*We will put the case farther yet. Suppose your censure was just, and this was actually false doctrine. Still every one must give an account of himself to God: and you cannot force the conscience of any one. You cannot compel another, to see as you see. You ought not to attempt it. Reason and persuasion are the only weapons you ought to use, even toward your own wife and children. Nay, and it is impossible to starve them into conviction, or to beat even truth into their head, You may destroy them, in this way, but cannot convert them. Remember what our own poet has said,
“By force beasts act and are by force restrain’d;
The human mind by gentle means is gain’d.
Thou canst not take, what I refuse to yield:
Nor reap the harvest, tho’ thou spoilst the field.”
6. Every reasonable man is convinced of this. And perhaps you do not concern yourself so much about the doctrine, but the mischief that is done, “How many poor families are starved, ruined, brought to beggary!” By what? Not by contributing a penny a week (the usual contribution in our societies) and letting that alone, when they please, when there is any shadow of reason to suppose they cannot afford it. You will not say, any are brought to beggary by this. Not by gifts to me: for I receive none; save (sometimes) the food I eat. And publick collections are nothing to me. That it may evidently appear they are not, when any such collection is made, to cloathe the poor, or for any other determinate purpose, the money is both received and expended before many witnesses, without ever going through my hands at all. And then likewise all possible regard is had, to the circumstances of those who contribute any thing. And they are told over and over, if there be a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath.
But where are all these families that have been brought to beggary? How is it, that none of them is forth-coming? Are they all, out of town? Then indeed I am in no danger of clearing myself from their indictment. It is the easiest thing of a thousand, for one at Newcastle to say, that I have beggared him and all his kindred. If one of the long-bearded men on Tyne-bridge, were to say so just now, I could not readily confute him. But why will you not bring a few of these to tell me so to my face? I have not found one that would do this yet. They pray, you would have them excused.
I remember a man coming to me with a doleful countenance, putting himself into many lamentable postures, gaping as wide as he could, and pointing to his mouth, as tho’ he would say, “he could not speak.” I enquired of his companion, what was the matter? And was informed, “he had fallen into the hands of the Turks, who had used him in a barbarous manner, and cut out his tongue by the roots.” I believed him. But when the man had had a chearful cup, he could find his tongue as well as another. I reflected, how is it that I could so readily believe that tale? The answer was easy, “because it was told of a Turk.” My friend, take knowledge of your own case. If you had not first took me for a Turk, or something equally bad, you could not so readily have believed that tale!
7. “But can it be, that there is no ground at all for a report, which is in every ones mouth?” I will simply tell you, all the ground which I can conceive. I believe many of those who attend on my ministry, have less of this world’s goods than they had before, or at least, might have had if they did not attend it. This fact I allow; and it may be easily accounted for, in one or other of the following ways.
First, I frequently preach on such texts as these: Having food and raiment, let us be content therewith. They who desire to be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where the rust and moth doth corrupt, and where thieves break thro’ and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break thro’ and steal.