Fourthly. I shall assure the reader, that as a thousand of
such trifling cavillers or revilers, as I have had some to deal withal,
shall neither discourage nor hinder me in the remaining service which I may
have yet to fulfil, in the patience of God, for the church of Christ and
truth of the gospel; nor, it may be, occasion me any more to divert in the
least unto the consideration of what they whisper or clamour, unless they
are able to betake themselves unto a more sober and Christian way of
handling things in controversy: so if they will not, or dare not, forego
this supposed advantage of reproaching the doctrine of nonconformists
(under which pretence they openly, and as yet securely, scorn and deride
them, when they are all of them the avowed doctrines of all the reformed
churches, and of this of England in particular); and if they think it not
meet to oppose themselves and endeavours unto those writings which have
been composed and published professedly in the declaration and defence of
the truth scoffed at and impugned by them, but choose rather to exercise
their skill and anger on passages rent out of practical discourses,
accommodated in the manner of their delivery unto the capacity of the
community of believers, as it is fit they should be; I do suppose that, at
one time or other, from one hand or another, they may meet with some such
discourse, concerning justification and the imputation of the righteousness
of Christ, as may give them occasion to be quiet, or to
exercise the best of their skill and industry in an opposition unto it, —
as many such there are already extant, which they wisely take no notice of,
but only rave against occasional passages in discourses of another nature,
— unless they resolve on no occasion to forego the shelter they have
betaken themselves unto.