the most part walk by is the course and example of the
world. Is not this darkness, and gross darkness? Others model their duties
according to their ability. They will do all they can do with ease, and
without troubling themselves, and they think God may be well pleased with
that. I pray you consider and hear the word of the Lord, and law of your
God. Hath he set down here the rule and perfect pattern of true religion,
and will ye never so much own it, as to examine yours according to it? The
scriptures are the touchstone, if you would not have a counterfeit
religion deceiving you in the end, when ye have trusted to it, I pray you
try it by the word of God. Oh! that this principle were once sunk into
your hearts,--I may not walk at random, if I please myself, and satisfy my
own will, if that be not also God's will, I shall have neither gain nor
comfort of it. His will is manifested in his word,--I will search and find
what God hath required of me, for if I be not certain of his will, I may
be doing all my days, and sweating out my life, and yet lose my pains and
toil. I say, this word of the Lord that Isaiah calls to the people to
hear, ver. 10, will at length judge you. Your religion will be tried in
the day of accounts according to it, not according to your rules and
methods ye have prescribed unto yourselves. Now, if ye in the meantime
shall judge yourselves, according to another rule, and absolve yourselves,
and in the end God shall judge you according to this word, and condemn
you, were ye not fools in neglecting this word?

The whole will of God concerning your duty may be summed up in two, John
hath one of them, 1 John iii. 23, "And this is his commandment, that we
should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another,
as he gave us commandment," and Paul hath another to the Thessalonians, 1
Thess iv. 3, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." And
these two make up this text, so that it unites both gospel and law. The
commandment of the law comes forth, and it is found that we have broken
and are guilty, that we cannot answer for one of a thousand. The law
entering makes sin abound. Our inability, yea, impossibility of obedience
is more discovered. Well, then, the gospel proclaims the Lord Jesus Christ
for the Saviour of sinners, and commands us, under pain of damnation, to
believe in him,--to cast our souls on him, as one able to save, as one who
hath obeyed the law for us, so that