are never more fuperficial than when they pre- SE R M. tend to go to the bottom of things.

This knowledge of the heart is in order to the moving of the paffions; but because the use and management of the paffions in religion will not come within the compass of this difcourfe, I fhall pass on to

5. Another great advantage towards speaking, which our bleffed Saviour had peculiar to him, was his unfpotted innocence, that divine purity and holiness that was in him. He was that Lamb without blemish, who had not the least stain of actual or original guilt, and remained all his life-time in fuch undefiled purity and holiness, that at his death be offered himself up without spot to God. This was the holinefs of God; for in him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily: His humanity was partaker of the perfections of the divinity: And though he was the fon of David according to the flesh, yet he was the Son of God according to the fpirit of holiness, of that fpirit that was upon him without measure. He had not the leaft error in his understanding, or corruption in his will, but had in himself the utmost perfection of all virtue and goodness; there lay their original characters; fo that he could defcribe them all from his own breaft, the fource from whence all holiness is derived upon us: This gave his speaking an unknown influence and authority. In his difcourfe with the Jews, he appeals to his innocence; Which of you convinceth me of fin? and if I Say the truth, why do VOL. II. C c

ye

XXXII.

SERM.ye not believe me? He gives them the true rea– XXXII. fon why they believed him not, because he

told them the truth; for had he been a wicked impoftor, and told them a lye, they would have believed him upon flighter evidence and demonstration than he gave them; but that rendered their infidelity utterly inexcufable, when it was plain they had no juft exception either to his perfon or his difcourfes. Nothing could render this joint evidence ineffectual, as he observes to them, but a feared and hardened confcience; for those who had ears to hear, this gave his difcourfes invincible power and efficacy. When he fat difcourfing with the Doctors in the Temple, we read, that all that beard him were aftonished at bis underStanding and anfwers. They could not but be ftruck with that air of fweetness and innocence that his discourses at that time received, by their coming from the mouth of a child: He had the fame innocence when he was paft thirty ears of age; and to fuch as confidered, it must have been then more wonderful and furprising, and have given his words inexpreffible grace and energy.

Now this is a qualification of no small confequence to a chriftian orator; and though we can have no fuch inherent perfect holiness of our own, yet, as the Apostle speaks, we may be made partakers of his holiness, by a diligent

and conftant imitation of his virtue and innocence. Our preaching cannot have that authority and power, which is peculiar to uner

ring obedience, and unstained innocence; but SE R M. it may have that good degree of affurance on XXXII. our part, and influence upon others, which proceeds from a confcioufnefs in ourselves of an unfeigned repentance, and a fincere habitual endeavour of uprightness and integrity of life. This virtuous good difpofition of the mind is a qualification laid down by those Heathens who have given the best rules of oratory, as abfolutely neceffary to eloquence and perfuafion. None can be a good orator, fays Cicero, but he that is a good man, and adds, viri probi fermo licet lenociniis deftitutus fit, fatis tamen naturâ fuâ ornatur; nec quicquam non difertè quod boneftè dicitur; and in another place, Qualis cujufque animi affectus, talis eft homo; qualis autem ipfe homo eft, talis ejus eft oratio. (Cicero, vol. ii. p. 397.) And certainly, if in the opinion of Heathens no man could be truly eloquent and fpeak well without a good fenfe of moral honefty, we may well think it no less neceffary in order to the effectual preaching of the Gofpel; nay more, as much as the revelations of it are beyond the mere light of nature, fo there is a sense of piety and holiness required in the mind of the fpeaker, in proportion to the height and excellence of evangelical graces, beyond virtues purely moral.

How much the habitual practice of a good life conduces to the efficacy and fuccefs of preaching, is very obvious from that advantage it gives us in the opinion of others, by difpofing them to hear without prejudice or relucCc 2

tance

SER M. tance; it reconciles them to what is faid, and XXXII. gives it authority and weight; and devout

per

fons are but too apt to have men's perfons in admiration. It is in itself no real disadvantage to the truth, to be spoke by those who have little of it in their own hearts; however, it is among the infirmities of human nature, that the best of people then are apt to nauseate and reject it, the mind shrinks at it, it clofes it`felf and denies it admittance. But feared and incorrigible finners find ease and comfort in the wickedness of the preacher; it quiets the clamours of their confciences, and they value themselves upon open profaneness in oppofition to that fecret hypocrify. But all true virtue and holiness carries on it a ftamp of the Divinity; it hath fo much of the likeness of God, that it darts terror into their Souls; the words of a good man break in upon the most hardened consciences, and leave their goads behind them, and where they cannot dispossess men's vices, they extort a confeffion of the truth, and make them fear and tremble before it.

Now befides the advantage a virtuous and good life gives us in the opinion of men, by reconciling them to what is faid, and difpofing them to be wrought upon, it hath a mighty influence upon ourselves in order to divine eloquence and perfuafion, it enables us to form juft and lively conceptions of all things in Religion. By a hearty fincere endeavour of doing the will of God, we shall arrive to a good degree of knowledge in it, and be able

to

to think and speak of the nature of virtue and SE R M. holiness after fuch a manner as is not attaina- XXXII. ble any other way. No man can defcribe the true life of Religion but he that lives it: who can speak fo exactly of all moral virtues and evangelical graces, as he that makes it the chief ambition of his Soul to practife and acquire them? Who can exprefs the Sorrows of a truly broken and contrite Heart, like him who hath felt that forrow which works a repentance never to be repented of? Who can tell what that love of God is, that raises a man above the world and all things in it, like him whose breaft is inflamed with a fenfe of his perfections, and of that intire dependence he hath upon him? And who can difcover the pleasures of a good confcience, like that man who hath arrived to fome good degree of joy in the Holy Ghost, who hath placed his reft in God, hath arrived to a full truft in his mercy through the ineffable almighty virtue and efficacy of the blood of Chrift? Then it is that a man addreffes himself feelingly to the consciences of others, when he speaks from his own experience, and hath run through that fet of temptations with which the devil is used to affault men in the whole courfe of a chriftian life: When he defcribes his own infirmities, and his conquests, his temptations and his victories; his fears and his hopes; his failings and recoveries; his own defpondence, and his affurances. So true it is that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can be know them, because they are fpiritually

difcerned.