SERM. by the fingle eye, is meant the virtue of fimIII. plicity, without referve or hesitation heark

ning to, and following the pure voice of confcience, not using any artifice, colouring, or falfe disguise, nor fuffering any biafs or prejudice to reft on the mind whereby it may be impofed upon, or misled. The evil eye is a disease of the mind, very malignant, and extremely dangerous; what lefs can be meant by total' and moft deplorable darkness ? but it is a voluntary contracted diftemper, which, I think, may be fairly infer'd from the text itfelf. Our Saviour here defcribes a very difmal spiritual state, full of guilt, horror, and mifery; it imports a fundamental error in morals, and in the way to true happiness, than which, what can be faid or thought more wretched in the condition of a rational creature? It is darkness, the emblem of ignorance, vice, and unhappiness; a total darkness, without any remains of useful light; and if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? Surely this is not the natural fate of any intelligent being, nor can be incurr'd without a wilful and criminal perverfion of its own capacities. God made man upright, and put him in the ftraight way

to

to happiness; * But they have fought out many SERM. inventions. Again, farther to explain our III. Saviour's intention, we may confider the connexion of the text; our bleffed Lord had in the immediately preceding verfes infifted on the most important and comprehenfive of all duties, which he describes by laying up for ourselves trenfures in heaven; that is, that we should first of all fix to ourselves our true ultimate end, with a refolution conftantly and invariably to adhere to it, and pursue it vigorously and diligently by all proper means: the plain meaning of which is, as appears from his foregoing discourse, that we shou'd propose for our end the moral perfection of our nature, and the imitation of God by the fervent love and affiduous practice of true righteousness and goodness; that, I fay, we should fix this as our laft end and principal bufinefs, preferably to all the pleafures, profits, and honours of this world, which are vain and perifhing things. It is here that the declaration in the text is introduced, and therefore it is plainly intended to teach us, that we are not only capable, but in danger of fuch fatal darknefs, or ignorance and practical error, as to make us insensible of our highest interest,

* Ecclef. vii. 29.

and

SERM. and to miscarry in the main business of life. III. This is very aftonishing, and yet certainly

true, that men fhould be able fo to impofe upon themselves, as to mif-judge their principal concern and duty, at least fo darken their minds as not to have an affectionate influencing difcernment of it, and practically to err, wholly by their own fault, in fuch a capital point, and which of all others is the plaineft.

My prefent defign is to explain this fubject for our neceffary caution, that we may avoid fuch pernicious mistakes which we may be fure it is always in our power to avoid; or, that we may not fuffer the state of our minds to be fuch as that the light in them fhall be darkness. In purfuance of this intention, what I have farther to fay, fhall be reduc'd to a few observations, tending to convince us of the danger, and lead us into the causes of this destructive self-deceit and practical error in the affairs of religion, and our happiness, that fo we may be the better inftructed to escape them.

Firft, there are plain declarations of fcripture, clearly intimating that men are apt to fall, and often do fall,into fuch mistakes, and particularly, that they often mif-judge the ftate of their own

III.

minds, and their deliberate actions. Solomon SERM. fays*, The ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; not that he difguifes them to the world, and affects to throw a veil over their infirmi→ ties, which he himself in the mean time, is inwardly conscious of; but they are pure in his own judgment, he fees them in a wrong light; by a strange infatuation he imagines them to be innocent, at least, not fo criminal as to forfeit his integrity and his acceptance with God, which is a most pernicious miftake, amounting to a thorough, or a total darkness; and it proceeds from an erroneous judgment concerning the true nature and character of our ways, or the courfe of our deliberate works. Thus, I fay, men often judge concerning their own ways, which will then appear to be wrong, when a fuperior and more impartial judge fhall pronounce fentence upon them, as is clearly infinuated by the facred writer referred to in the following claufe of his proverb, but the Lord weigheth the fpirits. Again the prophet, + denounces a woe to them who call good evil, and evil good; that put light for darkness, and darknefs for light; that put fweet for bitter, and bitter for fweet; which certainly is to be underftood

SERM. derftood in a moral fenfe, fignifying that fome III. have fo perverted their judgment, concerning

the effential difference between right and wrong as to mistake the one for the other; which is an amazing error in creatures constituted as we are, having the work of God's law fo deeply engraven on our hearts. This is directly the cafe of the text in the highest degree of it, when the judgment of moral differences is fo corrupted as to mistake the one for the other; not that I think it poffible the knowledge of the distinction fhould be altogether erafed, but the mind may be fo blinded thro' prejudice and vicious affection as in particular inftances not to difcern it. The fame doctrine, I think, is taught by our Saviour, in his excellent parable of the virgins*, where the profeffors of chriftianity, the formal and the fincere, are reprefented as living together promifcuoufly in one fociety, and one external state, which is a state of expectation that their Lord will return and pronounce judgment upon them, according to their works. And as this expectation is common, fo the parable reprefents their hopes of acquittal; for the foolish virgins, the infincere chriftians, go out with the reft to

* Mat. xxv.

meet