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" and every tranfgreffion and disobedience received SERM. "a just recompence of reward; how shall we "escape, if we neglect so great falvation?" And ch. x. 26, 27. " If we fin wilfully, after we have " received the knowledge of the truth, there re" maineth no more sacrifice for fin; but a certain " fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indigna" tion, which shall devour the adversary. He that " despised Mofes's law, died without mercy, under " two or three witnesses; of how much forer punish

ment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, that "hath trodden under foot the Son of GOD! &c. " For we know him who hath faid, vengeance is " mine, I will recompense, saith the Lord:" and again, "the Lord shall judge his people. It is a " fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living "GOD." What can be more fevere and terrible than these expressions?

I will mention but one text more, and that is Rev. xxi. 8. where, in the catalogue of great finners, those who-apoftatize from religion, out of fear, do lead the van; "he that overcometh shall inherit all "things," (which is elfewhere in this book expreft, by continuing faithful unto the death.) "He that

overcometh, shall inherit all things; and I will be "his God, and he shall be my fon: but the fearful, " and unbelieving, and the abominable, and whore

mongers, and forcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, " shall have their part in the lake, which burneth " with fire and brimstone, which is the second "death." The fearful, and unbelievers, and liars; that is, they who out of fear relapse into infidelity, and abide not in the truth, shall be reckoned in the first rank of offenders, and be punished accordingly.

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SERM. And thus I have done with the four things I propounded to speak to, from these words; the nature of apostasy; the several steps and degrees of it; the heinous nature of this fin; the danger of it, and the terrible punishment it exposeth men to.

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And is there any need now, to exhort men " hold fast the profession of faith," when the danger of drawing back is so evident, and so terrible? Or is there any reason and occasion for it? Certainly there is no great danger amongst us, of mens apostatizing from christianity, and turning Jews, or Turks, or Heathens; I do not think there is, but yet for all that, we are not free from the danger of apostasy; there is great danger not of mens apoftatizing from one religion to another, but from religion to infidelity and atheism; and of this worst kind of apostasy of all other, I wish the age we live in had not afforded us too many instances. It is greatly to be lamented, that among those who have professed christianity, any should be found, that should make it their endeavour to undermine the great principles of all religion; the belief of a God, and his providence; and of the immortality of the fouls of men; and a state of rewards and punishments after this life; and to bring the most serious matters in the world into contempt, and to turn them into jeft and rallery. This is not only a renouncing of chriftianity, the religion which God hath revealed, but even of the religion which is born with us, and the principles and notions which God hath planted in every man's mind; this is an impiety of the first magnitude, and not to be mentioned without grief and horror; and this, it is to be feared, hath had a great hand in those great calamities which our eyes have seen; and I pray God it do not draw down still more and greater judgments upon

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upon this nation: but I hope there are none here that SERM. need to be cautioned against this horrible impiety, and highest degree of "apostasy from the living GoD:" that which people are much more in danger of, is apostasy from the purity of the christian doctrine and worship, fo happily recovered by a regular reformation, and established among us by all the authority that laws, both ecclefiaftical and civil, can give it; and which, in truth, is no other, than the ancient and primitive christianity; I say, a defection from this, to those gross errors and superstitions, which the reformation had pared off, and freed us from. I do not say, that this is a total apostasy from chriftianity; but it is a partial apostasy and defection, and a very dangerous one; and that those, who, "after they have " received the knowledge of the truth," fall off from it into those errors and corruptions, are highly guilty before God, and their condition certainly worse, and more dangerous, than of those who are brought up in those errors and superstitions, and never knew better; for there are terrible threatnings in scripture against those who fall away from the truth, which they once embraced, and were convinced of; " if we " sin wilfully, after we have received the knowledge " of the truth," &c. and, " if any man draw back, " my foul shall have no pleasure in him."

GOD confiders every man's advantages and opportunities of knowledge, and their disadvantages likewife; and makes all reasonable allowances for them; and for men to continue in the errors they have been always brought up in; or, which comes much to one, in errors which they were led into by principles early infufed into them, before they were in any measure competent judges of those matters; I fay, for fuch persons to continue in those errors, and to oppose

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SERM. oppose and reject the contrary truths, against which, LXV. by their education, they have received so strong and

violent a prejudice, this may be in a great degree excufable, and find pardon with God, upon a general repentance for all fins, both known and unknown, and cannot be reasonably charged with the guilt of this great fin of apostasy: but not to abide in the truth, after we have entertained and professed it, having fufficient means and advantages of knowing it, hath no excuse.

I would not be rash in condemning particular perfons of any fociety or communion of Christians, provided they be fincerely devout, and just, and sober, to the best of their knowledge; I had much rather leave them to GOD', whose mercies are great, than to pass an uncharitable cenfure upon them, as to their eternal state and condition: but the cafe is far otherwife, where the opportunities of knowledge are afforded to men, and "men love darkness rather than "light;" for they who have the means and advantages of "knowing their master's will," are answerable to God as if they had known it; because if they had not been grosly negligent, and wanting to themselves, they might have known it.

And this, I fear, is the case of the generality of those who have been bred up to years of confideration and choice in the reformed religion, and forsake it; because they do it without sufficient reason, and there are invincible objections against it: they do it without fufficient reason; because every one amongst us knows, or may know upon very little enquiry, that we hold all the articles of the faith, which are contained in the ancient creeds of the chriftian church, and into which all Christians are baptized; that we inculcate upon men the neceffity of a good life, and

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of fincere repentance, and perfect contrition for our SERM. fins, such as is followed with real reformation and amendment of our lives, and that without this no man can be saved by any device whatsoever.

Now what reason can any man have to question, whether he may be saved in that faith which saved the first Christians, and by believing the twelve articles of the apostles creed, though he cannot swallow the twelve articles which are added to it in the creed of pope Pius IV. every one of which, befides many and great corruptions and superstitions in worship, are fo many and invincible objections against the communion of the Roman church, as I could particularly shew, if it had not been already done, in so many learned treatises upon this argument? What is there then, that should move any reasonable man to forsake the communion of our church, and to quit the reformed religion?

There are three things chiefly with which they endeavour to amuse and affright weaker minds.

1. A great noise of infallibility, which they tell us is so excellent a means to determine and put an end to all differences. To which I shall at present only object this prejudice; that there are not wider and hotter differences among us, about any thing whatfoever, than are amongst them, about this admirable means of ending all differences; as, where this infallibility is feated, that men may know how to have recourse to it, for the ending of differences.

2. They endeavour to fright men with the danger of schism. But every man knows, that the guilt of schism lies at their door, who impose sinful articles of communion; and not upon them, who for fear of finning against GOD, cannot submit to those articles; VOL. V. which

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