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SERMON IV.

ROMANS, ii. 14.

When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, thefe, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.

Fa man be once convinced, that there is

IF

a God, and a Providence, and a future ftate of recompence to the good and the bad, the most obvious questions, that he can ask, are, How fhall I gain the favour of God? By what means fhall I know his will? Whereby fhall I discover what it is that he requires me to perform?

The answering thefe important queftions is my present business; and to do this the more effectually, it must be obferved, that there are only two ways, by which the will of God, and

confe

confequently the duties which men are obliged to, can be made known.

If God at any time declares his will by a revelation from heaven, the cafe is clear; the man, to whom this discovery is made, has a fure rule to walk by and may with certainty conclude that those things, which are revealed, become matter of duty and obligation to him.

But, befides this method of knowing the divine will, there is another, which was in being from the very creation, and had its force in all countries, even in thofe where the light of revelation never fhone. It is no other than reafon or the light of nature, as it is very often and very properly called: by the right use of which, natural religion is made known to mankind and this is what St. Paul afferts in the text, that the Gentiles or Heathens followed. When the Gentiles, fays he, which have not the law, i. e. which have not the law of Mofes to direct them, do by nature the things contained in the law, i. e. do by the light of nature and the excrcife of their reafon practise those moral virtues, which the law of Mofes also required: these, having not the law, or that law of Mofes for their rule, are a law unto

2

them

themselves, i. e. the reafon which God has implanted in their breasts teaches them their duty, and fo by confequence has all the obligation of a lar upon them.

the

This is a short and plain comment upon words of the Apostle in the text, and for the illuftrating and proving the truth of them, I fhall,

Firft, Lay before you fome confiderations, from whence it may be gathered, that there is fuch a thing as natural religion, and that we are under obligations to perform fome certain duties, exclufive of all revelation. And then,

Secondly, I fhall endeavour to fhew particularly, what the chief of thofe duties are; and how or by what steps we may come to know, that we are to practise them towards God, our neighbours, and ourselves.

With regard to the first, I defire that the following confiderations may be carefully attended to.

Firft, As there is and always was a wide difference between fome actions and others, as between giving and taking away; between doing good, and caufing evil; fo is there a fitness and an unfitness of applying thefe differences of

things to perfons in certain circumstances: as, for inftance, it is more fit, in the nature of things, to give to a perfon in want, than to take arway from him the little which he hath. And there certainly arifes likewife a suitableness or unfuitableness of certain manners of behaviour, in fome perfons towards others; as it is certainly more reafonable for inferiors to respect their fuperiors, and for fubjects to obey their fovercigus, than the contrary: and fo it is more becoming, that all, who are equals, fhould be treated in an equal manner, and should have that regard for each other, which every one of them would wish to fee paid to himself. And, to mention no more particulars, it is undoubtedly more proper in the nature of things, that all men fhould endeavour to promote the fafety and welfare of all, than that fome should contrive and attempt the ruin and deftruction of others.

These things are so plainly more fit and reafonable to be done than the contrary, that he, who denies it, runs the hazard of forfeiting his character as a rational and thinking crea

turc.

But

But all this may be allowed for truth, and yet a man may afk, whether the fitness or unfitnefs of any action makes it a duty? Where is th obligation all this while, it may be faid? And how does it appear to be any part of religion?

I anfwer: If there be a God, who created the world and all things in it, it is of confequence that he, who hath fo ordered things in his creation of us, that from thence arose this fitnefs or unfitness of our behaviour, which we find to be fo proper and even neceffary for the fupport of the welfare and the very being of mankind.

Now, fince it is plain, that God intends mankind to fubfift and be happy here in this life, and fince this cannot be brought about but by the univerfal practice of fome actions which are beneficial ones (for virtue is only the fteadily acting according to this natural fitness or unfitness of things;) from hence, I fay, it appears plainly, that to act fo, is to act according to the will of God; and this will of God, being once known and difcovered, lays an indifpenfible obligation upon us, and makes every

thing