A SERMON OF REPENTANCE. 337 especially those that differ from you, or have wronged you, or stand against your interest, how easilywould the duty have been performed! How little need should I have had to press it with all this importunity ! How confident should I be that I could convert the most, if this were the conversion ! It grieves my soul to hear how quick and constant, high and low, learned and unlearned, are at this uncharitable, contumelious remembering of the faults of Others; how Cunningly they can bring in their insinuated accusa- tions ; how odiously they can aggravate the smallest faults, where difference causeth them to distaste the person; how ordinarily they judge of actions by the persons, as if any thing were a crime that is done by such as they dislike, and all were virtue that is done by those that fit their humors ; how commonly brethren havemade it a part of , their service ofGod to speak or write uncharitably of his servants, laboring to destroy the hearer's charity, which had more need, in this unhappy time, of the bellows than the water; how usual it is with the ignorant that cannot reach, the, truth, and the impious that cannot bear it, to call such heretics that know more than themselves, and to call such.precisians, Puritans, (or some such name which hell invents as there isoccasion,) who dare not be so bad as. they ; how odious, men pretending to much grav- ity, learning, and moderation, do labor to make, those that are dear- er to God ; and what a heart they have to widen differences, and make a sea of every lake; and that, perhaps, under pretense of blaming the uncharitableness, of others; howfar the very sermons and discourses of some learned men are from the common rule of doing as we would be done by ; and how loudly theyproclaim that such men love not their neighbors as themselves; the most un- charitable words seeming moderate, which they give; and all call- ed intemperate that savoreth not of flattery, which they receive! Were I calling the several exasperated factions, now in England, to remember the misdoings of their supposed adversaries; what full- mouthed and debasingconfessions would they make ! What mon- sters 9f heresy, and schism, of impiety, treason, and rebellion, of perjury and perfidiousness, would too many make of the faults of others, while they 'extenuate their own to almost nothing !. It is a wonder to observe how the case doth alter with the most, when that which was their adversary's case becomes their own. The very prayers of the godly, and their care of their salvation, and theirfear of sinning, Both seem their crime in the eyes of some that easily bear the guilt of swearing, drunkenness, sensuality, filthiness, and neglect ofduty in themselves, as a tolerable burden. But if ever God indeed convert you, (though you will pity others, yet) he will teach you to begin at home,and take the beam out of your own eyes, and to cryout, '1am the miserable sinner.' VOL. II. 43
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