dinances of God with a sincere and upright heart; he will, for Christ's sake, forgive our sins, and make us partakers of his heavenly kingdom. This is enough for us to know; for knowing these things, happy shall we be, if we do them. Whereas, to know that few, or many, or all men shall be saved, cannot possibly do us any good. It may drive us into despair: It may make us secure, and careless about our future state. God hath promised eternal life to those who believe and obey him. On this ground salvation is certain; and no other ground we can take will make it more so.

Why, then, weary ourselves in finding out those things which the goodness and wisdom of God have hidden from us? Why destroy the peace of our own minds, of our neighbourhood, of the Church of God, by introducing a wrangling spirit, and disputing about that which cannot possibly do us any good? Dispute and wrangle as we will; determine as we please, that few, that many, that all shall be saved; still it will be true, that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord:" It still will be true, that "he that doeth righteousness," and he only "is righteous, even as" Christ" is righteous." Beware lest these speculations in religion, which can never be proved, lead you into a neglect of that penitence, and faith, and holy obedience which God requires. If they do, be your opinions whatever they may, ever so right in your own opinions, or in the estimation of others; you will be found in the number of those who "will seek to enter in at the strait gate, and shall not be able."

Through a principle of duty I have mentioned, and said so much on this subject; and I do earnestly recommend what hath been said to your serious consideration. I am not ignorant of the risk I run in combating prevailing errors. If they be old ones, they are riveted by long habit. Possibly they have been the belief of a long succession of ancestors; and people reluctantly hear a doctrine impeached in which they have grown up, and in which their forefathers lived and died. Hence it comes to pass, that er-. Ff

VOL. II.

ror goes unexamined, and is perpetuated merely because it is old.

On the other hand, when a new error is started, its very novelty recommends it. The vanity of the human heart is flattered by the notion of being wiser than those who have gone before, and of having struck out some discovery which escaped their sagacity. If it relax the severer precepts of the gospel, and point out an easier way to heaven than repentance and holiness, they who are uneasy in their present state, and not disposed to comply with the terms which the gospel requires, and yet are desirous of supporting a fair appearance, will generally become its partisans. If it set the precepts of the gospel high, and condemn the generality of Christians for falling off from the purity of its manners; a character of great holiness is acquired, and weak people join the error because it is an easy way of being more holy than their neighbours. In neither case is the tenet fairly examined; but it gains proselytes because it gives a man an air of importance, to think and speak differently from his neighbours.

One evil arising from error in religion, especially an error which a man hath taken up of himself, or to which he hath been lately brought over, is, that it wholly employs his thoughts. He can talk of no other religious subject but that. You would imagine he thought the whole gospel was comprised in it. This is more particularly true of the preachers and propagators of error. Their sermons, their conversation, perpetually run on their favorite topic. In the pulpit, in private company, their discourse is the same. Every thing else is neglected as of no importance. Talk with a Calvinist on religion, and begin where you will, you soon get into election and reprobation, and irresistible grace, and the decrees of God: You would think religion consisted of nothing else. If you are not of his opinion, you are a poor, deluded, natural man, who expect to be saved by your own works. Nor will you fare better if you discourse with the retainer to the doctrine of universal salvation. He, too, can talk on no other subject: And though he believes you will be

saved; and that nothing he or you can say or do will alter your eternal state, he will dispute with as much eagerness and heat as the Calvinist, who really fears your eternal damnation.

Novelty truth must ever want. No doctrine of Christian religion is now true, which was not true seventeen hundred years ago. Truth fears no examination, and dreads no discovery. To the law and to the testimony she is ever ready to appeal, and will never shrink from their decision. The written word of God must, therefore, be our last resort. Candor and fair construction are due to the Holy Books. The too common practice, however, is, to judge the Bible by our opinions, not our opinions by the Bible. When our sentiments and the Bible do not accord, instead of correcting our sentiments by it, we are apt to force the construction, vary the connection, put new meanings to old words, charge the holy books with corruptions and interpolations, do any thing rather than give up a favorite sentiment.

Let every one attend to himself, and guard his conduct in this matter: Remembering always, that Christianity is not merely a science to inform the understanding, but a system to correct the heart and regulate the actions and manners of men, and make them capable of happiness with God. Knowledge alone will never do this: It will require the energy of strong endeavours, and long practice. Attend, therefore, I beseech you, to the text. Dismiss the unprofitable inquiries of mere curiosity, and be more anxious to do what God hath commanded, than to know what he hath not revealed. By denying ungodliness and worldly lusts; by living godly, righteously, and soberly in this world, strive to enter in at the strait gate; for they who only seek to enter in, be it in whatever way they please, shall not be able.

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DISCOURSE XVIII.

THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS.

MATT. XXV. 13.

Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day, nor the hour, wherein the Son of man cometh.

IN the preceding Chapter, our Lord hath given us a

prophetic description of the destruction of Jerusalem; which was, within forty years, fulfilled by the Roman army under Titus, the son of the Emperor Vespasian. It is remarkable, that the stile and figures of speech, by which this event is foretold, are not only exceeding lofty, but scarcely applicable to any thing that could happen in this world. That the expressions which the Holy Ghost dictated to the prophets, are always proportioned to the event predicted, will be readily allowed by those who have studied their writings. But when Jesus the Son of God, to whom God gave the Holy Ghost without measure, became a prophet to declare the vengeance of heaven in the destruction of Jerusalem, the once favourite city of God most high; all the figures and strong expressions of the old prophets, in foretelling the destruction of old Jerusalem, of Tyre, of Babylon, of Nineveh, sink and become as nothing in the comparison. All nature is disturbed and trembles, because all nature feels the displeasure of God. Wars, and famine, and earthquakes, the darkened sun and moon, the falling stars, the sign of the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, the rapid activity of the angels of God, collecting "with a great sound of a trumpet" his "elect from one end of heaven to the other," all precede the final ruin of that devoted city. Can we suppose the sacking of one city, the desolation of one country, could thus affect the powers of na