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SERM. have been involved in perpetual doubt and perplexity. By his precepts he has connected duty and happiness, and fhewed the one to be the infeparable companion of the other. By his life he has exhibited the most lovely pattern of every virtue. By his death he has atoned for our fins, and fealed our reconciliation with God. He has given us, by his refurrection, a fure pledge of our own. He has led the way, by his afcenfion, to our afcent to the heavenly manfions. He guides us, by his divine Spirit, in those paths of truth and righteousness, whofe end is everlasting life*.

With fuch a mafter to inftruct us, can we apply for falutary knowledge to the schools of human wifdom? With the oracles of God in our hands, can we listen to the ambiguous refponfes of erring reafon? With fuch a comforter, counfellor, and guardian, can we seek a remedy for the evils of life, or a refuge from the terrors of its conclufion, from those retailers of opinion who represent the former, as without any effectual confolation, and the latter, as compensated

* Rom. vi. 22.

by

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by no fucceeding fcene? Shall we exchange SERM certainty for doubt, truth for error, the treasures of wisdom*, for the scanty supplies of darkling intellect? Professing ourselves to be wise, shall we become fools †, and, by shutting the book of revelation, at least, by neglecting to study it with the candour and fimplicity of the difciples of Christ, deprive ourselves even of the knowledge contained in the book of nature, of which revelation conftitutes the fequel, and is the most luminous of the two? When God has fpoken, wisdom confifts in listening, with attentive docility, to his voice; and underftanding must find its most useful and moft exalted employment in afcertaining the import of his dictates. To use the words of the apostle in the verses immediately preceding my text, God who bath commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ ‡.

Man, involved in the darkness of ignorance, depravity, and fuperftition, could no longer bear the effulgence of the divine Majefty,

*Col. ii. 3.

+ Rom. i, 22. ‡ 2 Cor. iv. 6.

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SERM. jefty, or difcern, with the feeble eyes of his reafon, his Creator's attributes, his own condition, and the great end of his existence. But, when divine light was reflected, with attempered luftre, from the face of Jefus Chrift, our guilty race could fee, discover, and rejoice that God was gracious, as well as juft, and ready to receive into his paternal arms, his penitent children, conducted by him who is not ashamed to call them brethren.

We preach not ourselves, therefore, but Christ Jesus the Lord, this promised Meffiah, this bleffed Saviour, this glorious Sovereign of our fouls. We preach not our own opinions, but his gofpel. We preach it, as delivered in the facred fcriptures, not as it is fophifticated by the comments, or perverted by the depravity of men. preach all its compafs, and extent, not fuck parts of it only as appear agreeable to our own preconceived tenets, or favourable to the fect which we have embraced. We preach it, not with a view to sanction, by divine authority, our own dogmatical sys

We

tem,

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tem, whatever it may be, but to fubmit, to SERM. the test of divine truth, every fentiment we entertain, every doctrine we deliver, every precept we inculcate. What the facred oracles fanction not, we disclaim. What they dictate we believe, maintain, and enforce. We preach not faith without practice, nor practice proceeding from principles different from those of the gospel.

II. We preach ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. Chrift Jefus, my brethren, who, being in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross *. When he had washed the feet of his difciples, he faid to them, if I have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have donet. When there was reasoning among his disciples, who should be the

SERM. greatest, he said, he that is least among you all, the same shall be great *.

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These paffages completely defcribe the spirit which actuated the Saviour of the world, and ought to actuate his minifters. The business of his life was to inftruct men in things pertaining to the kingdom of God t. The principal end of his death was to procure for them eternal falvation. By both He fought to advance the glory of his heavenly Father, which is never fo confpicuoufly displayed as in the obedience and felicity of his rational and moral creation. -Unless we keep in view the ends which he pursued, act on his principles, and are influenced by the fame difinterested and exalted motives, we cannot be his minifters. Being the fervants of Chrift, we neceffarily become the fervants of our brethren. Their best interests, for time and for eternity, must be the conftant object of our earnest wishes, of our fervent prayers, of our affiduous efforts. If we increase our own knowledge of divine things, if we investigate the facred oracles, if we improve