Now for the Application of This Doctrine

Let us see what good use we may make of this observation concerning the wickedness of the wicked in speaking so much against religion and godliness, and what is our duty in reference hereunto.

First, let us admire the patience and forbearance of the God of heaven, in that he bears so much, and so long, with those that thus speak against him and his holy religion. The affront hereby given him is very great, and (we would think) intolerable, even hard speeches that reflect upon an infinite majesty, have in them a kind of infinite malignity. He hears and knows all that which is said against him, and against his truth and ways, and as a jealous God resents it. He has always power in his hands to punish the proudest of his enemies, nor would their immediate ruin be any loss to him, and yet sentence against these evil words and works is not executed speedily (Ecclesiastes 8:11): be astonished O heavens, at this, and wonder O earth! That those wretches which rebel against the beams of such light and glory, which spurn at the bowels of such love and grace, are not immediately made the visible monuments of divine wrath and vengeance, and like Sodom and Gomorrah, set forth for an example! That the blasphemers and scoffers of these last days are not instantly struck dumb, struck dead. That he who has so much said against him, yet does himself keep silence (Psalm 50:12), and does not answer all these reproaches and contradictions (as he easily could) in thunder and lightning. Though his silence and forbearance is turned to his reproach even by those that have the benefit of it, who therefore think him altogether such a one as themselves, and take occasion from his patience to question his faithfulness, and challenge his justice, saying, where is the promise of his coming (2 Peter 3:3-4)? Yet he bears, and his patience is stretched out even to long-suffering, because he is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), nor that any means should be left untried to prevent their perishing. Therefore he bears with sinners, because this is the day of his patience, and of their probation. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven in the word of God (Romans 1:18), that we might be awed by faith, more than in present providences, which would be an awe to sense. But there is a day coming, a dreadful day, when our God shall come, and shall no longer keep silence (Psalm 50:3), a day foretold in the early ages of the world, by Enoch the seventh from Adam (Jude 14-15), when judgment shall be executed upon ungodly sinners for all their hard speeches, which day he will not anticipate, for he knows it is coming (Psalm 37:13). It is agreeable to the regular course of justice, that all judgments be adjourned till the judgment-day, and all executions deferred till execution-day: and therefore now he condescends to reason with those that speak against him, for their conviction, as he does by the prophet (Ezekiel 18:25, etc.) where he fairly debates the case with those who said, the way of the Lord is not equal, that every mouth may be stopped with an unanswerable argument before it be stopped with an irreversible sentence, and those who have spoken against him may be sent speechless to hell (Matthew 22:12). He keeps silence now, because when he does speak he will be justified. When our Lord Jesus was here upon earth, with what an invincible patience did he endure the contradiction of sinners; when so many ill things were witnessed against him he was silent (Matthew 26:63; John 19:9), to admiration, answered not a word to all their unjust calumnies and accusations, but at the same time he bound them over to the judgment of the great day by that awful word (Matthew 26:64): hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power — and still he bears in expectation of that same day (Hebrews 10:13). He does not take vengeance presently because he has an eternity before him for the doing of it.

And by the way, we may infer from hence, that those who would be like their heavenly Father, must bear reproach and contradiction patiently. When anything is said against us, reflecting never so little disparagement upon us, or our families, our resentments of it are very sensible, and we are apt to take it heinously; indeed, and to say we do well to be angry, for it is not a thing to be endured; not to be endured! O think how much God bears with the contempt and reproach cast upon his great name, and that will surely qualify our resentments of any indignity done to our little names! Who are we that we must not be spoken against? Or what are our sayings that they must not be contradicted? Such affronts as these we should learn to bear as David did when Shimei cursed him, so let him curse (2 Samuel 16:10); and as the Son of David did when his enemies reviled him (1 Peter 2:23), blessing them that curse us, and praying for them that thus persecute us, that we may be the children of our Father which is in heaven. God adjourns his vindication to the great day, and then surely we may adjourn ours to that day as St. Paul does his (1 Corinthians 4:5).

