Prophet even unto the Prieft, every one dealeth faljely. They have heal'd alfo the Heart of the Daughter of my People flightly, faying Peace, Peace, when there is no Peace. And certainly, no People can poffibly be in a more wretched Condition than those who are fo miferably deluded. And as juftly are they to be pity'd who are so often told, that they are God's peculiar People, his Jewels, his fecret ones, the Elect and chofen Seed, while they labour under the greateft Ignorance, and are Slaves led Captive by the Prince ot Darkness at his Will. St. Peter takes Notice of fome, who promife Li- 2 Pet. 2. berty to others, when they themselves are Servants 15. of Corruption. We have many fuch who beftow their unhappy Labours among us, and cry up, Liberty, Liberty! a thing pleafing and defirable of it felf, but not fo cafily obtain'd as fome may fancy: But thofe are very improper Conductors to this glorious Liberty who are themselves in a State of Slavery to Sin, and permit thofe of whom they undertake the Care, to continue under that deadly Weight of Sin which does fo easily befet them. Such delufive Tricks put upon Men will appear very uncomfortable to fuch as ufe them, when they come to give up their Accounts at the great Tribunal, when they are alledged in _Abatement of the final Sentence. Our first Parents could not divert God's Curfe from falling upon them and their Pofterity, by throwing the Fault firft upon one another, and then both upon the Serpent, tho' their Allegations in the Cafe were true enough. God had given them a Charge agreeable to that Sovereign Authority he had over them; and if

they

they liften'd to Arguments of another, drawn up in Oppofition to their Duty, it was not an Extenuation, but an Aggravation of their Crime who would put more Confidence in the Creature than the Creator. But in vain is the Net Spread in the Sight of any Bird. We fee the Spares which are laid for us on every hand: God give us his Grace, and the vigorous and perpetual Guidance of his holy Spirit, that we may avoid them. But,

5. Thefe falfe Prophets or Antichriftian Teachers who are led altogether by the Spirit of Error, make it their Bufinefs, according to the Place or Station they are in, to expofe God's lawful Ambaffadors, his Ordinances and the whole Scheme of true Evangelical Religion to the utmoft Contempt; and are bufy to vitiate the Minds of fober Chriftians with Mad, Heretical, Schifmatical Notions of their own, and fuch as tend wholly to Atheism and Irreligion: And this Character will not only take in the Managers of the Separation; but thofe Falfe Brethren of our own, who having had an originally lawful Commiffion, and having had Hands laid upon them in Confidence of their full and free Affent and Confent to the Doctrine, Difcipline and Government of the Church of England, as by Law eftablish'd, which they fubfcribe to,and declare in the moft folemn manner, both when they are admitted into holy Orders, and when they are legally inftituted into the Cure of Souls; after all preach what's contrary to our Church's Doctrine, do what's contrary to her Discipline, and invalidate and betray her Government, and expofe her to the Contempt of her Ene

mies as far as lies in their Power. If the most folemn Oaths and Engagements in the World could tie Men to the Rules of Truth and Honefty; if Preferments heap'd upon them, or Punishments inflicted on them were of any Force either for encouraging Sincerity and Regularity, or for terrifying the ftiff-neck'd and obftinate; a Man would think that above all others fuch Confiderations fhould prevail upon thofe Men who pretend to have dedicated themselves entirely to the Service of God and that holy Religion founded in the Name of his Eternal Son, as the fole and effectual Mediator between God and Man. But even thofe facred and

to hold faft Powerful Tyes are too weak

of

Heretical, Immoral Opinions, and who feem to have crept into the Church to no other End but to difgrace it, and to be preferr'd in it, with no other Profpect but that they might have the better Opportunity to fpread their falfe and Heretical Notions, to poifon the Souls of those they are concern'd with with the greater Authority, and in Conclufion to damn themselves and fuch as hear or give any Regard to them. It is a Sign we live in perillous Times, when thofe whofe Province it is to check Errors in their Growth, are difabled to perform their Duties; and falfe and confounding Doctrines, were it not for the juft and honeft Zeal of private Perfons, who are yet untainted in their Principles, might, pafs triumphant.

And what have I now to add to this Difcourfe which has been long already, but only fome Advices with refpect to what you have been thus far inftructed in x

VOL. II.

Cc

1. I

1. I would advise all thofe who have now heard, or may hereafter read thefe Difcourfes, to give entire Credit to, and to embrace the Law, the Word of God, and that only. What put holy David into a State of Safety as to his Soul? What made him more learned than his Teachers, more religious than his Enemies? or wifer than his Elders? It was because he read and ftudied the Laws of his Maker ferioufly, and feconded his Studies with earneft Prayers to God for his Blefling upon them. And the fame Practice cannot but have excellent Effects upon us. As it is the genuine Effect of a Prince's Love and Tenderness for his Subjects, when he is pleas'd by ftanding Laws to fignify what he intends toward them, and what he expects from them, fo it is the Effect of that infinite Goodness centred in the great Sovereign of all Things, that he has imparted his Will and Pleafure to us in his holy Word, where all thofe Things which we are obliged to believe and to do, in Order to our eternal Happinefs, are fully and very plainly exprefs'd When this facred Light feem'd to be confin'd to narrower Bounds during the Mofaick QEconomy; it was yet deliverd to the People of Ifrael in their Native Language, and not only the Priefts, but the meaneft of the People were commanded to read it themfelves, and to inftruct their Children in it. And it was no Wonder that the Jewish Nation were, by their Sins irrecoverably fallen under the Dif pleasure of their God, when they had neglected it fo far as even to have forgotten it; and the very Priefts themfelves fhew'd little more Acquaintance

quaintance with it than what they had by Tradition; whence it appear'd fo welcome a Surprize when Hilkiab the Prieft found one Co&py of God's Law among the Repofitories of his own Temple. It is plain that Tradition in thofe Days had not that Virtue in it which fome would perfuade us to expect from it in thefe. It was not King Jofiah's incomparable Piety which could retrieve Religion which had been long loft in fatal Ignorance, nor which could prevent the Ruin of that perverfe Nation. But as it was God's peculiar Care for them that they fhould have his Laws in a Language intelligible to every one; fo it was no inconfiderable Providence that the fame Laws fhould be tranflated into the Greek Language which was a living Language, and fpread thro' many Countries by the fpreading Conquests of the great Alexander, by which means too, fome Light began to fhine to the Gentile World, to them who fate in Darkness, and in the Shadow of Death, that their Expe Єtation might be the more earneft, and their Preparation the more vigorous and chearful for the Entertaininent of that Meffias who was then coming 'into the World.

When the expected Meffias was come, he preach'd always agreeably to thofe Laws which God had given to Ifrael before. He came not to take away the Law but to fulfil it; to do that fubftantially and effectually which all the Ceremonial Part of it did but' faintly fhadow out before. He came too to fet before the World an Example of abfolute and compleat Moral Vertue, fuch as neither few nor Gentile was ever able to exhibit before; that whatCei

ever