XIII. SER M. Path of Life, and how far we have made it the Path of the Juft. Let us cultivate all our moral Faculties to fuch Degrees as to render them worthy to be accompanied by divine Grace. Let us endeavour to preferve fuch an uniform Obedience in our Lives, that they may know no Variety but in their Increase towards Perfection: And, as we are daily growing nearer to Eternity, God grant that we may be more and more prepared for a blessed Eternity! SERMON XIV. National Wickedness in Danger of provoking National Judgments. Preached in the Time of the late Rebellion. ISAIAH V. 4, 5. What could have been done more for my And now, go to; I will tell you what I IN XIV. N this beautiful Parable God, under SER M. the Image of a Vineyard, fets before the Jews, his chofen People the many and great fpiritual Bleffings he had conferred upon them; them; as great a Measure of Grace as the Divine Goodness itself (in Concert and Harmony with eternal Rectitude XIV. SER M. tude and Juftice) could beftow; could beftow, I mean, for the Probation of fuch rational Beings as fhould be in their Circumftances--What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it? He goes on to reprefent their ungrateful Returns, in the Abuse of thofe Bleffings; and asks, in the Way of human Astonishment Wherefore when I looked, that it fhould bring forth Grapes, brought it forth wild Grapes? But, in Proportion to the Greatnefs of the Mercy flighted, will the Severity of Juftice be inflicted : In Confequence therefore of their neglecting and defpifing God's gracious Overtures of making them a peculiar Treafure to himself above all People, in Confequence of their Impiety heightened by every Circumstance of Ingratitude, he threatens them with an utter Extirpation I will take away the Hedge of my Vineyard, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the Wall thereof, and it shall be troden down. The Occafion of the prefent Solemnity will fuggeft to you my Defign of applying this Parable to the Circumftances of our own Nation; and, agreeably thereto, I fhall confider, If, What God hath done for us, and what Returns we have made, IIdly, What we may expect as the SER M. Confequence of our Ingratitude and Im- XIV. piety. IIIdly, The proper Means to avert and remove God's Displeasure. Ift, I am to confider what God hath done for us, and what Returns we have made. In early Ages, when we were over-run with Heathenifm and Idolatry, it pleased God to plant the Chriftian Religion among us: A Religion every Way worthy of the Divine Dispensation, and fuited to the Exigencies of Mankind. A Religion the most heavenly the World was ever bleffed with; and bleffing all the Kingdoms wherein it fhould be received with the greatest Happiness, national, focial and perfonal: Containing every Motive Motive to Goodness which can be fuggefted: Our Sins are forgiven upon a fincere and unfeigned Repentance; and our Pardon sealed with the Blood of a gracious Redeemer. To a Perfeverance in the Paths of Virtue we are allured by Precepts of the pureft Morality, exhorted by the Promife of divine Grace, and encouraged by the Reward of an eternal Crown of Glory. When this Religion had flourished many Centuries in it's native and unallayed Pu SER M. rity, in a very dark and unlearned Age it XIV. became adulterated with impure Doctrines, and quite over-grown with a Heap of monftrous Abfurdities: But it pleafed God, by the Miniftry of his faithful Servants, to re-enlighten this Land with the Beams of Truth; to reftore Christianity to it's original Simplicity and Sincerity. Then was the Key of Knowledge, which had been long taken away, again recovered into our Hands; which, at the fame Time that it unlocked the facred Truths of the Scripture, laid open the mysterious Iniquity of Popery; and helped us to difcover, that the Boaft of Infallibility tended to nothing better than, to introduce the groffeft Ignorance, and to make Error incurable. At the breaking in of this Light, the evil Spirit of Popery departed; and we were freed from thofe Chains in which we had been faft bound for many Generations. Then had we the Happiness to fee the Church, which, by Romish Artifices, had been made to encroach upon the juft Rights of the civil Government, become the most friendly and favourable to it. Our Reformation from Popery was conducted by fuch peaceable, difcreet, and deliberate Steps, and in so strict a Conformity to primitive Ufages, that the Plan of it was the Envy of foreign Nations; unhappy only in this, that it was not copied by |