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SERMON I.

JEREMIAH vi. 16.

Thus faith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and fee, and afk for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your fouls.

THE Prophet is here treating of the means fuggested by divine mercy for reclaiming the Jews from idolatry and wickednefs. As the chief inftrument of reformation, he in a preceding verfe first mentions Scripture; and then delivers the propofition juft read to you, which feems to bear this meaning: Next to the revealed word of God, there is no better incentive to piety than the recorded examples ' of good men, who in old times have made Scripture the rule of their faith and practice.'

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The benefit of these prophetical admonitions is not confined to the times in which they were delivered, or to the particular cafe of the Jews. Human nature is always the fame: and in all ages and countries, pride and bad

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paffions, operating on a corrupt and rebellious heart, and fomented by the wiles of the tempter, turn men from God, and betray them into infidelity, error, and impure living.

The religious principle indeed, which Providence has interwoven with our constitution, as an instinctive guide to true happiness, seldom fuffers total extinction. This is proved by the number of false religions that have continually prevailed in the world; and by the inftance before us of the Jews, who lapfed, not into Atheism, but into Idolatry, "and changed "their glory for that which doth not profita." As the corporeal fenfes, rarely obliterated, continually abused to the worst purposes, are yet, under good conduct, the inlets of knowledge and delight; fo this natural perception which the mind has of God, though it may degenerate into idolatry and fuperftition, is feldom entirely loft; and when regulated by religious truth, leads to everlasting bliss.

Need the importance of true religion be magnified? In temporal things it is the minister of peace and good-will, the foundation and support of all virtues and duties, of all exalted, honourable and beneficent actions, both in public and private life; a restraint, more

a Jerem. ii. II.

powerful than the laws, upon evil actions and evil thoughts: it bleffes and tempers profperity; and in calamities and forrow is balm and medicine to the heart; and from it, as from a pure and perennial fource, tranquillity and contentment for ever flow. True religion is the conqueror of fin, and of death, the king of terrors; it changes corruption into a crown of glory: it is the love of God, and an affurance that God loveth us, and by contemplation, and prayer, and holiness, prepares us for an infeparable union with him hereafter, that confummate and infinite happiness to which our nature secretly, yet earnestly afpires.

The expectation of these bleffings reaches not the ungodly; nor does the promise of them extend to those who worship falfe gods, or who pay to the true God a mistaken fervice. "I will have mercy and not facrifice;" faith the Lord and by the mouth of Jeremiah,

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My people have committed two evils; they "have forfaken me, the fountain of living "waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken

cifterns, that can hold no waterb." The most ftrenuous exertions, under the influence of divine inspiration, are necessary to prevent religious perfuafion from finking into a careless vague laxity both of belief and practice, which

b Jerem. ii. 13.

rather resembles involuntary inftinct, than a worship of the Supreme Being, becoming rational creatures, and fuch as he requires, in fpirit and in truth. The negligence on this subject, too prevalent in the world, is at the fame time inexcufable, and productive of the most fatal confequences. God has linked together our duty and our happiness: and these united motives impel us to make religion our chief concern, that we should study to know and to obey the will of God. In comparison of this object, all other employments are of inferior use, all other pursuits fubordinate: this proposes to our affections and faculties their due and proper exercife, and is attended with an inestimable reward. Let us then shake off floth and evil habits, that weigh down the foul, and employ, by divine bleffing, all means for the attainment of true religion; directing to this use the treasures of history and learning, the deductions of reason, and the difcoveries of science. This fhould be the chief object of life in this pursuit we may contemplate the glories of creation, and the deftinies of human affairs with new and better feelings, and a more beneficial effect; and raifing our thoughts from God's footftool to his throne, may behold him, as it were visibly, in the works of his power, and the difpenfations of his providence.

Above all, in order "to make us wife unto "falvation," we are to ftudy holy Scripture, which the divine Spirit has mercifully given, that we might "believe that Jefus is Chrift, "the Son of God; and in believing might "have life through his name." Such is the scope and design of Scripture: " other founda❝tion can no man lay than that is laid, which "is Jefus Chrift;" and it behoves us to take care, that like wife builders we erect upon this foundation, not hay and ftubble, but a solid and precious fuperftructure.

The operations of the Holy Ghost are indeed unbounded, and touch men's confciences with a sense of piety in more various ways than can be expreffed. Still the revealed word is the rule of true religion, which it is the duty of all members of Chrift's church, and particularly of the Ministers of his flock, unceasingly to study, and by all just means to explain, recommend, and enforce.

Next to the volume of inspiration, and agreeably to the prophetical intimation in my text, we are to " inquire for the old paths;" to fix our attention upon the recorded memorials of holy men, who in ancient times have trod the good way, and found reft for their fouls. They constitute that hiftory, which is the best philo

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c 2 Tim. iii. 15.

d John xxiii. 31. e I Cor. iii. 10.

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