572 ABUSE OF THE PASSIONS IN RELIGION'. God will pardon no wilful sins, that lie will forgive no repeated iniquities, no sins after baptism and the Lord's-supper, or after vows or solemn engagements, that he will have no mercy upon apostates, even though they turn to him by repentance ; this is yielding up truth to the passion of fear, and an abuse of our re- ligious dread of the majesty of God; for such an opinion runs counter to the great-design of the gospel, Which assures us that Christ came to save the chief of sinners; 1 Tim. i. 15. to remove the guilt of wilful and repeated sins, and to provide forgiveness for some of the most profligate rebels, even for all that renounce their rebellion. 3. Some pious persons have had such an affectionate zeal to honour God, that they have been led by this passion to contrive various fórms of service and ceremony, gay and costly rites, with long and painful exercises of devotion, which God never ap- pointed, and have introduced a numberof them into his worship. A childish fondness to please the great God with bodily services, has tempted them to forget his own divine prerogative, to pre- scribe how men should worship him, They have been blinded with this sort of fondness for ceremony, in such a degree, as to Iead them far astray from the divino simplicity of worship, which the New Testament has appointed. 4: Some persons out of a passionate desire to honour Christ, and ascribe the whole train of their blessings and salvation to him, have been tempted to think that they are to do nothing to- ward their- own salvation, but to lie still, and be saved without any labour or care of their own ; so that they have sought no more after sanctification and holiness in themselves; tharí they have sought to make atonement for their own sins. But this zeal leas much darkness in it, and betrays them into a gross mistake,- as though they could not ascribe their salvation sufficiently to Christ, unless they fancied that he came tó save them in their sins, rather than to save them from sin. 5. It is possible that a person may have so high an esteem and so excessive a love for some near relation, some Christian friend, some wise and pious minister of the gospel, that he sees no fault in them : He imitates all their practice, as though they were perfect patterns ; he receives all their opinions for certain and divine truths, and believes every thingwhich they teach, as though they were'infallible, without comparing it with the bible, which is the only teat- of truth in matters of revealed religion. This of ction of love to ministers or christians is certainly irre- gular, when it tempts us to setup their judgments, their practices and their dictates, in the room of the word of God. 6. Again, it is the same culpable indulgence of our passions to sway our. judgment, and bias our understanding, when our souls are warmed with theholy lire of love and devotion under a
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