many more which for brevity's sake we have determined to omit,
I revolved again and again in my amazed mind with compunction
in my heart, and I thought to myself, "If God's peculiar people,
chosen from all the people of the world, the royal seed, and holy
nation, to whom he had said, 'My first begotten Israel,' its
priests, prophets, and kings, throughout so many ages, his
servant and apostle, and the members of his primitive church, were
not spared when the deviated from the right path, what will he do
to the darkness of this our age, in which, besides all the huge
and heinous sins, which it has common with all the wicked of the
world committed, is found an innate, indelible, and irremediable
load of folly and inconstancy?" "What, wretched man (I say to
myself) is it given to you, as if you were an illustrious and
learned teacher, to oppose the force of so violent a torrent,
and keep the charge committed to you against such a series of
inveterate crimes which has spread far and wide, without inter-
ruption, for so many years? Hold thy peace: to do otherwise, is
to tell the foot to see, and the hand to speak. Britain has
rulers, and she has watchmen: why dost thou incline thyself thus
uselessly to prate?" She has such, I say, not too many, perhaps,
but surely not too few: but, because they are bent down and pressed
beneath so heavy a burden, they have not time allowed them to take
breath. My senses, therefore, as if feeling a portion of my debt
and obligation, preoccupied themselves with such objections, and
with others yet more strong. They struggled, as I said, no short
time, in fearful strait, whilst I read, "There is a time for
speaking, and a time for keeping silence." At length, the creditor's
side prevailed and bore off the victory: if (said he) thou art not
bold enough to be marked with the comely mark of golden liberty
among the prophetic creatures, who enjoy the rank as reasoning