SERMON IV.

THE IMPORTANCE AND EXTENT OF FREE INQUIRY IN MATTERS OF RELIGION.

[Preached November 5, 1785.]

MATT. xiii. 9.

HE THAT HATH EARS TO HEAR LET HIM HEAR.

IN these words our Lord several times addressed his audience, in order to summon their utmost attention to his doctrine. It was a call to make use of their reason, in a case in which it was of the greatest consequence to apply it, and in which they were likewise capable of applying it with the greatest effect, viz. the investigation of religious truth. Hear and understand is another of his modes of calling the attention of his audience to the instruction that he gave them. And when he thought them deficient in their attention to his doctrine, and they did not appear to understand what he laid before them, he was not backward even in his reproaches on that account. Are ye also yet without under

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standing? Do not ye yet understand? is language that he once made use of, evidently implying some degree of surprise and displeasure. Matt. xv. 16, 17. And even in a case of considerable difficulty, viz. the right application of scripture prophecies, he said to the two disciples going to Emmaus, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Luke xxiv. 25.

The apostles continued the same earnest addresses to the reason of their converts; and Paul, in particular, gave the greatest exercise to the understandings of his hearers and readers, by very abstruse argumentation on subjects relating to religion. His epistles to the Romans, to the Galatians, and to the Hebrews, are chiefly argumentative; and those to the Corinthians, and some others, are very much so. For, after the death of our Saviour, new cases had occurred, and new difficulties had arisen, for which the instructions he had given them were not sufficient. And had the apostles continued to live to the present day, other cases would, no doubt, have occurred, in which their own reasoning powers, and those of their disciples, would have found continual exercise.

Indeed, it seems to be the design of Providence that the present state should be a theatre of constant exercise and discipline, and that not

of our passions only, but also of our understandings, that we may make continual advances in knowlege as well as in virtue; to prepare us, no doubt, for our proper sphere of action in a future world; in which, we may assure ourselves, we shall find abundant exercise, as for the moral virtues that we acquire here, so also for that habit of patient inquiry, and close investigation of truth, and likewise that candour with respect to those that differ from us, which it is our duty to acquire and cultivate here below.

Man is a creature whose distinguishing excellence is the reason which God has given him, no less than his capacity for moral virtues. The perfection of man, therefore, must consist as well in the improvement of his reason, and the acquisition of knowledge, as in the attainment of all moral virtue. We should, then, always keep our attention awake to every interesting subject of discussion; and, whenever religious truth is directly or indirectly concerned, imagine that we hear our Saviour himself calling out to us, and saying, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

The subject of free inquiry, I am well aware, is a very trite one, and especially as one of the usual topics on the fifth of November, on which it is customary to call the attention of Protestants to the use of their reason in matters of religion,

in order to vindicate the principles of the Reformation; and also further to assert our liberty of dissenting from the established religion of this country. This has been done so often that many persons may think it a worn-out and useless topic. They may think that the Reformation has been abundantly vindicated, and that now we have nothing to do but to rejoice in that liberty in which the exertions of our ancestors, and the favour of Divine Providence, have made us free. Dissenters also may think the principles of their dissent from the establishment of the country sufficiently vindicated, and that now we have nothing to do but joyfully to acquiesce in our greater liberty; only being ready to oppose all attempts that may be made to encroach upon

it.

This, however, is the language of those who think they have acquired all useful religious knowledge; whereas it is probable that this will never be the situation of man, not even in a future world, and much less in this. In nature we see no bounds to our inquiries. One discovery always gives hints of many more, and brings us into a wider field of speculation. Now, why should not this be, in some measure, the case with respect to knowledge of a moral and religious kind? Is the compass of religious knowledge so small, as that any person, however

imperfectly educated, may comprehend the whole, and without much trouble? This may be the notion of such as read or think but little on the subject. But of what value can such an opinion be?

If we look back into ecclesiastical history (which is itself a study no less useful than it is immense, and despised by none but those who are ignorant of it,) we shall see that every age, and almost every year, has had its peculiar subjects of inquiry. As one controversy has been determined, or sufficiently agitated, others have always arisen; and I will venture to say there never was a time in which there were more, or more interesting objects of discussion before us, than there are at present. And it is vain to flatter ourselves with the prospect of seeing an end to our labours, and of having nothing to do but to sit down in the pleasing contemplation of all religious truth, and reviewing the intricate mazes through which we have happily traced the progress of every error.

If, indeed, we confine ourselves to things that are necessary to salvation, we may stop whenever we please, and may even save ourselves the trouble of any inquiry, or investigation at all: because nothing is absolutely necessary to acceptance with God, and future happiness, in some degree, besides the conscientious practice