of Scripture before us the prophet had in contemplation. And your confciences atteft the juftice of the woe denounced against every inftance of that fin by the Spirit of God. What is the warning voice which, while we ponder on these examples fingly or collectively, refounds in our ears? To the law and to the teftimony. If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Thus faith the Lord: ftand ye in the ways, and fee, and ask for the old paths where is the good way, and walk therein; and ye shall find reft for your fouls (n). Let not the fumes of a heated imagination bewilder you into enthusiasm. Let not the natural averfion of the heart from religion chill you into lukewarmness. Conceive not that it is religion to obey fome of the commandments of God, and knowingly to perfevere in difobeying one. Conceive not that it is charity to explain away the heirousness of fin; or cénforioufnefs to pronounce that to be guilt which God has pronounced to be guilt, that to be the fubject of punishment which God has averred that He will punifh. Let not your minds be corrupted from the fimplicity which is in Chrift into a habit of referring to that unauthorised and miferable arbiter of (») Haiah, viii. 20. Jerm. vi. 16. morals, morals, that ideal power before which the world bows down in fenfelefs adoration, the principle of honour. My fon! Give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God. Woe unto you, if in any of the inftances which have been fpecified, or in any analogous example, you are deluded to call evil good and good evil, to put darkness for light and light for darkness, to put bitter for fweet and fweet for bitter! Woe unto you if you wilfully become the niftrument of feducing others into fimilar delufions! Stand faft on the fure rock, the facred Word. Let ignorance mifunderstand the gofpel: let indifference ftrip it of its energy: let pride, let fenfuality, let worldly mindednefs frame to themselves fchemes of reli gion conformable to the corrupt principle in accommodation to which they are feverally framed. Let the language of ignorance, of indifference, of pride, of fenfuality, of worldly mindednefs, on topics of piety and morality, be unrighteousness, be folly, be madness. In God, in His counfels, in His recorded law, there is neither variableness nor fhador of turning. Jefus Chrift, the Judge of all, is the fame yefterday, and to-day, and for ever. Measure thou all things by that standard, by which thou fhalt thyfelf be measured. Weigh all things in those scales, by which thou shalt thyself be tried. Make thy reference in all things to that tribunal, from which there fhall be no appeal. Judge all things by the word of God: for by that word fhalt thou and all things be judged. SERMON XVIII. An Expofition of the first Part of the Lesson appointed for the Burial Service. I COR. XV. 20. Now is Chrift rifen from the Dead, and become the firft Fruits of them that flept. ALL Scripture is given by infpiration of God: and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for inftruction in righteoufnefs: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished into all good works (a). Such is the divine authority, fuch is the comprehenfive nature, fuch are the manifold and fupremely important ufes, of the Bible. Hence it becomes the duty and the wisdom of the minifters of the gospel, in their en (a) 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. deavours deavours to train up the flocks committed to their charge in the knowledge and obedience of the faith of Chrift, from time to time to vary the methods, in which they deduce inftruction from the word of God: to vary them however within fuch limits only as the Scriptures themselves completely authorife; and to vary them, if in fome measure for the purpose of exciting a more lively attention. among their hearers, yet principally for the fake of fucceffively impreffing on their congregations the different helps and encouragements to holinefs, and the different diffuafives from fin, which the facred' writings fupply. Thus at one time the preacher will dwell chiefly, though by no means without a decided reference to practice, on doctrines. At another time, regarding the truth and import of the doctrines as eftablished, he will enter into a fuller detail concerning the conduct, which a firm belief in them is defigned and adapted to produce. Sometimes he will unfold the nature and evince the efficacy of faith. Sometimes he will enlarge on holy tempers and good works, those fruits of the Spirit by which genuine faith is manifefted and adorned. Sometimes he will build his admonitions on the preceptive parts of the Old or of the New Teftament. Sometimes he |