that remained was. To find me one among themselves, who was upright of Heart, and of found Jodgment in the Things of GOD: And to defire him to meet the reft as often as he could, in order to confrm them, as be was able, in the Ways of GOD, either by Reading to them, or by Prayer, or by Exteration.

GOD immediately gave a Being bereto. In feveral Places, by Means of these plain Men, not only thofe who had already begun to run well, were hinder'd from drawing back to Perdition; but other Sinners alío, from Time to Time, were converted from the Error of their Wave

This Plain Account of the whole Proceeding, I take to be the best Defence of it. I know no Scripture which forbids making Ufe of fuch Help, in a Cafe of 1ech Neceffity. And I praife GOD who has given even this Help to thofe poor Sheep, when their own Shepherds pitied them not.

"But does not the Scripture fay, No Man taketb this Honour to himself, but be that is called of GOD, es swas Aaron ?" Nor do thefe. The Honour here men. tion'd is the Ptieft hood. But they no more take upon them to be Priests than to be Kings. They take not upon them to adminifter the Sacraments, an Honour peculiar to the Priests of GOD. Only according to their Power, they exhort their Brethren, to continue in the Grace of GOD.

“But for these Laymen to exhort at all, is a Violation of all Order"

What is this Order of which you speak? Will it serve inftead of the Knowledge and Love of GOD? Will this Order rescue those from the Snare of the Devil, who are now taken Captive at his Will? Will it keep them who are escaped a little Way, from turning back into Egypt? If not, how fhou'd I answer it to GOD, if rather than violate I know not what Order, I shou'd sacrifice Thousands of Souls thereto? I dare not do it. It is at the Peril of my own Soul.

Indeed if by Order were meant, True, Chriflian Difcipline, whereby all the living Members of Christ are

knit together in one, and all that are putrid and dead, immediately cut off from the Body: This Order I reverence; for it is of GOD. But where is it to be found? In what Diocese, in what Town or Parish, within England or Wales? Are you Rector of a Parish? Then let us go no further. Does this Order obtain there? Nothing lefs. Your Parishioners are a Rope of Sand. As few (if any) of them are alive to GOD, fo they have no Connexion with each other, unless fuch as might be among Turks or Heathens. Neither have you any Power to cut off from that Body, were it alive, the dead and putrid Members. Perhaps you have no Defire: But all are jumbled together, without any Care or Concern of yours.

It is plain then, that what Order is to be found is not among you, who fo loudly contend for it, but among that very People whom you continually blame, for their Violation and Contempt of it. The little Flock you condemn is united together in One Body, by One Spirit: So that if one Member fuffers, all the Members suffer with it, if one be honour'd, all rejoice with it. Nor does any dead Member long remain; but as foon as the Hope of recovering it is palt, it is cut off.

Now fuppofe we were willing to relinquish our Charge, and to give up this Flock into your Hands; wou'd you obferve the fame Order as we do now, with them and the other Souls under your Care? You dare. not: Because you have Refpe&t of Perfons. You fear the Faces of Men. You cannot; because you have not overcome the World. You are not above the Defire of Earthly Things. And it is impoffible you fhould eve have any True Order, cr exercife any Chriftian Disci pline, till you are wholly crucified to the World, till you defire nothing more but GOD.

Confider this Matter, I intreat you, a little farther. Here are Seven Thoufand Perfons (perhaps fomewhat more) of whom I take Care, watching over their Souls, as he that must give Account. In order hereto it lies upon me (fo I jadge) at the Peril of my own Salvation, to know not only their Names, but their Outward and Inward States, their Difficulties and Dangers. Other

wife how can I know, either how to guide them aright, or to commend them to GOD in Prayer? Now if I am willing to make these over to you, will you watch over them in the same Manner? Will you take the fame Care (or as much more as you please) of each Soul as I have hitherto done? Not fuch Curam Animarum as you have taken these Ten Years in your own Parith. Poor empty Name! Has not your Parish been in fact, as much a Sine-cure to you as your Prebend? O what an Account have you to give, to the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls!

18. There is one more Excufe for denying this Work of Gon, taken from the Inftruments imploy'd therein: That is, "That they are wicked Men." And a thousand Stories have been handed about to prove it.

