_And when he came near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!_ Luke xix. 41, 42.
I. 1. NOW, what can an impartial person think concerning the present state of _religion_ in _England_? Is there a nation under the sun which is so deeply fallen from the very _first principles_ of all religion? Where is the country, in which is found so utter a disregard to even _Heathen morality_? Such a thorough _contempt_ of _justice_ and _truth_, and all that should be dear and honourable to rational creatures?
What species of _vice_ can possibly be named, even of those that nature itself abhors, of which we have not had, for many years, a plentiful and still increasing harvest? What _sin_ remains either in _Rome_ or _Constantinople_, which we have not _imported_ long ago (if it was not of our native growth) and _improved_ upon ever since? Such a _complication_ of villainies of every kind, considered with all their _aggravations_, such a _scorn_ of whatever bears the face of _virtue_, such _injustice_, _fraud_, and _falshood_: above all, such _perjury_, and such a _method of law_, we may defy the whole world to produce.
What multitudes are found throughout our land, who do not even _profess_ any religion at all? And what numbers of those who _profess much_, and confute their profession by their _practice_? Yea, and perhaps by their exorbitant pride, vanity, covetousness, rapaciousness, or oppression, cause the very _name of religion_, to stink in the nostrils, of many (otherwise) _reasonable_ men?
2. “However, we have many thousands still, of truly, _virtuous_ and _religious_ men.” Wherein does their _religion_ consist? In _righteousness_ and true _holiness_? In _love_ stronger than death? Fervent _gratitude_ to God? And tender _affection_ to all his creatures? Is their religion, the religion of the _heart_? A renewal of soul in the image of God? Do they _resemble_ him they _worship_? Are they free from pride, from vanity, from malice and envy; from ambition and avarice, from passion and lust; from every uneasy and unlovely _temper_? Alas, I fear neither they (the great part at least) nor _you_, know what _this religion_ means; or have any more notion of it, than the peasant that holds the plough, of the religion of a _Gymnosophist_.
’Tis well if the _genuine religion_ of Christ has any more alliance with what you _call religion_, than with the _Turkish_ pilgrimages to _Mecca_, or the _Popish_ worship of our Lady of _Loretto_. Have not _you_ substituted in the place of the _religion of the heart_, something (I do not say equally _sinful_, but) equally vain, and foreign to the _worshipping_ of God in _spirit and in truth_?――――What else can be said even of _prayer_, (_public_ or _private_) in the manner wherein you generally perform it? As a thing of _course_, running round and round, in the same dull track, without either the _knowledge_, or _love_ of God? Without one heavenly _temper_, either attained or improved? O what mockery of God is this!
And yet even _this religion_, which can do you no good, may do you much harm. Nay, it is plain, it does: it daily increases your _pride_, as you measure your goodness by the _number_ and _length_ of your performances. It gives you a deep _contempt_ of those, who do not come up to the full _tale_ of your virtues. It inspires men with a _zeal_, which is the very fire of hell, furious, bitter, implacable, unmerciful; often to a degree that extinguishes all compassion, all good nature and humanity. Insomuch, that the execrable _fierceness_ of spirit, which is the natural fruit of such a religion, hath many times, in spite of all ties, divine and human, broke out into open violence, into rapine, murder, sedition, rebellion, civil war, to the desolation of whole cities and countries.
_Tantum_ hæc _Religio potuit suadere malorum_!
3. Now if there be a God, and one that is not a mere idle spectator of the things that are done upon earth, but a rewarder of men and nations according to their works, what can the event of these things be? It was reasonable to believe, that he would have risen long ago and maintained his own cause, either by sending the famine or pestilence among us, or by pouring out his fury in blood. And many wise and holy men have frequently declared, that they daily expected this; that they daily looked for the patience of God to give place, and judgment to rejoice over mercy.