Secondly, let us acknowledge the power of divine grace, in keeping up the Christian religion in the world, notwithstanding the universal contradiction, and opposition it has met with. One would think that a way thus spoken against everywhere should have been long ere this lost and ruined, and the Christian name cut off, to be no more in remembrance (Psalm 83:3-4); which its adversaries have so industriously endeavored; if it had been of men, it had certainly come to nothing quickly (Acts 5:38), though they had let it alone, but being of God, it was to admiration victorious over all opposition. A sect, a cheat could never have supported itself against so much contradiction; no human power or policy could have kept it up, nor anything less than an Almighty arm. The continuance of the Christian religion in the world to this day is a standing miracle for the conviction of its adversaries, and the confirmation of the faith of those that adhere to it. When we consider what a mighty force was raised by the powers of darkness against Christianity when it was in its infancy, how many they were that spoke against it, learned men, great men, books were written, laws were made against it; those that spoke for it, how few were they? And how mean and despicable! The foolish things of the world, and the weak, and yet we see the word of God mightily growing and prevailing (Acts 19:20). Must we not needs say, this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? The several false religions of the heathen with their various superstitions and idolatries, though they gave very little opposition one to another, but agreed together well enough, yet having no foundation in truth they all withered away, and dwindled to nothing, and after the mighty sway they had born, and all means possible used to support them, at length their day came to fall, their oracles silenced, their altars deserted, and the gods themselves were famished (Zephaniah 2:11), and perished from the earth, according to that prediction (Jeremiah 10:11), which is put into the mouths of the captived Jews, to retort upon their insulting enemies, and for that purpose is originally in the Chaldee dialect. We may ask triumphantly, not only where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad (2 Kings 18:34)? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah, those obscure and petty deities? But where are the gods of Babylon and Egypt, Greece and Rome, the illustrious names of Saturn and Jupiter, Juno and Diana? Where are the gods which our British and Saxon ancestors worshipped before they received the light of the glorious gospel? Are they not all forgotten as dead men out of mind, and their names written in the dust? But Christ's holy religion, though for some ages it was utterly destitute of all secular supports and advantages, and was assaulted on all hands by the most vigorous attacks of its daring and most implacable enemies, yet it has strangely weathered its point, and is in being, and, thanks be to God, in some places in a flourishing state to this day: its cause an opposed, but never a baffled cause. Let us turn aside now, and see this great sight (Exodus 3:3-4), a bush burning and yet not consumed, and say, the Lord is in it of a truth: come and see the Captain of our salvation riding forth in the chariot of the everlasting gospel, with his crown upon his head, and his bow in his hand, conquering and to conquer (Revelation 6:2). That which was everywhere spoken against Christianity, was like the viper which fastened upon St. Paul's hand (Acts 28:3), it gave people occasion to think very ill concerning it, and to look for its speedy fall, as the barbarous people concerning him whom they concluded to be a murderer, and expected that he should have swollen, or fallen down dead. But it has in all ages shaken those venomous beasts into the fire, and taken no harm, and so has proved its own divine original. Let us herein acknowledge the wisdom and power of our Lord Jesus, who has so firmly built his church upon a rock that the gates of hell, that is, all its powers, and policies, and numbers could never prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). Mahomet, though he industriously adapted his religion, to the sensual appetites of men, whose reason only, and not their lusts, could object against it, yet he obtained no strength, nor interest at all, till by a thousand artifices he had got the power of the sword, and with it forbade any upon pain of death to speak against him or his doctrine; charging his first followers, who were to propagate his religion, if they met with any that objected against it, not to dispute with them, but to kill them immediately: by which means that grand imposture in a little time got some footing in the world; and by the same barbarous and inhuman methods, it has been supported now above a thousand years. And in like manner that great enemy of the church, represented in St. John's vision, maintains his interest by causing that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed (Revelation 13:15). Thus are errors and false religions propagated; strip them of their supports, and they fall to the ground of course; but on the contrary, the Christian religion was planted and preserved not only without, but against secular force, recommended and upheld by its own intrinsic truth and excellency, and that divine power which accompanied it. The preachers and professors of it everywhere spoken against, and yet everywhere getting ground, and strangely victorious, purely by the word of their testimony, and by not loving their lives to the death (Revelation 12:10-11). Thus is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.

Thirdly, let us greatly lament the folly and wickedness of those who speak against Christ and his holy religion, and if we can do anything, have compassion upon them, and help to undeceive them, and rectify their mistakes. Surely this is one of the abominations committed among us, for which we should be found among those that sigh and cry (Ezekiel 9:4), one of those instances of the pride of sinners for which our souls should weep in secret (Jeremiah 13:17). This is that reproach of the solemn assembly which is such a burden to all good men (Zephaniah 3:18). Our ears should tingle, and our hearts tremble to hear the reproach and contempt cast upon Christ and his religion, or to hear of it, and looking upon ourselves as nearly concerned in sacred things, we should be sensibly touched with the profanation of them.

