CHAPTER V. An expostulation with Christians concerning their remiss and sluggish temper: an essay to convince them of it by some considerations; which are, 1. The activity of worldly men. 2. The restless appetites of the body. 3. The strong propensity of every creature towards its own centre. An inquiry into the slothfulness and inactivity of Christian souls: two things premised, and so an answer is given to the inquiry in five particulars. The grace of faith is vindicated from the slander of being merely passive. A short essay to awaken Christians to a greater vigour and activity. We have seen in what respects religion is an active principle in the soul where it is seated: give me leave to enlarge a little here for conviction or reprehension. By this property of true religion, we shall be able to discover much that is false and counterfeit in the world. If religion be no lazy, languid, sluggish, passive thing, but life, love, the spirit of power and freedom, a fire burning, a well of water springing up, as we have sufficiently seen, what shall we say then of that heavy, sluggish, spiritless kind of religion, that most men take up with? Shall we call it a spirit of life, with the apostle; and yet allow of a religion that is cold and dead? Shall we call it a spirit of love and power, with the same apostle; and yet allow of it, though it be indifferent, low, and impotent? or will such pass for current with the wise and holy God, if we should pass a favourable sentence upon it! And why should it ever pass with men, if it will not pass with God? But, indeed, how can this inactivity and sluggishness pass for religion amongst men? Who can think you are in pursuit of the infinite and supreme good, that sees you so slow in your motions towards it? Who can think that your treasure is in heaven, that sees your heart so far from thence? The more any thing partakes of God, and the nearer it comes to him, who is the fountain of life, and power, and virtue, the more active, powerful, and lively, will it be. We read of an atheistical generation in Zeph. i. 12, who fancied to themselves an idle and slothful God, that minded not the affairs of the world at all, saying, "The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil;" which was also the false conceit of many of the heathen: and indeed, though it be not so blasphemous, yet it is almost as absurd, to fancy an idle saint, as an idle Deity. Sure I am, if it be not altogether impossible, yet it is altogether a shameful and deformed sight; a holy soul in a lethargy, a godly soul that is not in pursuit of God. Moses indeed bids Israel "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord:" but there is no such divinity in the Holy Scriptures as this, Stand still, and see the salvation of the soul; though some have violently pressed those words, Exod. xiv. 13, to serve under their slothful standard: no, no, the Scripture speaks to us at another rate, Phil. ii. 12, “Work out your own salvation:" and indeed the Spirit of God doth every where describe religion by the activity, industry, vigour, and quickness of it, as I hinted in the very beginning of this discourse, and could abundantly confirm and explain, if there were need of it. But that I may more powerfully convince and awaken the lazy and heavy spirit and temper of many professors, I will briefly touch upon a few particulars, which I will next propound to their serious considerations. 1. The children of this world, earthly and sensual men, are not so slothful, so lazy, so indifferent in the pursuit of earthly and sensual objects. You say you have laid up your treasure in heaven; we know they have laid up their treasure in the earth: now, who is it that behaves himself most suitably and seemly towards his treasure, you or they? You say, you have a treasure in heaven, and are content to be able to say so, but make no haste to be fully and feelingly possessed of it, to enjoy the benefit and sweetness of it. But they "rise up early, and sit up late," and either pine themselves, or eat the bread of sorrow, to obtain earthly and perishing inheritances; they circuit the world, travel far, and sell all, to purchase that part which is of so great price with them: and when they have accomplished it, O how do they set their heart upon it, bind up their very souls in the same bags with their money, and seal up their affections together with it! yea, and so they are not at rest neither, but find a gnawing hunger upon their hearts after more still, to add house to house, and land to land, and one bag to another; the covetous miser is ready to sit down and wring his hands, because he hath no more hands to scrape with; the voluptuous epicure is angry that he hath not the neck of a crane, the better to taste his dainties; and ambitious Alexander, when he domineers over the known world, is ready to sit down and whine, because there are no more worlds to conquer. What Christian can fail being ashamed of himself, when he reads the description which Plautus, the comedian, gives of a covetous worldling, under the character of Euclio; how he hid his pot of gold, heeded it, watched it, visited it almost every hour, would not go from it in the day, could not sleep for it in the night, suspected every body that so much as looked towards it, and by all means kept it even as his life? For where is the like eager and ardent disposition to be found in a Christian towards God himself? Alas!"The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light," Luke xvi. 8; forgetting the command of Christ, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you," Matthew vi. 13. Let us now confess the truth, and every one judge himself. 2. This dull and earthly body is not so indifferently affected towards meat and drink, and rest, and the things that serve its necessities, and gratify its temper. Hunger will break down stone walls, and thirst will give away a kingdom for a cup of water; sickness will not be eased by good words, nor will a drowsy brain be bribed by any entertainments of company or recreation; no, no, the necessities of the body must and will be relieved with food, and physic, and sleep; the restless and raging appetite will never cease calling and crying to the soul for supplies, till it arise and give them. Behold, O my soul! consider the mighty and incessant appetites and tendencies of the body after sensual objects, after its suitable good, and proper perfection, and be ashamed of thy more remiss and sluggish inclinations towards the highest good, a godlike perfection! How 3. No creature in the whole world is so languid, slow, and indifferent in its motions towards its proper rest and centre. easy were it to call heaven and earth to witness the free, pleasant, cheerful, eager addresses of every creature according to its kind, towards its own centre and happiness! The sun in the firmament rejoices to run its race, and will not stand still one moment, except it be miraculously overpowered by the command of God himself; the rivers seem to be in pain, till by a continual flowing they have accomplished to themselves a kind of perfection, and are swallowed up in the bosom of the ocean, except they be benumbed with cold, or otherwise over-mastered and retarded by foreign violence; I need not instance in sensitives and vegeta |