Reasonable Religion

p. 3Reasonable RELIGION.

Shew your selves MEN.

SHould they that manage the Publick Exhortations, Demand, [And we do Demand it!] of all our Christian Hearers, to approve themseves Real Christians, it is to be feared, the Demand would not be universally complied withal. W◊ do, in the Name of the Great God, propound unto our Neighbours, all the Faith, and Repentance, and Fruitfulness, and Watchfulness of Christianity; and there is too little compliance, with the proposals. But that our Exhortations may be rendred the more ◊◊◊esistible & Ungainsayable, Behold, p. 4the Form wherein they now arrive unto us. Instead of saying, Shew your selves Regenerate Christians, we will only say, Shew your selves Rational Creatures. Let this One Great point be gained, and we shall go a great way to gain every point. It is not more Essential unto MAN, to be Animal Rationale, than to be Animal Religios◊◊m. He that is not Religious, is not worthy to be counted Rational. The matter between God and us, is now brought unto those Terms, 〈…〉 a Saint or a Bruit. Either become a sincere Servant of the Lord Jesus Chri◊◊ ▪ or else pretend not unto the Name of a MAN; murmur not, O sinful man, if all the Angels in Heaven count thee but as a Beast in the shape of a Man; and by so much worse than a Beast, by how much more in the shape of a Man.

The God of Heaven Rebuked the Sottish and Fooli◊h Idolatry, whereunto the Jewi◊◊ Nation sometimes Aposta◊ized: And in His Rebukes, having p. 5first Exposed the Ridiculous Folly of Idolatry, He thus calls upon them, Now, Shew your selves Men, O ye Transgressors; q. d. Do but ◊act Reasonably, and you will no more▪ be such Transgressors of my Holy Laws. The Blessed God would 〈…〉 men out of Irreligion; And 〈…〉 does it, from the Topick of Ridiculou◊ ▪ unreasonableness which Irreligion is to be charged withal. The Hebrew▪ Original, is capable of that further Signification, Be Ashamed. And indeed, men acting Reasonably, would be Ashamed of the Folly that is Committed in sinning against the Laws of God▪ The clause next unto our Text, in the French Translation, very agreeably confirms our sense of the Text; Return to sense, O◊ Transgressors.

p. 5The Great point, which with the countenance of this Text, I undertake to manage, is This:

Did men Act Reasonably, they would Live Religiously.

In sinning against God, the sinner does not act like a Reasonable man.

〈…〉 to act more like a Beast, than like a Man, for any man to sin against the God that made him. If men would shew them◊elves men, they would not allow themselves in those things that are contrary to and condemned by the Religion of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Indeed some were once blamed, in ◊ Cor. 3.◊. for Walking as men; but the meaning of it was, Walking as men commonly Walked; not Walking as men should walk, if they would show themselves men: They who Walk as Carnal men, and Sensual men, do not act as Rational men. Sin is an Unmanly sort of a Thing. 'Tis Beneath a man, to sin against the most High God. By living in Sin, men debauch and debase themselves below men. 'Tis Reason, whereby a Man p. 7is distingui◊◊ed from a Beast; Sin is repugnant unto the principles of that Rea◊on, by which the Almighty hath given us our Distinction. In Sin men offer violence unto the principles of Reason. Though a man that Errs does like a Man, as man has now unman◊d himself, yet men don◊t show themselves men in their Errors, that is to say, Reasonable men. Peccare est, ins◊◊r pecudum Errare.

Now,

In the first place, We have a Reasonable Demonstration of this Assertion, in the Divine Testimony of The Scripture. We don't shew our selve◊ men, if we don't Receive that Book▪ which we call, The Bible, or, The Scripture, as a Divine Testimony. It ◊◊ands not with Reason that any but the Holy God, ◊◊ould be the Author of such an Holy Book. It is highly Reasonable, That the God, who is Good, and who does Good, should by writing teach His good Statutes unto us. But if we shew our selves men; we p. 8shall no where find any Book but This, where we shall see Written the Statutes of God. All the Wicked Force of Earth and Hell, hath been Employ'd for the suppression of this Book: If it had not been Gods Book, it could not have been preserved. The Mysteries, the Prophecies, and the Majesty of the Book, are the evident Signatures of a God upon it. We don't shew our selves men, if we don't Entertain this Book of Truth, when we see Incontestable Truth shining in every line of it; a Book, which the more it is examined, the the more the Truth of it is demonstrated. Now one Thing asserted, as a Truth, in this Book, is, That all Sin is an unreasonable Folly. A Sinner is called A Fool, by the only Wise God: In the Book of Wisdom, he is, it may be, an hundred and fifty times over called so. We have Read of a Great Prince, who was overtaken with a sin against the Great God; when he c◊me to sober Thoughts upon his own sin, p. 9he Cried out, in 2 Sam. 24.10. O Lord, I have Sinned, and I have done very Foolishly. Yea, A Sinner is by the Divine Oracles, (as in Eccl. 9.3.) pronounced, A Mad-man. A prodigal sinner is in these Oracles, represented as one besides himself. If men would but come to themselves, with the prodigal in the Parable, they would ◊ome into the Service of God. The Service of the Lord Jesus Christ, prescribed in the Christian Religion, is called, in Rom. 12.1. A Reasonable Service. A man without serious and practical Religion, is Emphatically compared, in Job 11.12. unto, A ◊ild Asses Colt. What? An Ass, and a◊ wild Ass, and the Colt of a wild Ass! Behold, O Irreligious man, Behold▪ thy picture, how 'tis drawn by the pencils of God. One once, with too much Reason made this Division of Man ▪ The Man, and the Beast. When a man Sins, he puts off the Man, and 〈…〉 the Beast. And hence, when man 〈…〉 into Sin, 'tis said in Psal. 49. p. 1012. He is like the Beasts ◊hat peris◊ ▪ A man that has been sinning, mu◊◊ bemoan himself before the God, a◊gainst whom he hath sinned, like him ◊n Psal. 73.22. Lord, I have been as 〈…〉 Beast before thee. Yea, the very Beas◊ may Instruct the Sinner; [Job. 12.7.◊ And will Condemn him at the last.