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SERMON XV.

THE CHAMBER OF IMAGERY IN THE CHURCH OF ROME LAID OPEN.

QUESTION: How is the practical love of truth the best preservative against

46

If

so be

Popery?

ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”—1 PET. ii. 3.

WHEN false worship had prevailed in the church of old unto its ruin, God showed and represented it unto his prophet under the name and appearance of "a chamber of imagery," Ezek. viii. 11, 12. For therein were portrayed all the abominations wherewith the worship of God was defiled, and religion corrupted. Things relating unto divine truth and worship have had again the same event in the world, especially in the Church of Rome; and my present design is to take a view of the chambers of their imagery, and to show what was the occasion and what were the means of their erection; and in them we shall see all the abomination wherewith the divine worship of the gospel hath been corrupted, and Christian religion ruined. Unto this end it will be necessary to lay down some such principles of sacred truth as will demonstrate and evince the grounds and causes of that transformation of the substance and power of religion into a lifeless image, which shall be proved to have fallen out amongst them. And because I intend their benefit principally who resolve all their persuasion in religion into the word of God, I shall deduce these principles from that passage of it in 1 Pet. ii. 1-3.

The first verse contains an exhortation unto, or an injunction of, universal holiness, by the laying aside or casting out whatever is contrary thereunto: "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings;" the rule whereof extends unto all other vicious habits of mind whatever.

And in the second, there is a profession of the means whereby this end may be attained; namely, how any one may be so strengthened in grace, as to cast out all such sinful inclinations and practices as are

contrary unto the holiness required of us,-which is the divine word; compared therefore unto food, which is the means of preserving natural life, and of increasing its strength: "As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby."

Hereon the apostle proceeds, in verse third, to declare the condition whereon our profiting, growing, and thriving by the word doth depend; and this is an experience of its power, as it is the instrument of God whereby he conveys his grace unto us: "If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." See 1 Thess. i. 5. Therein lies the first and chief principle of our ensuing demonstration, and it is this:

Principle I. All the benefit and advantage which any men do or may receive by the word, or the truths of the gospel, depend on an experience of its power and efficacy in communicating the grace of God unto their souls.

This principle is evident in itself, and not to be questioned by any but such as never had the least real sense of religion on their own minds. Besides, it is evidently contained in the testimony of the apostle before laid down.

Hereunto three other principles of equal evidence with itself are supposed, and virtually contained in it.

Principle II. There is a power and efficacy in the word, and the preaching of it, Rom. i. 16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation."

It hath a divine power, the power of God, accompanying it, and put forth in it, unto its proper ends: "For the word of God is quick and powerful," Heb. iv. 12.

Principle III. The power that is in the word of God consists in its efficacy to communicate the grace of God unto the souls of men.

In and by it they "taste that the Lord is gracious;" that is its efficacy unto its proper ends. These are salvation, with all things requisite thereunto; such as the illumination of our minds, the renovation of our natures, the justification of our persons, the life of God in holy worship and obedience,-all leading unto our eternal enjoyment of him. These are the ends whereunto the gospel is designed in the wisdom of God, whereunto its efficacy is confined.

Principle IV. There is an experience to be obtained of the power and efficacy of the word.

In that place of the apostle it is expressed by "tasting." But there is something antecedent unto their tasting, specially so called, and something consequent unto it, both inseparable from it; and therefore belonging unto the experience whereof we speak. Wherefore,

