you pretend to be Chriftians, and yet are not Profeffors of Holinefs, and think you have a Difpenfation from fuch a walking in God, and after Chrift, you fall under a twofold Contradiction, and commit a twofold Lie: First, Between your Profeffion and Practice; then in your Prefeffion itself: Your Practice is directly

pretend to Chriftianity in general, and is a Chriftian, he really fays that he hath to an Intereft in Salvation, but if we de- Fellowship with God; if any Man fay, fcend into the chief Parts and Members of he is a Chriftian, he fays he hath FellowChristianity, as Holiness, Fellowship with fhip with Chrift, and is Partaker of his SpiGod, walking after the Spirit, and fuch rit; for as the Apoftle, Rom. viii. 9. delike, these they do not fo much as pretend clares unto you, If any bave not the Spirit to; and withal, think they have a Difpen- of Chrift he is none of bis; that is, he is fation from fuch Strictness, and make it a no Chriftian. For what is it, I pray you, to fufficient Plea that they are not fuch, be- be a Chriftian? Is it not to be a new Creacause they never profeffed to be fuch:ture, formed again by the Spirit of Chrift? Others again, though fewer, can pretend 2 Cor. v. 17. Therefore in as far as even to thefe higher Points of Chriftianity, as Communion with God, walking af ter the Spirit, and indeed in this they are more confonant to their Profeffion of Chriftianity But, as the Apoftle faith, there may be a practical Lie in it too, if we confider and compare their Practice with their Profeffion. I would fpeak a Word by way of Pre-crofs to the very general Profeffion of paration to you who are of the first Sort, that is the very Multitude of Profeffing Chriftians, because you do not profefs fo much as others, and do not give out your felves for the Students of Holiness,you think your felves exempted from the Stroak of all this Soul-piercing Doctrine; you think readily, it is not pertinent to apply this to you, of walking contrary to your Profef fion, and fo committing this grofs Lie, in not doing the Truth. If any fay I have Fellowship with God, &c. And who will fay that? fay ye. Who will fpeak fuch a high Word of himself as this? Therefore fince you do not presume fo high, you think you have escaped the Cenfure that follows.

But I beseech you, confider what your Profeffions if port, and what you ingage your felves to, even by the general Profeffion of Christianity. I know you will all fay you are Chriftians, and hope to be faved. Now do ye understand what is included in that, if any Man fay, that he

Christianity. But befides that, there is a Contradiction in the Bofom of your Profeffion; you affirm you are Chriftians, and yet refufe the Profeffion of Holiness; you fay ye hope for Heaven, and yet do not fo much as pretend to Godliness, and walking fpiritually. Nay, these you difjoin in your Profeffion, which are really one, without which the Name of Chriftianity is an empty, vain, and ridiculous Appellation. There must be then a great Darkness of Misapprehenfion in your Minds, that you take on the Name of Chriftians, and will not know what it imports; and therefore in the mean Time, you profefs that which deftroys and annul's your former Profeffion. Now certainly, this is a groffer Lie,a flatter Contradiction, than it needs much Enquiry into, to find it out. It is fo plapable, that I wonder that thefe very common and received Principles of Truth, do not rife up within, to teftifie against it: For if ye do not own the Profeffion of Holiness and Com

Calumnies thefe practical Lies caft upon the Honour of your Chriftian Calling, how they tend of their own Nature, to the difgracing of the Truth, and the blafpheming of God's Name. Thefe Things ye would find, if ye would rip up your own Hearts and Ways, and if you found how great that Lie is, you could not but fear the Danger of it; for

it being no lefs then a denying of Jefus Chrift, and a real Abrenunciation of him, it puts you without the Refuge of Sinners, and is most likely to keep you without the bleffed City, for there fhall in no ways enter therein any Thing that defileth, or maketh a Lie, Rev. xxi. 27. What fhall then become of them whofe Life all alongs is but one continued Lie.

