Preached at the Scots Church Crown Court, London, on 27th October, 1794,
by the Rev. JOHN LOVE, D.D.
(Continued from p. 111).
But they vexed His Holy Spirit; therefore He was turned to be their enemy and fought against them (Isaiah, Ixiii. 10).
Of these, the first and most prominent is Sabbath-breaking, or the prostitution of sacred time. Were it my design to establish the authority of this wise, good, holy institution, I might go back to the foundation of the world, and to the bowers of the original paradise; or I might call you to listen to that terrific voice of words, which, issuing from the tempestuous darkness and flames of Sinai, conveyed terror to the breasts of millions, while it pronounced the statute of Heaven, “Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.” But I take it for granted, that the institution is Divine. My present object is to mark the atrocity of its violation, as implying a vile contempt of the influences of the Holy Spirit. When the glorious Saviour, having finished the mysterious purchase of salvation, rose to endless life and dominion on the first day of the week, the honours of the Sabbath were justly transferred to that day; and its hours became peculiarly sacred and auspicious, as the season when mortals, humbly waiting upon God, might hope to be visited with those operations of the Spirit of Jesus Christ which apply the blessings of redemption. What then might be expected in a country wherein such a Sabbath is made known? We plead not for the formal austerities of hypocrisy; but we contend for it, and all the sophistry in the world cannot resist us, that to refuse a serious, diligent observation of the Christian Sabbath, with a view to the spiritual ends of its appointment, is to contemn those influences of the Eternal Spirit, which bring salvation and heaven into immortal souls. Every Sabbath breaker is such a despiser; every act of Sabbath breaking expresses such contempt. What then must be the state of a country filled with such rebels? Be astonished, ye Heavens; be ashamed, thou Sun, whom the Spirit of God placed in the skies—withdraw thy shining beams from the haunts of such transgressors; and thou solid earth, tremble under their steps, while they assemble in unashamed crowds, to declare before angels and men, how much they despise the majesty and grace of thy Creator.
A second proof of alienation from the blessed Spirit of God, and contempt of His influences, is the profane waste of leisure time on other days besides the Sabbath. Every person, even the meanest in society, ought to enjoy the privilege of some leisure time: to deny this in ordinary cases is oppression: and in the usual manner of employing such intervals, a clear discovery is made of the spirit and dispositions of mankind. I hardly need to point out what must be the effects of just concern for salvation, and esteem of the influences of grace in our disposal of the time which is properly at our own command. The wise will mourn over the ruin of immortal souls, while they see, all over the country, marks of apostacy, in this respect, from the paths of uprightness and wisdom. Reasonable allowance must be made for recreations, truly harmless and useful for invigorating the powers of body and mind: but life is short; eternity is near; and its concerns, infinite in their importance, must not yield to the justling of business on the one hand, or of recreation on the other. If I know the terrors and the love of God, and feel tender concern for the happiness of a friend, I will observe him in his leisure hours: it will give me pain to find him then a loitering trifler; nor will it much relieve me to discover that in such seasons he is constantly engaged in the pursuits of curious speculation, or in the gratification and improvement of an elegant taste. I will remind him that there are more serious concerns; I will counsel him to seek for pleasures more solid and sublime. But, what if my friend is seized with the madness of the times, and hurried into the whirlpool of fashionable amusement? Ah! now the chaos of his darkened mind is agitated: now there is no access for sober reflection, much less for subjects so solemn as the operations of the Holy Spirit of God. I must stand afar off, with the feelings of one who beholds from the shore, incapable of affording relief, a distant shipwreck; only I remember, that “the things which are impossible with men, are possible with God.”