To affect us herewith, let us consider,

1. The great dishonor hereby done to our God in the world. They that reflect upon his truths and ways, his word and ordinances, reflect upon him, he that touches these touches the apple of his eye; if therefore we have any love to God, or concern for his honor, and have cordially espoused the interests of his kingdom, what is an affront to him, will surely be a grief to us. It cannot but be a very melancholy thought to every sensible soul, that the God that made the world is made so light of in the world, that he who does so much good to the children of men, has so little honor from them, indeed, and has so much dishonor done him by them every day, and his name continually blasphemed (Isaiah 52:5). That the Lord Jesus, who so loved the world, is so much hated and despised by the world. The reproaches of them who thus reproach our master, if we be his faithful servants we should feel as falling upon us (Psalm 69:10; Matthew 25:45). And if he take what is said and done against his people, as said and done against himself, much more reason have they to find themselves aggrieved in that which is said and done against him. If we pray heartily that God's name may be hallowed, as we should do every day, we should grieve heartily that his name is dishonored, as we see it is every day. And our resentments of the reproach cast upon God and religion, we should make a humble and pious remonstrance of before God in prayer, as King Hezekiah spread Rabshakeh's blasphemous letter before the Lord, with that tender and affectionate request, Lord bow down your ear and hear: open, Lord, your eyes and see (2 Kings 19:16). How pathetically does Joshua plead (chapter 7:9): what will you do to your great name? And with what a concern does the Psalmist in the name of the church insist upon this (Psalm 74:10): O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever? And (verse 18): remember this that the enemy has reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed your name. And how earnestly does he beg (verse 22): arise, O God, plead your own cause. Thus should the honor of God and religion lie nearer our hearts than any other concern whatever.

2. Consider the miserable condition of those that presumptuously speak against God and religion. Though they may do it with an air of assurance, as if they run no hazard, yet he that rolls this stone, it will certainly return upon him sooner or later. They that speak against religion speak against their own heads, and their own tongues will at last fall upon them (Psalm 64:8). We have reason to bewail their madness, and to pity, and pray for them, for they know not what they do. Miserable souls! How will they be deceived at last, when they shall find that God is not mocked (Galatians 6:7)! And that while they were studying to put contempt on religion, they were but preparing eternal shame and confusion for themselves! The Lord is a jealous God, and will not hold them guiltless that thus profane his name: their wit, and learning, and figure in the world, may embolden them in their sin, and bear them up a while in an open defiance of all that is sacred, but nothing can prevent their utter ruin besides a serious and sincere repentance, which is an unsaying, with shame and self-loathing, of all that which they have proudly spoken against God and godliness. They that pervert the right ways of the Lord will certainly fall therein (Hosea 14:9), and they that wrest the Scriptures do it to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16). Religion's motto is, Nemo me impune lacessit. It is ill jesting with edge-tools. Jerusalem will certainly be a burdensome stone to all people, that burden themselves with it (Zechariah 12:3). They that spurn at the rock of salvation, will not only be unable to remove it, but will find it a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense (1 Peter 2:8). And we find those who ridiculed the word of the Lord, broken, and snared, and taken (Isaiah 28:13). Let all those therefore that mourn in Zion, weep over those that will not weep for themselves; and look with pity and compassion upon those that look upon them with scorn and contempt.

3. Consider the mischief that is hereby done to the souls of others. They who thus err, their error remains not with themselves, but this poisonous and malignant breath infects others. Words spoken against religion eat as does a canker (2 Timothy 2:17), and they who speak them, seldom perish alone in their iniquity, for many follow their pernicious ways (2 Peter 2:2). Unwary souls are easily beguiled, and brought to conceive rooted prejudices against that which they hear everywhere spoken against, and few have consideration and resolution enough to maintain a good opinion of that which they that set up for wits, make it their business to cry down. Sergius Paulus was a prudent man, and yet St. Paul saw him in danger of being turned away from the faith, by the subtle suggestions of Elymas the sorcerer, which therefore the apostle resented with a more than ordinary keenness (Acts 13:7-10). It is sad to think how many young people, who perhaps were well educated and hopeful, when they go abroad into the world, by conversing with those who lie in wait to deceive, have their minds insensibly vitiated and debauched, and perhaps they are made seven times more the children of hell than those that first seduced them. Under a pretense of free thought, and fashionable conversation, and a generous disdain of preciseness and singularity; atheistical principles are imbibed, the restraints of conscience shaken off, brutish lusts not only indulged but pleaded for, and serious godliness and devotion looked upon with contempt, and thus the heart is impregnably fortified for Satan against Christ and his gospel, wrath is treasured up against the day of wrath, and those who might have been the blessing prove the plague of their age, which is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation to all that wish well for the souls of men, and to those especially that are desirous of the welfare of the rising generation.

