yet are there too many who follow his steps, and betray the cause and interests of their Divine Master. There are different kinds of traitors :
1. Infidel—
[Many pretend to be followers of Christ, and yet deny every fundamental truth of his religion. The fall of man, and the guilt and corruption consequent upon it ; the substitution of our Lord Jesus Christ in the place of sinners, and our reconciliation to God by the blood of his cross ; the regenera- ting and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, together with all the inward life and power of godliness ; all these, I say, are denied and held up to ridicule and scorn : and yet the people, who thus expunge from their system almost every doctrine that distinguishes our holy religion, will call them- selves Christians. But are they really friends of Christ ? Are they not rather enemies and traitors ? Even the followers of Mahomet express as much regard for Christ as they : the Mahometan allows that Christ was a prophet ; and what do these infidels allow him more ? Truly their kisses are perfidious ; their professions are a lie.]
2. Antinomian —
[There are two kinds of Antinomians ; systematical, and practical : the former are very zealous for the peculiar doctrines of Christianity ; but they carry them to an undue extent ; and erase from their system all the obligations of the moral law. We hope and believe, that all who embrace this system are not so regardless of the law in practice, as they are in theory : nevertheless their sentiments are most pernicious; and their professed attachment to Christ is constructive treason. It is certain that, however exemplary some of these persons may be, others (and we fear by far the greater part of them,) take encouragement from these licentious tenets to live in sin. If they do not give way to those grosser propensities which would expose their profession to universal contempt, they are at least distinguished by a proud, contentious, worldly spirit, and by irreverence and undue confidence in their transactions with God.
As for practical Antinomians, the great majority of nominal Christians are of this class. They object not to the leading truths of the Gospel : having been educated in the belief of them, they acknowledge them as points which they are not disposed to controvert. But to yield to their influence, and to bring their souls to a state suited to them, they have no mind. They wish for nothing beyond this world ; they think of nothing but what relates to the body. Whether their out- ward conduct be more or less correct, they consider it as of
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