But you may obferve, their Wickedness was not heard of, till after they went about doing Good. Their Reputation for Honefly was till then unblemish'd. But it was impoffible it fhould continue fo, when they were publickly employed in teftifying of the World, that its Deeds were evil. It could not be but the Scripture fhould be fulfill'd. The Servant is not above. bis Mafter. If they have called the Mafter of the Houfe Beelzebub, how much more them of his Houfbold?

Yet I cannot but remind confiderate Men, in how remarkable a Manner the Wisdom of GoD has for many Years guarded against this Pretence, with refpect to my Brother and me in particular. Scarce any two Men in Great Britain, of our Rank, have been fo held. out, as it were, to all the World; efpecially of those who from their Childhood had always loved and ftudioufly fought Retirement. And I had procured what. I fought. I was quite fafe, as I fuppofed, in a little Country Town, when I was required to return to Oxford, without Delay, to take the Charge of fome young. Gentlemen, by Dr. Morley, the only Man then in England to whom I could deny nothing. From that Time both my Brother and I (utterly against our Will) came to be more and more obferved and known, till we were more fpoken of, than perhaps Two fo

inconfiderable Perfons ever were before in the Nation. To make us more publick ftill, as honeft Madmen at leaft, by a ftrange Concurrence of Providences, overturning all our preceding Refolutions, we were hurried away to America. However, at our Return from thence, we were refolved to retire out of the World at once; being fated with Noife, Hurry and Fatigue,. and feeking nothing but to be at Rest. Indeed for a long Seafon, the greatest Pleasure I had defired, on this Side Eternity, was

Tacitum Sylvas inter reptare falubres,

Quærentem quicquid dignum fapiente bonoque.

And we had attain'd our Defire. We wanted nothing. We look'd for nothing more in this World, when we were dragg'd out again, by earneft Importunity, to preach at one Place and another, and another, and fo carried on, we knew not how, without any Defign, but the general one, of faving Souls, into a Situation, which had it been named to us at firit, would have appeared far worse than Death.

19. What a furprizing Apparatus of Providence was here! And what ftronger Demonftrations cou'd have been given, of Men's acting from a Zeal for GOD, whether it were according to Knowledge or no? What Perfons could, in the Nature of Things, have been (antecedently) lefs liable to Exception, with regard to their Moral Character, at leaft, than those the All-wife-GOD hath now employ'd? Indeed I cannot devife what manner of Men could have been more unexceptionable on all Accounts. Had GoD indued us with greater natural or acquired Abilities, that very thing might have been turned into an Objection. Had we been remarkably defective, it would have been Matter of Objection, on the other hand. Had we been Dissenters of any Kind, or even Low-Church Men, (fo call'd) it would have been a great Stumbling-block in the Way of those who are zealous for the Church. And yet had we continued in the Impetuofity of our High Church Zeal, neither should we have been willing to converse

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with Diffenters, nor they to receive any Good at our Hands. Some Objections were kept out of the Way, by our known Contempt of Money and Preferment : And others, by that rigorous Strictness of Life, which we exacted, not of others, but ourselves only. Infomuch, that twelve or fourteen Years ago, the Cenfure of one who had narrowly obferv'd us, (me, in particular) went no farther than this;

"Does beyond his Strength perfift to go,
"To his frail Carcafe literally Foe?
"Carelefs of Health, as if in hafte to die,
"And lavish Time t' infure Eternity!"

So that upon the Whole, I fee not what GOD could have done more in this Respect which he hath not done: Or what Inftruments he could have employ'd in fuch a Work, who would have been lefs liable to Exception.

zo. Neither can I conceive how it was poffible to do that Work, the doing of which we are ftill under the frongeft Conviction, is bound upon us at the Peril of our own Souls, in a lefs exceptionable Manner. We have, by the Grace of GOD, behaved not only with Mecknels, but with all Tenderness toward all Men; with all the Tenderness which we conceived it was poffible to use, without betraying their Souls. And from the very firft, it has been our efpecial Care, to deal tenderly with our Brethren of the Clergy. We have not willingly provoked them at any Time; neither any fingle Clergyman. We have not fought Occafion to publifh their Faults; we have not used a thoufand Occafions that offered. When we were conftrained to fpeak fomething, we fpake as little as we believ'd we could, without offending GOD: And that little, tho' in plain and ftrong Words, yet as milaly and lovingly as we were able. And in the fame Course we have steadily perfevered (as well as in ear nestly advising others to tread in our Steps) even tho' we faw, that with regard to Them, by all this we profited nothing; tho' we knew we were ftill continually

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