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I would not, by any thing here advanced, mean to put a stop to the progrefs of knowledge, or reftrain the freedom of human will: the ways and judgments of God, whilft they are confidered by us with that awful reverence, that diffidence and humility, which become the purfuit of them, are highly worthy of our ftricteft fearch and most diligent enquiry; and fo long as our refearches are guided by that holy fear, they are not only innocent, but meritorious, because they must always promote the honour and glory of that divine Being who is the object of them. All therefore, which I would contend for is, that when we take into confideration the nature and attributes of Him who made us, when we fearch into and examine the mysteries of our holy religion, when we speak or write of the actions of God, we fhould do it with that refpect and adoration which a Being fo infinitely fuperior hath a right to expect from us: we should remember, that our duty towards Him, and not his behaviour towards us, is the fitteft bafis of our argument, and the most proper fubject of our enquiry; for this plain and felf-evident reason, because we can live and move and have our being, and enjoy every thing we can defire, without that knowledge of God and his divine myfteries which he hath hid from our eyes, and is therefore to us infcrutable; but on the other hand, we can. not be eafy or happy without fome knowledge of ourselves, and of our duty to our Creator and Redeemer.

Το

To conclude, then; Since the ways of God are unfearchable, and his judgments paft finding out, let our eyes contemplate, at an awful diftance, that object, whofe fplendor, too near, would dazzle and confound them. Let us, without murmuring or repining, fubmit to thofe decrees which we cannot reverfe; acknowledge that wifdom which we cannot confute; adore those ways which we cannot fearch into; and admire thofe judgments which we cannot find cut.

Whilft God is the fubject or our enquiry, humility is the best inftructor, and modefty the fafeft guide. To himfelf alone his will is known; and by himself alone it can be revealed: the knowledge of God must come from God, even as water floweth from the fountain. Let us then proftrate ourselves before his throne, and intreat him to lighten our darkness, to remove the clouds of ignorance and error from our minds; to teach us the knowledge of his ways, and the works of his commandments, that we may arrive at thofe feats of wisdom where we fhall know even as we are known; where the ways of God fhall no longer be unfearchable, nor his judgments paft finding out; but where all fhall be difcovered unto all, and where God fhall himself most graciously condefcend to teach and inftruct us: where he, who alone knoweth and underftandeth all things, fhall reward every man, not according to his inquifitive thirft after forbidden, but his diligent fearch after the ufeful knowledge, the knowledge of God and his laws; and the only true and valuable wifdom, the wifdom unto falvation.

SERMON

ON THE COMING OF CHRIST.

SERMON

MATTHEW XI. 3.

XV.

Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

IT

T is univerfally known and acknowledged, that at the time of our bleffed Saviour's appearance upon earth, the Jews were in daily expectation of a Meffiah; a circumftance which we fhould naturally have fuppofed would in the moft effectual manner have prepared their minds for the reception of our bleffed Redeemer, who left the bofom of his Father, to fave mankind from eternal mifery and deftruction. With the utmoft furprise and aftonishment, therefore, do we find them rejecting that bleffing which they had fo long wifhed for, and doubting the divinity of that Meffiah whom they had been in fuch conftant expectation of.

When John had heard in prifon, fays St. Matthew, the works of Chrift, he sent two of his difciples to fay unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?-or, in other words, Art thou indeed the great Meffiah, who has been foretold by our prophets, who hast been fo long and fo impatiently wished for by us

all?

all? Art thou he? or muft we ftill want, and ftill look for another?

In the confideration of these words, it may not be amifs previously to obferve, that John fent this meffage to Jefus, not to fatisfy himself, but his difciples, with whom he had already ufed every argument in favour of Chrift He could not himself in the leaft doubt the divinity of our Saviour, whom he had baptized, on whom he had feen the fpirit defcend in form of a dove, and heard the voice from heaven, faying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleafed. John, therefore, we may reft affured, was thoroughly fatisfied; but his disciples were not: they were still incredulous. John there. fore fent them to Jefus himself, who he hoped would foon convert and convince them.

I propose, therefore, in the following dif course, to confider,

First, The reason which induced the Jews to doubt the divinity of the true Meffiah, and to look for another; and,

Secondly, To lay before you the more weighty and convincing arguments, which should have perfuaded them not to look for another, but to be thankful for the appearance of the great Redeemer, Jefus Chrift the righteous.

And first, then, One of the reafons, and perhaps the principal, why they looked for another Meffiah, was, their mistaking and misapprehending their own prophecies, as deli vered in holy writ. The kingdom of the Meffiah is in feveral parts of the holy writ ftiled an everlafling kingdom, a kingdom that should

never pass away; from whence the Jews abfurdly concluded, that when the Meffiah came, he was not to die, but to abide with them for

ever.

They did not confider that the everlasting kingdom was not to be poffeffed by him on earth, but referved for him as his reward in heaven; and as he appeared not only as a mere mortal, but as one of the moft miferable and afflicted alfo, they paid but little regard to his future immortality.

But a fecond reason why the Jews looked for another Meffiah was, That Chrift preached falvation to the Gentiles. So long had this haughty nation been accustomed to confider themselves as the chofen people of God, the darling favourites of the Almighty, that they could not bear the thought of dividing that love which they were used to engrofs, and fharing that patrimony which they looked upon themselves alone as entitled to: their ideas were too selfish, too narow and contracted to form any notion of a Redeemer who was to live and die for all mankind. When they found, therefore, that the firft work which Jefus employed himself in, was to pull down the partition wall-between Jew and Gentile, to open the door of faith to all nations; when they beheld him affociating and converfing freely with Heathens and Infidels, men of every fect and denomination, and fhewing the fame regard for their happiness as for that of the children of Ifrael; inftead of revering him as their friend and benefactor, they looked on him as

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