SERM. VI. lurements of sensual Pleasure are very striking, they catch the heedless and injudicious; but the Beauty of Holiness does not, at the first Glance, invite the Eye: It hath something fevere in it; and you must dwell upon it, and confider it thoroughly to be enamoured of those Graces, which depend not on changeable Fancy; but are founded on Truth and a Justness of thinking; Graces which will never please you while you are thoughtless, nor be disrelished by you, 'till you become fo. However wisely and industrioufly you may pursue Wealth, Honour, or Power, you can never be fecure against a Disappointment. There is one Pursuit, in which you can meet with no Disappointment; and that is the Purfuit of Virtue: Since every honeft and fpirited Endeavour after Virtue is Virtue, in fome Degree; which, if we do not flacken our Endeavours, will lead on to a greater; 'till our Goodness shines more and more unto a perfect Day. SERMON The Reasons, why Men act contrary to Conviction, and their settled Principles, assigned. Preached before the UNIVERSITY of ******** ROMANS L. 18. -Who holdeth the Truth in Righteousness. T HE Word, that is here rendered SER. VII, hold, fignifies in the Original to detain. They (the Gentiles) kept the Truth shut up and confined as in a Prison, and did not let it appear abroad in their Actions. Or, as the fame Apostle explains himself in the next Chapter, They did not obey the Truth, of which they had just Apprehenfions; but obeyed Unrighteousness. : SER. VII. nefs. These Words, though levelled against those Heathens, who, when they knew God did not glorify him, as such, yet are applicable to too many Christians: And it shall be my Business in the following Discourse, I. To enquire how it comes to pass, that several act contrary to Conviction, or hold the Truth in Unrighteousness. IIdly, Having pointed out the Causes, to apply proper Remedies. As to the First, The Query is, whence it proceeds, that Men, who acknowledge the great Truths of Natural and Revealed Religion, should act in direct Opposition to them? What shall we say? That they are in Reality determined Atheists and Unbelievers, whatever they may pretend to be? No: Men of this Stamp are very rare. There may be indeed, and often is, a certain Degree of Unbelief, which is the Cause of the Inconsistency between Men's Profession and Practice. Men may be Believers in general, who yet are Disbelievers in some Respects. They are not thoroughly, it may be, persuaded of the Heinousness and Malignity of of some Sins, or of God's Displeasure a- SER. VII. gainst them: They have some crude indigefted Notions, that Vice is not of so destructive and deadly Nature, nor God fo strict a Being, as represented in Scripture. And it is this kind of Unbelief, which St Paul charges on the Ifraelites: So then we fee, that they could not enter in (into Canaan) because of Unbelief. What Unbelief? Not Unbelief in general of God's Providence and their Religion: They had too many glaring and repeated Proofs of God's Prefence among them to doubt of that: It was Unbelief as to fome certain Points, fo far and no farther, that caused them to be stubborn and disobedient: They did not heartily believe God's Promises and Threatnings, so as to be influenced by them. But, though this is often the Case, and accounts for a great deal of that Wickedness, which prevails among the Bulk of Mankind; yet it does not come fully up to the Point in Hand. For all the Knowledge in the World, all the dry abstracted Reasonings will signify little, 'till our Affections are engaged and interested on the Side of Virtue. And our Principles will only float useless in the Head; 'till the Heart, out of which are the Iffues SER. VII. Issues of Life, is touched and warmed by ✔ them. 'Till our Inclinations, the great Springs of Action, fall in with our Duty; we shall apply ourselves to it in a cold spiritless Manner, as a mere Task, as the unnatural Result of Force and Imposition upon us; not as the genuine Offspring of our own ingenuous and manly Choice. Religion may exert itself now and then, in some few broken occasional Efforts; but it will foon lose it's Hold upon us, like Water-works, the Effect of Art and Constraint, playing, however, occafionally, and rifing to an uncommon Height; yet ceasing to rife, and discontinuing to play upon the least Obstacle and Impediment : It is from the Fulness of the Heart, as from a rich and inexhaustible Spring, that a Religion must proceed, which rejoices to run it's Course, which surmounts all Obstacles, and bears down all Oppofition, which breaks not out into fudden interrupted Gushes, but flows on with one continual equal Stream. A fettled, animated Resolution to ferve God, and nothing else, will overlook little Difficulties, and charge through great ones. A Man of a large compass of Thought shall be able to define 2 the |