3. The light of mere reason, or conscience of mankind is wholly
insufficient to discover to us _whether God will accept_ of us, at
all; and if he will, _upon what terms._ It can tell us that he is the
Maker of all things, the Preserver of all things, the governor of all
things; but can give us no instruction upon what terms he will
receive us into his favour and friendship, or whether he will do it,
at all. When we ponder deep on moral and religious subjects, we
cannot be but conscious of many imperfections and Sins. We feel that
there is a power on high whom we have offended. We dread his anger.
When another world is seriously contemplated, we dare not appear in
it without some firm hope. An invisible God--an incensed Judge is an
alarming thought. The anxious enquiry is wherewith shall we come
before him--and bow ourselves before a holy and pure God? Mere reason
cannot satisfy the enquiry. It knows not how we may come before him,
or with what sacrifices he will be pleased. Being truly humbled and
deeply grieved for our offences seems the most natural way of hoping
for pardon and acceptance. But, whether a holy and righteous
sovereign, on our repentance, can forgive us consistently with his
glories, or the safety of his Universe, reason cannot inform us. To
cast ourselves upon his infinite clemency is what reason would
advise. But, whether this would be safe or not, is a grand
uncertainty. Without a revelation, therefore, we do not know whether
we may be pardoned--or if we may, how it may be consistently done; or
how we may be recovered from the evils, which all men feel, and of
which the world is full. Reason can see the disease, under which all
men labour, but can prescribe no method of cure. All the wise men of
the heathen world for thousands of years together, have tried to
discover a method of escape from the evils, which all felt, and of
which they justly complained. But all in vain.--An infinitely wise
God gave human nature a fair trial--all advantages--and time long
enough to satisfy all reasonable men, how far it could go. Look round
the world, at this day, and what success has boasted and almost
idolized reason had in things of a moral and religious concern, among
pagan nations?--Look back on past ages, and where alas! is the
man--or the body of men that have found reason a sufficient guide?
Even, in the countries blessed with the Gospel, what delusion, what
Error, what superstition!--Without a divine Revelation all is
darkness, in a moral view:--all is helpless and hopeless:--there is
no pardon:--there is no salvation. Reason could never show one sin
forgiven or lead a step beyond the grave--or have any idea of the
resurrection of the body.
All mankind are, therefore, in themselves, without hope and without
God in the world. Under all the pressures of adversity, or dismal
pains and calamities of life, separate from revealed Religion, there
is no relief for them. All would be darkness,--mystery--and despair.
They could not conjecture for what the world was made--for what it is
preserved--why there were made rational creatures--What design is
aimed at, in the government of the world--or what the real and true
character of the Maker of it is--or what will be the end of the whole.
4. The reason and conscience of mankind do not _clearly_ discover a
future state, nor place before them rewards and motives sufficiently
strong and powerful to induce them, amid the attractions, temptations
and vanities of this world, to act with a wise reference to another.
Conscience is God's monitor, reprover or counsellor within the soul.
In many important cases, it dictates what ought to be done, and what
ought not to be done in regards to our behaviour towards our fellow
men, and towards ourselves as connected in society. It shows us
plainly what moral ties, in a multitude of instances, which cannot
now be enumerated, bind us. When we do wrong, it punishes us by
severe remonstrances and upbraidings. When we do well, it testifies
in our behalf, and administers rich consolation by self-approving
reflections. It, consequently, serves as a natural law to all men. It
is the Deity's law written or imprinted on all minds. From its
present severe reproofs for vicious, and pleasing joys, for virtuous
and upright conduct, we may gather, fairly, that there will be a
future reckoning--a day of judgment--a world to come--a place to
remunerate the just, and to inflict punishments on the incorrigible.
