Christianity No Sect to Be Spoken Against

Acts 28:22 — For as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against.

Would you think that such a spiteful scornful word as this should ever be said of the Christian religion? That pure religion and undefiled, which came into the world supported by the strongest evidences of truth, and recommended by the most endearing allurements of grace and goodness: the sayings of which are so faithful, and so well worthy of all acceptation: that sacred institution which scatters the brightest rays of divine light and love that ever were darted from heaven to earth: that is it which is here so invidiously called a sect, and is said to be everywhere spoken against.

It will be worth while to observe,

1. Who they were that said this, they were the chief of the Jews that were at Rome (verse 17). The Jews were looked upon (at least they looked upon themselves) as a very knowing people; the Jews at Rome; a place of learning and enquiry, thought themselves more knowing than the other Jews; St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans (chapter 17:2-20) takes notice of it: you are called a Jew and make your boast of God, and know his will — and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, etc. And we have reason to suppose that the chief of the Jews there who had the greatest advantages of education and correspondence, were the most intelligent: it might also be justly expected that upon the first notices of the gospel, the Jews should have been of all people most ready to acquaint themselves with a religion which was so much the honor and perfection of their own: and yet it seems, the Jews, the chief of the Jews at Rome knew no more of Christianity but this, that it was a sect everywhere spoken against. This we know (said they) and it was all they knew concerning it.

The Jews were of all other the most bitter and inveterate enemies to the Christians; while the Roman emperors tolerated them (as they did till Nero's time) the Jews with an unwearied malice persecuted them from city to city, and were the first wheel in most of the opposition that the gospel met with, when it was first preached: now one would think they would not have been so vigorous and industrious to suppress Christianity if they had not very well acquainted themselves with it, and known it to deserve such opposition; but it seems by this, they knew little or nothing of the religion they so much maligned, had never searched into the merits of its cause, nor weighed the proofs of its divine authority but against all law and reason condemned it purely upon common fame, and follow the cry to run it down, because it was everywhere spoken against.

2. Upon what occasion they said this. They were now appointing a time to discourse with St. Paul upon the grand question in debate, whether Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah or no. And they seemed willing to hear what that great man had to say in defense of the religion he preached, we desire (say they) to hear of you what you think. Now one would expect that so good a cause, managed by such a skilful advocate would not but carry the day, and be victorious, and that they would all have been brought over to the belief of Christianity; but we find (verse 24) that it proved otherwise; after all, there were those that believed not, and the text intimates the reason of their infidelity, they came to hear the word under a prejudice; they had already imbibed an ill opinion of the way, which right or wrong they resolved to hold fast; and though some of them by the help of divine grace got over this stumbling block, that like the Bereans were more noble than the rest, and of freer thought (Acts 17:11): yet many of them continued under the power of those prejudices, and were sealed up under unbelief (verse 26-27). Thus is the power of the word in many, baffled by the power of prejudice. They do not believe, because they are resolved they will not: they conclude that no good thing can come out of Nazareth (John 1:46), and will not be persuaded to come and see: thus do they prejudge the cause, answering the matter before they hear it, and it will prove folly and shame to them (Proverbs 18:13; John 7:51).

Now in the account they here give of their knowledge of the Christian religion, we may observe,

1. That they looked upon it to be a sect, and we'll prove that to be false.

2. — A sect everywhere spoken against, and we will grant that to be true, that it is generally spoken against though it is most unreasonable and unjust it should be so.

First, the Christian religion is here called (but miscalled) a sect, a heresy. After the way which they call heresy (says St. Paul, Acts 24:14) so worship I the God of my Fathers. The sect of the Nazarenes, so Tertullus calls it in his opening of the indictment against Paul (Acts 24:5), it is called this way (Acts 9:2) and that way (Acts 19:9), as if it were a by-path out of the common road. The practice of serious godliness is still looked upon by many as a sect that is a party-business, and a piece of affected singularity in opinion and practice tending to promote some carnal design, by creating and supporting invidious distinctions among men. This is the proper notion of a sect, and therefore the masters and maintainers of sects are justly in an ill name, as enemies to the great corporation of mankind; but there is not the least color of reason to put this invidious and scandalous character upon the Christian religion. However, it may be mistaken and misrepresented, it is very far from being really a sect. There were sects of religion among the Jews; we read of the sect of the Sadducees (Acts 5:17), which was built upon peculiar notions, such as overturned the foundation of natural religion, by denying a future state of rewards and punishments: there was also the sect of the Pharisees (Acts 15:5), the strictest sect of their religion (Acts 26:5), which was founded in the observance and imposition of singular rites and customs, with an affected separation from, and contempt of all mankind: these were sects: but there is nothing of the spirit and genius of these in the Christian religion, as it was instituted by its great author.

