Hands, who fear the Lord, be upon us. Why should we be stricken of you any more?

IV. 1. Surely ye are without Excufe, all who do not yet know the Day of your Vifitation! The Day, wherein the Great Gon, who hath been forgotten among us, Days without Number, is arifing at once to be avenged of his Adverfaries, and to vifit and redeem his People. Are not his judgments and Mercies both abroad? And ftill, will ye not learn Rightecusness? Is not the Lord paffing by? Doth not a great and ftrong Wind already begin to rend the Mountains, and to break in Pieces the Rocks before the Lord? Is not the Earthquake alfo felt already? And a Fire hath begun to burn in his Anger. Who knoweth what will be the End thereof? But at the fame Time, he is speaking to many in a ftill, fmall Voice. He that hath Ears to hear, let him hear, leaft he be suddenly destroy'd, and that without Remedy!

2. What Excufe can poffibly be made for thofe, who are regardless of fuch a Seafon as this? Who are at fuch a Crifis, ftupid, fenfclefs, unapprehenfive; caring for none of these things? Who do not give themfelves the Pains to think about them, but are ftill eafy and unconcerned? What! can there ever be a Point, on which it more behoves you to think? And that with the coolest and deepest Attention? As long as the Heaven and the Earth remain, can there be any thing of fo vaft Importance, as Gon's Laft Call to a guilty Land, juft perifhing in its Iniquity!

You, with thofe round about you, deferved long ago to have drank the Dregs of the Cup of Trembling: yea, to have been punish'd th everlafting Deftruction, from the Prefence of the Lord, and from the Glory of his Power. But he hath not dealt with you ac cording to your Sins, nor rewarded you after your Iniquities. And once more he is mixing Mercy with Judgment. Once more he is crying aloud, Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O Houfe of Ifrael? And will you not deign to give him the Hearing? If you are no careful to anfwer him

in this Matter. Do you ftill fhut your Eyes, and flop your Ears, and harden your ftubborn Heart? O beware, left God laugh at your Calamity, and mock when your Fear cometh!

3. Will you plead, that you have other Concerns to mind? That other Bufinefs engages your Thoughts? It does fo indeed; but this is your Foolishness; this is the very thing that leaves you without Excuse. For what Bufinefs can be of equal Moment? The Marinér may have many Concerns to mind, and many Bufineffes to engage his Thoughts: but not when the Ship is finking. In fuch a Circumftance (it is your own) you have but one thing to think of. Save the Ship and your own Life together! And the higher Poft you are in, the more deeply intent fhould you be on this one Point. Is this a Time for Diversions? For Eating and Drinking, and rifing up to play? Keep the Ship above Water. Let all elfe go, and mind this one thing!

.66

4. Perhaps you will fay, "So I do. I do mind "this one thing, how to fave the finking Nation. And therefore now I must think of Arms and Provifons. I have no Time now to think of Religion." This is exactly as if the Mariner should say, Now "I must think of my Guns and Stores. I have no "Time now to think of the Hold." Why, Man, you must think of this or perish. It is there the Leak is fprung. Stop that, or you and all your Stores will go together to the Bottom of the Sea.

Is not this your very Cafe? Then, whatever you do, flop the Leak: Elfe you go to the Bottom! I do not speak against your Stores. They are good in their Kind and it may be well they are laid in. But all your Stores will not fave the finking Ship, unlefs you can flop the Leak. Unless you can fome Way keep out thefe Floods of Ungodliness, that are ftill continually pouring in, you nuft foon be fwallowed up in the great Deep, in the Abyss of GoD'S Judgments. This, this is the Deftruction of the Englih Nation. It is Vice, bursting in on every Side, that is just ready to fink us, into Slavery firft, and then

into

into the nethermoft Hell. Who is a wife Man, ant endued with Knowledge among you ? Let him think of this. Think of this, all that love your Country, or that care for your own Souls. If now especially you do not think of this one Thing, you have no Excuse before GoD or Man.

5. Little more Excuse have you, who are ftill in doubt concerning this Day of your Vifitation. For you have all the Proof that you can reasonably expect or defire, all that the Nature of the Thing requires. That in many Places, Abundance of notorious Sinners are totally reformed, is declared by a thousand Eye and Ear-witneffes, both of their prefent and paft Behaviour. And you are sensible, the Proof of such a Point as this, muft, in the Nature of Things, reft upon Telimony. And that God alone is able to work fuch a Reformation, you know all the Scriptures teftify. What would you have more? What Pretence can you have, for doubting any longer? You have not the leaft room to expect or defire any other, or any stronger Evidence.

