[USE AND APPLICATION OF THE WHOLE.]
[USE THIRD]—My third word is to professors. Sirs, leave me to set my trumpet to your ears again. When every man hath put in all the claim they can for heaven, but few will have it for their inheritance; I mean but few professors, for so the text intended, and so I have also proved. “For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” Therefore, let me expostulate the matter with you, O ye thousands of professors!
1. I begin with you whose religion lieth only in your tongues; I mean you who are petite, or nothing is known from the rest of the world; only you can talk better than they. Hear me a word or two. If “I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity,” that is, love to God, Christ, saints, and holiness, “I am nothing”; no child of God, and so have nothing to do with heaven. (1 Cor 13:1,2) A prating tongue will not unlock the gates of heaven nor blind the eyes of the Judge. Look at it. “The wise in heart will receive commandments, but a prating fool shall fall.” (Prov 10:8)
2. Covetous professor, thou that make a gain of religion, that uses thy profession to bring grist to thy mill, look to it also. Gain is not godliness. Judas’ religion lay much in the bag, but his soul is now burning in hell. All covetousness is idolatry, but what is that, or what will you call it, when men are religious for filthy lucre’s sake? (Eze 33:31)
3. Wanton professors, I have a word for you; I mean you who can tell how to misplead Scripture, to maintain your pride, your banqueting, and abominable idolatry. Read what Peter says. You are the snare and damnation of others. You “allure through the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.” (2 Peter 2:18) Besides, the Holy Ghost hath a great deal against you, for your feastings, and eating without fear, not for health, but gluttony. (Jude 12) Further, Peter says that you that count it pleasure to riot in the day-time are spots and blemishes, sporting yourselves with your own deceiving. (2 Peter 2:13) And let me ask, Did God give his Word to justify your wickedness? Or doth grace teach you to plead for the flesh or make provision for the lusts thereof? Of these also are they that feed their bodies to strengthen their lusts, under the pretense of strengthening frail nature. But pray, remember the text, “Many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”
4. I come next to the opinionist; I mean, to him whose religion lieth in some circumstantial of religion. With this sort of kingdom, it swarms to this day. These think all out of the way, which is not their mode, when they may be out of the way amid their zeal for their opinions. Pray, do you also observe the text; “Many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”
5. Neither is the formalist exempted from this number. He is a man that hath lost all but the shell of religion. He is indeed hot for his form and no marvel; that is his all to contend for. But his form being without the power and spirit of godliness, it will leave him in his sins; nay, he stands now in them in the sight of God and is one of the many that “will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” (2 Tim 3:5)
6. The legalist comes next, even him that hath no life but what he makes out of his duties. This man hath chosen to stand or fall by Moses, who is the condemner of the world. “There is one that accused you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.” (John 5:45)
7. There is, in the next place, the libertine—he that pretended to be against forms and duties, as things that gender to bondage, neglecting the order of God. This man pretends to pray always but, under that pretense, prays not at all; he pretends to keep every day a Sabbath, but this pretense serves him only to cast off all set times for the worship of God. This is also one of the many that “will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” (Titus 1:16)
8. There is the temporizing latitudinarian. He is a man that hath no God but his belly, nor any religion but that by which his belly is worshipped. His religion is always, like the times, turning this way and that way, like the cock on the steeple; neither hath he any conscience but a benumbed and seared one, and is next door to a downright atheist; and also is one of the many that “will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”
9. There is also the willfully ignorant professor, or him, who is afraid to know more for fear of the cross. He is for picking and choosing of truth and loveth, not to hazard his all for that worthy name by which he would be called. When he is at any time overset by arguments or awakenings of conscience, he uses to heal all by—I was not brought up in this faith; as if it were unlawful for Christians to know more than hath been taught them at first conversion. Many Scriptures lie against his man, as the mouths of great guns, and he is one of the many that “will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”
10. We will add to all these the professor who would prove himself a Christian by comparing himself with others instead of comparing himself with the Word of God. This man comforts himself because he is as holy as such and such; he also knows as such as that old professor and then concludes he shall go to heaven: as if he certainly knew that those with whom he compares himself would be undoubtedly saved but how if he should be mistaken? Nay, may they not both fall short? But to be sure, he is wrong because he made the comparison, and a bad foundation will not stand on the day of judgment. (2 Cor 10:12) This man, therefore, is one of the many who “will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”
11. There is yet another professor, and he is for God and for Baal too; he can be anything for any company; he can throw stones with both hands; his religion alters as fast as his company; he is a frog of Egypt, and can live in the water and out of the water; he can live in religious company, and again as well out. Nothing disorderly comes amiss to him; he will hold with the hare and run with the hound; he carries fire in one hand and water in the other; he is very anything but what he should be. This is among the many who “will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”
12. There is also that free-willer, who denies to the Holy Ghost the sole work in conversion; and that Socinian, who denies to Christ that he hath made to God satisfaction for sin; and that Quaker, who takes from Christ the two natures in his person: and I might add as many more, touching whose damnation, they dying as they are, the Scripture is plain: these “will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” But,