Can it be denied, that the carnal, dissipated, lawless state of mind, which pervades assemblies for vain amusements, is attended with total presumptuous aversion to the influences of the Holy Spirit of God. When the trump of luxurious wealth has sounded its alarm and the restless demoniacs of fashion are assembled in numerous cabal, under the glittering, falsely hospitable roof; when animal vivacity, indulged sensuality, the pride of unfeeling prosperity, the refinement of deceitful immoral feeling, prostituted genius, hell-tinged profanity, and the streams of diversified folly together, to form the illusive dream of seeming enjoyment; then before the moment of universal frenzy and confusion arrives, let there be placed unseen, an enlightened observer, one whose breast glows with celestial fire: what abhorrence, what indignation, what unutterable compassion, will work within him, and how deeply will he feel the opposition between the fermenting pestilential vapour of the satanical sacrifice, and that pure incense of delight which breathes in the assemblies of the upright, when made glorious by the presence and mighty influence of the Spirit of God? But at length, raised to something of the spirit of a martyr or apostle, let the Christian burst from his concealment; and, if the venerability of years, of office, of acknowledged wisdom and piety—if the effulgence of heroic zeal, and the tears of compassion, can check the clamour of masculine mirth, and restrain the no less rebellious twitter of female gaiety, let him address himself in speech to the remains of rationality and conscience in the profligate assembly—let him remind the enchanted mortals, that the God whom angels worship is present in that very spot—that they are immortal beings, hastening to the divine tribunal, and in imminent hazard of being plunged into the lake of everlasting fire—let him testify to them of the salvation of God, of the love of Jesus the Redeemer, and of the sacred joys and pleasures which they may yet enjoy on earth and in heaven; if abandoning these vanities, they will resign themselves to the teaching and influence of—Ah! the roar is up; fanaticism—puritan—his voice is lost; the insulting hiss is become general; he must retire, breathing to Heaven, “Arise, O God! plead thine own cause!”
At the theatre, when all is sunk in haughty forgetfulness of God; after the proud have once more displayed their brilliancy, and “set their heart as the heart of God;” after the eyes of vanity have for the last time wearied themselves in staring about; after the tears which real guilt and misery demanded, have been wasted on fictitious crimes and calamities, and the whole crowd has been shaken with the madness of laughter; after profanity has unfurled its flag of defiance, with hell-bred gallantry setting at nought the names of the Most High, the tremendous operations of Providence, and the terrors of damnation; after obscenity has swallowed down its morsel of elegant filthiness; let a celestial spirit shine forth, eclipsing the luminaries of the place, and scattering around those terrors which were once felt at the sepulchre of Jesus of Nazareth; and in such strains as these let his voice announce the hastening doom: “Worms of the dust, enemies of the eternal God! you have long been the abhorrence of the inhabitants of heaven; you have disdained to seek Jesus who was crucified; the divine sorrows, the pure delights, which His Spirit creates in repenting souls, you have rejected, you have treated with derision; now the day of your visitation expires. I swear by Him that liveth for ever and ever, you shall have time no longer!” Then let trembling rock the ground; let the fabric and its miserable assembly roll down the opening chasm; and let the cloud of dislodged spirits behold the majestic, unveiled, flaming countenance of their Judge. Would such vengeance be too severe? Let us not presume to say that it would; rather let us wonder, that amidst ages of provocation, such tokens of wrath have not appeared; and if our impenitence is still continued, let us think with awe for what solemn catastrophe such a people as we may be reserved—”What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” (Rom. ix. 22).
A third evidence of general alienation from the ways of the blessed Spirit of grace, is the loud voice of diabolical language, and the display of impudent impurity, in the midst of us. No long reasoning is necessary, in reference to the immediate subjects of such wickedness, to show that they despise God in every respect, and especially as to His holy operations on the human soul. Such horrid apostates must be understood to have made up their mind on this subject, and to have virtually resolved on parting for ever with all divine friendship, and on lying down in the everlasting horrors of that prison, which divine justice will make sufficiently gloomy and strong for their reception. And, if general abhorrence is not expressed against them, a few such monsters are enough to draw down judgments from heaven on a wide-extended empire. Shall we hesitate then to pronounce that to be a blaspheming, a filthy kingdom, where such crimes walk about in daily triumph? Must we not say! of it, “it is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird?” (Rev. xviii. 2). Men may make light of it, as they please: but the number and boldness of the profane and profligate among us, is truly alarming; especially as it goes to prove, that the detestable vices, which the great and wealthy have long exemplified, are now diffused through all the inferior orders of society. If there is indeed a majority of sober and virtuous characters remaining, where is their zeal and exertion to suppress such crimes? Shall it be imagined that the Holy Spirit of God is honoured, or will long rest, amidst a people, who either commit, or witness with indifference, evils which He infinitely abhors?