wifdom, the principle that gives its first admittance to the foul. And if this prin ciple be fixed in our minds, it will be productive of an univerfal caution to abstain from every action offenfive to our Maker, and of an habitual concern and folicitude to conform our whole conduct to his will. We fhall avoid all the artful difguifes of hypocrify, as much as open and avowed profanenefs; and our conduct will be equally just and correct in our retired hours, as when we appear on the public ftage of the world; knowing that no fhade of retirement, no cover of hypocrify, no veil of darkness, can hide us from that all feeing eye, under whofe infpection we live and move, This reverential fear of the Divine Being, eftablished upon rational grounds, will be a powerful motive to every virtue, and the most effectual prefervative from every fin. How shall I do this great evil, and fin against God! is the natu ral fuggestion of a heart impreffed with a religious fear.

Let us then habituate ourselves to form

fuch

bas

Tüch' juft, awful, and elevated ideas of our aadh Creator, as may give birth to an holy fear, tempered with a filial refpect, and pious confidence in him, that we may neither dishonour his greatnefs by want of reverence, nor affront his goodness by a fervile dread and an extorted fubmiffion. Let us remember, that if we now poffefs our minds with a reverential fear, and live under an habitual veneration of him, we fhall be admitted hereafter into that blifsful ftate, where perfect love will caft out all abject fear; where we shall fee God as he is, not armed with terrors, but furrounded with mercy; and shall approach him with the confidence of fons, as well as the fubmiffion of creatures; where we fhall offer to him an ingenuous fervice, not proceeding from constraint or apprehenfions of his vengeance, but from juft fentiments of the amiablenefs of moral goodnefs, and deep impreffions of holy gratitude to the Author of our felicity; where our duty will be the free-will offering of our hearts; where we fhall ferve

VOL. I,

GOD with liberal affections, and no mixture of a grofs and fervile alloy fhall debase the purity of our obedience; and where, all difingenuous motives of action being done away, the pureft and best of principles, the love of GOD and goodness, fhall actuate and animate us to endless ages.

· SER

SERMON XV.

Utility of the Light of REVELATION.

JOHN xii. 46.

I am come a light into the world, that whofoever believeth in me, should not abide in darkness.

ROM these words it appears, that one

FRO

principal intention of our Saviour's coming into the world was, to be a light to those who abide in darkness; i. e. to instruct those who had only the affistances of natural reason to inform them of the principles of religion and the rules of duty. And hence I fhall take occafion to confider the fuperior advantage of the light or inftruction afforded by the Christian Revelation.

No revelation, we may be affured, would have been communicated to the world, if the affiftances of natural reafon had been entirely fufficient; fufficient in fuch a fenfe as to preclude the neceffity or utility of a Revelation. But the infufficiency of reafon, and the confequent utility of re-. velation, may appear from the history of all the nations of antiquity who have lived deftitute of revealed inftructions. How uncertain and how imperfect a progress we should have made in our inquiries into religion, upon the ftrength of our mere rational powers, may be collected from the errors and ignorance, the idolatries and fuperftitions, of the Heathen world; which afford a fad, but clear, conviction, of the weakness of untutored reafon. How abfurd were their conceptions of a Supreme Being how unworthy of his greatnefs! how derogatory from the infinite, excellence of his nature! Though the character of the DEITY is ftrongly marked in the Creation, and the ftructure of both heaven and earth declares the existence, wif

dom,