I.

A FARTHER APPEAL

TO

MEN OF REASON AND RELIGION.

PART 2

I.

1. IT is not my present design to touch on any particular opinions, whether they are right or wrong; nor on any of those smaller points of practice, which are variously holden by men of different persuasions; but, First, to point out some things which, on common principles, are condemned by men of every denomination, and yet found in all; and, Secondly, some wherein those of each denomination are more particularly inconsistent with their own principles.

And, First, it is my design, abstracting from opinions of every kind, as well as from disputable points of practice, to mention such of those things as occur to my mind, which are on common principles condemned, and notwithstanding found, more or less, among men of every denomination.

2. But before I enter on this unpleasing task, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, by whatever love you bear to God, to your country, to your own souls, do not consider who speaks, but what is spoken. If it be possible, for one hour lay prejudice aside; give what is advanced a fair hearing. Consider simply on each head, Is this true, or is it false? is it reasonable, or is it not? If you ask, “But in whose judgment?” I answer, In your own; I appeal to the light of your own mind. Is there not a faithful witness in your own breast? By this you must stand or fall. You cannot be judged by another man’s conscience. Judge for yourself by the best light you have; and the merciful God teach me and thee whatsoever we know not!

Now, as I speak chiefly to those who believe the Scriptures, the method I propose is this: First, to observe what account is given therein of the Jews, the ancient Church of God, inasmuch as all these things were written for our instruction, who say, We are now the visible Church of the God of Israel: Secondly, to appeal to all who profess to be members thereof, to every one who is called a Christian, how far, in each instance, the parallel holds; and how much we are better than they.

3. First. I am to observe what account the Scriptures give of the Jews, the ancient Church of God. I mean, with regard to their moral character; their tempers and outward behavior.

No sooner were they brought out of Egypt, than we find them “murmuring against God;” (Exodus 14:12;) again, when he had just brought them through the Red Sea “with a mighty hand and stretched out arm;” (Exodus 15:24 15:24;) and yet again, quickly after, in the wilderness of Zin: “Your murmurings,” saith Moses, “are not against us, but against the Lord.” (Exodus 16:8 16:8.) Nay, even while he was “giving them bread from heaven,” they were still “murmuring and tempting God;” (Exodus 17:2 17:2, 3;) and their amazing language at that very season was, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (17:7.)

The same spirit they showed, during the whole forty years that he “bore their manners in the wilderness:” A solemn testimony whereof, “Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel,” when God was about to take him away from their head. “They have corrupted themselves,” saith he; “their spot was not of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation. The Lord led Jacob about; he instructed him; he kept him as the apple of his eye.” (Deuteronomy 32:5, 10.) “He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” (Verses 13, 15.)

In like manner God complains long after this: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters, they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 1:2-4.) “Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.” (Jeremiah 2:32.)

4. And “as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,” so they had small regard to the ordinances of God: “Even from the days of your fathers,” saith God by his Prophets, “ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them.” (Malachi 3:7.) “Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances?” (Verse 14.) “Thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel: Thou hast not brought me thy burnt-offerings, neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices.” (Isaiah 43:22, 23.) And so the Prophet himself confesses: “Thou meetest those that remember thee in thy ways; — but there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.” (Isaiah 64:5, 7.)

5. But they called upon his name by vain oaths, by perjury and blasphemy. So Jeremiah: “Because of swearing the land mourneth.” (Jeremiah 33:10 33:10.) “And though they say, The Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely.” (5:2.) So Hosea: “They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant.” So Ezekiel: “They say, The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth.” So Isaiah: “Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.” (Isaiah 3:8 3:8.) “They say, Let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One draw nigh and come, that we may know it.” (Isaiah 5:19 5:19.) And so Malachi: “Ye have wearied the Lord with your words; ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?” (Malachi 2:17 2:17.)

