will be your confusion in the hour of death! and how great your surprise the instant you launch into eternity! How will you lift up your eyes before the tribunal of that God, whose revealed will you have trampled under foot, and whose reasonings by the voice of conscience itself you have rejected and despised! O consider these things, ye that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver a. But to hasten, 2. If the condemnation of the infidel will be dreadful, how much more that of the hypocrite!—the man who, in order to answer some secular purposes to himself, puts on the form of godliness, while he inwardly denies the power of it, and laughs at the whole' as a cheat. A more unnatural, base, and detestable character than this cannot be imagined. It exposes a person to the resentments both of the good and the bad, and betrays a meanness which renders him absolutely unworthy of society. Whether religion be or be not true, such a man must in the end be a loser. If it be not true, though he escapes future misery, yet it is a thousand to one, but his hypocrisy is suspected, and of consequence his schemes defeated; however, it is certain that, sooner or later, he must sink into contempt in the opinion of all around him.

But if, on the other hand, religion should prove true, what tenfold vengeance will fall on the guilty head of this wretched man, in the great day of account!-that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be laid open, and the God of truth shall, with the loud applause of angels and men, and indeed the full approbation of the condemned himself, frown him from his presence into the lake of fire and brimstone which burneth for evermore. No excuse can be offered for him, and every circumstance which can be imagined will crowd upon him to aggravate his guilt and heighten his misery. Bethink yourself, O man, in time. Religion is true. Ask your conscience, and it will tell you so. Increase not then your guilt by your hypocrisy. Neither in this way bring the blood of any others around you on your own head. But throw the mask aside. Acknowledge your sin, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you b. To close the whole,

a Psal. 1. 22.

Acts viii. 22.

3. And lastly, How great, Christian, is your felicity! You have believed religion to be a reality, and have found it to be so in your own experience. You have the witness in yourself, and you have the pleasure to see every other kind of testimony concurring with this of your own mind and conscience. Few, indeed, around you are duly affected with this great concern ; yet few dare look you in the face and say it is all a deception. But though the whole world did think differently from you, if, nevertheless, you have the Bible, and the feelings of your own heart, on your side, what will it signify? And though in the end you should be mistaken, yet you will have no cause to repent that you have given firm credit to such matters as have tended to make you a happier and better man, and a more cheerful and useful member of society. But the truth is great, and it will prevail. Religion is a reality, and built on such principles as cannot deceive. Rejoice then, O believer, amidst all the contempt that is cast upon you by a profane and wicked world. Rejoice in the truth. Place a firm confidence in Christ as your Saviour, and give all diligence to make your calling and election sure.' Be confirmed in the grounds of your faith, and pray to God that the fruits of it may so appear in your heart and life, as to put the truth of religion itself, and your own interest in it, beyond all dispute. And look forward with pleasure and triumph to that day, when all doubt and scepticism shall be for ever absorbed and lost, in the brightness and certainty of the heavenly world.

6

DISCOURSE III.

THE SAMENESS OF RELIGION.

1 COR. XII. 13.-And have been all made to drink into one

T

spirit.

Ir is a reflection highly pleasing to a serious mind, that religion, the nature and reality of which we have explained and

proved, is one and the same thing in every good man. Nor is there in this argument entertainment only, but the most important use; for, on the one hand, it tends to obviate a very plausible objection, which hath often been urged against the truth of religion, as if it were not of divine original, because it hath, and doth assume such various external appearances; and, on the other, it happily tends to promote a firm union and a cordial affection among all those who are interested in this heavenly blessing. Nor could fitter language be used to convey this cheerful and improving idea of real godliness, than that in our text; whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, if we truly fear God, we have been all made to drink into one spirit.

