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to have little weight; fince, the Gospel being the trueft light to direct us, men can have no reason to forsake it, but this only which is affigned in the text, because their deeds are evil.

The avowed defign of our bleffed Saviour's coming into the world was to deftroy the works of the devil, and to restore religion, both as it refpects God and man, to its native purity and fimplicity. The firft great leffon he taught the world was repentance from dead works, in order to qualify them to become members of the kingdom of heaven. The laws of his Gospel are declaratory of the original law of reafon and nature, and contain the faireft copy of it, purged from all the corruptions that darkened and obfcured its beauty. All the myfteries and fecret purposes of God, which are revealed to us, are intended only to give us the comfort and affurance of God's mercy and pardon of our past tranfgreffions, and to raise us to a lively hope of life and immortality through faith and obedience. All the inftitutions of the Gofpel, fuch as baptifm, the Lord's fupper, and the like, are set before us as the proper means to enable us to make our calling and election fure, by continuing fteadfast in the works of holinefs. And what is it that can tempt a man to reject a religion fo excellently well adapted to ferve all the good ends of living in this world, and to fupport the hopes of living happily in that which is to come? Is it your concern to reform mankind, and to reftrain those evil inclinations, which make this world a fcene of mi fery? Is it for this purpose that you search the inward fentiments of nature, and from thence fet.

forth the hopes and fears of a future judgment to be a bridle upon the unruly paffions of men? Search the Gospel, and you will find all the hopes and fears of nature displayed in their fulleft light, and supported by the exprefs revelation of God, who raised his own Son from the dead, to give us the affurance of a refurrection either to life or death eternal, according to the things done in the body. You cannot therefore pretend to forfake the Gospel, in order to fecure an obedience to the moral law by better hopes or stronger fears; fince the Gospel has taken in all the hopes and fears of nature, and confirmed them by the irreversible decree of God, who hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world by the man Chrift Jefus.

Is it for inftruction that you recur to the light of nature? Would you thence learn the true notions of virtue and justice, and fee the image of holiness in its native purity, ftripped of the falfe ornaments and disguises of fuperftition and ignorance? Would you know what is the pure and acceptable service to be paid to the great Creator, or what are the just bounds and limits of the relative duties between man and man? Look into the Gospel, and there you will find all the moral duties fairly transcribed, and deduced from the two great principles of nature, the love of God, and the love of your neighbour. There you may be inftructed how to worship God in fpirit and truth, and how to love your brother without diffimulation. There is no precept of virtue laid down in the Gospel which nature can reject; there is none which nature teaches, that the Gospel has not explained and enforced. You cannot there

fore forfake the Gofpel, in hopes of finding a purer religion elsewhere.

Many have complained that the terrors of the Lord, fet forth in the Gospel of Christ, are too rigid and fevere, and hardly reconcileable with the benignity of the divine nature; and have therefore fought to screen themfelves under a milder fentence, denounced, as they think, by the voice of reafon and nature: but did you ever hear that any one rejected the Gospel, that he might fecure the practice of virtue upon a foundation of better hopes and fears, that should with a more powerful influence fubdue the minds of men to the obedience of holiness? Many have lamented the strictness of the Gospel morality, the laws of which require fo great perfection, that man muft hardly hope to attain to it; and have therefore recurred to the law of nature, not as a more perfect, but as a more equitable rule of juftice; hoping to find, under the protection of nature, that liberty and allowance to their infirmities, which the Gospel has precluded, But do you know the man that ever defpifed the. Gospel for the immorality of its precepts, or left it that he might be more chafte, more temperate, more charitable, than the laws of Chrift required he fhould be? If not, let any one judge what purposes a man ferves, when he endeavours, on one fide, to bring down the precepts of morality from the ftrictness of the Gofpel, and to give greater liberty and freedom to the inclinations of the world; and, on the other fide, to weaken the reftraints laid on the paffions by the terrors of the

Christian law, by difcarding the fears of perpetual punishment. Is the cause of religion to be thus fupported? Will the world be better, when lefs holinefs is required of them, and when even what is required becomes lefs neceffary to be performed, by removing the danger of tranfgreffing? Is it for the fake of virtue that men plead the caufe of libertinifm, and endeavour to make void thofe laws of Chrift, which are most uneafy to flesh and blood? Is it to make men better than they are, that you tell them the danger of finning is less than they apprehend, much lefs than the rigour of the Gofpel declares it to be? And yet these are the views upon which thofe act, who retreat from the Gofpel with the greatest fhew of reason and moderation: these are the pretences of fuch as would not be thought to throw off all regard to religion, but only to feek a better, I doubt they mean an easier form. And what is it that creates the averfion to the light which is held forth to them, and makes them choose to retire, if not to the total darkness of heathenish ignorance, yet to the fhades of natural religion, if not this which the text has affigned, becaufe their deeds are evil? You may think perhaps that I have forgot one great objection which fuch men have against the Gofpel, and which may be entertained without fuppofing their deeds to be evil; namely, that they cannot be reconciled to the myfteries of the Gofpel, or to thofe inftitutions of it, which are upon no foot of reafon any part of true religion. In answer to which I can only fay at prefent, that those who make the objection are

either not in earnest, or else they are unacquainted with the power of the Gospel. It is true, the Gofpel has taught us things, which by nature we could not know; but they are all defigned to confirm and strengthen our hope in God, and to give us the fulleft affurance of his mercy. It is true alfo, that there are in the Gospel some institutions, which in their own nature are no conftituent parts of religion; but then they are fuch only as are neceffary to enable us to do our duty by conveying new fupplies of spiritual strength to us, for want of which we were unable, in the state of nature, to extricate ourselves from the bonds of iniquity. These are the additions which the Gospel has made to religion. Our bleffed Saviour faw that the hopes of nature were obscured, and therefore he did, by wonderful revelations, bring life and immortality to light again he faw that her powers were decayed, so that she could not refift evil, and therefore he supplied the defect by the affiftance of his holy Spirit. If you are not willing to reap the benefit, at least forgive his kindness; and do not think the worfe of him, or his religion, because of the great provifion he has made in it for your fecurity. But I hasten to a conclufion, and shall but briefly apply what has been faid on this fubject.

What I would chiefly fuggeft to your confideration is this that the Gospel of Jefus Chrift being recommended to you, as founded in the exprefs revelation of God, carries with it fuch an authority, as cannot with fafety to yourselves be defpifed or neglected. It is not an indifferent matter whe

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