t

will examine fuch a revelation with an honeft SERM. heart, free from the dominion of finful lufts X. and paffions, and with integrity of difpofition to admit of a reasonable conviction, and to do fincerely whatever he fhall find to be the will of God, however contrary it may be to vicious affections, and to his selfish intereft, let him be the judge.

In difcourfing on these words, I fhall confider,

I. The condition our Saviour propofes, or the character and qualifications of the perfon, who fhall rightly judge concerning his, and, by parity of reafon, concerning any other doctrine, whether it be of God, If any man will do his, that is God's, will.

II. What he pronounces of such a one : let him judge, and he shall not miss of making, a true judgment: He shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether Ifpeak of my felf.

And then I fhall draw fome useful infe

rences.

I. Let us confider the condition our Saviour proposes, or the character and qualification

of

SERM. of the person who fhall rightly judge concernX. ing this, and by parity of reafon concerning

any other doctrine, whether it be of God. If any man will do his, that is God's, will.

It was to the Jews our Saviour fpoke, and therefore with refpect to them his meaning muft be, that they fhould be qualified to pafs a right judgment upon christianity, by conforming themselves, their temper and converfation to the rule of religion which they had already embraced. They acknowledged and he agreed with them, that Mofes and the prophets were meffengers by whom God fpoke at fundry times, and in diverse manners to their fathers. If therefore, they were the true difciples of thofe ancient teachers, if they fincerely received the law, and the holy oracles delivered by them, and walked according to their direction, uprightly, they might then be able to difcern, whether the gofpel which he taught was accompanied with fufficient evidence of a divine original.

But, a mere profeffion would not fo qualify them, or a merely fpeculative and unaffectionate affent to the truth, and an external conformity to the ceremonial injunctions of the law. Mofes himself, and the prophets did not lay the ftrefs there: nor was their

doc

doctrine rightly understood, if that was taken SERM." for fulfilling the defign of it. The firft and X. great commandment of the law, which the Jews alfo confeffed, was, to love the Lord God with all their heart, and with all their foul, and with all their mind. And the second was like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself*. And the fubftance of God required by the prophets was, to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. This was declared in the Old Teftament to be better than facrifice, and the knowledge of God, the fear of him, and obedience to his moral precepts more valuable than burnt-offerings and all ceremonial obfervances. Here then was the defect of the Jews, which principally occafioned their disbelief of christianity: Not that they came fhort of a warm zeal for the honour of their religion as divine. They contended for it even furiously or of a punctual obfervance of the pofitive Mofaic inftitutions; they fulfilled them to the minute circumftances of tithing mint, annife, and cummin exactly, and added to them traditions of their own: But they neglected faith, and judgment, and mercy, and the love of God, the weightier

mat

Mat. xxii. 37, 39.

+ Micah vi. 8.

SERM. matters of the law. They indulged themX. felves in pride and covetousness, and other

vices, which fo darkened their understandings, and hardened their hearts, that they could not perceive, nor would affent to the truth which is after godliness and virtue.

But tho' this was immediately spoken tos the Jews, and the qualification required in them for judging of the truth and divine authority of the christian doctrine, was doing the will of God revealed by Moses and the prophets; yet it holds equally with respect to all others, not only that obeying fincerely a former acknowledged revelation, will beft prepare men for judging of a pretended new one, whether it be real or not. But they who never had any, by doing what the light of nature difcovers to be the will of God, are in the beft condition, indeed the only fure way to know a doctrine whether it be of God, or whether the teacher speaks of himself.

A

K

It is certain that God manifefts himself to all mankind, by the light of nature and reafon. This is his original voice, whereby we are taught the great principles of religion, his being, his perfections, his providence, and the homage and obedience we owe him.

The

J

1

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the SERM. firmament fheweth his bandy-work.

Day X. unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night` Sheweth knowledge. There is no Speech, nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world *. And not only are men inftructed by the works of God, in the first principles of religion, from which they may infer their duty, but he has engraven on their hearts a sense of good and evil, and written in them the work of his law, to the rectitude of which their confciences bear witness +.

This is the original foundation of religion laid in the frame of our nature, to which any true revelation can only be fuppofed to be a superstructure accommodated to some special exigencies which have arifen in the state of mankind. It is as much and as certainly as. any thing can be the voice of God. And being that which is the first and most clearly known to us, it is the rule whereby all doctrines faid to be of God, are to be examined and nothing received as fuch, which is found by every one judging for himself, contrary to it.

S

VOL. II.

Pf. xix. 1, 2, 3, 4.

+ Rom. ii. 15.

Now,