Fourthly, let us take heed that none of us do at any time, directly or indirectly, speak against the ways of religion and godliness, or say a confederacy, with those that do so. Submit to divine instructions given with a strong hand not to walk in the way of those people that speak ill of religion (Isaiah 8:11-12). Take heed of embracing any notions which secretly tend to derogate from the authority of the Holy Scriptures, or to diminish the honor of religion in the soul, or of accustoming yourselves to such expressions as treat not sacred things with that awful regard which is due to them. Those were never reckoned wise men that would rather lose a friend than a jest, much less are they to be accounted so that will rather lose the favor of their God. Those that in their common converse make themselves merry with serious things, how can it be expected they should at any time be serious in them, or experience the influence and comfort of them? It is not likely that those who make the word of God the subject of their jests, should ever make it the guide of their way, or find it the spring of their joys. Let us not choose to associate with those that have light thoughts of religion, and are ready upon all occasions to speak against it. It is not without good reason that among the many words with which St. Peter exhorted his new converts, this only is recorded, save yourselves from this untoward generation (Acts 2:40). Those that listen to the counsel of the ungodly, and stand in the way of sinners, as willing to walk with them, will come at length (if Almighty grace prevent not) to sit in the seat of the scornful (Psalm 1:1). Let us therefore abide by that which Job and Eliphaz, even in the heat of dispute, were agreed in, that the counsel of the wicked shall be far from us, which protestation we have (Job 21:16 and 22:18). It is dangerous making friendship with those that have an enmity to serious godliness, lest we learn their way, and get a snare to our souls.

There are two common pretenses, and seemingly plausible ones, under which those that speak against religion shelter themselves, but they are neither of them justifiable.

1. They pretend, that it is only for argument sake, that they object against religion, and pick quarrels with it, and (so little esteem they have of the thing called sincerity) they will not be thought to mean as they say. And are the great principles of religion become such moot-points, such matters of doubtful disputation, that it is indifferent which side of the question a man takes, and upon which he may argue, pro or con, at his pleasure? That grave and weighty saying of a learned heathen is enough to silence this pretense, Mala enim et impia consuetudo est, contra Deos disputandi, sive ex animo id fit, sive simulate. It is an ill thing to talk against religion, whether a man means as he says or no, or (in the language of our age) whether he speak seriously, or only banter. Julian, the apostate, when, before he threw off his disguise, he frequently argued against Christianity, pretended it was only for disputation sake. But out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and from where can such evil things come but from an evil treasure there?

2. They pretend that it is not religion that they ridicule and expose to contempt, but some particular forms and modes of religious worship which they do not like. And this is one ill effect of the unhappy divisions among Christians, that while one side has labored to make the other contemptible; religion in general has suffered on all sides. To reprove what we think amiss, with prudence and meekness is well, but to reproach and make a jest of that which our fellow-Christians look upon as sacred, and make a part of their religion, cannot be to any good purpose at all. To scoff at the mistakes and weaknesses of our brethren, is the way to provoke and harden them, but not to convince and reform them. They who think to justify this way of ridiculing those that differ from them, by the instance of Elijah's jeering the priests of Baal, perhaps know not what manner of spirit they are of (Luke 9:55), no more than those disciples did who would have their intemperate heats countenanced by the example of that great prophet.

Fifthly, let us that profess the Christian religion, be very cautious that we do not give occasion to any to speak against it. If there are those in all places that are industrious to cast reproach upon religion, then we have need to walk circumspectly, and to look well to our goings, that those who watch for our halting may have no occasion given them to blaspheme. It is certain that though in religion there is nothing which may be justly spoken against, yet among those that profess it there is too often found that which deserves to be taxed, and which cannot pass without just and severe reflection. Are there not those within the pale of the church, through whom the name of God and his doctrine is blasphemed, and by reason of whom the way of truth is evil spoken of (Romans 2:24; 2 Peter 2:2)? Are there not those who wear Christ's livery, but are a scandal to his family, spots in the love-feasts (Jude 12), and a standing reproach to that worthy name, by which they are called? Now though it is certainly very unjust and unfair to impute the faults of professors to the religion they profess, and to reproach Christianity, because there are those that are called Christians who expose themselves to reproach; yet it is, without question, the sin of those who give men occasion to do so. This was the condemnation in David's case, and entailed the sword upon his house, though the sin was pardoned, that by it he had given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme (2 Samuel 12:14). Let us therefore double our diligence and care, giving no offense either to Jew or Gentile, that religion which has so often been wounded in the house of her friends, may never be wounded through our sides.

