CHAPTER V

Of Unfruitfulness as it consists in Lukewarmness

 

Besides those who are unprofitable, because they neglect the duties of religion, there is another sort of men who at the last day will fall under the same condemnation; not because their performance of them is cold and formal; men who make a fair appearance of religion and yet have no inward spiritual life.  Men who generally observe the external duties, but with such indifference and lukewarmness that they are neither acceptable to God nor useful to themselves.

 

This state of deadness may be considered either more generally as it runs through the whole course of our lives and actions or more particularly in this or that instance of religion.

  

1.  When it is so general that the bent and course of our lives is for want of relish of the things of God, perverted and depraved, when we have no designs drive on no ends that are suitable to the dignity of our nature, to the holiness of our profession and to the manifest obligations of God, when we have no joys or pleasures, no thirsts or appetites that truly become a Christian when we make no progress, no advance towards our great end.  I think we may then boldly conclude that this is a state of carnality and death and that this want of relish in the general course of our lives, proceeds from want of faith. Whoever therefore finds this general stupidity in the course of his life, let him not flatter himself in the performance of any of the duties of religion:   He has a corrupt, carnal, and blind heart. His performances proceed not from true principles; they are as different from the performances of a man truly regenerate, as the compliments of a well-bred acquaintance, from the substantial offices  of a sincere friend. Nor can any man, who will take the least pains to examine himself, be ignorant of the condition of his soul, if this be it. For whoever will act honestly and impartially, ought not to pass a sentence of absolution on himself, upon the bare performance of some instrumental duties of religion; but he ought to enquire, first, what virtues he practices, which put him upon expense, hazard or travel; what works of piety or charity he performs and what proportion they bear to his ability. Secondly,  he ought to consider the end he proposes to himself in all his religious performances; whether he seeks the honor of God, the welfare of man and his own improvement and growth in goodness; or whether he does this merely to acquit himself of a task and discharge himself of what he takes for a duty, though he finds no pleasure, no advantage in it. Thirdly, he must reflect upon the frame and temper of his mind, in reference to these duties; what hunger and thirst he has for righteousness; what warmth or earnestness of mind accompanies his performances, what peace and pleasure his reflection on them or whether religion be not a burden to him, or something to which custom only reconciles him.

 

Lastly, he ought to examine what influence his religious performances have upon him. Prayer, hearing, reading and such like duties, naturally tend to enlighten the mind, purify the heart, increase our love, strengthen our faith, and confirm our hope and therefore, where this is not the effect of them, we may conclude that they are not discharged in that manner they ought. He therefore that will examine himself alright, must not ask himself how often he reads, how often he hears, and then rest there; but he must ask himself what effect  these performances have had upon his mind; which he will soon discern, if he demand of himself, what the bent and the scope of his life is: how much he advances in the conquest of any vice, and the attainment of any virtue; what he loves, or what he hates; what esteem he has for the things of God and what for the things of men? And, in a word, how he follows after universal righteousness and how he increases in purity of heart and poverty of spirit.

 

2. Lukewarmness may be considered more particularly, as it discovers itself in the performance of this or that duty, in hearing, reading, prayer and participation of the Lord's Supper. Now it is certain there is a deadness in these duties, which proceeds from a carnal and unsanctified heart and is a plain symptom of a state of sin; And yet it is too common, that they who are subject to it, make little reflection upon it, and are little concerned for it. But what surprises me most is, that some of repute have taught that the seeking spiritual pleasure in prayer is an enemy to perfection; that heat and ardor of spirit in prayer does often happen to the weakest Christians and very seldom to the perfect. But my business not being to combat the opinions of men, but to advance truths in the most charitable and effectual manner, I can: Without taking notice of the motives or reasons which have biased any on this subject, I will lay down two or three propositions, which will clear this matter.

