refpect, be in

fo that every man must fee and be con- SERM. vinced, that if a teacher were really fent III. of God, he must deliver just fuch inftructions? He must fee, that if he will be a worthy and a good man, he must follow this course of life, and no other; and that no other can recommend him to his Maker, or answer the true ends of his being. He must therefore be determined to act according to the precepts of the gospel. And if he will not believe, that our Saviour was a teacher fent of God, his mind, one would think, muft, in this a ftate not a little unnatural. "I will, and I must conform myfelf to the precepts of Christianity in all things; but I will not believe, that these precepts are laws of God, nor that the law-giver was fent by him; though, with all the strongest evidences of purity and integrity of spirit, which can be given in any fuch difcipline, he affureth me, that he was so fent; and that what he teacheth is by divine authority." I should moft earnestly wish, that any, who do not believe revelation, would argue this point folemnly and seriously with their own hearts, Concerning the obligation to conform our lives and tempers to the dicL 4

tates

SERM. tates of Christianity, there can be no quefIII. tion: confcience, in an ingenuous mind,

must prevent all fuch debates: the only queftion is, whether this great teacher was fent of God, and cloathed with his authority, or not? Now why should we not give credit to him, whom, as a teacher, we must embrace and submit to? To fay, that if we do what we ought to do, it is of no confequence, whether we believe him fent of God or not, is ridiculous; for, if he be fo fent, furely ingenuity will instantly fuggeft, that the greatest respect and regard is due to him under that character. And fuch an interpofition in favour of mankind, in a moft corrupt and degenerate ftate, is an expreffion of the goodness of God, which demandeth the utmost gratitude, on our part. Befides, that by believing in our Saviour, and embracing as truth, what he hath taught us concerning himself; the part, which he acted on earth, the part, which he now acteth in heaven, and which he will act at the great day; the promises, which he hath given us, and the revelations, which he hath made; we are furnished with fome very strong motives to pbedience, and which are admirably fitted

to

to work upon the ingenuity of the heart. SERM. So that it is of the greatest confequence to III. us, that we believe him fent of the Father. And if it be fo, then it becometh us, with great diligence, to inquire into the evidences of this, and to fettle the point in our own minds. Let any man of common candour try, whether he can bring the ideas of our Saviour's character and that of an impoftor and deceiver, to accord in his mind. Or whether any thing should prevent his giving credit to our Saviour's testimony concerning himself, but an apparent impoffibility, that the Supreme Being fhould give any perfon fuch a commiffion, or cloath him with fuch authority? And furely, no man will pretend to demonftrate fuch an impoffibility.

When a perfon perufeth the laws of Christianity with attention, and confidereth the tendency of them, and those ends of life, which this religion hath clearly fet before him, he cannot but conceive a very favourable opinion of the Author of it. But when he hath actually given himself up to this discipline, and confcientiously endeavoureth to conform himself to the laws of Chrift, and, by the affiftance of

God's

III.

SERM. God's good fpirit, with fuccefs, that the true Christian temper obtaineth in him, and that the ends of those good laws are in fome good measure anfwered; it is not poffible, but that the mind should find eafe and fatisfaction. A man, reflecting seriously, findeth himself in that state, which it is the declared purpose of all moral difcipline to serve. True and fincere, though imperfect, piety, purity, goodness, and all worthy affections prevailing in him, and, according to the condefcending and gracious terms of falvation declared in the gospel, the most pleasing and comfortable hopes attending them, all these place him in a ftate, in which true excellency confifteth, and from which the pureft and most stable self-enjoyment muft flow. When he hath examined this ftate of his mind with the greatest attention, and in the moft cool and deliberate temper, this must appear to his reflecting thoughts undoubted truth. It is not a vain enthufiaftic imagination, which, having got the better of found fenfe and reafon, createth to him a chimerical paradife but if there be any foundation for morality at all, if there be a right and a wrong, a good and an evil; if there be

any

any difference between what is true, and SERM. pure, and lovely, and the contrary; if there III. be a fovereigh moral ruler, who attendeth

to our actions, and will interpose to reward and punish, according to the moral quality of them; if there be, in fine, fuch a thing as moral excellency, at which we ought to aim as the highest attainment : then furely he must be right in his conduct and state, and therefore must be hap py. Nor can he devise any thing to make him more perfect and happy, than a patient continuance in that courfe of life and action, which Christianity hath marked out to him; but may fay to himself with the utmost affurance, that he cannot err, that he cannot be in delufion, in embracing and pursuing the tendency of this religion. And as, in believing, that it is of divine authority, he strengtheneth his own sense of obligation to obey the laws of it, and addeth greatly to his own comfort; fo this will and must be a strong inducement to him to believe, if he can fee good reason to believe; and having found this in the direct proofs and evidences, that Christ was fent of God, he will reft fatisfied. But indeed from that very temper and state

of