viour, especially as it had been used in a fimilar manner by one of their prophets. in the ways, and

Thus faith the Lord, Stand ye fee, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye fhall find reft to your fouls".

In profecuting this subject, after faying few things upon the nature and extent of the Christian law, which is here called the yoke of Chrift, I propofe to lay before you the obligations we are under to submit to it, and to confirm the sense of these obligations by feveral arguments, especially those suggested in the text. We fhall be beft able to difcover the nature of the Christian law, by attending to the defign for which it was published. Now it was published with this view, to recover the fallen race of mankind, and to restore them to the image of God, by rectifying their irregular appetites, by cultivating in their minds every disposition that is virtuous and praife-worthy. The excellence of this law, therefore, confifts in its fitness to answer thefe ends. As Chrift came to destroy the kingdom of Satan, and to purify

to

Jer. vi. 16.

to himself a peculiar people sealous of good works, his rules and precepts are all calculated for reftraining vice, and promoting holinefs; or, to ufe the words of an apoftle, to teach us, that denying ungodliness, and worldly lufts, we should live foberly, righteously, and godly.

This law, which is pure, as the nature of God, the fountain whence it proceeded, is as extenfive as the principles of our nature would allow, or as was neceffary to fit us for a more perfect and comprehenfive ftate, to which the prefent is preparatory. Thus it comprehends all the duties we owe to God, every branch of piety, as love, gratitude, reverence, fear; all the virtues of humanity, juftice, charity, meeknefs, forbearance, with a variety of other duties that arife from different fituations and circumftances in life; the virtues of temperance, fobriety and chastity, to which we are fo powerfully excited, by being reprefented as temples of the living God3, as habitations of God through the Spirit.

The law of the Lord Jefus extends not to our actions only, but it engages those who comply

b Tit. ii. 14. © Tit, ii. 12. z Cor. vi. 16, Eph. ii, 22.

comply with it to regulate their words, and to preserve purity in their most secret and retired thoughts. Like a medicine, which not only operates upon the larger organs, but penetrates the nerves, and affects the finest fibres, the Chriftian law extends to the niceft movements of the foul, and is intended to influence every principle by which the foul can be actuated.

I proceed now to lay before you fome of the obligations you are under to submit to the law of the gofpel, or to take upon you the yoke of Christ. May I speak in the fimplicity of the gospel, and may the Spirit of Christ aid me in declaring your duty, in exciting you to comply with it!

In the first place, then, you are under the stricteft obligation to submit to the law, or yoke of Christ, because its reasonableness proves itself to your own minds.

ap

When God formed man at firft, he did not leave him to act in any manner that humour or paffion might prompt him, but constituted him fo, then when he should difcern any thing to be reasonable or proper to be done, even fuppofing he should be willing to forego the advantages with which the do

ing it might be attended, or to fuffer the evils in which the omitting it might involve him, yet this should not fatisfy him, but a departure from his duty should, moreover, be attended with a prefent fenfe of guilt, or illdeferving, independent of the confequences. When any scheme of religion is laid before a man, which he acknowledges to be reafonable, and with which, notwithstanding, he refuses to comply, he no longer uses the liberty of a man, but is domineered over by fome appetite, or paffion, or habit of subjection, for which his own heart condemns him. Suppofe, therefore, that there were nothing more in Christianity, but a fimple detail of the different branches of our duty, we should be under the ftricteft obligation, from the very conftitution of our nature, to comply with it; and our refufing to comply would, upon reflection, have filled us with uneafinefs. Man is not left, like the brutes, to follow the present ftrongest impulse of his mind, but has another fuperior faculty, which claims the privilege of a lawful master, and is intitled to have its commands obeyed. The queftion with man ought not to be, which is the strongest propenfion, but which is the

most

most reasonable. In this licentious age, it is neceffary to infift upon this obligation, becaufe many fatisfy themselves in their im piety and irregularities, by faying, that they are under no formal obligation to comply with the laws of religion, having done no→ thing to ratify the engagements into which others may have entered on their account. I am fure this is not the language of a man who uses his reasonable faculties. Your obliga tion to religion does not arise from the vow of your parents, or others, though it may be ftrengthened by that vow, but from the nature which God has given you. Before you difown this obligation, then, renounce your nature. Acknowledge at once, that the boasted powers of reafon and of confcience, you undervalue and contemn. Forfake the fociety of men. You claim the privilege of indulging every appetite and paffion, without restraint. Herd with the beasts of the field: in fimilar pleasure you spend your days. Degraded man! O that I could fufficiently discover you to every eye as a monument of folly and of vice, that you might be pointed at by others, and that the contagion of your example might not spread. No! rather S 2

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