whether you will be fober, temperate and chafte, or otherwife; for in these effential Parts of Religion you must either obey, or perish. But the Weakness and Corruption of Man making it neceffary for God to interpofe by a new Declaration of his Will, the only Dispute is of the Truth and Authority of this new Declaration. If it indeed comes from God, it cannot be safe to reject it: And whether it does or no, it is abfurd to reject it without weighing its Merit. This therefore is, of all others, the most weighty and serious Matter, and requires the Exercise of your most compofed Thoughts. For, if you wantonly or perverfly refuse the Gift of God, this will be your Condemnation, That Light is come into the World, and you loved Dark nefs rather than Light.

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DISCOURSE XV.

JOHN V. 44.

How can ye believe, which receive Honour one of another, and feek not the Honour that cometh from God only?

HE chief Exercife of Reason confifts in difpofing and regu

T

lating our Actions, fo as to render them fubfervient to the End or Happiness which wę propose to obtain. And though perhaps, with refpect to the great Numbers of Men in the World, but few in Comparison chuse well for themselves, and fewer still pursue wifely and steadily the Good they chufe; yet all Men haye fomething which is the Object of their Defires, and are endeavouring to attain their Wish by fome Means Z 4

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or other. When we chufe ill for ourselves, the more Wit and Dexterity we have to compass our Defigns, the nearer we are to Ruin, the more inevitable is our Destruction. Our best Actions, when directed to ill Purposes, become criminal, and leave nothing behind them, but the foul Stain of Hypocrify upon our Consciences.

This general Truth might easily be illuftrated by many particular Inftances from common Life. There is nothing more commendable than a Spirit of Beneficence, and an Inclination to do good to our FellowCreatures: But when the Air of Beneficence is affumed merely to carry on private Views, when an Inclination to do good is profeffed only to promote our own Designs, and to make our Way the easier to Wealth or Honour, what is it but Fraud and Deceit ?

If civil Virtue thus lofes its Name and Nature by being mifapplied, Religion does fo much more. The Man who aims at Reputation and Intereft under the Disguise of Religion, affronts God, and abufes the World, and lays up for himself certain Ruin, the juft Reward of those who have the Form of Godlinefs, denying the Power thereof.

But

But there are Degrees in this Vice, as in most other, and Men oftentimes act under the Influence of it, without being conscious to themselves of fo much Baseness, as deserves to be branded with the Name of Hypocrify. Pride, Vanity, and Self-love, naturally give a Tincture of Hypocrify to Men's Behaviour; they lead them to conceal whatever the World diflikes, and to make a Shew of whatever the World honours and admires. In the common Affairs of Life, where Virtue and Morality are not directly concerned, it may be very right perhaps to comply with the World: But when our Vanity, and Love of Praise and Reputation, come to influence us in Matters of Religion, they will ever give a wrong Turn to our Minds, and difable us from doing Juftice to our own Reason in judging between Truth and Falfhood.

This was the Cafe of those to whom our Saviour in the Text applies himself: He had done among them fuch Works as never Man did; to these he appeals as an Evidence that he came from the Father: The Works which the Father hath given me to finish, the fame Works that I do, bear Witness of me, that the Father hath fent me. He appeals likewife to the antient Scriptures, thofe Oracles of God, com