1

the blaspheming of God and his church doth utter itself in all quarters of the city; and not of the city only, brethren, nor the infected neighbourhood of the city, but the whole country, which is regularly pervaded by the agents, and regularly served with the works of blasphemy. Oh! how gross, how shameless, how impious, are the blasphemies which are daily vending throughout this land; yea, and how close and frequent the intercommunication between this city and our neighbour capital; where blasphemy arose and reigned some thirty years ago! I am no terrorist, having faith in God, blessed be his Name! and, I trust, am not afraid of what man can do against me; but sore grieved in heart and spirit to see this characteristic of the perilous times beginning to be branded upon the face, and over the body of my native land. I have an indignation at it, and I wish to impart the same indignation to you: for to hear your speeches, one would think you pitied rather than hated the blasphemers of God; that you pitied their stripes and imprisonments, rather than rejoiced that the constitution of the land did still possess vigour and power enough to lay hold upon and chastise them. I have lived to hear a British house of commons receive a petition for the open toleration of blasphemy without a murmur. O God, restore the zeal of thy people for the honour of thy holy Name!

This is that blasphemy which all acknow

ledge, and from which the church will readily acquit herself: but I say she cannot acquit herself, while those who utter it are not excommunicated from her body. Those churches, whoever they be, which baptized these loud and large blasphemers of the name of God, whose mouth is set against the heavens, and their tongue walketh abroad over the whole earth, and which suffer them to go on without any sentence of excommunication pronounced against them, are in the sight of God guilty of all these acts, and for them do suffer the loss of his Spirit and the hidings of his countenance.

But there are two other kinds of blasphemy, which in the sight of God are hardly less hateful: the one the Papal blasphemy, and the other the Arian, Socinian, and Unitarian. The former I regard as a blasphemy, by the authority of many texts. texts. In the first place, in the viith of Daniel, the fourth beast, because of the voice of the great words which the little horn spake, " is slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." And what short of the most daring blasphemy could bring such a direful judgment, I know not. Secondly, in 2 Thess. ii. 4, that wicked one is declared to sit as God in the temple of God, "shewing himself that he is God." And if that be not blasphemy, I know not what it is. But, thirdly, in Rev. xiii. 6, he is said to open" his mouth in blasphemy against God; to blaspheme his Name, and

his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven." Now, of this blasphemy our fathers did effectually close the mouth within this land, by fighting against it with preaching, and secured the ground they made by a series of enactments establishing the church in this land to be a Protestant church until the Lord should come. But we have imbibed a great pity of these blasphemers, and a fellow-feeling with them, and a desire to loose their mouths, and give them unrestrained law; which ariseth, they allege, from a desire to destroy the blasphemy: but, so far as I can judge, it ariseth from an ear grown very dull and insensible to the horrid blasphemies which are uttered. It is a blasphemy-enduring ear which makes our statesmen and our churchmen and our dissenters so ready to take part with these destroyers of the earth. And if this do not fasten a direct charge of blasphemy upon us, it fasteneth the indirect charge of taking part with the blasphemer, of aiding and abetting him in his blasphemous work.

Again, that every form of the Arian heresy is a direct blasphemy against God's name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, no one who understands the nature of blasphemy will doubt. Surely it is blasphemy to say that a Person of the adorable Godhead is a mere man, that the Lord of all is only a creature, and that the Christ hath no power to anoint, the Holy Ghost no virtue of a holy unction.

If these things be not blasphemous, then was it no blasphemy for Christ, if he had been but a man, to call himself God: and if this be not blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, I know not what it is. Now behold how these blasphemers have multiplied amongst us within the last thirty or forty years, and how they have defined and embittered the terms of their blasphemy against the Holy Trinity; and behold how they are endured and tolerated in the high places of the nation, and how our orthodox Dissenters join hands with them in seeking to obtain what they call their civil rights. If it be not a toleration of blasphemers thus to go hand in hand with them, I know not what is. If this do not betoken an ear dull and insensible to the sting of blasphemy, I know not what doth. And if, after this threefold manifestation, any one can doubt that this feature of the last times is realizing itself amongst us no less than the preceding ones, that we are falling more and more from the jealous reverence of God's name, and coalescing with them who have blasphemed it, dipping more and more towards the primitive blasphemy of Antichrist, and harbouring within Christendom more and more stark and strong blasphemers; if this point be not as fully made out as any of the preceding ones, then I forego my faculty of discernment and capacity of demonstration.

Now the question ariseth, how shall we be

defended from this strong inclination of the times in which we live? And the answer is, By a most devout hatred, burning zeal, and wise exercise of all our gifts against these three classes of blasphemers with whom the church swarmeth; most devoutly praying for their downfal and destruction, most diligently seeking by all lawful means to impede and withstand and beat them back. I must perform a good service against them in preaching, you in hearing and believing and witnessing and acting. Nor need you seek occasions: most plentiful occasions shall you find everywhere; for the land swarmeth with the indulgers of blasphemy in some one, if not in all, of these three forms. And in order to suffer in your reputation as a man of good sense and feeling, you have but to signify your dissent from the patient indulgers of all manner of blasphemy. And if you be a stout and valiant soldier for the righteous name of God, you will have plenty of zealots ready to contend with you by all means for the liberty of the subject to blaspheme in what way, and to what extent, he pleaseth. Therefore stand forth, and be men for God; gird you like men, and be strong; for many be those who are confederated against his holy Name.

This much lies ready to your hand in the way of resistance and contradiction; and there is yet a better way, the way of positive and real