 

  1.  Then lifelessness or lukewarmness in these duties must never be constant. There is a vast difference between habitual and accidental coldness in duty; the former is the symptom of worldly, carnal, and unregenerate minds; but not the latter. Many are the accidents which indispose the body; many are the things which distract  and clog the mind; therefore our devotion will never be so constant and uniform, but that it will have its interruptions and alloys; and dullness and lifelessness will sometimes seize upon real Christians. But then, if this spiritual deadness in religious exercises be fixed, constant and habitual, it must needs be a proof of a corrupt mind: For it is impossible that there should be a true principle of grace within, which should never, or rarely, shew itself in the fervency of our devotion. How is it possible, that that man, who is generally slight and superficial in his concession, should have a true compunction, and sincere contrition for sins? How is it that he, who is generally indifferent, formal, and cold in his petitions should have a just sense either of his wants or dangers or a true value for the grace and favor of God!  The sum is, deadness in duty is either general or rare, common or accidental : If it befalls us commonly, it is an argument of an unregenerate heart; if rarely, it is riot. But if the returns of life and deadness in duty be so frequent that it is impossible to determine whether the one or the other prevail most; then it is plain that the state also of such a man is very dubious.

 

  2. Duty must never be without seriousness and concern, though it may be defective in the degrees of love and ardency. Thus in prayer, the tenderness and contrition of the soul, dissolved in love and sorrow, is a frame of spirit much above what the penitent commonly arrives at. But an aversion for sin, a firm resolution to forsake it, and a hearty desire by the Grace of God to do, is what he must not want. So again, joy and transport, ardor and exultancy of mind, is the effect of a clear understanding, an assured conscience, a heart enflamed with love and a strict life.   Whoever therefore falls short in the one, will generally fall short in the other. But every Christian, that is truly such, must have a true sense of his wants, a hearty desire to please God, a true notion of his goodness and a steady dependence upon it through Christ. And these things are sufficient to unite our hearts and our lips in the same petitions, to make us in earnest in all the duties we perform and careful to intend the main end of them.

 

 

3. The prayer of the perfect man is generally offered up with the tenderest and most exalted passion and a holy pleasure mingles itself in every part of his office.  His petitions and praises, his confessions, deprecations and confidences are all of them expressions of warm and delightful passions.  And how can we well conceive it otherwise?  Must not those praises be full of joy and transport which  flow from a full assurance of the divine favor from a long experience of his love and from the glorious prospect of a blessed eternity?  Can those  deprecations and confidences want a heavenly calm and tranquility of spirit which rest upon the mediation of Jesus, the promises of an immutable God and the pledge of his spirit? Can those confessions want contrition that have all the tenderness that holy zeal and the humblest reflections can inspire them with?  Which are poured forth by a soul enlightened, purified and strong in faith, rooted and grounded in love, by a soul consequently that has the liveliest sense of the deformity and danger of sin, of the beauty and pleasure of holiness, of the infinite goodness of God and of that love of Christ that passeth knowledge?  Can finally those petitions want desire and flame which are offered up by a soul that hungers and thirsts after righteousness, that counts all things but dung and dross in comparison of  Jesus, that pants after God, that longs to be dissolved and to be with Christ?  It is true, weight and dignity of matter, gravity and significance of expression are the character most conspicuous in public offices in the best and most ancient prayers and particularly in the Lord's Prayer. We find in them few or no figures of speech, no vehemence of expression. But it is true too, that the devotion of a soul disengaged, as it were, from the body, retired from the world, collected within itself, raised by daily contemplation and accustomed to converse with heaven flows naturally and easily. Those great ideas, which such a prayer as that of our Lord's composure present to the mind, inflame the desire, awaken all the passions of the holy man without any labor of imagination, or artifice of words.

