greater Signs, and of finding Means to SER M. elude the Arguments and Motives of Re- VII. ligion, there is no End. The Temper from which all This proceeds, is of the fame kind with That Tempting of Providence, which the Gospel emphatically represents to us in the history of our Saviour's temptation; Where Satan placing him upon a pinnacle of the temple, argues with him, that, if he was the Son of God, he might fafely venture to cast himself down from thence: For if God owned and declared him to be his Son, and had fo peculiar a Favour for him; why should not he preserve him from being hurt in his Fall; Matt. iv. 6. The Ground upon which incorrigible Sinners reject all the Arguments and Motives of Religion. is generally of the like Nature. If it be the Will of God, that men fhould believe and act in fuch or fuch a particular manner; why does not he compel them fo to do? why does not he perpetually give them Signs from Heaven? why does he not turn their Hearts, which way foever he pleases? for Who has refifted his Will?

The

SER M. The Answer is very plain; that God VII. does not abfolutely will fuch and fuch

things to be done, but his Will is that men fhould chufe to do them upon reafonable Motives: In which alone confifts the effence of all Virtue, and of all Religion. God does not therefore by irresisti ble Motives compel men to obey him; because, if he did, it would for That very Reafon be in Them No Act of Obedience. But he tries their Obedience, by the proper Inftruments of Perfwafion; and by Motives fuited to the nature of rational and free Agents. Of These, Some love the knowledge of Truth; and are always ready, according to the degree of the Light afforded them, to do what is Right: And these our Saviour, in his parable of the Sower, very fignificantly compares to Good Ground. Others love Darkness rather than Light, and Arguments of Reafon make no Impreffion upon them, and their Hearts are as hard as the Nether-milftone. To Thefe, the exquifite Works of Nature prove not the Being of God; the Revelation of the Go

Spel,

Spel, difcovers not to them his Will: SER M. And fhould God vouchfafe them ftill VM. Other Calls to Repentance, they would prove equally ineffectual; neither would they be perfwaded, even though one rofe from the Dead. Of This we have a remarkable Inftance; Joh. xii. 9, 10; Much people------came, not for Jefus fake only, but that they might fee Lazarus also, whom be bad raised from the Dead: But the chief Priests confulted, that they might put Lazarus alfo to Death. These were, in the strongest Senfe of the words in my Text, an evil and adulterous generation ; altogether unworthy of having any further Signs given them; and whofe belaviour abundantly juftifies our Lord's cleclaration in the following part of the Text, (which was the

Third and Laft thing I proposed to fpeak to; viz. the Declaration our Saviour here makes,) plainly implying that there are just and good reafons, why God should not gratify the unreasonable expectations of prejudiced and corrupt minds: There fhall No Sign be given to

this

SER M. this generation, but the Sign of the Prophet VII. Jonas. Now the reasonableness of this Proceeding, is very evident from what has been already faid. Eternal Life, is the Gift of God: And the Design of God, (his just and reasonable Defign,) is to beftow this free Gift, upon those who by an habitual Practice of Virtue, fhall have their Minds qualified for That Happy State. The Practice of Virtue confists, in the willing Choice of what is good, and avoiding what is evil: And the Time of this Choice, is the prefent ftate of Probation. God could, if he had pleased, by giving no free Will to his Creatures, have prevented all poffibility of Moral Evil. But then the whole Creation of God, would have been only a great Machine; in which the Omnipotence indeed of the Maker, would have appeared; but he would have been no King, no fudge, no Moral Governour; nor could have difplayed any of those more excellent Perfections, of Juftice, Mercy, and the like, in which the Glory of the Almighty principally confifts. These have no place, but where

there

there are Subjects capable of obeying or SER M. difobeying. The proper Tryal of which VII.. obedience, is That Freedom of Will, which, according as it is determined in different Circumstances by the reasonableness of what is good or the inticements of what is evil, renders the Agent morally good or evil. God therefore, according to his own good pleasure, places men in all variety of Circumstances in this probation-state; And the Justice, and Wisdom, and Goodnefs of his Government confists in finally judging them All with Equity, according to their respective degrees of Light and Knowledge. The first Root and Foundation of Virtue, is the fincere Defire of knowing the Will of God, and impartially Searching after the Truth: And, as a proper Tryal of This difpofition, the Wif dom of God has been pleased fo to order the Notices given of himself to Mankind both by Nature and Revelation, that if any man will do his Will, he shall know of the doctrine; and, if he defires not to practise it, even the knowledge of it shall be hid from him: To Him that bath, VOL. V. shall

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