6. And as they “despised his holy things,” so they “profaned his Sabbaths.” (Ezekiel 22:8.) Yea, when God sent unto them, saying, “Take heed unto yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath-day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers: — Yet they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.” (Jeremiah 17:21-23.)

Neither did they honor their parents, or those whom God, from time to time, appointed to be rulers over them: “In thee” (in Jerusalem, saith the Prophet) “they have set light by father and mother.” (Ezekiel 22:7.) And from the very day when God brought them up out of the land of Egypt, their murmurings, chiding, rebellion, and disobedience, against those whom he had chosen to go before them, make the most considerable part of their history. So that had not Moses “stood in the gap,” he had even then destroyed them from the face of the earth.

7. How much more did they afterwards provoke God, by drunkenness, sloth, and luxury! “They have erred through wine,” saith the Prophet Isaiah, “and through strong drink they are out of the way:” (Isaiah 28:7 28:7:) Which occasioned those vehement and repeated warnings against that reigning sin: “Woe to the drunkards of Ephraim, them that are overcome with wine” (Verse 1.) “The drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under foot.” (Verse 3.) “Woe unto them that rise up early that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! — But they regard not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation of his hands.” (Isaiah 5:11 5:11, 12.) “Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink!” (Verse 22.) “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: But they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.” (Amos 6:1,4-6.) “Behold,” saith Ezekiel to Jerusalem, “this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, fulness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters.” (Ezekiel 16:49 16:49.)

8. From sloth and fulness of bread, lewdness naturally followed. It was even while Moses was with them, that “ the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.” Yea, of the daughters of Zion Isaiah complains: “They walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes.” (Isaiah 3:16 3:16.) And of his people in general God complains by Jeremiah: “When I had fed them to the full, they assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses. They were as fed horses in the morning: Every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.” (Jeremiah 5:7 5:7, 8.) “They be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.” (Jeremiah 9:2 9:2.) “The land is full of adulterers.” (Jeremiah 23:10 23:10.)

Yea, and some of them were given up to unnatural lusts: Thus we read: “The men of Gibeah beset the house,” wherein the stranger was, “and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.” (Judges 19:22.) “And there were also,” long after, “Sodomites in the land,” in the days of Rehoboam, and of the following kings: “The very show of whose countenance witnessed against them, and they declared their sin as Sodom, they hid it not.” (Isaiah 3:9.)

9. This was accompanied with injustice in all its forms. Thus all the Prophets testify against them: “The Lord looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.” (Isaiah 5:7.) “Thou hast taken usury and increase; thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbor by extortion. — Behold, I have smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made.” (Ezekiel 22:12, 13.) “The balances of deceit are in Jacob’s hand; he loveth to oppress.” (Hosea 12:7.) “Are there not yet the scant measure that is abominable, the wicked balances, and the bag of deceitful weights?” (Micah 6:10, 11.) “He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased him, that there was no judgment.” (Isaiah 59:15.) “The wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he. They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag.” (Habakkuk 1:13, 15.) “They covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away.” (Micah 2:2.) They “pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely.” (Verse 8.) “They have dealt by oppression with the stranger; they have vexed the fatherless and the widow.” (Ezekiel 22:7.) “The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: Yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.” (Verse 29.) “Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands “ (Isaiah 59:6.) “Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” (Verse 14.)

10. Truth indeed was fallen, as well as justice: “Every mouth,” saith Isaiah, “speaketh folly.” (Isaiah 9:17 9:17.) “This is a rebellious people, lying children.” (Isaiah 30:9 30:9.) Their “lips have spoken lies and muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: They trust in vanity, and speak lies.” (Isaiah 59:3 59:3, 4.) This occasioned that caution of Jeremiah: “Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders. And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.” (Jeremiah 9:4 9:4, 5.)

