inconceivable glory, do we profess to expect with God unto eternity, and what manner of persons should they be, in all holy conversation and godliness, that look for such a life as this! How basely should they esteem those transitory things, that are the food and felicity of the sensual world! How patiently should they undergo contempt and scorn, and whatsoever man can inflict upon them! How studiously should they devote and refer all their time, and strength, and wealth, and interest, to this their glorious, blessed end! How seriously should they speak of, and how industriously should they seek, such sure, such near, such endless joys! Did professed Christians more exactly conform their hearts and lives to their profession and holy rule, their lives would confute the reproaches of their enemies, and command a reverent and awful estimation from the observers; and do more to convince the unbelieving world of the truth and dignity of the Christian faith, than all the words of the most subtle disputants. Christianity being an affecting practical science, must practically and affectionately be declared, according to its nature: arguments do but paint it out: and pictures do no more make known its excellency, than the picture of meat and drink makes known its sweetness. When a doctrine so holy, is visibly exemplified, and liveth, and walketh, and worketh in serious Christians before the world; either this or nothing will convince them, and constrain them to glorify our Lord, and say, that God is among us, or in us of a truth. But it is unchristian lives, that darkeneth the glory of the Christian faith. When men that profess such glorious hopes, shall be as sordidly earthly, and sensual, and ambitious, and impotent, and impatient as other men, they seem but fantastical dissemblers.

And yet shall there be found such a perfidious wretch under the heavens of God, as a professed Minister of Christ, that shall subtlely or openly labour to make an exact, and holy, and heavenly conversation a matter of reproach and scorn, and that under pretence of reproving the sins of hypocrites and schismatics, shall make the most exact conformity to the Christian rule, and most faithful obedience to the almighty Sovereign, to seem to be but hypocrisy or self-conceitedness, or needless trouble, if not the way of sedition,

Matt. v. 16. 1 Cor. xiv. 25.

and public trouble, and turning all things upside-down? That cannot reprove sin, without malicious, insinuating slanders or suspicions against the holy law, and holy life, that are most contrary to sin, as life to death, as health to sickness, and as light to darkness?

For any man, especially any professed Christian, any where to oppose or scorn at godliness, is a dreadful sign, as well as a heinous sin; but for a Preacher of Godliness to oppose and scorn at godliness, and that in the pulpit, while he pretendeth to promote it, and plead for it in the name of Christ, is a sin that should strike the heart of man with horror to conceive of.

Though I cannot subscribe myself to that passage in the second part of the tenth Homily, Tom. 2. p. 150. (however I very much love and honour the Book of Homilies) yet for their sakes that not only can subscribe to it, but would have all kept out of the ministry that cannot, and that take it for that doctrine of the church of England which they will believe and preach, I will recite it to the terror of the guilty, not to drive to despair, but to awake them, or to shame them for their opposition to the ways of godliness.

Expounding Psalm i. 1. "Blessed is the man that hath not walked after the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful," having shewed who are the" ungodly" and the " sinners," it addeth these words:

"The third sort he calleth scorners; that is, a sort of men whose hearts are so stuffed with malice, that they are not contented to dwell in sin, and to lead their lives in all kind of wickedness, but also they do contemn and scorn in others all godliness, true religion, all honesty and virtue. Of the two first sorts of men, I will not say, but they may take repentance, and be converted unto God. Of the third sort, I think I may without danger of God's judgment pronounce, that never any yet were converted unto God by repentance, but continued still in their abominable wickedness, heaping up to themselves damnation against the day of God's inevitable judgment."

Though I dare not say, but some such have repented, yet let the scorners that believe this, remember, that they subscribe the sentence of their own condemnation.

Though I look upon this sort of the enemies of holiness as those that are as unlikely to be recovered and saved, as almost any people in the world, except apostates and malicious blasphemers of the Holy Ghost, yet in compassion to the people and themselves, I shall plead the cause of God with their consciences, and try what light can do with their understandings, and the terrors of the Lord with their hardened hearts.

