And to sweeten our pains in this work, that will of God, for the discovery whereof we fearch, is prefented to us under three illuftrious and alluring properties; viz. good, acceptable, and perfect. Good it must needs be, because the will and effence of God, the chief good, are not two things, but one and the fame. And perfect it must needs be, because it is the beam and standard by which the actions of all reasonable creatures ought to be weighed and tried, as to the moral good or evil of them. And being both good and perfect, how can it chuse but, upon both accounts, be highly acceptable and grateful to an upright foul, as that epithet vápisov, there imports. Search the scrip tures, faith Chrift, John v. 39. To the law, and to the testimony, faith the prophet, Ifa. viii. 20. This is not matter of mere Christian liberty, but commanded duty; and at our peril be it, if we neglect it.

Confider. 2. No act of ours can be good and acceptable to the Lord, further than it is agreeable to his will revealed in the word.

No man can be a rule to himself. He can be no more his own rule than his own end. One man cannot be a rule to another. The best of men, and their actions, and examples, are only fo far a rule of imitation to us, as they themselves are ruled by the divine revealed will, Cor. xi. 1. uncommanded acts of worship are abominable to God, and highly dangerous to ourselves; they kindle the fire of his jealoufy, to the ruin and deftruction of the prefumptuous finner, Lev. x. 1, 2. So that if the beauty, and excellency of the will of God be not enough to allure us, the danger of acting, without the knowledge of it, may juftly terrify us.

Confider. 3. In this duty we tread in the footsteps of the wifeft, and holiest men that ever went to heaven before us.

It is not only the characteristical note of a good man, Pfal. i. 2. but it has been the conftant practice of the most eminent believers in all ages. The greatest prophets, who had this advantage of us, that they were the organs, or infpired inftruments of discovering the will of God to others, yet were not excufed from, neither did they neglect to search it diligently themselves, 1 Pet. i. 10, 11. Daniel, that great favourite of heaven, who had the vifions and revelations of God; yet he himself diligently fearched the written word, in order to the discovery of the mind of God, Dan. ix. 2.

Confider. 4. Every discovery of the will of God, by fervent prayer, diligent, and impartial fearch of the Scriptures, and all

other allowed helps, gives the highest pleasure the mind of man is capable of in this world.

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If Archimedes, upon the discovery of a mathematical truth, was so transported, and ravished, that he cried out, sugnxa, evgnxa, I have found it, I have found it; what pleafure then must the investigation and discovery of a divine truth give to a fanctified foul! Thy words were found of me (faith Jeremiah) and I "did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing "of my heart," Jer. xv. 16. as pleasant food to a famished man; for now confcience is quieted, comforted and cheered, in the way of duty. A man walks not at adventure with God, as that word fignifies, Lev. xxvi. 40, 41. but hath the pleasant directive light of the word and will of God, fhining fweetly upon the path of his duty.

Confider. 5. By this means you fhall find your faith greatly confirmed in the truth of the Scriptures.

The fweet confent and beautiful harmony of all the parts of the written word, is a great argument of its divinity; and this you will clearly difcern, when, by a due search, you shall find things that ly at the remotest distance, to confpire and confent in one, and one part cafting light, as well as adding strength, to another. Thus you fhall find, Vetus teftamentum in novo revelatum, et novum in vetere velatum; the New Teftament vailed in the Old, and the Old revealed in the New and that fuch a confent of things, fo diftant in time and place, can never be the project and invention of man.

Confider. 6. The diligent and impartial fearch and inquiry after the will of God, out of no other defign than to please him in the whole courfe of our duties, will turn to us for a testimony of the integrity and fincerity of our hearts.

Thy word (faid David) have I hid in my heart, that I might not fin against thee. And God will not hide his will from those that thus feek to know it. If men would apply themselves to fearch the word by frequent prayer, and fixed meditations, upon fo pure a defign, not bringing their prejudiced or prepoffeffed minds unto it; the fpirit of the Lord would guide them into all truth, and keep them out of dangerous and destructive er

rors.

Caufe 4. Befides the flothfulness of the mind, there is found in many perfons another evil difpofition preparing them easily to receive erroneous impreffions; namely, the INSTABILITY, and ficklenefs of the judgment, and unfettledness of mind about the truth of the gospel.

Of this the apoftle warns us, Eph. iv. 14. "That we hence

"forth be no more children, toffed to and fro, and carried "about with every wind of doctrine, by the flight of men, "and cunning craftinefs whereby they lie in wait to deceive." None are fo conftant, and fteady in the profeffion of the truth, as those that are fully convinced of, and well fatisfied with the grounds of it. Every profeffor, like every fhip at fea, should have an dorus pyor, a ballast and steadiness of his own, 2 Pet, iii. 17. ready, and prepared to render a reafon of the hope that is in him, 1 Pet. iii. 15. able, upon all occafions, to give an ac count of those inward motives which constrained his affent to the truth.

He that profeffeth a truth ignorantly, cannot be rationally fuppofed to adhere to it conftantly. He that is but half convinced of a truth, when he engages in the profeffion of it, mut needs be difʊxos avap, a double-minded man, as the apostle calls him, Jam. i. 8. half the mind hangs one way, and half another, and fo it is easily moveable this way or that, with the leaft breath of temptation. And hence it comes to pass they are fo often at a lofs about their duty, and their practice; for, Animi volutatio pendentem reddit vitam; i. e. a doubtful mind must needs make a staggering and uncertain practice.

