III.

had always proved ineffectual, and all the SER M. great and marvellous things which he had done for them in Egypt and in the Wilderness, had not prevailed with them to repent, had not drawn them (as our Saviour in the Text expreffes it) to the Obedience expected of them. And the

fame thing may in the like fenfe too justly be faid at this day, concerning many among Us. God has by a long feries of very marvellous Events delivered Us from That greatest of All Temporal calamities, the establishment of Popery and Arbitrary Power, by which Other Great and (in other refpects) Wife nations have been reduced under the vileft Indignities of the most irrational and inhumane Slavery: And yet the Lord hath not given us an heart to perceive, and eyes to fee, and ears to hear, even unto This day.

FROM what has been faid in explication of the phrases made ufe of in the Text, the general Doctrine it contains is plainly this; that no man. can become a true Difciple of Chrift, who is

not af fected with a fincere Love of God and Virtue; Nor can any one who already profeffes the Name of Chrift, behave him

felf

SER M. felf as becomes that Holy Profeffion, by III. Any other Methods or Forms of Religion

whatsoever, than by the Practice of Righteoufnefs and true Virtue, in Obedience to the moral Commands of God. When our Saviour had worked the Miracle of the Loaves, recorded in the Beginning of This chapter; many of the Jews believed on him; that is, they profeffed themselves his Difciples, not out of any regard to the Excellency and Holinefs of his Doctrine, but in hopes of being fupported by him in the World. To these persons he fays, ver. 26. Ye feek me, not because ye faw the Miracles, but because ye did eat of the Loaves, and were filled: - Labour not for the meat which perifketh, but for That meat which endureth unto everlasting life. This Doctrine when they relished not, but began to murmur; he reproves them with fomewhat more earnestness in the words of the Text; No man can come to Me, except the Father, which has fent me, draw him: "Tis in vain to profefs to be my Disciples upon any other foot, than that of Regard to God, and to the World to come. Upon which when they murmured ftill more, ver. 61. he replied

again,

III.

again, ver. 64. There are fome of you that SER M. believe not; therefore said I unto you, that no man can come to Me, except it were given unto him of my Father: Given unto him of my Father; that is, in the fame fenfe, as he elsewhere tells the Apostles that 'twas given to them to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, because they were unprejudiced, willing to hear and to understand; and came to him, not upon any temporal Defign, but being perfwaded (as St Peter expreffes himself, ver. 68. of this chapter,) that he had the words of eternal Life.

UP ON account of the neceffary and infeparable connection of thefe Two things; of a steady Regard to the eternal obligations of the moral law of God, in every one who profeffes to embrace the Revelation of Chrift; upon This account (I fay) it is, that our Lord declares, Job. vii. 16, 17. My doctrine is not mine, but His that fent me; If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of my felf. And again, ch. viii. 42. If God, fays he, were your Father, ye would love Me; for I proceeded forth and came from

God;

SER M. God; neither came I of myself, but he fent

III.

me. Like to which, is that of the A
poftle St John, I fob. i. 13, I write
unto you little children, becaufe ye kave
known the Father; ver. 24, If that which
ye have heard from the beginning, Shall
remain in you, ye alfo fhall continue in the
Son and in the Father; 2 Joh. 9, He that
abideth in the doctrine, (that is, he that
obeys the Laws) of Chrift, he hath both the
Father and the Son. On the contrary, to
the immoral and hypocritical Pharisees,
who hated the doctrine of Virtue and
Righteoufnels; re neither know me, fays
our Lord, nor my Father, Job. viii. 19.
And, fpeaking of the perfecutions which
the vitious and debauched World would
bring upon his difciples; These things,
fays he, will they do unto you, because they
know not him that fent me, Joh. xv. 21.
They have both feen and bated both Me
and my Father, ver. 24; And these things
will they do unto you, because they have
not known the Father, nor Me, ch. xvi.
3;
that is, they have no true Senfe, either of
natural Religion, or revealed.

THE Sum therefore and application of the Whole, is This: The Great End and

Defign

Defign of the Gofpel of Chrift, is to re- SER M. ftore Sinners to the Favour of God, by III. bringing them back to the Practice of m True Virtue. Vicious and corrupt Minds therefore, who are enemies to the Moral Laws of God, must always naturally be averse to the Doctrine of the Gospel. Confequently fuch perfons are very apt, either to oppose and perfecute the true Difciples of Chrift; or elfe, if in times of Profperity they themselves embrace the Profeffion of Chriftianity, they always place their Religion in outward Forms and Ceremonies, or in certain Systems of opinion, confiftent with unrighteous pratice. For to a True Sense of Chrift's Religion no man can come, except the Father draw him, that is, except the love of God and Virtue be his Motive,

VOL. III.

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SER