us in religion, is so to instruct us that we may not err for want of knowlege of our duty, and so to aid and assist us, that it may be in our power, whenever it is in our will, to obey. Any thing beyond this is inconsistent with reason and freedom, and therefore can have no part in a religion designed for the government of rational free agents. And this being the case, that must in the comparison be judged to be the best religion, which does most fully enlighten our understanding, and which does in the most perfect manner restore us to our liberty and freedom, by removing the impediments which arise from the weakness and corruption of our nature. All who live under the influence of such a religion as this, as they have a certain way to happiness marked out for them, if they choose to walk in it, so are they certainly doomed to condemnation on their disobedience. For there are but two sorts of men who can hope to escape punishment; the righteous, who have no reason to fear judgment, and the sinners, who offending through ignorance or weakness, have some plea to make for mercy and forgiveness. But the sinners who knew their duty, and were so assisted as to have been able, had they been but willing, to perform it, have nothing to expect but condemnation. What the Apostle therefore in the text has declared to us, is no more than a natural consequence drawn from the excellency of the gospel, and the perverseness of men, considered together: This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.' Were the gospel less perfect than it is, or less known to the world, sinners would have more to plead in their own behalf: but since they want no light to direct them, no assistance to support them in doing their duty, they are left without excuse for their disobedience. The gospel, which was given to them for life and salvation, will be their judgment and condemnation; and the fault is all their own: they have as little reason to complain of the gospel religion on this account, as the dying patient has of the physician, whose wholesome medicines he wantonly abused to his own destruction. Were the gospel merely a matter of advice, which men might follow or let alone as they found most convenient for their own purposes, they would then have less to answer for if they neglected it. But

the gospel is a law proceeding from the best and highest authority, given by God to his creatures; and we are bound at our peril to take notice of it: if we will not walk in the light of God's law, when it shines so brightly before our eyes, we shall be condemned for choosing darkness rather than light. This is the meaning of the text, which I shall therefore, in the first place, endeavor to confirm from other passages of holy writ; and shall then show you that there can be no reason assigned why men make this perverse choice of continuing in darkness. rather than light, but this only, because their deeds are evil.'

When our blessed Lord commissioned his Apostles to preach the gospel throughout the world, he declared at the same time, that he that believeth, and is baptised, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.' Which declaration having manifestly a reference to the precept foregoing, of preaching the gospel in all the world, it is evident that the believers and unbelievers here spoken of, are such only as have had the gospel preached to them. And therefore this text administers no occasion to inquire into the circumstances of such as have, never had the gospel published to them: much less does it determine peremptorily any thing concerning them: but as to those to whom the grace of God has been tendered by the preaching of the ministers of Christ, their case is fully stated and deter-, mined by our blessed Lord; He that believeth, and is baptised, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.'

To the same purpose speaketh St. Paul in his sermon to the men at Athens, in which he thus declares his sense with regard to the times before the gospel and the times since: ' And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men every where to repent.' Where the command to repent being opposed to God's winking at the times of ignorance, plainly shows, that from the going forth of the command to repent, God will no longer wink at the ignorance of the world; and therefore it is at every man's peril, if he refuses to hearken to the heavenly call.

In like manner does the same Apostle deliver himself in his Epistle to the Romans, chap. i. 16. The gospel,' he tells us, is the power of God unto salvation to every one that be

lieveth.' He tells us also, ver. 18. That the wrath of Godis revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.' So that the revelation, as it affords all help and assistance to such as are willing to do the works of righteousness, and embrace the offers of peace, so does it render all ungodliness inexcusable, leaving men no pretence, either from ignorance or weakness, to cover their iniquity.

Out of the many texts of Scripture which speak to the same purpose, I shall select but one testimony more, and shall go back for that to the early dawnings of the gospel. When our Lord sent forth his twelve Apostles to preach to the Jews only, he thus instructs them: When ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come on it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of the house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city. In which words our blessed Lord so plainly speaks his mind, with respect to those who neglect and despise the gospel, that they will hardly admit of any farther explication.

