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ther you receive it or no; for if the Gospel be truly what it is faid to be, whether you will receive it, or whether you reject it, you shall moft certainly be judged by the tenor of it. I do not propofe this confideration as neceffarily determining your choice to the Gospel, fince the pretences of the Gospel to divine authority ftill lie under your examination but thus far the confideration goes, to fhew you how neceffary it is to deal in this matter with all fincerity and truth, and to try the cause impartially; fince, if the Gofpel be the word of God, it is death to forfake it. It is want of reflection that makes men think religion is a thing fo perfectly in their own power, that they may choose where and how they please, without being accountable for the choice they make, provided only they live up to the terms of it. For, in truth, religion, properly and ftrictly fo called, admits of no choice it does not lie before you to confider whether you fhall love God or no, or whether you fhall love your neighbour or no: you have no choice whether you will be fober, temperate, and chafte, or otherwife; for in these effential parts of religion you must either obey, or perish. But the weakness and corruption of man making it neceffary for God to interpofe by a new declaration of his will, the only difpute is of the truth and authority of this new declaration. If it indeed comes from God, it cannot be safe to reject it: and whether it does or no, it is abfurd to reject it without weighing its merit. This therefore is, of all others, the moft weighty and ferious matter,

and requires the exercife of your most composed thoughts. For, if you wantonly or perverfely refuse the gift of God, this will be your condemnation, that light is come into the world, and you loved darkness rather than light.

DISCOURSE XLVII.

JOHN V. 44.

How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and feek not the honour that cometh from God only ?

THE chief exercise of reafon confifts in difpofing and regulating our actions, fo as to render them fubfervient to the end or happiness which we propofe to obtain. And though perhaps, with respect to the great numbers of men in the world, but few in comparison choose well for themselves, and fewer ftill pursue wifely and fteadily the good they choose; yet all men have fomething which is the object of their defires, and are endeavouring to attain their wish by fome means or other. When we choose ill for ourselves, the more wit and dexterity we have to compafs our defigns, the nearer we are to ruin, the more inevitable is our deftruction. Our beft actions, when directed to ill purposes, become criminal, and leave nothing behind them but the foul ftain of hypocrify upon our confciences.

This general truth might eafily be illuftrated by many particular inftances from common life. There B b

VOL, II.

is nothing more commendable than a spirit of beneficence, and an inclination to do good to our fellow-creatures: but when the air of beneficence is affumed, merely to carry on private views, when an inclination to do good is profeffed only to promote our own defigns, and to make our way the easier to wealth or honour, what is it but fraud and deceit ?

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If civil virtue thus lofes its name and nature by being misapplied, religion does fo much more. The man who aims at reputation and intereft under the difguife of religion, affronts God, and abufes the world, and lays up for himself certain ruin, the just reward of those who have the form of godliness, de nying the power thereof.

But there are degrees in this vice, as in most other, and men oftentimes act under the influence of it, without being confcious to themselves of fo much bafenefs, as deferves to be branded with the name of hypocrify. Pride, vanity, and felf-love naturally give a tincture of hypocrify to men's behaviour; they lead them to conceal whatever the 'world diflikes, and to make a fhew of whatever the world honours and admires. In the common af

fairs of life, where virtue and morality are not directly concerned, it may be very right perhaps to comply with the world: but when our vanity, and love of praise and reputation, come to influence us in matters of religion, they will ever give a wrong turn to our minds, and difable us from doing juftice to our own reafon in judging between truth and falfehood.

This was the case of those to whom our Saviour

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