At least, we may conclude all this to be highly probable. Conscience,
then, points us to a future state as a probability. Accordingly the
most, though not all of heathen nations and tribes have had some
faint and confused idea of another life after death. Some wavering
belief of it. They conjectured that there might be, or would be a
future existence. The rational and sober livers among them hoped
there would be another life. But no nation, not favoured with
revealed light, ever entertained any tolerably consistent or rational
notions of it, either of the rewards to be conferred upon the good,
or the evils to be endured by the wicked.--With their Poets and
Orators all was fable and fiction. They described, with much ornament
of language, their ELYSIAN FIELDS--and represented, in a terrifying
manner, their FURIES.--
Few, indeed, if any, had a just idea that one holy, righteous and
good Being made and presided over the whole universe. Some have
doubted whether ever one of the heathen philosophers really believed,
unless he had seen the Old or New Testament, the unity of the
Godhead. Socrates is represented by some as dying a Martyr to this
belief--but, in his last moments, he ordered sacrifice to be offered
to the idol-gods of his country--thereby giving his dying testimony
to polytheism. However this may be, it is certain to a demonstration
that the heathen have universally been polytheists or have admitted a
plurality of Gods. They had their great and their household or
domestic divinities--their terrestrial and celestial divinities, more
than thirty thousand in all. Almost every thing in nature, as well as
the sun, moon and stars, was worshipped--such as groves of trees,
fountains of water, rivers, various plants and insects. _As
concerning, therefore the eating of those things that are offered in
sacrifices to Idols, we know that an Idol is nothing in the world,
and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that
are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth (as there be Gods many
and Lords many) but to us there is but one God the father of whom are
all things and we by him._
The right way to know what reason can do, in things moral and
religious, is to see what it actually hath done, in past ages, among
the most learned and polished nations. They had great men--learned
men--philosophers--poets--statesmen--and orators: especially the
Romans and Greeks. They were opulent, and had many schools of wise
men. These cultivated science, and spared no pains in their
researches, to discover truth. They did all that reason could do,
when learning is most liberally encouraged and happily flourishes, as
to a discovery of a future world--and what rewards await the
virtuous, and what punishments will be the portion of the wicked.
After all, their notions were ridiculous, childish, self-repugnant,
and contradictory.
It is true, they had some judicious, weighty, moral, sayings; for in
this argument, I would allow them as much as can be allowed them,
consistently with fact. But no system of heathen morals proposed any
thing, as motives drawn from another world of any force to induce
people to act with any due reverence to it--or to prepare for a happy
immortality. Reason, consequently, doth not, properly speaking, look
into another world. It merely conjectures about it.--The Gospel, or a
divine revelation only fully discloses an Eternity to man.--It lays
before him Immortality: an Immortality of blessedness, when life is
no more, if it have been improved in a pious and virtuous manner.--It
denounces on the wicked everlasting misery. _But is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the
Gospel._-----We can now look through all the wastes and glooms of
death and the grave to a resurrection of the body--to a
judgment-seat--to an endless existence after death--to eternal
rewards for the pious--and everlasting woe to the despisers of God
and Virtue. By the Gospel, therefore, we have hope, pleasing
enrapturing hope--we have light, like the glorious luminary of the
sky in his meridian altitude--we have life, spiritual and divine--we
have the saving knowledge of God--we have a fulness of felicity
opened before us, and promised to us, upon our repentance, faith, and
new obedience.
5. Reason and conscience are unable to renew and change our hard
hearts, or to give us a true and real light of the excellency of
spiritual and divine things. To subdue the obduracy of the heart, to
slay the enmity there is in us against the law, character, and
perfections of God, is beyond all that reason and conscience can
effect. The powers of reason can tell us of our dark, blinded corrupt
state. Men of science and liberal enquiry, in all ages, and among all
people, have seen, confessed, and bewailed the imperfections and
frailties, the infirmities and exceeding depravation of human nature;
like a magnificent pile of buildings in ruin--or a fertile and
luxuriant soil overrun with noxious plants. It was impossible for
candid and inquisitive men among heathen tribes not to have
discovered the perverseness and vices of human nature, in general,
they are so plain; though they called some things Virtues which were
not--and some things Vices which were not. But reason never could
suggest, or give a hint of any plan of restoration to a right temper
or a holy and innocent condition. There is nothing--no principle in
man--no light--or quality that can sanctify, purify, and regenerate
the soul. But an inward renovation is absolutely necessary to moral
happiness, to become like God, to be either conformed to his
perfections, or fitted to enjoy his presence in heaven. The wisest
and best heathen confessed it was not in man to heal the moral
disorders of his nature, or to rectify the temper, so great was its
obliquity; and affirmed that a superior power was needed to effect
this, and to make us meet to enjoy forever the favour and friendship
of the Creator of the Universe. They felt that a revelation was
_necessary_ to lead and direct men how to live, so as to be hereafter
blessed, and never once thought of disputing the possibility of such
a thing. And nothing, in that Revelation which we enjoy, is plainer
than the doctrine of efficacious grace, or more insisted upon than
the need of a divine power to sanctify, purify, and change our
disordered and depraved nature. Divine influence is essentially
requisite, to renew us and to implant within the soul the principle
of holiness. _Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.--But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they
are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them for they are
spiritually discerned.--No man can come unto me, except the father,
which hath sent me, draw him; and I will raise him up at the last
day.--Not that we are of ourselves sufficient to think any thing as
of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.--Paul may plant and
Apollos water, but it is God that giveth the increase.--Yea they have
chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their
abominations._
Men do not chuse piety and virtue from any principle within
themselves. They chuse their own evil practices which lead to ruin.
