In the wide womb of uncreated night!”
But neither indeed are you certain of this; nor of any thing else. “It may be so; it may not. A vast scene is behind. But clouds and darkness rest upon it.” All is doubt and uncertainty. You are continually tossed to and fro, and have no firm ground for the sole of your foot. O let not the poor wisdom of man any longer exalt itself against the wisdom of God. You have fled from him long enough: at length suffer your eyes to be opened by him that made them. You want rest to your soul. Ask it of him, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not! You are now a mere riddle to yourself, and your condition full of darkness and perplexity. You are one among many restless inhabitants of a miserable, disordered world, walking in a vain shadow, and disquieting yourself in vain. But the light of God will speedily disperse the anxiety of your vain conjectures. By adding heaven to earth, and eternity to time; it will open such a glorious view of things, as will lead you, even in the present world, to a peace which passeth all understanding.
[♦] duplicate word “of” removed
66. O ye gross, vile, scandalous sinners, hear ye the word of the Lord. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn and live. O make haste; delay not the time. Come, and let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool.——Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments, red in his apparel? It is he on whom the Lord hath laid the iniquities of us all! Behold, behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away thy sins! See the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth! He loveth thee. He gave himself for thee. Now, his bowels of compassion yearn over thee! O believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved! Go in peace, sin no more!
67. Now cannot you join in all this? Is it not the very language of your heart? O when will you take knowledge, that our whole concern, our constant labour is, to bring all the world to the religion which you feel, to solid, inward, vital religion! What power is it then that keeps us asunder? Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? If it be, give me thy hand. Come with me and see, and rejoice in my zeal for the Lord. No difference between us (if thou art a child of God) can be so considerable as our agreement is. If we differ in smaller things, we agree in that which is greatest of all. How is it possible then that you should be induced, to think or speak evil of us? How could it ever come into your mind, to oppose us, or weaken our hands? How long shall we complain of the wounds which we receive in the house of our friends? Surely the children of this world are still wiser in their generation than the children of light. Satan is not divided against himself: Why are they who are on the Lord’s side against us? How is it that wisdom is not justified of her own children?
68. Is it, because you have heard, “That we only make religion a cloak for covetousness? And because you have heard abundance of particulars alleged in support of that general charge?” ’Tis probable, you may also have heard, “How much we have gained by preaching already:” and, to crown all, “That we are only papists in disguise, who are undermining and destroying the church?”
69. “You have heard this.” Well: and can you believe it? Have you then never heard the fifth chapter of St. Matthew? I would to God you could believe it. What is written there? How readest thou? Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name’s sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you: namely, by reviling them, and saying all manner of evil of them falsely. Do not you know, that this (as well as all other scriptures) must needs be fulfilled? If so, take knowledge, that this day also it is fulfilled in your ears. For our Lord’s sake, and for the sake of his gospel which we preach, men do revile us and persecute us, and (blessed be God, who giveth us to rejoice therein) say all manner of evil of us falsely. And how can it be otherwise? The disciple is not above his master. It is enough for the disciple, that he be as his master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his houshold?
70. This only we confess, that “we preach inward salvation, now attainable by faith.” And for preaching this, (for no other crime was then so much as pretended) we were forbid to preach any more in those churches, where, till then, we were gladly received. This is a notorious fact. Being thus hindered from preaching in the places we should first have chosen, we now declare the grace of God which bringeth salvation, in all places of his dominion: as well knowing, that God dwelleth not only in temples made with hands. This is the real, and it is the only real ground of complaint against us. And this we avow before all mankind, we do preach this salvation by faith. And not being suffered to preach it in the usual places, we declare it [♦]wherever a door is opened, either on a mountain, or a plain, or by a river side, (for all which we conceive we have sufficient precedent) or in prison, or, as it were, in the house of Justus, or the school of one Tyrannus. Nor dare we refrain. A dispensation of the gospel is committed to me; and woe is me, if I preach not the gospel.
[♦] “whereever” replaced with “wherever”
71. Here we allow the fact, but deny the guilt. But in every other point alleged, we deny the fact, and call upon the world to prove it, if they can. More especially we call upon those who for many years saw our manner of life at Oxford. These well know, that after the straitest sect of our religion, we lived Pharisees: and that the grand objection to us for all those years, was the being righteous overmuch: the reading, fasting, praying, denying ourselves; the going to church, to the Lord’s table; the relieving the poor, visiting those that were sick and in prison; instructing the ignorant, and labouring to reclaim the wicked,—more than was necessary for salvation. These were our open, flagrant crimes, from the year 1729 to the year 1737; touching which our Lord shall judge in that day.