Chapter II: Part 2

Whether man be fallen or not, is now, in reality, the dispute. Such as reject with scorn, all idea of a revealed Religion as an impossibility in its own nature, (and some are absurd enough to reject it on this ground) affirm that the light of reason is entirely sufficient for all the purposes of discovering to us, the whole of our duty as rational creatures and to ensure infallibly our happiness here and hereafter; if there be an hereafter. These say that we are now just as we always were: that man never fell or apostatized from his Maker; of course, that he is under no worse circumstances, nor labours under any evils, under which he did not labour when he came forth from the hands of creative wisdom, goodness, and power. And, therefore, that he has an INWARD LIGHT sufficient for all the purposes of his salvation--a sufficient guide in all things of a moral and religious nature. The consequence is, that a divine revelation is wholly unnecessary. If wholly unnecessary, we may be certain, that a wise and good Being, who perfectly knows all things, would not vouchsafe to give one.--For he does nothing in vain.--

Others, who admit a divine Revelation, believe that man is not so fallen from God, but that he has a degree, though small, of real moral goodness or holiness, which being duly nourished and attended to, will issue in life eternal. But the Apostle, in the words now read, says that all men are, before the Gospel be preached unto and embraced by them, _without hope and without God in the world._--And, what was intended, in discoursing upon those words, was to prove that mankind, merely, by their own reason and wisdom, cannot attain to a saving knowledge of God, or, in themselves, are in a helpless and hopeless state--Two things were proposed to be largely considered,

I. How far the light of reason, unassisted, can go in the things of a religious and moral nature.--

II. And, to point out its insufficiency, in these respects, which are not only very important, but altogether necessary.----

The first of these has already been discussed.--And we entered, in the preceding discourse, upon the second--and illustrated the insufficiency of the mere light of reason.--1st. In regard to the essential glories and excellencies of the divine nature and character--and 2nd. in regard to the right way of worshipping and serving God.

We now pass--to observe----

3. The light of mere reason, or conscience of mankind is wholly insufficient to discover to us _whether God will accept_ of us, at all; and if he will, _upon what terms._ It can tell us that he is the Maker of all things, the Preserver of all things, the governor of all things; but can give us no instruction upon what terms he will receive us into his favour and friendship, or whether he will do it, at all. When we ponder deep on moral and religious subjects, we cannot be but conscious of many imperfections and Sins. We feel that there is a power on high whom we have offended. We dread his anger. When another world is seriously contemplated, we dare not appear in it without some firm hope. An invisible God--an incensed Judge is an alarming thought. The anxious enquiry is wherewith shall we come before him--and bow ourselves before a holy and pure God? Mere reason cannot satisfy the enquiry. It knows not how we may come before him, or with what sacrifices he will be pleased. Being truly humbled and deeply grieved for our offences seems the most natural way of hoping for pardon and acceptance. But, whether a holy and righteous sovereign, on our repentance, can forgive us consistently with his glories, or the safety of his Universe, reason cannot inform us. To cast ourselves upon his infinite clemency is what reason would advise. But, whether this would be safe or not, is a grand uncertainty. Without a revelation, therefore, we do not know whether we may be pardoned--or if we may, how it may be consistently done; or how we may be recovered from the evils, which all men feel, and of which the world is full. Reason can see the disease, under which all men labour, but can prescribe no method of cure. All the wise men of the heathen world for thousands of years together, have tried to discover a method of escape from the evils, which all felt, and of which they justly complained. But all in vain.--An infinitely wise God gave human nature a fair trial--all advantages--and time long enough to satisfy all reasonable men, how far it could go. Look round the world, at this day, and what success has boasted and almost idolized reason had in things of a moral and religious concern, among pagan nations?--Look back on past ages, and where alas! is the man--or the body of men that have found reason a sufficient guide? Even, in the countries blessed with the Gospel, what delusion, what Error, what superstition!--Without a divine Revelation all is darkness, in a moral view:--all is helpless and hopeless:--there is no pardon:--there is no salvation. Reason could never show one sin forgiven or lead a step beyond the grave--or have any idea of the resurrection of the body.

All mankind are, therefore, in themselves, without hope and without God in the world. Under all the pressures of adversity, or dismal pains and calamities of life, separate from revealed Religion, there is no relief for them. All would be darkness,--mystery--and despair. They could not conjecture for what the world was made--for what it is preserved--why there were made rational creatures--What design is aimed at, in the government of the world--or what the real and true character of the Maker of it is--or what will be the end of the whole.

