , like the Ostriches in the Wilderness . Nor doth the Dishonour hereof reflect upon this Church only , but upon the whole Reformation . Hence the forementioned Roman Author thus triumphantly insults , If you cast your thoughts upon all Sectaries , past and present , since Christianity began , you shall find no conversion of Nations wrought by any : Which he elsewhere further explains , saying , That never any Protestants did any thing like them , for the conversion of Infidels , either in the nearer or farther parts of the large Vniverse . Hence also they stick not to affirm our Reformation monstrous , and from this so apparent Sterility , do very confidently determine of its short-livedness ; because that things by God and Nature designed to perpetuity , are always endued with a Faculty of Generation , and of creating their like . So that our Protestant Churches do from all Hands lie under most heavy Censures and Reproaches , for this neglect , and ( as it is represented ) unfaithfulness to Christ ; at least for not endeavouring , not what should , but what might be done . And yet , to our honour be it spoken , we undergo them with as much Patience and Vnconcernedness as if the Enemy only were chargeable therewith , and our selves were Innocent . Altho , to use our Prophets Words , should we pass over to the Isles of Chittim , and send unto Kedar , and consider diligently ; that is , should we consult the most Pagan and Barbarous Regions , and even ransack thewide Universe , searching into all the different Sects and Factions in Religion for a Precedent , we should hardly find the like Instances of Impiety and Contempt of the Religion they profess , practised and persisted in by the very worst and loosest of them . And this possibly among other things hath rendred our Religion ( as reformed ) less esteemed by Strangers : unto whom , especially herein , we seem rather Apostates than Christians ; Zealous of Trade and Gain , but not of good Works . Which doubtless hath been no small Impediment and Hinderance to many in their coming over to our Church , even as ( probably ) it may have scandalized not a few to an Apostacy from it . Lastly , It is a dishonour and that in an especial manner to our English Nation . It both was and will be the Eternal Reproach , no less than the unpardonable Sin of those Styes of Filthiness , Babylon and Nineveh , that the first , among her variety of Merchandises , had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; not only Bodies , but Souls of Men ; and that the other ( for it seems they were both great trading places ) did postpone God's Glory to her Traffick ; * magnifying , or preferring , her Traders ( or Merchants ) above the Stars of Heaven . And certainly it will be no great Credit for us to have thus exactly written after those beastly Copies ; that we have as it were conspired with Satan , and entred into a confederacy with Hell it self , upon the same account : That we have exceeded the worst of Infidels , by our first enslaving , and then murthering of Mens Souls . For , how can it be endured that a Nation once so famous for Zeal and Piety , should now at last become infamous for Irreligion ? That she should prostrate her self to that foul Idol Mammon , and worship Trade ? So that for the sake thereof Christianity should be stifled and rejected ? That being so much indebted to those poor Barbarians , for the Riches , Trade and Commerce , both by , and from them acquired , we should be so far destitute of common Justice , as not to be ready , as much as in us lyeth ( and certainly very much doth lie in us , notwithstanding all our vain pretences ) in lieu thereof , to impart some spiritual Gift , as St. Paul speaks , and to make known the Gospel unto them ? Who can believe that a People formerly so mighty in Conversions , as if , on a sudden struck with Barrenness and a Curse , should become so utterly fruitless , as not to be able to produce the least Access of Souls unto Christ , out of such Multitudes and Myriads , who do even invite , and offer themselves to his Service ? That we should be so much out-done who formerly did so infinitely out-doe all others ? These , if true , are I fear , but too evident Symptoms of a strange degeneracy , of a declining old Age and Decrepitness in us ; and which cannot be far removed from our last fatal Period , and final Dissolution ; and that God is determining of us , as he once did of the Barren Fig-tree , Cut it down , why cumbers it the Ground . And this leads me to The third and last Motive to this Reformation , viz. The dread of those Plagues and Judgments , which this Impiety , if longer persisted in , must necessarily draw down upon us . In the first Queen Elizabeth Act for Vniformity , there is extent a certain Clause containing an Adjuration , in God's Name earnestly requiring the due and true execution thereof , as they should answer to Almighty God for such Evils and Plagues wherewith he might justly punish the neglect of it . So that it seems in those Days , there was some apprehension of Plagues and Judgments to follow Impiety and the neglect of Religion . Nay , long before that , the Persian Monarch Artaxerxes , was not wholly insensible of the same , when he issued forth that strict Decree for the speedy re-edifying of the Temple , fortified with this Reason , For why should there be wrath upon the Realm of the King , and of his Sons ? 'T is true , some Apostate Israelites , before their Captivity , ( to save themselves the labour of reforming their Lives ) , we read , had fallen into a most abominable practice of scoffing at , and denying Providence , affirming , That the Lord had forsaken the Earth ; or , tho he had not , yet that he did neither good nor evil . But these , it seems , by a hard Journey they afterwards made to Babylon , became in a short time better instructed : For upon an Appeal , which the Prophet Zechariah made to the Children of these prophane Scoffers , whether God's Words and his Statutes , which he had commanded by his Servants the former Prophets , had not overtaken their stubborn Fathers ; They , in despite of their proud Hearts , were forced to confess , That like as the Lord had purposed to do unto them , according to their ways , and according to their doings , even so had he dealt with them . And , Hast thou not procured this unto thy self , saith our Prophet here in the Text , in that thou hast forsaken the Lord , when he led thee by the way ? And hereupon the Prophet Hosea doth not doubt to declare God's Judgments for Sin , to be as clear as the Light that goeth forth . There are then Judgments for Sin : There is a flying Roll which brings a Curse along with it : There is a Leprosy in the Wall , which rotts and consumes the Timber , and eats out the stone-work thereof . And why then must this above all other escape , this so black a Sin of Irreligion ? which striketh directly at God himself ; and therefore as good old Eli reproving his wicked Sons , saith , is the hardest to be intreated for ; And of which God had bound it with a most solemn Oath , that it should not be purged with Sacrifice nor burnt-Offering for ever : And rather than let it go unpunished , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as St. Gregory speaks , God doth often cause even Contrarys to unite and agree together , for to effect it . This was it which at first brought the Deluge upon the Earth , and reduced the whole World to but one small Family . For before the Flood , saith Berosus , the Giants were , Contemptores Religionis & Deorum : Agreeable to that of Moses , God saw that the wickedness of man was great ; whereupon ensued that severe Determination , I will destroy Man , whom I have created , from off the Face of the Earth . And ( to bring one Instance for all of our own Country ) , To this very Sin , viz. of neglecting to preach the Gospel to the Saxons and Englishmen , it is , that Gildas ascribes his Britains overthrow . And can we then persist in the same ( tho clog'd with abundance of aggravating Circumstances , ) and not live under