1. The first thing required hereunto is light; that is, a spiritual, supernatural light, enabling us to discern the wisdom, will, and mind of God in the word, in a spiritual manner; without which we can

have no experience of its power. Hence the gospel is hid unto them that perish, though it be outwardly declared unto them, 2 Cor. iv. 3. This is the only means which lets into the mind and conscience a sense of this efficacy. This, in the increases of it, the apostle prays for on the behalf of believers, that they may have this experience, Eph. i. 16-19, iii. 16-19; and declares the nature of it, 2 Cor. iv. 6. 2. The taste intended follows hereon; wherein consists the life and substance of the experience pleaded for. And this taste is a spiritual sense of the goodness, power, and efficacy of the word and the things contained in it, in the conveyance of the grace of God unto our souls, in the instances mentioned, and others of a like nature; for in a taste, there is a sweetness unto the palate, and a satisfaction unto the appetite. By the one in this taste, our minds are refreshed; and by the other, our souls are nourished;-of both believers have an experience. And this is let into the mind by spiritual light, without which nothing of it is attainable. "God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness," shine into your hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of his glory "in the face of Jesus Christ," 2 Cor. iv. 6.

3. To complete the experience intended, there follows hereon a conformity in the whole soul and conversation unto the truth of the word, or the mind of God in it, wrought in us by its power and efficacy. So the apostle expresses it, Eph. iv. 20-24, "If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

Hereupon follows our last principle, which is the immediate foundation of the ensuing discourse, or that which is to be confirmed; and it is this:

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Principle V. The loss of an experience of the power of religion hath been the cause of the loss of the truth of religion; or it hath been the cause of rejecting its substance, and setting up a shadow or image in the room of it.

This transformation of all things in religion began and proceeded on these grounds. Those who had the conduct of it were always possessed of the general notions of truth, which they could not forego without a total renunciation of the gospel itself. But, having lost all experience of this power in themselves, they wrested them unto things. quite of another nature,-destructive to the truth, as well as devoid of its power; hereon it came to pass that there was a dead image made and set up of religion in all the parts of it, called by the name of that which was true and living, but utterly lost. All experience, I say, of the power and efficacy of the mystery of the gospel, and the

truth of it, in communicating the grace of God unto the souls of men, being lost, retaining the general notion of it, they contrived and framed an outward image or representation of them, suited unto their ignorance and superstition. Thus was the truth of religion once almost totally lost in the world, as we shall see; neither will it ever be lost any other way, or by any other means. When churches or nations are possessed of the truth and the profession of it, it is not laws, nor fines, nor imprisonments, nor gibbets, nor fires, that shall ever dispossess them or deprive them of it. Whilst an experience of the power of religion continued in the primitive times, all the bloody rage and cruelty of the world, all the craft of Satan, and the subtlety of seducers, who abounded, did utterly fail in attempting to deprive Christians of the truth, and the profession of it. But when this began to decay and be lost amongst them, they were quickly deceived, and drawn off from the simplicity of the gospel. Upon the reformation of religion in these parts of the world,-when the truth was received in the love and power of it, and multitudes had experience of the spiritual benefit and advantage which they, received thereby, in liberty, holiness, and peace, all the prisons, tortures, swords, and fires, that were applied unto its extirpation, did nothing but diffuse the profession of it, and root it more firmly in the minds of men. It cannot be lost but by another way, and other means. The Jesuits and their associates have been, for a hundred years, contriving methods and arts for the dispossessing nations and churches of the truth which they have received, and the introducing the Romish superstition. They have written books about it, and practised according to their principles, in every kingdom and state of Europe who own the Protestant religion. But the folly of most of their pretended arts and devices unto this end hath been ridiculous and unsuccessful; and what they have added hereunto of force hath been divinely defeated. There is but one way, one effectual engine to deprive any people of the profession of the truth which they have once received; and that is, by leading them into such profaneness and ignorance, as whereby they may lose all experience of its power and efficacy in communicating the grace of God unto their souls, and therein all sense of the advantage which they might have had by it. When this is done, men will as easily lay aside the profession of religion as burdensome clothes in summer.

There is much talk of a plot and conspiracy to destroy the Protestant religion, and introduce Popery again amongst us. They may do well to take care thereof who are concerned in public affairs: but as unto the event, there is but one conspiracy that is greatly to be feared in this matter; and that is, between Satan and the lusts of If they can prevail to deprive the generality of men of an experience in their own minds of the power and efficacy of the truth,

men.

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