mindedness, lasciviousness, uncleanness, drunkenness, swearing, lying, envy, backbiting, cruelty, treachery, covetousness, injustice, and oppression, are so common, and committed with such invention and excess, that they have stumbled and embittered infidels to a degree of scorning that holy religion, to which their good example should have won their affections. §. IV. This miserable defection from primitive times, when the glory of christianity was the purity of its professors, I cannot but call the second and worst part of the Jewish tragedy, upon the blessed Saviour of mankind. For the Jews, from the power of ignorance, and the extreme prejudice they were under to the unworldly way of his appearance, would not acknowledge him when he came, but for two or three years persecuted, and finally crucified him in one day. But the false christians' cruelty lasts longer: they have first, with Judas, professed him, and then, for these many ages, most basely betrayed, persecuted, and crucified him, by a perpetual apostacy in manners, from the self-denial and holiness of his doctrine; their lives giving the lye to their faith. These are they that the author of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us, "crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame":" whose defiled hearts, John, in his Revelation, stiles, the streets of Sodom and Egypt, spiritually so called, where he beheld the Lord Jesus crucified, long after he had been ascended. And as Christ said of old, a man's enemies are those of his own house; so Christ's enemies now, are chiefly those of his own profession: "they spit upon him, they nail and pierce him, they crown him with thorns, and give him gall and vinegar to drink " Nor is it hard to apprehend; for they that live in the same evil nature and principle the Jews did, that crucified him outwardly, must needs crucify him inwardly; since they that reject the grace now in their own hearts, are one in stock and generation with the hardhearted Jews, that resisted the grace that then appeared in and by Christ. §. V. Sin is of one nature all the world over; for though a lyar is not a drunkard, nor a swearer a whore-monger, nor either properly a murderer; yet they are all of a church; all branches of the wicked root; all of a kin. They have but one father, the devil, as Christ said to the professing Jews, the visible church of that age: he slighted their pretensions to Abraham and Moses, and plainly told them, that he that committeth sin, was the servant of sin. They did the devil's works, and therefore were the devil's children. The argument will always hold upon the same reasons, and is Heb. vi. 6. Rev. xi. 8. Mat. xxvii. VOL. I. Y John viii. 34 to 45. therefore good still: "his servants you are, saith Paul, whom you obey:" and saith John to the church of old, "Let no man deceive you; he that committeth sin is of the devilf." Was Judas ever the better christian, for crying, “Hail, Master," and kissing Christ? By no means: they were the sig nal of his treachery; the token given, by which the bloody Jews should know and take him. He called him Master, but betrayed him; he kissed, but sold him to be killed: this is the upshot of the false christian's religion. If a man ask them, Is Christ your Lord? They will cry, God forbid else: yes, he is our Lord. Very well: but do you keep his commandments? No. How should we? How then are you his disciples? It is impossible, say they; what! would you have us keep his commandments? No man can. What! impossible to do that, without which Christ hath made it impossible to be a christian? Is Christ unreasonable? Does he" reap where he has not sown;" require where he has not enabled? Thus it is, that with Judas they call him Master, but take part with the evil of the world to betray him, and kiss and embrace him as far as specious profession goes; and then sell him, to gratify the passion that they most indulge. Thus, as God said of old, they make him serve with their sins and for their sins too. §. VI. "Let no man deceive his own soul; grapes are not gathered of thorns, nor figs of thistles:" a wolf is not a sheep, nor is a vulture a dove. What form, people, or church soever thou art of, it is the truth of God to mankind, that they who have even the form of godliness, but (by their unmortified lives) deny the power thereof, make not the true, but false church: which though she intitle herself. the lamb's bride, or church of Christ, she is that mystery, or mysterious Babylon, fitly called by the Holy Ghost, the mother of harlots, and all abominations'; because degenerated from christian chastity and purity, into all the enormities of heathen Babylon: a sumptuous city of old time, much noted for the seat of the kings of Babylon, and at that time the place in the world of greatest pride and luxury. As she was then, so mystical Babylon is now, the great enemy of God's people. §. VII. True it is, "they that are born of the flesh, hate and persecute them that are born of the spirit "," who are the circumcision in heart. It seems they cannot own, nor worship God after her inventions, methods and prescriptions, nor receive for doctrine her vain traditions, any more than they can comply with her corrupt fashions and customs in • Rom. vi. 16. 1 John iii. 7, 8. Mat. xxvi. 49. ' Rev. xvii. 5. h Mat. xxv. 24. m Gal. iv. 29. their conversation. The case being thus, from an apostate she becomes a persecutor. It is not enough that she herself declines from ancient purity, others must do so too. She will give them no rest, that will not partake with her in that degeneracy, or receive her mark. Are any wiser than she, than mother church? No, no: nor can any make war with the beast she rides upon, those worldly powers that protect her, and vow her maintenance against the cries of her dissenters. Apostacy and superstition are ever proud and impatient of dissent: all must conform, or perish". Therefore the slain witnesses, and blood of the souls under the altar, are found within the walls of this mystical Babylon, this great city of false christians, and are charged upon her by the Holy Ghost, in the revelation. Nor is it strange that she should slay the servants, who first crucified the Lord: but strange and barbarous too, that she should kill her husband, and murder her Saviour, titles she seems so fond of, and that have been so profitable to her; and that she would recommend herself by, though without all justice. But her children are reduced so entirely under the dominion of darkness, by means of their continued disobedience to the manifestation of the divine light in their souls, that they forget what man once was, or they should