Part III
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.