1. True Christianity establishes that which is of common concernment to all mankind, and therefore is not a sect. The truths and precepts of the everlasting gospel are perfective of and no way repugnant to the light and law of natural religion. Is that a sect which gives such mighty encouragements and assistances to those that in every nation fear God and work righteousness (Acts 10:34)? Is that a sect which tends to nothing else but to reduce the revolted race of mankind to their ancient allegiance to the great Creator, and to renew that image of God upon man which was his primitive rectitude and felicity? Is that a sect which proclaims God in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19), and recovering it from that degenerate and deplorable state into which it was sunk? Is that a sect which publishes good-will towards men (Luke 2:14), and Christ the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world (John 1:29; 3:16; 1 John 2:2)? Surely that which concurs so much with the uncorrupted and unprejudiced sentiments, and conduces much more to the true and real happiness of all mankind cannot be thought to take its rise from such narrow opinions, and private interests, as sects owe their original to.

2. True Christianity has a direct tendency to the uniting of the children of men, and the gathering of them together in one and therefore is far from being a sect, which is supposed to lead to division, and to sow discord among brethren. The preaching of the gospel did indeed prove the occasion of contention. Our Savior foresaw and foretold it would be so (Luke 12:51-53), that his disciples and followers would be men of strife, in the same sense that the prophet was (Jeremiah 15:10), not men striving, but men striven with; but the gospel was by no means the cause of this contention, for it was intended to be the cure of all contention. If there be any who under the cloak and color of the Christian name cause divisions, and propagate feuds and quarrels among men, let them bear their own burden; but it is certain that the Christian religion as far as it obtains its just power and influence upon the minds of men will make them meek and quiet, humble and peaceable, loving and useful, condescending and forgiving, and every way easy, and acceptable and profitable one to another. Is that a sect which was introduced with a proclamation of peace on earth? That which beats swords into plowshares, and spears into pruning-hooks? Or, was he the author of a sect who is the great creator of unity, and who died to break down partition walls, and to slay all enmities (Ephesians 2:14-16; John 11:52), that he might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad? Was he the author of a sect who came into the world not to destroy men's lives, but to save them (Luke 9:56), and who taught his followers not only to love one another, but to love their enemies and to call every one their neighbor that they could be any way serviceable to (Luke 10:36-37)?

3. True Christianity aims at no worldly benefit or advantage, and therefore must by no means be called a sect. Those that espouse a sect are supposed to be governed in it by their secular interest, and to aim at wealth, or honor, or the gratification of some base lust: the Pharisees proved themselves to be a sect by their thirst after the praise of men; and their greedy devouring of widows' houses: but the professors of Christianity have not only been taught by the law of their religion to live above this world, and to look upon it with a holy contempt, but have been exposed by their profession to the loss and ruin of all their secular comforts and enjoyments. Are those to be accounted politic and designing sectaries that have for Christ cheerfully suffered the loss of all things (Philippians 2:8)? Is that a sect which instead of preferring a man to honor, or raising him an estate, lays him open to disgrace and poverty, renders him obnoxious to fines and forfeitures, banishments and imprisonments, racks and tortures, flames and gibbets, which were the common lot of the primitive Christians? Caesar Vaninus a sworn enemy to the Christian religion, and one who was industrious in searching out objections against it, owned he could find nothing in it that savored of a carnal and worldly design; no, it has always approved itself a heavenly calling (Hebrews 3:1), and the strictest professors of it (even their enemies themselves being judges) have had their conversation in the world in simplicity, and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom (2 Corinthians 1:12). Very unjustly therefore it is called a sect.

