its Objects, which flow in upon us at every Senfe. To fupply this Defect on the Part of Religion, Revelation was given to affure us of the Certainty and Reality of Things future; without which Affurance they could have no Effect or Influence on our Affections. The Objects of Faith then fupport Religion in the fame Manner as the Objects of Senfe promote and encourage the Love of the World: And, as there could be no fenfual Love of the World, if there were no Objects of Senfe; fo neither could there be any Religion, where there are no Articles of Faith: For as, in general, there can be no Defire, where there is no Knowledge; fo, in particular, there can be no Principle of Faith, where there are no Objects of Faith.

All the Articles of the Gospel tend to one of these Ends, either to affure us of the Certainty of the Revelation and Redemption by Christ Jefus, or to set before us the very Substance and Image of the Things hoped for. For this last Purpose our Lord rose visibly from the Grave, to give us the very Evidence of Senfe for that Part of our Faith, which feemed to be moft contradictory to the Experience of Senfe. For the first Purpose, to affure us of the Certainty of the Revelation and Redemption by Christ Jefus, our Lora

was

was declared to be the only-begotten Son of God, the Brightness of his Father's Glory, and the exprefs Image of his Perfon; by whom the Worlds were made, and who upholdeth all Things by the Word of his Power; that we, knowing in whom we have trusted, might hold fast the Confidence and Profeffion of our Faith without wavering: (For He is faithful that promifed.) When Chrift was declared by the Voice out of the Cloud to be the Son of God, the fame Voice gave the Reason of the Declaration; This is my beloved Son, hear ye him, Luke xvii. 5. To reject therefore these Articles of the Gospel, is to reject the Revelation and the Redemption of Christ, and to fet out purely on the Foot of Natural Religion. How reasonably you may do this, and how well it becomes your Condition, the Time will not permit me now to shew.

These Objects of Faith are our Motives and Incitements to Holiness and Righteousness; and, if we fuffer them to have their due Influence on our Hearts, they produce that Faith, which is the Life and Spirit of a Christian, which unites him to God, and will intitle him to Glory at the great Day. How far 'tis in our Power to promote or obstruct this Influence, will appear under the last Head, which was to fhew,

Thirdly,

Discou

Thirdly, That the Motions and Operations of the Heart are in great measure under our own Power and Government.

I fhall not spend much of your Time in a plain Cafe, and in which every Man's own Experience is his best Instructor. We find daily, that we can check our Paffions and Inclinations, to ferve the Purposes of this Life; and, if we would do as much for that which is to come, we fhould anfwer all that the Apostle in the Text requires of us, when he exhorts us to take heed of an evil Heart of Unbelief. Were it not in our Power to fufpend the Influence of our Paffions, Man would have no more Freedom or Liberty than a Stone, and would, confequently, be utterly incapable of Religion. "Tis not in our Power to feel, or not to feel, the Impreffions of Sense: Our Eyes, our Ears, and every Sense, prefent before us the Objects of the World, whether we will, or no; and, if thefe Objects can as uncontroulably take Poffeffion of our Hearts, as they do of our Minds and Imaginations, all Men must as neceffarily follow the Dictates of Senfe, as they admit the Objects of Senfe: Which would deftroy, not only the Power of Faith, but all moral Virtue, all Diftinction of Good and Evil. But this is not the Cafe: For, tho' we cannot see Things as

we will, yet 'tis in our Power to pursue and court them as we please: We can fupple our Inclinations, and make them yield to our Will; as is evident in the many Inftances where Men facrifice their present Enjoyments to the distant Profpects of Honour or Preferment: For the future Things of this Life are no more the Objects of Senfe than the Things of another Life; and 'tis not Senfe, but Judgment, that refuses the present Good for a distant Advantage: And 'tis but an Instance of the fame Reason and Judgment to restrain the fenfual Appetites, and to make room for the Hopes of Immortality to enter in and poffefs the Heart; and this is truly the Work of Religion. God has placed before us Life and Death, Things prefent and Things to come. If Things temporal have this Advantage, that they are feen; yet the Things which are not seen have this Prerogative to balance that Advantage, that they are eternal. The Truth of thefe Things is founded both on Reason and on the Teftimony of God. If we receive his Teftimony, 'tis well: But, if we intereft our Hearts in the Cause, and act as Men refolved to fecure to themselves these bleffed Hopes, then is our Faith made perfect. And, fince this depends upon the due Regulation of our Defires, which are fubject to the Will

2.

Will and Judgment of Man, 'tis plain that the true Chriftian Faith is an internal Principle, a religious Habit and Difpofition of Soul, which, like other good Habits, depends upon the Care we take to preferve the Innocence and Purity of our Hearts and Minds. And this fufficiently fhews the Reasonableness and the Sense of the Apostle's Exhortation in the Text, Take heed, left there be in any of you an evil Heart of Unbelief in departing from the living God.

END of the FIRST VOLUME