SERMON XIJI

1 Job. i. 6. If we say that we have Fellowship with him, and walk in Darkness, we lie, &c.

THA

feffion of Chriftianity: This is to make Religion a monftruous Thing, to deny the Nature of it, and in our Imaginations to contrive an impoffible Union of incon

HAT which is the Sum of Religion, Sincerity, and a Correfpondency betweeen Profeffion and Practice, that is confirmed by Reason, and much ftrengthned by Nature it felf; fo that Re-fiftent Things. It is a Creature made up ligion, Reason, and Nature, confpire in one, to hold out the Beauty and Comlinefs of Sincerity, and to put a Note and Character of Infamy and Deformity upon all Hypocrifie and Deceit,. efpecially in the Matters of Religion. There is nothing fo contrary to Religion, as a falfe Appearance, a Shew of that which is not: For Religion is a moft intire and equable Thing, like it felf, harmonious in all the Parts of it, the fame within and without, in Expreffion and Action, all Correfpon dent together. Now to marr this Harmony, and to make it up of unequal, diffimilar Parts, and to make one Part give the Lie to the other, the Courfe of a Man's Life, in Ignorance, Negligence, and Sin, proclaiming contrary to the Pro

of Contradictions, which can have no Subfiftence in the Truth, but only in the Fancies of deluded Souls; one profeffing Chriftianity, and fo by Confequence Fellowship with the original Light, the Sun of Righteousness, and yet Darkness of Ignorance poffeffing the Mind, and the Heart carried away in the Ways of the Lufts of Ignorance, and walking in that Darknefs; this is a Monster in Chri tianity, one fo far mishappen, that the very outward Form and Visage of it doth not remain. But I told you, Reafon confirms this, for what more fuitable to the very natural Frame and Constitution of a reasonable Being, than that the outward Man fhould be the Image and Expreffion of the inward, and that they fhould Ggg

anfwer

anfwer one. another, as Face anfwers, Face in the Water; that the Tongue hould be the Interpreter of the Mind, and the Actions of a Man's Life the Imterpreter of his Tongue. Here is that beautiful Proportion, and that pleafing Harmony, when all thefe, though different in their own Nature, yet conjoin together, and make up one fweet Concord. Now truly, if we take upon us the Profeffion of Chriftianity, and yet our ordinary and habitual Speeches are carnal and earthly, never falted with Grace, often poifoned with Blafphemies, Oaths and Curlings, and often defiled with filthy Speeches, and often intermingled with Reproaches of others; if our Converfation be conformed to the Courfe of the World, according to these Lufts that hurry away Multitudes of Mankind to Perdition, and look to the Heart within, and behold never any Labour about the purifying of it from Corruption, never any Mortification of evil Affections, and little or no Knowledge of the Truth, not fo much as may let Chrift into the Soul: This, I fay, is as unreasonable and abfurd, as it is irreligious: It wholly perverts that beautiful Order, makes an irreconcileable Difcord between all the Parts in Man, that neither Mind, nor Mouth, nor Hands anfwer one another, nor all of them, or any of them answer that holy Calling a Man pretends to. Such a one pretends ordinarily the Goodnefs of his Heart towards God, but now the Tongue cannot interpret the Heart, it is exauctorated out of that natural Office, for the ordinary Current is contrary to that pretended Goodnefs of the Heart; For a good Man, out of the good Treasure of his Heart, fend etb forth good Things, but all thefe are either Evil, or never feafoned with that fpiritual Goodness. Then the Ways and

Actions of a Man's Life, which ought to interpret and expound his Profeffions, thefe are rendered altogether incapable of that, they give no Confirmation to them, but rather a manifest Contradiction, for what are your multiplied Oaths, Drunkenneffes, Fornications, Railings, Contentious, Lyings, Sabbath-profanations? Your woful Neglect of Prayer in fecret, and in your Families, your continuing in thefe Evils that ever you walked into; what are they, I fay, but a manifeft Violation of both Religion and Reason, and a clear Confirmation that ye are Liers, and the Truth is not in you?

There is fomething even in Nature to declare the Abfurdity and Unnatura Inefs of this general Discordance between Mens Profeffion and Practice. Look upon all the Creatures, and do they not all with one Voice proclaim Sincerity? Hath not every Beaft, and every Bird its own outward Shape, outward Gefture, and Voice, and external Workings, which declare the inward Nature of it? And is not this a ftaple-known Rule in Nature, that every Thing is known by the Effects of it? A Lion by his roaring, a Lark by its finging, à Horfe by his neighing, and an Ox by his lowing, &c. All these fpeak forth nothing but Sincerity, in fo much, that if thefe Marks and Signs fhould be confounded, and Beafts ufe them indifferently, all human Knowledge fhould fuddenly fall to nothing, this would put fuch a Confufion, both in the World and Mankind. O, how doth this condemn thofe who pretend to this high Calling of Chriftianity? and yet there is no Way left to difcern them by, nothing appearing in them, and ordinarily proceeding from them, which may give a Signification of the inward Truth of their Fellowship

with