As to this therefore, suffer a word of caution and exhortation.

1. Let us take heed lest our profession of religion degenerate into anything which may make it look like a sect. Christianity as it was instituted by Christ is not a sect, let not Christians then be sectaries. We make our profession of religion a sect when we monopolize the church and its ministry and sacraments, and spend that zeal in matters of doubtful disputation which should be reserved for the weightier matters of the law. When we place our religion in meats and drinks, which should be placed in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17-18). When we profess religion with a conceit of ourselves, and a contempt of others, and with any worldly secular design; when we sacrifice the common interests of Christ's kingdom to the particular interests of a party, and in a word, when our profession is tainted with the leaven of the Pharisees (Luke 12:1), which is both souring and swelling, then it degenerates into a sect. Let us therefore adhere to the sure and large foundations, and be acted by a principle of love to, and so maintain communion with all that in every place, and under every denomination, call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours (1 Corinthians 1:2). Let us be modest in our opinions, charitable and candid in our censures, self-denying in all our converse, acting always under the influence of that wisdom that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and hypocrisy (James 3:17), that by this well-doing we may put to silence the ignorance of those who call religion a sect (1 Peter 2:15).

2. Let us not be deterred from serious godliness, or any of the instances of it, by the invidious name of a sect, which is put upon it. If a strict and sober and circumspect conversation, a conscientious government of our tongue, praying and singing Psalms in our families, a religious observation of the Lord's day, a diligent attendance upon the means of grace, joining in religious societies for prayer and Christian conference, and endeavoring in our places the suppression of profaneness and immorality, if these and the like be called and counted the marks and badges of a sect, let us not be moved at it, but say as David did (2 Samuel 6:22): if this be to be vile, I will be yet more vile. If the practice of piety be branded as a sect, it is better for us to come under the reproaches of men for following it, than under the curse of God for neglecting it. It is a very small thing to be judged of man's day, but he that judges us is the Lord (1 Corinthians 4:3-4): let us therefore be more afraid of being sectaries, than of being called so.

Secondly, the Christian religion is here said to be everywhere spoken against. That it was spoken against was evident enough, but that it was everywhere spoken against, was more than they could be sure of: they did not know all places, nor had they correspondence with, or intelligence from every country; but we must not wonder if those that oppose the truth as it is in Jesus, make no conscience of transgressing the laws of truth in common conversation. But we will suppose that the acquaintance and converse of those Jews at Rome lay mostly with those that were enemies to Christianity, and spoke against it, and they therefore concluded it everywhere spoken against because they found it spoken against in all places that they came to, or had advice from. Thus apt are we to embrace that as a general sentiment and observation which we find received by those that we usually associate with, and so we run ourselves into mistakes, which larger and more impartial enquiries would soon rectify.

But we will take it for granted, however, that what they said was true, not because they said it, but because the experience of all ages does confirm it, and concur with it: so that a little acquaintance with books and the world will prove the observation which we ground upon this text.

That it is, and always has been, the lot of Christ's holy religion, to be everywhere spoken against.

That true Christianity has all along met with a great deal of opposition and contradiction in this world.

I purpose not to enter into a particular disquisition of that which has been, and is spoken against religion, nor do I undertake at present to show how false and unreasonable it is, that has been done many a time by the best hands, and so effectually that every impartial eye must needs look upon the cause of the adversaries of religion to be a baffled cause: but I shall only make some improvement of this general observation, which cannot be unseasonable in an age wherein the gates of hell seem to be making their utmost efforts against the church; and the devil, as the calumniator and false accuser to be more angry than ever with the woman the church, and to push on the war with an unusual vigor against the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:17).

I shall therefore (1.) enquire what it is in Christianity that is spoken against. And (2.) show you why so holy and excellent a religion is spoken against, and then draw some inferences from this observation.

For the first, who and what it is that is spoken against.

