The Jews acted punctually according to the orders they received from heaven: "go," you Christians," and do likewise," "keep that which is committed to your trust," and avoid the practice of a "science" which you have not been taught.

Let us finish by observing the sin of mixing two dispensations so opposite. The Jews, though they had a commission from heaven, sometimes discovered a reluctance to comply with it. How many objections did Moses make against understanding the service, to which God appointed him? "Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh ?"... Behold when I come unto the children of Israel, they will say to me, What is God's name? What shall I say unto them?... Behold they will not believe me, for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee... O my Lord, I am not eloquent... On my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send." He foresaw the difficulties, and trembled at the work, he was going about. He could not be brought to circumcise his own son, till the Lord threatened" to kill him :" but we uncalled, rush into that at which a Moses shuddered. Probably he examined his own heart, and was afraid to undertake the services of religion without the purest principles; but we from principles the most base, not only undertake to perform religious duties, but to prescribe them. Moses required in himself refined principles to undertake an imperfect religion; but we with depravity in an extreme, rush into a perfect dispensation to pollute it. "We leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness. To such principles our apostle ascribes the profane babblings in the text.

"Give no heed to Jewish fables," for "some desiring to be teachers of the law, understand not what they say nor whereof they affirm." Ignorance is a misfortune, wilful ignorance is a crime, and this crime is exceedingly aggravated by a pretence of teaching what we do not understand. It is not enough that we understand the world and religion as well as our neighbours; a man, who presumes to make religion of that, which Jesus Christ and his apostles never recommended, ought to

understand it better than they did. If any thing can aggravate the guilt of such a man more, it is his own creed. Who are you? I am a sinful, frail man, "of yesterday, and know nothing." No, you are not a sinful, frail man, knowing nothing; you are another "Solomon, wiser than all men! Behold thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret hidden from thee! Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God! Thou art the anointed cherub! Thou sealest up the sum full of wisdam, and art perfect in beauty! Thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God!" If you are not such a person, how dare you undertake what made Moses shiver! Ignorance dare do what inspiration trembles at!

If a man "dote about" Jewish questions," he is proud." What sin less becomes a fallen man than pride? On what can he ground his inordinate esteem of himself? Above all, what an absurd sin is pride in regard to religion, especially to the Christian religion, which was never intended to feed the vanity of man? To be "lifted up with pride," in the apostle's account, is to "fall into the condemnation of the devil." Survey the whole Christian religion, and wonder what there is in it to nourish the pride of man. A Saviour, born in a stable,,brought up by plain parents, in a homely occupation, a companion of fishermen, tried like a criminal for his life, crucified like a slave, followed like one of his ancestors, by one in distress, another in debt, a third discontented, a people "hated of all nations for his name's sake;" is there any thing in all this to gratify pride? Examine the doctrines of Christianity, which all unite to say, "No flesh shall glory in the presence of God." Observe the duties of Christians, "to follow Christ, to deny themselves, to take up crosses, to lose life, to give the whole world in exchange for the soul." All mortifying; all attacks upon pride. Hear the devotions of Christians, all expressive of their own meanness and depravity; all Christians at prayer are in the condition of criminals throwing themseves upon the clemency of their judge. Examine Christians in their intercourse with the world. Their conversation is plain and direct, yea yea, nay nay; they cannot swear; they dare not

slander, they must not speak falsely, they are bound by their religion to be "blameless and harmless in the midst of a perverse nation," that is to say, they are doomed, among all classes of bad men, to be "defamed as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things." What can a proud man do with all this? He hath not the virtue and wisdom to resign his pride for the sake of religion, and therefore he must accommodate his religion to his vanity; and the most plausible way is to call in the aid of Jewish "science," and clothe Jesus the son of Joseph in the glorious habits of Aaron. If the plain Virgin Mary can be converted into a blessed lady, if the apostles can be canonized, and Peter the fisherman, and Paul of Tarsus, called in to settle a point in philosophy; if the doctrines of Christ can be accommodated to the dispositions of bad men; if the whole Christian religion be converted into a secular policy fit for armies, and navies, and all sorts of men to make their fortune by; then will the offence of the cross cease, and pride will condescend to walk in procession with the people of God. Cruelty will become an advocate for God, and will "make a decree, that every people, who speak any thing amiss against him, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses made a dunghill, because there is no other God that can do after this sort . . ." signed, "Nebuchadnezzar the king."

What we have said of ignorance and pride, we might repeat again of envy, love of money, youthful lusts, and several other vicious dispositions, to which our apostle attributes the teaching of Jewish fables. Let us endeavour to apply that general remedy to all those ills, which the apostle suggests. Let us so live as not to render" filthy lucre," or gain unjustly gotten, necessary to our living, and less still to our religion. Let us be ambitious to recommend it by a holy life, which is an argument that goes home to an honest heart, and not by the fine habits of the ancient Jews, which often served only to cover the most dangerous and destructive dispositions. In this manner the mouths of unruly talkers must be stopped. In one word, he who lives by no rule is a heathen; he who lives by the Old Testament is a

Jew; and he only is a Christian who makes the New Testament the rule of his faith and practice, the promises the ground of his hope, and the precepts the rule of his action. God grant us this grace! To him be honour and glory forever. Amen.

19

DISCOURSE XII.

CHRISTIANS SHOULD BEHAVE PROPERLY TO SUCH AS GIVE CONFUSED ACCOUNTS OF RELIGION.

[AT FULBOURNE.}

MARK ii, 1.

And it was noised that he was in the house.

WHEN Our Saviour described a holy life under the similitude of a road leading to heaven, he called it a narrow way, because a holy life is made up of a set of just and proper actions exactly performed between two extremes. This is the case of all virtue in general; but there are some duties more difficult than others through the strength of temptations to extremes. The case before us is of this kind. "Jesus entered into Capernaum" to avoid the multitude; " but it was noised that he was in the house." On the one hand, Jesus Christ was a person so necessary to the city, that the citizens might have thought themselves obliged to any person, in any way to give notice of his coming; and as the crowing of a cock was a signal to Peter to repent, and a little necessary link in the chain of events, which composed the life of that great man, so sometimes little, and seemingly ridiculous, causes are connected with, and bring about great events. On the other hand, Jesus Christ had so much right to retirement, that he ought