in the heart of one man to revive them again the next day. Certainly- whatever is suggested from without doth very well suit with the carnal thoughts that are in our own bosoms. Look upon any error or blasphemy that is broached in the world, and you will find it true. Is atheism vented ? 'The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,' Ps. xiv. 1. Gentilism, or the doctrine of many gods ? So do we set up many gods ; whatever we fear or love, that we worship : ' Whose god is the belly,' Phil. iii. 19. Every man naturally is a pagan and idolater. Pelagian tenets, wherein original sin is denied, are natural. Common people think they had ever a good heart towards God : ' All these have I kept from my youth,' Mat. xix. 20. Chance and fortune, in a contradiction to God's decrees, are a man's natural opinions. So the doctrine of works and merit is in every man's heart. Wiiat question more rife, when we begin to be serious, than ' What shall I do ?' A ceremonious ritual religion is very pleasing to Ccirnal sense ; conjectural persuasions is but a more handsome word for the thoughts of ignorant persons ; they say they cannot be assured, but they hope well. Doctrines of liberty are very suitable also to corrupt nature : ' Cast away the cords,' Ps.'ii. ; and ' Who is lord over us ?' Ps. xii. 4. Nay, all sins are rooted in some error of judgment, and therefore they are called ' errors,' Ps. xix. 12. Well, then, for our own caution we had need stand for the truth, because error is so suitable to our thoughts; now when it spreadeth further, it is suitable also to our interests, and then we are in great danger of being overset. (2.) That we may not hazard the truth. When errors go away without control, it is a mighty prejudice both to the present and the next age : ' The dwellers upon earth' rejoiced when God's witnesses were under hatches, and there was none to contest with them, Eev. xi. 10. Fools must be answered, or else they will grow * wise in their own conceit,' Prov. xxvi. 4, 5. Error is of a spreading, growing nature, therefore it is not good to retreat and retire into our own cells from the heat and burden of the day ; let us stand in the gap and make resistance as God giveth ability. Two motives will enforce this reason : — (1.) The preciousness of truth: 'Buy the truth and sell it not.' It is a commodity that should be bought at any rate, but sold by no means, for the world cannot bid an answerable price for it. Christ thought it worthy his blood to purchase the gospel ; by offering up himself he not only procured the comfort of the gospel, but the very publication of the gospel ; therefore we should reckon it among our treasures and choicest privileges, and not easily let it go, lest we seem to have cheap thoughts of Christ's blood. (2.) The trust that is reposed in us for the next age, that is an obligation to faithfulness. We are not only to look to ourselves, but to posterity, to that doctrine which is transmitted to them ; one generation teacheth another. And as we leave them laws and other national privileges, so it would be sad if we should not be as careful to leave them the gospel : ' Our fathers told us what thou didst in their days,' Ps. xliv. 1. Every age is to consider of the next, lest we entail a prejudice upon them against the truth. What cometh from forefathers is usually received with rever- ence : ' A vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,' 1 Peter i. 18. If you be not careful you may sin after you are dead ; our errors and evil practices being continued and kept afoot by pos-
116 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 3.
terity. All the world had been lost in error and profaneness, if God had not stirred up in every age some faithful witnesses to keep up the memory of truth. There is in man a natural desire to do his posterity good ; love is descensive. Oh ! consider, how shall the children that are yet unborn come to the knowledge of the purity of religion, with- out some public monument or care on your part to leave religion un- defiled ? Antichrist had never prevailed so much if men had thought of after ages ; they slept, and unwarily yielded to encroachment after encroachment, until religion began to degenerate into a fond supersti- tion, or bundle of pompous and idle ceremonies ; and now we see how hard it is to wean men from these things, because they have flowed down to them in the stream of succession, and challenge the authority and prescription of ancient customs. Look, as sometimes the ancestor's guilt is measured into the bosom of posterity, because they continued in their practices, Mat. xxiii. 35, ' That upon you may come all the righteous blood,' &c. ; so many times the miscarriages of posterity may justly be imputed to us, because they shipwrecked themselves upon our example : ' The fathers ate sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' Well, then, let us perform the part of faithful trustees, and keep the doctrine of salvatioa, as much as in us lieth, pure and unmixed.