I AN RUMBLE ATTEMPT, R.C. and give us ground to raise this general doctrine or theme of discourse : Doctrine. God requires and expects higher improvements in virtue and religion from persons who enjoy peculiar advantages, or lie under special obligations. Now to improve this thought, and press it upon all our consciences, ,I shall enquire,-1. What are the circumstancesunder which thedisciples of Christ then lay that obliged them to superior virtue and goodness ; and 2. I shall endeavour to apply this to ourselves, by enquiring what peculiar circumstances of advantage and obligation, all or any of us lie under to exceed others in any instances of duty, either to God or our neighbour, and whether we have answered these engage- ments or no. In answer to the first enquiry, What were the circunmstan- cesof the disciples at this tune? Wemay consider our Saviour in this sermon exhorting them to superior degrees of goodness, as. they appeared under these two characters ; (1.) as they were Jews and not heathens, as a part of the nation and church of Israel, in distinction from the men of other nations or Gentiles ; or (2.) as they were the disciples of Christ, and not of the scribes or pharisees ; as they were followers of a newpreacher, who was neither authorised nor acknowledged by their priests and doctors of the law, who had no countenance from the established national church, and who frequently worshipped in separate Assemblies*. And there is good reason for this twofold consider-. ation of them, if we remember that in my text Christ compares his discipleswith publicans, or the gatherers of thetaxes, whom the Roman governors appointed, and who were most of them heathens, and were often guilty of oppression and injustice, and therefore he demands of his disciples greater degrees ofgoodness than they ever practised : and in the 20th verse of this chapter' he compares them with the scribes and pharisees, the strict pre- tenders to religion, and the teachers of it among the Jews ; and assures them, that except their righteousness exceed that of the scribes and pharisees, they shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven ; Mat. v. 20. I. If we consider the disciples of Christ as Jews, as a part of the nation and church of Israel, they had many special advan- tages for religion above the heathen world, and many peculiar obligations. They are interested in those special marks of A It is granted indeed, that dur blessed Saviour did not separatehimself from the Jewish national church, so as to abstain from the worship of the temple, because that was expressly of God's own establishment i nor did he avoid the synagogues while they would suffer him to preach there, and to warn the people against their,traditions t yet there were so many corruptions in that day that had crept into the national church, that he found be could not fulfil his ministry, nor promote the salvation of souls according tohis desire, and bis heavenly commis aion, without holding separate assemblies.
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