If we enquire (as we are commanded to do) what it is that gives occasion of reflection upon religion, we shall find that the imprudences of those that profess it, give some occasion, but their immoralities much more.

1. The imprudences of Christians often turn to the reproach of Christianity. There may be such overdoing even in well-doing, as may prove undoing. When more stress is laid than ought to be upon some instances of religion, to the jostling out of others, and the exercises of devotion are either mistimed, or misplaced, or disproportioned, religion is hereby misrepresented, or looked upon to disadvantage. Rash and indiscreet zeal may give occasion to those who seek occasion to speak against all religious zeal. Therefore walk in wisdom towards them that are without (Colossians 4:5). Religion is a most sweet and pleasant and amiable thing: let not us by our indiscretion make it a task to ourselves, and a terror to others. The more the children of God are children of wisdom, the more they justify it, and its ways (Luke 7:35). Christian prudence is very much the beauty and strength of Christian piety. Though it will secure the welfare of our own souls if we walk in our integrity, yet it is necessary for the preserving of the credit of our profession, that we walk in wisdom, that wisdom of the prudent which is to understand his way (Proverbs 14:8), that wisdom which is profitable to direct (Ecclesiastes 10:10). And if any man lack this wisdom, let him ask it of God, who gives liberally, and upbraids us not with our folly (James 1:5). Pray with David (Psalm 27:11): teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of my enemies (Hebrew: because of my observers). Our enemies are our observers, and will be ready to reproach our way, for the sake of the false steps we take in it, and therefore we have need to ponder the path of our feet, and let discretion guide and govern our zeal.

2. The immoralities of those who profess Christianity turn much more to the reproach of that holy religion; when those that are called Christians, are griping and covetous, and greedy of the world, when they are false and deceitful, and unjust in their dealings, sour and morose, and unnatural to their relations, turbulent and unquiet in societies, when they are froward and passionate, proud and haughty, hard-hearted and oppressive, loose and intemperate. When they are found guilty of lying and cheating, drunkenness or uncleanness. When it appears that they keep up some secret haunts of sin, under the cloak and cover of a specious profession, when they that profess the Christian faith lick up the vomit of heathen, and allow themselves in those things that are contrary to the light and law even of natural religion. This is that which opens the mouths of the adversaries to speak reproachfully of that religion, the profession of which is made to consist with such vile practices, which cannot possibly consist with the power of it. This makes people ready to say as that Mahometan prince did, when the Christians had broke their league with him, O Jesus, are these your Christians? Or as the complaint was upon another occasion, Aut hoc non Evangelium, aut hi non Evangelici, either this is not gospel, or these are not to be called professors of the gospel. If ministers give offense in anything, not they only, but their ministry will be blamed (2 Corinthians 6:3). Indeed, if servants, Christians of the lowest rank and figure, if they be unfaithful, and disobedient to the government they are under, the name of God, and his doctrine, is likely to be blasphemed (1 Timothy 6:1). Let us therefore who profess relation to the eternal God, and dependence upon the blessed Jesus, and a regard to the Holy Scriptures, as we tender the reputation of our religion, walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing (Colossians 1:10). Let us order our conversation so in everything, as that we may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior (Titus 2:10). While we are called by so good a name, let us not dare to do an ill thing. The disciples of Christ are as a city upon a hill (Matthew 5:14), and have many eyes upon them, and therefore have need to behave themselves with a great deal of caution, and to abstain from all appearance of evil (2 Thessalonians 5:12). Let us not do anything that is unjust, or unbecoming us, nor allow ourselves in that which we know the gospel we profess does by no means allow of, lest we be to answer another day, for all the reproach of religion which we have occasioned: how light soever we may make of this now, we shall find that it will greatly inflame the reckoning shortly, when God will affect the honor of his own name, and will be glorified upon those by whom he was not glorified. In consideration of this, let us see to it that we have our conversation honest among the adversaries of our religion, that they who speak against us as evil-doers, may by our good works which they shall behold, be brought to glorify God, and to entertain good thoughts of religion, or at least, that we may with well-doing put to silence the ignorance of foolish men (1 Peter 2:12, 15). Our religion, I am sure, is an honor to us; let not us then be a dishonor to it.

