Page images
PDF
EPUB

we are in the wrong, and religion in the right, because it hath the best and fobereft reafon of mankind on its fide..

Let us then with all readiness of mind entertain that light which God hath afforded to us, to conduct us and fhew us the way to happinefs, whether by the principles of natural religion, or by the revelation of the gofpel in its primitive purity and luftre, and not as it hath been muffled and difguifed by the ignorance and fuperftition which prevailed in afterages, till the light of the reformation fprang out, and restored a new day to us, and called us again out of darkness into a marvellous light, which by the bleffing of God we have now enjoyed for many years, and which we cannot go about to quench, without incurring the condemnation in the text.

; as

Thirdly, and laftly, Let us take heed of practical infidelity, of oppofing and contradicting the Chriftian religion by our wicked lives and actions. Though we profefs to believe the gofpel, yet if our deeds be evil, we do in effect and by interpretation reject it, and love darkness rather than light; though we af fent to the truth of it, yet we with-hold it in unrighteousness, we refift the virtue and efficacy of it, and do oppofe and blafpheme it by our lives; nay, we do as much as in us lies to make others atheists, by expofing religion to the contempt and fcorn of fuch perfons, and by opening their mouths against it either not containing the laws of a good life, or as deftitute of power and efficacy to perfuade men to the obedience of thofe laws. Where, will they say, is this excellent religion, fo much boafted of ? How does it appear? Look into the lives of Christians, and there you will beft fee the admirable effects of this doctrine; the mighty force of this inftitution! And what a fhameful reproach is this to us! What a fcandal and difparagement to our holy religion, to fee fome of the worst of men wearing the badge and livery of the best religion and inftitution that ever was in the world !.

I conclude all with the words of the Apoftle, Philip. i. 27. Only let your converfation be as it be cometh

cometh the gospel of Chrift; and fand faft in one Spirit, with one mind, ftriving together for the faith of the gospel.

SERMON CCXLVI.

The ground of bad mens enmity to the

truth.

JOHN iii. 20.

For every one that doth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, left his deeds fhould be reproved.

A

Mong all the advantages which God hath af forded mankind, to conduct them to eternal

happiness, the light of the Chriftian religion is incomparably the greateft; which makes it the greater wonder, that at its firft appearing in the world, it fhould meet with fuch unkind entertainment, and fo fierce and violent an oppofition. Of all the bleffings of nature, light is the moft welcome and pleafant; and furely to the mind of man, rightly difpofed, truth is as agreeable and delightful, as it is to the eye to behold the fun and yet we find, that when the most glorious light that ever the world faw, visited mankind, and Truth itself was incarnate, and came down from heaven to dwell among us, it was fo far from being welcomed by the world, that it was treated with all imaginable rudeness, and was oppofed by the Jews, with as much fiercenefs and rage, as if an enemy had invaded their country, with a defign to take away their place and nation. No fooner did the Son of God appear, and begin to fend forth his light and truth among them, by the publick preaching of his doctrine, but the teachers and rulers among the Jews rofe up against him as a

[ocr errors][merged small]

common enemy, and were never quiet till they had taken him out of the way, and by this means, as they thought, quite extinguifhed that light.

Now what can we imagine fhould be the reafon of all this, that a perfon who gave fuch clear evidence that he came from God, that a doctrine which carries fuch clear evidence of its divine original, should be rejected with fo much indignation and fcorn? That light and truth, which are fo agreeable to mankind and fo univerfally welcome, should be fo difdainfully repulfed? What account can be given of it, but that which our Saviour here gives in the text? Light is come into the world, but men loved darknefs rather than light; because their deeds were evil. For every one that doth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, left his deeds fhould be reproved, (or difcovered; for fo the word likewife fignifies, and may very fitly be fo rendered in this place) but (as it follows) he that doth the truth, Cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifeft, that they are wrought in God; that is, that they are of a divine stamp and original. In which words our Saviour represents to us the different difpofition and carriage of good and bad men, as to the receiving or rejecting of truth, when it is offered to them: They that are wicked and worldly are enemies to truth, because they have defigns contrary to it. Every one that doth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, left his deeds fhould be reproved. And on the contrary, a good man, he that: doth the truth, and fincerely practises what he knows, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifeft.