 

 

Thus have I considered the nature of lukewarmness and shewed how far the perfect man is removed from it. My next business is to persuade and exhort men to quit it, and become sincere and zealous. Only I must first take notice by the way, that besides idleness and lukewarmness, there is sometimes a third cause of unfruitfulness which deserves never to be slighted; that is, fickleness, unsteadiness and inconstancy. Many there are, who often propose and resolve great matters, but never bring forth any fruit to perfection: What they build one day, they throw down another. They put on as many various moral forms, as proteus in the poets does natural ones; sometimes they are in a fit of zeal, at other times nothing but coldness and bare form; sometimes they are in the camp of virtue; sometimes in that of vice. In a word, they halt, like the Israelites, between God and Baal; and are divided between a sense of duty and the love of the world and the body; between the checks of conscience on the one hand and some foolish inclinations on the other. This state I have had an eye to very often, nor  shall I forget it here; but shall propose such a method   for the cure of lukewarmness, as may be also of good use to all such as fall short of the main end of religion, being not thoroughly changed, but are only almost persuaded to be Christians: And only not altogether so far from the kingdom of heaven as others. This being premised 

 

I. I will enquire into the causes from whence lukewarmness and all abortive attempts after virtue flow.

2.1 will shew the folly, guilt, and danger of a Laodicean State.

 

The Causes are generally four.

 

  1. Men finding themselves under great difficulties in coming up to holiness, in the true genuine and gospel notion of it, have endeavored to enlarge the way and widen the gate that leads to life and have therefore formed to themselves more soft and pliant notions of vice and virtue: Such as may be more easily accommodated, either to their particular inclinations, or to the fashions of the world than those of Christ and the Apostles can. Hence it is, that among such as pretend to some religion, humility, poverty of spirit, self-denial, abstinence and mortification, are so far from being visible in their practice, that we seem to have almost lost the notion of them. And the pride of life, the lust of the eyes, are so universal, that though we know, that those in St. John are the names of vices, we scarce know what the things themselves are. We have confounded the bounds of vice and virtue and such are the freedoms. I will not say of those who profess debauchery, but Christianity, that if they be consistent with the sanctity and purity of the Gospel, it will be hard to determine what excess is. In a word, how many are there, who making profession of living by  faith and looking for the blessed hope and the glorious resurrection of Christ, do yet live, as if all the business of life were to get and enjoy as much of this life as they can; who professing themselves the disciples of Christ, whose heart  was lowly, his fortune mean and his appearance humble, do yet lay out their time, their labor, their wealth on this, to make a shew and figure in the world?  And as our indulgence to ourselves in these things, which relate to the pride and vanity of life, and the ease and appetites of the body, is very great; so on the same ground and for the same reason, is our zeal for the interest of virtue and the honor of God, very saint and remiss. Conversation has very little grace in it and we are so far from being resolute and industrious to awe or shame vice, that we ourselves should be almost out of countenance, if we should be observed to pay any particular respect to religion in company.

 

 

It  is true indeed, these I am speaking of generally frequent the house of God and they fit before Him as his people and delight to hear his word: But so did the Jews, when God tells them, in the Prophet Ezek. xxxiii. 31. That their hearts went after their covetousness: And in the Prophet Isaiah we have but an odd character of the morals of these people of whom God saith, yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. Now though those I speak of may not be chargeable with open wickedness, yet 1 am afraid that even in this duty they but promote the imposture they put upon themselves and make their diligence in this point minister to quiet their consciences in their Laodicean State; for it were easy to prove that such as these do more generally aim at the   entertainment of the ear, than the reformation of the heart. And we may say of preachers now, as God did of Ezekiel; And lo, thou art to them as a lovely song of one that has a very pleasant  voice, Ezek. xxx iiii. 32. The music of the voice, the gracefulness of delivery, a flow of words, the surprise of novelty and notion, the beauty of sentences and the sparkling of wit and fancy or an appearance of learning: These are, I doubt, too often the things that draw together and charm an auditory: And so all are pleased, but none converted; for who sweats or blushes, who trembles or grows pale at these sermons? Who goes away from them wounded, or struck through, serious and pensive, full of pious, fears and devout desires?

