SER M. to infallibility, fo long as the evidence that they are deceived is much greater and clearer than any proof they can produce for their infallibility. LXXXVII. If then God hath not provided an infallible guide and judge in matters of faith; there is fome other way whereby men may be fecured against dangerous and damnable errors in religion, and whereby they may difcern truth from impofture, and what doctrines are from GOD, and what not; and this our SaviOUR declares to us here in the text, namely, that an honeft and fincere mind, and a hearty defire to do the will of God, is the best preservative against fatal errors and mistakes in matters of religion; av ris Dixu ἐὰν τις θέλη CLE"If any man defire to do his will, he shall know " of the doctrine, whether it be of GOD, or whether "I fpeak of myself." There are two dangerous mistakes in religion to reject any thing which really comes from God; and to receive and entertain any thing as from GOD, which doth not really come from him. First, to reject any thing which really comes from GOD. This mistake the Jews frequently fell into, when they rejected the true prophets which God from time to time fent to them, flighting their meffage, and perfecuting their perfons: but they miscarried moft fatally and remarkably in their contempt of the true MESSIAS, that great prophet whom they had fo long expected, and whom GOD fent at last to bring falvation to them; but when he came, they knew him not, nor would receive him, but used him with all the despite and contempt imaginable, not a s" a "teacher come from GoD," but as a deceiver, and impoftor. Now LXXXVII. Now the danger of rejecting any thing that comes S ERM. from God, confifts in this, that it cannot be done' without the the highest affront to the divine majefty. To reject a divine meffage, or revelation, is to oppose GOD, and fight against him. So our SAVIOUR tells the Jews, "that in defpifing him, they defpifed him "that fent him." Secondly, there is also another dangerous mistake on the other hand, in entertaining any thing as a re velation from GOD, which is not really from him. And this likewife the Jews were frequently guilty of, in receiving the falfe prophets which spake in the name of the LORD, when he had hot fent them. And this is commonly the temper of those who reject the truth, greedily to fwallow error and delufion. So our SAVIOUR tells us of the Jews, John v. 43. "I am come in my FATHER's name, and ye "receive me not; if another fhall come in his own name, him ye will receive?" This prediction of Our SAVIOUR'S concerning the Jews, was fully accomplish'd; for after they had rejected him, who gave fuch abundant evidence that he was the true MESSIAS, and "a teacher fent from GOD," they received others, who really came in their own names, and ran after those who pretended to be the MESSIAS, and were in great numbers deftroyed with them. And this is very juft with God, that "thofe who receive not the truth in the love "of it, fhould be given up to ftrong delufions, tô believe lies." Now these being the two great dangerous miftakes in religion which men are liable to, my work at this time fhall be to fhew, how a fincere defire and LXXXVII. SER M. and endeavour to do the will of God, is a fecurity to men against both thofe dangers; and it will appear to be fo, upon these two accounts. 1. Because he who fincerely defires and endeavours to do the will of God, is hereby better qualified and disposed to make a right judgment of spiritual and divine things. II. Because GOD's providence is more especially concerned to fecure fuch perfons from dangerous errors and mistakes in things which concern their eternal falvation. These fhall be the two heads of my following difcourfe. First, because he who fincerely defires and endeavours to do the will of GOD, is hereby better qualified and difpofed to make a right judgment of fpiritual and divine things, and that for these two reasons, 1. Because fuch a person hath a truer notion of GOD, and divine things. 2. Because he is more impartial in his fearch and enquiry after truth. 1. Because fuch a perfon hath a truer notion of GoD and divine things. No man is fo likely to have clear and true apprehenfions of GOD, as a good man, because he hath transcribed the divine perfections in his own mind, and is himself in fome meafure and degree what God is. And for this reafon it is, that the fcripture fo often lays the foundation of all divine knowledge in the practice of religion. Job xxviii. 28. "The fear of the LORD, that is wisdom, and "to depart from evil, is understanding; " and Pfal. cxi. 10. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of "wifdom," that is, the principal and foundation of it; "a good understanding have all they that do his "command LXXXVII. 2 commandments." Whereas the vices and lufts of SERM men darken their reason, and diftort their understandings, and fill the mind with grofs and fenfual apprehenfions of things, and thereby render men unfit to difcern thofe truths which are of a spiritual nature and tendency, and altogether indifpofed to receive them. For tho' the vices of men be properly feated in their wills, and do not poffefs their understandings; yet they have a bad influence upon them, as fumes and vapours from the ftomach are wont to affect the head. Nothing indeed is more natural to the mind and understanding of men, than the knowledge of God; but we may abuse our faculties, and render them unfit for the difcerning even of their proper objects. When men by wicked practices, have rendered themselves unlike to GoD, they will not love to "re"tain the knowledge of him" in their minds, but will "become vain in their imaginations" concerning him. What clouds and mists are to the bodily eye, that the lufts and corruptions of men are to the understanding; they hinder it from a clear perception of heavenly things; the pure in heart, they are best qualified for the fight of GOD. Now according as a man's notions of GoD are, fuch will be his apprehensions of religion. All religion is either natural, or revealed: natural religion confifts in the belief of a GOD, and in right conceptions and apprehenfions concerning him, and in a due reverence and obfervance of him, and in a ready and chearful obedience to thofe laws which he hath imprinted upon our nature; and the fum of our obedience confifts in our conformity to God, and an endeavour LXXXVII. SER M.endeavour to be like him. For fuppofing GoD to have made no external revelation of his mind to us, we have no other way to know his will, but by confidering his nature, and our own; and if fo, then he that resembles GoD moft, is like to understand him beft, because he finds those perfections in fome measure in himself, which he contemplates in the divine nature; and nothing gives a man fo fure a notion of things, as practice and experience: every good man is in fome degree " partaker of a divine "nature," and feels that in himself, which he conceives to be in GOD: fo that this man does experience what others do but talk of; he fees the image of GOD in himself, and is able to difcourfe of him from an inward fenfe and feeling of his excellency and perfectious. And as for revealed religion, the only defign of that is, to revive and improve the natural notions which we have of God, and all our reafonings about divine revelation, are neceffarily gathered by our natural notions of religion; and therefore he that fincerely endeavours" to do the will of God, is not apt to be impofed upon by the vain and confident pretences of divine revelation; but if any doctrine be propofed to him, which pretends to come from GOD, he measures it by thofe fteady and fure notions which he hath of the divine nature and perfections, and by thofe he will eafily difcern whether it be worthy of GOD, or not, and likely to proceed from him: he will confider the nature and tendency of it, and whether it be (as the apostle expreffes it)" a doc"trine according to godlinefs," fuch as is agreeable to the divine nature and perfections, and tends to make us |