I Believe, &c. SERMON I. OF THE EVIL AND UNREASONABLENESS HEB. iii. 12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. I. IF the causes of all the sin and all the mischief in SERM. the world were carefully sought, we should find the chief of all to be infidelity; either total or gradual. Wherefore to dehort and dissuade from it is a very profitable design; and this, with God's assistance, I shall endeavour from these words; in which two particulars naturally do offer themselves to our observation; an assertion implied, that infidelity is a sinful distemper of heart; and a duty recommended, that we be careful to void or correct that distemper: of these to declare the one, and to press the other, shall be the scope of my Discourse. That infidelity is a sinful distemper of heart, appeareth by divers express testimonies of scripture, and by many good reasons grounded thereon. 8,9. It is by our Saviour in terms called sin: when he John xvi. is come, he will reprove the world of sin,―of sin, I. John xv. 22. ix. 41. ix. 41. SERM. because they believe not in me: and, If I had not come, and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin: and, If (viii. 24.) ye were blind, ye should not have had sin; but now ye say, We see, therefore your sin abideth. What sin? that of infidelity, for which they were culpable, having such powerful means and arguments to believe imparted to them, without due effect. 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. 8. It hath a condemnation grounded thereon; He, saith our Saviour, that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God: but condemnation ever doth suppose faultiness. It hath sore punishment denounced thereto; God, saith St. Paul, shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had plea2 Thess. i. sure in unrighteousness; and, Our Lord, saith he, at his coming to judgment, will take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; whence among Rev. xii. 8. those, who have their part in the lake burning with fire and brimstone, the fearful, and unbelievers (that is, they who fear to profess, or refuse to believe the Christian doctrine) are reckoned in the first place; which implieth infidelity to be a heinous sin. It is also such, because it is a transgression of 1 John iii. a principal law, or divine command; This, saith St. John vi. 29. John, is ʼn evroλǹ avtoũ, the command of him, That we should believe; this, saith our Lord, is Tò pyov 23. * John iii. 18. xii. 48. Οὐ γὰρ μόνον τὸ μὴ εἴκειν ταῖς ἐντολαῖς τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ἀπιστεῖν αὐταῖς χαλεπωτάτην ἐπάγει τὴν κόλασιν. Chrys. ad Demat. tom. vi. p. 140. I. TOU Oeo, the signal work of God, (which God re- SERM. quireth of us,) that ye believe on him, whom he hath sent: that was a duty, which our Lord and his Mark i. 15. apostles chiefly did teach, enjoin, and press; wherefore correspondently infidelity is a great sin; according to St. John's notion, that sin is avopía, the trans- 1 John iii. gression of a law. But the sinfulness of infidelity will appear more fully by considering its nature and ingredients; its causes; its properties and adjuncts; its effects and consequences. I. In its nature it doth involve an affected blindness and ignorance of the noblest and most useful truths; a bad use of reason, and most culpable imprudence; disregard of God's providence, or despite thereto; abuse of his grace; bad opinions of him, and bad affections toward him; for 4. iii. 4. 15. 30. Tim. i. God in exceeding goodness and kindness to mankind hath proposed a doctrine, in itself faithful and Tit. ii. 11. worthy of all acceptation, containing most excellent truths instructive of our mind and directive of our practice, toward attainment of salvation and eternal felicity; special overtures of mercy and grace most needful to us in our state of sinful guilt, of weakness, of wretchedness; high encouragements and rich Luke vii. promises of reward for obedience: such a doctrine, Matt. xxiii. with all its benefits, infidelity doth reject, defeating. 4. Luke the counsel of God, crossing his earnest desires of x. 16. Rom. our welfare, despising his goodness and patience. iii. 9, 15. To this doctrine God hath yielded manifold clear 1 Pet. i. 10. attestations, declaring it to proceed from himself; Luke xxiv. ancient presignifications and predictions; audible He voices and visible apparitions from heaven, innu- Acts iv. 33. merable miraculous works, Providence concurring 47. vi. 7. BARROW, VOL. IV. Q 37. 1 Tim. ii. 4. 2 Pet. Acts iii. 18. 44. Heb. ii. 4. xix. 20. ii. xii. 24. I. SERM. to the maintenance and propagation of it against most powerful oppositions and disadvantages: but all these testimonies infidelity slighteth, not fearing to give their author the lie, which wicked boldness St. John chargeth on it; He, saith the apostle, that believeth not God, hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the testimony that God gave of his Son. 1 John v. 10. 2 Cor. v. Many plain arguments, sufficient to convince our minds, and win our belief, God hath furnished; the dictates of natural conscience, the testimony of experience, the records of history, the consent of the best and wisest men, do all conspire to prove the truth, to recommend the usefulness of this doctrine; but infidelity will not regard, will not weigh, will not yield to reason. God by his providence doth offer means and motives inducing to belief, by the promulgation of his gospel, and exhortation of his ministers: but all such methods infidelity doth void and frustrate ; thrusting away the word, turning away the ear Acts xiii. from the truth, letting the seed fall beside us, cast2 Tim. iv. ing away the law of the Lord of hosts; in effect 4. (as those in Job) saying to God, Depart from us, Isa. v. 24. for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. 20. 46. Matt. xiii. Job xxi. 14. John vi. 44. 20.) 1 Thess. v. God by his grace doth shine upon our hearts, (Rev. iii. doth attract our wills to compliance with his will, Acts vii. 51. doth excite our affections to relish his truth: but infidelity doth resist his Spirit, doth quench the heavenly light, doth smother all the suggestions and motions of divine grace within us. 19. 2 Cor. iv. 4. What God asserteth, infidelity denieth, questioning his veracity; what God commandeth, infidelity doth not approve, contesting his wisdom; what God I. promiseth, infidelity will not confide in, distrusting SERM. his fidelity, or his power: such is its behaviour (so injurious, so rude, so foolish) toward God, and his truth; this briefly is its nature, manifestly involving great pravity, iniquity, and impiety. II. The causes and sources from whence it springeth (touched in scripture, and obvious to experience) are those which follow. 17. 1. It commonly doth proceed from negligence, or drowsy inobservance and carelessness; when men being possessed with a spirit of slumber, or being Rom. xi. 8. amused with secular entertainments, do not mind the concerns of their soul, or regard the means by God's merciful care presented for their conversion ; being in regard to religious matters of Gallio's humour, caring for none of those things: thus, when Acts xviii. the king in the gospel sent to invite persons to his wedding feast, it is said, Oi dè àμeλýoartes átýλ0ov, Matt. xxii. they being careless, or not regarding it, went their 5 ways, one to his field, another to his trade. Of such the apostle to the Hebrews saith, How shall Heb. ii. 3. we escape, τοιαύτης ἀμελήσαντες σωτηρίας, who regard not so great salvation, exhibited to us? Of such Wisdom complaineth; I have called, and ye re- Prov. i. 24. fused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man xvi. 4regarded. No man: the greatest part indeed of Jer. vii. 31. men are upon this account infidels, for that being wholly taken up in pursuit of worldly affairs and divertisements, in amassing of wealth, in driving on projects of ambition, in enjoying sensual pleasures, in gratifying their fancy and humour with vain curiosities, or sports, they can hardly lend an ear to instruction; so they become unacquainted with the notions of Christian doctrine; the which to them are Isa. lxv. 12. |