They actually hate God and holiness, truth and religion, or their
conduct would not be such as we see it is, when we carefully examine
it. They are not willing to be, and to do, as they ought. They will
not, though urged by the weight of the most powerful arguments and
all the ardor of importunity, live up to the light which they have;
or wisely and diligently improve the talents with which they are
entrusted. They hide, like the slothful servant, their talent in a
napkin. They have no disposition to improve it. They resemble the
prodigal son, in the parable, wasting their substance in riotous
living. All men have a propensity to wander from the truth. They do
not, and never did, duly and faithfully, improve the light of reason,
or those notices of God--of virtue--of the moral law which they had,
or now have. All, of course, who shall finally perish, will be
self-condemned. They will never have it in their power to say that
their Maker has been, either unjust or hard with them; or to reply as
the slothful servant did, _Lord I know thee that thou art an hard
man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast
not strawed. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the
earth; lo! there thou hast that is thine._
_In the sixth and last place,_ reason and conscience are insufficient
to give us a full and complete system of morality, or moral truths.
Let the system of morality taught and believed by the best and wisest
of heathen nations, be candidly examined and critically inspected,
and it will appear a maimed and imperfect, a broken and defective
system. They had endless contentions about what they termed the CHIEF
GOOD, that is, the real duty and happiness of man. One of their most
eminent moralists reckons up more than one hundred different and
contradictory opinions on this subject. Some placed it in
self-indulgence: some in riches--some in insensibility--and all in
that which never can render us blessed, and in which it can never be
found.--Had any one leisure, and could summon up a sufficient stock
of patience to collect from all the heathen writers on moral
subjects, their various and self-contradictory rules of moral living,
we should see how utterly unable _mere_ reason is to form a complete
system of moral virtue.
It would be great injustice to the subject before us, not to remark
here, that some of the greatest moralists among the Greeks and
Romans, had seen the writings of Moses, or the New-Testament, and had
gleaned from them, a great proportion of the moral lessons which they
delivered. Many of them, which is indeed much to their honour,
travelled into the famous countries of Asia, where mankind were
_first planted_ by the adorable Creator, and where communications
from the Almighty were first made to man, and they returned home to
their own countries, enriched with the learning of others. But with
all these advantages none of them, Socrates, Plato, or Seneca, who
were universally known to be most renowned for moral sayings, formed
any thing like a full and perfect system. They leave out many
important virtues. They admit many odious and horrible vices; such as
self-murder, cruelty, incest, and revenge.--And they place all the
virtues on a wrong foundation, and persuade to the practice of them
from improper and weak, or sinister and wicked motives. Even the
celebrated Cato, who gave forth many moral maxims--who was called
honest, just, inflexible in integrity--who was said by his
contemporaries to be possessed of a stern virtue, put an end to his
own life, because he could not bear to be a witness of the corruption
and degeneracy of the age, in which he lived.--Few crimes perpetrated
by man can be more heinous than self-murder. There is something
terrifying in the extreme to think of ushering ourselves, uncalled,
unbidden into the presence of the Deity and into the invisible world.