4. The reason and conscience of mankind do not _clearly_ discover a future state, nor place before them rewards and motives sufficiently strong and powerful to induce them, amid the attractions, temptations and vanities of this world, to act with a wise reference to another.

Conscience is God's monitor, reprover or counsellor within the soul. In many important cases, it dictates what ought to be done, and what ought not to be done in regards to our behaviour towards our fellow men, and towards ourselves as connected in society. It shows us plainly what moral ties, in a multitude of instances, which cannot now be enumerated, bind us. When we do wrong, it punishes us by severe remonstrances and upbraidings. When we do well, it testifies in our behalf, and administers rich consolation by self-approving reflections. It, consequently, serves as a natural law to all men. It is the Deity's law written or imprinted on all minds. From its present severe reproofs for vicious, and pleasing joys, for virtuous and upright conduct, we may gather, fairly, that there will be a future reckoning--a day of judgment--a world to come--a place to remunerate the just, and to inflict punishments on the incorrigible. At least, we may conclude all this to be highly probable. Conscience, then, points us to a future state as a probability. Accordingly the most, though not all of heathen nations and tribes have had some faint and confused idea of another life after death. Some wavering belief of it. They conjectured that there might be, or would be a future existence. The rational and sober livers among them hoped there would be another life. But no nation, not favoured with revealed light, ever entertained any tolerably consistent or rational notions of it, either of the rewards to be conferred upon the good, or the evils to be endured by the wicked.--With their Poets and Orators all was fable and fiction. They described, with much ornament of language, their ELYSIAN FIELDS--and represented, in a terrifying manner, their FURIES.--

Few, indeed, if any, had a just idea that one holy, righteous and good Being made and presided over the whole universe. Some have doubted whether ever one of the heathen philosophers really believed, unless he had seen the Old or New Testament, the unity of the Godhead. Socrates is represented by some as dying a Martyr to this belief--but, in his last moments, he ordered sacrifice to be offered to the idol-gods of his country--thereby giving his dying testimony to polytheism. However this may be, it is certain to a demonstration that the heathen have universally been polytheists or have admitted a plurality of Gods. They had their great and their household or domestic divinities--their terrestrial and celestial divinities, more than thirty thousand in all. Almost every thing in nature, as well as the sun, moon and stars, was worshipped--such as groves of trees, fountains of water, rivers, various plants and insects. _As concerning, therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifices to Idols, we know that an Idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth (as there be Gods many and Lords many) but to us there is but one God the father of whom are all things and we by him._

The right way to know what reason can do, in things moral and religious, is to see what it actually hath done, in past ages, among the most learned and polished nations. They had great men--learned men--philosophers--poets--statesmen--and orators: especially the Romans and Greeks. They were opulent, and had many schools of wise men. These cultivated science, and spared no pains in their researches, to discover truth. They did all that reason could do, when learning is most liberally encouraged and happily flourishes, as to a discovery of a future world--and what rewards await the virtuous, and what punishments will be the portion of the wicked. After all, their notions were ridiculous, childish, self-repugnant, and contradictory.

It is true, they had some judicious, weighty, moral, sayings; for in this argument, I would allow them as much as can be allowed them, consistently with fact. But no system of heathen morals proposed any thing, as motives drawn from another world of any force to induce people to act with any due reverence to it--or to prepare for a happy immortality. Reason, consequently, doth not, properly speaking, look into another world. It merely conjectures about it.--The Gospel, or a divine revelation only fully discloses an Eternity to man.--It lays before him Immortality: an Immortality of blessedness, when life is no more, if it have been improved in a pious and virtuous manner.--It denounces on the wicked everlasting misery. _But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel._-----We can now look through all the wastes and glooms of death and the grave to a resurrection of the body--to a judgment-seat--to an endless existence after death--to eternal rewards for the pious--and everlasting woe to the despisers of God and Virtue. By the Gospel, therefore, we have hope, pleasing enrapturing hope--we have light, like the glorious luminary of the sky in his meridian altitude--we have life, spiritual and divine--we have the saving knowledge of God--we have a fulness of felicity opened before us, and promised to us, upon our repentance, faith, and new obedience.

