1 SECTION r. 3 honour aid love that God hath set upon the Jewish nation, they were chosen to be a peculiar people to the Lord, and were devoted to him from their infancy : they had their laws given them by God himself, as their King and Governor, and could have no doubt of the wisdom and justice antÌ equity of them they had a multitude of special revelations both of duty and grace from God as their King and their God ; from God as the object of their worship and their everlasting Rewarder ? they had the living oracles committed to them for their instruction, wherein diviné truths and duties were written down in plain lan- guage, as the lessons of their faith and the rules of theirprac- tice : they had many institutions of religion and worship dictated by Godhimself, and they were not left to the wild and uncertain fancies of men to invent ceremonies of their own which God will never approve they had the gospel preached to them under types and shadows, and there were many clear discoveries of the forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to God to be obtained for sinners who return to God by repentance, andwho rely on the pro- mises of his grace. Well might our Saviour say, I expect from you superior degrees of religion and virtue above the heathen and the publican, above the Roman tax - gatherers that dwell amongst you, and even those of your own nation who make no strict profession of piety or goodness. Think with yourselves therefore, examine your hearts and practice, what do you more than they ? And let your consciences be able to give an honoura- ble answer. II. Let the disciples of Christ be considered as thefollowers of a new preacher, in a way of distinction from the disciples of the scribes and the Jewish doctors of the law. They sat under the ministry of a rising prophet Jesus of Galilee, the supposed sonof a carpenter, who had no approbation nor authority nor countenance from the established church, who held separate as- semblies for praying and preaching, and who taught the people sometimes on a mountain, sometimes in the wilderness, some- times on the sea-shore, and at other times in private houses ; and here we shall find that the disciples lay under farther circumstan- ces of engagement to greater purity and a higher perfection in holiness. They had the Son of God himself for their preacher, who spoke so as never Haan spoke, who had all his doctrines and his messages from heaven, and spoke what his Father commanded hico; a preacher, who explained the law in a more perfect man- ner, and raised it to sublimer degrees of virtue even than Moses himself, who received it from God ; and he purified it also from the false and corrupt glosses which the scribes and doctors of that degenerate age had put upon it ; an ambassador from heaven, who published the tidings of rich grace and pardon and salvation in a clearer manner, and gave them stronger encouragements to A 2 '
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