November 22

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spur thee out of my mouth.—Revelation 3:15, 16.

THAT God hates lukewarmness more than coldness, with respect to religion, must mean, that there is some appendant evil in this state which is not in the other, and that accidentally it is much worse: and so it is, if we rightly understand it; that is, if we consider it, not as being in or passing through the middle way, but as a state and a period of religion. If it be in motion, a lukewarm religion is pleasing to God; for God hates it not for its imperfection, and its natural measures of proceeding; but if it stands still and rests there, it is a state against the designs, and against the perfection of God. And it hath in it these evils:—

1. It is a state of the greatest imprudence in the world; for it makes a man to spend his labor for that which profits not, and to deny his appetite for an unsatisfying interest; he puts his moneys in a napkin, and he that does so, puts them into a broken bag; he loses the principal for not increasing the interest. He that dwells in a state of life that is unacceptable, loses the money of his alma, and the rewards of his charity, his hours of prayer, and his parts of justice, he confesses his sins and is not pardoned, he is patient, but hath no hope, and he that is gone so far out of his country, and stands in the middle way, hath gone so far out of his way; he had better have staid under a dry roof, in the house of his banishment, than to have left his Gyarus, the island of his sorrow, and to dwell upon the Adriatic; so is he that begins a state of religion, and does not finish it; he abides in the highway, and though he be nearer the place, yet is as far from the rest of his country as ever; and therefore, all that beginning of labor was in the prejudice of his rest, but nothing to the advantage of his hopes. He that hath never begun, hath lost no labor; "the loss of all that he hath done," is the first evil of the negligent and lukewarm Christian; according to the saying of Solomon: "He that is remiss or idle in his labor, is brother to him that scattereth his goods."

2. The second appendant evil is, that lukewarmness is the occasion of greater evil;—because the remiss, easy Christian, shuts the gate against the heavenly breathings of God's Holy Spirit; he thinks every breath, that is fanned by the wings of the holy dove, is not intended to encourage his fires, which burn and smoke, and peep through the cloud already; it tempts him to security; and, if an evil life be a certain inlet to a second death, despair on one side, and security on the other, are the bars and locks to that door, he can never pass forth again while that state remains; whoever slips in his spiritual walking does not presently fall; but if that slip does not awaken his diligence, and his caution, then his ruin begins, "either upon the pursuit of his first error, or by a careless spirit, or a decaying, slackened resolution:" all which are the direct effects of lukewarmness. But so have I seen a fair structure begun with art and care, and raised to half its stature, and then it stood still by the misfortune or negligence of the owner, and the rain descended, and dwelt in its joints, and supplanted the contexture of its pillars, and having stood a while, like the antiquated temple of a deceased oracle, it fell into a hasty age, and sunk upon its own knees, and so descended into ruin: so is the imperfect, unfinished spirit of a man; it lays the foundation, and strengthens it with vows and acts of prosecution, it raises up the walls, sacraments, and prayers, reading, and holy ordinances; and holy actions begin with a slow motion, and the building stays, and the spirit is weary, and the soul is naked, and exposed to temptation, and in the days of storm takes in every thing that can do it mischief; and it is faint and sick, listless and tired, and it stands till its own weight wearies the foundation, and then declines to death and sad disorder, being so much the worse, because it hath not only returned to its first follies, but hath superadded unthankfulness and carelessness, a positive neglect and a despite of holy things, a setting a low price to the things of God, laziness and recklessness: all which are evils superadded to the first state of coldness, whither he is with all these loads and circumstances of death easily resolved.

3. A state of lukewarmness is more incorrigible than a state of coldness; while men flatter themselves that their state is good, that they are rich and need nothing, that their lamps are dressed, and full of ornament. There are many, that think they are in their country as soon as ever they are weary, and measure not the end of their hopes by the possession of them, but by their precedent labor: which they overvalue, because they have easy and effeminate souls. St. Bernard complains of some that say, "It is enough for us to be as our forefathers," who were honest and useful in their generations, but be not over-righteous. These men are such as think they have knowledge enough to need no teacher, devotion enough to need no new fires, perfection enough to need no new progress, justice enough to need no repentance; and then because the spirit of a man, and all the things in this world, are in perpetual variety and change, these men decline when they have gone their period; they stand still, and then revert; like a stone returning from the bosom of a cloud, where it rested as long as the thought of a child, and fell to its natural bed of earth, and dwelt below for ever. He that says, he will take care he be no worse, and that he desires to be no better, stops his journey into heaven, but can not be secure against descending into hell. "He that goes not forward in the love of God, and of religion, does not stand still, but goes for all that;" but whither such a motion will lead him, himself without a timely care shall feel an intolerable experiment.

In this sense and for these reasons it is, that although a lukewarm Christian hath gone forward some steps towards a state of holiness, and is advanced beyond him that is cold, and dead, and unconcerned; and therefore, speaking absolutely and naturally, is nearer the kingdom of God than he that is not yet set out; yet accidentally, and by reason of all these appendages, he is worse, in greater danger, in a state equally unacceptable, and therefore must either go forward, and still do the work of God carefully and diligently, with a fervent spirit and active hand, with a willing heart and a cheerful eye, or it had been better he had never begun.