Page images
PDF
EPUB

SERM. the very notion of his being a finner, sapXVIII. poses him a tranfgreffor of fome Law or other; and That for this very good reafon, becaufe fin is the tranfgreffion of the law. It is the law therefore that worketh wrath; and where no law is, there can be no tranfgreffion*: and where there is no tranfgreffion, there can in juftice be no punishment inflicted. The threatenings therefore of the Gofpel are a weighty argument to justify its title to the name of a Law, and very strongly prefs its obligation.

If then upon the whole matter, the Chriftian Revelation be to us indeed a rule of Faith and Manners, if it be given by one who has authority to command, and enforced by fuch penalties as are fufficient to oblige; (nay, and to all this it might be added, that it propofes the encouragement of glorious rewards to the obedient ;) I think we have enough to prove it has the nature of a Law, and may have leave to go on now in the

[ocr errors]

2. Second place to confider its perfection; for fo does St. James call it in the Text, the perfect law. It is given by an Author, all whose ways are perfect. And though under the Mofaical economy he permitted fome things for the hardness of the people's hearts, and enjoined others for the weakness of their understandings, yet the * Rom. iv. 15.

Gospel

Gospel was defigned as a more perfect Dis. SER M. penfation, and established upon better Pro- XVIII. mifes, with regard to the manner and clearnefs of its propofals. It was the Meffiah's office to bring in everlasting righteousness, to inftitute a pure and reafonable fervice, and bring life and immortality to light.

The church of God indeed is the fame under both Difpenfations, but then in its. minority, treated as a child, kept under tutars and governors, and led with the outward pomp of Types and ritual obfervances: now arrived at years of greater maturity, admitted therefore to a more manly obedience, and fince Chrift is come, released from that Schoolmafter which conducted to him. For the legal ceremonies had no worth or efficacy in themselves, but only from the reference they had to Chrift and the gospel difpenfation. For the law, having only a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, could never of itself (with thofe facrifices which they offered year by year continually) make the comers thereunto perfect, or confecrate and render them truly acceptable in the fight of God. So fays the Author to the Hebrews. And in another place, the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better bope did. For though the ancient Jews had hopes of everlasting life, yet + Heb. vii. 19.

* Heb. x. 1.

as

SERM. as this matter was not fo clearly revealed XVIII. to them as 'tis to us, fo neither could they expect it through the works of the law, but through the merits of Meffiah the Author of the Gospel, who was prefigured by their Types and fhadows, and was by the facrifice of himself upon the cross, to make the legal facrifices and oblations to ceafe. The Gospel is the end and completion of the Law, given to the church in its prefent ftate of maturity as the more perfect difpenfation, or (as St. Paul emphatically calls it) the power of God unto Salvation *.

But leaving this difference between the Law and Gofpel, let us confider the whole fcriptures we enjoy as a perfect Rule of faith and manners, as fufficiently containing every thing neceffary to be believed or done in order to falvation. That fuch perfection they have, the very End of them makes manifeft. For they were written that we might believe,—and that believing we might have life. They are able, therefore, to make us wife unto falvation; they are given by infpiration of God, and the ufe of them is for doctrine (or support of the truth) for reproof (or refutation of error) for correction (of whatever is amiss, and) for inftruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly † John xx. 31.

*Rom. i. 16.

furnished

So that he SERM.

furnished unto all good works *. who denies the fcriptures to be perfect, XVIII. ought at the fame time to deny them to be

true.

From whence we may fee what care is to be taken of thofe two evils, at equal enmity with this truth, Enthusiasm and Popery. It was neceffary for the church of Rome, when the fuperadded and built on the foundation, wood, bay, fubble †, to charge the present Rule of Faith with imperfection, and fupply it with fome new pretended doctrinal Traditions. And fome likewise who have thought themselves inspired immediately and taught by God, and yet perceived their notions to be inconfiftent with the chriftian doctrine, found it neceffary to depretiate and vilify the fcriptures, before they could blafphemously vent their own impious conceits, as proceeding from an inward light, and the unerring dictates of the Spirit of God. Alas! might these men's bold pretences to inspiration be believed, not only different men would have different fyftems of Religion, and yet all from God, but the fame man's Religion, according to the different tem

per

he was in, would be found very often inconfiftent with itself. "Tis neceflary then, there should be some standing Revelation, by which we may try the fpirits whether + 1 Cor. iii. 12.

* 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16, 17.

SERM. they ARE of God. And 'tis farther necef XVIII. fary this fhould be perfect and compleat, or elfe it cannot anfwer the purposes of fuch a Revelation.

A

3. Thirdly, From the perfection I pass on now in order to the freedom of the Gofpel; it is the perfect law of LIBERTY. privilege, which I could with were not mistaken now as well as it was of old by fome, who (in St. Peter's language) ufe their liberty for a cloak of maliciousness +; or (in St. Paul's) for an occafion to the flesh. For fome there are, that have conceived ftrange notions of Liberty, with reference both to belief and practice. It has been taught, that men are not bound to any Principles of Religion, but have a right to think of it in their own way, i. e. as their humour leads them, that they may reject one fyftem of Religion, or take up another, or compofe a new one, or be of none at all, as they fhall like beft; and that to deny them this Privilege, is to take away that freedom of thought, to which nature gives every one a right. Thus to think freely in thefe men's opinion, is to think at random. It is not to conform our thoughts to the nature of things, but to conceive of things according to our own humour.

Free-thinking indeed, if rightly explained, is a moft glorious privilege, and the * 1 John iv. I. † 1 Pet. ii. 16. Gal. v. 13.

only

« PreviousContinue »