obnoxious to the refentment of infinite wrath, For curfed is the man that trusteth in man, that maketh flesh his arm, and whofe heart departeth from the Lord, be fhall be like heath in the defart, and Shall not fee when good cometh. All the combinations of human ftrength will fail, and without the Lord's affiftance,are but as the ftaff of Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it. But if we will deteft our vain imaginations, and give up ourselves to God, and diligently follow the direction of infinite wifdom, we have but little to fear from man, while we abide under the protection of God, for grace and mercy are to his faints, and he hath care of, and concern for his elect. The thoughts of which stupendous mercies, and our continual obligations to him, fhould endear our Creator to us, and induce us feeble fame course of study; but you begin to foresee that you shall want time, and you make grievous complaints of the shortnefs of human life. Give me leave now to ask you, how many thousand years God must prolong your life, in order to reconcile you to his wifdom and goodness? It is plain, at leaft highly probable; that a life as long as that of the moft aged of the patriarchs, would be too fhort to answer your purposes; fince the researches and disputes in which you are engaged, have been already, for a much longer time, the objects of learned enquiries, and remain ftill as imperfect and undetermined as they were at firft. But let me afk you again, and deceive neither yourself nor me; have you, in the courfe of thefe forty years, once examined the first principles, and the fundamental facts, on which all thofe queftions depend, with abfolute indifference of judgment, and with a fcrupulous exactnefs? With the fame that you have employed in examining the various confequences drawn from them, and the heterodox op nions about them? Have you not taken them for granted, in the whole courfe of your ftudies? Or if you have looked now and then on the ftate of the proofs brought creatures, to fupplicate him for spiritual strength, and for divine illumination; which cannot be more effectually done, or we more likelier to fucceed in it, than in the words of an infpired apoftle; That the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, the Father of glory, would give unto us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him, that the eyes of our understandings being enlightened, we may know what is the hope of cur calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the faints, and what is the exceeding greatnefs of his power to us-ward, who believe accordin to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Chrift, when he raised him from the dead, and fet him at his own right hand in heavenly places that we might be frengthened with his fpirit in thesinner man; that Chrift may dwell in our hearts by faith, that we may be rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all faints, what is the breadth and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Chrift, which paffeth knowledge. K 2 Having brought to maintain them, have you not done as a mathematician looks over a demonstration formerly made, to refresh his memory, not to fatisfy his doubts? If you have thus examined, it may appear marvellous to fome, that you have spent so much time in many parts of thofe ftudies, which have reduced you to this hectic condition, of fo much heat and weakness; but if you have not thus examined, it must be evident to all, nay to yourself, on the leaft cool reflection, that you are ftill, with all your learning, in a state of ignorance." For knowledge alone can produce knowledge, and without such an examination of axioms and facts, we can have none about inferences. This ferves to fet the complaint about time, and the fhortnefs of human life, in a very ridiculous, but true light. We then, inftead of thus lofing our time, and diftracting ourselves with thefe difputes, fhould act Having now fhewn the purport of this dif course, and that the duties peculiar to chriftianity, if we would reap the fruits of them, and the benefits annexed to them, we muft extend them to their utmost defign; to improve our facrifice of prayer, and praifes to obedience, our fet times of fafting to humiliation, and inward contrition; to increase an utter hatred of fin, and an hearty love of every chriftian grace, and moral virtue. The mystery of redemption is made up of va rious parts, in union of which, fuch evident marks of wisdom appear, as the rational mind, unless enflaved by luft, or warped by prejudice, must be ravished into fubmiffion. The intention of which was, to render men like angels in holiness, that they may be really fo in bleffedness. It approaches near to madness, not to believe the truth of the gospel, but it is madness of an higher kind, and much more prodigious, to pretend to believe it, and yet live in contradiction to its precepts, and in contempt of its authority, as if it were a mere fable. In the revelation of Jefus, every thing is formed with fuitable tendencies, to deliver man from spiritual thraldom, and reftore him to his natural freedom, and to his priftine luftre; a more prudently and confiftently with found reason, to employ our precious moments, in reftraining the violence of appetite, in vanquishing the overbearing force of prejudice, and in following things that make for peace, and things wherewith we may edify one another. The religious performance of which, and fpreading univerfal love and benevolence amongst men, will be of infinite more advantage to them, than studying those undeterminate points, or being acquainted with those speculations, which leave no time or opportunity to prepare for that awful change, which for ought we know, may not be far from every one of us. lustre; even that which gives the greatest umbrage, and is moft offenfive to sense, the meanness of our faviour's perfon, and the ignominious infults and miferies to which he was expofed,correfpond with his main defign, to check the exorbitant claims of appetite; to render the minds of men holy, and their affections heavenly. And though God has no need of us, yet we helpless beings ftand in continual need of him, and can do nothing without him, and the prevailing influences of his fpirit; which diffuses faving health and ftrength through our fouls, and makes all our faculties vigilant, and our intellectual spirits chearful. So that while we are ferving God, in afcribing the honour due unto him, and reverencing his facred name, we are in reality serving ourselves. God who is infinitely happy in himself, and was fo before we ever exifted, needs not the fervices of his creatures, to augment his inconceivable greatnefs, or to preserve or heighten his felicity. Our goodness will be no acceffion to his happiness, nor our wickednefs any diminution of his glory. The joint obedience of angels and men, is of no advantage to God, nor can the oppofition of ungrateful rebels, depreciate or leffen his internal and eternal bleffedness. If thou be righteous, what giveft thou him, or what receiveth he at thine hand? If thou finneft, what doft thou against him; or if thy tranfgreffions be multiplied, what doft thou unto him? Were we fenfible of God's overflowing goodness, and that all those refplendent excellencies, which lie fcattered among the creatures, from the higheft feraphin heaven, to the lowest worm upon earth, are emanations from that gracious being, who is an in exhaustible to come. exhaustible ocean of everlasting fulness, we should be ftruck with astonishment, and with the most intense admiration. These weighty arguments fhould induce us, who are turned from Idols, to ferve the living and true God, to comply with the ends and aims of the divine appointments, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the Dead, even Jefus, who delivered us from the Wrath If we are thus affiduously engaged, in tranfcribing the divine excellencies, and perfections into our tempers, which are so many shining characters of the divinity, our religious contemplations will be vaftly improved, and our devout thoughts of God fo enlarged, that we shall act in conformity to him, and live in intimate friendfhip and complacency with him. So that whatever we do befides, if these momentous and effential things be neglected, our best concerted schemes will be infignificant, and rejected with indignation, and the utmost abhorrence. Secondly, another use we should, make of this difcourfe is, to encourage perfeverance in holiness, and perfect fubmiffion to the divine disposal, whatever our lot or portion may be, or we never fhall be fit for that kingdom, where there are no fierce or furious fpirits, but all is fweetly mild, and perfectly harmonious. Not that I fuppofe grace made void, or the promise made of none effect, by the fudden surprize of paffion, or letting fall fome hafty expreffion, nor by those unavoidable frailties, which keep close to us, and cannot be separated from us, while we dwell in tabernacles of earth, and are united with flesh and blood. God acts the part of a tender father, and |