I. SERMON in order to investigate how in the most acceptable manner to ferve Him, is not above us it is a duty incumbent on us; it produces in us a love of Him, and fulfils the first command. If the excellent wifdom of that full and perfect religion, which in doctrine and precept the gofpel exhibits, we contraft with the two substitutes of it above defcribed; we fhall find it neither vague, . the the ground work of the best and com- SERMON pleteft fyftem of Ethics, moral philofo phy ever framed. Its doctrines are authoritative and exprefs; its precepts clear and obligatory. However mens appetites, inclinations, humours, or caprice, may differ and vary; true religion will be always the fame: a perfect unchangeable rule of action. And though its precepts and doctrines we may pervert and wrest; we must take heed, that in fo doing, we wreft them not to our own deftruction. Plain and fimple in its inftitution, it feeks no adventitious colourings; free from defects, it eludes not fcrutiny, nor fhuns the light: but the more we fee, and know, and are acquainted with it, the more defireable doth it appear to us. Reafon is the touchftone, on which the truth of religion is to be tried. Let the Mahometan fay, BELIEVE and guard the facred Koran from the fcru pulous I. I. SERMON pulous eye of rational enquiry. Chrift hath faid, fearch the fcriptures; for they are they, which testify of me. And never have books been more critically, and more enviously fearched, than they: while from thofe trials they have acquired new ftrength; rifing from the fiery ordeals with all the acquisition of luftre, trial and truth can give. The religion, which declines an appeal to the tribunal of reafon, is always to be sufpected. To her the Chriftian commits the guidance of his faith: her facred principles will fupport its authority, when from the faftidious countenance of Deism the veil of prejudice fhall drop; and the infidious fchemes of modern refiners fhall, like air-blown bubbles, float for their moment, amufe light minds, and die away when unstable notions, and vain conceits, by wild imaginations fuggefted, and through love of novelty entertained, fhall by fober judgment be weighed, and in the cool hour of reflection relinquifhed. Schemes of religion, fuch I. fuch as thefe, may continue for a time; SERMON but, for want of a folid foundation, at length the bafeless fabric muft fall. I. On these principles, in the dif courfes, which on the prefent occafion engage my attention, my defign is, by a chain of arguments deduced from the foundation of all religion, the divine existence, fummarily to evince the ground and credibility of the Revelation of Jefus Chrift. In proof of that first great truth, the Being of a God, I fhall have little occafion to dwell on arguments against the direct Atheist: the fool, who fays in his heart, there is no God. I fhall content myself therefore with advancing fuch only, as may be most fatisfactory and convincing and pass on 2dly to him, who, acknowledging the Being of a God, by a denial of miracles. doth in effect limit his power; a fpecies of Anti-Theifm fcarcely lefs wicked, than direct Atheism itself. And I will 3dly advert to that more refined Atheist ; whofe : SERMON whose desperate principles of Materialifm tend to degrade the Divine nature. I. } II. From the evidence of God's exiftence, we will proceed to the proofs of his fuperintending providence; a particular, as well as general, providence : that is, a providence, which not only directs and upholds the world in that ordinary courfe of nature, that fucceffion of general caufes and effects, which was in the first arrangement of things established; but fuch as with all-pervading eye obferves, and guiding hand directs each leffer movement; every minute occurrence, as well as every extraordinary event. III. And from thefe adduced proofs of God's existence and providence, I infer the duty of religion: that is, the proper acknowledgment of God's creative power, and upholding goodness, by acts of adoration and praife; obligatory on |