Use. Of reproof.
1. Of those that scoff at strictness and accurate walking. These scoff at that which is the glory of that religion which they do profess, that which God aimed at, that which Christ purchased, that which the Spirit worketh. They are guilty of persecution : Gal. iv. 29, ' But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.' That persecution was scoffing and mocking about the inheritance ; we are as much in the favour of God as the precisest of them all : Gen. xxi. 9, ' And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking.' Will a father take it well that a slave should mock his child because he is like him ? You will say, It is not their holiness and purity you laugh at, but their folly and preciseness. But is it foolish to be tender of God's laws ? Which is better, to conform ourselves to God's will or men's sinister fashions and customs ? Can a man keep at too great a distance from sin ? But it is preciseness and fond scrupulosity. So did the conversations of christians seem to the old pagans : 1 Peter iv. 3, 4, ' For the time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries. Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them into the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.' And shall it be so among seeming chris- tians ? Have we not the same bible ? do we not believe the same creed ? are we not baptized into the same profession ? and will you blame them for being strict and serious, for that in which you are vain and loose ? Can God be too much loved, or Christ too much prized, or a man more holy than Christ hath required ? And will you oppose the practice of those things which your religion calleth you to as well as them, and please yourselves with the name, and hate them because
VeR. 15.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 355
they have the power ? You will say you hate them for their hypocrisy and dissimulation, and their other miscarriages, notwithstanding their seeming strictness. Surely it is not sin you hate, for then you would declaim more against the profane, in whom sin is more notorious. The plain truth is, your hearts cannot away with their godliness ; and if you did hate sin in them, you would pity their persons, not scoff at, but reprove them : Phil. iii. 18, ' For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies to the cross of Christ.' It may be they have their failings ; but will you cast yourselves into the sea because they are fallen into a ditch ? Or doth it become a man infected with leprosy to cry out upon another because he hath a pimple in his face ? And especially to fall upon the whole generation of the just, as if you would judge of a street by the sink and kennel, or of the sound grapes by the rotten ones.
2. It reproveth them that think men are more nice than wise, that we make more ado than needeth when we press men to a constant watchfulness and serious diligence in the heavenly life. Oh, consider, we have slippery hearts, and live in the midst of temptations, and are to approve ourselves in the sight of the holy God, who expecteth to be glorified by us. And we are not to give just cause of offence to men, ' neither to Jew, nor gentile, nor to the church of God,' 1 Cor. x. 32. We are to take heed that wicked men be not hardened by our example, nor weak brethren scandalised. We are by a constant exercise of grace to maintain comfortable communion with God, to cherish clear and lively hopes of eternal life, especially in an age when men are to recover the credit of religion after the professors of it have miscarried so foully. In short, we that believe eternity, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that every action of ours is in its own nature a step either to life or death, how circumspect should we be! Alas! loose christians make the world believe that hell and heaven are but things spoken of in jest. Should not we therefore ' work out our salvation with fear and trem- bling ? ' Phil. ii. 12. What sense have men of the world to come, when they do so little in order to it ? What is that you call religion, that you can get it and keep it up without so much ado ? A man may have estate enough for two men, and yet not be satisfied ; the best hath scarce grace enough for one. Here is the mischief of it, men are for moderation in nothing else but religion, and there a little serveth the turn.
3. Some slight strictness as a thing out of date, since they know their liberty by Christ. Alas ! all the doctrines of grace do enforce it, not lessen it : Titus ii. 11, 12, ' The grace of God, that bringeth salva- tion, hath appeared to all men ; teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.' Else they are abused : Jude 4, ' Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord. Jesus Christ.' Christ's death and sufferings show us the vileness of sin, and what a high price God hath ])ut upon his law. He is gone into heaven, not to resign up his kingdom to Satan, but to make intercession for grace ; not only to pardon, but mortify sin. The whole frame of the covenant dotii oblige us to this strictness: Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, *For the Lord God is a sun and a shield ; the Lord will give grace and