1. Jesus Christ, the author of our religion, is everywhere spoken against. When the firstbegotten was brought into the world, old Simeon, among other great things, pronounced this concerning him, that he was a sign which should be spoken against, and by that means was set for the fall of many (Luke 2:34). When he was here upon earth he was spoken against. The stone, which was designed to be the head of the corner, was rejected, and set at nought by the builders (Psalm 118:22). It was not the least of his sufferings in the days of his flesh, that he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself (Hebrews 12:3). They spoke against his person as mean and contemptible, and one that had no form, nor comeliness (Isaiah 53:2-3). They spoke against his preaching as false and deceiving (John 7:12), as factious and seditious (Luke 23:2), as senseless and ridiculous, for the Pharisees derided him for it (Luke 16:14). They spoke against his miracles as done in confederacy with Beelzebub the prince of the devils (Matthew 12:24). They spoke against his morals, charging him with blasphemy against God, profanation of the Sabbath-day; and all the instances of debauchery which were usually met with in a gluttonous man, a winebibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners (Matthew 11:19). They spoke against his followers as a company of ignorant despicable people (John 7:48-49). When he was in his sufferings, pass through all the steps and stages of them, and you will find him everywhere spoken against. They reproached him in all his offices: in his office of teaching, when they challenged him to tell who struck him: in his office of saving, when they challenged him to save himself as he had saved others: in his office of ruling, when they challenged him to prove himself the king of the Jews by coming down from the cross. The common people spoke against him, even they that passed by reviled him (Matthew 27:39). The Pharisees and chief priests, the grandees of the church were as severe as any in their reflections upon him. Princes also did sit and speak against him, Herod and his men of war set him at nought (Luke 23:11), made nothing of him that made all things.

Indeed, even now he is set down at the right hand of the majesty on high, far above all principalities and powers (Ephesians 1:20-21), that is, both good and evil angels, so as to be no more hurt by the contradictions of the one, than he is benefitted by the adorations of the other, yet still he is spoken against. Besides the contempt cast upon him by the Jews and Mahometans, are there not with us, even with us, those that daringly speak against him? Arians and Socinians are daily speaking against him as a mere man, thinking that a robbery in him, which he thought none, to be equal with God (Philippians 2:6). Quakers and enthusiasts speak against him as a mere name, setting up I know not what Christ within them, while they explode that Jesus that was crucified at Jerusalem. Atheists and Deists speak against him as a mere cheat, accounting the gospel a great imposture, and his religion a jest. Profane and ignorant persons speak slightly of him, as if our beloved were no more than another beloved (Song of Solomon 5:9); and some speak scornfully of him, as Julian the Apostate did, that called him in disdain the Galilean, and the carpenter's son. Such as these are the hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him (Jude 15), the Lord rebuke them; even the Lord that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke them.

2. God himself the great object of our religious regards, is everywhere spoken against. It is not only the Christian revelation that is thus attacked by virulent and blasphemous tongues, but even natural religion also. The glorious and blessed God the great Creator and benefactor of the universe, that does good to all, and whose tender mercies are over all his works, even he is everywhere spoken against. Some deny his being: though his existence be so necessary, so evident, that if he be not, it is impossible anything else should be, yet there are fools who say in their hearts, what they dare not speak out, that there is no God (Psalm 14:1). And he that says there is no God wishes there were none, and if he could help it there should be none. Others blaspheme the attributes of God, that charge the all-seeing eye with blindness, saying, the Lord shall not see (Psalm 94:7), that charge the eternal mind with forgetfulness, saying, God has forgotten (Psalm 10:11), that charge the almighty arm with impotency, saying, can God furnish a table in the wilderness, which is there called speaking against God (Psalm 78:19-20). Those that promise themselves they shall not surely die (Genesis 3:4; Psalm 10:13), and those that boldly and irreligiously say to God, depart from us (Job 21:14-15). Some speak slightly of God, though he is infinitely great and glorious, others speak hardly of him, though he is infinitely just and good. The name of God is spoken against by the profane using of it; so it is construed (Psalm 139:20): they speak against you wickedly, your enemies take your name in vain. Can there be a greater slight put upon the eternal God than for men to use his sacred and blessed name as a byword, with which they give vent to their exorbitant passions, or fill up the vacancies of their other idle words? The name of God is thus abused not only by those that belch out bloody oaths and curses which make the ears of every good man to tingle, but by those that mention the name of God slightly and irreverently, in their common conversation; in whose mouths he is near when he is far from their reins (Jeremiah 12:2). To use those forms of speech which properly signify an acknowledgment and adoration of God's being, as O God, or O Lord, or an appeal to his omniscience, as God knows, or an invocation of his favor, as God bless me, or God be merciful to me; I say, to use these or the like expressions impertinently, and intending thereby to express only our wonder, our surprise, or our passionate resentments, or anything than that which is their proper and awful signification, is an evidence of a vain mind, that wants a due regard to that glorious and fearful name, the Lord our God (Deuteronomy 28:58). I see not that the profanation of the ordinance of praying, is any better than the profanation of the ordinance of swearing. The serious consideration of this, I hope, might prevent much of that dishonor which is done to God, and to his holy name, by some that do not with others run to an excess of riot.