a fearful expectation of God's Judgments due for it ? How can we read of Aaron's Calf , of Achan's Wedg , of Saul s massacring the Gibeonites , Israel's Apostacy , and Judah's Abominations , with the various Calamities and Mischiefs pursuant thereupon ; And , if we believe them , not at the same time dread the like or worse , for this so much more horrible Irreligion , and equally Vniversal ? And since these did prove such fatal pull-backs to them , can any less be the Issue of this more inexcusable Wickedness ; this so palpable Elymasm , if I may so call it ? And if God hath been pleased to chastise meer Heathens for their Enmity to his Religion , with which , 't is possible , they were wholly unacquainted , and has threatned to smite with most grievous Plagues , those Infidel Regions and Kingdoms , who have not called upon his Name , of which haply they had not heard ? what portion of God from above , or Mercy can be extended to those , who as it were in a prophane mockery of profesing his Name , ( and that too in the most refined and purest manner ) have been actual Enemies thereto ; And that , under the disguise of the greatest Zeal for it even in this its Purity , have been the Stiflers and Betrayers of it , only in favour of their accursed Mammon ? Certainly if ever Judgments do fall , it must be upon such ; and of all Judgments , none beneath the most calamitous and the most lasting . And tho other Punishments ( a thing next to impossible ) should fail , yet the divine Vengeance may stir up these very ( Soul-oppressed People , as it did the Arabians and the Philistins against wicked Joram , and make them the Rods of his Anger to chastise this Sin : That so their own wickedness may correct them , and their own back-slidings reprove them : and that they may know and see , that it was an evil thing and a bitter that they have thus forsaken the Lord their God , and that his Fear was not in them , as our Prophet speaks . And that by such a severe Discipline ( nothing less being like to be of force so as to work upon them ) they may be brought to understand ( as the Holy Scripture speaks of Rehoboam's Invasion by Shishack ) the difference between God's Service , and the Service of the Kingdoms of the Countries , that is , of the wild and barbarous Heathen . And that what they do so frequently most blasphemously give out , as the mischievous effect of Christianity , may thro the want of it , be brought upon them ; and that , by the same Sin wherewith they have sinned , they may be punished : And so in the end , they may with that inhuman Tyrant Adonibezeck , be compelled to acknowledge God's Justice in requiting them , even as they have done unto others . And then for such at home , who have so patiently over-looked the Sufferings and Miseries of Religion in those parts , and have been at least unconcerned Spectators , tho perhaps not actual Partakers in those bloody Tragedies , and therefore may lean upon the Lord , and presume , that no evil shall happen unto them ; those soft Pillows which they thus plant under their seared Consciences , will but deceive them ; and the untempered Mortar with which they plaister over their Impiety , will be in like danger of being washed away by the overflowing Showre . For , Jupiter being offended , doth punish all , said the Poet ; and in common Judgments and Calamities , 't is not only the most guilty that are seized , as in the several Captivities of Tobit and of Daniel are to be seen . By whose means the Name of God came to be discovered to the Heathen , who might otherwise have never heard of it . Even as , long afterwards , the Persecution which attended S. Stephen's Martyrdom , was an occasion ( for by nothing less will Men be persuaded to adventure abroad , tho upon never so important an account ) of dispersing the Disciples , and thereby a happy means of introducing the knowledge of Christ into remoter Countries . Even such a Fatality may this unconcernedness draw upon these : An unexpected Storm may force them into the parts we are speaking