 

 

  2. A Laodicean state springs from sloth and cowardice or the want of a thorough and well-grounded resolution. This was one cause of the Israelites fluctuation.  They were indeed desirous of Canaan, but were not forward to purchase it by tedious marches, hazardous encounters and the hardship of hunger and thirst. They ever and above preferred the servitude of Egypt with security and fullness before Canaan on these terms. And thus it is, this day, with Christians of a Laodicean spirit, and a doubtful staggering allegiance. An heaven they would have, but would not purchase it at too dear a rate; they would be accounted disciples of Christ and share in the merits of his sufferings, but they would not take up his cross and follow Him. But, alas! Israel, might as well have gained their liberty without going out of Egypt or Canaan without travel and hardship, as these, virtue and heaven, without watchfulness and industry: We may as well hope to support and increase the health and strength of  the body, without food or exercise as that of the soul without meditation and prayer: We may as soon conquer our enemies without discipline, expense and blows, as master our corruptions without spiritual watchfulness, travail, or contention. There is indeed force enough in the word of God to purify the heart, if we would but seriously read and meditate it: And the Grace of the spirit is sufficient to conquer our corruptions and strengthen and establish us in faith and obedience, if we did but earnestly and frequently pray for it, and cherish and improve it when obtained.

  The means which God has prescribed are undoubtedly proper and suitable, powerful and effectual to the attainment, preservation and increase of holiness and all his ordinances have a divine energy in them, if they be but duly and conscientiously made life of. But if we do not watch, if we do not meditate, if we do not pray, if we expose ourselves to a vain and trifling conversation, if we indulge the body all the ease it is inclined to and put ourselves upon no duties, practice no discipline that we have any reluctancy for, it is not to be wondered if our virtue be crazy and sickly, if our performances be cold, our faith weak, our affections low, our life unsteady and unprofitable, our religion destitute of true pleasure, and our latter end void of any rational comfort or well-grounded confidence. It is naturally to be expected that the soul of the sluggard should be like his field. Prov. xxiv. 3o. I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding and lo it was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down: This is one plain cause of our halting between     God and Baal; namely, our idleness and sloth in religion, joined with cowardice, which moves us to decline all difficulties and disables us to make a bold resistance against temptations: But how guilty this must render us in sight of God, it is no difficulty to guess. Is this the zeal, the revenge of an humble and active penitent? Is this to redeem the time and erase the memory of our past sins and provocations? Is this the conversation that becomes the children of the light and of the day? Is this our hunger and thirst after righteousness? Is this our ambition, our passion for heaven? Finally, is it thus we requite the mercies of God and the love of Jesus, that passeth knowledge? Shall such halting Christians as these, think ye, ever be judged endued with living faith, who express in the whole tenor of their lives, so much coldness and Indifference for their salvation, which the Son of God thought worth the purchasing by so much travail and so much sorrow, so much shame, and so much blood?

3. A third cause of our halting between God and Baal is some degree of infidelity. This was the case of Israel too. I would to God it were not the state of too many Christians; and that we could not trace our lukewarmness and fickleness in religion back to the same source, namely, infidelity. I wish the prosperity of the wicked do not somewhat undermine the belief of a providence: I wish, whatever we talk of a treasure in another world, we do not now and then think it wisest to have our portion in this. I am afraid, that the decays and dissolutions of our nature in death, the rottenness and corruption of the grave and the variety of changes our very dust undergoes, may tempt us to some scruples about another life. But however it be in these points, I am well assured, we often doubt, whether virtue be the true blessedness of life;   whether there be that pleasure in righteousness the scripture affirms there is. I am confident the potions of holiness, with which the scripture furnishes us are often blotted by the maxims and customs of the world; and there is scarcely one of those, who are Laodiceans and trimmers in religion, that do not flatter themselves, that God will not be as severe as his threats and that He will receive them into heaven upon milder and softer terms than the gospel proposes. Some such kind of infidelity as this must possess the heart, wherever the life is so infinitely below our Possession. When the word preached doth not profit  it is because it is not mingled with faith in those that hear it.   If we did truly believe, if we saw the promises of God as evident and present by faith it were impossible but they must move,  they must enkindle in us another sort of desire, and this desire would soon produce another sort of life. How does a prospect of gain captivate the covetous. How does the expectation of pleasure inflame the voluntary? How does the sight of vanity and grandeur affect the proud?   And the hope of glory fire the ambitious?   What have the beauty and pleasures of holiness no attraction?  Has heaven no charms in it? Have the favor and love of God and of Jesus no force, no power in them? Surely we have not the face to deny, but that the promises of God are great and precious ones, and if they raise no passions in us, it must not be through want of excellence in them, but want of faith in us. And then judge you, how acceptable this kind of infidelity must render us to God.

