Let us consider
the danger we expose our selves to by not living answerably to our
Religion. And this, I hope, may prevail upon such as are not moved by
the former considerations. Hypocrites are instanced in Scripture, as a
sort of sinners that shall have the sharpest torments and the fiercest
damnation. When our Saviour would set forth the great severity of the
Lord towards the evil servant he expresseth it thus, he shall cut him
asunder and appoint him his portion with Hypocrites. So that the
punishment of Hypocrites seems to be made in the measure and standard of
the highest punishment. Thou professest to believe in Christ and to
hope in him for salvation, but in the mean time thou livest a wicked and
unholy life, thou dost not believe but presume on him, and wilt find at
the great day that this thy confidence will be thy confusion, and he
whom thou hopest will be thy Advocate and Saviour will prove thy Accuser
and thy Judge. What our Saviour says to the Jews, 'There is one that
accuseth you, even Moses in whom ye trust,' may very well be applied to
false Christians, there is one that accuseth you and will condemn you,
even Jesus in whom ye trust.
The profession of
Christianity and mens having the name of Christ named upon them will be
so, far from securing them from Hell, that it will sink them the deeper
into it. Many are apt to pity the poor Heathens who never heard of the
name of Christ, and sadly to condole their case, but as our Saviour said
upon another occasion, 'Weep not for them, weep for yourselves.' There
is no such miserable person in the world as a degenerate Christian,
because he falls into the greatest misery from the greatest advantages
and opportunities of being happy. Dost thou lament the condition of
Socrates, and Cato, and Aristides, and doubt what shall become of them
at the day of Judgment? and canst thou who art an impious and prophane
Christian, think that thou shalt escape the damnation of Hell?
Dost
thou believe that the moral Heathen shall be cast out? and canst thou
who hast led a wicked life under the profession of Christianity have the
impudence to hope that thou shalt sit down with Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob in the Kingdom of God? No: those sins which are committed by
Christians under the enjoyment of the Gospel are of deeper dye and
cloathed with blacker aggravations than the sins of Heathens are capable
of. A Pagan may live without God in the World, and be unjust towards
men, at a cheaper rate and upon easier terms than thou who art a
Christian. Better had it been thou hadst never known one syllable of the
Gospel, never heard of the name of Christ, than that having taken it
upon thee thou shouldest not depart from iniquity. Happy had it been for
thee, that thou hadst been born a Jew, or a Turk, or a poor Indian,
rather than that being bred among Christians, and professing thy self of
that number, thou shouldst lead a vicious and unholy life.
I
have insisted the longer upon these arguments, that I might, if
possible, awaken men to a serious consideration of their lives, and
persuade them to a real reformation of them; that I may oblige all those
who call themselves Christians to live up to the essential and
fundamental Laws of our Religion; to love God, and to love our
Neighbour; to do to every man as we would have him to do to us; to
mortify our lusts, and subdue our passions, and sincerely endeavour to
grow in every grace and virtue, and to abound in all the fruits of,
righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God.
This
indeed would become our profession and be honourable to our Religion,
and would remove one of the greatest obstacles to the progress of the
Gospel. For how can we expect that the Doctrine of God our Saviour
should gain any considerable ground in the world; so long as by the
unworthy lives of so many Christians 'tis represented to the world at so
great disadvantage? If ever we would have Christian Religion
effectually recommended, it must be by the holy and unblameable lives of
those who make profession of it. Then indeed it would look with so
amiable a countenance as to invite many to it and carry so much majesty
and authority in it as to command reverence from its greatest enemies,
and make men to acknowledge that God is in us of a truth, and to glorify
our Father which is in Heaven.
The good God grant that as
we have taken upon us the profession of Christianity, so we may be
careful so to live that we may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in
all things; that the grace of God which bringeth salvation may teach us
to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously
and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; To
whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, &c.
~Isaac Barrow, a selection from his sermon Of the Obligation of Christians to a Holy Life
