things that could have induced me to be at all a SERM. III. Christian, should alfo have induced me to be a true Chriftian. For there can be For there can be no reafon brought that a man fhould be a Christian in profeffion, but the fame reason will be equally conclufive that he fhould be one in reality, and in truth. And therefore, when reafon, judgement, confcience and profeffion, go together and are all on one fide, how miferably exposed and naked is such a person, who does not fall in cordially with GOD, in a way of holiness, because he will not! It is with them as with the Jews to whom our LORD fays, Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life".

(3.) Ir must be the more provoking, because there is hypocrify in this conjunction. It cannot be without hypocrify, that a man should lead a wicked life, and yet profefs the true religion, It is very true, it looks like a very grofs fort of hypocrify, that perfons fhould profefs religion, and yet lead fuch lives as are vifibly abominable. It is not indeed of the finer fort of hypocrify;" but by how much the groffer it is, by fo much the more infolent it is. The affront is the greater, that a man fhould fin even in the face of heaven itfelf, and commit fuch wickednefs as all the world will cry fhame of, and this under the cloak of profeffion. Again,

(4.) THERE is most perfidious falfhood, and treachery in fuch a conduct; and therefore it must be the more provoking. For, in this cafe,

II.

VOL. men not only fin againft law, fince all fin is againft law, for where there is no law there is no tranfgreffion, but against the covenant too. They who profefs to know GOD, as we have faid again and again, profefs to be Chriftians. If fuch therefore lead wicked and immoral lives, they fin as well against the covenant as the law; and in their way of finning, there is treachery both against Chrift, and the GOD of heaven.

THE Covenant betwixt GoD and his people, who are vifibly related to him, is illuftrated in Scripture by the marriage contract. And those who break it, GOD threatens he will judge, as they who break wedlock are judged, with fury and jealoufy P. Now jealousy is allowed to be the most fervent of all the paffions; and diftinguished from common wrath and anger, even by this peculiar confideration in the object, the being thus related. And it is obfervable in what ftyle he speaks afterward. Having difcarded his people and cast them off, that they should be no longer related to him; then, fays he, I will make my fury towards thee to reft, and my jealoufy fhall depart from thee, that is, to ceafe for ever. Thus we see the relation being diffolved, they are no longer the objects of jealoufy. Indeed while they continue a profeffing people there is a visible relation, and confequently they are objects of jealoufy; but when the injured party has fufficiently vindicated himself, this vindictive paffion ceases; and whatever an

Rom. IV. 15.

P Ezek. xvi. 38. ver. 42.

ger

ger and refentment may remain, it is jealoufy no SER M longer. Again,

(5.) THEY who join a religious profeffion and wicked practices together most highly provoke GOD; because they fin with the higheft indignity against God, against Chrift, and the religion which they profefs. And it is very plain that they do so, in as much as herein they both mock GOD, and mifreprefent him. They mock his fovereignty, and mifreprefent his holiness. It is a plain mockery to him, as he is the ruler of the world. For men to profefs to know God, to own him as their God, and yet visibly to affront him by the most infolent wickednefs; what is this like, but putting on the purple robe, and saying, hail master! and spitting in his face at the fame time? It is in a cafe fimilar to this, namely, that of a man's reaping according to what he fows, that the Apostle warns Christians not to deceive themselves. For fays he, Be not deceived, GOD is not mocked; for whatsoever a man foweth, that shall be alfo reap, intimating that they would be greatly deceived, if they expected to reap the reward of eternal life.

MOREOVER, fuch a conduct is a horrid mifrepresentation of GOD, particularly as to his holiness; as if he was one who could dispense with his injunctions to men of being really holy, and fincerely good, and be fatisfied instead thereof with appearances, with mere fhew and pretence. A most odious reprefentation of GOD, as if he C 4

were

Ili.

Gal. v 1. 7.

II.

VOL. were like the impure deities of the pagan world! You fee with what feverity he himself speaks in a cafe like this; Take heed, fays he, left there fhould be among you a man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whofe hearts turn away from the LORD their GOD-left there be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood: And it come to pass when he beareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, faying; I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine beart, to add drunkenness to thirst: The LORD will not spare him ; but then the anger of the LORD, and-bis jealousy shall smoke against that man; and all the curfes, that are written in the book, fhall lie upon him; and the LORD fhall blot his name out from under heaven. Obferve here the proyoking thing, on which the emphasis is put, It is that a man fhould walk in a vain course of wickedness, and yet bless himself in his heart, and fay, "I fhall have peace for all this." Provoking it must be, because it is a horrid, reproachful mifreprefentation of the most holy Gop; as if he intended to be a patron of wickedness, or as if it were indifferent to GOD how men lived, or all one to him whether they were righteous or wicked. "And does the finner

indeed think fo? I will make him pay dearly for the thought! All the peace and satisfaction "that he has taken in that thought, or enjoyed in that delufive dream, fhall coft him dear! " for

Deut. xxix. 18, 19, 20.

"for because of this fhall my jealousy smoke SERM. "against him."

(6.) To join profeffion with fuch a wicked practice, is to make that very profeffion itself a lye; and a lye, in this cafe, cannot but have high provocation in it, if you confider these things.

ift, In the first place, it is a lye to Him who knows it to be fo. He is an impudent lyar indeed, who tells a lye to a person, whilst he himfelf is fenfible that fuch perfon knows he lyes. To come and hold forth fuch an appearance so flagrantly contradicted, to One fo wife and incapable of being deceived as GoD is; what can be more provoking? and therefore you find that this is mentioned as the aggravating circumftance of the crime of Ananias and Saphira; that they yed to the Holy Ghoft, whofe eye could clearly fee through every difguife. Again,

2dly, To lye in this cafe muft needs be very provoking, in as much as it carries in it an implicit denial of the omniscience of God; that is, by fuch a conduct I fpeak or do that, which is equivalent to fuch denial. I do indeed by my profeffion declare my belief, that God fees all things, and that to him nothing can be fecret but at the fame time by my life and converfation, I do more strongly declare that he neither fees nor knows. And what is this but to deny Go to be what he is? It is, as it were, as much as in me lies, to ftrike out the eye of the DEITY. Tufh! He does not know, neither is there know

ledge

III.