of , ( and where these Impieties are so eminently practised ) as unto a Sanctuary and Refuge ; there , as our Apochryphal Esdras relates of his Captive Israelites , to keep those Statutes , ( I shall also add ) and to promote that Faith , which they neither kept , nor thought needful , whilst remaining in their own Land. Wherefore , ( to use the Prophet Daniel's Advice to King Nebuchadnezzar ) , Let my Councel be acceptable unto you , O my Fathers , and Countrey-men , and let us break off our Sins by Righteousness , and our Iniquities by shewing Mercy unto the Souls of these poor innocent oppressed people , if it may be a lengthning of our Tranquility , as undoubtedly it will. And in order thereunto , let us lay before us these things , and consider within our own Breasts , whether this dishonour to our Religion , and infamy to our Church and Nation , this canker to our Estates , calamity to our People , and destruction to our Country , hereby threatned ; these plagues to our Bodies , and Damnation to our Souls , be things so worthy our standing out against God , and our contending for . Rather let us endeavour a speedy composure and reconciliation : At once striving to make ( at least ) some kind of reparation for what is past , and no less joining in all laudable Proposals and ways for effecting these poor Peoples Christianity , without any further delays ; still remembring that things of this Consequence are not to be made light of , ( as was very piously discoursed to the great , and no less zealous S. Athanasius , upon the like occasion ; ) and considering that as many Souls as shall perish thro our neglect , must be charged to our Account . And first let us search into the Cause , that so we may the easier arrive at the method and means of the Cure. If it be Interest , let it be satisfied , as far as reasonably it may be ; if Ignorance , let it be corrected by better advice ; if Sloth or Irreligion , let it be check'd and disgrac'd ; not let any Obstinacy or Perversness be endured . If * ENCOVRAGEMENTS be needful , let them be no longer wanting ; if Persuasions , let them be discreetly applied ; but above all , let us shew our selves hearty and sincere therein : armed with most intense resolutions of persistance and persevering , until arrived to its Accomplishment . That so we may silence the Slanderer and the Blasphemer , stop the Mouths of both Papists and Schismaticks , and take away the reproach from our Church and Nation . That those Sanballats and Elymas's , the restless Obstructers of this work , despairing of their wonted Success , may be wearied out of , and be made to desist from their prophane Opposition ; even as the old Heathens were of their Persecutions . For , nothing is able to withstand Zeal , saith Solomon , Prov. 27. For , Zelus est aestus viri , Zeal is the heat and ardency of a Man to the thing undertaken , as the same Wise-Man hath it in another place . And , Cant. 8. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Zeal is as invincible as the Grave , or even Death it self ; and as it goes on , The Coals thereof are the Coals of Fire , which hath a most vehement Flame , such a Flame as many Waters cannot quench , nor can the Flouds drown it ; that is , nothing can be too hard for . And here let us call to mind that the Gospel hath once overcome the World , armed with its full strength and force to withstand it : And what a shame would it be now , after so long possession , to suffer it to be baffled and worsted , by a few handfuls of scattered Inerm Out-laws . Nor let any noise or pretence arising from the supposed difficulty of this work , ( which Men fuller of Mischief , than of Reason or Religion , do create ) affright us ; nor any excuse from the remoteness of the places , nor the condition of the parties , be at all mentioned ; Our God being a God of the Valleys , no less than of the Mountains ; and afar off , as well as near at hand ; and it being not to be doubted , but that a most plentiful Harvest might be thence obtained from suitable