5. Reason and conscience are unable to renew and change our hard hearts, or to give us a true and real light of the excellency of spiritual and divine things. To subdue the obduracy of the heart, to slay the enmity there is in us against the law, character, and perfections of God, is beyond all that reason and conscience can effect. The powers of reason can tell us of our dark, blinded corrupt state. Men of science and liberal enquiry, in all ages, and among all people, have seen, confessed, and bewailed the imperfections and frailties, the infirmities and exceeding depravation of human nature; like a magnificent pile of buildings in ruin--or a fertile and luxuriant soil overrun with noxious plants. It was impossible for candid and inquisitive men among heathen tribes not to have discovered the perverseness and vices of human nature, in general, they are so plain; though they called some things Virtues which were not--and some things Vices which were not. But reason never could suggest, or give a hint of any plan of restoration to a right temper or a holy and innocent condition. There is nothing--no principle in man--no light--or quality that can sanctify, purify, and regenerate the soul. But an inward renovation is absolutely necessary to moral happiness, to become like God, to be either conformed to his perfections, or fitted to enjoy his presence in heaven. The wisest and best heathen confessed it was not in man to heal the moral disorders of his nature, or to rectify the temper, so great was its obliquity; and affirmed that a superior power was needed to effect this, and to make us meet to enjoy forever the favour and friendship of the Creator of the Universe. They felt that a revelation was _necessary_ to lead and direct men how to live, so as to be hereafter blessed, and never once thought of disputing the possibility of such a thing. And nothing, in that Revelation which we enjoy, is plainer than the doctrine of efficacious grace, or more insisted upon than the need of a divine power to sanctify, purify, and change our disordered and depraved nature. Divine influence is essentially requisite, to renew us and to implant within the soul the principle of holiness. _Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.--But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned.--No man can come unto me, except the father, which hath sent me, draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day.--Not that we are of ourselves sufficient to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.--Paul may plant and Apollos water, but it is God that giveth the increase.--Yea they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations._

Men do not chuse piety and virtue from any principle within themselves. They chuse their own evil practices which lead to ruin. They actually hate God and holiness, truth and religion, or their conduct would not be such as we see it is, when we carefully examine it. They are not willing to be, and to do, as they ought. They will not, though urged by the weight of the most powerful arguments and all the ardor of importunity, live up to the light which they have; or wisely and diligently improve the talents with which they are entrusted. They hide, like the slothful servant, their talent in a napkin. They have no disposition to improve it. They resemble the prodigal son, in the parable, wasting their substance in riotous living. All men have a propensity to wander from the truth. They do not, and never did, duly and faithfully, improve the light of reason, or those notices of God--of virtue--of the moral law which they had, or now have. All, of course, who shall finally perish, will be self-condemned. They will never have it in their power to say that their Maker has been, either unjust or hard with them; or to reply as the slothful servant did, _Lord I know thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth; lo! there thou hast that is thine._

_In the sixth and last place,_ reason and conscience are insufficient to give us a full and complete system of morality, or moral truths. Let the system of morality taught and believed by the best and wisest of heathen nations, be candidly examined and critically inspected, and it will appear a maimed and imperfect, a broken and defective system. They had endless contentions about what they termed the CHIEF GOOD, that is, the real duty and happiness of man. One of their most eminent moralists reckons up more than one hundred different and contradictory opinions on this subject. Some placed it in self-indulgence: some in riches--some in insensibility--and all in that which never can render us blessed, and in which it can never be found.--Had any one leisure, and could summon up a sufficient stock of patience to collect from all the heathen writers on moral subjects, their various and self-contradictory rules of moral living, we should see how utterly unable _mere_ reason is to form a complete system of moral virtue.