Sixthly, if there be those everywhere that speak against religion and godliness, let us then as we have opportunity be ready to speak for it. Every Christian should be both a witness and an advocate for his religion, and the rather because it is so much opposed and contradicted. Next to our care not to be a shame to the gospel, should be our resolution not to be ashamed of the gospel. You are subpoenaed by the King of Kings to appear for him in the world: you are my witnesses says the Lord (Isaiah 43:10). Do not betray this cause then by declining your testimony, how much soever you may be browbeaten and confronted. Say with a holy boldness as Elihu (Job 36:2): suffer me a little and I will show you, that I have yet to speak on God's behalf. You hear what is daringly said against God, how his holy name is trampled upon and abused, his truths contradicted, his word and ordinances vilified, and have you never a word to say for him? Is our Lord Jesus appearing for us in heaven, pleading our cause there, pleading it with his own blood, and shall not we be ready to appear for him on earth, and plead his cause though it were with the hazard of our blood? As it is then a time to keep silence, when we ourselves are spoken against (Psalm 38:13; Ecclesiastes 3:7), I as a deaf man heard not, so it is then a time to speak, when God is spoken against, and the honor of our religion lies at stake. Wisdom's children should take all occasions to justify wisdom, and vindicate it from the aspersions that are cast upon it. Read the doom of him that is ashamed of Christ and of his words in this adulterous generation (Mark 8:38): of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father. Not confessing Christ when we are called to it, is in effect denying him, and disowning relation to him (Luke 12:9; 2 Timothy 2:12), and they who do so, except they repent as Peter did, will shortly be denied and disowned by him. If we should, with an angry countenance at least, drive away a backbiting tongue (Proverbs 25:23) that reproaches our brother, much more a blasphemous tongue that reproaches our maker. Should we hear a near relation or a dear friend (in whose reputation it is natural to us to reckon ourselves sharers) spoken against and slandered, we would readily appear in his vindication; and have we no resentments of the contempt and contumely cast upon religion? Can we sit by contentedly to hear God and Christ, and the Scripture and serious godliness reflected upon, and have we nothing to say in their behalf? Common equity obliges us to be the patrons of a just, but wronged cause. And that we may not think ourselves discharged from this duty by our inability to defend the truths and ways of God, and so make our ignorance and unskilfulness in the word of righteousness, an excuse for our cowardice and want of zeal, we ought to take pains to furnish ourselves with a clear and distinct knowledge of the certainty of those things wherein we have been instructed (Luke 1:4). We must labor to understand not only the truths and principles, but the grounds and evidences of our religion, that we may be able to give an answer, an apology, to every man that asks us a reason of the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). How industrious are the profane wits of the age to find out something to say against religion, and should not that quicken us to provide ourselves with the armor of righteousness, both on the right hand and on the left (2 Corinthians 6:7), aiming at the riches of the full assurance of understanding (Colossians 2:2)? And if we do (as there is occasion) with humility and sincerity, and from a principle of zeal for God, and his honor, appear in defense of religion, and its injured cause, we may doubtless take encouragement from that promise (Matthew 10:19): it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. God will own those that own him, and will not fail to furnish his faithful advocates with needful instructions, and many a time ordains such strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings as strangely stills the enemy and the avenger (Psalm 8:2).

Lastly, let none of us ever think the worse of the way of religion and godliness for its being everywhere spoken against, nor be frightened hereby from walking in that way. The contempt cast upon the practice of piety is with many, an invincible objection against it; their good impressions, good purposes and good overtures are hereby crushed and brought to nothing: they have that within them which tells them that the way of sobriety and serious godliness is a very good way, and they sometimes hear that word behind them, saying, this is the way, walk you in it (Isaiah 30:21), but they have those about them that tell them otherwise, and thus the convictions of conscience are overruled and baffled by the censures and reproaches of men, whose praise they covet more than the praise of God.

But to take off the force of this objection, let us consider these four things.

