6. We shall fail in this duty unless ive are always accompanied with a deep sense of our frailty, weakness, readiness to halt or miscarry, and thereon a necessity of all the ordinances and visita- tions of God, which are designed to preserve our souls. — Unless we have due apprehensions of our own state and condition here, we shall never kindly receive warnings beforehand to avoid approaching dangers, nor duly improve rebukes for being overtaken with them. It is the humble soul — that feareth always, and that from a sense of its own weakness, yea, the treacheries and deceitfulness of its heart, with the power of those temptations whereunto it is continually ex- posed— that is ever likely to make work of the duty here directed unto.
SERMON XIV.
THE TESTIMO.NT OF THE CHURCH IS NOT THE ONLY NOR THE
CHIEF REASON OF OUR BELIEVING THE SCRIPTURE
TO BE THE WORD OF GOD.
SERMON XIY.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH IS NOT THE ONI^Y
NOR THE CHIEF REASON OF OUR BELIEVING THE SCRIPTURE
TO BE THE WORD OF GOD.
" They have Moses and the prophets ; let them hear them." — Luke xvi. 29.
As everlasting blessedness — men's greatest and most desirable good — is that which God only can bestow, and the way to it, that which he only can discover (who knows the Lord's mind like himself? who is so sure a guide in the way, as he who is himself the. end ? — nature can neither direct us to, nor fit us for, a supernatural happiness) ; so it is not only our intei'est to seek it, but likewise to see whether what pretends to be the rule of our walking, in order to our obtaining of it, be indeed the right one : which we can no otherwise be assured of, than by seeing that it be such an one as is given us by Him to whom alone it belongs to prescribe us the way, and who, being infinitely good, as well as infinitely wise, will no more deceive us than he can be himself deceived. Now, the holy scripture of the Old and New Testament, is that which we profess to own as the rule of our faith and life, in relation to our fixture glory. It is, then, the wisdom of every Christian to inquire upon what account he receives this nde ; — why he believes it, and submits to it ; — whether he be persuaded that it is of God by God himself, or only by men. For if he can find indeed that he receives it upon the authority of God, he may be secure of the truth and sufficiency of it ; but if only on that of men, they, being liable to mistakes, may lead him into error; and so he can never be sure that what he owns as his rule is indeed the right one, and of God's own prescribing. Or admit [that] it really be so, yet if it be not received on right grounds, he will be exposed to innu- merable fears and fluctuations, and never walk comfortably nor constantly in his way, when he doubts whether it be the right or a wrong one. The superstructure cannot be better than the founda- tion ; and a well-ordered and comfortable conversation will never be VOL. VIII. o2
438 AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURE.
the effect of an ill-giounded belief. It is good, therefore, in the be- ginning of our course, to be secure of our way, — to see both what we beheve, and why ; lest, otherwise, we be either forced to go back, or else upon as light gi'ounds swerve from the way as we were at first persuaded to engage in it. Our great mquiry, then, in this discourse, will be, —
Upon what account lue believe the Scriiiture to he the wo7'd of God; whether ujion the authority of God, or the church? which I ground upon these words, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them."
In this parable, whereof these words are a part, we have an account of the different estates of a wicked man. Dives, and a good man, Lazarus, both in this life and the other. In this life. Dives had his " good things," the whole of his happiness, all the portion he was ever to enjoy; and Lazarus had his " evil things," all the sorrow and misery he was ever to endure. And in the other life, we have Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, a place and state of rest, " entered into peace," Isa. Ivii. 1, 2; and Dives in hell, a state of misery, and place of torments; where, finding so great a cliange, and being deeply affected with his now woful condition, he is (though in vain) deshous, if not of release, as despairing of that, yet at least of a little ease ; and therefore, addressing himself to Abraham, he entreats him that Lazarus might be sent to " dip " but even " the tip of his finger m water, and cool his tongue," verse 24; but this is denied him as im- possible, verse 26. Seeing that would not do, he desires, however, [that] his torments might not be increased by his brethren's coming to him ; whom we may suppose to have been his fellow -sinners, and partakers with him in his riot and luxury. Or, if you will believe so much charity to be among the damned, his recjuest is, that Lazarus might be sent to them, to admonish them for their good, that so they might be brought to a timely repentance, ere they came to an un- timely end, and then to endless torments. But this is denied him too, as altogether needless and unprofitable, verse 31 ; and he is told, that God had made sufficient provision for them, — given them the most effectual means whereby they might be brought to repentance, in that he had given them his written word, " Moses and the prophets ; " by whose writings if they were not persuaded to repent, a miracle would not persuade them. LazaiTis rising from the dead would no more be believed than " Moses and the prophets," whose writing-s were among them ; and therefore to them Abraham sends them, as a means sufficient for the end pretended, at least, by Dives to be aimed at: " They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." As if he had said, " The will of God concerning thy brethren's duty, and the truth of God concerning future rewards as the great motives to