·Pare II· CHAP. IX. Holinefs iJ the mofl Hono;rAhle Way. ·wE are ~efolied if Scrip:ure and Rea[on can refohe ~s, ths~ Goclhnefs 1s the St!fefl, the Honejltft, and the Ga:nfuli:Jf courfe : I fhall next fhew you that it is the Mojf Ho·noHrable .cou:f~. I know the w&rld thinks otherwife of ir. . Jn mofi pla– ces I~ IS a matter of repr?ach to be bl.ilt feriotu anddilitent in Goqs ferv1ce. Amirhough m this place and at this time, through the .great mercy' of God 0 it is not to with us,unlcfs it be with here t!nd there a fottifh drunk:ud, yet there are too few pbces that are fo much freed from this p!Zigur. And it is not yet I fear forgotten of God, fince the very pradice of aGodly life, was a matter of greater fcorn and deriflon, then to have b~en the prophanei1 1wcarer or drunkard. If a man would not have g<\we to the Ale. houfe with them, nor fworn, or fpoke prophanely tu they d'id : and if he made any feriom mentionof the Scripture, or the life to come ; if he repro'fled any grofs offendor, if he prayd and inftruCled htsfamily, and fpent tl.1e Lwds Day in holy e:-.:ercifo, this was en01agh •to brand him with the name of Puritan or Precifia.n, and make him the common by:word of the town, and (let bim be never fo conformable ro Btfhops and Ceremo.. nics) if once he went under the name of a furitan, he was lookt 1:1pon as Let in Sodom, by the open enemies of Piety, who in. fulted over them, and li,·ed fecurely in open wickednefs. This is the chiefefr fin that God bath been fcourging this nation for, if I 2m able to underltand his judgements : I know men are apt to interpret providcnces according to their own interefis ar:d conceits. But I take the help of the Scripture and the experi– ence of former ages for my interpretation: and I am verily pcr– fwaded (not excluding otliler fins) that the great fin for which God hatb plagued Ent,lt?nd by a £harp and bloody war, w1s the common fcorn. that was cafi upon his fen·ice, it being made the derifl.on of too many in the land. I never came into any place, where meeer ferio~ts dilif,tnCe for falvation, was not })raodcd with the n:arne of Pur;t~nif'rn and too mnch PruifenefJ; an~ thofe that abftained from ~l!iq1:1ity W~E~ ~~ O~!es among ----· · ·- · - · -·· · ·- - -- · --- - ----- their I
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