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DISCOURSE I.

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JOHN, CHAP. VI.-VERSES 67-69.

Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe, and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

PART I.

In the foregoing part of this chapter we read that the doctrine of our Saviour had given such offence to his hearers, that many even of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him: on which occasion our Saviour put this question to the twelve, Will ye also go away? To which St. Peter, in the name of all, made answer, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe, and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.' In this answer there are three things expressed, or implied, as the ground of their constancy and adherence to Christ.

I. The first is, The miserable condition they should be in, if they did forsake him, having no other in whom they could trust; 'Lord, to whom shall we go?'

II. The second is, The excellency of his religion, and the certain means it afforded of obtaining that which is the great end of religion, a blessed life after this: Thou hast the words of eternal life.'

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III. The third is, The authority and divine commission of Christ, on which their faith and confidence were built: We believe, and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the

living God.' To believe, because we have sufficient reason to determine our belief, is a rational faith; and this is what is meant in the word éyvúkaμev, ' we believe;' because we have, from the things we have heard and seen of you, determined with ourselves, That thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.'

These three reasons, which St. Peter gives for adherence to Christ, refer to as many general principles or maxims :

As first, That religion, the only means by which men can arrive at true happiness, by which they can attain to the last perfection and dignity of their nature, does not, in the present circumstances of the world, depend on human reasoning or inventions for, was this the case, we need not to go from home for religion, or to seek farther than our own breast for the means of reconciling ourselves to God, and obtaining his favor, and, in consequence of it, life eternal. On such supposition St. Peter argued very weakly, in saying, To whom shall we go?' for to whom need they go to learn that which they were well able to teach themselves?

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The second principle referred to is, That the great end of religion is future happiness; and consequently the best religion is that which will most surely direct us to eternal life. On this ground St. Peter prefers the gospel of Christ, Thou hast the words of eternal life.'

The third thing is, That the authority and word of God is the only sure foundation of religion, and the only reasonable ground for us to build our hopes on. Thus St. Peter accounts for his confidence in the religion which Christ taught: We know, and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.'

In this state of the case, the necessity of religion in general is supposed; and the only question is, from what fountain we must derive it? The dispute can only lie between natural and revealed religion: if nature be able to direct us, it will be hard to justify the wisdom of God in giving us a revelation, since the revelation can only serve the same purpose which nature alone could well supply.

Since the light of the gospel has shone throughout the world, nature has been much improving; we see many things clearly, many things which reason readily embraces, which nevertheless

the world before was generally a stranger to. The gospel has given us true notions of God and of ourselves; right conceptions of his holiness and purity, and of the nature of divine worship: it has taught us a religion, in the practice of which our present ease and comfort, and our hopes of future happiness and glory consist; it has rooted out idolatry and superstition, and, by instructing us in the nature of God, and discovering to us his unity, his omnipresence, and infinite knowlege, it has furnished us even with principles of reason, by which we reject and condemn the rites and ceremonies of heathenism and idolatry, and discover wherein the beauty and holiness of divine worship consist: for the nature of divine worship must be deduced from the nature of God; and it is impossible for men to pay a reasonable service to God, till they have just and reasonable notions of him. But now, it seems, this is all become pure natural religion; and it is to our own reason and understanding that we are indebted for the notion of God, and of divine worship; and whatever else in religion is agreeable to our reason, is reckoned to proceed entirely from it: and, had the unbelievers of this age heard St. Peter's piteous complaint, Lord, to whom shall we go?' they would have bid him go to himself, and consult his own reason, and there he should find all that was worth finding in religion.

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But let us, if you please, examine this pretence, and see on what ground this plea of natural religion can be maintained. If nature can instruct us sufficiently in religion, we have indeed no reason to go any where else; so far we are agreed but whether nature can or no, is, in truth, rather a question of fact than mere speculation; for the way to know what nature can do, is to take nature by itself and try its strength alone. There was a time when men had little else but nature to go to; and that is the proper time to look into, to see what mere and unassisted nature can do in religion: nay, there are still nations under the sun, who are, as to religion, in a mere state of nature : the glad tidings of the gospel have not reached them, nor have they been blessed, or (to speak in the modern phrase) prejudiced with divine revelations, which we, less worthy of them than they, so much complain of: in other matters they are polite and civilized; they are cunning traders, fine artificers, and in many arts and sciences not unskilful. Here, then, we may

hope to see natural religion in its full perfection; for there is no want of natural reason, nor any room to complain of prejudices or prepossession; but yet, alas! these nations are held in the chains of darkness, and given up to the blindest superstition and idolatry. Men wanted not reason before the coming of Christ, nor opportunity nor inclination to improve it: arts and sciences had long before obtained their just perfection; the number of the stars had been counted, and their motions observed and adjusted; the philosophy, oratory, and poetry of those ages are still the delight and entertainment of this. Religion was not the least part of their inquiry; they searched all the recesses of reason and nature; and had it been in the power of reason and nature to furnish men with just notions and principles of religion, here we should have found them; but instead of them we find nothing but the grossest superstition and idolatry; the creatures of the earth advanced into deities; and men degenerating and making themselves lower than the beasts of the field. Time would fail me to tell of the corruptions and extravagances of the politest nations. Their religion was their reproach, and the service they paid their gods was a dishonor to them and to themselves the most sacred part of their devotion was the most impure; and the only thing commendable in it was, that it was kept as a great mystery and secret, and hid under the darkness of the night; and were reason now to judge, it would approve of nothing in this religion, but the modesty of withdrawing itself from the eyes of the world.

This being the case, wherever men have been left to mere reason and nature to direct them, what security have the great patrons of natural religion now, that, were they left only to reason and nature, they should not run into the same errors and absurdities? Have they more reason than those who have gone before them? In all other instances nature is the same now that ever it was; and we are but acting over again the same part that our ancestors acted before us; wisdom, and prudence, and cunning, are now what they formerly were; nor can this age show human nature in any one character exalted beyond the examples which antiquity has left us. Can we show greater instances of civil and political wisdom than are to be found in the governments of Greece and Rome? Are not the civil laws of

Rome still had in admiration? and have they not a place allowed them still in almost all kingdoms? Since then in nothing else we are grown wiser than the heathen world, what probability is there that we should have grown wiser in religion, if we had been left, as they were, to mere reason and nature? To this day there is no alteration for the better, except only in the countries where the gospel has been preached. What shall we say of the Chinese, a nation that wants not either reason or learning, and in some parts of it pretends to excel the world? They have been daily improving in the arts of life, and in every kind of knowlege and science; but yet in religion they are ignorant and superstitious, and have but very little of what we call natural religion among them: and what ground is there to imagine that reason would have done more, made greater discoveries of truth, or more entirely subdued the passions of men in England, or France, or any other country of Europe, than it has in the eastern or southern parts of the world? Are not men as reasonable creatures in the east as they are in the west? and have not they the same means of exercising and improving their reason too? Why then should you think that reason would do that now in this place, which it has never yet been able to do in any time or place whatever?

This fact is so very plain and undeniable, that I cannot but think, that, would men consider it fairly, they would soon be convinced how much they are indebted to the revelation of the gospel, even for that natural religion which they so fondly boast of: for how comes it to pass, that there is so much reason, such clear natural religion, in every country where the gospel is professed, and so little of both every where else?

But is there then, you will say, no such thing as natural religion? Does not St. Paul lay the heathen world under condemnation for not attending to the dictates of it? Because,' says

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he, that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse; because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were

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