I trust, you are not of those who fortify themselves against Conviction; who are "resolved they will never

believe this." They ask, “Who are these Men?” We tell them plainly: But they credit us not. Another and another of their own Friends is convinced, and tell them the fame thing. But their Answer is ready, Are you turn'd Methodist too?" So their Teftimony likewife goes for nothing. Now how is it poffible thefe fhould ever be convinced? For they will believe none but those who speak on one Side.

It

6. Do you delay fixing your Judgment, till you fee a Work of GOD, without any Stumbling blocks attending it? That never was yet, nor ever will. muft needs be, that Offences will come. And scarce ever was there fuch a Work of GOD before, with fo few as have attended this.

When the Reformation began, what mountainous Offences lay in the Way, of even the fincere Members of the Church of Rome? They faw fuch Failings in thofe great Men, Luther and Calvin! Their vehe

ment

"Why, I did once myfelf rejoice to hear (fays a grave Citizen, with an Air of great Importance) that fo many Sinners were reform'd, till I found they were only turn'd from one Wicked nefs to another; that they were turn'd from Curfing or Swearing, or Drunkenness, into the no lefs damnable Sin of Schifm.

Do you know what you fay? You have, I am afraid, a confufed Huddle of Ideas in your Head. And I doubt, you have not Capacity to clear them up yourself: nor Coolness enough, to receive Help from others.

However I will try. What is Schifm? Have you any determinate Idea of it? I ask the rather because I have found, by repeated Experiments, that a Common English Tradefman receives no more Light, when he hears "This is Schifm," than if he heard or

or reads

read

Bombalio, firidor, clangor, taratantara, murmur.

Honeft Neighbour, don't be angry. Lay down your Hammer, and let us talk a little on this Head.

You fay, "We are in the damnable Sin of Schifm, and therefore in as bad a State as Adulterers or Murderers.

I ask once more, what do you mean by Schifm? Schifm! Schifm! Why, it is feparating from the Church." Ay, fo it is. And yet every feparating from the Church to which we once belonged, is not Schifm. Elfe you will make all the English to be Schifmaticks, in feparating from the Church of Rome. But we had juft Caufe." So doubtless we had; whereas Schifm is a caufelefs Separation from the Church of Chrift. So far fo good. But you have many Steps to take, before you can make good that Conclufion, that a Separation from a particular National Church, fuch as the Church of England is, whether with fufficient Caufe or without,. comes under the Scriptural Notion of Schifm.

However, taking this for granted, will you aver in cool Blood, That all who die in fuch a Separation, that is, every one who dies a Quaker, a Baptift, an Independent or a Presbyterian, is as infallibly damn'd as if he

L. 3

dica

died in the Act of Murder or Adultery? Surely you. ftart at the Thought! It makes even Nature recoil. How then can you reconcile it to the Love that hopeth ail Things?

31. But whatever State they are in, who caufelessly Separate from the Church of England, it affects not thole of whom we are speaking; for they do not separate from it at all.

You may easily be convinced of this, if you will only weigh the Particulars following.

1. A great Part of these, went to no Church at all, before they heard us preach. They no more pretended to belong to the Church of England, than to the Church of Muscovy. If therefore they went to no Church now, they wou'd be no frther from the Church than they were before.

2. Those who did fametimes go to Church before, go three times as often now. These therefore do not feparate from the Church. Nay, they are united to it more clofely than ever.

3. Thofe who never went to Church at all before, do go now at all Opportunities. Will common Senfe allow any one to fay, that thefe are Separated from the Church?

4. The main Question is, Are they turn'd from doing the Works of the Devil, to do the Works of GOD? Do they now live foberly, righteoufly and godly, in the prefent World? If they do, if they live according to the Directions of the Church, believe her Doctrines, and join in her Ordinances: With what Face can you fay, that these Men Separate from the Church of England?

32. But in what State are they whom the Clergy and Gentry Xand perhaps you for one) have fuccefsfully laboured to preferve from this damnable Sin of Schifm? Whom you have kept from hearing these Men, and feparating from the Church?

Is not the Drunkard that was, a Drunkard ftill Enquire of his poor Wife and Family. Is not the common Swearer ftill horribly crying to GOD for Damnation