now be; and know not true and pure christianity when they meet it, yet pride themselves to profess it. Their measures are so carnal and false about salvation, they call good evil, and evil good: they make a devil a christian, and a saint a devil. So that though the unrighteous latitude of their lives be matter of lamentation, as to themselves it is of destruction; yet that common apprehension, that they may. be children of God while in a state of disobedience to his holy commandments; and disciples of Jesus, though they revolt from his cross; and members of his true church, which is without spot or wrinkle, notwithstanding their lives are full of spots and wrinkles; is, of all other deceptions upon themselves, the most pernicious to their eternal condition. For they are at peace in sin, and under a security in their transgression. Their vain hope silences their convictions, and over-lays all tender motions to repentance: so that their mistake about their duty to God, is as mischievous as their, rebellion against him. Thus they walk on precipices, and flatter themselves, till the grave swallows them up, and the judgment of the great God breaks the lethargy, and undeceives their poor wretched souls with the anguish of the wicked, as the reward of their work. " Rev. vi. 9. §. VIII. This has been, is, and will be the doom of all worldly christians: an end so dreadful, that if there were nothing of duty to God, or obligation to men, being a man, and one acquainted with the terrors of the Lord in the way and work of my own salvation, compassion alone were sufficient to excite me to this dissuasive against the world's superstitions and lusts, and to invite the professors of christianity to the knowledge and obedience of the daily cross of Christ, as the alone way, left by him, and appointed us to blessedness: that they who now do but usurp the name, may have the thing; and by the power of the cross, (to which they are now dead, instead of being dead to the world by it) may be made partakers of the resurrection that is in Christ Jesus, unto newness of life. For they that are truly in Christ, that is, redeemed by and interested in him, are new creatures. They have received a new will°, such as does the will of God, not their own. They pray in truth, and do not mockGod, when they say, "thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." They have new affections, such as are set on things above, and make Christ their eternal treasure. New faith, such as overcomes snares and temptations of the world's spirit in themselves, or as it appears through others: and lastly, new works, not of superstitious contrivance, or of human invention, but the pure fruits of the spirit of Christ working in them, as love, joy, peace, meekness, long-suffering, temperance, brotherlykindness, faith, patience, gentleness and goodness, against which there is no law; and they that have not this spirit of Christ, and walk not in it, the apostle Paul has told us, are none of his; but the wrath of God, and condemnation of the law, will lie upon them. For if there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit," which is Paul's doctrine; they that walk not according to that Holy Spirit, by his doctrine, are not in Christ: that is, have no interest in him, nor just claim to salvation by him: and consequently there is condemnation to such. §. IX. And the truth is, the religion of the wicked is a lye: "there is no peace," saith the prophet, "to the wicked"." Indeed there can be none, they are reproved in their own consciences, and condemned in their own hearts, in all their disobedience. Go where they will, rebukes go with them, and oftentimes terrors too: for it is an offended God that pricks them, and who, by his light, sets their sins in order before them. Sometimes they strive to appease him, by C V Gal. vi. 15. r Col. iii. 1, 2, 3. • Gal. v. 22, 25. Rom. viii. Isa. xlviii, 22. their corporal framed devotion and worship, but in vain; for true worshipping of God, is doing his will, which they transgress. The rest is a false compliment, like him that said he would go, and did not. Sometimes they fly to sports and company, to drown the reprover's voice, and blunt his arrows, to chase away troubled thoughts, and secure themselves out of the reach of the disquieter of their pleasures: but the Almighty first or last is sure to overtake them. There is no flying his final justice, for those that reject the terms of his mercy. Impeninent rebels to his law may then call to the mountains, and run to the caves of the earth for protection, but in vain: his all-searching eye will penetrate their thickest coverings, and strike up a light in that obscurity, which shall terrify their guilty souls; and which they shall never be able to extinguish. Indeed their accuser is with them, they can no more be rid of him, than of themselves; he is in the midst of them, and will stick close to them. That spirit which bears witness with the spirits of the just, will bear witness against theirs. Nay, their own hearts will abundantly come in against them; and, "If our heart condemn us," says the apostle John, "God is greater, and knows all things ":" that is, there is no escaping the judgments of God, whose power is infinite, if a man is not able to escape the condemnation of himself. It is at that day, proud and luxurious christians shall learn, that God is no respecter of persons; that all sects and names shall be swallowed up in these two kinds, sheep and goats, just and unjust and the very righteous must have a trial for it. Which made that holy man cry out, "If the righteous scarcely are saved, where shall the wicked and ungodly appear?" If their thoughts, words, and works must stand the test, and come under scrutiny before the impartial judge of heaven and earth, how then should the ungodly be exempted? No, we are told by him that cannot lye, many shall then even cry, "Lord, Lord;" set forth their profession, and recount the works that they have done in his name, to make him propitious, and yet be rejected with this direful sentence, "Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, I know you not*. As if he had said, Get you gone, you evil doers; though you have professed me, I will not know you: your vain and evil lives have made you unfit for my holy kingdom: get you hence, and go to the gods whom you have served; your beloved lusts, which you have worshipped, and the evil world that you have so much coveted and adored : let them save you now, if they can, from the wrath to come upon you, which is the wages of the deeds you have done. Here: 'Mat, xxi. 30. " 1 John iii. 20. 1 Pet. iv. 18. * Mat. vii. 23. |