The providence of God is likewise everywhere spoken against by murmurers and complainers (Jude 16) that quarrel with it, and find fault with the disposals of it, and when they are hardly bested curse their king and their God (Isaiah 8:21). Thus is the mouth of the ungodly set against the heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth (Psalm 73:9).

3. The word of God the great rule of our religion is everywhere spoken against, so it was when it was first preached, wherever the apostles went preaching the doctrine of Christ they met with those that spoke against it, contradicting and blaspheming. So it is, now it is written. Atheists speak against the Scriptures as not of authority. Papists speak against it as dark and uncertain further than it is expounded, and supported by the authority of their church, which receives unwritten traditions pari pietatis affectu ac reverentia, with the same pious affection and reverence that they receive the Scripture, indeed, and if we may judge by their practice, with much more. Thus is the word of God blasphemed by them who call themselves the temple of the Lord. But if we take away revelation (as the Deists do) all religion will soon be lost, and if we derogate from the Scriptures (as the Papists do) all revelation is much endangered.

Those also speak against the Scriptures, who profanely jest with them, and that they may the more securely rebel against Scripture laws, make themselves and their idle companions merry with the Scripture language. The word of the Lord is to them a reproach, as the prophet complains (Jeremiah 6:10). And another prophet found it so, whose serious word of the necessity, of precept upon precept was turned into an idle song (as Grotius understands it, Isaiah 28:13): the word of the Lord was to them precept upon precept — very likely it was done by the drunkards of Ephraim, spoken of (verse 1), and it gave occasion to that caution (verse 22): be you not mockers lest your bands be made strong. Profligate and debauched minds relish no wit like that which ridicules the sacred text, and exposes that to contempt: as of old, the insulting conqueror must be humored with the songs of Zion (Psalm 137:3); and no cups can please Belshazzar in his drunken frolic but the sacred vessels of the temple (Daniel 5:2-3). Thus industrious are the powers of darkness to vilify the Scriptures, and to make them contemptible; but he that sits in heaven shall laugh at them, for in spite of all the little efforts of their impotent malice, he will magnify the law and make it honorable, according to the word which he has spoken (Isaiah 42:21).

4. The people of God, the professors of this religion are everywhere spoken against. Not only those of some particular persuasion or denomination, but (without regard to that) such as have been zealous in fearing God, and working righteousness have been, in many places, very much spoken against. Our blessed Savior has told his disciples what treatment of this kind they must expect, that they should be reviled and have all manner of evil said against them falsely (Matthew 5:11-12), that they and their names should be cast out as evil (Luke 6:22). And if they called our master, Beelzebub, no nicknames fastened upon his followers can seem strange (Matthew 5:25). Mocking was an old way of persecuting the covenant-seed, for thus, he that was after the flesh, betimes persecuted them that were after the Spirit; compare Genesis 21:9 with Galatians 4:29. God's heritage has always been as a speckled bird, that all the birds are against (Jeremiah 12:9), and his children for signs and for wonders in Israel, that everyone has a saying to (Isaiah 8:18; Zechariah 3:8). Even wisdom's children have been called and counted fools, and their life madness; the quiet in the land represented as enemies to the public peace; and those who are the greatest blessings of the age branded as the troublers of Israel. The primitive Christians were painted out to the world under the blackest and most odious characters that could be, as men of the most profligate lives and consciences, and that even placed their religion in the grossest impieties and immoralities imaginable. Their enemies found it necessary for the support of the kingdom of the devil, the father of lies and slanders, to characterize them as the worst of men, to whom they were resolved to give the worst and most barbarous treatment. It had not been possible to have baited them, if they had not first dressed them up in the skins of wild beasts. And as then, so ever since, more or less in all ages of the church, reproach has been entailed upon the most serious and zealous professors of religion and godliness.

