5. It needed not that any should tell our Lord, of this master-piece of the wisdom from beneath! This fairest of all the devices wherewith Satan hath ever perverted the right ways of the Lord. And O! What instruments hath he found from time to time, to employ in this his service! To wield this grand engine of hell, against some of the most important truths of God! Men that would deceive if it were possible the very elect; the men of faith and love: yea, that have for a season deceived and led away no inconsiderable number of them; who have fallen in all agesinto the gilded snare, and hardly escaped with the skin of their teeth.
6. But has our Lord been wanting on his part? Has he not sufficiently guarded us against this pleasing delusion? Has he not armed us here with armour of proof against Satan transformed into an angel of light? Yea, verily: he here defends, in the clearest and strongest manner, the active, patient religion he had just described: what can be fuller and plainer than the words he immediately subjoins, to what he had said of doing and suffering? Ye are the salt of the earth. But if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world: a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel; but on a candlestick and it giveth light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
In order fully to explain and inforce these important words, I shall endeavour to shew, First, That Christianity is essentially a social religion, and that to turn it into a solitary one, is to destroy it: secondly, That to conceal this religion is impossible, as well as utterly contrary to the design of its Author. I shall, thirdly, Answer some objections;and conclude the whole with a practical application.
I. 1. First. I shall endeavour to shew, that Christianity is essentially a social religion; and that to turn it into a solitary religion, is indeed to destroy it.
By Christianity I mean, that method of worshipping God, which is here revealed to man by Jesus Christ. When I say, This is essentially a social religion, I mean not only, that it cannot subsist so well, but that it cannot subsist at all without society, without living and conversing with other men. And in shewing this, I shall confine myself to those considerations, which will arise from the very discourse before us. But if this be shewn, then doubtless to turn this religion into a solitary one, is to destroy it.
Not that we can in any wise condemn, the intermixing solitude or retirement with society. This is not only allowable, but expedient: nay, it is necessary as daily experience shews, for every one that either already is, or desires to be a real Christian. It can hardly be that we should spend one entire day, in a continued intercourse with men, without suffering loss in our soul, and in some measure grieving the Holy Spirit of God. We have need daily to retire from the world, at least, morning and evening, to converse with God, to commune more freely with our Father which is in secret. Nor indeed cana man of experience condemn, even longer seasons of religious retirement, so they do not imply any neglect of the worldly employ, wherein the providence of God has placed us.
2. Yet such retirement must not swallow up all our time; this would be to destroy, not advance true religion. For, that the religion described by our Lord in the foregoing words, cannot subsist without society, without our living and conversing with other men, is manifest from hence, that several of the most essential branches thereof, can have no place, if we have no intercourse with the world.
3. *There is no disposition (for instance) which is more essential to Christianity than meekness. Now altho’ this, as it implies resignation to God, or patience in pain and sickness, may subsist in a desert, in a hermit’s cell, in total solitude; yet as it implies (which it no less necessarily does) mildness, gentleness, and long-suffering, it cannot possibly have a being, it has no place under heaven, without an intercourse with other men. So that to attempt turning this into a solitary virtue, is to destroy it from the face of the earth.
4. *Another necessary branch of true Christianity, is peace-making, or doing of good. That this is equally essential with any of the other parts of the religion of Jesus Christ, there can be no stronger argument to evince (and therefore it would be absurd to alledge any other) than thatit is here inserted in the original plan he has laid down, of the fundamentals of his religion. Therefore to set aside this, is the same daring insult on the authority of our great Master, as to set aside mercifulness, purity of heart, or any other branch of his institution. But this is apparently set aside, by all who call us to the wilderness; who recommend entire solitude either to the babes, or the young men, or the fathers in Christ. For will any man affirm, that a solitary Christian (so called, tho’ it is little less than a contradiction in terms) can be a merciful man? That is, one that takes every opportunity of doing all good to all men? What can be more plain than that this fundamental branch of the religion of Jesus Christ, cannot possibly subsist without society, without our living and conversing with other men?
5. But is it not expedient however (one might naturally ask) to converse only with good men? Only with those whom we know to be meek and merciful; holy of heart, and holy of life? Is it not expedient to refrain from any conversation or intercourse, with men of the opposite character? Men who do not obey, perhaps do not believe, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? The advice of St. Paul to the Christians at Corinth, may seem to favour this. [83]I wrote unto you in an epistle, not to company with fornicators. And it is certainly not adviseable so to company withthem, or with any of the workers of iniquity, as to have any particular familiarity, or any strictness of friendship with them. To contract or continue an intimacy with any such, is no way expedient for a Christian. It must necessarily expose him to abundance of dangers and snares, out of which he can have no reasonable hope of deliverance.