a future ftate of rewards and punishments; and fome others. These we must take on the authority of scripture, just as we there receive them. We meddle not farther with them. Such difficulties, however, as are more obvious, and tend to explain fcripture, fuch as in the foregoing dif courses I have brought before you, may properly be the objects of our attention. Still, however," the grand points in which we are most interested, fhould be a holy life, derived from faith; the affistance of God's Holy Spirit, to be obtained by prayer; and the hope of pardon, through the merits of a Saviour. On these great points we should particularly dwell; and thank God for the information he has given us of them in the fcriptures,

Y A

SERMON XXV.

JOHN, vi. 68.

WHITHER SHALL WE GO? THOU HAST THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE.

OUR bleffed Saviour had been difcourfing upon fome of the fublime truths of the gospel; which his ordinary hearers, blinded with the prejudices of the world, could not comprehend. They were hard fayings, they faid, who could hear them? And their remark was just; for the prejudices of the world, and the truths of religion, never agree together. In the end, these cool difciples left their Master; and liftened no longer to one whom they thought so severe an inftructor. Jefus obferving this, turned to the twelve, and faid, will ye alfo go away? The text is the zealous answer of St. Peter: Lord, whither fhall we go? Thou haft the words of

eternal

eternal life. Whatever pretences the world may make-whatever allurements it may hold out, we are affured they are all falfe; and that nothing can be depended on but the truths of the gospel.

Having thus opened the general meaning of the text, let me now examine it more at large. It contains a question and an answer. The quef tion is, Whither fhall we go?-what guides fhall we follow ?-what steps fhall we take, to fecure our happiness? The answer refers us to the words of eternal life.

Let us first examine the queftion, Whither Shall we go?

It is certainly, of all questions that can be put to man, one of the most important; as happiness is the grand point we are all in quest of. In answering it, let us first examine the various pretences which the world fets up as guides to happiness. Nothing indeed can promise fairer: its pleasures-its riches-its ambitious schemes, and worldly wisdom, are all displayed before the eye, and furnish various temptations, fuited to every age, and every difpofition. When the wandering mind therefore afks, Whither fhall we go in search of happiness? what can be more plaufible

plausible than that long train of enjoyment which the world holds out? Whither fhall you go?— Go to the pleasures of fenfe. These things are fuited to you, and you to them: they cannot fail of making you happy.-Or, if these begin to lose their relish, seek the happiness that arises from riches; or follow the call of ambition and power. And, indeed, these delufions are generally strong enough to engage the greatest part of the world.

Yet one would think, that in a fober hour their beft pleas might easily be answered. No, thing more, one fhould imagine, is requifite, than to ask the plain queftion of the text, Have ye the words of eternal life?—If the pleasures of fenfe, and temptations of the world, propose themselves as guides to happiness, they should at leaft pretend to fomething beyond this life; for as we confist of a foul, as well as a body, if both are not provided for, the provifion is certainly very defective. But, delufive as its pleas are, they cannot fo far impofe upon us. The most joyous of them cannot pretend to fay, they can make any provision for the fouls of men. One fhould hope, then, that all, who are not guided merely like the brutes by paffions and appetites,

but

1

but wish to be thought in fome degree reasonable creatures, would difmifs, with a fhort anfwer, all the pleasures of the world, in the light of guides to happinefs.

But the world produces other guides to happiness.

And first, we are told, that reason is the great light which God hath appointed for the direction of man. Reafon is his guide in every thing which relates both to this world and the next. A written law, like the fcripture, may be fubject to various interpretations. Different men put different fenfes upon it. But reafon holds up a steady light; to which if we attend carefully, we cannot err.

And, no doubt, to difmifs our reafon, is to difmifs one of our beft friends; and yet, to fet it up as a guide above fcripture is, on the other hand, as dangerous. What is our reafon, unless it be informed? How are the favages of the earth regulated by its light? They are human beings they have the use of reafon as much as we: but if reason is no light to them, it is at leaft plain it is not qualified to be a general guide. Without proper information, indeed, our reafon can be no guide at all; and we may with

great