5. The ministers of Christ, the preachers of this religion, are with a distinguishing enmity everywhere spoken against. Under the Old Testament God's messengers and his prophets were generally mocked and misused, and it was Jerusalem's measure-filling sin (2 Chronicles 36:16). It was one of the devices they devised against Jeremiah to smite him with the tongue, because they would not, and they desired that others might not give heed to any of his words (Jeremiah 18:18). Those to whom the prophet Ezekiel was a very lovely song, and with their mouths showed much love to him, yet were still talking against him by the walls, and in the doors of their houses, and God lets him know it (Ezekiel 33:30-32). And then it is not strange if the ministers of the New Testament (in which truth shines with a stronger light) be with no less enmity spoken against by those that love darkness rather than light. The apostles, those prime ministers of state in Christ's kingdom were so loaded with reproach, that they were made a spectacle to the world, a spectacle of pity to those that have either grace or good nature, but a spectacle of scorn to those that had neither. They were trampled upon as the filth of the world; and whereas the offscouring of anything is bad enough, they were looked upon as the offscouring of all things; even to this day; after they had in so many instances approved themselves well, and could not but be made manifest in the consciences of their worst enemies (1 Corinthians 4:9, 13). And it has all along been the policy of the church's enemies by all marks possible to bring the ministry into contempt, and to represent the church's Nazirites, even those that were purer than snow, whiter than milk, and more ruddy than rubies, with a visage blacker than a coal, so that they have not been known in the streets; I allude to that complaint (Lamentations 4:7-8). Marvel not, if the standard-bearers be most struck at.

6. The Christian religion itself has been and still is everywhere spoken against. The truths of it contradicted as false and groundless, the great doctrines of the mediation of Christ, and the resurrection of the dead were ridiculed by the Athenian philosophers (Acts 19:18, 32). The laws of it faulted as grievous and unreasonable, as hard sayings, which could not be born, by those who bid open defiance to the obligation of them, and say, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us (Psalm 2:3). The ordinances of it despised as mean, and having no form nor comeliness. Sabbaths mocked at, as of old (Lamentations 1:7), and the sanctification of them represented as only a cloak for idleness. Sacraments reproached, and the sacred memorial of Christ's death and sufferings, by the persecutors of the primitive Christians represented to the world as the bloody and inhuman killing and eating of a child, and their love feasts and holy kiss (which were then in use) as only introductions to the most abominable uncleanness. Primitive Christianity was industriously put into an ill name: it was called emphatically the Atheism, because it overthrew idolatry, and undermined the false gods, and worships that had so long obtained. This was the outcry at Ephesus, that if Paul's doctrine took place, the temple of the great goddess would be despised (Acts 19:26-27). It was also branded as a novelty, and an upstart doctrine, because it took people off from that vain conversation which they had received by tradition from their fathers (1 Peter 1:18). It was called at Athens a new doctrine (Acts 17:18-19), and industriously represented in all places as a mushroom sect, that was but of yesterday. It was looked upon as nearly allied to Judaism, because it was so much supported by the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and nothing was more despicable among the Romans than the Jews, and their religion. The professors of Christianity were looked upon as unlearned and ignorant men (Acts 4:12), the very dregs and refuse of the people. Julian forbade the calling of them Christians, and would have them called nothing but Galileans, thereby to expose them to the contempt of those who are (as indeed most people are) governed more by a sound of words than by the reason of things. Thus when the devil was silenced in his oracles (as it is well known he was upon the setting up of Christianity in the world) his mouth was opened in lies and slanders; and being forced to quit his pretensions to a deity, he appears bare-faced, as a devil, a false-accuser.