Erroneous teachers are called wandering stars, Jude 13. which keep no certain courfe, as the fixed ftars do, but are sometimes nearer, and fometimes remoter one from another. Thus errorifts firft imbibe unfettled opinions, and then difcover them in their inconftant practices. Bertius wrote a book, de Apoftafia Sanctorum, and foon after turned Papift. The Socinians, and Libertines teach, that a man of any perfuafion, in religion, may be faved, fo that he walk not contrary to his own light: fuch doctrine directly tends to Scepticism in religion.

And this inftability of the judgment proceeds either from hypocrify or weakness. Sometimes from hypocrify: All hypocrites are double-minded men. Jam. iv. 8. "The double"minded man (that is, the hypocrite) is unftable in all his ways: " one of that number was not ashamed to say, Se duas habere animas in eodem corpore, unam Deo dicatam, alteram unicuique qui illam vellet: i. e. That he had two fouls in one body, one for God, and another for whofoever would have it.

Sometimes inftability of the mind is the effect only of weaknefs in the judgment, proceeding merely from want of age, and growth in Chrift, not having as yet attained fenfes exercised to difcern both good and evil, Heb. v. 14. they are but children in Chrift, and children are eafy and credulous creatures, Eph. iv, 14. prefently taken with a new toy, and as foon weary of it;

fuch a wavering, and unftable temper, invites temptation, and falls an eafy prey into its hands.

1 confefs fome cafes may happen, where the pretences on both fides may be fo fair, as to put a judicious Chriftian to a fland what to chufe; but then their deliberation will be anfwerable, and then they will not change their opinions every month, as Sceptics do. Wherever error finds fuch a mutable difpofition, its work is half done before it makes one affault. How many wavering profeffors, at this day, lie in temptation's way? and how great a harvest have Errorifts and Heretics had among them? There's not a mountebank comes upon the stage, but he fhall find ten times more cuftomers for his drugs, than the moft learned and experienced phyfician. The giddy-headed multitude have more regard to novelty than truth.

The remedies.

How neceffary and defirable are fome effectual rules and remedies in this cafe! O what a mercy would it be to the profeffors of thefe days, to have their minds fixed, and their judg ment fettled in the truths of Chrift? Happy is that man whole judgment is fo guarded, that no dangerous error, or herely, can commit a rape upon it. To this end I fhall here commend the four following rules, to prevent this vertiginous malady in the heads of Chriftians.

Rule 1. Look warily to it, that you get a real inward implantation into Chrift, and lay the foundation deep, and firm, in a due and ferious deliberation of religion, whenever you engage in the public profeffion of it.

To this fenfe are the apoftle's words, Col. ii. 6, 7. "As you "have therefore received Chrift Jefus the Lord, fo walk ye in "him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith,

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as you have been taught." Fertility, and ftability in Chrift, a pair of inestimable bleffings, depend upon a good rooting of the foul in him at firft. He that thrusts a dead ftick into the ground, may eafily pull it up again, but fo he cannot do by a well rooted tree. A colour railed by violent action, or a great fire, foon dies away; but that which is natural, or conftitutional, will hold every thing is as its foundation is; it was want of a good root, and due depth of earth, which foon turned the green corn into dry ftubble, Mat. xiii. 21.

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Rule 2. Labour after an inward, experimental tafte of all thofe truths which you profefs.

This will preferve your minds from wavering and hesitation about the certainty and reality of them. We will not eafily part with thofe truths, which have fenfibly fhed down

those sweet influences upon our hearts, Heb. x. 34. No fophifter can easily perfuade a man that hath tafted the sweetness of honey, that it is a bitter and unpleafant thing; Non eft difputandum de guftu: You cannot eafily perfuade a man out of his fenfes.

Rule 3. Study hard, and pray earnestly for fatisfaction in the prefent truths, 2 Pet. i. 12. "That you may be established "Ey in wagon d'ande, in the truth that now is under oppofiti"on, and controverfy." Be not ignorant of the truths that lie in prefent hazard.

Antiquated opinions, that are more abftracted from our prefent intereft, are no trials of the foundnefs of our judgments, and integrity of our hearts, as the controverfies and conflicts of the present times are. Every truth hath its time to come upon the stage, and enter the lifts; fome in one age, and some in another; but Providence feems to have caft the lot of your nativity for the honour and defence of thofe truths with which error is ftruggling, and conflicting in your times.

Rule 4. Laftly, Be thoroughly fenfible of the benefit and good of eftablishment, and of the evil and danger of a wavering mind, and judgment.

Be not carried about with divers and ftrange doctrines, (faith the apostle,) for it is a good thing that the heart be "eftablished," &c. Heb. xiii. 9. Eftablished fouls are the honour of truth. It was the honour of religion, in the primitive days, that when the Heathens would proverbially exprefs an impoffibility, they used to fay, You may as foon turn a Christian from Chrift, as do it.

The fickleness of profeffors is a stumbling-block to the world. They'll fay, as Cato of the civil wars betwixt Caefar and Pompey, Quem fugiam video, quem fequar non video: they know whom to avoid, but not whom to follow. And as the honour of truth, fo the flourishing of your own fouls depend upon it. A tree, often removed from one foil to another, can never be expected to be fruitful; it is well if it makes a fhift to live.

Caufe 5. Another inward caufe, difpofing men to receive erroneous impreffions, is an unreasonable eagerness to fnatch at any doctrine or opinion, that promifeth ease to an anxious conscience.

Men that are under the frights and terrors of confcience, are willing to liften to any thing that offers prefent relief. Of all the troubles in the world, thofe of the mind and confcience are most intolerable: and those that are in pain, are glad of ease and readily catch, at any thing that feems to offer it.