If

1. A Preacher of the Gospel should much excel the people in understanding: and therefore this sin is greater in them than other men: what means, what light do they sin against! Either thou knowest the necessity of striving for salvation with the greatest diligence, or thou dost not. not, what a sin and shame is it to undertake the sacred office of the ministry, while thou knowest not the things that are necessary to salvation, and that which every infant in the faith doth know! But if thou dost know it, how dost thou make shift maliciously to oppose it, without feeling the beginnings of hell upon thy conscience? When it is thy work to read the Scriptures, and meditate on them, dost thou not read thy doom, and meditate terror? How canst thou choose but perceive that the scope of the word of God is contrary to the bent of thy affections and suggestions? Yea, what is more evident by the light of nature, than that God and salvation cannot be regarded with too much holy seriousness, exactness and industry? Should not the best things be best loved; and the greatest matters have our greatest care? And is there any thing to be compared with God and our eternal state? O what overwhelming subjects are these to a sober and considerate mind! What toys are all things in comparison of them! And yet dost thou make light of them, and also teach men so to do; as if there were something else that better deserved men's greatest care and diligence than they? What! a Preacher, and not a Believer! Or a Believer, and yet not see enough in the matters of eternity to engage all our powers of soul and body against all the world that should stand in competition!

2. Is it not sinful and terrible enough, to be thyself in a carnal, unrenewed state; and to be without the Spirit and life of Christ; but thou must be so cruel as to make others z Rom. i. 9.

y Rom. i. 13.

miserable also?

"But to the wicked, saith God, what hast thou to do to declare my statutes? or that thou shalt take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee a ?" Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach the same, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven "."

b

3. What an aggravation is it of thy impiety and soulmurder, that thou art bound by office to teach men that life of holiness which thou opposest; and to persuade them to that with all thy might, which thou endeavourest closely and cunningly to disgrace! And wilt thou be a traitor to Christ in the name of a Messenger and Preacher of the Gospel? Wilt thou engage thyself to promote his interest, and to use all thy skill and power to build men up in holiness and obedience; and when thou hast done this, wilt thou disgrace and hinder it? Dost thou take on thee to go on the message of Christ, and then speak against him? We do not find that Judas dealt thus with him: when he sent him as he did other preachers, we read not that he preached against him. O let not my soul be numbered with such men in the day of the Lord! It will be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for the refusers of the word and grace of Christ. What then will be the doom of the opposers! And above all of those treacherous opposers, that pretend themselves to propagate and promote them!

If the wit and malice of satan's instruments were sharpened against the ways and servants of the Lord, it belongs to you to plead Christ's cause, and shame these absurd, unreasonable gainsayers, and stop the mouth of impious contradiction: and will you join with gainsayers, and secretly or openly say as they? Who should confound the deriders of a holy life but you? Who should lay open the excellencies of Christ, the glory of heaven, the terrors of the Lord, and all other obligations to the most serious religiousness, but you that have undertaken it as your calling and employment? If any man in the parish were so atheistical and brutish, as to think God unworthy of our dearest love, our most exact obedience, and most laborious service, who should a Psal.1.16, 17. b Matt. v. 19.

display this atheist's folly, but you that are doubly (as Christians and ministers) obliged to defend the honour of your Lord? If any of the people should fall into such a dream or dotage, as to question the necessity of our utmost diligence in our preparations for eternal life, who should awake them by lifting up their voices as a trumpet, and help to recover their understandings, but you that are the watchmen, and know their blood will be required at your hands, if you give them not loud and timely warning? If any subtle, malicious servant of the devil, should plead against the necessity of holiness, and dissuade the people from serving God with all their might, who should be ready to confirm the weak, and strengthen and encourage them that are thus assaulted, and help to keep up their zeal and forwardness, but you that are leaders in the army of the Lord? Is it not a holy God that you are engaged to serve? and a holy church in which you have your station? and a communion of saints in which you have undertaken to administer the holy things of God? Have you not read what was done to Nadab, and Abihu, when Moses told Aaron, "This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before the people I will be glorified." Is it not a holy law and Gospel which you publish? You have undertaken to warn the slothful, the sensual, the worldly, and the profane," that they strive to enter in at the strait gate, and seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," and to give diligence to make sure their calling and election," and to "give all diligence in adding virtue to their faith," and "with all diligence to keep their hearts." And are you the men that would quench their zeal, and destroy the holy diligence which you should preach? The Lord touch your hearts, and recover you in time, or how woful will it be with such hardened hypocrites, that in the light, and in his family and livery, and under his standard and colours, dare prove traitors and enemies to the Lord.

4. And what an addition is it to speak against God in his own name? deliver his message, and speak to the and in his stead.

c Lev. x. 3.
f 2 Pet. i. 5.

your guilt, that you By office you are to people in his name,

And dare you before the sun, and under

d Luke xiii. 24. Matt. vi. 33.
Prov. iv. 23.

e 2 Pet. i. 10.

h2 Cor. v. 19, 20.