 

 4. The fourth fountain of this unsteadiness and remissness in religion is some remains of corruptions, the prevalence of some vicious passion or other. Men's actions are the plainest indications of their affections. If the life looks two ways, we need not doubt but that the heart does so too. This was that made the young man in the gospel fluctuate so long between God and Mammon; this was the case of Herod, he had yielded, no doubt, to the Baptists reasons, if he had not been drawn back by the charms of Hero Dias. And this is the case of every man who is but almost a Christian.   He is under the ascendant of some silly or vile lust; this is that which diminisheth the price of Canaan.

 

Without doubt men would apply themselves more vigorously to spiritual things, were they not  too fond of the body and the pleasures of it. They would seek the Kingdom of Heaven more earnestly, and make a better provision for the other world, were they not too much taken with this, and therefore too apt to let up their rest on this side of Jordan. Now if this be so,  what can we expect?  They only who conquer are crowned;  they who sow to the flesh and to the world, can reap nothing from these but corruption. These kind of Christians, though peradventure, they are not slaves to any scandalous lusts, are yet entangled by some other, not much less injurious, though not to reputation, yet to purity of heart: They are captivated to the world and flesh, though their chains seem better polished and of a finer metal.  They cannot mount upwards, they cannot conquer, being retarded and kept under, if not by the strength of temptation, yet by their own softness and weakness; and the more innocent the object of any one’s passion is, generally the more fatal, because we are the more apt to indulge ourselves in it.    The causes of lukewarmness being thus pointed out, it is evident what the cure of it consists in, namely, in strengthening our faith and in completing our reformation. I will now endeavor to shew,

 

  1.    The folly.

2.     The guilt; and

 3.   The danger of it.

 

The folly.

How reasonably may I here address myself to the lukewarm in the words of Elijah to the Israelites: How long bait ye between two opinions?  If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him, 1 Kings xviii. 21.   If you do indeed believe that your safety and happiness depend upon God, then serve Him in good earnest; but if you think this depends upon the world, the flesh and the devil, then serve these. If you really think virtue and religion are the most solid and liable treasure, then strive sincerely and vigorously to possess yourselves of them; but if you really think that the ease and pleasure of the body, respect and pomp and state is the proper portion and sovereign good of man, then devote and offer up yourselves to these. For what a folly is that life, which will neither procure us the happiness of this world, nor of another? To what purpose is it to listen only so much to conscience, as to damp and chill our pleasure and so much to pleasure as to disturb the peace and repose of conscience? But indeed, the disparity is so vast   between God and the world, between religion and sensuality, covetousness and ambitions, between those hopes and enjoyments we may reap from the one, and those we can fancy in the other; that there is no place for doubting what choice we are to make, or to which side we are to adhere; nay, in this we are more criminal than the Israelites, being self- condemned. The Israelites seem to be at a loss, whether the Lord or Baal were God; they doubted under whose protection they might thrive best. But at this day, whoever believes a God, knows very well there is none besides Him.

 

The Guilt.

