like Nebuchadnezzar, may your understanding return unto you, and with him, may you learn to praise, and honour, and extol the King of Heaven and of earth, who hath not left you at liberty to reject his holy law without felf-condemnation.

Thus the very declaration of the moral duties of the gospel to those who must, and do confefs that they are reasonable, lays them under the strongest obligation to practise them. The eye is not more formed to difcern a difference between white and black, or the taste to diftinguish between sweet and bitter, than the mind is to perceive the diftinction between good and evil: nor is it more abfurd, to call black white, or bitter fweet, than it is unnatural to reject the good, and choose the evil.

But the obligation of Chriftians to take upon them the yoke of Chrift, does not arise merely from its reasonableness. This obligation is enforced by the highest authority, no less than that of God himself : for to the Christian religion God hath given the strongest attestations, having appeared at various times, and in divers manners, to establish the law, the prophets, and the gofpel; fo that refusing to

receive

receive them, is refufing to acknowledge the authority of God.

The different appearances of the Almighty are recorded for our inftruction; and fince they are fufficiently attefted, they ought to produce a fimilar effect upon us, to that which they would have done, had we been witnesses of them. When God defcended upon Mount Sinai in thunder and lightning, and the voice of the trumpet waxed exceedingly loud, it was to deliver that moral law, which Chrift came not to destroy, but to confirm and when we hear it as delivered ; by the Almighty, do we not tremble at his word, and reverence his authority? Let all nations bow before him, and let all people ferve him. The fame eternal Being who appears through the Old Testament as the God of majesty and glory, appears alfo, though in a different manner, and adds his fanction to the New. He, who under the former difpenfations, had discovered himself in his terrors, as an emblem of the law, condefcends, under the gospel, to fhew himself less in the light of majesty than of love, as an emblem of the S 3 mildness

f Exod. xix. 19.

mildness of this latter difpenfation. His Spirit defcended on his Son like a dove, and he declared, This is my beloved Son; hear ye him. Here no fire is called from Heaven to destroy a rebellious race, no immediate judgment is inflicted for dishonouring, not the fervant, but the Son: on the contrary, the most marvellous works of beneficence and mercy, which required the immediate interpofition of Heaven, are performed. And are not these so many proofs, that the religion which we profefs, comes recommended by the divine authority? The works that I do, faith our Saviour, bear witness of me, that the Father bath fent me".

To the ftill, small voice of God, therefore, which speaks within our minds, and enjoins obedience to the laws of piety, justice, and charity, there is fuperadded the clear declaration of the fame God in the fcriptures, enjoining us to honour and obey the Son, as we ought to honour and obey the Father. Do I speak to an affembly of men, who despise, and daringly reject, this authority? Will you join with the impious king who hardened his

Matt. xvii. 5. h John v. 36.

heart,

heart, and faid, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice? I know not the Lord, neither will I hearken to him. Surely not, my brethren: you reverence the authority of God. Remember, then, that it is the Son of God, by the authority of his Father, who fays, Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.

But I proceed to confider our obligations to fubmit to the yoke of Chrift, arifing either from explicit, or implied acknowledgments: and on this fubject, there are several things which I will throw together as briefly as poffible. When you were baptized, did not your parents, or fome others, become bound to train you up in the religion of Chrift, and to inftruct you in its principles ? and have you not always confidered this as a virtual engagement in your name? I know you never renounced it formally; but did you ever really endeavour fo much as to fatisfy your own minds for your neglect of it? Or, when you deliberately reflect on this engagement, and your departures from it, do you not feel a fecret conviction, informing you that you are blamable What is the language of

تم

time that

your religious profeffion, of your retaining the name of Chriftians, of your claiming the outward privileges belonging to fuch? Every you address God, either in public, or in private, is it not a confeffion that you ought to obey his precepts? If you ever commemorated the death of Chrift, or if you now propose to do it, is not this a folemn ratification of your baptifmal vows? If you call him Lord, Lord, and yet do not the things which he prescribes, must you not own that your behaviour is altogether unworthy and inconsistent? For, can any conduct be more inconfiftent or contradictory, than to call him master, and yet refuse his authority? May he not justly say to you, If I be a mafter, where is my fear? and if I be a father, where is mine bonour? Whenever you join, therefore, in any act of religion, and yet refuse obedience to the laws of the gospel, you acknowledge the justness of an authority, to which, notwithstanding, you refuse to fubmit; a conduct which your own hearts can certainly never approve of.

Having

* Mal. i. 6.