SERMON V.

HE B. XI. 6.

Without Faith it is impoffible to please

HA

God.

AVING confidered the question of the objects of our Faith, regarded abstractedly as speculative truths, I fhould proceed to treat of the acceffion of credibility derived from the Effects which they tend to and are able to produce. But on this question the text I have now read is fufficient, and excufes the labour ; efpecially when the context alfo is taken into view. The whole chapter indeed is that eulogy on Faith which we ought to have framed. But this especial instance of the affumption of Enoch unto eternal life, and the reasoning used thereon are peculiarly available to our defign. The whole paffage is in these words: “ By Faith "Enoch was tranflated that he should not fee

"death;

"death; and was not found, because God had "tranflated him. For before his translation he "had this testimony that he pleased God: But "without Faith it is impoffible to please Him: "for he that cometh to God muft believe that "He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently feek Him:" or, as the argument may be shortly expreffed, It is impoffible to please God without believing that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently feek Him.

On fo plain an affertion it is needless to expatiate: and I fhall only say that if, as is most true, to please Almighty God be as it were the only object to man, and there be only one way to do fo, the question of the Utility of our Faith is at once determined. For if in thefe early times before the Law, the imperfect fyftem of Faith imparted could hold out a fufficient information to men, furely the Gofpel, the perfection and crown of all preceding dispensations, most abundantly declares to us that “God is, " and is indeed a rewarder," even to eternal life, "of fuch as diligently feek him." Thus therefore the credibility of the articles of our Faith is gloriously confirmed by their effects, the acceptable obedience they enable men to perform, and the heavenly prize they have enfured to that obedience. As Enoch obtained this bleffednefs,

nefs, there is left no room to doubt that under the covenant which promises that glorious reward to all who embrace it, many millions of the human race have been crowned with it, having walked in that perfect way which our Divine Redeemer, his Apoftles and Martyrs have laid open to us both by their inftruction, and by their example.

Leaving therefore this topic to be the employment of our gratitude; I ought here to take farther notice of the Acceptations that Faith bears, as a Practical Principle; but I refer this to an occafion that I fhall presently have of confidering them. I proceed, therefore, according to the plan of my laft difcourfe, to offer fome remarks on a few among thofe objections which are usually, and most idly, raised against the Moral fyftem of the Gofpel. How idly these have been raised, appears indeed, immediately and fully, from the kind of reasoning before laid down on the question of the Articles of Belief, which is to be in the fame manner applied to this fubject. For if it be proved that a system of piety and virtue was certainly communicated from God, there is at once an end of all murmur or difpute concerning the wifdom or goodness of the whole or of any part. It must be an unexceptionable moral difpenfation. It must be impoffible that there should be any part abfolutely

incompatible with the Divine Attributes, confeffedly inconfiftent with another, or impracticable in itself; and fuch an inftance we affirm that no man has found.

It follows, that our only concern is to afcertain the true meaning of every part, at least of every one that affects the direction of our conduct. In our attempt to do this, we must also, conformably to the general rule, reftrict ourselves throughout to plain and neceffary deductions from the texts of Scripture, or from a comparison of one text with another. For even in the moral precepts, the wifdom of the world and of the worldly philofopher ever had, in some respect or other, and therefore, we may conclude, ever will fall fhort. The world that by wisdom never rightly knew God, by the fame cause of error never knew his will. I fhall not enter farther into this topic than to prove what I affert by the teftimony of experience; and, for this, refer to the Apostle at the beginning of his epistle to the Romans. And if fuch was the cafe of those who had every advantage of the deepest learning and greatest genius, there is no good reason to argue that it could ever be expected from human ability. If it be answered that, with the affiftance of the Gofpel, the moral science may be completely elucidated by the learning and skill of men, and that no part or question is now out

of

of their reach, I have only to appeal ftill to experience; to the questions that have always been disputed, and to the differences of opinion that have still subfifted among them.* The Nature and Principles of obedience, nay almost every moral Duty, have been by the worldly reasoners of the age made the fubject of controverfy; in fome cafes which are comprehended, of doubt, inju rious perverfion, or limitation, Almost every vice under certain circumstances has been excufed or rather justified. But if this were otherwise, as the Scriptures were defigned to inftruct all men unto perfect obedience, among whom fo many are incapable of fubtile argument, it is plain that there must be some other way of knowing right from wrong, than by refined investigation and elaborate diftinctions, a way plain and intelligible to all,

This therefore we affirm is to be fought out of the Gofpel, in that manner only which has been prescribed, And if, through these means,

I might inftance here particularly the Jefuitical tenets of Mental Refervation, Probable Reafons of conduct, and Philofophical fin: alfo, not to mention the groffer errors of fuch as defend the vices of their own temper and habits, thofe who bring the precepts of Revelation to the level of their natural fenfe and perception, and where thefe difagree, adopt the latter. Among these are the advocates for fuicide, and, it must be added, for duelling, a practice, which in truth would be a disgrace to a barbarous nation, but is an object of horror in a country that receives the Gospel of Chrift.