reat offences, spiritual pride,
and a desire of being wise above what is written. Ye will have many and
long sermons, but it is well said, 'prayer is the end of preaching,' An
excellent form was established in this kingdom, which made devotion
uniform; but now, alas! by using extemporary prayers, even in
worshipping God ye must be listeners to your minister, not petitioners
for spiritual graces. Avoid consigning those generations who are passed
away, to perdition, by supposing these new lights alone can shew you the
way to be saved. Ask not if they who differ from you must be accursed.
To scrutinize the spiritual estate of others will neither promote your
holiness nor your security. Think not the further you go from the church
of Rome, the nearer ye approach to God; nor confound the superstitious
observances, which she mis-named good works, with the deeds of
righteousness that Scripture requires you to perform, not as bestowing a
right to eternal life, but as your part of the covenant of grace to
which you have been admitted. Be not misled by the quoted opinions of
early reformers. They depreciated not acts of piety, integrity, and
social kindness, but 'masses, dirges, obsequies, rising at midnight,
going barefoot, jubilees, invocation of saints, praying to images, vows
of celibacy, pardons, indulgences, founding of abbeys'[2], and other
supererogatory performances, by which Popery in effect invalidated the
true atonement, and pretended that sinners might merit heaven. Against
these vain devices of men our glorious martyrs lifted up their voices;
these were the good works they decried; but when ye misapply their just
anathemas, to condemn the fruits of faith acting by love, ye belie their
memory, and tear asunder those strong pillars of belief and practice
which support the Christian doctrine. Lamentable are the effects which
schism produces. At the very beginning of our divisions the pious Jewell
doubted how to address those who preferred contending for trifles to
peace. He could not, he said, 'call them brethren, for then they would
agree as brethren; nor Christians, for then they would love as
Christians.' And now, when the miseries he saw at a distance have
overwhelmed us, how shall our woes be healed? Even by promoting, as far
as in us lies, that mild and candid spirit, which, when it becomes
universal, will terminate our sorrows. Let us conduct our disputes with
the temper of pious Hooker; and when we say to our adv