Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." There is no way of recommending ourselves to the favour of God our judge, but that of righteousness; we must obey his precepts, or we shall never become entitled to our reward. When our Lord was giving a brief summary of christian duty, we find him thus saying: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." In which words he hath inculcated two points of the highest consequence, the unity of God and the love of our brethren; and within the limits of these two precepts he hath couched the sum and substance of the law and of the prophets. But now what regard can he be thought to have for that unity and love, who in the heat of his mad dissention tears the very bowels of the church asunder, makes havoc of her faith, * Our author's words are, Præceptis ejus & monitis obtemperandum est, ut accipiant merita nostra mercedem. He had said before in book 3, to Quirinus, section 4. (In nullo gloriandum quando nostrum nihil sit,) that we are to boast of nothing, as having nothing which we can properly call our own; nothing but what we received from God. So that God crowns his own work when he rewards our obedience. confounds her peace, and profanes her most solemn mysteries? 13. This evil, my beloved brethren, had a very early root; but now it hath attained a marvellous growth, and heresy and schism have spread their poison far and near; for thus indeed the Holy Spirit of God, by the mouth of an apostle, hath foretold it should be towards the end of the world. "In the last days (saith he) perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good; traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts; ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith; but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their's also was." This, in every part of it, we may now observe fulfilled; and as the end of the world is now approaching towards us, both men and things are brought to their proper tests. As the rage of our great adversary increaseth more and more against us, we grow more and more apt to be misled by error, to be elated with an ignorant and vain conceit, to be inflamed against each other with envy, to be blinded with lust, to be corrupted by a spirit of profaneness, to be puffed up with pride, to be provoked by mutual dissentions, and to be made outrageous by wrath and resentment. We, however, should not be moved from our own constancy, nor disturbed in our minds upon observing that others are false to the trust reposed in them; but our faith should rather be strengthened, upon finding that the event of things doth so exactly answer the prediction of them. As some have, in the worst sense, proved themselves to be what it was foretold they should be, so the rest of our brethren should thence beware of being like them, our Lord having given us beforehand a proper warning to that purpose; "Take ye heed, saith he, behold I have foretold you all things." Avoid, then, I beseech you, the men of this disposition; hearken not to their pernicious discourses, but fly from them as you would from the rankest infection; for the apostle hath warned us to this purpose where he observes that "evil communications corrupt good manners." Our Lord hath directed us also to withdraw ourselves from such men, telling us, that " they be blind leaders of the blind; and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." 14. Thus Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, who claimed to themselves a right of sacrificing in opposition to Moses and to Aaron the priest, were punished from heaven for their impious presumption; the earth burst asunder and opened her mouth, and the enormous gap which was made by the ground thus cleft, swallowed them up alive. Nor did the wrath of God Almighty stop in that instance at the first authors of schism, but a fire went out from the Lord and consumed, with a speedy vengeance, the two hundred and fifty men who had joined with them in their sacrilegious and mad attempt. In which example we have this admonition and intimation fairly given us, that whatsoever shall be attempted against the ordinances of God, by the wickedness and rashness of men, will be construed as an affront intended and offered to God himself. Thus when king Uzziah would not hearken to Azariah the priest, but would needs offer incense against his consent, and notwithstanding his intreaties to him to desist, the anger of God overtook him, and his forehead became leprous. And thus likewise it fared with the sons of Aaron, who offered strange fire, which the Lord commanded them not, for they died immediately before the Lord. 15. It should not, my beloved brethren, be matter of surprise to any one to observe that some, even of the confessors themselves are led by the influence of example to fall into like enormities. How For the confession of Christ, in a dangerous juncture, doth by no means exempt any man from the snares of the devil, nor will our present state admit of our being privileged under any circumstances, from the common temptations and incursions of our ghostly enemy; and, indeed, if indefectible virtue were a gift allotted to such a confession, we should never have so much reason, as we often have, to lament the manifold stains contracted afterwards by those who have made it. great or how esteemable soever any confessor may be, 'tis certain he is neither greater, nor better, nor in higher account with God than Solomon was; who yet retained the favour which he had with God no longer than whilst he continued walking in his ways; which as soon as he forsook, he lost the favour thereupon depending; and so we find it written, that "the Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon." For which reason the following caution is upon record: "Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." This, now, was a danger which our Lord would surely not have suggested, nor in any manner intimated, that the crown of righteousness could be ever forfeited, unless, upon the loss of that righteousness, the loss of the crown had followed as a necessary consequence! Indeed, the confession of Christ, in critical emergencies, is only one step towards glory; but it hath by no means yet earned its crown: There is a proper degree of |