It would be great injustice to the subject before us, not to remark here, that some of the greatest moralists among the Greeks and Romans, had seen the writings of Moses, or the New-Testament, and had gleaned from them, a great proportion of the moral lessons which they delivered. Many of them, which is indeed much to their honour, travelled into the famous countries of Asia, where mankind were _first planted_ by the adorable Creator, and where communications from the Almighty were first made to man, and they returned home to their own countries, enriched with the learning of others. But with all these advantages none of them, Socrates, Plato, or Seneca, who were universally known to be most renowned for moral sayings, formed any thing like a full and perfect system. They leave out many important virtues. They admit many odious and horrible vices; such as self-murder, cruelty, incest, and revenge.--And they place all the virtues on a wrong foundation, and persuade to the practice of them from improper and weak, or sinister and wicked motives. Even the celebrated Cato, who gave forth many moral maxims--who was called honest, just, inflexible in integrity--who was said by his contemporaries to be possessed of a stern virtue, put an end to his own life, because he could not bear to be a witness of the corruption and degeneracy of the age, in which he lived.--Few crimes perpetrated by man can be more heinous than self-murder. There is something terrifying in the extreme to think of ushering ourselves, uncalled, unbidden into the presence of the Deity and into the invisible world. Many nations now in the world where the Gospel was never known or christian doctrines propagated, have no idea at all of the Creator of the universe, or immortality of the soul, or pious duties, or fear of, or love to God.--The heathen tribes of this Land, as those tell us who have had the best opportunities of information, where no European has disseminated any seeds of religious belief, have no idea who made them--or who made the world--or of duty to God. In the interior parts of Africa, a late traveller there, asserts, that various tribes, visited by him, as far as he could learn, had no idea at all of any God or religion, or even words to express any worship to be paid to any power above them. But admit this to be a mistake, still truth compels us to believe them extremely ignorant on moral and religious subjects. They have however as bright faculties and powers of mind as the nations who have the Gospel. The immense difference is to be ascribed principally to that very Christianity, which is, alas! so much neglected by us.--

If we would know what light there is in man--what light all men have--or what help all need, we must see what nations, which never enjoyed any divine Revelation, have known--done--and believed as to God, Piety, and Morality. Superficial reasoners, men who indeed pretend to reason and philosophy--and reject the Gospel, and tell us of the sufficiency of nature's light--of reason and conscience--or any other principle, lose, and bewilder themselves by not fairly looking into the history of the heathen nations and their moral writings, and seeing what their ideas, notions, and improvements have been, and still are. Their history, in truth, is but one continued narrative of ignorance--idolatry--vices--unnatural lusts--wars--bloodshed--barbarity--and misery; and their moral writings, so far as they have reached our times, contain no just or full system of morality at all. If a man were to conform himself to the whole of their rules of moral living, and understood them all, his life would be a scene of inconsistence and error, vice and folly; and his end self-murder. Our modern scepticks, it must be carefully remembered, collect all their ideas of morality and of God, if any just ones they have, and so far as any of their ideas be just, from that very Religion which they reject. They are, therefore, like a wayward and perverse Child that disowns its parent, merely because he wishes him to be good and happy--to be and do right; and takes the indispensably necessary measures for this purpose.--And if, among the haters of Religion, any be found at this day who have adopted the Atheists Creed, under the splendid name of philosophy--it is a most striking proof of what is the subject of this discourse.--Upon the whole, we may come to this conclusion, that all the conduct of man, since the day he was expelled from the earthly paradise for his Apostacy, proves clearly, even to a demonstration, that there is no light in him, or guide to duty and happiness, which may be depended upon--or which is safe for him to trust to--or sufficient to lead him to GOD and GLORY. Without Christ and the Gospel, all is darkness--confusion, and despair. There is no hope, no help, no salvation, no true system even of morality, if we deny a Saviour and his Gospel. See what the pagan world is from the holy Apostle Paul. He will tell you the truth. He will not deceive you by misrepresentation.--But how can I read! How can you hear without confusion!--I shudder at their awful and horrible vices, and utter depravation of heart, and morals. _Professing themselves wise, they became fools. And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies with themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever, amen. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient--being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful._--Here is a true account of the polished heathen of the antient Roman Empire: of their philosophers as well as of the vulgar. More ignorant and Savage nations and tribes are, if possible, still more vile.--What, then, is human nature? What is man's true state or character before renewed by divine grace?--What! is he as holy and innocent as Adam was when he was first formed? Is he, in his mind, fair and unspotted, as a clean sheet of paper?--Has he a light in himself sufficient to all the ends of spiritual life on earth, and eternal life in heaven! See what mankind are without the Gospel,--_Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having ho hope, and without God in the world._

