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SERM. moft common Chriftian among us cannot be IX. ignorant, that the Grace of God hath appeared unto all Men, in and by the Gofpel, teaching them to deny all Ungodliness (n). What therefore must we conclude other, than that, if we will have any Part or Lot in the Bleffings of it, we must live according to our Belief, and give up ourselves to be wholly governed by its Rules and Precepts ?

WICKED Men, mifled by their Vices, may flatter themselves as they please: But we have the best Foundation from God's. infallible Word for believing, that God and Mammon cannot be ferved acceptably together (o). Nay, our Fellow-creatures fcorn our partial Affections and a divided Service; and can we think fuch an Offering will be agreeable to the God of Heaven? If he has condefcended to make our Souls the Temple of his Refidence, let us not so heinously affront him, as to erect each one his favourite Idol near him, and pay the most ardent and affiduous Devotion to it: Let us not be deceived, the Almighty will not be mocked: As he has an abfolute Title to our whole Obedience, he will not be put off with fuch a Proportion only, as our Vices

(a) Tit. ii. 11, 12.

(e) St. Matth. vi, 24.

can

can fpare him; nothing lefs than an uni- SERM. verfal Subjection will fatisfy the infinite Be- IX. ing, whom we serve. He that will be blameless before him, must walk in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord (p), and he that will lay hold on eternal Life, must stand perfect and compleat in all the Will of God (q). Be our Lufts as dear to us as a Right Eye or a Right Hand, we must pluck them out, or cut them off, and caft them from us, er'e we can enter into Life (r), nor expect, that God will yield to our Interceffions for them. They are in the Number of thofe Enemies, which the Lord of Hofts has appointed to be utterly rooted out, and if we fhew them any Indulgence, our Sentence will be the fame as was paffed on the King of Ifrael for letting go the Syrian King devoted to Deftruction, our Lives fhall go for them (s).

WHAT the Prophet Malachi upbraids the Jews with an Account of their faulty material Sacrifices, is very applicable to the defiled spiritual Oblations of Chriftians. If ye offer the Blind for Sacrifice, is it not Evil? And if ye offer the Lame and Sick, is

(p) St. Luke i. 6.
(r) St. Matth. v. 29, 30,

(2) Col. iv. 12.
(s) 1 Kings xx. 41,

it

SERM. it not Evil? Offer it now unto thy GoverIX. nor: Will be be pleafed with thee, or accept

thy Perfon (t)? So if we prefent the odious Sacrifice of a polluted Soul, is it not Evil? Do we not affront, inftead of honouring, the Divine Majefty! And can we, fo long as we perfift in the avow'd Omiffion of our Duty or Commiffion of Sin, in a State of Enmity with God, who cannot but loath every Tranfgreffion, expect to enjoy his Favour, to obtain his Rewards, or escape his Punishments? Will he not rather fay, I have no Pleafure in you, neither will I accept an Offering at your Hands (u)?

UPON the whole then, this Truth must be admitted for a principal Scripture Doctrine, that Obedience in numerous Particulars will be of no Confequence, where there is a willfull Difobedience in any: And whoever takes up with so vain a Conceit, will find himfelf wretchedly disappointed at the great Day of Retribution, when the Judge of all the Earth fhall adminifter true Judgment. It will be of fmall Avail at that fearching Conjuncture for fuch to plead the faving Efficacy of Chrift's Death, as have rejected the reforming Efficacy of it in their Lives,

and

() Malachi i. 8.

(4) V. 10.

and, instead of fulfilling the Conditions, on SERM. which the Atonement by his Blood is dif- IX. penfed, have taken Occafion from it, rather to increase than to forfake their Sins. Nothing will then meet with a gracious abfolving Sentence, befides the Univerfality of our religious Performances, which certainly no Man can alledge for himself, who has in any Refpect grofsly, knowingly, and perfeveringly tranfgreffed the Divine Will. No one therefore can upon the GospelTerms with juft Grounds hope for an Entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, who perfifts in any vicious Habit, or allows himfelf even in any fingle Acts of Ungodliness. Both our Creator and his Prophets, and our Redeemer and his Apoftles, far from giving Encouragement to fo infincere a Christian, have manifeftly excluded him from all folid Confidence in God.

AND the Agreeablenefs of this Decifion in the Matter before us to Reafon, is as open and visible, as to Scripture. It stands built on very conclufive Arguments drawn from the Divine Attributes and Government.

The Attributes of God are as neceffary to him, as his Existence, among which Purity

and

SERM. and Knowledge are chief, this arifing from IX. the Immenfity of his Nature, that from the

Rectitude of his Will: Now if God be endued with confummate Purity, and his Knowledge be as abfolute as his Holiness,---and if the one of these Perfections not only places him at an infinite Distance from all immoral Defilement, but makes him to abhor it in every Shape in every one of his Creatures,---and if the other renders all, even our moft fecret Tranfactions naked to his View, and he cannot but fee what he cannot but deteft: Muft not Men's Vices fadly pervert their Judgements and darken their Understandings, e're they can perfuade themselves to think, that he, with whom they have to do, will either not cenfure or not obferve every moral Defect in them,---will approve of, or dispense with, the leaft Sin, though he may, on wife and weighty Confiderations, pardon the greatest?

THEN, with Regard to God's Government, if his all-forming Power vefts him with an unbounded Jurifdiction over the whole Univerfe, where is the Perfon, where is the Action exempt from its directing Influence? If God's Right to lay his Commands upon us be univerfal, our Obligations to fulfill them

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