Of Believing in fefus Chrift. 201 belief in fcripture, and fo often and feverely S ER Nr, cenfared. It is reprefented as a molt heinous VII. crime .exposing men to certain inevitable con- demnation, nay, and threatened to be punifh- ed with a peculiar feverity ; To appoint fin - ners their portion with unbelievers is, in the language of our Saviour himfelf, to number them with and punifh them as the greateft offenders. In the firfl place, that unbelief, if it meaneth a rejeding the gofpel, muff arife not from meer ignorance, weaknefs of underflanding, and an incapacity of difcern- ing the evidence for chriflianity, but perverfe- nefs and depraved affeElions ; fo our Saviour accounteth for it when he pronounceth that awful fentence, john iii. i 8. He that believeth not is condemned already, that is, he fhall cer- tainly fall under a remedilefs condemnation ; he immediately explaineth it at the 19th verfe, and this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darknefs rather than light, becaufe their deeds were evil. This was the Cafe of the .Pharifes, whofe obflinate rejection of the gofpel proceeded from the attachment of their hearts to their vice, and from the wickednefs of their lives. The cafe of thefe mull be extremely different who never heard of . chriflianity, and, in proportion, of thofe who never had it fairly and
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