SERMON VI. MATTHEW vi. 10th. Thy Will be done on Earth, as it is in T 0000 Heaven. HIS is the laft of those petitions which relate immediately to God, and is the best proof we can give of our being fincere in the foregoing. The will of God may be understood either of those laws which he has given us for the direction of our lives, or of those difpenfations M fations which in the course of them he is pleafed to lay on us. In the first of thefe fenfes our fincere Obedience, in the laft our chearful fubmiffion is required. Both thefe duties I fhall confider in my prefent difcourfe, fubjoining fuch confiderations as are proper to enforce them. And first, Of obedience to the will of God, as it means the obfervation of those laws which he has given us for the direction of our lives. Thefe laws are contained in the holy fcriptures; and as it is neceffary that we should know the good, perfect, and acceptable will of God, before it is poffible that we can do it, it is our duty to make ourselves thoroughly acquainted with thefe books, that we may have a competent knowledge of thofe laws which are to be the ftandard of all our actions. In order to acquire this, we fhould be diligent in reading them ourselves, and attentive to fuch expofitions as are delivered by others, for the more full and clearer illuftration of them. Half the time which many of us bestow upon reading Novels and Romances, would make us masters of those books wherein is contained our title to eternal falvation. One would imagine that a church like our's, wherein the Scriptures are publicly read in the vulgar tongue, and the duty of private reading and meditating on them is recommended, would abound with knowledge and understanding, even amongst her poorer members; whereas on the contrary, many, even in confiderable stations, are fo grofsly ignorant of them as can scarce be credited. For the knowledge of God's laws is not only easy to be acquired, but it is abfolutely neceffary for us to be acquainted. with them; as without knowing we cannot obey them, without obeying them we cannot obtain everlasting falvation. |