TO A SOUND CONVERSION. 417 whether the things which we tell you to be the truth. The word will never work on you to purpose, till you hear and see God in it, and perceive that it is he, and not man only, that speaks to you. When you hear none speaking to you but the minister, no marvel if you dare despise him, for he is a frail and silly man like yourselves ; when you think that the doctrine which we preach unto you is merely of our own de- vising, and the conjecture of our own brain, no marvel if you set light by it, and will not let go all that you have, at the persuasion of a preacher. But when you have searched the scripture, and find that it is the word of the God of heaven, dare you despise it then ? When you there find that we said no more than we were commanded, and God that hath spoken this word will stand to it; then sure it will go nearer you, and you will consider of it, and make light of it no more. If we offered you bad wares, we should desire a dark shop; and if our gold were light or bad, we should not call for the balance and the touchstone. But when we are sure the things that we speak are true, we desire nothing more than trial. Beauty and comeli- ness have no advantage of loathsome deformity, when they are both together in the dark : but the light will show the difference. Error may be a loser by the light, and therefore shuns it. But truth is a gainer by it, and therefore seeks it. Let papists hide the scrip. tures from the people, and forbid the reading of them in a tongue which they understand, and teach them to speak to God they know not what; we dare not do so, nor do we desire it : our doctrine will not go off well in the dark ; and therefore we call you to the law and to the testimony, and desire you to take our words into the light, and see whether they are according to the word of the Lord. Nothing troubleth us more than that we cannot persuade our hearers to this trial. Some of them are so hardened in their sin and misery, that they will not be at so much labour as to open their Bibles, and try whether we- -say true or not. Some of them will not trouble their minds with the 14 3 G
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