A FAST SERMON. 309
with furious persecutors, subtle deceivers, but also profane scoffers. At the first promulgation of the gospel, truths were new, and the exercises of the christian religion lively, and there was great concord and seriousness among the professors of the gospel. Before men's senses were benumbed with the customary use of religious duties, the notions of God and salvation by Christ were fresh and active upon their hearts ; but when the profession of Christianity grew into a form and national interest, and men became christians rather by the chance of their birth than their own choice and rational conviction, and the world was turned into the church, and the ancient severity and strict- ness was much lost, and the memory of those miracles and wonderful effects by which our religion was confirmed almost worn out ; and so the truth of it questioned and impugned by men of subtle wits and a prostituted conscience, — we seem to grow weary of the name of Christ ; and in the fag-end of time mockers and atheistical spirits swarm every- where ; and the holy, meek, sober, humble, heavenly spirit seemeth to be banished out of the christian world, but that a few broken-hearted christians keep it up. And partialities, and sidings, and sects are countenanced, while unquestionable duties are little regarded, except by those few who have the courage to live in a counter-motion to the practices of a loose age, by their holiness and charity, and serious regard to the hopes of another world.
[2.] In every nation. What ups and downs are there in religion ? Now the interest of God is in great request, and anon neglected, scorned, and trampled upon. You have Israel's story, Ps. Ixxviii. and still the burden is, ver. 37, ' Their hearts were not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.' Sometimes all afloat for God, but presently quite becalmed. Usually religion is changed in a nation upon two grounds, change of persons, and change of interests. (1.) Change of persons. When goocl old zealous men are gone, the stage is shifted, and there cometh on a new scene of acts and actors ; one generation passeth, and another cometh. As we are told of Egypt, there arose a generation that knew not Joseph, a new family reigned in Egypt, though we have no account of it in scripture ; so here a new generation rise, that will scarce own their father's God, at least grow weary of him ; and being never pope-bitten, nor acquainted with the former boudage from which their ancestors were freed by the mighty power of God, grow cold in religion, ready to give up all which was retrieved out of former corruptions with so much ado. It is hot work for a while, but afterward it runneth into formality, and religion groweth dead and flat. A new sort of persons arise that forget the old God : Josh. xxiv. 31, 'And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, which had known all the works of the Lord, and what he had done for Israel.' For a while there is a zealous generation ; but they decay and die away, and religion decays with them. And the survivors lose their zeal for God and the interests of his kingdom. Salvian compareth religion to a river, which loseth in depth what it getteth in breadth ; to a body, which, as it groweth larger and bigger, groweth less active ; to a mother, that is the weaker for every birth. Multiplicatis fidei ipojpulis, fides diminuta est. (2.) By the change of interests. When it
310 A FAST SERMON.
is for their interest to own God, men think they can never bind them- selves fast enough to him ; but when the posture of interest is changed, God is laid aside, they grow weary of God ; they deal treacherously with the Lord, and walk willingly after the commandment, Hosea v. 7, 11. And then though they be broken in judgment, all their matters go backward, and not forward, they will not be reclaimed. Jehu drove on furiously, while interest and reason of state carried him to pull down Baal, but still kept up the calves at Dan and Bethel. There he showed himself weary of God. Therefore you see what changes there are in the world.
Now it is a very great evil, sorely resented by God, when his people cast him off : Ps. Ixxxi. 11, * Israel would none of me.' God had chosen them above all nations, but they would not stick close to God. They had seen his miracles, enjoyed his worship ; but by degrees their respect to God was cooled, and they must have the gods of the nations round about them. So God threateneth to resist them that were turned back from the Lord, Zeph. i. 6. In the days of Joshua (in whose time that prophet prophesied), they had professed a great refor- mation, but soon revolted ; therefore God would be quick and severe upon them. So Jer. ii. 12, ' Be astonished, 0 ye heavens,' &c. The Lord speaketh as if the sun should be struck blind with astonishment, and the spheres should hurl out their stars, and the lights of heaven look pale upon such a wickedness, that a people should grow weary of their God, and change their God for that which is no God !