To my dearly beloved and longed for, the flock of Jesus Christ in Dartmouth, over whom the Holy Ghost hath made me an overseer; sound judgment, true zeal, and unstained purity, are heartily wished.
My Dear Friends,
There are three sad sights with which our eyes should continually affect our hearts: the 1st, is to behold in every place, so many profane and dissolute ones, who bear the very image of Satan; the face of whose conversation plainly discovers what they are and whither they are going, Phil. iii. 18, 19. These look like themselves, the children of wrath. The 2d, is to see so many cursed hypocrites artificially disguising themselves, and with marvellous dexterity acting the parts of saints; so that even a judicious eye may sometimes mistake the similar workings of the spirit on them, for his saving workings on others: to hear such a person conferring, praying, bewailing his corruptions, and talking of his experiences; would easily persuade a man to believe that he hath the heart, as well as the face, of a sincere Christian: for, sic oculus, sic ille manus, sic ora ferebat.
So the people of God do speak, so they pray, and even so they open their conditions: these look like saints, but are none. The 3d, is to see so many real saints, in whom the spirit of truth is, who yet, through the impetuous workings of their corruptions, and neglecting of the watch over their hearts, do often fall into such scandalous practices, that they look like hypocrites, though they are not so.
These are three sad sights indeed; and, Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes fountains of tears, that I might weep abundantly over them all!
For the first, I would mourn heartily, considering that they (so continuing) must be damned eternally, 2 Thess. i. 8, 9. 1 Cor. vi. 9.
For the second, I would both weep and tremble, considering that they (so abiding) must be damned doubly, Matth. xxiv. 51.
And for the third, no less than any of the rest, because, though they themselves may, and shall be saved, yet their examples make fast the bonds of death upon both the former, Matth. xviii. 7. 2 Sam. xii. 13, 14.
Alas! that ever they should shed the blood of other souls, for whom Christ shed his own blood! that ever they should be cruel to others, who have found Christ so kind to them! I know they dare not do it directly and intentionally, but so it proves occasionally and eventually. Suffer me here to digress a little, and expostulate with these prejudiced and hardened souls; I will presently return to you again. O why do you mischief your own souls by other men’s examples? because they stumble and break their shins, will you fall, and break your necks? I desire all such as harden themselves by these things, and take up a good opinion of their own deplorable condition, would soberly consider, and answer these three queries.
Query 1. Doth religion any way countenance or patronize the sinful practices of its professors? Or doth it not rather impartially and severely condemn them? It is the glory of the Christian religion, that it is pure and undefiled, Jam. i. 27. No doctrine so holy, Psal. xix. 8. Nor doth any make more provision for an holy life, Tit. ii. 11, 12. Indeed there is a case wherein we may change the evil practices of men upon their principles; but that is, when their practices naturally flow from, and necessarily follow their principles: as for example, if I see a Papist sin boldly, I may charge it upon his principles, for they set pardons to sale, and so make way for looseness; if I see an Arminian slight the grace of God, and proudly advance himself, I may cry, shame upon his principles, which directly lead to it: but can I do so, where such practices are condemned and provided against, by their own avowed principles who commit them?
Query 2. Is it not a most irrational thing to let fly at religion because of the scandalous ways of some, whilst in the mean time you wholly slight and overlook the holy and heavenly conversation of many others? Are all that possess godliness loose and careless in their lives? no, some are an ornament to their profession, and the glory of Christ; and why must the innocent be condemned with the guilty? why the eleven, for one Judas?
Query 3. If you condemn religion because of the scandalous lives of some that profess it, must you not then cast off all religion in the world, and turn downright Atheists? Surely this is the consequence of it: for what religion is there, but some that profess it walk contrary to their professions? and then, as Constantine told the Novatian, you must set set up your ladder, and go to heaven by yourself. But, alas! it is not our printed apologies for religion, but the visible reformation of its professors, that must both salve its honour, and remove those fatal stumbling-blocks at which the blind world strikes, and falls into eternal perdition.