422 l Converfation becoming the Gofpel S E R M. mands of chrifl:ianity ; for the apofile's ex- XV. hortation in the text carrieth a great force of argument in it, and doth not merely direct us what our converfation fhould be, but alfo containeth very ftrong motives to it. And to every one who acknowledgeth the gofpel to be a divine revelation, it will appear in ge- neral from the profeffed defign of it, that it layeth men under peculiar obligations to the praEtice of religious virtue, or of all the things which are true, and juji, and knell, and pra f -worthy. Our Saviour telleth his hearers in his Sermon upon the mount, that he came not to deflroy the law but to fulfil it, not to diffolve or in the leaft to weaken the force and authority of the moral law, but to eflablifh it rather. St. Peter, whofè province it was to open the kingdom of hea- ven, that is, to explain fully the chriflian fcheme after it was compleated by the refur- redion and afcenfion of our Saviour, and the pouring out of the Holy Ghoft, he faith to the Jews, Acis iii. 26. unto you fir /l, God having ra f d up his fon Je /ias, feat him to biefs you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. But it is needlefs to men- tion particular declarations, we muff be fen - fible that all the ftcred writers agree in this account of the principal and immediate in- tention
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