The Reformed religion in these latter ages, has been in like manner spoken against: though it maintains all that (and only that) doctrine, which Christ and his apostles preached, and was before Luther there, where Popery, as such, never was before or since, that is, in the Holy Scriptures, yet the professors and preachers of it have been called and counted heretics, and schismatics, and by all possible artifices exposed to the odium of the people, that none might buy or sell, that is, have the benefit and comfort of civil society and commerce, that had not the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name (Revelation 13:17).

Indeed, even among some that profess the Christian and Reformed religion, yet the practice of serious godliness is very much spoken against. The power of religion is not only disliked and denied, but contradicted and condemned by those that rest in the form. They that call the evil, good, will call the good, evil (Isaiah 5:20); and it is not strange if they, who abandon themselves to work all uncleanness with greediness, speak ill of such as run not with them to the same excess of riot (1 Peter 4:3-4), where the wicked walk on every side (Psalm 12:8), he that departs from evil makes himself a prey (Isaiah 59:15). The old enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is still working, and the old game every day played over again. The truth as it is in Jesus, and the truth which is according to godliness (Ephesians 4:21 compared with Titus 1:1) will be contradicted by those that lie in wait to deceive. Bigots on all sides will have something to say against catholic charity and moderation: they that are fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, and forward to every good work, must expect to be evil spoken of by such as affect a lukewarmness, and indifferency in religion: nor can those who walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, escape the lash of their tongues who live at large, and walk loosely, and at all adventures, as the fools in Israel.

I come now in the second place to enquire what is the reason that so holy and excellent a religion as Christianity is, meets with such hard usage, and is thus spoken against, everywhere spoken against: when we hear such an outcry as this made against Christianity, it is natural to us to enquire, as Pilate did when such a clamor was raised against its author, why, what evil has it done? Truly we may say concerning it as Pilate did concerning him, we find no fault in it. Which of all its opposers convinces it of sin or error? It invades no man's right, breaks in upon no man's property, is no disturbance of the peace, no enemy to the welfare of families and societies, is no prejudice at all to the interests of states and princes, but to all these highly beneficial and advantageous: why then is it thus accused, condemned and spoken against? We will endeavor to find out the true reason of it, though it is impossible to assign a justifiable reason of that which is most unreasonable.

1. The adversaries of religion speak against it because they do not know it. Sound knowledge has not a greater enemy in the world than ignorance. Our Lord Jesus was therefore despised and hated by the world, because the world knew him not (John 1:10). If they had known the dignity of his person, the excellency of his doctrine, and the gracious design and purpose of his coming into the world, certainly they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:8). They that did it, did it through ignorance (Acts 3:15, 17), and knew not what they did (Luke 23:34). Thus they who say to the Almighty, depart from us (Job 21:14), could not say so if they did not at the same time studiously decline the knowledge of his ways. No man will speak against religion and the power of it, that has either seriously weighed the proofs and evidences of it, or impartially tried the comfort and benefit of it. If they knew this gift, this inestimable gift of God (John 4:10), instead of speaking against it, they would covet it earnestly as the best gift. He that looks at a distance upon men dancing, would think them to be mad: (it was Peter Martyr's comparison, in a sermon which had so good an influence upon the conversion of the Marquess of Vico) but let him come nearer them, and observe the regularity and harmony of all their motions and postures, and he will not only admire their order, but find in himself an inclination to join with them: so he that contents himself with a distant and transient view of the practice of piety will perhaps take up hard thoughts of it, but a better acquaintance will rectify the mistake. When the Spouse in the Song of Solomon had given a description of her beloved to the daughters of Jerusalem, the same who before had scornfully asked, what is your beloved more than another beloved? Now as seriously enquire, where is your beloved gone, that we may seek him with you (Song of Solomon 5:9; 6:1)? The people of God are called his hidden ones (Psalm 83:3), and their life is a hidden life (Colossians 3:3), their way above (Proverbs 15:24), and therefore it is that the world speaks evil of them, because it knows them not (1 John 3:1). They who speak evil of these dignities, speak evil of those things which they know not, as the apostle speaks (Jude 8, 10). How unjust then, and unreasonable is the enmity and malice of the adversaries of religion, to condemn that which they never enquired into, and to load that with the vilest reproaches which for ought they know, merits the highest encomiums! And how excellent then are the ways of God, which none speak ill of but those that are unacquainted with them! While those that know them witness to the goodness of them, and wisdom is justified of all her children (Matthew 11:19).

