d, others of that of
St. Bridget; some are Augustin monks, some Willielmites, and others
Jacobists, as if the common name of Christian were too mean and vulgar.
Most of them place their greatest stress for salvation on a strict
conformity to their foppish ceremonies, and a belief of their legendary
traditions; wherein they fancy to have acquitted themselves with so much
of supererogation, that one heaven can never be a condign reward for
their meritorious life; little thinking that the Judge of all the earth
at the last day shall put them off, with a who hath required these
things at your hands; and call them to account only for the stewardship
of his legacy, which was the precept of love and charity. It will be
pretty to hear their pleas before the great tribunal: one will brag how
he mortified his carnal appetite by feeding only upon fish: another will
urge that he spent most of his time on earth in the divine exercise
of singing psalms: a third will tell how many days he fasted, and what
severe penance he imposed on himself for the bringing his body into
subjection: another shall produce in his own behalf as many ceremonies
as would load a fleet of merchant-men: a fifth shall plead that in
threescore years he never so much as touched a piece of money, except
he fingered it through a thick pair of gloves: a sixth, to testify his
former humility, shall bring along with him his sacred hood, so old and
nasty, that any seaman had rather stand bare headed on the deck, than
put it on to defend his ears in the sharpest storms: the next that comes
to answer for himself shall plead, that for fifty years together, he had
lived like a sponge upon the same place, and was content never to change
his homely habitation: another shall whisper softly, and tell the judge
he has lost his voice by a continual singing of holy hymns and anthems:
the next shall confess how he fell into a lethargy by a strict,
reserved, and sedentary life: and the last shall intimate that he has
forgot to speak, by having always kept silence, in obedience to the
injunction of taking heed lest he should have offended with his tongue.
But amidst all their fine excuses our Saviour shall interrupt them with
this answer, Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, verily I
know you not; I left you but one precept, of loving one another, which
I do not hear any one plead he has faithfully discharged: I told you
plainly in my gospel, without any parable, that my