Many nations now in the world where the Gospel was never known or
christian doctrines propagated, have no idea at all of the Creator of
the universe, or immortality of the soul, or pious duties, or fear
of, or love to God.--The heathen tribes of this Land, as those tell
us who have had the best opportunities of information, where no
European has disseminated any seeds of religious belief, have no idea
who made them--or who made the world--or of duty to God. In the
interior parts of Africa, a late traveller there, asserts, that
various tribes, visited by him, as far as he could learn, had no idea
at all of any God or religion, or even words to express any worship
to be paid to any power above them. But admit this to be a mistake,
still truth compels us to believe them extremely ignorant on moral
and religious subjects. They have however as bright faculties and
powers of mind as the nations who have the Gospel. The immense
difference is to be ascribed principally to that very Christianity,
which is, alas! so much neglected by us.--
If we would know what light there is in man--what light all men
have--or what help all need, we must see what nations, which never
enjoyed any divine Revelation, have known--done--and believed as to
God, Piety, and Morality. Superficial reasoners, men who indeed
pretend to reason and philosophy--and reject the Gospel, and tell us
of the sufficiency of nature's light--of reason and conscience--or
any other principle, lose, and bewilder themselves by not fairly
looking into the history of the heathen nations and their moral
writings, and seeing what their ideas, notions, and improvements have
been, and still are. Their history, in truth, is but one continued
narrative of ignorance--idolatry--vices--unnatural
lusts--wars--bloodshed--barbarity--and misery; and their moral
writings, so far as they have reached our times, contain no just or
full system of morality at all. If a man were to conform himself to
the whole of their rules of moral living, and understood them all,
his life would be a scene of inconsistence and error, vice and folly;
and his end self-murder. Our modern scepticks, it must be carefully
remembered, collect all their ideas of morality and of God, if any
just ones they have, and so far as any of their ideas be just, from
that very Religion which they reject. They are, therefore, like a
wayward and perverse Child that disowns its parent, merely because he
wishes him to be good and happy--to be and do right; and takes the
indispensably necessary measures for this purpose.--And if, among the
haters of Religion, any be found at this day who have adopted the
Atheists Creed, under the splendid name of philosophy--it is a most
striking proof of what is the subject of this discourse.--Upon the
whole, we may come to this conclusion, that all the conduct of man,
since the day he was expelled from the earthly paradise for his
Apostacy, proves clearly, even to a demonstration, that there is no
light in him, or guide to duty and happiness, which may be depended
upon--or which is safe for him to trust to--or sufficient to lead him
to GOD and GLORY. Without Christ and the Gospel, all is
darkness--confusion, and despair. There is no hope, no help, no
salvation, no true system even of morality, if we deny a Saviour and
his Gospel. See what the pagan world is from the holy Apostle Paul.
He will tell you the truth. He will not deceive you by
misrepresentation.--But how can I read! How can you hear without
confusion!--I shudder at their awful and horrible vices, and utter
depravation of heart, and morals. _Professing themselves wise, they
became fools. And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted
beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to
uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour
their own bodies with themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a
lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,
who is blessed forever, amen. For this cause God gave them up to vile
affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that
which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the
natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts one towards another,
men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in
themselves that recompence of their error which was meet, and even as
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them
over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
convenient--being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder,
debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God,
despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to
parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural
affection, implacable, unmerciful._--Here is a true account of the
polished heathen of the antient Roman Empire: of their philosophers
as well as of the vulgar. More ignorant and Savage nations and tribes
are, if possible, still more vile.--What, then, is human nature? What
is man's true state or character before renewed by divine
grace?--What! is he as holy and innocent as Adam was when he was
first formed? Is he, in his mind, fair and unspotted, as a clean
sheet of paper?--Has he a light in himself sufficient to all the ends
of spiritual life on earth, and eternal life in heaven! See what
mankind are without the Gospel,--_Aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having ho hope, and
without God in the world._
I think it proper, here, to subjoin a few passages of Scripture, out
of many, which declare that mankind are corrupted and depraved--or
that they have no principle within them, sufficient to enable them to
attain to eternal life without the powerful operations of divine
grace.--How full to this purpose are those words (Gen. vi. 5). _And
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is evil from his
youth._--The Psalmist David fully testifies what man is when he puts
himself forward as an example. _Who can understand his errors?
cleanse thou me from secret faults.--Behold I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my Mother conceive me._--The prophet Jeremiah speaks
of man's depraved state in very strong terms.--_The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?_
It follows, _I the Lord search the heart,_ to give to every man
according to his works. _If the heart be deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked,_ is it, at the same time possessed of any
degree of a holy principle--or has it any light to guide it to
heaven, or to be a sufficient directory in matters of faith and
practice?--How the Apostle Paul viewed man as he is in himself,
appears from the long quotation above made from him, and also from
the following words--_What then are we better than they? no, in no
wise, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are
all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not
one._--And again, _Now we know that what things soever the law saith:
it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God--for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God._ The same inspired teacher
leads the mind to the source of all, the sin of the first man, who
stood as a public head for all his posterity. _Wherefore as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned._--Again, _you hath he
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins._--Our blessed Lord
himself says, _he came to seek and save that which was lost._ If we
be not lost we need no Saviour, or atonement, or help.--It appears,
then, with an evidence exceedingly strong, that all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God--and that man, in a natural state, _is
wretched,_ and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. He has no
principle in himself, by whatever name it may be called, which can,
being duly exercised, form him for the service of God on earth, or
his immediate presence in heaven.
