VeK. 6.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 135
guilty before the great God, that all the memorials of God should be defaced.
2. Some live it down. It is possible there may be some atheists for a while in opinion ; but they are but few, if any — that are directly and purely so ; but there are more in affection, and most in conversation : Titus i, 16, ' They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him.' Your assent to this supreme principle will be judged of by your lives. There is a real language in your conversation ; that is the best image and the best copy of your thoughts. Works discover what is in the heart, what secret principles lurk there, though they be not expli- citly owned. Well then, when a man doth that which manifestly infers this conclusion, there is no God, then he lives down this principle ; when he cares not to seek peace with God, to humble him- self by repentance, to sue out for grace by Christ, then he is a practical atheist: you that should bring God into respect with others, make others suspect whether there be a God or no. There is not a greater temptation to atheism than the lives of scandalous professors, those that talk much of religion, and do not live up to the power of it. When a heathen had surprised a christian in an act of filthiness, he came to him with this smart question — Chrisiiane, cliristiane ! libi Dens iuus? — Christian, christian! where is thy God? thy God that seeth all things ? When you profess to believe an omniscient God, and yet live in filthiness, and allow yourselves in cozenage, oppression, deceit, fraud, and privy sins, and give up yourselves to a course of sin and filthy excess ; when you are not ashamed to do that before God which you would blush to do before men, then you live down this principle. ' The thief is ashamed when he is found,' saith the prophet, Jer. ii. 26. Why ? we are always found of God ; God's eye is upon us. Now, when you have no sense of this, and make no reckoning of his eye and pre- sence, so far you live down this truth. The apostle saith in o John, ver. 11, 'He that doth evil hath not seen God.' He that goes on in a course of sin, certainly his heart was never touched with a true sight of God ; for if a man thought there were a God to call him to an account and punish him, how could he thus freely give up himself to what is contrary to the will of God ?
Use 3. If there be a God, then beware of such opinions and practices as strike at the being of God.
First, Opinions. The devil is crafty, he assaults us by degrees, he takes his aim at a distance, he does not directly strike at this, that there is no God ; he dares not rise up against this truth, which is written upon the face of all things and upon the heart of man ; but he approacheth nearer and nearer towards it, and he seeks by degrees to undermine our assent thereunto. There are many opinions which do conduce towards atheism, and aim at the undermining this supreme truth in our hearts. As —
1. Libertinism — that men of all religions shall be saved. Eeligion is the actual acknowledgment of God, that which preserves and keeps up his respect in the world ; and therefore to make many doors to heaven, is to widen the gates of hell ; it is but a pretence to out-face conscience, when it presseth us to the choice and love of truth. They think if men can smooth their carriage a little, and live a good life — heathens, Tiuks,
136 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XXXT.
and men of all religions ma}' be saved. No ; deceive not yourselves ; there is but ' one faith,' but ' one Lord,' Eph. iv. 5. If you do not establish one faith, you will soon deny one Lord ; for one doth preserve and establish the other : Micah iv. 5, ' For all people will walk, every- one in the name of his god ; and we will walk in the name of the Lord oui- God for ever and ever.' In these latter times of the gospel, some grow weary of the christian religion, and by an excess of charity would betray their faith, and write and plead for the salvation of heathens, Turks, infidels, that, provided they go not against their consciences, they may be saved. The good-fellow gods of the heathens could brook company and partnership, but the true God will be acknowledged and owned alone, or else you can have no true happi- ness : Mat. iv. 10, ' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only'shalt thou serve.' As the sun drowneth the light of the lesser stars, and as there is but one God, so there is but one way to God. Then there are a sort of libertines that prevail among us, that say, It is true, there is some danger if a man be a Turk or an infidel ; but among christians, it is no great matter whether a man be a papist or a protestant, of this or that profession, provided he doth act as his country doth. This is to strike at the being of God. It is no small matter of what party you cleave to in religion : Kev. xiv. 13, 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth.' The meaning is this, those that fell under pagan superstition, they all cried up them as happy ; they were looked upon as saints and martyrs that died by that perse- cution—ay, but saith the Spirit—' From henceforth write it ; ' that is, those christians which stood up for the honour of God against anti- christian persecutions they are also happy. Such an indifi'erency in religion is not to be allowed.