endeavours , edged and heartened with due ENCOVRAGEMENTS . Nor of the time , no time being unseasonable to serve God , and to do good in . Nor from the present posture of Affairs , which this very neglect may have but too much influenced , and given occasion to ; And then the cause being removed , the effect must presently cease . For Piety and Holiness , saith the Orator , do appease God's Wrath ; and saith Solomon , When a Man's way do please the Lord , he maketh his Enemies to be at peace with him : And likewise Isaiah , The work of Righteousness is Peace , and the effect of Righteousness , quietness , and assurance for ever : And saith devout Ezra , The Hand of our God is upon all them for good , that seek him . Nay , even Heathen Rome went not without her Blessing for her Piety ; For , Diis te minorem quod geris , Imperas , Was Horace's Divinity ; and no less an Article of Levie's Faith , when he tell us , that during King Numa's long raign , this very thing , viz. their Piety struck their ( before troublesom ) Neighbours into a dread of molesting them ; for fear , lest at the same time they should be injurious to God , unto whose Worship and Service they saw them so intensely addicted . Now if their Piety was thus rewarded ; why should not we expect the same ? our Religion and Service being so much purer , and infinitely more agreeable to God's Will , than theirs , in probability , could possibly be . The Prophet David assures us , That when all the People should praise God , then should the Earth bring forth her increase . The Jews were to date Their Blessing from the very day of the laying of the Foundation of the Temple : And may not we much more hope for the like Prosperity and Happiness to our Church and Nation , for our laying a Foundation , and setting about this so much greater and more glorious Work ? He doubtless that blessed Obed Edom for his Ark's resting in his House , and Laban the Syrian for Jacob's sake , will send his Blessing upon us also ; whilst by our charitable and pious Labours , and our unwearied and faithful Idustry in this his sacred Vineyard , we do become Instruments in God's Hand to save Men's Souls from Hell , and their Lives from the Destroyers ; and do deliver such from the Snares of the Devil , who are taken Captive at his Will. And no less also for his Churches establishment in those parts , and for the many faithful Israelites , with which it will be replenished , thro the numerous and large access unto it from these Nations . The happy fruit and benefit whereof will redound , as well to the Sower as to the Reaper . For God is not unrighteous , that he should forget our Work and Labour that proceedeth of Love , which we have or shall shew for his Name and his Gospel's Sake . Nor can any one lay out his Endeavours to greater Advantages , either of the increase of God's Kingdom , the glory of Christianity , or the good of Mens Souls ; If we consider the vast multitudes of these Nations , the greatness of their danger , and their both aptness , and readiness to embrace Christianity , if duly applyed to them . For as Acosta hath proclaimed it to the World long since , Indorum [ & Aethiopum ] certè copiosissimam & paratissimam segetem cernimus , neque aliud quam falcem Evangelicam expectantem ; — Alacritate admirabili sese Coelorum regno aptissimam proclamantem , invidorum & segnium calumnias facile propulsantem , operarios ipsos laetissime allicientem , & multitudine & ubertate oculos omnium ad sese atque animos convertentem , &c. Which is no less true of them in every particular , even at this very day , could we be persuaded to use the means , and to set about it . But Oh! as the same Author doth most passionately lament , ( tho with infinite less cause than we have here , ) When will it come to pass that Men will cease to be Men ? When , &c. This will be the true removal of the Accursed thing ; the putting away those Baalims and Ashtaroths , the false Gods and the false Religions that are amongst us ; The dismission of the captivated Ark ; The