11. And even those who abstained from these gross outward sins were still inwardly corrupt and abominable: “The whole head was sick, and the whole heart was faint; yea, from the sole of the foot even unto the head there was no soundness, but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores.” (Isaiah 1:5, 6.) “All these nations,” saith God, “are uncircumcised; and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.” (Jeremiah 9:26.) “Their heart is divided.” (Hosea 10:2.) “They have set up their idols in their heart; they are all estranged from me through their idols.” (Ezekiel 14:3, 5.)

Their soul still “clave unto the dust.” They “laid up treasures upon earth.” “From the least of them,” saith Jeremiah, “even unto the greatest, every one is given to covetousness.” (Jeremiah 6:13 6:13.) “They panted after the dust of the earth.” (Amos 2:7.) “They laded themselves with thick clay.” (Habakkuk 2:6.) “They joined house to house, and laid field to field, until there was no place.” (Isaiah 5:8.) Yea, they “enlarged their desires as hell:” They were “as death, and could not be satisfied.” (Habakkuk 2:5.)

12. And not only for their covetousness, but for their pride of heart, were they an abomination to the Lord: “The pride of Israel,” saith Hosea, “doth testify to his face.” (Hosea 7:10 7:10.) “Hear ye, give ear,” saith Jeremiah, “be not proud. — Give glory to the Lord your God.” (Jeremiah 13:15 13:15, 16.) But they would not be reproved; they were still “wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight;” (Isaiah 5:21;) and continually saying to their neighbor, “Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou!” (Isaiah 65:5.)

They added hypocrisy to their pride: “This people,” saith God himself, “draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their hearts far from me.” (Isaiah 29:13.) “They have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds.” (Hosea 7:14) “They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a deceitful bow.” (Verse 16.) “They did but flatter him with their mouth, and dissemble with him in their tongue.” (Psalm 78:36.) So that herein they only “profaned the holiness of the Lord.” “And this have ye done again,” saith Malachi, “covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more.” (Malachi 2:11 2:11, 13.)

13. This God continually declared to those formal worshippers, that their outside religion was but vain: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. Bring no more vain oblations: Incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. — When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear.” (Isaiah 1:11, 13, 15.) “He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck.” (Isaiah 66:3 66:3.) “When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer an oblation, I will not accept.” (Jeremiah 14:12.) “Go ye serve your idols, if ye will not hearken unto me; but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts.” (Ezekiel 20:39.)

14. Yet all this time were they utterly careless and secure; nay, confident of being in the favor of God: They were at ease; they “put far away the evil day.” (Amos 6:1, 3.) Even when God had “poured his anger upon Israel, it set him on fire round about, yet he knew it not; it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.” (Isaiah 42:25.) “A deceived heart had turned him aside, that he could not say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (Isaiah 44:20 44:20.) So far from it, that at this very time they said, “We are innocent, we have not sinned.” (Jeremiah 2:35, 37.) “We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us.” (Jeremiah 8:8 8:8.) “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are we.” (Jeremiah 7:4 7:4.)

15. Thus it was that they hardened themselves in their wickedness: “They are impudent children,” saith God, “and stiff-hearted.” (Ezekiel 2:4) “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.” (Jeremiah 6:15.) “I have spread out my hand all the day to a rebellious people, that provoketh me to anger continually to my face.” (Isaiah 65:2, 3.) “They will not hearken unto me, saith the Lord; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.” (Ezekiel 3:7.) “Since the day that their fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have sent unto them all my servants the Prophets, rising up early and sending them: Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck; they did worse than their fathers.” (Jeremiah 7:25, 26.) They were equally hardened against mercies and judgments: When He “gave them rain, both the former and the latter in his season;” when “He reserved unto them the appointed weeks of the harvest,” filling their hearts with food and gladness, still none of this “revolting and rebellious people said, Let us now fear the Lord our God;” (Jeremiah 5:23, 24;) nor yet did “they turn unto him when he smote them.” (Isaiah 9:13.) “In that day did the Lord call to weeping and to mourning: And behold joy and gladness, eating flesh and drinking wine; let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.” (Isaiah 22:12, 13.) Although “he consumed them, yet they refused to receive instruction; they made their faces harder than a rock. — None repented him, but every one turned to his course, as a horse rusheth into the battle.” (Jeremiah 5:3; 8:6.) “I have given you want of bread in all your places, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have also withholden the rain from you when there were yet three months unto the harvest. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: Your gardens and your vineyards, the palmer worm devoured. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword. I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.” (Amos 4:6-11.)

