Then answeréd unto their dread, the Judge: "True Piety God doth desire and eke require, no less than honesty. Justice demands at all your hands perfect Obedience; If but in part you have come short, that is a just offense. XCVII. "On Earth below, where men did owe a thousand pounds and more, Could twenty pence it recompense? Could that have clear'd the score? Think you to buy Felicity with part of what's due debt? Or for desert of one small part, the whole should off be set? XCVIII. [Sidenote: Luke 18:11, 14.] "And yet that part whose great desert you think to reach so far, For your excuse doth you accuse, and will your boasting mar. However fair, however square your way and work hath been Before men's eyes, yet God espies iniquity therein. XCIX. [Sidenote: 1 Sam. 16:7. 2 Chron. 25:2.] "God looks upon th' affecti-on and temper of the heart; Not only on the acti-on, and the external part. Whatever end vain men pretend, God knows the verity, And by the end which they intend their words and deeds doth try. C. [Sidenote: Heb. 11:6. 1 Cor. 13:1, 2, 3.] "Without true Faith, the Scripture saith, God cannot take delight In any deed that doth proceed from any sinful wight. And without love all actions prove but barren empty things; Dead works they be and vanity, the which vexation brings. CI. "Nor from true Faith, which quencheth wrath, hath your obedience flown; Nor from true Love, which wont to move Believers, hath it grown. Your argument shews your intent in all that you have done; You thought to scale Heav'n's lofty Wall by Ladders of your own. CII. [Sidenote: Rom. 10:3.] "Your blinded spirit hoping to merit by your own Righteousness, Needed no Savior but your behavior, and blameless carriages. You trusted to what you could do, and in no need you stood; Your haughty pride laid me aside, And trampled on my Blood. CIII. [Sidenote: Rom. 9:30, 32. Mat. 11:23, 24, and 21:41.] "All men have gone astray, and done that which God's laws condemn; But my Purchase and offer'd Grace All men did not contemn. The Ninevites and Sodomites had no such sin as this; Yet as if all your sins were small, you say, 'All did amiss.' CIV. [Sidenote: Mat. 6:5.] "Again you thought and mainly sought a name with men t' acquire; Pride bare the Bell that made you swell, and your own selves admire. Mean fruit it is, and vile, I wiss, that springs from such a root; Virtue divine and genuine wonts not from pride to shoot. CV. [Sidenote: Prov. 26:23. Mat. 23:27.] "Such deeds as your are worse than poor; they are but sins gilt over With silver dross whose glist'ring gloss can them no longer cover. The best of them would you condemn, and ruin you alone, Although you were from faults so clear, that other you had none.