true Brazen Serpent to our Israel , deriving Health to our Bodies , and Prosperity to our Nation , and the alone means both to secure and promote our Interest in those parts . This will be the means to rid our Country of those Vermin and Diseases , the Mice and Emerods , that do so vex our Persons , and mar our Land : This the repairing of the Breaches , and the rebuilding the shattered Walls of our Jerusalem . And we no longer deferring to give to the God of Israel the Glory due unto his Name , he will lighten his hands from off us , and from off our Gods , and from off our Land. Lastly , This will be to comply with our daily Prayers , viz. That God's Name may be hallowed , and his ways made known unto all Nations and Conditions of Men therein , and that all Jews , Turks , Hereticks , and Infidels may be converted to the Faith , and saved among the remnant of the true Israelites . And without which our Prayers are but a very Mockery , and an Affront to the Diety , unto whom they are presented . Which whosoever utters , cannot but at the same time be inwardly convinced of that Pharisaical Hypocricy , which our blessed Lord so severely rebuked , of drawing nigh unto God with his Mouth , and honouring him with his Lips , whilst his Heart is far from him ; and for which , Exore tuo , will be his Judgment and Condemnation , Out of thine own-mouth will I judg thee , thou wicked and slothful Servant . To conclude , It is the nature of God to do the good , as saith St. Dionysius the Areopagite ; Every one then that will be like unto him , must first fall to the Imitation of him . One of the Fathers hath this Note , That the Salvation of Man , was , Opus dignum Deo , an Imployment not unbecoming God himself ; It cannot then be beneath even the best of us . And there is a saying of S. Chrysostom to this purpose , That for a Man to know the Art of Alms , was more than to be crowned with the Diadem of Kings : but to convert one Soul unto God , was more than to pour out ten thousand Talents into the Baskets of the poor . And if the Conversion of a very few unto Christ be worth the labour of many all their days ; what must it then be to be the Instruments and Means of converting so many ? Solomon ascribes the Epithet of Wise , to those that win Souls : And saith the Prophet Daniel , They that be wise , ( 't is Teachers in the Margent ) shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament , and they that turn many to Righteousness , as the Stars for ever and ever : And S. James makes it almost meritorious , Let him know , saith he , that he that converteth a Sinner from the Error of his way ▪ shall save a Soul from Death , and shall hide a multitude of Sins . I shall end all with that devout Prayer of Syracides for the Conversion of the Heathen : Ecclus. 36. 1 , &c. Have Mercy upon us , O Lord God of all , and behold us : And send thy fear upon all the Nations that seek not after thee . Lift up thy hand against the strange Nations , and let them see thy power . As thou wasty sanctified in us before them : so be thou magnified among them before us . And let them know thee , as we have known thee , that there is no God , but only thou , O Lord. Shew new Signs , and make other strange Wonders : glorify thy Hand and thy right Arm , that they may set forth thy wonderous Works . Raise up Indignation , and pour out Wrath : take away the Adversary , and destroy the Enemies of thy Truth . Make the time short , remember the Covenant , and let them declare thy wondrous Works . Smite in sunder the Heads of those that say , There is none other but we , and let them perish that oppress thy People . O be merciful to Jerusalem thy holy City , the place of thy Rest . Fill Sion , that it magnify thine Oracles , and thy People , that they may set forth thy Glory . Give Testimony to those whom thou hast possessed from the beginning : and raise up Prophets that may speak in thy Name : and let thy Prophets be found faithful . O Lord hear the Prayer of thy Servants , according to the Blessing of Aaron over thy People , that all they which dwell upon the Earth may know that thou art the Lord , the Eternal God. Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A42952-e220 Rom. 14. 15 , 20. Esther 4. 14. Howell's Fam. Letters Vol. 1. §. 3. Lett. 33. Notes for div A42952-e580 * Acts 13. 6 , 7 , &c. Bar-Jesus , or Elymas , did oppose Christianity , as not believing it ; but these whilst they profess it , do yet oppose it . Prov. 31. 8. * Alienus ab ira , alienus à justitia . Psal . 39. 3. Job 13. 13. Mic. 3. 8. Isa . 62. 6 , 7. St. Mat. 21. 28. St. Luke 18. 5. * Viz. In the Negro's and Indian's Advocate , p. 111. * See Mr. Ricaut's Maxims of the Turkish Policy , wherein he often mentions the Turks Zeal to promote their Faith. Also Pet. Daniel , in his History of Barbary , tells us , That the Turks will shew you kindness , to make you embrace their Religion . Pag. 308 , 309 , 310. 311. Quest . By what Authority or Law , he could do this to that or any other Person ? * In his Temple . If the Negro knew his Priviledg , he need not to desire Baptism for the obtaining of his freedom . * Impii impie agent , nec intelligent . Dan. 12. Phil. 2. 21. All seek their own , &c. * Plerique rei difficultates causantur , socordiam ignaviamque suam cum accusare potius , ac dolere deberent . Acost . de proc . Ind. Sal. l. 3. c. 22. Acts 28. 22. They say , and do not , Mat. 23. 3. Si non reipsâ tibi dolet , at dissimulare certe est hominis . Ter. Isa . 63. 5. 2 Tim. 4. 16. Reply to his Reflections on the Rector of Sutton , p. ult . Acts 13. 46. & 28. 28. Prov. 26. 12. Chap. 3. 6. Acts 28. Mart. Ep. * Viz. In the East-Indies . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Hypocrite will always find an Excuse . Eccl. 32. 15 , 17 Phil. 1. 15 , 18. Gal. 1. 10. Be not ye the Servants of Men. Rom. 15. 2. St. Mat. 3. St. John 3. * For by our Spirit we are all baptized into one Body , whether we be Jews or Gentiles , whether we be Bond or Free : and have been all made to drink into one Spirit , saith St. Paul , 1 Cor. 12. 13. See also Chap. 7. 20 , 21 , 22 , & 24. See also Ephes . 6. 5 , 6. & Col. 3. 22. & 1 Tim. 6. 1. 1 St. Pet. 2. 18 , &c. See A. B. Abbot's History of the New World , where he makes often mention of the Jesuits and Friars labours in this kind in America ; A Prelat that was never suspected for any friend to them . * Si tibi displiceant , fac meliora , precor . Mart. Ep. Rom. 8. 9. 1 Cor. 16. 22. 1 Cor. 13. 2 , 3. Wisd . 17. 11. Job 29. 11 , 12 , 13 , &c. Ch. 5. v. 22 , &c. Notes for div A42952-e5160 Chap. 1 ver . 5 , 7. Vers . 9. Vers . 18. Vers . 19. Chap. 2. 4. Vers . 7 , 20. Vers . 21. Vers . 5. Vers . 11. Hâc tuâ impudentiâ qua omnes superas , etiam improbissimos doces improbitatem . Jun. Vers . 33. Vers . 7. Vers . 23 , 35. Non sun̄t clām peccata tua ut pervestigatione sit opus , palam sunt , omnium oculis exposita . Idem . Quid bonam praedicas viam tuam ? Vulg. Ed. Quid niteris bonam ostendere viam tuam ? Jun. Why TRIMMEST thou thy way ? vers . 33. Chap. 10. 6. 1 Thess . 2. ver . 15. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. Hom. Il. ● . * Ezek. chap. 3. 18. & 33. † Act. 20. 26. See also Wisd . 1. 11. And Ecclus. 21. 2. In both which we read of the Souls being slain . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying anima , animus , &c. Pagn . Th. ling. sanct . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Sept. Interp. * Sanguis animarum egentium [ sanguis ] innocentium . Trem. Sanguis animarum pauperum & innotentium , Vulg. Ed. Gen. 9 4. Psal . 36. 9. Chap. 20. 6 , 14. Rom. 9. 3. vers . 32. Vers . 18. Acts 20. 26. Vers 31. Vers . 20 , 27. St. Joh. 8. 32. St. Mark 4. 24. St. Luke 8. 18. Prov 19. 17. Ecclus. 34. 21. Prov. 15. 2. Chap. 15. 7. Chap. 4. 6. Chap. 5. 13. Chap. 10. & 11. Chap. 3. 15. Lev. 19. 17. Qui non prepulsat inj●●iamicum potest insert . Tul. Chap. 4. 17. Prov. 24. 11. Chap 7. v. 25. St. Luke 22. 32. St. Mat. 18. 15. 1 Joh chap. 2 , 3 , 4. See Chap. 3. Vers . 10. & chap. 4. ver . 20 Chap. 3 10 , 17 Chap. 33. 8. Acts 20. St. Joh. 15. 16. Vers . 