1. Consider who they are that speak against religion and godliness, not only that they are mortal men, whom the moth shall eat up like a garment, men that shall die, and the sons of men which shall be made as grass, all whose thoughts will shortly perish with them, and therefore why should we fear their reproach, or be afraid of their revilings (Isaiah 51:7-8, 12)? Nor only they that are fallible men who may be mistaken, and whose judgment is by no means decisive, nor such as will bear us out: shall we put what men say in the scale against what God says? Let God be true and every man a liar. We must not be judged hereafter, and therefore should not be ruled now by the sentiments and opinions of men: but those that speak against religion are also for the most part ill men; men of unsettled heads, debauched consciences, and profligate lives. It is the fool and none but he, that says in his heart, there is no God. The scoffers of the last days are men that walk after their own lusts, whose carnal, fleshly interest retains them on that side. David was abused by the abjects (Psalm 35:15), and the Christians at Thessalonica by certain lewd fellows of the baser sort (Acts 17:5). Such as those are the men that make a mock at religion. Shall we be governed and influenced in the greatest concerns of our souls by such men as these? Shall the jests and banters of those, who know not what it is to be serious, carry the day against the deliberate sentiments of all wise and good men, who have with one consent subscribed to the equity and goodness of religion's ways? If we choose such as these for our leaders, the blind lead the blind, and we know the consequence.

2. Consider how trifling and frivolous that is which is commonly said against religion and godliness. The devil made his first assault upon mankind by lies and slanders, suggesting hard thoughts of God, and promising impunity in sin; and by the same wretched methods he still supports and carries on his interest in the world. Those that speak against religion, make lies their refuge, and under falsehood they hide themselves. All those bold and daring things which are spoken against religion, are either groundless and unproved calumnies, or very unjust and unfair representations. Hence the enemies of religion are said to be absurd and unreasonable men (2 Thessalonians 3:2). Men that while they cry up the oracles of reason, rebel against all the light and laws of it. Put all that together which is spoken against godliness, and weigh it in the balances of right reason, and you will write Tekel upon it, weighed in the balances and found wanting. And, as if an overruling providence had forced the scoffers of these last days to confess their own infatuation, some of those that have been most sharp in their invectives against religion, have been no less free in their satires against reason itself, as if they were resolved to answer the character of Solomon's fool, whose wisdom fails him so far, that he says to everyone that he is a fool (Ecclesiastes 10:3).

3. Consider how much is to be said for religion notwithstanding it is everywhere spoken against. Religion has reason on its side, its cause is a good cause; and it is the right way whoever speaks against it. It is no disparagement (as that excellent pen expresses it) to be laughed at, but to deserve to be so; you have heard religion reproached, but did you ever find that it deserved to be so? Indeed; on the contrary, have you not found that it very well deserves your best affections and services? Enquire of those that have made trial of it, consult the experiences of others: call now, if there be any that will answer you, and to which of the saints will you turn (Job 5:1)? Ask your father and he will show you, your elders and they will tell you (Deuteronomy 32:7), that the fear of the Lord that is wisdom, and to depart from evil, that is understanding (Job 28:28). They will tell you, that religion's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace (Proverbs 3:17), and that all the wealth and pleasure in this world is not worth one hour's communion with God in Jesus Christ. They will tell you, that there is no truths so certain and weighty as divine truths, and that no statutes and judgments are so righteous as the divine law, which is holy, just, and good. They will tell you, that real holiness and sanctification is the perfection of the human nature, as well as the participation of a divine nature, that a firm belief of the principles of religion is the greatest improvement of our intellectual powers, a strict adherence to its rules our surest guide in all our ways, and a cheerful dependence upon its promises, the fountain of better joys, and the foundation of better hopes than any we can be furnished with in the things of sense and time. They will tell you that a life of serious godliness is incomparably the most sublime and honorable, the most sweet and comfortable life a man can live in this world; and that nothing does more answer the end of our creation, better befriend societies, nor conduce more to our true interest in both worlds than that holy religion which is everywhere spoken against.

4. Consider that the cause of religion and godliness, however it be spoken against and opposed, will infallibly be the prevailing cause at last. We are sensible of a mighty struggle in the world between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent; Michael and his angels on the one side, and the dragon and his angels on the other. Many there are that speak against religion, and are very vigorous in opposing it, and some, though but a few, that are speaking for it, contending for the faith, and striving against sin, now it is desirable to know which of these contesting interests will be victorious; and we may be assured that the cause of God and religion will certainly carry the day. Contradicted truths will be effectually cleared and vindicated; despised holiness will be honored; mistakes rectified; reproaches rolled away; and everything set in a true light. Then you shall return and discern between truth and falsehood, right and wrong (Malachi 3:18), which now it is not always easy to do. The day of the Lord is said to be in the valley of decision (Joel 3:14), because then and there will this great cause be decided, which has been so long depending, and a definitive sentence given from which there will lie no appeal, and against which there will be no exception. Our God will then come and will not keep silence (Psalm 50:3); whoever now speak against religion he will then speak for it, and will undoubtedly be justified when he speaks, and clear when he judges (Psalm 51:4). Particular parties and interests, as such, will wither and come to nothing, but catholic Christianity, that is denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, in expectation to the blessed hope: this is good, and the goodness of it being founded on the unchangeable will of the eternal mind, it is eternally good, and no doubt will be eternally glorious, whatever is said against it. This, this is that gold, and silver, and those precious stones, which will stand the test of the fire that shall try every man's work (1 Corinthians 3:12-13), and will be found to praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7).

