wonder if it be so troublesome a neighbour to truth. O sirs ! what a sweet silence and peace was there among Christians a dozen years ago ! Methinks the looking back to those blessed days in this respect, (though they had also in another way their troubles, yet not so uncomfortable, because that storm united, this scatters the saints' spirits,) is joyous to remember in whatimity and love Christians walked, so that the persecutors of those times might have said, as their predecessors did of the saints in primitive times, ' See how they love one another!' but now, alas! they may jeer and say, See how they that loved so dearly are ready to pluck one another's eyes out !
Section I. — Use. The application of this shall be only in a word of exhor- tation to all, especially you who bear the name of Christ by a more eminent profession of him. O beware of this soul-infection, this leprosy of the head. I hope you do not think it needless ; for it is the disease of the times. This plague is begun, yea, spreads apace ; not a flock, a congregation hardly, that hath not this scab among them. Paul was a preacher the best of us all may write after, and he presseth this home upon the saints ; yea, in the constant course of his preaching it made a piece of his sermon, Acts xx. 30, 31 ; he sets us preachers also on this work ; * take heed to yoiu-selves, and to all the flock ; for I know this, that after my departiu-e shall grievous wolves enter; also of yoin- own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things;' therefoi'e watch. And then he presents his own example, that he hardly made a sermon for several years, but this was part of it, to warn every one night and day with tears. We need not prophesy what impostors may come upon the stage, when we go ofl"; there are too many at present above board of this gang, drawing disci23les after them. And if it be our duty to warn you of them, siu'ely it is yours to watch, lest you by any of them be led into temptation this hour thereof, wherein Satan is let loose in so great a measure to deceive the nation. May you not as easily be soiu-ed with this leaven, as the disciples, whom Christ bids beware? Are 3fou privileged above those famous chm'ches of Galatia and Corinth, many of which were bewitched with false teachers, and in a manner turned to another gospel 1 Is Satan grown orthodox, or have his instrinuents lost their cunning, who hunt for souls ? In a word, is there not a sympathy between thy corrupt heart and error ? hast thou not a disposition, which, like the foams of the earth, makes it natural for these weeds to grow in thy soil ? Seest tliou not many prostrated by this enemy, who sat upon the mountain of their faith, and thought it should never have been removed ? Surely they woidd have taken it ill to have been told. You are the men and women that will decry sabbaths, which now ye count holy ; you will turn Pelagians, who now defy the name ; you will despise prophecy itself, who now seem so much to honour the prophets ; you will throw family duties out of doors, who dare not now go out of doors, till you have prayed there. Yet these, and more than these are come to pass, and doth it not behove thee. Christian, to take heed lest thou fall also ? And that thou mayest not,
First, Make it thy chief care to get a thorough change of thy heart. If once the root of the matter be in thee, and thou art bottomed by a lively faith on Christ, thou art then safe : I do not say wholly free from all error, but this I am sure, free from ingulfing thy soul in damning error. ' They went out from us,' saith St. John, ' but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us,' 1 John ii. 19. As if he had said. They had some outward profession, and common work of the Spirit with us, which they have either lost or carried over to the devil's quarters, but they never had the unction of the sanctifying Spirit. By this, ver. 20, he distinguish- etli them, and comforts the sincere ones, who possibly might fear their own fall by their departure : ' But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.' It is one thing to know a truth, and another to know it by miction. An hypocrite may do the former, the saint only the latter. It is this unction which gives the soul the savour of the knowledge of Christ : those are the fit prey for impostors, who are enlightened but not enlivened. Oh it is good to have the heart established with grace ; this as an anchor will keep us from being set adrift, and carried about with divers and strange doctrines,. as the apostle teacheth us, Hcb. xiii. 9.
AGAINST SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS. I,'j5