Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachi the…Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachy the…

2. To be holiest in evil times is an Indication of the truth of Grace. To profess Religion when the times favour it, is no Great matter. Who almost will not court the Queen of the Gospel when she is hung with Jewels? but to own the ways of God when they are decried and maligned, to love a persecuted truth, this evidenceth a vital Principle of Goodness. Dead Fish swim down the stream, living Fish swim against it. To swim against the common stream of evil shows Grace to be alive. The Prophet Elijah continuing zealous for the Lord of Hosts, when they had digged down Gods Altars, 1 King. 19.10. showed his heart and lips had been touched with a Coal from the Altar.

2. To be holiest in evil times is an Indication of the truth of Grace. To profess Religion when the times favour it, is no Great matter. Who almost will not court the Queen of the Gospel when she is hung with Jewels? but to own the wayes of God when they are decried and maligned, to love a persecuted truth, this evidenceth a vital Principle of Goodness. Dead Fish swim down the stream, living Fish swim against it. To swim against the common stream of evil shews Grace to be alive. The Prophet Elias continuing zealous for the Lord of Hosts, when they had digged down Gods Altars, 1 King. 19.10. shewed his heart and lips had been touched with a Coal from the Altar.

1 Use. See hence how unworthy they are of the Name of Christians who use sinful compliance, and cut the Garment of their Religion according to the Mode and fashion of the times. They consult not what is best, but what is safest^*. Complying spirits can truckle to the humours of others; they can ⟨p. 6⟩bow either to the East or to the Host; they prefer a whole Skin before a pure Conscience. They can with the Planet Mercury vary their motion; they can as the Mariner shift their Sail with every wind: and as the Mongrel Israelites speak the Language of Canaan and Ashdod. These are like the Samaritans of whom Josephus saith, when the Jews flourished they pretended to be a-kin to them, and come of the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh, but when the Jews were persecuted, they disclaimed Kindred with them. The old Serpent hath taught men crooked windings, and to be for that Religion not which hath truth on its side, but power.