in said of the French protestants, "While they burned us
(saith he) for reading the scriptures, we burned with zeal to be reading
of them; now with our liberty is bred also negligence and disesteem of
God's word." So is it with us, while we were under the tyranny of
bishops; Oh! how sweet was a fasting day? How beautiful were the feet of
them that brought the gospel of peace unto you? How dear and precious
were God's people one to another? But now, how are our fasting days
slighted and vilified? How are the people of God divided one from
another, railing upon (instead of loving) one another? And is not the
godly ministry as much persecuted by the tongues of some that would be
accounted godly, as heretofore by the bishop's hands? Is not the Holy
Bible by some rather wrested than read? Wrested, I say, by ignorant and
unstable souls, to their own destruction? And as for the seals of the
covenant, 1. For the Lord's supper, how oft have we spilt the blood of
Christ by our unworthy approaches to His table? And hence it is, that He
is now spilling our blood; how hard a matter is it, to obtain power to
keep the blood of Christ from being profaned by ignorant and scandalous
communicants? And can we think, that God will be easily entreated to
sheath up His bloody sword, and to cease shedding our blood? 2. For the
sacrament of baptism; how cruel are men grown to their little infants,
by keeping of them from the seal of entrance into the kingdom of heaven,
and making their children to be just in the same condition with the
children of Turks and Infidels? I remember, at the beginning of these
wars there was a great fear fell upon godly people about their little
children, and all their care was for their preservation and their
safety; and for the continuance of the gospel to them. But now, our
little children are likely to be in a worse condition than ever. And all
this is come upon us as a just punishment of our baptismal
covenant-breaking. And as for Jesus Christ, who is the angel of the
covenant: are there not some amongst us that ungod Jesus Christ? And is
it not fit and equal that God should unchurch us and unpeople us? Are
there not thousands that have sworn to be Christ's servants, and yet are
in their lives the vassals of sin and Satan? And shall not God be
avenged of such a nation as this? These things considered, it is no
wonder our miseries are so great, but the wonder is that they are not
greater.

2. An use of examinatio