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Do we count him a wife man, who is wife in any thing but in his own proper profeffion and employment; wife for every body but himself; who is ingenious to contrive his own mifery, and to do himself a mifchief, but is dull and ftupid as to the defigning of any real benefit and advantage to himself? Such a one is he, who is ingenious in his calling, but a bad Chriftian; for Chriftianity is more our proper calling and profeffion, than : the very trades we live upon: and fuch is every finner,. who is wife to do evil, but to da good hath no understanding.

Is it wisdom in any man, to neglect and difoblige him who is his best friend, and can be his forest enemy? or with one weak troop, to go out to meet him that comes against him with thousands of thoufands? to fly a finall danger, and run upon a greater? Thus does every wicked man that neglects and. contemns God, who can fave or deftroy him; who ftrives with his maker, and provoketh the Lord to jealoufy, and, with the fmall and inconfiderable forces of a man, takes the field against : the mighty God, the Lord of hofts; who fears them that can kill the body, but after that have no more that they can da; but fears not him, who, after he hath killed, can deftroy both body and foul in hell. And thus does he who, for fear of any thing in this world, ventures to displease God for in fo doing, he runs away from men, and falls into the hands of the living God; he flies from a temporal danger, and leaps into hell...

Is not he an imprudent man, who, in matters of great-eft moment and concernment, neglects opportunities ne- ver to be retrieved; who ftanding upon the fhore, and i feeing the tide making hafte towards him apace, and $ that he hath but a few minutes to fave himfelf, yet will i lay himself to fleep there, till the cruel fea ruth in upon him, and overwhelm him? And is he any better, who trifles away this day of God's grace and patience, and foolishly adjourns, the neceffary work of repentance, and the weighty bufinefs of religion, to a dying hour?

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And, to put an end to thefe queftions, Is he wife who hopes to attain the end without the means, nay, by means that are quite contrary to it? Such is every? wicked man, who hopes to be bleffed hereafter without

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being

being holy here, and to be happy, that is, to find a pleasure in the enjoyment of God, and in the company of holy fpirits, by rendering himself as unfuitable and unlike to them as he can.

Wouldft thou then be truly wife? be wife for thyfelf, wife for thy foul, wife for eternity. Refolve upon a religious courfe of life. Fear God, and depart from evil. Look beyond things prefent and fenfible, unto things which are not feen, and are eternal. Labour to secure the great interefts of another world, and refer all the actions of this fhort and dying life, to that state which will fhortly begin, but never have an end: and this will approve itself to be wisdom at the last, whatever the world judge of it now. For not that which is approved of men now, but what fhall finally be approved by God, is true wisdom; that which is esteemed fo by him who is the fountain and original of all wisdom ; the first rule and measure, the best and most competent judge of it.

I deny not, but that those that are wicked, and neglect religion, may think themselves wife, and may enjoy this their delufion for a while. But there is a time a-coming, when the moft profane and Atheistical, who now account it a piece of gallantry, and an argument of a great fpirit, and of a more than common wit and understanding, to flight God, and to baffle religion, and to level all the difcourfes of another world with the poetical defcriptions of the Fairy-land; I fay, there is a day a-coming, when all thefe witty fools fhall be unhappily undeceived, and, not being able to enjoy their delufion any longer, fhall call themfelves fools for ever.

But why fhould I ufe fo much importunity to perfuade men to that which is fo excellent, fo useful, and fo neceflary? The thing itfelf hath allurements in it beyond all arguments: for, if religion be the best know. ledge and wifdom, I cannot offer any thing beyond this to your understandings, to raise your efteem of it; I can prefent nothing beyond this to your affections, to excite your love and defire. All that can be done is, to fet the thing before men, and to offer it to their choice: and if mens natural defire of wifdom, and knowledge, and happiness, will not perfuade them to be religious, it is in vain to use arguments; if the fight of thefe beau

ties will not charm mens affections, it is to no purpose to go about to compel a liking, and to urge and push forward a match, to the making whereof confent is neceffary. Religion is matter of our freeft choice.; and if men will obftinately and wilfully fet themselves against it, there is no remedy. Pertinacia nullum remedium pofuit Deus," God has provided no remedy for the ob ftinacy of men;" but if they will chufe to be fools, and to be miferable, he will leave them to inherit their own choice, and to enjoy the portion of finners.

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SER MON

The folly of fcoffing at religion.

2 PE T. iii. 3.

II.

