daily oppress you, or may inspire you with fortitude and resignation to bear and overcome them; may bless your designs, assist your endeavours, strengthen your virtue, and pardon your offences. In a word; a truly pious mind will find in everyevent of life occasion to exercise its gratitude, humility, and resignation; and will thus use every thing this world affords as a link to bind it faster to the Rock of its salvation, the Father of all mercies, the God of all comfort, peace, and joy. 184 SERMON XVIII. NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGE OF STUDYING THE JOHN. V. 39. "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." SUCH is the solemn address of our blessed Lord to the Jews, in vindication of His divine authority; and such must ever be the address of His ministers to all whom they would persuade to acknowledge that authority by a rational faith and sincere obedience. To this grand object, then, my fellow-Christians, -the necessity of searching the Scriptures-do I entreat your patient consideration. Surely it deserves your attention: there can be no object at once more important and more seasonable. But on this subject, how shall I address you? Am I justifiable in supposing it necessary to exhort such a congregation as this-liberal, enlightened, and respectable; who glory in professing the purest form of Christianity; who boast (and boast truly) that "there is no nation so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous" as that holy law, which we have derived from the pure source of the sacred records-am I excusable in supposing it necessary to exhort you to study these sacred records, the charter of your religious rights, the guide of your religious duties? You have all, my brethren, been educated in Christianity from your childhood; and since your reason has ripened to maturity, you have all of you publicly, and solemnly, and repeatedly, attested your full assent to its truth. In the name of the crucified Jesus do we offer up our prayers. From His merits do we profess to hope for acceptance. From His sentence do we expect our final doom. And can it be conceived that we should do all this lightly and unadvisedly; that we should never have examined the foundation of that faith which we profess, but have yielded a servile and implicit assent to the dictates of other men's reason, not our own, and testified by our words and actions a conviction which our understandings never felt? Or have I injured you even in suspecting you did not do this—in supposing that you, who aspire after information on every interesting and dignified subject, could have neglected or despised the most interesting and dignified, which ever occupied and exalted the human mind; even the history of the divine providence, and the disclosure of the divine will? Have I injured you, my brethren, in supposing you ignorant or careless of this knowledge, sublime as the majesty of that God whose glory it reveals, and important as your own eternal happiness? May my suspicions prove groundless, and my cautions unnecessary! Yet, examine your own breasts. Have you not been somewhat too ready to admit the established religion of the land, without any great anxiety that your conviction should be as firm, as your profession has been decided? Have you not relied somewhat too much on the instructions forced on your childhood, never clearly understood, and now faintly and partially remembered as the fleeting shadows of an idle dream? Is your acquaintance with the Scriptures derived principally from the occasional information, which the public reading of them in this place has accidentally instilled into your vacant and careless minds here a little and there a little, ill-connected, lightly heard, and as rapidly dismissed? Have you rarely reflected on the duties of your religion, except when obtruded on you from the pulpit, and weighed its evidence only when you heard it the subject of dispute ?-while that sacred volume, which alone is "able to make you wise unto salvation," has never, since you became masters of your own time, and directors of your own studies, shared your private attention, or engaged your serious thoughts. Are these things so? And is this, my fellowChristians, worthy of reasonable, of enlightened, of accountable beings? Is this sufficient to acquit you to your conscience, and your God? No, surely; you know it is not, you feel it is not. Reform it then I entreat you, reform it altogether. Examine and judge for yourselves; examine candidly, and judge fairly; so will you prove consistent with yourselves, and pious to your God; your faith will be praiseworthy, and even your mistakes shall be pardoned. While proceeding as you do-contumaciously negligent, and wilfully blind-if you go right you have no reward, if you go wrong you have no excuse.. But you will probably whisper to yourselves-Have we not examined sufficiently into the truth of our religion, if we know enough to induce us to believe and obey it? More we might have done; but to what purpose? Is not this enough? True, my brethren; if you believe rationally-without which you cannot believe firmly-and obey consistently and cheerfully, it is sufficient. But when you have studied the Scriptures even but a little, and imbibed a single spark of that pious zeal which they inspire-ever impelling you forward to "the prize of your high calling," you will never rest satisfied with what you know, while so much more remains to be known. No, you will think less of your attainments, and more of your deficiencies. You will not study to find excuses to show how much you may omit with impunity. He who suggests to himself this apology for his sloth, has yet to learn the first rudiments of Christianity. But to meet the objection more closely; to convince you how very possible it may be, that you have not examined enough to direct as you ought either your practice or your faith, it is necessary to observe, that religious faith is not-like the credence yielded to mere speculative truth-one precise and uniform act of the mind, yielding its assent to a fixed and unalterable degree of evidence, and in which mere assent is all that is required. No, religious faith admits of innumerable degrees of persuasion, each of different strength, founded on a more or less full view of the proofs which establish Christianity, proportioned to the degree of care we have employed in inquiring after these proofs, the candour and humility with which we have received, and the assiduity and seriousness with which we have reflected on them. And each different degree of persuasion will produce its suitable effect. He who has thoroughly examined, and frequently reviews the reasons of that faith which he professes, will ever act under the influence of the sacred truths which it inculcates, while the careless and implicit believer will be similarly heedless and unsteady in his life. In the present day, the profession of Christianity requires no sacrifices, and exposes us to no dangers. On the contrary, it is recommended by custom, and by the laws required. Hence we too often I fear assent to it merely on the authority of others, without either inquiring or reflecting for ourselves; and very few of us closely examine, and strongly imprint on our minds, the cogent and irrefutable proofs to which our holy religion appeals. Thus, though we do not deny, we can hardly be said to believe the truth of the Gospel. Such cold and languid faith can never animate us to action, or warm us with pious zeal. Our religious impressions, slight and superficial, are effaced by every breath of temptation-and the more forcible urgency of present desires and worldly pursuits perpetually obtrudes such temptations on our attention, and with them occupies, too often, the entire soul. If then my brethren we would be Christians not in word only but in truth; if we have any regard for consistency, any desire that our faith should be founded on reason, and our practice suited to our faith, we shall study the sacred volume-not once and slightly, but repeatedly, constantly, attentively, until we imbibe the spirit of these inspired pages into our souls, till our whole lives become, as far as human imperfection will admit, a transcript of that divine original. Does this diligence appear superfluous, this labour excessive? Then assuredly my brethren, you entertain a very weak sense of the pre-eminent importance of your religious interests, and of the high dignity of the Christian character. Reflect but for a moment on the nature of your sentiments and your conduct when you pursue temporal interests, and are resolved to strive for eminence in any profession productive of emolument or fame amongst men. Your resolution once fixed, how eager is your zeal; how anxiously do you consult those whose experience may direct your steps; how humbly do you attend to their dictates; with what persevering industry do you follow the path traced out however rugged or laborious! No toils can tire, no tediousness disgust, no hazard terrify. The object of your pursuit seems ever present to your view, inspires you with hope, animates you to exertion. Volume after volume is patiently perused, compared, digested. During the best years of youth, |