III. Then, We consider the wild, or poisonous grapes, which the LORD finds in his vineyard. I do not intend at present to descant on such vices as are common to men at all times, and in all places, but rather to select some instances, which may be regarded as peculiar to this age and nation. The LORD requires his servants, on these occasions, "to cry aloud, and not spare, to lift up "their voice like a trumpet, whilst they shew his 66 professing people their sins and transgressions;" as we found it written in that chapter, which, with peculiar propriety, was appointed for the first lesson in our morning service.' And let it be remembered, that what will be spoken of national sins, should be applied by each of us to our own particular transgressions. All our violations of the divine law, and all our neglect, contempt, or abuse of the gospel, from our infancy to the present day, constitute a part of that accumulated guilt, for which the LORD hath a controversy with the land; and it is incumbent upon us, as we proceed, to enquire concerning every particular charge, whether we have not committed, or countenanced, the specified iniquity? Whether we have used all our influence to prevent others from committing it? And what our conduct, in these respects, is at this present time? Thus we shall avoid the absurd hypocrisy of pretending to humble ourselves before God, whilst we are merely reflecting 1 Is. lviii. on the sins of other men, without confessing, mourning over, or forsaking, our own. 1. The daring infidelity, and "damnable heresies," which prevail, may well be adduced as one of our national sins. I say damnable heresies; for this is the language of Scripture: and much mischief has been done, by calling enormous evils by soft names, which seduces men into a forgetfulness of their malignity. I would not, however, be understood to mean every deviation from the system of divine truth. Much hay, straw, stubble may be built on the precious Foundation which God hath laid in Zion; and though the builder will suffer loss, yet he may be saved, as by fire. "But other "Foundation can no man lay, than that which is "laid, even CHRIST JESUS." The truths respecting his person, as "Gop manifest in the flesh," his sacrifice and mediation, and the sanctifying work of his Spirit, are inseparable from christianity, and stand or fall with the authority of the Scripture, and our reverence for it. I must, therefore, confidently maintain, that the apostles, if living, would pronounce many modern dogmas to be "damn"able heresies," subversive of the foundation; more plausible indeed, but no better, than infidelity; to which, by an easy transition, they evidently tend. We seem, almost universally, to stand aghast, at the atheism and daring impiety of that nation, with which we are at war: and indeed we cannot too much execrate their principles and practices; which seem to constitute a new exhibition of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the human heart. But if we infer that France is, as a nation, more criminal in the sight of GoD than Britain, we may perhaps be found partial in our judgment. We are not competent to decide on such a complicated question, which involves in it all our advantages and their disadvantages. In one respect we act more wisely than our opponents; for they insult the God of heaven, set him at defiance, and, as it were, declare war against him, as well as against mankind; whereas, we make our appeal to him, and call publickly on him for assistance, whilst we confess ourselves deserving of his righteous indignation. On the other hand, it must be allowed, that the atheism and impiety of France want many of those aggravations, which are found in our infidelity and impiety. Few among them were previously acquainted with the Scriptures, having been discouraged from reading and examining them. The religion, which they had witnessed, was in general a compound of gross absurdities, unmeaning forms, human inventions, and priestly usurpations or impositions; which, when exposed, must become the objects of contempt and abhorrence. Voltaire, and other ingenious fascinating infidels, were the apostles of their reformation; the ideas of civil liberty and irreligion entered into their minds at the same time, and thus were associated together; there was no one at hand to set before them true christianity, in its genuine beauty and simplicity, when they turned from their old superstition with disgust; and no wonder they greedily imbibed the sentiments of those who had emancipated them from their former abject slavery, and that they even carried their principles further than their teachers had done. But the partial or total infidelity, which rapidly spreads among us, is of another kind. Men, who have been instructed in the principles of christianity, and who want neither talents, opportunity, liberty, nor encouragement for free enquiry, have deliberately and decidedly given the oracles of 'reason' a preference to the "oracles of GOD.' The deists, who some time back opposed the divine authority of the Scripture, have been completely baffled in the open field of argument; and no man now ventures forth, as an adversary on that ground. Yet their successors persist in opposing revelation, either altogether, or by rejecting as much as is incompatible with their several systems. They start objections, and hold forth scriptural doctrines or facts to derision, by a distorted partial statement; they cavil at them, with a supercilious sneer; they affect the reputation of superior discernment, by treating their forefathers as bigots and fanaticks; and by holding in sovereign contempt those contemporaries, whom they dare not face in the open field of calm dispassionate argument. Thus they address the self-sufficiency and love of the world, which predominate in inexperienced young persons; they circulate their objections in periodical publications, mix them up with criticism, history, and other works of genius and erudition; and gild over the mental poison, thus administered in small doses, with every thing that can render it pleasing and unsuspected; they retail, by all possible methods, those objections against the scriptural history, and the principal doctrines of revelation, which have been repeatedly and solidly answered, insinuating more than they choose to acow; and they are almost as zealous in disseminating their antichristian principles, as the primitive preachers were in spreading the gospel of GOD our SA VIOUR. Thus it hath come to pass, that in a land full of Bibles, and means of understanding them, and greatly favoured with faithful preachers; an increasing multitude affect to speak of revelation with doubt or suspicion, if not with avowed contempt and aversion; numbers aspire to the reputation of wit and penetration, by ridiculing or railing at the contents of the Scripture; and others study the art of explaining away whatever they dislike. So that the pride of human wisdom and human virtue (connected with "the carnal "mind which is enmity against GOD,") has almost prevailed to explode the Bible as an antiquated |