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days fcoffers, walking after their own lufts.

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Nowing this firft. In the verfe before, the Apoftle was fpeaking of a famous prophecy, before the accomplishment of which this fort of men whom he calls fcoffers fhould come : That ye may be mindful of the words which were fpoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of our Lord and Saviour: knowing this firft, that there fhall come in the last days fcoffers, &c.

The prophecy here fpoken of is probably that famous prediction of the deftruction of Jerufalem which is in the prophet Daniel, and before the fulfilling whereof our Saviour exprefsly tells us false prophets should arise and deceive many, Matth. xxiv. II.

Now the fcoffers here fpoken of, are the falfe teachers, whom the Apoftle had been defcribing all along in the foregoing chapter: There were falfe prophets alfo among the people, even as there fhail be falfe teachers a

mong

mong you. Thefe, he tells us, fhould proceed to that height of impiety, as to fcoff at the principles of religion,. and to deride the expectations of a future judgement: In the last days fhall come feoffers, walking after their own lufts, and faying, Where is the promise of his coming? In fpeaking, to thefe words, I fhall do thefe three. things.

1. Confider the nature of the fin here mentioned; : which is, fcoffing at religion.

2. The character of the perfons that are charged with: the guilt of this fin. They are said to walk after their own lufts.

3. Ihall reprefent to you the heinousness and the ag gravations of this vice.

I. We fhall confider the nature of the fin here mentioned; which is, fcoffing at religion: There fhall come fcoffers. Thefe, it feems, were a fort of people that derided our Saviour's prediction of his coming to judge the world. So the Apostle tells us in the next words;, that they faid, Where is the promife of his coming?

In thofe times there was a common perfuafion among Christians, that the day of the Lord was at hand, as the Apoftle elsewhere tells us, . 2 Theff. ii. 2. Now this, it

is probable, these fcoffers twitted the Chriftians withal; and becaufe Chrift did not come when fome looked for him, they concluded he would not come at all. Upon this they derided the Chriftians, as enduring perfecution in a vain expectation of that which was never likely to happen. They faw all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world, notwithstanding the ap-prehenfions of Chriftians concerning the approaching end of it: For fince the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were, from the beginning of the world. Since the fathers fell asleep, aps, which may either be rendered from the time, or else, which feems more agreeable to the Atheistical difcourfe of thefe men, faving (or except) that the fathers are fallen asleep, all things continue as they were; faving that men die, and one generation fucceeds another, they faw no change or alteration. They looked upon all things as going on in a conftant courfe: one generation of men paffed away, and another came in the room of it; but the world remained ftill as it was. And thus, for ought

they

So that the

they knew, things might hold on for ever. principles of thefe men feem to be much the fame with thofe of the Epicureans, who denied the providence of God, and the immortality of mens fouls; and confequently a future judgement, which fhould fentence men to rewards and punishments in another world. These great and fundamental principles of all religion, they derided, as the fancies and dreams of a company of me. lancholy men, who were weary of the world, and pleafed themselves with vain conceits of happiness and ease in another life. But as for them, they believed none of these things; and therefore gave all manner of licence and indulgence to their lufts.

But this belongs to the fecond thing I propounded to fpeak to, namely,

II. The character which is here given of thefe fcoffers. They are faid to walk after their own lufts. And no wonder, if, when they denied a future judgement, they gave up themfelves to all manner of fenfuality.

St Jude, in his epiftle, gives much the fame character of them that St Peter here does, ver. 18. 19. There fhall come in the last days mockers, walking after their own ungodly lufts, fenfual, not having the Spirit. Sa that we fee what kind of perfons they are who profanely scoff at religion; men of fenfual fpirits, and of licentious lives. For this character which the apostle here gives of the fcoffers of that age, was not an accidental thing which happened to thofe perfons; but is the conftant character of them who deride religion, and flows. from the very temper and difpofition of those who are guilty of this impiety; it is both the ufual preparation to it, and the natural confequent of it.

To deride God and religion, is the highest kind of impiety. And men do not usually arrive to this degree of wickedness at first, but they come to it by feveral steps. The Pfalmift very elegantly expreffeth to us the several gradations by which men at laft come to this horrid degree of impiety: Bleed is the man that walketh not in the counfel of the ungodly, nor ftandeth in the way of finners, nor fitteth in the feat of the fcornful, Pfal. i. 1. Men are ufually firft corrupted by bad counsel and company, which is called walking in the counfel of the ungodly

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