Assure yourselves (Christians) there is a day of recompenses for the controversy of Zion coming (Isaiah 34:8), and it is at hand; behold the judge stands before the door (James 5:9). Then vice and wickedness which now appear so daring, so threatening, will be effectually and irrecoverably crushed, and such a fatal and incurable blow given to the serpent's head that he shall never hiss, nor spit his venom any more: then shall the upright have the dominion (Psalm 49:14), and all the faithful soldiers of the Lord Jesus shall be called to set their feet upon the necks of principalities and powers (Joshua 10:24). Then atheists and blasphemers, the debauchees and profane scoffers of the age, will have their mouths stopped with an irresistible conviction; will have all their vile calumnies visibly confuted; their hearts filled with unspeakable horror, and their faces with everlasting shame: their refuge of lies will then be swept away (Isaiah 28:17), and rocks and mountains called upon in vain to shelter them (Revelation 6:16): then shall the righteous who are now trampled upon and despised, shine as the sun in the firmament of their Father (Matthew 13:43). Wisdom and her children shall be first justified, and then glorified before all the world: and they that through grace have gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image (Revelation 15:2), shall solace themselves, and praise their redeemer with everlasting songs of triumph. The dirt that is now unjustly thrown upon them, will not only be wiped off, but will add to their glory, and every reproach for the testimony of Jesus will be a pearl in their crown (Matthew 5:11-12). The righteous judge of heaven and earth will shortly render to every man according to his work (Romans 2:6-9): to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honor, and immortality in the other world, and (in pursuit of that) patiently bear disgrace and contempt in this, to them he will render eternal life, which will make them as happy as they can desire, far more happy than they can now conceive. But to them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but contradict it, and rebel against the light and laws of it, being resolved to obey unrighteousness, to them he will render, with a just and Almighty hand, indignation and wrath, the effect of which will be such tribulation and anguish to the soul, as will make them feel eternally, what now they will not be persuaded to believe, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31); for never any hardened their hearts against him and prospered. Brethren, these are the true sayings of God (Revelation 19:9), on the certainty of which, we may venture our immortal souls.

They who speak and act so much against religion, design to run it down, and extirpate it, that the name of it may be no more in remembrance (Psalm 83:4), and perhaps you hear them sometimes boast of their success herein: if they can but handsomely (as they think) ridicule the sacred text, or banter any of the divine mysteries, or expose a good man, they think they had run down religion. Run down religion? In the name of my great master, I defy all the powers of hell and earth to run it down: they may sooner run down the flowing tide, or the sun when he goes forth in his strength, than run down the least of the dictates of eternal truth, not one jot or tittle of which shall fall to the ground (Matthew 5:18). Dagon will certainly fall before the ark of the Lord; and the rod of Aaron will swallow up the rods of the magicians (Exodus 7:12). Do they talk of running down religion, and the Scriptures, and the ordinances of Christ? The virgin daughter of Zion has despised them, and laughed them to scorn, the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at them (Isaiah 37:22); and has therefore put them to shame, because God has despised them, as it is said (Psalm 53:5). He that sits in the heavens enjoying himself (Psalm 2:4), and rides upon the heavens, for the help of his people (Deuteronomy 33:26), derides their attempts against the kingdom of his Son, as vain and fruitless. The Lord laughs at them, for he sees that his day is coming (Psalm 37:13). They have their day now, it is their hour and the power of darkness: but God will have his day shortly, and a glorious day it will be, when our Lord Jesus shall appear in all the power and grandeur of the upper world, to the everlasting terror and confusion of all his adversaries, and the everlasting joy and honor of all his faithful servants and soldiers; with the believing hopes and prospects of which day, let all those who heartily espouse and plead religion's righteous cause, comfort themselves and one another.

FINIS.