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to obferve them.-It must needs appear to every unbiaffed mind that the precepts of the gospel have a direct tendency to reform and purify our vitiated nature: And in this view they certainly deferve our most serious attention. But if we add the exceeding dignity of the perfon who delivered them, that He was the Son of God, manifested to be fo by many infallible proofs; and that He came into the world to fave the world, by instructing mankind in their way to happiness; in this regard they have an unquestionable claim to, and demand upon, our obedience. The times of ignorance God is faid to have winked at-i. e. to have looked with an eye of commiferation, and not to have executed his wrath upon finful Heathens. They were in darkness, and the works of darkness they did; But "we are of the light," and it is juftly required of us, that we fhould "walk as children of light." If we ftill conti

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nue in rioting and wantonnefs, in ftrife and envy, in malice and uncharitableness, what are we the better for the rity of Christ's doctrine? or with what pretence can we call ourselves his disciples? Our condition indeed in this cafe is fo much worse than that of the Heathens, as we are no longer the fame unhappy objects of God's compassion and mercy. We shall be beaten with many ftripes, because knowing his will we did it not. Let us then in this our day make good use of that gracious light, which is held out to us in the words of Him who "Spake as never Man Spake;" purfue it's guidance, work under it's influence, ere the night, the night of death, cometh, wherein no one can work. So fhall we be meet to be partakers in another life, with the fpirits of just men made perfect, of that eternal glory which fhall then be revealed.

SERMON

SERMON XXX.

JOHN, vii. 46.

Never Man Spake like this Man.

N difcourfing from thefe words on a

IN

former occafion, I proposed to make fome candid enquiry into the nature of Chrift's doctrine; in order to fhew the general fitnefs of it, upon the principles of human reason, to the common apprehenfion of every fober and unprejudiced perfon.

And to this end I divided the doctrine of Chrift into two branches-the one'

confifting

confifting of a republication of the mo ral law refined and perfected—the other of a revelation of the means whereby man, who in his fallen ftate cannot keep the law, may be reconciled to his offended God, and obtain eternal falvation.

The former of thefe, i. e. the moral and practical part of Christ's preaching, has been already confidered.

2. I now proceed to enquire into the other branch, which confifts of a revelation of the means whereby man, who in his fallen ftate cannot keep the law, be reconciled to his offended God, and obtain eternal falvation.

may

And this too we fhall find no ways irreconcileable with our reafon, whether contemplating the nature of God, or that of Man; but in every refpect highly credible, and worthy of all grateful acceptance.

That

That the Original of Being, the fountain of life and goodness, is of a gracious and merciful difpofition, hath been always univerfally acknowledged, as a truth refulting from fenfible experience, and the traces of divine Providence in the visible creation. How much foever men in times of ignorance puzzled their understandings about the cause of evil, they ftill attributed the good that ap pears in the world to it's proper author, the Supreme God. With regard even to pardoning goodness, though unenlightened reafon could never have dictated the terms upon which it would be difpenfed; yet, that God upon certain conditions should be inclined to pardon man, his only reasoning creature in this lower world, and therefore the only one capable of finning against Him, was a prevailing opinion in all ages, and among all nations; as is evident from the many differing methods made use of by differ

ent

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