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ence is not material; and either sense will afford us instruction. If we receive it as a command, we should consider it as given us by the Lord himself, whose disciples we profess to be; as bound on us by our own acknowledgement, since in them we think, and say, we have eternal life; and as absolutely necessary to be complied with, since it is these, and these only, testify of Christ, in the knowledge of whom our eternal life consists. If we should understand it in the latter sense, as spoken to the Scribes and Pharisees, it may give us a useful caution not to lay too much stress either on what we think or on what we do. For these persons we find had, in some respects, a right sentiment of the holy Scriptures: they believed that in them there was eternal life and, in a sense likewise, they made this an inducement to read, yea, to search them. But though they thus thought and thus acted; and though the Scriptures, from the first page to the last, do testify of Christ; yet they could not understand or receive this testimony, but rejected the Messiah whom they professed to hope for, and took all their pains in searching the Scriptures to no purpose.

In what I am about to lay before you, I propose the following order: Ist, To mention a few requisites, without which it is impossible rightly to understand the Scriptures: 2d, To show how the Scriptures testify of Christ: 3d, To consider what the import of their testimony is: 4th, To press the practice of searching the Scripture, from the argument used in the text, which is equally applicable to us as to the Jews of old, "that in "them we think we have eternal life.'

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I. The first requisite I shall mention is Sincerity; I mean a real desire to be instructed by the Scripture, and to submit both our sentiments and our practices to

be controlled and directed by what we read there. Without this, our reading and searching will only issue in our greater condemnation, and bring us under the heavy doom of the servant that knew his master's will and did it not. A remarkable instance of this we have in the 42d and two following chapters of Jeremiah. After the destruction of Jerusalem, and the death of Gedaliah, the people that were left entreated the prophet to inquire of the Lord for them, concerning their intended removal into Egypt. Their request was fair: "That the Lord thy God may show us the way "wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may "do." Their engagement was very solemn: "The "Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which "the Lord thy God shall send to us. Whether it be "good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of "the Lord our God, to whom we send thee." But their hypocrisy was most detestable. The Lord, who seeth the inmost purposes of the soul, could not be put off with their fair pretences. He sent them in answer an express prohibition to go into Egypt; assuring them that his curse should follow them, and that there, they should certainly perish. Yet they went, and verified what the prophet had told them: "For ye dissembled " in your hearts, when ye sent me to the Lord your "God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God, "and according to all that the Lord our God shall say,

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so declare unto us, and we will do it." Then they spoke out, and, like themselves, when they told him, "As for the word which thou hast spoken unto us in "the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee, but we will certainly do whatever thing goeth "forth out of our own mouth," None of us dare

ence is not material; and either sense will afford us instruction. If we receive it as a command, we should consider it as given us by the Lord himself, whose disciples we profess to be; as bound on us by our own acknowledgement, since in them we think, and say, we have eternal life; and as absolutely necessary to be complied with, since it is these, and these only, testify of Christ, in the knowledge of whom our eternal life consists. If we should understand it in the latter sense, as spoken to the Scribes and Pharisees, it may give us a useful caution not to lay too much stress either on what we think or on what we do. For these persons we find had, in some respects, a right sentiment of the holy Scriptures: they believed that in them there was eternal life and, in a sense likewise, they made this an inducement to read, yea, to search them. But though they thus thought and thus acted; and though the Scriptures, from the first page to the last, do testify of Christ; yet they could not understand or receive this testimony, but rejected the Messiah whom they professed to hope for, and took all their pains in searching the Scriptures to no purpose.

In what I am about to lay before you, I propose the following order: Ist, To mention a few requisites, without which it is impossible rightly to understand the Scriptures: 2d, To show how the Scriptures testify of Christ: 3d, To consider what the import of their testimony is: 4th, To press the practice of searching the Scripture, from the argument used in the text, which is equally applicable to us as to the Jews of old, "that in "them we think we have eternal life."

I. The first requisite I shall mention is Sincerity; I mean a real desire to be instructed by the Scripture, and to submit both our sentiments and our practices to

be controlled and directed by what we read there. Without this, our reading and searching will only issue in our greater condemnation, and bring us under the heavy doom of the servant that knew his master's will and did it not. A remarkable instance of this we have in the 42d and two following chapters of Jeremiah. After the destruction of Jerusalem, and the death of Gedaliah, the people that were left entreated the prophet to inquire of the Lord for them, concerning their intended removal into Egypt. Their request was fair: "That the Lord thy God may show us the way "wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may "do." Their engagement was very solemn: "The "Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if "we do not even according to all things for the which "the Lord thy God shall send to us. Whether it be

good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of "the Lord our God, to whom we send thee." But their hypocrisy was most detestable. The Lord, who seeth the inmost purposes of the soul, could not be put off with their fair pretences. He sent them in answer an express prohibition to go into Egypt; assuring them that his curse should follow them, and that there, they should certainly perish. Yet they went, and verified what the prophet had told them: "For ye dissembled " in your hearts, when ye sent me to the Lord your "God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God, "and according to all that the Lord our God shall say,

so declare unto us, and we will do it." Then they spoke out, and, like themselves, when they told him, "As for the word which thou hast spoken unto us in "the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto "thee, but we will certainly do whatever thing goeth "forth out of our own mouth." None of us dare

speak thus in express terms: but if we bring our preconceived opinions or purposes, not in order to examine them strictly by the test of Scripture, but to find or wrest some passages in the word of God to countenance or justify ourselves; if our desire is not simply to be led in the very way of God's commandments; if we are not really willing to discover every error and evil that may be in us, in order to forsake them; we closely imitate these deceitful, obstinate, insolent Jews, be our pretences ever so fair; and are liable to the like dreadful judgement for our hypocrisy; the curse of God upon our devices here, and the portion of his enemies hereafter.

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Where this sincerity is wanting, every thing is wrong; neither praying, nor hearing, nor reading, can profit. The Scripture abounds with the severest threatenings against those who presume to mock the all-seeing God. I shall only produce one passage from Ezekiel, xiv. 5. "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in "their hearts, and put the stumbling block of iniquity "before their faces: should I be inquired of at all by "them? Every man of the house of Israel that set"teth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of iniquity before his face, and cometh "to the prophet, I, the Lord, will answer him that "cometh, according to the multitude of his idols." I say not this that I would have any one throw aside the ordinances of God, especially his public worship. These are the means which God has appointed, in which he has commanded us to wait, and where he is often pleased to be found, even by those who seek him not. But I would entreat such persons seriously to consider the dreadful condition they would be in, if death should surprise them in such a state of insincerity as renders

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