What remains is to add a few reflections by way of improvement.
1. And what hath been said teacheth us the importance of realizing
the misery and ruin of the condition of all men, as they are born
into the world. A want of belief, or due sense of this, leads to a
denial of the Gospel--to a rejection of the propitiatory sacrifice of
the Redeemer--to almost every heresy and error. Men cannot bear to
admit so mortifying a truth as that of their ruined and fallen,
guilty and miserable state. Pride rises up, and repudiates the
unpleasing doctrine. One says we are not depraved: another affirms
which indeed is the same thing, that we have a light of our own
adequate to all the purposes of our salvation:--a third contends that
there is a portion of real saving grace in every human heart. All
these, in effect, disown the scripture doctrine of the text, the
utterly ruined and perishing condition of man in himself. The truth
endeavoured to be established in the above discourses, is that the
light of reason or highest wisdom of mankind is insufficient to teach
us the true and saving knowledge of God. It is of the utmost moment
to realize this. _The world by wisdom knew not God.--Where there is
no vision the people perish: but he that keepeth the law happy is
he.--To open their eyes,_ is the design of the Gospel, _and to turn
them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,
that they may receive forgiveness of sin, and inheritance among them
that are sanctified by faith in me. Understand ye brutish among the
people! and ye fools when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear
shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? he that
chastiseth the heathen, shall he not correct? he that teachest
knowledge, shall he not know? The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man
that they are vanity.--I know you,_ says our Saviour, _that the love
of God is not in you._--Can any one who seriously believes the
scriptures, hold that man has any principle, let it be termed how it
may, that can be adequate to all the end of spiritual life here, and
eternal life hereafter?--That there is in fact no saving knowledge of
God out of Christ, is plain from Acts iv. 12.--_Neither is there
salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved._ He that hath not the son,
hath not the father. Deny Christ and reject his Gospel, and you
reject life. Misery is, then, inevitable. You must realize that you
are, in yourselves, lost and guilty,--wretched and undone,--hopeless
and perishing.
2. We infer from the foregoing subject the infinite grace and
condescension of the Deity in making a _revelation_ of his will, and
of the _way of salvation_ to mankind. He was under no obligation to
do it. It would not have been either cruel, or hard, or unrighteous
in him, to have withheld all pity from them, and to have let them die
in their sins. Most justly might a holy and sovereign God have given
them all over to the fatal effects of their own folly. It is no
injustice or partiality in him to take one and leave another, because
he is not obliged to have mercy on any one. If he reveal his will to
any nation or people: or if he sanctify, pardon and save one
individual, it is all of free grace. All the glory is his, when he
sheweth mercy: all the shame and guilt of sin, if we die in our
iniquities, are ours.--_Blessed is the people that know the joyful
sound: they will walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance._
If the great Lord of heaven and earth give his Gospel to one nation
and not to another:--or if he pardon, renew and save one individual
and not another: if he bestow upon one ten, upon another five, upon
another one talent only: if he impart to one a disposition to
improve, by his power and spirit, and not to another--does he do any
wrong?--May he not do what he will with his own? Who can find fault?
If all have forfeited every claim to mercy, who can complain of
either cruelty or injustice on the part of heaven, if it be withheld?
Where shall the vile monster, the impious wretch be found who will
rise up and impeach the holiness, wisdom and benevolence of God,
because he is a sovereign?--Let such if any there be come forward and
make good their charge, for their controversy is with the Almighty.
By him we are told that we are vile, guilty, perishing, and
ill-deserving sinners, that there is no principle in us, while
unrenewed, that is sufficient, duly cultivated, to our salvation.
Such as affirm that there is, must dispute it out, with him whose is
the Universe, whose is the power and glory. That he should condescend
to reveal his will to us--to open a plan of life, of restoration to
his favour, and to holiness, and happiness, is admirable grace, is
such a display of compassion as may well excite within us, every
grateful sentiment.