On the whole it appears that it is not left to every man's choice, whether he will be subject to the gospel or no; for subject he shall be, so as to be intitled to the rewards of it for his obedience, or to the punishments of it for his disobedience. And this is not a circumstance particular to the gospel only, but common to all laws founded on sufficient authority. No man is at liberty to choose whether he will be governed by the laws of the realm; and it would be to little purpose to plead to an indictment, that you never intended to be governed by the law, but choose to act by other rules; and therefore desire that the law may have no place in the judgment, but that you may be tried by those rules by which you choose to live. The authority of the lawgiver cuts off such pleas; and since you owed submission to such authority, your refusing to pay it will be justly taken as the aggravation, not as the excuse of your crime. If this be the case in human laws, it is much more so in those of divine original: for the greater the authority of the lawgiver is, the more absolute must our obedience and submis

sion be. And if this be just reasoning, it may appear perhaps that the pretence for Deism, which at present seems to be the most plausible, will in the end be its greatest aggravation. For though, when men discard the gospel out of a zeal to preserve the moral law of reason and nature, they may seem to act with great regard to virtue and holiness, yet do they manifestly reject the authority of God, and deliberately refuse that obedience, which reason teaches to be due to the great Lawgiver of the world. But these pretences, considered in themselves, will be found to have little weight; since, the gospel being the truest light to direct us, men can have no reason to forsake it, but this only which is assigned in the text, because their deeds åre evil.'

The avowed design of our blessed Saviour's coming into the world was to destroy the works of the devil, and to restore religion, both as it respects God and man, to its native purity and simplicity. The first great lesson 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 reason and nature, and contain the fairest copy of it, purged from all the corruptions that darkened and obscured its beauty. All the mysteries and secret purposes of God, which are revealed to us, are intended only to give us the comfort and assurance of God's mercy and pardon of our past transgressions, and to raise us to á lively hope of life and immortality through faith and obedience. All the institutions of the gospel, such as baptism, the Lord's supper, and the like, are set before us as the proper means to enable us to make our calling and election sure, by continuing steadfast in the works of holiness. And what is it that can tempt a man to reject a religion so excellently well adapted to serve all the good ends of living in this world, and to support the hopes of living happily in that which is to come? Is it your concern to reform mankind, and to restrain those evil inclinations, which make this world a scene of misery? Is it for this purpose that you search the inward sentiments of nature, and from thence set forth the hopes and fears of a future judgment to be a bridle on the unruly passions of men? Search the gospel, and you will find all the hopes and fears of nature

displayed in their fullest light, and supported by the express revelation of God, who raised his own Son from the dead, to give us the assurance of a resurrection either to life or death eternal, according to the things done in the body. You cannot therefore pretend to forsake the gospel, in order to secure an obedience to the moral law by better hopes or stronger fears; since 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 Christ Jesus.'

Is it for instruction that you recur to the light of nature? Would you thence learn the true notions of virtue and justice, and see the image of holiness in its native purity, stripped of the false ornaments and disguises of superstition 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 neighbor. There you may be instructed how to worship God in spirit and in truth, and how to love your brother without dissimulation. 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 therefore forsake the gospel, in hopes of finding a purer religion elsewhere.

Many have complained that the terrors of the Lord, set forth in the gospel of Christ, are too rigid and severe, and hardly reconcileable with the benignity of the divine nature; and have therefore sought to screen themselves under a milder sentence, denounced, as they think, by the voice of reason and nature but did you ever hear that any one rejected the gospel, that he might secure the practice of virtue on a foundation of better hopes and fears, that should with a more powerful influence subdue the minds of men to the obedience of holiness? Many have lamented the strictness of the gospel morality, the laws of which require so great perfection, that man must hardly hope to attain to it; and have therefore recurred to the law of