A discourse concerning meekness and quietness of spirit to which is added, A sermon…

2. Consider the miserable Condition of those that presumptuously speak against God and Religion. Tho' they may do it with an Air of Assurance, as if they run no hazard, yet he that rolleth this Stone, it will certainly return upon him sooner or later. They that speak against Religion speak against their own Heads, ¹and their own Tongues will at last fall upon them. We have reason to bewail their Madness, and to pity, and pray for them, for they know not what they do. Miserable Souls! How will they be deceived at last, when they shall find that God is not mocked! ²And that while they were studying to put contempt on Religion, they were but preparing eternal Shame and Confusion for themselves! The Lord is a jealous God, and will not hold them guiltless that thus profane his Name: Their Wit, and Learning, and Figure in the World, may embolden them in their Sin, and bear them up a while in an open Defiance of all that's Sacred, but nothing can prevent their utter Ruin besides a serious and sincere Repentance, which is an unsaying, with Shame and Self-loathing, of all that which they have proudly spoken against God ⟨p. 36⟩and Godliness. They that pervert the right ways of the Lord will certainly,³ […], and they that wrest the Scriptures do it to the•• […] Destruction. Religion's Motto is, Nemo me •npune lacessit. 'Tis ill jesting with edge-tools. Jerusalem will certainly be a burdensome Stone to all People, ⁴that burden themselves with it. They th•• spurn at the Rock of Salvation, will not only be unable to remove it, but will find it a Stone of Stumbling, ⁵and a Rock of Offence. And we find those who ridiculed the Word of the Lord, broken, and snared, and taken. Let all those therefore that mourn in Zion, weep over those that will •ot weep for themselves; and look with pity and compassion upon those that look upon them with scorn and contempt.