The apostle had been discoursing at large concerning spiritual gifts, of which he tells the Corinthians, there was a very great diversity in the church of God. But reflecting how much they were disposed to animosities and divisions, which was indeed the principal occasion of his writing this epistle, he reminds them, that whatever variety of gifts there might be among them, there was but one Spirit whence they all proceeded; and that the great end for which they were given was likewise but one, even the general edification of the whole. This leads him into a very apt and familiar comparison of the church with the natural body. As the body, says he in the preceding verse, is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. "As the natural body, though composed of many members, whose situation, strength, use, and beauty are various, is but one body; so the church of Christ, though it consists of many individuals, whose stations, abilities, and usefulness, may be various, is likewise but one body, of which Jesus Christ is the head." For, adds he, by one spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit. A manifest allusion there is here to the two institutions, of baptism and the Lord's supper. By the former, which is an emblem of regeneration, we are initiated into the church, incorporated and joined together, declared to be the disciples of Jesus, and so to make one body. And by the latter, which exhibits a lively representation of the doctrine and grace of Christ, we profess to drink into one

spirit, to have the same divine temper diffused through all our hearts, and to be knit together in affection and love. To much the same purpose he expresses himself in another place, where he is professedly speaking of this sacred rite, 'We being many are one bread a.'

Now by this figurative mode of speech in the text, the apostle would further instruct us, not only that the many members which compose the church of Christ, do in fact make one body; but likewise that there is a sameness in the religion itself, as it hath been already explained, which thus unites them to one another. This is admirably illustrated by the distinction he observes between the soul and body, and their union in one person. The body and soul are the two parts which constitute a man. As the body, with all its members, is but one; so the soul, with all its various powers and affections, is but one likewise: and these two united make but one man. In like manner, as the several individuals which compose the church of God, however scattered through the world, and however diffe rent in their external aspect and appearance, make but one body; so this body is inhabited and quickened by one spirit. It is in a sense one soul, one mind, one temper, which possesses all good men. At the table of our Lord we all drink of one cup; and thus in the great business of religion we all drink into one spirit: we are of the same nature, and make as it were one person.

But if we consider the words detached from either of these ailusions, the sense will very well agree with other metaphorical descriptions of religion in the book of God, and upon the whole amount to the same thing. We often read of water, of living water, of drawing water out of the wells of salvation, and of thirsting and drinking b. By which expressions are undoubtedly meant the inward spirit and experience of religion, with the many comforts and blessings of it. Now, says the apostle, whatever be our character or circumstances in other respects, yet having felt the renewing influence of the grace of God, we have been all made to drink into one spirit. We have all hungered and thirsted after righteousness, have all been led to the same fountain-head, and have all, in our different proportion,

a 1 Cor. x. 17.

b John iv. 14. vii. 38.-Isa. xii. 3.

drank of the same divine blessings which freely and largely flow thence. So he expresses himself, speaking of the fathers of the Old Testament church, They did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for · they drank of that spiritual rock which followed them; and that rock was Christ a.

Upon the whole then, the sense of the words is manifestly this, that religion, in regard of the internal, spiritual and practical part of it, is uniformly the same in every good man. Now, in order to the right improvement of this proposition, we will,

I. Briefly descant on that diversity of natural and external circumstances, which often attends the experience and practice of religion.

II. Inquire wherein consists that uniformity, which the text assures us there is in religion itself. And then,

III. Point out the grounds and reasons of this, which will serve to prove the truth of the observation, and still farther to explain and illustrate it.

I. As to that diversity of natural and external circumstances which attends the profession of religion; it will be necessary to take a general view of it, in order to set the contrast in the stronger light, and especially as the apostle himself directs us to it in the very text. And,

1. It is obvious to every one, that there is a wide difference among those who fear God, in respect of their outward and worldly circumstances. Religion is not confined to any particular nation or age of the world, nor to any particular rank or condition of men. It is not a blessing peculiar to the Christian æra, to this country, or to the poor only. One may be a Greek, and another a Jew; one a Barbarian, and another a Scythian; one bond, and another free. The water of life, like the river of paradise, spreads itself through various and distinct parts of the earth; and sometimes springs up in hearts where we little expect to find it, and without any external or visible means of communication. The young and the old, the rich and the poor, the honourable and the despised, have all of them, that is, some of each condition, drank into the same spirit. Here we shall see one clothed in rags, whose inner man is nevertheless adorna 1 Cor. x. 3, 4.