Whatever Passion we have for the world and the things of it; whatever spiritual idolatry we are guilty of, our opinions are not yet so far corrupted, as to attribute to them, in reality, anything like divinity. Whilst we dote on wealth, we at the same time know that it makes itself wings and flies away; whilst on greatness and power, we know that it is but a piece of empty and toilsome pageantry, and often the subject of misery and dismal tragedies, not incident to a lower state: Whilst we dote on pleasure, we are well assured that it is dishonorable and short, and intermixed with fears and shame and torment. We know that nothing here below is able to free our state from calamity, our mind from guilt, the body from death, much less the whole man from a miserable eternity.  In one word, we know that what we admire is vanity, and what we worship is indeed an idol. This being so, I will insist no longer on this topic; for since the world bears no competition with God in our opinion, though’ it often rival Him in our affections, we are not to impute the halting of a Laodicarn Christian to any persuasion of omnipotence or all-sufficiency, or anything like divinity in the things he dotes on, serves, and worships; but we must find out some other reason of it. And that is generally this, we are willing to believe, that our fondness for the world and our indulgence to the body is consistent enough with religion; that it is no provocation to God ; nor consequently, prejudice to our eternal interest. And then it is no wonder if we blend religion and sensuality and stand divided in our affections; and consequently halt in our service between God and the world. To prevent this, I will shew.

 

That this is a great sin; which is sufficiently evident from this single consideration, that it frustrates the efficacy of the Gospel and the spirit, and entirely defeats the great design of the Christian religion. For,

 

1.   Religion has no effectual influence upon the lukewarm; the gospel works no thorough change in him. The sinner is not converted into a saint; nor human nature perfected by participation of a divine.

 

 2.    The Laodiceans can never offer up to God any gift, any sacrifice worthy of Him; nor render Him any service acceptable to Him.  The Kingdom of God is righteousness, and Peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, Rom. xiv. 12.  He that in these things serveth Christ, is acceptable to God, and approved of Men. But alas! such men are utter strangers to these things.  A few saint and irresolute wishes, formal and customary prayers, niggardly and grumbling alms and an attendance upon God's word, rather out of spiritual wantonness, than devotion, these are the offerings they make God and will God be better pleased with these, than He was with those of Israel that were deformed with Maims and Blemishes?

 

Mal.  i. 8. Offer now these to thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept of thy person?  Saith the Lord of hosts. The Primitive Christians offered upto God prayers and tears, labors and travels; nay their honors, their fortunes, their lives, their blood. But, alas ! What have these men to offer? They have not love enough to put them upon any expense; nor faith enough to put them upon any hardships. For though they think themselves rich and increased in goods and to have need of nothing, yet are they poor, wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked. And shall these receive a crown of righteousness? Shall these share in the Kingdom of Jesus? Shall these partake in the triumph of the last day? It can never be; they do nothing worthy of the Gospel, nothing worthy of the Spirit of God: Nothing that can entitle them to the benefit of the cross of Christ.

 

 

 3, The life of the Laodicean Christian will never do any credit to religion. No man will be ever able to discern the beauty of holiness, or the power of divine truths from the practice and conversation of such. Had the carriage of the primitive times been such as this, I know not what miracles might have done.  I am sure examples would never have made any proselytes. But the Christians then acted those virtues, which the pagan only pretended too: This was that which made the world admire and love Christianity. After thus much said of the effects of this sort of carriage; I need scarcely put any one in mind, what will be the last and saddest effect of it; for if our Christianity be such, that it neither let us free from our bondage to the world and flesh, nor enrich our soul with true and solid virtues; if  it neither promote the honor of God, nor the good of man, it must unavoidably follow, that having no true title to God’s favor, nor any rational ground, on which to build an assurance of it, we can reap no true comfort from religion here, or any reward from it hereafter.

 

Alas! What talk I of comfort and reward? Distress and anguish must take hold of the dinners in sin and fearfulness must surprise the hypocrite: And from the troubles and miseries of this life, they must go down into the everlasting torments of another.

 

 The scripture is plain; God will spit them out of his mouth, as he did the Laodicean:   He will shut the gate of heaven against them, as against the foolish virgins that had no oil in their lamps: And their hell will have one torment in it, which is incident to no others, that they had once the hopes of heaven; and it is no small aggravation of misery to fall into it, even from the expectation of happiness.

 

 This  is not, as I observed above, to be applied to accidental dullness or deadness in duty; nor are the abatements of love, which good men sometimes suffer, immediately to be pronounced damnable. But yet these are to be put in mind of the danger they are in; in the words of the spirit to the church of Ephesus.   Nevertheless, I am somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent,. Rev. ii. 4, 5.