But more distinctly ; particular persons may be ranged under two heads.
(1.) Common and ordinary professors ; and there is little doubt of them, but that they who are only acquainted with the toil of religion, and never knew the comfort of it, that they will put themselves into all shapes and forms as their affections and interest lead them. Therefore no question the love and zeal of hypocrites may miscarry and vanish , and though they seem to be carried on with great fervom* and affection in the ways of God for a while, yet afterward fall quite away ; partly because theh love to God was built upon foreign motives, the favour of the times, the awe of education, the advantage of good company. Jesus is not loved for Jesus' sake. If he be the object of their respect, yet not the reason ; and then it is no wonder to see hirelings prove changeHngs ; and those that loved a Christ triumphing, to forsake and hate a Christ crucified. All artificial motions cease, when the poise is down by which they are moved. And meteors vanish and disappear when the matter that feedeth them is spent ; when in the meantime the stars, those constant fires of heaven, shine with a dm-able light and brightness. Partly because that love and zeal which they had for God was not so rooted as to subdue contrary affections. A taste they had of the goodness of God in offer- ing pardon and life by Christ, and but a taste, Heb. vi. 4-6. Such as is easily choked by the cares of this world and voluptuous living.
308 A FAST SERMON.
Therefore we are warned : Heb. iii. 6, 14, ' To hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.' Well, then, growing weary of God is the ordinary sin of the carnal professor who never was thorough in the practice of godliness.
(2.) God's own people may abate much of their vigour in religion. Their love to God decayeth, and their sense of things eternal is lessened, and they grow cold in prayer, dead and uncomfortable in their duty, and so live as if they were weary of God, and weary of well-doing. And therefore are such often quickened in the scripture : Gal. vi. 9, 'Let us not be weary in well-doing.' And 2 Thes. iii. 13, ' But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing.' They lose all, if they persist not. And we have an instance, Kev. ii. 4. They that were com- mended for their labour in the Lord's work, zeal against hypocrites, patience in adversity, yet have this charged upon them, that they left their first love. Though they make not a total defection, yet they may suffer much loss in the degree of grace ; and the acts and fruits of it may be much intermitted, which is a great evil; because the highest degree of love doth not considerably answer the love of Christ, nor the duty of the regenerate, who are called by him from such a depth of misery, and to such an height of happiness, and who are to love him with all their soul, heart, and might. And because to come short, not only of the rule, but our former practice, is the more culpable ; for it seemeth to be a kind of condemning of our former practice, as if we had been too hot and earnest before, and done more than we needed. And lastly, because as love and zeal decayeth, so doth our work, Eev. ii. 4, 5 ; either it is wholly remitted, or else performed ia a perfunctory, slight manner ; such as argueth a neglect and contempt of God, rather than a due esteem and sense of his majesty. They dare not utterly give over the service of God, or quite abandon it ; yet lay not to heart their slight and perfunctory dealings with him. Thus you see it is a common sin which all should take heed of.
2. It is incident to a people considered in their community ; yea, nothing is more usual than for nations to grow weary of God ; for the whole followeth the reason and manner of the parts.
[1.] For the church of God in general. We in our times, who live in the dregs of Christianity, may soon perceive a manifest difference between the early days of the gospel, and those corruptions which now obtain ; when the faith of the gospel is turned into dead opinions, and questions, and vain j anglings ; and the worship of the gospel into a theatrical pomp, and the pageantry of empty ceremonies, which eclipse the majesty and splendour of it; and the discipline of Christ into a temporal domination ; and all is carried in the christian world by sides and interests ; so that Christianity looketh like another thing, a design calculated for the present world, rather than a serious preparation for the world to come. In the first days we read, Acts iv. 33, ' That with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.' Chris- tianity shineth more by its native lustre than meretricious orna- ments ; and Acts xix. 20, ' That the word grew mightily.' But in the latter times, atheists and scoffers abound, and are more rife than serious ■worshippers : 2 Peter iii. 3, ' There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.' The church of God is troubled, not only