of it, before it be all changed, like a vesture-or rather, shall I say, that their punishment may be enhanced the more, for setting their affections upon the creature's weakness and bondage, instead of looking forward and praying for the creature's emancipation, deliverance, and glory? Much more could I say concerning that love of pleasure under the guise of godliness, which hath won the mastery of this self-indulgent and luxurious society called the Religious World: out of which I would summon every man who would be a man of war for Christ, and do exploits against the enemy; for certes there is such a mixture of contraries, such a truce between the world and the church, and such an indecision of principles, insufficiency of knowledge, and feebleness of action, there prevailing, that I augur no good from that encampment, when the heat of the campaign ariseth, and the enemy beginneth to be felt: unto whom the Lord seems to speak as he spoke to Gideon of old:-"The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead and there returned of the people twenty and two thousand, and there remained ten thousand. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall' not go. So he brought down the people unto the water and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with hist tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped, putting their hands to their mouth, were three hundred men but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped, will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place. So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent; and retained those three hundred men." But, I confess, there is another form of this hypocrisy, which lately hath sprung up, that strikes me as the most barefaced of all; and the acceptance which it received from the religious people, is to me a proof that hypocrisy is the order of the day: I refer to the spirit of respect for religion which was manifested of late upon the occasion of the London University, and the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, by men who had been notorious all their lives for the neglect and contempt, not to say open defiance and steady opposition, of religion: but all of a sudden they become the guardians of religious purity and liberty of conscience! 'Religion,' say they; ah yes! dear brethren, religion is too holy a thing to be meddled with by a university, or by the government of a country. Fain would we see it flourish, and fain would we promote its weal; but we have too much respect for it, to meddle with its sanctity, and therefore we leave it to itself!' Upon which the people shout, "It is the voice of a god." And, again, the men who have been administering the sacrament to all comers during all the years of their ministry; and the men who have such a reverence for the sacrament as, perhaps, not to have partaken of it for many years, if ever at all, and to whom certainly I would sooner lose my right hand than administer it, until they mended their manners and wholly changed their way of life; yet all of a sudden do these clergymen and laymen, seized with the spirit of hypocrisy tenfold, cry out, 'Oh, how holy is the sacrament! and what an awful profanation of it has been going on in the land! Let us be guiltless of this: for the time to come; and rather let us choose magistrates who are atheists or deists, than sin thus against the holy ordinance of God!' and straightway the hypocrisy-approving religionists call them their liberators, their deliverers, their best friends, entertaining them with festal banquets, and honouring them to occupy the chair at their religious meetings! Oh, what hyprocrisy ! what countenance of hypocrisy ! Truly, O Lord, we have forgotten thee: we have put our trust in thine enemies, and we are confederate with those that are confederate against thee and against thine Anointed. Yet is it of thy mercies that we are permitted to reveal our wickedness in these hideous forms, to the end, that, being warned of the abounding iniquity, no longer concealed, we may separate ourselves from such deceitful and deceived men, and join ourselves unto "Him who is faithful and true," and who will be unto his people for a Refuge in the day of these judgments and in the day of our fearful calamity. IMPROVEMENT OF THE WHOLE ADDRESSED, I. TO THE CHURCH; II. TO THE STATE; AND, III. TO MY OWN FLOCK. WE have thus endeavoured patiently to point out the various forms of hypocrisy which this spirit of the latter times assumeth; directing our chief attention to the most zealous and lively portion of the church, upon the principle, that whatever is most precious is most worthy to be guarded against the designs of the adversary. I fear, indeed, that all which can be spoken to them in this strain of suspicion and warning, especially by one who is no favourite or idol of theirs, will chance to fail of obtaining a hearing, much more an assent, from the Religious World; which certainly has this distinction above all other sects or parties in the church, and I may say in Protestant Christendom, at any time, that they are the most under the spirit reproved by our Lord in these words, "How can ye believe which seek honour one of another!" and reproved by Isaiah in these words, quoted by our Lord, Their fear of me is taught by the 66 |