AIM 202 AGAINST UNCHARITABLENESS. who havebeen honestly seeking after the truths of religion, and searching the word ofGod to find them, who may have indulged some incautious and unhappy hour, wherein they have suffered themselves to be led away into this great snare and temptation of the evil one ; so that theyhave begun to doubt of this blessed doc- trine of the atoning sacrifice for sin by the blood ofJesus Christ, though it is so strongly, so expressly, and so often asserted by several of the apostles in their writings. It is my sincere and earnest desire, that God would speedily break these unhappy snares, whatsoever they are, by which their thoughts have been captivated into so dangerous a mistake ; 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26. that he would please to open the eyes of their mind by his enlightening grace, that they may not run on so far in this way as to be exposed to the loss of the benefit ofthis only propitiation for sin, and lay themselves open to that severe sen- tence of the word of God, that there remains no further propiti- atory sacrifice for them, but a certainfearful expectation ; IIeb. x. 26, 27. Forgive me, blessed Jesus, If any of the softer in- jluences of animal nature have warped me aside, whileI am treat- ing of this glorious virtue of charity, to indulge these milder sentiments, and depart in any measure from the stricter sense and sentence of thyholy word. SECT. III.TheMischievous Effects of Uncharitableness. Now if we have not dwelt too longon this subject, viz. in tracingout this mischief through its several springs and proper- ties, and if my reader be not quite out of breath, I would ask him to take another turn with ma and walk down to a short sur- vey of the same vice in its mischievous effects; that we may be more warmly animated to pursue this iniquity to the death : If it were possible, we would leave it neither root nor branch, name or memory in the christian world. I. The first and most obvious mischiefs I meet with among christians of an uncharitable humour, are the constant disquiet of theirown spirits, the vexation they give their neighbours, the injury they do to their own edification, and to the edification of allthat converse with them. Singulario has a set of notions and rules whereby he adjusts hisOwn creed and his practice; and whatsoever he hears in religious conference, or in public duty, that does not precisely square to his model, disquiets his ears, disrelishes with his taste, disturbs his conscience, and thus pre- vents all the benefit that his soul should receive from the dis- course or worship. I grant it very lawful for a man to be disgusted with a ser- mon, where the greatest part is spent in notions contrary to his judgment, and dressed up in language very foreign to his usual way of converse aboát divine things; this is shocking to the
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