I fhall not need to handle thefe diftinctly, becaufe in speaking to one, the contrary will fufficiently ap pear. That therefore which I fhall speak to at this time, fhall be the former of thefe, viz. The enmity of bad men, and of those who carry on ill defigns to the truth, together with the caufes and reasons of it. Every one that doth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, left his deeds fhould be dif covered. Here our Saviour's doctrine (as I have

shewa

129 fhewn in the three laft difcourfes) is reprefented to us by the metaphor of light, becaufe-it was fo clear a revelation of the will of God, and our duty; and carried in it fo much evidence of its divinity; it being the chief property of light to difcover itfelf, and other things fo that thofe great and important truths contained in our Saviour's doctrine, are the light here fpoken of, and which men of bad defigns and practices are faid to hate and decline; Every one that doth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, left his deeds fhould be reproved.

:

In which words two things offer themselves to our confideration :

First, The enmity of wicked men to the truth Every one that doth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light.

Secondly, The ground or reafon of this enmity: Left his deeds fhould be difcovered.

Firft, The enmity of wicked men to the truth: Every one that doth evil, hateth the light. Men of ill defigns and practices hate the light, and because they hate it they fhun it, and flee from it, neither cometh he to the light. Now this enmity to truth ap pears principally in these two things, in their resistance, and in their perfecution of it:

1. In their oppofition and resistance of it. A bad man is not only averfe from the entertainment of it, and loth to admit it, but thinks himself concerned to refift it. Thus the Jews oppofed thofe divine truths, which our Saviour declared to them, they did not only refuse to receive them, but they fet themfelves to confute them, and by all means to blast the credit of them, and to charge them not only with novelty and impofture, but with a feditious defign, and with blafphemous and odious confequences; they perverted every thing he faid to a bad fenfe, and put malicious conftructions upon all he did, though never fo blameless and innocent. When he inftructed the people, they faid he was ftirring them up to fedition; when he told them he was the Son of God, they made him a blafphemer for faying fo; when he healed on the fabbath-day, they charged him with

pro

profaneness; when he confirmed his doctrine by miracles, the greatest and plaineft that ever were wrought, they reported him a Magician; when they could find no fault with many parts of his doctrine, which was fo holy and excellent that malice itself was not able to mifreprefent it, or take any exception to it, they endeavoured to deftroy the credit of it, by raifing fcandals upon him for his life; because his converfation was free and familiar, they taxed him for a wine-bibber and a glutton and because he accompanied with bad men, in order to the reclaiming and reforming of them, they reprefented him as a favourer of fuch perfons, a friend of publicans and finners.

By thefe and fuch like calumnies they endeavoured to difparage his doctrine, and to alienate men from it; being prejudiced against the truth themfelves, they did what they could to keep others from embracing it and as our Saviour tells us, fhut up the kingdom of heaven against men, neither going in themselves, nor fuffering others that were going in,

to enter.

[ocr errors]

2. The enmity of bad men to the truth likewife. appears in their perfecution of it, not only in those that propound it to them, but in all thofe that give entertainment to it: and this is the higheft expreffion of enmity that can be, to be fatisfied with nothing less than the deftruction and extirpation of. what we hate. And thus the Jews declared their enmity to the gospel. When this great light came into the world, they not only fhut their eyes against it, but endeavoured to extinguifh it, by perfecuting the author of this doctrine, and all thofe that published it, and made profeffion of it; they perfecuted our Saviour all his life, and were continually contriving mifchief against him, feeking to intrap him in his words, and fo render him obnoxious to the Roman government, and at laft putting him to death upon a falfe and forged accufation, and all this out of enmity to that truth which he delivered to them from God; as he himself tells us, John viii. 40. But now

Ye

« PreviousContinue »