I think it proper, here, to subjoin a few passages of Scripture, out of many, which declare that mankind are corrupted and depraved--or that they have no principle within them, sufficient to enable them to attain to eternal life without the powerful operations of divine grace.--How full to this purpose are those words (Gen. vi. 5). _And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is evil from his youth._--The Psalmist David fully testifies what man is when he puts himself forward as an example. _Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.--Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my Mother conceive me._--The prophet Jeremiah speaks of man's depraved state in very strong terms.--_The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?_ It follows, _I the Lord search the heart,_ to give to every man according to his works. _If the heart be deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,_ is it, at the same time possessed of any degree of a holy principle--or has it any light to guide it to heaven, or to be a sufficient directory in matters of faith and practice?--How the Apostle Paul viewed man as he is in himself, appears from the long quotation above made from him, and also from the following words--_What then are we better than they? no, in no wise, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one._--And again, _Now we know that what things soever the law saith: it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God--for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God._ The same inspired teacher leads the mind to the source of all, the sin of the first man, who stood as a public head for all his posterity. _Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned._--Again, _you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins._--Our blessed Lord himself says, _he came to seek and save that which was lost._ If we be not lost we need no Saviour, or atonement, or help.--It appears, then, with an evidence exceedingly strong, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God--and that man, in a natural state, _is wretched,_ and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. He has no principle in himself, by whatever name it may be called, which can, being duly exercised, form him for the service of God on earth, or his immediate presence in heaven.

What remains is to add a few reflections by way of improvement.

1. And what hath been said teacheth us the importance of realizing the misery and ruin of the condition of all men, as they are born into the world. A want of belief, or due sense of this, leads to a denial of the Gospel--to a rejection of the propitiatory sacrifice of the Redeemer--to almost every heresy and error. Men cannot bear to admit so mortifying a truth as that of their ruined and fallen, guilty and miserable state. Pride rises up, and repudiates the unpleasing doctrine. One says we are not depraved: another affirms which indeed is the same thing, that we have a light of our own adequate to all the purposes of our salvation:--a third contends that there is a portion of real saving grace in every human heart. All these, in effect, disown the scripture doctrine of the text, the utterly ruined and perishing condition of man in himself. The truth endeavoured to be established in the above discourses, is that the light of reason or highest wisdom of mankind is insufficient to teach us the true and saving knowledge of God. It is of the utmost moment to realize this. _The world by wisdom knew not God.--Where there is no vision the people perish: but he that keepeth the law happy is he.--To open their eyes,_ is the design of the Gospel, _and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sin, and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me. Understand ye brutish among the people! and ye fools when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? he that chastiseth the heathen, shall he not correct? he that teachest knowledge, shall he not know? The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity.--I know you,_ says our Saviour, _that the love of God is not in you._--Can any one who seriously believes the scriptures, hold that man has any principle, let it be termed how it may, that can be adequate to all the end of spiritual life here, and eternal life hereafter?--That there is in fact no saving knowledge of God out of Christ, is plain from Acts iv. 12.--_Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved._ He that hath not the son, hath not the father. Deny Christ and reject his Gospel, and you reject life. Misery is, then, inevitable. You must realize that you are, in yourselves, lost and guilty,--wretched and undone,--hopeless and perishing.

2. We infer from the foregoing subject the infinite grace and condescension of the Deity in making a _revelation_ of his will, and of the _way of salvation_ to mankind. He was under no obligation to do it. It would not have been either cruel, or hard, or unrighteous in him, to have withheld all pity from them, and to have let them die in their sins. Most justly might a holy and sovereign God have given them all over to the fatal effects of their own folly. It is no injustice or partiality in him to take one and leave another, because he is not obliged to have mercy on any one. If he reveal his will to any nation or people: or if he sanctify, pardon and save one individual, it is all of free grace. All the glory is his, when he sheweth mercy: all the shame and guilt of sin, if we die in our iniquities, are ours.--_Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they will walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance._

If the great Lord of heaven and earth give his Gospel to one nation and not to another:--or if he pardon, renew and save one individual and not another: if he bestow upon one ten, upon another five, upon another one talent only: if he impart to one a disposition to improve, by his power and spirit, and not to another--does he do any wrong?--May he not do what he will with his own? Who can find fault? If all have forfeited every claim to mercy, who can complain of either cruelty or injustice on the part of heaven, if it be withheld? Where shall the vile monster, the impious wretch be found who will rise up and impeach the holiness, wisdom and benevolence of God, because he is a sovereign?--Let such if any there be come forward and make good their charge, for their controversy is with the Almighty. By him we are told that we are vile, guilty, perishing, and ill-deserving sinners, that there is no principle in us, while unrenewed, that is sufficient, duly cultivated, to our salvation. Such as affirm that there is, must dispute it out, with him whose is the Universe, whose is the power and glory. That he should condescend to reveal his will to us--to open a plan of life, of restoration to his favour, and to holiness, and happiness, is admirable grace, is such a display of compassion as may well excite within us, every grateful sentiment.

