Jeremiah 5:2

Surely they swear falsely— Nevertheless, &c. See Jeremiah 5:7 and ch. Jeremiah 4:2. Let what we say be ever so true, if we believe it not to be so, we have not spoken truth. Custom has brought many to church and to meeting, who forget why they came thither when they are there; and too frequently do many of us find ourselves at our prayers, when we least think of Him, to whom we pretend to direct those prayers. And as they whom we trust, and are familiar with, have much more power to do us hurt, to betray us, and expose us to ruin, than our open and professed enemies, towards whom we stand upon our guard, and whom the world looks upon as unjust, or at least as disaffected towards us; so God himself suffers more dishonour from those who pretend to his service, profess the religion enjoined by him, and in their lives and actions practise those things which are inconsistent with, and destructive to that religion, than from those who really understand him not, and therefore never make a shew of looking after him. Let us flatter ourselves as we may, with an opinion of the saving power of our true and right ideas of God, and our Saviour, and of his Holy Spirit; of our being Christians and true members of the church of Christ, it is to be very reasonably feared, that the pure confest atheist, who does not know God at all, and therefore never thinks of pleasing him; who believes that there are no such places as heaven and hell, and so considers not the ways which lead to either; but determines all his hopes and fears within that span of life which nature allows us in this world; who either has not seen those books which we call the Scripture, or, if he have, looks upon them as the invention, or fancy, or speculation of men, and so no further the objects of his faith, than they are the objects of his reason: I say, we may reasonably believe this direct plain Atheist to be less condemnable, than the practical, hypocritical Atheist, the proud false traducer of the fame and reputation of his neighbour, or the cruel and rebellious oppressor of the innocent; who, while with his lips he acknowledges God to be the Creator of heaven and earth, and his Holy Scriptures to be the voice of his mouth, does yet foolishly in his heart deny the being of a God, by neglecting to do all that his divine majesty hath enjoined, and doing all that he hath expressly forbidden to be done. As good parts and education, example and good conversation, are so many aggravations against him whose mind is not improved by these extraordinary advantages; so, doubtless, they who should be found atheists in Christian congregations, who magnify God in their opinions and discourses, and contemn him in their practices, have a more dismal account to make, than the most impious men who have only breathed in heathen and barbarous climates.