plaufe, before the favour of the most high and holy one SERM. I fhall but just mention one further Confideration, he SERM, he has likewife an Opportunity of hearing more ufeXIV. ful Exhortations, and is obliged to be more constant at all publick Devotions, than other Sinners can be perfuaded to be. When therefore a Man dares to rush into the prefence of the Lord, with a Heart full of impure Defires, and perhaps at that very Instant intent upon Mifchief, like the diffembling Scribes and Pharifees, whom our Lord taxes in the Gospel with making long prayers, that they might devour widows houfes, furely he must have arrived at a great and tranfcendent Height of Impiety, that he can fo contumelioufly defpife his Maker, while he is under the immediate Sense of his Duty; while others are with joint Hearts and Affections pouring out their Souls before him, and adoring him with a welcome tribute of praife and thanksgiving. For the very Places of religious Worship which he frequents, the common Offices and Forms of Prayer, which are made use of there, fo well calculated for the Relief of our Neceffities, and compofed with fuch a true Spirit of Chriftian Piety, together with the decent and orderly Behaviour of his Fellow-Chriftians, met together to ferve God in Unity of Heart, cannot but awaken him to a Senfe of his Duty, and put him in mind of his Ob. ligations to perform it. And if, notwithstanding this, he can be cold and infenfible in the midft of fo much Fervour and Devotion; if he can content himself with the Worship of his Lips, the mere Outfide and Formality of Religion, there is this peculiar Aggravation of his Guilt, that it is done under the calmest and coolest Reflexion: It is a deliberate Contempt of God's Worship: He has no fudden Start of Humour, no Guft of impetuous Paffion to plead on his behalf: His Tranfgreffion can be afcribed to no other Caufe, but but a rooted and inveterate Averfion to all Goodness, SER M. XIV. to a Conscience feared with a hot Iron, and deaf to the moft engaging Motives to Obedience. So that it is no wonder that the holy Prophets under the Law denounced God's Judgments, with so much Zeal and Severity, against a Sin of fo deep a dye; or that our blessed Lord himself, who was certainly the very Spirit of Meekness, does always raise his Voice with an uncommon Warmth and Vehemence, when he has occafion to take notice of it in his Difcourfes. Wo unto you, Scribes and Pharifees, Hypocrites: This is the Crime with which he is ever charging them, and which feems to have given him the greatest Offence, as being, of all Vices, the moft oppofite to that Simplicity of Heart which it was the Business of his Gospel to inculcate. From hence alfo you may account for the Reason of our Saviour's Declaration in another Place, where he is denouncing God's Wrath against Apoftate Chriftians, that he will cut them afunder, and appoint them their portion with the Hypocrites. What portion that is like to be, I have mentioned in another place already. I fhall conclude therefore with this single Caution, That as bad as Hypocrify appears, that Man will make but an ill Exchange, who flies out into a more open Rebellion: It is a far better and more rational Way, to be really what he now pretends to be. For that is a very easy Task. He does already go thro' the most painful part of it, which confifts in the external Performance: Nay, even that is then only painful, when a Man wants the true Spirit of Devotion: When this comes once in to his Aid, Religion is all Peace and Joy: Instead of the vain and precarious Applaufe of Men, he K 2 will SERM. will have the Applause of God and his holy An XIV. gels. In a word, the most rational Delights will be his Portion here, and eternal Happiness hereafter. Which God of bis infinite Mercy grant us all, thro' the Merits of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift. Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghoft, be afcribed, as is most due, all Honour, Power, Praife, Might, Majefty and Dominion, --both now and henceforth, and for evermore. All All common Forms of Swearing forbidden. A SERMO ΜΟΝ On MATTH. V. 34, 35, 36. But I fay unto you, Swear not at all; neither by Heaven, for it is God's Throne; nor by the Earth, for it is his Footstool; neither by Jerufalem, for it is the City of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy Head, for thou canst not make one Hair thereof white or black. T HIS peremptory Command of our, bleffed Lord, and another which is copied from it by St. James, is all that the New Teftament has taught us, by way of Precept, concerning the Nature and Ufe of Oaths; which being a kind of Evidence or Testimony to our Veracity, which in many Cafes may be legally required of us, and which fome of us are too apt to give, whether legally required or not, it shall be my Bufinefs in the following Difcourfe, Firft, To fhew the SERM. XV. |