SERMON XIV.

Religion founded on reason, and the right of private judgment.

JOSH. xxiv. 15.

And if it feem evil unto you to ferve the LORD, choose ye this day whom ye will ferve, whether the Gods which your fathers ferved that were on the other fide of the flood, or the Gods of the Amorites, in whofe land ye dwell: But as for me, and my house, we will ferve the LORD.

I

N the former part of this chap-SERM. ter, Jofua, having affembled XIV. the tribes of Ifrael together

at Shechem, gives them a brief

hiftory of the aftonishing acts of God in

their

SERM. their favour, from his first appearance XIV. to Abraham to their settlement in the

pro

mised land. He recounts the call of Abraham from idolaters, to the acknowledgment and worship of the one true God, with a view to preferve, amongst his pofterity, the grand principles of religion pure and uncorrupted; the unfettled condition of their great progenitor in the land of Canaan; the oppreffion of their ancestors in Egypt, and miraculous deliverance from thence by the hands of Mofes and Aaron, who were enabled to prove their commiffion by fuch awful credentials, as not only humbled the pride of the Egyptian king, and ftruck terror into all his people, but were the fullefst evidence of the fupreme univerfal dominion, and irrefiftable power of the God of Ifrael; and finally his wonderful conduct and fupport of them in the wilderness, his destroying the idolatrous nations that set themselves to oppose their paffage, and fixing them, at length, in the poffeffion of that good land, which he had promis'd to give them for an inheritance. And from this feries of

fur

furprizing providences, Joshua argues, in SERM.
the 14th verfe, the obligations they were XIV.
under to fear the LORD, to ferve him in
fincerity and truth, and renounce all the
idolatry of their fathers. But because it
was neceffary that their religion should be
free and voluntary, he refers the matter
entirely to their own determination, upon
a review of the reasons which he had of-
fered, only declaring for himself and his
family, that they would adhere to the
acknowledgment and worship of the true
God, whatever choice the rest of the
people might make: And if it seem evil
unto you to ferve the LORD, choose ye this
day, whom
ye will ferve, whether the Gods
whom your fathers ferved that were on the
other fide of the flood, or the Gods of the
Amorites, in whofe land ye dwell: but as
for me, and my house, we will ferve the
LORD.

'Tis remarkable, that in this paffage
Joshua takes it for granted, that if the
Ifraelites revolted from the true God, they
would fix in fome form of religion or o-
ther; and not turn absolute atheists, and
caft off all religion. And, indeed, the

VOL. I.

Z

charac

SERM. character of an Atheist would hardly be XIV. thought poffible to happen amongst man

kind, who are reasonable creatures, did

it not appear in fact, that fome have fo darkned and defaced the reason of their minds, as to difpute first principles, to question even the existence of a Deity, and banter the obligations of religion and virtue. From whence we learn, that as human nature is capable of a vast inlargment of its faculties, and of attaining to high degrees of moral perfection and excellence, it may alfo be funk into the lowest state of corruption and degeneracy. For the evidences of a fupreme and fovereign intelligence, the creator and governour of the world, appear plainly every where. Earth, fea, and air bear the strongest testimony to this fundamental truth: The heavens likewife declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work. By the existence of effects, we are neceffarily led to the acknowledgement of an eternal first cause; and the giving being to fuch an infinite variety of creatures, the fupporting and animating univerfal nature, the admirable

order, and exquifite ufes of the feveral SERM. parts of it, the preserving such an im- XIV. menfe frame of things in constant and perfect harmony, making even the minutest parts fubferve the beauty of the whole natural fyftem, and the general good of the moral world; thefe, I fay, are the clearest demonstrations of the infinite wifdom and power of the Deity. And from his infinite wisdom, which must inform him at all times what is fittest to be done, and his infinite power enabling him with ease to effect it, and confequently his confummate and immutable happiness, we may certainly infer his moral perfection; nay, that he is a being of abfolute and necessary moral perfection; who can have no temptation to violate any of the eternal rules of righteousness, truth, and goodness, but will always purfue what is beft upon the whole. the duties which more immediately relate to this fupreme mind, naturally arife from the notion of his abfolute perfection, and univerfal preferving and governing providence; as do thefe of justice and charity from the circumftances, and neceffities Z 2

And

of