The Saviour who uttered thefe words in our text, is a kind, gracious, and merciful Lord; he has fhewn his kindnefsby the most expreffive actions cf benevolence and regard; he has borne our griefs, and carried our forrows; and by his or bedience unto death, he hath obtained cternal redemption for men; in whofe name, and for whofe fakes and interests, he appears as an high priest over the houfe of GOD in heaven, to manage all their fpiritual concerns thro' time unto eternity. He is now, my Lords, in heaven, at the right-hand of God, exaltedin our nature, as the Redeemer of finful creatures but before he took his leave of this world, in which he was very ill treated by many people of your rank and character, he was pleafed to leave his bleffing behind him, and charged his Apoftles to go through the world and publifh it to all ranks of human creatures, of which you of my audience are a part. I am going to fhew firft, What that gofpel,

gofpel, which the Apoftles preached declares concerning human creatures, and what it reveals unto them fuited to their characters. Secondly,-Shew that fuch as preach the Apoftolic gospel have a right to preach it to all human creatures. fhall fhew laftly, That there are fome human creatures, that are not the creatures of God. First, I fhall fhew what the gofpel, which the Apoftles preached, declares concerning all human creatures.

I

I. It declares that they are all sinful creatures. The Apostle informs us that the Scriptures hath concluded all under fin; fo there is no reafon for one man to defpife another. Though perhaps every man's tranfgreffions are not alike aggravated with circumstances of criminality, nor committed with the fame ardent defire of fnning; and on that account are lefs heinous, than the fins of thofe who offend wilfully, greedily, and maliciously; yet all fins, in the pure eye of the Almighty, deferve fuch a punish

ment

ment, as would everlaftingly ruin thofe who commit them. Before the gofpel reforms the hearts of men, they are in the strictest fenfe of the word finners ; they are guilty and condemned finners, under fentence of death by the authority of God's holy and righteous law. Whatever may be the difference with regard to men's political characters, and the external form of their converfation, they have all but one general character in the efteem of truth, and that is the character of finners and unbelievers. Till fuch

time as men believe the gospel, they never can have a good moral character. So far as the eyes of men can perceive, they may pafs as blameless iņ the world, but the motives and fprings of action will ever be impure till the foul be fanctified by the truth. A truly good moral chara&er takes in more than at first we are aware of: it comprehends the inward fentiments of the heart being conformed to the fpirit of the law of

God,

God, as well as its outward actions are conformable to the letter thereof. Ambition, pride, the love of fame, and even selfishness, may make men do fome useful actions, which are better done than undone, and may anfwer fomet good purposes in fociety: But while thefe actions do not proceed from love to God and truth, they are in reality only vices coloured over with the femblage of virtue. Liften, my Lords, to what the royal Pfalmift fays upon this fubject; Thou defireft truth in the inward part, and in the hidden part Thou wilt make me to know wifdom. Thefe words, as they are expreffed by the lips of royalty, cannot but have a due weight with those who are fond of approaching fo near it, who bask in its beams, who are nourished by its influence, who live by its favour, and who would be phantoms without it. Truth in the heart is neceffary to form a good moral character; for where hypocrify and deceit rule or prevail, how

ever fair the outward forin of the action or the character may appear, it is evil in the fight of Him who fees the heart. Human nature, in its univerfal character, is perhaps neither much better nor worse now, than it has been in former ages of the world; the history of this world, and the kingdoms thereof, fhews that it has been continually lying in wickedness. It has not grown better by age, nor more holy by improvement; the gofpel finds the people of this world, as much enemies to its pure doctrines and ordinances, in the prefent polite age of improvement, as in the times of Gothic ignorance and fuperftition. The prefent age, when compared with thofe times of ignorance and barbarity, is fomething like the man's houfe who was driven to the tombs by the devils; it is fwept and garnished, but there are ftill devils in it, even worse than the firft. What confirms this obfervation is, that the honesty and

fimplicity