SERMON XIV.

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The kingdom of God under the difpenfation of the gospel, not an external and ritual, but a moral conftitution.

ROM. xiv. 17.

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousnefs, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghoft.

T

HIS text is a moft convincing SERM. and ftrong demonftration, that XIV.

U Christianity is clear and deter

minate, and intelligible by the lowest capacities, with refpect to the effentials of true Religion, and that it has left

по

SERM. no room for a dispute, what is the most im-
XIV. portant and fubftantial part of it--by having

expreffly refolved it into that moral recti-
tude, that refinement and purity of mind,
and integrity of life and manners, which
must be eternally amiable and useful, be-
coming Human nature, and fuited to the
condition of all intelligent beings accord-
ing to their various circumstances, and by
the immutable order of things, the only
foundation of true honour and happiness.
So that we may certainly conclude, that
all those points in the Chriftian revelation,
which have any confiderable degree of in-
tricacy and darkness attending them, are
of inferior moment; and cannot be ne-
ceffarily connected with the great and ul-
timate end of religion, or determine the
ftate of Mankind with relation to the fa-
vour of God.

BUT what a vastly different idea of religion have the corrupters of Chriftianity exhibited, from that rational and beautiful fcheme, which was given by the first preachers of it! How wofully have they changed and disfigured its original fair and lovely complexion, fo that fearce any

traces of it appear!-The kingdom of God SERM. in Popish countries is-fafting, going Pil- XIV. grimages, fprinkling with pretended holywater, bowing and cringing to crucifixes; which have no more relation to real virtue, and the falvation of mens fouls, than differences of air, food, and climate, or the lineaments and features of their faces : Nay, which is infinitely worse, it is-believing against the plaineft dictates of reafon, and the fulleft demonftrations of fenfe; it is--an indolent or hypocritical unity of faith; it is--torturing and deftroying Hereticks, and—a horrid and merciless inquifition, by which morality is facrificed to a pretence of Religion, as infamous as Atheism itself. And in Churches that may juftly boast of greater purity, and are happily reformed from many of the groffer errors of this antichriftian and perfecuting communion, the kingdom of God is still too much debas'd by unworthy and low conceptions; by being fuppofed to confist in forms, and rituals, and fpeculations, and the particular conftitution of Churches, or in the fervors of a mechanical devotion-As if the direct reverfe of what St. Paul

has

SERM. has afferted was true; and this holy XIV. kingdom was, in its fundamental prin

ciples, really nothing else but meat and drink, and matters in themfelves of mere indifference, that derive all their weight from an arbitrary command; in a word, a kingdom érected for the introduction and establishment of ceremony and outward formality, and not to promote true. goodness, and adapted to the paffions, inftead of the understandings and consciences of men.

THE kingdom of God fometimes fignifies in fcripture his univerfal dominion, as He is the Author and Preferver of the immense fabrick of Nature, which is abfolutely fubject to his direction and controul; which both fubfifts, and produces all its regular and most surprising effects, according to his original established laws. Thus we read of his mighty acts, and the gloPf. cxlv. rious Majesty of his kingdom — which 12, 13. ruleth over, and endureth through all geIt is upon this account that

nerations. It is

he is described as iffuing forth his orders Jobxxxvii. even to inanimate creatures, that they may do whatfoever he commandeth them-whether

12, 13.

for correction--or for mercy; fire and SERM bail, fnow and vapour, ftormy wind ful- XIV. fil his word; and they are all reprefent-pl.cxviii. ed as his fervants, because they continue 8. to this day, according to his ordinances, Pf. cxix. But though there is a great force and 91. elegance in thefe defcriptions, they are plainly figurative; and this phrafe, the kingdom of God, can have here an allufive meaning only. For in ftrict and just reafoning, the idea of a Kingdom, and of Laws, neceffarily fuppofes fuch fubjects as are endued with intelligence and moral agency, and capable of yielding a voluntary obedience. So that the kingdom of God moft properly fignifies his moral government, his empire over rational and free beings; which, in the largest and most adequate notion of it, is as extenfive as the whole intellectual and moral world. And because the Laws of any government are its effential frame and constitution, therefore the kingdom of God is juftly used to denote the whole of true religion; which is only another phrafe for thofe wife rules of his moral govern

ment