3. We, therefore, further infer from the foregoing subject, the duty of gratitude that we enjoy the light and advantages of a divine Revelation. This light is rich and glorious: those advantages are many and precious. How affecting is the idea of the perishing state of man!--How is _the gold become dim and the most fine gold changed!_--Who but must weep over the situation of the heathen, that are without hope and without God in the world:--who are in darkness:--who are worshipping dumb Idols: who are bowing down to stocks and stones:--who have Gods many and lords many: who believe in polytheism, and have changed the truth of God into a lie:--who pay honours divine to the sun, moon and stars.--They do not know that there is but one God--or how to serve him, or that he can, and will pardon them. To them all is darkness and mystery. No ray of revealed light reaches them, and they have no rational view of moral and divine things.----Who made us to differ? Who ordered our birth and education in a land of Gospel light and liberty--a land of civil and religious freedom, while such an handful only of the human race either know or enjoy the rights of man?--We know or may know, duly using our reason and the light of the Gospel, the way of truth. We know that there is but one God, one Mediator, one salvation, one way to life eternal.--Happy are ye in knowing the Gospel of the grace of God--in having the holy scriptures in a language which you understand! Happy are ye in having the privilege of public worship!--_He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statues and his judgments unto Israel: he hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord.--At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee O father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hath revealed them unto babes._--Why art thou, O America, so highly exalted--so eminently distinguished by all the light and privileges of the Gospel, and civil freedom!--How unnatural, how barbarous any of thy citizens, if they despise these:--if they exert any power to take from thee, thy glory--thy beauty--thy praise, the Gospel of the grace of God: or to oppose or corrupt it; or if they refuse to be thankful for it!--O for a note of praise sublime to ascend from every American tongue and fervour of gratitude to go up from every American heart to the throne of the Universe--that we have all the LIGHT, PRIVILEGES, and ORDINANCES of the christian religion:--delightful, pleasing, divine Religion, pure and undefiled!--May all our hearts welcome thee to our choice--and, then, we are happy. Thou art the glory of any land, the guide of the youth, the support of age, the solace of all thy friends!----_Happy is that people whose God is the Lord!_

4. We infer from this subject, the absolute need of the divine teachings in order to be saved. We are not of ourselves sufficient to change our own corrupt hearts. Paul may plant and Apollos water, but it is God who giveth the increase. Means are to be employed--divine grace is to be sought importunately and perseveringly--the ministrations of the Gospel are to be attended upon diligently, carefully, and heedfully. But the power of God must call and quicken, sanctify and save the soul. Listen not then, for a moment, to such as tell you, that you have a treasure in yourselves, if you will attend to it, in a proper manner, which is sufficient to all the ends of a holy life, and future blessedness.--Such only deceive themselves. They do but dream in Religion. They are sadly ignorant of the first principles of the Oracles of God.--

In the fifth and last place, we infer from this subject the obligation upon us to improve faithfully the light and advantages of a divine Revelation. We are particularly distinguished on account of our religious privileges. We enjoy the benefit of the outward ministrations of the sanctuary. Gospel truths, and ordinances are dispensed to us. The doors of God's house are always open to us. We have the holy Sabbath. On the part of God, what could have been done more for his Vineyard than has been done? Now all these advantages we are to improve, with faithfulness and diligence. Let _us_ never disesteem them, let _others_ say or do what they may, or speak ever so hard things of the Gospel, or its institutions. Profane and irreligious men will scoff at all serious piety. Let us never be seduced by the artifices of such, as lie in wait to deceive; or be ashamed of the Gospel of the Son of God; for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. If we abuse the light which we enjoy, and misimprove our religious opportunities and advantages, our guilt will be exceedingly aggravated, and our final ruin, if we perish, proportionately dreadful. _For that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, nor did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes.--For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required._

DISCOURSE III.

----------

The ways in which the holy Scriptures are perverted by unlearned and unstable men.

