Page:Divine shepherd, or, The good minister's care over the flock of Jesus Christ.pdf/16

 Fithly, Art thou not a deceitful handler and corupter of God's Words? Dost thou not hold, but or orginal ſin is not properly a ſin; or if it be ſo, it but the least of all ſins? Dost thou not hold the Pelagian and Armenian doctrines, instead of the articles and Homilies of our church? Dost thou not ſay, that our articles are only articles of peace, and not aticles of religion? That our Homilies do only contain ſuch doctrines, as were neceſſary for the time they were writ in, but not for the time we now live in? Dost thou not adore free will ſo far, as to make an idol of it; yea, and to make God himſelf to wait upon its choice, in the almighty work of thy converſion? Dost thou not make God to be in a manner an idle ſpectator, and thy free will to be the only ager in thy ſalvation? Dost thou not attribute ſo much to natural reaſon and moral ſuaſion, that the powerful effectual, and irreſistable working of God's Spirit, wholly rejected by thee as a mere dream and an idol fancy? Dost thou not extol thy own strength ſo as to frustrate the grace of Chriſt? Dost not thou, and not God make thee differ from another, which directly contrary to St. Paul's Doctrine? I Cor iv.7. Dost thou not lay ſo great streſs upon little things as to neglect the weightier matters of the law? Do thou not make a conſcience of bowing at the name of Jeſus; and dost thou make any conſcience of ſiging a child with the ſign of the croſs in baptiſm and dost thou make any conſcience at all of catechising that child in the doctrine of the croſs of Chriſt tho' both the Rubric and the 59th canon command thee to do ſo every Lord's day in the afternoon, upon pain of ſharp reproof for the first fault, ſuſpenſion for the ſecond, and excommunication for the third? Dost thou no cry out mightily against thoſe that ſacrilegiouſly rob the Church of its patrimony and dost not at all cry out against thyſelf and other that rob theſe very people of their heart's blood, the lives, their ſouls, and their ſalvation, by ſufferin them to be damned for want of catechiſing and preach-