DISCOURSE XLVIII.

MARK viii. 38.

Whofoever therefore shall be afhamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and finful generation, of him alfo fhall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

AT the thirty-fourth verfe of this chapter our Lord, having called the people and his difciples to him, declares openly to them upon what terms the profeffion of the Gospel was to be undertaken. He allures them not by the hopes of temporal profperity, nor promises any countenance or affiftance from the great and powerful; but foretels them of the evils and calamities that fhould attend his followers, and of the fufferings prepared for them in this life; against which the providence of God ftands not engaged for their protection, fince his will is, that all the faithful fhould, after the example of the Author and Captain of their falvation, be made perfect through suffering. Whosoever, says our Lord, will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his crofs, and follow me. How ftrong the expreffion of denying himself is, and how much it includes, we

learn from the next verfe, where our Saviour himfelf extends it even to the parting with our lives for his and the Gofpel's fake: Whofoever will fave his life, fhall lofe it; but whosoever shall lofe his life for my fake and the Gospel's, the fame shall fave it.

You fee, by comparing these paffages together, that the text immediately relates to the times of perfecution, and expreffes the duty of a Chriftian to refift even unto blood in maintenance of his holy religion, whenever the providence of God calls him to fuch trial. This indeed is not our cafe at prefent, and therefore I fhall not spend the time in fortifying your minds against terrors, removed, I hope, at a great distance from us: but it must be owned, that an adulterous and finful generation has more ways than one of making men afhamed of Chrift, and of his words. Though our eyes have not beheld any frightful fcenes of perfecution, yet we have feen, and daily fee, many who are afhamed of Chrift. If the temptation to this crime be now less than in times of diftrefs, the guilt is certainly greater, and in equity the punishment must be fo too. Which reason will bring the threatening of the text home to every man, who, in compliance with a corrupt age, does either wickedly reject, or bafely dif femble, the faith of the Gospel.

But that we may not rafhly accufe either the age in general, or any men in particular, of this great crime, but rather open a way by which men may eafily examine their own confciences upon this head, and avoid the like evil for the future; let us,

Firft, Inquire into the nature of the crime of being afhamed of Chrift and of his words; and,

Secondly, Into the feveral temptations that lead to it.

The duty opposed to this crime is expreffed in the language of Scripture by confeffing Chrift before men; and therefore to be ashamed of Chrift and of his word is to deny or disown Christ and his doctrine before men. In this language both parts are expreffed in the tenth of St. Matthew: Whosoever, fays our Lord, fhall confefs me before men, him will I confefs alfo before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I alfo deny before my Father which is in hea

ven.

If we were under no obligation to confefs Chrift before the world, there would be no iniquity in diffembling our knowledge of him; we might keep our faith and our religion to ourfelves, and by fo doing avoid many inconveniencies, to which the open and fincere profeffors of the Gospel are oftentimes expofed. There have not wanted fome, in all times, to justify the prudence of concealing our religious fentiments, and to encourage men to live well with the world, in an outward compliance with the customs and opinions of thofe about them, provided their hearts be right with God, and fincere in the inward belief of his truth. To fupport this doctrine, we are called upon to remember that religion is, in the nature of the thing, internal, and has its feat and refidence in the heart, and not in the lips or tongues of men: that our virtue and obedience will be estimated by our integrity, and not by the outward fhews and profeffions which we make: that God, who knows the heart, will judge us by it at

the last that, confequently, the only concern of religion is to purify the heart; and, fince the world has nothing to do with our hearts, we owe it no account of our religion; and may lawfully keep from them all knowledge in a matter where they have, where they can have, no cognizance.

To this plea another is likewife added, that to fuppofe it neceffary for men to own the religious fentiments of their hearts at the peril of their lives, is making God a very hard mafter, requiring of us a fervice of no value, at the expence of all that is dear and valuable to us in this world. What does our confeffion avail him, who has a furer way of judging us than by the words of our mouth? Or what does it avail the world, thofe efpecially to whom it is to be made, who are hardened and past conviction, and ftand with the fword uplifted to deftroy us the moment we confefs the truth?

It is no wonder that flesh and blood fhould furnish fome plaufible excufes for declining a duty fo very hard to practife, when it comes to the cafes of the laft extremity: but yet thefe are but excufes, and founded in ignorance of the nature of religion, and of the great ends to be served by it.

Were we to eftimate our religion by the fervice or benefit done to God, we might part with it all at once: he gets no more by the fincerity of our hearts, than by our outward profeffions; and therefore upon this view we may bid adieu to both. If you think, however, that there is fomething in inward fincerity that is agreeable in his fight, that renders men acceptable to him, I wonder, at the fame time, you fhould not think hypocrify and diffimulation with

the world odious in his fight, and such vices as will render us deteftable to him. To fuppofe inward fincerity confiftent with an external hypocrify toward the world, is itself a very great abfurdity. For what is hypocrify? Is it not profeffing one thing, and meaning another? And is not this the very cafe, when a man, fuppofed to be right in his faith towards God, denies his faith before the world? Yes, you will fay; but this is only diffembling towards the world, and not towards God. I befeech you, whence this diftinction? What is diffembling towards God? Was ever any man fo foolish as to imagine that he could indeed deceive God by any kind of diffimulation? No hypocrite can have this notion. If he is an Atheist, he has no thought of deceiving God, whofe very being he denies. If he is not an Atheift, he muft needs know fo much of God, as to know it to be impoffible for him to impofe on God. Hypocrify therefore has no higher aim than to deceive the world; and whoever denies the religion he believes in his heart, or profeffes one which he does not believe, is a formal hypocrite, and fubject to all the charges and penalties brought against hypocrify in holy writ. So that fuppofing a man obliged to fay any thing about his religion, he muft neceffarily fay the truth, or be liable to the pains of hypocrify and diffimulation.

But it may be farther asked perhaps, How comes it to be neceffary for a man to fay any thing about his religion? How comes confeffion with the mouth to be made a term of falvation in the Gospel? Is not religion a tranfaction between God and every man's own foul? how come the reft of the world