2 PETER, iii. 16. 17.

_As also in all his Epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness._

The holy scriptures, though by divine grace able to make us wise unto salvation, are almost wholly disused by multitudes, who nevertheless would wish to be thought friends to the religion and morals which are taught in them. They even lie by, in many houses covered with dust, as if of no consequence in the direction of human life, and unworthy of a careful attention or serious perusal. Their purity, their beauty, their sublimity, which some of the best and greatest characters that ever adorned human nature, have not only admired, but extolled, are overlooked, either through a want of discernment to acknowledge, or of taste to relish their merit.--Some read them only from custom or for amusement.--Others read them merely to cavil at, reproach, and pervert them. Others, again, search them, not to be guided by the light which they shall exhibit, but to support or confirm the opinions, which they have previously imbibed, and are resolved not to relinquish. Hence not only different, but contradictory principles are pretended to be drawn from them.

Like all other things of importance and worth, they are liable to be abused and misapplied. It is however no valid, nor, indeed, plausible objection against their divinity, or usefulness, that they are capable of being misconstrued and misunderstood. If it please the majesty of heaven and earth to speak to man, at all concerning his duty and happiness as a moral agent, he must speak to him in man's language. But all human language is imperfect, capable of being perverted and wrongly construed--of course, the holy scriptures are so. In truth, every thing done by man is imperfect. He lives in an imperfect world. His language, when most refined, is imperfect.--It would therefore, bespeak a high degree of folly and inconsideration either to disesteem, or to think meanly of the holy scriptures, because they have been misimproved and profaned. And, it is equally disgraceful to reason and repugnant to philosophy to look upon them as fabulous, or to imagine that no certain and fixed system of doctrines is contained in them, merely because different sects of Christians have understood them differently, and drawn from them, not only different, but contradictory tenets.

The serious mind will most sincerely regret, what cannot be acknowledged, that they have been so often and so grossly perverted. The candid and honest will not be prejudiced against them, or neglect, most diligently to attend to them, though they have been so much misapplied and misunderstood.

To guard, therefore, against the danger and commonness of wresting and perverting the word of God to our destruction is a subject highly important and interesting in itself; at all times proper; but at this day, it is apprehended, to be peculiarly seasonable. It is a subject seldom discussed, but if properly managed may be eminently useful to all christian families and individuals. It may be made very subservient to advance the cause of rational religion, and to prevent the mind from what is visionary and fanciful in matters of infinite concern.

The time and attention of the hearer will consequently be well employed, if his mind may be deeply impressed with the importance of rightly understanding the scriptures and with the greatness of the danger of wresting them to his own destruction, as is often done by unlearned and unstable men: and the pains and anxiety of the speaker will be amply rewarded, if he may but bring any assistance to, or suggest what may prevent any one, if it be, even, but one, from wresting them to his own destruction. For the salvation of one soul is of more worth than the material world, and the loss of one, or his final destruction is greater than words can describe. _For what shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul._