16. In consequence of their resolution not to return, they would not endure sound doctrine, or those that spake it: They “said to the Seers, See not; and to the Prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” (Isaiah 30:10, 11.) “But they hated him that rebuked in the gate, and they abhorred him that spake uprightly.” (Amos 5:10.) Accordingly, “Thy people,” saith God to Ezekiel, “still are talking against thee by the walls, and in the doors of the houses.” (Ezekiel 33:30 33:30.) “And Amaziah the Priest sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, Go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and prophesy there. But prophesy not again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.” (Amos 7:10, 12, 13.) From the same spirit it was that they said of Jeremiah, “Come, and let us devise devices against him. — Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.’” (Jeremiah 18:18.) Hence it was that he was constrained to cry out, “O Lord, I am in derision daily; every one mocketh me. Since I spake, the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision daily: For I heard the defaming of many: Fear on every side: report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting; saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.” (Jeremiah 20:7 20:7, 8, 10.) And elsewhere, “Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast born me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.” (Jeremiah 15:10 15:10.)

17. But “if a man walking in the spirit of falsehood do lie,” saith the Prophet Micah, “saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and strong drink, he shall even be the Prophet of this people.” (2:11.) And God gave them Pastors after their own hearts; such were those sons of Eli, “sons of Belial, who knew not the Lord;” (1 Samuel 2:12;) rapacious, covetous, violent men; (verses 14-16;) by reason of whom “men abhorred the offering of the Lord;” (verse 17;) who not only “made themselves vile,” (1 Samuel 3:13 3:13,) but also “made the Lord’s people to transgress,” (1 Samuel 2:24 2:24,) while they “made themselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel.” (Verse 29.) Such were those of whom Isaiah says, “The Priest and the Prophet have erred through strong drink; they are swallowed up of wine.” (Isaiah 28:7 28:7.) “Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.” (Isaiah 56:12 56:12.) Therefore, saith he, “The Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: The Prophets and the Seers hath he covered; and the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed.” (Isaiah 29:10 29:10, 11.) Such also were those of whom he saith, “His watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Greedy dogs, which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand. They all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.” (Isaiah 56:10 56:10, 11.) Little better were those of whom the Prophets that followed have left us so dreadful an account: “Both Prophet and Priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. And from the Prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.” (Jeremiah 23:11, 15.) “Her Priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: They have put no difference between the holy and the profane, and I am profaned among them.” (Ezekiel 22:26.) “If I be a father, where is mine honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of Hosts unto you, O Priests, that despise my name!” (Malachi 1:6.)

Yea, some of them were fallen into the grossest sins: “The company of Priests,” saith Hosea, “commit lewdness: There is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.” (Hosea 6:9 6:9, 10.) “I have seen also in the Prophets of Jerusalem,” saith God by Jeremiah, “an horrible thing: They commit adultery, and walk in lies.” (Jeremiah 23:14 23:14.)

18. And those who were clear of this, were deeply covetous; “Who is there among you that would shut the doors for nought? Neither do ye kindle fire on my altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of Hosts.” (Malachi 1:10.) “The Priests of Zion teach for hire, and the Prophets thereof divine for money. Yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us?” (Micah 3:11.) “Thus saith the Lord, The Prophets bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.” (Micah 3:5 3:5.) Therefore, “the word of the Lord came unto Ezekiel, saying, Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, and say, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool; but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound by that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became meat to all the