3. We, therefore, further infer from the foregoing subject, the duty
of gratitude that we enjoy the light and advantages of a divine
Revelation. This light is rich and glorious: those advantages are
many and precious. How affecting is the idea of the perishing state
of man!--How is _the gold become dim and the most fine gold
changed!_--Who but must weep over the situation of the heathen, that
are without hope and without God in the world:--who are in
darkness:--who are worshipping dumb Idols: who are bowing down to
stocks and stones:--who have Gods many and lords many: who believe in
polytheism, and have changed the truth of God into a lie:--who pay
honours divine to the sun, moon and stars.--They do not know that
there is but one God--or how to serve him, or that he can, and will
pardon them. To them all is darkness and mystery. No ray of revealed
light reaches them, and they have no rational view of moral and
divine things.----Who made us to differ? Who ordered our birth and
education in a land of Gospel light and liberty--a land of civil and
religious freedom, while such an handful only of the human race
either know or enjoy the rights of man?--We know or may know, duly
using our reason and the light of the Gospel, the way of truth. We
know that there is but one God, one Mediator, one salvation, one way
to life eternal.--Happy are ye in knowing the Gospel of the grace of
God--in having the holy scriptures in a language which you
understand! Happy are ye in having the privilege of public
worship!--_He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statues and his
judgments unto Israel: he hath not dealt so with any nation: and as
for his judgments they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord.--At
that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee O father, Lord of
heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and hath revealed them unto babes._--Why art thou, O
America, so highly exalted--so eminently distinguished by all the
light and privileges of the Gospel, and civil freedom!--How
unnatural, how barbarous any of thy citizens, if they despise
these:--if they exert any power to take from thee, thy glory--thy
beauty--thy praise, the Gospel of the grace of God: or to oppose or
corrupt it; or if they refuse to be thankful for it!--O for a note of
praise sublime to ascend from every American tongue and fervour of
gratitude to go up from every American heart to the throne of the
Universe--that we have all the LIGHT, PRIVILEGES, and ORDINANCES of
the christian religion:--delightful, pleasing, divine Religion, pure
and undefiled!--May all our hearts welcome thee to our choice--and,
then, we are happy. Thou art the glory of any land, the guide of the
youth, the support of age, the solace of all thy friends!----_Happy
is that people whose God is the Lord!_
4. We infer from this subject, the absolute need of the divine
teachings in order to be saved. We are not of ourselves sufficient to
change our own corrupt hearts. Paul may plant and Apollos water, but
it is God who giveth the increase. Means are to be employed--divine
grace is to be sought importunately and perseveringly--the
ministrations of the Gospel are to be attended upon diligently,
carefully, and heedfully. But the power of God must call and quicken,
sanctify and save the soul. Listen not then, for a moment, to such as
tell you, that you have a treasure in yourselves, if you will attend
to it, in a proper manner, which is sufficient to all the ends of a
holy life, and future blessedness.--Such only deceive themselves.
They do but dream in Religion. They are sadly ignorant of the first
principles of the Oracles of God.--
In the fifth and last place, we infer from this subject the
obligation upon us to improve faithfully the light and advantages of
a divine Revelation. We are particularly distinguished on account of
our religious privileges. We enjoy the benefit of the outward
ministrations of the sanctuary. Gospel truths, and ordinances are
dispensed to us. The doors of God's house are always open to us. We
have the holy Sabbath. On the part of God, what could have been done
more for his Vineyard than has been done? Now all these advantages we
are to improve, with faithfulness and diligence. Let _us_ never
disesteem them, let _others_ say or do what they may, or speak ever
so hard things of the Gospel, or its institutions. Profane and
irreligious men will scoff at all serious piety. Let us never be
seduced by the artifices of such, as lie in wait to deceive; or be
ashamed of the Gospel of the Son of God; for it is the power of God
unto salvation, to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and
also to the Greek. If we abuse the light which we enjoy, and
misimprove our religious opportunities and advantages, our guilt will
be exceedingly aggravated, and our final ruin, if we perish,
proportionately dreadful. _For that servant which knew his Lord's
will and prepared not himself, nor did according to his will shall be
beaten with many stripes.--For unto whomsoever much is given, of him
shall much be required._