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SERM. lence is, in this fenfe, effential to our nature; II. that it is one of thofe perceptions to which

we are neceffarily determined when the object fitted to excite it is prefented to us. By our conftitution we are tied down to certain fenfations or ways of perceiving, which feem to be uniform, alike in all men, and fubject to no alterations, in which we must finally acquiefce as the fole judges withintheir proper fphere. Job fays, chap. xii. 11. Doth not the ear try words, and the mouth tafte his meats. The perception of tastes is natural, the fame originally in every man, no one learneth it from another, as we do the fignification of words, arts, and habits of divers kinds; and every man's tafte is the only judge for himself of its proper object, no one can change it, or conform his manner of perception to the will of another; fo that if a proclamation was made, offering meats and drinks to all who should be willing to receive them, and this argument used, not that they are wholfome or medicinal, tending to restore and preserve health, for that might be difficult to judge of, and requireth fkill and experience, but that they are sweet or palatable; to whom is the appeal understood to be made, but to every one for himself? for the mouth tafteth meats.

meats. In like manner, fays Job, the ear SERM. trieth words; probably he means, the unII. derstanding trieth doctrines, and the mind trieth the goodness of things, and must pronounce the best judgment on every one that is proposed to it. There is a taste in the mind, or a power of difcerning of excellency, of right and truth, as well as in the mouth a taste of meats; and it is as natural and much more invariable. When certain characters, actions, and principles, are proposed to us, we have as neceffarily a perception of excellent and vile, right and wrong, of true and falfe, as we have of fweet, and bitter, and four, from the objects of the external fenfe. And as this latter is capable of being improved by experience, or vitiated by a diftemper, which doth not hinder its being natural; fo in the other cafe, there is not in all men an equal degree or extent of knowledge in the things of wisdom, which arifeth from an inequality in their capacities, means of information, and attention; but ftill there is in all men a fenfe of the difference between moral good and evil, of the excellence of the one, and the turpitude of the other, as foon as it is understood. I do not fay that this neceffarily

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SERM. ceffarily determines our practice; we find by II. experience that it is otherwise, and that

men mifled by their felfifh inclinations, vicious customs and habits, and strong prejudices, chufe what they know to be evil, and refuse what they know to be good; but every one who, according to Solomon's exhortation, will hear and feriously confider, is qualified to difcern that the things which wisdom fpeaketh, are indeed excellent.

If the question be, What are those things, in the inftructions of wisdom, or of religion and virtue, which appear to be fo excellent? I anfwer, every thing. Let any man ferioufly confider the great branches of religion as they are propofed to us in the fcripture, let them think on them feverally, and then in conjunction, as making up one fystem, and let him calmly pronounce judgment, whether they, or their oppofites, are the more excellent and amiable? whether the fear and love of God, with a constant tenor of practice agreeable to thefe great principles, be better than irreligion and profanenefs? whether charity, fidelity, gratitude, temperance, chastity, patience, be better than malice, fraud, violence, perfidiousness, drunkenness, lewdness, and a continued

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courfe of outrageous infolence against God SER M. and man? and then let him judge whether II. it be not true, which the prophet hath said, Micah vi. 8. God hath fhewed thee, O man what is good.

But I think the wife man hath very well explained his own meaning in the following words of the text, and leads us into a juft way of conceiving the excellence of religious virtue; for, faith wisdom, the opening of my lips fhall be of right things, and my mouth fball fpeak truth. Right and true arẻ characters which we cannot but acknowledge to be excellent wherever we difcern them ; set them against their oppofites, in any cafe wherein you are competent judges, and fully able to distinguish, that you may fee to which of them your own minds must neceffarily give the preference. An action or a character, in which rectitude and integrity eminently shine forth, or a rule which proposeth them to us, fuch as that of our Saviour, Matt. vii. 12. Whatever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even fo to them. This will command our veneration, and truth will always appear lovely, even when our private interests and affections ftand in greatest oppofition to it. When

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SERM. any bias inclineth us to the fide of iniquity II. or of falfhood, yet ftill we are conscious of a fuperior excellence and amiablenefs in righteousness and truth.

racters of God's laws,

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These are the chawhich engage the efteem and affection of his fervants, I mean his moral laws, which are clearly declared in his word, and were known by the light of nature; for the apoftle fays, the work of the law is written in the hearts of men; the Pfalmift likewife, Pfal. xix. 8. The ftatutes of the Lord are right; and ver. 9. His judgments are altogether righteous. And Pfal. cxix. 138. Thy teftimonies are right, good, and very faithful. It is true, that righte oufnefs is often taken in a limited fenfe for one part of our duty to men, rendering to all their due; but fometimes it comprehendeth univerfal religion and virtue, to which the character of right is afcribed, not merely with regard to the authority of God enjoining it, but because of an infeparable rectitude in the things themselves, prior to all laws. Not only ftrict juftice, but other parts of our duty, come under the denomination of righteousness, because of their congruity to that sense of right and wrong effential to the rational nature; for example, the homage

we

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