To whom, and in what refpects, the Obfervance of the divine Commandments is and feems grievous.

GOD, thou art righteous, thou art effential benig

nity and love; but we have often reason to be confounded before thee. Thou leaveft us in no want of any thing, that can give us pleasure and ability in goodness, that can alleviate the discharge of our duty, the obfervance of thy commandments, that can affist and impel us in our efforts after perfection and happiness. Nature and religion, internal energies and external refources; our own experience and that of others combine together for rendering that occupation eafy and pleasant to us. And yet we fo frequently complain of the obftacles and difficulties that we meet with in it! And yet we proceed fo tardily on the road of duty and virtue, deviate so often from it, and fo often lofe fight of the glorious prize to which it leads! O God, how unworthy do we thus render ourselves of the capacities, the abilities, the fuperior endowments, which as thy children, as christians, thou haft vouchsafed us! How unworthy of the glory and felicity to which thou

VOL. II.

K

thou haft called us! Who ought to fear thee, to love thee, to obey thee, who fhould make it his fupreme delight to be just and beneficent, who fhould ftrive with unabated ardour after ever purer virtue and devotion, if we should not, whom thou haft fo highly favoured, on whom thou haft bestowed fo much light, fo much ability, fo many encouragements and incentives to it! And in what manner can we attempt to excuse ourselves, how escape the most condign and heavy punishment, if we prize not these privileges and employ them not with the utmost fidelity! No, thee whom we know as the moft gracious father, thee we also revere as the most righteous judge, and if thy grace, thy favour is our life, our perfect happinefs, thy difpleasure is death and deftruction to us. No, nothing can abfolve us from obedience to thy commandments, nothing juftify our complaints of the difficulty of their obfervance. Oh may we then more and more clearly perceive this truth, more firmly believe it, and henceforth pay thee, not a divided, not a constrained and fervile, but an unbounded, willing, cheerful, childlike obedience! Blefs then, moft merciful father, blefs to the promotion of thefe defigns our reflections on the doctrines of religion which are now to employ us. Let them diffipate our prejudices and errors, and infpire us with fresh appetence and courage for the leading of a truly virtuous and godly life. For these mercies we pray thee, as the votaries of thy fon Jefus, and addrefs thee farther in his holy name, who upon the crofs perfected

the

the character of obedience, and finished the pattern of univerfal goodness, for the world to ftudy, to imitate and to admire. Our father, &c.

IN

I JOHN V. 3.

His commandments are not grievous.

N one of my former discourses, my devout hearers, I made it my business to shew you the poffibility and facility of keeping the divine commandments, or of a virtuous and religious life. Or, in other words, we inquired what it is that properly renders an affair, a bufinefs, an undertaking eafy to us, and discovered that it all has place in regard to the obedience which God requires of us, in regard to virtue and piety. We clearly faw, that except by our own fault, we cannot be deficient either in a plain and certain knowledge of the will of God and our duty, or in the neceffary abilities for the accomplishment thereof. We have the most various and cogent motives thereto, and in any eventual obftacles and difficulties, and under the fenfe of our own infirmity, we may promise ourselves affiftance from mankind, affiftance from the Almighty, affiftance from a variety of external objects. We may befides furvey at once, without much trouble, all the divine commandments, whatever relates to virtue and piety, as they all fubfift in the most beautiful order and harmony. One commandment, one duty, one virtue conftantly fupports, advances, alleviates to us the reft. From

all which we juftly inferred, that the obfervance of the divine commandments, that a virtuous and godly life in itself is not difficult, that to the intelligent and good man it must be eafy and agreeable. This propofition however, certain and undeniable as it is, feems to be at variance, not only with fome paffages of holy writ, where the way of virtue is represented as toilfome, but alfo with the experience of fuch numbers of people who pretend it to be extremely difficult, and complain of it accordingly. Thefe difficulties, my devout audience, I mean to encounter in my prefent difcourfe, and thereby confirm you in the conviction of the truth of the apoftolical declaration in our text: his commandments are not grievous. To this end, let us in the firft place fee, in what cafes and in what refpects the obfervance of the divine commandments, or a virtuous and godly life may be confidered as grievous; and then examine fome of the objections, that are alleged against the poffibility and facility of fuch a life.

Obferve first, my devout hearers, that the facility of a matter, by no means excludes or removes that earnestness and application and exertion of the faculties which it requires; and no earnestness, no application and exertion of our faculties is grievous, whenever an adequate motive is not wanting, and we are fure of fuccefs. The obfervance of the divine commandments cannot indeed be managed without attention, without care. To lead a virtuous and godly life is certainly a grave concern. It is certainly

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certainly not enough, that we know and approve the divine commandments; and obferve fuch of them as can be most reconciled with our appetites and affections, and our present outward advantages. It is indeed not enough, that we esteem and revere virtue and godlinefs, that we adopt their external form, that we occafionally perform a virtuous act, or that we wish, propose, attempt to become truly vir tuous and devout. No, mere wifhes, refolutions, attempts are not here the whole of the bufinefs. Our wifhes must set us to work, our refolutions must be executed, our attempts must be profecuted in continued endeavours, in zealous exertions. The good that we know and approve, we muft actually do, and that at all times, in all places, in all circumftances. The virtue and godliness that we esteem and revere we must really practise, we must adopt as our own, we must take for the rule of our temper and conduct. And this certainly cannot be effected without attention, without earnestness, without the due application and exertion of our faculties. We must be sober, and watchful over all that paffes with in and without us, and may have an influence on our temper and conduct, fometimes feek retirement, fre quently call ourselves to account, exercise ourselves in reflection, not unneceffarily expofe ourselves to temptation, and carefully employ all the refources which religion and our own experience afford us for our confirmation in goodness. But is thereby the obfervance of the divine commandments, the prac