2. They speak against it because they do not like it, and we know ill-will never speaks well. Though they have little acquaintance with religion, yet they know this concerning it in general, that it is not agreeable with the way of their hearts which they are resolved to walk in, nor with the course of this world, which is the card and compass they steer by, and from which they take their measures; they know this, that it lays a restraint upon their appetites and passions, and consists much in the mortifying of their beloved lusts and corruptions, and therefore they have a secret antipathy to it: the carnal mind (Romans 8:7), which is enmity against God, is so against all that bear the image of God. Christ has bidden his disciples to expect the hatred of the world, and not to marvel at it (John 15:18, etc.; 1 John 3). They who hate to be themselves reformed will never love those that are reformed: out of the abundance therefore of the heart, and the malignity that is there, it is no marvel if the mouth speak; where the root of bitterness is, it will bear gall and wormwood. The daring sinner that stretches out his hand against God finds his hand too short to reach him; but say they, with our tongue will we prevail, our lips are our own (Psalm 12:4). The beast that made war with heaven in the apocalyptic vision, though he had ten horns, and those crowned, yet is not described doing mischief with them, but opening his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven (Revelation 13:5-6). The poison of the serpent's seed is under their tongue (Romans 3:13).

3. They speak against religion because it speaks against them. They who have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, hate the light which discovers them (John 3:19). Nor do any curse the rising sun but those that are scorched by it. Why were the Pharisees so exasperated against our Savior but because he spoke his parables against them (Matthew 21:45), and laid them open in their own colors? Why did the world hate him who so loved the world, but because he testified of it that its works are evil (John 7:7)? Why had Joseph's brethren such a spleen against him, but because he was a witness against them, and brought to his father their evil report (Genesis 37:2)? Why did Ahab hate Micaiah, and call Elijah his enemy but because they were the faithful reprovers of his wickedness, and never prophesied good concerning him, but evil (1 Kings 22:8; 21:20)? Why did the inhabitants of the earth rejoice when the witnesses were slain, but because those two prophets by their plain and powerful preaching tormented them that dwelt upon the earth (Revelation 11:10)? The everlasting gospel is a testimony (Matthew 24:14), either to us to convince us, or against us to condemn us, and then no wonder if those speak against it who hate to be convinced by it, and dread to be condemned by it. The prophet complains of those that laid snares for him that reproves in the gate (Isaiah 29:21); and why is it faithful ministers are so much hated, but because their business is to show people their transgressions (Isaiah 58:1)? If they would flatter sinners that flatter themselves in a sinful way, and cry peace to them, to whom the God of heaven does not speak peace, they might avoid a great deal of reproach and censure; but they dare not do it. They are not to make a new law and gospel, but to preach that which is made (Galatians 1:8-9): they have their rule in that caution given to the prophet (Jeremiah 15:19): let them return to you, but return not you to them. The hearts and lives of men must be brought to comply with the word of God, for the word of God can never be made to comply with the humors and fancies of men. Ministers as they would not for the world make the way to heaven any straiter or narrower than Christ has made it, so they dare not make it any broader or easier, not offer life and salvation upon any other terms than the gospel has already settled. If they aim at pleasing men, they cannot approve themselves the servants of Christ (Galatians 1:10), and therefore are they so much spoken against. And the same is the reason why the most strict and serious Christians are so much spoken against, because their piety and devotion, their justice and sobriety, their zeal and charity, is a standing reproof to the wicked world, and condemns it, as the faith and holy fear of Noah condemned the infidelity and security of the old world (Hebrews 11:7). The Sodomites were vexed at Lot's conversation as much as he was at their filthy conversation. Therefore does the blood-thirsty hate and revile the upright (Proverbs 29:10), while the just seek his soul, but for the same reason for which Cain hated Abel, because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous (1 John 3:12).