14. St. Mat. 25. Amos 7. 12. Acts 13. 2 Tim. 3. 8. Acts 18. 17. St. Mat. 12. 30. Chap. 4. 5. Jer. 7. 4. Acts. 19. 1 King. 18. 23. Chap. 4. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 6. 3. Wisd . 15. 12. 28. Pet. 2. 3. Rom. 16. 17 , 18. Col. 3. 5. St. Mat. 6. 14. St. Luk. 16. 13. Gal. 6. 12. Vers . 12. Vers . 22. Deut. 21. Gen. 4. Rev. 6. 10. 2 Sam. 21. 1 Kings 21. 2 King. 9. Hos . 1. 4. Eccles . 9. 4. St. Mark 8. 36. Gen. 4. Isa . 28. 10. Psal . 42. 3. Hos . 13 7 , 8. Amos 9 8. & 6. 8. & 5. 16. & 7. 9. & 6. 9 , 11. Nihil est in te , aut circa te , non commaculatem sanguine ; omnia testificantur adversus te , &c. Jun. An. Jer. 9. 3. Jer. 6. 15. Acts 16. St. Jam. 2. 16. S. Luke 10. 20. Chap. 33. 23. Jer. 5. 27 , 28. Ch 6. 13 , 28 Mal. 3 17. Barbaris pro agris & libertate crepta , fidem Jesu Christi , & vitam hominibus dignam , reddamus . A● Infideles nullo modo Christi Baptismum adversantur , quam & capiunt & petunt . Barbaris revera●si Christus annuntiem : ut opus est , obsequen es & ad credendum faciles sese exh●bent . Idem . St. Joh. 14. 6. Acts 4. 12. Hab. 1. 16. Vers . 14. Isa . 56. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hes . Wisd . 2. 11. S. Mat. 27. 29. S. Chrys . 2 Sam. 12. 6. Mal. 2. 10. Job 31. 15. Wis . 7. 5 , 6. Rom. 12. 5. * But above all that accursed Tyranny used toward the Souls of these miserable Wretches , can never sufficiently be bewailed , who are daily assaulted by these professed Enemies of Christ to turn Apostates to the Christian Faith , and to deny to at only Name given under Heaven by which they can be saved : whereby they lie under a continual Temptation to abandon their Religion , to obtain their liberty . Br. for Capt. of Algeir . S. Mat. 23 14. Chap. 12. 41. Wis . 6. 6. Rom. 2. 14. Psal . 9. 12. Ezek. 33. Salv. de gub . Dei. S. Luke 12. 47. Amos 3. 2. Josh . 7. 11. Acts 13. Heb. 6. 6. & 10. 29. 1 Sam. 3. 13. Jer. 8. 14 , 15 , 17. Hos . 2. 6 , 11. Isa . 19. 2 , 3. Vers . 19. St. Mat. 6. 33. S. Luk. 9. 23. S. Mat. 10. 37. S. Mark. 8. 33. Job 31. 24 , 28. S. Mar. 8. 38. Gen. 9. 5 , &c. comp . with Heb. 6. 13 , 14 , 17. Num. 35. 31 , 33. Rev. 6. 10. Jos . Ant. Jud. Gen. 4. Vers . 23 , Acts 8. Acts 13. S. Luk. 23. 34. 1 Cor. 2. 8. Vers . 19. Heb. 10 31. Isa . 33. 14. Rev. 18. 9 , 18 , & Ch. 19. 20. S. Luke 16. Rev. 15. 3. S. Mat. 18. 7. S. Luke 17. 1. Wis . 11. 26. * This was once the Sence of most of our English Writers . 1 S. Joh. 4. E. W. in his Discourse of Miracles . Hag. 1. 2. Prov. 22. 13. De procur . Ind. Salut . l. 3. * Who made you Ministers of the Gospel to the White People only , and not to the Tawneys and Blacks ? Fox the Quaker to the Ministers of Barbados . See p. 4. of the Negro's Advocate . Lam. 4. 3. E. W. in an answer to the D. of S. P. Vers . 10. Rev. 18. 13. Nah. 3. 16. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying multus , magnus , honorabilis , inclytus ob multiplices quibus pollet dignitates . Pagn . See also Job . 32. 9 Psal . 48. 2. Isa . 19. 20. & 53. 10 , &c. Rom. 1. S. Luk. 13. 7. Ezr. 7 23. Ezek. 8. 12. & 9. 9. Zeph. 1. 12. Chap. 1. 6. Vers . 17. Chap. 6. 5. Zech. 5. 1. Lev. 14. 37 , 44 , 45. 1 Sam. 3. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Gr. Naz. loqu . de Herod . & Pilato . Gen. 6. Ven. Bed. Hist . Eccl. Angl. Exod. 32. Josh . 7● 2 Sam. 21. 1 King. 12. 2 Chron. 36. 14 , &c. Zech. 14. Job 31. 2 Chro. 21. 16. Vers . 19. 2 Chron. 12. 8. Wisd . Judg. 1. 7. Mich. 3. 11. Ezek. 13. Acts 11. 19. 2 Esdr . 13. 42. Chap. 4. 27. Euseb . Hist . Eccles . * Without which nothing ●herein can ever be expected Neh. 2. 10. & 6. 1. Juxtâ Septuag . v. 4. Chap. 6. 34. Cant. 8. 6. 1 King. 20. 23. Jer. 23. 23. Tull. Off. Prov. 16. 7. Isa . 32. 17. Ezr. 8. 22. L. 3. Ode . 6. Liv. l. 1. Psal . 67. 5 , 6. Hag. 2. 18 , 19. 2 Sam. 6. 12. Gen. 30. 27. Job 33. 22. 2 S. Tim. 2. 26. S. Joh. 4. Heb. 6. 10. De proc . Ind. Sal. l. 6. c. ult . 1 Sam. 7. Num. 21. 9. 1 Sam. 6. Prov. 51. Orat. Dom● Coll. for all Cond . of Men. Coll for Good Friday . S. Mat. 15 8. S. Luk. 19. 20. Tertul. Prov. 11. 30. Dan. 12. Chap. 5. ult .