These considerations have induced me to make choice of the passage now read, as the subject of discourse at this time. It contains the danger and commonness of the sin of perverting and abusing the scripture to our destruction. It stands connected with the foregoing verses in this manner. St. Peter had been describing, with great force and solemn grandeur, the end of the world--the dissolution of the system of creation--and the coming of the son of man to judge the Universe. He speaks of the heavens passing away with a great noise--the Elements melting with fervent heat--the Earth and all its works being consumed in one universal conflagration--the day of judgment--the perdition of ungodly men--the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness--the perfection of felicity for the pious and virtuous. In the text he informs us, that St. Paul, his brother in the kingdom and patience of Christ, had, in all his holy Epistles to the Churches, spoken of these grand and solemn subjects; and that some things contained in his Epistles were difficult to be understood--that is, required attention and care not to misapprehend him. He does not mean that St. Paul was an obscure or unintelligible writer. This would have been a high impeachment and reproach. It would have been at the same time altogether unjust. For he is a nervous and plain writer. He is a strong and close reasoner. And his writings will be admired as long as there shall be either genius or piety in the world. The difficulty then of understanding some things penned by him, under divine inspiring influence, is not owing to any deficiency in perspicuity and clearness of style, but to the spiritual nature and grandeur of the subjects, of which he treated.--After this sublime description of the end of all things, St. Peter, in the two verses immediately preceding the text, addresses a most judicious and pertinent exhortation to the Christians, to whom he wrote, in these words: _Wherefore, behold, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blemish. And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our brother Paul also, according unto the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you; as also in all his Epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction. Ye therefore beloved, seeing ye knew these things before, beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness._ The Apostle was extremely solicitous lest the Christians to whom he directs this catholic or general Epistle, should be seduced from steadfastness, and fell into the errors and delusions of wicked men, who were active in attempts to lead away others from the truth. Men who have embraced errors, are always busy in strengthening their party, by propagating their pernicious principles, and proselyting others to them. And upright and honest Christians are in danger of such, as lie in wait to deceive. They should, therefore, always be upon their guard lest they be seduced, and fall from their steadfastness. The _unlearned_ and _unstable,_ who pervert scripture and people who are illiterate--of small reading and observation--who are given to change, are frequently altering their principles, laying aside the opinions which they once entertained, and taking up new ones. Such people as have not capacity and stability to weigh the reasons of any opinion, but believe as accident--passions, or prejudices dictate--as they chance to read, or hear. One Commentator thinks that the Greek word translated _unlearned,_ may mean _unteachable._ But I do not find that it is ever so used in any Greek author. Besides, if it were, it could not be the meaning of it here. _Unlearned_ then, _here_ means people of small reading--of little reflection and observation--especially of little knowledge in divinity--and of much conceit. And ignorance is usually confident and impudent. Such wrest and pervert scripture to their own destruction. They cannot, meekly and quietly, receive instruction from the knowing and learned: but undertake to interpret and explain for themselves and others. Being perverse and self-willed, they turn a deaf ear to what is offered by the wise and judicious. They lean to their own understandings. Such self _conceited_ and _ignorant_ people, and withal, _unstable,_ turn the scripture to a wrong and false meaning--make it speak what it was never intended to speak; and going by their false and erroneous interpretations, are plunged into fatal errors--and ruined forever--go down to the grave with a lie in their right hand--are left of God, in his sovereign pleasure, a prey to their own chosen blindness, and perish eternally in their heresies and delusions. Happy those who keep clear of such perverters of scripture!--To wrest the word of God to our own destruction, is to misinterpret and misconstrue it to such a degree--as to deduce from it fatal errors--or essentially false principles, and to live and practice according to such misinterpretations and misconstructions. The end of all this, is final ruin--or misery in a future world. How affecting the idea, that the scriptures, which were given to man for his only INFALLIBLE GUIDE through a world of sorrow and tears, and to meeten him for a full and perfect blessedness in heaven, should by a corrupt and perverse mind, be turned to his destruction! But alas! so they often are--have been in past ages, and will be in future.

After thus introducing and opening the words selected for present meditation, it is proposed in dependence on divine strength, to enumerate and explain the various ways, in which _unlearned_ and _unstable men_ pervert the scriptures to their own destruction.

They were given to us on purpose to teach and instruct us in the right way of worshipping and serving God in time, and preparing us for the glorious services and employments of the heavenly state. Our best good, here and hereafter, are aimed at, in that Revelation of the divine will, which we enjoy. Indeed our felicity, in subordination to the divine honour, is consulted in that manner, in which it ought to be, according to reason, and the nature of man, both in Creation and Providence, as well as in the sacred Volume. On the part of the Maker of all things there is no want either of wisdom to contrive our happiness, of grace to prepare us for it, or of goodness to effect it. Consequently, if we, at last, fail of life, the fault is alone imputable to ourselves. We are left to act out our own hearts, in regard to things divine: whether we will chuse the way of life or of death. Hence it comes to pass, that the scriptures are wrested or turned to our own destruction. That which was ordained for our good, is, by the amazing corruption and depravity of our hearts, turned into poison, misapprehended and misapplied. It may here be remarked, as worthy of special attention, that the reason why the word of God, in the writings of the old and New Testament, is so frequently and so grossly perverted, is not because these writings are not wisely composed and properly expressed; for they are plain--perspicuous--beautiful--and sublime to admiration; but because of the perverseness, wilful blindness, and vile prejudices of mankind. Had we a good and honest heart, or a single eye to the truth, we should not fall into any fatal or essential errors. Much of the corruption of human nature, therefore, is to be seen, in the strange and absurd constructions put upon particular passages of sacred Writ. And what is very surprising is, that all profess to be faithful and impartial; and the most through self-flattery and self-blindness, actually fancy themselves to be in the right. _This is the condemnation that light is come into the world, but men love darkness rather than the light_--the light of truth, or of true doctrines. People will not seek or come to the light of divine truth, because their deeds are evil. While unsanctified, they hate God. They hate his truth. They hate his ways. They delight not in the pure and strict principles of Religion. Hence all the Corruptions and Abuses of Christianity in former and later days; and perversion and misunderstanding of scripture.